Choi Miyeon stared with trembling eyes at the dagger Lee Arin held just an inch from her throat.
“Lee Arin.”
Just moments ago, Lee Arin’s blade had nearly cut her down. If it had been even a little faster, it would have succeeded.
If Lee Arin hadn’t taken the knife meant to stab Choi Miyeon in the back from Lee Manbok instead.
Choi Miyeon had been so shocked that even her mana rampage had temporarily come to a halt. She asked Lee Arin, “What is this… what are you doing?”
“…Fuck. Shut up,” Lee Arin, who had taken a knife to the shoulder while shielding Choi Miyeon, cursed and glared at Lee Manbok. In her hand was still a dagger she hadn’t been able to use. “You son of a bitch… what the hell do you think you’re doing? She’s your follower!”
“My, my.” Lee Manbok clicked his tongue. “I truly don’t understand. Weren’t you trying to kill Sister Choi Miyeon just a moment ago?”
“You’ve got to be kidding me…!”
“I was merely trying, in a humanitarian way, to stop a Hunter on the verge of losing control. If Sister Choi Miyeon were to go berserk here, what would happen to everyone inside this building?”
“Don’t make me laugh. You were planning to kill Choi Miyeon quickly and take her soul core.”
“Oh?” Lee Manbok’s eyes glinted sinisterly. “And how, exactly, did you find that out? It seems the lab’s security is rather lax.”
“No researcher bothers to watch their mouth around lab rats.”
“Hoho, I suppose I’ll have to replace the entire research staff.” As if the followers who devoted themselves to him were none of his concern, Lee Manbok laughed heartily. “So what are you planning to do now? You took a blade for the woman you were just trying to kill. Are you going to try killing me instead?”
“…”
Lee Arin spat blood-mixed saliva onto the floor. A burning pain seared through her shoulder, yet her mind had never felt clearer. And because of that, she realized exactly what she had just been about to do.
…I lost my mind for a moment. Why would I kill Choi Miyeon?
Of course, Lee Arin disliked Choi Miyeon. Perhaps because she had been born into this damned cult, whenever Lee Arin voiced doubts about the religion after becoming an adult, those concerns were always brushed aside.
“You just don’t understand yet. Don’t question the Truelight Church. There’s no place better than this…”
Those words continued even until Lee Arin became useless as a Hunter.
“Who else would take in useless Hunters like us if not this place?”
Choi Miyeon’s words were true. There was nowhere else but the Truelight Church that would feed and house these money-draining burdens, water balloons with no hope of recovery, free of charge.
But that premise saved Lee Arin while simultaneously stripping her of all power.
Lee Arin’s entire world was this group called the Truelight Church, and so no matter what happened to her, it had to be resolved within the group. Even becoming a test subject for torture-like experiments was simply the only work available if she wanted to survive within it. Perhaps she had even felt a bit proud. She thought she still had value.
Of course, all of that vanished like a bubble the moment Choi Bom, whom she cherished like a younger sibling, died inside the laboratory.
“Ah, damn. She died before we even properly fixed the magic circle into the quartz.”
“We’ll lose a bit of mana, but it can’t be helped. As long as there’s enough for the Father to use at the New Year’s event.”
Hearing the researchers’ careless remarks, spoken as if no one could hear, Lee Arin felt her mind snap awake. From that moment on, her world completely changed. The world she had believed she had to belong to in order to survive was, in fact, the very place driving her toward death.
But even realizing that changed nothing. With a body that required expensive enhancement drugs every six hours, there was nothing she could do. Even if she left the Truelight Church, she had no place to live and no means to pay for even a single meal. Reporting it to the police would be pointless. Externally, Lee Arin was still just a member of the same cult. Even if she reported the atrocities happening in the lab, it was obvious they would be covered up by Cult Leader Lee Manbok’s influence.
No one in this world would help her. Faced with that cruel truth, Lee Arin sank into severe depression.
“Still, aren’t we such blessed people?”
