I squeezed my eyes shut.
A burning sensation crawled up from my palm.
But it wasn’t actual heat from a flame.
The high-level magical artifact known as the Sunset Sword was draining the mana from my body down to the very marrow, and the safety mechanism embedded in my nerves translated the resulting agony into the sensation of burning.
‘I knew this would happen.’
Ironically, though, that was a good sign.
It meant the Alphauri Ego Sword was carrying out my command without issue.
In other words, the stored spell had not been canceled.
I felt a little sorry for the pyromancer, but the truth was, the only reason I had any chance of surviving this was because Earthlings had no idea how to use the sword properly.
Most Ego Swords possessed the ability to slowly absorb and accumulate their owner’s mana over time.
And considering that its original owner was Jung Haseong, the amount of mana stored within it by now had to be enormous.
The spell stored in the Ego Sword belonged to a relatively modern branch of Alphauri magic.
So the result appeared almost immediately.
Startled!
By the time white light began swirling around the red blade, Brooklyn finally seemed to realize something was wrong.
She tensed the muscles in her legs.
But even someone whose talent was considered extraordinary by Earth’s standards was still, in the grand scheme of magical civilization, little more than a primitive.
– Flash!
The magic unleashed by the Ego Sword belonged to a realm beyond anything Earthlings understood.
No matter how powerful Beast was, there was no way she could avoid it.
A brilliant light erupted from the sword.
Even a beast standing at the very top of the food chain would be reduced to ash beneath that blinding radiance.
That was the sort of convenient weapon Alphauri had created—
a weapon powerful enough to kill with a single spoken command, even in the hands of someone incapable of properly using magic.
...!
Whoosh!
The black beast that had plunged the world into terror was obliterated in an instant by the destructive magic of another planet.
Her end came without even a moment to resist.
The smell of burning flesh.
The stench of blood.
Even those unpleasant traces were wiped away completely.
All that remained was a strangely dignified scene of destruction.
My arms trembled pitifully beneath the weight of the sword, but considering that this was the result of a siege-class magical technique...
Well.
The spell was impressive, to say the least.
A true victory for Alphauri magic.
– Fsss.
The sword’s potential far surpassed anything humans had imagined.
If I had been in my prime, I could have leisurely watched Beast’s body crumble apart before my eyes.
‘What a uselessly weak body.’
F-rank trash or not, my reflexes had at least improved somewhat.
By the time I opened my eyes, the enemy who had been standing in front of me was already gone.
Beast’s body had vanished after being struck by the Sunset Sword’s homing, selective-target spell.
Still, judging by the result, the spell’s range seemed to have been reduced from its normal size because of the caster’s insufficient mana.
As a result, part of her body had apparently remained outside the affected area.
‘The left side?’
Looking more closely, I spotted what appeared to be one of the enemy’s severed limbs lying on the dungeon floor.
It had only been exposed to the spell’s indirect light, yet even the glove protecting it had burned away completely, leaving behind nothing more than a miserable, scorched hand.
Only the hand remained.
And just like that, she was dead.
Come to think of it, this might actually have been the first time I personally killed an Earthling.
Though, if I were being accurate, it was entirely thanks to the Sunset Sword and the mana Jung Haseong had stored inside it.
So I couldn’t exactly say I felt any sense of accomplishment.
‘Hmm.’
Anyway.
Was it over?
The moment I was freed from the fear of losing the future hero—and from the possibility of dying myself—a wave of relief washed over me.
Brooklyn Morgan was a rather famous S-rank Hunter, so the chaos that followed would hardly be insignificant...
But wait.
Was this really my fault?
I hadn’t wanted to kill her!
What else was I supposed to do?
No matter how many times I reconsidered the situation, activating the Sunset Sword had been my only way out.
At this point, even the United States, her own country, would probably recognize it as self-defense.
So...
I suppose the world would simply have to find someone else to fill the gap Brooklyn left behind.
‘I don’t know.’
It was then.
Something glittered at the edge of my wandering vision.
A complicatedly cut gemstone set into silver.
A ring.
‘Oh. An accessory worn by an S-rank Hunter!’
For a brief moment, curiosity stirred within me as I looked at the object still wrapped around someone’s left ring finger.
