“For a welcome, this hospitality is abysmal.”
The warehouse, filled with dust-covered storage and littered with corpses, had only one flickering light and the faint moonlight entering through the open door.
For a welcome, this was the epitome of bad taste.
Conversely, it was a scene quite fitting for a woman who lacked consideration for others, so Hoaphilen sneered coldly.
They were not on such terms as to sit down leisurely for tea together anyway.
The location where they stood was meaningless to consider.
Roilnia seemed to agree, shrugging nonchalantly and shaking the bag in her arms.
“Did you come to get this back?”
The barefoot woman, wearing a turtleneck top that exposed her back and arms and tight-fitting pants, stepped on the blood-soaked floor.
Uncaring that her feet were getting dirty, she danced and moved the bag to taunt Hoaphilen.
The bag, which looked like a briefcase but had a thickness that suggested it was made of a special type of steel, smugly flaunted its sleek appearance in front of her.
Seeing the pristine condition of the actual item, Hoaphilen felt sick to her stomach.
The object in the woman’s hand was the definitive proof that Haimar Eilec had thoroughly played a trick on Hoaphilen.
If things had gone according to plan, that wouldn’t be in Roilnia’s hand so powerlessly.
Even though she had several contingency plans, it was disappointing and painful that the situation hadn’t followed the optimal course.
At the same time, she resented the man who had twisted things up like this.
To Haimar, who possessed an absolute confidence bordering on arrogance, indifferent to whether the ampoule fell into the woman’s hands or not, the struggle of Hoaphilen—an ordinary person trying to subdue Roilnia, an Esper—would be a realm he could never understand.
“Are you the kind of person who would hand it over just because I ask? But can you even take it and use it? You won’t be able to open it.”
“I thought so. I didn’t think I would acquire it easily. I’ve been through quite a bit of trouble poking and prodding at it myself.”
However, time was too precious to dwell on regret and resentment.
Hoaphilen instinctively knew that this moment, facing Roilnia, was the first and last opportunity given to her.
They were on a single log bridge where only one of them could remain.
She absolutely refused to cling to useless attachments, make a foolish mistake, and regret it forever.
“So, about that, are you going to let me open this?”
The steel bag dangling from Roilnia’s fingertip contained the top-tier regeneration ampoule she was aiming for—the culmination of modern science, difficult to mass-produce and worth an astronomical sum.
Since it was designed to heal most injuries short of instant death, if Roilnia administered it, she could eventually regenerate her missing arm, though it would take a long time.
If that took too long, it was fully possible to immediately attach another arm.
Unfortunately, due to Haimar’s interference, Hoaphilen was a step too late in securing it.
However, Hoaphilen had anticipated that Roilnia would jump at any information like a moth to a flame, so she had prepared for the event of failure to secure it.
As part of that preparation, the bag was designed to self-destruct if anyone attempted to open it by force.
Even Roilnia wouldn’t dare mess with it, given her absolute need for the ampoule.
“There’s nothing I can’t teach you. But my hand killing you will come first.”
“Wow, that was a little cool just now. I wanted to applaud, but I’m sorry I only have one arm.”
The woman responded extremely nonchalantly, lightly tossing the bag she was holding into the air.
The bag spun once in the air, fell back to the ground by gravity, and was instantly swallowed up by a small, spontaneously opened space.
Roilnia clapped her remaining arm against her opposite shoulder in lieu of applause, completely erasing the mechanical smile on her face.
“But I can move your head from your body without moving a hand before you even part those pathetic lips? Even just listening to my voice right now is too much honor for you, trash.”
“Well, I tend not to listen to people who run their mouths without knowing their place.”
Contempt and poisonous language clashed sharply.
Sharp blades, poisoned with venom, were unleashed toward the opponent.
Yet, neither was affected. They felt no pain whatsoever.
Hoaphilen sneered, elegantly pulling out a gun from her waist holster, as if taking out a lipstick from a pouch, and aimed it at Roilnia.
“And the sight of you firmly believing you can be an unprecedented and sole Esper… isn’t it quite repulsive?”
“I wondered what made you run your mouth off so carelessly, but you’re talking like that while pulling out that toy gun? Can you kill me? Do you dare?”
Seeing the gun barrel aimed at her, Roilnia shuddered as if she had seen something utterly distasteful.
She had provoked her so much, having lost all fear, and this was all there was to show for it?
An mere ordinary person aiming a gun at her was simply ridiculous.
Hoaphilen’s action properly stimulated the woman’s anger.
