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As the black flames slowly rose from the wolf whose reason had vanished, cold sweat trickled down Hong Yu-ri’s forehead.

“——.”

She continued to chant spells with her mouth, but her eyes were glued to Alpha. Her throat swallowed hard, and trepidation washed over her; she could definitely feel the intent to kill aimed directly at her. It had touched her primal instincts. With such intelligence, she thought it wouldn’t jump in recklessly. If she just held onto the fairy-type monster… what a miscalculation that was.

When the wolf regained its true nature—the monster’s birth unfolded before her eyes.

‘It’s completely lost its reason…!’

In an instant, the sight of the wolf vanished from Hong Yu-ri’s view. Floating in the air, she quickly spread her senses and barely managed to fend off the wolf’s attack. And then, a gut feeling. Something black was creeping up from behind her, compelling Hong Yu-ri to quickly envelop herself with another layer of magic power.

‘Shadow!’

It was a skill she’d learned during the Academy raid, but seeing it in action was a different story. If she hadn’t known… if she hadn’t recalled it at all, she would have been horrified. She didn’t underestimate it. After all, it was that Alpha that had brought down Agail Morest, the heir of the Purple Square.

“Lanț de flacără―!”

With the second verse—she quickly unleashed the spell towards the wolf. The chains of fiery red aimed at the wolf, but before they could even touch it, they turned to ash and scattered in the strong wind.

“……?!”

It didn’t work. If she had unleashed multiple attacks at once, it might have been different, but she realized that a single two-verse spell couldn’t inflict any effective damage on Alpha. Meanwhile, something ejected from the wolf continually pounded against her barrier of magic.

‘Thorns?’

Hong Yu-ri frowned. Countless black thorns were thrusting as if determined to break through her shield. The individual strength was not remarkable, so she wasn’t worried about it breaking, but the problem was the monster itself.

“——.”

Had she been grounded, it would have been dire. Just as she glanced up at it, the creature bent its body and leapt in an instant. Ten meters… twenty meters… the endless rising of Alpha reached her.

No matter how great its physical abilities were, was this even possible? Hong Yu-ri’s expression hardened.

“Scutul cu flacără arzătoare!”

With her incantation, the magic formed a shield that covered her entire body. A barrier of burning red flames quickly blazed, then charred black.

“……!”

As a fierce gust obscured her vision, Hong Yu-ri finally revealed her true feelings.

“Damn it…!”

The swirling red magic pressured the wolf. The immense weight of magic forced the wolf into a downward fall, and Hong Yu-ri’s pupils morphed from crimson to deep red.

‘I never intended to go this far…!’

She had merely wanted to talk things out. But given this, it was completely futile. Glancing slyly towards the fairy-type monster she was keeping captive, she wondered if releasing it would bring back its reason. Of course not. Ultimately, the only way to resolve things was to take down the wolf.

‘I thought it was B-class.’

The magic power radiating felt like that much. It was higher than B-class, but not quite A-class. So she thought it would be manageable. She believed she could crush it without issue.

—That was the second miscalculation.

“……!”

The fallen wolf resisted against the crushing red magic. Normally, if the disparity in magic was this extreme, resisting it would be impossible. Yet somehow, a skill the wolf possessed pierced the crimson magic like a spear.

‘Could it be Great Magic?!’

Her eyes darkened further. The skill she had longed for her whole life existed in a mere monster.

“……!”

In that moment, the wolf sprang up once more. Hong Yu-ri scowled and formed a seal. The hand movements were so splendid that it was hard to track with the eye. If fire magic didn’t work, she would have to approach this differently.

“Robia rădăcinii copacilor―!”

The tree roots surged up to engulf the wolf, but Hong Yu-ri was far from finished. In contradiction, black flames swiftly devoured the roots. Soon, the ground and surface above caught fire, transforming into a sea of flames. The surroundings darkened as if night had fallen.

