[You said there was a lot of ability gear?]
"Yes."
[How much is there?]
"There is one table about that big, and behind it are piles of things like beakers and spoons."
[Beakers, spoons, and a table. It seems an alchemist's research facility was there.]
"What should I do?"
[A spoon. Is it made of iron?]
"Yes."
[Would you throw only that outside Rootstream first? I want to see whether ability gear can leave without you.]
"Okay."
Haseol picked up a small spoon and walked out of the building.
"I will throw it. Is this the right direction?"
[The direction you are looking is right.]
Shura answered.
Haseol threw the spoon toward Rootstream's wall.
The spoon flew not in an arc, but in a straight line like a bullet.
It was too dark to see clearly, but through the Fairy Eye, Haseol could still make out that it struck Rootstream and fell.
"It cannot get out."
[Then it cannot be helped.]
"I should prepare myself."
[To be shot?]
"To kill the sniper. Though I will probably be shot a few times in the process."
Haseol answered with a faint smile.
"Then...... Avoiding bullets as I advance seems difficult, and to advance while blocking the bullets......"
[Could you not advance while enduring them with only your neck protected?]
"What if I am shot in the head, collapse, and keep getting shot?"
[The glove will still move and protect your neck.]
"I can picture myself lying down while my body keeps jerking from bullet after bullet."
Haseol refused as though he did not want to choose that option.
[There are a lot of collapsed buildings. Why not tear off a wall and carry it?]
"I will look."
Haseol looked around.
All kinds of objects had spilled out and rolled across the ground.
"Ah, there is one."
He spotted a fairly large chunk of a ruined building.
"I will try going with this."
[Carry it so that your feet cannot be seen.]
"Okay."
Haseol gripped a section of wall with exposed reinforcing bars and lifted it.
"When I go out, the sniper was to the left, right?"
[That is right.]
"I am going."
Holding the dust-shedding wall as cover, Haseol stepped outside in the direction where the sniper was likely to be.
BANG!
The gunshot immediately rang out.
CRACK!
The wall was pierced.
THUD!
The bullet pierced Haseol's abdomen.
"Huh."
His hand went limp, and he dropped the wall.
Haseol stopped his legs from collapsing and somehow ran back into the building.
Sizzle.
"Wow......"
Lying on the ground, Haseol let out a hollow laugh.
"It pierced a stone wall?"
He spoke as he looked at his abdomen.
The gunshot wound was already rapidly healing.
[That is not the power of an ordinary gun.]
[Hmm. It seems as though it would be simple if we gave him one tougher shield.]
"Do you not have one?"
[Myun probably does.]
"Has Myun arrived?"
[Not yet.]
"Then we will have to do it ourselves."
After confirming that his abdomen had healed, Haseol got to his feet again.
"It seems you have a lot of abilities and all sorts of things prepared, but none of them feels exactly right for this."
[We do have something.]
"The problem is that I do not have it."
[There are many things we can give you.]
"Really?"
[Even the Bloodline Bisan gave you is not yet displaying its full power. Giving you more complex and difficult things in that state would only make your mind more complicated.]
"That is true."
Haseol answered as though he understood.
"Then I will make use of everything I have for now."
[Do you have an idea?]
"Shura. If I am looking at where the sniper is, can you identify the position even if I do not notice it?"
[I can. There will be a muzzle flash.]
"Then please do."
[What are you planning to do?]
"I will probably be hit once or twice."
[What?]
Haseol turned his head and confirmed Rootstream's location.
Then.
FWOOSH!
At the same time he spread his wings, he jumped backward.
Haseol flew toward Rootstream's wall.
Like an arrow, like a bullet.
He flew quickly, but.
BANG!
The gunshot rang out.
Haseol's hand automatically moved and caught the bullet rushing for his head.
A tingling sensation ran through his hand.
"Neck."
Haseol immediately spoke and lowered the glove.
After making it recognize that it was blocking his head, he needed to look straight ahead again.
