Most of the creatures were taken care of now...

But how do I get back?

I stood still, staring at the vast canyon and the cliffs beyond.

The creatures whose names I knew should be tumbling down by now. But that seventh- or eighth-rank thing must still be rampaging.

Not that me going back would help anyway.

Would Ami be okay? I gripped the sword, sinking into thought.

The seniors had all joined up, so nothing disastrous should happen. Noon sunlight poured down overhead. I stood there quietly, straining to catch the sounds from beyond the canyon.

The sounds I tried to pick up drew closer quickly.

“Wow!”

Footsteps stopped, and Ami and Trevain appeared.

The two seniors stood on the opposite cliff.

Dangling lightly on Trevain’s back, Ami saw me and her face brightened.

“Hilde, you did it!”

“Ami!”

Her name burst out reflexively.

She looked fine on the outside, at least.

I exhaled in relief, then examined her condition more carefully.

Her face was paler than before, she didn’t look well. If she were fine, she wouldn’t be hanging limp on Trevain’s back.

But her limbs were intact, and she was conscious.

“Are you all right?”

“I’m fine!”

Ami craned her neck and shouted.

“It’s a relief you look fine too.”

“Thanks to you... The two of you came first, right?”

“She just had to throw a tantrum.”

Trevain frowned, glancing at Ami clinging to his back.

“She was worried whether you fell.”

“You’re not worried, Jason?”

The round-eyed senior across the canyon asked back.

“Dropping a whole bridge isn’t exactly an easy feat, you know.”

Trevain rolled his eyes.

But he didn’t argue. Instead, he bent slightly °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° as if to look at the bridge I had dropped. A few bright strands of his blond hair fell forward.

“What the hell.”

In the distance, explosions, seniors’ shouts, the crackling of the creature’s electricity.

I craned my neck past Trevain and saw it. The creature was leaping this way. A ghostly figure wreathed in blue electricity.

The seniors followed on motorcycles, surrounding it.

It would reach here within a minute.

But Trevain kept peering down the canyon.

“What did you use to drop it?”

“Yeah, there aren’t any blast marks.”

“Oh. I cut it with a sword.”

I answered plainly.

Their stares fell on me. The man and woman who had been looking down both raised their heads and stared. Trevain’s bright blue eyes, Ami’s black eyes pierced through me.

Their reactions were complete opposites.

“What bullshit.”

“Wow!”

Trevain scoffed, mocking me as if I were spouting nonsense, but Ami cheered behind his back.

“Hilde, you’re really good with a sword!”

Crackle—boom!

Blue electricity streaked across the ground.

A deafening blast hammered my ears. The strike hit exactly where Trevain had been standing. But before I could shout a warning, Trevain twisted his body nimbly and dodged.

The blond senior frowned with a twisted grin.

“Persistent bastard.”

He spat the words while watching the creature draw closer by the second.

It looked half-formed.

That enormous eye.

A gaze full of resentment and hatred. The long gray strands covering its face. It closed the distance in an instant, its eyes locked on me. Bullets from Aki and Leeho rained on it, black blood splattering like ink.

But it did not stop.

It did not look back. Even when Green and Walker casually blasted away with handguns like cannons, it didn’t roll its eyes once. That bloodshot, oddly human gaze only bored into me.

Its obsession seemed desperate. It truly hated me.

What did I do so wrong to you?

I don’t even remember anything.

If only you could speak. Like that tenth-rank creature Yehyeon stabbed. Then I could fill my empty memories, and you could voice your grievance.

But reality was never that simple.

Now it was right there. If not for the canyon, it would have smashed into me.

Riding behind, Green shouted.

“Press it!”

Leeho, Aki, Walker chased the creature alongside Green.

“Force it into the canyon!”

Crackle, crackle—boom! More electric explosions. Sparks scattered beautifully from its gray body.

If hit, you’d be blown off the bike. You might not even stand up again.

Thankfully, the seniors tilted their bikes and avoided. The creature’s speed slowed.

Ah. Its left arm had fallen.

The canyon edge loomed ahead.

“Now.”

That was when Trevain, who had been watching quietly from the side, leapt forward.

He had already set Ami down. With an ill-natured smile showing his neat teeth, he yelled:

“Get the hell out!”

A kick. A well-placed shot or two.

Only then did I see with my eyes the textbook way to fight a giant creature.

According to my mentor, Jason Trevain was “a vulgar idiot full of pointless inferiority toward Yehyeon,” but also “still alive only because he’s actually competent.”

In short, he had skill.

The creature’s stance collapsed. In an instant. If its left arm had still been attached, it wouldn’t have fallen so hard.

It toppled headfirst.

That’s it...

...Huh?

I thought it was falling, but the creature curled its body. Even as it fell, its bloodshot eyes never stopped glaring at me. It curled as if to cut the drag of the wind.

