Chapter 120: Falling into Danger

The man sighed.

The plan for this mission was originally flawless.

With the convenience granted to them by the people from “that side,” their action team was responsible for setting up the various Erosion disaster points.

The Apostle Sakurai Sachi was responsible for taking the opportunity to destroy the Boundary Monument, and then the Angel could enter the garrison.

After that, the mission would become exceptionally simple.

But for some reason, the higher-ups suddenly went crazy and took an interest in an Accommodator.

Of course, that girl was a rare Absolute Accommodator, so it wasn’t entirely unreasonable for them to be interested in her.

But for some reason, they wouldn’t let them capture her and bring her back.

Then, they neurotically sent Sakurai Sachi to attack Seikyo City’s strongest Agent.

From that moment on, their entire plan was thrown into disarray.

The man sighed, feeling a deep sense of powerlessness.

He was just an executor; no amount of complaining would do any good.

“Forget it. The mission has already failed, and we can’t contact the outside right now. We should leave as soon as possible…”

Karina glanced around and said.

“Now is the perfect chance to get away.”

The man’s and Karina’s communication devices had also failed just now.

They had no way of contacting the outside.

Most of the garrison was still in complete darkness.

Soldiers were directing the setup of backup light sources one by one.

At this rate, it wouldn’t be long before their ideal window of escape disappeared.

Right now, they were both wearing the uniforms of the staff here, disguised as locals.

But if they waited until the garrison recovered and conducted a sweep, they would be exposed.

“Yeah…”

The man couldn’t refute Karina’s suggestion and sighed.

He took a deep look back in the direction where Ephnel and the Angel had disappeared.

“I wonder if the higher-ups will make any moves… That was the ‘Angel,’ yet it was driven back by a single Agent. Tsk…”

Remembering the scene they had just witnessed, the man felt a lingering fear.

Before coming to Seikyo City, the Angel’s power had been absolute in his mind.

And Apostles were, for the most part, more powerful than Agents.

But today, he had to admit that among the Agents, there were existences capable of threatening them.

“Alright, let’s go! We’ll leave a signal for the other two to retreat as soon as possible.”

Karina urged.

Just then, a gunshot rang out not far away.

Even amidst the noise of the garrison, this gunshot was particularly piercing.

The man and Karina both looked around warily at the same time.

“What happened?”

“A gunshot… You stay here, I’ll go check it out.”

Karina nodded.

The man picked up a crate, pretending to be another worker, and crept behind a collapsed low wall.

Acting nonchalant, he pulled down the brim of his work cap.

His gaze passed over the low wall and the soldiers gathered ahead.

He saw a man howling in a pool of blood, and a little girl standing in front of him.

His pupils contracted violently.

He recognized both of them.

The man on the ground was one of his other two companions, and the girl was the Commander of the Order Organization, Masaki Hinaki.

“What is she doing here!?”

The intel had never mentioned that Masaki Hinaki would be here.

It hadn’t even indicated that she had left the organization at all.

The man stared at Masaki Hinaki, his expression hesitating for a moment.

According to rumors, this young-looking commander was not as simple as she appeared.

In the intel, she and the Special Disaster Division’s Fushihara Ayaka were both individuals who required close attention.

After thinking for a moment, the man glanced at his teammate lying on the ground and decided to leave this place as soon as possible.

Just as he and Karina wanted to take this chance to escape, there were now wolves in the garrison who wanted to use the cover of night to hunt them.

But just as the man was about to leave, Masaki Hinaki suddenly turned her head slowly.

For just an instant, their eyes met.

‘Sh*t…’

His heart leaped violently, and the muscles all over his body tensed up.

But immediately after, the man pretended to be calm and turned his head away, carrying a crate in his hands, looking like an ordinary worker.

Masaki Hinaki narrowed her eyes.

Although they were a full fifty paces apart, and the light was dim and gloomy, Masaki Hinaki’s gaze locked onto the man like a snake.

The man’s expression remained normal as he pretended not to know anything and continued carrying the crate forward.

He didn’t head in Karina’s direction, but towards the tower where backup searchlights were being installed.

He walked until his view of Masaki Hinaki was blocked by a building.

He let out a sigh of relief, a faint sheen of sweat on his face…

Although he didn’t want to admit it, when his eyes met Masaki Hinaki’s just now, he, a seasoned veteran, had wavered for an instant.

