"....Promise me you won’t die."

"I won’t."

Without any hesitation, Cheon Areum nodded with certainty. Immediately upon hearing his response, Han Kakta grabbed his arm and put Cheon Areum’s hand in the middle of his chest.

"Take whatever you need..."

Rolling his head back onto the floor, Han Kakta closed his eyes and stilled. Cheon Areum wasted no time in cornering Han Kakta as he seized his core, with his energy pouring in, all of his energy, without any reserves.

"This is why using your abilities outside the gate is banned... he destroyed all floors of my guild. It took years for me to finish building this..."

Peeking out from half-closed eyes, Han Kakta spoke, eyeing the ceiling. Looking over in the same direction, Cheon Areum saw the open ceiling that opened to the top floor in Han Kakta’s office, suggesting he must’ve dropped from there with Kihyun during their fight.

"I will be broke after the renovations... ugh..."

Han Kakta groaned weakly with a fake voice tone.

"I will pay for the renovations in exchange."

"Nah, you don’t have to... I might actually be dead later on if something goes wrong and Yoon Seoyul finds out I gave you permission to access my core."

"You’re wrong, he can’t kill anyone, he’s too kind."

"Haha... you’re right. You know him better than anyone, after all."

Deep in Han Kakta’s core, the moment he laughed, Cheon Areum felt the core tightening painfully. Tilting his head with a creased forehead, he breathed lowly. Quick on the uptake, Han Kakta threw away the hand on his chest.

"Stop healing me, I can’t give you any recharges."

Although he was stubborn in doing so, he also realized he didn’t have enough energy to completely heal the core anyway. Sitting neatly on the bloodied floor, the shield was already thinning out. Saving the remaining energy for himself, Cheon Areum glanced around.

"Where are the others? Don’t you have any healers here?"

"The hospital bills would cost me more, so I gave all of them the day off. I told them to stay away from Kihyun. They’re supporters, not fighters."

"Are you competing with Yoon Seoyul on who is the kindest guild master? Tsk."

"Yoon Seoyul isn’t really that kind, I would win without any effort...."

Seeing the darkening expression on Cheon Areum’s face, Han Kakta cut his words short and switched the topic.

"Did you get what you wanted? Do you think you can build my core for yourself?"

"I can. I will."

At the same time as he spoke, another voice came from his earpiece, telling him that there were other hunters available; however, they were all A-Class hunters. Taking out Irene, the ones with the abilities to fight were all A-Class at best. Pressing the button with his finger instead of his energy this time, Cheon Areum responded.

"No. Keep them all out of this, he’s mine to take."

["Noted. I will keep them on standby."]

The girl on the other side still replied positively; by the tone, he could tell it was the same one who had given him this earpiece. Hesitating in front of Han Kakta, he barely managed to get the words out.

"What about Yoon Seoyul? Send him over here."

["He’s still inside the dungeon..."]

"Okay."

Although he had made his mind, he couldn’t help wanting to have Yoon Seoyul by his side. Sitting with his head bowed as he ended the conversation, he belatedly realized that the shield had disappeared. The one to reach faster was Han Kakta, whose hand swiftly shot out. Cheon Areum felt excruciating pain, one he had never felt before; it was as if his veins were being pulled out of his body. Startled, he also turned to look. Kihyun’s hand was gripping his wing feathers, and Han Kakta’s hand was the one who stopped him from ripping out the feathers. The longer Cheon Areum had the wings, the more sensitive they had become, and by this time, he couldn’t handle this kind of pain.

Making his decision in that split second, he quickly shred his wing feathers, pushing Han Kakta behind him and turning to stare straight at Kihyun, whose appearance was slightly different from before, and the smile that had been on his face was gone, replaced with a grim expression.

Keeping his eyes locked with Kihyun, he stood up and walked in his direction with his self-butchered wings. Kihyun cautiously stepped back at first, as he had seen Cheon Areum getting to Han Kakta’s core just now, but in reality...

"You don’t even have the energy to activate a single skill of yours, do you?"

Relieved, Kihyun smiled a little as he spoke. It was true, Cheon Areum didn’t have the energy to fight against Kihyun right now. He still continued to walk towards him, though. Reaching Kihyun, who had stopped backing away after confirming his energy levels, he placed a hand on his shoulder casually and tilted his head.

"Your main purpose is to kill me, right?"

"..."

Not sure what Cheon Areum was getting at, Kihyun paused, gazing at him with wondering eyes. Cheon Areum asked again.

"You have to kill me, right?"

This time, he smiled while Kihyun’s smile had dropped. He was confused. Grinning with a dark hint in his eyes, he didn’t even blink once as he spoke out.

"Kill me then. Kill me right now and end this."

He waited for Kihyun to make a move, but for someone so eager to kill him, he was taking too long. Cheon Areum patted his shoulder with his right hand.

"I don’t know about you, but just so you know, even if I kill you today, I won’t feel an ounce of guilt. I will go on with my life just as before. Your death will be meaningless, useless. At least by killing me, you can have my skill, but I will gain nothing by killing you. You will just vanish for no reason. I think it’s the most stupid thing you can do. You’re an S+ Class, yet you choose this path—it’s pure stupid in my eyes."

Agitating your enemy was one thing Yoon Seoyul would never approve of. Cheon Areum wanted to do exactly that.