Chapter 1

You there, have you heard of The Princess of Black Flame?

She’s a humanoid monster that appears from the deep darkness over the gate. She is said to be as swift as a cat and has skin as white as a vampire’s. I also heard that she has an odd charm which makes it impossible for you to forget her once you see her. I heard that a hunter was once fixated by her beauty and just stood there while she gouged out his eyes with the end of her parasol.

Make sure to flee when you see her—if you can give her black flames the slip.

***

It was late summer, when the spitefully long monsoon had just ended. Eunha was unable to stop herself on the road and looked at the piece of paper in her hand again.

<Quinlish College>

Exam number: 9782136

Name: Eunha Cha

Note: Accepted into the Dog Grooming Department

She checked her letter and put it back inside her bag for the twenty-sixth time. Although she had repeated that process so often, it was clearly a letter of acceptance. She could finally study pet grooming the way she had dreamed of at a famous school in America.

She could see an empty bus stop across the road that was still stained with the color of rain. I’m halfway there. She raised her head and looked at the sky. It still fostered heavy clouds after the rain had stopped, but Eunha felt light-hearted. She studied her letter once more and hurried on. It was about a 20-minute walk from school to home. The road she took every day felt farther today than any other.

She saw a payphone booth not far away. She wanted to tell her mother as soon as possible. Her mother would definitely be happy.

Ring!

Eunha’s heart thumped wildly while the line connected. The ringing finally stopped, and a familiar and kind voice came from the other end.

“Hello?”

“Mom, it’s me, Eunha,” she started as calmly as she could. She didn’t forget to swallow, either. “I don’t have many dimes, so I’ll make it quick. Mom, you know—”

But Eunha was unable to finish speaking. The receiver fell lifelessly to the ground with a thud.

Boom.

The sky rang loudly, and dozens of red lightning bolts rained down all over Seoul. The asphalt split; the atmosphere quivered. While the surrounding buildings fell like dominoes, people started running away as though escaping fallen ants’ nests.

“Hello? Eun…ha…”

The rain that had started again knocked on the booth mercilessly, leaving black streaks of tears.

What in the world? What’s going on? It felt too real to be a dream, yet too terrible for her to believe that it was real.

Cars fell through the cracked asphalt, while the streetlamps interlaced with electric wires shook like crazy. Someone buried under a commercial sign that came from nowhere was helplessly crushed like a boiled potato.

While Eunha blankly studied the devastation, there was a crash! Something heavy seemed to have landed on top of the phone booth.

“Aahh…!”

She could hear her mother’s scream over the receiver. Having been brought back to her senses, Eunha reached out toward the receiver again.

“Mom? Mom!”

There was no answer, no matter how many times she called out. She felt a sense of foreboding, and such hunches were never wrong. Eunha started running home with her letter of acceptance still clenched in her hand.

She couldn’t remember how she got home. She only remembered running in the opposite direction of the frantically escaping people. When she turned the corner and arrived in front of the familiar gates, Eunha dropped the letter from her hand. The white piano, which was all too familiar, was shattered under the fallen concrete. A crushed left arm peeked out from below the piano keys.

No way; it can’t be her. Eunha slowly approached it. The wish bracelet that Eunha had made and given as a present a few years ago was on it.

Eunha gripped the piano as though bewitched. No matter how much she heaved, it didn’t move an inch as if it was stuck there. Eunha finally took her hands off the piano and pulled on her mother’s arm with all her strength.

Thud.

The hand that didn’t move popped out like a sweet potato stalk: the chilly hand of her mother.

“Mom….” Eunha collapsed on the spot like a marionette with its strings cut.

The hand that had patted Eunha’s head, the arm that had acted as a pillow on nights that she couldn’t sleep, had lost its owner and was crying red tears. The wind, mingling with distant screams, carried up the letter of acceptance on the ground and continued on its way.

***

September 1997.

The world had changed. The red lightning that fell from the sky had left enormous marks everywhere in the country. Cracks of various hues each emitted suspicious and gloomy energy, but didn’t give off any special reactions. Red lightning had rained down all over the world, and the cracks it left were called “gates.”

One day, there was an incident where the researchers investigating the cracks in the capital region suffered death en masse. Only one out of the dozens that went there came back alive.

“There was a cicada that was bigger than a car, I mean a bus! It took my arm!”

The world regarded him as a lunatic, but it didn’t take long for them to realize that he was telling the truth.

