“……At this rate, it’s going to overload and explode. Still measuring?”
IF-684 Special Mobile Strike Unit ‘Siegfried’ Captain Long Weilan paced back and forth, tapping his foot.
“Ah, yes.”
“It’s just that the anti-entropy levels are so high that the measuring equipment keeps malfunctioning.”
“But we’re almost done now.”
“I hope it wraps up soon. No matter what you imagine, this hunk of metal is more valuable.”
Weilan kept flicking the fingers of her mechanical arm.
Ping, ping.
It was a habit that surfaced whenever she was anxious.
Her mechanical arm, its surface constantly shifting, assembling and disassembling like rolling waves.
Because of its structure, she couldn’t even wear a coat to protect it.
Weilan grimaced, turning her head away from the hot steam that spewed toward her face.
A moment later—
***
“Ah, the results are coming in now.”
On a squad member’s wristwatch, a radar detection screen unfolded widely.
Black background.
A few white masses.
It was measuring the anti-entropy levels to determine what was happening in that distant, bottomless pit.
“If you look here, this large white mass is IF-684. This is the third time, but while 684 came out properly this time, IF-017 couldn’t be measured at all.”
“That’s fine.”
“As long as our little lizard shows up, that’s all that matters.”
Weilan’s face brightened slightly, but she still tilted her head in confusion.
“What is this, though?”
The screen was different from what she was used to seeing.
“This is IF-684.”
The squad member pointed at the white mass.
Even as she looked at it, Weilan frowned.
Because there wasn’t just one or two white masses on the screen.
“One, two, three… there are six of them.
So which one is IF-684?”
Narrowing her eyes, Weilan watched as the squad member extended her hand, pointing somewhere.
At the end of Weilan’s gaze, far in the distance, lay a massive, scale-covered wing embedded in the wall.
“If you look at that wing stuck in the wall over there, this is how it appears on the radar screen. So… they’re all 684.”
And in an instant, Weilan understood what the radar was showing.
No wonder she didn’t recognize it at first glance.
This was the first time she had seen how ‘severed body parts of IF-684’ were displayed on the radar.
In short—
IF-684 had been cut into six pieces.
“So, IF-017 really tore that lizard bastard to shreds.”
Weilan clenched her fist, grinning in satisfaction.
Even though she didn’t particularly like IF-017—if she had to choose, she was more on the ‘dislike’ side—
But if it had completely wrecked IF-684, then for today, there was no reason not to appreciate it.
“It might regenerate….”
A squad member voiced his concern, but Weilan, who knew better than anyone the limits of IF-684’s regeneration, waved her hand dismissively.
“It’s in six pieces. What regeneration? Unless someone serves it an all-you-can-eat buffet, it’ll just sit there and rot for a month.”
Situation resolved.
From here on, whatever happened was no longer the Siegfried unit’s responsibility.
For something to be classified as a ‘Code Dark’ level event, this had ended with surprisingly little trouble.
Weilan sat down lightly on a chair.
Her mechanical arm, extended and transformed in midair.
Weilan murmured softly.
“Level 3 ‘Gram,’ disengage.”
With various mechanical sounds, her arm momentarily shifted into an unrecognizable form.
Soon, a single cylinder was ejected.
Her arm stabilized, reassembled, and Weilan caught the cylinder before it hit the ground.
“This thing….”
The ultimate countermeasure against IF-684—Level 3 ‘Gram.’
That small cylinder in Weilan’s hand was more dangerous than a hydrogen bomb.
As she hesitated, turning it slowly in her palm, the squad members approached.
“Is that ‘Gram’? This is the first time I’ve seen it in person.”
“Do we store it like any other explosive?”
The squad members stepped forward, offering to take it away.
Weilan shook her head.
IF-684 was already down—there was no need for any unnecessary casualties.
“Forget it. This thing contains a phase-extermination factor. Anyone without a Class 1 security code who touches it is dead on the spot. And just in case any of you idiots were thinking of handling it with tongs or gloves—don’t even try.”
At those words, one or two squad members quietly put away the tongs and gloves they had taken out.
Weilan let out a dry chuckle, continuing to roll the cylinder between her fingers.
“Technically, I’m supposed to hand this over to the head researcher at the lab. Someone from the Alpha rank… but, tsk, no.”
No matter how she thought about it, she didn’t want to give it to that bastard—
No, that thing.
So instead, she decided she’d just keep holding onto it and personally return it to headquarters.
Except—
***
Step, step.
‘The problem was that it had pretty sharp ears.’
‘If not for Gram, even Weilan, as Siegfried’s unit commander, wouldn’t have come here.’
‘So why the hell hadn’t the lab director evacuated yet?’
The moment she saw that face, Weilan let out a deep sigh.
“E Lab Director”.
“Hm? Did you call me?”
She approached with a bright, innocent smile.
“Alpha rank…?”
