One by one, crimson laser dots began to appear on Dominic’s body.
One, two, three... five.
Five chick drones floated around Guru, ready to fire.
“...Pewvuwt?”
“Pewvuwt?”
“Pii?”
While Dominic, Veilach, and Mephisto each voiced their own confusion—
“Kidnappew!”
Guru shouted at the top of her lungs and jabbed a fork into Dominic’s shoulder.
Shoo shoo shoo shoo—!
At the same time, the bullets shot out in straight lines, and Dominic moved quickly to avoid them.
“Urgh!”
But he couldn’t dodge them all.
Three missed, but one struck his arm, another hit his thigh, and on top of that there was the wound from the fork in his shoulder...
He looked at the hole in his shoulder left by the fork.
'You dare wound my body?'
It wasn’t a magic sword, a holy sword, or even something forged by a master craftsman.
It was just a toy, at best.
And yet it had this kind of power.
That alone made it obvious this was no ordinary human child.
“...The new master is different from what I expected.”
Dominic’s tone held a hint of surprise.
Veilach’s expression hardened into a feral scowl at the sight, his growling voice laced with threat.
“Karmirach. Did you think you could lay a hand on my master and live?”
Veilach’s arm transformed into a beast’s claw as he lunged, and Dominic quickly retreated.
“As I said, my name is Dominic.”
He dodged Veilach’s strike as it swept past his face, but an intangible force was already pulling his body toward Veilach.
'No choice then'. Dominic’s body began to dissolve into mist.
Only then did Guru, freed from Dominic’s grasp, land on the ground.
“Hyut-cha!”
Landing stably, Guru scampered over to Veilach and grabbed both of his hands.
“Mastew, awe you huwt anywhewe...?”
“You wewe wowwied!”
Veilach’s shoulders stiffened.
The moisture in her voice carried an undeniable weight of concern.
“Pewvuwt didn’t do anyfing bad to Bayi, wight?”
The child circled around Veilach in tiny, quick steps, scanning him from every angle.
'As if I could be hurt'. She should be worrying about herself.
It was ridiculous, yet at the same time... a little embarrassing, even flustering.
He could have brushed her off curtly, but Veilach didn’t.
Only now did Mephisto’s earlier words hit home—that if he left her side, Guru would be sad.
Veilach simply wasn’t used to receiving emotions like this.
Suddenly, the image of his former master came to mind.
Back then, Veilach had been the one to keep Mephisto, the usurper of the Golden Throne, in check until the very end. He had been Sheir’s loyal guardian.
But Sheir had only sat arrogantly in the snowfields, watching impassively as Veilach was overpowered.
To Veilach, accustomed to the cold gaze of his old master, Guru’s emotions worked their way in and began to melt what had long been locked up inside.
“Mepiduu! You okay?”
“Pii!”
Mephisto rubbed his cheek against Guru’s hand, chirping as if to report something. Guru nodded along, saying, “Mm-hmm, I seee,” to words she couldn’t possibly understand.
Watching the ridiculous scene, Veilach turned his head and covered his mouth.
“Bayi, what’s wong?”
“...It’s nothing.”
Only then did Guru let out a loose, relieved smile.
“Let’s go home now.”
“All right.”
“Pii-pii!”
But then, mist began to spread around them.
“Huh? Dis is...?”
Veilach replied with clear annoyance.
“Karmirach’s dungeon.”
'Karmirach?'
While Guru was still puzzled, her vision turned white. Mist swallowed up everything in sight.
In an instant, she couldn’t even see right in front of her.
Tadadak—
From within came the sound of something running on four legs.
Eep!
Guru swallowed down a scream as Lukshifer peeked his head out from her arms.
The sprout atop his head swayed side to side, casting a faint light that revealed Veilach’s face ahead.
When Guru reached out her hand, Veilach took it.
“Don’t you dare let go.”
Nod, nod.
Guru nodded firmly, steeling herself—
—and then a massive, black silhouette swept past them.
