Moscow, Russia.

Red Square—a landmark that draws crowds of tourists every year. Its nightscape is especially famous for its beauty; couples strolling arm in arm after dinner look like something from a painting.

But today, marking the start of October 2026, this beautiful square was drenched in a chill, blood-red hue.

Eerie roars shattered the night. A horde of monsters beyond counting demolished the stillness into rubble.

In just a few hours, the rampaging beasts turned streets built by human hands into a slaughterhouse. Blood-soaked corpses piled up in Red Square by the minute.

“Помоги мне!”— “Save me!”

“О, Боже…” — “Oh, God….”

A wave of violence stirred up a tidal wave of death. People were swept away like wooden statues, helpless. Death seemed the only escape from this calamity.

Following Africa and South America, a colossal monster wave had erupted in Russia. The most brutal groans of suffering rose from the world’s largest territory.

Of course, from a private aircraft cruising at 26,000 feet, the screams from the ground were utterly inaudible.

“Whew, three down at last. Archbishop, are we done here?”

Ariena, one of the Last Eighteen, asked with a languid face, propping her chin in her hand. Go Geonryong, who had been staring out the window, replied indifferently.

“For the time being.”

“I swear, this is too damn filthy to stomach. And I’m the one doing all the grunt work.”

“Is that so.”

“Not ‘is that so’—it is so!”

Geonryong turned his gaze to look at Ariena. His tone remained flat and dry.

“There won’t be any work for a while, so go take a vacation or something. Yes, the Czech Republic was quite pleasant.”

“…You know, I can never tell if the Archbishop is joking or serious. So let me ask—was that supposed to be funny?”

“Well, it wasn’t meant as a jest.”

“Oh, for crying out loud. Look, Archbishop. The whole world’s in an absolute bloody uproar, and you’re talking about a vacation? A frozen vacation, my ass.”

“Is that so.”

Geonryong muttered that and sipped his whiskey. Ariena clicked her tongue in exasperation.

“So what are you planning to do next, Archbishop? Like you said, there’s nothing to gather for for a while.”

“I have my own matters to attend to.”

“Yeah, so what are they?”

“I’m going to Korea.”

“Korea? Ah, your homeland? Now that you mention it, I heard you’re making that peninsula into the Ark. Is that why you’re going?”

Geonryong wordlessly nodded.

“Then maybe I’ll go to Korea too.”

“…Why?”

“Why? To rest, obviously.”

“It doesn’t seem like a good vacation spot. Especially now.”

“Why not? Sounds fun. Watching humans drop dead might clear out some of that old congestion in my gut. By the way, do Korean hunters fight with kung fu and stuff? Do they have samurai?”

“Kung fu is Chinese. Samurai are Japanese.”

“What, they’re different? They’re stuck right next to each other, so I figured it was all the same. Oh! Now that you mention it, I’ve been to Japan a few times. Soaked in a hot spring, smoking weed with some Japs while doing a half-bath.”

“Hmph.”

Geonryong snorted and closed his eyes. Ariena wrinkled her nose in displeasure.

“Ah, shit. No fun.”

She leaned against the window frame irritably, gazing blankly outside. All she could see was a pitch-black darkness, as if a chunk of space had been ripped out and pasted there.

She found herself hoping the Great War would start soon. If it did, she could run wild and unleash carnage to her heart’s content!

Lost in that childish fantasy, Ariena suddenly tilted her head.

“Archbishop.”

“……”

“Archbishop!”

“What is it.”

“Do you believe in aliens, Archbishop? Like UFOs?”

“Stop talking nonsense and get some sleep. You must be tired.”

“It’s not nonsense. I’m looking at a UFO right now.”

By now, Go Geonryong was fed up. He cracked one eye open and shot a glare at Ariena. She was pressed flat against the window like a kid on her first plane ride.

“Ah!”

The moment her small gasp escaped, every light in the cabin went black, and the aircraft lurched violently.

Before he could even gather his wits, a terrible heat swept through. The plane’s interior melted, seats burst into flames, and crew and passengers alike burned away without a trace—not even bones left.

Boom!!

The plane exploded. From the ground, someone might’ve said it looked like another star had been born in the sky, but the reality was sheer brutality.

Shards of debris scattered in every direction, all of them molten, dripping red-hot streams of metal.

Through that hail of steel, two figures plummeted. Go Geonryong and Ariena. Without any safety gear, they fell from eight thousand meters up.

Even in that extreme situation, Geonryong kept his composure. It didn’t take him long to spot the one who had shot down the plane.

The moment he laid eyes on ‘it,’ Geonryong’s brow furrowed. The thing was no UFO like Ariena had said. It was unmistakably a living creature.

‘A dragon?’

Fireballs rained down from the sky. There were so many they nearly filled the heavens—an amount hardly believable from a single maw.

“Kugh!”

The barrage of fireballs wasn’t the real problem. It was the dizzying height itself that posed the lethal threat.

Geonryong struggled to right his posture, but the cascading flames cunningly thwarted every attempt.

“Kyaaah!”

Suddenly, Ariena screamed. Wreathed in crimson flames, she dropped straight down.

Geonryong chewed the thought for a moment. Then, resolve firm, he kicked at the air. He accelerated his fall.

The two hurtled toward the ground at terrifying speed. Below, everything was pitch black. Only when the distance narrowed to within three thousand meters did he realize it was the sea.

Beside it lay a rocky island. Geonryong kicked his legs desperately. Better to hit the water than to smash his head against the reef.

The problem was Ariena. She had been pummeled by fireballs during the fall and seemed half-conscious.

Geonryong unleashed his karma, forming a long thread. He hooked it around Ariena, then swiftly pulled her into his arms.

