Chapter 56 - Staggered (5)

Staggered (5)

As usual, at the entrance of the road to the center of the city, there were many reporters in a protected location, and they were making a news report.

“I’m directly at the scene where the great event occurred. With all the means of communication lost, more than 100,000 citizens are believed to have been trapped, but the government has yet to reveal the details.”

The reason why they gathered is because of the enormous force field and an open gate.

If it were the usual, they would’ve turned off the media reports and sent out a few short articles later, but this time, the situation has become too big to simply hide.

The scope was also broad, and the number of people trapped was enormous, so the government couldn’t easily handle it.

There was a temporary operation room for specialized people belonging to the government.

It was dispatched outside the gate, and the team leader of Awakeners was controlling the situation.

“Park Sang-ho, Park Sang-min, and Lee Tae-hee—all three were killed,” an employee monitoring in front of numerous complex screens said gloomily.

It was usually not that serious, but there was a heavy silence in the operation room for a while.

In the middle of the city, more than 100,000 people were in danger of being isolated and killed.

No, that was as long as they were not already dead. Then, someone broke the mood and continued arguing.

“That’s why I asked you to dig a tunnel!”

“The connected subways were all blocked as well. How are you going to break through the force field?”

There were two little boys in the middle of the operation room, which only looked like junior high school students.

It seemed like an unexpected visit, but they were an exclusive help sent by the government.

Their bodies stopped aging when they were 15 as a side effect of their Awakened instinct.

They were always sent to any of the government-affiliated situations related to the barriers.

“Even if it’s useless, you have to do everything you can. What are you doing here? You are not helping.”

“What are you saying, are you in the Absolute Class?” The boy screamed at the words that touched his nerves.

It was a classification of exceptional instincts that acted in any way other than interfering with the users ability to resist other physical forces.

As described, it was treated as a rare and valuable ability, and Lee Tae-hee’s two instincts also belonged to this.

Although now, it’s a feature that can’t be found on anyone other than her.

“Soo-Yeon, I want to stay…!”

“Get out,” Lee Soo-Yeon said with her head up, standing up with her hands on the desk.

“What? Get out…?”

The two who talked all the way stopped at the same time while looking at Lee Soo-Yeon’s eyes.

In recent years, they heard that she tends to be very forceful, but now they saw her appearance as the one they saw in situations 5 or 6 years ago.

They stepped out of the place without being able to make a sound.

“What happened?” Lee Soo-Yeon asked while looking back.

“There…seems to be a mix of mutant species that aren’t caught in the gate analysis,” the government staff grumbled and replied as he displayed a video in the middle of the main screen.

The appearance of the guy was definitely a monster of the first type.

Two large blades with long tails that were out of balance made it look like a Chaser that had been roughly modified.

“It seems to be a mutant, and the guy who created the force field by looking at the wavelength seems to be it too.”

“How many are they?”

“It’s not exactly known, but the estimate is more than just the Chaser that appeared. It also exceeded a level that can be ignored. This is…?”

Although blurry at that time, the monster’s image splitting the building in half was caught on the screen.

Kugugung!

The building that collapsed was shown.

The staff gasped at its frightening appearance.

“Now, what do we do……?”

Il-Hyun was visible on the screen.

He was among the wrecks created by the monster.

“It seems unlikely. His opponent is too strong—”

“We have no choice but to hope for a miracle,” said the staff.

Some people closed their eyes and prayed, or they couldn’t stand to watch as he failed to take down the monster.

Meanwhile, Lee Soo-Yeon watched the screen silently.

* * *

Bang!

The building was cut out in the dark.

The nightmare monster was cutting out all the ugly things in front of it.

Beyond the destroyed buildings, the other Awakeners in the city were forced to be helpless.

“Danger!” A man exclaimed.

The sword was approaching fiercely as if the three Awakeners were about to be swallowed up.

Something flew in and stopped in front of them, when it was too late to avoid it.

Bang!

A massive fireball burned after being hit by the sword.

No, it seemed right that it swallowed the sword rather than being beaten.

The fireball slowly shook and took shape, forming the body of a phoenix.

The startled Awakeners looked around and found an incoming man.

Like them, the Awakened that wore a black coat was coming at them.

Il-Hyun walked with an expressionless face, and he headed straight in the direction of the monster.

“Wait! If you go that way—” the woman trying to stop him glanced at the passing Il-Hyun’s face and stopped talking.

Obviously, it was a familiar face that they’d seen a few times somewhere.

Then, she ultimately saw the English phrase on his coat’s arm.

Awakener of Aegis.

He was the last hope of those trapped in this terrible place.

“Are you going to fight?”

Asked the man who was shedding bright blood from his head.

He was frowning from one of his torn eyes, and both big and small wounds were all over his body.

Il-Hyun nodded without answering his question.

“Good luck,” the woman with scattered long hair said while crying.

Losing her younger brother here, the tears under her eyes were fresh even when she was full of the dust.

“Please kill me.” The man sitting on the floor raised his head.

He had lost one leg while dealing with a monster trying to hit citizens.

The blood that was pouring right now had stopped, but he had already shed too much, and his face was pale as was the color of his body.

Colleagues couldn’t leave him too, so they were caught up in this dangerous situation.

Il-Hyun just walked silently past them.

