Chapter 64
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 64
Chapter Title: The Star Trying to Regain Its Light Once More (5)
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At the moment when Kang Hyun-sol and Arkin Low encountered Choi Eun-ha and Gerwon.
Outside the dungeon, it was a complete scene of chaos.
“Damn, no guild or association noticed until a descent-type gate of this level formed....”
Jin Tae-hoon, team leader of the Korean Hunter Association's Strategy Team 2 who had rushed to the scene, spat curses amid the hopeless situation while chain-smoking.
“Haa... So, what's the rank?”
“The mana inside keeps rising and falling repeatedly, so I can't give an exact figure... but even if just for a moment, the rank climbed to A+ level.”
“......”
Jin Tae-hoon watched the agent who was reporting while staring at the rank measurement device, then turned his head to glare at the gate again.
And finally, with the last remaining cigarette in his mouth, he muttered.
“In an A+ level dungeon—a descent-type gate crawling with demons no less—heroes entered for the sake of Seoul's citizens, and they're just one academy cadet and S-rank awakener Ha-na....”
“They'll all just die pointless deaths.”
“...You?”
Suddenly, someone from the side cut in and interrupted his words, so Jin Tae-hoon lit his cigarette while checking the voice's owner—and he froze in place, lighter still held up.
Standing beside him was Choi Soo-yeon, guild master of the Crimson Flame Alliance, one of Korea's seven major guilds and an S-rank hunter.
She was glaring at the gate with a slightly annoyed expression.
She snapped her fingers lightly to light his cigarette for him and continued speaking.
“Is it the youthful spirit of young kids? Or stupid moths leaping into the fire? I've got the rough picture of the situation... but it was way too reckless a choice.”
“...Yeah, I think so too.”
Not just the two of them.
All the representatives from the seven major guilds who had arrived on site, the hunters who came out to support, and even the association agents could instantly grasp why those two young awakeners had recklessly entered the dungeon.
Even now, with an awakener inside the dungeon, an enormous surge of mana and demonic energy storms were bursting out from the gate, affecting the entire surrounding area.
If it hadn't been for those two young awakeners, if the gate break had happened unchecked, it was impossible to even imagine the scale of the catastrophe.
But even so, it was far too reckless.
“...Is there really zero chance of them surviving and coming back? The academy cadet might be one thing, but Choi Eun-ha—she already has a hunter's license and experience taking down even veteran demons, right?”
“Well, I can't give you a precise answer... but there's one thing I can say for sure.”
In response to Jin Tae-hoon's question, Choi Soo-yeon glared at the gate with enough intensity to bore a hole through it and replied with utter conviction.
“If those two end up dying inside the dungeon, it'll probably be that academy cadet's fault for holding back Hunter Choi Eun-ha.”
“I see. Yeah, if it were a fourth-year cadet, maybe not—but the cadet's identity still isn't confirmed... If it's a first- or second-year level, they'd definitely drag down Hunter Choi Eun-ha.”
“Exactly. Anyway, tell everyone to hurry up and finish prepping. The gate's gonna blow at latest in 10 minutes.”
With that, Choi Soo-yeon left her final words and headed back to where the Crimson Flame Alliance guild members were gathered.
Jin Tae-hoon too stared at the gate for a moment with eyes lost in thought, tossed his cigarette butt to the ground, and rejoined the Hunter Association's Strategy Team 2.
Around the time preparations for the dungeon break began in earnest outside the dungeon.
The battle between the four beings was entering its climax.
Clang!Claaang—!Clang!!
Every time the scythe and sword collided, a sound like tearing eardrums reverberated through the fortress interior.
Not the clash of metal, but the collision of wills—one to survive, the other to break.
Arkin Low's scythe was elegant.
Not a shred of waste in even a single swing.
The fastest, most efficient path to slice through flesh and bone, to terminate life.
On the other hand, I...
My body hadn't fully recovered.
The pierced abdomen still burned like fire, and my fingers trembled so badly that even gripping the sword was a struggle.
Yet I refused to let go of the sword.
The Vow of No Retreat wasn't merely a power boost—it was a pact that erased any option to fall back.
Thanks to it, even as my vision spun and my muscles quaked, I could somehow keep up the fight against him.
“Hah... Hahk...!”
My breath came in harsh gasps.
My heart pounded desperately inside my chest, fighting to keep me alive.
Arkin Low, meanwhile, was utterly at ease.
「Fascinating. This isn't a fight for survival—it's endurance to avoid death... But that futile struggling amuses me.」
The scythe blade swept horizontally.
Swoosh—!!
Blood sprayed.
I'd failed to dodge completely—skin on my left shoulder tore open shallowly.
But I didn't retreat a single step.
I raised my sword high and pressed forward.
Kaaang—!!!
With a bone-rattling metallic impact, I should've been flung back, but I dug my legs into the ground and held firm once more.
“...... I told you, I'm not backing down.”
Blood trickled from the corner of my mouth, but for some reason, my voice came out clear and steady.
Arkin Low's pupils wavered for the first time.
「...That look on your face... exquisite. Longing blooms amid wounds. You're reaching for the starless void. Just like the final Star Position Mage in the annals....」
The shadow at his feet rippled.
