Black Badger

Chapter 404: Grand Magus (1)

[10th-class Creature rampage in progress]

A notice was broadcast to all Black Badgers who had been on patrol.

[10th-class Creature rampage in progress]

[Access to Zone E-0 prohibited]

[Civilian rescue and protection are top priority]

Jason Trevain spat out a curse.

A strange sensation washed over him—an urge to sprint straight toward the site of the explosion.

This time, more than ever, he wanted to run in and tear its throat out.

But at the same time, he felt the exact opposite impulse.

The instinct for self-preservation.

The image of his old squadmates toppling over like bowling pins surfaced in his mind. He tried to shove the memories down, but they refused to obey.

Memories from fifty years ago.

Piles of bodies. Floors burning black.

Among those who had staked their lives on the battlefield, some hadn’t even left corpses behind.

“Fuck.”

Trevain ran through the road turned into hell.

“Fuck!”

[Jason.]

The Personnel Director’s voice reached him the moment he took off.

[You heard the orders clearly.]

“Bullshit orders. You want us to just leave that thing alone?! Do you have any idea what’s happening out there?!”

[Hilde is heading there.]

The Personnel Director neither flinched nor tried to soothe him.

[He can handle it.]

“That’s bullshit!”

[Jason. This is an order from upper command.]

Ju spoke without raising his voice.

[You’re not thinking of disobeying orders, are you.]

Jason Trevain threw his head back and shouted curses into the air.

Then he twisted his body and ran toward a collapsed building.

The air felt heavy. A familiar pressure slammed into him. Spitting out curses nonstop, he hauled people back to their feet after they were knocked down by shockwaves.

“Th-thank you....”

“Don’t stand there gawking—run!”

The Badger snapped sharply, yanking the man upright.

After pulling out those pinned under debris or vehicles, he started running again, pushing forward while ignoring the screams and cries around him.

He kept heading toward the light.

Unlike back then, he wouldn’t stand back and watch like an idiot.

[Jason Trevain.]

The Personnel Director murmured his name in a low voice.

“Fuck, I’m helping with evacuation!”

Trevain barked irritably.

[Even if you reach the park, you are not to touch it.]

“Yeah, I get it, so shut the hell up already!”

He never slowed down. He kept dragging people out from under rubble as he ran toward the park.

Wind that hindered his sprint.

Shockwave aftershock slamming into his body.

As he endured it all, the Black Badger war hero hated the Creature—again and again.

Those memories that would never leave his mind.

This time, he wouldn’t be as helpless as he was back then.

A Badger who had fought in the First War bared his teeth and charged down the street.

***

Several people were dead.

There was no mistaking it. Multiple explosions had gone off while he was running against traffic toward the park.

Death screams were mixed into the blasts.

The sound of buildings collapsing. Cars crashing.

BOOM!

“Aaagh!”

I have to stop the explosions.

Running against the flow of people fleeing in tears, Carl Dow thought desperately.

He couldn’t even guess how—but he had to stop the chain of explosions somehow.

To keep the casualties from continuing to mount....

[It stopped.]

A cold voice reached his ears as he rescued people and closed in on the park.

[Attacks temporarily halted. Something like a cocoon formed.]

“A cocoon? Like an insect’s?”

[From the footage. The resolution’s bad, so I can’t be certain.]

After a brief silence, the voice continued.

[If you’re going to approach, now’s the time.]

Carl, who had been tearing a crushed car door off, lifted his head.

[The explosions have ceased.]

Carl Dow didn’t hesitate.

He kicked off the road and ran. People who needed help were scattered everywhere, but he didn’t stop. After so many years as a Black Badger, this kind of situation wasn’t unfamiliar.

He had only one body. He couldn’t save everyone.

Accepting that was the only way to avoid going insane.

What mattered was choosing the action that would save the most people.

Right now, those near the park likely needed his help more.

So he ran toward the park.

A massive sphere of light appeared before his eyes. Dayzillia Park was gone without a trace, replaced by a pulsing mass of light that looked ready to explode at any moment.

An unstable, writhing mass.

“Is that the cocoon?”

[Yeah.]

Several drones hovered overhead.

[It just started forming.]

The slowly expanding mass expelled a mysterious wind.

A ferocious wind that even he, a Badger, had to brace his legs against.

Parked cars and vending machines toppled over.

Trash bins flew. Trees snapped.

If you poke it carelessly, it’ll explode.

Carl stared at the mass of light.

One wrong move, and everything around it would vanish.

[Don’t touch it.]

Yun seemed to be thinking the same thing.

[We don’t know what it is. Focus on evacuation.]

“Yes.”

Carl replied obediently to the senior who sounded like he was preparing to deploy.

The surroundings were in ruins from the explosions.

He approached people emerging from buildings.

“Run along the sidewalk!”

As the sphere of light appeared and the explosions subsided, people poured out of buildings, and he guided them.

“To the sidewalk!”

The wind was so strong that many stumbled and fell as they ran.

“Protect your heads with your hands!”

When he shouted instructions at the top of his lungs, order emerged in the panic-stricken street.

Pulling out his always-worn Badger ID helped.

Core residents followed instructions from anyone carrying a Badger ID without question.

“Watch your footing—there’s debris everywhere!”

Crack!

Almost as soon as he warned them, a building window split apart.

