Spirits Come Back

Amid the frozen air, an unfamiliar presence appeared before them.

An androgynous beauty with long hair cascading down.

Yet its form was unmistakably that of a Spirit, clearly different from a human.

Oh Hyeonseong stared blankly at the translucent figure floating in the air.

“You… How could you…?”

The Water Spirit, Albern.

His former partner, with whom he had fought through countless battlefields and spent most of his years as an active Hunter.

It was also the unfortunate being that had ultimately vanished completely after suffering irreparable damage in the final battle against the Queen.

‘I thought I’d never see you again…’

A being of a higher order than the lesser Spirits contracted with him, incomparable to them.

The Spirit smiled gently and approached him.

Oh Hyeonseong absentmindedly reached out his hand, and the Spirit gently rubbed its cheek against his palm, feeling his touch.

A warm sensation he hadn’t felt in far too long.

The Spirit pressed itself toward Oh Hyeonseong, whispered something in the language of Spirits beside his ear, and then vanished in a flash.

As though it had flowed directly into Oh Hyeonseong’s body, it disappeared, leaving behind only a pure-white trace.

“…”

The air that had seemed frozen solid returned to normal.

The powerful presence of the Spirit that had filled the entire area also dispersed.

“W-what was that just now?”

Joo Jihye finally managed to speak, her body jolting upright.

She was so shocked that she had even forgotten that her legs were still weak.

Her heart was still pounding.

Although it had lasted only a moment, she had felt an utterly overwhelming presence.

At first, she thought a monster had appeared, but it definitely hadn’t felt like one.

Something completely different.

A third kind of existence.

“It was a Spirit that used to be contracted with me.”

“A… Spirit?”

Joo Jihye looked at him as though she wondered whether she had heard him correctly.

But when Oh Hyeonseong simply nodded, she became thoroughly flustered.

“But… I’ve never heard of an ability-type Hunter who uses Spirits…”

She couldn’t exactly call herself a veteran, but she knew practically everything there was to know about this industry.

Yet she’d only just learned that Spirits even existed.

There were occasionally Hunters who specialized in summoning-type abilities, but this was a category of existence she’d never even heard of.

“Of course you haven’t. I’m the only one.”

Oh Hyeonseong answered simply.

Even as he spoke, he didn’t spare her a glance.

He wore the most serious expression Joo Jihye had ever seen on him.

The relaxed demeanor he always carried was nowhere to be found.

Instead, he looked sharp and intensely focused.

It was as though she were looking at an entirely different person.

For some reason, Joo Jihye shrank back and couldn’t bring herself to say another word.

‘…’

A Spirit that had completely vanished could not be brought back to life.

Normally, Spirits could recover from ordinary levels of damage while in a dismissed state and return whenever they were summoned again.

But in certain extreme situations or special circumstances, Spirits could suffer permanent damage.

Oh Hyeonseong had made countless attempts to overturn this immutable fact.

That was also why he had become obsessed with rehabilitation after losing every one of his Spirits in the battle against the Queen.

Even if he completely retired as a Hunter, he didn’t want to bring his life to an end after losing his partners.

Of course, the result had been obvious, and eventually, he had given up.

But now…

He could feel it.

His soul and the Spirits were still closely connected.

‘They didn’t die…’

Oh Hyeonseong turned Albern’s words over and over in his mind.

Drops of blood fell from his tightly clenched fist.

“Is Jeongil in Korea right now?”

“Pardon…? Ah, yes! As far as I know, he doesn’t have any overseas schedules for the time being.”

“Let’s go to Seoul. I need to see him immediately.”

“Uh… You mean President Choi? Right now?”

Joo Jihye reacted in confusion.

According to her original plan, she had intended to stay another day or two and take things easy.

But Oh Hyeonseong needed to speak with Choi Jeongil as soon as possible.

WEEEE-OOO!

Just then, a loud siren suddenly rang out.

Oh Hyeonseong and Joo Jihye both turned toward the sound.

It wasn’t only here.

It was a disaster warning sounding throughout the entire village.

Ding!

