EX-Rank Awakening Candidate (1)
"Th-the crack is closing? That's impossible!"
The Lord of Gangwon was stunned.
The rift that had been pouring out negative energy had sealed shut, and Baek Soyeon's condition had improved. An F-rank healer had stopped an Awakened from falling into Corruption—something the whole of humanity had never managed to prevent, no matter how many methods they threw at it.
"The crack appears to have been sealed. We should check on Hunter Baek Soyeon and Healer Lee Jinwoo."
The Health Director ran to Jinwoo and Soyeon. Lee Jinwoo, the F-rank healer, had collapsed—apparently having exhausted every last scrap of his strength holding back Baek Soyeon's Corruption.
"They're both alive. Thank goodness."
"I can see that from here, Director."
"You're being rather curt with the man who just saved your lives."
"I'll thank Healer Lee Jinwoo properly once he wakes up."
"Fine. That's perfectly fine."
After that brief exchange with the Lord of Gangwon, the Health Director examined Baek Soyeon and Lee Jinwoo with painstaking care, sweeping their entire bodies with the Mystery of Healing.
"How are they, Director?"
The Lord of Gangwon stepped closer from where he had been watching.
"They've both simply collapsed from total exhaustion. Their lives aren't in danger."
The Health Director answered, then went on.
"It may be hard to believe, but we've found traces of Mental Pollution being partially purified from Hunter Baek Soyeon's body. The levels are still high, but they aren't at an immediately critical threshold."
The Lord of Gangwon's eyes went wide the moment the brief explanation ended.
"An F-rank healer purified Mental Pollution? What in the world…"
There was no precedent for this.
An F-rank healer had stopped an S-rank Awakened's Corruption and even partially purified her Mental Pollution?
If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he would have roared that it was nonsense.
"I'm afraid Healer Lee Jinwoo… is not F-rank."
"You're saying the Bureau made a ranking error?"
The Health Director answered the Lord of Gangwon's question with a small nod.
"Ranking errors are more common than people think."
A fairly ordinary mistake, in other words.
"You can feel those auras rushing this way from a distance, can't you? They're almost certainly coming because of Healer Lee Jinwoo."
The Health Director left a great deal unsaid, but the Lord of Gangwon understood perfectly well.
There was no chance the Bureau had failed to observe Baek Soyeon's Corruption. In fact, the Bureau had already predicted that if she encountered the Deep Sea Prince of the Corrupted Ocean, Corruption would be unavoidable, and they had been moving an elite kill team stationed in the Chungcheong region toward Gangwon-do.
To them, Baek Soyeon had been a discarded piece. A piece that would be unusable once she retired anyway—a sacrificial piece meant to buy civilians time to evacuate against the Deep Sea Prince.
Of course, the power of the Calamity that would have been born from her Corruption had far exceeded the Bureau's projections. Had she become a complete Calamity without Lee Jinwoo's intervention, she would have approached SS-rank, and more than half of Donghae's citizens would have been slaughtered by formless slashes.
And yet Baek Soyeon's Corruption had stopped? It was only natural that every institution watching Donghae-si would move at once in the face of such an unprecedented event.
"At least four factions seem to be flying in simultaneously. They're coming from quite a range of departure points."
Not long after the Lord of Gangwon finished speaking, Awakened who had set out from different places arrived on the scene all at once. There were at least several dozen of them, and still more—dozens more—were racing in from every direction with their Mysteries unleashed.
The Lord of Gangwon studied the faces of those who landed with their formidable Mysteries bared without restraint. Guessing their affiliations was not difficult.
"Well, well… quite the turnout."
There was the capital-region kill team that had supposedly been under circumstances that made movement impossible, as well as Awakened directly attached to the Blue House, and hunters from the National Mobile Unit—a force known to deploy only when a major Calamity threatened the nation's survival.
And a handful of men in suits whose identities were harder to place.
Special Task Bureau from the Foundation? They wouldn't have come just to put down Baek Soyeon…
If Baek Soyeon had fallen into Corruption, the kill team coming up from Chungcheong would have handled her. Even if she had corrupted into a Calamity of a higher rank than expected, this many S-ranks would not have come flying in a single bound.
Don't tell me it's because of this kid?
The Lord of Gangwon's gaze settled on the unconscious F-rank healer, Lee Jinwoo.
Jinwoo had stabilized Baek Soyeon as she was falling into a Calamity and even partially purified her Mental Pollution—a miracle. Of course figures of that caliber would come running.
In the suffocating silence, a woman with a relatively familiar face stepped forward.
"S-rank hunter of the National Mobile Unit. Ju Minjeong. You all know me, don't you? I used to operate as the Hell Witch."
Of course they did.
