The Lightning That Burns the Crisis
Thunder rumbled across the sky, heavy with dark clouds. A flash of lightning flickered, and a split second later, a deafening crack of thunder tore through the air.
The thunder stirred a primal dread deep in the chest, while the lightning painted the world in a blinding, instantaneous white. Ever since she was a child, Arin had loved that explosive roar.
When thunder rolled, it felt as though the wrath of the heavens was punishing the earth. Good and evil were merely human constructs; the sky cared for no such things. Lightning struck indiscriminately, shattering structures and striking living things dead on the spot.
Humans feared lightning because they never knew when, where, or upon whom its wrath would fall.
But Arin knew. She knew that the thunder illuminating the dark sky would never harm her. Instead, it shielded her, wrapping her in its embrace. The lightning only ever struck down her "crisis."
And so, she was not afraid. Arin loved the thunder.
"Dad..."
Arin spoke in a trembling, tearful voice. The tears she had fought so hard to hold back finally spilled down her cheeks.
She had wanted to run away this entire time. She had wanted to cry. She had wanted to scream. The monsters were too numerous, too powerful. Terror and dread had slowly begun to eat away at her.
Yet, Arin had not turned away. She had not run.
Because she was a supernatural ability user. Because she was an academy student. Because she had a duty to fight. So, she endured and endured. She held her ground, over and over. Even as her Crisis Detection screamed in frantic warning, she had gripped her weapon tighter instead of turning her back.
"You all did well. I will handle the rest."
The familiar voice. The flashing lightning. The rumbling thunder. Gazing at that dependable back, Arin felt her lingering terror and exhaustion melt away like snow. A quiet, burning passion welled up in her chest.
Arin's supernatural ability fell silent. The roar of thunder had swallowed every trace of "crisis."
The military organization of heroes protecting humanity from the "monsters of the rifts." The sword of humanity. The shield of humanity. Cheonmyeongdae.
And at the absolute pinnacle of all heroes, the seven Captains who led Cheonmyeongdae. The undisputed strongest heroes. The ultimate guardians. The mightiest supernatural ability users.
One of those seven. The man who had taught Arin what it meant to be a supernatural ability user—her father, the pride of her life.
Captain of the 2nd Division, Karlad.
"Class A... Is Angelica their homeroom teacher? There is no way she would struggle against a mere high-tier monster... Well, no matter. I will hear the details later."
A cold light glinted in his eyes. Under his piercing gaze, the high-tier monster bared its yellow teeth and growled. Yet, there was no real threat in its posture. Like a cornered beast barking all the more savagely, it puffed up its body in a desperate, wary display against the supernatural user before it.
Acrid smoke rose from its scorched scales. Its dripping saliva was thick with pungent ash.
The standoff was brief. The moment its electrocuted, paralyzed body recovered, the high-tier monster lunged without hesitation. It was a reckless, headlong charge, as if refusing to acknowledge that it had felt even a moment of fear.
The invisible air shattered. The sound of its movement only caught up after the high-tier monster had already passed. A shockwave tore up the ground. Closing the distance in an instant, the monster reached Karlad, opening its crocodilian jaws to swallow him whole.
"I have never seen a masked monster before."
Its gaping maw split open. The high-tier monster couldn't even hear the faint sound of its own flesh tearing. By the time the beast realized what was happening, its body had already been sliced horizontally. Its upper palate and lower jaw would never meet again.
The high-tier monster's body slid apart, cleanly severed in two.
Karlad dissipated the blade of lightning he had formed at his fingertips. He shook his hand a few times, as if brushing off blood that hadn't even managed to touch him. He let out a hot breath. The battle was over.
A high-tier monster... in a single strike?
Yujin gasped at the sight before his eyes. It hadn't been flashy, nor had it seemed incredibly fast. He had simply, calmly drawn a blade woven of lightning... and the high-tier monster was sliced in half, dead.
Yujin instinctively realized that if the man had truly unleashed his full power, he wouldn't even have been able to comprehend what had happened.
He showed me on purpose. The technique just now closely resembled Yujin's Sun Sword.
Spinning and compressing. An ultimate technique that pushed cutting power to its absolute limit. Though it was lightning instead of fire, the underlying principle was strikingly similar.
"So that's how you do it..."
It was a perfect textbook demonstration. He had only seen it once, but once was more than enough. Realizing exactly what his own technique lacked and where he had overdone it, Yujin muttered blankly. He had taken pride in his technique, believing it to be quite formidable, but it turned out to be riddled with flaws.
The strength to fell a high-tier monster in a single blow. A perfected technique that commanded pure awe. Only now did Yujin realize who Karlad was. There were only a select few capable of such a feat. A Captain of Cheonmyeongdae. The pinnacle that Yujin aspired to reach.
After staring at Karlad's back as if possessed, Yujin suddenly snapped out of it. Now was not the time to stand around in a daze. Yujin hurriedly forced his exhausted body to move.
