The path bent once where the collapsed outer wall came to an end.
The stench of burning weakened. The black powder thinned as well. Residual heat lingered, but it was not as dense as in the place where I had been hunting.
Beyond it, one building remained.
For something on the outskirts, its shape was distinct. One side of the outer wall had split open and part of the ceiling had caved in, but the frame still held. Beyond the broken section, an inner blast door stood open.
― It’s on the outskirts, but the building’s way too intact.
The AI immediately cut in.
― It looks similar to the buildings on the corporate district side. It’s not the kind of building you’d put up on the outskirts.
I sent my divine sense farther inside.
Beyond the blast door, the passage bent. Past another turn inward was a second blast door. Beyond that, it seemed to lead into an air-defense section.
For an outer district building, it looked far too sturdy.
From within, I sensed human presence.
Not just one.
― Wait, inside there.
― Several humans. They’re armed, too. They’re aiming at one side.
I narrowed my divine sense further.
Humans were gathered inside the passage. Short guns, thick-gripped pistols, even suppression batons crackling with current. For the outskirts, they were well-equipped. Their weapons were pointed in one direction.
At the end of them stood a woman.
I sensed her energy first.
The moment my divine sense touched it, a familiar sensation rose all the way to the tip of my tongue. It was clear. Close to Dao power, and its nature resembled the pure axis circulating inside me.
It was of the same line as the internal energy I had absorbed from Yeon Mujin.
― Oh, that.
― The energy inside there resembles your Dao power, doesn’t it? Seems like the same system.
― But it’s not good. She’s infected. Pretty badly, too.
I layered my eye art over my divine sense.
The inside of the woman became clear.
A thin strand of clear internal energy remained. It barely circulated along the center of her chest. Everything outside it was covered in black corruption. Her shoulder, side, thigh, even one side of her face. The clear strand was holding on, but it was already losing strength.
The black side was far larger.
One of the woman’s eyes had already been corrupted. The white had been dyed a murky purple, and the pupil remained like a sunken black dot. Because of that one side, half her face had lost its proper shape.
There were multiple gunshot wounds as well. Blood leaked from her shoulder and side, and one thigh was split open in a long gash. Beneath the hem of her clothes, dark red stains flowed all the way down to her toes.
― She’s standing there while corrupted and shot up.
The woman stood between the armed men and a closed door.
Beyond it, there was another human presence. A breath that seemed about to break off, weak body heat. That was all I could barely sense.
“Hey, you crazy bitch! Is this how you treat your benefactors?”
A voice burst from inside the passage.
Their clothing varied. Even so, they looked closer to people who had held out inside a facility than wandering vagrants from the outskirts.
The woman kept her mouth shut. Only her purple-warped eye trembled once.
“Benefactors… my ass.”
Her voice cracked.
“Trash… trying to cling… to Wudang…”
Her words broke off once.
“Don’t… touch… the Director.”
That was all.
The man at the front spat.
“Fuck, what’re you laughing at? With that eye?”
Beside him, another man’s fingers trembled.
“That’s why I said we shouldn’t let them in!”
“What the hell are you talking about? The second you heard Wudang, you were the one making a fuss about opening up.”
“Back then, the woman inside was still fine!”
“And now?”
His words cut off.
The purple-warped eye turned toward them.
Someone swallowed a curse.
“…You’re still going to call that thing human after seeing it?”
The man at the front spoke again.
“What else are we supposed to do? The inside’s an air-raid shelter. We deal with that bitch, then drag out the one inside too.”
“Are you insane? It’s Wudang. She’s a Director of Wudang.”
“Bullshit. It’s already too late. If we deal with them here, all that’s left are corpses.”
“…”
“There’s no evidence either. Who’s going to know?”
The man beside him slowly nodded.
The others followed suit.
Gun muzzles and blade tips turned back toward the woman.
The woman did not move. The focus in her purple eye had scattered, but her feet did not leave the front of the door. At the center of her chest, the final current trembled faintly.
There was no reason to watch any longer.
I spread my divine sense all at once.
The positions of the humans were caught simultaneously. Their gun muzzles, fingers, even where their feet were planted entered my divine sense.
I cast my eye art over it all at once.
The humans’ senses slipped out of alignment at the same time. Their vision followed a beat too late, and their fingers briefly lost track of where they were pointing.
A short route surfaced in the back of my mind.
The AI overlaid calculations on my divine sense.
― Three in the front row, two in the back. Right now, you can reach them all at once.
Power gathered from the tips of my scales to my tail.
I did not use Ground Shrinking.
There was no need to fold the distance. I curled my tail inward to gather recoil, then poured that force forward in its entirety.
The floor broke once.
