The Limit
“Full Bloom.”
The instant he swung the dagger, a vast surge of force tore outward toward the hunters.
“W-what the hell is that!?”
“Shit! Everyone scatter!! Hurry—”
A deafening roar swallowed their voices whole.
Where the wave had passed, blood scattered like petals on the wind.
Wherever the flowers bloomed, no enemy remained.
“Three seconds for this much, huh.”
A sharp crack rang out—the dagger in his hand shattered, unable to endure his power any longer.
He discarded it without a second glance and looked at the hunters still left standing.
“So. Now it’s just you.”
“Hic!?”
The hunters trembled at his words. A few even collapsed where they stood.
Ten.
Of the nearly one hundred enemies, only a tenth remained.
He picked up a weapon lying nearby at random.
“I’ll say this now—standing there gawking won’t earn you any mercy.”
Scrape. Scrape-scrape—
Dragging the blade across the ground, he slowly closed the distance.
“D-don’t come closer. Stay back……!”
“…….”
Scrape. Scrape-scrape. Scrape-scrape-scrape.
“I surrender! I surrender! Let’s just stop here!!”
“…….”
“W-why? Why do you keep coming!? We already lost!!”
No matter how desperately they begged, he did not stop.
“I told you from the start…….”
Scrape. Scrape-scrape—
Instead, he halted right in front of them as they stared up at him, eyes wide with terror.
“Playing the pitiful card is already too late.”
“Waaaaaah!?”
Slash!
He cut the hunters before him down where they stood.
“Ugh, ghk…….”
“I-it hurts. It hurts so much. Please, spare me……!”
Their screams and pleas brushed past his ears, yet stirred nothing inside him.
He merely flicked the blood from his blade.
Then he turned, expressionless, toward the last hunter remaining.
“…….”
“S-Seoyun…….”
She stared at him with vacant eyes.
He looked at her for a moment, then gestured at the carnage around them.
“Well? Do you still think I can go back?”
“Ah, ahhh…….”
Clutching her head, she looked around.
The reek of blood thick in the air. The cries for mercy. The countless screams rising from the smoldering wreckage.
Faced with that wretched scene, she could no longer hold back her tears.
“Seoyun. Wh-why did you do this? What did these people ever do wrong!?”
“Why did I do this? You’re asking me that right now?”
“You didn’t have to go this far……!”
“Haha.”
He answered with a cold sneer.
Everyone here had come for his life—was there any clearer answer than that?
Not one of them had cared about his circumstances or the truth.
This was the price.
Step. Step.
And one person who had yet to pay that price still stood before him.
“Kang Hanna. Now it’s just you. You’re the only one left.”
“Seoyun. Please, let’s just stop……!”
In a blink he was in front of her.
Startled, she raised her staff—but she was a step too slow.
Slash—
He severed her arm along with the staff.
“Kyaaaagh!?”
Thud. She crumpled to the ground with her severed arm.
He looked down at her without expression.
“Ah, ahhh—ahhk!!”
“What’s wrong? Why so quiet all of a sudden?”
“Hic. Khh. Khhhk……!”
“Say something. Anything. Just like when you sold out my little sister.”
Instead of answering, she frantically used magic to stem the bleeding.
Right. You don’t want to die either.
And yet you drove me to this cliff’s edge.
“Hah, hah…….”
Once her expression had steadied a little, she finally looked up at him.
“Seoyun. I-it’s a misunderstanding. You know how much I care about Jian…….”
“…….”
“Khh, I had no choice either. What was I supposed to do when Choi Jinchul ordered it!? Hic, sob! If I didn’t, Yuri’s treatment would—”
—Thrust.
A short, thick sound cut her off.
The sound of a blade piercing flesh, driving through, and finally punching out the other side.
Kang Hanna stopped crying and simply lowered her head.
“…Huh?”
Then she stared in disbelief.
A sword was buried in her stomach, run clean through.
Its owner looked down at her, utterly calm.
“I see. So that’s how it was. I didn’t know.”
“Cough! S-Seoyun… it hurts. It hurts so much…….”
“Yeah. I know.”
Slash.
He yanked the blade free.
The face that had been pleading only a moment ago twisted in agony.
“Kyaaaaah!!”
“…….”
“S-Seoyun. Please… please, a healer. Kyaaagh!? I feel like I’m going to die……!”
Pain-wracked screams filled the air, but he ignored them all.
Instead he looked up at the Orion Guild building in the distance.
“Right. You’ll be there, of course.”
You always looked down on everything from up there.
He started toward it—only for someone to seize his ankle.
Looking back, he saw Kang Hanna clutching her stomach.
“S-Seoyun, please don’t go. Please don’t leave me…….”
“…….”
Thud. He shook her hand off without ceremony.
“N-no. Sob. Seoyun, please……!”
She begged, but he ignored her and leapt upward.
