Chapter 49 – The Power of Powers

“Ah…?”

Seol Ah-yeong stared blankly at the core fragments clattering to the ground.

The core that had been in her hand was shattered to pieces.

Il-hyeon, too, froze in place, stunned, as a flurry of thoughts raced through his mind.

The culprit, Phoenix, however, shivered with delight.

Then, as the reality of the situation finally registered, her expression slowly crumpled.

She glanced back and forth between Phoenix, Il-hyeon, and her own empty palm.

An awkward silence hung in the air.

“I’d heard it breaks cores, but this is something else… What are you going to do now?”

Her crumpled expression smoothed out, and Seol Ah-yeong asked Il-hyeon in a light tone.

He had expected her to throw a fit and make a scene, but she was surprisingly calm.

“I’ll let this slide, so how about you reconsider that offer from before?”

There it was.

“No. I’d rather just pay for it.”

Il-hyeon answered quickly.

The core that had just shattered was certainly different in appearance and quite rare.

But even though it came from a mutant, no research had ever found any difference between it and a regular core, so its rarity didn’t translate to an exorbitant price.

Even if he had to pay for it all, he was no longer in a position to tremble over a few coins. A few more field missions like this would cover it.

Still, she had been so confrontational just moments ago. What was she thinking, making an offer now?

“You must not know how things work, being new to this line of work…”

“I have no desire to work for the government, and I’m not particularly interested in money.”

“Money? Ha, do we look like we’re in this for the money? Sure, we get paid a lot more than Aegis. But at our level, who cares about money? We work out of a sense of duty.”

“I wonder.”

Il-hyeon scoffed quietly.

The top-tier Awakened, including her, were courted by nations all over the world, each offering exceptional recruitment terms.

And those exceptional terms included not just salary, but other perks as well.

A condition she would particularly enjoy was likely power.

Holding key positions in important government agencies came with significant power that ordinary Awakened could never hope to attain.

Their influence extended to the numerous Gate-related departments and private corporations lined up beneath them—an open secret that went unchecked.

In a world like this, securing as many high-ranking Awakened as possible was the top priority.

“You just don’t get it.”

Seol Ah-yeong looked at Il-hyeon as if he were a naive child and shook her head.

“Where should I send the money?”

“Forget it. I don’t need a few paltry coins. Just consider it a debt you owe me.”

“What? Who said anything about a debt? I’m telling you, I’ll pay for it.”

“And I’m telling you, I won’t accept it.”

Despite Il-hyeon’s incredulous tone, Seol Ah-yeong replied firmly.

This was getting nowhere.

In the middle of their argument, Seol Ah-yeong placed a finger on her communicator and listened.

Just then, while she was occupied, Il-hyeon’s summons approached.

The wolf from the west came running, and the mouse that had been hiding somewhere was now perched on his shoulder.

It already felt crowded; his family had grown.

“Alright. Send one down to this location for now. They say the last one’s been caught. I’ve called a transport, so if you’re that worried, you can go ahead. Are these… all your summons?”

“They’ll bite if anyone but me touches them, so don’t.”

At his words, Seol Ah-yeong, who had been naturally reaching for the wolf, flinched.

It was a lie, of course, but it had the desired effect. Seol Ah-yeong obediently backed away.

The transport that had been waiting out of range flew over and lowered its altitude above them.

“Sorry about shattering the core. I’ll be going now. Take care.”

“Tsk, all this trouble because of some weird bird. A complete waste of time. You’re lucky it was me. Try to keep it under control.”

“I’ll manage.”

Il-hyeon pretended not to hear as he boarded the blue transport.

Unlike Aegis transports, this one had a rear ramp.

After letting his summons in first, he sat down with a deep sigh.

It was the first time he’d felt so exhausted after just a few conversations.

“I hope you’ve matured a little by the next time we meet.”

Seol Ah-yeong waved with an incredibly shameless smile.

* * *

“Crazy bitch.”

The curse escaped Lee Soo-yeon’s lips.

