Nihil
KWAAAANG!
An explosion tore through the air with a deafening roar.
The blast had scorched everything around it pitch-black.
But as the thick smoke obscuring their vision cleared, a gray-skinned humanoid monster emerged from the haze.
"D-damn it. It didn't even flinch."
The hunter who had fired the ball of flame stumbled back a single step.
He hadn't been part of the strike team assaulting the nest—he'd been stationed well behind the lines, firmly convinced that the fighting would never reach him.
But the sheer number of corpses strewn about told the story clearly enough: a massive horde of monsters had come sweeping in.
And the biggest problem of all was that even a high-tier legion species had shown up.
It was a being on an entirely different level from ordinary monsters.
Thanks to that, the blades of the hunters who had rushed in earlier couldn't so much as scratch it, and the direct hit from the ability he'd just unleashed at close range hadn't made it budge either.
Shrrring!
The monster spread both arms wide, its sharp claws glinting.
A moment later, it leapt clean over the hunter fidgeting before it.
Killing him would have been simple enough, but its instincts worked differently from ordinary monsters, which killed humans first and asked questions later.
The reason it had led its swarm here had, from the very beginning, been a single target.
"W-watch out!"
Before the monster that had swept the hunters aside in one bound stood Jang Seo-jun, defenseless.
Exhausted, without even a weapon in his hand.
The monster's claws flashed down at his throat in a single swift arc.
KAANG!
But its claws failed to tear into his neck.
A long blade had crossed its path, and the monster's arm stopped dead against it.
"So I was the target from the start."
Baek Ji-soo spoke as she stared the monster down.
Code name: Needle.
One of Rastus's direct legion species, it exceeded even the boss monsters of ordinary S-rank gates.
It was fortunate only that their numbers were few—at the time, they had wrought utter havoc across the battlefield.
"Grrr...!"
The monster tried to sweep aside the woman who had abruptly blocked its path.
But for some reason, no matter how much force it poured in, the sword holding back its claws didn't budge an inch.
The two edges ground against each other, the screech of friction rising, and even as the monster's arm began to tremble, Baek Ji-soo didn't so much as twitch.
Sensing something was wrong, the monster quickly twisted its arm, and the blade, tracing an erratic new path, went for her throat.
But in that instant—
KWAK!
One of the monster's arms vanished.
A movement no one on the field had managed to see.
The instant the one-armed monster gaping its jaws to shriek in agony, a thick stream of blood spurted forth and its head soared high into the sky.
With a soft thud, the head rolled away, and moments later the monster's balance-forsaken corpse toppled to the ground.
"..."
Baek Ji-soo regarded the monster's remains with detachment, flicked the blood from her blade, and slid it back into its sheath.
Then she turned to Jang Seo-jun, who was staring at her dumbfounded.
"You saw it for yourself, so you know—next time, put a little more care into counter-detection. Anyone with senses as sharp as yours is always going to be priority target number one."
Jang Seo-jun's ability was beyond reproach.
Already, no one in the country could keep pace with it.
But precisely because the detection range of Absolute Sight was so vast, he was that much more vulnerable to being detected in turn.
Just as the snipers of old battlefields had hunted one another, disputes between hunters featured fierce battles of counter-detection among sensitives.
Even among monsters, certain individuals could track a detection-capable hunter—and that was why the monsters had come gunning for this place even now.
"I'm sorry, ma'am. I was trying to be careful, but I'm still not used to it..."
"Your ability hasn't even fully bloomed yet. The more you use it, the faster it'll come."
Baek Ji-soo had already confirmed his talent for herself.
During training, she had seen that he wasn't some hollow vessel coasting on an innate Special Constitution alone—his fundamental aptitude as a hunter was exceptional.
The more familiar he became with Absolute Sight, the more quickly he would master the countermeasures for counter-detection as well.
"Still... in a training facility, a mistake doesn't get you killed. On a battlefield, a mistake IS death. It's the choice you've made, so if you'd rather not die young, watch yourself."
That was why Baek Ji-soo had remained here.