Then he ran along the wall of the neighboring building.
“Th-there! It’s Lee Seoyun!”
Citizens below spotted him and cried out.
Not one of them cheered at the sight of him anymore.
“I heard he was fighting the hunters. Why’s he over there?”
“D-did he take them all out? All of them—by himself!?”
Their shocked voices reached him, but he paid them no mind.
He had already decided never to look back.
He would not stop. He would not turn around.
One step. Another. Only forward.
Crash!
He smashed through the window of the Orion Guild master’s office and burst inside.
“L-Lee Seoyun!!”
As expected, Choi Jinchul stood by the window, face pale with shock.
“A wine glass, huh. Living it up in style, I see.”
“You bastard……!”
Choi Jinchul yanked a mana-charged pistol from a drawer and leveled it at him.
“Heh, heh. Perfect. I was disappointed I didn’t get to kill you with my own hands.”
“…….”
“How many seconds left on that power of yours? Five? Three? You’re finished!!”
Bang!
The shot flew true, aimed straight at his forehead.
Clang!
He twisted his blade and deflected the bullet aside.
It buried itself in the wall. Choi Jinchul, as if he had expected it, kept firing.
“You persistent piece of shit. Fine. Let’s see how long you last!”
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
He twisted his body, dodging every successive round.
Then, before the man could aim again, he sprinted forward—
at a speed Choi Jinchul’s eyes could never hope to follow.
“D-damn it. You bastard. Die! Just fucking die already, you son of a bitch!!”
He sprayed bullets without pause, but it was meaningless.
Every trajectory was already clear in Seoyun’s eyes.
Dodging or blocking them was nothing.
When he flicked one bullet aside with his sword, it punched through Choi Jinchul’s leg.
“Gyaaaaah!?”
“Screaming over something that small. That’s why you’ll always be stuck at A-rank.”
“Y-you fucking bastard!!”
Goaded, Choi Jinchul’s face flushed scarlet as he fired wildly.
Click. Click.
And just as expected, the gun’s mana soon ran dry.
“Wh-what? Shit!?”
He scrambled to reload, but it was already too late.
Slash!
Seoyun severed the wrist that was trying to load the gun.
“Gyaaaaaaah!?”
Screaming, Choi Jinchul collapsed and stared in disbelief at his severed wrist.
“My arm. My aaaaarm!!”
“What’s wrong? Your friend is here. You should be smiling.”
“Damn it!!”
Choi Jinchul reached for the gun with his remaining hand.
Seoyun drove his blade straight through the man’s palm, pinning it to the floor.
“Khhhk!?”
“Yes. That pathetic, petty scrambling. So very like you. I almost missed it.”
He kicked the gun away and looked down at him.
“So. Is that all? Nothing else hidden away? If you’ve got more, bring it out now.”
“Hahk. Khhhk. You unlucky bastard…….”
Bang!
The door burst open, revealing familiar faces—
Orion Guild hunters, all of them. Spotting him, they hastily raised their weapons.
“G-Guild Master! Are you all right!?”
“Lee Seoyun. So you really were here!”
“Keh-keh-keh! Perfect timing, everyone. Kill this bastard right now!!”
With the tables turned, Choi Jinchul cackled from beneath him.
The guild members leveled their weapons and shouted.
“Lee Seoyun. Release the Guild Master and surrender immediately! Refuse and we will kill you.”
“The Association and the government have already issued a kill order on you. Every hunter is coming here to put you down!”
“…Ha.”
He let out a short laugh at that.
A kill order.
Choi Jinchul, still bleeding, snickered along.
“Heh-heh-heh. Hear that? You’re finished. Your life is as good as over!”
He barked at the guild members.
“What are you waiting for? Kill this criminal already!”
“B-but Guild Master, his ability is still—”
“Forget it. Thirty seconds is long gone. This bastard is nothing now!!”
Bolstered by his words, the guild members began closing in, steps that had only been wary now advancing with purpose.
Thirty seconds, was it.
“Come to think of it, there was something like that.”
“What?”
Choi Jinchul asked as if he had heard nonsense, but Seoyun gave him no answer.
He showed him instead.
“Huh?”
In a flash he lunged, snatching one of the guild members.
The hunter stared in disbelief at the face suddenly filling his vision—then Seoyun seized that face and smashed it into the floor.
BOOOOM!
The floor caved in with a thunderous crash, and the entire guild building shuddered.
“Waaaaaah!”
“Wh-what… how!? Thirty seconds should already be over!!”
Choi Jinchul stared at him in utter disbelief.
The remaining guild members screamed and scrambled backward.
Seoyun lifted his head and exhaled.
“Huu…….”
The time limit of Final Bloom.
A mere ■■■ seconds.
“What are you waiting for? Come at me, all of you.”
From this moment on, he had surpassed that limit.