Prologue
"…So what you're telling me is that four S-rank hunters—the absolute pinnacle of our nation's firepower—are currently stranded inside a Gate like lost children?"
Choi Minhyuk grumbled under his breath, vigorously scratching at his light-brown undercut. "Hah. I knew all that fuss about an S-plus-rank Gate was blown out of proportion. The whole raid was a joke, and the monsters weren't even worth warming up on."
"Tell me about it," Yoon Harin chimed in with a pout, leaning languidly against the jagged rubble of a boulder. "What a total letdown."
Four S-rank hunters: the apex vanguard of the Korean Hunter Association. The unprecedented deployment of all four at once—individuals each capable of suppressing a national-scale catastrophe on their own—had been prompted by the very first appearance of an S+ Rank Gate on Korean soil. Given the horrific, bloodstained records of S-plus Gates that had surfaced in other countries, they had stepped through the threshold prepared to lay down their lives. After all, the Association's risk assessments based on Gate rankings had never once been wrong.
Yet once they actually set foot inside, all they found were a few feeble B-rank stragglers wandering aimlessly through the barren wasteland.
"I don't think it's a puzzle-type Gate with hidden gimmicks either," said Baek Seri, perched lightly atop the floating shaft of her spear as she scanned their surroundings. "Like most Gates, an invisible barrier seals off the perimeter, but the boundary here is absurdly narrow. Everything we can see right now is the entirety of where we're allowed to move."
Just as she pointed out, nothing met their eyes except for a desolate, scorched expanse of cracked earth. There was no sign of a hidden mechanism, let alone a boss monster.
Then, breaking the brief lull—
"…No. There's one thing left."
Seo Dohyun, who had maintained a stoic silence until now, finally spoke, his deep voice weighted with tension. Heavy armor clanked as he raised an armored gauntlet, pointing toward the very center of the clearing they had just thoroughly combed.
"Wait, what? When the hell did that get there?!"
Harin sprang to her feet from the rubble. An instant ago, the barren ground had been utterly vacant. Now, the air at its epicenter rippled like a desert heat haze, warping space itself until something radiating an overwhelming, suffocating presence abruptly tore into reality.
It was a colossal stake, towering as immense as a mountain.
"Are you kidding me…? What is the scale of that thing…?"
Plunged deep into the earth, the monolithic stake pulsed with a faint, luminous gold. Coiled tightly around its surface was a pure-white sacred warding rope, its ends stretching out endlessly toward the distant horizon until they vanished from sight.
The hunters' expressions instantly hardened. Even to seasoned veterans who had weathered countless life-or-death battles and conquered innumerable Gates, this sight was chillingly abnormal—an omen steeped in dread.
"…Draw your weapons," Dohyun commanded steadily. "We approach slowly and assess the situation."
At his order, the lax atmosphere vanished, replaced in a heartbeat by razor-sharp tension. Each hunter readjusted their grip on their arms, taking measured, cautious steps forward while an instinctive chill gnawed at their bones, threatening to freeze the very mana circulating through their veins.
Yet before they could advance even a few paces—
Crr-rr-rack—! SNAP!
A horrifying rupture tore through the air, shaking heaven and earth as a jagged fissure split across the face of the colossal stake that had been bearing down upon the space.
"Everyone fall back! Defensive formation!"
Dohyun bellowed as he ripped his greatsword from his back. In that exact instant, a violent eruption of blinding light burst through the widening fracture.
FLASH—!
"Kugh…!"
A brilliant, searing flash swallowed their vision whole, accompanied by a thunderous roar that reverberated through the entirety of the pocket dimension. Amidst the dizzying chill that seemed to crush their five senses, all four hunters felt it down to their marrow: an unfathomably vast, enigmatic magical power breaking free from where the stake had stood.
Gradually, the tempest of swirling radiance began to disperse.
"W-What happened?! What is going on?!"
"…It's gone."
The sacred white rope that had stretched beyond the horizon, along with the towering golden stake that had radiated such an oppressive, breathtaking presence—both had vanished into thin air without a trace.