Recalling the pain from back then, it was easy to understand just how desperately the leader of Black now craved Guiding. But that didn’t mean he could be allowed anywhere near Lee Haru or Ji Yeon-woo.
The moment the door had been smashed open and he burst into the living room, the sight that greeted him replayed in his mind. Caught in Zero’s grasp, Lee Haru looked especially small today.
There was no trace of life in his face, and Kang Min felt, for the first time in his life, a shock so intense it felt like his heart had dropped to his feet.
He had grown up in an environment where showing emotions was forbidden. The only difference between a child and an adult was that children couldn’t hide their emotions.
Kang Min had been the same. If he was upset, he cried. If things didn’t go his way, rage surged through him. If something made him happy, he smiled without thinking.
But every time, his parents would scold him harshly.
“Haven’t we told you time and time again that nothing is more vulgar than showing your emotions?”
To his parents, marriage, spouses, even children were nothing more than decorative façades to show off to others.
Perhaps it was because they had been born with everything in hand. They were obsessively fixated on anything that made them appear different from others.
Their faces were always emotionless, like finely crafted porcelain dolls. Gradually, Kang Min learned how to hide his emotions as well.
Maybe it was the side effect of constantly suppressing them, but in time, the range of his emotions grew different from everyone else’s. Even if someone broke down sobbing right in front of him, his heart didn’t so much as twitch—it felt as if it had already turned to stone.
But when he saw Lee Haru dying before his eyes, the fury that surged up momentarily was so overwhelming that everything went black.
“You’re not going to get your way.”
Every time he spoke, blood surged up his throat, but he forced it back down. If he backed down now, Lee Haru would be in danger again.
He grabbed the leader of Black’s arms with both hands. The blood splattered across the man’s arms and body would now become Kang Min’s weapon.
Until moments ago, gravity had pulled the blood straight to the floor, but now it slowly began to rise into the air.
The droplets clung to Zero’s body, sticking to him like glue. Then, one by one, they elongated into threads and burrowed into every orifice on Zero’s face without mercy.
“GRAAAAH…!”
Zero’s scream changed. It was still a scream of agony, but now it sounded as if his vocal cords were tearing apart—harsher, more guttural.
“Ggh….”
Only after confirming that Zero could no longer threaten Lee Haru did Kang Min step back.
Blood gushed out from the gaping wound in his abdomen, ripped open as wide as Zero’s arms had been. Kang Min coagulated the blood to seal the wound and stop further bleeding.
“RAAAAH—!”
Zero even tore off the mask covering his face with his own hands. At that moment, Ji Yeon-woo’s eyes widened as he saw Zero’s face for the first time.
“…No way.”
Lee Haru and Ji Yeon-woo were still holding hands. The tremor in their clasped hands helped Lee Haru regain a sliver of consciousness.
“Guide Ji Yeon-woo, what’s wrong?”
Lee Haru hadn’t fully recovered from the shock either. His voice trembled at the edges.
What grounded him was Ji Yeon-woo. Despite being in shock himself, Ji Yeon-woo had pulled Lee Haru’s hand, trying to get them both to safety. But now, he had completely frozen in place.
His unfocused eyes were locked onto Zero’s face, unable to tear away. He looked so fragile, like he would shatter into pieces if anyone dared to touch him.
Lee Haru gently wrapped his hand around Ji Yeon-woo’s head and guided it to rest on his shoulder.
Only once his gaze was forcibly redirected away from Zero did Ji Yeon-woo gasp, finally able to breathe again.
“We’re both going to be okay. So don’t be too scared.”
Even as he comforted Ji Yeon-woo, Lee Haru looked anxiously toward Kang Min, who was clearly suffering from a severe injury.
He had been impaled. It was a wonder he hadn’t collapsed already, even for an S-rank Esper.
Though Zero was still dazed, Kang Min’s condition was just as precarious.
“…Guide Lee Haru, run. I’ll hold him off.”
Kang Min wiped the blood from his mouth with the back of his hand and nodded toward the front door.
The pool of blood at his feet rippled faintly with magical energy. He pulled out a healing potion from his coat and downed it in one go, but it wasn’t enough.