But at that moment, a petite figure suddenly emerged from the shadows in front of him.

It was Masaki Hinaki.

The man’s face froze.

“Sorry, this way is blocked.”

Masaki Hinaki spoke faintly with a deadpan expression.

Her voice wasn’t loud, but it was crisp and had a piercing quality.

“By the way, are you an employee here? State your identification code, I need to confirm.”

As she spoke, the sound of several more footsteps approached from not far away.

There was no way out—the man’s expression didn’t change, but in his mind, he was rapidly formulating an escape plan.

His forged identification code could easily be spotted by the local supervisors.

And once those footsteps behind him arrived, he would be completely surrounded.

Masaki Hinaki already suspected him and wouldn’t let him get away easily.

Then the only option was to strike first.

“R-report, Commander… my identification code is…”

The man put on a timid act, his head bowed, the brim of his cap hiding his eyes.

The instant he finished speaking, he violently threw the wooden crate in his hands at Masaki Hinaki, a pistol appearing in his hand.

However—

The man didn’t even see how Masaki Hinaki moved. Bang!

A bullet pierced the wooden crate and exploded in a bloody flower on the back of the man’s hand.

The sharp pain and impact sent the pistol flying from his grasp.

It was immediately followed by another gunshot.

Blood splattered, and a searing pain shot through the side of his face, as if hot oil had been poured on it.

“Aaargh!!—”

The man clutched his ear in agony.

However, through his injured hand, he could no longer feel his ear—it had been shaved off by that last shot.

The wooden crate fell to the ground, smashing into several pieces.

The man saw Masaki Hinaki’s figure again.

Masaki Hinaki still had that indifferent expression, but there were now two brass-colored shell casings at her feet, faint blue smoke dissipating into the air.

“If I were you, I wouldn’t make any rash moves. Otherwise, the next bullet won’t miss.”

Masaki Hinaki said.

The sound of dense footsteps came from behind.

“Hands up!”

The man knew he was surrounded.

His face was ashen as he slowly raised his arms.

At the same time—

Successfully ambushed by Seiran at extremely close range, the immense impact sent Ephnel flying.

Using a Stairway, she quickly stabilized herself in mid-air, but a dazzling pillar of light followed close behind.

Ephnel grit her teeth, the silver light under her feet shattering.

She forcibly changed her direction to plummet downwards, simultaneously avoiding the beam’s attack.

The spot where she landed had a difference in elevation from Seiran’s position.

Therefore, she was able to briefly escape Seiran’s pursuit and catch her breath.

“Hiss…”

The cold night wind, tinged with the smell of blood, filled her chest.

Ephnel swayed and fell to one knee, supporting herself with her spear.

Her right hand was already a bloody mess, hanging limply, and her right eye was also stained with blood, unable to open.

“Seiran…”

Ephnel murmured the name of her senior and friend, looking up at the Angel gradually floating into the air.

Without the mask to cover it, Seiran’s face was now visible to Ephnel.

Unlike her, the hole in Seiran’s chest didn’t seem to affect her movements at all.

She expressionlessly raised her palm once again, and light began to gather.

At this moment, a low, spine-chilling roar came from the surrounding darkness.

This was already the Outer Boundary area, and the commotion caused by the brief clash between Ephnel and Seiran had already attracted some other things…

—Erosion Organisms.

Although there weren’t many Erosion Organisms here, as it was near the edge of the Boundary Monument’s “barrier net,” for the current Ephnel, the appearance of any enemy was a huge and heavy burden.

“Seiran!!”

Ephnel shouted at Seiran.

Unsurprisingly, she received no reply, only a blinding beam of light, which Ephnel staggered to dodge.

‘Communication is impossible.’

Seiran’s state was highly abnormal.

Ephnel wasn’t stupid; she could see it clearly.

That was not something that could be called “human”—she seemed to feel no pain from the wound in her chest, had no expression, couldn’t speak, and was like a puppet, mechanically and rigidly performing the simple cycle of aiming and firing.

But Ephnel only knew that Seiran’s current state was very wrong.

She didn’t know why, much less how to deal with it.

Surrounding them were more than a dozen Erosion Organisms that had been attracted over.