One of Arkin Low's patterns signaling the activation of his unique skill, False Voice Scythe.
This time, no ambush.
Frontal activation.
Block it and live, fail and die—that was the meaning.
From the shadow, scythe afterimages split into four lines, then six, then twelve, all pouring toward me at once.
The reaper's storm, without the slightest gap.
I couldn't dodge.
No—I wouldn't.
Dodging meant crumbling.
Crumbing meant retreating.
Retreating meant death.
So I wrapped my sword in Star Mana and swung.
“Kuhk!!!”
The sensation of blood bursting, flesh ripping.
Arm tearing apart, strength draining from my legs.
But the sword still thrust forward.
When the scythe storm finally ended, I didn't drop to my knees.
My breath was ragged, my vision flickered blurry like static, blood dripped from my ears.
“You know what the system message said—back when conditions were met during fights with you?”
I wiped the blood and spoke.
[Those who inherited the will of the Star Position have always faced threats from demons, overcoming crises of extinction time and again. And in the end, hundreds of years ago, when the last Star Position Mage fell in death, they rejoiced—but they didn't know. That stars are reborn anytime in new skies.]
“I'd played the game for 10 years and still didn't get what it meant... but now I do. Using the stars... it isn't anything that grandiose.”
One step.
“Falling, shattering, trampled—even then, picking yourself up and climbing back to the heavens to shine bright again... that's what a star is.”
Another step. I staggered across the blood-soaked floor.
Arkin Low's smile vanished.
「...Where did you hear that? Those are exactly the words the final Star Position Mage left right before dying.」
“...Good. Then I really did understand the meaning right.”
Two steps.
Three steps.
The sword tip locked perfectly on the spot just below his nape.
Thrust now, and it would pierce Arkin Low's throat.
But instead, I let the sword drop to the floor like discarded trash, cupped my hands into a gun shape, and took aim right under his chin.
“The will that refuses to retreat, that even if extinguished countless times never gives up, and rises back to the sky to shine bright once more—the will of a star.
Now I think I get it, at least a little. The path toward 8th-circle Star Position Magic.”
「No way... you?」
With Empathic Constitution, it's possible to manifest Star Position Magic up to the 3rd circle.
Of course, my circles had only just reached two, and I still couldn't properly wield Star Position Magic... but I could manage it once.
Surpassing my limits, seizing the advantage against an opponent I absolutely couldn't beat right now.
I spun my heart's circle to its maximum and drew every drop of Star Mana to my fingertips.
My heart thumped— loudly.
And as Arkin Low realized what I was attempting, his expression hardened.
「...That heartbeat... impossible.」
The shadows cloaking his body shuddered for an instant.
This was a terror instinctively understood even by demons—engraved into their souls since ancient times.
I drew in a breath and exhaled.
"Star Position Magic, 3rd Circle—"
"—Reignition of the Small Star."
⟨ Reignition of the Small Star ⟩
Kwaaaaang!!!!
A single small star detonated from my fingertip.
Starlight erupted like an explosion, shredding Arkin Low's chest from the inside out.
His body—wielding the scythe of darkness—hurtled backward in a savage, wretched arc, smashing through the wall and embedding there.
Vast shadows tore apart in reverse, demonic energy wailing in agony as it convulsed.
Arkin Low gasped for air.
「...Th... this wound...... without doubt... that bastard's... etched into our memories... that final star's...!」
“......”
I couldn't respond.
My mouth wouldn't even move properly anymore.
My body crumbled.
My knees buckled, and I collapsed to the floor.
My heart wasn't beating anymore—it was slowly fading out.
Vision blurring, the only sound my blood dripping plip-plop.
Arkin Low rose slowly, staggering, barely managing it.
His half-vaporized chest twisted his face in pain, his eyes quivering with hatred as they fixed on me.
「...It's over. Human.」
He raised his scythe once more.
My body refused to move.
Fingers, legs, even breath.
But I wasn't afraid.
Because I'd seen the light of victory.
Just before Arkin Low's scythe could reach my neck.
Kwaaang—!!!
With a massive explosion, Gerwon—body bound in black chains—slammed into the wall and met his end.
And from the remnants of demonic energy, a golden aura erupted like an explosion.
There, one person stood holding a hammer.
Breath ragged, arm splattered in blood, a slight wound near one eye—
But her face was unmistakably filled with fury.
Choi Eun-ha.
“......You held out well. Now I'll wrap this up.”
She said.
Her voice neither wept nor wavered.
It was simply calm.
Arkin Low turned his blood-drenched face.
「...Killing Gerwon... you're no ordinary human... But tell me this, little human. Can a fool who couldn't even sense my ambush truly face me?」
Choi Eun-ha responded by lightly hefting her hammer.
“Yeah. You just cashed in on a life debt I'll owe you forever. So as first payback, I'm gonna smash you flat.”
「Foolish... but I approve. With that mindset, you'll at least provide a bit of entertainment in this tedious war of conquest.」
“Right~? It's so boring dealing with you cowardly demon scum—I'm beat from it already. But you? You seem like fun.”
「......」
With that, after glaring at each other for a brief moment, the two beings—as if by prior agreement—charged straight at one another simultaneously.