A red light flashed past.
That was all.
Rin did not blink.
Even so, she missed it.
A black hem swept across the edge of her vision for an instant, and the next instant, the Knight-class entity that had been driving Dam Sohye back was embedded in the defensive wall at the end of the lane.
KWAAANG!
The wall buckled inward.
Metal and concrete burst together. The shattered fragments tried to scatter in all directions, but froze for a beat in mid-air.
Then fell like rain.
The shockwave arrived belatedly.
The ends of Rin's silver bob shook violently. Inside the lead vehicle, someone steadied themselves against a wall, and refugees crouched between the vehicles lowered their bodies even further.
Dam Sohye could not move either.
Her eyes were fixed on the wall where the entity that had been pressing her until just moments ago was stuck.
The surrounding contaminated entities reacted.
Those about to spit thorns.
Those burrowing beneath the vehicles.
Those trying to scatter up the walls.
All too late.
Thud.
The head of the closest one was embedded in the lane.
What followed happened almost simultaneously.
Those burrowing under the vehicles collapsed. Those climbing the walls folded backward. Those trying to spit thorns exploded from inside their own mouths.
Thud, thud, thud.
Short sounds overlapped all at once.
There were no screams.
Bodies crumpled first. Necks snapped. Leg joints bent backward. Thorns that had taken flight lost their direction mid-air, turned back, and pierced the napes of their owners.
A small entity trying to flee scraped the lane.
Screech.
Even that sound was cut short immediately.
A body pressed from the back flattened to the ground.
Splat.
Rin opened her senses.
It was a reflexive action. If her eyes had missed it, she had to trace whatever traces remained. She tried to catch the residue of the moment—where the impact had passed, where magical power had swept through, where the air compressed and released.
But what her senses caught was not the starting point.
The places magical power had passed were already solidified into results. Collapsed pressure, broken trajectory, bodies flattened against the lane. All of it only reached her fingertips belatedly, after Ezekiel had already passed.
Only then could Rin admit it. She had not seen what Ezekiel had done, how he had moved, or where the force had originated.
There were no slash marks. No scorch marks. They had folded to the ground as if they had suddenly become unable to bear their own weight, and only the aftershock of the force reached Rin's senses belatedly.
A metallic screech came from the defensive wall.
SKREEE.
The Knight-class entity moved again.
Its body embedded in the wall writhed. Black fibers crawled out between the crushed armor plates, and a blue-white light flickered irregularly from deep within its chest.
It was not dead yet.
As expected of a Knight-class.
A shattered arm braced against the wall. Armor fell away, and black fibers stretched like cables, trying to reconnect the severed structure.
In that instant, red eyes looked that way.
Its body tore through the wreckage and was dragged forward.
Like a beast snagged on a fishhook, its heavy body scraped across the lane.
Sparks flew in a long trail.
It swung its remaining arm.
Ezekiel did not dodge.
The arm stopped in mid-air just before reaching him, and after a brief pause, a tearing sound erupted.
CRUNCH.
The shoulder armor split open. Black fibers pulled taut and then tore all at once. Metal cables sprang like blood vessels, and the heavy arm was ripped out at the joint.
BANG!
The torn arm was embedded in the lane.
The Knight-class entity howled. Neither human nor beast could make such a sound. A cry like a broken warning siren leaked from the flesh.
The moment Ezekiel stepped forward and narrowed his red eyes, its chest collapsed.
There were no signs of being struck from the outside. It had collapsed from within. Chest armor folded. Its neck disappeared. The armor around its head was driven down, and its shoulder rolled inward into its chest.
Black fibers that had tried to regenerate surged outward but were immediately suppressed.
Flesh and metal entangled, unable to push away from each other. Its torso shortened, its waist folded, and its knees bent belatedly following suit. The massive body was crumpled into itself.
CRACK.
The last remaining toes were embedded in the lane.
And it was over.
Beneath the defensive wall, there was no longer a form that could be called a Knight-class entity. Only a lump of pressed-together metal and black flesh remained.
A brief but heavy silence descended upon the blockaded lane.
Rin checked the indicator on the recording device with her fingertips. It was on. But she couldn't be certain the scene just now had been properly recorded.
She hadn't been able to follow it with her eyes.
