Whish—!

Kim Suho swung Misteltein and suddenly twisted it at an odd angle. He had developed this new technique after watching Kim Hajin’s curving bullets. The final djinn collapsed after his elegant sword technique.

“Whew, they just keep coming.” Kim Suho sighed and wiped his sweat.

“Yeonha, are you okay?” Shin Jonghak asked her as he nonchalantly cleaned his spear after fighting a group of djinns.

“Yeah, thanks to you.” Yoo Yeonha seemed a bit tired, but still smiled.

“I’m glad.”

Kim Suho smiled back. Including Yoo Yeonha, they had already rescued 15 cadets with the pathfinder orb. More remained, but they prioritized getting these cadets to safety.

“Everyone!” Kim Suho clapped and gathered their attention. “We will guide you to safety, so follow us.”

“Why are you talking like they’re children? They’re cadets just like you.” Yoo Yeonha narrowed her eyes.

“Huh? Oh, sorry. I’ve been playing with my nephews recently.”

“Cadets, stay on guard and follow us to the central building!” Kim Soohyuk gallantly shouted.

“See? It’s the instructor’s job to say those things.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

The cadets began to walk towards the central building.

“E-Eh? Look over there!”

Someone pointed at the sky. KOOOONG—! The breath of a divine existence swept the island. Trees fell and clouds of dirt rose from the massive shockwave. Kim Suho kept his eyes open and watched. The point of impact struck the central building, which began to crumble.

“…!”

Kim Suho moved before his thoughts could catch up. He immediately ran towards the building, but stopped because of the pathfinder orb.

“Hurry up, everyone!”

Kim Suho urged them on. By the time they returned to the central building…

“T-This.”

A devastating scene lay before them. The building had toppled and many cadets collapsed on the ground unconscious. However, someone stood in the middle of this horrific scene.

“Hm?”

The mysterious man wore a half-broken mask and smiled at Kim Suho.

“Who are you?”

Kim Suho gritted his teeth and asked. However, the man only gave an ominous smile through his strange mask. Kim Soohyuk stepped up.

“Fall back, Kim Suho. He’s not someone you can handle.”

“Ah, so you’re Kim Suho.”

The mysterious man muttered. His voice changed as he spoke. He sounded like a woman in one phrase, then a man in another, and a child for the next. Kim Suho immediately frowned at his strange voice.

“What djinn are you?” Kim Soohyuk asked.

A deep smile emerged on the man’s face. “That’s an interesting question. What djinn? Are you asking for my name? Unfortunately, I don’t have one.”

He grabbed the neck of one of the cadets on the ground. “But I hear you guys call me Destruction.”

This title caused everyone’s eyes to widen in shock. Destruction snickered at their reactions and stared at the cadets who just arrived.

“There are many of you I want to take, but unfortunately I’m out of time. I’ll just have to take this child.”

Destruction formed a bundle of magic power and placed an unconscious cadet inside. Immediately, a crescent sword slash and a spear beam flew towards him. Kim Suho and Shin Jonghak attacked as soon as he lowered his guard.

“Huaa.” Destruction breathed and unleashed a wave of magic power that scattered their attacks. Then he leisurely laughed.

“Unfortunately, you’re too weak to do anything against—”

Kim Soohyuk charged forward before Destruction could finish his sentence. He was within arm’s reach in the blink of an eye. Then he reached towards Destruction’s face as Destruction placed a hand on his neck. A magic power blast shot out from Kim Soohyuk’s palm and struck Destruction in the head. KOONG—! The ground rumbled, but Destruction only laughed.

“I praise your courage.”

His laugh sounded ominous. Kim Suho and Shin Jonghak quickly charged forward, but… PUAK— Claws shot out from Destruction’s fingers and pierced Kim Soohyuk’s chest. Kim Soohyuk coughed up blood and collapsed. Only then did Kim Suho and Shin Jonghak reach him. Destruction closed his eyes and shook his head.

“How unfortunate.”

Destruction snapped Shin Jonghak’s spear and pushed Kim Suho back with a single wave of his hand. The difference in power was too overwhelming.

“I said I would let you live. What makes you so eager to die?”

Destruction muttered arrogantly while looking down at the weaklings. Kiiiiiik— The sound of wind and lightning resounded in every direction.

“Hm?”

Everyone in the area looked up. Soon, a lump of magic power appeared in the middle of the sky and landed like a shooting star.

KWANG—!

The shooting star descended with an overbearing force. The shockwave caused a cloud of dirt to rise and the ground rumbled.

Pzzzt— Pzzzt— Electricity crackled in the center of the big crater.

“…”

A brief silence descended from this unexpected phenomenon. Whiish… The wind lifted the cloud of dirt to reveal a single man.

“D-Dad!”

Someone shouted in surprise. It came from Yoo Yeonha. Naturally, everyone correctly guessed the identity of their savior.

“…”

Yoo Yeonha’s father, Yoo Jinwoong, glanced at his daughter and sighed in relief.

