-[Location: The island nation of Lumao Pika, royal capital Serenxis.]-
In the deepest fog before dawn, coiling around docked freighters,
made hazy by shipboard lights, it was like a bloody curtain shrouding the sea.
The air at the river estuary wharf was a mix of the sea's damp saltiness and the lingering acrid smell of diesel engines.
"We messed up! We actually... messed up..."
A man in a trench coat staggered out from the mouth of "Velvet Alley," muttering the words over and over.
His breathing was ragged and chaotic, his pupils trembling uncontrollably.
"How did the target take out those two in an instant?!"
His eyes were filled with confusion and terror—
two assassins eliminated within a single second...
"What are you running for?"
From behind the trench-coated man came the sound of more frantic, broken footsteps,
and a woman's tense voice, equally unable to suppress her panic.
Ignoring the woman,
the trench-coated man hurried toward a pre-positioned, unlicensed van parked near the exit.
Beep beep! — Click!
As the woman pressed the key fob,
the man's body twisted in a snakelike arc,
slipping swiftly and smoothly into
the passenger seat of the now-unlocked van.
The woman, who had also been heading for the passenger side, stared at him in astonishment?!
"I can't drive. Hurry up,"
the man urged, his eyes fixed on the rearview mirror.
"Damn it,
you can't do a thing except run like hell, can you?"
The woman moved with practiced agility. Cursing, she stamped her foot and pivoted,
launching herself up from beside the passenger door,
clearing the roof of the vehicle in one motion.
Her right hand caught the already-open driver's side door,
pulling her body inward as she dropped,
sliding hips-first into the driver's seat.
Key in ignition, start, release handbrake, shift gear, floor the accelerator.
The van's tires screeched violently against the ground.
Screech—vroom—!
It lurched forward and sped away from the scene.
...
For the entire journey,
only the van's roaring engine broke the silence.
Neither spoke.
The woman's hands gripped the steering wheel tightly.
Her mind, uncontrollably, replayed
the ghostly encounter they had just experienced—
her voice trembling as she muttered to herself:
"At first, everything went smoothly...
We were so close... we almost had her...
How did that person appear?
Was he lying in wait? Then why didn't we sense anything!
How could he... how could he kill both of them at the same time..."
"—Look out!" the trench-coated man suddenly shouted, cutting off her rambling.
His warning still hung in the air as
he kicked the passenger door open with force. The heavy door flew spinning toward a shadowy figure
that had somehow begun keeping pace with their vehicle!
The shadow didn't dodge.
Just as the door was about to hit,
the shadow dissolved into a streak of green light,
flashing from beside the van to directly in front of it.
Meanwhile,
the door crumpled as if crushed by an invisible giant hand,
twisting into a fist-sized lump of metal
that clattered to the ground, bounced, and vanished.
Seeing the green flash ahead,
the woman tightened her grip on the wheel, nails digging into her palms.
A vicious glint flashed in her eyes.
Without slowing, she kept the accelerator pinned,
aiming the van straight for the green-tinged shadow.
At the same instant,
the trench-coated man launched himself from the passenger seat.
His body flew parallel to the speeding vehicle.
His left hand formed a claw, scraping along the hood with a shower of sparks and an ear-piercing shriek,
and he tore the right headlight clean off.
His right hand followed, palm striking to shatter both the bulb and housing.
With a roar, he channeled his inner energy,
propelling all the metal shards and glass fragments
like a cloud of deadly needles toward the shadow.
A green mist now rose from the man's right arm,
mixing with his dissipating energy as it billowed toward the shadow.
He snarled, "Add my poison to the mix, let's see if you die!!"
Immediately,
he flipped backward,
landing steadily at a distance he deemed safe from the impending collision.
BOOM-----!!!
A deafening crash shook the air.
The entire ten-meter-long van slammed head-on into the shadow—
followed by the cloud of shrapnel and glass piercing into it—
and the trailing, lethal green mist
engulfed the green-tinged figure precisely—
Within the churning green vapor,
a faint, constantly swirling, eerie green light was barely visible.
The van's remaining headlight flickered intermittently.
