Chapter 45. The Punisher, No. 5 (1)
While everyone was responding to the emergency, Victoria’s smartphone rang.
It was Yukgap.
“Hold on. Yukgap’s calling.”
Victoria immediately answered.
Yukgap’s voice came through quickly.
[Victoria? How are things there? Are you okay?]
“One of the Twelve Archons is nearby, but we’re fine for now.”
Yukgap immediately snapped at her carefree response.
[How is that fine?!]
Victoria tried to calm him down.
“Don’t worry. There’s no one suspicious here. I don’t think they’ve reached us yet.”
[So there are only nuns around you right now?]
Victoria looked around.
The only people nearby were women in habits.
No one looked suspicious.
“Yeah. Why?”
Yukgap’s voice suddenly sharpened.
[Run. Now!]
“Why?”
[The Archon coming after you this time is a woman!]
“What? Then...”
At that moment, Sister Olga’s sharp voice cut through the laboratory.
“W-Wait! Something’s wrong!”
She looked around in confusion.
Nova immediately asked,
“Sister Olga, what is it?”
“The number of sisters here doesn’t match. There’s one extra!”
“What do you mean?”
Then a quiet voice came from one corner.
“At last, we meet, Doctor Nova.”
One of the nuns slowly raised her head.
Aside from slightly sharp eyes, there was nothing particularly remarkable about her appearance.
Which made what she said next all the more shocking.
“I am No. 5. I came from Abraxas to eliminate you.”
Her voice was calm and heavy.
Almost as if she were simply stating an obvious fact.
“How dare you come here!”
Sister Olga immediately stepped forward.
She slammed a button on the wall and shouted,
“Lord, I shall pay for this sin in hell someday!”
Machine guns dropped from the ceiling.
They immediately opened fire on No. 5.
RATATATATAT!
[You must not attack No. 5!]
Yukgap shouted urgently over the phone.
But the bullets had already begun tearing into No. 5.
Gunpowder smoke filled the area as blood burst from her body.
“Is that all?”
No. 5 did not move.
She simply walked through the smoke as though nothing had happened.
Every place where a bullet had struck healed in the blink of an eye.
It was almost as though the wounds themselves had been erased.
Sister Olga clicked her tongue.
“I’d heard rumors, but the regenerative ability of the Twelve Archons really is incredible.”
“Your first mistake was thinking conventional firearms could deal with me.”
No. 5 spoke without expression.
Then she looked at the blood scattered all around her.
“Now it’s my turn.”
The instant she finished speaking, her blood rose from the floor and spread through the area as a red mist.
Each droplet seemed to move with a will of its own.
“W-What is this?”
Nova muttered in alarm as she realized something was wrong.
No. 5 stared directly at her.
“Die.”
The red mist exploded outward.
It immediately engulfed the nearby nuns.
“Aaaaaah!”
“Ghh... cough!”
“Ugh! Ghk!”
The moment the mist touched them, the nuns screamed and collapsed.
Their bodies began rapidly dissolving.
It looked as though the red mist were painting itself over them layer by layer, consuming them as it went.
“Stop! I’m your target! Why are you attacking innocent people?!”
Nova screamed in desperation.
No. 5 answered without emotion.
“My orders were to ‘exterminate’ every researcher here, including you. An example must be made so that no one ever attempts to develop this drug again.”
She continued as though delivering a simple notice.
“Doctor Nova. These people are dying today because of you.”
Nova’s face trembled.
She had known from the moment she learned Abraxas was targeting her that she would not die peacefully.
She had no attachment to her own life, so she had never been afraid.
But seeing the people who had helped her die so brutally because of her was unbearable.
“Sister, run! Hurry! The other sisters will buy time!”
Sister Olga quickly grabbed Nova by the arm.
Nova cried out through tears.
“But the sisters are still there!”
“We expected something like this from the moment we decided to oppose Abraxas.”
Sister Olga forced an awkward smile, trying to reassure her.
Victoria stepped forward with determination.
“Hurry! If we stay here, the sisters’ sacrifice will be for nothing!”
Nova squeezed her eyes shut.
Then she began running forward without looking back.
Victoria was right.
If she stayed, her research and the sacrifices of the sisters would all be wasted.
“So you chose to run after all.”
No. 5 muttered as she watched them flee.
