Opening Hell's Gate

Swaaaaah!

At the heart of the citadel, a golden pillar of light descended from the heavens.

From within it, a woman clad in platinum armor slowly revealed herself.

"Holy crap……"

Baek Yeon-ho let out a dumbfounded gasp of awe.

So that's Aegis……

Even for him, this was a hidden route he had never seen before. No one on YouTube, no one in the veteran group chats, knew a path like this existed.

Originally…… by now we should be locked in a blood-soaked deathmatch with Valerius……

While he was still reeling, a deep rumble shook the air.

Kugung!

Aegis's deep, serene eyes snapped open.

"Ah, valiant Climbers. You have lifted the wicked curse that bound my knights."

Srrk.

When she raised her hand, nine souls rose throughout the citadel. Carius, Lamia, Nephidem, Cetus…… the souls of the nine knights who had been shackled by the curse.

And what the hell is that?

Baek Yeon-ho shot a sidelong glance at Hyun Si-woon.

Of course.

While they had been holding the line, that bastard had gone and cleared another hidden route all on his own.

"Rest in peace now, my children. Your loyalty shall be remembered for eternity."

Sss, ssssss!

The knights' souls paid their respects to Aegis, then scattered into the sky as handfuls of light. A faint smile touched her lips.

"Next."

She gestured once more toward empty air.

Kududududuk!

Space warped, and a knight clad in pitch-black armor emerged. The Phantom Knight Captain, Valerius.

"Hup."

Faced with the crushing pressure of a Death Knight, Baek Yeon-ho adjusted his grip on his shield. It was a kind of trauma—the main culprit that had made him quit Tower of Despair. Seeing the monster in reality instead of on a monitor made it look even more horrific.

"Valerius…… my most loyal knight. Your long mission is finally at an end. Please find your rest."

Aegis gently laid her hand upon Valerius's helm. Sacred flames bloomed from her fingertips and began to envelop his entire body.

The Rite of Sanctification.

Done this way, the sixth floor would clear in roughly ten minutes. Of course, ending it like that would be far too unsatisfying. While performing the ritual, Aegis also granted them a reward—the same one Hyun Si-woon had received in the past.

The shield that had been displayed only as [???????(???)].

She would give them that. In all likelihood, a banished Ranker was sealed inside.

"I shall bestow a fitting reward upon you. He who will inherit my shield—step forward."

……The shield.

Here, Hyun Si-woon had to make a decision. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Until now, every hidden item marked with question marks had gone to him. The Formless Sword. The Thunder Dragon Spear. Both were growth-type weapons, and the Ranker power dwelling within them defied imagination. It would be a lie to say he did not covet it. Greed for overwhelming strength was practically instinct for a Climber.

But.

Hyun Si-woon coldly reassessed his own position.

I'm not a tank.

He was a dealer. A dealer whose primary weapon was the sword. The shield was nothing more than auxiliary gear he occasionally pulled out when using the Barrier of Protection skill.

Is it right for someone like me to take that shield?

He would eventually master every weapon, of course. But that was a story for later. The deliberation was brief.

"Yeon-ho hyung."

"Huh?"

"Step forward."

"Me?"

Baek Yeon-ho's eyes went wide. Hyun Si-woon simply nodded.

"Ah—got it."

As if entranced, he walked forward.

Sss.

When Aegis extended her hand, a golden shield radiated light and descended toward Baek Yeon-ho.

Ahh.

With a look of pure emotion, he received it. A solid, reassuring weight. And through his fingertips flowed a warm yet unyielding energy. A hologram window floated up before his eyes.

Wh-what……!

Baek Yeon-ho's eyes bulged.

Le-Legendary?

In all his time playing Tower of Despair, he had never once seen an item of this grade. Normal, Rare, Unique…… he could stretch it and say he'd heard of Epic. But Legendary?

Even the options were absurd. Stat boosts that almost never appeared on equipment, plus two separate item effects—the kind of thing Unique gear was lucky to get even one of.

This is insane……

Having finished reading the description, Baek Yeon-ho whipped his head around toward Hyun Si-woon, a silent question in his eyes: Are you sure it's okay for me to take something like this?

But Hyun Si-woon was not looking at him.

Every last one of Hyun Si-woon's nerves was pointed elsewhere.

A sticky, unpleasant gaze. Even after Aegis had appeared, that gaze had not vanished.

Moros.

The more of the curse they lifted, the more the bastard raged. So Si-woon had turned the problem over in his mind. A way to deal with that filthy hostility while still collecting Aegis's original reward.

There was only one answer.

Clear the floor first. Then break the seal. Then kill him.

"Everyone, move!"

Hyun Si-woon shouted.

"Get up on the walls! From this moment, we activate every siege weapon!"

"……What?"

"Huh?"

The party members stared in confusion. Why, all of a sudden, activate the siege weapons they had deliberately left unused until now? And against what? There was no one left to fire them at.

"No time to explain. I already gathered every material in the wall warehouses. Just look at the blueprints and assemble them. Hurry!"

Hyun Si-woon barked the order. The first to move was Kang Si-a. When Hyun Si-woon gave a command, she never asked questions—she simply obeyed. That was her role.

