Chapter 110: Into the Fray

Thanks to Sehyun’s spatial movement ability, I arrived inside the shelter’s barrier without difficulty. Five large shelters were parked inside the barrier, and before entering the central one, I looked around to assess the situation.

The area around the gate was even more devastating than I remembered. Not only the buildings, but everything in sight had collapsed, leaving debris scattered across the roads, and ash flew with the flames, obscuring the view.

What tormented me the most were the bodies of the citizens caught in the gate and the fallen Awakened. The corpses scattered everywhere were mangled beyond recognition, decaying with a foul stench. The number of monsters, greater than the remaining Awakened on the scene, were even desecrating the bodies.

“Shinui, it’s dangerous, please go inside the center.”

At Sehyun’s words, I finally tore my eyes away from the tragic scene and moved towards the shelter. As I was about to enter, I looked back at him, and he spoke in a worried tone, telling me to be careful.

“Shinui, try to stay inside the shelter as much as possible. I’ll see you again soon.”

“Okay. Thank you for bringing me here.”

As soon as Sehyun saw me enter the shelter, he disappeared with a spatial movement, seemingly busy. I hurried inside, and my colleagues and the shelter manager who recognized me quickly approached.

“Guide Shinui!”

“Unaffiliated guides can participate in emergencies, right?”

“Yes. We’ve been waiting for you.”

Everyone seemed to welcome my arrival. I looked around the shelter; everyone looked terrible. Their eyes were sunken with dark circles from lack of sleep, and their faces were weary. A sad smile formed on my lips.

Everyone here, including myself, was fighting for their lives.

“Hyung!”

Wonjae, who must have heard the news of my arrival, ran towards me with Minseong.

“It’s dangerous, how did you get here?”

“Sehyun brought me.”

At my words, Wonjae looked at me with a relieved expression, as if he finally understood. He then explained the current situation to me. As I was listening to him, Minseong spoke to me.

“Esper Hyun Taewoon is returning.”

It hadn’t even been five minutes since I entered the shelter, but the news of my arrival had apparently reached Hyun Taewoon’s ears.

“I’d like to receive the watch and earpiece connected to Esper Hyun Taewoon.”

“They’re in the private room. Just a moment.”

I immediately equipped the watch and earpiece that Minseong brought from the private room and spoke to Hyun Taewoon.

“Esper Hyun Taewoon, this is Lee Shinui.”

• “Why are you at the shelter! I told you not to come!”

Hyun Taewoon’s voice was more furious than ever. Knowing that his anger was laced with worry, I maintained my composure despite his sharp shouts and replied.

“If we stay like this, everyone will die.”

• “I don’t care if they die. As long as you live! This time again…!”

I knew exactly what he wanted to say. He was afraid because he had experienced my death more vividly than anyone else.

The fear I felt, having experienced death myself, was just as strong. But if we could just close the gate safely, I wouldn’t have to fear or experience that horrific death again.

“Focus on closing the gate. If the gate closes, what you’re worried about won’t happen. If anything happens, come to the shelter immediately.”

My intuition was telling me. Without Hyun Taewoon, the Devil’s Gate would never close.

• “Don’t you dare come out. Please.”

“I won’t. I’ll keep the communication line open, so don’t worry.”

He then told Minseong to make sure I didn’t go outside. Minseong also replied that he understood.

After the argument with Hyun Taewoon ended, I moved towards the Espers waiting for guiding. Not only were their guiding levels low, but their injuries were also severe.

Tens of thousands had already died. Unlike the weary faces of the Espers, the devil showed no signs of fatigue. It seemed its goal was to turn not just Korea, but the entire world into hell, as it covered the ground with black flames.

The skeletons that emerged from the gate, appearing to be the devil’s minions, also repeatedly rose again even after being struck down, as if they were immortal.

The devil and its minions were literally merciless judges from hell.

A constant stream of injured people entered the shelter. The guides and healing-type Espers moved without rest, working hard to treat them.

Currently, Awakened from all regions had come to Sector 30, and reinforcements were also being dispatched from overseas. But in the current situation, there was a severe shortage of both Espers and guides.

I moved to the central waiting room, closed my eyes, and focused on radiant guiding. I guided the Espers, exposing more of my wavelength than usual. I hoped that my guiding would be of some help, even if just a little.

Thankfully, as if my feelings were conveyed, I could feel the Espers’ guiding levels rising rapidly.

While I was doing radiant guiding, the guides who had been working without sleep could finally take a breather.

Just one person, me, had come to the shelter, but the panicked atmosphere inside seemed to have stabilized. Hoping this atmosphere would continue, I expanded the range of my guiding, distributing my wavelength to all five guiding shelters.

Three days had passed since I arrived at the shelter. My presence had clearly helped, as the situation inside the shelter was running more smoothly compared to the first day I arrived.

