Whoosh!

“Ahh, save me, please save me. Please, spare my life!”

Zero screamed in a high-pitched voice, shuddering.

Reflexively rising due to the sudden flames, Ilaine grabbed the fire extinguisher placed in the corner of the room and sprayed its contents, while Suji threw a bead item that could be used like a water bomb.

Their speed was unrealistically fast, reacting even quicker than the sprinklers.

However, the flames only grew fiercer as if they had been fed oil.

Zero’s screaming voice subsided in an instant.

Despite efforts to contain the fire, in the blink of an eye, a person had turned to ashes without a single bone remaining.

“…What is this.”

“What’s going on?”

Suji and Yeonju muttered in bewilderment.

Ilaine also set down the fire extinguisher on the floor, seemingly drained.

Suji had seen many deaths before. But never anything this absurd.

The words “What the hell is this” just kept spinning in her mouth.

Everyone present was equally shocked, but Seunghwan was the first to regain his senses.

“…There was just a mysterious fire incident in the conference room. The criminal suddenly burned to ashes. Analyze the CCTV footage and send me the data as soon as it’s available. And turn off the sprinklers.”

Only after Seunghwan gave instructions to the secretariat did the waterfall-like spray from the ceiling stop.

Suji approached the chair where Zero had been sitting, splashing through the water pooled on the floor.

How strange.

It was a flame powerful enough to turn a person into powder in an instant.

Yet the wooden chair he had been sitting on was intact, with only slight scorch marks.

“…He had been afraid all along.”

Yeonju spoke up in a daze.

“Zero?”

“Yes. Even as he kept revealing information, he was afraid of something. Said if he talked too much, they wouldn’t leave him alone.”

“…That cult organization?”

“I suppose so.”

Suji ran her hand over the wooden chair where only water-mixed ashes remained, unimaginable that a person had been sitting there just moments ago.

Her mouth tasted bitter.

Until just now, she had only felt resentment towards Zero as an individual, but seeing this sight suddenly made her suspicious of the ‘Messiah’ organization, as if a light bulb had gone off in her head.

No, rather than just suspicion… hostility arose.

“But is it possible to kill someone like this just for revealing something?”

Suji had momentarily witnessed sparks flying from Zero’s hands.

So, it looked as if he had done it himself.

“It’s possible.”

The answer unexpectedly came from Ilaine.

“How?”

“By planting a trigger in the mind and giving an uncontrollable ability.”

“A trigger?”

“It’s a mechanism that activates when you utter words that shouldn’t be revealed, making you take your own life. A device that operates when specific words are spoken.”

“But we’re human, not machines. How can it work like that?”

Suji pressed her temples, feeling a throbbing in her head.

“Have you heard of stories like this before?”

“‘Messiah’ is quite famous among hunters of middling ranks. I happened to receive a recruitment offer from them once, and through that incident, I looked into it a bit and heard about their vicious methods.”

“…Still, to think this is possible. It’s not even ordinary fire, what on earth…”

“It’s not an organization to be taken lightly as just some cult. It’s best to avoid getting entangled with them as much as possible.”

Ilaine spoke rather timidly, unlike his usual self who tackles everything head-on.

Suji nodded without arguing, but she didn’t reach the same conclusion.

‘Didn’t he say ‘Messiah’ wanted to obtain …?’

Suddenly, she felt fortunate that she had decided to go to .

She didn’t know exactly what kind of group they were, but she no longer wanted to leave them be.

She looked around the room blankly.

The room was in a much worse state than when they first entered, and the five people had become four.

She felt like throwing up.

There was no mood to continue talking about ‘great beings’ or whatever anymore.

“…Aunt, and Uncle. Please send me the data related to ‘Messiah’ separately. I’ll be going now.”

“…Alright. That would be good. I don’t know what’s going on…”

“The times are so turbulent, you need to be careful.”

In normal circumstances, Yeonju would have joked, ‘Who’s telling who to be careful?’ in response to Seunghwan’s words.

Everyone was stunned, unable to prevent the incident that unfolded before their eyes.

