Perfect Victory
A familiar voice…
A voice she had missed more than anything began to reach her.
The voice she had believed she would never hear again…
But the very instant she felt that intimate pull toward the sound, another voice flooded her mind once more.
Kill her.
Right now.
Kill that one.
She did not know why.
But once an order was given, she had no right to refuse it.
That was the correct thing to do.
That was the reason she had to live.
Carry out the command.
Everything else was unnecessary.
And so she pressed the attack at once.
Kill.
Kill.
Kill.
Ki…?
In that instant, a searing pain tore through her—and the voice that had been roaring through her skull cut off cold.
And then… she began to see.
Her vision, which had been clouded as if behind a veil, sharpened again into clarity.
The things that had registered only as targets for destruction—their shapes began to resolve, more distinct with every heartbeat.
And she recognized it.
The face of the person looking up at her, trembling with fear…
A face that had changed, and yet was still unmistakable…
The face of the friend she had missed so desperately…
The friend she had wanted so badly to meet again…
“…Gwon…sun?”
“Hah… hah… hah…”
At the last possible second, Are finally severed what she had judged to be the creature’s weak point—the connecting joint. The wound from the blow she had taken moments earlier still throbbed, but with that cut, the mission was complete.
It stopped moving… just like Jinhyun said…
Following Jinhyun’s instructions, Are had sliced through the spot he had identified as the vital point. Under ordinary circumstances, she never would have made that choice. Only moments before, her dearest friend had nearly died right in front of her. The Are of any other day would have thrown herself into intercepting the creature’s glaive mid-swing.
But in that instant, she had not followed her own judgment. She had followed the command in her ear—Jinhyun’s command.
If anyone else had given the same order, Are would never have found the resolve to carry it out so readily. But this was a man she trusted completely. The man she had carried in her heart for so long. And so, in the final moment, she had believed in him—and acted.
The result was this success.
“Gwon…sun…? Y-you… how are you…?”
“Ah…”
The human-shaped Abyss spoke in a trembling voice, staring at Gwon-sun. On the ground where she sat, Gwon-sun’s expression nearly crumbled—
But then the man’s voice came through her earpiece, clear enough for Are to hear as well.
"Jogus, stay sharp. Confirmation first."
“!… Uh… y-yeah… okay… thanks…”
At Jinhyun’s cold, steady order, Gwon-sun forced her face back under control. Then, holding her emotions down as hard as she could, she put the question to the being in front of her.
“Your service number. Say it. Rank and name too, if you can.”
“!… I… I…”
A question that, as a soldier, would confirm the other party’s identity beyond any doubt. A faint hesitation touched her lips.
And then—
“Service number… 18-14444. Army Command… Thirteenth Hunter Guild… Deputy Guild Master, Captain Choi Sonbin…”
“…Ah… ah…”
That familiar voice. And the service number that, for a soldier, was as irritating as it was absurdly easy to remember—along with the rank and name that came with it.
The moment she confirmed it, Gwon-sun felt the tears come, and she reported to Jinhyun.
“Identity confirmed… It’s her. It’s really her.”
“…Haa…”
At those words, Are felt the relief wash through her and eased the tension in the scythe she still held.
Then—
"There! It's not over yet!"
“Ah!”
Jinhyun’s sharp voice cut through the air. In the next instant, Are saw it—the bleached dragon head she had severed was still flying straight at Gwon-sun.
A split second of carelessness, and an emergency no one could stop.
And then—
Crack!
A sharp sound. Blood spraying in every direction.
Are and Jinhyun both froze—and so did the Guild Masters, who had been holding position on orders without knowing the full situation. Shock flooded every face.
Because—
“S-Sonbin!”
“G-get back… Gwon-sun, hurry!”
The thing that had been flying straight at Gwon-sun had been stopped bare-handed. The impact crumpled its arm completely. Broken bone tore through flesh and jutted out; vessels and nerves ruptured in the process. The hyper-regeneration it had shown only moments before seemed to have vanished.
And yet—
Even as it groaned under that extreme agony, it did not take a single step back. It held the thrashing dragon head in place.
And Jinhyun did not waste the time it had bought.
"All units, attack! Finish that dragon head for good!"
The order snapped the Guild Masters back to themselves. Concentrated fire poured onto the dragon head at once, and in that opening Gwon-sun seized the body whose arms had been reduced to rags and dragged it clear.
“The wound isn’t regenerating!”
“Good—our attacks are landing now.”
Unlike before, when it had recovered in an instant, the white dragon head began to come apart fast. The thing that had thrashed like a frenzied serpent grew slower as its body was destroyed.
And then—
“Kaaaaah…”
With a final breath, it died completely.
“We… we got i—”
Bang! Bang! Bang!
“…We got it.”
Only after the confirmation shots—just in case—did the Guild Masters finally let themselves breathe. Then, slowly, they turned their eyes behind them.
“Hic… hic… uuhk…”
What they saw was Gwon-sun, clutching the unconscious form in her arms, weeping. They could not make sense of it yet, but something complicated was clearly at work here. For now, they put the question to the man still directing the operation—Jinhyun.
“Target eliminated. What are your orders, Adjutant?”
Jinhyun held the silence for a moment. Then, in a calm voice, he delivered his final instruction to the Guild Masters.
"Mission complete. Recover the wounded—and that unconscious one as well—and return to base. We… won."
A battle that drew cheers and awe of its own accord.
And a battlefield that, once everything was over, held nothing but cold corpses.
Looking at that sight, the adjutants finally felt the deep relief settle in and let themselves sink back into their chairs. Some of them no longer even had the strength to find a seat—they simply dropped onto the bare floor where they stood.
In the hush after the storm, a heavy silence hung among the adjutants for a while.
Then—
“…We won, right?”
“…Yeah. We did. A perfect victory.”
Plenty of wounded—but not a single death. A triumph so complete it could not have been more perfect. Even having directed it themselves, they were only now truly feeling the result, and the afterglow of victory set their hearts pounding.
We won… we really won. We actually won.
A perfect victory… will I ever fight a battle this magnificent again in my life?
Lifted by that miraculous win, the adjutants’ eyes slowly turned toward the man who had designed and commanded all of it.
Toward Adjutant Lee Jinhyun.
The moment he had declared the mission over and ordered the return, the tension had left him and he had slipped into sleep. Given that he had barely closed his eyes for the past ten days while building the plan, it was only natural.
Slumped in his chair in a state close to ruin, unconscious—objectively, it was not a flattering sight.
But in this moment…
Everyone present looked at the man before them and felt genuine respect take root.
The legendary adjutant…
The god of the battlefield…
No grand title felt wasted on him. Watching him, the adjutants quietly offered their reverence in silence, careful not to disturb his sleep.