Crack.
The next instant, a white flash slashed through the middle of the passage.
The neck of the man at the front snapped back first. The two beside him folded as blood sprayed. Hands holding guns clawed at the air, and those in the back collapsed without even knowing what had touched them.
A single line of white light had merely passed through the passage.
― You really are insane.
My body stopped in the middle of the passage.
Blood clung to the tips of my scales. Through the debris, the sound of weapons falling followed belatedly. A short gun scraped along the wall and slid down, and a pistol struck the floor with a dull bounce.
Thud.
The last weapon fell.
The collapsed bodies hit the floor a moment later.
The woman slowly turned her head.
Her purple eye faced me. The intact eye was unfocused and slack.
“If you come closer…”
Her voice cracked.
“…I’ll kill you.”
The words barely came out, but the tip of her sword was already pointed at the floor.
Even so, she did not move away from the front of the door.
My body slowly glided toward the doorway.
The tip of the woman’s sword scraped across the floor.
Screech.
There was no strength in the blade tip. Even so, her grip did not loosen. Her finger joints bit into the hilt. Even as blood flowed down her palm, the sword never fell.
The woman did not step aside from the door.
Bloody tears flowed from the corrupted eye. A red line passed over her cheekbone and gathered at the tip of her chin. The intact eye, too, had gone hazy. Even so, it did not close completely.
Her eyelid lowered, then stopped.
It lifted slightly again.
Its gaze was not directed at me.
The door.
The faint breath beyond it.
― Ugh.
The AI’s voice popped quietly in the back of my head.
― She’s still standing with that body? The corruption is severe, and the gunshot wounds are deep. It feels like all that’s left is willpower… She’s so pitiful.
Pitiful?
You feel things like that too?
Well, judging by the way you usually talked, it was hard to say you had no emotions.
― Hey. What do you take me for? Don’t lump me in with those tin cans you know. This body is a superintelligence beyond strong AI, got it?
…
― What was that silence just now? That was offensive.
I let the noisy voice pass.
My golden eyes remained on the woman.
I could not bite immediately.
The same line as the internal energy I had absorbed from Yeon Mujin. Wudang’s internal energy. A clue that might connect to those pursuing me.
If possible, I wanted to keep her alive and ask her.
I could collect the corruptive energy. If I absorbed the black current occupying the woman’s insides, perhaps her clear internal energy would gain room to hold on. At least enough to draw a few words from her.
But her body was too ruined.
The corruption had already entered deep into her face and torso, and the gunshot wounds would not stop bleeding. The fact that she had remained standing until now was close to a miracle. Her body was too wrecked to say that her internal energy had held her up. The last of her mind was somehow clinging to a collapsing body.
The woman’s fingers groped along the edge of the door.
Bloody marks remained on the metal.
“…No.”
It was a cracked voice.
“Sohye…”
The words could not continue.
The black corruption had climbed to the nape of her neck. Black tendrils writhed beneath her flesh, and the clear internal energy gathered in a very small point at the center of her chest.
If I delayed, even that internal energy would be consumed.
There was no more time to hesitate.
I would rather collect the corruption first.
It was the moment I tried to open my jaws.
― Huh?
The end of the AI’s words jumped.
― Wait. Her life signs are…
The woman’s head tilted to the side.
The fingers holding the door loosened one by one. Even so, she did not release the sword. Her grip remained hardened around it.
She could not even close her eyes.
One eye collapsed in purple, and one unfocused eye remained open toward the other side of the door, unmoving.
A bloody tear fell from the tip of her chin.
Drip.
― They cut off.
My body stopped as well.
It did not end there.
The black corruption occupying the flesh beneath her skin crumbled. The contamination that had been gnawing at the woman’s body until just moments ago lost its place to go and scattered.
Through that gap, the clear internal energy remaining at the center of her chest trembled.
It was small.
But no turbid qi was mixed into it.
The internal energy I had absorbed from Yeon Mujin reacted first inside me. As my Dao power resonated, the clear internal energy left in the woman’s chest flowed toward it.
I did not tear into it.
I did not forcibly drag it in either.
The pure internal energy that escaped from between blood and black corruption found its own path the moment it touched near my scales.
The inner circulation opened.
The clear internal energy quietly seeped in.
― Snake.
The playfulness had left the AI’s voice.
― That just now, you didn’t do it on purpose, did you?
No.
The woman’s body tilted in front of the door.
Even so, she did not completely collapse. One loosened finger was still caught on the edge of the door. The hand gripping the sword never reached the floor in the end.
Even after she had been cut off, that body was still blocking the door.
Beyond the door, I sensed a faint breath again.
Very weakly.
It had not disappeared yet.