They were not alone in the Forest of Everlasting Envy.

  And Red was certainly not the only hunter.

  Approximately thirty hooded figures marched through the forest ahead. They were equipped with a variety of weapons, ranging from longswords, daggers, giant mallets and two-handed axes.

  The forest floor shook underneath the relentless pursuit of dozens of heavy boots.

  Dust stirred up and marred their skin-tight, crimson body suits that covered every inch of their skin up to their neck.

  Covering their upper bodies was an even darker half-jacket that carried the insignia of a red butterfly marked in the center of a crosshair.

  Glowing behind the darkness within their hoods were a mask with pair of crimson orbs.

  They burned like steady candleflames.

  “RELEASE THE MANA BULLETS!”

  “SHOWER THEM! SHOWER THEM!”

  “HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

  Zealous, heavily distorted battle cries left their mouths as they raised their weapons towards a swarm of over a hundred Bitter Thorns. The shambling puppets stood no match against them, their front lines exploding as they were met with the teeth of high-quality steel.

  Red was fascinated by their prowess. She watched them from the safety of a boulder right beside a drained Snow. Her skin was snow-white, and her eyes furrowed in deep contemplation as she stared down at her shaking palms.

  And who could blame her?

  This was Scarlet Logic, after all.

  “SEND IN THE VOLLEYS! DUMP YOUR MANA!”

  The cacophony of a mechanical whirl resonated within the forest. To the far right stood a line of ten Scarlet Logic Fodders. Cradled in their arms were clunky, crimson firearms that were roughly a quarter of their size.

  A Scarlet Logic Fodder was no more than one of millions of soldiers that sat at the very bottom of Scarlet Logic’s hierarchy, hence their name – Fodder. What they lacked in strength they more than made up for in their sheer numbers.

  Thirty did not seem much.

  But it wouldn’t surprise them if there were more hunting down the Corrupted in the forest.

  “THIRTY SECONDS! STANDBY!”

  A faint, red light accumulated within the broadened opening of the weapon. The light accumulated into a single point, creating a blood-colored crystal the size of one’s hand. It was jagged and sharpened like the tip of a spear.

  Then, once thirty seconds was over, and as steam began to emanate from their backs and their body parts in direct contact with the weapon–

  –A hailstorm of crystal bullets riddled the front lines.

  None of them even attempted to warn the people ahead.

  Those bullets slaughtered friends and foes indiscriminately, annihilating them like an exploding pomegranate.

  However, those bullets could not penetrate the brambles surrounding the Bitter Thorns. Although that did not matter as a bullet was destined to bypass its defenses.

  Indeed, while the Bitter Thorns were resistant to slashing and blunt-force attacks, they were highly vulnerable to piercing attacks.

  And the weapon that was used to mow them down was called the Mana Repeater.

  * * *

  Scarlet Logic was a name that Red was fondly familiar with.

  Once upon a time, during her bout against the Queen of Sweet and Bitter Thorns at her prime, there were a number of third parties that tried to intervene

  Among them was Scarlet Logic, an Atelier of the Nexus.

  According to Snow and what she knew, this Atelier served as the paramilitary force of the Nexus, tasked with the tall order of being the first point of contact with a Corrupted.

  It did not matter if the Corrupted was Trickle or beyond the capabilities of humankind.

  They would be there no matter what.

  And a result, she vividly remembered the red mist that formed from over a hundred of Scarlet Logic’s personnel. Entire formations were decimated with a single bullet, and swarms were removed from the world with her unstoppable inertia as she came barreling through their highly structured ranks.

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  Scarlet Logic possessed numerous bases across the lands of Elysia, with one of their major Headquarters notably within the Nex Megalopolis. Thousands of kilometers of land there was called the City of Spades, and it was ruled solely by Scarlet Logic.

  They were the front liners and the first responders to the Corrupted.

  In many ways, people saw them as heroes.

  They lived for the sole purpose of fighting the Corrupted.

  Red put herself in the shoes of a weak human, and she could not help but admire them with stars in her eyes.

  She could only imagine how wonderful the City of Spades would be if they were willing to face nightmares on behalf of innocent people.

  A utopia no doubt.

  It must have been one of the reasons why Snow wished to visit the Nex Megalopolis.

  * * *

  After exactly ten seconds of continuous fire, more than thirty-five Bitter Thorns had been slain, alongside another two dozen Envious Brambles. The golden light of a Sweet Thorn could be seen at the tail end of the swarm, seemingly commanding the Corrupted forward.

  “Haaahhhhhh… Ahahaha…”

  “Mana depleted…”

  The forest fell silent in the absence of gunfire. The scent of burning flesh pervaded the air. It came from the Scarlet Logic Fodder in the backlines. Their bodies were cooked from the inside out due to overexerting their Mana.

  This phenomenon was called a Mana Over-depletion where one had to use their lifeforce to make up for their depleted Mana reserves. Depending on the nature of the magic, it had self-destructive consequences.

  In this instance, it had rendered a third of the Scarlet Logic Fodders incapable of battle. Another eight had been killed in the crossfire earlier. Only twelve were capable of combat, and yet–

  “Hahaha… Ahahaha…”

  “Push on… PUSH! HAHAHAHA!”