“You’re… Yoo Jinwoong!”

Destruction and Yoo Jinwoong seemed to know each other as the former glared with hatred. Yoo Jinwoong nonchalantly muttered, “It’s been a while, Changdong.”

“…”

Destruction’s face immediately distorted.

“I thought I told you never to call me by that name again.”

“Mm… did you?” Yoo Jinwoong smiled.

“But you know…” His smile quickly disappeared and crimson electricity crackled around him. Yoo Jinwoong the Berserker tried his best to suppress his rage. “It’s none of your business what I call you, you motherfucker.”

The side effect of his extraordinary gift was rage. Yoo Yeonha and her mother were quite embarrassed about it. However, one person watched him with respect.

“… I can’t believe it,” Shin Jonghak muttered in awe.

***

The rooftop shook and the entire building crumbled. I briefly floated in the air before plummeting. Steel and concrete rained from the sky. The azure dragon’s breath had caused complete chaos.

Koogoogoong— The building collapsed and I found myself instantly buried under the rubble. I looked down at Chae Nayun in my arms. She fell unconscious with her eyes tightly shut.

“…”

Soon, everything became silent. Darkness surrounded me, but I peered through the debris with the thousand-mile eyes.

“Whew.”

I looked for the azure dragon. Thankfully, its anger seemed to have subsided and returned to the ocean wagging its tail.

“Auuu.”

My head spun and I couldn’t feel my right arm anymore. Thankfully, my barrier still worked. The obsidian bracelet almost broke, but what was left protected us from the debris.

“Hey.”

I poked Chae Nayun’s cheeks. However, she had completely passed out. Her magic convulsion stopped, so why did she faint?

“This is a bit dangerous.”

I wasn’t sure how long my barrier would last or how long I would last. Yi Yeonghan or Kim Horak might’ve dug their way through, but for me…

“Haa.”

Our oxygen was running low and my blood boiled from expending all of stigma. Nothing changed even after I used my recovery potion medicinal effect. My vision grew blurry, but something shot out of my chest when I almost fainted.

“Grrrr.”

The wolf I named Fenrir moved quickly. He opened his mouth and gathered magic power. Then blasted it forward and cleared a path. I felt genuinely surprised that he had a long ranged attack.

“Krrrrr.”

Fenrir placed us on his back and walked towards the light on the other side.

***

Jain celebrated at her mansion near London.

“Ah, I’m so happy.”

She stared at the items she stole last night with an ecstatic smile. She had taken the shiniest and most expensive jewels from Pandemonium’s notoriously rich djinn.

“You’re all so pretty!”

Each of these jewels contained pure and high quality mana that made everyone who looked at them feel wonderful.

“I wonder what it feels like to live buried under jewels? Ah, my goal will be to make a swimming pool filled with jewels!”

Jain happily grinned as she rubbed the jewels on her face.

“Jain.”

A young boy called her name. Droon was watching anime in the same room.

“Yeah?”

“I’m curious. Why did you do it?”

“What do you mean?”

Jain retorted half-heartedly. She found it annoying having to deal with a 13 year old, but could listen to any of his requests today.

“I saw it. You showed it to them.”

“…”

Jain’s expression slightly stiffened. “Mm… What do you mean? Show who what?”

“You know what I’m talking about.”

Droon was in charge of the barrier during Chae Jinyoon’s murder. Boss only told him to set it up in a designated location, but Droon understood what he was doing.

“I saw everything.”

“Ah, that?”

Jain grinned as though she just recalled.

“It’s nothing much. It’s just that I’m quite fond of that child too.”

The silver bullet that could kill that man. Jain stood shoulder to shoulder with Boss when it came to her hatred for the Chameleon Troupe’s traitor. If possible, she wanted to tear his limbs apart with her own hands.

“Eh?”

“You heard me.”

If Chae Jinyoon died, Chae Joochul would obviously employ Yoo Jinhyuk. However, Droon’s Mimyo was a unique lifeform that Yoo Jinhyuk couldn’t see through. [1] This lifeform existed only in the present, not the past or the future. As such, Yoo Jinhyuk shouldn’t have been able to see anything from that day.

“Why did you do that if you’re fond of him? That doesn’t make sense.”

“Mm, that’s because you’re still too young to understand.”

Jain purposefully left behind a clue about Chae Jinyoon’s murderer. Revealing Kim Hajin’s face would ruin their trust, so she only revealed a small piece of evidence. However, it would surely connect the incident to Kim Hajin. Thankfully, Kim Hajin had a special mark on him.

“You can only perfectly possess someone when they have nowhere else to go. That way, he won’t betray us like that man.”

Jain thought Kim Hajin would be found out when he was hospitalized from the recent magic power explosion. However, an unexpected ally ended up helping him.

“But Droon, didn’t you know about this? We thought your rabbit would eat the corpse, but it didn’t.”

“It’s not that it didn’t. It couldn’t.”

