Chapter 54

Chapter 54.

—Ooooooooooooooh!

A resonance poured down from the distant sky, and the heavens tore open.

It was a scene that reminded me of Scathach’s Advent.

As if the invisible hands of a giant were forcibly grabbing and ripping space apart, the empty air was grotesquely torn open.

Along with a ringing sound like steel nails scraping down an iron plate.

The atmosphere screamed in terror.

—Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

A bizarre vibration that directly shook the heart and Mana Roads poured down.

“Ugh…!”

The Tankers arrayed on the battlefield each gripped the shield-type Artifacts in their hands tightly.

As if they were frightened, the Artifacts in their hands reacted to the vibration and trembled faintly.

‘It is different…!’

To Han Seol-ah, who had witnessed Scathach’s Advent with her own eyes, the difference between the two beings felt stark.

When Scathach had descended, the Mana particles in the atmosphere had fled in terror at the appearance of a predator.

But now?

This time, the entire space was resonating madly, as if it had become one enormous tuning fork.

The disgusting, unpleasant resonance burrowed into the brain and scraped at the Hunters’ Survival Instinct.

Crack!

From beyond the torn empty air, there came the sound of some invisible membrane being miserably shattered.

—Ooooooooooooooh!

Inside the void was pitch-black darkness.

At a glance, it also seemed as though an ominous green energy was flowing through it.

To compare it to something, it was like the sight of oil spreading across rotten water.

And from the far reaches of that darkness…

Two white larva-like creatures began wriggling and crawling toward ‘this world.’

“Urgh!”

“Blegh!”

The Healers who witnessed the sight collapsed to the ground, spilling tears, snot, and vomit.

That was despite the fact that they were being protected behind the Tankers.

That was how horrifying and revolting the sight was.

At last.

Riiiiip—crack!

At the moment the vibration reached its limit, the empty air rippled like the surface of water, and a fissure formed.

From that crack, a pale abyss flowed out, swallowing all light and heat.

The scenery in the area faded into a murky achromatic color, and a terrible sensation swept over the hall, as though Earth’s physical laws were being forcibly overwritten by the unreasonable law of the ‘Monster’ beyond that gate—the absolute rule that if one side took damage, the other side would obtain complete immunity.

‘…Whew. Whew.’

And then, it stopped.

The vibrations and noise that had been twisting everyone’s insides until just a moment ago ceased as though they had been a lie.

In that chilling silence, hell finally opened.

What crawled out from beyond the fissure with a squelching sound was a monstrosity shaped like a giant larva.

A larva?

No, it was far too alien to be called a larva.

Beneath its slimy blue-green skin, pulsing dark-red veins could be seen throbbing.

It was far from the overwhelming majesty emitted by a dragon species.

Instead, it had a bizarre appearance that provoked a primal disgust and mental revulsion just by looking at it.

However, the dense Demonic Energy and pressure emitted from that revolting body were in no way inferior to Scathach’s.

‘That is… Resonant Entity Resonar!’

Han Seol-ah trembled as she felt the evil malice emanating from Resonar.

She drew up all the Mana in her body and resisted the unpleasant aura assaulting her.

However, Han Seol-ah’s senses were detecting something even more vicious.

“The sky…!”

A metallic scream rang out from among the Healers.

Everyone’s gazes reflexively turned toward the sky.

The sky was opening an enormous mouth.

There was no other way to describe the sight.

Compared to the fissure on the ground, it was incomparably larger.

A single abyss-black fissure had, at some point, taken its place there.

The fact that there was no sound at all instead stole away the sense of reality and amplified pure terror.

And from within it, a second existence slid out.

If the being on the ground was ‘revulsion,’ the being in the sky was ‘despair’ itself.

It was about twice the size of Type 1.

A sticky, tar-like black liquid glistened across its skin, and an ominous energy poured out from it.

At last, when the massive body of Type 2 crawled out of the fissure, an invisible pressure crushed the entire open lot.

A blood-red system message appeared before everyone’s eyes.

[Tower Break - 94th Floor]

[Tower Break Boss: ‘Wondrous Echo’ - Resonant Entity Resonar has appeared]

There was nothing that could be called an eye.

