Chapter 324: Long, Long Ago (2)

Asil Fiscer came face to face with the man who had once been his buddy.

He was wearing a blue police uniform, a fox-like smile playing across his face.

Sometimes impulsive to the point of being dangerous, yet uncannily reliable when it came to the mission he was assigned.

And yet, with that same defiant attitude that had earned him countless enemies, the man laughed beside a burning car.

Jaeyeon took off his police cap and waved it lazily.

‘Hey, buddy!’

He smiled brighter than the flames themselves.

‘Thanks for believing in me to the very end!’

Asil drew his gun.

Tatadatadang! Gritting his teeth, he fired. An obsession coiled around his entire body—this time, he could not let him escape.

He couldn’t let it end emptily like last time.

This catastrophe had happened because he had believed in him.

Because when the higher-ups suspected Jaeyeon, he alone had defended him to the end.

Blind. Stupidly blind....

Tatadatadat!

He fired while half out of his mind, but strangely, none of the bullets reached Jaeyeon.

Still smiling, Jaeyeon tossed the police cap into the burning vehicle.

Every scene dragged those memories back to the surface.

The police chief, unconscious, burning inside the car. Jaeyeon stepping calmly out of the wreck. Beneath the empty overpass, tossing the police cap and badge into a mass of flames.

Amid the hail of bullets, Jaeyeon murmured cheerfully.

‘This is the price for trusting me to the end.’

The man twisted his body away, laughing.

‘Asil. Don’t ever forget this day.’

I won’t let you go.

This time, I won’t.

Asil Fiscer clenched his teeth and chased after the retreating Jaeyeon.

***

“Ah.”

Sophia let out a sound when she saw her former lover.

“So this is the only way I get to see you again.”

Once, she had willingly let herself be ensnared by the Ashen Mantle.

Then she stopped. She felt sorry toward her patrol partner, and the emptiness of memories that never accumulated had worn her down. The one standing before her was nothing more than a hallucination created by her brain. She could no longer build new memories with the one she loved.

This time was no different.

The figure stretching out both arms with a sorrowful smile was nothing more than his afterimage etched into her neurons.

‘What, you’re not running over to hug me?’

“Sorry.”

She raised her gun.

After aiming at the center of her beloved’s brow, she added calmly,

“If it were really you, you’d tell me to pull the trigger already.”

‘I’d die for you anytime. But can’t we enjoy this just a little? You’re seeing me again after so long.’

The afterimage smiled, so dearly missed it made her chest ache.

‘Stay here with me for just a moment, Sophia.’

“Even pointing a gun at you when you’re just a hallucination hurts this much.”

Sophia gave a hollow laugh and tightened her finger on the pistol.

“How did he manage to hand his sword over to the Commander-in-Chief?”

She would never have been able to do it.

She wouldn’t even have dared to try. Even if they had fallen out, she lacked the courage for that kind of resolve.

A resolve beyond measure.

Sophia hoped that the unimaginably strong junior was holding on safely.

That the one carrying burdens heavy enough to crush anyone else was still intact, limbs unbroken.

For that to happen, she had to escape this hallucination quickly.

If she couldn’t run to embrace the one she loved—

“See you later, Johan.”

Sophia said goodbye to her memories.

“I still love you.”

Taang!

The clear gunshot echoed through the dark space.

***

Ricardo was at home.

The house where he had grown up. A space shaped by his parents’ devoted care.

Scenes he could never forget filled his vision. Ivory wallpaper, mahogany furniture. LP records neatly lined up, an LP player turning slowly.

A television sound drifted from deeper inside.

There was no clatter of dishes, no voices in conversation. Only the TV and the languid melody of the record tickled his ears. Standing before the window draped with white curtains, staring blankly at the pattern on the front door, Ricardo slowly turned his head.

Father’s home.

He pulled the curtain aside slightly and checked outside.

A black Ferrari, parked.

Recognizing the familiar car, Ricardo turned silently. He walked slowly into the living room.

Giovanni Sordi was watching TV with his back to him.

Ricardo quietly stopped behind the chair.

On the TV was the news he would never forget for the rest of his life.

