Ch.157Kiss of Fire 8

“Hey kids, where are you from?”

Jisoo carefully approaches them one step at a time.

The twin girl hides behind the boy’s shoulder.

She seems wary.

Seeing this, Jisoo forces a smile.

“Is your home nearby?”

The boy calmly shakes his head at her words.

Then he takes the girl’s hand.

At that moment.

“W-wait. Kids!”

The children start running away at an animal-like speed.

Toward the open hallway.

Jisoo stares blankly at their retreating figures.

She suddenly realizes something.

That unnatural speed.

Physical abilities unbelievable for children.

It feels familiar.

“!!!”

After a moment of stunned silence, Jisoo suddenly understands.

Siho’s physical abilities.

It feels similar to how fox-like fast she was.

Having realized something, the Ranker hurriedly begins chasing after the children.

She runs down the precarious 45th floor corridor and turns the corner.

Then she climbs up the building debris connected to the open ceiling.

As she reaches the ceiling, the building’s rooftop comes into view.

Songdo was clearly shrouded in sea fog.

But upon reaching the 45th floor rooftop, a warm ray of sunlight was pouring onto the roof.

She had risen above the dark clouds.

Thanks to this, her visibility is excellent despite being outdoors.

Aided by the light, Jisoo spots the fleeing children.

The children running toward the edge of the cliff.

Seeing this, Jisoo’s golden eyes flash.

“Kids, it’s dangerous over there…!”

Jisoo hurriedly follows after the distant children.

But…

She instinctively had to stop in her tracks.

A white silhouette visible where the children had run.

The moment she sees that silhouette, her Ranker instinct warns her.

It would be dangerous to approach any further.

“…!”

A white-haired man sitting on the edge of the cliff, his upper body bare.

Enormous wings were attached to his back.

An appearance as white and beautiful as an angel.

Skin as white as a plaster statue.

Muscle definition as beautiful as a Greek statue.

The children gathered beneath him.

They pointed at Jisoo who had followed them.

Because of this, the statue-like man raised his head.

And looked at Jisoo with chilling red eyes.

“…”

An eerie gaze.

Beads of sweat run down Jisoo’s forehead as she meets that gaze.

“W-who are you?”

“…”

The statue didn’t readily answer her question about his identity.

Instead, he sent the children behind him.

At that moment, Jisoo’s lips parted at the bizarre scene she had never witnessed before.

The sight that unfolded behind the muscular man…

It was so unbelievable it seemed unreal.

The collapsed rooftop debris.

Those debris were floating in the air, forming a staircase in the sky.

And those stairs were heading toward the ray of sunlight pouring through the dark clouds.

The children climb those stairs with skilled footsteps.

As if returning to their home.

Jisoo could only watch as they disappeared into the distance.

Then suddenly, she came to her senses as the man blocked the staircase.

His figure standing in front of the stairs like a gatekeeper.

Like the gatekeeper of heaven.

“Go back. This is not a place for ordinary humans to enter.”

Ordinary humans?

Does that mean the children from earlier and he himself are not human?

Although this is a world where monsters roam and people use abilities…

The current situation is bizarrely unbelievable.

“Alright. But let me ask just one thing.”

However, she couldn’t back down now.

Having possibly found the only clue to finding Park Shin-ae, she bravely asked:

“Is Assemblywoman Park Shin-ae in there?”

“Assemblywoman Park Shin-ae…?”

The angel tilted his head.

Then, as if suddenly remembering something, he narrowed his eyes and glared at Jisoo.

“Could it be… are you referring to the Prophet?”

“Prophet?”

Jisoo furrowed her thick eyebrows at the biblical term.

Then, as if realizing something, she clenched her molars.

“Since you know her, she must be hiding in there.”

The reason why she couldn’t find her despite searching all over Songdo.

The reason why there was no trace of her despite her forming the new government.

Now all the puzzle pieces fit together.

Her base wasn’t on the ground to begin with.

It was in the sky.

And this collapsing building was the connection between the ground and her base.

“…”

“I’m sorry, but you’ll have to open the way.”

Jisoo walked confidently toward him.

The angel firmly shook his head.

He extended his left hand toward the empty air.

At that moment.

Jisoo stopped abruptly on the shaking rooftop.

A massive lance had materialized in the angel’s outstretched hand.

And that lance pierced through the rooftop floor.

Like the sword that had impaled Nahyun, the lance was also made of bone.

“I warn you. Take one more step and I will annihilate you.”

The angel’s massive lance points toward Jisoo.

It was so large that it cast a shadow over Jisoo’s entire body.

But…

Jisoo didn’t back down.

Perhaps because of the overwhelming shadow.

Instead, her golden eyes flashed even more brightly.

“Let me warn you instead. Move aside or I’ll burn everything.”

Jisoo’s manner of speech changed.

She no longer used polite speech with those who had kidnapped Siho.

“—!”

The massive bone lance.

That lance rises toward the sky.

