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Cheon Geon-young was surrounded by a sea of fire.
Baek Sang-ho and the other agents couldn’t reach Cheon Geon-young, blocked by the flames and whirlwinds. In the midst of the intense pain he felt for the first time in his life, he knelt on the ground, his chest heaving. Every breath felt like hot blades piercing his lungs indiscriminately. He wanted to get up, but his arms and legs had no strength at all.
Just then, he heard the sound of propellers from somewhere. Cheon Geon-young barely managed to lift his head. A familiar helicopter was flying through the sky stained with gray smoke.
Seeing the helicopter, he saw a strange hallucination. Yoon Tae-ha, with an incredibly angry face, was hanging onto the door as if she would jump out at any moment.
He blinked, and the hallucination disappeared. It was a shame. From some point, Baek Sang-ho’s shouts felt like they were coming from a distant place. A thick drowsiness washed over him, and his consciousness flickered. He slowly closed his eyes.
________________________________________
No matter what happens, hold your ground.
This was what Lee Hae-kyung had told her during a call before she took on this mission. Yoon Tae-ha mulled over those words as she followed the crow.
Yeo Soo-min’s words bothered her. She was worried about Cheon Geon-young. She wanted to go to the Alpha Team herself, not Changcheon.
But could a momentary choice ruin the plan? This wasn’t her plan alone. As long as Changcheon was involved, if she messed things up due to personal feelings, not only she but also Cheon Geon-young would be bound by moral responsibility.
Moreover, the most likely place for Kali to arrive was near Nox. Not anywhere else. The truth that Kali was currently the most threatening enemy was undeniable.
The Black Lion and Charlton were probably wandering through the night forest to find Kali before she found Nox. If she could capture Raphael alive, then stay near Nox and deal with Kali, who targeted him... That would be the best-case scenario. It was certain. But whether she had the power to pull it off, she didn’t know.
“Caw!”
Finally, the crow stopped. In the stillness, the sound of water could be heard. It was the sound of a fast-flowing stream. Yoon Tae-ha surveyed her surroundings.
Here, old, decaying trees and young, newly bloomed ones were strangely mixed, and the air carried a fresh, pungent scent of grass. Smelling that scent, her fearful emotions softened a little. As she was estimating her location on the map, the crow flew and landed on her shoulder. Its talons painfully dug into her flesh.
“Caw!”
The bird cried out sharply. And without any warning, a dark curtain fell before Yoon Tae-ha’s eyes, her body floated, and the surrounding sounds faded as if blocked by a soundproof wall. It felt like an animal trapped in an old box, being transported.
A few seconds later, the unpleasant sensation ended. Yoon Tae-ha, her vision restored, quickly grabbed the ankle of the crow as it hurried away from her shoulder. The bird flapped its wings pitifully.
“If you’re going to teleport, give me a heads-up. It feels gross, like being carried by the scruff of my neck.”
“Caw!”
“I’ll do that next time.”
The man’s dry voice came from behind her. Yoon Tae-ha released the crow’s ankle and sharply turned her head towards where the voice had come from. She met the eyes of a gray-haired man. He was sitting in the only chair in the space, draped in a black cloak. His blood-red eyes, like dripping raw meat, stared at her.
“You resemble your brother.”
When she spoke her first thought, Nox’s lips curved up ever so slightly.
“Unpleasant.”
“We weren’t exactly on friendly terms, I suppose. You tried to kill me and my comrade last time.”
“I understand.”
Yoon Tae-ha took her gaze from the chair and slowly turned in a circle, surveying the space.
The space she had arrived in looked like an underground hideout in a fortress or an old waterway. The only light source was a magical orb emitting a silvery-gray light, fixed at a point on the ceiling. The black stones that meticulously covered the floor and ceiling could shine with a subtle luster precisely because of that light source.
“Where is this?”
“Lethe.”
Lethe. The most secret lake hidden in the Green Sea. Hadn’t it been said that hardly anyone had actually been here? As soon as Yoon Tae-ha heard the name Lethe, she checked her Changcheon watch. The screen had turned completely black. Communication was cut off.
“Raphael said he couldn’t easily access this place. Can you easily draw in others?”
“This place was once part of a castle I owned. Though it’s distorted in ways even I can’t grasp now, it was once a space I ruled. It’s natural for the weight of authority to fall upon me.”
Does that mean the house recognizes its owner? Magic is still difficult. Suppressing her bewilderment, she wanted confirmation of the Green Feather’s presence.
“I want to confirm that the compression is progressing properly. You said you didn’t want to disclose it to Changcheon.”
“There is no reason to trust them.”
“But you requested a conversation with the Black Lion.”
The man did not answer. But Yoon Tae-ha vaguely understood why he only cooperated with the Black Lion.
“Is it because he’s an outsider?”
“His ability is clear.”
“Charlton?”
“It’s also clear that he’s a man far from betrayal.”
This was an unexpected answer. Had Charlton already exerted his charisma on Nox too? She suddenly wondered if there was anyone that outsider couldn’t befriend.
