He didn’t fire the third round immediately.

It felt too easy. Compared to what he had done, wasn’t death far too convenient? One shot to the head and done.

So he watched for a moment as the Elder bled out and sank into pain.

As the man’s life signs weakened, a strange emotion seized him.

Why did it feel like something had been missed?

After finishing revenge, he had never once failed to feel relief.

When he hunted down and slaughtered those who burned the temple, when he absorbed every last one in that cult village—each time he had felt as refreshed as if he were breathing crisp air. He had never felt this kind of unease.

What was the cause?

Standing inside the theater, he thought.

Ah.

It must be because this man had voluntarily kissed his foot.

Why?

He blinked down at the one who had behaved eerily docile until the very end.

He had intended to shove the back of his head and force the kiss.

He had assumed the man would never bow first on his own...

He picked up the lighter resting on the table and hesitated.

The third bullet was fired only at the very last moment.

He waited until the lighter’s fuel ran dry.

Colton Wiseman was undeniably dead. Not a double. And Jaeyeon had unquestionably fallen into Erich Erhart’s jewel box. Erich had even kept Jaeyeon unconscious so as not to interfere with the finale.

It was practically over.

There was still the matter of checking on Yekaterina’s movements, but regardless—the fight with his long-standing nemesis had ended.

Hadn’t it?

Then what was this feeling?

Revenge wasn’t bitter. The moment Colton disappeared, it felt like a tight band around his throat had loosened.

And yet, separately, it felt as though something remained unfinished.

Why...?

[Captain.]

Yoow’s voice echoed.

The smell of burning flesh and blood must have slipped through the cracks of the closed theater doors.

[Well done. But you must not relax yet.]

He reached out and picked up Colton Wiseman’s phone.

He had secured it before finishing the job.

All locks were disabled.

He had intended to bring it to Yun. No need now.

This feels wrong...

“Sukhoi?”

He entered the applications as he answered.

[Yes. Under no circumstances can she obtain the warhead first.]

“Right. The nuke.”

He scrolled rapidly through Colton’s phone, brow furrowed.

“You mentioned that earlier. But where did the nuclear story even come from? I didn’t get the explanation.”

[Colton...]

He couldn’t hear the rest of Yoow’s explanation.

A window popped up on the phone screen.

Vrrr.

The device vibrated with a low, rounded hum.

He froze.

Without moving, he watched as the screen washed white, black letters forming slowly at the center.

Words appeared one by one, assembling into a sentence.

[This is my final gift to Jaeyeon.]

His eyes widened.

[We share a long history. At the very least, shouldn’t that one be granted a final wish—to run, or to die?]

Colton’s corpse lay right in front of him.

Calling it a corpse felt almost generous. It lay there pitifully.

And yet a chill crawled down his spine.

“That one?”

[This message was set to send a few minutes after my complete defeat.]

Didn’t that sound like he had no intention of letting the others escape?

[This is my answer.]

His stomach twisted.

[When the First War broke out, I was not the one holding the key. So perhaps this cannot be the perfect answer to the question the Titans both fear and yearn to know.]

If it must be handed over—

[In the end, it has come to this.]

—then burn it all.

[FAREWELL.]

WEEEEEEOOOOO—WEEEEEEOOOOO—

A shrill alarm engulfed the mansion.

He snapped his head up toward the massive screen ahead.

It should have been showing him approaching the estate.

Instead, it was flooded with red warning signs. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

【15:00】

Fuck.

He knew exactly what kind of countdown that was.

“Yoow. Where’s the nuke.”

[Below you!]

The reply came on the verge of panic.

[It’s beneath the mansion!]

...What?

So he’d been sitting on it the entire time?

When the hell had he crossed into this level of insanity?

From the moment the dispute with the Elder began, they had monitored Colton’s various estates.

No large-scale construction had been observed. This property was the same. They might have missed something like burying a simple bomb or installing an absorption amplifier. But if a military-grade nuclear warhead had been transported, there was no way he wouldn’t have known.

Of course he had known Colton possessed nuclear weapons.

But who in their right mind stored one beneath their own residence?

There had been a reason they blanketed this property with a Core.

The biggest reason was to prevent the power transition from leaking to the public—but that wasn’t all.

They had intended to block attacks from the sky.

To prevent a repeat of the World War. If the sky was sealed, nuclear drops could be partially prevented.

He, Yekaterina, and Erich Erhart had all known Colton might choose to obliterate everything with a nuke at the very last moment.

That was why they had fought desperately to secure the Core device.

And the two Elders’ forces had monitored aircraft activity throughout the entire operation.

With Erich and Yekaterina’s help, surveillance nets had been activated across every Core. No such movement had been detected. They had felt relieved.

[Hilde.]

Seunghyun’s report came through.

[The men have confirmed the bomb.]

