The Surveillance Division Hunters arrived at the scene. Seven high-ranking Hunters. They had scraped together every last member of the Association's top elite that could be mobilized right away. But Woo Jin-Chul knew. This level of manpower alone wouldn't be of any help to the Shadow Hunter.
'Still, in the worst case...'
The Surveillance Division Hunters would buy time for the Shadow Hunter to escape. That was the resolve with which they had come to the scene.
"Is that it, Chief?" "Looks like it."
The Surveillance Division Hunters who stepped out of the van set foot inside the school grounds. The Yoo-Gil Guild Hunters, who had been waiting on standby after reporting in, spotted the Surveillance Division Hunters and brightened up.
"Over here! Surveillance Division!"
The Guild Master ran over to greet the Surveillance Division Hunters. However, Woo Jin-Chul's gaze remained fixed on the Gate. An ominous aura. Woo Jin-Chul turned to his subordinates and issued orders.
"Let's hurry." "Yes."
The Surveillance Division Hunters quickened their pace. Crossing the field, they soon reached the Gate. But then—thud. Woo Jin-Chul's steps halted.
"Chief?" "Senior?"
The subordinates following Woo Jin-Chul stopped as well. Woo Jin-Chul carefully removed his sunglasses. The fingertips holding them trembled slightly.
'This... what on earth is this...?'
A horrific storm of mana. The mana seeping from the Gate was so ferocious that the space near it appeared to warp and distort. Suddenly, he flinched and took a step back. Was it an illusion, or an ill omen? For a brief moment, it seemed as though a dark curtain had fallen over the Gate. It was the shadow of death, the one he had seen once before. The hair on the back of his neck stood on end. Woo Jin-Chul instinctively knew. No matter what kind of battle was unfolding inside, this was not their place to intervene. Seeing Woo Jin-Chul's face turning deathly pale, his startled subordinates asked.
"Chief, are you alright?" "..."
Rather than answering, Woo Jin-Chul threw out a question.
"Are there any... major guilds on standby for a raid nearby?"
After a brief search, one of the subordinates replied quickly.
"Yes. The Hunters Guild is on standby for a raid." "And the two S-rank Hunters?" "Choi Jong-In and Cha Hae-In—both of them are listed as participating in the raid."
Choi Jong-In and Cha Hae-In. Those two might be able to do something. Woo Jin-Chul's gaze turned back toward the Gate. The small tremor that had started at his fingertips was now spreading throughout his entire body. Gulping, he swallowed dryly. Woo Jin-Chul struggled to steady his trembling voice and spoke.
"Send an... emergency assistance request to the Hunters Guild."
* * *
He asked. Switching up the question as the angel statue had pointed out—instead of asking who it was, he asked who he was. In that brief moment, Jin-Woo, who had been catching his breath, quickly regained his composure. It was hard to believe he had just been in an intense fight moments ago. His shoulders, which had been heaving up and down, also calmed.
[...]
When the angel statue's answer seemed delayed, Jin-Woo pressed the dagger forward. The blade dug deeper into the statue's neck. A wound that, had it been a person, would have already sliced through skin and sent blood gushing. It wasn't a statue, so no blood would flow, but severing the neck completely at this point would pose no problem whatsoever. Did the angel statue know that too? It finally parted its lips.
[At last.]
Hearing it up close, the voice sounded even more grotesque.
[You have asked the proper question.]
It smiled as it spoke. Despite having multiple arms severed and a blade hanging under its chin, it showed almost no sign of fear.
'Does its real body exist somewhere else?'
But even when Jin-Woo's keen sense scoured the surroundings, he sensed nothing. If its real body truly existed elsewhere, the level of skill required was something he could not even begin to fathom right now. With a smile still on its face, the angel statue spoke.
[The answer lies within you.] 'Within me?'
