The B-Rank prisoners Daedalus and Icarus were Therianthropes. Their chosen form: the pigeon.

Feathers sprouted from their outstretched arms as they transformed, and the father-son duo dove toward the Albatross from high altitude, gliding like true birds.

“We’ll handle the loot!”

“Just sit back and enjoy the show!”

The Albatross noticed their approach a beat too late but reacted instantly. The monster’s feathers erupted, surging skyward like a reverse waterfall.

A storm of feather bullets rained up at the two descending prisoners, a curtain of anti-aircraft fire.

Daedalus and Icarus performed a seamless aerial ballet, twisting and turning in midair. They decelerated and accelerated in sharp, unpredictable bursts, effortlessly evading the barrage.

Kee-aaaaah!

Enraged, the Albatross beat the upper pair of its four wings.

The sound was like a machine gun as twice as many feathers as before filled the sky, leaving no gaps.

Daedalus and Icarus exchanged a look.

“Father!”

“Son!”

The two crossed paths as they fell, grabbing each other’s hands in midair. They pulled, spinning a half-rotation—Fwoosh!—and swapped positions before resuming their dive.

The maneuver violently altered their trajectory, and the Albatross’s feather storm struck the empty space they had just occupied.

At last, Daedalus and Icarus broke through the monster’s defenses and closed in on its massive body.

“Pardon us, this is a robbery~”

“Hand over any goods you have~”

The two were confident enough to joke around.

But just as they were about to plant their feet on the passenger jet’s wing, the Albatross acted.

Keeeeee…

It opened its enormous beak wide and unleashed a deafening roar.

SKREEEEEEE!

It was a sonic attack of such overwhelming power that even Ghost and Jae-hee, far away in the transport plane, cried out and slammed their hands over their ears.

There was no way to survive such a blast at point-blank range.

The eardrums of both Daedalus and Icarus burst. The shockwave scrambled their inner ears.

“Gah…!”

“What the hell…!”

Having lost their sense of balance just before landing, the two men stumbled, flailing as they were thrown back into the open air.

“Let’s get down to sea level, Son!”

“Yes, Father!”

They communicated frantically with hand signals, deciding to lose altitude for a safe emergency landing.

But the Albatross’s roar carried a secondary effect: a mild mental confusion.

Disoriented and with their inner ears scrambled, the two completely lost their sense of direction. Instead of descending toward the blue sea, they began to rocket toward the blue sky with all their might.

Why is the sea so far away?

We need to make a safe landing…

Even as they thought this, they continued to climb, their altitude rising endlessly.

«Daedalus, Icarus! Where are you going! Return to the objective! Flying Father-Son! Can’t you hear me?!»

Commander Seo’s desperate voice crackled over the comms, but with their eardrums ruptured, they truly couldn’t hear a thing.

The price for defying the heavens was a brutal one.

Once they flew past the maximum altitude for their Therianthropic forms, the air thinned and turned freezing, and oxygen grew scarce. The strain of their forced ascent sent their wings into violent convulsions.

In an instant, their strength gave out. The wings that had clawed at the sky folded uselessly. As if their endless climb had been a lie, they began to fall.

Like shooting stars knocked from their orbits, the two convicts plummeted toward the sea at incredible speed—a punishment for exceeding the height the sky had permitted them.

“Son!”

“Father!”

But Daedalus and Icarus felt no fear.

Confused, disoriented, and delirious from the lack of oxygen, their perception was completely inverted. To them, falling from the sky felt like soaring up from the sea.

Facing each other in midair, father and son shouted in unison.

“Freedom!”

They embraced, crying out in pure ecstasy.

“Freeeeedooooom!”

Spinning as they fell, the two plunged directly toward the front of the 666th Special Operations Unit’s transport.

The transport couldn’t evade in time. The result of human flesh colliding with a steel aircraft was brutally self-evident.

SPLAT!

Blood and viscera sprayed across the transport’s cockpit window.

The sudden physical impact sent the aircraft lurching, struggling to regain its balance.

«Agh, what the fuck was that!»

Chosen One’s terrified, character-breaking shriek came over the comms.

“Hah…” Ghost, watching the carnage from a distance, muttered in weary resignation. “Every last one of these flight-themed shitheads has to make an art form out of dying…”

“Aaaah! Mr. Daedalus! Icarus bro!”

“The second they picked callsigns like that, they were destined to die in the sky,” Ghost stated flatly.

Just then—Thump!—Chosen One leaped from the 666th’s transport.

At first, it seemed he was just upset about the new red paint job, but that wasn’t it.

“I am—”

With the situation in shambles, one of the New Five Heroes had resolved to draw his own sword.

“—the Guardian of Joseon!”

With a roar, Chosen One drew the twin blades from his back. The hwando were each one and a half meters long, with a dragon engraved on each blade.

He slammed the two swords together. With a mechanical whir, they transformed and merged into a single, three-meter-long greatsword.

It was Chosen One’s personal Gate Gear, the Twin Dragon Sword, forged with two A-Rank Gate Cores.

Jae-hee’s jaw dropped at the sight, while Ghost silently wondered just how much money had been wasted on that transformation gimmick.

Swinging the massive blade horizontally, Chosen One bellowed. “Domain Break—Advent!”

CRACK!

The Twin Dragon Sword sliced through the air, tearing a straight, horizontal fissure in the sky.

A crimson light exploded from beyond the rift, and moments later, the massive hull of a warship pushed its way into their world.

