* * *
Wonho lunged at Na Hyunjoon, sharp ice shards flying at his target alongside his body.
BOOM!
His fist connected with Na Hyunjoon just as a pillar of ice struck him squarely.
The hallway rang with the sound of dozens of ice fragments piercing and shattering against flesh.
Wonho didn’t miss the moment Na Hyunjoon faltered. He struck with an ice-clad fist—thud, thud, thud.
Even as his fists pounded into him, Na Hyunjoon didn’t let out a single groan.
Like he couldn’t feel pain anymore.
Just a little while ago, he’d spoken to Haebom—had a shred of reason left.
Now, he looked fully unhinged.
CRASH! With a loud bang, Na Hyunjoon collapsed.
Wonho quickly refroze him.
Just then—crack, crumble—the floor beneath Na Hyunjoon gave way.
Too many hits—the building couldn’t take it.
Wonho clicked his tongue.
At this rate, the whole place might come down.
Not that he cared.
He planned to charge it all to Na Hyunjoon anyway.
“Ah, fuck…!”
WHOOSH! Wonho leapt into the hole Na Hyunjoon had made—only to be engulfed in flames.
The fire spread instantly, trying to consume everything.
Luckily, his uniform offered some resistance to heat.
“Ghh…”
The rising heat made Wonho frown.
The smell of burning flesh reached his nose—his flesh.
He clicked his tongue and coated himself in ice, armor-like.
Smack!
His fist struck Na Hyunjoon across the face.
That finally snapped him out of his trance—eyes still fixed on the lab where Haebom had vanished.
Now they locked onto Wonho, glinting like a predator spotting prey.
Na Hyunjoon spat out blood and lunged.
With every exchanged blow, their colliding auras caused shockwaves that tore the building apart.
The Center had once bragged that the lab could withstand even a monster’s attack.
But now, under the wrath of two S-Class Espers, it was turning to dust.
Already worn down from Gate combat, Wonho wasn’t in top condition.
Every use of his powers brought on sharp, pulsing headaches.
He grit his teeth.
‘If it weren’t for this bastard,’ he thought, ‘I’d be holding Haebom right now, making sure he knew how much I wanted him.’
The thought made his blood boil.
“You’re really starting to piss me off.”
With a snarl, Wonho yanked Na Hyunjoon by the hair—once so famously silky among guides, now matted with blood and sweat.
He slammed his head into the ground.
CRACK!
The floor split beneath the impact.
Wonho cursed under his breath—he’d forgotten there was a shelter below.
He lifted Na Hyunjoon again.
Even caked in blood, flames flickered across his body, trying to scorch Wonho.
An Esper in mid-rampage couldn’t heal properly.
“Ghh… Fuck.”
Wonho let out a low groan.
Na Hyunjoon’s hand had stabbed straight into his side, skin and muscle tearing like paper.
He yanked the hand out. It was a clean puncture—thankfully, no vital organs seemed hit.
‘Is this psycho seriously stabbing people barehanded?’
He wasn’t in his right mind—that much was clear.
Wonho didn’t hesitate.
He restrained Na Hyunjoon and locked a suppression collar around his neck.
Not a regulation collar—a suppression one.
As soon as it clicked into place, Na Hyunjoon let out a scream.
“AAAAHH!”
He thrashed, convulsing.
The only reason the collar worked at all was because the rampage hadn’t fully matured yet.
Wonho looked down at him with a cold, fierce glare.
Judging by how violently he was writhing, the forced suppression was excruciating.
But he didn’t care.
Without hesitation, he jabbed the portable guiding device into Na Hyunjoon’s neck.
It could’ve gone into his arm—but this way was more painful.
Their eyes met—Na Hyunjoon’s bloodshot, cracked with burst vessels.
Without a word, Wonho punched him again.
Looking down at Na Hyunjoon’s bloody, broken form among the rubble, Wonho clenched his teeth.
Pain blanketed his body like fog.
He could feel himself slipping—’I’m going to lose it, too,’ he thought.
But he refused.
Wonho’s tolerance for rampage was much higher than most Espers.
In the distance, other Espers finally appeared, running toward them.
He’d told them not to bother—but now that the hard part was over, they decided to show up.
Pathetic.
“Argh…!”
Thud!
Haebom clutched his knee, which had slammed into the ground, and gritted his teeth.
The pain was sharp, intense—enough to make him wonder if it might be broken.
But there was no time to dwell on it.
He had been shoved from behind by Wonho while running down the stairs.
At that moment, the whole building shook, causing him to stumble and hit his knee against the step.
That jolt alone was enough for Haebom to realize: this research facility wasn’t going to last much longer.
“Sturdy, my ass…”
He muttered bitterly as he scrambled to his feet.
The pain was still biting, but the crack spreading along the hallway with a crumbling noise warned him he couldn’t waste a second.
He hurried down the stairs, limping slightly, and thankfully made it to the shelter entrance before the building fully collapsed.
As soon as he tapped his ID card to the sensor, the door slid open with a soft hiss.
It was Haebom’s first time seeing the shelter since arriving here—and the sheer size of it overwhelmed him.
“Haebom, Guide!”
As he stood in stunned silence, marveling at how much bigger this was than the research building, someone called out and approached him.
“Oh, hello.”
“What the heck? I thought we were close now. Kinda hurts to get the cold shoulder like that…”
“What? No! We are close!”
Kim Jihyun, who had happily rushed over when she spotted Haebom, looked dejected at his flat greeting.
But as soon as he waved his arms in a flustered apology, her expression softened into a playful grin.
Haebom let out a sigh of relief.
“This your first time in the shelter, Haebom? I remember wearing the same dumb look the first time I came in too.”
“Nope, you looked way dumber. Not nearly as cute as Haebom here.”
“Oh, shut up. Get lost, will you?”
Jihyun smacked Lee Taeyoung on the shoulder hard enough to make a loud thump and pushed him aside.
She clearly meant it, but Taeyoung wasn’t one to back off so easily.
Watching them bicker made the chaos Haebom had just escaped from feel strangely distant—almost like a dream.
But the faint tremors still shaking the shelter reminded him it was all too real.
“They covered this in the training, remember? They said the shelters were all connected.”
Haebom sighed quietly.
Now that Taeyoung mentioned it, he vaguely remembered hearing that during orientation.
He hadn’t really paid attention—he didn’t think he’d ever actually need to use the shelter.
Back then, all he’d cared about was how to guide Wonho.
Taeyoung seemed to read his mind and shot him a teasing glance.
Jihyun chimed in from the side, giving him a thumbs-up and saying, “Eh, that stuff goes in one ear and out the other anyway.”
Just then, Haebom felt someone’s gaze on him.
He turned his head—and met eyes with the person staring at him.
They flinched.
It was Choi Yoonseo.
“Oh look, it’s Guide Choi Yoonseo,” Jihyun said, her voice laced with sarcasm.
“Why’s she down here when her esper, Na Hyunjoon, is throwing a tantrum up there?”
It seemed Jihyun had only just noticed her.
Taeyoung picked up where she left off, recalling what they were told during training: when an esper goes on a rampage, their pair guide is supposed to wait in the observation room next to the isolation chamber.
That’s where Yoonseo should have been—not here.
Though she wasn’t standing right next to them, she wasn’t far enough away not to hear.
Her expression darkened noticeably.
* * *
