One Step Further

About an hour earlier.

Hyewon's request for support had clearly gone through.

"There's a report of monsters appearing near the beach…?"

And yet her call for backup might as well have been ignored entirely.

One stroke of bad luck stacked on top of another until the whole situation had come apart at the seams.

"Is this another prank call like last time? If there were actually monsters, we'd have an official report."

"Is that so…?"

First: the Ministry of Defense had failed to detect the intrusion at all. The monster horde had slipped straight through the radar as if something were blocking the sensors. With nothing on the official channels, a phone call claiming monsters had appeared looked like a prank from every conceivable angle.

So they ignored it.

No filed report meant no action — or rather, it would have been ignored, except—

"Sir… this doesn't look like a prank. Take a look at this."

"…What the hell. It actually went down??"

A silver lining, if you could call it that. People nearby had been taking photos and uploading posts to social media, painting a real-time picture of the battlefield. It was no longer possible to dismiss the call as a joke. And yet this was not the kind of situation the police could simply roll up and handle.

"This is beyond our jurisdiction."

The police existed to stop criminals and protect civilians. Holding back a monster swarm that had crossed in from abroad was far closer to a military job than a police one.

"So then…"

"We kick it upstairs and wait."

Which brought them to the second stroke of misfortune.

"Sir. There's a call…"

"Ah, forget it. Anyway — hell of a grip you've got. How long have you been at this?"

"Ah… about two years…"

"Two years? Right… figures…"

The man upstairs. Currently occupied with an urgent matter of his own, in the present progressive tense.

"But sir… if we do nothing, civilians will be in danger."

In other words: he was in no position to take the call. Something had to be done, and yet—

"I hear there's already an awakener party on site?"

Sunwoo and Nature's arrival — and the fight they put up, well beyond what their abilities should have allowed. A horde that would normally have required several parties was being held by a single one, and the conclusion they reached was:

"Bunch of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠idol awakeners, right? If kids like that can hold the line, it can't be anything serious."

They decided it was no big deal — the kind of threat a single party could handle just fine.

Effort came back as betrayal. Heroics came back as a burden. Bad luck ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠kept piling on bad luck.

"So then…"

"Just send support requests to the Busan awakener parties and wait for the military to make a decision."

They sounded remarkably at ease for a crisis. A disconnect born of never standing face-to-face with the thing itself. The quiet exploitation of the competent had reached all the way down to the people actually on the ground.

"We came out on a support request, but…"

"…Suho."

"There's no fucking way this works."

A handful of parties living in Busan. They'd seen the disaster alerts and the support texts and shown up — only to find a situation that made "support" look like a joke.

"Kh… AAAAAAAAHHHH!!!"

A woman swinging a greatsword of flame like a madwoman, blowing monsters apart with every strike.

—Crack-crack-crack-CRACK!

"Back. No, forward — wait — ocean. Conductor. Voltage. Nearby — cable…?"

A woman muttering expressionlessly, yellow current flowing from her in precise, devastating pulses as she methodically butchered the swarm.

—BAAAANG!!

"Kihit! Kihihihihit!!!"

A woman pulling the trigger without pause, radiating an ominous mania from every inch of her body — and alongside them,

"Going again! Get down!"

Slash—!

An awakener whose raw power bisected every monster in sight in a single instant.

"…We're out."

The monster horde was bad enough, but the party's skill was on another level entirely. The sheer mass of creatures was enough to kill any thought of joining the fight among the mediocre — and Nature, standing against all of it, made a certain conclusion come naturally.

"If we go in, we'll just get in the way."

"We go in wrong, we're the ones who die."

"…Let's head back."

They're holding fine on their own, aren't they?

So why should we risk ourselves to help?

And what if we get hurt trying?

If it had felt even remotely doable, they might have thrown in. If there had been more people responding, they might have trusted the numbers and advanced. But none of those conditions applied to Sunwoo and Nature right now.

"…Hah."

And every bit of that — the sight, the situation — reached Sunwoo, an A-Class awakener, as clearly as if they were standing right beside him. The wind carried the conversation. The voices. Shinpung delivered the cruel truth: there is no support coming.

I have to get the kids out of here at least.

Sunwoo waited for the right moment. They'd already come this far — Nature and Hyewon would never listen if he simply told them to leave. He needed a proper trigger. Something that made running the only option left.

And that trigger arrived sooner than any of them expected.

Whoooooosh—!

"Here it comes."

Across the water. The first of the four finally showed itself.

"…Holy shit. Is this real?"

The shape that had been a blur on the far horizon began to draw near. It was big. Enormous. A presence like an entire island had decided to move.

"How… something I've only ever seen in textbooks…?"

Each footfall shook the ground. Each breath made the air tremble. And worse than either — the raw, skin-deep sense of absolute helplessness.