In stark contrast to Chosen One’s anachronistic attire, the warship was shaped like a modern destroyer.

And, impossibly, it was floating in midair.

Thud.

Planting his feet on the ship’s deck, Chosen One softly intoned the name of his Domain Break.

“Thy Vassal Still Holds One Warship…!”

The phrase, a variation of Admiral Yi Sun-sin’s legendary declaration, manifested a Domain over the East Sea that was true to its name.

A flying warship, maneuvering at Chosen One’s will, revealed its colossal form.

“Whoaaaa! That’s so awesoooome!” Jae-hee cheered at the warship’s appearance.

“He’s using his Domain Break here?!” Ghost, however, was horrified.

Beside her, Jae-hee blinked in confusion. “The S-Rankers’ ultimate moves… I mean, Domain Breaks, aren’t they strong and good?”

“Domain Breaks have side effects,” Ghost said, clicking her tongue. “It’s a technique that tears open a perfectly stable world to forcibly invade it with an S-Ranker’s personal reality. In essence, it’s no different from a Gate.”

“So… what kind of side effects?”

“Every use is accompanied by severe Realm Erosion, which ultimately destabilizes our world itself.”

As the user of a Domain Break herself, her voice was full of caution. “The degree of destabilization is called the Erosion Rate, and the government monitors it closely to ensure it doesn’t cross a critical threshold.”

“What happens if it does?”

Ghost hesitated for a moment before reluctantly answering. “The… Abyssal Gate will open.”

Not understanding, Jae-hee could only stare with wide eyes. The Abyssal Gate? What’s that?

“Anyway, that’s why the use of a Domain Break is strictly regulated, and permission is only granted under limited circumstances. Usually, it’s only allowed when a Gate Lord-class enemy appears, or when the S-Rank Awakened’s own life is in danger…”

This was not one of those situations.

It was just a single, ordinary monster, not a Gate Lord, and it had only abducted a few generals, not an S-Rank Awakened.

But Chosen One, seemingly unconcerned with the Erosion Rate, roared. “All batteries—fire!”

At his command, every cannon on the flying warship swiveled in unison and took aim at the Albatross.

Jae-hee thought the crazy S-Ranker had lost it and was about to blow up the passenger jet along with the monster.

But he was wrong. Chosen One’s clothes and speech were bizarre, but he was a soldier forged to the bone.

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!*

Hundreds of shells fired from the warship traced graceful arcs through the sky, narrowly missing the Albatross and passing just in front of it.

Keeee…!

Startled, the Albatross immediately changed course. It veered toward the coastline, slowing down to avoid the concentrated fire.

Only then did Jae-hee understand Chosen One’s intent.

A drive hunt!

He was executing the original plan: using a wall of fire to push the monster bird’s flight path toward the coast.

Chosen One’s flying warship was slower and less nimble than the helicopters that had gone down, but its durability and firepower were on another level entirely. The feather barrages couldn’t even scratch it.

Unable to shake the warship’s cannon fire, the Albatross dropped its speed drastically as it was helplessly forced closer to the shore.

Watching this, Ghost spoke to Hae-eun. “Move our transport in closer.”

“What?”

“Get our transport near the passenger jet. At this speed and altitude, I think we can pull it off.”

Hae-eun shouted, aghast. “You want me to fly this paper-thin transport into the middle of that crazy S-Ranker’s barrage?!”

“Chosen One is a lunatic, but his skill is beyond question.” Ghost gestured at the cannon fire raining down from the warship. “See? He’s still avoiding direct hits, just firing warning shots. He won’t hit us. Trust him and go.”

“Agh, damn it…” Hae-eun hissed through her teeth. “I wanted to pawn all the risk off on my subordinates and stay perfectly safe until the very end…!”

This commander with her excellent priorities ultimately followed her subordinate’s suggestion.

SWOOOSH!

The post office transport dove low, swiftly closing in on the Albatross’s flank.

True to Ghost’s word, Chosen One ceased all fire along the transport’s approach vector. The Albatross’s massive form loomed before them in an instant.

Hae-eun yelled to Ghost, “How are you going to deal with its roar?! That’s what killed the Daedalus duo!”

“We’ve got plenty of good stuff right here.”

Ghost grabbed a wireless, helmet-integrated aviation headset from its mount in the hatch area and put it on.

“Ready, kid?”

Having also put on a headset and fastened the chin strap, Jae-hee nodded firmly. “Yessir!”

“Our plan is simple.” Ghost’s eyes were fixed on the Albatross and the passenger jet, now just ahead. 

“We can drop without any trouble from this distance. After we land, I’ll rip the jet’s door open. You get the hostages out as fast as you can. Just like you did on the bus.”

“But… we’re over the ocean.”

“The boats are on their way. The altitude isn’t that high, so the hostages will be fine even if we drop them into the water. They’re aware they’ve been abducted and have sent distress signals, so there’s a high probability they’re already wearing life vests.”

WHIRRR.

The hatch opened.

The rushing wind whipped Ghost’s white hair about her as she stood at the edge. For a fleeting moment, Jae-hee thought it looked like a wing.

Like the back of an angel, one wing unfurled…

“Kid!” Ghost glanced back, a grin splitting her face, and threw herself out of the plane. “Let’s go!”

She fell first.

Jae-hee shook his head slightly. “Gotta say, she’s got some rockstar streak in her…”

The Boy followed, kicking off the edge of the hatch and leaping into the sky.

Kee-yaaaaaaah!

The monster bird unleashed a furious roar at the master and disciple as they fell together.

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