Black Badger

A few hours earlier.

The Remnant Wraith decoy team was luring the Remnant Wraith without any interference.

No one stopped them from putting the Remnant Wraith back to sleep. Thanks to that, the first few minutes went smoothly. Ami descended fast, flying low to the ground as she slipped beyond the torn-open edge of the defensive barrier.

The earth swept past quickly beneath her.

Feels like flying after getting grabbed by a clearwing rhinoceros beetle.

Kairos thought that as he drove Echo and lured the Remnant Wraith along.

What an outstanding senior.

Now he understood why Hilde had singled her out. Ami flew even better than Kairos had imagined. Fast, with sharp instincts, she kept just the right distance from the pursuing monster.

At this rate, he might not need to use the monster he’d stuffed into his pants pocket.

That was the summoner’s thought.

He hadn’t told anyone about this monster. Afraid it might get caught by his kin’s sixth sense, he had even hidden it in the wasteland where the Remnant Wraith slept.

He had secretly stuffed it into his pocket before waking the Remnant Wraith.

Even when Hildebert asked about the plan, he hadn’t bothered to mention its existence.

Hoping he wouldn’t have to call the monster he’d kept hidden, Kairos measured the distance to the portal device.

A device the Badgers had set up after committing themselves and cutting through countless obstacles.

They sprinted for the portal device.

BOOM! BANG! BOOM!

The Remnant Wraith followed them faithfully while continuously firing its cannon. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Isn’t the time it needs to charge getting shorter and shorter?

Kairos thought as he judged the cannon’s range.

And the charge time varied every time.

“Ami.”

“I know!”

The senior shouted through the wind.

“I’ll widen the distance!”

KABOOOM!

The changed situation worked against them. They could no longer calculate when the Remnant Wraith would spit out its cannon. When they had been dragging it here, it had fired after a fixed interval every time. That had let them calculate the timing and where the shot would land.

Now they couldn’t.

KABOOOM!

The fortunate part was that the device was right in front of them now.

“Activate the portal device!”

Kairos roared at the top of his lungs.

“Senior. If we keep going like this....”

The Remnant Wraith’s cannon slammed into the ground right behind them.

“Aaagh!”

KABOOOM!

A monstrous shockwave hit them.

They rolled across the ground. Because Ami lost her grip on him, Kairos was flung off in another direction.

He reflexively used a breakfall, so he wasn’t badly injured.

But he was separated from the shooter.

“Jack!”

As he groaned and pushed his upper body up, he heard Ami’s desperate shout.

“It looks like it’s going to explode again!”

Ah.

If it explodes at this distance, the portal device will be damaged.

Then everything will fall apart. The distance from the Remnant Wraith’s hole to here had been enormous. Without the portal’s help, there was no way they could safely lure the Remnant Wraith back to the hole.

The emergency portal device was far away too.

And there were Badgers here right now. If they couldn’t put the Remnant Wraith back to sleep, they would be swept up in its light as well.

Even if the Badgers withdrew, it wouldn’t make things better.

Unless it was put to sleep, the Remnant Wraith would rampage endlessly—an out-of-spec monster whose “how” and “how long” couldn’t be predicted.

It didn’t need rest or food, so it never tired.

So they had to put it back to sleep, no matter what.

Not just for humanity, but for Earth itself.

When Kairos snapped his eyelids wide, he saw the Remnant Wraith gathering a cannon at its mouth, right within arm’s reach.

And in front of it stood the massive portal device.

Kairos grasped the situation instantly.

And made his decision. It wasn’t difficult. Hadn’t he always lived a life where he had to make the right choice under time pressure?

From the moment his tribe faced the ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) Imperial Army, to the moment he lifted the F1 trophy—

And even now, with the Remnant Wraith right before him.

“Ami!”

Kairos lifted his head and shouted.

“Jump into the portal!”

Ami didn’t ask again.

She shot straight through the portal.

Her figure disappeared from view.

Left behind with the Remnant Wraith and the portal device before it, Kairos pushed himself up and tapped his pocket with the back of his hand.

Something writhed inside his pants pocket.

Keeping his eyes fixed on the Remnant Wraith’s swelling energy cannon, Kairos tapped his pocket again.

And hummed the calling melody.

「Fire and dry branches, twisted leaf veins, broken bones and severed flesh, come to me....」

{I’ve come to you.}

A voice answered.

{Where should I coil?}

How many decades had it been since he last used this?

