Chapter 185

His easy remark hadn't even fully landed.

Crash!

A roar tore at my eardrums and my vision snapped white.

In the space of a breath, Julia had closed the distance to Han Jewoon, seized him by the collar in a merciless grip, and shot straight out of the room with him in tow.

Han Jewoon, who'd been standing in the doorway, was simply gone — the whole thing over in a blink.

When I turned my head, dazed, only the utterly wrecked sliding door of the restaurant remained, dangling on its hinges.

"O-o-oh my! What in the world just happened!"

The owner, who'd come tearing out of the kitchen at the crash, shrieked in alarm.

I hurriedly pressed several bills into her hand.

"Use this for the repairs. Keep the change!"

Patching things over as fast as I could, I burst out into the street, but Julia and Han Jewoon were already gone without a trace.

"Damn it! Why the hell is Han Jewoon—!"

Leo, savagely raking his hair, whipped around toward me with a fierce look on his face.

"You! What the hell is your relationship with Han Jewoon?!"

"Me? …Friend, I guess?"

I answered on reflex, but Leo wasn't even listening — he muttered something in English and tore off in one direction at a furious sprint.

With no idea what was going on, I blindly took off after him.

Behind me, Number Two and Number Three and the kids' hurried footsteps came pounding up close.

But my full-out sprint — in a body that was basically a non-Awakened's — hit its limit fast.

My breath was up in my throat and my heart felt about to burst.

Is that kid an Awakened too?

Leo's back was pulling away by the second, and just as I was chasing it hard enough for a throbbing ache to start behind my eyes —

"Excuse me."

Kang Taemin, closing in at my back, scooped me up in one motion.

I didn't even have the chance to yelp.

He kicked off the ground with an explosive burst and shot forward.

Wind tore past, and my vision blurred, dizzy.

At some point Leo, running like a man possessed, came to a stop, and we all pulled up behind him one by one.

Kang Taemin set me carefully back on the ground.

In just those few seconds we got all the way here?!

Head jerking around in alarm, I saw Number Two and the kids — who'd ridden along inside Sihyeok's shadow — arriving one after another too.

Number Two was visibly shaken, but the kids' breathing wasn't so much as ruffled — perfectly serene.

Awakened are all monsters, every single one of them…

Feeling that bone-deep truth all over again, I slowly turned my head to where Leo had fixed his gaze.

An empty lot so wide and barren you'd never guess it could exist in the middle of bustling District Two.

And at the center of that lot, Han Jewoon and Julia stood facing off, radiating a murderous pressure fit to explode any second.

Behind Han Jewoon, hundreds of swords packed the air, ringing out with a savage metallic hiss, and Julia — a pure-white greatsword drawn — had settled into her combat stance.

"Julia! Please, calm down!"

Leo, dead white, screamed at the top of his lungs, but the air between the two was already stretched to the breaking point, a bowstring pulled past its limit.

Realizing they were long past the point where persuasion would work, Leo squeezed his eyes shut, pulled a small orb from his coat, and slammed it hard against the ground.

Sshhk—!

The very moment a huge, dome-shaped containment barrier — meant to shield civilians from hunter collision damage — sealed the lot in completely —

As if that had been the signal they were waiting for, the two monsters collided head-on.

Kraboom—!!

The whole earth heaved and a violent storm slammed outward hard enough to blind.

Reflexively, I pulled the kids behind me and squinted through the wind.

Beyond the roil of dust, at the storm's dead center, Han Jewoon and Julia had their swords ferociously locked.

"Jumping a guy before he's even ready — manners still garbage, I see."

At Han Jewoon's easy jab, the corners of Julia's eyes drew up, savage.

"I don't have time to waste on the likes of you!"

Along with the cold snap, Julia swung the massive greatsword in her hand in a brutal arc.

Not to be outdone, Han Jewoon flashed a sly grin and lightly snapped his fingers — and the dozens of swords hovering in the air on standby shot down in a single silver rain.

