“What is going on?”
Baek Sayoung’s eyes widened in bewilderment. Joo Arin, who had been at the front, hurried back and shouted.
“What happened?”
But it was still too early to be surprised.
The strange phenomenon occurred simultaneously in multiple places, leaving no time to react.
“Get a hold of yoursel—AAAAAGH!”
“H-help meeeee!”
Two, then three.
The remaining team members were swallowed up one after another.
The ground suddenly collapsed beneath them, or the walls stretched out like long strands of taffy and snatched them away.
“Could it be……?”
As though realizing something, Joo Arin bit her lip.
She hurriedly felt around the ground and checked several things before murmuring with a deathly pale expression, as though piecing it together.
“This was never an ordinary burrow. This place was created by the queen—”
She was close to the answer, but it was already too late.
WHOOSH.
Before Joo Arin could finish speaking, she disappeared beneath the ground just like the others.
“Joo Arin!”
Baek Sayoung shouted urgently, but there was nothing he could do.
Only Baek Sayoung and I remained.
I finished what Joo Arin had been unable to say.
“It looks like the queen’s webs are disguised as parts of the ground and walls, and she has been using them to target us.”
“No, how is that possible? How could spiderwebs……?”
“I do not know the details either. But one thing seems certain. She is making one last desperate move.”
“A desperate move?”
“Defeating us individually. Is she not trying to separate us before taking us down one by one?”
Baek Sayoung did not answer immediately, apparently trying to remain calm.
I continued.
“For now, trust me. We need to think about ‘how,’ not ‘why.’”
“What?”
“You and I are the only ones left. You are the strongest among us, so the queen will probably come after you herself. That means we need to stay together. It will be difficult for you alone.”
I held out my hand and looked at Baek Sayoung.
I had offered it assuming he would naturally take it.
Had I been too accommodating?
“…Since when did you know?”
Baek Sayoung’s expression abruptly hardened as he stared at me.
……Damn.
“I only inferred it from what was happening—”
Just as I tried to offer an excuse, the ground beneath Baek Sayoung collapsed.
WHOOOOOSH.
I quickly grabbed his arm before he fell.
If necessary, I intended to jump down with him, and I had just planted my foot to do so when—
SWAT!
Baek Sayoung shook off my hand first.
“If it is dangerous, I would rather go alone. At least you should……”
“You lunatic!”
I swung my arm after him, but my hand caught nothing but empty air.
That frustrating bastard.
For a moment, disbelief made my head throb.
But I had no time to stand there blaming him.
I could not escape the queen’s reach either.
WHOOSH—
The ground beneath me suddenly vanished, and I dropped straight down.
The space was deeper than I had expected.
I thought I had already been falling for a long time, yet it took even longer before I finally struck the ground.
THUUUD.
The pain was secondary.
What truly troubled me was that the plan I had been certain would succeed had fallen apart.
I was about to stand and assess my surroundings when—
“Park Hayul?”
Someone called my name from within darkness far deeper than before.
“What? You fell too?”
It was a familiar voice.
“Cheon Seoyoon?”
***
SNAP!
The crisp sound of fingers snapping disturbed the surrounding darkness.
“What? You fell too?”
Shadows flickered across her face, making her look eerie, but it was unmistakably her.
Cheon Seoyoon.
A greatsword as tall as she was rested across her back, while glowing spheres of mana floated around her.
“What the hell is happening?”
I rubbed my forehead for a moment.
Baek Sayoung, who should have been with me, was alone.
Instead, I had met Cheon Seoyoon, who was supposed to be alone herself.
Pushing aside the confusion, I answered for the moment.
“That is what happened.”
“Your team got scattered too?”
“Yes.”
“Damn. Then this is completely obvious.”
Cheon Seoyoon rubbed her arms as though she had just uncovered some great secret about her birth.
“No, listen. I discovered something incredible. Do not be shocked when you hear this. The place we are standing in right now is actually……”
“Covered in spiderwebs in various places?”
“Yes. Even if it is a Grade 6 Magical Beast— Huh? What? You knew too?”
“I suspected it.”
“……Tsk. You really irritate me.”
Cheon Seoyoon pouted.
I had plenty I could say, but I did not want to waste time on a pointless argument.
We needed to escape this place and find the queen as quickly as possible.
