The Mountains - Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The alarms inside the tower were shrieking.

Sweat beaded on my forehead as I pressed myself hard against the wall, my hair whipped into a mess by the gale of surging mental power.

My knee, scraped against the floor when I fell, was bleeding in thin red lines and throbbed dully.

I had already felt around every inch of the place. There was no way out.

The bullet comments that had suddenly appeared in front of me clearly had no idea either. They just kept spamming utterly useless nonsense.

[Not gonna lie, even with the mask on, this Passerby A seems kind of pretty.]

[What is she doing? Preparing her last words?]

[Her mental power is only E-rank, right? She’s basically dead.]

Ignoring those rude comments, I looked at the unknown S-level Sentinel in front of me.

The place I had fallen into was the top floor of the Sentinel Tower.

There were three rooms on this entire floor, which meant three S-level Sentinels with extremely high degrees of mutation were being imprisoned here.

The mental power in this room was the most unstable.

The young man with his eyes shut was tall and straight, his hands and feet bound by massive steel chains.

Most of his handsome face was covered by a tightly fitted mouth restraint. His lashes drooped slightly, and he looked utterly lifeless.

A Night Leopard that should have been majestic was lying across his shoulder, its fur turning white as it let out pained howls.

…My occupational disease was acting up.

I instinctively moved closer, intending to see what exactly was wrong with the Night Leopard.

Perhaps because I had approached, the young man who had been sunk in slumber suddenly opened his eyes.

They were scarlet.

The last shred of sanity was a half-flicker of deep blue beneath that crimson, moments away from being drowned and devoured.

“Get out…”

The young man forced the two words through his teeth. His voice should have been clear and bright, but through the mouth restraint it carried a cold, metallic edge.

Me: “…” If I could get out, I would have done it already.

Clatter, clatter.

The black iron chains that looked indestructible were dragged by him, splitting with tiny cracks.

His brows drew together slightly, pain crossing his face.

Wave after wave of mental fluctuations spread outward.

Violence, agony, grief.

As if triggering a chain reaction, beastly cries rose one after another throughout the enormous Sentinel Tower. A vast tide of mental power gradually swept across the entire tower peak.

An S-level Sentinel in a rampage would assimilate other Sentinels with his mental storm.

Once a vortex of mental power like this formed, no Guide could possibly survive.

The bullet comments hadn’t lied to me.

I tightened the mask on my face and finally made up my mind. “This might hurt a little. Bear with it.”

The Sentinel on the verge of losing his mind looked at me.

I took a deep breath and summoned the spirit entity I had never shown anyone before-

A chibi figure who looked almost exactly like me, wearing a mask and a white coat.

The chibi figure held an enormous syringe and stabbed it hard into the Night Leopard’s butt.

Every hair on the Night Leopard’s body stood on end. “Awooo!”

He froze.

The bullet comments exploded.

[Wait??? What the hell is that????]

[Huh??]

[What kind of spirit entity is that? No, wait-wasn’t this Passerby A’s spirit entity not fully awakened yet??]

[A human-shaped spirit entity??]

[I’ve never heard of a human-shaped spirit entity before!]

[Hold on? Is that… a doctor?]

[A vet?]