Chapter 0
In the darkness, Rité held her breath.
Outside the ruins, the sound of military boots echoed ominously. She glanced up from the floor to the broken window, seeing the red laser lights scattering wildly outside. It was the signal for the ‘Awakened Hunt.’
Calmly, she leaned against the wall and loaded the last bullet into her gun. She had to hunt before she was hunted—that was the only way prey could survive against a predator. Her sky-blue eyes glinted like a finely honed blade in the moonlight.
As the men in black military uniforms approached, Rité swiftly aimed her gun through the broken window and pulled the trigger. A few men fell, screaming, but their counterattack came immediately. The deafening gunfire shattered the window completely, sending shards of glass raining down on her. She quickly covered her head with her arms and crouched on the floor.
“She’s inside the ruins!” someone shouted. Rité immediately sprang up and fled. Soldiers swarmed the building, encircling it, and she darted upstairs, firing wildly as she went. Her teal hair whipped around as she fought ferociously, like a wild beast.
Her reflexes and speed were beyond human, and many soldiers fell helplessly. But as she reached the opposite end of the hallway and jumped down several cracked steps, a man at the upper railing aimed his gun at her with a cold, expressionless face and pulled the trigger. The shot hit Rité, and she tumbled down the stairs.
“Ugh…”
She lay motionless at the bottom of the stairs, seemingly lifeless. “The woman has been shot!” Hearing this, Rité barely lifted her trembling head. Her whole body ached as if she’d been battered, and her ears rang incessantly.
Gasping for breath, she clutched her chest, but she had no time to waste. Gritting her teeth, she forced herself up, clutching her bleeding side. She ran desperately, though she could only manage a staggered, irregular pace due to her wound.
As she ran, she spotted stairs leading to the basement in the middle of the first-floor hallway. Quickly, she descended and hid in the dark, narrow triangular space behind the stairs. In the deepening darkness, Rité clutched her bleeding side, tilting her head back and taking deep breaths. Blood flowed steadily from her wound, and her face and body were drenched in cold sweat.
Gathering her senses, she squinted and, with trembling hands, pulled a bandage from her pocket and wrapped it around her wound. Outside, she could hear countless footsteps and shouts as they searched for her. She knew it wouldn’t be long before they found her hiding place. As long as they didn’t give up the pursuit, no part of this building was safe.
She checked her gun’s ammunition, and her arms fell limply to her sides. Despair engulfed her—there was only one bullet left in the magazine.
“This place looks suspicious. Check it out,” she heard from upstairs. Soldiers with guns began descending the stairs cautiously, their shadows stretching like monsters on the walls.
Rité knew she might need to save that last bullet for herself. It would be better to end her own life than be captured and humiliated by them.
‘Nox…’
Through her fading vision, she saw a fleeting image of her six-year-old brother Nox from ten years ago.
‘Nox, don’t go… Don’t leave me alone…’
With a mischievous smile, Nox ran innocently towards a bright light, turning back to her as she reached out to him.
‘Sis! This time I’m it! So you have to hide well, okay?’
A distant gunshot brought Rité back to her senses. She had lost focus momentarily from the pain.
“It’s over there!”
The sudden gunfire caused the men on the stairs to rush towards the direction of the noise. Rité waited until the sound of their boots faded, then she steadied her breath and forced herself up. She emerged from behind the stairs and started running again, desperately.
The empty hallway echoed with her footsteps and labored breathing. After what seemed like an eternity, she saw a back door at the end of the corridor, illuminated like a halo. If she could just make it through that door, she would find the bombed-out building ruins and cars, offering plenty of hiding spots. It would be easier to evade them in the dark of night.
But as she sprinted towards her escape, the door suddenly swung open, letting in a flood of moonlight. A man stepped inside, his shoes clicking against the floor.
Rité froze in her tracks. The man walking towards her, silhouetted by the moonlight, moved with the elegance and lethality of a predator. His white hair glowed silver in the moonlight, and his emotionless black eyes, reflecting nothing, locked onto her. His presence was both noble and eerily beautiful, completely out of place in the desolate ruins.
In the silent, empty hallway, the only sound was the sharp, clear clicking of his shoes. Her heart pounded in time with his steps, her hand trembling on the gun, her eyes bloodshot.
