Nightmare of the Past (3)
The battle had turned into an all-out war with neither side willing to yield an inch. Since both groups consisted of awakened individuals with abilities, the fight itself was nothing short of spectacular. Blades swung by superhumans clashed with fierce sparks, while colorful spells of every kind streaked across the sky. The clash, which hardly resembled a human battle, dragged on for hours. Yet even a fight that seemed as though it would last forever began to reveal the shape of victory and defeat as time passed.
Hiding in an inconspicuous spot away from the battlefield, I revealed myself once the outcome became clear. The room was thick with the stench of blood, and corpses lay scattered across the floor. The sight was utterly horrific. My face turned pale on its own at the scene I could barely bear to look at. Still, I felt a small sense of relief. In the end, the victors were us. Though there had been many sacrifices, not a single masked figure remained standing inside the room. Well, except for one.
He was the man who seemed to be the leader of the masked group, the one who had made that shameless provocation. He was kneeling on one knee, apparently having suffered a serious injury. Directly in front of him stood the leader, breathing heavily with a distorted expression. That alone made the result of the fight painfully obvious.
The man, covered in blood from head to toe, stared at the ground with resentful eyes, as if he still couldn't believe what had happened.
“…This can’t be. Losing to a weak little party like this…? We should have had the advantage in strength, so why…”
“Hmph… Why are you even wondering about that? It’s obvious. You lot were nothing but a disorganized mob with numbers, while we were a real team. Don’t go treating us like some ordinary party.”
Looking down at the man sunk in despair, the leader snorted and spoke calmly. Yet despite his relaxed tone, he too looked far from normal. The accumulated fatigue and wounds from the battle were obvious. He kept gasping for breath, as though proving he had reached his limit. It was rare to see him like this, given how famous he was for his stamina. The same went for the other party members standing nearby. Even the survivors of the bloody fight had collapsed where they stood, unable to rise easily. They had clearly exhausted every bit of stamina they had saved for the boss fight. Continuing the battle in this state was clearly impossible.
Honestly, when the fight first began, it had been a tense deadlock where neither side could easily claim victory. The enemy’s surprise attack had taken out half the party’s mages, giving them the initial advantage. The only thing the party could rely on against their fierce assault was organization. The teamwork they had honed over countless hours together shone in this crisis. Just as they always did, the party maintained a balanced formation and focused on counterattacking. In contrast, the enemy had no strategy beyond charging forward blindly. Though their individual combat prowess was impressive, as if they had done this many times before, it meant little against the party’s ironclad organization. Their failure to break through the formation quickly only loosened their attacks, which immediately became the foundation for a counteroffensive. This was the result.
Though the formation eventually crumbled under their persistent assault, the enemy had already taken massive damage and collapsed before they could bring their full strength to bear. Even in a battle between ability users, sheer numbers didn’t guarantee victory.
“It’s over, you piece of trash… There are plenty of things I want to ask you. Whether someone put you up to this or you were just trying to rob us, you’d better spill everything honestly. Otherwise, I don’t know what I might do.”
With clear anger on his face, he slammed the greatsword he had been holding into the ground. The blade, now embedded in the floor, was drenched in someone’s blood. Cutting down another person rather than a monster. For swordsmen who had to personally cut down their opponents instead of relying on a mage’s long-range attacks, it was a tremendous trauma. The same seemed true for the others. Once the excitement of battle faded, several people could be seen falling into deep shock at what they had done. No matter how necessary it had been for survival, the fact that they had killed people remained unchanged. In the end, the victory had left only wounds behind. It was only half a triumph.
“Even after paying good money to hire them, they get wiped out by a small party like this… I thought taking out the core forces would make them collapse on their own, but you’re different from the usual parties you find everywhere. I’ll admit it. This is completely unexpected. Looks like this operation was a total failure.”
