Tower of Despair, Floor 6 (3)
“Haha! Look at the numbers right from the start. Everyone, stay sharp!”
Baek Yeon-ho tightened his grip on his shield and shouted.
Creak. Creak. Creak!
The spine-chilling racket of bone grinding against bone clawed at their eardrums.
“Hyeong-nim, don’t you worry about a thing! I’ve been waiting for this day!”
The first one to charge was Hwang Dae-un.
He had been itching for a chance to test the new weapon he had just acquired—the Rock Giant’s Mace!
“Hraaaaaah!”
A colossal, mountain-like force surged from Hwang Dae-un’s body.
Stone Shatter!
True to its name, the technique poured enough raw power into the staff to smash rock.
BOOOOM!
The blunt weapon buried itself in the skull of the lead skeleton soldier.
CRACK!
It burst open as easily as a watermelon.
But his motion did not stop there. The first strike was nothing more than the setup for the second.
Whoosh!
Hwang Dae-un absorbed the full rebound of that first blow through the rotational force of his hips and legs. His entire body spun like a single massive typhoon.
Mountain Collapse!
CRASH-CRASH-CRASH-CRASH!
Spinning like a top, Hwang Dae-un began to scythe through the surrounding skeletons. Bone fragments sprayed in every direction, and the shockwaves alone sent distant undead toppling off balance.
Each successive strike piled on more power. Like a landslide that starts with a single pebble and swallows ever-larger boulders as it grows, the reach and destructive force of Hwang Dae-un’s mace increased exponentially.
He was a living barbarian.
“Bwahahaha! That’s more like it! Hyeong-nim, did you see that? These things are nothing but scarecrows!”
“I can’t let myself get shown up either, can I?”
Unable to just watch, Jang Cha-yul sprang forward.
Shhhk!
The tip of her fingers, wrapped around the Gale Spear, trembled strangely—then the entire spear began to writhe as if it were a single living creature.
Flood Dragon Emerging from the Sea!
FWOOOOSH!
The energy condensed at the tip of her spear detonated, skewering dozens of skeleton soldiers at once.
It was no simple thrust. She still lacked the level to fully manifest a dragon, yet the momentum of the strike carried that very presence.
“What the hell are these things?”
The corner of Jang Cha-yul’s mouth curled upward.
“They’re even easier than I expected.”
BOOM! BOOOOM! CRASH!
Slash, thrust, skewer!
On the left Hwang Dae-un rampaged; on the right Jang Cha-yul soared. But the skeleton soldiers numbered over a thousand, and each one packed the strength of an eighth-rank beast. No matter how brilliantly the two of them flew, gaps inevitably opened.
Ten, then twenty skeleton soldiers slipped through those openings and charged toward the rear where Baek Yeon-ho and Baek Do-hee stood.
“Damn it, they’re coming this way too! Everyone calm down and fall back!”
Baek Yeon-ho reset his grip on the shield, nerves taut. But before he could step forward, Baek Do-hee advanced a single pace.
She quietly closed her eyes and dropped to one knee in place. At the same time she recited the mantra within her heart.
Heart like a clear mirror, still water reflecting the moon. Heaven and earth, the myriad things—return them all to my single mind…
It was the formula of the Clear Heart Origin-Protecting Art, and the Still Mind Incantation that amplified the Saint’s Prayer.
In that instant—
FWOOOOOOSH!
A dazzling pure-white radiance poured from Baek Do-hee’s body. Waves of light expanded in concentric circles, blanketing the space.
—Krrrkk!
—Creak…!
Every skeleton soldier that stepped into the domain of light screamed as one. Black smoke rose from every joint of their bones, and the crimson light in their eyes guttered out like dying candle flames. Their movements slowed drastically—then stopped entirely. They stood rooted in place, trembling violently.
The Domain of Purification.
Before that sacred power that cleansed every impure thing, the undead could not exert their strength.
And then—
Hissssssss!
As though plunged into a vat of strong acid, the bones of the skeleton soldiers began to melt. Thud. Clatter-clatter!
The bones that had held their shapes collapsed powerlessly and tumbled across the ground.
“Huh.”
“What the…”
Faced with that overwhelming spectacle, Hwang Dae-un and Jang Cha-yul, who had been rampaging so joyfully, both froze. There was no need to fight. The moment anything touched the domain, it simply melted away.
“Noona… isn’t this cheating?”
Hwang Dae-un’s mind went blank. What was the point if the healer hit harder than the dealers?
“Right…? The two of us running around drenched in sweat might be less efficient than just letting her pray once.”
Jang Cha-yul lowered her spear with a hollow laugh. Baek Yeon-ho simply stood there with his mouth open.
What the hell is this situation right now?
He had definitely been worried. The sixth floor was on another level entirely—a place designed to drive people insane. Of course, he had believed that with Hyun Si-woon they would clear it eventually. Their stats and gear had improved beyond any comparison with the past. But…
This easy?
This was not merely easy. This was a slaughter. No—even the word slaughter felt insufficient. Slaughter implied at least some resistance. This was simple cleanup.
Undead that entered the holy domain Baek Do-hee had unfolded melted into dust without even managing a proper scream. And Hwang Dae-un? Before the mace that swept everything like a landslide, the bones were blown away like autumn leaves. The hard skeletons that had once tormented him now crumbled like tofu. And the tip of Jang Cha-yul’s spear? Like a flood dragon surging from the sea, her spear had already reached the realm of art. A single thrust that pierced dozens of enemies was beautiful to watch.