  –Not an ounce of despair could be found on them.

  It was the opposite in fact.

  A wretched grin formed on their faces as the backlines dropped their weapons and thew themselves headfirst into the fray, overtaking the retreating twelve. If their weapons and hands could no longer function, then –

  “… Scarlet Logic… never changes.” Snow uttered, watching as they removed their masks to reveal heavily mutated faces.

  Some had mandibles. Others had multiple compound eyes that should have belonged to an insect. There were two who didn’t even have any eyes. Their facial features severely lacked cohesion, and it was why they were so inaccurate when firing their Mana Repeaters.

  “So cool…” Red smiled, rocking in place with excitement. “They’re just like me. Not afraid of anything. I can’t believe they’re using their teeth to fight too.”

  Snow shook her head. She peered her head out to observe Scarlet Logic from the other end of the boulder with wary eyes.

  “Don’t compare yourself to them. Scarlet Logic aren’t doing this from the goodness of their hearts. No one does. Ateliers have a bottom line to fulfil.”

  “But they’re still doing something good, right? They’re like heroes since who else is going to willingly enter a Corrupted Zone?”

  Snow shook her head again. She heavily disagreed with Red’s perspective. As a Blessed, she was familiar with how the Ateliers worked to a certain extent. For instance, they were not as benevolent as people thought them to be for the one reason that they, like any other Kingdom, person, or organization – Were driven by personal interests.

  This paired with the persecution Snow faced as a vampiric Healer, she could not come to trust people as easily as Red. The irony in that was how close she had become with Red in such a short amount of time.

  But she digressed and kept observing them.

  “Completely outmatched. This is no mere Trickle Corrupted!” The sanest of them all was a woman whose entire right arm was the claw of a praying mantis.

  Two antennae sprouted from her head, and her knees were bent backwards like the legs of a bird. She held a smaller version of a Mana Repeater. Clunky and still required both hands, but it served as signifier of her authority.

  She held it in her free hand, which had no more than seven fingers, and she pointed her bladed arm to command the remaining Fodder. She had a blend of red and green hair and emerald eyes that pierced through the darkness.

  “Green Trickle is out of the question now. Measly denizen serfs of a Corrupted this resilient can only belong to either a Blue Trickle Corrupted, or it’s a Corrupted with an idiosyncrasy.”

  “MANAGER! DO WE KEEP FIGHTING!?”

  One of the Fodders who could only use their teeth and legs to fight cried out.

  Suddenly, they were snatched by the brambles of multiple Bitter Thorns. They wrapped around their throat, and in the next instant, his head burst like an infected pimple.

  “It’s the very meaning of our existence. Fill your hearts with hatred. Be not afraid of death, my Fodders. Death is but only a setback.”

  The woman spoke in a sultry, tantalizing voice. She demanded the utter respect of those beneath her, and she did not look at the Fodder like they were people, but rather…

  “… Bullets. She’s using them like ammunition.” Red growled.

  “Don’t do anything dumb Red. That’s Scarlet Logic. We shouldn’t get involved with an Atelier. If they’re here, then the best thing we can do now is to wait it out.”

  “Grrr… But we did most of the heavy lifting…”

  “I know. But please, Red. Put your pride aside. They will remember everything that happens here.”

  “Even if they die?”

  Snow ominously nodded. “Even if they die.”

  Left with no choice but to observe, Red hunkered down. But she wore a pout, expressing her disagreement in silence. Snow could already hear Red calling her an ‘idiot’.

  But she knew that this was the right choice.

  The ‘Manager’ of the Fodders suddenly called one of her personnel back with a whistle. At once, a heavily maimed woman dropped to their knees in front of her feet.

  “As you called, Manager…”

  “Don’t trail off. Thirty Cycles should have cracked that weakness by now.”

  “… I’m still learning.”

  “Learn faster then. There’s been a discovery. A new type of denizen.”

  She pointed through the ranks of the Bitter Thorns, precisely at the Sweet Thorn.

  Then, she fired an array of mana bullets, each just barely grazing its body. The weapon she carried was highly inaccurate, but it made up for it in its immense fire rate. Another five Fodder perished as bullets riddled their backs, exposing their backbones to the air.

  “Pity. Relay this one back to the Nest, will you? The next messenger will arrive in… no more than a minute at most.”

  The barrel of her weapon was then pressed against the head of the Fodder beneath her.

  Immediately, the woman’s eyes widened as she reached up with mangled hands, as if begging her to wait.

  “Will I have to overcome the last iteration –?”

  *Bang*

  “Don’t we all have to face ourselves in the pursuit of perfection? Although, looking at the color of your brain, it may be time to consider retiring you.”

  There was not a hint of remorse in her voice.

  Soon after, she ordered another Fodder to lunge straight into the arms of the Sweet Thorn for observational purposes.

  As one would expect, it resulted in a horrific transformation. The body of the Fodder was consumed by thorny brambles as a rancid golden apple formed from a branch protruding out of his chest.

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