Chapter 86 – Making a Move (Part Five)

After exiting the subway station, Il-hyeon set the woman down and stomped his foot.

Rumble! The ground surged upward, forming a massive hawk that carried them high into the sky.

She’d expected the bird that erupted from the asphalt to be as hard as the ground, but its feathers and body were as soft as a living creature’s.

Finding herself suddenly soaring over Seoul, she looked around, dumbfounded.

“What kind of ability have you been using all this time…?”

she muttered, held by Il-hyeon atop the giant bird.

The ground had shifted and morphed, spitting out strange things; he’d created living animals, and he’d even absorbed the Ether from explosives.

She had heard he possessed multiple unknown abilities, but she never dreamed they would be like this.

As she felt the wind brush past her face, Il-hyeon spoke first.

“What is your objective? Is there anything to gain from all this? Especially here in Korea.”

“I told you, I can’t tell you.”

“And what’s with your arms and legs? It seems like some kind of ability, but how can so many of you have the same one?”

“I don’t know!”

Il-hyeon questioned her, but her responses remained consistently curt.

“Jeez, such loyalty. Compared to that, you don’t seem to have much camaraderie, do you?”

“Hmph, don’t talk so carelessly when you don’t know anything about my situation.”

the woman retorted bluntly.

“Then you can at least tell me your name, right?”

“My… name?”

“I need to be able to say who I got cooperation from.”

“Jeong-hwa… It’s Seo Jeong-hwa.”

she said, hesitating.

Just then, Il-hyeon’s eyes caught sight of vehicles entering a bridge over the Han River.

All three black vehicles matched the models and license plates Seo Jeong-hwa had described.

According to her, they were certain to cross this bridge, and it seemed she was right.

“There they are.”

“You can see the license plates from here?”

Seo Jeong-hwa murmured, staring blankly at the ground below.

They were flying far above, high enough to avoid attracting the unnecessary attention of fugitives or civilians.

The hawk carrying them banked smoothly and descended. Il-hyeon once again lifted Seo Jeong-hwa and slung her over his shoulder.

“Eek! You said you’d let me down!”

“When did I say that? That wasn’t part of the deal. You think I’d leave you alone when you might run away?”

“You’ve already tied my arms and legs… So how do you plan on catching them?”

Seo Jeong-hwa asked, biting her lip.

She had planned to find a chance to untie the ropes and escape while Il-hyeon was busy capturing the others.

The ropes binding her limbs were incredibly strong, made of some unknown material that was impossible to untie easily, but they weren’t strong enough to hold her indefinitely, given her body enhancement ability.

But as things didn’t go her way, she grew anxious.

“You’ll see.”

Il-hyeon said nonchalantly, looking down at the vehicles speeding across the bridge.

After descending to a certain altitude, he leaped off with Seo Jeong-hwa still on him and snapped his fingers, canceling the hawk’s summoning.

The hawk’s form crumbled, and they plummeted toward the Han River.

“Aaaah!”

Seo Jeong-hwa shrieked in terror as Il-hyeon suddenly jumped from mid-air while she was still bound.

But Il-hyeon ignored her screams and landed with a loud thud on the roof of the terrorists’ vehicle.

“W-What was that?”

The people inside, startled by the immense shock that rocked the car, looked at each other in surprise.

They weren’t the only ones.

The terrorists in the two black cars following them also jumped in their seats, stunned by Il-hyeon’s sudden appearance.

Il-hyeon, with Seo Jeong-hwa on his back, casually ripped off the vehicle’s left door.

He then grabbed the man in the driver’s seat by the collar, pulled him out, and threw him.

The man flew into the distance, hit a streetlight, and then tumbled off the bridge into the river below.

Screech!

With the driver gone, the vehicle swerved. Il-hyeon quickly settled into the driver’s seat and grabbed the wheel.

At his intrusion, the other terrorists cursed and drew their weapons, but Il-hyeon dealt with them easily with his free hand.

A few sharp cracks echoed as their heads snapped back, noses bleeding.

Il-hyeon summoned a human-shaped golem to take the wheel, then climbed back onto the roof of the car.

“You bastard! You could’ve at least given me a warning!”

Seo Jeong-hwa, bound and fixed to the car’s roof that had been twisted by his transmutation ability, struggled.

Her heart was pounding just as hard as the ambushed terrorists’ from Il-hyeon’s sudden actions.

Il-hyeon untied her again and slung her back over his shoulder.

She winced in disgust, but with her arms and legs still bound, she had no choice but to submit.

“This will be over soon, so just stay still.”

Il-hyeon leaped onto the roof of the car directly behind them.

It was the terrorists’ second vehicle. He immediately stomped on the front windshield.

Crack!

The glass cracked under the heavy impact but didn’t shatter at once.

The car’s window, which he had expected to break easily with a light application of force, was surprisingly sturdy.

“This is reinforced glass! You son of a—!”

Crack!

As Il-hyeon tore off the entire roof of the car, the passengers inside froze, their mouths agape.

Stunned by their car suddenly turning into a convertible, they failed to react immediately.

In that moment, Il-hyeon used his ability to sprout steel tendrils from beside each headrest, choking them until they passed out.

Once again, Il-hyeon tossed the man in the driver’s seat into the back and created another summon to take the wheel.

In an instant, the terrorists in two vehicles were subdued by Il-hyeon, leaving only one car remaining.

Screech!

The last black car following them swerved sharply.

