Kwangcheol watched the black-vested men climbing the stairs after Long Weilan.
All of them.
Compared to the people Kwangcheol had seen in the city, they were all young and weak children.
After choosing betrayal, Kwangcheol, whose whole body had changed strangely, had become much stronger than his days as a priest, and could even stand against high-ranking priests.
The destructive acts that Kwangcheol committed, burning and plundering, were so extreme that even his fellow priests couldn’t stop him, and they often ended up as stars in the lake.
And yet, these humans were stopping Kwangcheol.
Kwangcheol knew it.
If those humans hadn’t stopped him, he would have committed far more sins.
At the time, there was a gap between Kwangcheol and those humans, like the difference between an elephant and ants.
‘They must have been so scared… How many of those admirable and grateful humans did I turn to ashes…?’
Kwangcheol sobbed with guilt.
At the time, the broken marble had heated his heart so hot and painfully that he was out of his mind, but even breaking the marble was something Kwangcheol had done himself.
It was all his own fault.
‘I’m sorry… I won’t do it again…’
Kwangcheol continued to apologize to the humans he had turned to ashes.
He wanted to apologize in person, but he couldn’t show his face.
‘Because of what I’ve done… They’d be surprised if I showed up…?’
It was Kwangcheol’s own consideration.
Since he only knew how to break things and go out, he didn’t know the way to go, so Kwangcheol was planning to follow them, killing two birds with one stone.
‘That way, I can go to the Ancestor and apologize in person…!’
Kwangcheol clenched his short, stubby fist and vowed.
But then, he felt a gaze.
Soon, Kwangcheol made eye contact with Weilan, who was looking his way, for a brief moment.
Weilan frowned, as if he had seen something wrong.
The look on his face seemed to be glaring at him, as if asking about the sin of killing his comrades.
‘S-Sorry…!’
Kwangcheol was startled and quickly hid.
Long Weilan, the commander of the IF-684 dedicated unit ‘Siegfried’, finally exploded with annoyance.
The fact that IF-684 was dead meant that she had reached a point where she couldn’t suppress her annoyance.
She hated the stairs, she hated the debris.
She just hated everything.
‘Why do I have to be doing this? I should have just smashed that E bastard’s face and gone back to headquarters with ‘Gram’.’
Weilan often went to the field, unlike other Alpha-class personnel.
That was the reason.
As a trade-off, she had a hobby that was hard to share with others.
‘Ha, I want to play with rubber ducks in a warm bathtub…’
Weilan had a taste that didn’t match her extraordinary spirit.
Weilan thought she needed healing.
Then, IF-098, ‘Tsuchinoko’, which IF-017 had left with him for a while, came to Weilan’s mind.
Weilan’s hand twitched as if the addictive sensation was still lingering on her fingertips.
‘Ever since I touched that damn snake, I can’t be satisfied with rubber ducks.’
The real thing was different from the fake.
But she couldn’t go to IF-017 and ask for it back, saying she would raise it now.
Weilan licked her lips and looked up the stairs.
‘Isn’t there anything similar? Yeah, just like that… Huh?’
And Weilan frowned.
Her made eye contact with something that was hiding behind the debris.
The sooty footprints left in its place.
It must have been the guy who had been secretly melting the debris in front of them.
‘An unidentified phenomenon.’
It seemed familiar, but it was an unidentified phenomenon that Weilan had never seen at the Fourth Research Institute.
Weilan raised her good arm and gave a hand signal.
The unit members who were climbing the stairs behind her stopped at once.
“What’s wrong?”
Weilan took in the sight of the unit members asking the question.
They had long since thrown away level 1 ‘Balmung’ firearms that had rusted and become unusable.
Everyone was exhausted and panting in the long staircase hell.
There was no one who could engage with the unidentified phenomenon.
Weilan clenched her mechanical fist tightly.
“There’s something ahead. I’m going to climb a little faster from now on, so everyone follow slowly.”
The unit members could be in danger, even if she wasn’t.
Therefore, Weilan only told the unit members to be careful because she had seen something, and then started acting alone.
“Captain, won’t it be dangerous?”
“What does it look like?”
The unit members asked nervously.
It was natural, since Weilan was saying that she would face the unidentified phenomenon with her bare hands.
Weilan chuckled.
Ever since her severed arm had been replaced by that unknown thing, Weilan couldn’t be in danger even if she wanted to be.
The fact that the ‘Siegfried’ unit commander went to the field meant an encounter with IF-684, but she went to the field more often than anyone else, which said it all.
“Dangerous, you say… Well, you might think so if you don’t know.”
Weilan smiled and replied.
“It… looked squishy.”
“Pardon?”
“Enough to make me want to touch it.”
***
Leaving the unit members to interpret what that meant, Weilan started climbing the stairs quickly, chasing after the thing.
She could see the guy sporadically at the end of her vision.
She could have outrun Weilan by using the debris, but for some unknown reason, the distance was getting shorter.
Most people would have thought, ‘That women is trying to lure me in to eat me,’ but.
Weilan knew that whatever it was, it wouldn’t do that to her.
‘I’ve roughly grasped its behavior pattern, so let’s get started…’
Weilan muffled her footsteps.
