Seo Won smiled faintly as he recalled his conversation with Cha Han-gyeom. Cha Han-gyeom had said he never wanted to have anything taken from him ever again. Such worries felt utterly pointless.
‘No one’s going to take me from you.’
Because before that ever happens, I’ll kill the bastard myself.
“Ugh!”
A scream snapped him out of his thoughts. Where the noise had come from, a man lay collapsed, his legs frozen solid. A sharp ice arrow, thick as a person’s forearm, was pointed straight at his head. Had Seo Won been even a second slower in realizing it, the arrow might have pierced the man’s skull on instinct alone. The man, immobilized and facing death with an ice arrow aimed at his head, trembled violently, holding his breath. He was an Ability User specialized in physical movement, but with both legs sealed in ice before he could react, he was no more than an ordinary person now.
‘I almost killed him.’
Having lived under constant threat since childhood, Seo Won had developed a sharp sensitivity to murderous intent. Maybe it was because all the Espers surrounding him were radiating hostility like a coiled snake, but his senses had sharpened—just like that razor-thin ice arrow aimed at him moments ago.
Seo Won casually dissipated the hovering ice arrow into vapor. He had made a promise to Han-gyeom. No matter what happened, he couldn’t kill anyone here.
“Beat them to a pulp, freeze them solid, do whatever you want. Just don’t kill them.”
Han-gyeom hadn’t made a show of it, but it seemed he, too, couldn’t help but feel a softness toward others who had come from the same research facility as them. It was so very Cha Han-gyeom—to seem cold and ruthless, yet carry a fragile tenderness somewhere deep inside.
“Seo Won!”
Just as he scanned the area, now nearly cleared out, a sharp voice called his name. As he turned his head, a familiar woman came into view.
‘That’s the woman who escaped with Kang Woo-chan.’
She had short hair and a bandage wrapped around her shoulder. Seo Won clearly remembered her from the day he had first encountered Woo-chan—she had triggered a flashbang and escaped with him in the chaos.
Now, the moment she caught Seo Won’s gaze, Lee Ji-hye raised a flashbang high into the air as if she’d been waiting for this. In the next instant, the device exploded midair, unleashing an intense, blinding light.
Lee Ji-hye possessed the ability to infuse parasitic ESP into light—and she also had the power to shield herself from it. Whether it was a natural evolution of her powers or the result of research facility experimentation, who could say? Either way, thanks to that ability, even at close range, she could keep her eyes wide open and track Seo Won’s movements without flinching.
She had assumed that no matter how powerful an S-rank Esper might be, they wouldn’t be able to keep their eyes open in the sudden burst of light.
But contrary to her expectations, Seo Won charged forward as if the massive flash had never gone off right in front of him. Even though her ESP should have entered through his eyes the moment the flash detonated, he didn’t seem the slightest bit affected—no hesitation, not even a twitch.
“W-What the hell?! How is that…?”
Lee Ji-hye had believed she could at least stall Seo Won’s movements for a brief moment, but when he appeared right in front of her in an instant, she gasped. Up close, she could see a transparent layer of ice—shaped like goggles—spread out in front of his eyes. The ESP released from her flashbang had bounced off that icy barrier without even making a dent.
“Using the same trick twice? That’s just stupid.”
Seo Won scoffed coldly and grabbed Lee Ji-hye by the throat with one hand.
“Gkk!”
Her eyes bulged as pain shot through her neck and her airway was cut off.She opened her mouth in a silent gasp, struggling to breathe.She tried to kick and thrash to break free, but it was already too late—the frost spreading from Seo Won’s hand had enveloped her entire body, freezing her completely.
Only after ensuring she was immobilized did Seo Won release his grip. Lee Ji-hye coughed violently several times, then glared up at him with venom in her eyes.
“You came to lock up Han-gyeom again, didn’t you? You sick bastard.”
As Seo Won calmly surveyed the now-cleared area, he turned his gaze to meet Lee Ji-hye’s defiant stare.
“Why? Am I not allowed to?”
“What?”
Lee Ji-hye scoffed in disbelief at his utterly nonchalant reply.
“Wasn’t it enough that you locked Han-gyeom up in that mansion and exploited him like that?! You even forced an Imprint on him! Don’t you think you’ve gone too far? Just let him go and give him some damn freedom!”
Of course, Han-gyeom hadn’t agreed to the Imprint of his own will from the beginning. But Seo Won had no intention of bringing up anything related to the heart.