Then, with a savage sound that could tear the air, it plunged down toward Jisoo.

“—!”

The impact was so powerful.

A corner of the rooftop collapses.

Because of this, the 44th floor she had climbed from is clearly exposed.

However, Jisoo didn’t yield to this.

She has faced numerous Rankers before.

She will no longer retreat.

She drew her greatsword.

The moment she drew it, intense flames engulfed the blade.

Gradually, her eyes also turned crimson.

She boldly faces the oncoming lance.

And the moment the two blades clash.

A powerful vibration echoes throughout the world, enough to shake the heavens.

The lance, several times thicker than a longsword.

That thick bulk pushes against Jisoo’s sword.

The force is so strong that Jisoo’s hands holding the sword tremble.

Enough to twist her wrists.

“Ugh…”

The overwhelming difference in strength.

The 12 and 08 she had faced before.

This is on a different level.

It feels like trying to support a collapsing building alone.

Jisoo’s feet, which had been standing firm, gradually begin to sink.

Eventually.

“—”

The rooftop floor where Jisoo was standing collapses.

As a result, she fell with the cascading debris.

“…”

The angel stared down at the debris that had poured onto the 44th floor.

And sensing no more presence, he muttered to himself:

“I should inform the Prophet. We need to close the entrance.”

He was about to turn back toward the sky stairs with his lance in hand.

But.

He turned his head at the faint sound he heard again.

“Oh no…!”

In a split second, a dark shadow loomed over him.

He looked up following that shadow.

And then he witnessed it.

Jisoo, her body engulfed in flames.

With eyes enlarged like an animal’s, she leaped into the air.

And she plunged her long sword straight down toward the angel’s head.

Seeing this, the angel’s relaxed eyes also flashed.

He hurriedly raised his lance to block her sword.

The angel tried to deflect Jisoo’s sword with overwhelming force again.

But this time, Jisoo was different too.

“I’m tired of being buried in the ground…!”

Highly compressed flames.

A blade tempered in those flames.

That blade persistently dug into the angel’s lance.

As a result, cracks began to form on the bone-made blade.

Hearing that sound, the angel, who had been holding the lance with one hand, gripped it with both hands.

And like swinging a bat, he struck Jisoo with all his might.

“—!”

Jisoo was thrown into the air along with her sword.

But she concentrated flames on the soles of her feet.

Using that firepower, she stops her flying body.

And once again throws herself toward the angel’s cracked lance.

No matter how many times he pushes her away with overwhelming force.

She keeps charging.

Like a moth to a flame.

Seeing this, even the angel, who had been steadfast until now, began to panic.

With each clash of swords, the impact would accumulate more severely on Jisoo’s ordinary human body.

Yet, she continued to charge, the nerves on her face standing out.

“Why are you going this far…!”

Jisoo didn’t answer his question.

In her eyes, she no longer saw this guardian.

Only Siho.

The kiss she left with the word “friendship.”

The sight of her leaving in tears afterward.

And her stupid self who couldn’t stop her.

“What grudge do you have against the Prophet?!”

The angel also gritted his teeth.

And swung his lance toward Jisoo’s sword with all his might.

The two blades colliding.

Perhaps due to the strongest impact yet.

A savage vibration shakes the heavens.

Enough to shatter all the remaining windows on the building’s rooftop.

But it wasn’t just the weak windows that were breaking.

The lance that had been cracking.

And Jisoo’s greatsword.

Both broke simultaneously.

Jisoo’s face rushes forward through the broken blades.

Her burning crimson eyes reach the angel.

The Ranker, now close, whispered to him:

“I have someone I need to meet.”

A sad excuse called friendship.

I made her lie again, causing her pain.

Both of them were now unarmed.

The angel raised his fist, ready to swing at the charging Jisoo.

Now that both had lost their weapons.

He thought he had the advantage with his superior physique.

But he soon realized.

Jisoo wasn’t just a swordsman.

She was still holding her broken sword.

And as the broken sword was raised into the air.

Flames erupted over the half-remaining blade.

As if containing her anger, those flames formed the shape of a massive greatsword.

“So give Siho back, you bastards!”

A flame sword as massive as the angel’s lance.

It plunged down toward his body with all her might.

Eventually.

His hefty body was split in half.

Intense flames rise through the split gap.

As a result, his plaster-like white body turned to black ash and poured onto the floor.

“Haah…”

Jisoo landed on the ground.

But perhaps due to having exhausted most of her strength.

Her legs gave way.

Soon, she collapses helplessly onto the rooftop.

And covering her eyes with the back of her hand, she briefly exhaled a labored breath.

Light pours through the gaps between her fingers.

She looked at that light with half-lidded eyes.

The sky stairs the children had climbed.

Siho is up there.

However, Jisoo didn’t immediately climb up there.

She just waited.

Until Jeoksa and Anna returned.

Both are people Siho loves.

She firmly believed they would rescue her together.