By Zephyria 
All Espers and Guides were jolted awake by an ear-splitting alarm. This was not a drill. A real emergency had been declared.
The Espers scrambled out, donning their military caps, gear, and uniforms, with ammunition belts around their waists and Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Defense Bags on their backs.
A sound came from the Command and Control Center as the broadcast system was switched on, followed by microphone static and a rough, panting breath. ‘This is the Administration Squad. This is a real situation. I repeat, a real situation. All Espers, please don your individual gear and stand by.’ Wee-ang— Wee-ang— Wee-ang— The ear-rending sound repeated alongside the Administration Squad’s broadcast. ‘Let me repeat. All Espers, after donning your gear…’
“What is that?”
An Esper muttered, staring into the sky. The red rift that had appeared in the sky was slowly, very slowly, growing larger. Its gap was now about three meters wide.
“Does anyone know?”
“What is that? What on earth is it?”
“An alien?”
No one knew anything about the strange phenomenon. Hae-jun was no different. As he stared at the unknown rift, the Espers in full gear formed ranks.
A tense time passed. Everyone’s gaze was fixed on the bizarre rift in the sky.
Hae-jun, who had been entranced by the bizarre situation, snapped back to his senses belatedly. This was no time for this. While everyone was distracted by that thing, he had to get Lee A-gon to safety.
“Lee A-gon, come here. Let’s go back to the Confinement Cell.”
“No.”
“Why?”
Lee A-gon gestured with his eyes towards the bizarre phenomenon floating in the air.
“That… is weird.”
“I know it’s weird. Anyone can see it’s weird. But now is not the time for this. If you get caught like this, I won’t be able to help you then.”
“……”
Lee A-gon didn’t answer, just glared at the rift in the sky. Hae-jun’s heart grew frantic. There was no time. If the two bodies in the Alpha Room were discovered now, it would be a disaster.
“Stop talking nonsense and follow me right no…”
Hae-jun, who was pulling Lee A-gon along, suddenly stopped moving. Because something pale and elongated had begun crawling out of the bizarre rift in the sky.
Everyone’s focus shifted to that strange object. Slowly… slowly… a whitish, long, pale green-tinged stem-like thing slithered down.
“Wh-what.”
The Espers faltered, taking stumbling steps backward. The plant stems, cascading down as if uncoiling a rope, began to twist into coils.
From the mass of wriggling stems, a small bud sprouted and instantly bloomed into a flower.
A strong, dazzling fragrance exploded and spread. The intense scent, one only found on flowers from tropical regions, made the Espers unconsciously flare their nostrils.
A bizarre plant, appearing suddenly in an unexpected place at an unexpected time. The Espers were confused but couldn’t tear their eyes away from it.
The lifeform that had torn through space was bizarre, but after all, it was just a plant with a beautiful flower. The Espers stood guardedly, merely watching from their positions as the bizarre plant slowly rose.
Leaves sprouted from the branches of the bizarre plant, which had coiled and surged upward. On each thick branch, dazzling flowers bloomed, and below them, elongated pitchers formed.
After a brief moment, the flowers and pitchers took on a mottled color of orange and black. The dazzling colors were ominous, like the back of a poison dart frog.
By the time people sensed the danger, the bizarre plant had already become a giant tree. It shook its large body as if stretching, shedding its branches, and then began its attack.
The Espers didn’t realize what was happening until the snake-like tree trunk, slithering along the ground, snatched the leg of the person standing at the front.
The Esper whose leg was caught screamed. The sight of him being dragged away, clawing at the ground with his nails, felt unreal, like a scene from a horror movie.
While everyone stood frozen, unable to do anything, the bizarre plant dropped the Esper into one of its pitchers.
“…A carnivorous plant?”
The moment Hae-jun muttered that, the flower’s fragrance grew even stronger, and the stems of the bizarre plant curved like snakes, stretching out in all directions.
After that, everything descended into chaos. The Espers who had been lined up fled, trying to evade the carnivorous plant.
Ssshhhiik— The sound of something being swiftly coiled and lashed out came from all directions. The stems of the carnivorous plant snatched the Espers’ legs, dragging them away one after another.
“Save me!”
“No!”
“Please!”
Bang bang bang, gunshots rang out. Espers who had been issued live ammunition fired, but the carnivorous plant didn’t even flinch. There was no more time to hesitate. Lee A-gon grabbed Hae-jun’s hand and pulled.
The incessant gunfire, the screams of the Espers, the shouts from the Guides who had rushed out upon hearing the commotion telling them to take cover, and the ear-piercing alarm. A hellish, chaotic scene unfolded.