But everyone instinctively felt that it was aware of every living being in the open lot.

“Ghh…!”

An overwhelming presence that pressed down on everyone simply by existing….

In fact, the inaudible ‘echo’ emitted by the two beings as they resonated was physically crushing the Hunters.

The A-rank Tanker, Kim Tae-wan, found it difficult even to exhale.

After Kim Min-seok’s departure, Kim Tae-wan, who had newly been appointed as the Tanker unit leader, was a man called the Republic of Korea’s No. 2 Tanker.

If Kim Min-seok was the type who tenaciously endured by using Survival Instinct (A), then Kim Tae-wan was a traditional Tanker type who enhanced his defense through the Iron Wall (A) skill.

He was also a Hunter who had retreated to the second line after bosses became strong enough to pierce even the defense he had strengthened with Iron Wall.

“Ghk…!”

It felt as though his lungs were shrinking.

The flow of Mana throughout his body seemed to stagnate.

‘We have to… face that?’

All the Artifacts, all the training, and all the resolve felt like mere dust before that unapproachable despair.

Kim Tae-wan looked around.

His other comrades also looked as though they would collapse at any moment, clutching their shields.

At that moment.

“…!”

The nape of his neck turned cold.

It was a sensation like the Grim Reaper placing a sharp scythe beneath his throat.

It was a shocking chill, enough to make all the pressure he had felt from Resonar vanish.

If what he had felt when seeing Resonar could be described as ‘terror.’

Then this sensation was fear itself—the fear of ‘I am going to die.’

Kim Tae-wan froze, not even daring to move his eyes.

***

Min Ji-hee felt the same sensation.

Exerting her will to the utmost limit, Min Ji-hee forced away the clinging fear of death and looked behind her.

In the distant sky.

‘…Darkness?’

Would it look like that if darkness fluttered like fog?

Someone was walking through the sky, step by step, while trailing an ominous black aura beneath his feet.

‘No way… No way?’

The Apostle?

“…That is right. It is the Apostle.”

“…Th-This is. No. This makes no sense… Just what?”

When Jin Cheon-jin, who stood beside her, confirmed it in a trembling voice, Min Ji-hee’s eyes shook with shock.

The Apostle was a Frost Type Hunter!

And a powerful one, enough that even Seol-ah, who had become EX-rank, had to yield a step to him!

Yet such an existence…

Had appeared with a ‘different ability’?

In Min Ji-hee’s memory, she recalled what the Apostle had said when it was pointed out that the Resonar subjugation operation required ‘two or more elemental attacks.’

—I will handle it.

‘The reason he said not to worry, that he would handle it….’

Was because he had a ‘second ability’?

‘That is impossible!’

The Apostle’s ‘darkness’ was definitely a second ability.

It was a reality unfolding before her eyes.

But Min Ji-hee could not easily accept it.

No matter how excellent a Hunter’s ability was.

There was no way for them to escape the ‘Awakening ability’ they had first been given.

‘Is it truly possible? To obtain a second Awakening ability?’

That was Min Ji-hee’s trauma as someone who had awakened the largely useless ability called ‘Cat’s Eye.’

I was born with such outstanding intelligence.

Why did the Tower grant me the ability called Cat’s Eye?

Why did I have to become a powerless person unable to protect the Republic of Korea?

So she had accepted it and pretended that Cat’s Eye was ‘some other ability.’

The very Min Ji-hee called the ‘Ironblood’ of the Republic of Korea had spent her entire life working to hide the fact that she was merely a B-rank Cat’s Eye.

‘…There was a path.’

With a single appearance, the Apostle shattered Min Ji-hee’s long-standing trauma.

The Apostle walked proudly through the sky and stood before Resonar.

The ominous energy the Apostle poured out easily burned away Resonar’s pressure.

And the moment the Hunters, who had first been terrified by the fear of death, confirmed that he was an ally, all of them regained their composure.

‘…He changed the atmosphere just by appearing.’

Min Ji-hee hurriedly picked up the communicator.

“Apostle, this is Command. Preparations are complete.”

