Of course, this was not the moment to indulge personal curiosity.

He was on a battlefield.

Choi Yun clearly understood that what he was facing now was a swarm of Creatures comparable to the First War. In truth, the Black Badgers had been created because of things like these. Not because of Titans, but because of the Creatures—each one grotesquely unique.

Hildebert and Kyle were exceptions.

Those two belonged outside any standard.

Rather than living beings, weren’t they closer to natural disasters?

“Fall back!”

Richard Green’s command rang out.

“To the second defensive line!”

Tatatatatat!

The Black Badgers began retreating according to the order.

Yun agreed with Green’s decision.

A black line slowly approached his position. Heavily armed special soldiers. From head to toe they were covered in black, their military boots pounding as they narrowed the distance.

They were trying to move farther away from the battlefield where Hildebert and Kyle were fighting.

BOOOOM!

A shockwave swept over the retreating soldiers.

The two Swordmasters stopped staring at each other in surprise.

The battlefield grew chaotic again. A deafening sound swallowed the air—something no one would believe could be made by two pieces of metal colliding.

Every time their swords clashed, the ground trembled.

Yun, crouched behind a melted off-road vehicle, narrowed his eyes.

CLANG!

Everything near Hildebert and Kyle was pulverized.

The Creatures avoided their immediate radius in a wide circle. Some that the front-line Black Badgers failed to stop leapt over trenches, passed artillery positions, and began approaching the portal device.

“Where’s the support?!”

“We’re losing in firepower!”

The Badgers’ shouts were carried by the gusting wind.

“Humanoid ones incoming!”

Pssh!

A searing pain brushed Yun’s ear. Without even bothering to wipe the blood, he twisted his body and fired toward where the attack had come from.

Tatatatatatatang!

The bullets that flew between the vehicle’s metal frame pierced something.

The scent of blood spread through the air while combat drones buzzed overhead.

He kept firing.

He was positioned at the rearmost line. His primary mission was to protect the portal device. He had chosen a good location, so it was still relatively safe. But the things the Black Badgers at the front had failed to kill were slowly closing the distance.

He alone guarded the portal device.

A high point among old buildings.

Click.

One of the tripwires Yun had installed in advance snapped.

Click! Click! Click!

BOOOOOM!

Chunks of flesh scattered.

Bones shattered. Windpipes burst. A fountain of blood shot into the sky. Yun narrowed his eyes as he watched Creatures fly apart, their bodies swallowed by clouds of gray smoke.

If reinforcements didn’t arrive soon, they would have to retreat.

In truth, the outcome of the war was obvious.

If the battle dragged on, humans would inevitably win. Unlike during the First War, humans were now prepared to face waves of Creatures.

The only question was how much damage they would suffer.

At this moment, if support did not arrive, the Badgers on the front line would likely all die.

He pulled the pin from a grenade with his teeth and threw it.

Then, just as he was about to contact headquarters—

THUD!

A heavy impact sounded.

“Ghk...”

Someone crashed down in front of Yun.

It was a man wearing a Black Badger uniform.

Yun raised one eyebrow.

Red hair. Blue eyes.

Freckles across his grimacing face.

One of Hildebert’s fellow rookies.

He couldn’t get up from the impact of the fall. Someone had grabbed him and thrown him from a nearby building.

There was no need to search for the culprit.

THUD!

The one who had been inside the building landed nearby with another heavy sound.

He was nearly two meters tall.

Yun muttered while looking at the unfamiliar man.

“Mercenary?”

“Cough... cough...”

Another Badger was clutched in the man’s right hand.

The Badger struggled desperately, his neck twisted in the giant hand.

Yun lifted his brows as he looked at the Badger dangling like a radish pulled from the ground.

Aki Nagel.

A capable one.

A good shooter who usually maintained distance from the enemy.

Now he looked like he would suffocate any second.

Yun adjusted his gun.

Bang!

The bullet failed to pierce the massive Titan’s arm. But the Titan dodged the shot and tossed the Badger aside like a backpack.

The Badger hit the asphalt and curled up, coughing painfully.

But Yun didn’t look at him.

He even ignored the red-haired rookie struggling to stand.

Instead, Yun ran toward where the Titan had moved.

He dashed down the slope and threw a grenade at the giant tightening his grip on a heavy axe.

BOOOOM!

Creatures screeched as they tumbled down.

Without stopping, Yun charged straight into the smoke created by the explosion.

Within the gray haze, he swung his leg and kicked the massive figure blocking his path.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t the Titan.

He watched a giant spider roll downhill, crushing other Creatures beneath it.

Then a sharp killing intent flashed toward him.

Yun twisted his body.

CLANG!

The barrel of his rifle was cut clean off.

The Titan, whose physique rivaled William Walker’s, raised an eyebrow.

「You can fight a little.」

“Obviously.”

Yun replied flatly.

The Titan’s eyes widened.

Ignoring the reaction, Yun drew his pistol. The movement flowed naturally. After dropping the rifle that had been cleanly severed by the opponent’s axe, he adjusted the pistol’s aim.

Bang!

The bullet should have shattered the man’s skull.

Instead Yun saw something interesting.

The man’s face melted like viscous slime.

The bullet passed through the slime-colored face, and once the bullet was gone the melted skin hardened again, restoring his features.

“A magician.”

「Correct.」

The magic warrior replied.

「Now this is finally worth stretching my hands for.」

Yun felt the same.

He had always disliked Sylvia Kip from the military deserter-capture unit, because he had a severe hatred toward his own kind.

Sylvia and Yun had similar tastes.

In other words, Yun also preferred fighting enemies that looked human.