The red mist around her continued growing denser.
“Not that it matters.”
She did not hurry.
She simply walked slowly in the direction her target had disappeared.
The red mist followed her like a loyal servant.
“This is the laboratory’s panic room. It has its own circulation system, so you won’t need to worry about oxygen. Finish the remaining drug research in here.”
Sister Olga pushed Nova and Victoria into a room in the corner of the facility.
The walls were more than thirty centimeters thick.
Even one of the Twelve Archons should not be able to break through them easily.
“What about you, Sister Olga?”
Nova asked through tears.
Sister Olga stroked her head.
“I need to buy even a little more time for the suffering children. Don’t you think?”
Like the other nuns, she intended to sacrifice herself to delay the enemy.
She looked at them firmly.
“The moment the drug is complete, upload the manufacturing method and formula to our private cloud server. Then convents around the world will begin producing it. Once it becomes fully public, even Abraxas won’t be able to stop it!”
“Sister...”
Nova could not continue as she watched Olga prepare to leave.
Sister Olga smiled warmly.
“I am merely an obedient servant answering the Lord’s call. Don’t feel guilty.”
With those words, Sister Olga ran down the corridor.
Nova stared after her for a long time.
“All right, let’s start! This isn’t the time to freeze up. Get a hold of yourself!”
Victoria hurriedly stepped in.
She slammed the panic room door shut and locked it.
Only then did Nova snap out of it.
“Right. I have to. I can’t just sit here.”
Nova took a breath.
Then she muttered words meant for someone who was not there.
“Wait just a little longer. I’ll finish the medicine. I promise.”
“I didn’t expect this much resistance. I suppose this wasn’t an ordinary convent after all.”
No. 5 looked down at the nuns lying at her feet.
When she had heard that Doctor Nova was hiding in a convent, she had privately mocked the idea of using a religious facility as a refuge.
Yet when she arrived, the nuns had armed themselves and attacked her with everything they had.
Most died before they could even reach her.
Still, their attacks had been persistent and fierce.
“They’ll all die anyway.”
No. 5 muttered without expression.
Then someone blocked her path.
“Stop.”
It was the large nun who had escorted Nova away earlier.
No. 5 gestured toward her.
“Who are you?”
“I am Olga! A lowly servant of the Lord!”
Sister Olga launched herself forward.
Putting all her weight behind the strike, she punched No. 5 directly in the face.
No. 5 neither cried out nor staggered.
She simply stood there and took the blow.
“What?”
Sister Olga stared in shock.
No. 5 casually asked,
“You’ve undergone physical modification, haven’t you?”
Sister Olga returned to a fighting stance.
“Yes. I’m a monster like you.”
“I’d be offended if you thought we were on the same level.”
No. 5 tilted her head lightly.
“Go to your Lord now.”
The red mist around her rushed over Sister Olga.
Her skin immediately began burning away.
“Ghh...!”
Sister Olga swallowed a groan of agony.
No. 5 mocked her.
“I won’t kill you quickly. First your skin. Then your flesh, muscles, nerves, and bones. I’ll break you down in that order.”
The red mist burrowed violently into Sister Olga’s body.
She writhed and screamed.
“Aaaaaah!”
“You made a mistake by attacking me in the first place. ‘These’ normally stay quietly inside my blood vessels. They wouldn’t even have come out if you hadn’t wounded me.”
No. 5 looked down at Sister Olga on the floor.
“Now then... it’s time for punishment.”
Whoosh!
Something suddenly cut through the air.
A dagger flew forward and buried itself in No. 5’s chest.
“Th-This...!”
No. 5 recognized it immediately.
Then a familiar voice came from behind her.
“Why? Surprised? Of course you are. My daggers are made from a material you can’t dissolve.”
Yukgap stood behind her, glaring while gripping another dagger.
He looked ready to throw it at any moment.
No. 5 trembled as she stared at her former comrade.
“No. 6...!”
“Long time no see, No. 5.”
Yukgap called her by the familiar code name.
“Epsilon.”
No. 5 immediately snapped.
“I heard you deserted Abraxas. And yet you came all the way here. Why?”
Yukgap dramatically lifted the insulated lunch container in his hand.
“Why else?”
He grinned.
“I’m here for the lunch delivery service.”
