–From Sandan’s movements, Hwa-eun felt a flash of insight. It was the beginning of something new—perhaps a new martial art. But this wasn’t the time to reflect and develop it.

The situation was too urgent. She could feel presences closing in.

The enemies must’ve assumed she’d been immobilized and were moving in to finish her off.

Hwa-eun quickly turned to Sandan.

“Sandan, can you keep it up while we’re moving!?”

–Piipi!

In response to her question—whether she could still block arrows and throwing weapons while they moved—Sandan nodded confidently.

Seeing that, Hwa-eun decided to entrust her back to Sandan.

“I’m going to run again—I'm counting on you.”

–Pii!

As Hwa-eun stood and sprang out from beside the rock, Sandan swiftly repositioned herself to Hwa-eun’s back.

As they dashed toward the house once again, the sounds of projectiles cutting through the air could be heard behind them. But none reached Hwa-eun.

She dodged those that came from the front, and Sandan blocked everything from behind. With their perfect coordination, Hwa-eun’s movement remained fluid and unbroken.

By now, she had gone beyond the beginning of the path and passed the third ridge.

She thought that with Sandan, she might just be able to escape.

But then, something suddenly yanked her leg.

–Chwaaak!

It was a trap.

A simple snare trap that caught her ankle.

It was the kind of trap she would never normally fall for—but it was dark, and between dodging projectiles and running, she hadn’t been able to keep full awareness of the ground.

“Ugh!”

–Pii!

Just as the rope snared her ankle and began pulling her body upward into the trees—

Her vision spun, but the rope was sliced cleanly in an instant by Sandan, who had already moved down to her ankle.

–Sseok.

“Thanks, Sandan!”

Hwa-eun flipped in the air and landed on her feet, immediately breaking into a run again.

But she barely got a few steps before another rope caught her ankle.

Thankfully, Sandan quickly cut this one too, but Hwa-eun couldn’t run anymore.

It was clear now—the path back home was littered with traps.

Still, it seemed she had shaken off the pursuit slightly. The number of incoming projectiles had lessened, now just a scattered few.

As Sandan deflected the occasional flying darts, Hwa-eun stared in the direction of the house, thinking.

How should she move?

‘There are probably traps in the forest too...’

She knew she had to get off the path. But she couldn’t make that decision easily.

From the hail of darts and arrows that had come out of the trees, she couldn’t rule out traps being hidden in the forest as well.

Plus, the enemies might be trying to drive her into the forest—she couldn’t take that bait blindly.

–Kwadududuk.

She couldn’t stay here, though.

Just as she made up her mind to do something, the ground in the distance—the very path she was headed for—bulged upward. Suddenly, snare traps sprang out in every direction and snapped apart.

–Piing. Ping.

The rising swell of earth rushed toward her—and then surged up right in front of her.

“What the...!?”

Startled, Hwa-eun instinctively stepped back.

From the ground burst a familiar face.

It looked exactly like Yeondu—but more beautiful, more radiant.

It was Orange.

–Skaaaa!

“Orange!”

–Ska!

As Hwa-eun called out, Orange slid in and wrapped around her protectively.

With Orange and Sandan here, she felt relief wash over her. With the two of them, she could make it home safely.

–Tidik. Tik.

Just as she was about to suggest they move together toward the house, several darts struck Orange’s scales.

Then Orange raised her tail and pointed it toward the house before launching herself in the opposite direction—toward the source of the darts.

–Skaaa!

The message was clear: “I’ll handle them. You run.”

As Orange bounded into the forest, screams rang out.

“Ughh!”

“A spirit beast!”

“Scatter!”

The traps on the path were gone. Orange had leapt into the woods. The rain of projectiles had ceased.

With no more arrows or darts flying at her, nothing was holding Hwa-eun back from reaching the house now.

She shouted into the forest and took off again.

“Orange, be careful!”

