Death-dic scrambled behind a wall, clamping a desperate hand over the wound. She clutched her chest, trying to heal the injury.
It’s not… regenerating…?
Gate Particles warped around the gaping hole in her chest, disrupting her healing ability.
Gritting her teeth, Death-dic forced her power into overdrive, stitching the flesh around the wound together just to hold her body in one piece.
Gasping for breath, she managed to speak.
“Never.”
A beat of silence passed over the comms.
“Why? Just… why?”
«Sorry.» Miss Never’s bitter murmur ca through. «You wouldn’t understand even if I told you.»
A rapid-fire volley of magic bullets from Miss Never tore through her position. The wall she was using for cover crumbled, sending Death-dic tumbling across the floor.
Miss Never’s Domain Break was The World Reflected in the Well.
When she viewed the world through her Mystic Eye, reality distorted to match her perception.
In other words, if she looked at a target and fired, the bullet would hit. Guaranteed.
This alone would have made her the world’s greatest sniper, but her power of distortion granted an additional ability.
Cursed Magic Bullet.
Her bullets warped the very Gate Particles they passed through. This made her a fundantal dispeller, capable of shutting down any Awakened who relied on those particles for their powers.
Death-dic coughed up a mouthful of blood, a choked groan escaping her lips.
Fierce, high-altitude winds whipped through the broken window. Staggering in the gale, trying to evade with a hole blown through her chest, was a living hell.
Death-dic fought to keep her fading consciousness from slipping away, her body trembling with rage.
Ghost… she managed to waste a damn Gate Lord with a hole in her chest…!
She rembered the story of how Ghost had taken down the Rose Princess with an identical wound.
If that relic from a bygone era could do it… then so can I…!
Her body’s functions kept trying to shut down, but Death-dic forced her healing powers to keep them running as she desperately rolled deeper into the building.
Okay, the sniper fire can’t reach this far inside. Now I just have to get to the first floor and—
Just then, she heard the harsh, thundering sound of footsteps charging up the stairs.
“…!”
It was the three Villains who’d fled downstairs.
They had taken cover for a mont, but with Miss Never’s sniper support, they had returned to the battlefield. The Villains of the Crimson Poverty Front had been waiting for reinforcents, too.
Death-dic squeezed her eyes shut.
I thought I’d led them into a trap…
She’d deliberately lured them to the top floor.
Turns out I was the one who walked into it.
She’d been played.
But there was still a way out. The elevator was still open due to the malfunction. She could use the shaft to escape.
But just as Death-dic was about to slip away from the top floor… Jeon Woo-chi’s booming voice echoed from the stairwell as he hit the top floor.
“Hey! Healer lady! Where do you think you’re sneaking off to? Running away? Fine by . But what happens to the hostages?”
“…!”
The three Villains strode onto the floor, each gripping a hostage.
They were ordinary employees who managed Hero Tower. Death-dic even recognized a few of their faces. They must have been captured after failing to evacuate in the chaos.
“Don’t even think about bailing. Co on out! If you run, they die!”
“...”
“I’ll give you ten seconds. Get your ass out here in ten!”
The three Villains dragged their hostages to the edge of the shattered window. The hostages groaned under their rough handling but struggled to remain defiant, their bodies trembling.
“dic! Don’t worry about us! Just get out of here!”
“You can’t give in to scum like this!”
“We’re mbers of the Heroes’ eting, too…! We’re prepared for this!”
Jeon Woo-chi shoved the hostages right up to the broken window’s edge and rocked them back and forth playfully.
From the top of Hero Tower, it was a drop of dozens of stories to the ground. A fall ant certain death.
Tears stread down the hostages’ faces, but they desperately choked back their screams.
Chevalier’s expression was grim. Iljimae seed indifferent. Jeon Woo-chi just cackled cruelly.
“Five seconds left!”
“dic!” one of the hostages scread. “We’re really oka—”
WHUMP!
Before he could finish, Jeon Woo-chi kicked the hostage squarely in the back.
Bang! Bang!
He shot the other two in the back. All three were sent flying from the building.
“…!”
In the next instant, Death-dic was running before she even realized it. She shot across the building’s interior, past the three Villains, and straight out the window—throwing herself into the void.
In her descent, Death-dic fought the fierce wind, desperately shooting out strands of a Golden Spiderweb. She wrapped the webs around the falling hostages’ waists, healing their wounds as she hurled them back inside onto a lower-level balcony.
“…!”
Suspended in midair, Death-dic saw the glint of a scope from a rooftop across the way. Exposed, she had no way to dodge.
«Right to the end…» Miss Never’s heavy voice ca over the comms. «You really are a hero, dic.»
A mont later, a barrage of magic bullets tore through Death-dic’s body.
Riddled by the hailstorm, Death-dic plumted.
Ah.
In the haze of her fading consciousness, Death-dic realized the whole world was glowing.
