Chapter 187 – The Authority of Predation (Part Six)

A city, empty and destroyed by a monster rampage.

The sky darkened as if it were night, and thick, dark clouds unleashed a downpour.

On the rooftop of a large building with a clear view of the surroundings, they faced each other. Hwayeon flicked a finger.

A wave emanated from her, swallowing the area.

“…”

Il-hyeon looked around.

There was only pitch-black darkness; the surrounding scenery had vanished completely.

As if he had entered a sealed, dark room, the fierce rain and wind abruptly ceased, and sixty-one eyes embedded in the walls stared down at Il-hyeon.

Il-hyeon resummoned the creatures he had left at the nuclear facility, and at the same time, hideous monsters began to appear one by one around Hwayeon.

In addition to the ones he had just fought, new creatures were mixed in.

Each had a different form, but they were all indescribably grotesque.

They were a stark mismatch for the woman with the determined expression before him, Hwayeon, who commanded them.

*Kieeeek!*

The vile monster at the forefront took a threatening stance and shrieked. In response, Hwayeon twisted her wrist and clenched her fist.

The black space she controlled began to warp violently.

*Tzzzt!*

Dozens of large spaces distorted simultaneously, and one of them began to twist Il-hyeon’s arm along with it.

Sensing the danger, Il-hyeon quickly pulled his arm back and countered.

Il-hyeon’s transformation ability clashed head-on with Hwayeon’s, creating sparks as they engaged in a power struggle.

The levels of their abilities were evenly matched.

The spaces affected by both powers shook violently, appearing unstable.

He didn’t know what would happen if this continued. Il-hyeon used instantaneous acceleration and spatial teleportation at the same time.

Combining and using two abilities he had acquired so recently should have been impossible, but Il-hyeon managed it effortlessly in that brief moment.

*Shhhk!*

Instantly teleporting behind Hwayeon, Il-hyeon slashed at her neck.

But the very moment his blade cut her neck, Il-hyeon realized it was an illusion.

Judging by the aura he felt, the form of the woman he had just cut was not her real body, but a phantom.

As expected, the Hwayeon whose neck was cut dissipated like a mirage. Il-hyeon dodged a monster’s attack coming from behind.

Though it missed, the tremendous force shook the room. Il-hyeon was pushed aside, sliding sideways as he surveyed his surroundings.

To find the vanished Hwayeon’s location, he pushed his predatory ability’s senses to their absolute limit.

He then located her hiding in the darkness and immediately kicked off the ground.

The giants aiming for his back were being held off by his own summons.

But just as he found her, Hwayeon shrouded herself in a black aura, and her form and presence vanished completely.

Il-hyeon stopped abruptly, his eyes searching for Hwayeon, but he couldn’t easily find her.

Her specialty was creating illusions, so her ability to conceal her presence was top-notch. Moreover, the dark space itself was imbued with her traces, making it difficult for Il-hyeon to find her even with his predatory ability.

*Rumble!*

Suddenly, the interior of the room began to shake violently, and monsters started appearing from all directions.

They ranged from four-legged, one-eyed chimeras to creatures of utterly indescribable forms.

He was now an Awakened with considerable experience, and thankfully, he had an ability that blocked mental interference. If he had seen this as an ordinary person, it wouldn’t have been strange to die instantly from a heart attack.

It was a true nightmare.

***

*Shwwaaak!*

A fierce slash from Il-hyeon cleaved through the monsters’ bodies in a single stroke.

Neatly cut by the sharp blade, they became bloody heaps of flesh, tumbling to the floor.

But their bodies sluggishly sank into the black floor, and soon, another wall spewed out identical creatures.

Faced with the endless tide of monsters, even Il-hyeon, his clothes soaked with sweat, seemed exhausted.

“Just give up now. No matter how much you struggle in this space, it’s all futile resistance in the end.”

Hwayeon’s voice echoed throughout the room.

Thanks to her speaking, Il-hyeon was able to pinpoint her location immediately, but he no longer tried to attack her directly.

He had realized that simple, fast attacks were pointless, as she would uncannily sense them and vanish into the darkness in an instant.

“At the facility earlier, you asked me if I devoured the administrator.”

“…?”

Il-hyeon spoke without even turning in her direction.

He paid no mind to Hwayeon’s puzzled reaction and continued.

“But that’s not all. One of them had an ability similar to mine. Of course, it wasn’t as effective as the Predation ability. At best, it was a lesser version, so I thought it would be useless. But once I acquired his ability, it had an unexpected effect. I had been thinking about my targets—monsters and humans—in completely the wrong way.”

“What are you suddenly talking about…?”

“I’m going to devour you and use that power to kill Baek Il-ho.”