The ground tilted beneath her feet, her breath was crushed, and only the sensation of the world folding in the wake of those red eyes remained, settling belatedly into her body.
The investigators of the Holy Council couldn't move easily either.
They knew the name Ezekiel Vermilion. They also knew what the position of Chief Executor meant. But standing directly at the edge of that power was something entirely different from knowing it through name and title.
Someone among the refugees muttered like a breath.
"Red eyes......"
As those words fell, the surroundings instead grew even quieter.
Even a child's crying stopped.
Some lowered their heads. Some held their breath.
Where that single name passed, people's bodies reacted first.
The female martial artist beside Dam Sohye was the first to come to her senses.
She reflexively raised her sword. Her fingertips trembled faintly, but the tip of her blade did not lower.
Ezekiel's red eyes reached her.
"Move aside."
The martial artist's jaw tightened.
"Please step back."
The words were low and short. But the blade did not lower.
Ezekiel did not stop. Another step came forward.
In that instant, the blade tip lowered.
She had not lowered it. The arm holding the sword shook as if pressed by an invisible weight. The lane beneath them creaked lowly.
Ezekiel did not even raise his hand.
The martial artist gritted her teeth.
"This person is the Director of External Strategy of the Wudang Corporation."
Ezekiel did not react.
Dam Sohye called quietly.
"Baek Mugyeong."
At those words, the martial artist's eyes wavered.
"Lower your sword."
"But."
"Lower it."
Baek Mugyeong gritted her teeth, then slowly lowered her sword.
Dam Sohye stepped forward. Her outer coat was torn, her outer armor ill-fitting, and blood clotted at her fingertips. Still, the moment she raised her head, she did not look like someone who had just been rescued.
Dam Sohye withdrew her bloodied hands and clasped them in front of her chest.
It was too disheveled to be called a martial salute. Her fingertips trembled, and her palms were stained with blood. Still, the courtesy was clear.
"Thank you for your assistance."
Her voice was quiet but unwavering.
Dam Sohye steadied her ragged breathing. Fatigue and pain remained on her face, but her gaze did not retreat.
"Thanks to you, I was able to protect those people. Had you been even a moment later, the damage would have been far worse."
Baek Mugyeong's lips stiffened. It was the face of wounded pride. But she couldn't interject into those words.
Ezekiel looked at her briefly.
"No need for thanks."
His gaze remained on Dam Sohye, not the refugees.
"Yes. Director of External Strategy of the Wudang Corporation."
Baek Mugyeong's eyebrows twitched.
"Accompany me. There's something to verify."
The tip of Baek Mugyeong's sword tried to rise again.
"You are overstepping."
Ezekiel did not look at her.
"Unauthorized vehicle. Entry into a blockaded lane. Combat with a Knight-class entity."
His red eyes fixed on Dam Sohye.
"Even if you are a successor of Wudang, this isn't something that can pass without explanation."
The corners of Dam Sohye's lips hardened very faintly.
She too knew that the Holy Council wouldn't let this matter pass. Whether investigation or detention, in the end, only the name they put on it would differ.
"Is this protective custody?"
Ezekiel did not deny it.
"If we call it that, things will be less noisy for both of us."
"What a convenient word."
Ezekiel did not answer.
Then, looking at the refugees' wrists, Karin spoke lowly.
"They're exiles......"
Rin's gaze moved that way.
Karin was looking at the faintly remaining marks.
"It's an Outer District disposal mark. Stamped on those kicked out under the pretext of exceeding sector capacity. On the documents, they'll have plausible names like criminal or debtor."
Karin's lips twisted downward.
"Some might have actually committed crimes. Some might be framed. Some might just have been thrown into the same garbage bag with the rest."
The woman holding a child lowered her head.
Dam Sohye closed and opened her eyes briefly.
"I don't intend to say all those people are innocent."
Her bloodied fingertips slowly curled.
"If there is guilt, it must be questioned; if there is debt, it must be repaid. There will be those who must be punished."
Her gaze rested on the people crouched between the vehicles.
"But after death, nothing can be asked."
It was a quiet statement.
"Not guilt, not debt, not responsibility."
Dam Sohye's eyes turned back to Ezekiel.