“More importantly, when did you fall?”
“Not long ago. About ten minutes?”
“What about the Sasikju?”
“No idea. I have not seen a single one.”
Then that probably meant they would arrive soon.
In some places, the fighting might already have begun.
I started walking and continued speaking.
“Did you look around?”
“Of course. That was how I found you. But there is something strange about this place. It is enormous too. Look.”
Cheon Seoyoon twitched her fingers, and one of the mana spheres flew through the air.
A moment later, the space that had been swallowed by darkness revealed itself.
“Massive, right?”
Just as Cheon Seoyoon said, this place was an enormous cavern.
The sphere she sent out to trace its circumference took quite a while to return.
“This part is especially suspicious.”
Cheon Seoyoon moved the sphere and illuminated one corner.
“Does that not look like a shell? There are tons of them.”
Fragments were scattered everywhere, apparently having broken apart long ago.
“This feels a little……”
At that moment, an ominous sensation accompanied a strange feeling of déjà vu.
A dark underground chamber untouched by light.
An enormous cavern.
The shells discovered within it.
No, traces of hatching.
It was unquestionably a familiar setting.
A background I had drawn before.
Could it be……?
“Ch-Cheon Seoyoon, scratch at the ground.”
“What kind of nonsense are you suddenly—”
“Just do it when I tell you. Start over there! We do not have time, so hurry!”
I ran in the opposite direction from Cheon Seoyoon and vigorously scraped at the ground.
My hands filled with stone dust, but I kept checking one place after another without stopping.
“What are you even trying to do? It is all stone. Just stone.”
Apparently Cheon Seoyoon’s side was the same.
We had checked a fairly large area, yet there was not a single section made of spiderwebs.
“If that is the case……”
The instant I realized what this place was, a chill ran down my spine.
I had no idea why, but somehow we had already arrived.
At the lowest level of the nest.
At its true bottom.
At the queen’s sleeping chamber, the place known as the Final Stage…….
“We are screwed.”
The words escaped me before I could stop them, and I swallowed them down with dry saliva.
Had we not been spared the trouble of searching for her?
That was true.
But aside from that, every aspect of the situation was disastrous.
The person beside me was not Baek Sayoung.
It was this obstinate embodiment of inflexibility who stubbornly relied on pure mana alone.
The problem was not her skill.
It was compatibility.
Earth and Metal, Attributes whose very nature was inherently solid, were among the most troublesome to overcome with raw mana alone.
That had led to a serious accident in the original story.
While fighting the queen, Cheon Seoyoon had suffered a severe injury and become a burden on Baek Sayoung.
“Ah, this is frustrating. Stop acting serious all by yourself and explain already.”
“Well, the thing is……”
I was about to explain it indirectly, since I could hardly say, This is all because of you, when—
RUMBLE.
Once.
RUMBLE.
Then again.
The cavern trembled faintly, and the thick, rancid sensation unique to Magical Beasts seeped across my skin.
KIKIKIKIKIKIKIKI—
Demonic Energy far stronger than anything we had felt before reverberated throughout the cavern.
At this point, no explanation was necessary.
“At least Grade 7. No…… Is that the queen?”
Cheon Seoyoon drew her greatsword and suddenly looked upward.
FLASH—
Dozens of stars gleamed through the darkness.
Stars filled with an eerie crimson glow, infinitely ominous……
WHOOOOOOSH───────!
Before the strange sight could even fully register, they descended toward us like falling meteors.
“She is coming!”
The master of Nest G-17 and guardian of the Final Stage.
The Sasikju Queen herself initiated the attack, dozens of eyes flashing.
“Do not rush in recklessly.”
I quickly grabbed Cheon Seoyoon by the arm.
I had moved first because I was afraid she would charge in blindly just as she had in the original story.
“What are you talking about? If we kill that spider bastard, we are guaranteed first place. If you are scared, then you stay back.”
But Cheon Seoyoon effortlessly shook off my hand and kicked off the ground before I could stop her again.
With her greatsword raised, she launched into the air like a rocket.
“She is not an ordinary Grade 6 Magical Beast!”
I shouted belatedly, but it was already too late.
That idiot…….
[Trait ‘Acute Senses’ activated.]
I immediately activated my Trait and followed the clash between Cheon Seoyoon and the queen.
