I used to spar with Kyle often.

Even after we both received the rank of Knight Commander and could barely see each other anymore, whenever we had a spare moment, we would cross swords. And each time, I could never allow myself to relax—

Because the moment I did, my wrist tendons would be severed.

Kwaaaang!

Our swords clashed mid-air, an honest blow for an honest blow.

Hekate shouted sharply,

“I’ll support you—push through!”

“I’ll handle it.”

Yehyeon murmured as calmly as if he were reading a report.

“You focus on Kyle.”

Silver butterflies scattered outward.

The presence of heavy Creatures thickened in the air. The summoner seemed to be drawing them all to this area. There were many—some flying, some burrowing beneath the ground as they approached.

The unseen, burrowing type could be a deadly threat to the Badgers.

But I chose to trust the veterans behind me.

Besides, I had no leeway left for warnings.

Thud!

A rotating strike aimed at my flank was deflected.

Golden eyes blazing with fury flashed within the white smoke.

Kyle.

The Creatures overhead blotted out the sunlight.

“Is this the result you wanted?”

Kyle growled, muscles tightening along his arm.

“Why don’t you just admit you were scared?”

Something hot surged inside me—

A mix of anger, resentment, guilt, and shame. It was so intense that facing it head-on might paralyze me completely.

So instead of answering, I sharpened my senses.

Kyle despised trickery.

That trait carried into his swordsmanship. He favored raw power and precision. He had always been stronger than I was, and he knew how to exploit his strengths.

But if victory were decided by strength alone, things would never have gone so wrong.

From the incline, I looked down at him.

My blade descended along the slope.

A Creature burst from the ground, blocking my path.

Bang!

A bullet pulverized it—

Kudo’s support.

My strike went unhindered.

Kwaaang!

Again, our blades canceled each other out.

Strangely enough, even now, our skill was still evenly matched.

Why? How had you fallen to my level?

And why can’t I remember the last day—

the day I tried to stop you? What happened between us then?

Now was no time to chase those answers.

Left as it was, we would go on like this for hours—until we both collapsed from exhaustion.

Hekate and Yehyeon both knew it.

“Kyle, use your power!”

“Air support.”

Hekate shouted as she attacked Yehyeon, and he calmly intoned,

“Fire.”

The flying Creatures were gone before I knew it.

Ami must have cleared them out. The asphalt was strewn with mangled corpses. Bits of muscle and hide sprayed across my shoulders, Kyle’s, and Yehyeon’s. The scorching sunlight heated the blood-soaked fragments until they reeked.

The shadows Ami had cleared away returned under the drones above.

Yehyeon vaulted behind me and yanked me down.

Tat-tat-tat-tat-tat!

Tat-tat-tat-tat-tat!

Tat! Tat-tat-tat-tat!

“Crazy bastards.”

They didn’t even care about friendly fire?

“Don’t come out.”

Dragging me under the building, Yehyeon muttered,

“Titans don’t regenerate instantly.”

My vision drowned in light.

The barrage from dozens of drones deafened my ears.

Most shells were grenades. Even if they were aimed at our foes, the shrapnel tore into Ricardo, Ami, and Sophia. Yet even in that chaos, the three continued to fire—

their rifles leveled down the slope.

I strained my senses to assess the enemy’s condition.

Kyle and Hekate were unharmed; both were strong enough to protect themselves.

But Sequoia and Sion were another matter.

The bombardment relentlessly pounded the Creatures shielding them. Amid the chaos, the veterans’ bullets sliced through the air.

Sequoia collapsed.

“Kyle!”

Sion shouted.

“Kyle! The transfer!”

I felt Kyle turning his body.

I leapt out of the building. The veterans shouted something after me, but I didn’t listen. Battles are often decided in those fleeting instants when attention wavers.

If I’d ever missed those moments, I wouldn’t be alive now.

I charged onto the slope.

I could see my own kind.

I wanted to end it here.

No thought of retreat, no waiting for another chance—

even if it meant diving into the heart of the bombardment, I was ready to finish everything today.

Opportunities like this would not come again.

I just wanted it to end.

When I saw Kyle walking toward Sequoia, I swung my sword.

Kwagwagwagwang!