But that curiosity turned to disappointment almost immediately.
It was nothing more than an ordinary cubic ring.
On closer inspection, it wasn’t a magical item at all.
Just a piece of Earth jewelry without even the faintest trace of mana.
‘Tsk.’
So in the end, I had gained absolutely nothing.
I had come here intending to pick up a corpse with [Mimic City], only to nearly become a corpse myself.
And now I had even been forced to speak Alphauri again, the language I hated so much.
I couldn’t help but laugh.
Thinking about it, I had been careless.
If my suspicion that Beast was a murderer collecting corpses had been correct, I should have anticipated that she might try to exploit this unusual Gate as well.
‘That was shortsighted.’
Yeah.
When I thought about it calmly, most of this really was my fault.
Of course, the greatest mistake belonged to Brooklyn Morgan, who was already dead.
But still.
What kind of lunatic went this far just to save someone else?
What had I been thinking, creating an international incident like this?
‘That left hand and the powerless ring will disappear during the dungeon’s next reset anyway, so there’s no reason to take the risk of retrieving them.’
A troubled childhood.
A lack of meaningful human relationships.
Or perhaps some genetic problem.
Murderers usually had reasons buried somewhere in their past...
But personally, I had no interest in examining the history of someone who had just tried to kill both me and Haseong.
And even if I wanted to, it was impossible now.
Beast hadn’t even managed to leave behind a single ordinary dying word before being reduced to dust.
No matter how long I lived, I would probably never understand what circumstances had shaped her.
The rise and fall of that madwoman, much like the past of an archmage, would remain buried forever within a labyrinth of unanswered questions.
That was simply how things were meant to end.
‘Haa.’
...Well.
Looks like I’m reaching my limit.
Snap.
The moment my knees gave out, I hurriedly drove the Sunset Sword into the floor to keep myself from falling face-first.
But my balance was already gone.
Even the corpse known as Kim Giryeo couldn’t properly support itself against the sword, and I ended up collapsing onto one knee.
As expected, that had been close.
Still...
This was a little too dangerous.
‘Keugh.’
The truth was, I hadn’t been able to breathe at all since Brooklyn disappeared.
I had fallen into a severe state of mana depletion, with virtually every trace of mana circulating through my body drained dry...
I hadn’t even been hit by Mana Burn, so why was I the one suffering from it now?!
[New Master! Are you all right? New Master! New Master!]
I rolled my bloodshot eyes toward the source of the voice.
The Ego Sword rested there, expressing its intentions through faint vibrations.
For now, thanks to the mana Jung Haseong had accumulated inside it, I had at least managed to activate the sword’s basic function safely...
But just as swinging a greatsword far too large for your body would destroy your shoulder, wielding an Ego Sword with my frail body had left me struggling even to breathe.
The destructive light unleashed by the Ego Sword had been powered by Haseong’s mana.
But pulling the trigger—
that part had required my own.
A sorcerer’s lungs were closely tied to the circulation of air, which made them surprisingly vulnerable to localized mana depletion.
Once all mana was exhausted, the organs could temporarily stop functioning properly.
Exactly like this.
‘Uhm.’
Still, it wasn’t as though my entire body had burned out from head to toe.
As long as the vital functions remained intact, a wizard could recover from a state like this naturally.
The problem was...
how quickly lungs reduced to zero mana could recover on their own.
‘How many minutes can Earthlings survive without breathing?’
There was a very real possibility that my body would suffocate before my lungs recovered.
This was exactly why I hadn’t wanted to recklessly use a Legendary weapon.
‘Ugh, seriously. Maybe I should get my fortune read one of these days. Damn it. I don’t know whether the problem is my body or my soul, but ever since I reincarnated, every single time I leave the house...’
Grumble, grumble.
I deliberately let my thoughts wander in an attempt to forget that I was slowly suffocating.
Before long, my head was filled with one concern after another.
Come to think of it, Brooklyn had already been dealt with.
Was there really any reason to keep waiting for Kang Changho?
If anything, being discovered here would only create a second incident.
Wouldn’t it be better to leave as quickly as possible and pretend none of this had ever happened?
