The Blue Butterfly's Blade Falls
A blue butterfly flew gracefully through the air, its wings fluttering with elegant precision.
Yuri recognized that butterfly. Even though the memory burned deepest in her heart was red, she had known this one too.
Min-su had used it now. She was certain of it.
Undying Butterfly's Flame Scale...
It was the name that had once been unknown to the entire world, yet it had brought down the S-Rank hunter ranked first in the hunt rankings.
She had seen the red butterfly rise that day. And the name of that flame spell was also the name of the hunter guild she had created.
Beautiful...
She stared at the butterfly's wings as if hypnotized. Then, like petals drifting from a flower, blue scales began to fall from them.
Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-thud!
But the result of that wing flutter was merciless.
Just moments earlier she had been staring desperately at the monsters that covered every step of the stairs.
Min-su had been there with her, so she could not afford to show weakness, yet she had still poured out spells that consumed nearly all the mana she could draw from Nibis.
Without that, there was no way to carve a path through.
And she knew he could not yet use mana freely like before. So she had to push harder.
Until Min-su regained his health and returned to the prime of his life, she had to become the power that supported him.
“Huu… Looks like we’ve made decent progress.”
But Yuri had once again misjudged him. The mana consumption had only decreased compared to his prime, but the spell’s precision had risen far beyond that. Even the power itself was enough to surprise an S-Rank hunter like herself.
This power… I can even compare it to my own ice spells. What kind of recovery has he undergone?
And Wind Cutter, which she and Soso had purchased on their last outing, was being handled with the same practiced ease as a long-used Ancient Gear.
I checked the trading records for Wind Cutter’s history. It’s supposed to be a notoriously difficult piece that only chooses a very picky owner.
Of course it was Min-su. But the shock in Yuri’s admiration lasted only a moment.
“Hurry up, Guild Master!”
Min-su had grabbed her hand and was already moving.
Good… Min-su’s hand. No… I like him… I want to stay like this forever.
And in this desperate situation, she had let her thoughts drift to him again. But she shook her head vigorously.
What I need to do now is recover mana. I can’t let Min-su use any more. At Obelisk I have to help him!
She firmly set her resolve once more. The thought of someone who could not help Min-su was unbearable.
So Yuri, with Min-su, climbed the top of Obelisk.
***
Obelisk was no ordinary tower.
While ascending its pinnacle, the walls were lined with murals. These were no ordinary wall paintings.
From the lowest floor upward, the murals continued without end. As any ancient dungeon would, they told a story.
A tale of the end of the world.
It seemed to depict the moment when the ancient empire of Eyletan, the fantasy continent, was collapsing.
At that time too, gates and dungeons had appeared endlessly, and monsters had swarmed the entire empire, just as they had now.
The murals captured that era as well. And the demons that had emerged after assimilating with the monsters, reaching the pinnacle of evil that they served—the Demon King.
They say the Demon King was also called the Red Dragon.
The being who toppled the empire with hatred for humanity was the Demon King. And like the Pale Rider who still rampaged outside.
Under him there were four knights that plunged the empire’s people into despair.
“And there was a hero too.”
At the very top of Obelisk the murals ended. A red dragon burned the world, yet before it stood one man.
“Dragon-Slaying Spear Epitheus…”
As Yuri had said, that man was the hero. And the holy spear he wielded, known by another name as the Dragon-Slaying Spear—Epitheus.
The hero had slain the Demon King with that spear. But in the end he had not stopped the empire’s collapse.
“It’s a legend passed down from very long ago in Eyletan. Details vary slightly by nation, but it’s famous enough that Min-su must know it.”
I nodded. I too had acquired legends during my days in the hunt rankings and had already studied the tale while exploring ancient dungeons.
There was even the story written in Uncle Yeon Moon-woo’s notebook.
At that moment light began to stream in once more through the reddish-black sky visible from the tower’s top. It was the signal that the eclipse was ending.
“Time is running out! We must hurry and obtain the legacy—!”
And as expected, the tower shook. From the center of the pinnacle a pillar like the base of a great tree erupted. Inside it rested one book.
“The legacy of this dungeon.”
The quest was considered complete the moment the tower’s summit was reached. Or rather, the moment we had to verify our qualification from the legacy.
And as soon as that moment passed, thick mist rose again from the stairs we had just climbed. Yuri shouted.
“I’ll block the mist and the monsters! Min-su has more than enough qualification to pass the legacy’s test! It’ll be fine!”
As she said, no one who had not contributed to clearing the ancient dungeon could even touch the legacy.
Frankly, Zerfield’s contribution was the largest…
But since it was not an Ancient Gear, we had to take the book first. I raised my hand over it.
A resonance different from the tower’s vibration came from the book. It meant the verification from the legacy was complete.
I tucked the book under my arm and shouted to Yuri.
“It’s finished!”
At that same moment the ancient dungeon began to collapse. The entire surroundings glowed with blinding white light.
Soon all the monsters that had been locked in fierce battle with our party disappeared. And the buildings of the ancient empire vanished as well.
Min-su, Yuri, and Zerfield regrouped at the same spot. Even in the final moments he had swung his pickaxe, and eerie aura light still radiated from his body.
