The battle was over.
Baek Hyung-sik had died alongside Go Eun-sol by Helena’s magic, and Joo Hyun-ho collapsed with wounds that even regeneration couldn’t heal. Of course, the users had suffered heavy losses as well, but in the end, they had claimed victory.
Drip, drip.
Suddenly, dust and dirt fell from the ceiling, trickling down a tear-streaked cheek. But An Hyun’s attention was entirely fixed on Joo Hyun-ho.
Still with the spear lodged in him, An Hyun stared intently before quietly speaking.
“Tell me. What do you mean by ‘explosive device’?”
Cough, cough!
With a sharp twist, An Hyun pulled the spear free, and Joo Hyun-ho erupted into a violent cough.
Drip, drip, drip.
More dust continued to fall. One speck happened to hit Joo Hyun-ho’s eye. He instinctively winced, then suddenly let out a low, strange laugh—neither quite a laugh nor a cry.
“Heh heh… cough Explosive device? Heh heh heh heh…”
An Hyun’s eyes narrowed. Without hesitation, he raised his foot and stomped hard on Joo Hyun-ho’s chest.
Crack!
“Ugh! Waaahhh…!”
A rib snapped. Joo Hyun-ho screamed, blood gurgling up from his mouth.
“Tell me. Where is it?”
“Heh If I tell you… will you spare me?”
Joo Hyun-ho begged for his life, but An Hyun shook his head as if not worth considering.
“No? Still, if you tell me, I’ll at least make sure you don’t suffer.”
“Heh… So I’m going to die anyway? You think I’d talk then?”
His voice sounded calm, but An Hyun scoffed. Without a trace of hesitation, he raised the spear high. It was a rough move, but Kim Soo-hyun had once trained them for situations like this.
“Don’t drag this out.”
Following that lesson, An Hyun was truly ready to smash Joo Hyun-ho’s head in.
“Wait. I’ve changed my mind.”
Had Joo Hyun-ho read the sincerity in An Hyun’s eyes? He suddenly called out.
“If I’m going to die anyway, I’ll tell you. Look at the ceiling.”
The spear paused mid-motion. Joo Hyun-ho forced a grin and weakly raised a hand to point upward. An Hyun kept his guard up but glanced up. At that moment, he caught sight of the ceiling, cracked and splitting—and gasped in shock.
Crack!
Suddenly, a large, hardened clump of earth broke loose and fell. Thud! The chunk struck Joo Hyun-ho’s face squarely. An Hyun quickly brushed away the dirt, revealing a bloodied mouth as Joo Hyun-ho chuckled darkly. His eyes were bloodshot, veins bursting, staring straight at An Hyun.
“Good. Now it’s clear…”
For the first time, Joo Hyun-ho’s voice changed—tinged with a hint of regret.
An Hyun spoke.
“What’s going on? Has the device already been triggered?”
“No~ You won. Congratulations.”
“Cut the wordplay.”
“Wordplay? No, idiot. Father’s dead. That fool. That’s why this pit is collapsing.”
Father?
An Hyun tilted his head. It was a name he’d never heard before, but instinctively he knew it referred to the massive monster that had appeared earlier in the plaza.
Calmly, An Hyun moved his arm, and a chilling light from the spear’s tip seeped into Joo Hyun-ho’s philtrum.
“So, you’re saying this isn’t caused by an explosive device, but by that ‘Father’ dying?”
“Yeah, you idiot. You must’ve seen those bulging marks on the ceiling on your way in, right? Do you know what those are?”
“…”
“Trunk marks. Father was originally a tree. The trunks holding up this pit all slipped away, and now that he’s dead, he’s lost his strength. So, do you think this pit will collapse? Or not?”
“…A tree? A trunk?”
“What can you do? I’m about to die soon, and so will you. All crushed to death! Hehehehe!”
An Hyun’s mind raced. As Kim Soo-hyun had said before, An Hyun wasn’t stupid—he was actually quite sharp.
“Ah.”
