Taehwan, who had snapped back to his senses, sniffled and stopped crying, concentrating his mind once again.
Please, just move according to my will, just this once.
Just once…!
Whether his desperation reached it or not, among the waves that had refused to listen at all until now, the smallest tendril stopped moving.
I did it!
Though it was a faint wave with weak influence, pushed to a corner by the other larger waves, what mattered was that his will had reached it.
Starting with that wave, Taehwan steadily took control of his surroundings.
The problem was that the speed at which he was taking control was very slow.
Taehwan’s efforts to take control of his interior by concentrating all his mind with desperate determination were truly tearful, but stabilizing the rampage that was beginning in earnest after some time had passed since the rampage started was not an easy task.
The situation outside the barrier wasn’t good either.
The Guides who had continued radiation guiding without running away couldn’t hold out any longer. Shortly after Jiwon started guiding, two Guides collapsed.
While an Esper who appeared to be an EED member carried out the collapsed Guides on his back, another Guide collapsed.
Now the only Guides left were Team Leader Lee Juyeon, Woojin, and Jiwon.
“Kuk, I’m going to retire soon too, aren’t I?”
“Guide Lee Woojin, how long can you hold out?”
“…5 minutes? Maybe even sooner than that.”
At Woojin’s words, spat out with difficulty, Team Leader Lee Juyeon bit her lips tightly.
If Jiwon hadn’t come, they wouldn’t have been able to hold out even this long.
“What about Guide Kim Jiwon?”
“I still have room to spare.”
Though he was releasing a lot of guiding energy outward at once, being A+ rank, he had plenty of guiding capacity.
However, radiation guiding on a scale that enveloped the large barrier in front of him was his first time doing it, so he had to be careful to maintain it consistently.
But Jiwon, who had been trained by guiding Seo Gangwoo’s high-difficulty waves every day, quickly adapted to large-scale radiation guiding.
Just then, Woojin finally collapsed with a thud.
“Woojin hyung! Are you okay?”
“Haa, haa. I’m… at my limit. Phew.”
Woojin’s face, breathing roughly, was pale without a trace of color. Though he hadn’t fainted, he sat down unable to move an inch, his stamina completely drained.
Perhaps sensing the decreasing guiding from the Guides’ departures, the rampaging Esper inside the barrier looked this way with a tearful expression.
Meeting those trembling pupils that couldn’t hide their anxiety, Jiwon mouthed “it’s okay” with sympathy. As if understanding those words, tears welled up and streamed down.
Oh my, what should I do.
A face that looked at most middle school age, generously high school age at best.
An Esper too young to suffer the pain of rampage.
It would be good if he could get closer.
“Esper Kim Taehwan! Concentrate. You’re doing well right now! Try to feel the flow of the waves. Taehwan!”
Though significantly reduced from before, electric ability was still extending out wildly, so they couldn’t remove the barrier. However, radiation guiding was too inefficient.
Jiwon turned his head to the side to check Team Leader Lee Juyeon. The sight of her holding out, biting her lips until they turned white, clearly showed she was overexerting herself.
There was no answer like this.
He didn’t know how long they could hold out while guiding, and whether this young Esper could calm the rampaging energy during that time.
Jiwon felt regret that no additional Guides had come after he arrived. He kept checking the entrance direction just in case, but it remained quiet without any signs of people.
What if the Guides who had left earlier came back? He thought about it, but remembering how they had run away as if they’d lost their reason, he shook his head.
Isn’t there some way?
A sigh escaped naturally at the hopeless situation. All he could do was pray that the young Esper could calm the rampage on his own.
While worrying, Jiwon checked the electric tendrils trying to strengthen again and increased his guiding to fill in for the guiding portions of the Guides who had left.
Then the electricity subsided again.
“Hmm?”
Jiwon, who had been spreading dense radiation guiding while observing the complexion to assess the Esper’s condition, began to feel the Esper’s internal waves at some point. Tilting his head at the sudden change, he checked once more to see if what he felt was correct.
It was common knowledge that basic guiding and radiation guiding couldn’t grasp an Esper’s interior.
But now, while only doing radiation guiding from a distance, he could clearly feel the interior of the Esper in front of him.
He didn’t know what in the world had happened, but Jiwon thought he might be able to find a way with this.
