Chaos, Chaos, Chaos
Chaos, chaos, chaos.
A Suicides member dropped from the sky and hit the ground hard enough to turn into a total mess.
Not in the sense that whatever was supposed to be inside had spilled out into a grotesque smear of blood and flesh.
It was more like a slime had been thrown off the roof of a building and flattened cartoonishly against the pavement.
The flattened Suicides member lay there for a moment, squashed pancake-flat, before slowly dragging itself back together and regaining human form.
The absurd sight left the battlefield in stunned silence for an instant.
“What the fuck is this now?”
One of Wang Tai-ryun’s illusions broke the silence. And honestly, it was probably saying what everyone here was thinking.
Executioners, civilians, students—everyone alike stared dumbly at the grotesque scene, as if too overwhelmed to react.
“Get a grip! Move the injured inside, now! I don’t know what the hell they are, but it’s dangerous out here!”
Then Seolhwa was the first to snap out of it and start barking orders.
Only then did the students begin carrying the injured one by one into the ice bunker she had created with her power.
Seeing that, Dumas twisted his body even while he was getting pounded, trying to stop them.
“You think I’ll just let you—”
“Don’t ignore me!!!”
Lapis drove a concrete pillar straight into Dumas’s mouth with terrifying force, then dumped a wild flood of golden mana into the ground as if she meant to bury him alive on the spot.
The other side was fine. And where Alexey was—judging by the explosive shockwaves popping off, Minho seemed to be pressing him hard.
Even then, more Suicides members kept leaping down from above and joining the battle.
Some carried blades. Others had nothing but wooden clubs.
But it was clear enough that they weren’t on our side.
And the Executioners had made it clear they weren’t fond of the Suicides members either.
So it was a three-way brawl.
What a fucking nightmare.
I forced down the pounding headache creeping up the back of my skull and took stock of the main players on this game board.
Yeonhwa was clutching her stomach and shaking, but with Jinhyun supporting her, she looked like she could at least stay on her feet for now.
Good. She was still in one piece.
The plan hadn’t changed.
Kill the enemies. Save our allies. Make sure none of the protagonists awakened, and make sure none of their hearts got broken beyond repair.
Let’s drown the place in blood.
I coated my fingernails with tricothecene and smeared batrachotoxin over my hands.
Paralyze them the instant I touched them, and if they somehow got lucky and survived that, kill them in the end anyway.
I had no idea how anyone was supposed to endure a poison that even stopped the heart.
Ignoring the Suicides members dropping from the human body with wet, stomach-churning splats, I sprinted straight toward Eliza.
Whatever the hell that was didn’t matter right now. This world was full of all kinds of ridiculous powers, just like the illusion I’d just run through.
It wouldn’t be strange at all if someone could turn others into some slime-like monster.
What mattered now was only one thing: getting hold of Eliza and killing her before she could finish whining about why those bastards were here while she was still half out of her mind.
Maybe one of the illusions realized what I was doing, because it belatedly solidified and tried to grab me, but I slipped away without even slowing down.
The illusions seemed to catch on too, shouting warnings to Eliza and Cayenne, while swarming toward me all at once to attack.
Head, chest, stomach, waist, thigh, solar plexus. Where was the strike coming from?
Trying to predict it was pointless. They had absolute advantage. In a one-on-one fight, it was basically cheating-level ability—like seeing what your opponent would throw in rock-paper-scissors, then choosing after the fact.
To beat something like that, you’d need to kill it before it had time to react, or have some way to hit spirits directly.
Those illusions were treated as spiritual entities for now, which meant a spiritual weapon could probably dispel them.
Not that it would matter much, since the real body wouldn’t take damage—only the clone would vanish.
And besides, I had no way to attack spirits anyway, so thinking about it now was a waste of time.
All right. What now? Turn back and it was too late. Force my way through, and I’d get hit.
There wasn’t even anything to hesitate over. Obviously, I had to break through.
If I could kill Eliza, then I wouldn’t get kidnapped, and my quality of life would improve by at least a factor of two.
To limit the angles they could attack from, I sprinted diagonally and vaulted over the clones.
That way, the only way for them to hit me was from above with a punch. And just as expected, Wang Tai-ryun materialized in a split second and smashed me in the stomach.
“Keh—ugh…!”
Even with the adrenaline still doing its job, the blow was enough to knock the breath right out of me for a moment. But the pain faded quickly.
After steadying myself in midair, I landed and immediately broke into a run again.
Wang Tai-ryun probably thought one hit would leave me sprawled out like Yeonhwa, but I had pretty solid staying power.
Well, “solid” might be generous. I was really just bulldozing through the pain with adrenaline.
Was I going to be sick for a week after this? Probably.
Thinking that kind of pointless thought, I slapped a hand onto Cayenne’s head—Cayenne, who was staring at me in disbelief at how I could still keep running after taking a hit like that—and finally got close enough to Eliza.
“What kind of insane— KYAAAHHHHH!!!!”
I twisted both of Eliza’s wrists hard enough to break them before she could snap her fingers, then shoved my own fingers straight into her arm.
My fingers throbbed too, so apparently the bastard had reinforced her forearms as well, for all she was an Executioner.
