In the midst of a ruined old city.
Suddenly, a round hill rose up.
From below, red blood flowed in streams, and occasionally, the bizarre hill would emit pained moans.
“Hoo…”
At the top of the hill, a woman was crouched down.
With droplets of blood splattered on her face, she lit a cigarette and gazed at the desolate landscape.
Annoyance and indifference filled her hollow gaze.
“Quick, quick! Check the dead and the injured…!”
“If the blade is discharged, head to the supply depot…!”
“Gather the corpses in one place…”
A group equipped with gloves and heavy armor was busily organizing the battlefield around them. The emblem on their shoulder bore the crest of the republic. Despite being right after a fierce battle, their actions were precise and composed.
The man, likely their commander, approached the hill and spoke.
“Haewolhwa.”
“Hmm?”
The girl, with the cigarette clenched between her teeth, looked down.
Seemingly in her late teens, she clearly had an underdeveloped appearance, not looking a day over early twenties.
However, the middle-aged man was excessively respectful.
The girl accepted the man’s treatment naturally as she stood up when she recognized he had something to say.
“Guh…”
“Ack…”
“Divine… lady…”
Every step the girl took made the hill sporadically groan in pain. Each step released a different voice’s scream.
Ignoring it, she descended the hill delicately, as if stepping on grass.
“Hmm…”
The man watching her emitted a slight hum.
A perverse sadist who felt ecstasy while carving the throats of victims, a barber.
A criminal with an uncanny obsession for a woman’s virginity, a chimera.
A child molester named Humbert, a specimen collector who extracted human organs while leaving the outer structure intact, and an abnormally long-faced mutant, an alligator, that devoured victims.
The high-ranking officials of the rebel organization PLF, all considered extremely dangerous criminals with a ‘black’ wanted status.
Yet now, they were piled up like living hills, all their limbs severed, thanks to the girl who had just stomped on them.
“Are you… leaving them alive?”
“They might still spill something. That’s why I was watching for a moment. Well, it didn’t yield much…”
The girl shrugged indifferently.
“So?”
“The area has been cleared. The core of the rebel army has been annihilated, and we’re tracking down some remnants.”
The man bowed his head slightly in respect.
“Congratulations on reclaiming the holy land. It will go down in the history of the republic.”
“Hmm.”
Even with the man’s high praise, the girl maintained a nonchalant demeanor.
“What remains is what remains.”
“Y-yes?”
She showed no interest, swiftly shifting the topic.
“Done. Continue with what you were saying.”
“Ah, yes, yes! As I mentioned, we are tracking some remnants. However… a massive biological reaction has been detected right in the heart of the city.”
“…”
For the first time, the girl, who had been expressionless, narrowed her brows.
“Perhaps the last remnants are gathered there…”
“No, it can’t be remnants.”
“Yes?”
She cut off the man’s words and began to walk.
“Haewolhwa? Where are you going?”
“Where else? I’ve come this far; I must finish it. Don’t follow. I’ll go alone.”
“Y-you? It’s dangerous. There could still be remnants…”
“Tsk. Who’s worrying about whom? They wouldn’t have made it this far without me.”
“Ugh…”
The man was left speechless by her pointed remark.
“You all stay here and finish up. If you find anything else, dig a little deeper.”
The girl nonchalantly wiggled her fingers and disappeared in an instant.
A group of young soldiers, who had been standing there dazed, approached the man and saluted.
“Commander! Did you call for us?”
“…Yes. You will now carry out the classification task.”
The man gestured toward the mound of living corpses behind him.
“Send the ones already dead to the incinerator, and separate those still clinging to life for interrogation. If necessary, feel free to use rough methods. They’ll all die later anyway.”
“Ugh…”
“What are you doing, you bastards? Move faster!”
The soldiers, who wore faces of disgust, reluctantly began to dismantle the pile at the senior officer’s shout.
The man who had been talking to the girl was lost in thought, surveying the desolate scene.