It was in these moments that Choi Miyeon said something like that.
Originally proud of being a devoted believer, Choi Miyeon was, at times, remarkably oblivious. She must have thought Lee Arin’s depression was simply due to her physical condition.
“At times like this, we should pray and endure. This is a trial that God has prepared for us…”
Well, really? If a god truly existed, why wouldn’t they punish someone like Lee Manbok? And why was no lightning striking Choi Miyeon, who was speaking so cluelessly and irritatingly right now?
Lee Arin was angry at Choi Miyeon. At times, that anger even surpassed her resentment toward Lee Manbok, and that made sense. Choi Miyeon was far closer, far more similar, than the distant Lee Manbok ever was.
We’re in the same situation, so why is she so stupid?
Why doesn’t she even try to understand what’s happening to her?
That was why, even knowing that Choi Miyeon’s father, Choi Seonghun, was being brutally assaulted by the executive, Lee Arin hadn’t told her.
You talk like you know everything, but you don’t even know what’s happening to the family you treasure most. Instead of lecturing me like you’re so righteous, you should’ve at least checked whether your father had wounds on his body…
“…Would anything have changed?” Choi Miyeon muttered. The rampage had stopped, but her voice was still hollow, half absent. “If I had…realized sooner…”
Choi Seonghun’s breathing had stopped long ago. Both Lee Arin and Choi Miyeon knew that. In the end, Choi Miyeon had lost her father because of the dagger Lee Arin had thrown at Lee Manbok.
Because of Choi Miyeon’s selfish indifference.
“Because of me…” Choi Miyeon’s face twisted into something ugly.
The rampage had temporarily ceased, but it wouldn’t have been strange if it started again at any moment.
Lee Arin clenched her teeth. “Idiot, snap out of it!”
Choi Miyeon’s unfocused gaze turned toward Lee Arin. “Lee Arin…”
“Your dad died because of that bastard.”
Choi Miyeon flinched and looked at the startled executive. It was that person who had beaten Choi Seonghun, and even used him as a human shield. Even if failing to notice or stop it was a fault, it could never be a greater crime than what that person had done.
“And the one who gave that bastard power was Cult Leader Lee Manbok. The one who’s been exploiting us is him.” That miserable old man, sitting there arrogantly as if he were a god himself. Lee Arin ground her teeth as she looked at Lee Manbok. “Choi Miyeon, it’s true that I don’t like you, and honestly, sometimes you piss me off enough that I want to kill you. That’s true. But you’re still not as bad as a piece of shit like Lee Manbok.”
“Heh heh, such touching sisterly affection,” a disgusting voice rang. “But even so, what exactly are you planning to do?” Lee Manbok laughed loudly. He probably found the situation amusing.
From the position of an absolute superior, crushing weaklings who dared to resist was surely entertaining.
“You must have overheard something about the soul core and tried to steal Choi Miyeon’s to kill me. Just give it up. The outcome is already decided.”
Lee Arin let out a hollow laugh. She couldn’t believe she had once believed in and followed someone like him.
“Still, I should at least be better than someone like you.”
Her hatred remained. For the sake of revenge against Lee Manbok, she was willing to do anything. But even so, she wouldn’t misdirect where that rage should be aimed.
Lee Arin turned. “Hey, Choi Miyeon.” Choi Miyeon still looked pitiful, unable to regain her senses from the shock. Anger and irritation flared up, but Lee Arin swallowed them down and spoke to the blankly staring Choi Miyeon. “From now on, live with your eyes wide open.”
“And after the soul core is completed, break it.”
Breaking the soul core causes a Dungeon Break. Lee Arin trusted Jeong Daon’s words, and there was one more Hunter present who met the conditions required to complete a soul core.
Yeah. This is right.
Only one blade remained. This time, Lee Arin did not hesitate. She merely looked up once, at the hideout she had created atop the prison-like building of the Truelight Church, before ending her life.
You said you’d help me get my revenge, so keep that promise.