It took about three seconds, but then An Hyun fully understood. And the first thought that struck him was that there was no time to waste.
“Jae-ryong hyung!”
“Yeah, I heard. Time’s tight, so let’s finish this quickly and get out.”
Knowing Joo Hyun-ho would die anyway, An Hyun’s spear and feet moved swiftly. After biting down hard and clenching his fists, he turned his back.
Then—
“Hey, you haven’t heard the last of it yet, have you?”
Though the pronunciation was slurred, An Hyun clearly understood. He felt a sudden pang of regret. The explosive device…
“Let me tell you one last thing… I never said there was no explosive device.”
The voice was ominous.
Did An Hyun sense something? His eyes widened like lanterns.
“And you’re in range too? Hehehehehehehe!”
Then came a mad, wild laugh ringing in his ears. Without looking back, An Hyun reflexively lunged forward.
Bang!
It all happened in an instant.
The tattoo on Joo Hyun-ho’s body flared bright red, and a massive explosion erupted from him.
A deafening blast and whirlwind slammed into An Hyun, pounding his protective armor. The shockwave, mixed with blood and dirt, swept through the King’s Den. Thrown violently to one side, An Hyun tumbled across the ground.
The first thing he saw was Father, standing still as before.
Wooooooom!
Then, the deep, resonant hum of the sword—the Sword of Annihilation—embedded deep in Father’s body echoed sharply.
As Hwa-jeong had said, Father made no further moves. No more reaction came from him, and the transformation had already begun.
Having lost strength, the few tentacles that had managed to escape slowly sank down and sprawled across the ground.
At the same time, Father’s body began to twist mercilessly. Like a super-powered vacuum, the sword’s point sucked everything in, warping and collapsing the body around it.
Woooooooom!
I instinctively knew what was happening. This was the chaos being absorbed, the phenomenon I’d read about in the message earlier.
It didn’t take long for Father to be swallowed by the chaos—from body to branches and root-like tentacles.
The Sword of Annihilation devoured everything in an instant. As the space returned to normal, the faint image of the sword’s spirit gradually faded.
Watching the whole process, I couldn’t help but marvel inwardly. Even though Father was dead, the sheer power was undeniable.
…Anyway.
Is it really over now?
By bringing down Father, is the pit finally conquered?
It had been a long battle.
Slowly turning around, I saw the users staring blankly at me.
After a moment, a small commotion broke out.
“We won! We won!”
“Woooo! It’s finally over!”
Some users raised their arms in cheer, others collapsed in relief. Everyone was joyous—even Han So-young’s face had softened, her breathing lighter.
But—
“…”
The moment I caught sight of An Sol’s face among the crowd, a sudden heaviness settled over me.
Why was An Sol standing there alone? Why did she look so anxious, as if on the verge of tears?
Then—
Crack!
Thud!
Something heavy fell suddenly.
“Huff… huff… Huh? Is it over?”
A group of users appeared through the door leading from the plaza’s side. About twenty of them, all panting heavily as if they’d rushed here.
The cheers died down. Silence fell over the plaza once more.
The sound of something breaking.
Unexpected arrivals.
I frowned. Now that I thought about it, there weren’t many users here. Had they been out exploring? What had happened while I was focused on fighting Father?
“This isn’t the time! We have to get out of here, now!”
At that moment, Yoo Ji-tae came running, breaking the silence.
“The pit—it’s collapsing!”
His shout hit me like a hammer blow to the head.
I quickly recalled the first run.
The pit had collapsed then too. The exact cause was unknown, but users speculated it was due to the strategy of bringing down the ceiling during the fight with Father, combined with magic fired in all directions.
I had accepted that as fact. It made sense, considering the theory about the ground’s structure being twisted, as Light Lord had suggested.
But this time, none of that applied. Very few users had come in, and we’d restrained from using magic that would strain the ground.
So why? There had been no sign of the pit collapsing.
“Everyone, quiet!”
At that moment, Han So-young’s sharp voice rang in my ears.
