Chapter 2 Part 2: Return

It was nighttime.

Nevertheless, in the brightly lit street, something shimmered, revealing its presence with a distinct darkness.

Things that everyone living in modern times knows as basic common sense.

Awakened ones who have transcended human limits.

The power they use, mana.

Magical stones that have made human civilization develop at an enormous speed, and the magical beasts that are powered by those magical stones.

And…
The so-called gates, which are said to be related to all of those things.

The simplest and most believed explanation, more than any other speculation, is that they are doors connected to other dimensions.

Since the first appearance in the United States, countless people have tried to uncover its identity, but it still remains a mystery, proudly taking its place as one of the world’s wonders.

In front of such a gate, many people gathered.

And a burly, massive figure with his back to the gate.
A man with a wild impression, with his forehead and the front of his head neatly exposed.

One of only six S-rank awakened beings in South Korea, and the guild master of one of the four major guilds, ‘Wildness’.

“Alright, let’s start the final check. Anyone in bad shape, raise your hand now!”

Shin Hakcheol, with his rugged face contorted, raised his voice at the head of the guild members.

A spirited shout. It was a voice imbued with pressure that would make an ordinary person’s legs give way.

However.

“Boss, you seem to be the most nervous one!”

“Relax your face! You look like you are about to die! Your already ugly face will get worse!”

Shin Hakcheol’s subordinates responded with laughter. Although it could have been considered rude, Shin Hakcheol smiled as if he liked it.

“Seriously, you guys… I’m exhausted from managing you.”

“At least your hair won’t fall out! Hehehe!”

“Who said that?!”

Laughter erupted again.

The only one not laughing was Shin Hakcheol.

He unconsciously stroked his smooth head, and his eyes narrowed as he tried to find the one among the guild members who mentioned his hair.

But the culprit was very careful and escaped his gaze, but Shin Hakcheol replayed the culprit’s voice, planning for next time.

Just then, a woman approached Shin Hakcheol and spoke.

“You seem to be getting along well.”

“Where do you see that?”

“You look embarrassed, it really doesn’t suit you.”

“…Shut up.”

Shin Hakcheol replied, grinding his teeth at the woman.

Like Shin Hakcheol, one of the S-rank awakened, and the guild leader of one of the four major guilds, ‘Cultivation’.

“I didn’t expect we’d be working together.”

Baek Ji-a said with a faint smile.

Unlike Shin Hakcheol’s guild members, her guild members were quietly relaxing.

Two guilds with polar opposite tendencies met.

Shin Hakcheol sighed but nodded in agreement.

“Yeah. You’re right.”

“The external mana wavelength was measured to be at the highest level of A-rank, right?”

“That’s right. Even if we try to measure the internal values by entering, there’s a risk of damage, so we can’t try. That’s why it’s a potential S-rank.”

It was rare, but the mana wavelength measured inside and outside the gate sometimes caused errors.

Both of them looked at the gate at the same time.
The gate, which seemed to be about to swallow them at any moment, had a value that reached the highest level among A-rank, according to the association’s measurements.

And that meant they had to consider the possibility of it being S-rank.

That was also the reason why two guilds led by two S-rank awakened beings gathered in one place.

If it had been officially announced as definitely S-rank, all S-rank awakened beings in the country would have gathered.

“What’s the plan?”

“We’re the advance team. If it really is A-rank, we can conquer it. I’d rather it be that way…”

While they were talking.

Shin Hakcheol stopped talking and closed his mouth. And suddenly, he stood in front of the gate, gritted his teeth, and covered his face with both arms. His entire body had already swollen to about twice its size.

Baek Ji-a was faster than him, stretching both arms forward. The space around her palms began to shift slightly.

Unlike Shin Hakcheol, who was firmly planted on the ground, she looked relaxed, but her expression was urgent.

“Sh*t, what’s going on?!”

“I don’t know what it is, but deploy a barrier first! Hurry!”

“Crouch down as low as possible! Don’t spare your mana!”

The guild members of both guilds also shouted urgently and responded in their own ways.

And.

“…Huh?”

“What was that, exactly…?”

The two people at the very front murmured in a somewhat embarrassed tone.

The reactions of the guild members moving in unison behind them were not much different.

Shin Hakcheol felt the mana after his wild senses, and Baek Ji-a was the opposite.

