Chapter 2

Seoul.

The roads, usually clogged with traffic, were instead filled with barricades and people in strange gear.

All of them stared at the same thing—a circular rift in the air, like a hole punched through reality.

Its shimmering, otherworldly colors looked beautiful, but inside was nothing less than a pit of hell, crawling with monsters from another world.

“What the hell is going on?”

“Oh, Deputy Commander Park, you’re here!”

Park Mu-cheol, Deputy Commander of Special Unit Division 2 of the Ability Management Bureau, returned the salute of the field officer and demanded an update immediately.

There were easily a hundred Awakened gathered here. Among them were famous guilds like Festival of Tempests and Wings of the Blue Sky, not to mention a sizeable group of mages from the Magic Tower.

“The team that went in was from Division 3, right?”

“Yes. Since the Gate was judged to have no economic value, no guild accepted the raid request, so only Bureau agents entered. We’ve lost contact since then…”

“How long have they been inside?”

“They went in at midnight. About eight hours now.”

“…Haa.”

Park Mu-cheol let out a long sigh.

There were three problems.

The first: the Gate had sealed shut, cutting off contact for hours.

The second: the Gate’s color was different from yesterday’s report.

“Until a few hours ago it was a standard Gate. Just a multilayered labyrinth type—long to clear, but nothing too dangerous.”

“And now?”

“We can’t say. Both the hue and the mana signature are unlike anything ever recorded.”

“Never recorded before?”

The Gate now blazed with molten yellow light, radiating suffocating heat. Behind melting barricades, a hooded mage gagged uncontrollably.

When the field officer reported this, Park Mu-cheol’s expression darkened further.

“We summoned a mage from the Blue Tower, but scrying into the interior failed.”

“So we can’t even peek inside…”

“At this level of mana density, it could be a first-rank monster—or, in the worst case…”

“An Archduke. Or one of their vassals.”

And worse, it wasn’t just any Archduke, but one who had never opened a Gate before.

The tension on-site made perfect sense.

Countless monsters had spilled from Gates onto Earth, but the true rulers of the Demon Realm almost never appeared.

Their very existence was too vast to pass through dimensional rifts intact. An Incarnation might slip through, but an Archduke’s full body crossing over always spelled catastrophe.

Thirty-five years ago, when the West African Gate of similar scale had spiraled out of control, the 70th-ranked Archduke Sheir’s wing alone appeared in the sky. The result was a mini ice age that froze a quarter of the continent, erasing nations overnight.

Nearly fifty years had passed since the first Gates appeared, and even now only a handful of nations could function as actual states.

If such a disaster happened here, in densely packed Seoul, the damage would be nothing short of annihilation.

Destroying the Gate was the best option. But Park Mu-cheol had a third headache.

“One of Division 3’s people inside is Deputy Commander Yoo Se-byeol, correct?”

“Yes. In fact, we just got a call from The Old Gods’ Wound.”

“And?”

“The Sword Immortal himself is on his way here.”

Currently serving in the Bureau, Yoo Se-byeol was the granddaughter of one of Korea’s five strongest Awakened.

When the Gates first appeared, that man had stood at the very front, cutting down demons and even daring to raise his blade against Outer Gods. For his only granddaughter, there was no doubt he would rip this Gate open by force.

“…Damn, I really drew the short straw today.”

“Sir, are you alright?”

“Do I look alright? By tonight I’ll either be fired or beheaded, guaranteed.”

Half the Awakened gathered here wanted to open the Gate to rescue the trapped agents. The other half were here to stop him.

“Declare a state of emergency and request reinforcements from HQ. Call every Division 2 mid-rank and above—get them out here now.”

Park Mu-cheol rubbed the back of his neck, already feeling the blade hanging over it, and checked his weapon.

The space beyond the Dimensional Core was a cramped, twisting maze.

Since Flauros hadn’t built a dungeon to connect with the Gate, this place was probably one of the existing labyrinths, forcibly linked by her power.

At first it must have been an ordinary maze, but entangled with an Archduke’s mana, it was becoming dangerously unstable.

That meant the Gate’s difficulty could spike at any moment—or collapse without warning.

“Hopefully we’re the only ones in here. Running into other Awakened would just be a pain.”

『……』

“Mala-nim?”

Was it the aftereffect of crossing dimensions? My Outer God remained silent.

Still, wandering the Demon Realm alone had made me used to talking to myself. I kept walking forward.

It had been years, but I knew a thing or two about dungeons like this. Back when I worked as a porter, I’d seen and heard plenty.

Defeat the boss, reach the exit, and you were out.

But these endless branching paths made it impossible to get a sense of direction.

Dead ends would suddenly appear where there hadn’t been any. New holes would open up behind you in places you’d just passed. This wasn’t a normal place.

The dungeon itself was the hunting ground. Anyone who entered would lose their way forever, wandering until they starved.

“…No choice.”

I checked that no monsters were nearby, then summoned the tentacle I had once used on Flauros.

The 89th tentacle: Tentacle of Stimulation.

The name sounded impressive, but its function was simple—it injected a stimulant that massively heightened the senses.

I channeled mana, and the needle at its tip began to release the drug.

Twice as strong. Five times. Then ten times—the same concentration I’d once used on Flauros. Finally, fifty times.

