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Bonus Level II

The Cinniúint Tomb is still around as long as the Moderator is alive, acting as the caretaker of this special room that's still filled with despair and misery of eaten souls. For now, the painted walls are lighting the room in an overlapped black and green.

It's a rare occasion for the Moderator himself, in a dark evergreen hooded cloak, to be humming a victorious tune while taking sips in between from his glass cup filled with a black liquid that looks too thick to be considered as wine. He sits in a well-made chair that looks visibly intimidating if any human were to see it.

“What do you think you're doing, Harmon?”

Hearing the sudden telepathic call in his greatest work of art, the Moderator stops humming the second he hears his given name uttered by one nosy employer (by name). The way he talks to the caller, who's a man with a deep voice that sounds like an elegant breeze on the coldest day of winter, hints an air of casualness when it's supposed to be utter respect to some higher being.

“How unusual for you to use your telepathy at such a distance. I thought I shifted this precious room far away from Seoul.”

“This mere distance is nothing to me.”

“It’s hard to believe a being like you has to disguise himself with a Korean-named alias…”

“Harmon, why isn't Kang Joo-yeon dead yet?”

“Will there be a problem if she's still alive?”

“I’ve just found out that she has the Revisioned Guideline. I don't like being left in the dark about this dangerous anomaly, Harmon.”

“Ah~ I forgot. You're disguising yourself as an employee there. I assume you've seen her ‘window status’, right?”

“The least you could do is leave that playroom of yours and eliminate her…”

“She's my chosen bride. My masterpiece won't be completed if she gets killed too early. Ha~ You should've seen the look on her face today when she killed those weaklings.”

“You've got twisted tastes for a groom yourself, Harmon. I can't believe my superiors let you handle the Guideline all by yourself.”

“Well, I'm the only one who can bypass the defense system made by those pathetic former friends of mine. Then again, it's a hassle to do most times. That's why my latest experiment will be finished soon. I've always wanted to send Amergin a payback gift for snatching away my assigned creatures, even when he's inside his so-called safe dimension, many years ago.”

A huge silhouette appears beneath where Harmon is sitting. The floor's painting colour changes from a gray color to a bright blue where the shape of a sea monster is shown below him. Looking wingless with only two feet near to its neck, it appears to struggle from being confined beneath the floor with the sound of cracking bones and sizzling liquid heard across the ominous room. Finally, it lets out an agonising roar before its own silhouette disappears underneath the floor’s color turning back to gray.

“I still can't comprehend your enjoyment in making these tactless experiments,” the unknown telepathic caller says in a disgusted tone. “Also, I saw that newest recruit who received our program six months ago. I can't believe that woman has secretly been killing low-ranked Slayers three days in a row.”

“She’s just obeying the tasks I've given her from the Guideline. What's the fuss?”

“The Alliance HQ here has wary eyes.”

“But you’re stronger than any S-rank Slayer over there, right?”

“Look, Harmon. Killing many S-rank Slayers before Discernment Day isn't part of the plan. Until then, we don't want any of our plans to be disrupted by your obstinate decisions you made recently.”

“Hahahahahaha! You mean you don't like your plan getting changed along the way!”

“What?”

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“I don't remember my leader disagreeing with every decision I make.”

Back at one of the floors at the Slayers Alliance, Harmon's employer, dressed in an office worker’s outfit, is annoyed by the way he talks to him. Holding a smartphone to his ear is the only way that nobody else, especially an S-rank Slayer, notices he's using powerful telepathy from a continent’s distance. With half of his face covered by the window blind’s shadow due to the full moon tonight, he nearly bites his lip before speaking the next sentence to Harmon.

“I’m warning you, Harmon. You better wise up or else…”

“Oh! There you are!”

Harmon's employer has his mouth wide open as part of him looking surprised to hear Ha Ye-rin finding him at this spot being often deserted. He manages to keep a calm look on his face as he starts a conversation with her, lifting his phone slightly away from his right ear.

“Ms Ha, I didn't expect you to find me here.”

“Well, I do wish you would join us for dinner once in a while. It's not like you've so many allergies, right?”

“Anyway, what do you need me for, Ms Ha?”

“Oh, right! Ms Chun needs your help in finding more past records about the Hidden Rankers that have existed so far before we call it a night."

“...”

“Or is that phone call important to you…”

“Don’t worry, Ms Ha. I'm nearly done with this phone call. I won't be long.”

“Okay. Then, I'll be waiting at the lift area.”

Once Ye-rin walks away out of his sight, Harmon's employer places his phone back to his ear even though nobody else is on this floor to spy on him.

“Harmon, you better not make any reckless plans, especially if you decide to feed more S-rank Slayers in that wretched room. The missing nine, thanks to you, still have people talking about them. I also suggest you stop giving that unnecessary task to that newbie. My last warning to you - Don't make decisions that'll make you regret them.”

Harmon's employer’s muscularly lean arm, which his suit’s sleeve is folded down to his elbow, puts away his phone; an indication that he stops using his telepathy magic. Back in the tomb, Harmon lets out an exasperated sigh. His mood to drink a Shadow Golem’s blood has been ruined after listening to the unbending words from this telepathic employer. He slowly pours his favorite drink to the ground with his bare feet touching the flooding liquid.