Haseol took in the entire city with his eyes.
BANG!
The gunshot rang out once more.
Haseol's chest was pierced.
His body flew out of Rootstream.
WHOOOONG!
He fell backward.
CRASH!
Haseol broke through the roof of a house made of thin panels and fell inside.
"Kh, kh, cough! Cough!"
He coughed blood amid the dust.
It was dark.
Pale moonlight seeped through the hole in the roof.
"Huh......"
[I have identified the position.]
"I need to go before it moves......"
Haseol pulled himself up by grasping broken furniture.
Then his body suddenly began to rise on its own.
At some point, Eska had appeared right beside him.
Eska seemed to have lifted Haseol into the air with magic.
"Is there anything you need for your plan?"
Eska asked.
"I am thinking of driving straight down at the sniper from above Rootstream."
"That is the route the enemy would find hardest to anticipate."
"I can fly upward, but I am not used to flying yet, so I think diving straight down at a high speed will be difficult. Is there a way?"
"Do you need acceleration?"
"Yes."
Eska brought a hand to Haseol's arm.
She pulled up the sleeve over his left arm.
"The activation will be similar to the method for the Bloodline."
"Do I place my thumb on it and turn it?"
"Mm. I will only set the location to your left shoulder."
"Then will it accelerate me?"
"You will be launched in the direction you are looking, at the highest speed you can produce."
"Launched......"
"Maintaining that speed is up to you."
"That will be difficult right now, right?"
"It probably will. What do you say?"
"It does not matter. I just need to slam into him."
"Hahaha. You really are something."
Blue light suffused Haseol's left arm.
"I like that."
Eska smiled.
A blue line formed beside the red line of the Bloodline.
"Will it take long?"
"Normally, it is finished quickly, but it is taking some time to keep it from becoming entangled with the Bloodline."
"Ah~. Okay. What is the magic called?"
"Basic One."
"Basic? One? Being launched at my maximum speed is the first of the basics?"
"It is the starting point of magic."
"It feels a little different from the magic I had imagined."
"It is done. Would you like to receive a lecture on magic too before you go?"
"Later. I will go immediately before it moves."
Haseol looked at the top of Rootstream and placed his thumb on his left shoulder.
He cleanly erased both his lingering desire for a lecture and his questions about magic from his mind.
FWOOM!
As though launched from a catapult, Haseol was shot toward the sky.
At some point, Haseol was above Rootstream, flying beyond it.
"Kh?!"
Haseol tried to move his wings however he could, attempting to control his speed and direction in the sky.
"Shura. Tell me the position."
[Move three meters to the left.]
Following Shura's words, Haseol moved by working his wings.
[Stop. Move eleven meters forward from there. Then go straight down.]
Haseol clumsily flapped his bat wings and moved forward.
[There.]
Shura's voice reached him.
Haseol looked down at Rootstream, took a deep breath, and then.
Click.
Pressed his left shoulder with his thumb and turned it.
FWHOOSH!
He fell.
In a straight line.
Haseol fell from above as though lightning were striking down.
Into Rootstream.
From above the city to below.
A building's rooftop came into view.
There was no person on it.
There was no ghost either.
Even so, Haseol continued to fall.
His feet hit the rooftop.
He shattered it and drove downward.
With the collapsing ceiling, he landed inside the building.
The sound of Haseol landing on the floor boomed like thunder.
Both Haseol's hands and both his feet were on the floor.
Dust burst in every direction.
A heavy shock spread through his entire body.
Even so, Haseol raised his head.
He saw the sniper in front of him.
The sniper turned a face from which black smoke was rising toward Haseol.
"Type: Division. Assassin. Threat level: B―!"
It introduced itself quickly.
Even in a situation like this?
Haseol first reached his left hand toward the Assassin's head.
Then he pressed his left shoulder with his thumb and turned it.
Haseol's body shot forward.