A grenade tore through my arm, but my strike flew true.

I saw the white arc of my sword cutting through the barrage.

Kyle knelt beside Sequoia, who lay pinned beneath a stone-type Creature.

He had to feel the incoming blow, yet he didn’t stop the transfer spell.

My chest twisted painfully.

Kwaaang!

Hekate intercepted my strike.

“Hilde!”

Ami shouted from behind me.

“Fall back!”

No.

If I hesitated now, I’d break.

Grinding my teeth, I scanned the slope. Hekate and Sion’s summoned Creatures were blocking the drone fire. Piles of monster corpses surrounded our kin.

But Sequoia’s absence was glaring.

Now was the time to press forward.

“Move.”

I sent three curving strikes in succession and prepared to charge again—

when Yehyeon’s voice rang out.

“I’ll take the shot.”

Someone yanked me back hard.

It wasn’t Yehyeon; he was already sprinting through the storm of fire.

Now I understood why he was called the most “balanced and complete” combatant among the Badgers. He stepped exactly where the bullets left gaps. Shells pierced his body, but his flesh healed almost instantly, his speed never faltering.

Kyle rose, his black hair rippling.

The distance between him and Yehyeon closed fast.

“Focus.”

Ricardo muttered beside me, his hand gripping my collar.

“You’re too distracted.”

I couldn’t answer.

Now Yehyeon and Kyle stood face-to-face, barely a step apart.

Why so close? Yehyeon’s weapon allowed for long-range attacks.

At that range, he was only entering Kyle’s reach.

I gathered strength in my legs to rush forward—

and then silver thorns unfurled from beneath Yehyeon’s feet.

The thorns arced beautifully toward our kind.

“Commander-in-Chief.”

Kyle’s low voice carried over the noise.

“Long time no see.”

It was filled with pure hatred.

When he spoke to me, there had been betrayal—grief, pain—but now there was none of that.

Only hatred.

“Good to see you too.”

Yehyeon’s husky reply came.

“Any thought of surrender?”

Kyle scoffed.

Kwaaang!

Explosion engulfed them both—

Kyle’s sword strike and Yehyeon’s grenade colliding in a thunderous shockwave.

The blast shattered every window in the nearby buildings.

A blinding flash swallowed everything.

They had both landed blows.

Yehyeon rolled backward, stood; Kyle, knocked back, absorbed a Creature.

Through the haze, his golden eyes glinted like knives.

“Commander.”

Ricardo gripped the back of my neck and reported into the comms.

“Artillery strike in one minute.”

Ah.

Only then did I see the missiles streaking across the sky.

Yehyeon had been right. We couldn’t sense anything without life in it—

not the drones, not the missiles fired from beyond that barrier.

I felt Yehyeon ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ retreat rapidly—

And then I heard it.

A song.

“What the hell?”

Ami muttered faintly in midair.

“Who’s singing that?”

Goosebumps crawled across my arms.

It was a familiar melody—echoing through the ruins.

The same song the summoners sang when calling forth high-grade Creatures.

A hymn reserved only for summoning those most dangerous to control.

The holy chorus wove itself around the sound of the drones’ propellers and the incoming missiles.

When I stretched out my senses, I could feel them—summoners far away, and the overwhelming presence drawing closer in rhythm with their song.

“Yehyeon!”

Grabbing Ricardo and Ami, I pulled them backward and shouted,

“Get back!”

The ground heaved.

Boom!

My senses were drowned in shockwaves.

The instant the missiles hit, angels erupted from the earth. The massive blast flung everyone across the ground like scattered dolls. I felt three of the winged beings crushed outright by the explosion—each nearly three stories tall.

Blue-gray wings, bodies made of hundreds of unblinking eyes.

Four still remained.

This was bad.

Even a single one was lethal enough.

“Cover your ears!”

I shouted to the Badgers.

“Get down!”

The angels beat their wings.

A-a-a-a-a-a-a!

My eardrums ruptured.

A crushing pain tore through my body. The Badgers doubled over, pressing their hands over their ears. Warm blood smeared my palms as I felt the stickiness of my own. Forcing my head up, I met the full force of the angelic call.

That voice pushed at my body itself—

Even blades and bullets could not fly straight through it.