“Look who's talking,” he mumbles while the illuminated walls are making power blinks. “As if you never make decisions without letting us know…Oh well~ it's good that my latest experiment is distracting me from that nihilistic old man. But I'll heed to one of his naggy advice. So what's a necessary task, huh?”

After the last drop of black blood, Harmon gets up from his seat and starts to hum again while holding his empty cup. He’s skipping like a cheerful little kid once he thinks back to Joo-yeon’s mental breakdown and her executions on Mr Seo and his henchmen.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

As if the hectic night isn't over, a frightful scream is heard inside an E-rank Labyrinth. An E-rank Slayer's scream is stopped when his neck is slashed with a stiletto. His bloody body plops in front of the last surviving Slayer, who's also an E-rank wearing a white cloak. The survivor’s face gets paler after scanning the killing scene around him. His six teammates have died from the slashes inflicted upon their bodies. Some of them are headless; some of them are legless. Even one of them has her whole tongue cut off by the hooded figure who's walking towards the survivor.

However, the dim lighting, which is quite common for a Labyrinth to have without any mana crystals on its walls, doesn't conceal her identity from the survivor who can see her dark green eyes giving out a scary glare. He knows who she is exactly when he says his last words to her.

“You…You've been deceiving…the Alliance?...”

Before he can say her name, his neck gets stabbed by her stiletto. Her right hand never loses its grip while the survivor coughs out blood, staining his lower lip. Then, she smiles creepily at the sight of him struggling to breathe. She extracts her weapon from his pierced neck. He too is dead as his lifeless body plops on the ground. There's so much blood coming out of the neck that it's turning a huge part of the white cloak into literally blood red.

Then, the Guideline's notification pops up in front of her. Ever since she received the Trúpa Program half a year ago, she’s able to get stronger while doing her duties as a deputy for the Slayers Alliance. So far, nobody, not even an S-rank Slayer, finds out her actual rank. As for the digitalised message sent by Harmon, whom she never knows his face or voice, she looks surprised for a moment before reverting back to a creepy smile. Her dark green eyes are glistening with an euphoric feeling, letting out arrogant chuckles; her voice sounds like a death knell even though nobody else is alive to hear it.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

A full moon shines upon the lightless shanty building of Dae-chool Agency. Kim Dae-chool is looking terrified as he witnesses some of his men getting cracked bones and repeated healing from a tall hooded figure. He's a redhead due to the fact the loan shark can see the end strands of his hair hanging out of his hood under the moonlight. As if seeing the threatening glare from Joo-yeon isn't enough to make him experience a spooky night, Kim Dae-chool is seeing the worst night of his life tonight.

He can't even remember how many times this unknown assailant, who's crouching down, has been healing and injuring his men. In fact, it doesn't make sense how a Slayer of the healer class can do so without getting killed by his actions of hurting Nons. What's more confusing is that this Slayer acts like he doesn't care about the laws the Slayers Alliance have implemented worldwide. It's as if he doesn't even care what happens to him if a team of S-rank Slayers were being tasked to execute him.

“Hey! Who the heck are you?! Who are you working for?!”

Kim Dae-chool’s rude questioning has the hooded figure stop his torturing method upon one of his henchmen. Some of them still have visible bruises as though this assailant purposely avoided healing such areas during the torture duration. The redhead assailant gets up and walks slowly towards Kim Dae-chool who also has the same bruises that are mostly inflicted on his face. This assailant is a combat healer whose punches are probably as strong as the ones made by Slayer Shin Chang-wook.

The redhead stops walking as he stands still in front of the pathetic-looking loan shark. The clouds pass by, letting another moonlight shine upon the hooded figure's face for a visible look. Kim Dae-chool is daunted by the sight of the redhead’s freckles and shamrock-colored eyes. The aesthetically attractive young man's eyes stare at the loan shark as if green icicles were gonna form in front of him. The older man’s body is trembling with enormous amounts of fear that he stutters his next questions to him.

“What…what do you want…from me?...”

“I want you to leave Kang Joo-yeon alone.”

“What does…she have to do…with you?”

“She's the person I need to kill for my master's sake.”

“What do you…”

“If you want to stay alive, leave this town and never come back at all, Kim Dae-chool. Unless you plan to protect her…”

“No, no!!! I'll leave and won't come back! I just got back my money from that brat so please…spare me! I’ve got nothing to do with her!!”

There's a doubtful feeling in the redhead assailant’s cold stare at Kim Dae-chool. Alas, he decides to give the benefit of the doubt seeing how pathetically weak-willed he is.

“I suggest all of you start packing your stuff tonight. You're lucky that I wasn't keen in destroying that large van parked in front of this ugly building of yours.”

The redhead turns around and leaves Kim Dae-chool and his henchmen shaking with buckets of sweat. The ravaged state of their shady office has been caused by a big shockwave from the redhead’s skean, and he only used one blade to turn the whole interior upside down.