"Aaahh! I told you just to go...!"
The sensation of falling into the massive mouth of a sea monster. A dizzying pain that felt like her whole body was being gripped. Daera screamed out.
It overlapped with a memory from one day.
The rampage of the level 4 dungeon without warning.
It had been dangerous, but back then, Daera wasn’t someone who could be defeated by a weak monster of level 8–7.
There were others who were at her level too.
The Alpha individual was strangely strong, making it incredibly dangerous.
But in the end, she overcame it. Let her guard down? Absolutely not. The kind mentor was extremely strict when it came to safety.
Even without her unique ability at the time, she somehow managed to kill the Alpha individual.
She did lose an arm, though. It hurt terribly. So much so that she was on the floor, tears streaming down her face, rolling around from the pain.
But she survived. She was relieved. The Alpha individual was dead, so the rampage would end, and the walls that isolated the space would come down.
Losing an arm? It was a serious injury, but not a crippling one.
It would cost some money, but she could put it on credit and pay it off slowly. After all, being a superhuman made money well.
Just as she thought that, the ground—no, the space—split apart with a loud crack.
She fell into hell.
Just like now.
"Ugh...!"
Her body shuddered at the sudden memory.
Years of nightmares. The memory of living in hell, crawling with one arm torn off, days of shivering in fear, without any future, trembling day by day.
"Well, damn, I can't just run away on my own."
Hope fell into hell abruptly. It was a coincidence, but hadn’t the priest, who shared the same mentor, come to save her?
She couldn’t just leave a priest like that behind.
Whether the priest was more capable and stronger than her was irrelevant.
Daera bit her lip and gathered magic power. Crackle! Her stiff body was forcibly stimulated by electric currents.
Her body loosened up. The fall continued. With one arm holding Ihayul, she braced herself in midair.
The ground was getting closer.
‘A person?’
Daera squinted her eyes. On the ground below, there was a person.
An imitator? She wasn’t sure. But they had a distinctive personality for someone like that.
There were four people in total.
One without bare hands, one holding a spear, one with a bow.
And a red-haired, fiery one.
‘Is it them?’
The ones who had been following Daera recently. Or the ones responsible for causing this damn phenomenon.
She couldn’t tell whether they were imitators or outsiders, but according to Ihayul, they were outsiders.
‘Then no need to hold back.’
Daera raised one hand high. Ihayul, who was being held, wrapped his legs around her waist to avoid falling.
[Crack]
Crackling! Electricity crackled in her palm. The hell... the power of her unique ability, triggered from being thrown into this situation.
The output was shockingly strong, and if she wasn’t careful, it could harm her too. But as long as she controlled it, it was the best offensive ability she had.
When she had fought with Ihayul, she had controlled the output to avoid drawing the attention of monsters. But now, there was no need for that.
"Hmm?"
Daera, holding the lightning, narrowed her brow. Something felt off. But before she could even react, the lightning shot into the sky.
Thunder rumbled! The lightning energy absorbed surrounding magic power. The lightning, having grown in size, gathered like a thundercloud.
And then, the fall.
The lightning bolts that poured out of the thundercloud exploded on the ground.
Monsters that had carelessly gathered were consumed by the lightning and shrieked in agony. The monsters twisting in the lightning vanished within seconds.
It was an incredible sight, but Daera didn’t relax her furrowed brow.
Around the scorched ground, there was one particularly clean area.
The four she had aimed at were unharmed.
"The ones who followed are pretty deadly, huh?"
Spada, who blocked the lightning, said in surprise. His arms, which had just swung the great sword, felt numb. Even though they hadn’t been struck directly, it still hurt.
“...It’s a bit stingy.”
“If I had taken a direct hit, I’d be dead for sure.”
Yang Ihwa, who blocked the lightning with his spear, and Est, who shot down the lightning with arrows, agreed.
They had almost been fried from the start.
The cold sweat ran down their spines, and Hong Yeon-jun remained silent, looking down.
Two people landed on the ground.
Daera, who had unleashed the lightning and cleared the area, and Ihayul, who landed right beside her.
Boom! The moment they landed, the two of them flinched. The magic that had been applied to suppress energy signatures and perception disorders broke away.
“...Oh?”
Yang Ihwa, who had been adjusting his spear with his numb hands, gasped.
Both sides were quite unusual.
Especially the white side. The body was hidden under a thick robe, but the face that emerged was so stunning that it could only be described as a national beauty...
“Hmm?”
Yang Ihwa blinked. The striking beauty, so noticeable and drawing attention. He couldn’t recall ever seeing this face before.
“Special admission student?”
The one who caused a stir, the next generation leader who was irrefutable.
Yang Ihwa, blinking at the sudden appearance, glanced at Spada.
“No way... did you just get completely wrecked by a student?”
“You idiot, this isn’t just a student.”
“True.”
Yang Ihwa smacked his lips, grasping his spear. He had spoken teasingly, but he knew the record of the special admission student well.
Especially their recent performance in the Birth Festival.
Whether it was manipulation or not, even if only half of it was true, they weren’t a mere student.
Ihayul turned his head left and right. His eyes, seemingly tightly shut, felt like they were scanning everything as if they saw right through it all.
