The White Knight's End

I awakened. And my potential was the highest humanity had ever known.

On the way back, Yoo Hina made me a promise. She would see to it that Shin Wijun was punished, no matter what.

I wasn't even hoping for that much. Still, I'm grateful.

I had chosen Yoo Hina because she had power. Revenge takes preparation before anything else, and I never expected her to offer that help up front. It was as good as her acknowledging what I could do, and it was her kindness that made the offer in the first place.

"If you're willing to help, I'd be a fool not to accept it."

She was nothing like Shin Wijun, a man dressed in nothing but cheap flash. She was a hero people truly revered. If she set her mind to dragging his crimes into the light, even the Association would have a hard time burying her words. Making an enemy of Yoo Hina cost far more than crossing a nobody like Shin Wijun.

"Of course, the punishment won't amount to much. I can't be satisfied with that alone, but..."

Even so, it would be enough to keep him in check. I had gained an ally sturdier than any army. For the first time in a long while, I stretched both legs out and slept.

After Yoo Hina's mission tomorrow, I would formally leave Shin Wijun's team and join hers.

The next day, Yoo Hina took her team out on the mission, and the whole thing was broadcast live on the wide screen in the plaza. Aside from cases like mine, most ordinary people had no idea how a broadcast like that even worked. They simply assumed it, too, must be some awakener's ability.

A live feed of the raid itself. Yoo Hina really is something.

Showing it off was, of course, meant to lift morale. Even among the awakened, the Raid Teams were the hope of what remained of humanity. People that strong were out there guarding the city, and that alone put life back into the streets and drove the crime rate down.

Of course, it only works because she's Yoo Hina.

She was a Raid Team leader everyone respected. Even the other awakeners, trash that they were, folded a hand in her presence. Skill, character, and looks—she had all three, and putting her missions on display carried real weight. An apocalypse needs a hope people can believe in and lean on.

And the mission doesn't look all that difficult, either.

On the screen, Yoo Hina's team cut the zombies down without much trouble. Heads burst and bodies collapsed, and every time another one went down the crowd erupted in cheers.

"Whew. This ought to do it, right?"

"Don't let your guard down yet. We never know when or where a high-tier zombie might show up."

"Yeah, yeah. Understood."

Yoo Hina refused to relax, right to the end. As if to prove her right, more zombies appeared.

"Everyone, reform the formation!"

"...There's a lot more of them than I thought."

"Since when has the intel ever been right? Just fight."

The swarm was no small thing. What came rolling in was a zombie wave.

Thud. Crunch. Splatter.

Everyone watching held their breath, eyes locked on the screen.

"Minseo, up front with me. Mina, hold your strength in the back! If it comes to it, we break a path out!"

Under Yoo Hina's orders the team snapped into formation and fought at once. Every swing of a weapon sent zombies flying, and their level was nothing like the usual rabble. At the front, holding the center firm and dropping more of them than anyone else, Yoo Hina was the White Knight itself. A real hero, the kind people actually cheer for, is different.

"Hnn—!"

The last heavy zombie's head burst apart. Corpses lay strewn in every direction, and the sight alone was enough to tell how savage, how exhausting, the fight had been.

"Hah... hah... I thought I was dead."

"God. When I get back, I'm taking a week off. No arguments."

Every member had either dropped where they stood or slumped against a weapon. Sweat poured off them, and their breathing came rough. Even for awakeners, it had been a fight that left them spent.

"No one hurt?"

"If you mean are we not dead, yes. If you mean are we okay, no."

"Sounds like you'll live. That's enough."

Even Yoo Hina looked worn out, which was only natural. She had fought harder than any of them. When she flapped her shirt to cool herself, appreciative murmurs rose from all over the plaza. Her chest was on the large side.

"This should be fine. Everyone, rest a little."

"Haaah!"

At her word they all let their bodies go slack, and she wiped away the sweat beading on her skin. Watching the screen, I was struck by a sudden sense of déjà vu.

Did zombies usually swarm in like that?

It was only because of Yoo Hina's leadership, and because the team itself was strong, that they had come through it. That wave could easily have turned fatal. I knew as much myself, being on a Raid Team. Operations like that were rare, and they were usually carried out under far safer conditions. In other words, this was an anomaly. And would it really end with ordinary zombies?

"Huh?"

They say an unlucky hunch has a way of being right. That was the moment Yoo Hina suddenly murmured something. Had she, out there on the ground, noticed it too? Or had she, sharp as her instincts were, felt it before anyone else? The answer would never be known.

