Seoul Cyberpunk Story-Chapter 76: Rina Cortez (6)

Blue light filled the world.

Like sinking into the deep sea, the swirling blue mist engulfed everything in sight with an ominous shimmer.

Strange, web-like structures coated the floor, walls, and ceiling—dimly glowing in the haze, exuding an eerie presence.

“It shall become one.”

Then, a chilling voice echoed from behind.

Aria was staring blankly into space, muttering unintelligible words in a lifeless monotone.

There wasn’t a shred of emotion in her voice.

It was like listening to an old, broken tape recorder—just repeating the same line again and again.

“Kkyuak.”

Above Aria’s head, Agu slapped her eyelid with its tiny front paw.

“It shall become one.”

“Kkyuak.”

“It shall become one.”

“Kkyuak.”

Each time Aria babbled nonsense, Agu frantically struck her, as if trying to snap her out of it.

But there was no change.

“Aria! Snap out of it!”

I grabbed her shoulders and shook her hard.

But all she did was stare back at me with empty eyes, showing no reaction at all.

She looked like a puppet with its soul ripped out.

Then—something brushed against my ankle.

I looked down.

Blue webbing was already coiling around my leg, creeping up toward my knee.

‘!!!!’

It wasn’t just clinging to me.

The parts of my coat and skin it touched were slowly, but undeniably, transforming—mutating into the same alien, bluish material as the web.

It was like my very being was being absorbed by the web.

I turned to check on Aria—and saw the blue threads spreading rapidly across her clothes and exposed skin.

Half her leg was already transformed into that same grotesque blue.

“Anything that touches the blue mist turns into webbing...?”

I muttered to myself, scanning the space again.

The blue mist that filled the chamber. The bizarre webs. The chained-up figure. Aria’s deranged chanting.

All of it felt like part of the same phenomenon.

And yet—none of it felt like the direct cause.

As I turned that thought over, I noticed something strange.

The part of my foot that was hidden in shadow—was unaffected.

And in that moment, it clicked.

The problem was this space itself.

Just existing here was slowly transforming us into something alien.

Immediately, I spread the shadow beneath my feet outward.

It was the only ability I had that could claim a space.

Waves of black shadow surged outward like a tide, pushing back the mist and the webs.

“Gh—!”

But expanding the shadow domain was far more difficult than I’d imagined.

Moving inside the space, tearing the webs, burning them, blowing the mist away—that was all permitted.

But occupying the space with shadow? That felt forbidden.

The space resisted—like a living creature rejecting me—fighting back with everything it had.

My Heart Ring roared, spinning wildly, flooding the area with energy—but even that wasn’t enough.

I struggled to hold the shadows in place, but the domain shrank, revealing its limits.

What the hell is this...? Why is it harder than swallowing Dino Park?

A wave of exhaustion hit me, like every cell in my body was drained.

At this rate, even the shadow would be consumed by this blue domain.

Then, just as everything was about to collapse—

Like someone had flipped a switch, the blue mist and webbing vanished in an instant—evaporating into thin air.

Where the haze and threads had been, only destruction remained.

The reinforced concrete walls and floor of the warehouse were corroded, melted—like they'd been drenched in acid.

Everything the web had touched was warped and ruined.

“?”

As the blue zone disappeared, Aria collapsed weakly to the ground.

Her skin was still marked—clear signs of corrosion, as if it had been eaten away like the concrete.

Thankfully, the transformation hadn’t gone too far. Her limbs were still intact. But the damage was deep. Horrific.

“Aria!”

I hurriedly grabbed the emergency regeneration kit from her belt and injected it into her neck.

As expected of the latest product from Kronos Biotech—the effect was immediate.

The bleeding stopped. The ravaged flesh began knitting back together rapidly.

“Haaah...”

Only once I saw Aria’s skin fully healed, not even a scar left behind, could I let out a breath of relief.

I picked up Agu from the floor and placed it gently back on Aria’s head.

“Watch over her.”

I gave the creature a short, firm command.

Then I turned my gaze toward the origin point of this entire distortion.

There—chained to the wall—hung a corpse.

Its body shriveled and dried like a centuries-old mummy in mere moments.

This was the thing that had been spewing gibberish and soaking the room in blue light.

“Was it a terminal for the erosion zone...? Maybe the force being transmitted through it was too strong and it broke.”

I muttered as I stared down at the mummified corpse.

