Chapter 58 – Summoning (Part One)

Il-hyeon groggily opened his eyes.

He was dazed from having slept for so long, but the unfamiliar atmosphere, different from his home, made him look around.

He was lying in what looked like a clean hospital room, and outside the window, he could see the busy, now-familiar sight of the Aegis headquarters.

It was the same scene he had witnessed when he was first brought here unconscious, and the memories of what happened then came flooding back one by one.

Looking back now, it was the event that led him to join Aegis, and he considered it fortunate. But at the time, he had been terrified, not knowing what they would do to him.

Il-hyeon, who had been staring blankly outside while his mind cleared, turned his gaze to the door and muttered.

“The door opened around this time.”

Back then, Lee Soo-yeon had come in not long after he had regained consciousness.

*Click!*

And just as if on cue, the door opened.

Lee Soo-yeon appeared, wearing a coat stained with dried blood, looking as though she had just come from a battle.

Despite her dusty and dirty face, her beauty remained, but her eyes were hollow with accumulated fatigue.

“How are you feeling?”

Lee Soo-yeon asked in a slightly hoarse voice.

After returning from a solo mission, she had heard that Il-hyeon had woken up and immediately came up to the medical bay.

The medical team had been monitoring his condition around the clock with advanced equipment, so they knew the moment he woke up, even if no one was in the room.

“Ah… I feel like I slept for a while… How long has it been?”

Il-hyeon said slowly, his head still feeling foggy.

But it hadn’t been just “a while.”

“A week.”

His mind snapped to attention.

His eyes widened at her words, and Il-hyeon asked.

“I didn’t mishear you, did I?”

“No, your hearing seems fine.”

Only then did Il-hyeon begin to check his body, feeling around to see if anything was wrong.

His limbs were all intact, and he had no trouble moving.

He carefully recalled where he had been injured in the last battle and stroked the lower part of his face.

A thin scar started at Il-hyeon’s left jaw and ran down to the bottom of his cheek.

“We treated it right away, but we couldn’t make it heal completely. The Nightmare… the monster you took care of, seems to have had an ability that hinders healing.”

Nightmare.

That was the codename given to the mutated Chaser monster after Il-hyeon killed it.

As if it possessed an ability to prevent wounds from healing, treatment was useless for all those injured by the creature.

Fortunately, because Il-hyeon’s body possessed incredible self-healing abilities, and because the world’s best medical teams had taken every possible measure, all that remained was a single, faint scar.

Il-hyeon, touching below his cheek with a displeased expression, swung his legs to get out of bed.

But Lee Soo-yeon gently pushed his forehead with a single finger, and his head sank back into the soft pillow.

“You absorbed too much Ether, which put a huge strain on your body. I know it couldn’t be helped, but you should still be careful.”

Lee Soo-yeon said.

After devouring a high-output A-rank core through indirect absorption, Il-hyeon’s body had been severely overloaded, causing him to collapse.

Even now, a week later, it felt as if large stones were weighing down his body.

“I assume the situation was resolved?”

“Thanks to you taking down the Nightmare, we were able to wrap things up without any further casualties. Your parents are safe, too.”

Lee Soo-yeon spoke slowly, and Il-hyeon sighed in relief, closing his eyes for a moment.

But soon, his expression darkened again.

“Tae-hee is……”

At Il-hyeon’s words, Lee Soo-yeon couldn’t find anything to say, and silence fell over the room.

The ticking of the second hand on the wall clock echoed, and Il-hyeon stared blankly at the ceiling.

“…Want to go see her?”

Lee Soo-yeon broke the silence.

“See what?”

“Tae-hee.”

* * *

The past week, while Il-hyeon was unconscious after resolving the situation.

The bloodstained Christmas Day had brought about many things.

A massive force field visible from kilometers away, the A-rank Gate that appeared within it, and over a hundred thousand people trapped inside.

The deaths of famous Awakened and the immense scale of the damage.

The scale of the incident was so massive that there was a limit to how much the government could conceal.

The best the government could do was to minimize the reported scale of the disaster while promoting other topics.

Even so, public attention was entirely focused on the Gate incident.

Moreover, because this had happened in Korea, which had been considered the safest zone from Gates, it was being widely reported abroad.

One of the reasons it became such a hot topic was the mutated monster, Nightmare, nicknamed the “White Nightmare,” that appeared with the Gate.

The creature overturned all existing common sense.

It prevented outside intervention with a massive force field surrounding the area.

This type of ability had never been seen before.

This time, thanks to Il-hyeon’s miraculous performance after being caught up in the incident by chance, the damage was minimized. However, the chances of stopping the next one, which could appear anywhere, were slim.

No matter how powerful an Awakened force one possessed, it was useless if they couldn’t get close enough to eliminate the monster.

If an Awakened capable of handling the Gate wasn’t luckily trapped inside the force field, it would be all over.

It was fortunate that this occurred in a Korean city with a high ratio of Awakened; if it had appeared in another country, the problem would have been far more severe.

From the citizens’ perspective, it was a Gate that meant certain death with no escape if you were unlucky enough to be caught in it.

Another reason for the widespread attention was the death of Lee Tae-hee, the world’s top prospect, and the emergence of the newly risen Kang Il-hyeon.

The death of Lee Tae-hee, who had been more popular than most government officials or even Aegis’s team leader-class Awakened due to her outstanding skills and potential, was a huge shock not only to the public but also among the Awakened.