But even under that downpour of blades, Julia didn't give an inch.

"…Impudent."

KRAKAKAKAK!!!

One swing.

That alone, and the dozens of swords Han Jewoon had loosed shrieked in metallic protest and shattered.

An attack that gave no thought to defense — pure destructive force, nothing else.

But before the shattered fragments could even hit the ground —

Crack—!

The air behind Han Jewoon split open in an eerie fissure, and from that gap the same number of new blades emerged to replace the broken ones.

An overwhelming stockpile — as if he were using space itself as a bottomless armory.

Clang—! Clang! Cra-clang—!

The pure-white greatsword and the hundreds of silver blades clashed without a moment's break.

So this is what a fight between rankers looks like…!

I gulped, throat dry.

I'd watched Han Jewoon fight up close countless times, but this time, from the sheer aura pouring off him, it was in a whole different league.

The world's Rank One against Rank Three.

Even the shockwaves leaking through the barrier were enough to choke the breath out of me.

"So you're getting in my way again, Han Jewoon?!"

Julia, a vein standing out at her temple, swung the pure-white greatsword in a savage arc.

Every time the storm of light slammed home, the ground tore up like paper, but Han Jewoon slipped every strike aside as elegantly as a dancer and jeered easily.

"'In your way' — that's cold. Don't tell me you're still hung up on what happened back then?"

"…How dare you—!"

Reason snapped, Julia drove the greatsword down with a fierce roar.

"You know exactly why I need them! You'd think you could at least stay out of it, if you won't help—!"

Even at that raw cry, Han Jewoon let out a plain, open sneer.

"Cut the crap. I know exactly what you're planning to do once you get your hands on Junhyeok and the kids — why the hell would I help you?"

"This is all for the sake of this world!! The prophecy has to come to pass! If you'd stop and think about the catastrophe that's coming, you'd see this is genuinely the path that helps them too!!"

"You expect me to swallow that cult-preacher line? Save it."

Fully enraged by the insult, Julia's face twisted, terrifying.

Boom!!!

Kraboom!!!

Along with the deadly exchange between the two strongest, a horrific mana storm swallowed the lot whole.

The shockwaves alone rolling off them were making Leo's barrier crack and shriek.

"Ngh…! Julia, please, stop!"

Ashen-faced, Leo cried out, but the two monsters were already snarling and tearing at each other like they meant to kill.

As I watched, breath held, a fight between transcendents that felt worlds away —

…Ngh!

A sharp, stabbing pain shot through my eyes without warning.

My damn eyes, again!

Fragile as they were, I hadn't expected them to give out on me just from watching a fight between rankers.

Maybe it was the flood of raw mana hammering my bare eyes — my vision lurched, sick, and everything spun.

At that exact moment.

"Junhyeok, you okay?!"

"Are you all right?!"

The man and the woman who'd been colliding at full force a heartbeat earlier came flashing to either side of me and shouted in the same breath.

!

Startled by the voices coming at me from both sides, I nearly sank to my knees — Han Jewoon caught me on the way down and bared his teeth savagely at Julia across the way.

"You saw his face a few hours ago and now you're playing worried? Gross."

"He's about to be our comrade. Of course I worry."

Julia shot back just as coldly, not giving an inch.

The absurd bickering left me speechless.

They were tracking everything around them the whole time, in the middle of that? So even a moment ago they weren't fighting at a hundred percent?!

Fresh chills ran down my spine at their overwhelming firepower, but with pain like my eyeballs were about to be gouged out, I couldn't spare thought for it.

Just then.

"Whoa!"

A thick shadow shot up from under my feet and wrapped firmly around my waist.

The shadow snatched me out from between the two snarling rankers, quick, and hauled me clean up into the air.

When I craned my head around, there was Sihyeok, small hand outstretched, holding me suspended in his own shadow.

His face was calm as ever, but the resolve to get me out right this instant came through, unmistakable.

Between them, Sea-ah stepped smartly forward and folded her arms, businesslike.

