Chapter 16

Chapter. 16

After sending Han Seol-ah off with the look of a hero who had turned the tide, I took a brief moment to stop by the Korean branch of the Black Market.

“Here are the life-saving Artifacts you requested.”

Kang Hyo-jun held out a bag.

Inside it were top-grade potions, along with Artifacts packed with ways to save my life.

‘This is the escape ring, and this must be the life-saving earring.’

“Mm.”

I took every last one of them.

‘My life is precious, after all.’

No matter how much I prepared, it would never be enough.

“Then let us consider the identity forgery matter canceled.”

I had effectively gotten all of these Artifacts for free.

Kang Hyo-jun had looked troubled and said identity forgery was far too difficult, so these were what I had demanded in exchange for canceling the request.

“Th-thank you!”

At my announcement, relief bloomed across Kang Hyo-jun’s face so clearly he could not hide it.

For him to look that relieved, identity forgery must have been even harder than I had imagined.

‘Now that I’ve established a connection with Min Ji-hee, I have a surer method than going through the Black Market. There’s no need to get an identity bought from the Market.’

Even if I had left it alone, I would have ended up saying, ‘I don’t need it anymore,’ soon enough.

‘This is a blessing. A real blessing.’

It felt like a sign that things were about to go well, and my steps grew lighter.

I headed for the Appraisal Center at the appointed time.

***

The moment I opened the door, the eyes of Han Seol-ah, Min Ji-hee, and Jin Cheon-jin, who had already arrived, all turned toward me at once.

A heavy silence. The only thing hanging in the air was an anxiety so intense it felt ready to burst.

“I will explain the plan.”

The breathing of all three stopped at once.

As though the first words out of my mouth would be the verdict that decided whether they lived or died.

I pointed at Han Seol-ah.

“You will face Scathach.”

“…?”

Min Ji-hee and Jin Cheon-jin went blank with shock.

“What?”

It was understandable.

I had declared that I would kill Scathach for them, so they had naturally assumed I would handle everything from start to finish.

…But that was not the case.

I could not leave Incheon.

But I also could not simply wait for Scathach to descend on Incheon.

By then, the Republic of Korea would already be finished.

While I remained in Incheon and prepared an ultra-long-range sniping spell capable of reaching Pyongyang, where Scathach would spawn,

I needed someone to hold the line and stop Scathach from moving south.

“You only have to hold out.”

Why do you think I spent four precious days sparring with you?

“…How long does she have to hold out?”

Min Ji-hee asked with a desperate look on her face.

“Two minutes.”

“Two minutes? Apostle, the opponent is Scathach. Not just any dragon, but a calamity-class ancient dragon. For a human to endure for two minutes in front of a monster like that…!”

“I cannot reduce it any further.”

I had already set it at the absolute minimum.

Any less time than that, and the ‘charge’ would be insufficient… and the spell would not reach Scathach.

That was the nature of the spell.

Any more time than that, and Han Seol-ah would never be able to endure it, no matter what.

It was a razor-thin minimum for the spell’s preparation.

And it was also a razor-thin match for the limit of what Han Seol-ah could endure…

Those two minutes were that kind of golden window.

“Do you think it is impossible?”

I cut off Min Ji-hee before she could add anything more and looked at Han Seol-ah.

‘You can do it. If it’s you.’

Because I had trained her for exactly that.

And, just as expected,

“No. I can do it.”

“Seol-ah…!”

A firm resolve filled Han Seol-ah’s eyes.

“Two minutes. No, I’ll endure even longer than that. Until you finish your preparations, Apostle.”

‘Right. That’s how it should be.’

Three hours remained until Scathach’s appearance.

—Preparations were complete.

***

Pyongyang, a land that had already been destroyed.

From the summit of a mountain overlooking the gray ruins, Kim Min-seok raised binoculars to his eyes.

And regretted it instantly.

He should never have looked.

They called First-Class Gates ‘Mid-Boss Gates,’ did they not?

What a carefree name.

If they had ever seen a real ‘Boss Gate’ even once, they would never have dared give it a similar name.

A Boss Gate was on a different level from any other Gate.

‘Especially the Republic of Korea’s Boss Gate… it is in a realm of its own.’

Kim Min-seok shook his head.

“…It begins.”

It began with a sound.

SKREEEECH-

At first, a ringing like a giant chalkboard being scraped with iron nails stabbed into his eardrums.

ROOOOOAR-!

Then the entire sky began to howl.

The particles of Mana filling the skies over Pyongyang, terrified by the appearance of a higher predator, trembled madly and screamed.

The very atmosphere was twisting in fear.

“Urgh…!”

Kim Min-seok reflexively clapped his hands over his ears and collapsed to the ground.

But it was useless.

