Chapter 403: Bloom

People stood there, stunned, staring at the place where the park had been.

As if it had been caught in an explosion, nothing remained.

No—one thing did.

A gigantic flower, one so enormous it was impossible to tell where it had suddenly emerged from.

Swarms of light, like fireflies, drifted around the flower.

No one reacted right away. Pedestrians on the street, cars on the road—everything froze in place.

It looked as though a massive hole had been punched straight through the middle of the city.

The ground ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) in the area swallowed by the blinding light had been scorched pitch-black.

The people who had been walking through the park vanished without a trace.

Trees, benches, structures—nothing retained a recognizable shape.

Everyone stood still, doubting their own eyes.

Until the tightly curled leaves unfurled.

The flower bloomed again.

「Ah....」

Dizzying light seeped out from the flower’s center.

「Aah....」

There was sound as well.

A voice that sounded human. A voice steeped in pain and confusion.

Some claimed they could hear rage and despair in it.

The sound of despair aged by decades.

A cry like that of a being crushed by trials and driven into madness.

Until the light and shockwave spread.

「Aaaaagh!」

BOOM!

“Eeeek!”

“Aaagh!”

“Aah!”

Destruction began.

***

“Commander!”

Secretary Michelle came running barefoot.

She’d thrown her heels aside and sprinted the whole way.

“Advisor!”

The leadership members exiting the audit office sensed something was wrong immediately.

Michelle was not someone who lost her composure easily.

For her to come running with shaken eyes meant something had happened that demanded dropping everything else.

Aide Gilbert quickly checked the alerts.

“There’s no Creature emergence alarm.”

“No HQ intrusion alarm either....”

“The park!”

As Ska was reporting, Michelle suddenly thrust a tablet forward.

“An anomaly has occurred with the flower in Dayzillia Park!”

The three leaders immediately turned their attention to the tablet screen.

The men’s eyes widened in unison as they watched the footage. Until that moment, they had maintained their composure—but now shock and confusion flooded their gazes.

Yehyeon lifted his head.

“Did the flower explode?”

“It appears so. And there are continuous explosions of varying scale around it, expanding the blast radius.”

“The cause?”

“Unknown.”

“The Badgers assigned to that jurisdiction?”

Michelle bit her lip.

“They’re dead.”

For a single instant, the leadership froze.

Only for a single instant.

Yehyeon immediately fired off another question.

“Are civilians being evacuated?”

“Yes. Fire and police have begun their response as well.”

“The nearest Badgers currently on duty?”

“The closest ones on patrol are Jonathan Kudo and Tom Husson. They should be heading toward the park.”

“And all Badgers on patrol—”

“Personnel Director Ju is notifying them.”

“There’s someone there.”

Gilbert, the only one who hadn’t taken his eyes off the screen, spoke up.

Yehyeon and Ska, both issuing orders on their phones even as they listened to Michelle’s report, turned their heads.

Gilbert pointed at the screen.

Footage from a drone hovering overhead.

The shockwaves, the wind they generated, the explosions—it was hard to make out clearly.

Even though HQ had deployed their latest model drone.

But eyes that had watched drone footage for decades quickly picked up a small silhouette.

The exact center of the enormous flower.

In a place wrapped in blinding light, there was a silhouette that looked unmistakably human.

If there had been multiple silhouettes, the leadership would have immediately concluded it was Kyle’s intrusion and moved accordingly.

But there was only one.

It looked like a single person, crouched at the flower’s center.

Clutching their head with both hands.

“Yoow?”

Without taking his eyes off the screen, Yehyeon asked Ska.

The moment Michelle’s report had come in, Yehyeon had contacted Hilde, and Ska had contacted Yoow.

Ska answered.

“He just replied.”

The aide quickly opened the message.

His eyes widened.

The fingers gripping the phone trembled faintly.

“Commander.”

In a voice laced with that tremor, the chief aide reported to the Supreme Commander.

“According to the Titan strategist....”

***

[You alive?]

A senior’s cold voice came through.

Carl pushed off the ground and got to his feet.

“Yes.”

[You cheated death once. Go straight home.]

“I’ll provide support.”

Carl replied politely the moment he heard the expected response.

It wasn’t hard to guess what was happening. The explosion loud enough to rupture eardrums. The shockwave that shoved everything in the street aside. The screams and cries of people in pain.

He’d been a Black Badger for decades—there was no way he wouldn’t grasp the situation.

After brushing himself off, he stepped out from behind the building onto the main road.

The scene he expected unfolded before him.

More chaotic than anything he’d ever seen.

This is absolute hell.

Even so, it was obvious at a glance where the explosions were coming from.

Anyone in Center Core would know.

Yun spoke flatly.

[Feels like you’d die if you went. Other Badgers aside—you, especially.]

“Well, that might be true. But when hasn’t it been.”

[It hasn’t. You’ve never heard that from a dragon before. If you don’t want to go home, keep your distance and control the civilians.]

“That’ll be handled by police and firefighters, sunbae. Badgers are a lot sturdier, aren’t we.”

[There are other Badgers.]

“I also know there aren’t enough people who can respond immediately to this situation.”

[Why are you being so stubborn.]

“Because my life and civilians’ lives are worth the same—one each.”

Carl said it evenly.

“So I’ll go. Because I’m a Black Badger.”

He never once thought Yun would grieve or shed tears if he died.

But he understood perfectly why this sociopathic mentor was trying to stop him.

Yun had never cared about civilians’ lives.

