Chapter 63: The Unforeseen Rampage

“This isn’t just about this recent terror attack. Our Air Rein has never once terrorized human settlements!”

Kang Tae-han’s companion, who had been shouting, pulled off their hood. They seemed smaller than others, and it turned out to be a woman with long, brown hair.

“My name is Seo Eun-yu. I was a member of the Esper squad that Sa-yoon belongs to. If you go back and check the roster, you’ll see. We’re all being deceived.”

‘Oh, really.’

Sa-yoon had no interest in hearing the convoluted life story of how she went from being a squad member to a terrorist. After all, there was no tomb without an excuse in this world.

“Then you’ll get to see headquarters again after a long time. All of you, stay put. I’ll deal with this guy after I knock him out.”

He gripped Kang Tae-han’s neck. The moment he applied force, intending to render him unconscious, the strength drained from his fingers. It wasn’t just his fingers.

Sa-yoon’s arm, which had been pinning Kang Tae-han down, suddenly began to tremble uncontrollably. He felt the same sense of powerlessness as when he had collapsed earlier.

‘What is this? Is it Kang Tae-han’s ability?’

He couldn’t be caught by the same trick twice. Sa-yoon forcibly steadied his mind and retreated from the group. He didn’t know what method they were using, but he had to bury them in a dirt grave before he completely lost consciousness.

With trembling fingertips, Sa-yoon touched the ground. The earth, which had been piled up like a wall, began to move towards the people. It was an infinitely slow motion compared to how Sa-yoon usually moved.

“Since it seems difficult to have a conversation today, I’ll keep it brief before I go.”

Kang Tae-han, who had stood up after being released from Sa-yoon’s grip, watched the slowly converging mounds of earth and spoke to Sa-yoon.

“Don’t trust your leaders. Rein isn’t the enemy. Please, remember my words. You must believe us.”

His voice echoed from within the gradually accumulating mounds of earth. Kang Tae-han’s words to Sa-yoon were so earnest, they almost made him sound like someone who had known Sa-yoon for a long time.

Though the thought ‘Why are you acting like this when we just met?’ surged within him, no sound escaped his lips.

“Remember. Prophecies don’t change easily. What has been foretold will surely come to pass. So we will surely meet—!”

The voice cut off, and at the same time, their energy vanished. They weren’t dead; they had simply disappeared from the spot.

It seemed there was a spatial manipulation ability user among Kang Tae-han’s group. No wonder they had been so composed in front of Sa-yoon; they must have prepared an escape route.

As Sa-yoon struggled with his hazy mind, his terminal chimed.

[Jin Sa-yoon. Why haven’t you reported? Did something happen?!]

The Director called Sa-yoon. To the urgent voice demanding a response, Sa-yoon brought the terminal to his mouth. The best he could do was to laboriously utter his coordinates.

When Sa-yoon had first collapsed, they had confidently declared that their trick would surely work even on an S-rank Esper. It was proving difficult to endure, indicating their boast was not mere bluff.

As the Air Rein disappeared and the tension eased, his body grew infinitely heavy. Sa-yoon promptly lost consciousness.

His entire body felt as if it were burning, scorching hot. Each breath he exhaled was scalding. He wiped the sweat flowing over his body, feeling as though he had been abandoned in a sauna.

His surroundings were sweltering, like midsummer, or perhaps even a volcanic region. Sa-yoon opened his closed eyes. A ceiling, resembling a tent, came into view.

“What in the world is going on?”

Sa-yoon’s last memory cut off after he met the Air Rein and collapsed on the ground. Looking around, it seemed the Director had brought him to the operations camp, but why was it so hot?

He rose from the bed. Cruelly, there was no one attending to the patient. Sa-yoon touched his forehead and arm. His condition was good. There was no fever or pain.

The heat he felt wasn’t emanating from his body. It was simply that the world itself was scorching.

“Team Leader. You’re awake?”

Kim Chae-jun entered, pushing aside the tent flap. Chae-jun’s cheeks were also flushed red from the heat.

“It’s quite hot, isn’t it?”

“I just finished one mission and was about to rest, but what is this? Did Rein leave someone behind?”

“No. That’s over. They’ve been completely repelled, and the operation is concluded.”

After finishing his explanation, Chae-jun hesitated, then pointed outside. “Um… I think it would be faster for you to come out and see for yourself. Just try not to be too surprised.”

Chae-jun’s complexion was poor. He hardly looked like a victor who had thwarted a terror attack and driven out Rein.

The situation was difficult for Sa-yoon, who had just woken up, to comprehend. He wondered if the Air Rein had retreated so easily only to pull some other trick from behind. Sa-yoon hastily pushed out of the tent.

