#515

Curtain Call (1)

[Evelyn Marcia.]  

- Tracker: Level 5+  

- Hunter: Level 6+  

- Combat Specialist: Level 7+  

- Magic User: Level 7+  

- Specific accomplishments are immeasurable.

[Skills in archery have been widely recognized as surpassing standard ranking frameworks. Evaluation exceeds normal grading standards.]  

[Joined the agency at a young age. Has unmatched sniping skills since then.]  

[Suspected to be from the Eastern Outland Tribe. Has one blood relative in Blaver’s Mage Tower.]  

[Special Agency Agent. Codename: Missile. Chief Graduate of the 446th training program for executors in Mechanized City.]  

[Former lieutenant colonel in the Special Forces of the Defense Corps. Detailed mission records are classified.]  

[Confirmed participation in the Battle of Trama Sanctuary.]  

[Confirmed participation in the Crusade against the Seventh Apostle.]  

[Confirmed participation in the Fourth Southern Continent War.]  

[Suspected participation in the Vulcan Suburban Civil War.]  

[Suspected participation in the Defense Corps' Shadow War.]  

…  

[Scheduled to participate in the Central Front Extermination Battle.]

---

Not long after Lennok had just reached Level 7, he had once journeyed with Evelyn to Blaver’s Mage Tower. This was shortly after killing Parden McQueen, the first head of the Cartel, and first manifesting the Kaleidoscope Realm.  

On the journey across the plains toward the Mage Tower, Lennok and Evelyn had sparred lightly, testing each other’s abilities. From that time, Lennok had never once seen Evelyn truly unleash her full power.

“This is the worst,” Lennok thought, watching Evelyn lightly jump down onto the shaking train. What did it mean that she had appeared on the very train Lennok had planned to escape on?  

Without monitoring the entire network of dozens of trains flowing within Byrutz, this would have been impossible. Yet, even while relentlessly sniping and bombing from outside the city, she had analyzed the train paths and confronted Lennok with a single, precise move. It seemed impossible, but Lennok knew that nothing was truly out of reach for the Emerald Archer.

Even the slightest twitch of his fingertips was under her emerald gaze. Evelyn’s chilling eyes surveyed Lennok, her face devoid of warmth, scrutinizing him not as an acquaintance but as a threat to be eliminated. Her sharp, green eyes calculated everything from his posture and balance to his center of gravity in an instant.

“Intoxicated by drugs.”  

The first words Evelyn spoke to Lennok were, “You’re barely standing, relying on something... Or are you just hanging on?”

Through the loose folds of Lennok's robe, Evelyn gauged his height and weight, instantly discerning that he was not truly standing on his own. She even realized that it was due to the effects of some drug, and that he was maintaining his balance only by channeling his energy.

"You seem calm. It doesn't look like you've overexerted yourself during combat. A geas or a trigger? The conditions for spell manifestation... No, it’s more of a personal preference," she mused, lightly adjusting and checking the shortbow strapped to her forearm, tilting her head slightly.

"The only thing that comes to mind is a variation in style... But why now? I don't quite understand."

Just from his stance, Evelyn deduced exactly how Lennok had handled Logia and what condition he was in now. Her unsettling observation wasn’t about guessing motives and drawing conclusions but about grasping the result first and then working backward to infer the motivations. Evelyn’s talent and strength didn’t come solely from her extraordinary archery; even Lennok, who had worked alongside her, was sometimes taken aback by her sharp intuition and keen insight.

She had the instincts and judgment to hold her own in close combat as well, despite her gifts in archery. Even if she hadn’t possessed her talent with the bow, Evelyn would undoubtedly have become just as formidable.

With a soft click, she drew an arrow from her belt, twirled it once, and lowered her gaze.

"I won’t say much."

"…"

"The werewolf you've captured—release it and back away slowly."

Her green eyes glinted icily.

"Then I'll spare your life."

"…Agent Missile. I never thought I'd run into you here," Lennok finally spoke after confirming the altered tone in his voice. This was entirely different from dealing with a complete stranger. Evelyn was one of the very few people who knew many of Lennok’s secrets, so he had to be cautious not to raise the slightest suspicion through his tone or nuance.

"I was wondering where all these lethal shots were coming from, but it turns out you weren't even pulling the bowstring yourself?"

"…"

"An incredible feat. Though I’m not sure if it even qualifies as archery."

Evelyn didn’t respond to Lennok’s faintly amused praise. She realized that he had figured out how she was raining arrows all over the satellite city without drawing her bow on site.

She hadn’t been shooting each arrow individually from outside the city. Before even entering, Evelyn had launched multiple arrows, timed so they would fall across the city with a staggered delay.