Even more potent than before, the intent to kill—when their crimson eyes met, Hong Yu-ri trembled. The pure malice intent on killing her was consuming her.

And Hong Yu-ri’s pride absolutely wouldn’t allow that.

“Multiplexarea glonțului arzător―!”

As she swung her hand according to the image in her mind, crimson magic bullets shot toward the wolf. Countless thorns emitted from the wolf collided with her bullets. The thorns—shrouded in black flames—overpowered and pierced through all her efforts.

Each one surpassed her bullets.

‘……!’

Her pride was hurt. They were caught in a time delay despite the vast disparity in magic. Only once, yet there was evidence she had been overpowered…! When the wolf leaped up again, Hong Yu-ri tried to press down with magic once more, but the same method wouldn’t work on the wolf.

More accurately, it no longer worked.

“Huh?”

The burning black flames ravenously consumed her red magic. And in an instant—Hong Yu-ri witnessed the face of the dark apparition. Was it an illusion? Yet for some reason, her spine tingled. That was beyond the realm of comprehension. Just how many skills did it possess? Even considering what she had witnessed, it surpassed ten. Was there really nothing more? What about hidden skills that hadn’t shown themselves yet?

“……!”

To be overpowered by such a monster…!

As Alpha dashed closer, engulfing her magic, her thoughts gradually leaned towards despair.

“Iată moartea ta―!”

A pure white light began to encompass the land. It was the spell that had made the Awakening Evil fixate on her. A third-verse spell that nearly wielded the power of a fourth. The white light seemed to overwhelm the dark transformation, yet it was swiftly devoured by the revealed black evil spirit.

“……?!”

With wide eyes, Hong Yu-ri plummeted to the ground. She had collided mid-air with the wolf, rebounding off its force.

‘It could be used while in the air…?!’

That leap was a skill, not a stat. A hollow laugh escaped Hong Yu-ri. Had she not enveloped herself in magic armor beforehand, she might have fainted from the impact. With her magic armor shattered and lying on the ground, Alpha approached her, still baring its teeth. Chills ran down her spine as an icy dread suffocated her. Breathing felt difficult, was a rib cracked? She twisted her lips in pain as quick breaths escaped her.

“… Alright.”

Curling her hands, she grasped a handful of dirt. Spitting it out, this time she resolved herself for real.

“I will definitely kill you…!”

A-class was undoubtedly the pinnacle of all hunters.

But even among them, there were those who stood out even more. Individuals with aliases that couldn’t be fully expressed just by class distinctions. They were colloquially known as rankers.

Kang Tae-ho, Team Leader Gu Jin-ha, Clan Leader Euna. And perhaps, the title of the best mage at the dawn of the day belonged to Hong Yu-ri, whose alias was “True Crimson.”

Her crimson eyes finally revealed a hue surpassing the deep red. Displaying her intent to kill, Hong Yu-ri made her first solid decision. Even if it meant defying the clan’s command, she would kill Alpha right here.

—Otherwise, she would meet her own demise.

***

The wolf didn’t stop. It greedily charged forward, growling as if to devour Hong Yu-ri. In its roiling gaze, not a sliver of reason remained. In stark contrast, Hong Yu-ri’s eyes delved deeper.

An experienced mage never halts their chanting, no matter the moment. The thorns and tentacles fired at Hong Yu-ri, the searing black flames, and shadows that blanketed the ground—all aimed for her neck.

In the feast of malice, Hong Yu-ri’s fingers flicked.

“―――!”

The beast’s howl and the mage’s chant intertwined. All attacks were nullified beneath the barrier of crimson when the leaping wolf’s jaw savaged away at her magic, tearing it apart.

“……!”

What a devastating bite. The wolf, oblivious, munched indiscriminately, even against the intangible magic. When its jaw reached out, Hong Yu-ri cloaked herself in red magic and struck the wolf with a punch. A blow packed with power. A hit she braced herself for as if her shoulder would dislocate. If it were the original wolf, it wouldn’t have even reacted. Yet, intuition. The instinct the white deer taught her. The wolf dug deeper into the realms of its reasoning, gaining the power of prediction.