The earth tore open with a thunderous crack, and tentacles burst out of the ground as if they had been waiting for every one of them to tire. In a single breath they ran the members through.

"Kahk—!"

"Hik! M-Mina...! Gkh...!"

"All of you...!"

Yoo Hina drew her sword and charged. It was the instinctive move of a woman too kind for her own good.

"Get out of the way...!"

But that was a mistake. Comrades already run through could not be saved. She should have turned and run at once.

"Kh—! What is this...!"

The tentacles came for her immediately. She cut them down with fearless strokes, but there were simply too many. While she defended in a frenzy, one of them found a gap and coiled around her ankle.

"Nngh...!"

Lose your mobility once, and that is the end. The rest swarmed the woman as her balance broke, and in an instant they bound her wrists and ankles one after another. However strong she was, there was nothing she could do once they had her suspended in the air.

"L-let go of me! I said let go, you goddamn bastards!"

The sword she had been so proud of clattered to the ground. With that, it was as good as over. The tentacles hauled her hands up and bound them, then forced her legs apart. She tried to resist, but as her strength drained away she could not.

"Kh—! D-don't! I said don't!"

Even that was not enough. The tentacles tore her clothes. Garments and underwear were stripped away, and in moments she was naked. Only then did a tall zombie come walking in. Tentacles sprouted from its back, and even at a glance it was larger than Yoo Hina. Between its legs, its cock stood rigidly upright.

"Ugh! Kh—! Get away! Get that thing away from me! You sterile, dickless bastards!"

Realizing what was about to be done to her, Yoo Hina thrashed with everything she had. The tentacles only cinched tighter and held her fast. The zombie, now right in front of her, drove its cock into her pussy.

"Aaaah! No—no...!"

The thrusts cared nothing for a woman's pain. As the cock sank deep, blood ran from her pussy. Yoo Hina wailed, but the cry was empty. The zombie paid it no mind and used her body all the same.

"Ugh...! Aah! Kh—! Ah—! Let go...! Please, let go...!"

The tentacles dragged her in by force and pressed her into the zombie's arms, wrapping her tight against it. Against her own will, Yoo Hina was left clinging to the thing.

"Ahh...! Haaah...! I-I don't want this anymore...! Please forgive me...! Please, forgive me...!"

Pain, despair, and the terror of dying more horribly than anyone—Yoo Hina wept like a child and begged the zombie for mercy. It was a wretched end, nothing at all like the figure she had always stood for.

"K-khhh..."

Helpless, her body shaking, she was the last thing on the screen before the feed cut to black.

"Th-this can't be."

"Lady Yoo Hina..."

A deep silence fell over the people who had been watching beside me. How were any of us supposed to take in what we had just seen? Even the Association could not have expected an ending like that. That was why they had been far too late ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠cutting the broadcast. But of everyone there, I was probably the one most shaken.

Yoo Hina, like that...

Only yesterday she had smiled brightly and greeted me, spoken with such confidence, and told me to trust her and her alone. That same Yoo Hina had been caught by a zombie with nothing left but instinct, and met her end.

I made it home, but the shock would not fade. It was worse because I had watched, with my own eyes, as a zombie violated her. If there was any mercy in it for her, it was that the pain would not last long. Zombies did not bother keeping humans alive. Even when someone was reduced to a plaything like that, they tormented them only briefly before biting them and turning them into one of their own.

"...Is that really something I should call fortunate?"

A vicious helplessness washed over me. The person who, just yesterday, had said she would help me. The person everyone depended on, reduced to something that horrific. Because we had actually spoken, the pity carried by that miserable end cut even deeper.

"...Isn't this too much?"

Trash ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠like Shin Wijun was living high and proud, while a righteous woman like Yoo Hina met an end like that? No matter how I turned it over, it was wrong. I knew this world was an apocalypse. Even so, that was too far. Shouldn't someone who lived hard, and lived kindly, receive something in return? The Association and the community galleries, always the first to leap whenever there was profit in it, cried out in shock and then simply sat still.

"Something really is wrong. If it doesn't change from the roots, nothing will."

The moment I muttered those words, a window rose before my eyes.

"What?"

A dazed sound slipped out of me. A message window hung in front of my eyes, and the instant I saw it I knew what it was. How could I not? It was the thing I had wanted my entire life.

Awakening...!

A blessing granted only to a vanishing few. At last, it had appeared before me as well.