THUD!
The <Heart of Collapse> beat again.
This time, it did not end with a simple tremor.
A dark-red shockwave burst from the building-sized heart and swept across the entire ruin.
RUMBLEEEEE!
The cracked stone ground overturned all at once.
Sang-hyeok lowered his body and braced himself, but the impact still forced him backward.
A stone slab kicked up in front of him and flew toward his face.
Sang-hyeok immediately swung his right hand.
CRUMBLE!
The slab touched the power of <Extinction Devouring> and turned into black sand.
Beyond the scattering sand, the <Heart of Collapse> remained visible.
It floated in the air higher than the ruined towers.
It had neither arms nor weapons, but each time it beat, a shockwave erupted and tore the ruins apart.
At this rate, the entire battlefield would collapse before the time limit even expired.
‘So this is why it’s called the <Battlefield of Collapse>.’
This was not a trial that could be completed merely by surviving the remaining time.
To clear it, he first had to destroy that heart.
THUD!
The heart beat once more.
This time, the ground beneath it split apart in both directions.
The fissure spread instantly until it reached Sang-hyeok’s feet.
Tap!
He leaped over the split ground.
The stone slab beneath his landing foot tilted and threw off his balance, but he immediately steadied himself and stretched his right hand toward the heart.
‘<Extinction Devouring>.’
FLASH!
Black energy crossed the air and struck the heart’s lower surface.
HISSSSS!
The impact carved out a cavity deep enough for a person to fit inside.
Black sand poured down like a waterfall.
But that was all.
THUD!
The heart beat again.
Red flesh rapidly swelled from within the gouged-out section.
The wound closed in an instant and soon disappeared without a trace.
Sang-hyeok narrowed his eyes.
It was not that <Extinction Devouring> had failed.
The problem was that when he fired <Extinction Devouring> from a distance, it could only destroy the outer layer.
A wound that shallow was completely restored with a single heartbeat.
‘Shaving away the outside won’t finish it.’
‘<Demon Dragon’s Eye>.’
Heat spread through both of his eyes, and the colors of the ruins faded.
At the center of the washed-out battlefield, the entire heart burned with brilliant red light.
There was no separate hidden weakness.
The enormous heart itself was the weakness.
The problem was its regeneration.
If he only damaged the surface from a distance as before, it would heal immediately.
He had to make direct contact and pour <Extinction Devouring> into it without giving it a chance to recover.
Having decided on his method, Sang-hyeok ran straight toward the area beneath the heart.
It hung at a considerable height, but the battlefield was littered with debris he could use as footholds.
Tap!
Sang-hyeok crossed the cracked earth and stepped across nearby wreckage in succession, climbing higher.
Just as he reached the largest mound of stone—
THUD!
The <Heart of Collapse> beat overhead again.
CRRRRACK!
The pile beneath his feet began collapsing from within under the impact.
Sang-hyeok continued upward, stepping across the falling stones one after another.
But even the final rock he intended to use shattered just before his foot touched it.
The instant he lost his foothold, the dark-red shockwave struck him head-on.
WHAM!
Sang-hyeok was thrown backward.
He hit the ground shoulder-first and rolled twice before planting a palm against the floor and stopping himself.
His breath caught, and his left shoulder throbbed.
Meanwhile, even the ground beneath the <Heart> collapsed completely.
Where the pile of debris had stood moments ago, an enormous pit opened with no visible bottom.
It was now impossible to jump directly from the ground and reach the heart.
Sang-hyeok rose while holding his aching shoulder and looked around.
He spotted a ruined tower near the edge of the pit.
Nearly half of its lower section had already collapsed, and the whole structure leaned diagonally toward the heart.
From the top of that tower, he could jump to it.
Sang-hyeok withdrew <Demon Dragon’s Eye> and ran toward the ruined tower.
THUD!
The <Heart of Collapse> beat overhead once again.
As the dark-red shockwave swept the ruin, the stone floor beneath Sang-hyeok surged upward as a whole.
He kicked hard off the rising ground and launched himself into the air.
Twisting midair, he landed on a stone slab that had been lifted ahead of him.
Tap!
The instant his feet touched it, Sang-hyeok launched himself again toward the tower.
BOOM!
The slab crashed to the ground and shattered just after he left it.
Sang-hyeok landed on cracked stone ahead and immediately resumed running.