By using a greatbow to launch a barrage of arrows into the sky, she’d created a rain of arrows that would bombard the city’s outskirts in intervals, as though she could predict the situation minutes in advance. It was an extraordinary skill, nearly a form of foresight, requiring a superhuman level of judgment and vision.

All arrows, except the ones that had directly hit Vernon and the train, had left the bowstring well before now.

Evelyn had rained arrows from outside the satellite city beforehand, creating the illusion that she was still stationed beyond the city limits. Under the cover of this deception, she had slipped into the city outskirts herself, tracking down a member of Pandemonium directly.

“If it weren’t for this werewolf, I wouldn’t have been detected by you, but it seems we’re both in the same boat,” Lennok said with a low chuckle.  

“I was aware of the risk and waited for you all the same.”

“That man is a suspect who’s been profiting from both Pandemonium and Aegis,” Evelyn replied calmly.  

“If you hand him over, I have no intention of detaining you as well.”

"…"

“I’m only cooperating with Aegis on this mission, so I don’t plan on taking all the credit... but I have a job to do. Decide.”

Her green eyes glinted with cold resolve.  

“I won’t accept any further answer.”

The unwavering declaration carried a confidence rooted in undeniable skill and authority, something Lennok understood better than anyone. Even if he fought with all his strength, victory was far from guaranteed against someone as overwhelmingly powerful as Evelyn. Despite working together, he’d even received guidance from her on occasion; Evelyn was a perfected powerhouse in both strength and skill.

Although she had stepped down from her role as an active agent to live a more reclusive life, it was purely by choice. When she drew her bowstring, someone’s life was invariably held at her fingertips—that was the true nature of Evelyn Marcia, the archer.  

Gazing at the archer, emanating a razor-sharp aura, Lennok came to a decision.  

‘It’s going to be tough with my elemental spells sealed.’

As Victor, the only magic he could use was manipulation and spatial magic. Although he could add some tricks with his Shadow Robe and various items, these were not his core abilities. He couldn’t use his strongest techniques like lightning magic, Domain, or Ouroboros.

The challenge of facing Evelyn while holding back his strongest moves was obvious. At this point, confronted with an opponent of her caliber, Lennok’s course of action was clear. Taking a deep breath, he adjusted his stance, holding his energy channels with both hands as if he were weaving a cat’s cradle.

‘The odds aren’t high. But…’

He had no intention of handing over Logia. As Evelyn had said, Logia was the only means to gather intelligence from both Pandemonium and Aegis. Lennok had anticipated that Aegis and the city government would attempt to reclaim him. Though dealing with Evelyn was a burdensome risk, he couldn’t carelessly surrender Logia before finishing his own preparations.  

Lennok had to sort through the memories he’d extracted from Logia’s mind and confirm that Logia’s condition wouldn’t reveal any of Lennok’s secrets.

On the swaying roof of the train, Lennok lowered his head slightly.  

“I’m afraid I can’t do that.”

"Do you really think you can escape?"

Lennok quietly chuckled before answering, and in that brief moment when Evelyn frowned slightly at the sound of his laugh:

"I'll do my best."

There was no further reply. Just as he thought he saw her green eyes flickering faintly in the darkness, she had already closed the distance, appearing mere inches from him.

Whoosh!  

With her bare hand, she thrust an arrow straight into his side with an effortless motion. The swift and unfeeling simplicity of the attack was nearly as fast as sound itself. He responded to her preemptive strike with nothing but pure instinct.

‘Should I catch it? No…!!’

Lennok deflected the rotating strands of his energy just enough to barely change the trajectory of the arrowhead.

Screech…!!

The black streak of her missed strike sliced right past his Shadow Robe, cleanly cutting into the asphalt below. Evelyn’s eyes gleamed as she observed Lennok’s response.

"You reacted? Not bare-handed."

"…"

"For you to withstand an initial strike from this distance—your instincts are flawless, and your judgment to deflect rather than block was sharp."

She seemed entirely unfazed by the fact that her first strike had missed, as if she had been waiting for Lennok to respond effectively. That eerie composure only made his spine tingle.

"Let’s take a closer look."

Evelyn’s hand, gripping the arrow in reverse, wavered briefly as she moved, and Lennok’s hands, following her lead, danced to match her movements. The waves of energy surrounding them surged and shimmered, deflecting every flashing strike and sending them crashing into the ground.

Crack!

A terrifying slicing noise echoed at their feet, shredding the durable train panels and their joints as though they were mere scrap.

In the span of mere moments, their positions swapped a dozen times as they clashed, vanished, and then reappeared in explosive bursts. Lennok manipulated his energy to barely evade and endure her strikes, while Evelyn moved like a predator, vanishing into the shadows with each step.

