The ruined city disappeared behind them like a fading nightmare.
The moment Lunaria stepped forward, the world bent.
This was not running—this was hunter movement.
To ordinary humans, distance was cruel and absolute. To hunters, distance was something to be overpowered. Mana surged through muscles, bones, and nerves, forcing the body beyond its natural limits. The higher the rank, the faster the hunter moved, because the world itself could no longer slow them down.
S-rank hunters did not travel.
They arrived.
The four surviving hunters followed Lunaria, their figures turning into afterimages as the ground shattered beneath their feet. Air exploded with every step, trees bending backward as if struck by invisible waves. Roads blurred into streaks of gray and black.
Even so—
The city they were heading toward was still days away.
That alone spoke of how vast and broken the world had become.
Lunaria moved at the front, his half-length hair flowing freely, no ribbon tying it back anymore. The cut made his features softer, almost delicate—an unsettling contrast to the crushing aura rolling off him. The loose strands framed his face, and despite the dried blood and exhaustion, there was an undeniable cuteness to him now.
A dangerous kind.
One that made the surviving hunters instinctively look away.
> How can someone feel this terrifying… and look like that?
They pushed on through collapsed cities and warped landscapes, resting only briefly before resuming their impossible pace. Time lost meaning. Daylight flashed by in fragments. Night barely lasted before dawn returned.
Then—
Lunaria stopped so suddenly the others nearly slammed into him.
The mana ahead was twisted.
The air felt thick, like breathing through mud.
From the ruins ahead, something crawled into view.
It was a monster—but wrong.
Its body was stitched together unnaturally, flesh fused with bone, multiple limbs growing at broken angles. Its core was visible through cracked ribs, pulsing violently with black and violet light. The creature's eyes showed no instinct—only madness.
"This… isn't a normal monster," one of the hunters muttered.
Before anyone could act, the system activated.
---
[System Notification]
Irregular Monster Detected
Classification: Corruption-Born Entity
Explanation Provided.
---
[System Explanation]
When high-tier beings die and their cores shatter, residual energy remains.
Abyss power, chaos energy, and broken mana fragments seep into the environment.
If this energy infects:
• Monster corpses
• Living creatures
• Cracked cores
Forced mutation occurs.
These monsters are not summoned by gates.
They are created by aftermath.
Unstable.
Violent.
Short-lived—but extremely dangerous.
---
The creature screamed and leapt forward, its speed unnatural.
Lunaria moved first.
There was no flash, no wasted motion. His body slipped past the monster like a whisper. A soft slicing sound followed.
The creature froze.
Then it split cleanly in half, dissolving into black ash before it even hit the ground.
Silence returned.
Lunaria stood there, knife lowered, hair drifting gently around his face. With his shorter hair, his expression looked almost innocent—too soft for someone who had just erased a corrupted existence in a single breath.
The contrast made the surviving hunters shiver.
"These things will increase," Lunaria said calmly. "The world is rotting from power left behind."
He turned forward again, eyes sharp despite his softer appearance.
"Keep moving."
His aura surged.
The ground cracked.
And with terrifying speed, they vanished once more—S-rank hunters cutting through a broken world, leaving behind only destruction and whispers of a figure both cute and monstrous enough to redefine fear itself.