Gate Rampage (2)
"Damn it! When the hell is backup getting here?!"
Park Jihyeok, Team 1 Leader of the Argyle Guild in charge of clearing the B-rank Gate, bellowed in raw fury. Of all the rotten luck, the Gate had undergone a full-scale rampage—a catastrophe far beyond the Argyle Guild's capacity to contain.
"Team Leader... but you told us not to request help from Saebit Guild—"
"You utter bastard! We're all about to die, and you're worried about corporate pride?!"
Park Jihyeok snarled at the clueless rookie while glaring at the Gate, which had flared into a violent, incandescent crimson. Once a Gate went berserk, there was no telling what tier of nightmare might crawl out from its depths.
Rumble—!
From deep within the portal, which loomed three stories high, came a seismic vibration—the shudder of something massive tearing its way into reality. That sound alone was enough to break them.
"Bleurgh!"
"Ah... ahh!"
"Save me!"
Rookies with barely any field experience threw down their weapons and fled in terror, while others collapsed unconscious where they stood. Watching them scatter, Park Jihyeok's face twisted into an agonized scowl.
"What the hell am I supposed to do on my own?!"
He wanted nothing more than to run for his life, but he couldn't. Just a short distance from here lay a dense residential district—the very neighborhood where he had built a newlywed home. A devoted wife, a precious young child... For the family he cherished more than life itself, Park Jihyeok clamped down on his trembling knees and glared forward, his eyes burning with resolve.
"I'm dragging at least one of you down with me!"
Though his legs went numb beneath the monstrous aura bleeding through the rift, his hands never loosened their grip on his weapon.
And then—
SCREEECH—!
With an ear-splitting tear that set teeth on edge, the fabric of the Gate began to rip open. There was only one reason for such an anomaly. This was no ordinary monster breaking through.
"Why the hell does it have to be a demon?!"
At the sheer, crushing hopelessness of the situation, tears threatened to spill from Park Jihyeok's eyes as his fighting spirit drained away. At present, demons were entities no one in the world could slay. Not even S-rank hunters.
The only accepted strategy was to minimize casualties until the demon's manifestation in the mortal realm expired.
BOOOOM—!
As if the world itself were fracturing, jagged fractures radiated outward from the Gate like a spiderweb across space. And then—
Shatter!
With the resonant crash of breaking glass, something stepped out from the pitch-black void.
It was a humanoid silhouette formed of pure shadow. Twisted ram horns curled from its brow, and broad, leathery wings spread wide across its back.
With a bloodcurdling cackle that rattled the marrow in their bones, its glowing crimson eyes locked dead onto Park Jihyeok.
"Ah..."
The instant their gazes met, every trace of Park Jihyeok's will to resist evaporated. Not his love for his family, nor his primal instinct to survive, could command his paralyzed limbs to move. A post he had read long ago on a hunter community forum flashed across his mind.
A catastrophic horror that pulverized everything around it the second it appeared. The sole silver lining was that its manifestation time in the mortal world was strictly limited. An S-rank hunter could at least hold its attention and pin it in place.
Not that any of that mattered to someone like Park Jihyeok.
"God help me..."
Trapped in absolute despair, even a lifelong atheist had no choice but to plead for divine mercy.
"Get back!"
A black-haired angel arrived.
"Good grief. Keeping your wits about you in front of a demon is plenty impressive on its own. Hold your head high."
And beside her was Lee Siwoo, strolling forward as casually as if out for a morning walk.
Huh? Lee Siwoo?
If Kim Seolyeon's kept man was here, that meant—
"We're saved!"
It meant Kim Seolyeon—reputed to rival or even eclipse S-ranks for brief windows—had to be here as well. Park Jihyeok wept with gratitude, thanking the heavens.
"I beseech thee!"
The distinctive opening chant of Kim Seolyeon's signature skill, White Night Ice Palace, echoed through the air. Just as wave of relief washed over him—
"Wait... what?"
It wasn't Kim Seolyeon's voice. Park Jihyeok whipped his head toward the sound, and standing there was—
Kim Eunji from Saebit Guild?
The tragic prodigy whose brilliant potential had been smothered by the wrong agency was standing right before his eyes.
"O purple star sleeping beneath the abyss!"
Chanting an incantation he had never heard in his life, she raised her voice clear and strong.
"Reveal to me what lies beyond the hidden boundary!"
A colossal maelstrom of mana erupted around Kim Eunji, churning the air with overwhelming pressure. It was a spectacle that mirrored the very majesty of Kim Seolyeon's White Night Ice Palace.
"I'm so damn jealous..."
Another hunter wielding an unclassifiable, world-class skill had just been born before his eyes.
"Shall we evacuate the unconscious first?"
"Ah. Yes, right away."
Lee Siwoo was here, yet Kim Seolyeon was nowhere to be found. Before Park Jihyeok could even begin to untangle that mystery, he hurried away, hauling his fallen comrades away from the blast radius. Survival took precedence over curiosity every single time.