That nerve-scraping burst of sound did not assault his eardrums, but burrowed all the way into his brain through the Mana circuits that served as a Hunter’s sensory organs.

“Ugh.”

Bile surged up his throat.

His heart pounded erratically, and a chill swept over his entire body, as though the blood in his veins were flowing backward.

It felt as though humanity’s most primal instinct—‘Survival Instinct’—was reacting violently.

‘The distance… is over ten kilometers, and it’s still this bad?’

RIIIIP- CRAAACK!

The sky was splitting open like a festering wound bursting apart.

As though an invisible giant were gripping space with both hands and tearing it apart by force, the sky above Pyongyang was ripped open in a grotesque gash.

From that gap,from that torn wound,a pale abyss began to spill out.

An abnormal energy that swallowed light and stole away heat.

The colors of the world were draining away.

The moment the Gate opened, even the gray clouds hanging over Pyongyang lost their color and faded into an even murkier monochrome.

The laws of the world were being overwritten.

Not by Earth’s physical laws, but by the laws of the ‘monster’ beyond that gate.

‘He hasn’t even appeared yet, and the encroachment is already this severe…!’

Feeling a cold that reached into his bones, Kim Min-seok thought,

‘…Hell has opened.’

And then…

Abruptly.

The sound vanished. The scream of the atmosphere that had seemed ready to tear his eardrums apart stopped as though it had all been a lie.

Within that deathly silence,

the dragon descended.

“……Ah.”

He could not even curse.

He only stood there blankly with his mouth hanging open, letting the binoculars fall from his hand.

From the deepest part of his instincts, a crushing sense of defeat surged upward.

Big. Strong. Terrifying…

But beyond such simple impressions, the conclusion carved into Kim Min-seok’s mind was clear.

—If you face him, you die.

He knew it instinctively.

No, there was no choice but to know it.

Kim Min-seok’s Awakening ability was [Survival Instinct (A)].

An ability that instinctively told him whether he would live or die if he took a single hit from a Demonic Beast.

It was the greatest contributor that had placed him in the position of the Republic of Korea’s greatest tanker.

And it was also the most important ability a tanker could possess.

If a tanker could endure just one hit, the healers behind him could somehow keep him alive.

If he endured like that, then he could withstand another hit, be saved again, endure again…

and keep enduring until Guardian Han Seol-ah finally arrived.

That was the single duty demanded of the Republic of Korea’s tankers.

Kim Min-seok had survived tenaciously on every battlefield, and after countless other tankers had died, he had come to be called ‘the Republic of Korea’s greatest tanker.’

But now, that proud instinct of his was screaming like mad.

Run.

Never face him…

Even after running thousands of simulations through his mind, the result was always the same. If he blocked, he died. If he dodged, he died.

‘Ah… humans… are weak.’

Kim Min-seok knew.

The future in which he would fail to endure a Demonic Beast’s ‘one hit’ and burst apart was not far off.

And that being floating there in the skies over Pyongyang,that was the very ‘limit’ Kim Min-seok had feared so deeply.

Even if he raised the strongest shield, stacked his skills, and used every enhancement he had…

No matter what he did!

Before that being, he would be torn apart like paper.

That was the limit of a tanker—

no, of a human being.

Kim Min-seok pressed a trembling hand to his chest.

His heart was pounding like mad.

Proof that he was still alive.

“…Good thing I ran.”

Cowardly?

No.

He had only avoided a place where he would die.

That was the secret to how ‘tanker’ Kim Min-seok had survived until now.

And Kim Min-seok became certain that this time, Han Seol-ah would finally break.

Before a disaster that overwhelming, no matter how strong the will, it was bound to be shattered to pieces.

Once he had reached that conclusion, there was no reason to remain in this horrific place any longer.

Besides, Kim Min-seok’s Survival Instinct was screaming for him to flee this hell as quickly as possible.

As he hurriedly turned to run, sweeping one last glance over the battlefield,

an unbelievable sight was caught by the binocular lens in passing.

“…Huh?”

…A single small human figure stood atop the roof of an abandoned building.

Long white hair fluttered in the sinister Demonic Energy pouring from Scathach.

It was Han Seol-ah.

“Wh-What?!”

Kim Min-seok screamed.

‘Has that old man Jin Cheon-jin gone senile? He should’ve evacuated Han Seol-ah. What is he thinking, leaving her there?’

No matter how much he looked around, he could not see any sign of the tanker corps the Republic of Korea was so proud of.

And if the tankers, who should have been desperately clinging to the boss to buy time for Han Seol-ah to finish her casting, were nowhere to be seen…?

No way.

“Did they give up?”

Had they chosen euthanasia?

If Han Seol-ah died, everything would be over anyway.

Were they just going to accept death?

“I can’t let that happen.”

