A few minutes earlier.
Intelligence Division.
"We have their location!" an analyst shouted, eyes locked onto his screen.
The manager shot to her feet, her coat snapping behind her.
"Plot the route. We're leaving immediately."
Her assistant rushed after her, struggling to keep up.
The kidnapping of the young guild mistress is truly strange.
The thought lingered in the manager's mind. With her eyes, she should have seen that attack coming. Everything suggests… she allowed herself to be taken.
"Chief!" the assistant called out, checking his tablet. "We've just received information from headquarters."
"Yes?"
"The young guild mistress took the Ashen Flame with her. And two G-2 potions."
"The Ashen Flame?" she repeated in disbelief. "A Rank B sword. One of the strongest weapons in our arsenal… And G-2s? Miracle potions that restore health to 100% and enhance the body for several minutes?"
"Why would she take them?"
"Maybe she plans to fight someone extremely powerful?"
The manager stopped abruptly. The assistant overshot her by two meters before skidding to a halt.
Don't tell me… she deliberately lured a dangerous enemy and prepared herself to face them!?
Her eyes widened.
The assistant turned pale.
"Damn it." The manager resumed walking—faster, more determined. "We're moving. Now. Hurry!"
"Y-Yes, chief!"
She left us clues so we could find her.
The conclusion settled in, cold and terrible.
Which means… she doesn't believe she can win.
---
[Item File — Longsword: Ashen Flame]
Rank: B
Attribute: Fire
Description:
A longsword infused with the fire attribute. The blade directly reacts to the energy injected by its wielder. The greater the energy input, the higher the temperature rises. The higher the temperature, the greater the blade's destructive power.
At low charge, it burns.
At high charge, it incinerates.
Charge Levels:
Low Charge
• Blade heated to high temperature.
• Severe burns on impact.
• Enhanced cutting through tissue softening.
• Thin flames clinging to the edge.
Intermediate Charge
• Blade fully engulfed in flames.
• Each strike releases fire bursts within 2 to 3 meters.
• Impact combines slash + localized thermal explosion.
High Charge (Rank B Limit)
• Blade turns white-hot.
• Flame wave released with each strike (5 to 8 meters).
• Thermal detonation upon impact.
• ⚠️ Massive energy consumption.
• ⚠️ Prolonged use dangerous to the wielder.
---
Hidden territory of the Baraka gang.
Silence weighed like a shroud.
Remedy and Seraphina stood facing the clone—motionless, expressionless. A statue of ice waiting for a spark.
The tension was so thick it could have been sliced.
The clone lifted one foot.
Clack.
She set it down.
And she was in front of Remedy.
Seraphina slashed at the exact same instant, her blade cutting through the air where the clone had just appeared. Beneath her blindfold, a golden light flared—intense, almost blinding. The creature leapt back, returning to her original position.
The exchange had lasted no more than five hundredths of a second.
What?! Remedy blinked, his brain overheating. What kind of speed is that?
He looked at Seraphina.
And she… she can keep up?
A chilling realization struck him.
A player can see the level of others within a 50-level range above or below their own.
He was level 10.
He saw nothing.
What level is this damn clone?
The clone slowly turned her head.
Her icy gaze locked onto Seraphina.
She had become an inconvenience.
Another step.
She was in front of them.
Seraphina reacted—too slowly this time. The clone grabbed her arm, lifted her like a doll, and hurled her into a rusted container. The metal bent inward from the impact.
Cut!
Remedy slashed.
Nothing.
The clone had vanished.
A freezing pressure pressed against his neck. His throat.
She was behind him.
Her hand closed around his carotid artery.
Remedy swung his arm backward, the handle tracing a lethal arc—but the tip stopped one millimeter from the clone, never touching her.
[Clone Reaction Time: 0.008 seconds.]
Then she tightened her grip.
His head slammed into the ground with inhuman violence. Concrete fractured in a circular shock around his skull. His pupils rolled back, leaving only white.
[Remedy — Health: 100% → 25%]
He didn't move.
The clone held him there—unconscious, vulnerable. Her mission was complete. Capture him. Bring him back.
But instead of sealing him in ice, her face changed.
Her previously flawless, emotionless features shifted. The faintest curl at the corner of her lips. A spark in her eyes.
Excitement.
Pleasure.
She lifted him by the throat, examining him like a toy too fragile—too amusing—to simply store away.
I could break him, her expression seemed to say. Just a little. Just to see.
Low Charge.
A flaming blade cut through the space between her and Remedy.
Seraphina—the golden light behind her blindfold brighter than ever—had reentered the fight. She didn't aim for the clone.
She severed the grip restraining Remedy.
The clone, surprised by the audacity, released him and leapt back.
His body dropped.
Seraphina plunged a second syringe into Remedy's neck.
He jolted upright, lungs burning.
[Remedy — Health: 25% → 100%]
"Damn…" He grabbed his throat, still marked by frost. "I passed out from one hit?"
"It's begun," Seraphina said.
Her voice.
Her tone.
Something had changed.
Remedy followed her gaze toward the clone.
And he understood.
The expressionless face from before had mutated.
This was no longer a machine awaiting orders.
It was a predator that had just found interesting prey.
Her eyes no longer said "capture."
They said "kill."
Her mission had changed.
Or perhaps—more terrifying still—it had been altered.
At this rate… I won't be able to see her anymore, Seraphina thought, tightening her grip on the Ashen Flame.
---
Somewhere.
A place drowned in vapor. Indescribable.
A silhouette stood motionless within the mist.
"Huh?" a female voice murmured, surprised. "My clone?"
She tilted her head, as if listening to something distant.
"Something's wrong with her… I told her to bring him back. Why does she suddenly want to kill him? Is she disobeying me?"
Silence.
"No. That's not it. It's… something else."
Her shoulders lifted in a careless shrug.
"Whatever. I'll just enjoy my free time."
The vapor swallowed her.
---
City streets.
The manager sprinted, weaving between cars like a guided missile. The world blurred around her—reduced to streaks of light.
Thirty seconds.
Her heart pounded against her ribs.
Young guild mistress… hold on. I'm coming.
---
Baraka Territory.
The clone locked her eyes onto Remedy.
The air around her began to freeze, white crystals dancing in the pale light.
Remedy felt every muscle in his body tighten.
Beside him, Seraphina gripped the Ashen Flame so hard her knuckles turned white.
A new battle was about to begin.
A battle that would determine which vehicle the two of them—especially Remedy—would have to board.
After receiving their ticket.
Their ticket to the afterlife.
End of Chapter 30.