Il-hyeon said, drawing his sword.

Before the wide-eyed Hwayeon could react, her surroundings were covered in gray, as if a filter had been applied.

It wasn’t that everyone felt it.

The change occurred only within Il-hyeon’s field of vision.

The powerful ‘Time Acceleration’ ability had been activated, and within it, only Il-hyeon could think and move at his normal speed.

And he activated a second ability simultaneously.

The power to cleave space.

Gripping the hilt tightly, Il-hyeon raised his sword and brought it down with all his might.

*Kwa-gwagwagwa!*

A massive slash cut through the black space Hwayeon had created. Split in half, her space began to crack all over.

Time Acceleration and Spatial Cleave.

It was the ability of his former colleague, Lee Tae-hee, who had lost her life to a monster.

Even Hwayeon, who knew so much about the future, had never imagined that a person could absorb another person’s ability. That was her fatal mistake.

Even after the black space was split in two and completely shattered, Il-hyeon’s Time Acceleration remained active. Furthermore, Il-hyeon used instantaneous acceleration to close the distance to Hwayeon in a flash.

And he swung his sword at the astonished Hwayeon.

*Paaat!*

The Time Acceleration that had dominated the area was released, and the two stood frozen amidst the downpour on the rooftop under the dark clouds.

Hwayeon’s head drooped, and she staggered backward.

*Thud!*

An immense amount of blood poured from Hwayeon’s fallen body. Each time she coughed, she spat out thick blood.

Struck by a series of attacks too fast for the eye to follow, she could no longer move.

Il-hyeon approached her, drenched by the heavy rain.

She wouldn’t last long if he left her like this anyway, but Eclipse was still active, and it was better to finish things decisively.

“This is the end.”

“W-wait.”

Hwayeon looked up at him with unfocused eyes, speaking with difficulty.

*’She’s not the type to beg for her life,’* Il-hyeon thought, turning his gaze to her face.

Just then, Hwayeon used her last ounce of strength to push her body forward.

Their gazes met at that close distance, and a torrent of intense memories flowed into Il-hyeon’s mind.

Stumbling back, Il-hyeon stood for a while with a shocked expression.

“Th… this is…?”

In his final moment of carelessness, she had poured a part of her memories into him.

It wasn’t just fragmented memories; the emotions, events, and causal relationships of those moments all intertwined, flooding his mind at once.

What she sent were memories from the previous regression.

Even though his defensive ability prevented him from accepting all the memories, Il-hyeon now understood why they hadn’t killed him.

No, why they *couldn’t* kill him.

Il-hyeon glared at her as if he wanted to kill her.

“To pull something like this…”

“My death is nothing… but I can’t let you go through that pain again. I’ll see the end of this world, no matter what it takes, so you can’t regress anymore.”

She was dying, but her eyes were burning with determination.

Overwhelmed with confusion, Il-hyeon stepped back and clutched his head.

The sudden influx of memories stirred an indescribable emotion within him. The conviction that he had to kill this woman clashed with the feeling that he couldn’t.

“Just as we can’t kill you, you can’t kill us. We were more than just colleagues to each other.”

Hwayeon said with a faint smile.

Indeed, his hesitation in front of the defenseless woman he had been determined to kill could be explained no other way.

But Il-hyeon gripped his sword once more.

“No.”

“Ugh?!”

Il-hyeon reached out with his left hand and grabbed Hwayeon’s face.

Her face was covered by his hand, and Il-hyeon thrust his sword through his own wrist, impaling Hwayeon’s neck.

*Puk!*

“Keoheuk…!”

Hwayeon’s body twisted as she struggled violently.

Even with the blade piercing her neck, she didn’t lose consciousness at once.

Thrashing, she grabbed Il-hyeon’s left arm—the one covering her face—with her trembling hands.

Her will to survive, no matter what, was palpable, and the situation made Il-hyeon feel nauseous.

But something more than that compelled him to act.

An element that Hwayeon, who had merely read Baek Il-ho’s memories instead of truly repeating the regressions herself, could not have anticipated.

Closing his eyes tightly, Il-hyeon swung his sword wide, completely severing her neck.

*Shhhk!*

Her severed head rolled away, and next to it lay Il-hyeon’s own severed wrist.

The pain was dizzying, but in a way, it helped him clear his head.

His legs gave out, and Il-hyeon collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath as he covered his face.

After catching his breath for a moment, Il-hyeon reached into his coat with his right arm.

He took out a core and used it to restore his severed wrist.

With a brilliant flash, the bleeding stopped, and when the dazzling light faded, his left wrist was perfectly intact.

In the pouring rain, Hwayeon’s corpse lay beside the collapsed Il-hyeon.

“Son of a bitch…”