Meanwhile, Han and Raon were unconscious, dragged by desperate survivors into a narrow alley away from the battlefield.
They're bleeding from everywhere—ears, nose, eyes—! They'll die if we don't treat them!"
"We don't have any healers left!"
"What do we do?!"
Then a small voice spoke.
"I… I have this."
The young boy—the same child Raon and Han had saved earlier—clutched a trembling hand around a single vial.
A healing potion.
He knelt beside Raon and gently pushed the vial to his lips.
The liquid worked instantly. Raon's fingers twitched. His eyelids quivered. His body jolted, breath hitching as awareness returned.
He coughed violently.
"Stop! Stop drinking!" someone shouted. "You'll choke!"
Raon weakly shoved the bottle away.
The little boy looked terrified.
"If you don't finish it… you're not gonna make it!"
Raon forced a bloody smile.
"…Give the rest to Han."
"But—!"
"I've survived worse."
He pushed himself to his feet, legs shaking, vision blurry.
He turned to the nearest man.
"Your sword. Give it."
The man didn't question. He placed the blade in Raon's hand.
Roan stepped out of the alley first.
The narrow darkness loosened its grip as he crossed the threshold, boots scraping against cracked asphalt.
The road stretched before him—wide, empty, and scarred.
Burnt vehicles lay overturned like carcasses, streetlights flickered weakly, and dust hung in the air as if the city itself was holding its breath.
He stopped at the center of the road.
Behind him, a sound followed.
A staggered step.
Then another.
Han emerged from the alley, one hand pressed against the wall for support.
His left leg dragged slightly, each movement costing him more than he was willing to admit.
Blood had dried dark along his trousers, but he didn't slow.
He limped forward until he stood beside Roan.
For a moment, neither of them spoke
And saw lightning ripping apart the sky.
The giant wyvern was losing—barely—but losing. It desperately flapped its remaining wing, spewing fire wildly, turning entire blocks into molten craters.
Then—
With a roar that shook the heavens—
It flew higher, gathering power.
The sky darkened. Clouds swirled. Something massive formed in its throat.
And then—
FLASH.
A surgical strike of lightning severed the wyvern's wing.
The beast spiraled downward uncontrollably.
CRRRAAAASH!
The ground cracked. Debris exploded outward. Dust filled the air.
Raon covered his face, coughing as smoke cleared.
And then…
Something moved beside him.
A blur.
A sudden presence.
A scent of ozone and snow.
He turned slowly.
She stood there.
Silver hair dripping with monster blood. White coat torn.
Skin cut and bruised from battle. Sword still humming with leftover lightning.
The female lead.
The one who, in the novel, killed the wyvern.
Her cold eyes met his .
And in that frozen moment—breathing smoke, surrounded by death—
Raon felt a strange, electric chill crawl down his spine.
She wasn't just a character anymore. She was real, Alive, and staring right at him.
The roar came again.
Broken. Ragged. Furious.
Raon looked up just in time to see the big wyvern force itself into the air—its massive body listing to one side, one wing torn and bleeding, each flap uneven and violent. The sky trembled with its scream.
And answering that scream—
Smaller wyverns poured in.
They emerged from between ruined buildings and torn clouds, drawn by the scent of blood and rage. Dozens of them. Their shadows swallowed the streets.
Raon clenched his jaw.
Cold surged through his veins.
Ice bullets formed mid-air and fired in rapid succession. They pierced skulls, shattered jaws, froze wings solid before snapping them apart. Wyverns fell screaming from the sky, smashing into concrete in bloody heaps.
But the strain was immediate.
His fingers went numb. Ice crept backward along his arm, freezing blood where it spilled from cracked skin. Each shot felt heavier than the last.
Beside him, she moved.
The white-coated swordswoman blurred forward, her body cutting through the battlefield like lightning given form. Steel flashed. Heads fell. Wings were severed mid-flap. She didn't stop. She didn't slow.
Then—
The big wyvern inhaled.
The air warped.
A deep, molten glow ignited inside its throat.
Raon's pupils shrank.
The wyvern unleashed its breath.
But not at them.
The inferno swept sideways—toward its own kin.
Smaller wyverns were caught midair, their screams erased as fire devoured scale and bone alike. Bodies dropped from the sky like burning rain.
The monster didn't hesitate.
Survival mattered more than command.
The heat washed over the street. Buildings blackened. Glass melted and flowed like water. People screamed and ran as shadows burned into walls.
Raon staggered, vision blurring.
Then—
A light appeared.
Blue.
Cold.
Detached.
A figure floated above the chaos, legs crossed casually, fluffy horns tilting as if in amusement.
The Manager smiled.
「Time's almost up.」
A pause.
「You have… one minute.」
Raon felt it then—
That familiar suffocating pressure.
His chest tightened.
This was exactly how the novel described it.
「Complete the scenario.」
The Manager vanished.
Silence screamed louder than sound.
Raon turned.
She was already looking at him.
No fear. No hesitation.
"I'll make the path," Raon said, voice steady despite the blood on his lips.
"You end it."
She nodded once.
Nothing more was needed.
Raon spread his hand.
The ground rose.
Concrete slabs tore free. Steel beams screamed as they bent upward. Boulders and shattered pillars lifted into the air, forming a broken staircase toward the sky.
The wyverns reacted instantly.
They swarmed her.
Raon moved.
Ice bullets shattered wings. Telekinesis crushed skulls mid-charge. He dragged debris through the air like spears, impaling monsters before they reached her.
She ran.
Jumping from slab to slab, leaping across floating ruins as fire scorched past her heels. A misstep—one fragment cracked beneath her foot—
And then she jump from the last slab towards the big wyvern and then —
The big wyvern turned its head.
Its throat glowed again.
And she was too close.
Raon's breath stopped.
Now.
Everything he had left surged forward.
Pipes. Rebar. Steel rods. Entire chunks of wreckage—
They launched.
The debris pierced through the wyvern's open mouth, ripping out through its neck and chest. Its roar choked into a wet scream as its balance shattered.
It fell.
And she struck.
Lightning wrapped her body, the air screaming as she accelerated beyond sound. A single line of blue carved through the dust—
No roar.
No explosion.
Just a clean arc.
The wyvern's head separated from its body.
The corpse hit the ground with a thunderous impact. Dust swallowed the street.
Then—
Silence.
The clouds above dispersed, black rolling away to reveal fading sunlight. The remaining wyverns fled, their cries distant and terrified.
A system window flickered into existence.
[Second Scenario — Complete]
[Rewards will be distributed]
Raon didn't look at it.
The dust settled.
She stood atop the fallen wyvern, coat torn and soaked in black blood, sword resting at her side. The sunset framed her figure in gold and crimson.
For a long moment, there was no sounds.
Raon exhaled slowly.
For the first time since the world had broken—
He knew.
This wasn't a story he was reading anymore. This was a story that had begun to read him