Chapter 159
Chapter 159
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 159
Chapter Title: The Day the Sky Closed (4)
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Nodding, I stepped outside.
I joined the seniors who were waiting with all preparations complete. The people just nodded at me without a word. I returned the greeting with a bow of my head.
The cold dawn breeze carried the scent of steel.
Breathing in the sharp air, I climbed up to the ramparts.
Ye-hyeon, walking along the ramparts, suddenly stopped at an unremarkable spot.
“I’ll drive.”
He leaped down below.
The others followed him. I jumped off the ramparts after him as well. A single black military vehicle was parked there.
Without a word, we boarded, and the vehicle smoothly started moving. The seniors gripped their weapons in silence.
I kept my mouth shut and sharpened my senses.
It would still take several hours to face him.
Even so, the distance was closing, and I could clearly feel the presence of my kin.
My fingertips tingled.
“Sword.”
After a long stretch of silence while driving, Ye-hyeon’s voice came.
“Set up in a suitable spot later and report in.”
“Yes.”
The military vehicle slowed down.
As soon as I got out, I surveyed the surroundings. Summer hadn’t fully ended yet, so even at dawn, it was fairly bright. The pale dawn light dyed the uninhabited ruins.
A slope began just a few steps away. Corroded high-rises stood beside the main road.
It was a good place to meet the enemy.
We prepared to receive the enemy.
“Drones.”
Ami muttered as she pulled out countless unmanned aerial vehicles from the vehicle.
Ye-hyeon smiled faintly.
“If we get pushed back, we’ll retreat through the portal in that orange building.”
Once the drone setup was finished, Ye-hyeon pointed to the building behind him.
The seniors turned to look at the nondescript building.
It was low and worn, easy to overlook.
Those preparing for the reclamation battle must have installed the portal there in advance.
“The portal inside connects to the one behind the fortress. When the retreat order comes, head straight for the portal without hesitation.”
“Yes.”
“Let’s eat breakfast.”
The captain said coolly, gazing at the city spread out below the slope.
Her black bobbed hair fluttered in the wind.
“The core won’t open for another hour. It’ll take them about an hour and a half to arrive.”
Pretty accurate.
I was surprised by Ye-hyeon’s words as I gauged the distance to Kyle. If they kept coming at this speed, I’d face my kin in an hour and a half. Of course, the front line made of creatures was approaching this place even faster.
We’d let the front line pass.
In fact, Ye-hyeon said while eating the tasteless combat rations,
“Don’t engage the creature hordes.”
The seniors replied in unison, “Yes.”
“Hilde takes the front, the rest provide support. If Hilde gets pushed by Kyle, I’ll join in.”
Even though you said you’d stay back.
But I couldn’t voice even a small complaint. I couldn’t question his commands in front of everyone.
After obediently responding, I crammed the rations into my mouth. Kal, who had finished eating first, had already vanished.
Now began the tedious wait.
That’s how battles always were.
“I’ve sharpened the sword.”
Ye-hyeon stood up after finishing his meal and looked at me.
The nearly transparent morning sunlight poured over the organized drones and Black Badgers on the road.
Feeling the stagnant air with barely any movement, I nodded.
“Thank you.”
The sword that had returned to me after a long time.
The sword that had pierced Ray’s body.
Holding that sword, I sat on the road for a long while.
***
At some point, the air grew noisy.
The ground began to shake subtly. The people who had been lounging lazily stood up nimbly. They had all keenly sensed the creatures’ approach.
Ye-hyeon walked toward a nearby building and ordered,
“Hide your presence.”
The seniors quickly hid inside the building.
I walked to the building on the opposite side from Ye-hyeon and slipped under the ceiling. My senses were in turmoil.
The onrushing sensations.
The ground trembled, the air churned.
My view was covered in creatures.
“Wow.”
Ami, standing beside me, muttered softly.
“There’s so many.”
Yeah.
I couldn’t see the ground.
It was covered in shadows of flying creatures slicing through the sky, and ground types pounding across the asphalt.
The drones placed on the asphalt took off all at once. As they scattered like insects, the creatures mercilessly trampled the asphalt and passed by.
It felt like watching a herd of buffalo migrate.
But even noisier.
A dust wind slapped my cheek.
“Hope they hold up.”
Ami muttered to herself.
Feeling the massive presence rapidly receding, I replied,
“If we block them well, it’ll be fine.”
At that moment, an enormous sound rang out.
A very bizarre noise. One I’d never heard in my life. No, I had heard it once before at a moderate volume. But this time, it was incomparably louder and stranger than then.
The sound of the core opening. That eerie noise from that day at the safe point.
It echoed through the ground and air.
I stepped out of the building with Ami.
As my view opened up, the sight seized my gaze. Raising my head under the sunlight, I was entranced by the scene unfolding before me.
The core’s translucent membrane lid was vanishing.
The lid covering the sky was slowly opening.
Flocks of flying creatures headed toward it.
