Chapter 46: Guiding at the Edge of Collapse

“Are you all right?”

“…Yes. I’m fine.”

Chaewon wiped the blood away with the back of his hand as he struggled to catch his breath.

In truth, he hadn’t used much power.

It didn’t even feel like half of what he had poured out during training.

And yet, the pressure weighing down on his body was already severe.

It was probably the environment.

The raw hostility pressing against his skin, the overwhelming noise, the screams filling the air, all of it disrupted Chaewon’s concentration.

“Remember this. Don’t overdo it, Chaewon.”

“Yes. Yes.”

Chaewon answered Su-ha almost mechanically, his gaze never leaving the enemy.

The man seemed thoroughly shaken by the sudden appearance of Chaewon and Su-ha.

He must have expected government-affiliated espers to respond eventually, but he clearly hadn’t anticipated there already being espers on site.

Su-ha, for his part, kept scanning their surroundings, unable to hide his growing unease.

He had been through countless battles in the field before, but this situation was different.

Chaewon was already bleeding from the nose, yet showed no sign of retreating.

The image of Chaewon enduring Min I-hyeon’s massive flames until he lost consciousness suddenly surfaced in Su-ha’s mind.

This man would never run until everyone was safe.

Even if it meant injuring himself.

At that moment, the enemy esper began gathering power in both hands again.

Su-ha immediately fired his gun, and Chaewon’s blue energy followed close behind.

The esper blocked Su-ha’s bullets with the power in one hand, and in that opening, Chaewon’s energy swelled into a massive sphere that trapped the esper inside it.

Since the man could still use his hands, simply restraining his body didn’t seem sufficient.

It was a necessary choice.

But as Su-ha watched the enemy’s movements, his face drained of color.

“Chaewon, st-!”

Before the warning could even be completed, the enemy esper detonated his power from within the barrier Chaewon had created.

****

“Kh-!”

“Chaewon!”

Chaewon coughed up dark blood as one knee buckled beneath him.

Su-ha rushed forward, wrapping Chaewon in his arms and carefully feeding his own energy into him.

Guiding on the battlefield was extremely dangerous for both esper and guide.

An esper in combat radiated unstable, violent waves, and unless the guide was exceptionally skilled, they could easily be dragged into that rhythm and shaken apart.

The esper, too, risked losing focus and control due to disrupted breathing and concentration.

One of the reasons Su-ha was so highly regarded as a guide lay precisely here.

His guiding wasn’t just powerful, it was exquisitely precise, unrivaled in its delicacy.

The more chaotic the situation, the more Su-ha’s guiding shone.

And combined with his own combat capability, he was the perfect match for espers in the Special Response Team, where prolonged engagements were unavoidable.

Feeling Su-ha’s energy seep through the suffocating pressure inside him, Chaewon forced himself upright.

It felt as if someone were gripping his heart in a crushing fist, and his vision swam.

He was angry.

Angry at himself for collapsing like this after using his power only a few times.

He hadn’t even accomplished much, yet here he was, vomiting blood and barely conscious.

If another esper were here instead of him, the situation might already be resolved.

There would be no more casualties.

But he couldn’t even bring out the full extent of his own strength.

He felt too ashamed to look Su-ha in the eye.

‘I should be the one.’

‘I’m here.’

‘I should be protecting them until support arrives.’

As frustration and desperation welled up inside him, Chaewon bit down hard on his lip, trying to steady himself.

And then he noticed it.

The enemy esper’s gaze had shifted, calmly settling on something to the side.

It was the café on the first floor of the building.

Behind the transparent glass, people were trapped inside, unable to flee because of the esper blocking their way.

As he looked at them, a small smile formed on the esper’s lips.

The image burned itself clearly into Chaewon’s eyes.

“No… No…”

Murmuring without realizing it, Chaewon stepped forward.

A searing heat surged through his entire body, but he ignored it.

As a result, Su-ha’s hands and arms guiding him slipped away completely.

And in the very moment Suha reached out toward Chaewon, seized by an inexplicable sense of dread.

The esper formed a massive, bomb-like mass of energy and hurled it toward the crowd.

People inside the café, and those watching from outside, collapsed in terror, screaming.

Then, with a sharp shout, an enormous light erupted from Chaewon’s body.

****

No one could move.

No one could speak.

They could only stare, dumbstruck, as a vast blue light extended from a single man, forming a shield that stood protectively before the people.

The bomb-like energy thrown by the esper exploded again and again with thunderous force.

Flames raged violently, yet they were powerless to breach the blue barrier.

“W-we survived…”

Someone slumped inside the café whispered unconsciously.

Hands clasped together, they prayed fervently, like supplicants before a god, that the light shielding them would not fade.

After some time, once all the flames had burned out into nothingness, the blue barrier slowly began to dim.

It wasn’t only the civilians who were captivated by the sight.

The enemy esper, who had been staring blankly at the power, suddenly screamed in agony and doubled over.

Bullets that had relentlessly targeted him were now deeply embedded in his side.

The specially designed ammunition began releasing its internal suppressive force the moment it lodged in his body.

His internal waves tangled violently, his power destabilized, and the esper collapsed to the ground.

“Chaewon!”

But another body had already begun to fall.

Following Su-ha’s hoarse cry, the crowd’s gaze snapped back to the owner of the light.

There stood a man who looked too fragile to be an esper, too fragile even to be an average healthy person.

Blood poured from his mouth, staining the shattered ground.

If they hadn’t seen it with their own eyes, they never would have believed it.

Yet they had seen it.

They had seen him cloaked in a sacredly beautiful light, protecting them with an unreal power.

As if confirming with his own eyes that everyone was safe, the man frowned slightly while looking at the space he had shielded.

Then his body crumpled to the ground.

After confirming the enemy esper was neutralized, Su-ha rushed to gather Chaewon back into his arms.

Chaewon’s condition was far worse than during the last training session, beyond comparison.

No matter that the opponent was only B-rank, nowhere near Min I-hyeon’s level.

An attack delivered with restraint was fundamentally different from one unleashed with full lethal intent.

“Don’t lose consciousness.”

As he had before, Su-ha whispered against Chaewon’s ear, lips brushing close.

Chaewon already seemed half-unconscious, and Su-ha couldn’t be sure his voice was reaching him.

Then Su-ha’s gaze caught on Chaewon’s hands.

The tips of his fingers and every joint were torn open, as if slashed by blades, blood welling from each wound.

Su-ha’s breath caught.

More side effects?

How much more was this small body supposed to endure?

“Chaewon. You have to accept my energy.”

Su-ha’s whisper trembled with grief and fury.

Just because Chaewon had escaped death and been given a new life, did that mean he was obligated to suffer all of this?

Chaewon, seemingly unconscious, couldn’t even respond to the energy Su-ha tried to give him.

Su-ha’s sorrow slowly twisted into rage.

By then, support seemed to have arrived, familiar shouts filling the area.

But Su-ha acted as though none of it concerned him, holding Chaewon close and desperately trying to improve his condition even a little.

A pained groan slipped from between Chaewon’s lips.

Su-ha’s expression collapsed completely.

‘It’s nothing.’

‘I’m used to pain.’

‘I can endure it. I can endure anything.’

The image of Chaewon saying those words flashed through Su-ha’s mind.

He had always known.

And yet now, it was unbearable.

This man, who never screamed, who swallowed everything alone, suffering in silence, Su-ha couldn’t leave him like this.

He wouldn’t.

“…Chaewon. Don’t let go of me.”

Declaring it in a voice cold as ice, Su-ha lowered his head and pressed his blood-stained lips directly over Chaewon’s.