Gardner, the Academy Cadet.

Securing him was an easy task.

‘It was a bit surprising that he resisted at the end.’

Gardner's actions seemed to make things unfold more smoothly.

To think he tried to throw a grenade at the Division Commander.

This was clearly insubordination.

‘If we send him back after a little intimidation, it should be fine.’

The Division Commander was pondering these thoughts while holding a pipe.

It was a magical tool that helped calm her thoughts.

The key component of the tool was the nicotine contained in the tobacco leaves.

In any case.

As a small tactical vehicle was crossing the Contaminated Zone on its way to the Division Headquarters, an incident occurred.

[Confirmed attack from the side.]

The radio installed in the vehicle blared.

The source was a tactical vehicle following behind.

Immediately after the radio call.

The sound of impact echoed.

-Kwaaaang!!!

[First defense barrier lost. Initiating second defense barrier.]

“...It's a surprise attack."

The Division Commander, who was listening to the radio, checked outside the window.

Something was flying from the northwest.

It was breaking through the shield deployed over the tactical vehicle.

‘It can't be that we just randomly encountered a magical creature.’

What kind of magical creature could possibly perform a long-distance sniping attack?

This was clearly an assault by an organization.

It had to be one of three: the military, wanderers who had seized military equipment, or the cult.

Of these, the cult was the most likely culprit.

‘There should have been a magic spell cast on the vehicle for stealth.’

There was only one way the cult could have detected them.

It seems Gardner was under surveillance by the cult even while he was in the unit.

They must have been following all along, but they were unfortunate now.

The Division Commander spoke into the radio.

"We’ll keep going and exit the firing range. Special Task Force, intercept the sniping as much as possible to minimize shield depletion."

"It seems they're planning to escape without returning fire."

The Cardinal stroked her chin.

If they escape like this...

"Jericho and Jelin, can you intercept that... vehicle?"

"Every attack is being blocked... At this rate, they might escape beyond our range."

Two goblins with four horns on their heads spoke while diligently throwing spears.

"Well... if that's the case, there's nothing we can do."

The Cardinal.

She flashed the numerous eyes on her wings.

The wings trembled slightly along with the eyes, as if focused on something.

The Cardinal, like someone skimming through books in a library, swept through the air and pinched a point in space, pulling it out effortlessly.

At that moment, the very space where the Cardinal was located seemed to be extracted.

The space folded instantly, fitting into the Cardinal's single hand, and then vanished completely.

In its place appeared a new scene, as if it had been there all along.

It was the entrance to the Contaminated Zone, where two small vehicles were racing forward.

This was the Cardinal's authority and the miracle known as teleportation.

The Cardinal raised her hand and waved.

"Hello~"

As she attracted attention, the driver's eyes in the vehicle burst immediately.

"Ahhhhh!!!"

The passenger, witnessing the scene, quickly took over the driver's seat and turned the vehicle, hastily communicating to someone over the radio.

At the same time, the other vehicle also changed direction, intending to flee.

Just as they were about to pursue them, every person in the vehicle suddenly jumped out.

One of them received a syringe from another and injected it into their arm.

It seemed to be an antidote or a solution for detoxification.

The Cardinal fluttered her wings and shifted her eyes to meet everyone's gaze, but no one showed any further movement.

“As expected, I didn't think it would be resolved easily…”

The Cardinal rolled her eyes, examining the composition of the enemies.

‘Surely, the Conflagration Human they took with them…’

In the midst of the enemies, the person who handed out the syringes was holding the Conflagration Human in their arms.

Seeing this, the Cardinal instantly recognized.

‘That's the medic, I must deal with that one first.’

Simultaneously, the Cardinal raised both hands. At the same time, she folded all the wings on her head and closed her eyes.

While all vision and senses were cut off, the Cardinal nurtured a very dreadful imagination in her mind.

Grotesque fetus formed from the cosmic debris accumulated and compressed, and the horrible process of squeezing it out like wringing a rag…

The Cardinal's terrible thoughts flowed calmly, and when those thoughts concluded, she spread all her wings and opened her eyes.

