The tension that had heated up inside the hall after Lieutenant General Eunseo’s departure had slightly subsided. The enemy had disappeared, and the captain had also left.
However, those who remained began diligently preparing for the next operation.
The second team, assigned to support Lieutenant General Eunseo, prepared for departure, while the others formed a defensive formation centered around the tower.
Unlike the others, however, Brigadier General Lucas, Lieutenant General Eunseo’s adjutant and senior member of the personal guard units, was deep in thought.
He was puzzled by the fact that the spatial movement detection devices had not gone off when the enemy first appeared, and by the whereabouts and activities of the two women who had not shown themselves here.
‘If the detection devices didn’t catch them, that would mean they snuck into the city, but that’s impossible.’
This was a military city, a place where the identity of entrants was strictly verified. Without internal help, it would have been impossible.
“Internal help?”
His mind snapped to attention.
It was at that moment.
A member of the personal guard units brought him a radio. It was a call from the surveillance post.
[Spatial movement detected.]
He stared at the radio. It was news that came too late.
However, the radio continued to transmit reports.
[Two warp events occurred inside the dimensional Warp Zone building, and several small space tunnels were generated both inside and outside the building.]
“Outside the building?”
Brigadier General Lucas frowned.
The two warp events inside the building were the movements of the Awakened from another dimension and Captain Eunseo, and the small space tunnels were the enemy’s dimensional swords. But outside the building?
“Explain the space tunnel incidents in detail.”
[Multiple events occurred at the central warp array of the building, one event on the B1 level, and finally, one event at the weapons depot in the southern part of the city.]
In the brigadier general’s mind flashed the image of the opponent he had seen earlier. He thought he had seen a wooden box in the other hand that wasn’t holding a spear.
“Damn it, was it a bomb crate?”
The female Awakened who weren’t here, the bomb crate stolen from the armory, and the space tunnel on the B1 level.
Brigadier General Lucas urgently shouted into the radio.
“Contact the Awakened in charge of the underground auxiliary warp array immediately!”
[Understood.]
The responder answered quickly, and the radio fell silent for a moment.
And then–
[No one is responding.]
The report that came moments later froze the expressions of the brigadier general and the other Awakened.
“Emily! Justin! Warp downstairs immediately!”
He shouted to the members, and a female spatial ability user and a man holding a spear gathered around him.
The woman checked the surrounding Dimensional Power. Fortunately, it had stabilized over time. She grabbed the two men and disappeared from the spot.
The underground auxiliary warp array beneath the central dimensional warp array on the first floor wasn’t very tall, about 7 meters high, but its width wasn’t much different from the warp array above.
And at the center of the warp array, a large pillar supported the ceiling. It supported the dimensional beasts and safety devices located above.
Numerous monsters were slumbering here.
There were high-level mantises and large monsters, as well as low-level monsters like ants.
The first sight the brigadier general saw upon arriving at the underground level was the sleeping monsters and the Awakened collapsed all around.
And at the center of the warp array, two women were visible. Both were stunningly beautiful. Moreover, one of them had a familiar face.
The woman who looked identical to Lieutenant General Eunseo raised her shield when she spotted them, while the other woman lit a fuse from a box placed beside the pillar.
After that, she stretched her hand toward them.
As she extended her hand, Emily, the spatial ability user, let out a painful groan and dropped to her knees, and he himself felt his whole body freeze. But the brigadier general mustered his Dimensional Power and broke free from the restraint.
He charged forward together with another Awakened who had broken free at the same time. His target was the box placed beside the pillar.
A bomb crate containing seventy 1kg explosives, continuously modified since the war. A Pasquite-3 bomb wooden crate.
After several enhancements post-war, a crate of that size could easily blow away the pillar.
Even if it didn’t collapse the entire ceiling, it was enough to drop the dimensional beast control device located directly above. That absolutely could not be allowed to happen.
Brigadier General Lucas, an A-rank Defense-type Awakened, and Justin, a B-rank Strike-type Awakened, reached the women in the blink of an eye and launched attacks at Eunseo blocking their way.
Although he felt conflicted seeing a face identical to Lieutenant General Eunseo’s, he ignored everything and attacked her.
The brigadier general’s glowing fist struck toward the shield, and Justin brushed past her.
Eunseo’s shield shone with light.
Boom!
A tremendous sound rang out, and the two men were flung backward. Justin rolled across the floor, and the brigadier general bounced several meters before landing and skidding backward.
He stared at the shield with a shocked expression.
It was an antique-style shield that emitted a subtle glow. He recognized the shield.
It was one of the world’s top relics. A shield awarded to the advance party’s representative who had successfully conquered A Dimension. It had vanished when she disappeared.
“How is she holding that shield?”
But Eunseo didn’t have the energy to answer the brigadier general’s question.
It was an incredible shield.
With its innate ability, it had repelled a B-rank and an A-rank Awakened, and even knocked a B-rank Awakened to the ground.
However, it also consumed a great deal of power. She was sweating coldly from the extreme Dimensional Power depletion. Without a Dimensional Core equipped, she might have collapsed.
The brigadier general immediately assessed Eunseo’s condition. The equipment was too much for her. It was clear she wouldn’t be able to use the shield’s ability again immediately.
Beside him, Justin wiped the blood from his mouth and got back up.
He rushed toward Eunseo again. At the same time, Justin also moved.