However, the situation outside the shelter was still worsening. I was observing the gate situation while guiding when everyone started gathering around the monitor, exclaiming in awe.

On the monitor, a guide was being broadcast, performing radiant guiding outside. An Esper was protecting the guide’s body with a barrier.

Light emanated from the guide’s wavelength, just like when I did radiant guiding. Only an S-Class guide could emit such a vast wavelength.

“That’s an S-Class guide.”

Looking closely, it was the S-Class guide who had collapsed before. It seemed they had returned to the field as soon as they recovered their strength.

The S-Class guide was skillfully performing radiant guiding, but their wavelength was weaker than mine. If I could go outside, I would be a great help in battle.

But I was still hesitant to go out due to my fear of death.

“You haven’t found the devil’s weakness yet, have you?”

“No, not yet.”

A worried sigh escaped my lips. If the Devil’s Gate didn’t close, only death awaited there.

“The people from the American Association have arrived! Additional support from the government will also be joining the gate soon.”

Just a moment ago, my mind was filled with negative thoughts, but hearing that more Awakened were joining the gate to help brought me immense relief.

Soon, an Esper wearing the combat uniform of the American Association appeared on the gate video. The first one I saw was Rainer. In a situation where every single person was needed, just having reinforcements was a great help, but I had seen firsthand in the US how skilled Rainer was, so a sense of gladness welled up inside me.

Not only Rainer, but a guide from the American Association also entered their assigned shelter.

The government Espers I had seen at Sehyun’s cruise party also appeared on the real-time gate monitor.

As the reinforcements began to join, the S-Class Espers were able to focus their attacks solely on the devil. But the devil still blocked the attacks with a leisurely air from the sky, without a single scratch.

Hyun Taewoon hadn’t come inside the shelter once in three days. The newly developed guiding potion seemed to be working well for him. But there would likely be a limit. I kept telling him to receive guiding at the shelter, but he seemed to have no intention of returning, perhaps because he wanted to close the gate as soon as possible.

It was the same with Sehyun. S and A-Class Espers had strong stamina and mental fortitude, so they came to the shelter less often than other Espers. It was two more days before I met Sehyun again.

“Shinui, can you guide me?”

I took Sehyun to a private guiding room to talk to him alone.

“I’m pretty late, aren’t I? I’ve been busy since I became the person in charge.”

“I knew you were busy. I’ll guide you. Give me your hand.”

At my words, Sehyun extended his hand to me. I took it and continued talking as I guided him.

“Have you found the devil’s weakness?”

“Not yet. But I think we’ll find it soon.”

I was a little relieved by his words. We talked about the gate situation for a long time. As soon as he reached a stable state, he moved back to the gate.

At the Seoul headquarters, researchers and Espers were constantly discussing the devil’s weakness.

Then, on the fifteenth day since the gate appeared, Sehyun found the devil’s weakness.

Through detailed monitoring and analysis, they discovered that every time Taewoon and Sehyun used their light abilities, they inflicted minor damage on the devil. However, like the boss monster from the American gate, its regenerative abilities were excellent, so it recovered immediately.

They tried to exploit the devil’s weakness with light abilities, but due to its regenerative powers, they couldn’t inflict significant damage. It seemed the Espers were also getting tired, and a light powerful enough to prevent the devil from using its regeneration was needed.

Hyun Taewoon, who had sent a return notification, entered the shelter not long after. As the person using the most abilities at the gate, he would need guiding.

Seen up close, Hyun Taewoon’s entire face was scorched red from overusing his fire attribute ability, and his heart rate was also faster and more irregular than usual. Since he was participating in the gate while being on guiding potions, his condition did not look good at all.

I grabbed his arm and hurried into the guiding room.

“We don’t have time, so I’ll do a second-stage guiding.”

Hyun Taewoon sat on the guiding bed and let me embrace him. I hoped his condition would improve even a little, and since I couldn’t let the devil run rampant any longer, I had to raise his guiding level as quickly as possible.

I could feel his heart pounding through our pressed chests. I tried my best to focus only on guiding.

Because of our high matching rate, the guiding speed was definitely faster than with other Espers, and his level quickly reached a stable state.

I didn’t want to let him go, but I released my embrace and said.

“Be careful.”

“Okay. Don’t you dare come out, just like now.”

I just nodded. I watched his retreating back as he left for the gate, then went to the central waiting room and started radiant guiding again. A healing-type Esper approached me. They healed my body at specific intervals to prevent me from getting exhausted.

Monsters were still pouring out of the gate like a waterfall. I was watching the monitor with a troubled face for a while when something strange caught my eye.

“What is that? They look like Espers…”

Espers wearing familiar black cloaks appeared on the monitor. I immediately recognized them as the anti-Awakened group. It seemed they had also felt the severity of the S-Class gate and had come to help.

I had heard from Minseong before that there were quite a few S-Class Awakened in the anti-Awakened group. As if to prove that was true, the situation at the gate began to change.