#50 Neverland Crumbles
#50 Neverland Crumbles
"It's... collapsing."
The plaza shuddered. Even so, the damage was clear—Snowell staggered. The absence of pain didn't mean the absence of impact. The White Lion shook its head to throw off the shock, and the hunters bolted for the exit.
The first attempt. The original raid. Back then, with no intel on Neverland whatsoever, the raid force had been routed. Bosses that defied common sense. A cruel, elaborate dungeon. Convinced that the plaza—the 1st Sector—marked the dungeon's end, the raid force had deemed further progress impossible and tried to escape. But the moment Frenzy triggered, monsters swarmed without end, and a vast number of hunters were annihilated. When they finally fought their way back to the labyrinth gate, the Steeletons had already reassembled and were blocking their path. Kang Hoon, one of the Seven Heroes, sacrificed his life to hold off the 2nd Sector monsters chasing from behind so the raid force could survive. After that, Neverland earned its name as the dungeon's ultimate malice.
Unsurprisingly, future Neverland raids became exercises in extreme caution. For years afterward, investigation and reconnaissance took priority. Unwritten rules were born from that caution, along with a few hard-won facts. When Frenzy begins, evacuate the dungeon immediately. And—
"—once Collapse starts, the dungeon seals within one hour."
Eun Ja-rim voiced that fact aloud and turned her head. There, still locked in combat, were the Mountain Goat and the Wolf. Could she really leave Alpha the Jirisan Warg behind? The White Lion's roar erased any choice she might have had. Eun Ja-rim bit her lip. At the maze boundary, Kang Tae-ho and Baek Gun-tae shouted.
"Hurry!"
BOOM— BOOM— BOOM—! The moment the White Lion broke into a run, Eun Ja-rim hurled her spear at Snowell and scooped up Ha-yeon, lifting her by the back and knees.
"Disciple of the Spear Saint?"
The spear, carrying no mana, struck the White Lion and clattered away like a toy. Abandoning even her spear, she ran, but the distance kept shrinking. The difference in stride made outrunning it nearly impossible. A shadow fell over her—the White Lion's front paw came crashing down toward her head—but the Young Dragon's intervention let her narrowly slip free. Snowell, furious at striking empty air, hammered the ground several times, ragged breaths streaming past bared fangs.
"Throw her over!"
At Kang Tae-ho's command, Eun Ja-rim heaved Ha-yeon forward. Without a word about who went first, they all plunged into the boundary and into the fog. The mist filling the maze played havoc with the senses. Unable to trust her own five senses, Eun Ja-rim shut her eyes and sprinted, following the lingering trails of mana left by the hunters who had gone ahead. Snowell's roar echoed from the plaza as it crammed itself into the narrow maze boundary, chasing the fleeing hunters. The moment the pursuit between hunters and lion began, the dungeon shook and broke apart. The plaza walls crumbled. Within the sealing plaza of Neverland, the only two monsters left howled at each other.
"—————!"
***
An invisible hunger—a Void that devoured all things. It was the new power the Wolf had discovered at a fork in its path.
The Wolf had grown accustomed to its own way of fighting. That wasn't a flaw. Movement rooted in evasion. Shadows deployed when necessary, skills used at the right moment, a veteran's edge sharpened by prediction. It had forged its own style.
But until now, the psychology underlying the Wolf's fights had been simple: survive, or kill. Though it had become a monster, the Wolf had once been human. The question had never occurred to it.
From Warg to Skull Wolf, and now to Shadow Wolf.
Murderous intent and killing instinct. A desperate struggle that used every available tool, clawing for survival. A death match fought purely to stay alive. That had been the Wolf's fight.
—Until now.
'The Swallower.'
From this point forward, it would fight not as a Shadow Wolf but as the Swallower. The moment the Wolf made that vow, something invisible swelled without limit—and the wind stopped.
"—————!"
In an instant, the Wolf lunged at the Mountain Goat. The Wolf, which had been wholly focused on evasion until now, attacked first. The Mountain Goat flinched in surprise but recovered immediately. If the Wolf came within reach, the advantage was his. The Wolf's charge was nothing short of suicide.
The Wolf leapt right in front of the Mountain Goat's face. Gritting its teeth, the Mountain Goat reached out and tried to seize the Wolf's ankle and crush it. Instead, its own hand vanished.
"......!"
Clank—. The Mountain Goat's grip closed on the Wolf's ankle. The chains of the shackle rattled with a metallic ring. Eyes stained red, the Wolf unhinged its jaw to its limit and sank its fangs into the Mountain Goat's nape. The Mountain Goat, holding the Wolf's ankle, lifted it and swung it mercilessly.
The moment it slammed the Wolf into the floor, the Wolf vanished into its shadow. Concealed, the Wolf burst out from behind. The Mountain Goat had anticipated that and spun around—and the Wolf read that thought one step further. A shadow lashed up from the floor and seized the Mountain Goat's ankle. By the time the Mountain Goat shredded the shadow and leapt into the air, skin and flesh had already been devoured, white bone laid bare.
Chilling red eyes glinted from within the shadow—and the Wolf launched itself upward, chasing the Mountain Goat. This was not the Wolf's way of fighting. Until now, it was the Mountain Goat, not the Wolf, who would have kept the distance.
The Mountain Goat's eyes flew wide as it reflexively clutched its bitten throat. It had torn the Wolf off immediately, and still the flesh had been consumed. A crawling threat pulsed through it. The Mountain Goat summoned mana and hurled itself backward. Landing, it lifted its head and saw the Wolf pursuing it, and far beyond, something else—something shimmering like a heat haze.
A hallucination struck it: that the something was watching. It couldn't possibly see anything. It couldn't possibly—and yet the delusion lingered, a presence licking its lips, ready to swallow it whole.