He had never really thought about why.

“It’s been a while since I felt this.”

The sensation of fighting a human.

The killing urge that differed from fighting monsters.

Feeling adrenaline surge through his body, Yun dodged the axe and sprinted up the hill.

Kairos liked adrenaline just as much.

The problem was that Valdez was also an experienced fighter.

They stood in the middle of a swarm of monsters.

Kairos was invisible thanks to Milk. But the red-haired man failed when he tried to ambush from the debris.

In the space where monster attacks could not reach.

Valdez repeatedly pinpointed the exact spot where Kairos stood.

BOOOOM!

Once again he barely dodged the attack.

Milk made a small sound. Kairos quietly comforted the trembling creature in his pocket while rolling his eyes.

Eight attacks so far.

Every one had been close.

His invisibility had never once broken, yet the attacks were astonishingly accurate. While dodging, Kairos wiped the blood flowing from a torn wound.

Blood from his split forehead gathered along his eyebrow.

Fortunately the wound was above his blinded eye.

RATATATATA!

Fragments flew toward him.

Kairos rolled again.

As expected, his left side reacted more slowly.

Despite Hildebert having restored it before, the entire left side of his body was becoming soaked in blood again. Plastic shards and fragments from dumb-dumb rounds lodged in his ribs.

Milk cried silently as their emotions resonated.

But Kairos firmly conveyed his will.

Not yet.

One or two more.

At least once more.

「You fight like a coward!」

The ninth attack.

Standing atop the ruins, the magician shouted.

「Is this your way of fighting? Hiding your body and doing nothing but running away?!」

Provocation didn’t work on Kairos.

He rarely felt hurt by words. What mattered to him was victory.

Dramatic victory would be even better—but this wasn’t the Imperial arena. There was no need to stage a spectacle.

He simply had to do his best.

Nine attacks in total.

BOOM!

Another strike came.

BOOOOM!

BOOM!

And Kairos became certain.

The position where Valdez would teleport.

The magician created three magic circles in the air to attack.

Three seemed to be the limit.

Those three magic circles always formed the same triangular angle.

An isosceles triangle.

If Valdez’s position was marked as a point and connected to the triangle, the shape formed a triangular pyramid every time.

The distance between magician and magic circle was almost obsessive.

So this is what Hildebert meant by distance.

Few people would notice such a thing. Valdez’s attacks were fast and powerful.

And there were three magic circles, not one.

Most people would struggle even to look at all three circles simultaneously, let alone observe the magician himself.

An ordinary knight would have died before even seeing Valdez properly.

A Sword Expert might have dodged the circles—but would never reach Valdez.

But Kairos was someone who viewed the battlefield broadly.

He had always loved reading the flow of the game.

And once he had stood high in the sky, looking down upon everything.

「Valdez.」

Kairos finally spoke.

Stepping onto the trembling ground, the red-haired summoner revealed himself.

He had long since memorized the terrain of the battlefield.

Preparations complete, Kairos lifted his chin and looked up.

The magician floated above the monsters and drones.

His face twisted with hatred.

Determination to win.

Fearful vigilance.

If Noya had still been alive, Valdez would never have been Kairos’s opponent.

The fire dragon—whose strength had once rivaled a Swordmaster—would have simply breathed flames and turned everything to ash without needing to analyze triangles or pyramids.

But the fire dragon who used to complain about the sun scorching his burns was gone.

Instead, flying monsters now crossed the darkened night sky where the sun had fallen.

「Sorry to keep you waiting.」

Within the battlefield swallowed by darkness—

Every monster in the sky and on the ground became his weapon.

「Now it’s my turn.」

Three Witches.

Eighteen Sand Assassins. Five Jabariol. Three Snaquartz. Two Bambi Winged Birds. One Quesade.

Shired Fang Mole Horse Spider Red Fin Sky Beetle Angel Saduka Scarab Leviathan

Thief Snowflake.

The Creatures stopped.

At the same time magic circles filled his vision, and Kairos began commanding without dodging.

Even with his sight obstructed, Valdez’s position was clear.

Strike down.

The monsters poured toward the ground.

Clang-clang-clang!

「What the—!」

Just a little more.

Clang-clang-clang!

Defense magic, perhaps?

Kairos calmly watched the three magic circles spinning clockwise across his vision while continuing his control.

Then he simply had to overwhelm him with more monsters.

Clang-clang-clang!

「You—」

Valdez’s clenched voice came through.

「You fucking—」

Crushed beneath [N O V E L I G H T] his own defense magic—

「Bastard!!」

BOOOOOM!

An explosion.

The presence vanished.

The sensation of life ending pressed heavily against Kairos’s senses. Dozens of the creatures under his control had evaporated instantly.

A dizzying loss that sometimes drove summoners insane.

Blinking at the sudden emptiness striking his body, Kairos looked at the scene before him.

The three massive attack circles that had blocked his vision were gone.

Instead the magician lay there, gasping in the rain of blood and flesh.

He had abandoned the circles and gathered all his mana to convert his defense barrier into an attack spell.

Good judgment.

Kairos looked down at the magician glaring at him and laughed.

「No wonder you’re Kyle’s right hand.」

「This is why I hate summoners.」

Valdez spat blood.

「You filthy fighters.」

Kairos bared his teeth in a grin.

“Kyle.”

A brief intermission.

After deflecting each other’s blades and widening the distance.

Hildebert spoke.

“What do you want?”

His voice sounded exhausted.

And afraid.

Not afraid of himself.

Afraid of the answer.

Kyle held his sword and looked at the white-haired knight standing before him.