The man caught his breath for a moment before calmly acknowledging his defeat. Yet there was no despair in his voice. It was as if he hadn’t even considered what might happen to him next. That composed attitude created an indescribable sense of unease. The leader standing right in front of him seemed to feel it too, his face twisting like a demon’s.
“…You’ve been talking strangely for a while now. You haven’t forgotten, have you? You’re captured. Do you really think you can escape right under our noses?”
“Kukuk… Yeah, the situation is hopeless, just like you said. But unlike those other idiots over there, I still have a trump card left.”
“?!...... What is this!”
Shhhk… In that instant, something unbelievable happened. The man who had been kneeling in front of the leader vanished in the blink of an eye, as if he had evaporated. The same was true for the others around him. Everyone looked around with wide eyes, but no matter how hard they searched, there was no sign of him. It was as if someone had erased him with an eraser, leaving only that one man gone. Everyone was stunned. I was no exception. The unexpected situation left me frozen in place.
And that moment of hesitation brought a fatal consequence.
Crack!...
“??!.... Huh?...”
Just as I was warily scanning my surroundings with a startled expression, my voice slipped out naturally. Suddenly, my arms wouldn’t move. It felt as though they were tightly bound. No matter how much strength I poured in, they didn’t budge. I struggled desperately, but the result was the same. My actions drew the attention of the party members nearby, and their eyes, once filled with confusion, quickly turned to shock. The vanished man was slowly reappearing. Right behind where I stood.
Before I knew it, both my arms had been completely restrained by him. Having easily suppressed my struggles, he immediately pointed a dagger at me. The blade pressed against my neck, as if he would slash it the moment I moved. The party members who had been readying their weapons could only hesitate. My face turned deathly pale at the sight of him appearing right behind me without warning.
Seeing that things had gone according to his plan, the masked man licked his lips in satisfaction.
“See? I told you. I still had a hidden trump card left.”
“Seojun!! You bastard…! I was wondering why you never used your ability during the fight. Don’t tell me that’s your power?”
Ignoring the leader’s obvious frustration, the man simply curled his lips upward without answering. Only then did I realize what his ability was. Invisibility that could hide his presence from others’ eyes. There was no other explanation. Moreover, the fact that he had targeted me instead of the exhausted others as a hostage was clearly intentional. Even if their strength was depleted, every awakened had their own ability. There was a high chance they still had means to respond even in this immobilized state. So he had aimed for me, someone who couldn’t create such variables. My appearance, standing back from the fight with a backpack on, was the classic image of a porter. Figuring out my identity must have been easy for him.
In truth, I had no means of resistance against his ability. While I despaired in the midst of the powerlessness and hopelessness wrapping around my entire body, the man used me as a shield and slowly began to move. However, he didn’t head for the room’s exit. Instead, he walked slowly and carefully toward the boss room door inside the chamber. Upon reaching it, he immediately stopped.
The party members, who had formed a loose encirclement without provoking him, couldn’t hide their confusion at his incomprehensible actions. As the tense standoff continued, a woman spoke up.
“That invisibility ability of yours seems to have quite a few risks. You could have escaped this place the moment you first turned invisible, yet you took a hostage instead. The duration isn’t very long, is it? Or maybe the cooldown after using it once is long…”
The one who broke the suffocating silence was the woman whose arm had been injured during the initial ambush. Her words made sense. If he had escaped the room the moment he used invisibility, everything would have been resolved, yet he hadn’t. That suggested his invisibility had a time limit. And because he judged he wouldn’t be able to escape the room within that limit, he had resorted to this. The cooldown before reuse was an added constraint.
The man’s face behind the mask twisted sharply, as if her sharp deduction had hit the mark. His reaction made it clear that her guess was correct.
“Ha… To figure that out in such a short time. Just like before, it seems you’re the brains of this party. Truly chilling. In that case, why don’t you try guessing why I came here instead of toward the exit?”
The woman’s confident expression crumbled at his final words. She remained silent, apparently unable to deduce that part. Seeing this, the man nodded as if he had expected it. His attitude, as though looking down on his opponent, was enough to provoke anger in anyone watching.
