His overflowing power spread out haphazardly, delivering every bit of information it collected directly to his brain.
With all three limiters released, his runaway supernatural energy didn’t just stop at gathering simple data—like sounds or the movement of animals kilometers away—it invaded domains of ability he had never even attempted before.
He wasn’t just reading human thoughts; he was indiscriminately reading the “memories” of every object in the vicinity, from the fabric of Ben’s clothes to the cylinder tucked in his pocket.
From the origins of useless objects to the reason Ben had come here, and even the vivid memories of the desperate struggle Ben had just endured against Roilnia.
The moment he witnessed the memories etched into each one of Ben’s wounds, his fuse blew completely.
Haimar Alec had failed to protect his Guide.
That single fact stood out, etched sharply in his mind.
His body groaned under the overload of supernatural power surging past its limits, but there was no longer any need to strain himself to suppress it.
Because he didn’t want to.
“F***. What is this? Opening a portal? You, Haimar? Why? What the hell are you?”
Haimar, having gently placed Ben next to Penka, turned his gaze toward the woman who had been sent flying into the opposite wall.
When he blinked and opened his blue eyes, they were terrifyingly dry, to the point of being bone-chilling.
The atmosphere tightened until there was no room to breathe, and even the air touching the skin felt razor-sharp.
The golden storm that began to swirl and explode throughout the building was soon tinged with a murky, dark hue.
The beast was off its leash, fully prepared to tear its prey apart without mercy.
“I’m asking you! What are you, that you can use my ability?!”
Despite Haimar’s ominous aura, the woman facing him was consumed by an uncontrollable rage.
When the man appeared, Roilnia had clearly seen a gate of space.
The one unique ability that, until now, only she could perform!
The reason the man could suddenly appear here, jumping an impossible distance from the other side of the planet, was because he had opened space using the exact same power as Roilnia.
‘It’s impossible. How can a man who couldn’t even teleport when he first arrived here do it now?’
Roilnia suppressed her rising fury and scrutinized Haimar before finally realizing the reason.
“Ha! So that was it?”
Not a single limiter remained on his ears.
Only the faint traces of blood beneath his earlobes spoke of where the limiters had once been.
By shedding the objects that had suppressed his power for over a decade, the man had once again leaped over a wall and opened the door to a new domain.
But why, out of all the many abilities out there, did it have to be Roilnia’s?
Just what made that man so special?
Whenever Roilnia took a step forward, the man was always a step further.
He made a fool of her like this every single time.
It was enough to make her blood boil.
Biting her lip until it turned white, the woman hissed in a low voice.
“You idiots who can’t do anything alone…!”
She tried her best to calm her racing heart. In times like this, she had to stay composed.
Since things had come to this, this was actually her chance to prove herself.
To win, she had to be colder than ever.
Breaking it down one by one: first, she had regained her lost arm and restored her body to its full state.
Furthermore, even if Haimar could open space, she was confident she would be far superior to him in terms of technique and experience.
As for her thoughts being read—while she couldn’t stop the strong ones from leaking out, she could hide them well enough.
Finally, she, Roilnia, was not the same as before.
Just like the man, she had pioneered a new ability and grown stronger, so there was no reason for her to be pessimistic.
Moreover, look at him.
Look at that pathetic state where he’s losing control because he can’t handle his own power.
It was the other side that had a screw loose and couldn’t make a cold judgment.
The murky energy spreading everywhere was proof of the end that awaited a man who broke all his limiters without a Guide.
Uncontrolled power only destroys its user.
As long as the Guide was in that condition, the fact that he had expanded his abilities by releasing all his shackles wasn’t necessarily a bad thing for Roilnia.
To her eyes, Haimar looked exactly like a creature about to self-destruct in an ugly fashion.
“You’ve become quite the eyesore just because one Guide passed out.”
‘Serves you right.’
The woman mocked Haimar, dragging her mood back up.
If the reason for her defeat in the last battle was the Guide, then in this fight, that Guide would be the reason for her victory.
Conversely, the Guide would be Haimar’s downfall.
Even if Haimar was a step ahead, he was merely an obstacle to be overcome.
A throne won too easily had no merit.
If this was the adversity and hardship required to stand at the top, she was willing to step over it.
Only then would the fruit tasted at the end of the trial be more precious and shine longer.
