Blood Thick as Ink
I didn’t use Dimer’s bombs just because their power was stronger.
Hero City had thousands evacuated on Christmas Day from the panic caused by Dimer’s bombs, and every single resident on that floor had to stay in terror until the search was complete.
The chaos that followed was indescribable, and the delay in identifying the Titanic’s structural distress signal because of the terrorist attack made the damage far worse than anyone could calculate.
Hero City’s greatest advantage was that awakened people weren’t puppets of the government, plus the fact that the world’s strongest S-rank awakened heroes were all gathered in one place.
Was there anywhere safer?
“I thought you’d only send a few A-rank guys…”
In other words, the city that had been Hero City’s biggest advantage—safe from government control—was now teetering on the edge of ruin because of just one A-rank awakened person, and those bastards certainly weren’t going to stay quiet.
The intervention of Hero City was already a given.
But the one who showed up was S-rank hero Cheonma.
It was really laughable that this “Cheonma” was actually a woman.
Cheonma seemed to pop out from anywhere at any time.
“What a final boss they sent.”
She must have been searching for Dimer with hellfire in her eyes.
She’d issued arrest warrants abroad and even on foreign soil, yet not a single clue about him had surfaced until the moment mana and explosive signatures linked to Dimer’s abilities were detected right here.
She’d even arrived faster than I could.
Near here was a conflict zone, and the heroes sent by Hero City as a volunteer relief team were already clashing with the enemy forces.
It looked like she’d shown up at the same time.
If she thought she could take Lilac, she’d probably tried using the arriving heroes as bait to flee, but that would have only gotten me, Lilac, or that damn Cheonma captured.
Thank god it had gone well.
“Ah, if I’d known, I should have asked her to use instant teleportation…”
Humans are animals that gain wisdom from the past.
I recalled the Golden Witch from the Titanic, deciding to slip away before Cheonma’s eyes fell on me.
Facing another S-rank hero was something I wanted no part of.
“Ah, I was coming running because I smelled a bomb maniac…”
At that moment, Cheonma’s voice echoed from the sky.
I startled, thinking she was talking to me, but luckily it wasn’t directed at me.
The voice simply descended from the heavens like a goddess.
“Just a clash of territories between us, huh?”
The tone alone conveyed how furious she was.
It made sense; she’d been on duty guarding Hero City on Christmas Day and had clearly been rattled after failing to stop the bomb terror beforehand.
Unfortunately, the bombs had been planted on the day the Golden Witch was on patrol.
“You worthless worms and commies, just the two of you?”
“Worms” because of the crow mask.
“Commies” because of the Federation’s flag colors.
No one else in the world could talk about the Corvo Family and the Federation soldiers like that.
Cheonma was among the absolute top of S-rank awakened people, and only two beings in the entire world could be guaranteed to defeat her.
One was the strongest hero in Hero City, and the other was the first boss of the Corvo Family.
But one was sleeping at the heart of Hero City, and the other was no longer a person.
Right now, if this mad woman started rampaging here, there was no one who could stop her.
Maybe war would have been better after all…
“I won’t repeat myself. Immediately pull your subordinates and soldiers back and leave this area. There is an accommodation for the Hero City volunteers within 100 km of here.”
Cheonma issued the warning to both sides.
In her voice was the confidence that she could erase both forces whenever she wanted.
It was not baseless arrogance, but a conviction rooted in undeniable reality.
“Also, this place was originally designated as a no-conflict zone. If you continue this petty brawl anyway…”
The Federation soldiers were already retreating swiftly.
As battle-hardened veterans, they instinctively detected the threat to their lives and fled.
The Corvo Family, however, could not.
Except for the estimated main force awakened people, the rest charged straight at the Cheonma floating in the sky.
It was an act of suicide no sane person would ever commit, but they had been brainwashed and could no longer perceive fear.
“…Today, either the Federation or the Corvo Family will have to make their peace.”
Ah, things had gotten serious.
Cheonma pulled out her ruyi jinzhu and split all the mafia members who tried to swarm her into two.
The fact that she’d taken out that weapon meant she was dead serious.
She must really have been shaken after the Christmas incident.
Did she not know that S-rank awakened people were not supposed to intervene in interstate wars?
Or perhaps, strictly speaking, since the Corvo Family wasn’t a nation, she felt she could personally handle it?
“Really going to stop me…?”
At first I thought she was just trying to intimidate me.
But now, in this moment, the hand from the sky moved again.
It was clear she intended to flatten this entire area.
Just like the giant hand that had seemed to be judging me from above, if it fell, I wouldn’t be safe either.
“And Dimer… no matter where you are, if you fall into my sight, I’ll make you beg to die.”
Now it was obvious: she was assuming Dimer was hiding somewhere in this region and planned to wipe out the whole area along with him.
Did she not have a single thought in her head?
This was exactly the same as bombing another country’s territory because you wanted to catch a fireworks-terrorist-level criminal.
They’d committed such an act on foreign soil, and the Federation would complain later, but I didn’t have the luxury to care right now.
I had already used up almost all my remaining stamina.
This wasn’t a nuclear bomb, but it was still enough to kill me.
