Seoul was different from the last time Raze had walked its streets.
He was a Category 5 threat now. Wanted posters, digital surveillance, Association hunters actively searching for any sign of his presence. Moving through the city required constant vigilance — suppression amulets, dimensional evasion, routes that avoided the monitoring networks that covered every major area.
The Ancient One's intelligence included safe houses. Locations maintained by aberrant sympathizers, people who'd been helped by the Sanctuary over the years and remained willing to assist despite the risks.
Raze used the first safe house to establish a base of operations.
The apartment was small, anonymous, located in a district where people minded their own business. The owner, an elderly woman who'd lost her son to Protocol 7 years ago, asked no questions, provided basic supplies, and left him to his work.
Three days of surveillance established Morrow's patterns.
The Director maintained a predictable schedule. Morning briefings at Association headquarters. Afternoon meetings at various secure facilities. Evenings at his residence, protected by personal security that included at least three artificial aberrants.
The artificial security was the main obstacle. They maintained constant vigilance, communicated through encrypted channels, and had been specifically designed to counter aberrant infiltration.
Getting past them would require more than dimensional abilities.
---
Kira provided remote support through encrypted communication.
"The artificial security rotates at shift changes. Four-hour cycles. The transition creates a two-minute window where coverage overlaps are thinner than normal."
"Two minutes isn't enough to reach Morrow's apartment."
"No. But it might be enough to breach the building's security perimeter." Kira's voice was tense through the connection. "Once you're inside, the artificial aberrants become your main obstacle. The intelligence suggests their reaction time is faster than yours."
"I'm not planning to fight them directly."
"Then how do you reach Morrow?"
"Through dimensions they can't access." Raze had been planning this for days. "The building's structure includes maintenance spaces — vents, utility conduits, spaces between walls. Earthmeld and Dimensional Slip can carry me through those spaces faster than the artificials can respond."
"They'll detect your mana signature."
"Only if I use active abilities. Passive movement through solid matter leaves minimal trace." Raze checked the equipment he'd prepared. "I reach Morrow's apartment before they realize I'm there. I complete the mission. I extract through dimensions they can't follow."
"And if something goes wrong?"
"Then I adapt. That's what the unity integration is for."
Kira was quiet for a moment. "I don't like this. The plan has too many variables I can't monitor."
"I know. But it's the best approach available."
"Be careful. Whatever you're trying to prove with this mission — it won't matter if you're dead."
"I'm not trying to prove anything."
"You are. Even if you don't know what it is yet." The connection ended with her words hanging in the space between them.
---
The approach began at midnight on the fourth day.
Raze moved through the city using routes that avoided surveillance, reaching Morrow's building through underground utility tunnels that connected to the structure's basement. The security perimeter began at ground level — everything below was city infrastructure, monitored but not actively defended.
He emerged in a maintenance space three floors below Morrow's apartment.
The building hummed with activity even at this hour. Security personnel patrolling. Residents living their lives unaware of the weapon moving through their walls. Association systems monitoring for threats that Raze was specifically designed to bypass.
Earthmeld carried him upward through the building's structure. Concrete and steel became permeable, his body passing through matter that should have been impenetrable. The artificial aberrants' mana-detection arrays registered nothing — his movement was dimensional, leaving no conventional signature.
He reached Morrow's floor in seven minutes.
The apartment's security was concentrated at entry points — doors, windows, external access. The walls themselves were considered solid barriers.
They weren't, for Raze.
He phased through the bathroom wall, emerging in a space that was dark, quiet, and occupied only by the sound of breathing from the next room.
Director Morrow was sleeping.
---
The moment of decision arrived.
Raze stood in the darkness, sensing Morrow's sleeping form through the wall. An ordinary human. No awakening, no abilities, no physical defenses beyond the security personnel who couldn't reach this space in time.
Completely vulnerable.
The beast instinct purred with anticipation. *The threat. Eliminate. Consume.*
"No consumption. Just elimination."
*The distinction is meaningless. Dead is dead.*
But the distinction mattered to Raze. Killing Morrow was necessary for the community's survival. Consuming him would be something else — predator behavior, taking rather than just ending.
He moved through the bedroom wall.
Morrow lay in a large bed, surrounded by the comfort that decades of government service had provided. His face was older than the photographs suggested — worn by the weight of decisions that had condemned hundreds of aberrants to death.
Raze approached silently.
The Director's eyes opened.
Not startled awakening — deliberate alertness. As if he'd been waiting for this exact moment.
"The Eater." Morrow's voice was calm. "I wondered when you'd try."
Raze's hand was already moving, enhanced speed carrying it toward the Director's throat.
It didn't reach.
Something grabbed him from behind — massive, fast, impossibly strong. An artificial aberrant that shouldn't have been able to enter the room undetected, that shouldn't have been able to bypass his enhanced senses.
The trap sprung.