Jin-Woo's gaze sharpened, wary that it might be trying some trick. Having spent so long as a low-ranking Hunter, Jin-Woo had faced countless powerful enemies capable of killing him. Being an E-rank Hunter—the very bottom of the barrel—and surviving Dungeons for a full four years was no easy feat. It was only possible because the instincts honed through repeatedly crossing the line between life and death had taught him to always choose the best option in the worst situations. That razor-sharp instinct now warned him of a shift in the atmosphere. Sure enough—ding! A mechanical sound suddenly rang out, followed by the familiar voice of the System. Unlike the angel statue's voice, this was unmistakably a woman's voice.
[Loading data stored in memory.] [Will you accept?] (Y/N)
Not just the voice—a message screen had appeared as well. Yes or No. The letters Y and N blinked slowly before Jin-Woo's eyes, as if awaiting his answer.
'What on earth is this...'
What kind of trick was it pulling this time? Jin-Woo's gaze left the message screen and turned to the angel statue. The angel statue, its smile now gone from its face, spoke with an expression devoid of any emotion.
"The choice is yours."
Unlike moments ago, its voice was separate from the System. A stiff, mechanical male voice grazed his eardrums. Jin-Woo pressed his lips shut.
'Data stored in memory...'
Was it keeping some kind of save file, the way you would in a game? And right now, he could check that file?
'...'
In a short span of time, countless thoughts crossed his mind. But the answer was already decided. He had been given what might be the first and last chance to learn the truth—how could he back down now? If this were a trap set by the System, it wouldn't have needed to go through such a tedious process. After all, the System had the authority to determine exactly when Jin-Woo's heart would stop.
'If, as the angel statue said, this whole process was a trial... then I've earned the right to see the data.'
Suddenly, something the angel statue had said before the battle flashed through his mind.
-If you can still be standing after the trial is over, I will tell you everything. That is the prize I give.
That prize must have meant the right. A conclusion had been reached. Jin-Woo's lips parted slowly after making his decision.
"...Yes."
In an instant, darkness fell. Ding. After the familiar mechanical sound struck his eardrums, the System's voice came through.
[Successfully loaded data.]
* * *
It felt like hurtling through an endlessly long tunnel at a speed approaching infinity. Passing through a space filled with darkness in the blink of an eye, his body slammed into light pouring in from far away. After a brief moment of blinding brightness passed, the sight that lay before his eyes—or rather, below him—made Jin-Woo let out a silent groan.
'Good God...'
An army of magical beasts so numerous they could not possibly be counted stretched out as far as the eye could see. From one end to the other, the beasts covered the ground with no space left to set foot. It was a truly horrifying sight. If the magical beasts gathered here were to pour out of a Gate all at once, humanity would stand no chance. Just watching it made his stomach churn as though he had swallowed something foul.
'Wait a second... where is this?'
This was definitely not Earth. On a barren, reddish-brown plain where not a single plant could be found, strange, long, thin rock formations jutted up toward the sky at odd angles. A landscape he had never laid eyes on before. All there was to see were the reddish-brown earth, the rocks, and the vast army of magical beasts blanketing the ground. Jin-Woo shifted his gaze to the beasts. From the small fry commonly seen in lower-rank Dungeons, to powerful creatures like High Orcs, White Specters, and Giants that could only be encountered in high-rank Dungeons—regardless of rank or species, the beasts were gathered in dense crowds, all looking up at the sky, waiting for something.
'What are they looking at?'
Following their gazes, Jin-Woo's eyes naturally drifted upward. And then he spotted it.
'...!'
Suspended high in the sky was a black lake, floating in silence. No—that wasn't a lake. A Gate of such incomprehensible scale that it could be mistaken for a colossal lake was gazing down from above. A black hole obscuring the purple sky.
'A purple sky...'
