Good lord.
At Lucia’s innocent question, my jaw dropped open.
The others, including Dawson, turned to her with equally horrified expressions.
Yun lifted his head, devoid of emotion, and she went on.
“We got called in for an emergency briefing during dinner, so we didn’t get to eat.”
“Here!”
The one who cut her off was Isaac, who was frantically digging through his pockets and managed to pull out a chocolate bar.
He stretched his arm out, forcing it into Lucia’s hands with an awkward smile.
“You want this? Chocolate bar!”
“A chocolate bar isn’t really dinner though...”
“Kwon Lucia.”
The instructor’s emotionless voice made everyone except Lucia flinch.
The senior with the round short haircut blinked blankly and asked,
“Yes?”
“Should I boil one of the worms outside for you?”
At that, even Lucia seemed to realize something was wrong.
She stared at the ghostlike, expressionless squad leader and stammered in a small voice,
“I-I’m fine....”
“Everyone gather at her quarters after the mission.”
Of course he wouldn’t just let it go.
“You’re not managing your rookie properly?”
Isaac Lane gave a crooked grin, and Jerry Jones rolled his eyes upward with a groan. The sociopathic duo blinked in unison.
Since the instructor spoke last, no one dared to voice an objection.
No one here had the guts for that.
While Lucia quietly unwrapped the chocolate bar, the others moved into position.
I followed Yun up to the rooftop.
***
“So, did you remember?”
“Sir?”
I was lighting the cigarette in Yun’s mouth when the question came.
I blinked and snapped the lighter shut.
“What do you mean?”
“How the Titans control the Creatures.”
Yun exhaled a plume of smoke and leaned back against the rooftop railing.
“Or how the 10th Class kept coming back from the dead.”
I shoved the lighter into my pocket.
My kin had already sensed me. The distance from here to Sector 5 was considerable, so I couldn’t pinpoint their numbers or exact location, but I could feel clearly that they had shifted their target.
But that wasn’t what my superior was asking.
“They’re separate techniques, but I’ll start with the second one.”
“Go ahead.”
“You could call it an intuitive method of energy acquisition.”
My mood sank as I thought of Rei.
“They absorbed the energy contained in living beings to revive themselves. Only a few could actually do it—me, Kyle, and Rei... and it’s not something you can use lightly.”
“Because it burns you alive?”
“Yes. The body can only take so much energy.”
Yun had faced Rei once, hadn’t he?
He hadn’t seen Rei’s end, from what I’d heard.
I found myself craving a smoke of my own, even if it had no flavor, and stared over the railing. The ruined city lay buried in darkness.
Once, maybe I had wandered these streets with Rei, eating ice cream.
His next question came flatly.
“Why only the three of you? If you’d taught it to your kin, you would’ve won the war.”
I let out a short laugh.
I’d thought that same thing countless times.
But it wasn’t something you could learn, nor was it a gift given only to the talented.
“From the concept of Earth, it might be hard to grasp, but it’s not a learned skill—it’s like a scar left on survivors.”
Yun said nothing, urging me silently to continue.
I traced back through what now felt almost like a fantasy novel—my own childhood.
“When you provoke the wrath of the trees, you receive a curse, and those who survive it are left with scars. Think of it like an illness that changes your body afterward.”
“Every word of that sounds insane and I want to argue, but... I’ll assume that’s how things worked in your world.”
I laughed again.
So very him.
The explanation was true, but my tone grew distant as my hand rested on my sword’s hilt.
Even there, most trees were just trees. But some weren’t—those blessed by magic, or nurtured by sacred soil, or simply born gifted from the seed.
Those trees became Divine Trees.
And whoever felled a Divine Tree was cursed and died slowly.
“Why cut it down?”
“There were things we could only fight with swords made from Divine Trees.”
It happened before I turned twenty.
“Normally, you’d buy or inherit a sword made from a dead Divine Tree. But that wasn’t an option. The war had started. Buying anything was impossible.”
The temple burned.
The priests who had raised me with love were torn apart by enemy hands. It was an age when violence was everyday life. I’d been an orphan, but lucky enough to be sheltered in a temple—lucky enough to survive. But one day, even the temple was caught in the flames of war. The enemies wrung oil from the priests’ corpses and fed the fire that consumed the temple.
I cut down a Divine Tree and forged a sword to slit their throats.
When the vengeance ended, I buried what little remained of their bodies.
After burying all three hundred priests, I prayed for their souls and set out to lift the curse.
“You met Kyle and Rei on that journey?”
“No. I met them after I lifted it.”
Though honestly, this story was dull.
“It seems we broke our curses at different times. I traveled alone the entire way.”
“How did you lift it?”
“You find the World Tree standing in a ruined city.”