"Yes, understood, hyeong-nim!"

Hwang Dae-un was the same. He had already switched his brain off. The two youngest sprinted off, and the rest of the party snapped back to their senses.

"Let's go!"

"No idea what's happening, but we're doing it!"

"Hraaaah!"

Hwang Dae-un and Jang Cha-yul charged after them, and Baek Do-hee hurried to follow.

"Hey—hey! Wait for me!"

Still clutching the Legendary shield in a daze, Baek Yeon-ho scrambled after the others.

At the party's sudden frenzy, Aegis—still purifying Valerius—widened her eyes.

"Wh-what are you doing right now?!"

Shock laced her voice. She had seen straight through Hyun Si-woon's ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠intent.

"Foolish Climber! Those siege weapons are seeds of the curse Moros left behind! To use them is the same as releasing his seal!"

I was going to play nice if I could, you know.

But what was he supposed to do when the bastard kept glaring at him like that?

Clack, clunk!

Assembling the siege engines was not difficult. They had Baek Yeon-ho, who had experience with them, and Hyun Si-woon—who had planned for exactly this—had already stockpiled every critical material.

"……Crazy bastard."

Watching the scene unfold, Ha-wol finally shook her head.

"Madness. Pure madness."

Even she had never seen a hidden route like this, not as a Climber and not after becoming a Ranker. This alone was already extraordinary—yet what else was that disciple of hers drawing inside his head?

He had been tasked with finding a rabbit hole, dug up a tiger's den instead, and was now trying to pluck the whiskers of a sleeping beast.

Kurururung!

Atop the walls, a massive automatic ballista finished assembly and heaved its bulk upright. Beside it, an automatic catapult finished its loading sequence with a dull, grinding clatter.

The party members stood panting, staring at what they had built.

"It's done!"

"What do we do now?"

"Do we just fire?"

That was when it happened.

Kuaaaaaaaaaah!

The entire citadel shuddered as if screaming. The sky bled crimson. From the ground, pitch-black energy rose like mist.

"Ah…… no……!"

Aegis's face went deathly pale. Her resentful gaze locked onto Hyun Si-woon.

"Have you lost your mind?! What in the world possessed you to do this?! If you meant to go this far, I would never have appeared!"

"Were you planning to just leave him sealed and call it good enough?"

"What?"

"The enemy who slaughtered your knights, violated your captain, and cursed your citadel. You want to end it all sticky and unfinished like this? Don't you think you should get proper revenge at least once?"

"Do not speak of what you do not understand, Climber! With your strength, there is no way to defeat Moros. My knight order is vanishing into sanctification as we speak, and I myself have spent nearly all my power maintaining the seal across the ages!"

Aegis felt only frustration.

"Your courage in lifting the curse is admirable, yet you cannot even begin to grasp what waits at the end of this path. Foolish child."

Revenge?

That single word dug sharply into the hollow of her chest. No one wanted vengeance more than she did. But she could not have it. She lacked the strength. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Her authority was that of a guardian—specialized in defense, not destruction. And even that had been nearly exhausted by long centuries of holding the seal. What remained of her now was little more than a shell.

If……

Aegis looked into the eyes of the Climber staring straight back at her. There was no fear in them. Too straight, too solid to be mere recklessness. Absolute confidence, as if he saw through everything and had already predicted every outcome.

If—truly if—this Climber made the impossible possible……

If this madman's gamble truly summoned a miracle even the gods had never foreseen……

She swore it inwardly.

I will stake everything I am.

Her pride as a power of protection, her dignity—she could cast it all aside. If this Climber settled her grudge, she would offer up her entire being to become his shield, so that he might soar to even higher skies.

She would even gladly surrender the ancient shield, kept deep within her bloodline for generations, that held the soul of their progenitor.

"Kyahahahaha! You fools! You have opened the gates of hell yourselves!"

What shattered Aegis's thoughts was a voice thick with malice, as if it were tearing space itself apart. Far off at the edge of the plain, where the sealing stone had stood, a massive fissure tore open. A vortex of pitch-black darkness began to whirl.

"The seal…… is lifting! Thousands of years of waiting finally come to an end!"

Even the system warning windows flashed crimson. From within the vortex of darkness, a figure in a black hood emerged. It wore a robe of bone, and crimson flames burned in both eye sockets. The massive scythe in its hand seemed to drink in the surrounding light.

"My long-standing nemesis, Aegis. At last I can tear you apart and kill you! You insect who lifted the curse—it is all thanks to your admirable efforts. As a reward for that effort, I shall turn your corpse into one of my masterpieces."

Every word from Moros crushed the surrounding air with overwhelming magic power.

"……"

Even Hyun Si-woon felt his breath catch.

At minimum, Ranker-level……

Why something like this was on the sixth floor, he had no idea—but according to Ha-wol, it possessed strength enough to contend with most Rankers.

And……

I have the power to kill Rankers.

Sss.

Hyun Si-woon did not so much as flinch. He simply swapped the Formless Sword for the Thunder Dragon Spear.