Chapter 25
Chapter 25
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 25
Chapter Title: Spy (4)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"Ha?"
Aria furrowed her brows.
Judging by the school uniform the girl was wearing, she was a student at Cuvette.
Why was a student here at this hour?
"Oh, if it isn't the janitor girl. People can make mistakes, you know... Don't look at me with such scary eyes."
"Who are you."
"You're the one who should explain yourself if you're not the janitor. What's your reason for sneaking into someone else's school server room in the dead of night?"
This conversation was dragging on too long.
Aria decided she had to eliminate Han Cheong-ah right then and there.
She put her thought into immediate action.
"Requesting restraint release at 10%."
At that moment, a strange light rippled from Aria's body.
The hidden chains binding her body revealed themselves, and three of the dark iron chains snapped with a clank!
Aria's eyes glowed an eerily bright red.
With the chains restraining her wolf powers broken, Aria's body exploded into motion, her sharp claws swinging to tear out Han Cheong-ah's throat.
Han Cheong-ah's eyes followed the trajectory of the claws.
It was a strike with enough destructive power to pierce a Psyker's barrier field. No ordinary Psyker's physical abilities could dodge that speed.
But Han Cheong-ah simply bent backward at the waist, evading Aria's attack.
"!?"
"So you are the sucker-puncher. Caught red-handed today. I'll beat you down with my own hands!"
Han Cheong-ah used the self-defense techniques she'd learned from Lee Gyeo-ul.
She grabbed Aria's ankle as she closed in, threw her weight into it, and perfectly toppled her.
It was a double-leg takedown.
Mounting her from above, Han Cheong-ah swung her fist down toward Aria's face.
However, Han Cheong-ah's fist never reached Aria's face.
Grip! Aria seized both of Han Cheong-ah's wrists and began resisting from the mounted position.
"Not bad for a sucker-puncher...!"
Han Cheong-ah strained with all her might to shake off Aria's hands and opened her mouth.
Aria looked up at her with eyes full of doubt.
"Hah...?"
"You happily bashed the back of my head before too. You were probably cocky this time as well, but humans always evolve from a minute ago."
Aria was astonished by the power coming from Han Cheong-ah's slender frame.
Even after breaking 10% of the restraints suppressing her physical abilities, Han Cheong-ah matched Aria's raw strength without falling behind.
'Some kind of physical enhancement superpower...'
Unlike her innocent-looking face, she was a Psyker who knew how to fight. The strange things she was saying might be a high-level strategy to rattle Aria's mind.
However, Han Cheong-ah's momentum ended there.
"Requesting restraint release at 20%."
More chains snapped.
In an instant... the balance of power shifted decisively to Aria.
"Kgh!?"
Thud! Aria shoved Han Cheong-ah off from on top, sending her body tumbling backward into a reverse mount.
"You're pretty good in a fight, but tough luck."
"Getting taken down by a girl isn't my thing, though..."
"I'll ask once more. Who are you."
Han Cheong-ah flailed around with both hands pinned, but she couldn't break free of Aria's grip.
Their eyes met in reversed positions.
Han Cheong-ah spoke.
"Han Cheong-ah."
"I didn't ask for your name."
"Can't you tell just by looking? I'm a high school student."
Should I just kill her right now? Aria barely suppressed her murderous impulse and continued.
"I'm asking why you're here."
"I just got info that the sucker-puncher who bashed the back of my head was here."
Sucker-puncher...?
The conversation had felt off-kilter from the start, like they were talking past each other.
'Whatever, it doesn't matter.'
Whether the girl's words were true or not didn't matter. All that mattered was whether she was an obstacle in Aria's way.
Aria judged her to be one.
She needed to kill her right here and hurry to secure the Archive.
Aria leaned in to bite out Han Cheong-ah's throat.
"Winter sis!!!"
Han Cheong-ah squeezed her eyes shut and shouted someone's name at the top of her lungs.
In that instant, an explosion erupted, sending a gale-force wind blasting outward.
BOOM! A deafening roar that could burst eardrums echoed through the school grounds. The blast shattered the server room's inner and outer walls, mercilessly destroying the surrounding area.
Both Han Cheong-ah and Aria were caught in the explosion.
Aria's body was hurled away by the gust, rolling across the floor.
Han Cheong-ah was being held in a princess carry by someone.
"I told you not to call me Winter sis from outside. How is it that my Cheong-ah never listens to her big sis?"