"We know. Weren't you retired?"
The Lord of Gangwon shot back, mixing casual speech with formality. He still hadn't received treatment for his injuries, so his voice could only come out sharp.
"A man who knows everything worth knowing shouldn't play dumb. I didn't fully retire—I stepped back from the front lines. I'd appreciate it if you'd put it that way."
Ju Minjeong fired back.
After her Mental Pollution levels had risen, she had withdrawn from the front lines and transferred to the National Mobile Unit, which only deployed when major Calamities occurred. Among hunters with severe Mental Pollution, it was not uncommon to transfer to the National Mobile Unit under an agreement that minimized call-outs.
"F-rank healer Lee Jinwoo has been registered as a candidate for an EX-rank Mystery Awakening. Accordingly, as of this moment, under Human Alliance Resolution No. 4, the National Mobile Unit will secure and protect the person of EX-rank candidate Healer Lee Jinwoo. No objections, I trust?"
At Ju Minjeong's gesture, the National Mobile Unit hunters approached Jinwoo and Soyeon. The Lord of Gangwon stepped aside without resistance, and the Health Director raised both hands as if to show he had no intention of opposing them.
"Hold it!"
One of the men in suits stepped forward.
"Securing the person of an EX-rank candidate falls under the jurisdiction of the Foundation's Special Task Bureau. This is not a place for some petty national organization to stick its nose in!"
He snapped at Ju Minjeong with open hostility.
"Mister, what's your name? You don't look like you've got a Mystery worth picking a fight with me…"
With her path blocked, Ju Minjeong let her presence surge, making her displeasure plain—but the men in suits did not back down either.
"Check the supplementary clauses of the Human Charter. This is not a national-scale matter. It's a humanity-scale matter. Jurisdiction naturally belongs to the Special Task Bureau of the Humanity Survival Foundation."
The man in the suit growled.
When it came to every kind of abnormal phenomenon—Calamities, Mysteries, Awakenings—the individual stood below the nation, the nation below the Human Alliance, and the Human Alliance below the Humanity Survival Foundation.
After abnormal phenomena began to appear, the Humanity Survival Foundation had been founded with shadow governments and the Freemasons at its core. Under their patronage, national conflicts had diminished and the international body known as the Human Alliance had been established.
On matters related to abnormal phenomena, one could say the Humanity Survival Foundation stood above even the Alliance's Supreme Council.
But Ju Minjeong, as an Awakened whose Mental Pollution had progressed quite far, was already past the point of making rational judgments with ease.
"You dare stand in this lady's way?"
The Hell Witch's self awoke and began to erode her reason.
"A green little brat with nothing but a sharp tongue. You… have no idea who I am, do you?"
As Hell Witch Ju Minjeong opened her Mystery, the sky flushed crimson and the ground split open. From beneath the cracked earth, the screams of underworld demons came pouring out.
"Blood! More blood!"
"Give me blood!"
"The scent of fresh humans!"
"Heehee! Looks delicious!"
As Ju Minjeong dragged hell up into the world, every face went rigid. No one had expected her to unleash this much power against her own side.
But Ju Minjeong was that desperate.
I don't know who that man is, but it's clear he purified Baek Soyeon's Mental Pollution. If that's true… he might be able to purify mine as well.
Those called hunters began racing toward Corruption from the very moment of their Awakening.
Even as they fought Calamities for the sake of humanity, they could not escape the crushing stress of that fear. Hunters like Baek Soyeon and Ju Minjeong, who had spent years purging Calamities while their minds steadily polluted, stood on the brink of Corruption—and the pressure was all the worse for it.
And then a man who had purified Baek Soyeon's pollution had appeared right in front of her. Of course she would lose her mind over it.
In truth, her leading the National Mobile Unit out here had not been under any order from above. It had been her own unilateral decision.
"All units… protect the candidate with your lives. For the survival of humanity, the ninth EX-rank Awakening candidate must be safeguarded at all costs."
At the Special Task Bureau hunter's command, the Awakened in formal wear formed ranks with perfect discipline. The Blue House's exclusive hunters, reading the dangerous current in the air, also sided with the Foundation's Special Task Bureau—but the National Mobile Unit hunters did not.
Looking closely, their eyes were different. They wore human faces, yet their pupils held the light of demons, not people.
"Hell Witch, you insane bitch… what the hell did you do to your own teammates…"
The Special Task Bureau hunter opened his Mystery with a deathly pale face. The other hunters unleashed their Mysteries as well to face the Hell Witch and the National Mobile Unit hunters—but none of them dared move rashly.
The safety of the EX-rank candidate came first.
If a battle with Hell Witch Ju Minjeong began here, the frail body of an F-rank healer would never survive it.