Cheon Seoyoon’s blue mana blade slashed toward the enormous body, as large as a house and covered in black hair.
SLASH—
For an instant, the strike was fierce enough to make me think it might work.
But the blade digging into the queen’s chest suddenly stopped advancing.
It halted as though it had struck an impenetrable wall, and the enraged queen opened her maw wide as though she had been waiting for precisely that moment.
WHOOOOOM.
A web spread across nearly half the airspace.
Along with dark green venom, razor-sharp strands of spiderweb shot forward like tentacles.
“Damn it.”
Cheon Seoyoon abandoned her sword and hurriedly twisted her body.
She used the air itself as a foothold to evade, apparently searching for an opportunity to retrieve the weapon.
SWISH—
But the spiderwebs, which had been flying in curved trajectories, suddenly straightened and shot forward like sharpened steel.
It was the special power the queen had acquired upon transcending her normal limits.
The Authority called ‘Transformation,’ which allowed her to freely alter the physical properties of her webs.
STAB—
That single variable decided the exchange.
One of the descending strands pierced through Cheon Seoyoon’s left shoulder.
She plummeted helplessly like a kite whose string had been severed.
“Damn it.”
I immediately sprinted toward where she was falling.
The injury itself could not be helped, but I had to prevent anything worse.
The queen, however, had no intention of stopping either.
KIKIKIKIKIKIKI—
She descended at full speed, intent on completely extinguishing the intruder’s life.
[Trait ‘Manifestation’ activated.]
The moment I realized she was faster than I was, my body moved before I could think.
I focused to the limit and deployed the Attribute Combination Sorcery Art I had prepared.
I had no idea how many seconds it took.
After confirming the reference Time, I simply imagined the rest, overlaid it, and materialized the technique.
64-stroke Attribute Combination, Blue Flame Art: Hellfire.
[Manifestation Accuracy: 79%]
A combination of Fire Release Art and Wood Release Art utilizing the principle of Wood Generates Fire.
It would ignite an inextinguishable flame that continued burning until its target disappeared.
FWOOOOOOSH.
Blue flames erupted toward the queen like an explosion.
***
Meanwhile, at the Command and Control Center where Lee Taekjin and Kim Miyoung were stationed.
Joo Arin’s emergency report had arrived ten minutes earlier.
CRACKLE, CRACKLE.
-Professor. …Something is wrong. …webs… forming the space… Is that… even possible?
Students were generally expected to refrain from asking questions during an evaluation.
Under normal circumstances, Lee Taekjin would have considered it improper and ignored her.
This time was different.
His expression hardened as he asked,
-Student Joo Arin. Report in greater detail.
CRACKLE.
-It is… impossible for an ordinary individual…. I believe… the queen may be an Irre… gular.
The closer they came to the Final Stage, the more severe the mana interference and signal disruption became.
The video feed was distorted, and her voice repeatedly cut out.
Even so, one word had come through clearly.
-An Irregular?
It was the term used for Magical Beasts that had exceeded their normal limits and acquired extraordinary powers.
Also known as mutants, such abnormal individuals were occasionally discovered because Magical Beasts naturally absorbed energy from their surroundings.
“P-Professor, this makes no sense. An Irregular? There was nothing like that in the report.”
But as Kim Miyoung said, the location where it had appeared was the problem.
Was this not a nest whose threat level had been assigned by the government after a thorough investigation?
And now there was an Irregular inside it?
If Joo Arin was correct, then this was unquestionably a major incident that invalidated the entire body of existing data.
-Professor. This is Baek Sayoung…. I have something to report….
-This is Lee Daeho. The ground suddenly split open and….
But as similar reports began arriving one after another, they could no longer dismiss it.
Communication quality varied depending on each student’s location, but every report said the same thing.
An unexpected anomaly had occurred.
And they suspected the queen’s true nature.
At this point, taking action had become more important than understanding the cause.
“Professor. Should we suspend the evaluation even now? The Safety Team is standing by, so there should not be any major problem.”
Kim Miyoung cautiously voiced her opinion.
For someone as reserved as her to make the suggestion first was proof of how urgent the situation had become.
“And then?”
But the answer she received was firm.
When Kim Miyoung stared at him and asked, “What?” Lee Taekjin continued.
“Would stopping the evaluation change anything?”