Both their phones rang simultaneously with an emergency message, while an announcement played over the siren.

It was a prerecorded mechanical voice.

But it repeatedly made one thing clear:

This was a real emergency.

An emergency evacuation order had been issued due to a Gate manifestation.

“What the hell is going on all of a sudden?”

“It’s an emergency evacuation order from the Disaster Management Bureau. I guess a Gate appeared right near the village.”

“But this isn’t a normal alarm.”

Joo Jihye narrowed her eyes slightly as she spoke.

Even though the system for responding to Gates had become much more organized in this era, they normally didn’t make this much of a fuss.

There were several Gates appearing every year. If they caused this kind of commotion every time one appeared, the economy would have collapsed long ago.

For things to escalate this far, either a Gate with an unusual attribute had appeared, or there had been some other serious Gate-related incident at the level of an S-rank Gate or higher.

But the odds of a Gate of that magnitude appearing in such a small village, rather than near a city, were extremely low.

“Could they have issued a false alarm?”

“Who knows.”

“Just in case, I’ll grab my weapon.”

Joo Jihye went inside the detached house.

Neither of them was particularly flustered.

That went without saying for Oh Hyeonseong, but Joo Jihye was also a first-rate Hunter who made a living in this line of work.

For ordinary civilians, however, a situation like this could only be unfamiliar and terrifying.

The faces of the Yoo siblings, who had hurried over to Oh Hyeonseong’s house after hearing the broadcast, were pale as well.

“B-Brother! You’re safe!”

“There was an alarm going off all of a sudden. Did a Gate appear in the village?”

“Calm down. The fact that the alarm went off means the Disaster Management Bureau has already detected it. Don’t panic. Let’s go down there first.”

Oh Hyeonseong calmed the siblings down.

Soon, Joo Jihye appeared with sunglasses, a mask, and a hat pulled down completely over her face.

Without even having time to exchange proper greetings, the group headed toward the village.

“My goodness, what on earth is happening?”

“I didn’t see any Gate on the way here.”

“Has the Hwang family still not arrived?”

The villagers gathered in front of the village hall.

The evacuation facility was located near the hall, so everyone had naturally gathered there as though they had made an appointment.

But no one knew what was actually happening.

They hadn’t even entered the shelter, instead milling about anxiously.

They had never experienced a situation where an alarm this severe was sounded, and some were even crying from anxiety.

Just then, a series of vehicles entered the village.

Employees from the Disaster Management Bureau got out of the stopped vehicles and began directing people around, organizing the confusion as though they’d done it countless times before.

Oh Hyeonseong and the others soon arrived in the village and encountered them before moving toward the civilian shelter.

But Joo Jihye, who had entered alongside him, asked in confusion.

“Why are we going in here?”

“You wait here for a moment. I’ll go find out what’s happening.”

Oh Hyeonseong left the shelter alone.

Near the entrance, he spotted an investigator dressed in a black coat.

Recognizing immediately that the man was a Hunter, Oh Hyeonseong approached him.

“They suddenly issued an evacuation order. What happened?”

“A Gate has been detected around the village. It’s standard procedure, so stay inside and wait.”

“But you normally don’t issue an alarm for something like this, do you?”

“That depends on the situation. It’s our job to handle it, so go back inside.”

“I’ll return immediately, so just tell me what’s going on. Everyone is anxious. And if this were an ordinary situation, wouldn’t you only send a clearing team rather than dispatching investigators as well?”

“Listen! How much do you think you know? You’ve been talking nonstop. Are you a Hunter?”

The man scowled.

He was already dealing with a chaotic situation.

The last thing he needed was some country bumpkin from a rural village constantly questioning him as though he knew something.

But Oh Hyeonseong had no intention of leaving.

As their voices gradually grew louder, a nearby Hunter approached.

“What’s going on?”

“I don’t know. He keeps bothering me even though I told him to go inside.”

“I’m only asking for a basic explanation of the situation.”

“Ah, seriously!”

“Huh…?”

The Hunter who had intervened blinked when he saw Oh Hyeonseong.