The one expected to carry the future of Aegis had unexpectedly lost her life.

Moreover, in a moment of crisis, Lee Tae-hee had single-handedly taken down an A-rank monster, a Chaser, which was superior to her.

It was all the more tragic because if she had returned safely, she would have been active as an A-rank Awakened.

Of course, this fact was known only to those involved and was kept strictly confidential.

On the other hand, the case of Il-hyeon, who had returned alive from the Gate, was the complete opposite.

There was hardly anyone who didn’t know that Il-hyeon had taken down an A-rank mutated monster.

Even now, stories about him were everywhere.

Speculative articles poured out, suggesting that Il-hyeon was already approaching the skill level of a team leader or that he possessed a special power to train animals. His story was constantly discussed even among people who usually paid no attention to such matters.

As the miraculous hero who saved countless people in a desperate situation.

While he was unconscious, all sorts of casting offers from broadcasting companies came in, and articles were continuously published.

Thus, the media focused on Il-hyeon’s emergence.

To make people focus on a new hope or a piece of gossip rather than on useless fear about the Gate.

And so, Lee Tae-hee’s death was gradually swept aside.

As quietly as possible, so that she would be slowly forgotten.

Only a week had passed, but mentions of her among the public had already dwindled significantly.

Those government folks, who never seemed to do their jobs properly, were certainly desperate when it came to things like this.

*Screech.*

The car came to a stop upon reaching its destination.

Il-hyeon and Lee Soo-yeon, who were in the back seat, got out.

Both were in ordinary civilian clothes, not the Defensive Coats they had practically lived in for the past few weeks.

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

“I got a shot… I’m a little stiff, but I’m fine.”

Lee Soo-yeon asked as Il-hyeon rubbed his stiff arm, and he replied.

Lee Soo-yeon, who was about to walk ahead, seemed to remember something and turned back to Il-hyeon.

“Oh, right. The president invited you to an event. Are you interested?”

“No. What would I even do there?”

Il-hyeon shook his head reluctantly.

Making time to go to a place like that would just mean shaking hands, putting on a smile to humor people, and taking commemorative photos.

He had always detested utterly useless political shows.

Especially in a situation like this.

“Yeah, I figured. I turned it down three days ago.”

Lee Soo-yeon led the way, and Il-hyeon followed.

Reaching the entrance, they pulled their hats down low to blend in with the small crowd and went inside.

They had arrived at the Seoul National Cemetery.

It was where Lee Tae-hee’s body was interred.

Normally, even for an Awakened who had saved many lives, being buried in the National Cemetery was nearly impossible, as the government rarely granted such an honor.

The government had always preferred to portray the Awakened as rich and popular stars rather than life-saving heroes.

This time, however, due to the high-profile nature of the incident, they had been forced to act quickly.

“Is this it?”

Il-hyeon asked, standing before a modest gravestone, and Lee Soo-yeon nodded.

A small grave plot.

It was quite a contrast to the grand plots for generals whose names he didn’t even recognize, which he had seen on the way in.

A few flowers lay before her gravestone.

He couldn’t tell if they were cleared away often or not, but there weren’t many.

After a moment, Il-hyeon placed a white chrysanthemum in front of the gravestone.

Although she was only a temporary colleague, considering the short time he had been with Aegis, they had spent a long time together, working in sync on life-or-death missions.

She was a promising high-ranking Awakened, yet she was humble. Amid her usually mature behavior, she sometimes showed the carefree side of a student her age.

This was the second time he had visited a cemetery for an acquaintance killed by a monster.

The first had been for his younger sister.

As a child, Il-hyeon had lost his sister in the hellish scene of a Gate incident and had barely survived alone.

And after that incident, his dream had changed to becoming an Awakened who could save the weak, those who were helpless against the Gates.

When he actually developed the trivial ability to move small objects, he had been ecstatic.

The embarrassing memories of his clumsy attempts at training back then all stemmed from his desire to become an Awakened and protect innocent people.

Even when his meager ability showed no further development and was only useful for drawing pictures in the sand, he hadn’t given up hope inside.

Then, when he turned twenty and finally took the long-postponed Awakened test, he was forced to give up completely.

He lived an ordinary life for several years until he had almost forgotten everything, and then he coincidentally awakened the Predation ability and became the Awakened he was today.

But in the end, he couldn’t protect his colleague.

The sight of Lee Tae-hee lying there, lifeless, overlapped with the memory of his younger sister.

Once again, they were both gone.

SSS-rank or whatever, he was still just a pathetically weak Awakened.

Just then, the receiver in Lee Soo-yeon’s pocket beeped.

A Gate with thirty minutes left until activation had appeared, and it had been assigned to her.

“I have to go. I’ve already spoken to the Daepyo, so take it easy for a while. You must be tired.”

“No, I’ve rested enough.”

Il-hyeon said, looking straight at her.

He had heard all the details of the current situation on the way here.

It had been over a month since the cycle changed and Gates started pouring out, but contrary to expectations that it would stabilize soon, there were no signs of improvement.

In fact, the number of mutated monsters had surged, and the frequency of increasingly dangerous Gates was on the rise.

Among those involved, half-joking remarks were even being made, laced with genuine concern, about whether the world was ending.

There was no time to rest easy.

Even at this very moment, countless monsters were brazenly crawling into the world.

“I’ll go right away.”