All three of them were absurd.
Suddenly the Baek Yeon-ho of the past rose in his mind—his pro-gamer days. The memory of dying dozens of times atop these same cursed walls, of despairing, of finally smashing his keyboard. That past self and his present comrades. Same place, same enemies—yet the scenes unfolding could not have been more different. Heaven and earth.
And who stood at the center of every one of these changes? The conclusion was only one.
Hyun Si-woon…
Without him, every person standing here would still be struggling to clean up skeleton soldiers one by one. The strange martial arts he had taught them. The hidden skills he had found for them. The unique equipment he had pressed into their hands. All of it had fused together to create the miracle happening now.
Baek Yeon-ho thought of Hyun Si-woon, who had headed toward the western wall. What kind of ridiculous feat was that monster pulling off right now?
A hollow laugh burst from Baek Yeon-ho’s lips.
Just what the hell have you turned us into, you monstrous bastard?
Awe. And absolute trust in their leader. He reset his grip on the shield.
At this rate, the sixth floor is already as good as cleared.
There was nothing left to worry about.
The west had not been breached either.
Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping!
Kang Si-a loosed arrows as though she were possessed.
Just like Oppa told me.
Build a new wall out of the enemies’ own bodies. Her hands moved so fast they blurred. Nock, draw, release—the sequence repeated with mechanical precision.
Thwip! Thud! Crack!
Skeleton soldiers toppled one after another, forming heaps of bone.
It’s actually working.
The skeleton soldiers coming up behind them did not treat their comrades’ corpses as obstacles. Instead they used them as footholds and tried to climb.
This is doable.
The corner of Kang Si-a’s mouth lifted by a fraction. Holding back an army of thousands alone had looked impossible, yet Oppa’s strategy was perfect.
“Holding up okay?”
When Hyun Si-woon appeared not long after and joined the fight, the situation improved even further. Their coordination was flawless.
And so the waves continued.
Second wave: ghouls.
Third wave: dullahan.
Fourth wave: spider legion.
Fifth wave: undead worms.
Whenever a new wave began, Hyun Si-woon would vanish somewhere again—then reappear shortly afterward to support Kang Si-a. By then a wall of corpses had already risen before the main gate, and Hyun Si-woon no longer stood at the front. Instead he drifted around the wall with Moon Spirit Steps, severing the necks of those who lost their balance while climbing. His role was clear: eliminate every threat that leaked in from the flanks and rear so that Kang Si-a could focus solely on the front. Perfect support.
“Is the sixth floor usually this easy?”
“Well, rather than easy…”
Stab!
Hyun Si-woon finished his sentence while piercing the core of a worm that had climbed to the top of the corpse wall.
“…we’ve just gotten that much stronger.”
“I knew it. Following Oppa that first day we met was the right call.”
A faint smile bloomed at the corner of Kang Si-a’s lips. Their first meeting in the forest of the second floor. With her keen eye she had recognized Hyun Si-woon’s extraordinariness at once. It had been the same during her archery days. Among countless coaches she had possessed an animal instinct for spotting the single person who could draw out 120 percent of her potential. The moment she first saw Hyun Si-woon, her instincts had whispered:
This is the one.
And that choice had not been wrong. She wanted to grow even stronger. She wanted to wield this bow—the one her father, taken by monsters, had been prouder of than anything—far better than she did now. The thrill of first picking up a bow while trailing after her hunting-loving father. His praise whenever she hit the target. All of that was her root.
Are you watching?
Her eyes burned like cold flames.
I’m going to get stronger.
Not simply to survive. She would climb this absurd tower to the very end, and when she met the one who had turned this world into hell—the mastermind who had released monsters and stolen her beloved father—she wanted to pass judgment with her own hands. For that, she had to become strong. Incomparably stronger than she was now.
Kang Si-a was certain.
This person…
If she stayed by Hyun Si-woon’s side, it would be possible. She would reach a realm far higher than even the astonishing skill she possessed right now. The formula of the martial art he had taught her flashed through her mind.
The core of Eagle Claw Divine Archery is not seeing. It is feeling. The enemy’s movement, the flow of the wind, even the slightest tremor in the air. Feel all of it, predict it, and sever the origin of that flow as sharply as a talon.
Let’s try it.
The light in Kang Si-a’s eyes as she drew the bowstring shone especially bright.
Time continued to flow, and so did the waves of the sixth floor.
The ninth wave was a Lich—an undead casting magic from far away! From this point on, there was no need to hold the walls. Simply charge out of the citadel and pierce the Lich’s core, and it would be over.
Baek Yeon-ho’s side began to punch through the endlessly pouring monster horde, with Kang Si-a providing support from behind. Hyun Si-woon likewise finished blasting Healing Light at the last statue and joined them.
And then, the end.
Slash!
The instant Hyun Si-woon’s blade pierced the Lich’s core—
The Curse of the Citadel has been completely lifted.
Aegis appears.
“Haaaah…!”
Only then could they finally breathe easy.
The Hidden Route!
Instead of Valerius’s roar, a majestic and sacred aura began to fill the air as Aegis—the Authority of Protection—started to manifest!