Then, everything she had imagined was before her eyes.

“What on earth…”

Iscaliote was astonished.

I was naturally wielding the black sphere, something even she had not been able to handle, created by pure chance.

“So this is how it’s done.”

Contrary to the astonished Iscaliote, I remained calm.

I actually feel a sense of familiarity.

The black sphere was created according to the description Iscaliote had given. The energy emanating from it felt strangely familiar.

It was as if it once enveloped my entire body. This same energy continued to flow from the black sphere.

I controlled the black sphere for a while, then absorbed it entirely.

“What? Could it be…”

Iscaliote was shocked to see me.

Absorbing an unknown energy source directly! What if it exploded?

Iscaliote watched with worried eyes, but…

‘I don't think there's any need to worry.’

I felt, if anything, my soul becoming more complete.

It was as if my previously unstable posture had begun to find its balance.

‘Why is it that I can handle this power with ease, a power Iscaliote couldn't even control?’

I moved my body around a bit and then drew out my Unique Armament. The shotgun and shield, now enriched with a deeper luster than before.

I loaded regular rounds into it.

-Click.

Then I aimed at one corner of the room.

‘…It's heavy.’

It wasn't a physical weight, but rather an overwhelming presence, like a mountain, emanating from the gun.

‘I only absorbed the black sphere…’

I recalled the method Iscaliote had described for creating the black sphere.

First, make a loop using the Dark Attribute and Light Attribute, then reverse its rotation. Insert the Full Spectrum in between.

It vaguely resembled Trinia's theory, but... to be precise, Trinia's theory resembled this method.

This was... a process of fusing seven attributes to create Genesis.

‘How did Iscaliote come to know of this?’

I think it was mentioned here and there in the game settings.

Perhaps she attempted it after seeing such details.

And even though it was incomplete, she succeeded. It must not have been easy... to succeed just from seeing the method.

Indeed, she had always been the strongest superhuman.

‘By the way, does this mean that I... can use Genesis now?’

Then...

I remembered my final task to convey to Iscaliote and said, “Senior, how long until you wake up?”

“Huh? Ah, you mean my soul. If it’s that, if you continue as you have been, it should take about a month.”

A month.

A month was too long for me to complete what I needed Iscaliote to do.

“Senior, let’s finish it today.”

“…Is that possible?”

Iscaliote glanced at my shotgun.

She seemed to notice that something had changed.

I aimed the loaded shotgun at one side of the wall and fired to show her my current state.

Boom!!!

Previously, I would hear the sound of gunpowder exploding, but this time it was a bit different.

It was the sound of countless bullets tearing through the air.

And each bullet fired from the shotgun.

All of them went right through the wall of the room.

As a result, the wall was left full of holes like a honeycomb.

Iscaliote approached and ran her hand over the holes in the wall.

“Are these... marks from bullets?”

She murmured, seemingly in disbelief.

The marks on the wall were too clean to have been made by ordinary bullets.

The holes were incredibly smooth, as if something sharp had cut through.

She appeared to be quite taken aback by these marks.

Then I offered some further explanation.

“It seems my bullets no longer destroy the enemy with physical force.”

“Then, what on earth do they do…”

“They erase everything they touch with elemental energy as they pass through.”

My bullets had become like nickel balls sitting on a sponge.

With an immense amount of compressed energy inside, they could penetrate anything that existed in this world.

Unless something had a compression rate beyond Genesis, it wouldn’t be able to block them.

“If that's true, you are...”

“Iscaliote Senior.”

I interrupted her before she could finish her sentence and continued speaking.

It was my final request to her.

"When you wake up, please grant me one request."

"Well, it's not difficult to grant a request, but what is it?"

"There are people better off not existing in this world, and I know who that person is."

"...Surely, you don't mean..."

It seems she guessed who I was talking about thanks to the game we played.

"Join me in eliminating the Division Commander, Iscaliote Senior, and I ask that you take her place as Division Commander."

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