The City of Light. Once a holy land of the old civilization and the center of the southwest, it had now become nothing but a crumbled ruin.
Yet even the collapsing skyscrapers there reached higher into the sky than any building in the current capital.
A landscape that starkly symbolized the fall of civilization. The reclamation of this city had long been a wish of the republic, but tragically, it had become notorious as a den for the rebel army recently.
As warlocks and mutants chased by the security bureau and military took refuge here, they grew stronger by the day, even claiming to be the spiritual successors of the old civilization.
Fearful of that powerful force, the central government dared not even attempt to suppress them, but the situation took a turn after the elite first regiment of the rebels was annihilated in an assault on Jinryeong.
Adding to that, a super named monster was hindering the suppression. Until the death of the ruler of the southwestern plains.
With that golden opportunity, the highest council declared the reclamation of the City of Light, but no one ever thought that the ‘lazy’ Haewolhwa would accompany them.
Yet up until now, not a single person could guess the reason for that.
“Ah… aah…”
The man turned back at the echoing pained moans.
The rebels that made up the hill were murmuring something.
“Divine lady… grant us… new heaven… become one…”
*
Haewolhwa stepped into the center of the fallen city.
Buildings lying down with exposed rebar, asphalt roads riddled with sinkholes. Rusted and bent traffic signs, the landscape of the old city with weeds and trees growing sparsely.
The only reason she had joined the suppression was to confirm a rising suspicion.
The decision to enter the city alone was based on that reason.
If her speculation was true, bringing others along would offer no benefit.
Lost in thought as she moved, she suddenly stopped.
At the opposite side of the square, something was watching her.
With neatly arranged hair, a clean suit top and white shirt, even with a tie.
A woman dressed completely differently from the surrounding ruins, resembling an office worker.
And likely the identity of the massive biological response detected earlier.
“You came?”
With a faint smile on her face, she greeted Haewolhwa in a friendly manner.
“I’ve been watching you. Your skills are truly impressive.”
Even as Haewolhwa remained silent, the woman continued to chatter on her own.
“I was surprised. I didn’t think I’d see that level of sensitivity in a native entity.”
“…”
“You’re not… one of us, are you? Huh? You said you lost your memory or something.”
“Don’t make me laugh. Talking about parasites is nonsense. There’s a limit to falsehoods.”
Finally opening her mouth, Haewolhwa interrupted with a hint of displeasure.
Despite hearing such insulting words, the woman still maintained her smile, looking at her.
Her unwavering gaze evoked a very strange sensation.
“From the way you talk, I take it you’re the ‘Divine Lady.’”
“That’s right. A rather fitting title, isn’t it?”
“A divine lady in a suit is something I’ve never heard of in my life. Well, it’s not like there’s been a divine lady who lets her own followers die before…”
Haewolhwa continued to watch the woman with a disdainful, indifferent look.
“If you were watching, why didn’t you help? The bastards were looking for you while they were dying. Were you too scared to show up? Huh?”
“Scared? What does scared even mean…?”
The woman tilted her head in genuine confusion.
“Ah! I found it…! This is it!”
She clapped her hands and beamed with joy, like a child who discovered hidden candy.
Her expression soon warped grotesquely.
“Ugh… scary… h-h-help me…”
“…”
“Ugh… please…”
The woman suddenly burst into tears and cried out in fear, like a girl facing a beast.
Haewolhwa stared at her in disbelief. Only now did she truly feel it. The woman before her was a being beyond human logic.
Moreover, she was a presence that had appeared in this land before.
“Professor… you have to believe me…! They will definitely come again…!”
The anguished plea of her former disciple echoed in her mind.
“What good is that now…”
Swallowing a sigh, Haewolhwa tightly shut her eyes, then opened them. In a still dry voice, she asked the woman before her.
“What’s your name?”
In an instant, the woman stopped crying and replied, far too calmly, smiling broadly, as if she were sharing her name with a newfound friend.
“Sadalmelik.”
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