SSS-Ranked Demon Hunter: The Prodigy
Chapter 93: Tempest, Part 2

Chapter 93: Tempest, Part 2

One of the following days.

The world was still reeling from the return of Lee Yeonho — and we were already stepping into the shadow of war.

An official demon raid by the Hunter Association had been launched in two districts of the Orange Zone.

The area had long been marked by an abnormally high mortality rate. People died in their sleep, disappeared as if they had never existed. Today, we began the purge.

The operation was silent.

No press releases. No cameras. Only steel boots, radio commands, and the stench of burning barricades.

Statistically, Nightwatch had been the largest operation in recent years. But this...

This was its spiritual successor.

We sealed off the district, cutting off every street, every alley. Drones hovered overhead like a swarm of metal crows. There was nowhere for the demons to run.

And when we came for them — they already knew: mercy would not be shown.

My front was one of three strike teams.With me were Ryu, Ming, and five others — most of them veterans.

Elsewhere in the district: Adam, Shingen, and the newly ranked S-class hunters.

It was quiet.

Only the humming of power lines and the wind toying with curtains in abandoned windows.

And then...

They emerged.

Crimson. In their true forms.

Broad-shouldered, exhaling smoke. Their bodies pulsed like engines — their hearts beat in sync with the rumble of the earth.

Marksmen took aim. S-ranks stepped forward, arms mutating into blades.

The ring of steel cut through the night.

Forward. Like chess. I played the white pieces.

"Ryu, Ming. Form a double wedge. Smoke left, distraction right."

"Roger that, ma’am."

Everything went according to plan.

Ryu dashed in first, his arm-blades slicing through the air.

The demons lunged at him — but Ming intercepted them. His Kenketsu: muscular arms with a crushing grip, capable of bursting enemy organs from within.

Another demon leapt at me.

I didn’t flinch.

They were fast. But not too smart — not for Umbra. Instinct was their weakness.

Pivot. One step aside.

Now.

A hilt bloomed in my palm. Threads of blood unraveled from it, coiling around my wrist like a farewell embrace — then surged upward.

The blood shaped a blade. Its surface began to rise like a flower bud. One by one, crimson petals bloomed along the edge, forming a silhouette of steel and sorrow.

"Kenketsu: Amehana."

The katana drew a horizontal arc — and in the next second, the demon collapsed in two clean halves.

Smoke from a burning car veiled the field. The air thickened, heavy.

One demon broke through — tearing through the smoke and slashing one of our own.

I caught him mid-sprint.

"Tempest..."

"You alright? Still standing?"

"Yes. Apologies for the slip!"

More demons began to emerge onto the street. All of them upright on two legs.

First — a gust of wind.

Then — I vanished.

My body dissolved into the air, as if the storm itself had taken form.

I reappeared behind the demon — my blade already slicing him diagonally. And with that — the sky cracked in a flash.

The rest of our team descended from the rooftops, crashing onto the demons like a divine judgment.

They realized it too late.

The battle was over. Dozens of corpses spilled across the asphalt, bleeding dry.

I stood, catching my breath.

Katana in hand. Cloak in tatters. Hair tangled with wind and blood.

My comrades were silent. Some leaned against walls. Some wiped their faces.And then...

"...She really did it."

"That’s a Kenketsu alright. She summoned it like a true S-rank."

"She was... an A-rank, wasn’t she?"

Ryu looked up, smirking proudly.

"She was. So learn well while she’s your captain. Youngest among us, by the way."

It was my first operation as an S-rank. And now everyone knew.

Ryu and Ming approached.

"You’re finally one of us, little sister," Ryu said, warmly.

Ming nodded, reserved but approving.

"The Kusanagi squad’s back together. Almost."

I flicked on my comm and spoke clearly:

"District Dalcheon-gu — purged. Report from S-rank Captain Tempest."

"Tempest, copy. Thank you for your service."

"Status on the other fronts?"

"District Bando-gu — also purged."

I froze.

Bando-gu... The Peninsula District? And so soon?

My teammates exchanged looks.

We’d used up everything — ammo, tactics, all three squads working in tandem to secure a single district.

And Park Jisun’s team...

...had done it alone. Secured the most dangerous district — where the demons raged the hardest.

I exhaled.

The sky was still gray.

But for the first time in a long while... I felt light.

Bando-gu District.

One of the deadliest — and closest to the Red Zone. The edge of hell.

Ash drifted down like snowflakes made of charcoal. Blood-colored smoke blurred the horizon. The ruins smelled of smoke and scorched meat. Cracked concrete hissed under the heat. Half the sky — crimson, the other — coal-gray.

And in the midst of it all — Park Jisun, standing like a fallen deity. Calm. Unshaken. A legend wrapped in silence.

His twin spears, still dripping crimson, were planted in the ground. Black hair whipped in the wind. His eyes were closed.

Amid the wreckage, there were no screams — no roars — only the sound of ash blowing in the breeze, as if the world had gone breathless.

Chanwook, Reina, and Sora approached him, slow and weary. Their bodies were scraped and dust-covered. Uniforms torn. Breathing shallow. But their eyes — held no victory.

Not one of them.

"So... what now?" Sora was the first to speak, clutching her elbow. "Have we taken... even a step closer to winning?"

No one answered.

It was a victory — but it tasted of iron and smoke. A sacrifice, not a triumph.

Jisun opened his eyes slightly. He gazed upward — toward the blood-red skyline, as though sensing something ancient shifting beneath it.

"...You hear that?" he whispered. "That bastard... slithering through the dust. Fat with fear..."

Silence.

"...Its belly groaning with hunger. Each of our steps stirring its scaled flesh."

From deep within the Red Zone — beyond the veils of smoke and the broken skyline — through the folds of reality itself — came a low, bone-deep hum. Like the Earth itself growling.

It had no direction. It was everywhere — and nowhere. In the bones. Under the skin.

The Serpent Demon. The World’s End. Quetzalcoatl.

And none of us were even close to ready to fight it.

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