“Wasn’t the director of Lab 4 someone else?”
Even setting aside other factors, Long Weilan was objectively quite young, but this ‘E Lab Director’ looked even younger than her.
A few Siegfried squad members, who had never seen her before, murmured amongst themselves.
Weilan scrunched up her face, clicking her tongue.
“… Fuck off. I’ll just take it myself.”
“Take it?”
“Where?”
“This is a Code Dark IF-684 incident.”
“You’re leaving without cleaning up?”
A fair point.
When the Special Mobile Strike Unit was deployed to an unknown phenomenon, the unit commander typically doubled as the security officer for smooth coordination.
The same applied to IF-684.
Still smiling, the E Lab Director extended her hand.
“You’re taking it to headquarters? Just give it to me. Now.”
Her tone was like that of a brat, but her words couldn’t be ignored.
“Where the hell did you suddenly pop up from, running your damn mouth….”
Weilan wanted nothing more than to deploy the weapons in her mechanical arm and beat the crap out of her.
But the frustrating thing was—she couldn’t.
Weilan continued to hesitate.
Seeing this, the E Lab Director shrugged, then stepped forward until she was right in front of her and snatched Gram from her hands.
Weilan looked down at her now-empty hands and ground her teeth.
“Tch. Would’ve been better if you got caught up in the mess and died.”
“That’s so mean…”
The E Lab Director exaggeratedly wiped at the corner of her eyes as if wiping away nonexistent tears.
Weilan shot her a disgusted glare.
Then, completely unexpectedly, she spoke while keeping her head lowered.
“…Be nice to me. I’m only four years old, you know?”
Weilan’s ears couldn’t believe what they’d just heard.
She already knew, of course.
But that was something you never said out loud—especially in a place filled with Beta-rank personnel.
‘Why was she saying this now?’
“…You’re not supposed to say that.”
Anxiety prickled at her.
Before she could even scan her surroundings for reactions, she reflexively spoke those words.
“No, I can say it….”
From deep within the earth—
A distant boom echoed.
And in an instant, the world turned white.
A pillar of light, erupting like a volcano, shot up past the 4th Research Lab, piercing the sky, splitting the clouds at the highest reaches of the heavens.
There was no place for shadows anywhere in the 4th Research Lab.
A blinding radiance that could melt retinas.
A deafening explosion that could rupture eardrums.
Weilan, unable to rely on her eyes, barely managed to grasp the situation through the mechanical enhancements in her body.
From the abyss where IF-684 had burst through—and where IF-017 had followed down—
An immense, towering flame was rising.
‘Could IF-684 even do something like this?’
‘No.’
If it could, humanity would’ve been wiped out long ago.
Then what was this light?
Weilan thought she had an idea.
She had seen something similar once before—
A long time ago, on a much smaller scale.
From IF-017-1.
“Ascension… and rampage!”
Kwangcheol was still burning.
But now, his expression was peaceful.
Inside Kwangcheol’s heart—
The once-erratically spinning, shattered Celestial Flame had been completely swallowed by the true Celestial Flame, losing its presence entirely.
Once this already-ignited heat cooled down—
There would be nothing left to rekindle it.
Meaning—
There was no need to shoot again.
It was already stable.
Shooting again wouldn’t be training—it would just be cruelty.
‘Then why wasn’t his body listening to him?’
“Gyaawk.”
Even with his jaw clenched, flames spilled between his teeth.
He tried coughing to clear his chest—only for fire to escape his mouth.
As if there was still more—far, far more—left to burn.
As if there were still unworthy bastards who had yet to receive their divine punishment.
He had never accumulated this much heat so quickly before—
But he hadn’t realized just how much he had built up.
Once he let it out even a little—
Trying to stop it mid-way felt like dying.
If he let out more, everything would collapse.
He couldn’t.
“Gyah….”
Suddenly, memories of his human days surfaced.
Something about how if you stopped running, that was the end.
Why was he remembering this now?
Was his body telling him to give up and let everything explode?
How useless.
Would’ve been real nice if his body had brought up something actually helpful—like proper breathing techniques to calm himself down.
Kwangchul kept calling her “Ancestor” like he was some kind of fat little snake.
It was annoying.
But he wasn’t in any condition to be annoyed about it.
He didn’t want to spend even one more second in this state.
Screw it.
He was lying down.
Kwangchul could stay here.
He was going to the fat little snake.
Unlike Kwangchul, the snake had proper Celestial Flames.
Even in his current state, he could lie on it without issue.
It was a little disgraceful, sure—
But hey, that’s what Celestial Flames were for.
“Gyoo…”
He left Kwangchul burning peacefully behind and ascended upward.
That bastard could burn as much as he wanted.
Then why—
‘Why did he feel so uncomfortable?’
It wasn’t fair.
If someone touched him right now—
He had no idea what he might do.
The Celestial Flame raged inside him.