The only way to escape was to flee into the sky, and I didn’t have that convenient ability.
So the best I could do right now was to run to the rendezvous point with Van Helsing.
I ran at full power for about three minutes, and a transport plane appeared.
“Get on! I can’t wait any longer!”
“Take off immediately!”
Injured legs, broken bones— I threw my body onto it.
Fortunately the plane hadn’t left yet.
I had asked them to wait on the ground for about thirty minutes after the explosion, but since they were the kind of people who never broke a promise to a client, I was saved.
If it had been any of the other guys, they would have fled the second Cheonma showed up.
“Done! We’re taking off! We have to leave before that mad woman blows this place to pieces!”
All that was left now was hoping we would escape safely.
The people on the transport plane were probably thinking the same thing.
“Output stable, radar stealth mode active, engines three and four running.”
The transport plane began to rise.
At the same moment, Cheonma’s ruyi jinzhu collided with the ground.
“The shockwave will shake the plane! Hold on tight!”
Kuuuung—!
“Guh?!”
A terrifying vibration hit as a storm swept through.
The transport plane floating in the air swayed violently, as if it were about to crash.
If this world were a game world, and someone were managing it, I could safely say one thing.
That person clearly didn’t consider power balance at all.
How could this be something an individual was supposed to wield?
Even if I generously called it a final skill or ultimate move, one clap from Cheonma would be enough.
It was beyond any level of understanding.
“…We lived.”
A short while later, when the storm calmed, the Bartender whispered.
Yeah, no matter what the balance was, right now we were alive, so it didn’t matter.
“We survived! We didn’t make it!”
It had been dangerously close.
If I had been ten seconds later boarding the plane, and the transport’s defense system had been even slightly fragile, I would have been torn apart in mid-air.
“Haa…”
“We survived, Capella! We escaped safely from that physical-max awakened maniac!”
The tension melted, and my body went limp like water.
Inside the plane, the atmosphere changed to a festival-like mood for a moment.
It was magic, not physical…
“But why did Cheonma come all the way out here? I didn’t hear any news that S-rank heroes had gone out.”
“There’s a reason. Just stay quiet about it for now.”
“Speaking of which… your hair…”
“I see. Lean back in that chair and rest a bit.”
All that was left was giving Lena her medicine, going home to take a shower, and staying locked inside the house until my mind calmed.
Or staying right next to Lena…
“…Wake me when we arrive.”
I was cut off by the fatigue that had come too late.
Physically and mentally, I had truly reached my limit.
Still, I felt the effort had been worth it.
With just this medicine, the time Elena had been given would increase, and I could live more comfortably.
And perhaps I could even find a way to treat mana-incompatible people completely without aftereffects.
As long as I could decode the cipher on the note attached to the necklace.
†††
“That’s impossible. Her condition suddenly improved?”
“I-I don’t know either…”
The doctor’s eyes widened in shock.
Elena’s own disbelief at her changed body was understandable.
It was even more so because only a few days ago her condition had been worsening, yet now it had suddenly gotten better.
There were no recorded cases of mana-incompatible people improving, and the few who had were usually awakened late in life with only slight improvements.
Elena’s case was the first.
Her body had reduced the mana she generated on her own, so the interval between surgeries had tripled compared to before.
It was an unprecedented occurrence.
“Guardian, do you happen to know anything?”
“I don’t know either.”
“But… are you feeling okay?”
The doctor suddenly asked me.
I didn’t feel bad or anything.
“What?”
“Unnie, your complexion looks bad right now. Your white hair has suddenly grown a lot…”
At that moment, Elena spoke while worrying beside me.
“I’m fine.”
My complexion was bad because I hadn’t slept for a week.
After giving Elena the medicine secretly in the hospital and returning home, it felt like someone kept talking to me.
Plus, whenever I closed my eyes, not just humans but the ghosts of many monsters appeared, making it hard to lie in bed.
Something kept trying to enter my mind.
When I looked in the mirror, the people and monsters I had seen die in front of me all tried to devour me.
“Hmm… I guess it’s okay to think about it.”
If I lost consciousness for even a moment, I would be trapped in nightmares, tormented by countless evil spirits.
“I’m fine. No need to worry.”
Of course, I felt a little better now.
Quite some time had passed since then, so the problem was simply that I hadn’t been able to release the accumulated fatigue.
“R-really okay, unnie?”
The white hair would turn black again after some time because the side effect of the ability was still there.
“You don’t need to worry for nothing.”
I stroked Elena’s hair and said.
“But… why are you suddenly stroking a flower vase…?”
“Flower vase?”
It was strange.
Suddenly Elena seemed like two people.
Two, three, four, five…
Come to think of it, had one of the awakened people been able to replicate their body?
“What nonsense, I’m fine—”
Thud!
“Unnie?!”
“G-guardian, are you okay?!”
“Thinking about it again, I’m a little tired…”
Yeah, having not slept for a week meant I needed to sleep a bit.
Five minutes would be enough to clear my mind.
That was the moment I opened my eyes—three days later.
The second I woke, Lena burst into tears, and I was stunned.
