#40 vs. Crimson
#40 vs. Crimson
Black flame slowly rose from the Wolf as his reason burned away. A cold sweat traced down Hong Yuri's forehead.
"―――."
Her lips chanted without pause, but her gaze never left Alpha. She swallowed hard, throat working. The killing intent was so thick it made breathing difficult—she felt it with absolute clarity: a murderous will bent on her death. She had touched a reverse scale. She had assumed that a creature of such high intelligence wouldn't rush in recklessly. If she could just keep hold of the Fairy Dragon... She had miscalculated.
The moment the Wolf, who had always acted with reason, reclaimed its true nature—she witnessed the birth of a monster.
'His reason is completely...!'
In a blink, the Wolf vanished from sight. Suspended in midair, she flung out her detection skills and barely managed to deflect his attack. Then, intuition screamed—something black squirmed up from behind her. Yuri threw another layer of mana around herself.
'Shadows!'
She had heard about this ability from the Academy raid, but seeing it in person was utterly different. A chill ran through her at the thought: if she hadn't known... if she'd never even imagined it... She had never underestimated him. After all, Alpha was the one who'd finished off Agail Morest—the heir of the Purple Square.
"Lanț de flacără―!"
Second verse—the incantation completed in a flash and shot toward the Wolf. Chains wreathed in crimson fire lunged for him, yet before they could connect, they were consumed by black fire and scattered by a fierce wind.
"......?!"
It didn't work. Yuri bit her lip as she realized a single second-verse spell couldn't inflict meaningful damage on Alpha—not unless she unleashed several at once. In the gap between spells, something shot out from the Wolf and hammered relentlessly at her mana barrier.
'Spikes?'
Her brow furrowed. Countless black spikes had erupted, pounding at her barrier as if determined to punch straight through. Each individual one lacked enough power to shatter it—no danger there. The real problem was him.
"―――."
A thought flickered—thank god she was suspended in the air by mana; if she'd been on the ground...—and then it shattered. The creature she'd briefly glanced down at dropped low, coiled, and shot upward in an instant. Ten meters... twenty meters... Alpha surged into the sky without end and reached her height. No matter how monstrous physical stats might be, was that even possible? Her expression hardened.
"Scutul cu flacără arzătoare!"
The spell took form. Under the laws of magic, manifested mana became a shield that engulfed her entire body. The blazing crimson barrier of flame—turned black and was consumed in an instant.
"......!"
A violent gust blotted out her vision, and for the first time, Hong Yuri let a curse spill from her lips.
"You... fuck...!"
Crimson mana swirled and crushed the Wolf downward. Massive pressure of pure magical force. A great wall made of mana itself hammered him into the ground, and Yuri's irises had already deepened from vivid scarlet to dark crimson.
'I really didn't plan to go this far...!'
She had come here to talk. That much was clear. But now the situation had gone completely to hell. She glanced sideways at the Fairy Dragon still trapped in confinement. If she released it right now, would his reason return? No chance. The only way through was to bring the Wolf down.
'I figured he was B-class.'
That was what his mana signature suggested. Higher than B-class, but not quite reaching A. So she'd thought she could handle him. Thought she could press him down without much trouble.
―That had been her second miscalculation.
"......!"
The fallen Wolf was resisting the weight of crimson mana crushing him. Normally, with a gap in magic power this severe, resistance was impossible. But some skill the Wolf possessed clawed through the crimson mana like an awl and pierced straight through.
'Don't tell me—Great Magic Power?!'
Her eyes darkened further. A skill she had never possessed. A skill she had coveted her entire life—and some mere monster had it.
"......!"
The Wolf shot upward again. Yuri grimaced and wove a hand seal, her fingers moving in a blaze of dexterity too quick to track. If fire magic wouldn't work, she needed a different approach.
"Robia rădăcinii copacilor―!"
Tree roots erupted and swallowed the Wolf, but Yuri didn't entertain the slightest illusion that this was over. As if to prove her right, black flame roared up and devoured the roots. The ground, the surface of the water—all of it was burning now, turning into a sea of fire. The surroundings dimmed, as though Bam itself had descended.