“Haa… So I got the legacy after all? You did well… Damn it, that corpse knight fought like a monster… I was on the verge of losing my arm… But if I had fought a little longer I would have won!”
Considering how he spoke, Zerfield looked relatively intact. At this moment even Yuri stared at him in astonishment.
Of course the top-tier hunters are different.
And at that exact moment Yuri shouted.
“If we leave the dungeon now the cliffs will be waiting just like when we came in! Prepare!”
Just as she said, the collapsing dungeon dimmed from the edge. In an instant I felt Yuri’s arms wrap around my back.
Then, once more the surroundings brightened and an intense cold rushed in. It was the cliff from Seoraksan where we had entered.
“Guild Master?”
“Me… I used a lot of mana at the very end and ran out of strength… Just a little longer and I’ll be fine…”
Her arms around my back felt full of strength, but I pretended not to notice and carried her on my back.
Then the three of us returned together toward the shelter. We shared the remaining food and took a brief rest.
Or rather, Zerfield seemed to have stamina left over even after such a fierce fight. He was still staring intently at the ancient book I had been given.
“I can roughly guess what kind of book it is.”
At his words Min-su and I both looked at him.
The oracle received from the Vatican. And Zerfield’s final goal in coming to Seoraksan had also been to obtain that book.
So it was definitely the book about the end of the world…
My guess had been correct. Zerfield continued.
“It’s the Pale Rider, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. And when I heard about the murals you saw inside Obelisk, I suspected it. This book is indeed the one about the end.”
I told him.
“Then is it a document related to the Vatican’s Apocalypse?”
The Apocalypse is a book widely read as scripture even by ordinary believers of the White Cross Church, but it is not the same as the original. The one I meant was naturally the genuine text held by the Vatican.
“It seems so. Of course the legacy found in ancient dungeons is written in a very difficult priestly language of the ancient empire, so decoding it will take some time. But if I interpret it through the priestly language I can read…”
Zerfield hesitated for a moment.
Because it was a request directly from the Vatican, the importance was immense. So for secrecy he was probably weighing how much to reveal to the two of us.
But then he smiled kindly and spoke.
“Well, the Vatican priests may not like it, but the ownership of the legacy obtained from the ancient dungeon naturally returns to the accompanying party. Of course I should tell it to you who suffered with me.”
And he looked at me.
“Above all, since you passed the legacy’s verification without a hitch, you are also qualified to know the prophecies contained in this book.”
I nodded silently.
I had no intention of being humble. We had entered the dungeon together, and the book surely held clues related to the main story. We had to read it.
It’s fortunate that Zerfield is so friendly.
After studying the book once more, Zerfield summarized its contents for the two of us.
And the book’s content was far more than I had imagined.
***
Thus we finished the events at Seoraksan and returned to Seoul.
By the time we left the ancient dungeon the sun had already set, so we had spent an extra day in the mountains. We had been away from Seoul for two full nights and three days.
But the gains were more than sufficient.
The first goal was naturally to master the Ancient Gear. With Wind Cutter’s help we could once again use wide-area spells like Undying Butterfly’s Flame Scale.
The non-normal mana heart had been overloaded, but Wind Cutter had allowed us to reduce that burden to the maximum.
Moreover, we had obtained power far beyond our days in the hunt rankings through Wind Cutter.
And then there was Zerfield too.
Particularly, his connection had been a huge gain. Without him the ancient dungeon’s raid would have been impossible.
Above all, the legacy that was the dungeon’s reward—the White Cross prophecy book—was a special text that only Zerfield and Vatican priests proficient in ancient empire language could decode.
But Zerfield had decided to send all of it to me for decoding.
Clearly, although Min-su and I had helped him during the ancient dungeon, he had been excessively kind to the two of us.
The words he had whispered to me came back suddenly.
“A duke’s daughter is a very precious household daughter. The daughter of that Andrei Grand Duke… Since the world’s most precious daughter chose Min-su, every man in the world will envy him.”
Clearly he believed our Seoraksan trip was a romantic elopement. Perhaps he was cheering for the two of us like a drama-obsessed auntie.
No, really he was.
Yet as the nickname “Two Eccentrics” suggested, if his heart had not approved, he would not have shared information no matter what means he used.
I thanked my luck and recalled the fragmentary content he had told me.
The revival of the Red Dragon that would occur on Earth, not Eyletan. And the whereabouts of the Dragon-Slaying Spear that would block it.
It was content too significant to ignore. The Red Dragon that implied the Demon King. And the villain syndicate called Red Lake that had become the purpose of my life.
It was not just a gut feeling but a certainty that the two were directly connected.
Then the Dragon-Slaying Spear Epitheus mentioned in the prophecy book, the holy weapon the hero who defeated the Red Dragon had used, was undoubtedly an important clue that could not be avoided in relation to Red Lake.
But the moment I stood before the entrance of the apartment, intense fatigue crashed over me.
Yuri had told me to take tomorrow off.
As she said, my body was not yet sturdy enough. The only thought was to enter the room and rest.
At that moment the apartment door opened on its own.
“Senior! Why are you so late?”
In front of the open door stood Arin. Her pink pupils were completely dark.