Seeing a sky color that should not exist only deepened his certainty that this was not Earth. On a place that was not Earth, something was about to happen between the magical beasts and a Gate. He swallowed hard. In the silence, the tension rose in proportion to the passing time. Whooooo—what was going to come out of there? Jin-Woo secretly hoped—just as the magical beasts had set foot on Earth through a Gate—human weapons or perhaps an army made up of people would emerge from that Gate. But then—RIP! From the split entrance of the Gate, soldiers in silver armor with wings on their backs poured out. The silver-armored soldiers rained down like a swarm of bees disturbed from a hive. Just as the magical beasts had covered the ground, now the soldiers covered the sky. It was a spectacle. Jin-Woo marveled silently again and again. But the magical beasts apparently felt differently—seeing the soldiers filling the sky black, they let out shrill cries and worked themselves into a frenzy. What was about to happen needed no further observation to predict. It was war. SHAAAA! The soldiers turned into streaks of silver light and dove downward. There was not just one Gate. From Gate after Gate, soldiers poured out in endless succession. The beasts on the ground and the soldiers in the sky! Two groups who had been burning with hostility toward one another finally clashed on the ground. It was a battle of staggering scale. UOOOOOH! The war cries of the magical beasts shook the earth, and BWOOO—the horns blown by the silver soldiers resonated grandly. The sounds of weapons clashing and armor shattering filled the air. Cheers soon turned to screams and groans, and the ground began to run red. The advantage was quickly decided. The silver soldiers were strong. They easily lopped off the heads of magical beasts that could tear apart high-ranking Hunters. With numbers like that, it was only natural that the beasts were being swept away. The tide had turned. And yet, the Gates still kept disgorging silver soldiers without pause. A tidal wave of silver soldiers surged forward, erasing every trace of the magical beasts left on the plain in the blink of an eye. GAAAAH! KIEEEK! What had begun as a battle had now become nothing short of a slaughter. Just as Jin-Woo had been toward the magical beasts, the swords and spears of the soldiers showed no mercy. Thanks to that, the beasts' numbers plummeted at a staggering rate. Watching those once-terrifying monsters be swept away so effortlessly, Jin-Woo felt a complex emotion he could not quite name.
'Is it grief for the people who were sacrificed to creatures like these, or regret that humans never had that kind of power...'
But those idle thoughts lasted only a moment. The next anomaly struck immediately. Just as the annihilation of the magical beasts seemed near, the soldiers of the sky—who had been driving the enemy back with overwhelming momentum—began to freeze in place one by one.
'Why?'
Could it be that they were suddenly overcome with pity? No, that couldn't be it. If that were the case, they wouldn't be gripping their weapons with such crushing force. They gripped so tightly that their hands trembled. More importantly, the emotion filling their faces was not compassion. It was unmistakably the look of sheer terror. Their gazes were all fixed on a single point. Behind. Jin-Woo had an intuition. Something behind him was unfolding—one that could turn the entire situation on its head. But Jin-Woo's gaze did not go behind him. It went downward first. The ground. A dark shadow was spreading across the reddish-brown earth. The shadow swept past the blood that had dyed the ground red, past the piles of corpses, spreading rapidly. Every time the shadow passed beneath a corpse, an inexplicable scream could be heard. Screams from sources he could not identify. Jin-Woo knew a skill that was very similar to—or rather, identical with—this.
'The Monarch's Domain...'
Goosebumps raced up his spine. Jin-Woo turned around slowly, very slowly. There stood a single knight clad in pitch-black armor from head to toe. From the knight and the steed it rode, a dark aura rose ceaselessly like an aura of its own. For some reason, without anyone telling him, only one word came to mind when he looked at it.
'...Shadow Monarch.'
He had to face the crushing pressure that made it feel as though his breath would stop simply from standing before it. The soldiers of the sky, the intelligent magical beasts, and even the beasts without any intelligence—all held their breath and fixed their gaze on the Shadow Monarch. Every pair of eyes on the battlefield converged on the Shadow Monarch.
[...]
The Monarch, who had been glowering at the soldiers of the sky, extended a hand forward shaped as though it were about to grasp something. Startled, the soldiers of the sky flinched and stepped back. A suffocating silence pressed down on the shoulders of every being beneath the sky. At last, the Monarch's commanding voice shattered the silence.
[Rise.]