Leona Manifests
The monster they had never imagined, never even heard of, was smashing everything around them. It stared with obscene eyes and licked its lips as if they were nothing more than delicious prey. In a situation this unreal, almost no one could have kept their sanity.
Whoosh! Boom!
“Puhihihng!”
The monster collapsed after taking a laser cannon hit from nowhere, but it immediately rose again and swung its massive club through empty air.
Bang!
Something exploded. Mechanical debris tumbled into the room, spitting sparks and crackling with static electricity.
In that instant, both Yu Seunghyeon and Sehwa reached the same conclusion: they had to get out. Screams echoed from the hallway and outside the building. We have to help them. The thought rose simultaneously from the sense of justice buried deep in their hearts. It was exactly why Sehwa could become Leona, and why Yu Seunghyeon would one day become her eternal partner.
“Sehwa… we need to get out of here first!”
“Yeah…!”
The two of them scrambled to their feet and rushed for the entrance. That was when—
Whoosh!
A transport craft straight out of a sci-fi movie rose through the gaping hole in the shattered building. It was compact, the kind that would feel cramped with five or six people aboard.
The cockpit opened with a metallic clack. From inside, Dr. Cash shouted.
“Get in! The monster is targeting you two! We have to run!”
Neither of them knew who the sharp-featured beauty was. She had appeared out of nowhere in the middle of this nightmare. But they quickly noticed the matching patterns on the machine fragments scattered across the floor and the hull of the transport. They realized she was the one who had fired the laser at the monster’s shoulder.
Yu Seunghyeon yelled immediately.
“We’re fine! Please save the others first!”
Sehwa backed him up from the side.
“That’s right! Help the other people first!”
Dr. Cash’s eyebrows twitched. Not out of frustration at their refusal, but in pure astonishment at their selflessness. They stood on the brink of death, a savior had appeared, and yet they were thinking of others? Ordinary altruism didn’t reach this level.
Perhaps…!
Perhaps they were the perfect candidates for the device she had poured years of research into. The device her late husband—lost to an incurable illness—had first envisioned. The one she had completed in accordance with his dying wish. It now rested in her pocket.
She bit her lower lip until it hurt.
Even if it’s only a test…
There was nothing to lose. If nothing happened, she could simply extract them by force and retrieve the device. After silently cursing her hopeless otaku husband in heaven with all the affection in her heart, Dr. Cash made her decision.
She rummaged through the inner pocket of her lab coat, pulled out a small square object no larger than her palm, and called out to Sehwa.
“Hey! You, the girl over there!”
Sehwa, who had been reaching for the front door, turned at the shout. When the doctor threw the object, she caught it on pure reflex.
“Press that against any arm!”
“Wh-what is this?!”
“Just do it! Hurry!”
The transport’s thrusters roared as Dr. Cash pushed the controls to maximum. She barely dodged the monster’s swinging club and screamed at Sehwa again.
“Hurry! Put it on, now!”
The desperate urgency in the doctor’s voice reached Sehwa. Caught up in that raw emotion, she finally obeyed.
The instant the device touched her right wrist—
A burst of rainbow light exploded outward, enveloping Sehwa’s entire body. The mysterious energy known as Aether—which had begun appearing on Earth at some unknown point—reacted inside the device, lifting her into the air.
Boom!
The ceiling shattered. Sehwa’s body shot upward.
“What… Sehwa!”
Yu Seunghyeon reached out in shock, but she was already far beyond his grasp. She rose high into the sky and stopped, bathing the gloomy evening streets of Seoul in brilliant light. A radiance so intense that people instinctively closed their eyes. Even Amducias threw an arm over its face with a startled “Puhihng!”
Then came a resonant hum.
The light surrounding Sehwa emitted a mystical tone. Her baggy hoodie, tracksuit, and even her underwear vanished, leaving her completely bare. A perfect, curvaceous figure—every inch in ideal proportion. At the center of her collarbone, a sky-blue crystal now glowed.
Next came her hair. The wavy brown locks emitted a pure white flash, then lengthened all the way to her waist. The new length and gentle waves gave her an even more feminine beauty. The color shifted to the same vivid sky-blue as the crystal.
High boots in white and sky-blue harmony formed over her legs, reaching her thighs. Similar armored gloves wrapped her arms, leaving only the delicate curve of her triceps exposed. A white leotard clung to her torso from chest to crotch. A fluttering tennis skirt settled around her hips, and a scabbard locked into place at her waist with a solid clack.
Small, sturdy accessories appeared across her body—purely decorative, nothing more. Finally, a communicator-style headband settled over her hair, completing the transformation. The light faded, and darkness once again claimed the Seoul night.
“…..”
When Sehwa—no, Leona—opened her eyes, her irises shone the same clear sky-blue as her crystal and hair. Floating in the air and radiating a soft glow, she looked noble and beautiful, like a goddess of war.
Leona seemed to instinctively understand her purpose. She drew the sword from its scabbard in silence, eyes fixed on the monster.
Shing—!
The blade that emerged was enormous, easily large enough to bisect the giant creature before her. It should have been impossibly heavy, yet she held it one-handed with effortless grace. Her sheer presence made even that sight look natural.
Her entire body burned with justice and superhuman power. Right now, only two thoughts existed in Leona’s mind.
I shall punish evil. This is fate.
Without sparing a glance at the stunned onlookers, Leona charged the monster. It was the moment the first Beast Slayer, Leona, manifested upon the world.
I was barely holding back the urge to cheer at the top of my lungs.
This… this is it! This is exactly what I wanted!
The completed transformation made Leona look incomparably more beautiful than she ever had on a monitor. The way it followed the game’s first-transformation sequence perfectly filled me with satisfaction. I couldn’t stop the smile spreading across my face.