[Gas station owner Jimmy Marcello found dead....]

‘You’re here.’

Giovanni spoke without taking his eyes off the screen.

Ricardo didn’t bother looking down at his father.

“Yes....”

‘Shooting your mother and your siblings would’ve been too cruel for you. So I came out instead, in place of the three of them.’

Giovanni murmured, reclining lazily against the sofa in his suit.

‘Shooting me should be incomparably easier. You’ve avoided me ever since that incident.’

Only then did Ricardo look down at the apparition of his father.

Bitterness lingered in Giovanni’s eyes as he stared at the screen. Every expression was chillingly realistic.

Ricardo barely swallowed a curse.

How fortunate that Jonathan wasn’t here.

Giovanni murmured again.

‘But maybe your feelings have changed now?’

“They have....”

‘Ah. Then it won’t be entirely pleasant to shoot me, I suppose.’

“So how does he manage to keep himself together, anyway~.”

He raised his pistol.

Aimed the muzzle, tightened his finger.

It felt even more horrible than he had expected. The one before him was only a hallucination.

As Giovanni said, neither his mother nor his younger brother nor his younger sister.

Back when he was ensnared by the Ashen Mantle, he hadn’t even needed to shoot them.

He thought of Hildebert.

The one who handed his sword to the Commander-in-Chief to kill an old friend.

The one who took up a sword with his own hands to kill another former comrade.

Sometimes Ricardo hated his own sensitivity.

He wished he hadn’t seen that faint trace of longing in Hilde’s eyes as he walked toward the negotiation table.

After everything that had been done to him, did he still miss them?

Ricardo let out a snort before he realized it.

Getting attached even to those not worth it....

“I’ll be going.”

‘Alright.’

Giovanni smiled and closed his eyes.

‘Go.’

Taang!

He pulled the trigger.

***

Someone appeared before his eyes.

Before he could even identify who it was, Yun pulled the trigger.

Taang!

The figure dodged it by a hair’s breadth.

Yun raised one eyebrow.

“What?”

‘With skills like that, no wonder you left traces at the scene.’

Disgusting Korean reached his ears.

A voice impossible to mistake. Yun let out a long sigh and stared at the one who had appeared.

The apparition of Lee Seunghyun tossed over a ziplock bag.

‘Don’t come anywhere near the house until the wound on your hand heals.’

A memory from decades ago.

Yun twisted his lips into a crooked sneer at the single strand of hair inside the bag.

A story from when he was still inexperienced. The third time he had killed someone.

The target had resisted fiercely enough to leave a cut on his palm from a kitchen knife.

Still, he had killed him properly and staged it as a suicide before leaving.

That day, he realized Lee Seunghyun had inspected his murder scene. Lee Seunghyun was peerless when it came to evidence fabrication and erasure.

Thanks to that, even after killing those who had abused Yehyeon, he had never once seen a policeman’s face.

He admitted that at this point, he owed Lee Seunghyun a debt....

Tatadatadatadatadang!

“That’s that.”

Yun was satisfied that even if it was a hallucination, he had an opportunity to kill Lee Seunghyun.

“And this is this.”

He admired his own mind for summoning Lee Seunghyun—neither Yehyeon nor Ami nor Hildebert.

Thanks to that, he could feel this kind of pleasure.

Not bad.

Enjoying the brief diversion, Yun happily pulled the trigger.

***

In my hazy consciousness, I thought.

Can you absorb living things?

I don’t think I’ve tried that.

I stared blankly at my feet.

Another pool of water stained red.

They’ll tell me to absorb it again.

I judged by the color. They would bring something soon enough for me to absorb. Just like every time.

It’d be nice if they brought cleaner piles of corpses this time.

Could it be something other than corpses?

I turned it over in my head, but couldn’t reach an answer. It seemed I really had never absorbed a living being before.

But why was I even thinking about this...?

I groped through my memories, trying to find the root of the thought.

Around me, hooded figures were muttering something urgently. I didn’t listen to their words.

Even if I did, they’d be useless. Not helpful for escaping....