This time, they wouldn’t be stopped. But he could see smiles on the women’s faces.
Feeling a sense of dread, he looked at the box. The fuse was no longer burning.
‘Is it about to explode? If it explodes nearby, they wouldn’t survive either… Ah!’
They were Awakened from another dimension. They would survive.
Boom!
The brigadier general desperately brought his hands together in front of him and spread Dimensional Power throughout his body.
As the crate exploded, flames spread from the center of the hall. The flames engulfed the two women and soon swallowed the brigadier general and Justin as well.
The entire building shook with a loud noise. The central pillar was blown apart, and the ceiling of the underground Warp Zone collapsed in the center.
Finally, the dimensional beast control device, the central tower, fell downward.
Just before the central tower fell.
Yonghoon, who had appeared in the old city center not far from the city, looked toward the fortress city.
He could see flames rising above the city walls. It was the sight of the city burning, visible through Yonghoon’s innate ability. He could only hope that the Rebels who had brought them here were safe.
Yonghoon began running down the boulevard lined with old buildings on both sides.
He intended to get as far away as possible from the place where he had spatially moved.
The place he had arrived at had unstable Dimensional Power due to the aftereffects of spatial movement, making further spatial movement difficult for a while. Moreover, if his predictions were correct, the enemy would soon pursue him. It was best to put as much distance as possible.
Before Yonghoon had even moved a hundred meters away, Lieutenant General Eunseo and other Awakened appeared at the spot where Yonghoon had been.
Yonghoon looked back and frowned.
The enemy had appeared too quickly. The Dimensional Power, still unsettled from his spatial movement, clearly hadn’t stabilized. Yet they had ignored the turbulence and pursued him.
Schmitz, the spatial ability user, was satisfied seeing the young spatial ability user’s surprised expression.
It seemed the opponent hadn’t expected them to chase him through unstable Dimensional Power.
Schmitz found his reaction laughable.
Even though they were both A-rank Awakened, the duration of ability use differed. Schmitz had used spatial ability for decades. Now, with just a little time, he could spatially move even in turbulent Dimensional Power zones.
‘Run as hard as you can. You’ll never escape.’
He smiled confidently as he chased after Lieutenant General Eunseo.
Caught off guard by the enemy’s unexpected quick appearance, Yonghoon was immediately caught from behind.
Lieutenant General Eunseo swung her spear at Yonghoon.
“Damn it!”
Yonghoon barely managed to block the spear swung at him.
It was even faster than it had looked from a distance. He could barely bring up his spear in time.
Boom!
But the difference in ability was vast. With a loud sound, Yonghoon was flung sideways.
He crashed through the wall of a building next to the road and tumbled inside.
Lieutenant General Eunseo rushed toward him again, and Yonghoon escaped through the half-shattered window on the opposite side.
Yonghoon’s expression was grim.
The opponent was stronger than expected. There was no chance of winning in a head-on fight. Had his body not been hardened by the dimensional shift, the moment he crashed into the building would have surely been the end.
He sensed Dimensional Power rapidly approaching through the building.
It was her.
He moved again.
It was then.
A loud explosion echoed from the fortress city.
‘It worked!’
A smile spread across Yonghoon’s face.
Meanwhile, Lieutenant General Eunseo slipped out through the window.
Yonghoon swung his spatial sword at Lieutenant General Eunseo while retreating backward.
However, Lieutenant General Eunseo blocked the spatial sword with her spear and closed in on Yonghoon. Her spear shone brilliantly. This time, it looked difficult to block.
At that moment, Yonghoon managed to escape the unstable region of Dimensional Power.
Yonghoon opened another dimensional tunnel.
Lieutenant General Eunseo’s spear grazed Yonghoon’s disappearing arm. She bit her lip in frustration as she saw the blood spurt before her eyes.
Two Awakened approached from behind her. A spatial ability user immediately opened a dimensional tunnel to chase after Yonghoon.
The central underground floor of the Warp Zone was completely devastated. The monsters that had been dormant were now bloodied and scattered everywhere, and a giant pit had formed at the center of the Warp Zone.
The damaged central tower had toppled halfway and was embedded into the ground.
“Damn it!”
The brigadier general coughed up blood and pushed himself up. His entire body was covered in burns, and his armor was scorched black.
He turned his head to the side. Justin, who had fought alongside him, was gasping for breath, his body completely charred. As a strike-type Awakened, his life looked to be in critical danger.
Feeling his body gradually healing, the brigadier general looked ahead.
In front of the leaning central tower, two women appeared against the backdrop of roaring flames.
Their clothes beneath their armor seemed completely burned away, but their bodies appeared unscathed.
The brigadier general concentrated Dimensional Power into his still-intact greaves and moved forward.
Then, people began falling from the hole in the ceiling. They were personal guard units who had scattered when the tower collapsed.
They surrounded the two women.
Kwaaaaah!
A dimensional larvae’s monstrous screech echoed from above the ceiling. The control devices had broken, awakening the dimensional larvae.
And the surrounding monsters began to stir. Blood-soaked mantises, ants, and various beasts rose to their feet.
The brigadier general gritted his teeth.
“Kill these bitches first, then eliminate the monsters!”
At his command, the Awakened surrounding the women infused their weapons with Dimensional Power.
Before the calm women, two hands appeared. Emerging through a dimensional tunnel, the hands grabbed their arms and pulled them in.
Their figures vanished from the spot.