The killing intent, unchanged—no, heavier than ever. When their crimson eyes met, Yuri's body trembled. A will bent purely on killing her was encroaching, eating into her.
And Hong Yuri's pride would never permit such a thing.
"Multiplexarea glonțului arzător―!"
She swung her hand as the image blazed in her mind, and bullets of crimson mana shot toward the Wolf. At the same time, countless spikes erupted from him, crashing into her volley. Spikes—spikes wreathed in black fire—shredded and punched straight through every round she sent.
Each and every one was overpowering her bullets.
'......!'
Her pride was wounded. Despite a staggering gap in magical power, he was dragging this out. She had been pushed back—even once—and that fact alone...! When the Wolf leapt again, Yuri tried to crush him with a surge of mana once more, but the same trick wouldn't work on him. More precisely, it couldn't work anymore.
"Ha?"
Raging black fire voraciously consumed her crimson mana. And then—in a single instant—she saw a demon's face burning black. Was it an illusion? Yet a cold dread crawled down her spine. That thing existed beyond the bounds of comprehension. How many skills did the bastard have? What she'd already witnessed numbered more than ten. Were there no more? If you counted ones still unrevealed?
"......!"
To some—some goddamn monster like this...!
The Wolf devoured her mana and closed in, right on top of her, and Yuri's wavering heart finally tipped over.
"Iată moartea ta―!"
Pure white light shimmered and slowly unfurled across heaven and earth. This was the spell that had once made the Budding Evil fixate on her—a third-verse spell with power approaching the fourth. The white light swept over the black Ghost Flame and for a moment seemed to overwhelm it—then the black demon bared itself and devoured it all.
"......?!"
Her eyes flew wide in disbelief. In the next instant, she was crashing to the ground. The Wolf had launched himself midair with Elasticity and crashed straight into her.
'He could use it in the air too...?!'
Which meant even that jump wasn't raw stats—it was a skill. A hollow laugh clawed up inside her. If she hadn't had her mana armor wrapped around her just in case, that impact might have knocked her out cold. Now the armor lay shattered, she lay sprawled on the ground, and Alpha approached, still baring his fangs. Goosebumps rose down her back, and a chill frosted her chest. Her ribs might be cracked—breathing was a struggle. Through ragged breaths, Hong Yuri twisted the corner of her mouth up.
"...Fine."
She clenched a fistful of dirt. She spat the words out like something bitter and, for the first time since she'd arrived, made her decision.
"I'll kill you for sure...!"
A-class hunters are called the pinnacle of all hunters.
But even among them, some stand apart. Those whose power can't be measured by mere class designations bear epithets—titles like aliases. In common parlance, they're called Rankers.
Swordmaster Kang Tae-ho. Three Swordsman Gu Jin-ha. Disciple of the Spear Saint Eun Ja-rim. And—the greatest mage of Daybreak's Dawn, the one who might have become the heir of the Red Square—Hong Yuri's alias was Crimson.
Her vivid scarlet eyes finally deepened beyond dark crimson and took on the true color of Crimson. Murderous intent blazing, Hong Yuri steeled herself. Even if it meant violating the clan's orders, she would kill Alpha right here.
—Because if she didn't, she was dead.
***
The Wolf did not stop. He growled as he lunged greedily, as if he would swallow Hong Yuri whole. Not a single thread of reason remained in his snarling eyes. Yuri's, by contrast, sank into cold depths.
A veteran mage never stops chanting, no matter the moment. Spikes launched at her where she lay on the ground, tentacles chasing after them, searing black flames and cutting wind—and, before she knew it, shadows that had blanketed the ground completely. All of it was aimed at her throat.
Amid the carnival of killing intent, Hong Yuri's finger twitched.
"―――!"
The howl of a beast and the chant of a mage crossed. Every attack broke futilely against the Crimson barrier—until the leaping Wolf's jaws bit into her mana and tore it apart.
"......!"
Evil Devouring. The Wolf didn't know it, but the ability to consume anything applied even to mana without physical form. As his jaws thrust forward, Yuri wreathed her whole body in crimson mana and hurled a punch at him. A fist packed with monstrous strength. A blow she threw knowing it might dislocate her shoulder. At such speed the original Wolf could never have reacted. But the original Wolf had Intuition. The instinct White Deer had tried to teach him. Contrary to Baekrok's intent, the Wolf had carved open a deeper domain of reason and gained a power called prediction.