It was no business of hers how the Special Operations Command's operation played out—but she could hardly stand by and let the nation's talent be thrown away for nothing.
At least for now, there was no need for him to worry about counter-detection.
As long as she was at his side, there was no way he would die.
"..."
Yet even as Jang Seo-jun drew reassurance from her presence, he felt a faint twinge of self-reproach.
She had drilled into him never to weigh down his teammates under the excuse of being a support-type hunter, and he had trained relentlessly with those words in mind—only to be needing rescue from the very first deployment.
Baek Ji-soo caught the subtle shift in his expression and spoke up.
"What is this, moping as a permanent act now?"
"...I beg your pardon?"
"You're doing your share more than well enough. Every single piece of information you spot and relay saves dozens, hundreds of your comrades."
"D-do you really think so?"
"Anyone trained by your senior should walk around with their head held high. Stop hunching yourself into a ball for no reason."
Her eyes narrowed slightly as she said it.
And then a faint smile spread across Jang Seo-jun's face.
"Yes, ma'am! I'll push myself even harder."
He nodded firmly and squared his posture.
Then he activated his ability once more and stretched his Gi-gam outward.
Thanks to the rest he'd taken, his mind and body had recovered to a reasonable degree.
As he began reading the flow of battle, he traced the movements of the legion that had swarmed into the operational zone.
Th-this...?
But in that moment, a chill ran down Jang Seo-jun's spine.
Something small in size—on the scale of a lesser species—and yet a presence vaster than any monster he had ever sensed.
Something that even the high-tier species he'd just witnessed would be utterly outmatched by.
"What is it?"
"S-something has appeared to the south of the operational zone."
Jang Seo-jun pressed a slightly trembling finger onto the map.
Baek Ji-soo glanced at him and said,
"If it's that direction, don't worry. Your senior's already on his way."
CRRAAACK!
The terrain split apart under the thrust of the lance.
An entire face of forest had been sheared away whole.
"Oh... oh god..."
The man, sprawled on the ground, turned to look back with his jaw hanging open.
Countless trees sliced clean away, the gouged earth—all of it spoke to the terrifying power of the lance strike that had swept past mere moments ago.
And then he stared, hollow-eyed, at the monster standing tall and unmoving.
A snow-white monster, its single red eye glimmering and shifting.
He had pushed through the front lines all this time and seen humanoid monsters beyond counting.
But he had never once seen anything like this.
It radiated a pressure so overwhelming it made the massive large-type monsters that loomed several meters tall feel small by comparison.
A Named Monster.
The term referred to a monster that had not been swiftly subdued at its gate or point of emergence, but had instead fought on over long years, dealing humanity untold casualties—a single, unique individual that had earned itself a proper name.
For a name to be attached not to a species but to one lone individual was, in itself, proof positive of that creature's absolute strength.
D-damn it... my hands won't move...
His arms shook so violently that he couldn't even muster the strength to grip his weapon.
A being that had devoured not only people but countless hunters besides—little more than terror incarnate to mankind.
No ordinary hunter or soldier could have withstood its presence.
And yet, someone was walking steadily toward that very existence, all alone.
"Still as flashy as ever, that ability of yours."
Oh Hyeon-seong spoke as he regarded the creature.
It hadn't spared so much as a glance for the other humans; from the beginning, its eyes had been fixed on him and him alone.
"..."
Oh Hyeon-seong tilted his head slightly and flicked a glance at the frozen hunters.
Given the nature of its ability, a radius of several hundred meters was effectively a kill zone—the ones who couldn't handle it needed to evacuate without so much as a backward glance.
The hunters scrambled backward in a panic.
Thud.
And it wasn't just the hunters.
The monsters that had been charging in ferociously until seconds ago also withdrew at a raised-arm gesture from the creature.
Nihil was a Named Monster, yes—but it was also a Special Species.
It didn't merely relay Rastus's orders; it could judge situations entirely on its own and issue commands to the monster hordes that ran contrary to them.
Which also meant it possessed an intelligence wholly unlike that of ordinary monsters.