“Heh heh heh…”
Right now every eye was locked on Amducias and Leona. No one would notice if I let out a small chuckle.
I watched their duel through narrowed eyes. Blue energy surged along Leona’s arm and wrapped the blade. That sword sliced clean through the club Amducias swung—
Slice—!
“Puuuoooh!”
The panicked monster roared and threw a punch with its other arm, but Leona’s upward slash severed its shoulder in one clean cut. Black blood sprayed as the limb flopped uselessly to the ground. Amducias screamed in agony.
“Pihihihng!”
I swallowed the boiling excitement again and again.
Leona, hurry up and kill Amducias. Dispose of that single-use sacrifice. Then notice me!
Her speed was absurd. Far too fast for normal humans to track. My modified eyes could follow her, but to everyone else she must have looked like a sky-blue flash streaking across the monster’s body.
Slice! Slash!
Amducias was being carved apart piece by piece. Not even a special move—just simple sword swings—and yet it was completely helpless. Well, that was what made it the perfect awakening sacrifice. Still… wasn’t this a little too cruel? This loyal subordinate had endured so much just to awaken her.
Just cut off the head and let it die cleanly. The poor thing looks too pathetic now.
“Here… over here! This side isn’t blocked!”
Even in the chaos, Yu Seunghyeon’s clear shout reached my ears.
That righteous bastard… Yeah, that’s exactly who you are. Even while his girlfriend had become a superhuman and was tearing a monster apart, he was helping the police evacuate civilians.
Don’t find me. Don’t come this way.
“Haaat!”
Leona’s powerful shout rang from above. She was about to finish it. A glance showed her sword buried in Amducias’s neck.
…Crack!
The blade sank in as easily as through tofu, caught for a split second on bone, then—slash!—neatly severed the entire neck, separating the head from the body.
“Puhi…”
Amducias let out a weak cry like a disposable mob before its head tumbled down near me.
Perfect timing. Time to pretend I was regaining consciousness.
“S… save… me…”
Beast Slayers gained vastly heightened senses. Even spoken this quietly, Leona would have heard it. And—
Boom!
The sound of air being pierced came from above, followed by the soft thud of feet landing on the debris over me. She had definitely come down after hearing my voice.
Aah… She was supposed to help the Seoul citizens first, yet she came to me before anyone else. How touching. How truly touching.
When I rolled my eyes upward, a blinding flash erupted from Sehwa’s body, just like during the transformation.
“Kugh…!”
I squeezed my eyes shut, groaned, then opened them again. A familiar face hovered above me—Sehwa, transformation released, wearing her baggy hoodie and tracksuit pants. She was staring at her own body with a dazed expression.
It is pretty amazing to return to normal, huh? But shouldn’t you be helping me first?
“Se… Sehwa…?”
She flinched at my voice, then finally peered through the rubble.
“Ah! Jihyeok!”
“What… what the hell is going on…”
“Don’t move! You’re pinned under all this! Just wait… Hey! Someone help over here!”
You could have cleared the debris while you were still Leona. Had she already run out of transformation energy? It didn’t seem that way. Maybe she simply released it once the fight was over. I decided to think positively.
Soon Dr. Cash’s transport arrived and swept a searchlight over me. A mechanical arm extended from the craft and began lifting the debris.
Good. Time to make an impression.
Even while trapped, I refused to lose my mad-scientist-for-future-science persona. I stared at the mechanical arm and muttered.
“Po… Polymus…? No… an alloy…? Titanium and…”
The cockpit opened. Dr. Cash practically leaped out, face frozen in shock. It seemed she was stunned that a young man like me had identified the arm so quickly.
“How did you know?”
“Who… are you…?”
“Answer me. How did you know that arm is made of Polymus alloy?”
“The co… lor… and the sheen…”
“You figured it out just by looking? Have you seen Polymus before?”
She kept firing questions without pulling me out. Sehwa finally snapped.
“Lady! Get Jihyeok out first before you start interrogating him! Can’t you see he’s dying?!”
Dr. Cash glared at her.
“It’s not ‘lady.’ It’s Dr. Jennifer Cash. What’s your name?”
“Lee Sehwa! That doesn’t matter—Jihyeok—”
“Fine, fine. I’ll pull him out right away. The kid named Jihyeok, right? So stop yelling.”
“…Yes.”
“You two will have to come with me to my lab. I’ll treat this boy properly, so don’t worry.”
“A lab? But…”
“Don’t trust me? I gave you my precious device. It’s already bound to you. You must have felt it.”
“…. You didn’t give it. You forced it on me…”
“You’ve already accepted your fate. So stop complaining and get on the transport quietly.”
Sehwa hesitated, then looked at me as the mechanical arm gradually revealed my body. Her eyes were full of worry. She squeezed them shut, opened them again, and spoke.
“Um… I’m sorry, but it looks like we’re going to be busy.”
“What… I don’t really… understand… but… okay…”
At my weak reply she forced a bright smile and asked the doctor.
“Can I bring Seunghyeon… my boyfriend, too?”
“Call him over and load him up.”
Originally Yu Seunghyeon would not have gone to the lab. He would have been too busy helping the police rescue citizens, and Sehwa would have respected his sense of duty and gone alone. But now? I would be going with her.
Dr. Cash would run a background check on me during the trip. Yet she would find nothing suspicious. Marcela, who had been watching the entire scene, would solidify my identity perfectly.
First, I’ll secretly adjust my body a little… I need to be properly injured right now.
I would make both my internal organs and external appearance match a normal person’s exactly. No anomalies would show up on any scan. I would blend in flawlessly.
You are all now firmly in the palm of my hand.