Crash! They made a U-turn, smashing through the median barrier and causing a traffic accident as they fled.

In response, Il-hyeon jumped onto a bus passing by in the opposite lane.

“They should’ve just let themselves be caught. What a headache.”

Landing on the roof, Il-hyeon immediately crouched to steady his swaying body.

In his line of sight were the recklessly driving terrorists and the chaotic accident scene they had caused.

However, since the bridge had been completely rebuilt after the disaster 20 years ago, it was wide with many lanes, so traffic wasn’t entirely paralyzed.

The bus Il-hyeon was on also maneuvered past the accident scene, pursuing the fleeing vehicle.

Il-hyeon chased the terrorists by leaping from vehicle to vehicle. Just as he landed on a truck, an Awakened jumped from ahead and charged at him.

The Awakened, who also had a bright red arm, slammed it down with immense force, but it never reached Il-hyeon.

Crash! Leaving the cargo truck’s container mercilessly crumpled, Il-hyeon landed a precise kick to the man’s abdomen.

Then, as the Awakened flew back helplessly, about to fall into the middle of the road, Il-hyeon caught him with a signpost bent by his transmutation ability.

The man, dangling in mid-air, went limp.

Thump! Il-hyeon leaped onto the terrorists’ vehicle.

Clinging to the trunk, he moved to the right rear door, casually tore it off, and entered the car.

This time, with Seo Jeong-hwa on his shoulder, it was a bit awkward squeezing in, but subduing the Awakened inside was simple for him.

After easily knocking out the three men inside, Il-hyeon threw them into the back seat and took the wheel.

He then gently placed Seo Jeong-hwa, whom he had been carrying, into the passenger seat, turned the steering wheel, and exited the bridge.

“Gasp, gasp.”

Unable to process what had just happened, Seo Jeong-hwa’s legs trembled from the ordeal of being jumped around everywhere.

Struggling to steady herself, she glanced at the three men lying unconscious in the back seat and couldn’t even think of opening her mouth.

As Il-hyeon, who was driving, briefly turned his head toward her to find a place to park, Seo Jeong-hwa flinched.

An awkward silence filled the car as it crossed the bridge and stopped at a nearby riverside.

Il-hyeon opened his door, got out, and looked at Seo Jeong-hwa, who remained frozen in her seat.

“Get out.”

“You have to untie this…”

Just then, the gray rope binding Seo Jeong-hwa’s legs unraveled on its own.

Silent, she struggled to open the car door with her still-bound arms and got out.

She trudged out, looked around, and then turned to Il-hyeon.

Il-hyeon gestured toward the vehicle and asked her first.

“So, is that everyone?”

“Y-Yeah. They were all there.”

Even in her disoriented state, she had been able to keep track of the number of people Il-hyeon had dealt with.

The other two hijacked vehicles, carrying the unconscious terrorists, were on their way, and it seemed the situation was neatly resolved.

Il-hyeon walked over and sat down heavily by the riverbank, watching the lapping water.

He was waiting for the other vehicles with the unconscious terrorists to arrive so he could finish subduing them, but his sudden, silent act of staring at the river made Seo Jeong-hwa instinctively anxious.

In her experience, this kind of atmosphere was always the prelude to someone getting taken out, whether to silence them or for some other reason.

“You… you’re not thinking of killing me or doing something now that I’m no longer useful, are you…!”

“Doing something?”

Il-hyeon replied without turning around, and Seo Jeong-hwa flinched.

But she quickly let her words pour out.

“I have my own plans! I won’t go down quietly!”

“I’m curious what those plans are… but why would I do that? Is that how you live in your world? Sounds exhausting.”

“……”

His unexpected response left her speechless, standing there blankly.

“When you get out of prison, try not to live a life of crime.”

Il-hyeon said calmly. Seo Jeong-hwa stared at his back as he dusted himself off.

Her eyes fell on her own bound wrists and the pathetic figures of her crew passed out in the car. A whirlwind of emotions churned within her as she imagined what was to come.

After a moment’s hesitation, she opened her mouth as if having made a difficult decision.

“You… you think this is all just some incident that’s been neatly wrapped up, don’t you?”

“Hmm?”

Il-hyeon turned his head at her unexpected words.

Unlike before, Seo Jeong-hwa continued in a low, somber voice.

“Let me give you a piece of advice. This is nothing. It hasn’t even started yet.”

“What are you talking about?”

Clank!

Just then, the parked car behind them suddenly shook.

Realizing the men tied up inside were struggling, Il-hyeon shot up and approached the vehicle, only to witness a horrifying sight.

“Gurgle!”

“What is this…”

Il-hyeon frowned and took a step back.

The terrorists, tied up in the back seat, were convulsing and vomiting bright red blood everywhere. Their lives were fading before he could do anything.

As Il-hyeon stared blankly into the car, unable to comprehend what was happening, Seo Jeong-hwa stood behind him, completely unfazed, as if she had known this would happen.

“What’s happening? Did they commit suicide? No, so what you said earlier… you mean this isn’t the end?”

Seo Jeong-hwa nodded silently in response to his question.

Though considerably alarmed, Il-hyeon didn’t trust her completely. He looked at her suspiciously and asked.

“Why are you suddenly telling me this?”

“Just because. So you’ll be a little less shocked?”

“What…?”

“Whether you know or not, you can’t stop it anyway.”

Rumble!

The earth began to shake.