“Still, there’s no need to work so hard to figure it out. After all, I was planning to show you the reason right now…!”
With a crazed expression, the man shouted and immediately lowered the dagger from my neck. Instead, he grabbed one of my hands. Before I could even resist, he placed my hand on the boss room’s doorknob. By the time I came to my senses, the massive door was already slowly opening. And it was because of my hand.
Creaaak......
The space beyond the door slowly revealed itself. The woman, who had been watching, finally realized the man’s aim and let out a cry, but it was already too late. Under his control, I had opened the firmly closed boss room door against my will. At the same time, a chilling cold air flowed out from beyond the door, and a blue message appeared before everyone present.
The boss room has been opened! The dungeon’s master, ‘Corrupted Knight, Lord Ranslot,’ has appeared.
It was a familiar notification for anyone clearing a dungeon. But at this moment, it was enough to plunge the party into deep despair. While everyone stood frozen in shock, the space beyond the door, once shrouded in deep darkness, began to light up with torches. The deepest part of the revealed interior came into view. The Corrupted Knight, seated on a large throne, slowly rose to his feet. His towering frame easily exceeded two meters, and the powerful killing intent radiating from his entire body overwhelmed anyone who merely looked at him. The burning red eyes visible through his helmet were fixed directly on us. His overwhelming presence, befitting the name of a boss, made everyone hesitate.
Of course, if the party had been in perfect condition, clearing him would have been simple. But after the bloody battle moments ago, everyone was battered and broken. Being told to clear the boss in this state was no different from being told to die.
In that moment, only the man moved calmly. He passed through the door while still holding me as a shield. Then, with a crazed expression, he addressed the party members staring at him from outside with horrified eyes.
“As hunters clearing dungeons, you all know this well, right? The one who opens the boss room door is recognized by the system as the ‘initiator’ who leads the clear. And unlike the others, once that person enters the boss room, they’re forbidden from leaving until the boss hunt is completely over…”
The party members listening to him began to sweat coldly as they grasped the meaning. What he was saying was common knowledge about dungeon clears. Usually, the leader of the party took on the role of initiator. If the initiator died during the clear, the attempt would automatically be considered a failure, and the remaining members would be forcibly expelled from the boss room. Since the party’s core, the leader, dying would mean the clear itself had failed, most parties operated this way. In other words, this rule was a restriction created to prevent unlimited boss clears without any risk. It was a device to ensure that once a clear began, it couldn’t be arbitrarily stopped. And fittingly, it was taboo for the recognized initiator to leave the battlefield at will. Everyone present knew exactly what would happen if that rule was broken.
The boss’s action radius would be completely removed… In other words, it meant the worst-case scenario known as a dungeon break would occur. Ultimately, it meant that me, now set as the initiator, leaving this place would be a death sentence for the injured party members still here.
Having completely trapped us, the man moved swiftly. He used me as a shield and activated his invisibility once more. Of course, he could have simply closed the boss room door, but the problem was me inside. The mages who still had some strength left belatedly unleashed attacks toward the entrance, but it was already too late. Before anyone knew it, the man had put some distance between himself and the party and leisurely reappeared. But they could no longer pursue him. If they split their already insufficient forces to chase the man right in front of them, they risked a counterattack. Meanwhile, their comrade left alone in the boss room could die. It was truly a dilemma with no good options. Save the comrade before their eyes, or capture the hateful enemy? The former had an extremely low chance of success.
Yet the leader’s decision in that moment held not a shred of hesitation. With everyone’s eyes on him, he spoke in a calm voice.
“…Anyone who can still move, follow me. We’re going in.”
The meaning was clear. Yet no one raised an objection to his decision. It was as if they had already expected him to do so. Watching the party from afar, the man completely concealed himself. And at the same time, the Lord, having fully risen from his throne, took a step forward. His blood-red eyes were fixed precisely on me.