By Zephyria 
“Is the Esper that Esper Vasily attacked the S-class Esper who participated in the recent West Sea Gate conquest?”
Yes. That is correct.
My breath hitched at the news that Vasily had attacked an S-class Esper from China, not even a domestic one. After a brief moment of shock, I hurriedly began preparing to go out.
In my rush, I didn’t even have time to wash and just threw on whatever clothes I could grab. I shoved my messy, sprawling hair deep under a hat.
As I took the elevator down, I searched for news regarding Vasily. However, the only things that came up were rumors of our romance.
Why did they fight in the first place? It was strange that Vasily and the Chinese Esper, who had no reason to meet, had crossed paths.
I turned off the internet, which was cluttered with useless information, and slid my smartphone into my pocket.
Stepping outside, I looked around and spotted a vehicle parked on the road with its hazard lights blinking. I recognized it immediately by the large association mark emblazoned on it.
As I climbed into the vehicle, a voice greeted me from inside.
“Hello, Guide Kwon Gi-dam-ssi. We will take you safely to the scene.”
Two association employees were inside the car. One was behind the wheel, and the other was sitting in the back seat to welcome me.
I gave a quiet nod in response. As soon as I sat down, the car departed.
Since I hadn’t received a detailed explanation over the phone, I asked the employee to get a grasp of the situation.
“What happened?”
“Just before the Gate conquest began, Huai Yan came to visit. The two of them were talking, and then suddenly, Esper Vasily attacked Huai Yan… that’s all we know.”
He even threw the first punch.
This wasn’t just Vasily’s problem. If things went wrong, it could escalate into a diplomatic incident. By now, the association officials who heard the news must be pacing anxiously, employing every possible method to resolve the situation.
It made sense why they sought me out so urgently. However, I doubted whether anything would change just because I was there.
“So, what do you want me to do?”
“You just need to restrain Esper Vasily along with the Espers waiting on-site.”
They wanted me to walk directly into a scene where two S-class Espers were beating each other up and stop their fight? When I looked at the association employee with a gaze that said ‘don’t talk nonsense,’ he stealthily avoided my eyes, as if confirming that I had indeed heard correctly.
“Sigh…”
Still, thanks to the employee’s mention, the name of the Esper from China came to mind.
Luo Huai Yan.
He was usually called Huai Yan, and even before the regression, he and Vasily didn’t get along. Fire and ice. Perhaps because they had opposing attributes, they never passed each other quietly.
I organized my cluttered thoughts while thinking of Huai Yan.
The West Sea Gate conquest had been completed successfully over the weekend without any particular issues. I thought Huai Yan would have naturally returned to China after the conquest, so why was he still in Korea… and why did he go to see Vasily?
I recalled the day I attended the West Sea Gate conquest meeting with Vasily. Just as he was about to leave after turning the meeting room into a disaster zone, my eyes met Huai Yan’s.
I’m sure he said something to me then…
“We have arrived.”
Before long, we reached the scene.
As I stepped out of the car and looked around, I couldn’t see the Gate. Since Vasily and Huai Yan were fighting near the Gate, it seemed they had parked the car some distance away.
I could tell which direction Vasily was in without anyone telling me. In the distance, ice crystals and pillars of fire were soaring as if to pierce the sky, asserting their presence.
The air carried by the gusts of wind repeatedly shifted from hot to freezing. The place where Vasily and Huai Yan clashed was a low mountain that could be called a hill, so their figures should have been visible, but a thick fog hung heavily, making it impossible to confirm the situation. From where I stood, I could only see the menacingly rising ice and flames.
I frowned. To think I had to enter that battlefield personally. Even if I were accompanied by Espers, it was practically a suicide mission.
First, I tried calling Vasily.
“…”
The call… as expected, he’s not answering.
The ringing tone continued for a long time, but Vasily didn’t pick up, nor did the ice storm soaring in the distance stop.
As I clicked my tongue while listening to the continuous ringing, the employee handed me a combat suit. It was even one for an Esper.
Is this really the only way? As I took the combat suit with a gloomy face, a familiar structure suddenly caught my eye.
“Is that working right now?”
“Pardon? Which…”
The employee turned his head in the direction I was pointing.
“The loudspeaker?”
The employee asked back, looking at the large speaker installed at the top of a pole. Usually, loudspeakers were used to announce the start of a Gate conquest or for emergency situations, but strictly speaking, wasn’t this an emergency situation?
Beneath the pole was a microphone connected to the speaker. When I turned on the power, a small indicator light next to the machine blinked green.
As I lightly tapped the microphone, a static-filled sound came from the speaker. After confirming that the loudspeaker was working properly, I turned the volume to the maximum and spoke.
“Ah… Esper Vasily?”
[Ah… Esper Vasily?]
My voice echoed loudly throughout the surroundings through the speaker. People’s gazes simultaneously focused on where the sound was coming from.
However, on Vasily’s side in the distance, it seemed the sound was drowned out by the roar of colliding ice and fire. It felt like I would have to scream for him to hear… I looked around for a moment.
From Espers to association employees, there were dozens of people gathered. You want me to scream Vasily’s name loudly in a place like this?
I didn’t like it, but enduring the embarrassment was several times better than entering that dangerous place.
After hesitating for a moment, I broadcasted for those around me to cover their ears. However, a few people who were just standing there blankly only covered their ears after I added an explanation that I was going to scream into the loudspeaker.
Whew… I took a deep breath and opened my mouth.
“VASILY!!”
[VASILY!!]
My voice rang out thunderously through the speaker. Perhaps because the sound was too loud, the loudspeaker itself let out a sharp shriek while projecting my voice.
“Ugh…”
I realized too late that while I had warned others to cover their ears, I hadn’t covered my own. I covered my ears belatedly, suffering from the noise that struck my eardrums. Tinnitus set in, and my ears felt muffled.
As I calmed my splitting ears, I looked up. The area beyond the thick fog finally grew quiet, as if he had finally realized I had arrived.
“Is it over…”
As I muttered, removing my hands from my ears, I felt a cold chill mixed in the wind. Sensing a shadow casting over the sky, I looked up and saw a massive chunk of ice floating in the air. The end pointing toward the ground was honed to a terrifyingly sharp edge.
Boom!
Dozens of ice spears slammed into the ground at a ferocious speed. I covered my ears again and squeezed my eyes shut at the echoing roar. The ground shook so violently that it was difficult even to stand straight.
After a long while, feeling the vibrations stop, I slowly opened my eyes.
The ice spears had been concentrated in one area, forming a massive cluster. The tips stretching toward the sky rose high enough to block the sun.
I gulped. That attack was more powerful than any attack I had seen until now. I had never seen an attack of that level even when Vasily was defeating monsters in S-class Gates.
“…”
A silence fell over the surroundings, with no one able to speak.
No one opened their mouth. And no more sounds came from within the fog.
Judging by the silence, it seemed the battle between the two had ended. And I quietly swallowed a groan.
In the end… did he kill him?
An ominous feeling washed over me. Had there ever been an event this catastrophic, combining both before and after the regression? I couldn’t even imagine the magnitude of the fallout if an S-class Esper from another country were killed by Vasily.
Belatedly, the Espers regained their senses one by one and began preparing to enter to assess the situation. I looked down at the combat suit in my hand, hesitating over whether I should change into it.