"…Should've wiped my C drive."

An S-Class raid monster.

King Turtle had arrived.

"Run."

While everyone else stood frozen, Sunwoo stepped forward instead.

"You already know. That thing is beyond you."

No — if they were talking about what was beyond them, surviving this long had already been beyond them. An endless tide of monsters, each one now at least C-Class or higher. Hordes that would give active-duty hunters a hard time, and Nature — still only Lower Spirit Contractors — had held the line. That alone was more than enough. Their wit, their instincts, their grit and effort: anyone watching would nod and acknowledge it.

And more than anything else—

"You did well. All of you."

Sunwoo acknowledged them. Not the hollow praise of someone about to send them running — the kind of trust that meant he could leave the front line in their hands and still pull his strength together. They had shown him their worth. Enough that he could call them comrades. Enough that he could believe in them.

So:

"Leave the rest to me."

There was no reason for them to push any further. Sunwoo closed his hand around the Spirit Breaker's sealing stone.

"Don't worry. I'm not planning to die."

He was only planning to protect. Mana stirred in his mana hole as he finally prepared to play the card he'd been saving.

"You've done enough."

King Turtle was almost on top of them now. A body the size of a building, large enough to fill an entire beach. And still he didn't retreat — he took one more step into the battlefield—

"HRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!"

"…Huh?"

Right beside him. A searing mass of flame shot straight at King Turtle's brow.

—BOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

—GROOOOOOOOAN…!!!

"…What."

A blow aimed dead at the turtle's nose. It hadn't expected to be hit — and the attack had actually landed. King Turtle staggered and stopped in place.

Had support finally arrived?

No. Impossible. He'd been listening through Shinpung the whole time — support was not coming. Which meant this was none other than—

"Shit… this thing is ridiculously hard!"

"Yeonhwa…"

—the work of Yeonhwa's greatsword.

"Hmph. An S-Class raid monster earns its name. Tougher than I expected."

"No — I told you to run! Why are you getting ready to fight?!"

Any further combat was impossible. That last strike had almost certainly been everything she had left. The dying flames on her greatsword made that obvious. Rationally, strategically, the correct move was to fall back without pushing any further—

"Shut up."

"…What?"

"I know, okay? I know what I'm doing is completely fucking stupid."

"No…"

He was so caught off guard he couldn't even form a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠proper answer. Yeonhwa just grinned at him and raised the tip of her blade.

"But. Instructor — you made me like this."

"What did I do?"

"Everything. All of it."

"…..!"

Mana began to rise from Yeonhwa's body without warning. A sensation like something cracking open. Like shedding the shell of a limit and stepping forward as something new.

"If this were before, I'd have run. Easy. That's what parties are for, right?"

[Shiiiiisss…..!]

Flame coiled around Flame's entire form — hotter, larger.

"But… I started liking it here."

Harin. Sujin. The boss — the instructor, too.

"Nature got precious to me."

So—

As if answering her feelings. As if moving with her sincerity. As the soul grew, the spirit evolved with it.

And when the flames settled once more—

"We kill that bastard. Then we all go home."

[Shiiiiisssssss — FWOOSH!]

The greatsword wreathed in crimson flame no longer burned on her fuel alone. It burned for everyone — for the people she wanted to protect.

"Th-then… me too…"

"Sujin. You — you really can't. Yeonhwa was a warrior before she was a Spirit Contractor, but you—"

"—It's fine."

And that fire of hers began to catch in the people around her, too.

"If it weren't for you, Instructor, I would have killed myself anyway!"

"…Sujin?"

"And honestly, I like this. This is one of those things, right? An awakening event?"

"No — what — hold on—"

A fragile heart that had always chosen to flinch away. A girl who had finally ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠lost to the world's words, fled to a corner of her room, and chosen to rot there—

"And if I die with my instructor and my bias, that's basically a reward!"

"That kind of convenient logic doesn't — ah…?"

She had learned what it meant to live alongside someone. She had learned how to push back.

"So… nn… hhh… uuuugh…!"

"…You're shaking."

"——Nnh!"

From a coward. From something gloomy, useless, a freeloading piece of trash — into someone who was loved, someone who shone, someone who would protect the place that had held her and the person who had made her shine.

"You're the one who set the death flag first, Instructor!"

"………"

[Beep… beeeeep…!]

She couldn't give up. She wouldn't let go. For the first time in a life spent dodging and running, Sujin poured her whole heart into the plea.

"We live together or we die together!"

"What kind of thing is that to say, Sujin…"

"So!"

The stagnant water that had been rotting alone was gone. All she wanted was to live with the people she loved.

"I'm going home with you, Instructor — all of us together!"

[BEEEEEEEEEEP!!!]

And then—

"Why only me…!"

[Nyaaa?]

Jeon Harin — and Nitro — did not evolve.