When Levi spoke those words, his voice wasn't loud—but in the deathly silent snowfield, it rang out like a tolling funeral bell.
The expressions on Steve and Logan's faces froze in that instant.
Logan's brow, which had only just relaxed with the success of the mission, twisted back into a tight knot. He shot Levi a look of disbelief, then abruptly turned around, like a lone wolf trying to catch the scent of prey in a raging wind, tilting his head as he listened toward the ruins.
Steve reacted even faster. He didn't bother listening—because he knew Levi's hearing far surpassed his own. Instead, he stared straight into Levi's eyes. In those clear blue irises, the spark of hope that had just been lit was being replaced by icy shock.
"Are you sure?"
His voice was pressed low, every word forced out through clenched teeth.
Levi didn't answer. He only swallowed with difficulty and nodded hard.
Of course he was sure.
That heartbeat—like a massive diesel engine running at full power—heavy, forceful, brimming with an unreasonable, brutal vitality. It echoed in his mind, each thump making his own heart seize violently in response. Not only was it alive—it sounded… stronger than before.
Logan had clearly sensed something as well. Maybe not a sound, but some beastlike instinct. He slowly straightened up, the savage aura of a predator rising from him once more. He bared his teeth in a feral grin and growled under his breath,
"Good. Real damn good. Saves me the trouble of hunting it down later."
This guy was insane.
Any normal person, upon hearing this, would think of running first. But Logan? He was getting excited.
Yet it was Steve's reaction that truly made Levi realize how serious the situation was.
Steve didn't rage like Logan, nor did he show fear like Levi. He simply took a deep breath. The air—mixed with smoke and snow—seemed to sharpen his gaze instantly, turning it as cold and precise as a surgeon's scalpel.
"We move."
No hesitation. He spat out those three words and turned, sprinting straight toward the designated Rendezvous Point Three. The decisiveness of it all made it seem as if what was chasing them wasn't an unkillable monster, but merely an ordinary blizzard.
That calmness was more terrifying than Logan's fury.
It meant that, in the judgment of this battle-hardened super soldier, the three of them combined had zero chance against that thing.
The only option—
Run.
Logan looked like he wanted to say something, but seeing Steve's unquestionable resolve, he spat in frustration and followed. Levi, of course, didn't dare waste a second, breaking into a full sprint after them.
The three of them ran across the snow, no one speaking. Levi poured all his focus into his hearing, tracking the monster's movements.
The heartbeat grew clearer. Louder.
Thump… thump… thump…
Then another sound mixed in—a grinding, teeth-achingly heavy friction noise. It was the sound of thousands of tons of steel and concrete being crushed and torn apart.
It was coming out.
That thought had barely crossed Levi's mind when—
BOOM!
A thunderous explosion erupted from the heart of the burning ruins behind them.
This sound was completely different from earlier explosions—deeper, heavier, more penetrating—like something unimaginably massive had smashed straight through the earth's crust from below.
All three of them turned back at the same time.
At the center of the sea of fire, the mountain of burning steel debris bulged upward like an awakened volcano. Countless flaming wrecks were shoved aside by an incomprehensible force, like waves parted by a colossal ship.
Then, slowly—unstoppably—
A gigantic, indescribable black silhouette rose from the destruction and flames.
It was still that body stitched together from pale flesh and cold machinery—but now, it was a hundred times more terrifying than what they had seen in the underground lab.
The explosion's heat had scorched its exposed flesh black, like cracked, charred wood. But beneath those fissures glowed a magma-like dark red, as if molten lava flowed through its veins instead of blood. The metal frames that once merely supported its body had fused completely with twisted rebar, armor plates, and pipes from the destroyed factory, forming a grotesque, nightmarish whole.
Its size had swollen by at least twofold—
A moving mountain of flesh and steel.
What made Levi's scalp go numb was its head.
The already deformed skull now had half of it replaced by a massive, red-hot turbine engine. The turbine rotated slowly, emitting a low whuuum as scorching air blasted out, warping the surrounding atmosphere.
This was no longer a biological weapon.
This was a war god dragged up from hell—
Steel as bone. Fire as blood.
"ROOOOAR—!"
It threw its half-flesh, half-machine head back and unleashed a roar no living creature should ever be able to produce. The sound wave, packed with pain, rage, and boundless savagery, rippled visibly through the air, forcing the surrounding flames to bow outward.
Then its single remaining massive eye slowly turned, cutting across nearly a kilometer of distance, locking precisely onto the three figures—tiny as ants—standing in the snow.
They were locked on.
In that instant, Levi felt as if he had been targeted by an ancient primordial beast. A fear rooted deep in his genes seized his heart, stealing his breath.
"RUN! DON'T LOOK BACK!"
Steve's roar slammed into the back of Levi's skull like a hammer, tearing him free from that paralyzing terror.
Levi snapped back to his senses and ran, forcing his legs to move. He didn't dare look back—he was afraid that one more glance would shatter his will completely.