Dozens of meters before impact, Geonryong detonated an enormous burst of karma toward the land. The recoil pushed his body sideways, and as a result, he managed to hit the sea.

Whoooosh!!

The impact with the surface sent a column of water shooting tens of meters high. And the sound? It was like a cannon shell going off.

‘My bones are shattered.’

Even with his body reinforced by karma, many of his bones had turned to powder. Ariena seemed to have completely lost consciousness.

Go Geonryong grabbed hold of Ariena and swam upward toward the surface.

Moments later, he stood atop the water as if he were a water strider—a technique only available to masters fluent in karma manipulation.

But uninvited guests refused to leave him be. In an instant, the water’s surface burst—Tak!—and blades flew in from three directions.

Without exception, each massive blade tip pierced through Go Geonryong’s body. It all happened in less than half a second.

“Kughk!”

Bloodstream trickled from Go Geonryong’s mouth. With Ariena tucked under his left arm, he swept his right arm in a wide arc.

“Kkeuheuk!”

“Kyaa!”

The three who had targeted Go Geonryong.

Alpha, Beta, and Omega were sent flying faster than bullets. They only managed to stop after each had skipped across the water like two hundred stones.

Gasping for breath, Go Geonryong felt his body. His palm came away smeared with vivid red blood.

‘They wounded me?’

His bewilderment at the incomprehensible situation lasted only a moment. A distant killing intent sensed above his head snapped him back to alertness.

A massive mass was plummeting toward him.

“Tch!”

He hurled Ariena toward the rocky islet. She traced a beautiful arc through the air before crumpling onto the island.

Right after throwing her, Go Geonryong manipulated the karma he’d released to create a thick barrier. But in the next moment, the space where the barrier had formed rippled and scattered like mist.

An enormous forepaw immediately pressed down on him.

“Kroaraaaaar!”

“Kuaaaagh!”

Four claws firmly gripped Go Geonryong, crushing not just his body but the space around him. His entire form compressed into a single point, finally taking on the shape of a basketball.

In an instant, the dragon swung its tail and slammed into Go Geonryong. The struck hunter sank straight down dozens of meters into the depths.

The dragon stared silently at the water’s surface. Just then, it sensed an instinctual threat and lunged upward. But an invisible force seized the dragon’s wings and yanked it downward into the sea.

Below, Go Geonryong was emerging from the surface.

Sensing danger, the dragon transformed. It shifted its appearance into that of a human woman, successfully slipping free from the noose of power.

Three children gathered around her—Seo Sihui—and stood facing Go Geonryong.

“Cough! Cough! …Hahh. You’ve become quite the monster since I last saw you. No wonder I couldn’t kill you no matter what — when did you pick up the trick of turning into a dragon, Noona?”

Go Geonryong spoke in a tone that almost carried warmth. But from Seo Sihui’s eyes, nothing but contempt could be read.

“Stop before it’s too late. Do you truly not see that what you’re doing is wrong?”

“Sihui Noonim, regretfully, it’s already irreversible. Even if you capped an erupting volcano, would that stop it?”

“…Then I have no choice but to kill you.”

“Heh-heh-heh-heh… Cough! Cough!”

Go Geonryong coughed violently. Clots of dark-red blood poured from his mouth like bamboo shoots after rain. Yet he was smiling.

“You’ve already failed to overcome me twice and died, Noona. What trick do you have to kill me this time?”

“Release the fifth-stage limit.”

“Yes, Master.”

The children answered in unison. They tore off five of the seven bracelets attached to each of their arms at once.

Then something astonishing happened. A vast surge of karma erupted in all directions, like oil gushing from a well.

Go Geonryong gave a bitter smile.

“Where did you dig up another bizarre toy? I wondered why you’d been gone so long — were you holed up in some mountain valley making that?”

“You’re going to die here today. You have to.”

“Still, we were once Noona and dongsaeng — isn’t this too cold-hearted?”

As Go Geonryong bantered, Seo Sihui’s expression hardened. She spoke in a tone of disbelief.

“You’ve already killed me twice, haven’t you? Did you ever think of me as your Noona… no, as a friend?”

“Can’t you feel the welcome in my expression? Our ties are hardly a year or two. It’s been nearly fifty years since we’ve known each other.”

“And yet… and yet you treated me so coldly…”

Seo Sihui lost her words. Go Geonryong, unnoticed by anyone, rolled his eyes toward the rocky islet beside him. Ariena still hadn’t come to her senses.

“Noona, it’s ridiculous to bring this up now, but let’s just join forces. What is it you’re getting so furious and struggling for, anyway?”

“And you! What do you gain by annihilating humanity?”

“Eternal peace.”

“…”

Seo Sihui, as if unwilling to speak further, frowned and shook her head. Then she raised her sword high.

“If eternal peace is what you seek, I’ll grant it to you through death.”

“Pfft! Puhahaha! Puhahahaha!”

Go Geonryong burst into sudden, hearty laughter. Then the air around him shifted. His eyes blazing crimson, he continued.

“A wretch like you dares to do anything to me! With toys like those? Your arrogance knows no bounds!”

“Alpha, Beta, Omega. Prepare.”

“Yes, Master.”

“So that’s it. I wondered what sorcery kept dragging you back from death, but now I know. And knowing means I can counter it. This time, I’ll erase every last trace of you from this universe.”

“Things won’t go as you plan.”

Go Geonryong unleashed karma from where he stood. The dense, pitch-black force reached high enough to touch the sky.

Seo Sihui and the three children didn’t flinch—they sprinted across the water’s surface, charging straight in.

That day, on a quiet stretch of the Mediterranean Sea, the most ferocious battle in history erupted.