The explosions had stopped, replaced by an ominous wind.

Watching objects get swept away, Carl Dow found himself wishing there were just one more Badger here.

One to guide civilians, one to check inside buildings.

There were surely people still trapped inside.

And no one knew when the explosions would start again....

“Hey!”

The blue-eyed Badger heard a familiar voice.

“I’ll handle evacuation here—go check the nearby buildings!”

Jin Silver.

The returned war hero ran toward him, cutting through the evacuating crowd.

***

This is something I have to handle.

Thank god I brought my sword. A longsword didn’t exactly go with a white shirt and black pants, and I’d hesitated—but I’d brought it just in case.

It was the right call. I was ready to run at any moment.

I had to try to stop the rampage.

Cut through the spells Cecil was spreading in all directions and reach her.

The other Badgers should be rescuing and evacuating civilians.

The seniors here too....

“They’re in contact with leadership, right?”

I asked Yoow.

[Yes!]

The strategist snapped irritably.

[They’re scrambling out too! Not that they’ll be of any real help!]

“Where are you? If you’re at HQ or the cabin, don’t come out.”

[Don’t talk nonsense.]

Yoow shot back coldly.

[Unfortunately, I’m nearby too. I thought my eardrums were going to burst!]

“Then come here.”

I didn’t tell him to run away.

He wouldn’t listen anyway—and running wouldn’t guarantee his safety.

“Do you know where I am right now?”

[I stopped stalking you after I got caught at the Glasshouse.]

“Then let’s meet at the park.”

That would be clean.

No chance of missing each other.

“I’ll head out now.”

I scanned the pop-up store, assessing the situation.

Shu calming civilians gathered in a corner.

Ricardo rescuing those pinned under debris.

“Fuck.”

The basement was in worse shape than where I stood.

I could feel Creatures that had been coiled up asleep across Center Core awakening and running rampant due to Cecil’s rampage.

They must have sensed a threat to their lives as well.

There were Creatures being detected nearby too.

“Shu.”

I called out urgently to the two-tone-haired senior.

She straightened after examining a civilian’s wounds and turned to me.

After calming the civilians, she wheeled over. Even with the floor in ruins, she maneuvered her wheelchair skillfully, stopping right beside me.

I looked down at her as she tilted her head up.

“I think I need to go.”

Shu’s eyes widened.

“I have to go stabilize the situation. Please take care of things here.”

“What’s going on?”

“A portal opened.”

She inhaled sharply.

“Cecil is here.”

The color drained from Shu’s face.

Shock filled her blue eyes.

I was about to tell the pale senior that I was going to face Cecil and ask her to hold the fort—

“Take me with you.”

But the smaller senior spoke first.

“I’m sensitive to portals, remember?”

“You should help evacuate civilians here—”

“Don’t you think there’s a reason they kidnapped me and shoved me into the flower?”

Shu persuaded me without wavering.

“I know you don’t want to take me because my legs don’t work. I won’t ask you to push my wheelchair. I’ll follow on my own.”

The wheelchair engine roared to life.

“My dad has the same constitution as me—and he kept seeing Cecil too.”

That’s true.

She had a point.

But following ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) in a wheelchair was absurd. Outside was chaos—cars could barely move.

I’d have to carry her.

“All right.”

I decided quickly.

There was no time to think further, no time to argue.

But instead of lifting Shu right away, I turned toward the section where the floor had collapsed, exposing the basement.

“Ric.”

I called down to the green-eyed senior.

He must have heard our conversation, but he wouldn’t know that minor Creatures had started awakening.

Standing at the edge of the collapsed floor, I looked down.

Figures scattered across the basement. Cracked concrete.

Green eyes looked up at me.

The people who’d been trapped under debris were already rescued. It looked like he’d evacuated them toward the stairwell—the one place unlikely to collapse.

A skillful response.

This man had trauma related to collapsing buildings.

“Why~.”

“Creatures might come. The explosion woke them.”

“Got it~.”

Ricardo answered easily.

“I’ll handle it, so you go already....”

“From what I can sense, it seems like things in the sewers have woken up.”

“Then they’re probably just rat-sized pests.... I’ll take care of it~.”

“Just in case—”

“I know what you’re thinking~.”

Ricardo cut me off smoothly.

“I’m not incapable of handling this much....”

Is that true?

I couldn’t be sure—but I had to trust him. I couldn’t stay and help.

And from a quick glance, he really did seem fine.

No cold sweat. No labored breathing.

What filled his green eyes was a clear sense of purpose.

The resolve to save civilians caught up in this.

He’ll manage.

I bit my lip hard.

Then reminded myself that he was a battle-hardened war hero.

“Please.”

Instead of answering, the ring on Ricardo’s finger writhed.

The silver snake-shaped ring transformed into an elegant spear.

“Yeah.... Go.”

Ricardo smiled faintly.

“Be careful.”

I nodded.

I didn’t hesitate any longer.

I turned away from the senior—

then lifted Shu, who had been waiting beside me, into my arms.

Startled by the sudden motion, the small senior’s eyes widened—but she quickly regained her composure and wrapped her arms tightly around me.

“Sorry!”

“No.”

She replied briefly.

I dashed out of the pop-up store.

Then, drawing my blade with my right hand, I began running toward the heavy presence ahead.