It was less “summoning” and more “borrowing power.” Those who borrowed this monster’s power rarely met a good end.

Crushing down the giddy exhilaration rising inside him, Kairos replied.

「Use the eye.」

The awakened monster climbed his body in a single rush.

It crawled into the eye Kai had stabbed and coiled inside.

Swallowing the sharp pain, Kairos stared straight at the Remnant Wraith.

The monster clinging behind his eyelids, seeping into his nerves, laughed low.

{That thing?}

The monster whispered—one that had been called “Toxin Vein” in the Empire.

Toxin Vein latched onto the summoner’s membranes and stimulated the sixth-sense nerves, temporarily pumping the summoning ability to extremes.

{You’re going to summon that monster?}

There was no time to answer the sneer.

Sensing his nerves overheating, Kairos began to grope for the Remnant Wraith’s presence.

The highest of the high-tier monsters.

A being no one had ever even tried to summon.

But it was still something that could be caught by sixth sense.

If it could be detected by sixth sense, then summoning it shouldn’t be physically impossible.

Just like how people once believed dragons could never be summoned....

「Even if it’s only five seconds.」

If he could just make it cross through the portal device before it fired that energy cannon.

「Even three seconds....」

If he could succeed in summoning the Remnant Wraith.

Got it.

In his searing nerves, Kairos seized the Remnant Wraith.

***

“Hilde.”

Yehyeon spoke in a calm but desperate voice.

“Just one last time—please absorb again.”

Even then, my mind was still hazy.

A heavy pain. A blurred field of vision.

Half-conscious, I answered quietly.

“I can’t.”

The child looked like he was about to cry, but there was nothing I could do.

“If I do it, I won’t be able to stop.”

I had barely managed to halt the circuits inside my body.

If I absorbed any more, I felt like I truly wouldn’t be able to brake at all. The fact that I’d managed to stop myself at all felt like a small miracle.

A hand supporting my back.

“Then I’ll do emergency treatment.”

Yehyeon, the owner of the hand, slowly sat me down on the ground.

“I stabbed too deep. Like an idiot....”

If he hadn’t, the rampage wouldn’t have stopped.

Slumping there, I thought: if he hadn’t charged at me with everything he had, I wouldn’t have hesitated. I wouldn’t have mistaken Lee Seunghyun for a child.

The child had wrapped up the mess I’d made better than anyone could have.

This time too.

“Kalak! Bring Samuel from the helicopter!”

Yehyeon shouted urgently.

“Asil, get the helicopter ready to depart!”

The three seniors sprinted up the slope.

“...Yehyeon.”

“Don’t move.”

When I tried to twist to assess the situation, Yehyeon muttered.

“With the angle of the sword, I don’t think we can get you onto the helicopter like this. We have to treat you here and then go.”

My white clothes were already in tatters.

The hand tearing at the fabric around the stab wound trembled faintly.

I watched that pale hand, then lifted my head.

My mind was fully awake now.

The blurred view sharpened. The buzzing sound became clear.

Dulled senses returned.

Collapsed ground. Seniors running toward me. My kin.

The traces of a sword slash that had struck and passed.

Clothes soaked in blood.

Scorched-black earth....

My insides twisted.

“I rampaged.”

Like back then.

“Every attack was mine.”

“It’s okay.”

Yehyeon answered quickly.

“All personnel are safe.”

I looked at them.

Ricardo and Yun, running this way, looked physically intact.

But they were enhanced-body holders. Even if I had harmed them, their wounds would have healed quickly.

Like Ruta Ayer, who was walking over slowly while still keeping his guard up against me.

The dried blood clinging to his neck said plenty.

I cut him.

“Commander.”

Igor was already close.

“If you’re short on blood, use mine.”

“You’re hurt.”

I could tell just by the way he walked.

“Did I do that?”

Igor closed his mouth.

That was answer enough. I’d known him a long time—knew he wasn’t good at lying, and that he was deep-hearted enough to avoid saying things that would wound others.

The strategist was rummaging frantically through his pockets as he ran up beside Igor.

“Yoow.”

The moment Yoow staggered to a stop, I spoke.

“Your hand.”

“...I’ve had worse.”

“I....”

The words caught in my throat.

“What did I do to you?”

“I said it’s fine.”

Yoow snapped irritably.

“Compared to you getting branded in the gut, this is nothing, so wipe that stupid look off your face.”

Kyle must have anticipated this.