***

October 1997.

Terrifying monsters had left the gates and revealed themselves to the world. It really was a disaster. The monsters had been starving for a long time and they devoured all the pedestrians in their way. The government had sent thousands, tens of thousands of troops to gates around the country, but none of the weapons that the present-day humans made worked on them.

But that didn’t matter.

It was her mother’s funeral. The situation being as it was, Eunha could only have a funeral a long time after her mother had passed away.

“What? Not us. We have three kids, three.”

“Then what? Do I have to take care of her? Third cousins are basically strangers.”

Eunha stood still in front of her mother’s portrait. There was nowhere for her to go, or anywhere else in the world, for that matter. An hour had already passed since the relatives who barely knew her started ranting in front of her.

“I don’t know, I really don’t. Where’s her dad? She can go to her dad.”

“Ugh, you figure it out! I don’t know anymore!”

“Shh! She’ll hear you!”

…I can hear everything.

Eunha had no tears left to cry. She touched the bracelet in her hand. The entire apartment building that she lived in had collapsed and turned to dust, and the wish bracelet was all she had left from her mother.

“Eunha, you’ll be an adult soon, so you’re old enough to fend for yourself.”

“Yes.”

“I don’t feel comfortable leaving you alone. But we have three children, as you know… You know what I mean, right?”

“I do.”

“The state is going to provide you with a temporary residence and support fund, so it should be alright. But contact us if things get too hard.”

“All right.”

In the end, Eunha was left alone. The residence that the state provided was barely a house. It was a tent made of planks, but beggars couldn’t be choosers.

She was getting through the day with the support fund and free food.

“Did you hear about Dongsik Ma? Looks like he was awakened.”

“What? Really?”

“He’s been gone since yesterday. He must have been dragged off to the Training Center.”

“Oh, please, don’t let it be me… You don’t even know when you’ll die if you become drafted. I would hate for that to be me.”

“Me too. Fight such monsters? These rotten shacks are much safer than that.”

The free canteen was more chaotic than usual that day. Some time had already passed since extraordinary people with supernatural powers had started appearing all over the nation, no, the world. She thought that it had nothing to do with her until that day.

***

[Starting identification.]

[Name: Eunha Cha]

[ - - - Loading - - - ]

[Your unique ability has been activated.]

[Connecting to a new channel.]

…What in the world?

Half asleep, when she stretched her fingers out, an electric current seemed to flow from the end. No, it wasn’t electricity.

“Fire…?”

Flames spread from her fingertips as though the embers bloomed from them. The flames shone in the dusky old shack. They didn’t go out until daybreak, even when Eunha didn’t want them.

A few days later, somehow, the state found out and sent someone for her. The man introduced himself as a National Security Agency official, and abruptly told Eunha to pack her things. She wasn’t allowed to refuse.

Eunha meekly accepted his guidance and boarded a huge bus. There were about forty people onboard. They too had been “awakened” as people with supernatural powers, as she had. She learned it a few hours later when they arrived at the Training Center.

“In the face of an unprecedented national disaster, you have been given an opportunity to devote yourselves to the state.” The voice that rang out drove into the ears of all those present. “Keep in mind that there are hundreds, thousands of people’s lives depending on each and every one of you.”

The Training Center was quiet, almost as if a bucket of cold water had been thrown over them. Some people seemed to be crying. Terrifying and ferocious monsters were said to be on the loose in the gates, the cracks that appeared all over the country. Eunha had heard about it through the news.

Am I supposed to face them?

Eunha looked down at her trembling hands. Although she was said to be awakened, she had no idea how to face those monsters using her skills. But she did know one thing: They were the ones that killed her mother. They had stolen Eunha’s house, dreams, and life.

The cruel monsters didn’t wait for the unprepared awakened. Even now the monsters were on the rampage, killing someone’s family. The hunters were short on time and their training was shortened to only three months. However, it was a long time for Eunha. She had no reason or energy left to go to college, either. Those who lost everything were braver than those who had it all.

Eunha’s unique ability “fire flame” was optimized for battle. Her flames were extremely fierce and aggressive, and didn’t know when to stop.

***

April 1998.

The hunters that had finished the three-month barest minimum of their training were thrown into the gates. They had no weapons or armor. The only things they had were the do tags around their necks and the heavy burden that they were the last hope of humanity.

It was the year that Eunha turned twenty.