“Fire when ready.”
As soon as I spoke,
a brief silence fell.
Then.
Whoosh.
The sound of launch split the darkness.
The shell flew in an arc.
Boom.
A thermobaric round detonated against the outer wall of the old castle.
The explosion spread, flames striking the wall.
The Obsidian Unit surrounded the castle,
then began firing with their angles precisely aligned.
Thermobaric rounds.
Not simple explosions.
Boom!!!
The instant they struck the outer wall.
A beat later, the air burst.
It wasn’t the sound of an explosion, but of the air itself being ripped apart.
The pressure, expanding in an instant, slammed into the outer wall.
The impact spread through the ground.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
The ground trembled beneath my feet.
The air shook.
My ears rang.
Bombs flew in one after another.
Explosion after explosion.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
Invisible waves spread outward from the old castle.
The outskirts of Luxembourg.
The once-quiet night had been completely overturned.
I looked at the castle through my binoculars.
When the smoke cleared, the castle remained standing.
Cracked and scorched.
But it had not collapsed.
They were thick stone walls that had endured for hundreds of years.
The thickness was on another level.
The blast pressure from the thermobaric rounds had burned the surface, but failed to pierce through.
“Fire.”
I gave the order to fire again.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The thermobaric rounds detonated at the same time.
Stone dust scattered, and fragments flew.
But the result was the same.
They could not break through the castle.
“Chen Zhihao. What’s the condition of the outer wall?”
“The outer walls are too thick. This isn’t an ordinary building, it was built for defense. The walls look to be at least one meter thick by default.”
One meter.
Not a thickness mortars could punch through.
Thermobaric rounds were not particularly effective in open spaces.
They were weapons optimized for enclosed areas.
I stared at the old castle.
The smoke was clearing.
The outer wall was blackened, but still stood firm.
I imagined the inside of the castle.
Right now, after being hit by a surprise attack, they would be flustered and confused,
but they would soon establish a response posture.
Adrian would quickly come up with a countermeasure.
We couldn’t give him time.
I radioed the entire unit again.
“We’re going in.”
The other end of the radio went quiet.
A brief silence followed.
It seemed everyone knew that from here on was the real thing.
Then a transmission came in.
It was Chen Zhihao.
“The front gate area of the outer wall took the most damage. That’s the weakest point, relatively speaking.”
I let out a faint laugh.
In that brief moment, he must have been checking which spot had the highest chance of success.
“Okay. We go through the front gate. Prepare accordingly.”
I added a short warning.
“Be careful. There may be enemies hiding where we can’t see them. Stay focused on comms.”
“Roger.”
“Roger.”
Short replies followed.
I lowered my body and began to move.
One step.
Then another.
I closed the distance toward the castle.
I was strangely calm.
Suddenly, a thought occurred to me.
Maybe I had been waiting for a situation like this.
If Adrian had died in that bombardment, maybe I would have felt disappointed.
Because it would have been too empty.
I wanted to see it myself.
I wanted to end it with my own hands.
I wanted to drive my blade into Adrian’s heart myself.
I wanted to confirm with my own eyes how Adrian died.
I needed that.
We advanced cautiously toward the castle.
Our speed was extremely slow.
We had to watch for possible ambushes, booby traps, and hidden lines of sight.
We had no choice but to approach slowly.
“No enemies visible ahead.”
Allen, who had already taken up a sniper position, radioed in.
Allen had positioned himself in a perfect spot.
A perfect angle, high ground.
No blind spots.
His muzzle was aimed at the castle.
The moment anyone entered his line of sight, it was over.
They wouldn’t even be able to raise their heads.
The instant they did, their heads would burst open.
It was reassuring.
It felt like Allen was watching over us from behind.
We were right in front of it now.
“Keep advancing.”
There was no turning back now.
We were going to see this through.
*****
Inside the old castle.
Leaning back in a soft chair, Adrian set down the bottle of whiskey.
His breathing had settled somewhat.
The warm alcohol slid down his throat, loosening his body.
The tension eased.
His shoulders lowered.
Perhaps he was tired, because he lightly closed his eyes.
It was at that moment.
Boom.
With a tremendous roar, the entire castle shook.
The ceiling rumbled, and the walls trembled.
Windows shattered, and objects hanging on the walls fell to the floor.
Adrian’s eyes widened for an instant.
“What the hell...!!”
But before Adrian could say anything more, the second explosion erupted.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
Explosions went off in succession.
It was not a simple shockwave.
The air was being torn apart.
It felt as if the air had been compressed and then burst.
His chest was being pressed down.
Adrian’s expression hardened.
Even in the midst of that, he calculated to assess the situation.
An external attack.
What artillery fire meant was obvious.
“Our position has been exposed.”