More precisely, he had no interest whatsoever in the safety of anyone he didn’t like.

Strangely—and thankfully—Carl fell into the category of people Yun found “acceptable enough.”

Probably.

So rather than risk losing Carl Dow, Yun would choose the deaths of countless unnamed civilians.

Not enough to get angry or physically stop him—but enough to object.

[Fine. If you’re going to be stubborn, at least go carefully.]

“Yes. Thank you for worrying. I’ll come back alive.”

[Yeah.]

Yun replied in a voice that held not even a fragment of concern.

Then he provided real help.

[I’m sending you the positions of all nearby Badgers.]

Before Carl could say thank you, his phone vibrated.

While pulling three or four pedestrians out of the path of a car barreling out of control, Carl checked the screen.

Not only Badgers on patrol, but those on leave as well were marked.

– Jason Trevain (35 minutes on foot)

– Aki Nageland (50 minutes on foot)

– Ruta Ayer (45 minutes on foot)

– Jin Silver (5 minutes on foot)

– Jonathan Kudo (13 minutes on foot)

– Tom Husson (13 minutes on foot)

– Jack Black (20 minutes on foot)

– Ricardo Sordi (16 minutes on foot)

– Shu Diamond (16 minutes on foot)

– Hildebert Taleb (16 minutes on foot)

Ah.

“Hilde is nearby?”

[Yeah.]

The dry reply came back.

[So listen to his judgment first, then move.]

This time, Carl followed Yun’s advice.

***

“Eeeek!”

“Mom!”

“Hold on—hold on tight!”

The pop-up store collapsed.

It had taken the shockwave head-on. The building hadn’t been particularly sturdy to begin with. It only had a first floor and a basement, and the basement had been lightly carved out for exhibition use—so it came down easily.

Figures flew through the air. Display stands toppled.

Then something exploded. Some part of the lighting power system must have malfunctioned. Right after the shockwave shattered the windows and knocked people down—BOOM!—a deafening blast followed, and parts of the floor and ceiling caved in.

Ricardo and I had immediately gathered the civilians and pushed them back the moment the windows shattered, so it didn’t turn into a full-scale disaster.

Which meant no one had exploded along with the power unit.

That didn’t mean there were no injuries.

Or that we could be certain there were no deaths.

Some had fallen into the collapsed basement. Others were bleeding after being struck by debris.

The space became a hellscape of fear and sobbing.

Ricardo leapt straight down into the basement.

I instinctively focused on getting the civilians on the first floor out of immediate danger.

Shu helped skillfully as well, maneuvering her wheelchair across the cracked floor with ease, guiding people to safety.

“Move inside!”

Ricardo and I concentrated on rescuing those caught in the collapse.

Even so, half my mind was elsewhere.

Kyle still wasn’t transmitting emotions.

But he was definitely still outside the Core.

Not inside.

Instead, someone else was inside the Core.

Someone completely unexpected....

Someone I still couldn’t believe.

Cecil.

As I tore the sleeves off my white shirt and treated a pop-up store visitor, the thought kept repeating.

Cecil?

Why are you here?

How are you here?

My restored physical senses allowed me to roughly gauge the direction and distance of the explosion.

And the area where the explosion occurred matched exactly with where I sensed Cecil’s presence.

It felt like Cecil was at the very center of it.

Her....

Overwhelming presence....

...Have I been with Cecil for the past fifty years?

It doesn’t feel unfamiliar.

That was the strange part.

According to my recovered memories, I’d parted ways with Cecil long ago. Not fifty years—nearly a hundred years had passed since I’d last seen her face.

Before the Empire burned to the ground.

Briefly, at a banquet Kysis attended.

But if that truly had been our final meeting, there was no way her presence would feel this familiar.

“Hilde! Your phone!”

Shu’s shout snapped me back before I could sink deeper into thought.

Even half out of it, I finished emergency treatment for the civilians, then jerked my body and pulled out my phone.

And answered Yoow’s call.

[Captain!!]

Yoow screamed.

[Why did you take so long to answer!!]

“Sorry. So what is this?”

[It’s Cecil!]

I know that.

He wouldn’t be calling this urgently just to tell me what we all already knew.

Three seconds passed.

Then the real information came.

[She’s in a rampage, this shit—!]

Ah.

[I’m getting the drone feed now....]

No.

[No matter how you look at it, this matches the rampage of the Children of the World Tree.]

No.

“Civilians?”

[Everyone caught in the initial explosion that triggered the rampage appears to be dead. Including two Badgers.]

“Can you see Cecil?”

[Only a silhouette, barely.]

“Her reason?”

I already knew the answer—but clung to a sliver of hope.

It was crushed mercilessly.

[Do you think there is any?]

The strategist said hysterically.

[She’s completely lost it! She can’t control the rampage at all—she’s in full, literal rampage!]

“Fuck.”

[A Grand Magus rampaging...?]

I cursed, while Yoow sounded utterly stunned.

[Have you ever experienced this?]

Of course not....

Children of the World Tree rarely become mages at all.

And among them, a Grand Magus—

Cecil was the one and only.

Which meant no one knew how far she could go.

No one.

[I’ve heard Swordmasters burn for a week if you leave them alone....]

The strategist muttered in half-resignation.

[So how long does a Grand Magus last?]

A rampage by a master was a disaster.

Literally—a calamity on the level of a natural disaster.

Something humans knew. Something we knew.

A tenth-class Creature had appeared again.

Right in the heart of Center Core.

It was the opening signal of catastrophe.