Aah…
Looking down from the sky, she saw the lights of the lives she had saved. They were blooming everywhere, like a field of flowers.
Guild Master.
The guild patch sewn into the inside of her tattered field jacket fluttered in the wind.
Suho.
A faint smile touched Death-dic’s lips.
I… I think I lived a good…
CRUNCH!
The healer’s body slamd into the asphalt road dozens of stories below.
Jeon Woo-chi whistled as he looked down. Screams erupted from the people on the street below.
“Wow, I can’t believe that actually worked. She just jumped. How stupid can you be? Incapable of making a rational decision?” Jeon Woo-chi circled a finger at his temple.
Chevalier countered his mockery. “Do not disgrace her.”
“What?”
“Only a truly noble person could have done that.”
The Villain in the Butcher’s Mask and the Villain in the Choraengi Mask locked eyes.
“Do not mock that hero’s sacrifice, trash.”
“Ha…” Jeon Woo-chi laughed in disbelief and began circling the index finger of his other hand at his temple. “Looks like this guy’s still having an identity crisis. Snap out of it. Rember which side you’re on.”
“...”
“Whatever. You think she’s really dead after all that? I’m half-scared she’ll just regenerate again, like in the elevator.”
«Maybe if she wasn’t hit by my Cursed Magic Bullets. But a hit ans certain death,» Miss Never replied over the comms. «And no matter how great Death-dic is, she can’t bring herself back from the dead.»
“I see…”
«Get out of there. You’ve wasted too much ti.» Miss Never took a deep breath before finishing. «I’ll clean up the scene.»
“Thanks a bunch~ Well then, shall we bounce?” Jeon Woo-chi slung his arms over his two companions’ shoulders and Blinked rapidly between buildings.
Miss Never watched the trio of Villains vanish from the scene through her sniper scope, then slowly pulled her face away.
“I’m sorry, dic.” She averted her eyes from the sight of her comrade, who lay broken on the distant ground below. “It’ll all be over soon anyway.”
She slipped her eyepatch over her Mystic Eye and squeezed her other eye shut.
She murmured, “ too, when the ti cos…”
***
January 1, 2051. Prison Cruise Paradise Lost.
Jae-hee, summoned to the Commander’s Office early in the morning, let out a massive yawn. As if it were contagious, all the other prisoners gathered there started yawning in unison.
“So sleepy…” Jae-hee muttered, wiping away the tears that had welled up from his yawn. The other prisoners nodded in agreent.
“Ugh, who calls a eting first thing on New Year’s Day?”
“She knows we were up all night partying. Our commander’s got no consideration.”
“So, why’d she call us…? I wish she’d just tell us what’s up so we can go back to sleep…”
Unable to fight it, Jae-hee’s head began to nod as he drifted off. Razor and Status Window, standing on either side of him, caught him before he could fall over.
Just then, the door to the Commander’s Office opened, and Ghost, who was already inside, beckoned to them.
The prisoners shuffled into the office, where Commander Hae-eun Seo turned to face them, her expression colder and harder than they’d ever seen.
Instead of her usual playful greeting, Hae-eun cut straight to the point.
“A national state of ergency has been declared.”
Razor dug a pinky into his ear and blew on the fingertip. “When haven’t we been in a state of ergency? Feels like we’ve been in one for thirty years straight.”
“The President has been assassinated.”
The sudden news made the prisoners’ eyes go wide.
“Most of the State Council mbers were killed along with him. The cabinet has effectively collapsed.”
Razor’s mouth hung open in shock. He asked, “What do you an… I an, how is that even possible? Don’t those bigwigs have top-notch security?”
“It was Silken Bodhisattva.”
Jae-hee gasped. He hadn’t heard that na in a long ti.
“Silken Bodhisattva sis…?”
“A long-range curse bombardnt. The whole country is in an uproar.”
Everyone was stunned, but Hae-eun wasn’t finished.
“And at the sa ti, intruders stord Hero Tower. One of the New Five Heroes, Death-dic, was killed.”
“What?!” Jae-hee stamred. “M-dic sis…?”
“...”
President San Kim. Death-dic.
At the news of two people she knew being assassinated in quick succession, Ghost crossed her arms and bit her lip hard.
Licking her dry lips, Hae-eun put a cigarette to her mouth and lit it. “They killed the head of the Republic of Korea and its top Hunter. For a bunch of piss-ant Villains, they’ve done a fine job of backing up their declaration of war.”
“So the culprits are…”
“The Crimson Poverty Front.”
Hae-eun exhaled a cloud of smoke and looked over the faces of the prisoners.
“Our mission is simple. We hunt those fuckers down and wipe them out.”
“...”
“We kill every last one of them. No exceptions.”
As the prisoners swallowed hard, Hae-eun made one final declaration.
“It’s ti for war, Black Parade.”
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