The claw snapped.

Its sharp nail broke apart as its body was slashed diagonally. The blood was red. Clutching my nearly torn-off left shoulder, I drew in a breath.

The strike had landed.

It collapsed to the floor, body spilling blood. But it still breathed. Tightening my grip on the sword in my right hand, I rushed at the fallen creature.

The tendons!

Cut the tendons!

“Hyah!”

Thrust—

I drove the blade into its ankle.

Blood sprayed, muscle severed.

Good. Now for the left leg’s tendon.

Pulling the sword from its right ankle, I shoved it deep into the left.

The steel sank into its left ankle.

Only once I had rendered the target like a specimen did my tension ease a little. Panting, I looked down at the creature sprawled at my feet.

It looked nearly dead. Its eyes were unfocused.

It felt strangely like watching a human die.

I did not regret my actions. If I had not charged in prepared to kill, it would have been me lying dead.

As the adrenaline drained, fatigue swept in.

I searched for a pillar to lean against. Then I realized the pillar near the creature had collapsed from my slash. I had put far too much force into that attack.

Or maybe not. Maybe that kind of force was exactly why it had gone quiet so quickly.

I was too dazed to judge.

Either way, there was nowhere proper to lean.

So I simply dropped onto the floor. Clutching my left shoulder, I watched the creature lying next to me.

If it died, so be it. If it regained consciousness in that near-death state, I would question it.

Question it about me....

Thump.

Thump.

A heartbeat.

It took me a moment to realize the sound came from the creature itself.

When I located the source, my jaw dropped.

Words failed me. Too stunned, I could not speak.

I sat frozen as its wounds began to knit. Dark, wavering waves rippled, shaking the gravel around it. Black pulses rose from its body I had thought was dying.

Like the tenth-class creature I had seen in the video.

A strange, churning emotion twisted inside me.

“What the—”

The words barely forced their way out, cut short.

“What is th—”

Kwoooom!

Pain exploded.

By the time the blinding agony ebbed, I understood.

I was the one down now. Reflexively, I was blocking the creature. It had shoved me flat.

Its movements were too fast for the eye to follow.

Breathing hard, I looked up at the monster above me.

Its form so close was grotesque. Eyes rolled back. Sclera burned black, golden iris barely visible.

What the hell—

I strained, trying to push its forearm off me.

Damn it!

“What kind of strength—!”

I really would die here.

The broken stump of claw neared my throat. The distance shrank. My arms could not hold it off much longer. My left arm had no strength left.

No.

I clenched my teeth, feeling death looming over me. I had to tell the seniors Jin Silver was alive. That he had stayed behind with the pursuing creature.

So that those few strong enough could go and save him—

“Urgh!”

The claw pierced my forearm.

Pain ripped through me and a groan burst free.

At that instant, the ceiling split and a fist burst down.

Huh?

“...A fist?”

Even through the agony, I gawked up at the ceiling.

Why was a fist breaking through the ceiling?

How could it?

No ceiling here should be breakable, should it?

“This is the subway—”

Kwoooom!

The ceiling collapsed.

The right side, where that fist had punched through, crumbled. Staring blankly, I watched ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) the ceiling cave.

Light poured down. Not artificial light, not faint mushroom glow, but blazing sunlight.

So beautiful I forgot the pain in my arm.

Voices rode the outside wind.

“Hilde!”

Ami was on the verge of tears.

“Hilde!”

The senior dropped straight through the opening.

Other seniors landed on the tracks.

Squinting at the sudden glare, I saw them clearly. Richard Green. Jason Trevain. Aki. Leeho Chang.

And William Walker, crashing down like a boulder.

The creature was kicked away.

“Let’s go.”

Ami pulled me into her arms, dragging the creature off me.

“Sorry I lost you.”

Her small body trembled slightly.

“Next time I won’t. I’ll never let go.”

“Ami.”

I smiled at her, guilt and gratitude mingled.

My voice was faint, not as clear as I wished.

“Thank you for saving me.”

“What is this?”

Jason Trevain’s voice echoed through the station.

“Isn’t this a humanoid creature?”

“This is insane.”

“And it’s alive.”

“Ami! Get the wounded out!”

Richard twisted around and shouted from beside a shocked Leeho and Aki.

“The fight isn’t over yet!”

Ratatatatatat!