In the heavy atmosphere, Suji silently said her goodbyes and left the room.

As soon as she got into the elevator, her head started spinning.

She sat down right there and pressed her temples.

“Are you alright?”

Normally, she would have said she was fine, if only to avoid showing weakness, but right now, she wasn’t in good shape.

“…I feel nauseous.”

Without making much fuss, Ilaine took off the black outer garment he was wearing and draped it over Daphne’s shoulders.

Due to their height difference and Suji sitting on the floor, the coat dragged on the ground, but neither of them paid attention to that.

Still, in this situation, the coat with the warmth of a person’s body strangely provided comfort.

The elevator that seemed to take so long going up felt instantaneous coming down.

As Suji sighed and started to get up, not wanting to encounter people, Ilaine pressed the button for the 2nd floor just before reaching the lobby.

The 2nd floor was the place with the least traffic as it had no major facilities.

“It would be good for you to catch your breath for a moment.”

Suji nodded and stood up.

The two exited the elevator and naturally walked along the empty corridor until they reached the stairway connecting the 2nd floor to the 1st floor.

Suji sat on the stairs, still wearing Ilaine’s coat, while Ilaine leaned against the wall like a guard.

After a long silence, Suji muttered blankly.

“When climbing the tower, no matter how hard it was, I only had to think about the tower. Why are there so many complicated things in the world? , ‘Messiah’, ‘Great Beings’…”

Ilaine waited for Suji’s words to echo and fade in the stairwell before slowly responding.

“You should do as you wish, Team Leader.”

“As I wish…?”

Suji kept blinking her large purple eyes and then fiddled with the coat covering her shoulders.

She felt like she was gradually learning how difficult it is to live without being swayed by others and to live as one wishes.

“First, I need to find out exactly what kind of place ‘Messiah’ is. …I think that will put my mind at ease.”

“You’ve probably received several recruitment emails as well, Team Leader.”

“Emails… As if eternal life were some kind of vegetable juice.”

Suji complained as she took out her pad.

Fortunately, the search function was quite useful, so it didn’t take long to find ‘Messiah’s’ marketing emails among the numerous unverified emails.

There were over 100 that appeared to be recruitment invitations.

Suji chose the most recent one and opened it.

Hello, ‘Messiah’, which seeks new shining stars, is recruiting new members.

Are you tired of searching for the potential abilities within you?

Then it’s time to encounter new power and eternal life.

Come to ‘Messiah’, led by the pioneer, and change your life.

From: Messiah]

It was nothing but an insignificant promotional phrase. To be honest, it was poorly written.

If it were a religious group, there should at least be content about who their god is and what happens when you believe in that god, but there was nothing like that.

“Who would join with this? Their marketing skills are terrible.”

“Yet people still want to donate large sums of money, so there must be something to it.”

“That’s what I mean.”

Suji stared at her toes for a long time before speaking.

“…Ilaine.”

“Yes.”

“I have a bad feeling. Honestly, that flame earlier. It wasn’t ordinary fire. Right? It wasn’t just water, we used items so we should have been able to extinguish it, but it didn’t go out…”

“That’s right.”

“It’s also too strange that a place that treats human lives like flies claims to be a religious organization. What do you think, Ilaine?”

Instead of answering, Ilaine turned his head to look at the large window between the stairs.

From here, most of it was obscured by tall buildings, but a part of the tower that seemed to reach the sky was visible.

His gaze seemed to be fixed on the top of the tower.

Suji thought that even though Ilaine appeared calm, he must have been greatly shocked as well.

His profile looked incredibly complex.

Ding.

Just then, a new email arrival sound rang out, and a preview pop-up window appeared.

This is Priya from Messiah.

I end up greeting you for the first time via email like this.

I’m sending an apology email, as I may have startled you suddenly.

…]

Suji blankly read the name Priya again.

Priya was an SS-class hunter.

She was also someone who had testified about contacting the ‘Great Beings’, and had obtained the reward from the first .

‘Why is Priya apologizing now?’

Suji swallowed hard.