She was sitting on a small chair while the doctor unwrapped a bandage from her head.

The unwrapped bandage was covered in red stains, but Lee Soo-yeon’s head was perfectly fine, without a single scratch.

“Your recovery speed seems to be getting faster and faster.”

The doctor clicked his tongue in amazement, looking at her head where the wound, which had been bleeding so much it required a bandage, had completely vanished in just ten minutes.

Even for a doctor specializing in the Awakened of Aegis, who was already knowledgeable about their recovery rates, this was astonishing.

“Anyway, I’m fine now, right? I told you I didn’t need a bandage in the first place.”

She tore off the remaining piece of the bandage and tossed it into the trash.

Lee Soo-yeon had gone alone to hold back an A3-rank Gate.

While the common goal was to buy time, unlike her other teammates, she had single-handedly slaughtered the monsters right as they emerged from the Gate.

A team from another domestic corporation eventually arrived as backup, but by then, the area was already devastated and the Gate had closed. The Awakened could only return in shock.

Of course, even for her, it had been a reckless endeavor, especially with no information on the monsters.

Her Defensive Coat was half-destroyed, and she had suffered a head injury.

Thanks to her efforts, however, there were no civilian casualties in the area.

After the doctor finished and left, the door clicking shut behind him, Lee Soo-yeon spoke again.

“That woman never learns. Not that I expected her to.”

“I was shocked. She’s completely different from what I imagined. She looked so nice on camera, how can she be so different?”

“You didn’t actually believe that image, did you? Even Ghost over there has that whole stoic persona in front of the cameras.”

“Ah…”

Il-hyeon’s gaze flickered to the side.

True, Ghost right beside him was completely different from the moody persona he put on for the cameras.

“Hey, leave me out of this. There are unavoidable circumstances…”

“Here we go again.”

Ghost, who had been perched on the desk eating bread when he was suddenly singled out, protested his innocence, but Lee Soo-yeon immediately shut him down.

“Ahem, anyway, you really ran into a piece of work. She’s infamous.”

“…She’s that bad?”

Seol Ah-yeong was as famous for her personality as she was for her skills.

And not in a good way.

“You just can’t reason with her. Well, she was judged an S-rank Ability user at fifteen and has been worshiped like a queen ever since, so I guess it’s understandable she turned out that way.”

“Hmm…”

Il-hyeon grimaced and grunted.

This certainly wouldn’t be their last encounter.

Of course, he had no intention of playing along with her even if they met again, but he could already feel a headache coming on.

Aegis and the government’s Response Team were the world’s two top Awakened organizations, so it was inevitable they would work together in the field often.

The media openly portrayed them as rivals, and most people thought so too, but in reality, a more accurate description would be business partners who utterly despised each other.

Rumor had it that anyone who caused trouble at Aegis and got kicked out ended up there, and that while their skills were debatable, their personalities were universally garbage.

Just hearing what Ghost had to say about them was enough to make one lose all affection.

There was even a ridiculous incident just a year ago where they were caught planting listening devices inside Aegis.

“By the way, it seems like the four of us won’t be enough to cover all of Europe.”

Seok Pil-joon said, leaning against the wall.

As he said, all four team members sitting around the room were exhausted and slumped over.

With one team leader out due to injury, everyone was caught off guard by the far greater number of Gates that had appeared than expected.

They were only on standby because there were no urgent, high-rank Gates at the moment; Gates were still opening continuously.

“I’ve requested reinforcements, so someone from another team should be here soon to help out. But don’t expect much. The situation is unusual.”

The three Gates that had appeared simultaneously in Europe this time.

Not just the ones Il-hyeon had faced, but all the monsters that emerged from them possessed unique abilities.

Three activating at once, all with monsters possessing special powers, was by no means a common occurrence.

“Finding the culprit who attacked us is going to be delayed even further. Of all the times for this to happen…”

Not only Aegis but governments worldwide had cooperated to find clues about the perpetrator, but they still hadn’t found any solid leads.

No matter how well someone hid, there were limits, especially when these people were on the case. But this time was completely different.