At this level, a normal human wouldn’t last a second before dying in agony.

But this was necessary to get out of here.

I took a deep breath, then without hesitation drove the needle into my own spine.

An unbearable wave of pain shot through me, as if every nerve from my neck down was being wrung tight.

“Urgh…!”

I couldn’t collapse here.

The pain was enough to shatter my knees, to make me faint on the spot. But passing out inside a Gate where anything could be lurking was no different from dying.

Grinding my teeth, I forced myself to endure. Then I exhaled into the darkness of the corridor.

Haa!

My faint breath rolled down the confined space, bouncing off the walls and ceiling before carrying forward.

A moment later, the air returned to me, carrying countless sounds.

The drip of water from stalactites.

The brittle crumble of dry soil.

The guttural growls of beast-type monsters—along with the distinct rhythm of their heartbeats.

With my hearing pushed to the extreme, I mapped out every feature of the maze. Even the warped echoes, bent by mana seals in the walls, reached me.

Amid those sounds, I picked up both the presence of the dungeon’s master—and human voices.

—It’s been over ten hours since we lost contact with the outside.
—We’re out of food. Hyun-cheol and Seo-jin are too injured to fight. And So-yeon, she’s burned through all her mana… you can see the state she’s in.
—What do we do, Deputy Commander?
—We may be better off waiting for rescue…

“Guests, huh.”

Crack.

The stimulant’s effect faded, and I straightened up. Not far ahead, six Awakened—a mix of men and women—were gathered.

Thanks to my enhanced senses, I could avoid them easily. But that came with one problem.

If another party was already inside, clearing the boss would mean exiting together.

All my IDs and proof of identity had burned when I crossed into the Demon Realm. Back then, I hadn’t even Awakened, so I wasn’t on the registry either.

The moment I revealed my tentacles to claim I’d beaten the boss, at best they’d cart me off for experiments. At worst, they’d mistake me for a demon slipping through the Gate and cut me down.

“My head hurts. Honestly, I’d rather fight a single-digit Archduke. Talking to people… I don’t even remember the last time I did that.”

『Fear… not.』

“Oh! You’re finally awake!”

Joy flooded me as Mala-nim’s voice returned.

White tentacles crawled up my arm, shaking their heads like someone waking from a faint.

I’d been worried they might not survive the dimensional crossing, and relief washed over me.

“We’re almost there. We’ll be out soon, so don’t worry.”

『……』

“When we’re out, I’ll show you the world I lived in. We’ll eat good food, and there’ll be aisles in the mart full of those instant noodles I always sang about. And if we visit an aquarium, you’ll see creatures that look a lot like you, Mala-nim. You could even make a friend or two…”

『Fear not.』

“…Mala-nim.”

The words I’d heard so many times they’d worn grooves into my ears steadied my heart.

I was an orphan with no family, forced to swing a pickaxe from the time I was ten. I’d believed that once I Awakened, I’d become a hero who protected people. But all I’d done was disappear, unrecognized, a failed life.

Yet at the very end, when I lay waiting for death in the suffocating flames of the Demon Realm, the only hand that reached out to save me had been my Outer God.

“Yes. I’m not afraid at all.”

I decided to approach the others. A good idea had just come to me.

“I’ve made my decision. Everyone who can still fight, follow me.”

“Really? Wouldn’t it be safer to wait for backup here…?”

“Something’s changed. If we keep wasting time, we’ll all be in danger.”

Deputy Commander Yoo Se-byeol of Special Unit Division 3 sheathed her sword as she spoke.

Forged from black iron as dark as her own hair, it was a relic-tier blade. Yet against these walls, it had left not the faintest scratch.

Hours earlier, she’d had to fight carefully, worried the maze would collapse if she struck too hard. Now, things were different.

The dungeon’s boss had grown stronger. That much was certain.

Staying here waiting for rescue would only mean death.

“What about guarding the injured?”

“…We won’t leave anyone behind. If we’re not back in three hours, head in the opposite direction and find the exit yourselves.”

“Understood.”

Not a single protest rose at abandoning the wounded.

They’d all seen her—Yoo Se-byeol, who had fought at the front for twelve hours without rest, cutting down every monster they’d met. Her condition was worse than anyone’s.

And so she pressed on, the few able members following.

Fatigue pressed hard, their numbers dwindled, and it was harder than ever to keep proper watch.

They spread their senses as wide as they could, muffling their footsteps. Then the scout suddenly raised a hand, pointing.

“There’s something ahead!”

“Could it be the boss?”

“I don’t know. But it feels different from the others we’ve fought…”

The shadowy figure twitched and looked back at them. In that instant, Yoo Se-byeol burst forward like an arrow, mana flaring.

Her blade swung without hesitation. She expected the bite of steel through flesh—but it struck something mid-way, unable to cut all the way through.

“Tch…!”

Forcing the last of her drained mana, she spun the blade for another strike and snapped back into stance.

“Fall back! It’s so tough even my sword can’t cut through in one blow—”

“Ah, thank you for saving me!”

“…What?”

A voice rang out from the darkness.

“I almost got eaten alive and digested, but you rescued me just in time. I owe you my life.”

From the shredded tentacle remains, a ragged man in tattered clothes slowly stood up.