Without losing track of the Esper’s waves, he instinctively drew in the energy scattered around with radiation guiding. And he pushed it toward where he felt the largest wave.
Very slowly, but guiding energy seeping in smoothly according to Jiwon’s will.
Surprisingly, it was effective.
He could feel the unstable wave he’d targeted calming down more than before.
Jiwon, so happy about his successful guiding that he wanted to shout, composed himself and concentrated his mind again to move the guiding spread around.
Having found a breakthrough for the seemingly unsolvable, completely blocked problem, all he had to do was execute it.
Even so, Jiwon didn’t know how tremendous what he was doing was.
He simply raised his senses without rest, hopeful that the young Esper could escape from the danger of rampage.
Moving guiding energy that was far away and had already scattered outside was no ordinary difficult task even for Jiwon. Moreover, since it was his first attempt, the energy he barely gathered often scattered without seeping into the Esper’s interior.
Still, Jiwon didn’t stop.
If he tried 10 times, 3 were successful.
The young Esper, who had been confused about whether the calming internal waves were due to his own control, finally looked back at Jiwon in shock after several guidings seeped in. It was truly guiding he’d never heard of or seen before.
Before they knew it, the emergency alarm sound from the Esper watch had stopped.
“…Guide Kim Jiwon?”
Only then did Team Leader Lee Juyeon also notice something and call out to Jiwon, but Jiwon didn’t have the capacity to answer.
The mental exhaustion was so great that he was sweating all over.
Now the electric ability leaking out around the young Esper had completely disappeared. The EED members murmured.
As he guided the urgent-looking waves one by one in order, before he knew it, nearly half the waves had disappeared.
The young Esper also seemed to gain strength, organizing the waves with Jiwon’s help.
“Is it done?”
“Taehwan! Esper Kim Taehwan.”
The surroundings grew quiet.
The young Esper’s face, which had been in pain, relaxed comfortably.
Everyone realized the dangerous moment had passed.
Team Leader Lee Juyeon, who had gone to the point just before retiring, leaned her body against a pillar and let out a sigh of relief.
Though he’d been assigned the role as if pushed into it and the young Esper wasn’t his direct junior from his team, the senior Esper who had barely held on while worried that the young Esper he’d been in charge of even briefly might lose his life in vain burst into tears with sobs.
The EED members who had been waiting expressionlessly smiled brightly, every single one of them, as if they’d never been expressionless.
“Excuse me, could you reduce the barrier’s size?”
The defense-type Esper who had been maintaining the barrier for any possible situation nodded at Jiwon’s words and signaled to the defense-type Espers on the opposite side.
Shortly after, the barrier slowly moved inward and shrank to more than half its original size.
Jiwon narrowed the radiation guiding range as much as the barrier shrank, moving his steps to approach the young Esper.
“More, please reduce it more.”
The closer he got, the easier it was to move the guiding energy according to his will. Before he knew it, he was left with only a few steps’ distance from the young Esper.
Not letting his guard down and continuing to push in guiding, Jiwon confirmed he no longer felt the energy of rampage and stopped guiding.
“You’re okay now, right?”
At the gentle, clear-toned voice, the young Esper who had been wearing a blank expression belatedly understood the question and hurriedly nodded.
“I think we can remove the defensive barrier.”
At Jiwon’s words, the defense-type Esper looked at the chief supervisor standing a little distance away. He too, having heard Jiwon’s words, nodded.
At the signal of permission, the defense-type Esper removed the remaining barrier.
“Thank you for your hard work.”
When Jiwon greeted him upon confirming this, the Esper returned the greeting while releasing the tension he’d been maintaining because of the barrier, then stepped back a few steps.
Jiwon carefully examined the young Esper in front of him.
Unable to speak first or stand up, trembling his gentle eyes anxiously, he looked like a puppy watching his owner’s mood, worried about being scolded after causing trouble.
“I’m going to place my hand on the back of your hand. Please stay still just like that.”
At Jiwon’s words, the young Esper obediently nodded greatly.
Jiwon crouched down in front of him and carefully overlapped his hand on the back of the hand placed on the knee, examining the interior with direct guiding. Though he’d already felt the waves had calmed down, he wanted to be sure.
At the first time receiving direct guiding from a high-rank Guide, the young Esper trembled.