「Move and continue elsewhere! Do you want to be ambushed!」

「Two of you release the binding spell and deal with the enemy. How are we supposed to move like this?」

“Hildebert.”

There were familiar voices, and unfamiliar ones.

Among them, a voice that wasn’t unfamiliar shouted,

“Hildebert!”

Why are they calling me?

So desperately it made my chest hurt....

“Hildebert! Get [N O V E L I G H T] a hold of yourself!”

Kwaang!

A faint groan rang out.

「Keep your mouth shut.」

Stop it.

I frowned reflexively.

Enough.

I have my limits too.

I clenched my bound fist. Nausea rose up. I couldn’t endure it any longer.

I hated absorbing filthy corpses, hated being surrounded by people who wouldn’t even show their faces. I hated watching high-ranking cultists look down on lower-ranking cultists.

People with no sense of human decency.

People like this should vanish from the world without leaving a trace....

「Huh?」

They shouldn’t even leave corpses behind.

「What’s that?」

If only living beings could be absorbed too.

If only I could absorb the one whose hand was resting on my shoulder right now.

Our bodies were already in contact.

.......

Hmm.

Should I try?

I thought.

Why not?

***

“He’s unconscious.”

Carl Dow reported after checking Ruta Ayer’s pulse.

Yun didn’t even turn around.

“Leave him.”

“There are Creatures prowling nearby.”

When Yoow pointed that out, Yun added indifferently,

“Fiscer. Stay with him.”

Asil Fiscer snapped his head up.

“Squad Leader.”

Yun didn’t reply.

He was only checking the signal sent by the tracker. No one else objected to the order. They were already prepared to move at a moment’s notice, waiting for Yun’s instructions.

They were now standing deep inside a dense forest.

The place they had emerged into after escaping the hallucinations.

Among them, the ones struck by the mental-attack-type barrier the mages had set up were Asil Fiscer and Ruta Ayer. Ruta Ayer had collapsed unconscious the moment he emerged, while Asil came out clutching his head, as if suffering from a splitting headache.

Those who emerged unscathed lost interest in the two as soon as they confirmed there was no physical abnormality.

The Titan side was also completely fine.

Rose did look intoxicated, though.

“The Leader’s golden eyes....”

She murmured, making a hand shape as if cradling something. Igor and Yoow paid her no attention at all.

The humans didn’t press the matter either.

Yun muttered in a low-pressure voice,

“Underground.”

Everyone turned their heads at once.

“Looks like they buried him beneath the ground.”

“Where’s the signal? We just smash through the earth above it.”

“Five kilometers northeast.”

The man who replied shot Igor a look that questioned his intelligence.

“And Hildebert will come back to us in perfectly fine condition after the ceiling collapses, right?”

“You think I can’t control my strength to that degree?”

“This area is mostly limestone mountains.”

The scientist countered dryly.

“Hollow ground. If you strike it with a big hammer, it’ll either sound like a drum or collapse and expose the underground.”

“I’ll look for the cave entrance.”

Carl Dow joined the conversation in a hoarse voice.

“There should be an entrance somewhere inside the barrier.”

Yun nodded.

Then he swiftly assigned roles. Yun clearly distinguished between those he cared about and those he didn’t, but his exceptional memory meant he had a precise grasp of each Badger’s capabilities.

Sophia Kalak excelled in urban combat near supply depots outside the Core, and Ricardo was skilled at patrol and Creature extermination.

On the other hand, Carl Dow demonstrated abilities in the wild that even surprised Yun.

They would split areas with Carl and search for the cave entrance. Ricardo Sordi and Sophia Kalak would escort them.

Asil Fiscer and Ruta Ayer could watch the vehicles.

As for the three non-humans...

“Kill the troublesome Creatures first.”

Igor said, pulling a balaclava over his face.

“There’ll definitely be mines or barriers set at the entrance, so call us when you find it. You might not know this, but the Creature density inside this barrier is practically a nest.”

“Do whatever you want.”

Yun replied indifferently.

“As long as you find it as fast as poss—”

The man’s flat words were cut short.

Because the ground beneath their feet began to shake.

A faintly trembling limestone field.

Something stirred beneath the earth.

As if just released.