She ran up the path, reaching about the fifth ridge.

Just after she passed a large boulder and entered a wider clearing, she was forced to stop.

In the clearing ahead, dozens of warriors were aiming arrows directly at her.

Then, from the tall grass on both her left and right, more warriors emerged.

And behind her as well—an equal number of warriors revealed themselves.

She was surrounded.

She had thought she’d shaken most of them and that the rest were being dealt with by Orange. But it turned out they had prepared an ambush in this very spot.

“Damn...”

As Hwa-eun’s expression tightened in frustration, one of the archers stepped aside—and a woman walked forward.

“To think you’d force us out of hiding. But this is as far as you go. You’d best stop resisting. We don’t want to kill you. At least... not here.”

“You!? Nanhwa!?”

The woman offering her surrender wasn’t a stranger.

She was Nanhwa—the one Cheongwol had driven insane and who the commander had taken away to be executed.

Deputy commander of the Blood Cult’s Bloodshade Unit.

She had been dragged away, and both the Immortal of Medicine and the Immortal of Herbs had said she would never regain her mind.

So how was she here, speaking so clearly?

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

“Looks like you recognize me. That means you’ve met the deputy commander before. Which means... you played a part in her death. That debt will be collected soon enough.”

From her words, Hwa-eun began to understand.

Judging by how she spoke, she seemed to rank above a deputy commander of the Blood Cult.

Could she be one of the commanders who operated solely within the cult?

It wasn’t uncommon for intelligence officers to use body doubles or replacements who shared their face. Perhaps the deputy commander who died was one such stand-in.

Realizing who this woman truly was, Hwa-eun began to weigh her options.

Whether Sandan could block all the arrows fired at once—that was the question.

If she died, so be it—but if she were hit and captured here, that would be far worse.

Because the reason they were trying to capture her was obvious.

So-ryong.

They were clearly after So-ryong.

Otherwise, there would’ve been no reason to try and get her to surrender.

Even if she had to die here, she couldn’t allow So-ryong to be put in danger because of her.

Hwa-eun looked from the warriors aiming their arrows to Sandan, who was perched on her left shoulder.

But Sandan shook her head.

Maybe she could handle attacks from one or two directions—but front, back, both sides? That was impossible even for her.

If only Orange came back—but that wasn’t going to happen.

Then, suddenly, there was a soft fluttering sound above her head.

–Flap. Flap.

As Hwa-eun looked up, the air shimmered, and descending gracefully onto her opposite shoulder was Jeokwol—So-ryong’s "big sis" butterfly, the Blood-Blossom Dream Illusion Butterfly.

“Jeop? I don’t recognize this one from the Lord’s report. Doesn’t seem very strong, but just in case—shoot it.”

–Shiiing. Shiiing.

At the signal of the woman with the same face as Nanhwa, several arrows were loosed toward Jeokwol.

But Jeokwol dodged them with delicate flutters and landed lightly on Hwa-eun’s shoulder, in a slender form she had never seen before.

Usually, she had the fluffiness of a soft, cloudy puff. But now, her body and legs were delicate and thin, resembling those of a normal butterfly.

The moment she landed, her antennae began to whip angrily.

As Sandan knocked away a few arrows that had come too close to Hwa-eun, a voice rang out from the opposite side.

“Enough! Didn’t I say not to kill her here?”

The storm of arrows stopped.

And suddenly, the entire area lit up red.

The ground around them began to shimmer with a crimson glow.

“Th-this is...!?”

“What the—!?”

–Flap.

While the Blood Cult warriors were stunned by the light, Jeokwol slipped behind Hwa-eun’s back and began flapping her wings.

It was as if Hwa-eun herself were flapping them.

With each movement, red glowing powder rose gently into the air.

–Flap.

Again, Jeokwol’s wings beat—and then the red glowing dust surrounding them began to swirl, pulling into a spiral centered on Hwa-eun.

–Swaaaahhh.