“You… You definitely felt it, right?”

“…Can we really go in by ourselves?”

“If the association hadn’t actively stepped in to control it, I can only imagine how messy things would have been.”

It meant that anyone who wasn’t an awakened being with mana wouldn’t have been able to withstand it.

The association did not hide the fact that the gate that opened in the middle of Seoul might be S-rank.

Of course, the news alone would have made many people, including reporters, go crazy, but they hesitated to approach it because of the fact that it was a potential S-rank.

But there were definitely those who insisted on approaching until the end, but the association completely controlled access. They even took a strong stance, saying that they would impose strong punishments on civilians if necessary.

Thanks to that, even though a gate opened in the middle of Seoul, it was surprisingly comfortable.

The two guild leaders thought it was fortunate.

Because the sensation they just felt was the first time.

After becoming an S-rank awakened being, no matter what situation arose.

They had never felt a sensation like just now.

Baek Ji-a looked down at her trembling palms, feeling like she was facing a huge tidal wave.

Shin Hakcheol frowned and approached the gate, then, without hesitation, inserted one finger into the gate.

And he said quietly.

“That thing just now was the mana inside the gate.”

“…Does that mean?”

“The sensation I feel at the tip of my finger and the sensation I felt just now are exactly the same. It’s chilling.”

Baek Ji-a met Shin Hakcheol’s gaze as he looked back at her, and her eyes widened for a moment.

“We’re going to get into trouble if we keep talking about this here.”

The pupils of a beast, split vertically, were in his eyes.

“The fact that the mana inside the gate leaked out means.”

“…Break.”

Gate Break.

You can never know what’s inside the gate until you go in and check.

The inside is completely unknown.

But there was a common part.

It was the existence of life forms that were hostile to everything that entered the gate.

The existence of monsters.
And Gate Break was a phenomenon in which those monsters came out.

The precursor to that phenomenon was that the mana inside the gate leaked out and affected it in some way.

Just like just now.

There was no actual damage to the guild members, including the two guild leaders.

But it was enough to make them nervous.
Even though the mana simply leaked out once and didn’t cause any damage.

The sensation that made everyone shudder was clearly beyond the limits of A-rank.

But that didn’t mean they could back out.

To prevent the break, the gate itself had to be closed as quickly as possible, and in order to close the gate, in the end…

“…The final check is over.”

Shin Hakcheol’s heavy words fell on the crowd, which had fallen silent.

“The standby team will continue external control, and the rest will enter the gate now.”

“Cultivation, follow me from now on.”

“Turn on the recording equipment. So the association can see it in real time.”

The leaders were Shin Hakcheol and Baek Ji-a.

“To think I’d enter a potential S-rank gate… It really feels like a dream.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means I want to wake up from this f*cking nightmare. Damn it.”

Saying those words, the two disappeared into the gate.

At the same time.

“…In the end, it was unavoidable.”

‘That person is also mischievous,’ the white-haired woman added, opening her eyes.

Along with that, her right arm moved.
Bright light entered through the pillars erected on all sides and gathered on the woman’s slender arm.

The pure white arm, which had become the same color as her hair, reached for the ceiling of the building that resembled a temple, then fell straight down.

At the same time, her spiderweb-like, dense senses detected the presence of intruders.

Hehe.
One side of the woman’s mouth rose.

“You don’t even know your place, and you dare to come here.”

It was a calm anger.

In order to calm the anger boiling inside, the woman turned her pure white eyes to the back.

There.

“Really… an absurdly beautiful person.”

Another woman, also with white hair, like her, was floating in the air with her eyes closed, sleeping peacefully.

The woman smiled deeply and slowly approached, stroking the other woman’s cheek with the opposite hand she had just swung.

Six pairs of pure white wings, a total of twelve, rose behind her back, overlapping each other.

The wings slowly, gently wrapped around the woman’s body. Soon, it looked like she was embracing her.

“Now, I, Sephie, will protect you.”

Inside the S-rank gate that suddenly appeared in the middle of Seoul, there was one angel and one hero.

The angel, Sephie, who decided to accept the goddess’s command without any hesitation, felt the warm warmth with her forehead touching the hero’s, and her face turned red.

While thinking about what kind of sanctions to impose on the intruders who were trying to disturb the dream-like time.