A spatial anomaly so similar to an erosion field—yet vastly more powerful. Incomparably so.

Strangely, within this warped phenomenon, I could faintly sense a trace of MK Corp’s AI.

Was this the result of the Great Cataclysm? Some uncontrollable leftover?

If so... was the outer edge of Babel crawling with things like this?

As I stood there, staring down at the corpse, lost in thought—

A loud, static-laced buzz erupted through my AR interface.

[A! If you can hear me, respond! A!]

Scarlet’s voice blared in my ears, so loud it made me jump.

****

From the center of Rina Cortez’s outstretched palm, flames began to rise—flames that clearly did not belong to this world.

They bore no resemblance to the intense, scorching red Circle energy she had wielded before.

These were cold. Eerie. A grayish-white blaze, exuding ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) a sinister chill.

It cast cursed shadows as it burned, seeming to suck in what little light remained in the space. Just looking at it was enough to send a shiver racing down the spine.

It was as if within those pale flames, all the world’s despair and agony had been bundled into a single cursed source.

Hector raised his energy blade once more, surging with maximum crimson Circle energy, and brought it down on Rina again.

But what met him was a completely different outcome.

CHHHHHHH!

The moment the massive energy blade touched the gray-white flame, it melted away like hot metal burning through soft lead—dissolving into nothing.

The once overwhelming red energy pouring from Hector’s core vanished helplessly against the pale blaze.

[!!!]

A mechanical screech of confusion burst from Hector’s artificial voicebox.

In just a few seconds, the tide had turned.

The advantage that Hector, Ember, and Victor held was gone. In its place: despair.

“Kgh...!”

Victor kept firing his hand cannon, but without Hector’s follow-up, it was little more than a panicked gesture.

Ember ducked and weaved to avoid the ghostly flames as her mind raced.

It’s overwhelming, yes—but it still looks unstable...

And rightly so.

That gray-white fire... was burning Rina Cortez herself.

Her skin had begun to melt in patches, eaten away like rotting meat. From the torn flesh, blackened bones and metallic components glinted grotesquely.

Her whole body had started transforming into a nightmare, like a honeycomb rotted through with gaping holes.

Worse still, the red Circle energy that had previously shielded her seemed to be losing its integrity, flickering violently as if being consumed by the pale flames.

It trembled like a candle on the verge of going out.

Even as she avoided the scorching blaze, Ember never took her eyes off Rina Cortez.

Every sense in her body was focused on catching a single, fleeting opportunity.

She closely monitored the unstable fluctuations of the red Circle aura—watching it wane and surge, waver and dim.

And then—it happened.

The red energy surrounding Rina faltered, flickering weakly like a dying ember.

Now!

Ember’s eyes flashed.

She didn’t hesitate.

Her finger squeezed the trigger of the anti-tank rifle by instinct.

All sound around her dulled.

Only the minuscule gap in Rina’s defenses filled her vision—crystal clear.

BOOM!

A thunderous roar rocked the entire underground chamber as Ember’s rifle erupted.

The energy warhead flew in a sharp green arc, aimed straight for Rina Cortez’s abdomen.

It struck precisely through a coin-sized rupture in her dimming red barrier.

KRACK!

Like a dry branch snapping, Rina’s body broke clean in two at the waist.

Her torso and legs dropped limply, crumpling to the floor.

As she lay there, separated and broken, Rina turned her gaze toward Ember—eyes brimming with hatred.

With the last of her strength, her severed upper body hissed a curse.

“To oppose us... is to forfeit your chance at salvation... You primitive worms can’t even see the end coming...”

Then, the ghastly blue glow in her eyes faded.

The gray-white fire, now without a host, dispersed into the air and vanished.

Rina Cortez, her head bowed, moved no more.

“Huuuuh...”

Only when Ember was certain it was over did she finally exhale.

The sudden release of tension weighed her down like a collapsing building.

She lowered her rifle and staggered with ragged breaths.

Her heart was still pounding.

Victor, leaning against a broken pillar, stared at Rina’s remains in stunned disbelief.

Hector silently looked between his melted arm and Rina’s lifeless corpse.

The underground chamber fell into silence.

And then—

“Behold—this body has arrived!”

A dropped-in pose through the hole in the ceiling—A made her dramatic entrance.

“You’re late, A.”

“Hmph.”

She pouted.

Her entrance had been, unmistakably, too late.