A crimson dust storm.

Hwa-eun gasped and covered her mouth in awe, while the warriors surrounding her began to scream.

“Aaaagh!”

“Ghhkk—!”

As if in a nightmare, the Blood Cult warriors began to vanish—no, disintegrate.

Those swept into the storm—every time the glowing dust touched them, their flesh, their muscles, their bones—were torn apart and erased.

Like painting a person in white ink on black paper, then brushing over it with deep black—just like that.

Against the dark of night, the trail left by the glowing dust was one of vanishing limbs, heads, torsos—until there was nothing left at all.

***

When I heard Hwa-eun had been ambushed, I charged down the mountain with the kids like a madman.

Yeondu carried me, with Hwayang on my head, Hyang clinging to my torso, Seol and Bing gripping my shoulders.

Close behind was Cho with Sister on her back, and further down the slope, Cheongyu slid down with a horde of snakes.

Bringing up the rear was Bini, with Hongdan and Dong-i perched on her head.

『‘Hwa-eun! Hwa-eun! Hwa-eun!’』

We called out to her desperately in the group chat, but there was no response.

She must’ve exited due to the emergency—there was no way to send her a personal message either.

If she was in the middle of a desperate fight, a sudden mental intrusion could distract her at the worst time.

I knew that feeling too well—when you're doing something critical and messages start coming in, it’s chaos.

Then Cheongyu Sojeo’s voice reached me.

『–Shia! (Don’t worry too much, So-ryong. The Golden-Crowned Death King secretly sent Orange to follow her. It should buy her some time.)』

‘Really?’

–Shii. (Yes. And Sandan followed her too.)

Relief flooded in at the news that Sandan and Orange were with her.

Sandan was still young, but even if she couldn't win a fight, she could sow chaos with her poison in a pinch.

And Orange—as Ji-yeong Snake—could definitely buy time.

‘Just hold on a bit longer, Hwa-eun. I swear, I’ll make the Blood Cult pay for this!’

By the time we reached the fifth ridge—

A red /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ explosion lit up the path ahead.

The entire area was engulfed in crimson light.

“Jeokwol sister!? Yeondu, up!”

“Shaaa!”

I knew there was butterfly powder scattered around the house area—but to see this kind of light here?

As we soared into the air, the area below came into view—Hwa-eun, bathed in red, with glowing wings flaring.

“Hwa-eun!”

I shouted, but I was still too far—she didn’t seem to hear me.

Then, her shimmering wings flapped again, and a torrent of light erupted into the sky.

Sandan sat perched on her head, and Jeokwol sister clung to her back.

She looked like a fairy straight out of a fantasy story.

As the red light surged, it really felt like she was glowing with otherworldly magic.

Her wings beat again, and the shimmering dust became a storm that swallowed the surroundings.

“Wh-what the hell!?”

When the lightstorm subsided, the entire area had been swept clean—utterly erased by the butterfly powder.

–Tzrrrk!?

–Shaaa?

Even Hyang and Yeondu, wrapped around me, looked stunned.

As I landed in front of Hwa-eun, she ran straight into my arms.

“So-ryong!”

“Hwa-eun...”

As she clung to me, finally safe and breathing hard with relief, I looked over her shoulder and locked eyes with Jeokwol sister.

I asked her,

“Sister... what the hell was that? Why didn’t you use that on me before...?”

She had this kind of power all along—so why had she never shown it? Why didn’t she use it back when I tried to catch her?

The question held all my frustration.

–Chiii.

With Hyang translating, the answer came:

She didn’t want to kill anything unless it attacked first. And this power... it didn’t just destroy enemies—it wiped out the flowers, the trees, the little bugs around too.

She thought it was... too sad.

So she avoided using it.

I had thought she was the weakest of the Ten Great Venomous Beasts—but no. She had been hiding her final move all along.

And now I realized—

I’d been incredibly lucky.