Ignoring the legs that still could not move after the impact from the great height.
His body launched itself at the Assassin.
Before the Assassin could even finish turning its gun barrel toward Haseol.
Haseol's outstretched left hand reached for the Assassin's head.
GRAB!
He seized it.
Still moving forward.
The back of the Assassin's head smashed through a window.
CRASH!
The Assassin's body broke through the building's wall.
BOOM!
Even then, Haseol did not stop moving forward.
His maximum speed did not end there.
He broke through the next window and then the wall after that.
SPURT!
Black blood bursting from the back of the Assassin's head passed by Haseol.
He broke through the building's walls again and again and again.
Then.
BOOM!
As he broke through another wall, the Assassin's body burst and scattered black smoke.
Haseol's acceleration ended as well.
Haseol trudged along the dark street, then stopped.
"Fuuu."
Letting out a breath, he wiped the blood from his face.
"Rootstream is disappearing. Excellent work."
Eska approached Haseol while clapping.
"It is nothing."
Haseol smiled and sat on the ground.
"Even after receiving a tremendous amount of power from people called Kings, I struggled this much. It is obvious what my future will be like."
"Hmm? I can only see a future where Haseol steadily grows."
"Is that so?"
"Ordinary people cannot move immediately after being shot. Even if their wounds heal."
"If I do not move, it will not be resolved."
Haseol smiled a little weakly.
"The predecessor said work would come pouring in, so I should take care of it before it piles up."
"That is a good mindset."
"Right?"
"The method of entering by driving down from the sky is also something a human who was walking on the ground until recently would find difficult to imagine."
"Haha, praise me more."
"It seems I have run out at just the right time."
At Eska's words, Haseol smiled strangely.
He had been told that he had no talent for supernatural abilities.
He had only been involved in matters related to supernatural abilities for a few days.
Yet he had received power from beings who were clearly tremendously strong.
What degree of ability made someone untalented, what degree made them ordinary, and what degree made them talented?
It was difficult for Haseol to know, and it could not help but be difficult.
Perhaps even those who had given Haseol power found it hard to gauge.
It could not be common for multiple people to pour power into one ordinary person like this.
"I will bring out the ability gear you found first."
"Go ahead."
Eska flew toward the place where the ability gear had been.
Haseol sat on the cold floor.
Shura approached him and crouched beside him with a cigarette in her mouth.
"Want one?"
"No."
Haseol immediately shook his head.
"......"
"......"
The two sat awkwardly in silence.
"Wouldn't it be better for you to quit smoking too, Shura?"
"Why?"
"We are fighting to prevent the world's destruction, so would it not be better for you to be as healthy as possible?"
"No matter how much I smoke, it doesn't affect my health."
"Because you are a werewolf?"
"Yeah."
"Then that is fine."
Haseol nodded as though he understood.
"Does secondhand smoke have no effect?"
At Haseol's words, Shura stared fixedly at him.
"If you break, I'll fix you."
"Can you fix me?"
"The King of Mages can."
"I see. That is a relief."
Haseol nodded.
Then he looked as though he was wondering whether that made any sense, but soon looked as though it did not matter.
"I am here."
Myun's voice sounded.
"Ah, Myun, you are......"
Myun passed Haseol and then.
THWACK!
Kicked away the cigarette Shura held in her mouth.
"Do not smoke in front of Haseol."
"......"
Shura flicked away the cigarette, which had only its end left.
"Rootstream is resolved, right? What about the ability gear?"
Myun asked.
"Eska went to get it."
"Eska? Did you not collect it?"
"There was too much to carry. I cleared it by getting rid of the ghost."
"That is right. Good thing I came prepared."
"What did you come prepared with?"
At Haseol's question, Myun looked down at him and grinned.
"I came prepared to cram every piece of ability gear you acquire from now on into you."
At Myun's words, Haseol froze for a moment.
Then he asked with a serious expression.
"Where and how are you going to put them in me?"