As if to greet them, fighter jets took off all at once.
“Argh!”
With my senses sharpened, I covered my ears at the roar slamming the air.
Thought my eardrums burst.
My eardrums already hurt from the core opening sound, and the engine noise battered them mercilessly.
The fighters soared up simultaneously, drawing gray lines in the sky. Lines bisecting the blue sky above the ramparts.
I watched those lines shatter and scatter in all directions.
Deafening engine roars.
The air raid began.
Boom, KABOOM, KABOOm!
“It’s started.”
Ricardo muttered as he walked out of the building.
“Let’s see if we can hold...”
The missile noises from the fighters drowned his words.
The smell of blood and fish pierced my nose. The once peaceful space was soon covered in eye-stinging flashes. Blood, flesh chunks, and bomb shards flew. Though some distance from where we were, the battlefield’s air pressed in here too.
Kyle’s presence drew closer too.
I could now feel the reach of his gaze.
“Commander.”
I turned from the ramparts.
“Please fall back.”
The seniors’ gazes flew and stuck to me.
I offered no further explanation. Instead, with my sword ready to draw at any moment, I walked to where the slope began. Once at the desired spot, I shoved Ye-hyeon aside with my forearm.
Ye-hyeon obediently stepped behind me.
Ami, Sophia, and Ricardo stepped forward in front of Ye-hyeon.
Feeling the approaching seniors’ presences, I kept my eyes forward.
“He’s coming.”
Muttering while looking at the steep slope and the road stretching out below it.
“Watch out for the sword strikes.”
No sooner had I spoken than the asphalt split.
KABABABOOM!
A sword strike slicing through the old road and approaching.
A white sword strike climbed the slope toward me.
The moment Sophia chambered her gun, I drew.
KABOOM!
Canceled.
A shockwave battered my body and passed. Feeling the numbing vibration through my whole body, I looked down.
The place where the sword strike began, the heavy presence at the road’s end.
The boiling gaze from there.
He hadn’t changed at all.
Pale skin, golden eyes shining like a lion’s, wavy black hair—all familiar. He always evoked a black lion. The elegance and arrogance innate, never lost. The unique charisma that bent people to him. Irises holding boiling emotions.
Kyle looked at me with burning hatred.
Our gazes met in the air.
I knew my eyes were cooling coldly.
“Kyle.”
It was always like that.
You burned with fiery anger, I froze with icy rage.
We expressed anger differently. We often made opposing judgments, saw and dealt with the world in very different ways.
Is that why we split like this?
Ah.
I was shocked by the massive resentment coiled inside me, as huge as the guilt. I thought it would just be pure pain, like when thinking of Ray.
I couldn’t tear my eyes from Kyle.
Not even sparing a glance for Hecate, Sequoia, or Sion.
“Hilde.”
My heightened hearing caught Kyle’s voice.
“Hildebert Talib.”
Why do I resent you so much?
I’m the one who betrayed. Why does my stomach churn the moment I see those golden eyes?
Narrowing my eyes at the tip of the sword Kyle raised. Sharp sunlight glittered blindingly at its point.
A well-honed sword tip.
The blade aimed at me just like back then.
Its wielder approached without averting his gaze from me.
“If you hadn’t joined in back then, we would have won.”
His rage-laden voice rode the wind.
Now even human ears could hear him.
Close enough to catch his voice...
“If you hadn’t sided with these things...”
Taut tension in the air.
“If you’d just put down your sword and watched.”
No.
A voice popped out from deep in my chest.
That’s not it.
As my insides churned in confusion, Kyle continued.
A cry laced with resentment.
“If you hadn’t stood over there!”
“I begged you like that! Please, let’s not start...”
“Don’t act noble, Hildebert! You think I believe you sided with humans out of compassion!?”
Kyle’s rage exploded.
“You coward!”
KABABABOOM!
A more powerful sword strike rushed in, and I swung my right arm.
KABOOM!
Canceled.
Kaboom!
A silver thorn canceled the following sword strike.
I whipped my head to see the thorn’s owner.
The human who had inherited my sword.
Ye-hyeon was silently at my side before I knew it.
“I’ll join in.”
The Supreme Commander declared, eyes fixed on Hecate.
“Let’s push them back.”
Ye-hyeon entering combat readiness.
Silver thorns rose from his feet, and silver butterflies emerged from their tips.
It was the first time I’d seen Ye-hyeon fully enter battle mode.
The form-shifting weapon that had silently struck my nape. Those silver butterflies carrying swords covered the view and slid down the slope.
The battle began the moment Ami leaped into the air.
Hecate and Sequoia’s sharp voices.
The seniors’ gun muzzles firing.
Kyle’s sword.
Ricardo’s spear.
I drew my sword and charged.
Pouring inexplicable resentment, grief, and guilt into the blade.
Shoving fragments of the past trying to surface to one corner of my mind.
The day the sky opened.
I faced Kyle.