He had thought he had shaken them off completely.
He had thought that at least for today, he could sleep in peace. That had been arrogance.
The bombardment gave them no time to rest.
Shells continued to fall.
The castle shook.
A tremendous roar filled the entire structure.
Dust poured from the walls,
and small fragments fell from the ceiling.
“It’s artillery fire. Take cover!”
“What the hell is this?”
“What are we supposed to do?”
His subordinates were floundering about, not knowing what to do.
They had completely lost their bearings.
But Adrian was different.
He quickly looked around.
He considered the castle’s structure, wall thickness, load-bearing points, and cracks.
Compared to the sound of the castle being blown apart, the impact was lighter.
The castle had shaken, but there were no collapsed or breached areas.
This was a castle built for defense.
It would not be pierced easily.
“...It can withstand this.”
Adrian finished his judgment in a short span of time.
But he could not stay like this.
He shoved the table away as if kicking it aside and put on a bulletproof vest.
His leg throbbed.
He had no time to care.
Even then, he continued calculating what he needed to do.
Honestly, he had not expected a situation like this.
He had considered fighting back, but that was impossible.
First of all, the gap in firepower was too great.
They had even brought mortars.
The fact that they had brought mortars meant
it wasn’t just one or two people, but at least a company on the move.
Trying to contend with them using the few guns he had
was too much of a difference in weight class.
This was not a situation that could be won through willpower or tactics.
‘Escape comes first.’
Adrian immediately reached that conclusion.
Fortunately, there was a reason he had chosen this castle as his secondary stronghold.
There was a secret passage underground.
Something left behind by the people who had built this castle hundreds of years ago.
Adrian knew about it.
He had used this castle several times before.
But that did not mean he intended to simply run away like this.
“Teams 2 and 3 are authorized to engage.”
“Shoot anyone who comes near. Pin them down as much as possible so they can’t get inside.”
Adrian’s voice was the same as always.
He was not especially tenser, nor did he raise his voice.
Of course, if Teams 2 and 3 stayed behind to stop the enemy, their chances of survival were close to zero.
But that did not matter.
They were beings who had been trained and paid until now for this day.
On the contrary, if they all moved together, their speed would be slow and the chance of discovery would increase.
Right now, it was right for Teams 2 and 3 to buy time.
“And Team 1, follow me.”
He also needed a team to guard him.
Limping, Adrian headed underground.
.
.
.
Teams 2 and 3 spread out.
To the end of the corridor, beneath the windows.
Each took their position,
and aimed their muzzles toward the front gate.
“If you see the enemy, kill them immediately.”
“Roger.”
The team member who answered crawled beneath the window.
Outside, now that the bombardment had stopped, it was quiet.
Strangely quiet.
The team member slowly raised his head above the window
to assess the enemy’s condition.
Thwack.
A short, dull sound rang out.
The team member’s head snapped backward.
Leaning against the wall, he slid down just like that.
A large bullet hole had appeared in his head,
and red blood ran down the wall.
“Sniper.”
Another team member shouted.
At the cry, everyone instinctively pressed themselves against the walls.
From now on, they had to avoid the windows.
A window meant death.
The moment they raised their heads to a window, a bullet would come flying.
The team members held their breath and carefully moved along the walls.
They gave up on visibility.
They merely pointed their muzzles toward the front gate.
They could not see outside.
They could not confirm anything.
So there was only one method.
Wait here,
and shoot when the enemies came in.
In any case, they could not enter through the windows.
The windows were too small for anyone to climb in.
If they could not break through the walls,
the front gate was the only place they could enter.
The moment the gate opened,
they only needed to fire bullets at them.
That was all they could do.
Clang.
At that moment.
Something dropped in through a small window.
It made a sound as it rolled across the floor.
It seemed to be something like a can.
What was it?
A grenade?
No.
Before they could examine it properly, it burst with a pop.
...That was it?
There was no explosion.
Was it a dud?
Was that all?
At that moment.
Bang!!!!!!
The space was torn apart.
A massive flame filled the room.
The walls and ceiling were engulfed in fire at the same time.
Heat spread as if exploding in an instant.
“Gyaaaaaah!!”
Screams erupted.
Flames swept through the interior.
But before that, the air vanished.
The oxygen disappeared.
They tried to breathe,
but no air entered.
Their chests shriveled.
Their lungs screamed.
“...Kgh!”
The explosion sucked in the air inside the room in an instant.
Their lungs contracted.
The air inside their bodies was instead drawn outward.
The team members who had been standing dropped to their knees.
They lost hold of their guns.
Their hands went to their throats.
“Breath... I can’t...!”
Someone clawed at the floor.
Clang.
Another can came in.