Dududududu!

They crossed the razor's edge of danger, leaping through the wreckage of the train in a deadly exchange so sharp that the air itself seemed to sting their skin. Yet Evelyn’s expression gradually shifted to one of curiosity and fascination.

"Manipulation-type. Energy strands. Thickness less than 0.2mm."

Evelyn, having quickly discerned the nature of Lennok’s weapon, brushed her cheek thoughtfully as she spoke.

"It seems you adjust the tension and length in real-time, and control over 54 strands simultaneously… even splitting your focus between your body and the external combat."

In a matter of mere breaths, Evelyn had precisely and effortlessly analyzed Lennok’s abilities and limitations to a chilling degree. She looked beyond what was visible, intuitively perceiving what lay beneath, seeking to understand its essence. Such otherworldly intuition could only belong to a monster who had fully awakened to and transcended their own nature—an ability that reminded Lennok, more than anything else, of the true weight of facing Evelyn in battle.

“You seem adept at close-range combat, though the details in your movement paths are lacking. But that’s not necessarily wrong… it’s quite a unique style. Is that the effect of the drugs?” she mused.

“Hah…!” Lennok exhaled sharply.

Unlike Evelyn, who spoke with ease, Lennok was barely holding his ground, relying on a single strand of energy for defense. To match wits and maintain an equal footing against a Level 8 combatant required every bit of his focus. Even with his sharp instincts and tactical prowess, holding his ground without activating his mystic eye was almost impossible.

“I don’t know where an organization like yours finds people as strange as you,” Evelyn remarked, gripping her arrow and stepping forward.

“Every time I deal with Pandemonium, I wonder—is it really possible to acquire a natural gift like yours only after something twists within you?”

“Why don’t you figure that out on your own…!” Lennok retorted, controlling his body with his energy to whip his head back, narrowly avoiding the arrowhead that grazed the edge of his mask.

At that moment, both the unconscious Logia and Lennok himself were suddenly pulled back, as if something had latched onto them.  

Whiz!  

Lennok anchored his energy to another passing train car overhead, forcefully creating distance. In an instant, he had pulled himself dozens of meters away, demonstrating remarkable agility. At the same time, he detached part of his Shadow Robe, using it to cover Logia’s body and shaping it into a form similar to his own, effectively splitting into two.

“You’ve created distance? Do you think you can dodge me?” Evelyn, realizing what Lennok intended, gripped her arrow in reverse, setting her shoulders with determination.

“I won’t let you escape.”

Crack…!

With a fleeting impression of her shoulder and arm disappearing, a black flash radiated faintly from her fingertips, released faster than the speed of sound.

Thwack!  

An arrow shot through the night sky, piercing through the Shadow Robe that slid between the building walls. But immediately afterward, the robe crumbled, revealing Lennok on the rooftop of a building on the opposite side of the street.

The speed and precision of his evasion were almost too quick to believe, as if he had completely altered his presence.

Realizing the extent of her opponent’s agility, Evelyn’s eyes grew cold with focus. “Just a fraction off. You read my speed. Predicted it?”

Drawing two more arrows, she took a single step forward, and in that instant, Evelyn appeared on the rooftop of the building dozens of meters away.

As she sprinted across the rooftop, Evelyn swept her left arm down, and a compact black shortbow unfolded from her forearm. Her primary longbow was currently in use for a wide-scale sniping barrage throughout Byrutz, leaving her unable to deploy it here. However, with her innate archery skills, this shortbow alone was more than sufficient.

Creak…! 

Lowering her stance fluidly as she slid across the open rooftop, Evelyn drew two arrows from her waist and nocked them to the bowstring, infusing them with energy. A dark green glow spiraled along the arrow shafts, and the instant she felt their rotation stabilize, the arrows left her fingers.

Swish!  

The two arrows spiraled through the narrow spaces between buildings, forming a double helix as they pursued Lennok, who was quickly pulling away. He blinked and shifted his position again, just as before, but one of the trailing arrows struck the leading one mid-flight.

Bang!  

The arrowheads exploded, scattering fragments like shrapnel, tearing through the area around the rail tracks and shredding the Shadow Robe nearby. Even Logia’s unconscious body, which was following behind Lennok, flinched at the sheer intensity of the blast. Still, Lennok didn’t stop, racing toward the outskirts of Byrutz without hesitation. Despite Evelyn’s personal shot, he managed to evade the attack with impossible agility, avoiding even the vicinity of the blast.

At that moment, Evelyn realized that her opponent wasn’t using manipulation techniques alone. She adjusted her stance, recognizing something far more formidable in his abilities.

"His life signs are strangely unusual… and he has the ability to leap through space itself. I see…."