The problem was, most died before reaching it.
You’re sick from the curse, and Creatures attack you relentlessly. I only learned later that the cursed usually form parties to reach the World Tree together.
I’d been lucky.
Even in a party, less than five percent ever made it back alive.
“So why are you curious about [N O V E L I G H T] such a boring story?”
“Pretty curious.”
“And what will you do with it? That world’s gone. Even if you wanted to go, you couldn’t.”
“Level 10...”
Yun blew out another puff of white smoke.
The cold air shredded and scattered it.
“He killed thousands of humans alone.”
Rei again.
I fought off the gloom and nodded. My sharpened senses picked up Creatures closing in.
But they were still far enough; I decided to keep talking.
“Before his eyes burned white, he was controlling Creatures.”
“Yes. Controlling and absorbing are completely different techniques. The former can be learned, but the latter—like I said—isn’t. The white eyes are one of its signs. Once you start using it, your sclera begins to burn.”
“There’s a reason Yehyeon became a hero in the age of chaos.”
The casual remark pierced my chest like a wound.
I gripped the issued combat knife tightly.
“Those who survived the First War hate it.”
Yun flicked his fingers, sending the cigarette butt tumbling down the side of the building.
“Those who remember the First War fear it. Later generations just think of it as the final boss of that era.”
“...Well. It’s a story about someone who’s no longer here.”
“If anyone ever finds out you regret killing him, even by accident, you’ll die.”
I must have stiffened like an idiot.
Yun narrowed his eyes, watching me closely.
Then he added,
“Ami was caught in your kin’s rampage and stayed in a coma for two years. If she hadn’t woken up, she might’ve tried to kill you—just for being the same race and knowing him.”
“...And you’re fine with that now?”
“I only care about Ami’s and Yehyeon’s lives.”
Yun shrugged and drew his gun.
The distance was closing fast. He shouldn’t have had my kind of senses—so how did he always know, like a ghost?
From below, I heard Leonard and Sylvia loading their rifles.
Untrustworthy Badgers, most of them, but at least three were capable.
At this pace, the Creatures would reach Zone B-7 in under ten minutes.
“Don’t bother trying to save the useless ones. If you do, they’ll just run for their own skins.”
“They run away?”
I knew they’d gathered the unstable ones here, but I didn’t think it was so bad they’d flee mid-battle.
How were they even still Black Badgers?
Humanity was at war.
“Is desertion tolerated?”
“Of course not. Desertion means execution.”
Right. That was the normal rule on any battlefield.
But then his logic didn’t add up. I raised a brow at him, and Yun smirked, tugging one corner of his mouth upward.
“They just haven’t been caught on video yet.”
“Ah. So no grounds for punishment.”
“So far. Who knows about tonight.”
He sounded far too pleased.
The sound began to reach us—the creeping footfalls of Creatures, tickling my ears. Seven minutes, maybe less, unless something blocked them on the way.
Yun picked up the radio to broadcast to the unit.
But before he could speak, a voice burst out through static.
[Sector 7!]
It was Richard Green.
[Class 9!]
Ah.
And I felt it then—the familiar presence. My kin.
A presence I knew personally.
A comrade I’d once fought beside.
She had been the Empire’s beloved general.
[Heading your way!]
Hecate.
So we meet again.
You once told me your wish was to fight me seriously. As her aura drew near, I gave a bitter smile. I wondered what expression she wore now that it had come true.
She was leading the pack.
“Sylvia will be pleased,” Yun murmured.
Why does he call her by her first name instead of Kip?
That idle curiosity passed through my mind as I drew my standard-issue sword.
“You really are fated to be loved by strange people.”
“Sylvia-senpai’s love is a little terrifying.”
Those on the third and first floors seemed to be in mild panic, but I ignored it.
If things went bad, I could always jump. I set one foot on the railing.
The wind whipped through my white hair.
“Do you have a strategy, sir?”
“No.”
They were visible now—Creatures crawling heavily out of the darkness.
“There’s no one here with the ability or will to follow orders anyway.”
An old comrade with green hair.
“Move however you want—but get some target practice in while you’re at it.”
Yun jerked his chin toward the gun I hadn’t even considered using.
As the gunfire began to erupt, he slid on his helmet.
“Don’t trust the back at your six, and don’t die from a stupid mistake.”
“Yes, sir.”
“You’ve been on a battlefield before—you know this well.”
Even with his face covered by the visor, I could see Yun’s smile.
A smile dripping with bad expectations.
“Mutiny and desertion mean execution.”
He lowered his visor with a click and began firing.
“Deal with the enemy.”
The wet sounds of bursting flesh filled the air. The stench of blood spread thick.
The battle had begun.
