An Apology Far Too Late
When a person is swept up in emotion, they can lose that peculiar faculty called reason.
Rage. Greed. And jealousy.
Such feelings snatch away the clear-eyed ability to assess a situation and make decisions, and the natural result is that a person ends up rendering hasty, careless judgments.
And those judgments, in the end, force that person to face the worst possible outcome.
Just like this very moment.
"Gaaah!!"
"Urgh!"
"Kyaaaaah!!!!"
Screams and the howls of Abysses rose from every direction. At the sudden plunge into darkness and the terrible sounds that followed, the hunters frantically fired the flare rounds they had brought with them.
But the field of vision those flares so clearly restored only delivered a terror they had never experienced before.
"W-what the hell is this..."
"W-we're... surrounded?"
Centered on the valley, Abysses hemmed them in from every side. Thick bewilderment settled over the hunters' faces. The possibility they had half-dismissed all the way here had become reality, and the hunters fell into chaos, milling about with no idea what to do.
Who could have imagined that Abysses — creatures no better than beasts — would use a tactic of luring them into a trap? The shock was incomparable even to the strategic retreat they had witnessed earlier.
And then, as if drawn by something, the Abysses charged the stunned hunters all at once.
"Th-they're coming!"
"A-attack! Stop them, now!"
Like floodwater pouring down a gorge, the Abysses thundered into the valley floor. Among them were dozens of Upper-class Abysses at a glance, hundreds of Middle-class Abysses, and Lower-class Abysses beyond counting. In that moment they advanced like a black waterfall, radiating a dreadful momentum that made them seem a single vast living thing.
—Tatatatatatat!!!
—Boom! Boom! Boom!
Gunfire and roaring explosions erupted from every side. Even in this situation, with the S-class hunters at their core, they tried desperately to hold the enemy back.
But the present circumstances were fundamentally different from moments earlier, when they had been defending from the high ground of the hills. The terrain was overwhelmingly against them, and the enemy's numbers were at least double what they had been. Worse still, the hunters had not yet recovered from the shock of realizing the Abysses had used a scheme against them.
And so the result of a battle fought under that compound disadvantage became, before long, all too clear — and all too wretched.
"Kyaaaah!!"
"Gaaah!"
Torn apart by Abyssal claws, the hunters died one by one. The first to fall were the B-class hunters holding the front line. After them, the A-class hunters. And finally, even the S-class hunters who had somehow managed to endure amid the swarm of Abysses began to die.
"Shoot! Pour everything you've got into them!"
"W-we're screwed — there are too many— gaaah!!"
Every muzzle among the hunters spat fire, yet the enemies flooding in still vastly outnumbered the ones they killed. Kill one, and two more came. Kill two, and three or four surged forward — a nauseating tide. And within that unmanageable wave of Abysses, the hunters were slaughtered one after another.
A B-class hunter whose throat was ripped out by Abyssal jaws. An A-class hunter whose limbs were swallowed whole. An S-class hunter whose head was torn clean off.
In that moment, rank and ability meant nothing to the humans present. The only difference, if any, was how many Abysses each of them dragged with them as companions into death — regardless of how the battle went. In the end, that every one of them would die made no great distinction at all.
And amid the allies being butchered so mercilessly, the person who had effectively led them into this situation — Lee Sena, S-class hunter and Guild Master of the 28th Hunter Guild — stood seized by a shock and despair beyond description.
H-how... how could this happen... th-this can't be... this can't be happening... how could something this absurd...
"Lee Sena! Snap out of it! We have to get out of here, now! If we don't, we're all dead!"
Choi Yujin screamed herself hoarse, urging a retreat. But even hearing that voice, Sena could not come to her senses.
"Th-this... this can't be possible. Abysses... those beasts... how could they... how could they do this to me..."
Lee Sena muttered in a voice as if her soul had left her body. The swagger with which she had been whipping up the other hunters only moments before was nowhere to be found. In that moment, she looked like nothing so much as a child who had caused an accident and had no idea what to do — a child scrambling for even the flimsiest excuse.
Seeing her like that, Yujin began to strain with everything she had to pull Sena together.
Then—
"Choi Yujin! Grab whoever's left and run for the valley exit! If we stay here, it's really over!"
Seo Jiyun spoke in a firm voice. Claws fitted to both hands, she was throwing everything she had into holding back the enemies pouring toward them, together with the few remaining S-class hunters.
"B-but Sena—"
"There's no time to coddle that bitch! Knock her out if you have to and drag her out of here!"
"A-all right!"
"Urgh!"
At Jiyun's words, Yujin acted at once. Lee Sena slumped unconscious in her comrade's grip, and Yujin hoisted her up and sprinted for the exit with the remaining hunters.
But then—
"! ...J-Jiyun, you—!"
"Go! I'll hold this place!"
"Graaaah!"
Jiyun cut down the Abysses charging her without hesitation as she shouted. Watching her, Yujin finally understood what her friend intended.
In that moment, Abysses were cascading down into the valley — and countless more were already swarming toward the exit as well. Nearly all the S-class hunters from the other guilds had already been killed. If Jiyun, who was holding the Abysses at the very front, pulled back now, the escape of those who remained would only grow more difficult. Knowing that, Yujin could not stop her friend's sacrifice even in a situation like this.
"Hic... uh-hic... uhhh..."
In the end, tears streaming down her face, Yujin fled the valley with the remaining A-, B-, and C-class hunters while Seo Jiyun held the enemy. Abysses still barred their path, but with an S-class hunter's strength, Yujin forced a breakthrough with Sena on her back, and the few hunters left followed her out of the valley.
Watching her comrades slip away by the barest margin, Jiyun — left alone inside the valley at last — let out a small sigh.
And the moment that brief relief ended, Jiyun looked at the Abysses massed before her eyes and began to wear a bitter smile at the corner of her mouth.
...So this is how it ends. In the end... alone, here, like this...
The fighting that had gone on until now had already left her body in terrible condition. Seo Jiyun's combat power ranked among the highest even of S-class hunters. Through the all-out, life-or-death struggle she and the other S-class hunters had put up, three or four Upper-class Abysses had lost their heads to their hands, and dozens of Middle-class Abysses had been slain. But the cost had been total annihilation for the other hunters, and Jiyun's own condition had deteriorated to what could only be called the worst.
One arm hung in tatters, nearly severed, and lesser wounds covered the rest of her body. On top of that, the relentless assault she had driven without pause had left her stamina almost completely spent. It would not have been strange if she collapsed on the spot.
And in that moment, as countless Abysses closed in around her, black drool trailing from their maws — as the sight of those hideous monsters automatically called up the image of a painful death to come — a certain person's face suddenly rose in S-class hunter Seo Jiyun's mind.
If... if only I had treasured you a little more... if you hadn't left us because of that... then... couldn't this future have been different?
The person their foolishness — no, her foolishness — had driven away. Holding the image of him that felt more precious than ever today as the last thing in her mind, Seo Jiyun spoke in a quiet voice toward the man who was not here — in this moment that had come far, far too late.
"I'm sorry... I'm truly... truly sorry, Jinhyun. If... a long, long time from now... I meet you again in the next world... then, without fail, I'll apologize..."
With those words, Seo Jiyun launched her final charge at the Abysses before her eyes.
Carrying the regret of days past, and a heart of apology meant for him.