God damn it.

[It’s fitted with timers and mechanisms typically used in nuclear testing.]

He didn’t ask further.

He pulled out his phone and called Yun.

He shouted to Yoow to contact the Black Badger leadership. To Igor to alert the forces outside the estate. To Rose to contact Deltei.

【14:30】

Yun picked up quickly.

[You win?]

“Yun. We’re fucked.”

No greeting.

There was no time.

Fortunately, Yun stayed silent and listened as Hilde poured everything out.

He relayed information coming from Yoow and Seunghyun without pause.

“Is there any solution?”

He sprinted toward the theater doors while speaking.

“We can escape using Erhart’s portal. But that doesn’t solve anything. It’ll explode in the middle of Center Core.”

[Instead of worrying about Center Core, shouldn’t you worry about turning into molecules in fourteen minutes?]

Yun’s voice was gentle.

That made it worse.

The gravity of the situation truly sank in.

Of course he understood.

He knew in excruciating detail what this meant.

And yet here he was.

The absurdity almost made him laugh.

He pushed the theater doors open with a hollow chuckle.

“This area’s covered by a Core. Would that mitigate the impact?”

[Depends on the yield. Not optimistic.]

“Can we stop the countdown? If Mühlen were here—”

[Thirteen minutes? Impossible.]

Sasu’s voice was firm.

[We don’t know the timer structure or system. There’s no time. And it’s likely not externally connected—so hacking’s out.]

They couldn’t just flee.

They didn’t know the yield.

At worst, most of Center Core could vanish.

A Core? It was a translucent barrier against physical assault. It couldn’t block invisible contaminants.

Center Core was full of people he cared about.

Think.

Even if the odds are slim—you can’t give up.

[Absorption won’t work either.]

“I know. DNA shreds apart. Absorption wouldn’t normalize that.”

[Then why aren’t you leaving?]

“I know a thing or two about nukes.”

Yun snorted.

Ignored.

“If the yield’s high, I won’t be the only one dying.”

[True. But Yehyeon’s in Core5, and Ami and I are at HQ. We won’t die immediately.]

“That’s reassuring!”

He sprinted through the mansion.

“There’s still one option!”

No time to rage at the dead Colton.

Fix it.

Aura. Swordmaster. Useless now.

Will ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) that work?

If it worked, he wouldn’t have split from Kyle in the first place.

A suffocating object of helplessness.

Running toward the bomb’s location as Seunghyun guided him—someone screamed behind him, but he couldn’t process it—he said:

“We’ll send the bomb through the portal instead of ourselves.”

[That’s bullshit.]

Yun’s voice was ice.

[It’s buried underground. How are you extracting it?]

“Seunghyun. Is it buried?”

[Fortunately, no.]

[It’s inside a device in the basement, as described.]

“Move it outside the Core.”

[We’ll place the portal in front of the warhead.]

“Good. Can you push it?”

[It’s the size of a small building. We’ll need multiple people.]

“I’m coming. Finish setup!”

[You get out.]

Yun cut in.

[Leave it to whoever’s near the warhead.]

“Coordinates!”

He shouted urgently.

“Yun! Give me the portal coordinates!”

Yun gave them immediately.

As if he’d already prepared.

Hilde relayed them to Lee Seunghyun.

Seunghyun repeated them twice, then fell silent briefly.

Checking the location.

[Ocean.]

He muttered.

[Bikini Atoll.]

Good.

Uninhabited.

After throwing it outside the Core, he couldn’t bear the thought of it exploding and sweeping away his kin.

That was the scenario he refused to imagine.

But Bikini Atoll—

Contamination probability for his kind would be near zero.

Thank God.

【10:00】

[Why are you going there?]

He saw it.

The warhead.

[Near a nuke, you’re no different from a civilian.]

“I know. Why do you think I sided with humans?”

[Wasn’t it because you loved us?]

Yun’s low reply.

Despite everything, he almost laughed.

“Ah. Right.”

His seniors’ faces flickered through his mind.

He didn’t dwell.

Just seeing them made it imperative to fix this.

I—

【09:30】

“If this fails, will you deliver my words to them?”

[No.]

Flat.

Why—

[Move. Focus. If it looks impossible, jump through the portal alone. I’ll fish you out of the ocean.]

It wasn’t the moment, but somehow Yun’s words were funny.

He’d analyze why later.

His body loosened.

He sprinted toward the building-sized warhead.

【09:00】

“Seunghyun!”

“Portal activated.”

Lee Seunghyun signaled his men, then turned.

“We have to push it and close the portal.”

“Let’s do it.”

Move it intact.

Detonate it in the sea.

“There’s no other path.”

***

Core5.

A wasteland engulfed in flames.

“Ju!”

Yehyeon shouted.

“Get out of there!”