"......!"
In that moment of distraction, the shadow seized the Mountain Goat as if it had been waiting. The Wolf lunged, jaws wide to tear into it. The Mountain Goat swung its arm. Instead of dodging, the Wolf spread its jaw wide. The Mountain Goat shattered the Wolf's jaw; the Wolf devoured the Mountain Goat's arm. Upper jaw barely intact, the Wolf faced the Mountain Goat, whose arm was eaten to the elbow. Both radiated killing intent. Greater Magic Resistance. The deep gray mana housed within the Mountain Goat surged up and began to blaze. Burning black flame. Black mist. Shadow beneath its feet. Distracted by everything at once, the Mountain Goat failed to notice.
—That something invisible had already swallowed it whole.
"......!"
Eyes bulging, the Mountain Goat began to thrash. It struggled to break free, but the grip was not so fragile. Completely engulfed, it writhed—slowly being devoured.
'The Void.'
Within that emptiness, the Mountain Goat tried to scream and failed. Its nape had already been torn open, and no sound came out. No blood flowed. Even that had been consumed.
—Engulfed and devoured.
Only after its flailing hands had vanished did the Mountain Goat manage to scrape together its mana and barely force the power back. But by then, it could no longer be called a Mountain Goat. It tried to move and couldn't. Its legs had been eaten. No—not just its legs.
All four limbs eaten away, ragged and ruined. At some point, it realized it was sprawled flat on the ground.
It looked as though a pack of dozens of wolves had trampled it. The Mountain Goat coughed and tried to spit blood, but the wound at its exposed throat simply leaked red, making even that impossible. Its high Vitality was still tenuously tethering it to life, but that was all. Given time, Regeneration might restore it and let it survive. But the moment something hot touched its head, the Mountain Goat let go of life.
"—————."
In the shaking, collapsing dungeon, the Wolf let out a low howl. Fading vision. In its final moment, what the Mountain Goat saw was the blazing red of the Wolf's eyes.
—And the Wolf, without a moment's hesitation, devoured the Mountain Goat.
***
"Hooooooh!"
The raid force, having barely escaped, let out a collective breath. Getting through the labyrinth with the Steeletons toppled was not difficult. The only obstacles blocking the trembling labyrinth paths were shattered blue bones. The supreme commander exhaled in relief at the fact they had safely evacuated the dungeon.
"...When exactly is he planning to come out."
The dungeon boundary was fading. Right before they exited, the commander had unmistakably felt the dungeon shake. That meant collapse. The dungeon would seal soon. The commander's brow furrowed.
'What in the world...'
The Sword Saint. Why had Dawn's Lord entered the dungeon? Was there a reason that justified it? What rose in the commander's mind was the image of the Armored Monstrous Figures who had assaulted the raid force. The unseen mage who had cast a dark cloud over everything. The giant draped in a robe that stretched several meters. And the greatsword-wielding figure in Gapju armor wreathed in blue flame—the one he had glimpsed only briefly.
'Just who are they...?'
It wasn't a question thinking would answer. Shaking his head, the commander scanned the surroundings. As expected, no blockade squad remained. He spotted a few hunters' faces, but they weren't the blockade squad that should have been posted here. The commander's first instinct was to rally the raid force and report the situation—then he went rigid.
"......!"
The blue-flame Gapju figure he had just been thinking about. The greatsword Armored Monstrous Figure emerged from the dungeon boundary. He pressed down on the exhausted raid force with sheer mana and walked, slowly. The commander knew he had to stop him. But how?
'The Sword Saint must have...'
Fallen to that Armored Monstrous Figure. The figure didn't carry a single wound. Overwhelming mana crushed down like a suffocating pressure. Realistically, stopping him was impossible. Only after the Armored Monstrous Figure had vanished did the choking pressure lift.
...Pathetically, what the commander felt first was relief at simply being alive. The Armored Monstrous Figure had disappeared without a word. The commander let out a long sigh and wiped the sweat from his brow.
"...What in the world is happening inside that dungeon."
***
[Baphomet consumed. Experience Points and Satiety increase.]
[Experience Points at maximum...]
[EXP 317933 / 463579]
Even after climbing to Lv.15, its EXP sat at over 300,000. Whether the achievement condition had been to defeat Baphomet or not, the level rose without hitting a limit.
In any case, factoring in the magnitude of the increase, a single Baphomet had yielded well over two million EXP. The absurd number drew a hollow laugh from the Wolf, but considering Baphomet was a sector boss of Neverland, it was only natural.
'The Swallower.'
This hadn't been the fight of a weak creature fleeing and fleeing again, waiting for an opening. This had been a vicious, equal battle—biting and clinging and tearing. The fact that it had devoured a powerful enemy. A sector boss of Neverland. The Executioner, a foe it had once never dared to imagine defying, had fallen to the Wolf alone. The truth of it landed with fresh weight. The Wolf could now be certain, with its own conviction: it was strong.
'.......'
The realization surged a beat late. The Wolf threw its head back. Exhilaration rose, just as it had when it had slain the Monster Wolf and conquered Jirisan Mountain.
"—————!"
The Wolf's howl echoed across the collapsing plaza, alone. It howled for a long while, then shut its eyes and steadied its breathing.
'...It's not over yet.'
The White Lion would be pursuing the hunters. And among them was Perry. With Kang Hoon's whereabouts still unknown, there was no time to bask in triumph. Snowell. Or Kang Hoon. The possibility that something might happen to Perry flooded the Wolf with a renewed sense of crisis. The Frenzy before sealing—only by escaping the dungeon could the correct ending be written.
—The Wolf that had swallowed the Mountain Goat began to chase the lion.