“You know we’re Imprinted, and you’re telling me to just let him go? That’s basically telling me to die.”
“Yeah, it is!”
Lee Ji-hye snapped, her voice rising as her face flushed with anger.
“He’s been through hell! Even if you didn’t torment him, just living is already torture for him—he probably wants to die every damn day! So stop locking him up and playing with him like he’s your toy!”
Seo Won looked at her, seething with rage, then glanced at the surrounding Espers. Each of them was glaring at him with the same silent fury burning in their eyes, just like Lee Ji-hye.
“Looks like you’re all under some delusion.”
“Delusion?”
Lee Ji-hye’s eyes twitched.
“Cha Han-gyeom isn’t as fragile as you all think he is.”
Seo Won had once viewed Han-gyeom as endlessly weak too. Always on the verge of breaking, so brittle he looked like he might snap from a mere tap, lethargic, hollow, a man with no will left. A Base Guide barely clinging to life, holding onto the last bits of ash like they were fragile straw, just barely breathing in the mire. That was how Han-gyeom had been when they first met.
But after that final thread of straw snapped, everything about him changed. His breathing—once faint and fleeting—became something different: thin but tenacious, pathetic yet chilling, filled with venom. His eyes, once clouded with death, began to shine with a new, singular purpose. Even as his body cried out in weakness, the soul inside screamed with terrifying clarity.
Seo Won could agree that Han-gyeom had suffered to the brink of death. But he could no longer agree with the claim that he still wants to die.
Cha Han-gyeom had always wanted to live. Whether it was for his own sake or for Seo Won’s, he was still struggling—clawing, gasping—to survive even in this very moment. Pitying someone like that, dismissing him as weak, was the greatest insult one could throw at him.
“Cha Han-gyeom is strong enough to survive on his own.”
Seo Won declared, his voice resolute, eyes locked not just on Lee Ji-hye, but on the rest of the Espers surrounding them.
“Keep your pathetic sympathy and wounds-licking to yourselves.”
A clear sneer curled on Seo Won’s lips.
“Because that pity is exactly what will end up tearing him apart all over again.”
“What did you just—?! Mmph! Mmmph!”
Lee Ji-hye, on the verge of hurling curses, suddenly fell silent. Ice, rising up to her throat, had sealed her lips shut—trapping the words inside and leaving her to groan against the cold block in her mouth.
Seo Won turned away from her without another glance, walking through the Espers now frozen in place. He headed straight toward the ruined cathedral—where Cha Han-gyeom and Kang Woo-chan were waiting.
***
“A clone, huh.”
Kang Woo-chan stared at the closed cathedral doors, quickly piecing together how Seo Won had managed to get here.
The intel they’d acquired through Jung Ah-young had included information on Yoon Jeong-ho, an Esper with teleportation abilities. Although he couldn’t transport living beings other than himself, he could move any object below a certain mass.
Apparently, Seo Won’s clone had been light enough to teleport with him.
Woo-chan narrowed his eyes and looked at Han-gyeom.
“Why?”
He grabbed Han-gyeom’s arm tightly.
The sudden grip made Han-gyeom flinch, a trace of pain appearing in the corners of his eyes.
“You said you’d save me. That you’d do anything for me.”
A disturbing glint of obsession shimmered in Woo-chan’s eyes.
“If you stay with us, you won’t have to suffer anymore. Everyone likes you—we could live like real brothers.”
His hands clamped down on Han-gyeom, holding him as if to restrain him. Even though Han-gyeom’s expression twisted in pain, Woo-chan’s grip showed no sign of loosening.
“Don’t worry about guiding the others. I’ll handle everything. You don’t have to do anything—just stay with us, just be alive by our side. That’s all we need.”
The mix of desperation and madness in his voice created a chilling atmosphere.
Han-gyeom kept his eyes on Woo-chan, unwavering despite the pressure bearing down on him.
“…You really are a selfish bastard.”
“…What?”
Woo-chan’s eyes flinched at the words. Han-gyeom pressed him harder.
“Think about what you just said. ‘Just stay alive by our side’? What am I, your war trophy or something?”
Han-gyeom glared at Woo-chan with icy, piercing eyes—then shifted his gaze past him, toward the ruined cathedral doors slowly creaking open in the distance behind him.
“I’m alive for my sake, not yours. That’s how it’s always been, and that’s how it’s going to stay.”
With a chilling noise, the cathedral doors fully opened—and Seo Won strode in with confident, heavy steps.