Lee Gyeo-ul whipped up a gust to clear the dust.
Aria staggered to her feet.
The heat buildup from compressing air beyond a certain pressure, applied as an explosion.
Aria knew the hunter who mainly used this technique.
"Hell Dog, huh..."
Aria's expression twisted.
Why was a special-class hunter treated as a national strategic weapon here?
"Oh my, you know my name?"
In response to Aria's murmur, Lee Gyeo-ul flashed a mischievous smile and shrugged broadly.
Unlike Aria's anxious demeanor, Lee Gyeo-ul exuded the leisure unique to the strong.
Lee Gyeo-ul uttered a chilling remark.
"But if you know that, you have to die."
The smile vanished from Lee Gyeo-ul's face. She continued, radiating a chill that prickled the back like frostbite.
"Judging by those beast ears on your temples, you're no ordinary human. Putting together everything you've shown so far, it's hard to call you a Psyker. And since you came deliberately to where the Archive is, you're probably one of those freaks from the 21st Century Secret Society with high odds."
The Secret Society had a notice called the high-risk personnel list.
Divided into categories like hunters, civilians, and traitors, this post listed people the society's operatives worldwide needed to avoid. Lee Gyeo-ul was marked as "immediate escape," making her one of the most dangerous to them.
"Requesting full restraint release at 100%!"
Aria no longer cared about securing the Archive.
The explosion had made its location uncertain, and she wasn't so carefree as to ponder it while facing Lee Gyeo-ul.
All the shackles binding Aria's body shattered.
The sharp snapping of iron rang cheerfully through the area as Aria revealed her true form.
Lustrous golden fur covered the wolf's entire body.
She resembled the beast from Norse mythology that devoured a god.
With Zero One's restraints on her freedom temporarily gone, Aria reverted to the form of a wolf racing across verdant plains.
Noble and elegant, yet her massive jaws hid sharp, sturdy fangs that looked vicious enough to chew Lee Gyeo-ul up in one bite.
A howl echoed through the school grounds.
"───────!!!"
Lee Gyeo-ul calmly watched the scene and set Han Cheong-ah down from her arms.
"Cheong-ah. Go home and catch up on your studies."
"I swore I'd beat the sucker-puncher with my own hands."
Even in this situation, Han Cheong-ah spoke calmly without fear.
Lee Gyeo-ul looked at her precious, quirky little sister with an exasperated gaze.
"Don't mess around. Go home."
"Okay."
Any more arguing and she'd get smacked, so Han Cheong-ah obediently agreed.
Han Cheong-ah ran off from the school without looking back.
"Hell Dog. Why are you here."
Aria asked Lee Gyeo-ul in the now-quiet space.
"Why's a bitch about to die in ten minutes so damn curious."
Aria sneered at Lee Gyeo-ul's icy attitude and spoke with a voice full of conviction.
"Is that it? That girl... is she the queen you guys found in the Rift...?"
Lee Gyeo-ul didn't answer. She simply stirred up gusts around her, fully intent on hunting the wolf before her eyes.
The battle began in silence. Aria charged forward. The massive wolf closed the distance to Lee Gyeo-ul at terrifying speed.
"Beast type, huh. Been a while."
Lee Gyeo-ul gladly met the close-range assault. She wrapped her fist in swirling air and smashed it into Aria's body.
The blow tore through the thick hide protecting Aria's body and struck her vulnerable flesh.
Aria spat blood from her mouth and let out a pained groan, but she immediately clamped her massive jaws onto Lee Gyeo-ul's right arm.
Crunch! Lee Gyeo-ul's right arm flew into the air, but she didn't flinch, shoving her remaining fist into Aria's right eye.
"Aaaaaaagh!!"
With the wolf's scream, the swirling air currents mercilessly bored into Aria's eye socket.
A massive amount of blood sprayed around. Lee Gyeo-ul manipulated the wind to widen the distance in one go and wiped the blood from her face.
Lee Gyeo-ul's right arm regenerated at rapid speed.
The generated cells gathered, forming joints and flesh to recreate her arm exactly as before.
Lee Gyeo-ul spun the regenerated arm with a satisfied smile.
Aria growled low, blood streaming from her right eye.
"You monster bitch..."
"I hear that a lot."
She was a hunter hailed as a hero for single-handedly saving Seoul from hundreds of Dimensional Beasts.
The title of hero wasn't so easily earned.
The coldest hero in this world took another step forward.