Kim Min-seok had to bring Han Seol-ah back alive.

He gripped the Artifact in his arms tightly.

With this, he could save Han Seol-ah.

‘…That is, if I can survive Scathach.’

If he stood by and let Han Seol-ah die, the Guild Master would kill him with one hundred percent certainty anyway.

But if he rushed in to save Han Seol-ah, the Artifact’s power guaranteed him a ninety percent chance of survival.

‘Damn it, damn it!’

Jin Cheon-jin.

That crazy old man!

Min Ji-hee, that damned witch! They call her Ironblood, and she’s driving her own daughter to her death?!

Grinding his teeth, Kim Min-seok hurled himself down the mountain.

Before Han Seol-ah committed suicide, he had to rescue her!

How long could Han Seol-ah last?

One minute? Three?

He did not know.

Without a tanker line in front of her to hold the enemy back, it felt as though Han Seol-ah would die from a single attack Scathach unleashed.

It was when he drew closer to the battlefield.

“Huh?”

Han Seol-ah went sailing through the air and dropped right in front of Scathach.

Standing before the gigantic dragon, Han Seol-ah looked like a toothpick standing before a mountain.

A toothpick with its head held high.

“Damn it.”

Kim Min-seok hurriedly threw himself behind an abandoned building.

Getting any closer would have been suicide.

Han Seol-ah was going to die now.

‘Where do I run this time?’

His Survival Instinct spun furiously as it searched for a path to live.

Then, in the next instant,

BOOM!

“Urgh!”

A blue-white storm of frost came crashing at him.

Kim Min-seok quickly raised his arm to shield his face.

RATATAT!

Shards of ice grazed Kim Min-seok’s skin as they flew past.

They were not fatal, but a few shards loaded with high-density Mana sliced shallow wounds into him as they passed.

The clothes Kim Min-seok was wearing turned to rags in an instant.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

“Wh-What is this?”

As the thunderous blasts continued, Kim Min-seok hurriedly hid himself behind the abandoned building and only stuck out his head to assess the situation.

Scathach crooked a finger with arrogant ease.

At that moment, Han Seol-ah stretched out her hand.

Mana fired from Han Seol-ah’s fingertips burrowed through the air like a snake and drove itself into the most fragile connecting link of the magic circle.

SHATTER-!

Just before the massive magic circle could be completed, it broke apart like a shattering window.

‘What is this… a magic battle?’

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Storms of frost erupted in dozens of overlapping explosions.

“She’s… fighting?”

Was it really possible for a human to fight against a disaster like that?

But the scene Kim Min-seok was witnessing was reality.

Unable to move any closer, Kim Min-seok had no choice but to widen the distance instead.

Then Han Seol-ah came into the sight of his horrified eyes.

Han Seol-ah’s face was badly twisted.

“…”

She was not fighting.

Kim Min-seok realized it.

She was blocking it.

She was enduring.

Scathach was carelessly flinging Mana around.

Before the result of that Mana could transform into grand magic, Han Seol-ah desperately reached out.

She intervened in the Mana, interfered with it, changed it.

BOOM!

Then the Mana failed to become magic, stopping only as a physical explosion.

‘This is… impossible.’

It was like pulling the fuse out of an incoming artillery shell with her bare hands.

Utter madness.

———!

It seemed Han Seol-ah was shouting something.

It was the first time he had ever seen her, normally so devoid of visible emotion, react with such intense agitation.

A vivid stream of blood ran beneath Han Seol-ah’s white nose.

It was proof that her overburdened brain was screaming.

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-!

But she did not stop.

Han Seol-ah’s legs were trembling violently.

She looked so precarious it seemed she might crumple at any moment.

The enormous spheres of Mana surrounding Han Seol-ah were enough to make anyone’s knees go weak.

Anything that touched them would die.

If they exploded, you would die.

That was how much power they held.

But she did not stop.

She did not break.

“…”

Kim Min-seok fell silent.

What was making her so desperate?

‘It is a fight she cannot win.’

The moment her Mana ran out, it would be over.

Besides, that monster was not even using his full strength.

‘It is obviously a losing fight!’

Only death waited at the end of it.

“Why is she—”

Kim Min-seok shut his mouth.

The feet that had been searching for somewhere to run stopped.

His Survival Instinct still urged him to flee.

But to Kim Min-seok, that small back standing alone before disaster seemed more immense and more unyielding than any fortress wall.

Guardian.

Han Seol-ah’s epithet.

In the entire world, Han Seol-ah was the only Hunter ever granted the epithet Guardian.

A Hunter who devoted everything to fulfilling the duty of protecting the Republic of Korea.

That was why people called her Guardian.

Kim Min-seok felt the true weight of that epithet.

Calamity, and despair.

A will that never retreated before them.

—That was how she protected the world.