"Our Director's eyes are hurting him a lot right now, so we're going to head off first! We'll all think over your offer among ourselves, so the two of you feel free to keep at each other or whatever!"

The kid's brisk goodbye was barely out before Sihyeok gave a small nod and quietly spread the shadow wide.

Whoosh—!

The great shadow wrapping us in a circle dropped away beneath our feet in one smooth motion.

Right after the shadow swallowed the group and vanished without a trace.

Even with the murderous mana storm that had shaken the ground now gone, the air between the two transcendents left in the lot was still knife-sharp.

Julia broke the silence first.

"To think I'd live to see you care about someone. Has that heartless mad dog finally turned over a new leaf?"

At Julia's sneering question, Han Jewoon shrugged and parried, breezy.

"New leaf, nothing. I've always looked out for my own — savagely."

The voice, easy smile still in place, came out light as anything, but the warning underneath cut cold.

"So keep your hands off Chae Junhyeok. Don't drag my people into whatever grand plan you've got going."

"Your people? Ha! You think I'll swallow a threadbare lie like that?"

Julia's eyes trembled, furious.

"You're a man who'd cut off his own arms and legs the second they got in the way. What are you really scheming, to be shielding him like this?"

For an instant, the sly smile at the corner of Han Jewoon's mouth froze off, cold.

It lasted only a flicker, but the killing intent held back behind it froze the air around them solid.

Then, as if nothing had happened, he was back to his usual shameless grin.

"Well… if you're that dead set on believing it, I won't go out of my way to correct the misunderstanding. But."

Han Jewoon flicked out a sneer.

"Pinning your own past failures on me — that's a little pathetic, isn't it?"

"You—!"

"Either way, consider yourself warned. Don't come near Chae Junhyeok again. Do you have any idea how hard I'm working to win that man over? Take a number and get in line."

Beep-beep— beep-beep—!

Just as the standoff looked ready to snap, a loud alarm went off from somewhere on Han Jewoon.

"Yikes. If Jihyeok finds out he'll lose it again. Better run. Don't forget my warning!"

Without a second look, he turned on his heel and vanished into thin air.

Julia stared at the empty space his red hair had left behind as if to bore a hole through it.

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Leo edged cautiously up beside her and snorted.

"Ha! Julia, Han Jewoon really has hit rock bottom. Bristling like that — not over the kids, but over just that one Deputy Guild Master? Wouldn't it be smarter to just go straight for the kids and forget Chae Junhyeok? The ones in the prophecy are the kids anyway."

But Julia shook her head.

"…No. Maybe the prophecy hasn't shown us everything yet."

"Sorry?"

Julia turned Han Jewoon's reaction over in her head.

He'd been on far higher alert about losing Chae Junhyeok than the kids — no mistaking it.

Loathsome as the man was, his eye for people was one thing you could trust.

How many top prospects had she tried to sign over the years, only to have him snatch them out from under her?

"I may have to overhaul the plan from the ground up."

The first spark of suspicion had been the way Han Jewoon shielded Chae Junhyeok; what turned it into certainty was Chae Junhyeok himself, once she'd met him face to face.

For a non-Awakened without a scrap of mana in him, the air he gave off was too strange by half.

She couldn't put it into words, but her gut was screaming at her — this was a man she absolutely could not afford to let slip.

"That — that big a deal? To me he just looked like a pushover run ragged by his kids…"

"Leo, what's visible isn't always the whole picture. Look into Chae Junhyeok thoroughly."

Leo, still wearing a look of complete bafflement, finally let out a heavy sigh in the face of her unmoving stance.

"Haah, looks like we'll be stuck in this pea-sized country a lot longer than I thought."

"Leo."

"Fine, fine. Well — since we're stuck in someone else's country anyway, might as well see what artifacts they've got around here."

With that, Leo and Julia both dissolved into the night air, gone in the same breath.

Over the empty lot the storm had swept through, a cold hush settled back in.