Etranger

“Are you from the Dong-Myung Clan?” Oslan asked with a trembling voice and grim look. He was relatively handsome by human standards and looked to be in his thirties.

However, instead of answering, Biyeon spoke while looking towards another area.

“You two! Will you both keep hiding? If you’re not planning on stabbing me in the back, why don’t you both come out?”

A part of the forest shook. Two Avian people with golden wings flew upwards, revealing themselves from different directions. Biyeon’s eyes opened wide.

‘Angels?’

Episode 2. Book 3: Infiltration – Chapter 11

San was sitting on a rock and silently staring in the direction Biyeon should be at.

With his lips tightly closed, he opened and closed his gloved hands… The inside of the glove was wet with sweat. His communication channel with Biyeon had suddenly become unstable. This was a sign that a strong enemy had appeared. Dite approached him.

“Are they someone you know?”

“They’re from a race called Golden Avian.” 

“Golden Avian?”

“They’re one of the oldest races regarding the prototypical intelligent flying species. Among these species, the Avian people are a race that adapted to the forest and the Hawks are a race that has been fused into the forest. Something is off, though. They hardly ever appear in the world… I think I saw them once 600 years ago.”

“Are they strong?”

San tried calming his breath. His heart was racing. It was perhaps the speed at which Biyeon’s heart was beating right now. He suddenly felt thirsty.

“Probably… there’s a legend that the ‘Original One’ used them as messengers.”

A sense of fear started coloring Dite’s face.

“Original One?” asked San, turning his head to look at her expression.

“It’s another name for the ‘Creator’. The guardians of ‘A-Pian’ sometimes referred to him as the ‘Old One’.”

“What’s ‘A-Pian’?” San asked again, fixing his eyes on some point in the sky. Unlike his usual self, he was growing increasingly impatient.

“That, I don’t really know. It’s said that it’s the hometown of ‘all the tribes in the universe’. However, its existence has never been confirmed.”

San rose. He already had his sword out.

“Sedum!” San called as he hurried forward.

“Yes, sir! What can I do?” 

“Stand guard over the camp. I have to go.”

Before Sedum gave an answer, San had already moved far away.

***

Biyeon glances at her left shoulder. Blood was oozing out from where a chunk of flesh had been taken off.

She moved her waist to the left again. Two golden feathers pierced through her clothes before returning back to where they came from.

Again, four feathers flew towards her as fast as bullets. Biyeon turned her sword.

Ting-Ting-Ting-

Biyeon clenched her teeth. The incoming feathers and her sword collided. The reverberating shock of that clash was transmitted from her sword into her body, creating internal injury and bone damage. It was like she was hitting a hammer against a concrete sidewalk. 

She couldn’t avoid all of their attacks. Moments earlier, some of the feathers passed by her defense and lightly grazed her shoulders, tearing off her clothes and flesh.

Biyeon closed her eyes. She told herself that it was not the time to fight alone… she was maximizing her senses and thought to process.

They looked like angels. They also attacked without saying a single word. Even now, they were moving at tremendous speeds, constantly positioning themselves in front and back of Biyeon. They didn’t fly with their wings. Due to air resistance, their wings couldn’t perform the fast motions that they were showing now.

Perhaps the principle of their air movement was the same as what she learned herself. However, their speed was incomparably faster. It was like the difference between a beginner driver and a professional racer.

Biyeon tasted bitterness in her mouth.

Those golden wings were not just for decoration. Rather, the wings seemed to have evolved into a weapon of mass destruction. Its attack method was like a remotely controlled guided missile. When fired, the fibers of the feathers were folded, but when turning or passing through the target, the feathers’ fibers rose. They would also spin closer to their target, destroying everything the feathers passed through with tremendous rotational force.

Moreover, the problem was that the number of these dangerous weapons was in the millions.

‘So insignificant. Have you already given up, surface-restricted human Awakener?’

The male Golden Avian seemed to have spoken. His voice came into Biyeon’s ear, but it wasn’t through the traditional medium of sound. Biyeon didn’t answer. Though she had realized it before, neither of these two were willing to negotiate. She could only sense them filled with feelings of arrogance and ruthlessness. They were like wolves who bite and kill anything that enters their territory…

Biyeon felt it was time to fulfill her role. ‘Coldly, heartlessly… and as determinedly as when she first came to this world… why should I hesitate now?’ Biyeon laughed at her own thoughts.

‘I was caught off guard because of their angelic faces. Suddenly, I thought I may be the villain… I was stupid to think such silly things…’

Biyeon, after organizing her thoughts, moved quickly. The direction she chose was down.

If combat in the air brought no advantage for her, she would change the battlefield. As she moved downward, a bolt of golden feathers poured out towards her, blooming like a flower as it got near her body.

Biyeon rotated her body as she descended. Her head was facing down in a delta position[1].

The air around her started spinning. A strong centrifugal force was created around her body. Thus, the centrifugal force created a centripetal force against the incoming feathers that aimed straight into her whirlwind.