The wound was too deep, and the regeneration of new flesh was painfully slow. Worse yet, he was still using his power to control the blood inside Zero’s body, which was rapidly draining his strength.
“Ugh…”
Even in pain, Zero didn’t collapse. He somehow remained standing.
Normally, when blood was injected like this and started damaging the internal organs, even an S-rank monster wouldn’t last more than a minute.
But several minutes had passed already, and Zero was still functioning. He was even starting to push Kang Min’s blood out of his body.
As he exerted more power, the veins across his skin bulged grotesquely, writhing like living worms.
“Cough, cough…”
Was it because he had overexerted himself? Blood surged up again. It was only because Kang Min was a blood-controlling Ability User that he had managed to hang on this long.
Even an S-rank Esper couldn’t survive this kind of blood loss. The moment he sensed the two presences fleeing the mansion, Kang Min’s knees buckled.
He had never felt this cornered in his life. His vision blurred—not just from blood loss.
When did his pheromones get this strong…?
He knew the leader of Black had the power to manipulate minds and bodies using pheromones. But since their encounter today, the man had been acting as if he had lost his ability.
His physical capabilities had grown far stronger, but when it came to pheromones, there was nothing to be felt. That must have been why Kang Min had let his guard down without realizing it.
When facing him, he needed to hold his breath as much as possible and form a barrier of magical energy around his body to prevent pheromones from being absorbed through the skin.
Failing to do so immediately took a toll on his body. The strain made his jaw muscles stand out, tense and rigid.
He activated his magic again, trying to block further pheromone absorption. Under normal circumstances, his mana would have been more than enough no matter how much he used, but now, as the dizziness grew worse, it began slipping from his control.
Through his wavering vision, he could see the blood he had forced into Zero’s body seeping out through the man’s ears.
Zero’s eyes, once completely black, gradually turned white around the edges until they eventually returned to their normal state.
“Haa…”
Zero exhaled deeply and swept back the hair that had fallen over his forehead. Kang Min, though staggering, rose to his feet again.
As he pushed down the pheromones with his magic, the coagulated blood sealing his wound started to dissolve.
He pressed his palm against the wound, and hot blood soaked not only his hand but quickly saturated his clothes as well.
“Such a goddamned cursed fate, you and me.”
Zero smiled with a calmness that didn’t suit the situation. Kang Min forced the blood rising in his throat back down.
Showing just how badly off he was would only provoke the wounded bastard into throwing himself at him with no regard for his own life.
“You interfere with everything. Maybe I should’ve just killed you the first time we met, even if it was a stretch.”
“I was thinking the same thing.”
Their eyes locked in a deadly stare. Just as Zero was fed up with Kang Min’s existence, Kang Min felt the same.
He had nearly lost Lee Haru multiple times because of Zero. When Haru had first been abducted and taken to Black’s base, Kang Min had been surprised by the unfamiliar surge of emotion he felt worrying about him. But this time, it went even deeper.
Watching Yu Je-hyun deteriorate day by day hadn’t disgusted him—it had made him understand.
“How about you just kill yourself before you go on a Rampage? At the very least, don’t drag the rest of the world down with you when you die.”
Once an S-rank Esper entered Rampage, it was virtually impossible to prevent widespread destruction. The entire surrounding area would be reduced to ruins.
Black had treated human lives like insects for years. Their treatment of Guides, in particular, was so vile it was hard to speak of.
Based on testimonies from the Guides rescued from Black’s base, the number of Guides they had sacrificed over the years was close to three digits.
There were always fewer Guides than Espers. Ever since Black had ramped up its operations, the Association had been suffering from a chronic Guide shortage.
Even if Zero had been truly wronged by the Association President and harbored justified resentment, he had already committed atrocities far beyond forgiveness.
The best way to prevent an Esper’s Rampage was for them to take their own life before it could even begin.
“What kind of grudge do you have against the Association President anyway? What happened with the early Ability Users that—”
Before Kang Min could finish his sentence, a heavy wave of pheromones came crashing down on him. It zeroed in on the wound in his abdomen, and Kang Min’s brow creased in pain.
The smile vanished from Zero’s face.