The shockwaves had come at regular intervals so far.
After each one passed, there was a brief gap before the next attack.
Sang-hyeok used those intervals to close the distance to the ruined tower.
When a fissure blocked his path, he stepped on a rising rock and jumped over it.
When debris rained down from overhead, he swung <Extinction Devouring> to open a path.
FSSSSSS!
The stones touched by the black power turned to sand and scattered to either side.
Sang-hyeok continued running through the drifting black sand.
Before long, the entrance to the ruined tower was directly ahead.
RUMBLEEEEE!
Just before he reached it, the ground supporting the tower collapsed.
The entire ruined tower began leaning farther into the pit.
If it fell completely, even the entrance would disappear below.
Tap!!!
Sang-hyeok accelerated before the entrance could sink and threw himself inside.
Within the tower, half-collapsed stairs spiraled upward toward the top.
THUD!
The instant he crossed the entrance, the <Heart of Collapse> beat again.
The shockwave that followed shook the entire tower.
CRACK!
Fissures spread across the walls and staircases.
The stone steps beneath Sang-hyeok’s feet split and began sinking beneath him.
Tap!
Before the staircase could completely collapse, he kicked off and jumped to the floor above.
He caught a broken railing and pulled himself up.
The rough stone scraped his palm, but he did not stop.
One floor.
Two floors.
As Sang-hyeok climbed higher, the stairs he had just passed crumbled from below and fell into the pit.
If he stopped even for a moment, he would plunge down together with the ruined tower.
He moved to the next staircase before the one beneath him could collapse.
Then, just as he was about to reach the next level—
CRACK!
A stone wall above split apart and fell across the staircase.
BOOM!
The collapsed wall completely blocked the route upward.
There was no time to go around.
Behind him, even the stairs he had just crossed were falling apart.
Sang-hyeok ran to the stone wall and placed his palm against its center.
‘<Extinction Devouring>.’
HISSSS!
The area beneath his hand rapidly turned into black sand and poured down.
The instant a hole barely large enough for one person opened, Sang-hyeok forced himself through it.
As soon as he emerged on the other side, the remaining wall collapsed behind him.
THUD!
Stone dust struck his back, but he did not look around.
He ran directly toward the final staircase.
CRRRACK!
Even those last steps split beneath his feet.
Before they could fall away completely, Sang-hyeok kicked hard from the edge and jumped upward.
BANG!
He landed on the top of the ruined tower.
Violent wind swept across the leaning structure and shook his body.
Beyond his toes stretched a pit with no visible end.
Sang-hyeok lowered his center of gravity, steadied himself, and looked up.
The <Heart of Collapse> floated directly before him.
From the edge of the tower to the heart was only about ten steps.
But there was nothing between them to step on.
At that moment, the heart’s red surface swelled greatly.
The next shockwave was about to erupt.
The question was whether the ruined tower would survive it.
Sang-hyeok looked down at his feet.
The tower was already leaning into the pit, and the cracks across the floor were rapidly approaching him.
That meant there was only one option.
He had to endure the next shockwave, then jump from the end of the collapsing tower toward the heart.
He would get only one chance.
Sang-hyeok lowered his stance and planted one hand on the fractured stone beneath him.
THUD──!
The heart beat harder than ever before.
A dark-red shockwave struck the tower head-on.
KRAAAASH!
A violent wind shoved against Sang-hyeok’s entire body.
He gritted his teeth and clung to the ground.
His clothes tore and both feet slid backward, but his hand did not let go.
A moment later, the shockwave passed.
CRRRRRACK!
The lower structure supporting the ruined tower finally collapsed completely.
The top tilted sharply toward the heart, and the ten-step distance between them rapidly shrank.
‘Now.’
Sang-hyeok released the ground and ran.
As he sprinted across the sloping rooftop, stone slabs broke loose beneath his feet one after another and fell into the pit.
One step.
Two steps.
Just before the tower’s edge completely shattered, Sang-hyeok kicked off the final slab with all his strength.
Tap!
His body flew toward the heart.
The red surface rushed closer.
The instant he reached it, Sang-hyeok drove both hands into the flesh.
SQUELCH!
His fingers sank deep into the red tissue.
His feet struck the surface a moment later, but they kept slipping against the endlessly pulsing flesh.
Sang-hyeok anchored his body with his left hand and pressed his right palm harder into the heart.