Lee Arin drove the dagger she had hidden straight into her own body.
Crunch!
It sounded as if flesh was being pierced right next to their ears. Blood gushed from Lee Arin’s throat as she collapsed to the floor.
Seeing this, Lee Manbok burst into laughter. “Well now, I was enjoying myself for once, and you give up like this? Looks like you’re leaving me a gift.”
“…Ha…” Choi Miyeon let out a hollow laugh. Why did Lee Arin do something like that again?
So much had happened all at once, but one thing was clear. Something was glinting in Lee Arin’s blood-soaked hand. Choi Miyeon realized that the glint was the guardian stone Jeong Suyeon had given her.
“Th-this… Lee Arin…”
That was when a faint, dying voice was heard. It seemed Jeong Suyeon, who had collapsed during the initial gunfire, had regained consciousness. Ignored by everyone and left sprawled on the floor, she was crawling toward Lee Arin. Even though things had ended up like this, perhaps it was because she had known Lee Arin for so long… Perhaps, like Choi Miyeon now, and like Lee Arin herself, she felt a flicker of pity at the very end…
“This…”
Of course, such fleeting thoughts ended as nothing more than thoughts. What Jeong Suyeon desperately reached for as she crawled across the floor was not Lee Arin’s cold hand, but the bloodstained crystal. The bloodstained guardian stone was glowing wildly, frantically absorbing Lee Arin’s mana. Just by looking at it, it was obvious that it wasn’t merely a superstitious charm, as Jeong Suyeon had claimed.
A soul core, was it?
Jeong Suyeon’s eyes sparkled with satisfaction as she obtained Lee Arin’s soul core.
“I-it’s done! Father, things went a little off, but I—aaagh!”
“Let go.”
Crunch! Choi Miyeon stomped down on Jeong Suyeon’s wrist, the one holding Lee Arin’s soul core.
Jeong Suyeon screamed. Even so, she did not release the soul core from her grasp. If it truly meant protecting someone, as she had claimed, there would have been no reason to cling to it like this.
“Aaagh, it hurts! It hurts! Miyeon, what are you doing?!”
“It’s not yours.”
This is Lee Arin’s soul core.
Choi Miyeon looked at the soul core and at Lee Arin, collapsing and dying beside it. It was the second time that day she had seen the signs of death. And yet, unlike Choi Seonghun’s death…
The blood on the soul core had not yet “dried.” Lee Arin, whose breathing had not yet fully stopped, was attempting to destroy the soul core using her unique skill. To Choi Miyeon, who had stopped just short of a rampage, the flow of mana was painfully clear.
“…”
Honestly, when she thought of her father, Lee Arin was unbearable. Resentful. Impossible to forgive, ever. No matter how much the executive had shoved Choi Seonghun, the blade that pierced his chest had ultimately been thrown by Lee Arin.
And telling her to live with her eyes wide open? She didn’t know how Lee Arin had the nerve to say that so brazenly, and she wanted to scream in anger. But still…
She could at least help with the very last thing her friend, who had taken a blade in her stead, was trying to do.
Lee Manbok, who had been smiling broadly, stiffened when he saw Choi Miyeon lift her foot and focus her mana. “Wait, Sister Choi Miyeon! What are you trying to—!”
Crunch!
“Aaaaaaah!”
Along with Jeong Suyeon’s scream as her entire hand was crushed, the soul core shattered. At that moment, an overwhelming white light consumed the area. It was a light Choi Miyeon had seen several times before. The light she saw every time she entered a dungeon as a Hunter.
The system has detected an abnormal phenomenon.
Warning! A Dungeon Break has occurred.
Only then did she understand.
So this is what you wanted to do.
Throwing away her own life to trigger a Dungeon Break. Taking revenge on Cult Leader Lee Manbok, and on this cult itself.
…If that’s the case, it’s not bad.
If I die together like this instead…
That was when a girl’s irritated voice struck her ears, “Ah, seriously, what are you guys doing? I hate melodramas."