The faint breath caught beyond the door barely continued even after the woman’s body had collapsed.
Before opening the door, I first examined the internal energy still remaining inside my body.
The clear internal energy did not scatter immediately. It resembled the internal energy I had absorbed from Yeon Mujin, but the amount was significantly smaller. Even so, the sensation of absorbing it was distinct.
It was similar to when the infected’s energy had been layered atop my demonic power.
This time, Dao power had reacted to the internal energy.
I still did not know exactly what that meant. However, the loss was minimal. Though it was only a faint energy, the speed at which it permeated my body was fast.
*Hmm.*
—Hey, Snake.
The AI cut in slyly.
—Every time this happens, I get really curious about what you actually are. Isn’t it about time you told me, considering how close we are?
Can’t you tell by looking?
I’m a snake, just like you said.
—Wow. So that’s how it’s going to be?
I quietly moved the woman blocking the door off to the side. The hand gripping the sword remained rigid until the very end. I did not forcibly remove the hilt.
I did not know why.
I simply did not wish to handle a body that had endured so much with any more indignity.
I examined the door frame with my divine sense.
The door was shut, but the inner locking seam had already taken damage. Sending a thin thread of demonic power seeping into the cracked portion caused the internal mechanism to respond belatedly.
*Creak.*
The heavy door slid open.
*Thud.*
The air inside flowed outward. It carried the mingled stench of chemicals and blood, along with a faint residual scent of disinfectant.
A woman had collapsed within.
Her breathing was faint.
—Oh.
The AI reacted first.
—This woman is showing signs of erosion too. Just what the hell happened here?
Unlike the woman who had died outside, she bore no gunshot wounds. Scrapes and bruises covered her body, but there were few injuries that would immediately claim her life.
The problem was her side.
Black erosion was clumped around the wound in her flank. Dried blood had grown wet again, and the surrounding skin had dulled to a purplish hue. The erosion extended from her side down below the ribs and toward her waist, but it was densest near the torn wound.
Internal energy remained within the wound.
It was far more refined than what I had detected from the woman outside. The erosion was gnawing at her flesh, yet it could not touch the flow within.
Within my divine sense, the black erosion and the living internal energy were clearly separated. What must not be touched and what could be removed were divided into two sides.
—Snake, can you do it?
I raised my demonic power.
Power coiled over my scales. I guided that force to the wound in the woman’s flank.
The black corruption reacted first.
The erosion clumped on the side of her wound began to stir. I did not touch the refined internal energy beneath it. If that flow were disturbed, her breathing could cut off entirely.
I spread my demonic power even thinner.
I drew only the black energy clumped beneath her flesh toward me.
*Sssk.*
The skin, which had dulled to a purplish hue, slowly began to regain its original color. The black energy seeped into me. The inner circulation of my body accepted it, and my demonic power naturally grew denser.
The woman’s breathing gradually returned.
—Ooh. It really works? It’s too early to call it a full cure, but extracting the erosion looks possible. I’ve never seen anything like this.
You didn’t have much information in your memory to begin with.
—Hey!
*Cough, cough.*
The woman coughed as if folding in on herself. A dark clot of blood fell to the floor. A faint groan slipped from her throat. Her labored breathing eased somewhat.
That was when an unfamiliar presence caught at the edge of my divine sense.
It came from the corridor beyond the open door.
Ash settled on the blood-stained floor slowly split apart. A single head rose from beneath it.
Eyes were nowhere to be seen.
Only a small hole gaped upon the head.
Even so, my divine sense caught it. It was a faint, tenacious corruption. It possessed the same nature as the strange power mixed in the fight on the outskirts earlier.
Soon, another head rose nearby.
Beneath broken pillars, between collapsed ceiling sections, from the shadows of overturned metal plates, black figures rose one after another.
They did not wail.
They did not immediately charge.
—Snake, we’re surrounded!
The AI’s shout struck the back of my mind.
I expanded my divine sense further.
Three in front of the open door. Two beneath the collapsed wall. One behind the ceiling debris. That was merely what lay nearby.
They did not rush inside.
They were blocking the exit first.
From within the door, the woman’s faint breathing continued.
I turned toward the open doorway.
Only then did I catch the presences further back.
At first, my divine sense had only registered those near the door. Beyond the collapsed wall, amid the ceiling debris, from deep within the corridor I had passed through, heads were rising one by one.
Dozens.
They all bore similar forms. No eyes, no noses—only a small hole gaping upon each head. Even so, the sensation that they were staring this way was distinct.
If those things rushed inside, the breathing I had only just managed to restore would be cut off again.
I had to move first.
“Get ready.”
—Okay.
The AI’s response came immediately.
—Twelve in front. Six under the wall. Four by the ceiling. More in the back corridor too. Move left when you get out.
Through the Golden Eyes, I fixed the distance to the front row.
I would twist the front row’s senses with the Pupil Technique.
The instant I crossed the threshold, I would use Earth-Shrinking to dive into the left blind spot.
A prolonged fight would be bad.
I had to reduce their numbers decisively with the first move.
It was the moment my body tried to cross the threshold.
Suddenly, the head of the one in front exploded.
*Pop.*
—What?!
The AI was the first to shout.
Then a second.
A third.
*Pop. Pop-pop-pop!*
The heads of those lined up in front of the door burst in sequence. Black bodily fluid and charred flesh splattered across the walls, and the figures crawling along the floor collapsed, unable to control their own bodies.
—Wait, this isn’t something you did.
Those beneath the wall were the same.
Headless bodies were driven sideways. The one descending from the ceiling had its upper half blown away before ever touching the floor.
The gunshots arrived late.