“Show me where the Green Feather is.”
Nox willingly snapped his fingers. The silvery-gray orb floating on the ceiling then expanded, as if to consume all the darkness in the room.
In the faint light, luminous green crystals merged into one, then separated again, and finally flew towards each other, intertwining. It was like the heart of a living creature. Even she, who had seen more strange phenomena than others, was briefly mesmerized by its beauty.
“To what extent has this compression progressed?”
“It’s almost finished.”
“Do you have to keep sitting in that chair to finish this? And if Kali or Raphael come, I have to protect you so you can keep sitting there?”
After hearing the questions, he reduced the orb to its original size.
“Of course not.”
The crow, which had been flying several circles around the orb, landed on the armrest of the chair, and Nox gently stroked the bird’s head.
“Raphael has a part of the Green Feather. You already know that, I suppose.”
“It’s a minuscule amount. To infiltrate this space with that, my elder brother would have to sacrifice an arm...”
Just as Nox was speaking, a section of the ceiling shattered with a mighty roar. Thick gray dust rose from the destroyed black stones. Yoon Tae-ha, summoning a pure white spear, swiftly darted towards the figure that burst out of the dust. But she was pushed back by a strong force, sent flying towards the opposite wall.
She balanced herself and landed before hitting her head on the wall. Her fingertips, having grazed the floor, stung from friction. Soon, she saw the two men glaring coldly at each other.
“Brother!”
Raphael called out to Nox with a cheerful voice. However, Nox remained seated in his chair, his face expressionless.
Although Raphael had called his brother with a bright voice, his face was more haggard than usual, and he was even sweating coldly.
“And my dear helper is here as well.”
An unfamiliar staff was in Raphael’s hand. The black staff was thin and long. His other hand, not holding the staff, was hidden by his long cloak. But seeing the color of his fingernails peeking out from under the cloak, it didn’t seem to be in a normal state. It seemed true that he had sacrificed his arm to use the Green Feather.
“Tae-ha. If you kill that man, our contract will be valid.”
Raphael whispered softly. He seemed to have realized that his plan had gone awry the moment he knew Yoon Tae-ha had arrived here without his help.
“Don’t you want to know your mother’s name?”
“I guess I wasn’t as curious as you thought.”
A cold light appeared in his sky-blue eyes.
“You’ll tell a completely different story once you hear the name. Aren’t you judging too hastily? This is an opportunity that may come once in a lifetime. Think carefully.”
“It’s the result of calm and careful consideration.”
“I don’t know what this fellow guaranteed. There’s nothing he could give you. What can you trust in someone who’s been in a criminal organization for a long time?”
Since he had no way of knowing about the deal between the Black Lion and Nox, Raphael’s reaction now was natural. Yoon Tae-ha slowly moved, wary of him.
“Your younger brother turned out to be more cooperative than I expected. We were able to make a pretty decent deal.”
Raphael reacted to the word “brother.”
“Ah! So you’ve even introduced yourselves? I see. You didn’t, after all, foolishly believe what I said.”
Raphael then looked up at the orb on the ceiling. Yoon Tae-ha worried that he might immediately recite a difficult and complex spell and extract the green granules from the light.
But Raphael, having failed to persuade her, turned directly to Nox and stared at him. Then he said something in a language she couldn’t understand. From Nox’s expression, it didn’t seem to be peaceful. Contempt and disgust flickered across Nox’s usually emotionless face.
“I will do nothing for your return.”
“How presumptuous.”
Nox said, cutting him off with terrifying precision.
“No one in the kingdom desires your return. Die here. That is the fitting end for the First Prince.”
Nox rose from his chair and snapped his fingers. Raphael then slammed his staff onto the ground.
Soon, fragments that had been created when he forcefully entered the space floated in the air and then charged fiercely towards Yoon Tae-ha and Nox.
Yoon Tae-ha swung her spear a few times, breaking the stones into smaller pieces. Meanwhile, Nox summoned dozens of swords from thin air. The swords, varying in size and shape, persistently chased Raphael, moving like her entities. Raphael turned half of the fiercely attacking swords into dust and cast counter-spells on the other half, sending them flying towards Yoon Tae-ha.
‘What kind of suffering is this?’
Caught in a sibling quarrel, she was on the verge of getting her back broken. Yoon Tae-ha, hitting a bastard sword with a thick middle with her spear, scowled in annoyance.
Just then, Nox extended his hand. The silver orb floating on the ceiling then changed color to a transparent crystal ball. Nox dodged Raphael’s attack and sent it flying into Yoon Tae-ha’s arms. The orb was small enough to fit completely in her palm. Yoon Tae-ha, suddenly holding a precious substance, furrowed her brows.
What am I supposed to do?
“While I deal with him, you run away.”
Raphael then summoned black soldiers radiating an ominous aura from thin air.
“Kill the woman and take the substance.”
The soldiers, swinging longswords, began to charge at her.
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