Roilnia didn’t back down against the man’s aura that was engulfing the building; she sharpened her own energy and spread it far and wide.
“Is your state so pathetic, relying on a Guide, that you have nothing to say for yourself?”
“Do I…”
Haimar, leading the center of the storm, walked forward slowly and looked down at Roilnia with icy, deep blue eyes.
Arrogant and overwhelming like the greatness of his power, the man swept his elegant fingers through the air as if brushing away dust, and—
“…need to say anything to you?”
The building they were standing in vanished entirely, leaving no trace behind.
“To a human who is about to crumble anyway?”
With a single gesture from Haimar, the windowless two-story building vanished instantly, as if it had never existed, without leaving even a grain of debris.
It was a feat akin to a magic trick, cleanly removing only inorganic matter from the location.
He hadn’t just destroyed part of an object; he had erased the space itself.
It was a feat only possible by perfectly perceiving the target he wished to eliminate.
As the place they were standing changed in an instant to a bleak, empty lot—as if they had teleported—Roilnia felt her nerves prickle as she was reminded of the once-perfect, flawless Haimar.
“…How kind of you to personally create a battlefield for us.”
Amidst the biting winter air and the fierce wind, she felt the immense pressure of a power that made it impossible to deny that the man was the strongest Esper.
It was clear that if Roilnia weren’t an Esper who could handle psychokinesis on a similar level, her head would have been taken off the moment the building vanished.
“How truly delightful…!”
But Roilnia was not one to be intimidated.
As if responding to Haimar, she leaped high into the sky and spread her hands.
Following her gesture, multiple portals opened simultaneously in the night sky, and soon, small missiles and artillery shells came pouring out.
K-boom! Bang!
It was a merciless carpet bombing.
The downpour of rockets, shells, and missiles all targeted Haimar without exception.
However, Haimar, the target of the attack, remained as motionless as always.
With just a few emotionless glances, he diverted the direction of every shell fired at him or crushed their forms like crumpled paper.
The shells that failed to reach him broke apart and exploded in the sky or crashed into the ground.
Some of the exploding debris flew nearby, setting fire to the grass and trees.
In an instant, the surroundings were turned into a wasteland covered by a tremendous roar.
Even in that fierce barrage, the intense heat and acrid air never reached Haimar.
The flames from the explosions were blocked by his aura and failed to cause any secondary damage.
This was true not only for Haimar but also for the area around the unconscious Ben.
As if he wouldn’t tolerate even a speck of soot, even the grass Ben was lying on remained untouched.
Crack!
Soon, with a sound that shook the earth, the dry ground split wide open.
Thick streams of water erupted from the crevices in various places, stretching high toward the sky.
The powerfully rising water columns were soon given a will of their own and lashed out at the hovering Roilnia like whips.
“Tch—! Where do you think you’re going!”
The woman moved to avoid the massive pillars of water, using her psychokinesis to split them in half.
While Roilnia fought the water columns, Haimar, ignoring the shells flying at him incessantly, leaped gracefully into the air.
Like a fighter jet performing aerobatics, the man easily shook off and neutralized the attacks following him, vanishing from Roilnia’s sight in an instant.
“You son of a—!”
As soon as she realized Haimar had disappeared, the woman instinctively swung her knife with lightning speed.
It was thanks to her survival instinct, which sensed danger and predicted where the man would appear.
Just as she expected, Haimar, who had closed the distance in an instant, appeared right in front of Roilnia and grabbed the knife with his bare hand, twisting it.
Blood flowed from his palm—deeply cut by the blade—down his forearm, and before long, his hand burst into flames.
Roilnia, letting go of the knife to avoid the flames traveling up the blade, used her own spatial jump to distance herself from Haimar once more.
Securing a safe distance in the air, Roilnia violently tore at her hair—the ends of which had been singed by the flames—and erupted in fury.
“Stop messing around! I said stop f***ing around with me!!”
When he approached her, Haimar had jumped through space.
Once again, it was a supernatural power on the same level as hers.
Even as she tried to understand the vast scope of the power he wielded, as if forced to swallow a fireball, the feeling of another person using the exact same ability that only she possessed made her nauseous.
Taking and plundering were pleasures only she should enjoy, yet the feeling of Haimar stripping her of what was hers, piece by piece, made her skin crawl.
