The light did not fade easily.
A white pillar was swelling in the center of the sky. At first, it looked like the afterglow of an explosion. But the light spread again from above, and black smoke coiled upward beneath it, as if supporting it.
It was a massive mushroom cloud.
It was large enough to swallow half the sky visible through the gap in the blast door. Beneath the edges boiling white, black smoke churned and tangled, and inside, blue flashes were still bursting.
An alarm grated at the inside of my ears.
[Outer containment line damaged.]
[Bulkhead interlink failed.]
[All non-combat personnel proceed immediately to interior shelter zones—]
The broadcast couldn't continue to the end. It was torn off midway, buried in static, then overridden by another alarm. Sirens, artillery fire, the metallic sound of unmanned turrets rotating, and the distant rumbling of buildings collapsing surged in all at once.
Noise stood frozen, his hand on the gap of the blast door.
"What is that…"
Black Beak looked at the sky.
"A nuke?"
Noise slowly turned his head.
"Those crazy bastards. They really intend to blow the whole sector away."
The AI's reaction immediately rapped inside my head.
—Wait. Analyzing.
Its usual levity was gone.
—Thermal reaction, traces of nuclear reaction, shockwave pattern. It's a forbidden weapon series from the Great War era. The scale appears to be a restricted type, but it's not something you use inside a city. Absolutely not.
Restricted type.
Those words didn't match the size before my eyes.
—Strange. The usage records, approval system, and damage estimates aren't opening on my side. Everything's locked. This isn't simple damage. Someone seems to have blocked it intentionally.
Only then did I see properly beyond the blast door.
It was different from the sectors I had passed through until now.
Instead of rusted iron plates and waste rails, there were armored plates. Instead of humans holding guns, there were automated turrets and unmanned drones. Between high-rise buildings stamped with corporate logos, aerial walkways and containment gates were layered thickly.
Those structures were now being torn apart amidst the flames.
The barrier wall had its middle torn out. Blackened armor plates were bent outward, and several automated turrets were tilted on their pillars, spewing nothing but flames. The glass walls of the high-rises warped like waves, and the aerial walkways hung down, broken in the middle.
Even amid all this, the bombardment didn't stop.
The turrets inside the barrier wall poured fire toward a single point. Missiles with blue trajectories split the smoke, and energy rounds buried themselves in the black dust. The unmanned drones had lost formation and scattered.
All those attacks were aimed at the center of the black smoke.
Noise pulled out a broken terminal. The screen was half-cracked, and the map wouldn't load. Instead, a few lines of broken alarm records scrolled up slowly.
[Outer defense sector perimeter collapse.]
[Full outer perimeter breach.]
[Containment line damaged.]
[Containment line response delayed.]
Noise's fingers stopped.
"It's not even been half a day."
He clutched the terminal.
"From the outer defense wall to here—it took less than half a day."
Black Beak was looking beyond it. Neither words he would have scoffed at nor curses came out. Only his lips beneath his long nose were set hard.
—Snake. We have to move quickly.
The AI spoke.
—This isn't a scale we can withstand. The barrier walls and defense net are already past their limits.
I knew.
Behind us was a collapsing passage.
Ahead was a burning corporate sector.
And in the very center, the spot where the bombardment kept striking.
There, something that had not yet revealed its form was moving.
The first thing to reach me was the smell.
Melted metal, charred flesh, burnt plastic, the residual heat of a forbidden weapon that had just detonated. Between all those smells, something else faintly lingered.
It was indeed the smell of contamination.
But it was different from what I had smelled on the contaminants. Rather than a rotting, twisted stench, it was closer to something that crushed all surrounding presence beneath it. The flames, the smoke, the black presence of the infected—all lost their direction and scattered before it.
My Divine Sense reached toward it on its own.
I hadn't consciously expanded it. My senses had pinpointed the most dangerous place first.
There was something inside.
Every time the barrage connected, light burst. The infected around it were torn away or scattered like ash. But the center didn't collapse. Each time the smoke parted, the darkness inside was briefly revealed, and that darkness didn't tremble as if being pushed by the explosions—it swayed slowly, as if allowing the explosions to pass through.
It was an aura I had never seen before.
Yet it wasn't completely unfamiliar.
A memory of that final moment long ago brushed past me. A pressure as if the sky were collapsing. A sensation that hadn't even allowed a moment to draw up my Dao power. The thing before my eyes now was incomparably smaller than that time, but the direction resembled it.
