Julien's jaw dropped open, all the air rushing out of his lungs in a single, stunned breath, while Chris gripped his shield so tightly the wood actually groaned in protest.
Standing there, looking mildly annoyed but undeniably dangerous, was the very last person they ever expected to see answering a family distress call.
It was Blaze.
The S-Rank Hunter stepped fully into the Apothecary, and the very air inside the small shop seemed to compress. He didn't have to draw a weapon or activate a skill; simply existing in the room was enough. The sheer, overwhelming pressure of his magical aura washed over them like a physical weight, making the dusty glass bottles on the empty shelves shake softly against the wood.
Blaze's sharp eyes swept the room. They lingered on Chris for a fraction of a second, completely ignored Alice floating near the ceiling, and then locked onto Julien.
For one terrifying, endless minute, Blaze just stared at him.
He knew exactly what that look meant. Blaze knew who he was. Gina had clearly been keeping close tabs on the "useless" Dimensional Merchant they had scouted.
But, for now, the S-Rank Hunter simply dismissed him with a slight, almost indifferent shake of his head. He turned his full, intense attention to the teenager lounging against the front counter.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Blaze demanded, his voice a low, dangerous rumble that commanded absolute obedience. "Didn't I specifically tell you to stay at home?"
Kiara didn't even flinch, just offered him a lazy, two-finger salute.
"You are incredibly lucky I happened to be stationed near this sector today," Blaze continued, taking a step closer, his heavy boots thudding against the floorboards. "The entire regional army is currently deploying to the outer perimeter of District 9. We are expecting the Gate to tear open anytime now. So wrap up whatever juvenile rebellion this is, because you are coming with me. Right now."
Kiara reached into the deep pocket of her cargo pants.
"Uncle," Kiara said calmly, her raspy voice completely devoid of the sugary sweetness she had used on the phone. "I didn't call you here for a rescue. I am employed and work here now."
Blaze actually stopped in his tracks, his eyes darting from Kiara to the dilapidated state of the Apothecary, and finally back to Julien, a look of utter disbelief crossing his features.
"And," Kiara continued smoothly, pulling one of the colored glass bottles out of her pocket, "this little venture of mine is going to really help your guild survive the week."
She held the Iron Skin potion out toward him.
Blaze didn't take it. His jaw tightened in pure frustration. "I do not have time for this nonsense, Kiara. We are on the verge of a localised apocalypse, and you are playing shopkeeper in the slums."
Kiara sighed heavily, as if she were the exhausted adult dealing with a stubborn child.
"Fine. You want a live demo?" Kiara muttered.
Without another word, she popped the cap off the bottle and drank the entire potion in three massive gulps. She tossed the empty glass bottle onto the counter, where it shattered into a dozen pieces.
Before Blaze could even ask what she had just swallowed, Kiara moved with terrifying speed. She lunged forward, her hand moving toward the heavy, magical sidearm holstered at Blaze's hip.
She ripped the gun free, stepped back, aimed the barrel directly downward, and pulled the trigger, shooting herself point-blank in the left leg.
BANG.
The gunshot was loud inside the small shop.
"What the hell?!" Chris screamed, instinctively throwing his massive shield up to cover Julien.
"NO!" Blaze roared, a sound of pure worry and terror ripping from his throat as he lunged toward his niece.
Even Julien stumbled backwards, completely shocked by the sheer, unhinged absurdity of what he had just witnessed. He knew the potion worked, but shooting yourself with an S-Rank Hunter's sidearm was a whole different level of insanity.
But Kiara didn't fall.
The heavy-calibre, armour-piercing bullet sparked violently as it struck the fabric of her cargo pants. A bright, blue-colored shield pattern flashed across her skin for a microsecond.
The bullet flattened against the invisible barrier and bounced harmlessly off her leg, embedding into the wooden floorboards with a dull thud.
Blaze froze, his hands moving inches from Kiara, his eyes locked onto the smoking bullet casing rolling across the floor.
"Idiot!" Blaze shouted, his voice cracking with a mixture of raw panic and rising anger. "What the actual hell are you doing?!"
Kiara simply rolled her eyes and tossed the smoking gun back to him. Blaze caught it clumsily, his hands visibly shaking.
"See?" Kiara said, gesturing vaguely to her completely uninjured leg. "I told you. We have a monopoly on a tier-one defensive consumable that can stop high-calibre rounds dead in their tracks. And even if that Red Gate fully appears today, it usually takes at least ten days for the internal dungeon environment to stabilise enough for the high-tier monsters to start pouring out. We have time to manufacture this and be completely."
He knew exactly how devastating the Red Gate was going to be, and the Association's supply lines were already stretched incredibly thin and he knew they lacked the basic defensive requirements to keep their lower-rank frontline fighters alive.
District 9 was the most likely ground zero for the initial breach, and the entire world, which, for now, mostly consisted of the heavily fortified Asian sectors, was on absolute, hair-trigger alert.
If this scrawny merchant actually had a reliable, mass-producible supply of these potions...
But before Blaze could even begin to ask about production scales or unit pricing, a sound cut through the tense silence of the shop. It started as a low, terrified murmur, bleeding through the cracked front window. Then, it escalated into a chaotic symphony of pure panic.
People outside were screaming. The heavy thudding of hundreds of footsteps echoed down the street as the residents of District 9 abandoned everything and started running for their lives.
Julien, Chris, Kiara, and Blaze all moved as one, rushing out the front door of the Apothecary and spilling out onto the cracked pavement.
The moment Julien stepped outside, his breath caught in his throat.
The usual, smoke-choked, dry air of District 9 was gone. It had been replaced by something incredibly cold.
But the real terror was above them.
The sky, which had been a dull grey just an hour ago, was violently twisting. Massive, swirling vortexes of bright red energy were violently tearing through the clouds, leaking a red light down onto the slums. It looked like the sky itself was an open, infected wound.
Suddenly, a sharp, piercing sound echoed directly inside Julien's head.
[SYSTEM ALERT!]
[HIGH ENERGY DETECTED!]
[WARNING: PORTAL APPEARING!]
The glowing golden text of his merchant interface turned a violent, flashing red.
Blaze didn't hesitate and practically ripped the military-grade receiver from his tactical vest, pressing it hard against his ear.
"Commander!" Blaze shouted over the rising screams of the fleeing crowd. "The Gate is starting to form right above Sector 4! We need immediate aerial reinforcement!"
The radio crackled with heavy static before the Commander's voice broke through, sounding uncharacteristically frantic.
"What?" the Commander yelled back, the sound of blaring loudly in the background of the transmission. "Blaze, listen to me! There is a massive Gate tearing open in the centre of District 5 right now!"
Blaze's face lost all of its color. "District 5? That's the inner city."
"It gets worse," the Commander's voice cracked. "We just got an emergency broadcast from the naval outpost. An isolated island chain off the coast is also registering incredibly high frequency spikes. Another portal is forming there."
The heavy radio receiver slowly slipped from Blaze's grip, dangling uselessly against his chest armor by its cord. He looked at Kiara with horror.
Everyone's face paled to the colour of ash.
Three Red Gates appeared at the same time.
In a world with very few active S-Rank Hunters and severely depleted survival resources, this is an extinction-level threat.
Author's Note:
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