Espers continued to be dragged into the pitchers. As the guns proved useless, the Espers rapidly broke down. Maintain discipline! Maintain discipline! Someone shouted at the top of their lungs, but no Esper was listening.
One of them, in a panic, ran straight towards where Hae-jun and Lee A-gon were. His hand was nervously on the rifle’s trigger, and the muzzle was pointed forward.
Lee A-gon let go of Hae-jun’s hand and grabbed that Esper. At that moment, the gun fired. The rifle aimed at a fellow soldier roared with a deafening sound.
Someone hit by the stray bullet collapsed. The Esper whose arm was grabbed by Lee A-gon screamed and fired a burst. The confusion intensified. Espers were charging in all directions with their muzzles pointed forward.
“Lee A…!”
Espers poured between Hae-jun and Lee A-gon. The two were instantly separated. Hae-jun looked around, dazed.
An Esper appeared holding a grenade. He was holding it as trained, with the grenade handle between his thumb and forefinger, his left hand supporting the bottom. The problem was the expression on that grenade-holding Esper’s face was one of panic.
“Run away!”
The moment Hae-jun, sensing an accident, shouted, the Esper pulled the grenade’s safety pin. He threw the grenade, but the distance was woefully short. The grenade landed right in the middle of the allied forces’ position.
“Aaah!”
With a five-second delay, a tremendous explosion erupted with a BOOM.
Amidst the billowing dust cloud, Espers hit by grenade fragments groaned in pain, crawling on the ground.
The grenade’s effective range was about 36 meters. The condition of the Espers within it was not normal. Some looked dead.
An even bigger problem was that despite that tremendous destructive power, the carnivorous plant had suffered not a single scratch.
It flinched momentarily from the grenade’s blast but then, as if it were nothing, easily snatched the legs of the injured crawling away.
Hae-jun was not unharmed either. A fragment was embedded in his left leg, and blood was flowing. But right now, his own leg wasn’t the problem. Hae-jun desperately searched for Lee A-gon. Even a high-speed grenade machine gun had appeared, but it couldn’t leave a single mark on the carnivorous plant.
“Lee A-gon. Lee A-gon!”
As Hae-jun limped, running to find Lee A-gon, something cold suddenly coiled around his leg and threw him down with immense force. Unable to even scream, Hae-jun fell face down and was dragged backward.
“Hyung!”
Then Lee A-gon came running, breaking through the crowd. His voice calling ‘Hyung, Hyung’ was desperate.
Hae-jun felt his body being lifted and met Lee A-gon’s eyes. This moment didn’t feel real. The strange plant that had torn through the sky, and himself caught by that plant, it all felt like a dream.
The moment his body surged upward, Lee A-gon barely managed to grab him. The sudden increase in weight made the carnivorous plant stem holding Hae-jun wobble.
“Hyung.”
“Lee A-gon.”
Lee A-gon’s face seen up close was tear-streaked. Hae-jun wanted to wipe Lee A-gon’s cheek. He wanted to tell him not to cry. It hurts my heart when you cry. Even if I die, never cry. He wanted to say that, but…
“Let go of this hand.”
The words that came from his mouth were so cold and heartless. Hae-jun forcefully shook off Lee A-gon’s hand that was holding him, with a sharp thwack sound.
As Lee A-gon fell away, the carnivorous plant effortlessly lifted Hae-jun up.
Flying through the air, Hae-jun saw everything happening without missing a detail. As if someone had applied slow motion with a high-speed camera, every scene of this moment was visible in excruciating clarity.
The desperate face of Lee A-gon, who had fallen and gotten back up. The fired guns and the ejected shell casings. The desperation of an Esper screaming and another Esper smashing the carnivorous plant coiled around his own leg with a rifle butt. The flashing strobe lights. The trajectory of stray bullets. He could see it all in bizarre detail, and for a long time.
“Hyung!”
And then Lee A-gon kicked off the ground and leaped into the air. He desperately rushed in, grabbed the carnivorous plant’s stem, climbed up, and touched Hae-jun’s foot.
“No! Lee A-gon!”
“Hyung, I’ll save you. Hyung.”
“Let go of that hand! Let go, I said!”
Another stem of the carnivorous plant appeared, binding Hae-jun and Lee A-gon together.
Only then did Hae-jun struggle. It might be okay if it was just him, but he couldn’t let Lee A-gon be dragged along too.
Screaming ‘No!’, Hae-jun tried to make Lee A-gon fall off, but it was useless. The pitcher, with its vermilion base etched with black spots, opened its mouth, and the two instantly fell inside.