Yet even the Wolf had instinct. It had simply been asleep all this time—!
He twisted his jaw with a beast's senses and bit down on her wrist. Crimson's mana crumpled the black flame and hammered the Wolf. His jaw splintered. Teeth were ripped out. An eye burst from its socket and rolled freely across the ground.
And then something happened that should never, ever have happened. Even with his jaw shattered and twisted, the Wolf bit into Hong Yuri's wrist—and swallowed it.
He had done something similar against the chimera, but for the Wolf, cannibalism was a taboo among taboos. The act he had so desperately avoided, had rejected even in his unconscious—the fact that he had done it now meant his reason had fully submerged and the monster's true nature had surfaced. Beyond the unconscious—the creature inside him had finally opened its eyes.
Suddenly, a storm of crimson mana erupted and hurled them apart from each other. The Wolf was flung hard by the recoil and let out a low whine. The mage screamed.
"―――!"
Her wrist—her wrist was gone. No, it had been eaten. The Shadow Wolf—the form wreathed in shifting shadows—seemed to Yuri like mockery aimed straight at her. The shock of a missing limb—some people fall into despair. Some burn with fury. Yuri was the latter. Her ego, forged solid with pride, would not accept defeat over "something this minor."
Her expression twisted beyond recognition. The spell she had held in reserve, prepared for the true worst-case scenario, began to reveal itself as she intoned the final words.
"Arzând în abis și transformându-se în cenușă!"
A Grand Magic whose very use was forbidden outside dungeons. She was losing her reason just as much as he was. Even the fact that people still remained on this island had been wiped clean from her mind. A Grand Magic that could, in the wrong hands, reduce all of Ganghwado to scorched earth. An enormous hexagram slowly took shape beneath the clouds. Rune script and ancient tongue filled the space between its lines, thick and stained with Crimson. She had held it in reserve, but the reconstruction of mana still required time. It wouldn't be instantaneous. But that moment was not far off now.
Reversed positions, and a mutual killing intent so cold it raised the dead. In the accelerating catastrophe—a voice reached the Wolf, whose reason had abandoned him.
***
'Want some help?'
The voice sounded sweeter than anything. A temptation to end all this strife and agony. Just one word, it whispered. The sunken reason—the far side of the unconscious. It had followed him all the way there and was whispering now.
'Dum~my. You see it and still don't get it? You can't beat her.'
A snickering mockery. The thing speaking from inside him was like a devil's whisper. A flame that burned blacker than the already pitch-black space around it.
"Heukrin."
The jet-black flame that had helped bring down Agail. The Black Will-o'-the-wisp that fed on emotion and lent its power.
'Why~? You need me, right?'
It cupped his face in both hands and pulled his gaze to meet its own.
'All you have to do is say "help me." Then I'll clean everything up for you. Even these irrational feelings you're drowning in right now—I'll take them all away. How about it?'
It whispered seductively, its eyes glittering with anticipation. Heukrin. The unknown presence that had burned away Agail's Black Rose, and even Greed, as though they were jokes. Even the ability that had briefly manifested as a skill must have been only a fraction of her true power. With Heukrin's help, resolving this situation would be trivial. Everything would untangle smoothly and pass without friction. The Wolf's eyes sharpened as he recalled that distant sensation of omnipotence he'd felt once before.
He could hand over these burning emotions and receive Heukrin's help—
"...Anno...ying."
'......?'
"Shut that mouth. You're too loud."
—Absolutely not.
A blistering glare. The seething emotion he had yearned and longed for. The dense killing intent he had never felt before. And when Heukrin saw what was reflected in the Wolf's eyes, she shuddered with something close to rapture.
"Stay out of this."
A beast's growl spilled from the Wolf's muzzle. The ferocious will—if you interfere, I'll count you an enemy—was so clear that Heukrin swallowed in silence. The Wolf walked past her and spoke without looking back.
"I'm done being pushed around by any of you bastards...!"