In the darkness, there was her former friend and senior, Seiran, now called the “Angel.”

And Ephnel herself was injured, her right eye and right hand half-crippled.

This situation made Ephnel’s brows furrow.

The spear in her hand felt heavier than ever, as if it were entangled by seaweed at the bottom of the deep sea, dragging her down to be slowly swallowed by the cold water.

The feeling of suffocation and the chill from blood loss made it difficult for her to make quick decisions.

At this moment, an orb of light once again rose in Seiran’s hand.

“D*mn it…”

If she wanted to find out what had happened to Seiran, now was probably the best chance.

Ephnel didn’t want to give up yet.

She clenched her teeth, tightened her grip on the spear, and charged towards the nearest Erosion Organism.

She stepped on the Erosion Organism’s head, leaped to the side, and as her body flipped in the air, her spear slashed down with a starlit glow.

Under this blow, the Erosion Organism’s massive body crashed to the ground, dissipating into faint starlight amidst shattered rock and flying dust.

But Ephnel could clearly feel her own strength weakening—her right hand was no longer as agile as usual, and every movement brought sharp pain.

This pain was constantly stripping away the strength in her hands.

For Ephnel, the injury to her arm directly deprived her of the ability to execute many of her combat techniques, causing her fighting strength to decline rapidly.

Moreover, the injury to her right eye made it difficult for her to detect enemies attacking from the right.

So, while keeping a close eye on Seiran, she also had to devote more of her energy to watching for dangers coming from other directions.

A silver light flashed under her feet, and Ephnel once again leaped lightly into the air.

A beam of light descended at the same time, passing straight under her.

Ephnel flipped over, narrowly avoiding it, and instead exposed the Erosion Organism behind her to the beam’s attack.

Using Seiran’s beam to eliminate some of the Erosion Organisms, leveraging the enemy’s attack to mitigate her own disadvantage, was one of the skills used in battle.

But the next moment, Ephnel’s eyes widened slightly.

In her vision, the body of the Erosion Organism that had been pierced by Seiran’s beam showed no signs of injury.

Instead, a strange mist began to rise from it.

In that instant, a piercing roar erupted from the Erosion Organism’s mouth.

“ROAR—”

Its already car-sized body began to expand rapidly.

Veins seemed to throb on its sturdy body.

Sharp bone spurs grew from its arms, back, and head, and its fangs became even more menacing.

In just a few breaths, its body had grown to the size of a tank.

Its height shot up from the original two meters to over five, directly surpassing the height of Ephnel’s jump.

“Evolution!?”

Ephnel had no time to discern what level the Erosion Organism had reached.

Its massive, sharp claws came crashing down on her from above.

A silver light exploded under her feet.

Ephnel shouted, and her spear shot upwards violently.

Light exploded above Ephnel’s head, and the Erosion Organism’s huge, heavy body was knocked back a step.

Ephnel, too, fell from mid-air, unable to withstand the force.

Her spear stuck into the ground, and her feet dragged long marks across the dirt.

An Erosion Organism attacked from behind her.

Ephnel suddenly spun around, her spear slashing through the night sky.

She converted the remaining force that she hadn’t dissipated into a whip-like strike, directly smashing the attacking Erosion Organism into dust.

But at that moment, more Erosion Organisms swarmed in.

Ephnel truly had no strength left to face these creatures after a round of attacks and defensive counters, with her old strength just spent.

Her lungs felt as if they had been emptied, and her whole body was devoid of strength.

Ephnel raised her spear in front of her.

She planned to endure this wave of attacks with non-fatal injuries, then break through and retreat.

Ephnel had never taken these Erosion Organisms seriously.

With her abilities, even if she were besieged by twice this number, they would absolutely be unable to harm her in the slightest.

Even after being injured, Ephnel was confident enough to retreat unscathed from the siege of the Erosion Organisms and Seiran.

She had even thought about bringing Seiran back with her.

If it were any other Agent, facing such an onslaught would likely mean certain death.

This was why Ephnel had sent Ayse and Erincia away.

But as the saying goes… misfortunes never come singly.

The suddenly evolved Erosion Organism became the biggest threat, directly forcing Ephnel, who was originally outside its attack range, to face one of its attacks head-on.

Then, she lost her chance to escape and was surrounded by numerous Erosion Organisms.