There was a small explosion with a pop,
then a massive flame formed with a bang!!!!!!.
Bang!!!! Bang!!!!!
Cans continued dropping one by one through the small window.
The Airless Toto had made detonated inside the old castle.
The moment it exploded indoors, its power changed completely.
It could not be compared to an open outdoor area.
The thick stone walls contained the blast pressure.
There was nowhere for it to escape.
There was no air.
Heat, impact, and a vacuum state repeated again and again.
Teams 2 and 3 had already lost their ability to fight.
They did not even have the strength to hold their guns.
They could not breathe.
Some collapsed against the walls,
and some crawled across the floor, searching for the door.
But.
No one could get out.
Before long, their movements stopped.
There were no external wounds.
They had simply stopped.
A drone entered through a small window.
The drone floated around, thoroughly checking the interior.
“Clear.”
A short transmission.
Only then did the castle’s front gate slowly open.
The muzzles of Teams 2 and 3 were still aimed at the front gate,
but no one could pull the trigger.
.
.
.
Inside the old castle.
The flames and smoke had not completely settled.
Hot air shimmered along the ceiling.
“Interior clear.”
“West side clear.”
“Second floor clear.”
Short reports came in nonstop through the earpiece.
I swept my gaze over the surroundings once.
“Find Adrian.”
“Yes, sir.”
The Obsidian Unit set out to find Adrian.
They checked the fallen Parallax members one by one to see if Adrian was among them.
They turned them over and checked their faces.
But naturally, Adrian was not there.
I had expected that to some extent.
I had not thought he would meet his end here.
I wondered if he had thrown his subordinates out as bait
and fled somewhere.
My guess had not been off by even an inch.
I raised my head and looked over the castle interior once more.
It was an old castle.
There was probably an emergency passage somewhere,
or a secret space.
He must have used it.
“There should be a hidden space or passage. Find it.”
“Yes, sir.”
The team members began searching.
They knocked on the walls, checked the floor, and inspected the structure.
“Here it is.”
One of the agents shouted.
Behind a structure broken by the explosions,
a concealed entrance had been partially revealed.
It was a stairway leading underground.
There was no need to hesitate.
“I’m going.”
We headed straight down the dark stairs.
.
.
.
An underground passage.
The air was completely different.
Just moments ago, we had been in a place where hot air shimmered,
but here it was cold and damp.
Drip. Drip.
Water fell from the ceiling.
There was almost no light.
The headlamps were producing only the bare minimum.
The passage was wider than I had expected.
Wide enough for two people to walk side by side.
And there, Adrian’s traces remained.
“Footprints.”
“They haven’t been here long.”
I stopped for a moment and looked down at them.
Marks stamped into the dirt.
A stride thrown off ever so slightly.
It was Adrian, without a doubt.
Adrian’s leg was bad.
He could walk, but running would be difficult.
If we picked up the pace, could we catch him?
I felt greedy.
I didn’t want to let him get away.
“Move faster. We can catch him.”
“Yes, sir.”
We increased our speed.
We moved through the passage almost at a run.
Distance, time, stamina.
At this speed, wouldn’t we be able to catch him?
This time, we’d get him for sure.
Then, suddenly.
‘If it were me?’
Would I have just left like this?
No.
Absolutely not.
Wouldn’t I have left at least one parting gift behind?
Wouldn’t he have planted something to slow down the pursuit?
A chill ran down my spine.
“Stop.”
I raised my hand and signaled a halt.
The team members stopped.
“···.”
I caught my breath,
then slowly shifted my gaze to the floor and the walls.
We had been too hasty.
At the thought of catching Adrian,
I had gotten too far ahead of myself.
This wasn’t his way.
Adrian would never simply run away.
He must have hidden something.
“There’s a high chance of booby traps. We advance while searching ahead.”
“Yes, sir.”
Our pace dropped again.
But this was our pace.
Our safety mattered more than catching Adrian.
One step, then another.
Checking, examining, suspecting—we moved forward.
The pursuit continued.
******
Huff. Huff. Huff.
Adrian’s breath rose all the way to his throat.
His leg throbbed.
Now even taking one more step was a struggle.
‘I kept exercising, but…’
He had taken care of his body consistently.
But age could not be deceived.
Even just today had been more than hard enough.
He had been running, calculating, and staying tense without pause.
On top of that, there had been the surprise attack.
His mind and body were already close to their limits.
Even so, he had to walk.
If he went just a little farther, there would be an exit.
But gradually, the ground began to change.
It was wet.
Splash, splash.
Water splashed beneath his feet.
Still, he kept walking.
Before he knew it, the water had risen to his ankles.
His balance wavered, making it hard to walk.
In the end, Adrian came to a stop.
And what he faced was—
a passage submerged in water.