The Nest
Hanul’s fist cleaved through empty air.
Han Seungwoo threw his arms up in a desperate block, but it was nowhere near enough.
CRACK!
BOOM! The sickening snap of dislocated bones rang out as he was blasted away and slammed into the ground far across the yard.
“Ghk—khah…!”
Han Seungwoo spat a mouthful of bloody saliva and tried to rise, only to stagger. Shadow hands erupted from the floor, seizing his limbs. They hoisted him into the air and slammed him down again.
BOOM! BOOM! CRASH! CRASH!
A merciless thrashing.
“What are you waiting for?! Attack together!”
“Damn it! Where the hell did this monster come from?!”
The watching subordinates charged as one. Existing gear and weapons refined in the Immortal-Cultivation style all aimed for Hanul’s back.
“How dare you point such insolent toys at my master!”
“Enough, Lilith. Just keep an eye on that small fry.”
Shadow thorns exploded outward in every direction. The chests of the charging men were all pierced at once.
Thud-thud-thud—
They hit the ground without even managing a scream.
Hanul walked over to the fallen Han Seungwoo. His shoe heel crushed down on the man’s chest.
CRUNCH—SNAP!
“Ghk! I… I am… reduced to this…!”
Blood vessels stood out in Han Seungwoo’s eyes. Back in his Hunter Special Affairs Bureau days he had hit the wall of B-rank and despaired. Then he met his master, Myojin. He learned Immortal arts. Fate itself changed. He had broken past the limits of Awakening and grown stronger—he had believed he would never be trampled like this again.
“Then let’s finish it.”
Hanul raised his hand high. The instant it came down, Han Seungwoo’s head would vanish without a trace.
On the brink of death, something inside Han Seungwoo’s dantian went click and opened.
WUUUUM—!
Cyan-white Immortal light erupted from every pore of his body. Blocked meridians burst open, violently sucking in the surrounding air.
Only after staring death in the face do I finally break through the wall that held me back all this time!
“KHAHAHAHAHAHA!”
Han Seungwoo burst into mad laughter. His form blurred, then he drove into Hanul’s flank in an instant. A hand-blade charged with newly awakened spiritual force smashed into Hanul’s side.
BOOM—!
For the first time, Hanul’s body was forced backward.
Dozens of Immortal-forged swords materialized in midair and poured down like a storm.
KRA-KRA-KRA-KRAAASH!
The ground where Hanul had stood was obliterated. Han Seungwoo burst through the dust cloud, Immortal light condensed in his fist as he drove it straight at Hanul’s chest.
“Die!”
THUD!
Hanul’s head snapped back.
THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD!
A relentless barrage shattered Hanul’s barrier and began to ravage his flesh. Every explosion of Immortal light bent Hanul’s body further backward.
“Master!”
Lilith cried out and lunged. Han Seungwoo snagged her by the throat mid-charge and slammed her into the ground.
CRASH!
He followed up by driving a straight punch into Park Dojin’s gut.
“Ghk…!”
“Urgh…!”
“Khh—cough!”
In a heartbeat Hanul, Lilith, and Park Dojin were all subdued. Han Seungwoo panted roughly and wiped the blood from his lips.
Lucky break. I already raised my realm by breaking the wall—if I offer these three as refining materials…
The reward would be certain. He could receive the spiritual elixirs bestowed by high-ranking Immortal officers. Beyond the Qi Condensation stage, even higher realms? No longer a dream.
“Congratulations, Team Leader! With this haul you might even make Division Chief!”
“Haha, good work. There’ll be scraps for you lot too. Load these bastards up and let’s head back.”
“Yes, sir!”
The subordinates moved in perfect order, loading the unconscious Hanul and his companions into the vans.
Vrooom—
Engine noise shattered the silence of the industrial complex. Destination: the Nest. A filthy slaughterhouse that ground humans into elixirs. Two vans set off toward it.
Yet the scenery outside the windows was strange. Thick fog had blanketed every direction, swallowing the view. Distances that should have taken time to cover folded like waves, collapsing space itself. High above, a single grotesque eyeball watched the scene with indifferent calm.
“What the…? We’re already there?”
When Han Seungwoo came to his senses, they had already arrived at the Nest. A brief sense of wrongness flickered—then vanished the moment the van doors opened. Waiting for him were beautiful women in nurse costumes tailored exactly to his tastes. They glided forward and melted into his arms.
“Huh? What is this…?”
He couldn’t understand it, but instinct outran reason. The instant he roughly pulled the coquettish women close, a warning bell tolled in a corner of his mind. Reality was far too sweet.
—So that’s where you were.
—May I drain every last drop of his essence now?
—Do it.
Voices from empty air. In that same moment the beauties in his arms twisted hideously.
“Urgh! Wh-what the hell?!”
“Why are there old hags here?!”
Once-beautiful skin sloughed away. Faces lost eyes, noses, and mouths, wrapped only in rough bandages. The fog thickened further, erasing the outlines of the world.
“Ghk… GAAAAAH!”
Screams tore free. Agony that felt as though it were ripping out the roots of the soul. Worst of all was the sensation that the very foundation of his manhood was being torn out by the roots, flooding every nerve.
“Kh—khah! AAAAAAGH!”
Crack-crack-crack—
Space itself shattered.
CLANG!
When Han Seungwoo’s mind cleared, he was still on his knees on the cold concrete of the industrial complex. He had never boarded a van. He had never reached the Nest. It had all been Lilith’s illusion arts.
“Heh. Did you enjoy the sweet dream?”
Lilith covered her mouth with elegant fingers and smiled. The pain from the dream, however, had become real. Han Seungwoo’s lower body was already soaked black with blood.