Not the magnitude of power, but the way it bent the surrounding flow through existence alone.
The judgment that I must not look further arrived before my mind could process it.
I withdrew my senses before my Divine Sense could reach any deeper.
Something inside seemed to slowly rise beyond the barrage.
---
"That is a unilateral decision, Chief Executive."
Rin's voice echoed inside the vehicle.
A massive mushroom cloud floated on the monitor. Multiple observational feeds shook simultaneously, and among them, several had half their screens bleached white as if melted by heat.
"It is a sector-restricted weapon. It is not something that can be used without council approval. The deployment of forbidden weapons is beyond the authority of even a Chief Executive."
Ezekiel was looking at the monitor.
Rin gripped the terminal tightly.
"I will not cover this up. I will formally report this matter to the council. No matter who the Chief Executive may be, this is overreach beyond abuse of authority."
Dam Sohye was looking at the cloud rising outside the window, and Baek Mugyeong was frozen, gripping the handle. Karin's resonance auxiliary device had flashed warning lights several times, but couldn't produce proper readings.
On one side of the monitor, part of the barrier wall glowed red. The muzzles of automated turrets converged on one point, and above it, the afterglow of the forbidden weapon still remained.
Ezekiel moved his fingers.
The footage zoomed in.
Beneath the mushroom cloud, the barrage continued to plunge into the center of the black smoke.
A moment later, Ezekiel turned his head.
Rin. Karin. Dam Sohye. Baek Mugyeong.
His red eyes checked them one by one.
"That's a lot of baggage."
"Chief Executive."
Rin gritted his teeth.
Ezekiel turned his gaze back to the monitor.
"At least baron-class."
The air inside the vehicle sank deeper.
"No."
He corrected himself.
"Viscount-class or higher."
Rin's fingertips stopped above the terminal.
Karin took a small breath. Dam Sohye's lips hardened, and Baek Mugyeong could no longer continue speaking.
Noble-class.
And among them, viscount-class or higher.
A disaster with no guarantee of being stopped even if an entire sector was erased.
Ezekiel opened a communication channel.
The figure of a corporate defense network officer who had been waiting flickered as it came up.
—Preparing additional strike. Maintain coordinates?
"Pointless."
The other side of the channel froze for a moment.
—Chief Executive, the target still shows vital signs—
"Which is why I said it's pointless."
He slowly straightened his posture.
"By authority of Chief Executive of the Seonghoe Council, I am reclaiming command of the scene."
Rin's eyes went wide.
"As of this moment, the operation is converted to a Class 1 emergency evacuation procedure."
A red authority emblem floated up on the monitor. Blockade lanes, the investigation team, the corporate sector temporary defense net, and outer support channels were sequentially bound under the Chief Executive's authority.
Ezekiel spoke.
"All investigation team members, withdraw."
No one could move immediately.
Karin's wrist device trembled faintly. The trace they had been tracking until just now had not yet completely disappeared. Rin's fingertips also remained stopped above the terminal.
The Core.
A priority unclassified entity.
Both clues still remained somewhere on that battlefield.
Ezekiel didn't even turn his head toward it.
"The Core and the unclassified entity are not priorities right now."
With those words, the lingering attachment inside the vehicle was severed.
Ezekiel gave his final order.
"Cease engagement. All personnel, withdraw with survival as the priority."
---
The sounds were drawing closer.
At first, they were sounds of combat echoing from afar. Now, they were different. The interval between explosions had shortened, and each time the alarm cut out, a rougher burst filled its place. Something collapsed one after another in the flames, and the howls of the infected grew lower and denser, overlapping.
The collapsed battle was spreading right to our doorstep.
Noise clutched the broken terminal.
The screen couldn't display the map. A few lines of red warning text lit up, then spread and went out as if consumed by heat. No coordinates, routes, or evacuation sectors remained.
He looked outside, unable to even curse.
The passage behind was already caving in.
Up ahead, the fight was still continuing. Rather than a proper engagement, it was closer to the sound of a collapsed defense system vomiting out its last strength.
That fact alone determined our path.
We had to get out there.
—Snake, if you freeze here, you'll be trapped.
The AI's warning brushed through my head.
—The front defense net's IFF has collapsed. The moment you expose yourself, you'll be targeted. If we're going out, we have to use the gap when the turrets stop—
Black Beak's fingertips stopped.
The sounds cut off.
Artillery fire, alarms, and the howls of the infected all vanished.