Under the glow of the streetlights, the green mist slowly dissipated,
revealing the outline of a black figure—
the shadow stood before the van as if utterly unharmed.
Only,
from its left eye, faint green specks shimmered, tracing patterns like some mysterious, ghostly script.
Even more horrifying was this:
the charging van had been brought to a dead stop by a single finger of the shadow!
The finger appeared to be bent limply, merely making gentle contact with the grille.
Under the violent impact of several tons of speeding metal,
neither the vehicle nor the shadow's finger showed any damage or dent!
Even the windshield didn't have a single tiny crack.
Witnessing this scene,
the trench-coated man's face paled, cold sweat pouring down. He stood frozen for a moment.
Trembling,
he looked toward the driver's cabin where the woman was,
but saw no response.
The shadow's head tilted slowly toward the man.
Its wrist turned,
and its fingertip began to lift slowly upward—
The van, as if magnetically attached to that fingertip,
rose steadily into the air along with it.
Though stunned, the man's focus didn't waver. Relying on assassin's instinct, he rapidly calculated his next move.
A sharp glint in his eyes,
a revolver appeared in his right hand.
He took aim.
Bang! Bang!!
Two bullets tore through the remnants of green mist, laced with poison, and shot toward the shadow's temple.
Then,
his body twisted like a snake.
Pushing off the ground with his toes, he shot into the air again—time to implement the thirty-sixth stratagem: run!
He didn't forget to yell to his companion, "Run—!"
As he flew level with the passenger window,
he reached out to pull the woman from the vehicle.
His pupils abruptly contracted.
He glimpsed,
the two bullets he had just fired at the shadow,
had turned traitor, acting like living things.
Trailing poisonous mist, they carved two 'S'-shaped paths in the air
and, right before his eyes, drilled straight into the driver's cabin.
Looking closer,
the woman inside was already dead—
Her body was wreathed in green mist,
her eyeballs frozen solid by the toxin,
locked in an expression of utter "disbelief."
And she was riddled with the very metal and glass shards he had hurled at the shadow?!
The man's heart lurched with unprecedented terror!!
Even more chilling,
two fresh bullet holes, oozing green vapor, were clearly visible on the woman's right temple—
This shattered the man's last shred of composure.
His eyeballs began to twitch uncontrollably.
Ignoring his pounding heart,
he maintained his airborne momentum, dropping the pistol mid-air.
He swung his right hand with force toward the van's cargo box,
intending to push off and reverse his trajectory for escape.
Just as his palm
was about to make contact with the vehicle,
He saw,
the shadow's half-curled index finger curl beckoningly inward.
Instantly,
an immense, invisible force descended from the void upon the van.
The force was like a colossal hydraulic press,
crushing the vehicle
from its rear compartment all the way to the driver's cabin, bending, folding, compressing it into a flat, 'cardboard-like' sheet!
The windshield, side mirrors, and remaining lights exploded under the pressure,
bursting into showers of electrical sparks, flames, and glass fragments,
a final, grotesque fireworks display fit for a funeral.
CRUNCH-CRACK-CRUMBLE—!!!
The sound of metal folding was sharp and sickening.
With nothing to push against,
the man could only follow his initial momentum,
tumbling through the air like a severed kite string toward the sea.
The shadow did not pursue him.
Its four fingers closed into a fist.
The already-"flattened" van, suspended in mid-air,
suddenly
became covered in streams of upward-crawling green sigils.
As the sigils rapidly faded like images on a zoetrope,
the van completely vanished, along with the woman's corpse...
And along with it vanished the green-tinged, ghostly shadow.
The scene fell into dead silence.
As if
nothing had ever happened here.
...
On the sea's surface,
the trench-coated man cautiously broke the surface of the icy water.
Through a tear in his soaked trench coat, his arm was visible,
revealing half of a 'serpentine' tattoo... flickering in and out of view with the seawater.
Confirming no one was chasing him, he finally let out a shaky breath,
then gasped frantically, greedily replenishing the oxygen in his lungs...
He,
flooded with the relief of a narrow escape,
failed to notice
a faint green sigil flickering to life on the back of his neck.