“Kh… How dare you toy with me…!”
Han Seungwoo tried to rise on bloodshot eyes. His body refused to obey. He and every one of his subordinates had already withered to skin and bone. Caught in the illusion, every drop of their essence had been drained. Fingers reduced to leather scraped the ground with a grotesque sound.
“I’ll put those useless husks to work as materials and fuel for Leviathan.”
“L-Leviathan…?”
Hanul flicked a finger against Han Seungwoo’s brow. Black demonic power flooded in, forcibly sharing Hanul’s spell-sense.
Synchronize
Han Seungwoo’s sealed senses were violently forced open far beyond his own rank. High above Guro-gu he felt it—an abyss of overwhelming mass floating in the sky. The presence of a colossal steel behemoth!
“Hhk… haah, haah!”
Simply perceiving its existence shattered his soul into fragments. Heightened hearing caught the demonic-power vibrations that tore the atmosphere. The tremor in his brain would not stop.
KRRRRRRRRRUMBLE—!
The sound kept shaking his soul as though construction noise had been compressed and driven straight into his skull.
“S-stop… please stop!”
Dark-red blood streamed from Han Seungwoo’s ears. His heart hammered as if it would punch through his ribcage. Uncontrollable vomit erupted.
Worst of all was the terror that ate into the soul. When fear exceeded its limit, reason went numb. Terror twisted into grotesque worship. A mad desire to become one with that vast horror seized his brain.
“Ahh… ohh…”
As if entranced, Han Seungwoo stretched his arms toward the sky. From Leviathan’s belly, tentacles tipped with harpoons rained down like a storm.
THUNK! THUD!
The harpoons punched clean through the chests of Han Seungwoo and his men. Screams caught in their throats before they could escape. The tentacles reeled them into the air.
“GAAAAAH! AAAAGH!”
Leviathan’s outer hull yawned open like a mouth. Han Seungwoo’s body, hurled inside, was dismantled in real time. Skin and flesh adhered to the ship’s armor plating as repair material. Bones hung from the outer wall like decorations. The residual soul and demonic power that were ripped free flowed into the engine room and fed blue flames.
“Save me—save me…! Ghk-gik, gik-gik!”
With a grotesque grinding sound, Han Seungwoo’s existence was erased. The screams of his subordinates vanished beneath Leviathan’s engine roar. On the ground only black bloodstains remained like stains.
“Hey. Snap out of it.”
“Sir?”
At Hanul’s indifferent voice, Park Dojin lifted his dazed head.
“You were planning to head for those bastards’ den, weren’t you?”
“Th-that’s right, but…”
“There’s a place they call the Nest.”
Engine noise approached from afar. The Special Affairs Bureau Director’s official sedan slid out of the darkness with no driver. Hanul pulled a key from his pocket and tossed it. Park Dojin caught it on reflex.
“Your sister won’t be coming back alive.”
“Sh-she’s dead… is that what you’re saying?”
Dojin’s voice trembled. Hanul’s eyes went cold and still.
“You at least have the right to watch the end of the place that made her suffer. Reassignment. Drive.”
He staggered into the driver’s seat. Yet he seemed to steel himself, biting his lip hard enough to draw blood. Hanul and Lilith settled into the back.
Hanul flicked a finger. Demonic power crackled through the car’s navigation. The map reconfigured, and a single red pin dropped into place.
A facility converted from the dormitory buildings of a vast industrial complex. A place that refined humans into elixirs. Body parts hung from ceiling hooks like cuts of meat. In massive cauldrons, thick liquid made from essence and flesh boiled.
“I hear Manufacturing Room 12 has been pulling great numbers lately. The Facility Director’s been praising them nonstop.”
“Damn it, Han Seungwoo’s team is the one supplying them the goods. If we just had one team leader like that…!”
Villains’ idle chatter mixed with the screams that filled the slaughterhouse.
Behind that backdrop, several children hid in the shadows. One girl seemed to have awakened a group-stealth ability and was leading them.
Just a little farther… just a little farther and we’re free.
Cold sweat beaded on the child’s forehead. She took one careful step after another toward the slaughterhouse exit, herding the terrified others. Freedom was right in front of them. Then one of the men sniffed the air.
“Don’t you smell rat pups around here?”
The escaping children’s feet froze. Thick sweat rolled down the forehead of the girl using the stealth ability. She had reached her limit. The children’s faint outlines suddenly solidified in the open air.
“So the little rats were right here, huh?”
The man snickered as he approached. The girl fought desperately, but the overwhelming difference in strength was impossible to overcome. He roughly seized her by the hair.
“A few of these would be a waste to just kill, wouldn’t they?”
“You’re right.”
“Pretty little face.”
The men exchanged lecherous looks. Higher-ups had ordered them not to defile the bodies for the sake of elixir quality. But if an “accident” happened while stopping an escape, that was another story. One man unbuckled his belt and stepped toward the girl.
“Right? Accidents can happen anytime.”
“Heh. Exactly. We ought to teach them a lesson.”
The man stroked the girl’s chin with a filthy hand. Terrified, she squeezed her eyes shut.
SHHK—!
The wrist that had been about to touch her chin flew into the air. Blood sprayed from the stump like a fountain.
“Huh…?”
The man stared blankly at his own wrist. Before a scream could leave his throat, the children had already been moved behind Kang Hanul. Lilith gently lifted the girl who had been seized by the hair.
“……Who the hell are you?!”
“Yeah. It would be far too wasteful to just kill you.”
Standing in front of Lilith and the children was Hanul.
“I’m talking about the karma for all the garbage you’ve done. Far too wasteful to let you die cleanly.”