My stomach hurt like hell too, so I guessed both of us had broken something in unison.
Still, that at least took kidnapping off the table.
Why isn’t there a pill in this world that boosts physical durability? There were pills that strengthened powers, for crying out loud.
Shaking the blood from my hands, I fled from Cayenne and the illusions chasing after me.
But as always, the stat gap couldn’t be ignored.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
Running from something that didn’t even possess a real body and kept popping out of thin air was basically impossible, and in the end I got grabbed by the throat and slammed flat into the ground.
“What kind of bitch are you…! At this point you should at least be screaming!”
Wang Tai-ryun looked furious, veins standing out on his forehead, and yet he seemed so amazed that I still hadn’t let out even a single scream that he kept my throat in his grip and growled like an animal.
I wanted to say something back, but I couldn’t breathe.
He wasn’t going to kill me. Probably just vent his anger by beating me around a bit.
Since I could already guess what was coming, an ice spear suddenly pierced Wang Tai-ryun’s side.
“…Ah, shit. Seriously.”
Even while coughing blood from his mouth, Wang Tai-ryun looked completely unconcerned as he swapped bodies with another illusion.
Meaning he’d left me behind and gone somewhere else. He’d be back soon enough.
“Blanca! Are you okay?!”
“Don’t touch me… khk. Well, I don’t know if I’m okay, exactly…”
I wasn’t totally wrecked, but once the adrenaline wore off, I’d probably be writhing in pain in no time.
“Let’s head for the fortress Seolhwa made first! All the civilians have already taken shelter inside! And the kids are fighting the Suicides members and that powerful clone in there too!”
Whether fighting that clone was even a thing people could realistically do was another question. A bitter laugh escaped me, but still, it had to be better than staying outside, so I agreed.
“Don’t bother supporting me. Take care of Yeonhwa.”
I could still move thanks to the adrenaline. If anyone needed support, it was Yeonhwa.
Her body wasn’t exactly sturdy. And she looked awful besides.
More than anything, I couldn’t stand the sight of that bastard trying to leave Yeonhwa behind just to support me instead.
“Got it. Then… we’ll have to force our way through here somehow.”
Jinhyun said that and looked out over the battlefield with a helpless expression.
The ice bunker Seolhwa had conjured right in the middle of an eight-lane road, and the psychic barrier surrounding it.
Wang Tai-ryun’s clones reaching out toward the psychic barrier with regretful hands, only to vanish without mercy.
Right. Changwon’s power could attack spirits too.
The Executioners, half of them effectively neutralized, and the Suicides members attacking everything in sight like their only goal was to run wild and cause havoc.
And in the very middle of all that chaos, Yustitia was knocking down Suicides members and Wang Tai-ryun alike without allowing a single attack to land.
It was a complete, utter disaster.
I had no idea how things had ended up this bad, but right now surviving came first.
“I’ll open a path, so just follow me. Got it?”
I’d like to see Jinhyun drop dead right now too, but that bastard would probably find a way to survive somehow. Clicking my tongue, I took the lead.
The Suicides members were still morphing into slime for only an instant before Wang Tai-ryun’s fist caved their heads in or punched holes clean through their bodies.
From the curses he kept barking now and then, it didn’t seem like he held the Suicides in any high regard either.
Fine by me. Even with my fingers broken, I still had poison coated on my hands.
Most problems could be solved just by brushing the palms of my hands against the Suicides members once.
Wang Tai-ryun’s clones kept throwing out interception attacks here and there, but he seemed too busy dealing with the Suicides members to single me out as persistently as he had when I’d gone after Eliza.
That didn’t mean it didn’t hurt, though.
For a first-year classmate, he was already a nightmare for someone like me, and even his casual punches were lethal.
“Haa… haa…”
On top of that, I still had to deal with the Suicides members, and it was exhausting as hell.
Everywhere in my body, pain that even adrenaline couldn’t fully suppress kept surging up, and even that adrenaline was starting to run out.
To replenish it, I’d have to stop synthesizing poison, but then the Suicides members would become a problem.
They were charging in while ignoring pain just like me, as if they’d all gotten high together or something.
I’d never realized how frustrating it was to be unable to synthesize two things at once.
“…Just a little more… I’m almost there…”
“Blanca!”
Before I could reach the bunker, my body finally hit its limit.
I was so wrecked that every part of me seemed to be screaming.
In this condition, if I took another interception hit from a clone, I probably wouldn’t even be able to endure it—I’d just black out.
Even Jinhyun touching me to support me hurt like hell.
All the clones gathered in front of the barrier were staring at me.
Jinhyun was shouting something noisy beside me, but I could barely hear it.
Ah. So this was it.
Not even a brawler, and I’d still worked hard enough, hadn’t I?
I got them all the way to the bunker. I did what I came to do.
...If I close my eyes and wake up again, maybe I’ll be in a hospital.
Seeing the barrier lifting in the distance and the people connected to me rushing out from inside, it seemed pretty likely.
I could rest easy now, couldn’t I?
Just then, the moment the illusions started charging this way, Jinhyun’s hair turned dark red, and crimson flames swept across them.
...And that was something that absolutely, under no circumstances, should have appeared here.
Fuck.
I only muttered it inside my head, and then at last I lost consciousness.