Kwangcheol was busy melting the debris.
Weilan, who had left the formation alone, was climbing the stairs too fast.
‘Why is he suddenly running…?’
At this rate, he would be caught soon.
If he hid now, he wouldn’t be discovered, but clearing the way for the humans would be in vain.
Kwangcheol wanted to keep helping the grateful humans, so he continued to melt the debris.
And then, he ran into a difficulty.
A large piece of debris full of rebar was blocking the way.
Even if it was rusty and rotten, it would take a long time to melt.
‘Nooo… Melt faster…!’
The footsteps, which were already fast, were getting closer rapidly.
Kwangcheol held back his breath and spewed flames with all his might.
***
After a dozen seconds that felt like an eternity.
The debris melted.
‘I did it…!’
Kwangcheol was about to hide in a hurry, forgetting to breathe, with a bright expression.
Flap flap.
His short, stubby legs didn’t touch the ground.
Only then did Kwangcheol realize that he was being grabbed by the scruff of his neck.
‘?!’
He didn’t even know when he had been caught.
Kwangcheol, who was so focused that he didn’t know that fact at all, was startled and struggled, looking back.
“Got you.”
Then, Weilan, who was looking at Kwangcheol with a chilling gaze, pulled up the corners of her mouth.
‘???!!!’
Kwangcheol’s face turned blue with shock.
He was clearly a young and weak human, but when he faced him like this, he felt like he couldn’t stand up to him at all.
He had that much of a presence.
‘He must be… very angry…?’
Anyone would be angry if the person who burned hundreds or thousands of their comrades to death was in front of them.
This was also karma.
Kwangcheol was ready to accept any venting of anger.
Kwangcheol quietly closed his eyes, shedding tears.
But something was strange.
Kwangcheol expected to be beaten bloody, but that didn’t happen no matter how long he waited.
Kwangcheol quietly opened his eyes.
Weilan’s eyes in front of him were still chilling, but they were slightly different.
The subtly raised corners of her mouth seemed to be smiling.
“Hehe…”
‘Why… is she smiling…??’
Kwangcheol rolled his eyes in confusion, following Weilan’s hand.
Weilan’s hand was reaching for Kwangcheol’s face.
Only then.
Kwangcheol realized that Weilan was pulling on his cheeks.
He had prepared for the pain, but he couldn’t stand the cheek-pulling he hadn’t imagined.
‘Noooo…’
It was clearly less painful than being beaten and cut, but he couldn’t stand it.
“Kkweura-rah…!”
Kwangcheol flapped and bounced his whole body wildly.
“Why is this little runt suddenly like this?”
The moment his cheeks slipped out of Weilan’s surprised hand.
“Ah.”
‘Not the cheeks…!’
Kwangcheol cried and ran away.
I reached out to punish Nessho, who dared to look at the Ancestor with a disdainful look.
‘Eung…’
Then Nessho ran away, scurrying.
“Where are you going to run with those short legs? You’re a rat in a trap.”
I was watching the scene with amusement.
But, I couldn’t help but be shocked.
Shockingly, the place Nessho chose to run to was Kang Hana’s arms!
Kang Hana’s eyes widened, and then she smiled brightly and hugged Nessho.
‘A penguin Lulu came into my arms and hugged me…!’
‘Woongheehee, I’m alive!’
Nessho was smiling happily in Kang Hana’s arms, and Woongheehee was smiling with her.
I had to approach Kang Hana to attack, but if I did, Kang Hana would definitely bother me, so I couldn’t approach.
‘This can’t be.’
‘Is Nessho a genius…?’
‘I can’t do that.’
Let’s punish the idiot who hasn’t run away yet, instead of the pheasant.
Then I heard a beep? sound.
‘What?’
I punished the plump snake, which I dared to call mass, by putting it in a pillow shape.
Kkweueng-
A desirable sound.
You shouldn’t be so rude.
I smiled with satisfaction.
That’s when it happened.
‘Stop it…!!’
I heard a wooeh-eung crying sound from somewhere with telepathy.
‘What is it.’
‘Did Kang Hana squeeze Nessho too much?’
Thinking that, I turned around, and Nessho was surprisingly calm.
‘Then who is it?’
There were a lot of letters, so it couldn’t be the plump snake….
It must be Kwangcheol.
I looked down.
Kwangcheol’s big body had disappeared somewhere like a ghost, but I could find him if I looked at the place where I heard the telepathy.
I looked at the place where I heard the telepathy.
And, I saw a chase.
What is it.
‘Who are those Red-Arm and the little priest I’m seeing for the first time?’
‘Ah… That’s Kwangcheol?’
Then I can’t just let him keep being chased.
I jumped up.
‘Done?’
First, I’ll turn the rude plump snake, who dared to ask if it was over, upside down and stick it between the rocks….
‘Help! Help!’
I headed to stop Red-Arm, who was chasing Kwangcheol.
“Huh? Lug, where are you going?”
Kang Hana’s question couldn’t slow down my steps.
I can never let Red-Arm keep bothering Kwangcheol.
“Gyaoh.”
I spread my wings and flew through the hole.
Of course.
Because from ancient times, only I could bother Kwangcheol…!