Not explosive sounds assaulting the ears, but rather the distant tearing of air briefly parting before rolling in.
A sniper.
Only then did I realize I had misjudged.
Only the ones outside the door had registered within the Golden Eyes. Part of my divine sense had been occupied tracking the breathing of the woman behind me.
In that interval, I had missed the round coming from farther away.
They had already been aiming from another angle.
The flesh beneath my scales contracted first.
The next trajectory was caught in the Golden Eyes.
The sound followed.
*Earth-Shrinking.*
I tried to escape from the bullet’s path.
Before the distance could fold, the bullet struck my scales.
The first Vajra guard flared reflexively.
*Crack.*
A single scale split, swallowing light. The stroke engraved upon it blazed first, and the scale beneath could not endure and fell away.
The shock did not end there.
A second Vajra guard followed immediately. A third, then a fourth. The patterns bound to each scale brightened in sequence before shattering. Each time light spread, scales split and fell, leaving no trace of the engravings behind.
Fragments of white scales scattered through the air.
With each piece that fell, the impact was slightly deflected. But not entirely. The remaining shock dug beneath the scales, and the inner circulation of my body spun vainly for a moment.
Whether it was the tenth or even more, I could not count.
Only after nearly all the engraved Vajra guards had burned away did the bullet’s force finally begin to wane.
My vision flipped.
The smell of blood by the door grew distant. The woman’s weak breathing inside faded as well.
*Boom!*
My body was slammed between broken wall debris and metal fragments.
The taste of blood spread across my tongue. One side of the Golden Eyes blurred, and searing pain flared from every spot where scales had been torn away.
The tip of my tail twitched slightly.
I had not died.
But if the next round came, I could not guarantee even that.
The depths of the Golden Eyes heated on their own.
Instinctively, I recalled it.
The lightning beyond the door.
—Hey, no!
The AI’s shout echoed at the back of my head.
—Absolutely not. If you open it now, your body won’t survive it first!
Blood trickled down from the corners of my eyes.
I had to counterattack before the next round arrived.
—Get a hold of yourself. You don’t even know where it’s coming from. What are you going to strike?
Heat surged from every spot where scales had broken off, and the inner circulation of my body had not gathered enough to receive the lightning.
—Get. A. Hold. Of. Yourself.
The back of my mind vibrated like thunder.
The blurred Golden Eyes barely recovered.
The heat in the depths of the Golden Eyes cooled. The rising demonic power extinguished and scattered back beneath the scales.
There was no visible target to counterattack.
Only the faint trajectory of the bullet remained. Its end faded amid the broken structures.
Even if I drew lightning, there was nowhere for it to reach.
If another round came in the meantime, I would not be able to evade it.
I had to withdraw immediately.
*Earth-Shrinking.*
Beneath the broken wall, I folded my body into the tangle of pipes and metal materials.
Space folded once.
The presence near the door grew distant.
*Earth-Shrinking again.*
Before passing between the metal materials, my body was already deeper inside. Heat flared from every broken scale, but I did not stop.
Once more.
*Earth-Shrinking.*
Walls, pipes, and broken structures drew close for an instant before growing distant. The presence of where I had just been was already far behind me.
Blood flowed from one side of the Golden Eyes. The tip of my tongue went numb with the taste of bullet metal.
But I had escaped.
The sound of gunfire did not come again from behind.
That silence was more ominous.
I pushed my body deeper between the narrow structures. I did not know where they led. The air was hot, and the stench of fallout was thick.
Still, there was space enough to hide a single body.
I went deeper.
---
For a while, no sound came.
Their remnants were scattered across the walls and floor. Black bodily fluid had congealed where heads had burst, and around the opened shielded door, the smells of gunpowder and blood lingered together.
*Shrrk.*
The color of the wall outside the shielded door shifted.
In front of the light-illumined wall, figures materialized in sequence.
Optical camouflage disengaged.
The first to be revealed was a woman in a white suit.
The smoothly curved white suit revealed a cold silhouette beneath the light.
Behind her, three figures in black suits appeared.
The three in black wore heavier equipment than she did. Their faces were not visible.
In their hands were long sniper rifles.
Long, flat barrels. Instead of standard magazines, power cables connected to the equipment on their backs were plugged into the grips, and targeting lenses were layered beneath the muzzles. The cooling pins beside the triggers still glowed red-hot.
She did not lower her weapon.
The muzzle moved slowly.
Past the remnants of the creatures, past the walls indented by gunfire, it came to rest upon the woman collapsed on the floor.
Faint breathing continued from beneath her feet.
She stopped before her. A small ampoule sprang from the device on her wrist. Blue bubbles rose and vanished within the transparent liquid.
She pressed the ampoule against the collapsed woman’s neck.
*Chk.*
The liquid flowed in.
The thread-like breathing deepened once. The woman’s fingers trembled against the floor, but her eyes did not open.
The woman spoke.
“Target recovery complete.”
One of the black-suited figures looked toward the tangled mass of wall debris and pipes.
“What about that one?”
She looked down at the sniper rifle in her hand.
The barrel still held heat. The cooling pins blazed red, and faint smoke wafted from within the muzzle.
It was brief.
She lowered the gun to her side.
“Ignore it. We only recover the target.”
The black-suited figure bowed his head.
She slung the collapsed woman over her shoulder. The body hung limply, but breathing continued.
The three black-suited figures moved outside the shielded door first.
Their outlines blurred again.
Whenever light touched them, only the silhouette of a shoulder and the tip of a gun barrel briefly appeared before blending back into the dust-covered wall.
*Shrrk.*
She too erased her appearance at last.
Color bled back into the wall, leaving only the blood-stained floor and the walls indented by bullets behind.