“Check on the remaining civilians. What are the ice-type ability users doing? Try to put some effort into it.”

“The flames are too strong; it’s difficult. Our current strength is barely enough to maintain the status quo.”

Before Sa-yoon’s eyes, a burning wasteland stretched out. Verdant mountains were scorched brown and black, and the plains where apartments once stood were covered in crumbling concrete.

The scene that the prophecy had warned of when he first embarked on the mission was unfolding before his eyes. Sa-yoon stared ahead with a hollow gaze.

In the center of the vast plain, a colossal pillar of fire rotated like a tornado, soaring towards the sky.

Sa-yoon knew of a being capable of maintaining such intense flames, emitting so much energy in a space where there was nothing left to burn.

“Han Do-hoon…”

The pillar of fire rose endlessly towards the sky. It was a sight that seemed sturdy and even majestic, like a Babel tower made of flames.

Sa-yoon pressed Chae-jun, who stood beside him. “What happened? It was clearly fine just a few hours ago. Did Han Do-hoon perhaps go berserk?”

“Please calm down. It wasn’t Team Leader Han Do-hoon who went berserk.”

Chae-jun bowed his head with a somber expression. Then he explained what had transpired to Sa-yoon.

After Sa-yoon, unconscious, was rescued and returned to camp, everyone reveled in their victory. They cheered for successfully preventing Rein’s invasion and avoiding any casualties. Even injured Espers threw their bandages in joy.

However, that moment of joy was fleeting. The incident occurred as people gathered in the shelter were slowly being sent back to their homes.

There had been a boy whose fever had been rising since he arrived at the shelter. He had complained of pain and suffered throughout the evacuation. Even antipyretics and IV drips couldn’t calm him, and the child endured, wracked with agony.

At that moment, an Esper who had been deployed on the mission arrived at the shelter to send people back. He frantically sent a request for support via his terminal.

The air currents rapidly converged around the boy. He was suffering from abnormal fever and chills. The boy was experiencing symptoms of a rampage during his Esper manifestation.

The high fever that accompanied Esper manifestation usually subsided over time, but occasionally, some children experienced manifestation pain accompanied by a rampage. This usually happened to high-ranking Espers, and if they received guiding quickly, they would overcome it without major issues.

That is, unless they were specifically isolated in a shelter, as was the case this time. The boy, having missed the timing for guiding, rampaged in the center of the shelter. A massive fireball generated around him, and people screamed, fleeing in terror.

A densely populated space and a building with many windows. A place with an infinite supply of air was the worst possible environment to stop a rampaging Esper.

Furthermore, when an Esper rampages, their rank increases by two levels. The experienced Director judged the boy to be an A-rank fire-element Esper. The boy began to destroy his surroundings with a destructive power greater than that of an S-rank Esper running wild.

“That’s what happened.”

After his long explanation, Chae-jun bowed his head gloomily. In the end, after all their efforts to stop Rein, a situation matching the prophecy had occurred for a different reason.

Sa-yoon stared at the still-blazing pillar of fire with a bitter expression. The words the Air Rein had urged upon him as they left came back to him.

‘”Prophecies will surely come to pass,” they said.’

“Huh?”

“It’s nothing.”

Sa-yoon watched the Director rushing around and asked Chae-jun again. “Have the Director’s orders come down? It seems to be in a lull now, but if the rampage continues, an even bigger wave will soon hit.”

The most terrifying period of a rampage is not its beginning. The problem was the final desperate act when the rampaging Esper’s life force extinguished, releasing everything in a massive explosion.

If the rampage’s beginning was this large, the end was too horrific to imagine. It might even be powerful enough to engulf the entire city of Daejeon, beyond just the Daedeok district.

“Well…”

Chae-jun held his tongue. With a slow gesture, he pointed to the pillar of fire. “Team Leader Han Do-hoon has already entered the pillar of fire and is trying to stop it.”

“What?”

“There was no one else who could stop that state except Team Leader Han Do-hoon. Everyone tried to stop him, but he went in alone.”

Once an attack was unleashed, it couldn’t be simply taken back. However, someone with the same ability could seize control from the attacker and regulate it. This was only possible if their rank was higher than the attacker’s.

Only Han Do-hoon could control the boy who was wildly destroying his surroundings and spewing flames. The natural property of fire was to spread widely and incinerate everything. The fact that it was soaring skyward, protecting the surroundings, was the result of Han Do-hoon’s desperate control to minimize damage.

“He’s insane…”

Sa-yoon muttered softly. Han Do-hoon’s judgment was rational. It was a wise decision for one person to suffer and put an end to it, rather than allowing the entire city of Daejeon to be destroyed. But the aftermath was obvious.

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