Roilnia’s plan, which had been to obtain the information to open the bag and then neatly slit Hoaphilen’s throat, was instantly changed.
She would make Hoaphilen pay dearly for running her mouth off.
She wouldn’t be satisfied until she tore off that jaw and displayed it somewhere.
By making an example of this old hag, her precious ears would no longer be sullied.
“Primitive. Too primitive. It’s sickening. Strength is an inherent status. You’re just sludge clinging to the bottom.”
Roilnia walked right up to Hoaphilen, placing the gun barrel against her forehead with perfect composure.
A sharp glint of light shone in the eyes glaring at her.
The smoke that had briefly subsided began to rise from her body again.
Her enraged emotions shimmered like heat haze, and her body, whose temperature was rising minute by minute, glowed red, emitting steam-like vapor.
Despite this being impossible for an ordinary human, Hoaphilen, facing her, was unfazed.
“A dichotomous view that only categorizes the world by the strength and weakness of force. Ah, what a truly idiotic and ignorant belief.”
She simply lamented with genuine feeling.
She pitied the woman’s ignorance and even displayed a hint of sadness.
She willingly shared her cheap, tearless sympathy with her enemy, relentlessly sneering at the human who was supposedly beneath her.
It was a hollow emotion, like an empty can, worthless enough to defy pricing.
“Even an animal would be smarter than you. You’re just a lump of inferiority complex who hates seeing anyone better than you and can’t stand their success.”
“Ahahaha… Ahahahahahahaha! Ahahahahahahahahaha—!”
Roilnia threw her head back and burst into laughter.
The situation was so preposterous that she couldn’t help but laugh.
It was utterly contemptible and, ironically, amusing.
The twisted laughter tore through the air, echoing throughout the desolate warehouse.
“Ahaha…”
The woman abruptly stopped laughing and faced Hoaphilen.
“Is that all you have to say?”
Hoaphilen smiled faintly.
“By no means.”
Bang—!!!
It was a flash of light.
She fired the gun almost simultaneously with her answer.
It was too late if she tried to aim properly.
The reaction speed of an ordinary person like Hoaphilen was meaningless in front of the woman.
She didn’t fire expecting to hit. She knew Roilnia would avoid it.
In fact, it would have been strange if she hadn’t avoided it.
As a result, the gun barrel, which had been pressed against Roilnia’s forehead, missed by a few centimeters and was fired right next to her face.
If it were a regular gun, the bullet would have missed and that would have been the end of it.
However, what Hoaphilen pulled the trigger on was a flashbang modified to be fired from a gun.
The blazing light bomb enveloped their eyes in white.
“Khk—!”
Roilnia let out a short scream at the unexpected situation.
This was the situation Hoaphilen had been aiming for all along.
She had deliberately provoked and aggravated Roilnia to make her approach her.
Because unless Hoaphilen became a stronger Esper than Roilnia, or Haimar fell from the sky to help her, there were absolutely no physical openings to target Roilnia.
She had to make Roilnia want to tear her apart directly, instead of just tilting her head to cleanly snap her neck.
She had to be so consumed by rage that she wouldn’t be satisfied until she ripped her into shreds.
It was as easy as breathing to scratch the sensibilities of the woman who was a bundle of narcissism.
She relentlessly poked at the inferior self that was hiding, holding its breath, deep within Roilnia’s inner consciousness.
The only thing Hoaphilen could predict accurately hit the mark.
BEEEEEEEEEEEEEP—!!
The immense light and noise generated by the flashbang robbed them of their sight and hearing.
The flashbang had the effect of hanging the image, like a still photograph, onto the brain and retina upon explosion.
To avoid this, Hoaphilen closed her eyes beforehand, just before the explosion, yet the light penetrated her eyelids and illuminated her vision brightly.
She couldn’t afford to wait until the light fully subsided.
As Hoaphilen dimly opened her eyes, which were protected by the transition lenses she had prepared, Roilnia’s silhouette vaguely appeared against the utterly white background.
Losing sight completely from a direct hit with a flashbang would only last for a few seconds.
Even if it exploded right in front of her, it was only a matter of time before an Esper regained her sight due to her inherent recovery ability.
The time Hoaphilen needed to utilize was this very moment.
The light from the flashbang was so bright that it stung her eyes even through the special transition lenses, but Hoaphilen had a task she absolutely had to complete, even if it meant being blinded.
This was the moment she had waited for so long.
The brief moment when the woman was defenseless.
She aimed for the instant when tiny gaps and vulnerabilities converged into a single fleeting moment.
