Wiped Them All Out. Contact from Enas
The moment Imperial Exploration Team Captain Jareid saw the mana bombs raining from the sky, he barked an order at his men.
"Everyone, take cover!"
In an instant the entire team kicked into light-footwork techniques and tore across the ground at blistering speed. But they had never even imagined a mana-bomb barrage; they had already allowed far too much distance. The only ones who managed to escape were the lucky few already outside the blast radius.
—BOOM!
A single massive bomb reduced several explorers to ash. Jareid had gotten clear of the kill zone and survived, but he spat curses as he stared at his dead comrades.
"You fucking bastard…"
He barely had time to swear. Bombs kept pouring from the sky.
—BOOM!
—KRA-BOOM!
The high-grade aerial artifact Spirel streaked through the air with terrifying agility, its movements as fluid as a drone's—enough to leave anyone staring in pure disbelief.
He's handling a Spirel that well? Even if it's mana-powered…
It defied comprehension. Piloting something that hovered and wheeled through the open sky demanded razor-sharp senses. Most people never even got to touch a high-grade artifact; owning a Spirel and still struggling to control it was the norm.
Damn it.
How the hell anyone could move a Spirel—whose difficulty was near-impossible—like an extension of their own hand no longer mattered. Their position was fully exposed. Getting out of here was the only problem that counted.
"Captain! Monsters are swarming from all sides!"
The moment they started dodging the Spirel, the monsters that had been lingering nearby closed in.
"We cleared the area beforehand—!"
"Th-the Spirel must have herded them here…"
—Crrrk…
The Spirel circled overhead as if daring them to run, no longer dropping bombs, simply watching the explorers with cold patience—like a surveillance camera.
"Captain! The enemy's attack has stopped for now—we have to deal with the monsters first. Once they pile up, escape becomes impossible!"
"…Kill them. We'll handle the Spirel later."
The explorers charged the gathering monsters. That was the exact moment the hovering Spirel spun several lazy circles and dumped another rain of mana bombs in one continuous barrage.
Monsters on the ground, bombs from the sky. The combined strike wiped out half the team.
"C-come out, you coward! Stop hiding and face us—!"
Jareid finally snapped and roared. The Spirel abruptly climbed higher. He and Carek tensed, expecting another pass—but what came next was not the artifact. It was another monster.
"A Deebringer…"
A grotesque creature that could sense humans and released pheromones to draw every monster in the vicinity toward itself. Jareid lunged to kill it. Then his sword simply slipped from his hand and clattered to the dirt.
"Fuck… how long…?"
Hundreds of monsters already ringed the Deebringer. Every last one of them turned and fixed its eyes on the remaining explorers.
Only then did the man understand. While detonating all those mana bombs, the man called LEO had used the Spirel to herd the entire exploration team straight into the Deebringer's gathering ground.
An enemy who planned two moves ahead, not one. For the first time Jareid felt true, crushing helplessness. A hollow laugh escaped him.
"He can massacre us like this without even showing his face…?"
No one answered the question.
—CRUNCH
—CRRRUNCH-CRACK
Hundreds of monsters poured in and began tearing the explorers apart. A few tried light-footwork to flee, but no one could weave through a sea of monsters that blanketed the earth.
The feeding lasted a long time. When it ended, nothing remained.
The Spirel circled the site once more, then drifted slowly away.
Inside the bunker, Herisia had watched the entire battle through the screen. She turned to Leos with wide, astonished eyes.
"How… how do you control it so well? Even the Empire's specialists can't handle one like that."
A Spirel wasn't piloted by remote. Once linked to the user it moved through their mana, which made it even harder than a remote-control drone. The pilot had to account for every float, every turn, every gust of wind.
"I used to fly drones in a war. This isn't much different, so of course I can handle it."
"Drones…?"
"A combat weapon from my hometown that worked a lot like a Spirel."
Herisia looked like she was hearing the word for the first time, but she didn't press. Leos clearly had no desire to dig deeper.
While Leos stayed quiet, Bendict sidled over and started clapping hard.
"Hyung-nim! You wiped out those Empire bastards beautifully again! How the hell do you take them out from that far without ever showing your face? My chest feels wide open!"
Bendict had plenty of grudges against the Empire; every time they cleaned up Empire trash his face lit up for a moment.
Yeah, of course. His father died because the Empire protected the swindler who ruined him.
Leos studied Herisia's expression carefully. He wanted to know whether the killing bothered her.
"You did the right thing, Leos."
"What?"
"You took out the bad guys. Those people posted photos of themselves murdering innocents on Interrunner. If you hadn't stopped them they would have kept going. You did good."
Leos said nothing. He simply walked to a corner, lay down, and stared at the ceiling. Somehow the words settled him.
He lay in silence, eyes on the sky. He felt no guilt for the people he had just killed—only the same mild satisfaction as clearing a pack of monsters.
I have to be careful. Start killing without standards and you become a monster yourself.
Leos always drew the line. In war and now, refusing to kill those who deserved it was the work of insects. But slaughtering people who did not need to die was the work of monsters. He wanted revenge, not mindless butchery.
Of course, every last one of those bastards just now was trash that didn't deserve to live.
With that thought he opened Interrunner, half-expecting backlash from the continuous killings. The community's reaction was the exact opposite of what he feared.
A few people were uncomfortable with LEO's open killing, but because every act came with clear justification, the supporters outnumbered them. Open worship of LEO had even started to appear.
Didn't see this reaction coming.
He had killed for points, following whatever felt right—and somehow he had become Interrunner's hero. Even during his days as a Gatekeeper he had never received this kind of feverish support. Leos felt oddly unsettled as he scrolled through comment after comment. Every one of them was friendly.
…
He stared at his Distance for a long while before one comment stopped him cold—a reply left only moments earlier under a post he had written himself.
Leos simply stared at the Distance for a moment, expression frozen.
A disciple he had truly cherished back when he was still a Gatekeeper.
That same disciple had just left him a comment.