That was why he’d kept Jin nearby, just in case. With a hostage, he probably figured I’d endure it—whether I rampaged or resisted.

It didn’t matter.

If Yehyeon hadn’t come, I would have slaughtered everyone here.

If Yehyeon hadn’t swung my sword in that familiar stance, I might not have recognized it in time.

And then I would have absorbed everyone here....

Nausea surged up.

The pain from being stabbed helped—more than I’d like to admit.

I didn’t have the time or the right to go into shock now. I still hadn’t fully grasped the situation, and this mission wasn’t over yet.

Did I kill anyone?

Every time someone twitched in the quieter space, my eyes snapped toward them.

Jin Silver crawling out of the pile of dirt.

Rose, looking at me from a short distance away with watery eyes.

Yun and Ricardo kneeling beside Yehyeon, starting to help stop the bleeding.

“Is Samuel nearby~?”

“In a nearby helicopter. Carl will bring him right away. Any other injured?”

“All recovered.”

Yun answered.

Then he injected me with morphine.

“Hildebert. You picked off only the mages like a ghost, so relax your face.”

I couldn’t.

I couldn’t even meet their eyes. I didn’t have the nerve to face these people.

“What is it~? Not even saying hello properly~?”

Ricardo said.

He was deliberately keeping his tone light.

He must have noticed I couldn’t look him in the eye.

I bit my lip, then forced my voice out.

“I’m sorry.”

Ricardo’s hand froze mid-motion.

A hand that didn’t move for a moment.

The senior’s voice turned cold.

“You think I said all that to get an apology?”

I know that too.

“Look up.”

I raised my head.

I saw the senior glaring at me with a deep frown—and Yun, shoving the trembling Yehyeon aside.

“Senior, I—”

“If you’re going to say something useless, keep your mouth shut.”

The cold voice cut me off.

“Who’s the patient right now?”

I did as he said.

I shut my mouth and lowered my gaze again. Ricardo wouldn’t like it, but looking at the people around me right now was emotionally unbearable.

So I stayed silent, staring at my wound—and a hush settled over the area.

The sound of Yun skillfully stopping the bleeding.

The sound of Ruta Ayer, standing at a distance, maintaining watch while checking his weapon.

Yehyeon’s uneven breathing.

I caught Ricardo’s low whisper.

“Cover your mouth with your hand....”

Now the green-eyed senior was watching Yehyeon, who looked on the verge of hyperventilating.

Yehyeon covered his mouth with his hand and gave a faint nod.

At that moment, a booming voice rang through the sinkhole.

“Hey!”

Samuel Han was being carried on Carl’s back.

“Choi Yun! Call out the patient’s condition!”

SCRAAAPE—

Carl slid down, kicking up a cloud of dust.

Sophia followed behind him, carrying something box-shaped.

Yun only turned his head and shouted something at Samuel.

I didn’t really hear what the shooter said.

All my attention was locked onto Yehyeon, who was right on the edge of a breakdown.

He was a child traumatized by stabbing his own father.

The same child I’d handed my sword to, asking him to die together with Rei.

And I made him do this.

What had I done to the other seniors?

“What a mess.”

Samuel rushed straight to me the moment he arrived.

Yun stepped aside smoothly.

Sophia slammed the box she’d brought open and set it beside Samuel, then placed it properly and quickly pulled back. Without even looking inside, the doctor reached out and grabbed an unfamiliar medical instrument.

I was about to thank him—

Until Igor abruptly cut in.

“HQ doctor?”

“Yeah.”

“I thought the medical helicopter went to the decoy team.”

...What?

“Are there two helicopters? Or did it already come back?”

What?

I stared at the doctor, eyes wide.

Samuel didn’t answer.

At some point, his expression had darkened. He bit his lip, focusing only on my wound.

What?

My heart dropped.

I’d thought there was nowhere left for it to drop to.

“Samuel?”

My voice trembled as I asked.

“What happened to the decoy team?”

Kairos and Ami—

They should have put the Remnant Wraith back to sleep by now....

The medical helicopter went there? Why?

“Are there injured? If so, why didn’t you get on with them?”

I thought the waiting doctor was all there was....

Kairos didn’t have an enhanced body like the Black Badgers.

The pounding of my heart filled my ears.

Ignoring it, I waited for his answer.

Then I heard the doctor’s low voice.

“Even if I went, it’d be pointless.”

It was a heavy voice.

“There’s nothing I can do.”