Then it kicked off the cliff edge like a springboard.

The creature leapt into the air.

“What the—”

“You’re kidding.”

“Hilde!”

Ami, who had been crouching, straightened suddenly.

“Dodge!”

Slash.

I cut diagonally.

Before the thing that had leapt into the air could land, my sword strike fell.

Cutting down an airborne target was unexpectedly convenient. Dodging mid-air was no easy feat.

Ah. If the target is big, the strike must be big too.

I swung in a great arc. The creature’s body was forced back, black blood spraying in a crescent shape.

Kieeeek!

A scream not at all human.

This time it truly fell. Its gray body shrank quickly. I watched it plunge into the canyon, then lowered my sword tip indifferently.

I waited quietly for the blade’s heat to fade, then sheathed it.

The blazing sunlight, the cooling wind.

A short silence. The sounds of flesh tearing, electric blasts, and gunfire vanished. Only the wind brushing through the dried city tickled my ears.

From within that, Aki raised her voice.

“Did you see?”

She pointed at me and turned to Leeho.

“Leeho. Did you see? Did you?”

“I saw. No....”

Across the canyon, Leeho exhaled blankly.

A little bewildered, I looked at the seniors opposite me.

They stood at the canyon’s edge, eyes wide, staring at me. A familiar scene. But this time it felt different. In their eyes was not hostility or betrayal. It was astonishment.

The shock of seeing the unexpected.

Seriously. Was it that unbelievable that I used a sword...?

“As Yun said, give him a sword and he’s useful.”

Green’s rough voice carried on the wind.

“Well done. I’ll ask what you really are later.”

“Ah. Thank you.”

“For now, back to the Safe Point.”

Arms crossed, the man shot me a piercing gaze.

“Come over here.”

“...How do I get across?”

“I’ll fly you over.”

“No. Ami’s boots are half-broken. They could fail any moment.”

“You never learned how to use wires?”

Aki grabbed Ami’s arm as she staggered.

While Ami pouted, Richard Green asked again. Looked like I was about to disappoint him again. I hadn’t even known I was supposed to learn wire use.

Across the canyon, he nodded.

“Yes.”

“Leeho. Bring him.”

“Yes.”

Leeho stepped forward.

I saw him pull the wire coiled at the side of his bike. A sharp spear tip was fixed to the end. He gripped the middle, spinning it in the air.

He hurled it.

The spear point landed squarely at my feet. I stomped it down.

“Should I bury it?”

“Yeah. Bury it and step on it.”

I did as told.

Leeho swung across in no time. Like Tarzan, he held the wire, dropped into the canyon, then quickly stuck himself against the opposite cliff wall.

I craned my neck to watch the senior climb up the wire briskly. Primitive method. But sometimes primitive works best.

Clambering up, Leeho pulled the embedded anchor free.

Then he patted my shoulder.

“Good work.”

“No, you worked harder.”

“Let’s get across. Crude, but it works. We’re strong enough for it.”

The senior’s former sense of betrayal seemed to have melted. He spoke to me more naturally.

He held out the wire with the spear tip.

“Watch my demo carefully. This will be yours—”

Traitor.

A voice rang out.

Maybe in my head. Or from the canyon below.

I was the only one who heard. Whether only I could, or only I did.

What was certain was that every nerve in me stood on edge. Instinct screamed it was terrifyingly close.

It was climbing the cliff.

It would snatch me and Leeho and drag us both down.

It would never let go. It would smash Leeho on the rocks. Me? It wouldn’t grant me such an easy death—it would crush me in its jaws.

The instinct shot through me in an instant.

A long black hand shot up over the cliff.

The seniors’ sharp cries. Gunfire.

If I hesitated, it would be too late.

I shoved Leeho aside, then leapt toward the massive hand rushing at me.

And drove my sword down in midair.

Thunk.

From above to below. A heavy strike.

Long fingers wrapped around me in agony.

I felt the sharpened blade pierce the mark precisely as the creature and I plummeted together into the canyon.

***

I woke to a desperate voice.

[...de. Hilde!]

A voice I knew.

[Hilde! Where the hell are you!]

Ska Owen.

Why was I hearing Ska Owen’s voice right in my ear?

I blinked blankly, dazed. My body heavy, my mind foggy, limbs refusing to move. My blurred consciousness couldn’t quite grasp the situation.

With the only free right hand, I touched my forehead, lying there stupidly.

I didn’t answer Ska’s continued calls.

Maybe I could just sleep like this a little longer? If Ska’s voice was reaching me, maybe I was inside a Core.

If it was a hospital room, I could wake later and respond...

My fading thoughts snapped awake at Ska’s next shout.

Words that cut reality sharp.

[Hilde! Why the hell are you in Zone A!]

Fuck.