A moment later, his expression changed to one of utter shock.

He hurriedly whispered something to his colleague.

The colleague’s eyes widened in surprise.

For a moment, he seemed unable to believe what he’d heard.

But soon, his expression became awkward and he spoke.

“Uh… I’m… I’m sorry.”

He bowed deeply and hurried away.

Wondering why the man had suddenly acted that way, Oh Hyeonseong looked at the Hunter who had intervened.

“Are you… Hunter Oh Hyeonseong?”

“…How do you know me?”

“My name is Seo Jinkyu. You obviously don’t know who I am, but before I transferred here, I was a Hunter from a private guild.”

The man introduced himself.

Back then, private organizations were commonly called guilds rather than management companies, and Hunters often belonged to these quasi-mercenary groups.

“And our guild also participated in the Northern Defense Battle.”

“You went through a difficult time.”

“Haha, we certainly did. Still, thanks to you holding the front line back then, we were able to escape through the retreat route that was secured. I still remember that time vividly. Thank you, truly.”

Seo Jinkyu bowed deeply.

There was genuine gratitude in his expression.

Who would have thought that, years after retiring, Oh Hyeonseong would hear such words from someone who hadn’t even been a former comrade, but a complete stranger?

Then again, no matter how thoroughly his face and affiliation had been erased from the records, there were bound to be people who remembered that time.

In any case, this unexpected encounter had made things much simpler.

Oh Hyeonseong heard the detailed circumstances surrounding the alarm from Seo Jinkyu.

Including the sudden appearance of a wavelength equivalent to that of an S-rank Gate, and the fact that the wavelength had suddenly disappeared.

“There is a high possibility that it was simply an error, but since this concerns something as serious as an S-rank Gate, we’re conducting a search just in case.”

“So nothing has been found yet?”

“Yes. Nothing that can be visually confirmed, at least.”

Normally, the higher a Gate’s rank, the greater its physical size.

If an actual S-rank Gate had appeared nearby, it should have been easy to spot.

But despite searching the area around the village, they hadn’t found a single Gate.

‘Could it be… that Albern’s presence was picked up by the detection network?’

There had never been a reason for something like that to happen in the past, but theoretically, it was certainly possible.

A being of Albern’s caliber had suddenly appeared again.

It wouldn’t be strange for its presence to produce a wavelength that could be mistaken for an S-rank Gate.

More importantly, the timing was simply too perfect.

The wavelength had appeared and disappeared at almost exactly the same time Albern had manifested.

“I have to go search the outskirts now, so I’ll be leaving.”

“Thank you for explaining.”

The conversation with Seo Jinkyu ended.

Not long after, Han Suyeon contacted him first.

“Senior, an abnormal phenomenon was detected on our end. But the area happens to be your village. Nothing happened there, right?”

“Something did happen.”

“…What?”

“Albern came back.”

“Albern…? The Albern I know?”

“Yes. I think that’s what caused the wavelength to be detected, too. I’ll explain the details later, so take care of things for now. Don’t make your employees waste their time for nothing.”

“Got it. Give me a moment.”

After Oh Hyeonseong ended the call with Han Suyeon—

Sure enough, the withdrawal of the Disaster Management Bureau’s Hunters began shortly afterward.

No Gate had been directly confirmed during the search, and headquarters had issued orders stating that the incident was presumed to have been caused by a malfunction in the observation equipment.

But for some reason, even after the withdrawal order was given, one of the search teams failed to return.

“W-what is this?”

A Disaster Management Bureau search team came to a stop in the mountains near the village.

A huge footprint had been discovered among the dense undergrowth.

At first glance, it looked like the footprint of a beast.

But no beast of this size existed.

Moreover, an ominous black energy was swirling around it.

The level of contamination was so intense that even the Hunters instinctively stepped backward.

“Could this… be related to the S-rank Gate that was detected this time?”

“No. It has nothing to do with the wavelength. With contamination this severe… it seems to have been here for quite some time.”

Cold sweat trickled down Seo Jinkyu’s forehead.

“A calamity that is said to be humanity’s natural enemy.”