But instinct still resided in the wolf. It had merely been dormant until now—!

Flexing its beastly instincts, the wolf bit her wrist as it twisted its jaws. Hong Yu-ri’s crimson magic overshadowed the black flames, applying pressure. Its jaw cracked, and teeth were pulled away. Its eyes popped out, rolling across the ground.

What came next was an event that should never have happened. The wolf that had bitten into Hong Yu-ri’s wrist, ravaged and torn apart, ultimately swallowed it.

It had engaged in cannibalism. Though she had encountered such a thing with a chimera, for the wolf, it was the ultimate taboo. Committing an unspeakable act, something it had always avoided even in its subconscious, meant that the wolf’s reason had completely sunk away, revealing its monstrous nature. Beyond consciousness—finally, its inner beast had awakened.

At that moment, the storm of red magic created by Hong Yu-ri pushed them apart. The powerful recoil caused the wolf to emit a low howl, but the mage found herself screaming.

“―――!”

Her wrist… her wrist had vanished. Or rather, it had been eaten. The shadow that enveloped the wolf seemed to mock Hong Yu-ri. The sense of loss from her physical damage—whether in despair or rage, she was the latter. Packed tightly in pride, her ego wouldn’t allow her to submit to such ‘triviality’.

Hong Yu-ri’s expression twisted endlessly. The magic she had held back, now prepared for, began to surface as the final incantation was voiced.

“Arzând în abis și transformându-se în cenușă!”

The forbidden Great Magic that was taboo outside the dungeon. She too was losing her reason. The fact that people still existed on this island had completely slipped her mind. It was a spell that could very well wipe out the entire island. A massive six-pointed star began to form beneath the clouds. Runes and arcane words densely intertwined in the six-pointed star, drenched in crimson. Even if she had held back, reconstituting her magic would take time. It wouldn’t be instantaneous, but she knew it wasn’t far off.

In their divergent stances and chilling murderous intent towards one another—with the wolf losing its reason, a voice reached it.

***

‘Need help?’

It was the sweetest voice imaginable. A temptation proclaiming an end to all conflict and agony. Just a single word would do. Sinking reason—beyond the unconscious. Climbing through that barrier, it whispered to the wolf.

‘Duh—don’t you see? You can’t win against her.’

A taunting giggle rang out. The thing speaking from within felt like a devil’s whisper. In this space, tinted black, flames burned even darker.

“Heukrin.”

The pitch-black flames that aided in taking down Agail. The flames that devoured emotions, granting strength—the black fire.

‘Why~? You need it, right?’

It pressed both hands to its face, meeting its gaze.

‘Just a single word asking for help, and I’ll clear everything away for you. I’ll take away even all your unreasonable emotions. What do you say?’

It whispered seductively, shining expectantly. Heukrin. A presence that had mocked even Agail’s black rose and lust. Whatever power had merely manifested temporarily would surely be only a fraction of its true strength. If she accepted Heukrin’s help, resolving the situation would be a piece of cake. Everything would smoothly unfold, and she’d recall the distant omnipotence she had once experienced, and the wolf’s eyes gleamed with intensity.

To be able to relinquish such burning emotions and receive Heukrin’s aid—

“… No.”

‘……?’

“Shut that damn mouth!”

—It was absolutely declined.

The burning gaze. The fiercely longed and awaited simmering emotions. An intensity of malice she had never felt before. And when she saw what reflected in the wolf’s eyes, Heukrin trembled in ecstasy.

“Stay out of this.”

A beastly roar spilled from the wolf’s lips. If it dared to intervene, it would be marked as an enemy—Heukrin swallowed hard in silence. As the wolf passed by, it spoke without looking back.

“I’ll no longer be swayed by you…!”

 

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