Before his words ended, gunfire thundered.

Trevain and the others fired into the creature struggling to rise.

Startled by the deafening shots, I widened my eyes.

Ratatatatat!

The seniors fired without pause.

They pulled the triggers until the magazines were dry.

Trevain and Green shot most fiercely of all.

They seemed more on edge than when facing the building-sized creature back at Safe Point. Their eyes locked on the ragged humanoid, refusing to look away.

By now it had to be dead, yet no one stopped firing.

The humanoid creature said to have terrified humanity.

Its sclera blackened, golden eyes gleaming.

Because of one moment’s hesitation, Yehyeon had lost his chance to strike—

Ah?

A suffocating emotion drowned me.

What was this?

I blinked.

Why did I suddenly feel as if I would sink and drown in feeling?

Because I realized I was the same as it?

Was that why unease and fear clawed at me? Because I was not human? Because if they found out, they would treat me as that thing?

I probed the weight dragging down my heart.

...No, that wasn’t it.

The feeling binding me was not fear.

It was closer to—

Self-hatred?

And sorrow?

Did I despise myself for betraying my kin?

But if I were to feel this, then why had I betrayed them—

“Hilde.”

Ami’s voice pulled me back.

Her arms tightened around me.

“Let’s go.”

I looked down at her in a daze, her youthful face crumpling into tears.

“Sorry we were too late.”

I wanted to tell her no—that they had come at the perfect time.

Had they come earlier, my true nature might have been revealed. Had they come later, I would already be dead.

But before I could speak, fire burst from Ami’s boots.

Clutched in her arms, I shot up toward the surface.

***

In an instant the air wrapping me changed.

The sun’s rays pouring down on my head were bliss. The wind whipped my hair, rushing in my ears. Below, the ruined city spread out clear.

At last, the surface.

Dangling in Ami’s grasp, I saw asphalt rushing up.

We landed lightly.

Ami set me against a car that looked untouched for ages.

“I’ll heal you.”

Though she sniffled and wept, her hands moved fast.

“That must hurt like hell.”

“No....”

It didn’t hurt that badly, but I had no strength.

So I let my body go slack and accepted her treatment. Beside me, the earth gaped wide.

The place where Walker’s fist had punched through.

From that hole, sharp voices of seniors echoed. But I had no energy to listen.

Gunshots cracked intermittently.

Now it truly felt over. My strength drained.

My head went light. I stared at the blue sky, the white clouds drifting. So much had happened since I first opened my eyes in that gorge.

Memories of the gorge tumbled into my head.

Thoughts of my identity washed away, replaced by other images.

The creature that died, digested by fungus. The fruiting bodies rising. Jin shouting for me to get inside. Blocking the fungus, then leading me into the subway. Showing me lettuce. Giving me chicken soup. Telling me he was once called the Badgers’ druid. Promising to tell me this story and that....

‘Tell Ju I’m sorry.’

That voice I hadn’t heard for long echoed in my ears.

Quietly, I shed tears.

“Does it hurt?”

Ami’s voice trembled in alarm.

“Why are you crying? Hilde, are you in pain? Did you get hurt anywhere else?”

“Ami.”

I pulled the senior close.

Blinking, she stared as I whispered.

“Ami. Jin Silver is in the last station.”

She froze.

Wide eyes stared blankly up at me. My blurred vision saw her round eyes fixed on mine.

A person does not react right away when struck by great shock.

Only after a long while did she speak.

“Jin is dead.”

“He was alive below.”

“...Alive?”

“He deserted.”

I brushed strands of hair from her cheek.

“He said he lived ten years in hiding.”

Again she gave no response for a long time. Kneeling before me, she just stared up, vacant.

I did not blame her. I did not hurry her. I only kept brushing back the dark hair that flicked across her cheek.

Her face so youthful, always.

“Where?”

At last, she asked with a blank face.

“How?”

“He seemed to be living in the subway. Growing vegetables. Raising chickens.”

“Vegetables?”

Her eyes went glassy.

“Chickens?”

“He said he was once called the Badgers’ druid....”

I added, meeting her unmoving gaze.

“Find Jin Silver.”

Her round eyes blinked open and shut again and again.

“He stayed behind at the last station so I could escape.”

This time she reacted at once.

She stood and ran toward the seniors.