Arriving at the scene, a satisfied smile touched my lips at Kim Eunji's clean movements. Having a hunter with exceptional talent as my partner was always something to celebrate.
"Keeping up nicely, aren't you?"
"...I practiced, after all."
Leaving behind Kim Eunji, who answered somewhat crossly for reasons unknown, I sprinted toward the epicenter of the Gate rampage. Though I had channeled the vast majority of my experience points into Kim Seolyeon, the mana imbued in my flesh at the moment of my original awakening remained intact, giving me more than enough physical enhancement to outpace regular hunters.
Since the incident had occurred close to our office, we reached the scene faster than anticipated.
"Ugh."
Feeling the foul, nauseating aura from afar, my brow furrowed deeply. Looks like a demon's about to emerge.
"Ngh...!"
Glancing to my side, I saw Kim Eunji trembling, her knees buckling as pure dread threatened to overwhelm her. A natural reaction for a rookie with little field experience, but still—
Smack!
"Get a grip!"
I struck her back with a sharp, resounding slap and shouted. The haze vanished from her expression in an instant.
"...Yes!"
Though Kim Eunji had regained her senses, the danger hadn't dissipated in the slightest. Looking at the scene in the distance, it seemed everyone except one person had either fled or passed out.
There was no avoiding it. I hadn't wanted to use Extremity for a while due to the trauma stemming from Kim Seolyeon, but civilian lives took priority over my psychological baggage.
"Miss Kim Eunji. I am going to grant you a support skill now."
"Understood!"
Despite the crushing aura pouring from the Gate, Kim Eunji's eyes remained resolute. Seeing that, I raised my hand and gently patted her head.
"Good girl."
Partly out of sympathy, partly out of pride, my hand had moved on its own. She might find it presumptuous, but seeing someone so young striving so desperately reminded me of my own past, and my hand moved before I could stop it.
"..."
I had expected her to recoil, but she offered no complaint. Did she think it was part of the process for activating a support skill? If so, all the better.
"Target designation: Kim Eunji."
Before the demon could cause further catastrophe, it had to be stopped. And the optimal tool for the job was Extremity.
Ding!
A chime I hadn't heard in ages rang in my ears. Soon after—
Extremity (EX) Target Designated: Kim Eunji
A system window visible only to me unfurled the pinnacle of Kim Eunji's latent potential.
Calculating Kim Eunji's current skills, latent abilities, and future possibilities to derive the supreme realm.
Evaluating every faculty she possessed, the system deduced the state of transcendence she would one day attain. And so—
Transcendental realms attainable by Kim Eunji: 3 choices available.
Just as I had chosen ten years ago amidst the heart of a Gate rampage beside Kim Seolyeon, I now selected the transcendental state Kim Eunji would reach in her distant future.
Multiple paths unfolded before my eyes. What was most urgently needed in this exact situation was—
"Violet Celestial Eye."
Ding!
Extremity activated. Granting Unranked Skill to Kim Eunji: Violet Celestial Eye.
"Listen carefully."
"Yes...?"
Kim Eunji, who had been watching me mutter to myself, looked slightly dazed. Her eyes were unfocused, undoubtedly because an unranked skill had just been etched directly into her consciousness.
"To activate this skill, you must chant the full incantation. The moment you intend to use it, the words will rise into your mind."
"...Understood!"
As the fissures across the Gate widened, the sinister energy of the demon trapped within began spilling into reality. With little time remaining, we sprinted into the fray.
"The duration is very short! It will roughly match the time the demon can remain manifested in this realm! Don't try to kill it—just buy time!"
"Understood!"
Reaching the center of the clearing, I headed toward the sole surviving hunter while Kim Eunji intercepted the demon crawling out into our world.
"I beseech thee!"
So that opening line remains the same. It was my first time applying Extremity to someone else, so even I hadn't known.
"O purple star sleeping beneath the abyss. Reveal to me what lies beyond the hidden boundary!"
As if proclaiming her arrival to the entire world, the incantation declaring her ultimate potential spilled past her lips.
BOOOOM—!
The storm of mana enveloping Kim Eunji began to skyrocket without limit. Soon, the violet aura swirling around her converged, funneling entirely into her pupils.
To contend with a demon, one either needed the sheer instantaneous firepower to crush it underfoot—
Or the insight to pierce through its true nature, an existence governed by laws foreign to this world. That was why I had chosen Violet Celestial Eye.
Right then, Kim Eunji's hand traced a bizarre, sweeping trajectory.
From high above, plunging straight down.
KABOOOOOM—!!
Her single strike obliterated not only the demon, but completely pulverized the Gate standing behind it into dust. Cold sweat beaded down the back of my neck.
Why the hell is she this strong?
When I used it on Kim Seolyeon, it was never this absurd!