“Let’s get the situation straight first. User Yoo Ji-tae, you said the pit is collapsing? What do you mean by that?”
Instead of answering, Yoo Ji-tae pointed to the ground. There lay the large clump of earth—the source of the earlier noise—now shattered into pieces. Only then did I manage to pull myself together.
Right. If it’s already happened, the priority is to fix it. And from experience, a pit doesn’t collapse all at once. If we focus all our energy on escaping now, we can still get out. And above all…
We must have brought a solution in case it did collapse, didn’t we?
I glanced briefly at Baek Han-gyeol, who was still panicking, then quickly moved toward An Sol, who was trembling.
“But… wait a minute. It seems like some users are missing, right?”
“We’re not sure either. At some point, communication just cut off…”
“What? You don’t know? What do you mean by that?”
“Yes. We started with 28 people, divided into four teams of seven. So…”
“Then you should have been exploring, not just coming straight here. Didn’t you know Helena is essential for a quick escape?”
“We thought coordinating with the users outside would be enough to get out. And losing contact with Shin Jae-ryong’s team was unavoidable. The path is complicated, and the area we just explored… Damn it! Commander! This is urgent! The outer sections are collapsing badly! Are you telling us to just die here?”
As I passed by the users, I caught fragments of the rapid-fire exchange between Han So-young and Yoo Ji-tae. There were occasional raised voices, but I ignored them. Stopping the collapse was the priority.
“An Sol. An Sol?”
When I finally reached her, I called out immediately.
“Ugh… uh…”
But An Sol didn’t respond. Instead, she subtly avoided my gaze.
…What’s wrong with her?
Seeing her like that, a suffocating frustration welled up deep inside me, but I forced myself to stay calm. Leaning in, I whispered close to her ear.
“An Sol. Miracles… you have one, right?”
“……”
“Why aren’t you answering? Do you have it or not?”
“……”
“An Sol!”
“Y-yeah, I don’t.”
…What?
Hearing her answer left me stunned.
“The… the cooldown time…”
A miracle…
Doesn’t exist?
Without thinking, I grabbed An Sol’s shoulder.
“Ah!”
I must have squeezed too hard—she let out a pained groan. Still, she desperately turned her face away, avoiding my eyes.
“N-no! I don’t want to! Not here, not now…!”
And she resisted.
Her voice was pleading, refusing, desperate. It was obvious what she was talking about—the miracle. Seeing her like that, I was certain of one thing.
For whatever reason, An Sol was lying.
In other words, she could use the miracle but was refusing to.
I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself.
Whether it was the time of the sleeping dragon mountain range or when we saved Mar, An Sol, though sometimes a bit slow, always came through when it mattered most.
Besides, I was the one who gave her that 102-point luck stat.
That’s why I had to trust her.
With that in mind, I slowly knelt down. Using my free hand, I gently but firmly turned her head to face me. A single, sorrowful tear slipped down from her eyes as she reluctantly met my gaze.
I spoke quietly.
“Why.”
Then, it happened.
『User An Sol’s special ability, Saint’s Prophecy (Rank: F Minus), activation detected.』
For a brief moment, her eyes shimmered with a jade light.
---------------------------= Author’s Note =---------------------------
Once at the beginning of June. Once in mid-June.
I’ve already taken two breaks this month.
First of all, I’m truly sorry. (__)
I always say I won’t do it again, but it seems I can’t keep that promise.
Saying it’s because I’m sick is just an excuse—I know it’s because I haven’t taken good care of myself.
Still, I’ll try to be more diligent—not just avoiding breaks but also sticking to update schedules.
Please don’t be too disappointed, and I hope you’ll continue to look kindly on me.
Also… I’ve been thinking, and I realize I might have been a bit too wild in my recent notes.
Some readers may have taken it well, but I’m sure others frowned.
Most of all, the lack of comments about the story itself gave me a serious wake-up call.
So from now on, I’ll try to write more modest notes, like other authors.
Not the rough, wild Ro Yoo-jin, but a gentle and well-mannered young man. :)