It wasn’t the first time.

He had encountered tragic situations several times as he approached just a few blocks.

Every time he stepped another foot on the ground, it felt as if he hit rock-bottom.

And now, these tragedies had to be witnessed by hin.

His heart was both throbbing and shaking.

However, as he did so, his head became colder and colder.

Thunder!

Il-Hyun pulled out a sword.

He pointed it at the white monster with a tail that seemed mutated.

It made a mysterious sound, its eyes flashed, and its arms clasped.

However, if Chaser is a human-shaped monster, this one was totally inhuman looking.

The sword was drawn, and Il-Hyun immediately disappeared at that moment.

Caen!

He jumped instantly, and the monster and his sword collided—the heavy weight crushed Il-Hyun’s arm.

He twisted the sword’s angle and blocked the monster’s arms, but the danger didn’t disappear.

The long, hanging tail was aimed at Il-Hyun’s back.

The guy’s tail moved swiftly without any sound like when Lee Tae-hee was hit.

However, it wouldn’t be easy as long as he was not totally aware of Il-Hyun’s whereabouts.

While Il-Hyun and the monster were fighting, a gray puppy, sticking out its face in the right pocket, came out in a snap.

It turned into a big wolf and bit the monster’s tail.

Quaduk!

The wolf’s teeth bit into its sharp tail, but both didn’t break easily.

The tail, which was considered to be the most threatening variable, was blocked by the wolf.

Now, it was Phoenix’s turn in the sky.

Il-Hyun wielded his sword gently, took his arm away for a while, then jumped back and retreated.

Qaw ah!

Phoenix descended to the ground, and even the monsters got swept away, causing an explosion.

Crackle!

The place where the powerful flames were supposed to burn was rather cold, and the surroundings froze.

Phoenix slipped through the ice.

The red flame that was wrapped around its body suddenly turned blue and was overflowing with beautiful ice crystals.

It froze the white monster.

But it’s far from over to see the end.

Crack!

The ice cracked slowly, and the first of them reached out through the ice.

Il-Hyun looked at his shoulder and turned his head as if it were natural, without any surprise.

A fox with nine tails and red flames suddenly climbed over his shoulder.

Gumiho, who received Il-Hyun’s eyes, immediately used its abilities.

Gumiho’s torso glowed, and sparks rose from around Il-Hyun.

Rather than drawing from a fire that already exists, such as the transformation ability of Il-Hyun, sparks sprang up from the empty space and quickly spread out.

The spark created in the blink of an eye was divided into several strands and wrapped around the monster like a moving snake.

By absorbing the core of the mutant monster killed in Portugal, it has the torsion ability that the guy had. Still, Gumiho handled the torsion and flame completely freely by combining his original ability to manage his own flames and this newly acquired torsion.

The flames circling around Il-Hyun rushed toward the monster.

The guy, who was tightly tied to the ice, quickly broke down and avoided the attack, but sparks sprang up wherever Gumiho’s eyes touched, and continued to chase the white target.

With a rank A, it’s also a mutated monster, and it has a flying ability.

However, it wasn’t fast enough to get out of sight.

Eventually, it was caught up in flames, and it came out half-scorched.

With enormous momentum, it rushed to Il-Hyun, roaring as if it wanted to kill him.

Il-Hyun used the transformation ability to prevent the guy from coming.

As the road turned upside down, numerous thorns soared, and the building with the outer wall still broken was thrown down and hit the monster.

Not only that, but the ground also soared from below, and the cars bounced and flew toward the monster.

But it wasn’t enough to stop the monster in front of him.

The monster, that lowered its posture to the fullest, smashed all the upcoming things and swung its arm toward Il-Hyun.

Meng!

A tremendous shock was applied to Il-Hyun’s side, and the protective function of the coat broke down and he flew a long distance away.

Il-Hyun frowned intensly and immediately stood on his knees.

A significant impact was felt due to the lack of protection of the protective coat.

He spat the blood out of his mouth and put his hand in the coat’s inner pocket.

“I could have done this before the search.”

The object in his hand is a cube that shined brightly.

It was Chaser’s A-rank core that Lee Tae-hee killed.

Il-Hyun empowered himself with the grip of the core.

Then, the core cracked and began to split.

Clink!

The core that was the same one she passed over to Il-Hyun was finally shattered.

A tremendous amount of radiant light emanated from all sides, and several branches of light wrapped around one side of his body.

It was the usual process of accepting Ether into one’s body.

However, it wasn’t completely absorbed.

The Ether’s explosive energy came out.

“Hoo-woo…”

Il-Hyun, who was overpowered and filled with excess Ether, tried calming his body through exhaling deeply.

Then, he slowly looked at the white monster staring his way.

Il-Hyun closed his eyes for a moment and reached out to the floor.

Then, something unusual began to happen.

Kugugugu!

Precisely the moment he touched the floor, the ground began to crack and shake wildly.

The buildings danced, and roads broke up and down within Il-Hyun’s vicinity.

Qaw aah!

A staggering large body appeared and swallowed everything on the ground.

Skyscrapers, bridges, and pillars all sucked into the guy’s huge mouth and long body.

As if it were a ferocious beast, it rose up from the ground, and something huge appeared overlooking the white monster.

Worm revealed itself.