Tadadak—
While Veilach turned tensely to scan the surroundings, Guru spotted something and screamed.
“Mepi!”
Karmirach, now in his true form, had Mephisto in his jaws and was running off into the mist.
Meanwhile, Serhi and Gidan were leaping over the roofs of cars stopped on a six-lane avenue as they searched for Guru.
The swift, light movements of two S-Ranks made drivers roll down their windows and crane their necks.
“Gidan? Serhi?”
“Hunter Gidan!”
Some who recognized them even took photos, but the two ignored it, moving urgently.
“Where?”
Gidan checked his phone as he asked.
“Right!”
Serhi immediately veered in that direction.
Guru’s GPS pinged within a two-kilometer radius—close by.
Good thing Guru’s watch had GPS; otherwise, things {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} could have gotten ugly.
They needed to act before anything happened to her—before Jurim found out.
If it came to an emergency, Guru would call Jurim herself, but if that happened, the two of them would be dead meat for failing to protect her.
That was when—
Brrr— Brrr— Brrr—
Both of their phones buzzed loudly at the same time.
[Emergency Disaster Alert]
Safety notice: Large-scale dungeon detected in the Sinsa-dong area today.
The area will be restricted; all S-Rank Hunters receiving this alert, please standby.
It was the type of standby alert sent specifically to S-Ranks when a major dungeon or other disaster occurred.
Gidan and Serhi locked eyes.
A large-scale dungeon meant S-Rank level or higher.
Which meant...
Their faces went pale.
Only one conclusion came to mind.
'That perverted bastard... did he really do something to Veilach?'
They pushed their speed even higher.
Jurim and Kazuki left the reception room, leaving the panicked Jeon Byeongho behind.
Once they left the cleanup to the lawyer, the “Inoue Haruna Special Exhibition” matter would be more or less wrapped up.
All the weapons displayed there were years old.
Judging by their production dates, they likely weren’t Haruna’s work at all, but classified items made by the Japanese government.
They’d probably been announced as her creations just to boost her value.
Checking it out had started as little more than picking at someone trying to block his kid’s future, but the payoff wasn’t bad.
Brr— Brr— Brr—
Just then, both Jurim’s and Kazuki’s phones rang loudly.
'Disaster alert?'
Jurim was about to check the message when—
[The time has come.]
Sheir’s voice rang out.
At the same time, a cold chill to the bone swept over him.
Before he knew it, a pure white snowfield stretched out around him.
Jurim’s expression hardened as he turned toward Sheir.
“What do you mean?”
The master of the 99th floor, seated lazily on the Golden Throne, slowly opened his eyes.
Just like with Veilach, he could sense that one of his bloodline had drawn close to Guru.
Sheir lifted his head from its lazy tilt instead of answering.
Even though he told himself it had nothing to do with him, he recalled the warmth of that small, soft, slightly feverish child.
The thought of such a fragile being snuffed out in an instant made him unbearably restless.
[Truly... you make it impossible to look away.]
Was this strange stirring what they called emotion?
Even after existing for so long, emotion was still unfamiliar to Sheir.
For a moment, he remembered a member of his bloodline who had once pleaded with him emotionally, then erased the memory from his mind.
Rising from the throne, he walked across the snowfield.
The snowfield was both the extradimensional space sealing him and a part of Jurim’s consciousness.
Sheir grabbed Jurim’s shoulder and pulled.
Jurim’s consciousness was left behind on the throne where Sheir had been sitting—alone, in the middle of the snow.
Leaving Jurim behind, Sheir began to walk.
Before long, mist filled his vision.
Beyond it, he saw a child with a little rabbit on her head.
She was holding hands with another child her age, looking around anxiously.
Sheir closed the distance between them.
“Hello?”
Guru turned and met his gaze.
Her light coral eyes widened.
“Daddychann?”
Beside her, Veilach recognized him and his face twisted.

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