‘<Extinction Devouring>.’
HISSSSSSS!
The red flesh beneath his right hand turned into black sand.
It was completely different from firing the Authority at range.
This time, not only the surface but the tissue deep inside the heart rapidly collapsed.
THUD!
The heart beat violently, trying to throw him off.
Both of Sang-hyeok’s feet lost contact, and his lower body swung out into the air.
But neither hand came free.
Holding the weight of his entire body with his left hand, he drove his right hand even deeper into the collapsing tissue.
His left shoulder felt as though it were about to be torn from its socket, but Sang-hyeok curled his fingers more deeply into the flesh.
Red tissue tried to regenerate beneath his right hand.
But the moment it touched <Extinction Devouring>, it collapsed into black sand.
More of the heart disappeared before the wound could close.
As long as he did not let go, he could finish it.
「<Heart of Collapse> is being eroded.」
「Battlefield defense activates.」
RUMBLEEEEE!
Debris scattered throughout the ruins rose into the air.
Stones ranging from fist-sized fragments to chunks as large as a human head flew toward Sang-hyeok all at once.
To dodge, he would have to remove his hands from the heart.
But the instant he let go, the heart would regenerate.
‘I’m not letting go.’
Sang-hyeok pressed his body tightly against the heart and tucked his chin.
THUD! WHAM!
Stones slammed into his shoulders and back.
Each impact shook his hanging body violently.
Then a large rock struck his left shoulder directly.
BOOM!
His left hand came halfway free, and his body slid downward.
‘Ghk……!’
Sang-hyeok drove his right arm deeper into the wound and barely stopped himself from falling.
GRIP!
He plunged his loosened left hand back into the red flesh.
Curling his fingers deep, he anchored his body once more.
More debris continued to fly at him, but Sang-hyeok endured it through clenched teeth.
Then he poured all his remaining mana into his right hand.
‘Go…… <Extinction Devouring>!’
FWOOSHHHH!
The flesh deep inside the heart beneath his right hand turned into black sand all at once.
The red tissue trying to fill the wound collapsed the instant it appeared.
<Extinction Devouring> spilled beyond the heart as well, turning even the incoming debris behind Sang-hyeok into black sand.
THUD!
The heart beat again.
But this impact was far weaker than the last.
Sang-hyeok’s body shook once, but his left hand no longer came free.
He tightened his grip with his left hand and drove his right arm deeper.
HISSSSS!
The blackened area spread rapidly.
Before long, half the heart had collapsed.
The sections completely eroded by <Extinction Devouring> no longer regenerated.
‘Just…… a little more!’
His mana was reaching bottom, and his breathing grew ragged.
Both arms were going numb, and strength drained from his fingertips.
Even so, he had no intention of pulling out his right hand.
This was his final chance, and now he could finally see the end.
THUD.
The heart beat again.
This time, the much weaker shockwave merely fluttered Sang-hyeok’s clothes.
‘I’m there!’
Sang-hyeok poured every last bit of mana into his right hand.
Then—
FLASH!
The remaining red surface of the heart rapidly turned black.
The enormous heart, now less than half its original size, swelled one final time.
THUD──!
The <Heart of Collapse> beat once more.
That was the end.
FSSSSSSSS!
The building-sized heart turned into black sand and poured down.
No red flesh remained.
No light remained to restore its wounds.
Even the section where Sang-hyeok’s left hand had been embedded crumbled away, and his body began falling into the pit below.
RUMBLEEEEE!
The vibration shaking the battlefield stopped.
The splitting earth and collapsing towers no longer moved.
Even the dark-red sky rapidly lost its color.
Yet no system notification appeared immediately.
As Sang-hyeok fell into the bottomless pit, no words appeared before his eyes for several seconds.
Only then did the first message emerge.
「<Heart of Collapse> cannot be detected.」
「Target has been completely annihilated.」
Notifications finally poured out one after another.
「Defeat trial terminated.」
「Hidden Battlefield <Battlefield of Collapse> has been completely cleared.」
「Battlefield terminated with more than 25 minutes remaining.」
「1st Floor of the Infinite Tower cleared.」
FLASH!
White light wrapped around Sang-hyeok as he fell.
His body stopped in midair, and the dark-red battlefield rapidly receded from sight.
At the edge of Sang-hyeok’s vision, only black sand remained drifting through the air.