But paradoxically, everyone felt like they were being pierced with an unsettling sensation.
Hong Yeon-jun felt the blatant hostility directed at him.
“It’s my first time meeting you face to face.”
He stepped forward, and the other three fell silent.
“My name is Hong Yeon-jun. Hmm... has it been so long that I’ve been forgotten?”
“Hong Yeon-jun?”
Daera, still manipulating her lightning with numb fingers, glared at Hong Yeon-jun.
More specifically, she glared at his fiery red hair and eyes.
“Isn’t he the disgrace of the Geobhwa family?”
“Oh, so my reputation still precedes me. Well, it’s no surprise.”
There couldn’t be anyone who didn’t know about the Geobhwa family, but no one had ever caused as much of a stir as Hong Yeon-jun had.
Hong Yeon-jun, with a bitter smile, shrugged his shoulders.
“Anyway, that’s who I am. You were looking for me, right? The reason... well, I think I know it. It’s not for any pleasant purpose.”
The disgrace of the Geobhwa family and the one handling Geobhwa’s powers, Ihayul.
Among those from the Geobhwa family, there was no one who welcomed Hong Yeon-jun’s presence.
‘On the surface, at least.’
Ihayul didn’t reply.
Hong Yeon-jun felt his heart pounding unnaturally as he drew the sword from his waist.
It wasn’t the sword given by the Geobhwa family. That sword had long been destroyed and vanished after fighting the enemy.
“As I expected, this place is a trap with a bit of work put into it. Its effect... seems like the woman who sent out the lightning noticed too.”
“Tch.”
Daera didn’t respond and grimaced. Crackling... electricity surged from her fingertips, unleashing more lightning.
The output wasn’t satisfying. It had drastically lowered.
Not only that, but her body felt sluggish, and her limbs felt heavy as though weighed down by lead.
Ihayul, manipulating his magic, nodded at the resistance building inside him.
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There were restrictions on the magic’s operation. Not just internally, but especially on external manipulation, it was uncomfortable.
It wouldn’t be easy to break free. This was part of the pressure exerted by the hidden force.
Although he could guess how the other side was dealing with the hidden force’s oppression, it wasn’t something that could be easily undone.
“One side has lightning-based abilities. The other side... unknown elemental abilities. As for the elemental side, if external magic manipulation is blocked, the power output drops drastically.”
“Master, it’s still manifesting though?”
“Yeah, but the efficiency is severely reduced.”
Hong Yeon-jun placed the sword on his shoulder. A faint Geobhwa aura spread across the sword’s blade.
“Of course, the suppression is weaker on my side.”
At that signal, the other three raised their weapons.
One with a spear, one with a bow, and one drawing a sword from his body.
All of them were superhumans skilled in the technical disciplines.
Technical disciplines use much less magic power compared to unique abilities or expanded abilities, relying heavily on spiritual energy.
Which meant, they were the most advantageous in a space where magic power was suppressed.
“We could explain one by one, but we’ve all had enough time to figure out the situation, so let’s just go for it. Ready, go!”
“Got it!”
Boom! Yang Ihwa, bracing himself for the upcoming fight, slammed his feet into the ground.
“That damn buffalo bastard.”
“As always, I’ll cover you.”
Spada followed Yang Ihwa’s lead, crinkling his face, and Est pulled back, drawing her bowstring.
Spears and swords led the charge, while the staff and bow provided backup. They had always synchronized perfectly as tools.
“I’ve wanted to fight you since I first heard about you!”
Whether it was when he was seen as a member of the Executive Committee or now that his true identity was revealed, nothing had changed.
Now, it was even more anticipated.
Because Ihayul’s performance at the Birth Festival was remarkable.
Of course, that performance had included magic, spirit summoning, and necromancy in large-scale battle prowess.
In a situation like this, those skills were a bit too constricting, and there was some regret.
“The conditions are biased, but tools can’t discriminate against situations, so I’ll settle with this!”
Yang Ihwa grinned as he raised his spear.
Whoo! The dull spear tip, now imbued with magic, became entangled in dark curses.
The artifact, the Spear of Death. Its effect was similar to the wounds Spada had left.
It dug into wounds and cursed them, preventing recovery. It also caused complications through the curse.
In short, it was a spear that led any wound to a fatal outcome.
“Damn it! Priest!”
Daera shouted as she tried to control the magic in her body, adjusting her stance.
This battlefield was extremely unfavorable for Daera, who was an elemental user.
Skill? She was confident her abilities had risen, but she still had many gaps in one-on-one combat.
Most importantly, she hadn’t mastered any technical discipline abilities.
But, as she had decided earlier, she couldn’t run away alone. Nor could she escape now.
“Let’s stick together and hold out! Alternate in the front...”
[Found it]
“What?”
Ihayul wiped the blood dripping from his nose and nodded.
The hidden core. Breaking free from the suppression and expanding his observations, he pinpointed the location.
A dark pillar rose in the distance. Its base was thick, and as it moved up, it tapered into a smooth curve, becoming thinner.
In the center of the pillar, a core pulsated like the heart of a large building.
They just needed to trigger the rampage from that point.
The goal was within reach.