The feathers became caught in her rotational force. Rather than moving forward towards her body, the feathers moved around in a circular motion around her. Several feathers managed to flow deeper in and sweep parts of Biyeon’s body, but they didn’t cause a fatal blow.

‘Quite...'

This time, the female Golden Avian, ‘Linuel’, started speaking. Her voice rang softly in Biyeon’s eardrums. Biyeon had already shot deep into the forest. Branches were shattered by the pursuing golden feathers. Fragments of green trees scattered in all directions as if many small bombs were detonated.

‘Do you believe that it’ll be a little more advantageous for you if we battle on the ground?’

‘Gapael’, the male Golden Avian, seemed to whine in her eardrums. The two Golden Avians turned in the air and looked towards the woods.

They didn’t face any visual or hearing impairments. They clearly saw Biyeon’s silhouette as she moved around within the forest.

They opened both of their arms before descending. Both arms changed shape freely, sharply hardening into a pointed blade. Now, both of their arms had become shining black swords. These blades, powerful enough to cut steel, could be stretched thinly or contracted freely. Thus, an area of more than 20 meters was set as their killing space. It must be understood that their ability was something even Sages could not carelessly go against. It was their species’ special blessing from the ‘Original One’.

“No, it doesn’t matter where we battle. Fighting is not my specialty. Don’t be so impatient and wait for a moment. We’re going to start hunting angels today,” Biyeon responded while continuing to move around quickly. 

Her clothes were tattered and soaked with blood. She was injured and bleeding all over her body. Her eyes were still closed. Biyeon temporarily gave up on her overly sensitive vision. Instead, she expanded all of her other senses. Before long, Biyeon smiled. One or two familiar sensations overlapped with her senses. Like a deep French kiss, the sensation was warm and strong. However, it was also smooth and caressing. The senses mingled like lovers who couldn’t be away from each other…

‘Hunt angels?’

Linuel tilted her head. Gapael stopped moving and flinched. A new energy source was captured from their senses. Linuel sharply turned and moved quickly in the air. Gapael hurriedly stepped back. A heavy and vicious energy source was coming towards them from below. However, somehow, the aura seemed familiar to them. The familiar aura and scent spread in all directions…

Biyeon continued running. San was quickly approaching her from the opposite side of the forest.

A conversation flowed between them.

[Their strength level…]

[Between levels 6 and 7. Sword strikes in 3rd Stage Acceleration do not work.]

[Their speed is…?] 

[300 to 400.]

Her speed grew quicker. Wherever she passed, the forest seemed to take her presence as normal, as if breathing with her. With her senses wide open, Biyeon proceeded through the complex and dense forest as if it was a wide-open space.

Wherever San passed, he left a charred trail on the forest’s trees, as if a huge armory shell pierced by. 

[Physical and chemical properties…?]

[Heat resistance, conductivity, and electromagnetic wave-based remote communication…]

[What are the main points of our operation?]

[Confusion and electric shock shall be used.]

Gapael and Linuel were spinning around in the air. They looked down into the forest with unfamiliar anxiety. In the woods, two humans were turning in opposite directions, drawing a circular trajectory. The humans seemed to vary their circular speed, sometimes speeding up and at other times slowing down. They drew a pattern like a shark aiming for its prey in the water.

‘What the hell are they doing?’

‘They’re protected by the forest canopy… we can’t get a clear shot on them… w-w...a...ai...t…’

'By the way… this...weird feeling... What... I can’t… hear… y..o…’

Gapael opened his eyes wide. For the first time since he was born, his communication channel in this world was completely cut off. The channel went dead, complete radio silence.

No sound was audible. The focus in their eyes disappeared and their whole world suddenly began to look hazy.

Linuel stumbled in the air. Gapael suddenly felt that his wings had become heavier.

Their sensory organs screamed sharply at every cell in their body. They saw a powerful image through the imagery they could shape from the surrounding electromagnetic waves. A huge three-dimensional electromagnetic wave pattern came up like a tornado from below!

One of San and Biyeon’s main themes for this operation was sowing confusion from ‘chaos’. It wouldn’t take long for the Golden Avians to realize that they were caught in a true hunting net.

‘This is… an electromagnetic storm?’

‘This… no!’

Gapael could vaguely tell what was going on through his blurry vision. The positive ‘yang’ energy flowed from the man and the negative ‘yin’ energy flowed from the woman, wrapping the opposite energies in harmony. As the electromagnetic field induced by the two rotated rapidly, an electromagnetic tornado filled the space and shot upwards.

For the first time, Gapael and Linuel had terrified, fear-filled expressions on their faces. Their bodies had evolved around fast electromagnetic nerves. This storm was like an Electro-Magnetic Pulse (EMP) that disabled their key bodily functions.

Gapael and Linuel slowly tried to make their way to the outskirts of the electromagnetic storm. However, they weren’t able to effectively move their suddenly heavy bodies.

[1] A posture with both hands outstretched backwards in order to quickly descend when falling from high altitudes.