"Leaving them outside to die is not punishment. It is the easiest method chosen by those who do not wish to bear responsibility."
Rin looked at Dam Sohye.
Vehicles bearing the mark of a subsidiary transport company, ill-fitting outer armor, a single martial artist in Baek Mugyeong, a convoy that was hard to see as having received the main family's permission. And even the direction where traces remained of the Jemadaeju Yeonmujin's solo intervention.
Rin didn't ask anything further.
Why Dam Sohye had come this far was already clear enough.
Ezekiel spoke.
"Move them to the rear vehicles."
Ezekiel's gaze didn't linger long on the refugees.
Dam Sohye's eyes hardened for a very brief moment.
Then Rin opened her mouth first.
"I will handle it."
Dam Sohye's gaze turned to Rin.
Rin continued calmly.
"We won't hand them over directly to the district union. Let's send them under the investigation team's supervision."
Karin smirked.
"In a place like this, even that much is a luxury."
Dam Sohye looked at the refugees briefly.
The woman holding a child. Torn protective suits. Faint marks on their wrists.
She spoke lowly.
"Please."
Rin nodded briefly.
Baek Mugyeong approached Dam Sohye's side.
"Director."
Dam Sohye turned her head.
"Send the people first."
"What about you, Director?"
Baek Mugyeong stopped speaking.
Swallowing her breath as if biting back something, she called out lowly in correction.
"Direct... no, Sohye."
Rin didn't miss that brief opening. In the space where the title had been stripped away, the private warmth between them was briefly revealed.
"I can't let you go alone."
Dam Sohye looked at Baek Mugyeong.
After a brief silence, she spoke.
"Alright."
Baek Mugyeong's eyes wavered.
"Let's go together."
Only then did Baek Mugyeong exhale.
Ezekiel did not wait. He was already turning toward the lead vehicle.
"Get in."
It was a single word.
Rin quietly added.
"It would be best for you to come to the lead vehicle. The rear will be chaotic with settling the refugees."
Dam Sohye looked at Rin briefly.
"Very well."
Baek Mugyeong stood silently at Dam Sohye's side.
The refugees began being moved toward the rear vehicles, and Dam Sohye and Baek Mugyeong headed for the lead vehicle.
It was then.
A low rumble pushed in from the wall.
Thud.
In the distance, black smoke was billowing into the sky from beyond the outer wall.
—-
The rumble reached this structure as well.
At first, I thought it was the lingering echo of a distant explosion. But it wasn't. The vibrations were pushing in from the wall all the way here. They spread in sequence, shaking the old steel frame of the waste compactor, the illegally added floors, and down below the observation deck.
I slid along the edge of the deck, keeping low.
Blackbeak and Noise were already moving toward the downhill slope below.
Outside could no longer be described as merely noisy.
The city was screaming.
Then AI's voice burst into my head.
— Snake.
— Emergency. Emergency. No, this isn't enough for just two emergencies. Emergency emergency emergency.
I know.
Shut up.
The deck beneath my feet trembled briefly, and the tremor returned a beat later from deeper below.
— Now's not the time to play dumb, Snake. The things that came over the wall, their trajectory is too large. Some aren't just falling—they're pushing into the inner structures.
What do you mean?
— Literally. It means they're flying.
AI's voice lowered, a rare occurrence.
— And one more thing, it's too close!!
Blackbeak spoke without looking back.
"Run."
Noise cursed.
"Damn it, what now—"
The words couldn't finish.
The darkness above shook first.
Shadow fell.
The next moment, a black mass slammed into the upper structure of the waste compactor.
KWAAAAANG!
Metal plates twisted, and old reinforcements burst all at once. There was no time to tell whether it was alive or debris. Black flesh and shell fragments lodged between the steel frames, and the entire deck twisted and sank.
The downhill slope below wailed.
Screeeee.
Steel plates lifted, bolts popped, and reinforcements snapped in sequence.
Bodies were pulled downward. There was no handhold to grasp.
The floor vanished. Vision flipped.
Blackbeak's shout, Noise's curses, and the sound of tearing metal all faded at once.
— Snake, calm down. Structural collapse. The slope angle is insane, the underside is hollow, so to get straight to the point, we're faalliiing!!!