And if what that American lunatic had said was true—
if somewhere in this world a dungeon had really appeared that demanded human corpses—
then combined with the emergence of [Scenario Gates], this was an extremely bad sign.
Perhaps the Gisimche had already begun progressing into their next stage.
‘Then again, maybe I should be grateful those things aren’t the sort of species that normally stare down at their own dinner table. If they were, I never could’ve used the Sunset Sword so freely under the pressure of their gaze...’
After I had spent long enough thinking about all sorts of useless things, my lungs finally began to move again.
‘Oh!’
Sssp.
Fortunately, my mana recovered before I had the chance to cross the River Styx.
After approximately 1 minute and 56 seconds, I was reunited with Earth’s air.
The atmospheric molecules I hadn’t encountered in what felt like forever were surprisingly refreshing.
And since I hadn’t lost too much time, it was about time to clean things up and leave.
‘Let’s see. The South Korean exit I entered through should be...’
Clank.
I pulled the Ego Sword from the floor where I had been using it as a support and pushed myself upright.
Then I turned around to retrieve the unconscious Earthling.
What I saw instead was a black-haired man lying face-down on the ground—
with his eyes wide open and staring directly at me.
“....”
“....”
Jung Haseong had regained consciousness.
‘Ugh, that scared me.’
No, seriously.
If you’re awake, at least make some noise.
***
3 a.m.
Lying in bed, Haseong opened his eyes to a familiar sense of discomfort.
There was nothing particularly wrong.
As an S-rank Hunter, he occasionally suffered sleepless nights whenever lingering worries or anxieties refused to leave his mind.
It had been some time since he last experienced the sensation, and perhaps because it felt strangely novel after so long, he decided to simply begin his day early.
Following someone’s advice, he even chose a proper Korean meal for breakfast instead of settling for something quick and convenient.
4 a.m.
Jung Haseong finished getting ready and prepared to leave.
Once he woke up in the middle of the night, he could never fall asleep again.
That was simply how he was.
Since he was already awake, he figured he might as well get an early start on the preliminary exploration of the dungeon requested by the government.
The enormous otherworld known as [Mimic City] was vast in scale, but the threats inside ranged only from D-rank to C-rank.
For a top-tier Hunter, such enemies posed virtually no danger.
So Haseong set out for his early-morning exploration with the casual mindset of someone going for a walk.
Of course, he fully expected to encounter other Hunters inside the dungeon even at such an hour.
It might have been the middle of the night in Korea, but the Earth was round.
Somewhere on the opposite side of the planet, office workers would already be going about their busy daytime routines.
4:48 a.m.
Korea’s pyromancer entered the dungeon without giving it much thought.
But everything that followed was a chain of events he could never have anticipated—
as had already been shown.
“Huh?”
A beast drawn by the scent of an S-rank came charging toward him.
A battle axe tore through the air.
Haseong used a skill in an attempt to block it.
But the truth was, Jung Haseong was kind by nature.
And hesitant.
For someone who had burned through literal tons of protein over the years, he was still incapable of easily turning his flames against another human being.
His body was cut open.
His leg was shattered.
It was his first genuine battle against another S-rank Hunter, and the shock alone was enough to throw him off balance.
Despite all his abilities, he was almost completely overwhelmed.
In the end, Jung Haseong collapsed to the ground, defeated by Beast.
“Keugh!”
But what a surprise.
Under ordinary circumstances, this incident would have ended with the death of a good man.
Tak, tak, tak.
The sharp sound of leather dress shoes striking the hallway floor echoed one after another.
Through the blood running down across his vision, Jung Haseong caught sight of a man approaching.
Even within the darkness of that strange world, the man’s bright hair revealed his presence immediately.
“Hunter... Kim.”
Kim Giryeo.
South Korea’s fourth S-rank Hunter was here.
It’s four in the morning.
Four in the morning.
How is that person here...?
...Why?
The thought didn’t last long.
Perhaps it was the relief of seeing an ally appear.
Or perhaps his brain simply could no longer endure the amount of blood he had lost.
Either way, Jung Haseong’s consciousness slipped away.
And when that lost consciousness finally returned—
an unbelievable sight unfolded before his eyes.
A certain blond Awakener was kneeling silently some distance away.
And in his hands—
he was gripping a blood-red sword.
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