The flames were still flickering. Dust and heat curled upward, and dying embers rose from collapsed structures. Flashes could be seen spreading in the distance.
But no sound reached us.
Only the sensation of scales scraping the floor was overly vivid. Hot air touched the tip of my tongue, and the smells of metal, blood, and burnt plastic surged in all at once. My senses were alive.
Only the sound had been cut away.
The wolf-types reacted first.
Their ears flattened, and the fur on their napes stood on end. They bared their teeth at something invisible. Their growls were trapped in their throats; only their claws scratched the ground.
Keh-ehng.
A short whimper leaked out.
One was slammed into the ground from its forelegs, breaking them. The others collapsed one after another. Each time a body fell, a low reverberation spread.
Noise took a step back.
His mouth opened. No sound came out.
The hand clutching the broken terminal trembled. Blue sparks briefly flashed from the black implant on the nape of his neck.
Tuk.
The terminal fell to the floor first. Noise's knees buckled immediately. His body collapsed sideways as if its string had been cut.
Darkness pooled ahead of him.
The flames, the dust, the debris—all were moving. But that spot alone was strangely hazy. It seemed a thin black fog clung there, and inside it, neither light nor sound seemed to enter properly.
I raised my Divine Sense.
I forcibly gathered the remaining Dao power beneath my scales. I felt around everything—the scorched street, the fallen wolf-types, the traces of the infected, and that mist-like darkness.
Nothing was caught.
It wasn't hiding, nor had it moved away. In the place where my senses should have reached, there was no flow for them to touch.
Only that spot seemed carved out from the world.
—Snake.
The AI's words cut off.
—No. Nothing's being caught.
Black Beak moved.
It wasn't a movement to flee. Nor was it a stance to fight.
His jaw clenched beneath his long nose, and his fingertips twisted once. He seemed to resist for a very brief moment, but soon placed one knee on the ground.
His head lowered.
As if the etiquette carved into his body had sprung out first, Black Beak stopped in place, bowing reverently to an unseen someone.
Something was beyond the mist-like darkness.
It wasn't distinct. Even pushing my Divine Sense deeper, I couldn't enter inside. What was visible was only a long, hanging black outline, and a pale, mask-like trace.
Even with only that much, it strangely evoked an old-fashioned medieval noble.
That existence tilted toward Black Beak.
No sound was heard.
Black Beak's shoulders stiffened. He lowered his head even more.
"Yes."
Only that single word strangely reached.
The mist-like darkness seemed to pause briefly.
Black Beak's fingertips scratched the ground. His face beneath his long nose twisted fiercely for a moment. He seemed to be suppressing something surging from within, but didn't dare raise his head.
"...Yes."
That was all.
That existence turned this way.
It was looking at me.
My body stiffened. Even my Divine Sense didn't move.
I didn't feel killing intent. It wasn't the presence of a predator, either.
It was slightly different.
From beyond the mist-like darkness, an unseen something seemed to examine deeper inside than my body's exterior. Not scales, wounds, or size, but the direction of the flow I held within.
It was close to curiosity.
The stillness of one who had discovered an impossible object in an unexpected place.
That existence observed me for a while.
There was no sound.
But strangely, only a fragment of intention remained.
So the choice was made.
Who, what, or why was chosen—I couldn't know.
Black Beak's fingertips stopped. He seemed to try turning his head toward me for the first time, but soon pressed it back to the ground.
The existence asked no more.
A blurred silhouette slowly turned toward the surroundings.
Flames, collapsed wreckage, fallen wolf-types, Noise pinned to the ground, the still-unfinished battlefield.
After sweeping over all of it briefly, the presence tilted toward a farther place.
The direction where the white afterglow of the explosion still remained.
Black Beak's fingertips scratched the ground.
Without having raised his head, he stiffened as if he understood that direction.
Artillery fire struck my ears.
The torn alarm howled again. The howls of the infected burst between the flames, and the dust and heat that had seemed stopped whirled up all at once. Debris poured from beneath collapsed structures, and the remaining defense system spat fire.
I reflexively looked at that spot.
Nothing remained.
Neither presence nor trace was caught.
As if it had never existed there from the beginning.
The battlefield hadn't ended.
Noise still couldn't get up. The wolf-types were also pinned to the ground, only convulsing. Black Beak slowly raised his body.
He didn't look at the spot where nothing remained just now.
He looked at me.
There was no mockery, no calculation.
On Black Beak's grotesque face, clear wariness rose for the first time.