Aster Cloud stood right before her.
I must kill him.
As this thought consumed her mind, Rité forgot her pain and sprang towards him like a bullet. The plan had changed. That last bullet had to hit him squarely in the center of his head.
The moment she was within shooting range, Rité fired without hesitation. But the man effortlessly tilted his head to the side, dodging the bullet. His reflexes were unbelievable.
For a moment, Rité’s grip loosened, and she stared at him in disbelief. Then, he swiftly approached and grabbed the hand holding her gun.
As he pulled her hand closer and leaned in, he asked leisurely, “Was that your last bullet?”
Her heart chilled, but Rité quickly frowned and struck his solar plexus with her elbow, forcing him to release her hand from the gun.
Thus began their close combat.
In the hallway, they exchanged furious punches. The man blocked her punches with one arm and glanced at her wounded side. He immediately kicked her wound.
“Ugh…!”
Rité’s legs gave way, and she crashed into the wall. The man drew a revolver from his waist and aimed it at her head.
The sound of the safety being released echoed coldly and menacingly.
Rité, slumped against the wall, her hair falling messily over her forehead, glared at him with bloodshot eyes.
“…One captive secured,” he said, aiming the gun steadily at her. He leaned closer and asked, “Awakened or ordinary human?”
His voice was oddly gentlemanly for the situation, which infuriated her.
Rité trembled with rage and spoke, “…Why did you do it?”
He looked at her, puzzled. She glared at him, her eyes filled with murderous intent.
“Why… Why did you do that to my brother…?”
“…I have no idea what you mean. If you’re going to ask questions, shouldn’t you answer mine first? I’m not exactly a man of leisure.”
As he finished speaking, he pressed the gun barrel closer to her head. At that moment, she spoke in a low voice.
“…Don’t you remember the dog with the steel-gray fur?”
His expression changed subtly. Rité sneered at him.
“If you don’t remember, I’ll make sure you do.”
Her eyes glinted fiercely as she reached towards her wounded side.
Then, something miraculous happened. From her wounded side, a sharp, blood-colored shard of glass formed. She used it to slice his gun in half.
Freed from his grip, Rité grasped the red, transparent glass shard like a dagger and slashed at him wildly. As he dodged her attacks with ease, a meaningful smile spread across his face.
“Are you perhaps the sister of that wild dog boy?”
Hearing him mention Nox, Rité’s blue eyes blazed with even more intensity as she charged at him. With all her strength, she threw her arm forward, and the glass shard barely grazed his cheek.
A long, thin wound appeared on his previously flawless, white cheek. He frowned slightly and then ruthlessly kicked her side again.
Rité spat blood and rolled across the floor but quickly got up, trembling, and lunged at him again like a beast.
She was oblivious to pain, driven only by rage, moving like a puppet on strings.
The marble floor was stained with her blood. Blood also dripped from the wound on his cheek, staining the collar of his black uniform red.
“…You have an interesting ability.”
Despite his injury, he smiled as he continued to exchange blows with her. However, Rité, having exposed her weakness, struggled to defend her side and could not attack effectively. Her inability to kick due to her injury also played a part.
Blocking his punches and kicks with her arms crossed in front of her, she retreated as the soldiers, alerted by the commotion, came running.
“Major! Are you alright?”
Rité, now nearly in tatters, bit her lower lip as she saw them.
She had to kill him, but it was impossible in this one-against-many situation. She would only die a pointless death.
She had to be satisfied with having wounded him.
Rité quickly fled. Bullets whizzed past her as she ran, but she vanished from their sight.
Seeing the long cut on the man’s face, the soldiers exclaimed in shock.
“Major…!”
He calmly pressed his blood-soaked cheek with a gloved hand. Then, his previously relaxed expression turned cold and ruthless.
“…Capture her. With that wound, she can’t have gone far.”
“Yes, sir!”
Realizing the seriousness of the situation, the soldiers chased after Rité, tense with urgency. If they failed to capture her, the entire unit would bear the responsibility for letting her escape after injuring the Major.
As everyone moved frantically, the man stood alone, looking in the direction Rité had fled.
“…So, you finally became an Awakened.”
For the first time, his previously emotionless black eyes showed a hint of curiosity.