Though his leg muscles felt as if they had melted from the intense heat and refused to cooperate, he spurred himself forward, quickening his pace.
"Lucia!"
She had taken the high-tier monster's attack in his stead. Her chest had been horribly torn open, and her neck had been bent at a gruesome, tragic angle. Normally, she would be dead. No matter how superhuman an ability user was, surviving such a fatal wound was impossible.
But Lucia's supernatural ability was Super Regeneration. When it came to survival, no other ability user could compare.
With a gaze tangled with desperation, hope, fear, and guilt, Yujin looked down at the fallen Lucia.
Her neck, which had been snapped in an impossible direction, had already returned to its proper position. The bones that had pierced through her skin were slowly receding back inside her body. Yet, Yujin could not put his mind at ease. Her regeneration was slow. It was working, but... it was far too slow.
The pool of blood on the ground was well past a lethal volume. For someone with Lucia's small frame, she should have stopped breathing long ago. That she was still breathing was solely thanks to her supernatural ability.
What do I do? What can I do?
He had rushed over out of sheer worry, but there was absolutely nothing he could do. Her injuries were so severe that he could only be grateful she hadn't died on the spot.
Yujin clenched his fists. His nails dug into his palms, sending a sharp sting through his hands, but he didn't loosen his grip.
Don't despair. There has to be something I can do if I look. First... right, let's stop the bleeding first.
Yujin took off his school uniform jacket. If he had bandages, he would have used them, but since he had none, he decided to use his clothes as a makeshift wrap.
"Hey, why are you stripping all of a sudden? Stop acting like an idiot and move."
Just as he was about to tear his sweat- and blood-stained uniform into strips, someone shoved him aside. Normally, he could have easily withstood such a light push, but he was currently so exhausted that he could barely move, and he stumbled backward.
Startled, he turned his head. Strands of purple hair brushed past Yujin's face. Deep dark circles hung under her eyes. Round, full-moon-shaped hoop earrings swayed. Rings adorned every single one of her ten fingers.
The girl, whose school uniform was half-unbuttoned, frowned as she looked down at Lucia.
"You're... from Class D?"
"Don't go renaming people like that, Class A."
Regina, a member of the delinquent Class D. Though she belonged to Class D, she had tagged along for Class A's field training. She let out a heavy sigh.
"Normally, I'd charge for this... but hmph, I'll let it slide for the price of some chocolate. Consider it a massive discount."
Even though she knew Lucia was unconscious and couldn't hear her, Regina snapped anyway as she rolled up her sleeves, exposing her forearms. A faint, shimmering haze began to rise from her forearms, which were as pale as her face.
Supernatural ability: Drug.
Everything produced by her body was a drug capable of bewitching and addicting people. Before entering the academy, Regina had a history of selling her drugs for exorbitant sums. The junkies who tasted her drugs were utterly captivated, losing their minds to the intense addiction and unparalleled effects. No longer satisfied by any other substance, they begged and clung to her, desperate to buy her drugs by any means necessary.
Some squandered their entire fortunes. Others turned to crime just to scrape together the money. Some even went as far as to attack Regina directly. A power that shattered human reason and judgment. That was how dangerous Regina's supernatural ability was.
But a drug could also be a medicine, depending on how it was used. Regina was an ability user who could freely control and alter the components of the drugs she produced.
The white smoke rising from her forearms drifted toward Lucia, slowly seeping into her. The smoke rode Lucia's shallow breaths, penetrating deep inside her.
"Ugh..."
The effects were immediate. Lucia let out a low groan and stirred. Her sluggish regeneration visibly accelerated.
"Is this...?"
"I stimulated her regenerative power. Normally, it just makes wounds heal a bit faster, but this girl responds incredibly well to it."
Regina turned her gaze to Yujin, gesturing with her chin.
"How about you?"
"Huh?"
"Your wounds don't hurt anymore, do they?"
At her words, Yujin suddenly took stock of his own condition. Now that she mentioned it, the pain was gone. He had been battered from head to toe, without a single uninjured spot.
"It's a painkiller. Your wounds are still there. So don't go overdoing it just because it doesn't hurt. You'll drop dead before you know it."
"...Thank you."
"Save it. Empty thanks like that are useless to me. I'm just paying back a debt."
Regina snorted.
"I hate fighting. My ability isn't meant for combat anyway. Your class has been protecting me this whole time. The world is all about give-and-take. If you receive, you have to give back."
"Whatever your reason, thank you for helping."
"Yeah, yeah. You're one of those guys who just doesn't listen, aren't you? Why are you thanking me for a transaction?"
Despite her grumbling, she didn't stop her ability. Regina continued to disperse her refined drug—a drug that accelerated wound regeneration and numbed pain. Since it was still a drug, it carried a slight risk of addiction... but that was none of Regina's concern. It was only about as addictive as caffeine anyway, so it wouldn't cause any real harm.