Under the relentless wail, all fighting ceased. The drones above shattered under the resonance, and the veterans could do little but cover their ears and brace themselves from being hurled backward.

The missiles should have obliterated them. But until that song ended, we couldn’t advance.

While we were immobilized, Sequoia finished recovering.

Then Yehyeon came rolling toward us, carried by the blast.

He tumbled across the asphalt and finally scraped to a halt a few steps away, both legs dragging lines into the ground. I narrowed my eyes, assessing him. Having been near the source of the call, he’d taken the worst of it.

Blood streamed down from his eyes. I frowned.

I opened my mouth to scold him—

But Yehyeon spoke first.

“Objective achieved. We’re pulling back.”

Objective?

What objective?

“This area’s getting hit with missiles.”

Ami, who had been crouched and bracing herself, lost balance and toppled over.

The weakest were always the first to be blown away. With a cry, I lunged forward and caught her as she rolled backward. Ricardo and I grabbed her at once; her legs flailed helplessly in the air.

Yehyeon reached out to catch Sophia, who was on the verge of collapsing.

I didn’t have time to check her face.

“Jump through the portal.”

Even as he spat blood, the Commander’s voice was steady.

“Rear guard—Ricardo and Hilde.”

No one argued.

Everyone understood instantly. The strongest would cover the retreat. There was no hesitation. Yehyeon gave the order and immediately seized Sophia and Ami, letting the shockwave carry them.

I could feel Kudo moving from his hiding spot inside the building, following them.

Turning my back to the veterans heading for the portal, I saw my kin.

Kyle was charging, sword in hand.

He meant to cut down those retreating.

Another strike came. Hekate’s three-part slash flew ahead of him.

Ricardo countered it.

Kwaaang!

Three silver spikes erupted from the ground, perfectly blocking Hekate’s attack. But they couldn’t stop Kyle.

In an instant, he was before me.

His long black hair whipped in the angel’s cry.

Through the flying strands, his golden eyes gleamed.

Clang!

Our blades met.

Just like the old days.

That painfully familiar sensation.

I felt his strength pressing against me and gave a bitter laugh.

For some reason, standing before him made me keep laughing.

“Coward.”

“I begged you to trust me.”

I didn’t even know why those words came out.

But once they surfaced from somewhere deep inside, I couldn’t stop them.

“I told you it wasn’t arrogance or pretense. I begged you...”

To save as many of our kind as possible—I would do anything.

I loved humans as much as I hated them.

I hated those who left me with only one choice.

You never believed me till the end, but I—

I wanted to stand beside you, to oppose humanity together in peace of mind.

To fight alongside you again, like in the old days.

My kin were more precious to me than any human in the world.

That was why I made my choice—

to carry out Kysis’s final order, to save as many of our kind as possible, to honor the last command given by the one I served.

But why had it turned out like this?

I still couldn’t remember.

And that unremembered truth gnawed at me.

“Kyle.”

I tightened my grip on the sword and murmured,

“Why didn’t you trust me?”

Kwaaang!

My blade rose, his swung low.

The clash sent a heavy shockwave ripping through the area. Asphalt split, fragments of corpses scattered.

Ricardo shouted,

“Hildebert!”

I felt him grab my sleeve.

“We’re retreating!”

“Where—”

The instant Kyle poised for another strike, the light dimmed—

Missiles rained down.

Kwooooooom!

I tumbled, rolling over and over.

By reflex, I pulled the veteran nearest to me into my arms, shielding them from the blast. We rolled backward together, and when we finally stopped, my body barely responded.

Would more missiles follow? I couldn’t tell.

Face pressed to the ground, I had just enough time to think that—

when someone suddenly stood and yanked me up.

I let myself be dragged. A strange feeling coursed through me.

“Ah.”

A shift—the scent of the air changed, the noise around me abruptly different.

I stared blankly at the floor and muttered,

“We... came back through the portal?”

The one who’d dragged me said nothing for a long time.

Then silently, they reached out and pulled me upright—gripping my arm hard, hauling me to my feet, then pinning my staggering body in place.

I blinked vacantly.

Clear green eyes.

Eyes that revealed nothing.

Their owner muttered low,

“Stop crying already.”

We had returned behind the barrier