A small rabbit shot out from Droon’s back. It had red eyes and black fur. Just looking at this terrifying existence would cause anyone to shiver. Jain waved her hand in apology.

“Sorry, Mimyo. I didn’t know.”

“…”

The rabbit returned to Droon’s body.

“Mimyo sure is pretty… Anyways, why couldn’t it eat him?”

“I don’t know. Mimyo didn’t tell me when I asked and we didn’t have time to properly investigate.”

Dozens of heroes arrived at the scene after demonic energy exploded from Chae Jinyoon’s body. Droon and Khalifa barely made it out after cleaning up the area.

Tzzzzzt— The anime Droon was watching suddenly turned off.

“W-What happened!”

An emergency announcement came on the TV.

“Oh, what’s happening now?”

[Emergency! Djinns have simultaneously invaded hero academies all over the world…]

“Aaah, I was just at the good part!”

“So they finally went mad…”

Unlike Droon, Jain had a big smile on her face.

***

The situation was quickly taken care of after Yoo Jinwoong’s arrival. He ran around the island like lightning and rescued every cadet with the pathfinder orb from Kim Suho. When reporters asked how he arrived so quickly, Yoo Jinwoong responded:

— I learned that Cube wasn’t a trustworthy organization. I have to protect my daughter with my own hands.

— … The United Nations and the Hero Association have condemned djinns for today’s attack and have declared that they can no longer tolerate the djinns’ tyranny. Clouds of war are filling the skies across the globe…

Most news agencies reported the same thing. Djinns attacked various hero academies and provoked an azure dragon, which was considered Korea’s guardian. The aftermath was on a completely different scale compared to previous incidents involving djinns. The president of Korea personally met with the Hero Association.

Many Cube cadets were hospitalized in the Gangnam Severance Hospital.

Kiiik—

Yoo Yeonha carefully opened the door to Chae Nayun’s hospital room.

“Um… Nayun, are you feeling better?”

“…”

Chae Nayun silently stared at the window. Her usual lively eyes seemed especially withered today.

“Nayun?”

“… Ah.”

Chae Nayun only responded when Yoo Yeonha called her a second time.

“You’re here, Yeonha?”

She stared at Yoo Yeonha and feebly spoke.

“Yeah, but why do you sound so weak? You don’t sound like the Chae Nayun I know.”

Yoo Yeonha sat next to her.

“Weak, huh…”

Chae Nayun muttered and sighed.

“… Yeonha.”

“Hm?”

Chae Nayun’s hollow gaze lost focus. She fiddled with her fingers and thought about what to say.

“A-About the tattoo I told you about last time…”

Yoo Yeonha suddenly ran out of air when Chae Nayun brought up the tattoo.

“Y-Yeah?”

“Do, do you think it’s real?”

“W-What do you mean?”

Yoo Yeonha wanted to maintain her composure, but her damned voice kept trembling.

“Haa… you see.”

Chae Nayun deeply sighed and murmured, “Do you think… it’s real proof of the culprit? Can I trust it?”

Yoo Yeonha didn’t answer. She could only swallow her saliva and try to calm her heart.

“… Why are you saying this all of a sudden?”

Chae Nayun raised her head. Her gaze seemed to pierce Yoo Yeonha.

“I think I had a strange dream today.”

“Dream?”

“Yeah, but it was so vivid.”

Chae Nayun placed her left hand on her upper right arm. This simple motion caused Yoo Yeonha’s heart to sink.

“Kim Hajin. It’s about Kim Hajin. There was a tattoo on his upper arm…”

Chae Nayun smirked and stopped talking. Almost as if she couldn’t believe what she was saying.

“No, I think I must’ve been confused. I must’ve had a strange dream because of my obsession with it.”

Yoo Yeonha didn’t doubt what Chae Nayun saw. It looked like Chae Nayun was still only suspicious.

“It felt too vivid to be a dream, but it doesn’t make sense. Why would Hajin…”

Chae Nayun mumbled to herself and dug into her blanket. “Yeonha, I’m going to sleep now. I’m tired.”

“Y-Yeah, s-sleep. I’m going outside for a bit.”

“Un.”

Yoo Yeonha walked out of the room in a daze. However, she quickly snapped out of it and moved her legs towards that person’s room.

— Tok, tok.

She knocked on his door. However, he didn’t reply.

“Hello? Are you okay?”

Tok, tok. Yoo Yeonha knocked again. She couldn’t hear anyone inside and suddenly grew apprehensive. Then she barged in.

“Waah?”

No one was inside. A single document envelope lay on the table. Yoo Yeonha quickly grabbed it.

[Dropout Form] Cadet – Kim Hajin

“What!” She immediately ran out.

“E-Excuse me!”

She grabbed a nurse and asked where the patient went. The nurse simply tilted her head as Yoo Yeonha looked for another staff to ask. She clenched her teeth.

No matter what the situation may be, with everything we’ve gone through together, you can’t just disappear without a farewell…

1. Mimyo means beautiful rabbit. ☜