Chapter 496

The coastal fog, a greasy shroud, hugged the edges of Busan. It wasn't the kind that comforted; instead, it clung like a premonition, cold and damp against the skin. Kim Dae-hyun adjusted his worn coat, the cheap fabric doing little against the chill that seeped into his bones.

His eyes, like chips of obsidian, scanned the pre-dawn horizon. The muted grey was his canvas, the birds his brushes in this bleak masterpiece of revenge he had been plotting.

The flock, hundreds of them, perched along the jagged rooftops. Their beady eyes mirrored his own malevolence; crows, ravens, and gulls— an army of dark plumage awaiting their conductor's silent signal.

His hands, gnarled and weathered, moved with a strange grace. A precise whistle, barely audible, broke through the oppressive quiet. The birds stirred. A black cloud of feathers lifted into the sky.

They moved in unison, as if sharing a single malevolent mind. Their screeches, low and guttural, ripped through the stillness and were soon muted as they sailed towards their prey.

The first name on his mental list was Park Min-jun. His former boss, the man who had stripped him of his dignity with casual cruelty, now lived in a high-rise not far away.

Kim recalled, with grim satisfaction, Min-jun's arrogance, a man so puffed up with his importance. Today would be a lesson he'd never forget; one that came in the form of winged executioners.

The birds dove through the dense city with precision. Their beaks and talons ready to fulfill the plan. Dae-hyun's hands were steady, as the cold certainty flowed through him.

The plan, months in the crafting, was intricate in its simplicity. Each bird, trained over weeks of meticulous work, knew its designated target, his victims unsuspecting, lost in the daze of everyday life.

Dae-hyun could feel it like a static current on his skin, that dark connection, an unnatural unity of thought. It was his will directing their brutal force towards his targets, the ultimate act of puppetry.

Park Min-jun's high rise, a symbol of his callous ambition, rose from the concrete jungle. The windows reflecting the early light as Park woke and started his day, still unaware.

The flock began its descent. The sudden black cloud startled several workers on their balconies, as they moved, they started to gather closer together, a feeling of unease filling the space.

Inside, Min-jun reached for his phone. A shrill scream abruptly turned the world chaotic as the winged killers burst into the glass with tremendous force.

Their sharp beaks were not satisfied with glass. The crows pierced and pulled flesh, each motion was fast, brutal, and lethal. Park cried out but no one could hear him, just the sickening wet crunch of bone on bone.

Min-jun thrashed with pure fear, futile movements to escape. The birds held on tighter, unrelenting with their goal. Blood streaked on the windows, an awful testament to a debt finally collected.

Dae-hyun's smile widened, just a tiny bit. It was just a small start to a symphony he felt so thrilled to hear finally, the orchestra playing the song of justice he always believed was his right.

Next was Lee Soo-ah, his former wife, whose words of cold dismissal still haunted his waking hours. He found her address through social media. Each step was just part of a process for him now.

She lived closer, a humble house. Today, it would not stay humble, his gift of final justice was headed for her very soon. He could see the image in his mind clearly.

Dae-hyun could taste it now, a cocktail of anguish, grief, and satisfaction building into a new feeling, something unique. This newfound high kept him in place, waiting with intent.

He could taste a drop of rain now, and it matched his mood. A cold promise hanging, as if the world understood his grim purpose, and acknowledged him for it.

The birds shifted their pattern slightly, the new target designated as he wished, a new path forming in the sky for her location, another victim of his calculated rage.

Soo-ah's home seemed normal, domestic, a façade that always irritated Dae-hyun even when he still held some affection for the person. Her little garden looked untouched by his rage.

She came out onto the small deck, watering her flowers, a slight smile graced her features, oblivious, like Min-jun before her.

This little smile enraged him. All he felt was a deep feeling of disgust now, and that drove him even harder.

The winged darkness arrived at their assigned mark and they came at her so quickly, the flowers scattered under her desperate scramble to escape as the birds went straight to work.

Screams replaced her calm voice and then only silence, cut off by beak and claw. This was for breaking the oath. For leaving him alone in his darkest time. The guilt he had, was no longer a concern of his.

The metallic taste of blood permeated through him now and not just on a mental note. This act changed him forever; it was not something that he could reverse, nor would he even wish to.

Kim was far from done; next was his uncle, who always undermined his every step in life. Kim took his own slow pace back to the fog where he continued the gruesome orchestration, with not a sign of hesitation in his stance.

He did it in rapid succession, the faces and locations changed; their names became echoes of anger that fueled him now. With the precision of a seasoned maestro he worked and orchestrated.

Each location had its share of the gruesome theater of terror that his flock created for his targets, his very own form of retribution had its price but it never mattered, for the sake of the end goal.

The streets of Busan became the stage of his darkest fantasies, and the fog its shroud. His name would not be forgotten, nor his vengeance, etched in the nightmares of those that survive him.

As the hours bled into the day, the city transformed. The usual chatter had subsided, replaced by a deafening silence. Whispers had replaced talk of any other thing as they told their stories of black feathers falling.

The few stragglers on the streets hurried back indoors as quickly as possible, no one wished to be another statistic, no one dared to look above their own feet either. They feared they may bring themselves another end.

A strange quiet settled, the natural sounds replaced with the squawking and the beating of wings that were not meant to be associated together. People felt a dread crawl down their spines as each story unfolded further.

Dae-hyun did not sleep nor did he care. There was one last target on the list that he had been keeping close to himself this entire time. The birds needed to go further away.

This target, not one to underestimate was in Daegu, much further in distance. He let a wave of exhaustion roll off his being to settle his rage for his very last act.

This one was his father; a man so devoid of any empathy. Kim felt he held the responsibility for the reason Kim was like this. He knew what needed to be done now, his final action in life would finish this.

He whistled one last time, and a wave of black followed. The birds turned their direction toward the East, their mission clearly in their minds as he had directed it countless times in practice.

Dae-hyun watched with blank intensity as the last of the birds disappeared over the buildings. This feeling inside his gut was not anything that had touched him this day. It felt cold like the void.

A police siren pierced the silence in a distance that didn't seem very close but carried itself like the weight of everything on Kim. A sudden chill ran down his back, despite his hardened intent.

The sound seemed to bring him back, only to push him further down into something very dark. He knew what it meant; this little world he had been working on would be gone very quickly.

He took a breath and looked at his bloody hands and shook his head in pity for the poor creature that he had become, a shell with nothing left. His purpose had completed itself; there was nothing to keep him here now.

He began his climb, higher, toward a roof. It would be a slow end but he did not wish it quick. Each motion felt wrong, and like it was foreign to the core of what he felt like only hours prior.

The wind pulled and pushed him forward, each step closer to the edge seemed to drain whatever was left inside. He closed his eyes for what felt like only the first time that day, his feet almost stumbling over themselves now.

His heart began to quicken, he opened them, there was his ending, right in front of him. Dae-hyun stepped right off and fell forward as fast as he possibly could.

Not on concrete but straight into the open roof access hatch, in the center of the roof, hidden, obscured from direct view by a single layer of sheet metal, weakened. He fell straight in, as the hatch bent with the added force of the fall and let the sheet rip straight through his chest and abdomen, ending things with absolute, utter devastation and very alone.

His life extinguished right there on that building's hidden service access roof space. He laid still, surrounded by pipes, covered with his blood and viscera and that was how they found him in the days to come. His last act to leave him even lonelier and forgotten for some, and a grim lesson for others.