After they almost got caught once, all the issues related to Gate analysis completely vanished.

They had ceased their activities and gone back into hiding.

Whatever their purpose was, their actions were not something that could be understood with common sense.

“Hm?”

Just then, something opened the door and came in.

It was a small gray puppy with a mouse perched on its head.

The team members, except for Il-hyeon, stared at the sudden intruders with baffled expressions, while he let out a wry chuckle.

“They’re new family members.”

“Ah, summons…? But they don’t look like they’re built for fighting.”

“Feeling lonely these days? Maybe I should have been nicer to you.”

The team had seen Il-hyeon’s mouse summon many times before, but this was the first time they’d seen a puppy.

On top of that, a small red sparrow poked its head out from the inner pocket of Il-hyeon’s coat.

It looked as if he had collected a menagerie of pets.

But this was just a temporary reduction in the summons’ size.

Snap! Il-hyeon snapped his fingers, and the small bird that flew up burst into flames, revealing Phoenix’s true form.

Spreading its massive wings, the creature circled the room.

“The pilot almost fainted when he saw the size of the wolf… so I figured I should change their appearance when others are around.”

“Huh, it can do all sorts of things.”

Ghost muttered, watching the gray puppy wagging its tail and darting around distractingly.

Curious, he tried to offer it a small piece of the bread he was eating, but the puppy kicked it away with its front paw, sending the crumb rolling across the floor.

“Speaking of which, are you not going to create a summon army with cores?”

“Yeah, have you looked into it?”

Curious about Il-hyeon’s new ability, the team members all looked at him and asked.

“They’re too greedy for cores. I think it’d be a disaster if I added too many more for now.”

Il-hyeon said.

If his summons consumed too many cores, he himself wouldn’t be able to grow.

Besides, they weren’t strong enough yet to handle a dangerous Gate that Aegis would typically take on, and if they ate all the cores from it, there would be nothing left for the company.

At the same time, it was also a matter of efficiency.

While the summons grew stronger by consuming Ether, they started at a level based on Il-hyeon’s summoning ability, so his own growth had to come first.

“Can’t you make something like a dragon?”

“Well, it would look cool, but if it only looks like a dragon… it wouldn’t be very practical.”

Since they were created with Il-hyeon’s power, there were naturally limits to what he could summon.

He couldn’t summon them to be infinitely strong, and if he made them tougher to withstand attacks, their speed or other aspects would inevitably suffer.

Just granting Phoenix the single attribute of immortality had required sacrificing a great deal in other areas.

Though now, after absorbing several cores, it had become considerably stronger overall.

‘Come to think of it, it ate an entire A-rank core. I’m not sure what’s changed yet.’

Il-hyeon’s thoughts turned to Phoenix, and he pondered deeply.

On the way here, he had scolded Phoenix for causing trouble by devouring the core on its own, but he hadn’t yet checked to see what effect it had.

“Uh… its color changed? Is that another ability?”

Seok Pil-joon pointed his finger at the flying Phoenix.

He was right.

The red Phoenix’s colors were completely inverted, now wreathed in blue flames.

Everyone stared blankly at the beautiful sight of it scattering ice crystals.

Just then, Phoenix spread its wings wide and released a burst of energy.

Boom! A powerful shockwave ripped through the room, strong enough to knock Ghost, who was sitting on the desk, backward.

“Agh, what the hell was that…?”

Ghost, who had tumbled off, scrambled to his feet and looked around.

The objects in the room were overturned, and the windows were completely shattered, littering the floor with glass.

Sparks flew from the blown fluorescent lights, and the digital clock on the wall hung crooked, its display frozen.

But most importantly, the Defensive Coats they wore and the swords they held had ceased to function, completely wrecked.

“It’s completely fried.”

Seok Pil-joon said, examining his coat.

The circuits were completely burned out, beyond any hope of repair.

Faced with this absurd situation, Lee Soo-yeon let out a hollow laugh and muttered.

“I guess I’ll have to call headquarters and ask for four new sets.”