The creature spoke in a voice laced with the screech of grinding machinery.
A skin-crawling voice, crackling and splintering at every syllable.
But Oh Hyeon-seong responded with an indifferent shrug.
"If you're in Korea, speak Korean, you bastard."
"..."
Nihil paused, then opened its mouth again.
"My mistake. It has been some time since I last put the human tongue to use."
"You haven't been alive for very long, have you?"
"No. Most humans are not worth so much as a conversation."
The corners of Nihil's mouth twisted into something grotesque.
Each time it did, sharp teeth utterly mismatched with its smooth, sleek exterior glinted into view.
"Had your species been even slightly more intelligent, you would never have needed to soil your mouths with the distasteful language of such inferior beings."
"The languages we already have on Earth are headache enough. You're the ones who invaded uninvited, so YOU learn to speak OUR language."
"I never expected to find you here. I heard you had already retired."
"Heard it from who, exactly? You pick up a newspaper on the way over or something?"
"News of your kind's inner affairs reaches our ears now as it always has. Your surprise is quaint."
The creature went on, its voice dripping with malice.
"You, on the other hand, have no idea. What is unfolding over there, beyond."
At those words, Oh Hyeon-seong's brow creased slightly.
What "beyond" meant was obvious.
China.
As of now, the Chinese region was impossible to observe through any conventional means, and not even a single satellite photo could be captured of it.
The precise cause remained unknown, but the prevailing hypothesis attributed it to the corrosion that had swallowed the entire landmass.
Though the erosion there was far less severe than in China, the uninhabited zone of North Korea had gone dark in exactly the same way.
So learning what was happening inside China required dispatching investigation teams—but direct reconnaissance had its limits.
China's territory was impossibly vast to begin with, and the land itself was a worst-case hellscape crawling with monsters.
Helicopters that took off carelessly were shot down before they could get far; smooth, sustained observation was simply out of the question.
Investigation teams from Korea and a handful of other nations filed periodic reports, but those amounted to nothing more than a superficial, broad-strokes picture.
No one knew what was truly happening in those deep, hidden reaches.
All anyone could do was assume that gates were opening day after day, spewing forth monsters, and that the land was teeming with countless nests beyond counting.
"I'll admit I'm curious. What schemes you're cooking up in there..."
VWOOM!
In that instant, a razor-sharp intent came hurtling at him head-on.
Against this creature, "defense" was a meaningless concept—so Oh Hyeon-seong wrenched his body aside and dodged by the narrowest of margins.
Behind him, savage gouges had been carved deep into the earth.
"Well... I suppose that's the end of the conversation."
Oh Hyeon-seong murmured it as he glanced at the sleeve of his shirt, slightly torn.
The creature had dragged its legion all this way for the purpose of thwarting the assault on the Root—and it had no intention of sitting quietly in its corner while that assault proceeded.
Naturally, Oh Hyeon-seong had no intention of running out the clock either.
I was hoping to squeeze some information out of it, but that's clearly a lost cause now.
The creature raised its lance, radiating murderous menace.
Oh Hyeon-seong returned the sword he had first drawn to its sheath and pulled out the dagger hanging at the small of his back.
At that, Nihil flinched.
It had sensed that something was off.
"You... what IS that weapon?"
The creature was well acquainted with the concept of artifacts, and had laid eyes on National Treasure-grade relics more than a few times.
But this was a matter of an entirely different dimension.
This was no ordinary armament like anything it had ever seen.
It's certainly no ordinary weapon, that much is true.
Ordinarily, the thing was used for digging up potatoes in a field.
But it was also an armament crafted by Noya—hailed as humanity's greatest artisan—from the corpse of a monster.
And not just any corpse: a National Treasure-grade relic forged from the remains of the Named Monster Chatergil, a venerable senior who had emerged years before Nihil itself.
"This'll be your constant companion from now on, so be a good boy and introduce yourself."
SNAP!
Oh Hyeon-seong snapped his fingers—and from the ground at the creature's feet, a colossal pillar of fire erupted skyward.