They ran faster, knee-deep in snow, every step draining every ounce of strength they had. Steve pushed the power of the Super Soldier Serum to its absolute limit.
It didn't matter.
Levi could clearly hear it.
After a brief pause—the monster moved.
Thump…
Crack—
BOOM—
Its lower body, fused from endless scraps of metal, surged forward like an out-of-control siege ram. Each step shook the ground as its colossal frame crushed through burning ruins with thunderous force.
It was faster than them.
"Captain! It's catching up—fast!" Levi shouted hoarsely as he ran.
"I know!" Steve yelled without turning back. "Over that ridge ahead! Use the terrain to shake it!"
The ridge was at least four hundred meters away.
The monster was already within eight hundred meters—and closing rapidly.
Levi's heart sank.
They couldn't outrun it. Not even close.
"This won't work!" Logan's voice carried a hint of urgency now. "We'll get run down like rabbits and stomped flat! Someone has to hold it off!"
He actually slowed down, turning as if to charge back toward the monster.
"Back!"
Steve stopped abruptly and grabbed Logan's arm, his eyes sharp as blades.
"Your claws can't hurt it. That's suicide. Follow orders!"
"But—"
"No 'but'!" Steve cut him off coldly. "Our mission is to regroup with Dugan and get everyone out alive! Any of us dying here accomplishes nothing!"
Logan's chest heaved violently. He glared at the approaching colossus, fury and unwillingness blazing in his eyes—but in the end, he ground his teeth and turned back, continuing to run.
Levi knew Steve was right.
Against absolute power, fearless courage was no different from suicide.
Yet knowing that didn't make the despair any lighter.
With every step the monster took, the ground trembled harder. Levi could even feel waves of scorching heat slamming into his back.
Too close.
Way too close.
Just as Levi felt he was about to collapse, Steve spoke again. Even while running, his voice remained eerily steady—clear, logical, commanding.
"Levi! Focus! Don't just listen to its footsteps! Listen to its structure! Where's the weak point? Joints! Power cores! Anything that sounds different from the rest of its body!"
Those words struck like lightning.
Right—
He'd been so consumed by fear that he'd forgotten the one thing they still had.
His hearing.
Levi forced himself to calm down, purging fear and panic from his mind, turning his senses into a precision instrument, locking entirely onto the monster behind them.
The heartbeat—
That was its biological core, buried beneath thick flesh and armor. Too deep. Too protected.
Metal grinding—
Everywhere. Useless.
Wait—
Amid the chaos, he caught something different.
A high-frequency hum, like flowing electricity.
It wasn't from the heart-like core.
Not from the turbine head either.
It was coming from—
Its back.
High on its back, there was a spot that sounded completely different from the rest. Clearer. Sharper. Like immense energy circulating rapidly inside a comparatively fragile container.
"Its back!" Levi shouted.
"High up on its back—there's something wrong! It sounds like some kind of energy core! Way more fragile than the heartbeat in its chest!"
Steve's eyes lit up.
"Good work!" he roared, accelerating even more.
"Logan! You hear that? Weak point's on its back!"
"Heard it!" Logan replied, excitement barely contained.
"But how the hell do we get behind it?"
Yeah—how?
They could barely escape head-on. Flanking it was a fantasy.
Just then, they reached the base of the ridge.
A near-vertical slope—almost seventy degrees—covered in thick snow and ice.
Steve didn't hesitate. He hurled his vibranium shield upward.
CLANG!
The shield wedged firmly into a rock crevice halfway up the slope.
Grabbing the strap, Steve swung himself upward like a pendulum, soaring toward the top.
"Catch!"
Even mid-swing, he had the presence of mind to fling the strap back toward them.
Logan grabbed it instantly, bone claws snapping out as he drove them into the ice, climbing rapidly.
Levi followed, jamming his entrenching tool into the ice like a climbing axe, hauling himself upward with everything he had.
The three of them clung to the cliff like lizards, scrambling upward at full speed.
The monster reached the base of the ridge.
It paused, seemingly confused—its massive body incapable of climbing such a slope.
For a split second, hope bloomed in Levi's chest—
Then froze solid.
The monster slowly raised its enormous arm, a grotesque fusion of metal parts and pipes, shaped like a siege hammer.
And aimed it at the cliff.
Then—
BOOM—!
The entire ridge shuddered as if struck head-on by a heavy aerial bomb.
Levi felt a massive force surge through the rock, nearly tearing him off the cliff. Ice and stone rained down like a storm.
"Move! Get up here—now!" Steve shouted from above.
They grit their teeth and climbed through the falling debris.
BOOM!
Another punch.
This time, a massive crack split open where the blow landed. Like a black lightning bolt, it raced upward.
Levi watched in horror as the crack shot past him—
Straight toward Steve.
"Captain! Look out!"
Before the words even left his mouth, a boulder the size of a truck broke free above Steve's head, plunging downward with unstoppable force—
Right toward him.
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