Her green eyes glinted, casting an intense light.

"You know me… and you’re aware of my abilities."

A monster wielding both manipulation and spatial magic. Such talent and aptitude allowed him to move freely in and out of this city as a member of Pandemonium. It was no surprise, but Evelyn now saw the need to alter her approach.

Click!  

She pulled the ends of her shortbow, extending both limbs slightly to transform it into a makeshift longbow. Though it would sacrifice some stability, it extended her range and power—an improvised adjustment she could still control with her precision.

"Let’s see if you can dodge this."

As she pulled the extended bowstring back, an overwhelming sense of power emanated from within her, channeling into the arrow’s tip.

---

‘I know exactly how Evelyn uses her archery.’

Expending what little remained of his blink magic to widen the gap, Lennok thought quickly.

‘If I plan for more than three evasions and calculate my route accordingly, I should be able to stay a step ahead of her for the first five arrows. So far, everything’s going as expected.’

Evelyn Marcia is an outstanding warrior and a remarkable archer, but at her core, she’s closer to a hunter. Rather than immediately unleashing her full power in combat, she has a habit of assessing and evaluating her opponent. Lennok was well aware of this tendency, which allowed him to dodge her first few arrows by moving unpredictably, gaining a brief moment of respite.

‘The problem starts now that Evelyn is using her “Microcosm.”’

Evelyn’s Microcosm, Inertial Deflection, enables her to freely control the direction and inertia of any object imbued with her will. This ability not only amplifies her skills as a phenomenal archer and warrior but elevates her combat style to an extreme level in both offense and defense. It allows her arrows to transcend the usual limits of archery, providing her with a power that is both incredibly strong and versatile. 

So far, Lennok had twisted his path to disrupt the trajectory of her shots, causing them to miss. However, under the influence of Inertial Deflection, such maneuvers would no longer work. No matter how he tried to dodge, her arrows could be redirected at will, making his survival dependent purely on psychological warfare. 

‘It’s a matter of timing between her Microcosm and my blink magic. But with her controlling the tempo, I’m at a disadvantage.’

Evelyn was an opponent whose strength made it impossible to predict victory, even if Lennok fought her head-on with everything he had. In the guise of Victor, suppressing his true identity and holding back his full power, enduring her onslaught was nearly inconceivable. To complete the memory adjustment on Logia, he had no choice but to escape the city, evading her arrows until he could make it out.

That said, Lennok wasn’t simply trying to buy time by creating distance.

‘By now, the transcontinental train should be approaching near the satellite city. If I can reach the station, that’ll be enough.’

Unlike the trains Lennok had forcefully activated within Byrutz, the transcontinental train was a regular intercity route. If he could board the train passing near Byrutz and make his way back to Vulcan, he’d escape Evelyn’s pursuit. Or, at the very least, disappearing from her line of sight with Logia would be sufficient. All he needed was a brief opening.

Just as he secured his body to a nearby train with his energy strands and climbed atop it, he heard a sharp click! and felt a searing sensation.

“...!!!”

A massive black-green streak cut through Byrutz’s skyline, splitting the bustling cityscape in two. Lennok detected it with his magical senses an instant too late; the arrow had already surpassed the speed of sound, landing its mark.

A single arrow narrowly grazed his feet, piercing straight through the center of the train car.

BOOOOM!!!  

Dozens of train cars burst apart like balloons, expanding and scattering like an enormous aluminum can shredded to pieces.

“Ugh!”

The shock shattered his shields, and blood began to seep through cuts where the arrow had grazed his skin, even piercing through the torn Shadow Robe.

Realizing that Lennok’s movements were disturbingly unusual, Evelyn began to push her Microcosm to its limits.

"She’s already caught on...!"

The trajectory of Evelyn’s arrow twisted into a complex path so convoluted that even Lennok struggled to predict its initial course. It was almost certainly a layered shot, changing direction at least five times. If he continued to widen the distance, Evelyn’s arrows would only become more unpredictable and harder to evade. But if he didn’t increase the distance, he wouldn’t be able to escape.

Caught in this impossible situation, with the unconscious Logia weighing him down, Lennok couldn’t be sure how much longer he could dodge her relentless sniping and keep himself intact.

Bzzzzz!  

The eerie presence of her second shot emerged from the rooftop across hundreds of meters as though the distance was meaningless. She had infused her Inertial Deflection power fully into the next shot, her intention unmistakably lethal.

Whoosh!

But rather than blinking away, Lennok threw himself back, arms wide open in mid-air instead of using his blink spell. He hadn’t chosen to flee from Evelyn without a plan or chance of success.

In fact, there was a strategy he could only attempt after gaining this much distance.