The Apostle’s emotionless voice came back from beyond the communicator.

[Begin.]

“Understood.”

Min Ji-hee changed the communicator channel.

“Everyone, commence the operation.”

***

[…What kind of nonsense is this?]

Frozen, who had witnessed the Apostle’s second attribute from within, muttered in a daze.

Unlike his shocked reaction, Han Seol-ah wore a calm smile, as if she had expected everything.

“I am not very surprised.”

Even while feeling the terrifying energy from the distant sky, there was not the slightest tension on Han Seol-ah’s face.

That was because, to Han Seol-ah, that frightening energy felt like a greeting saying, ‘I am here.’

‘The Apostle is a more straightforward person than one might think.’

“Let us prepare.”

[…Yes. Let us do it.]

Han Seol-ah began releasing the pure Frost Type Mana she had absorbed for a long time from Pyongyang, the ‘ancient Frost Type Mana storage.’

Just then.

[Seol-ah, the operation has begun.]

“Confirmed.”

The order to commence the operation had been given.

“Whew.”

Han Seol-ah began operating her Mana with all her strength.

Haaaa—

Han Seol-ah’s white hair floated into the air, and the atmosphere froze.

“Whoooo.”

The breath Han Seol-ah exhaled soon became extreme cold.

[You are doing well.]

There was no need for Frozen to assist her.

Frozen focused on making sure Han Seol-ah’s interior did not become an ice bomb.

It was an Enlightenment she had awakened after seeing the Apostle’s arrangements.

‘The Mana Hall is a spring.’

Frost Type Mana naturally flowed out from Han Seol-ah’s Mana Hall.

‘The Mana Roads are rivers.’

The Mana flowed proudly along the Mana Roads extending throughout her entire body.

Before long…

Han Seol-ah lifted Eternal Winter.

Inhaaaale—

As if a giant were taking a deep breath.

The Mana in the area gathered toward the jewel of Eternal Winter.

Han Seol-ah controlled that Frost Type Mana with extreme concentration.

‘All of that is me.’

She activated her magic.

“Genesis Manifestation—Winter Heralding the End.”

The Genesis Trait inherent in Eternal Winter.

The miraculous Authority that ignored all resistance.

Under Han Seol-ah’s guidance, that power opened its eyes.

Complex runes surfaced across the entire staff.

Vwooooong!

The staff trembled.

Han Seol-ah gripped the shaking staff with both hands and aimed it at the giant larva on the ground—‘Resonar Type 1.’

[Preparation complete. Do it!]

“Absolute Zero—”

The Grand Magic that had erased Scathach in a single blow and turned Pyongyang into a land of white death was named ‘Absolute Zero.’

Han Seol-ah could not use that Grand Magic.

But she knew that magic was the ‘end’ of the Frost Type.

It was a destination that still seemed far away.

Yet it was the pinnacle of the Frost Type, a place she would surely reach one day.

She degraded a portion of the magic the Apostle had used…

And mixed it with the Enlightenment the Apostle had conveyed to her.

Thus, she created a single spell.

“White Terminus.”

A quiet chant.

The moment she recited the Starting Incantation.

Ruuuuuumble!

A flesh-cutting blizzard exploded outward from the staff.

The atmosphere screamed and froze with crackling sounds, and the vortex of cold began to compress to an extreme degree under the guidance of Mana that pulsed with a high-pitched whine.

At the end of that dreadful compression, which seemed to distort even the surrounding space.

Flaaaaaash!

A white beam that flashed the entire area’s vision white was fired.

The white straight line reached Resonar Type 1’s body in an instant…

Whoooooosh!

Leaving behind a resonance like the sound of wind, it froze Resonar Type 1’s entire body pure white.

Absolute Zero—White Terminus.

It was the moment Han Seol-ah’s new sure-kill move appeared, one that ignored the opponent’s resistance and inevitably froze them.

***

“Type 1! Freeze confirmed!”

“Good…!”

Min Ji-hee, who had been watching the sight, let out an exclamation.

Min Ji-hee recalled the Apostle’s operational briefing.

How to deal with Resonar.

The first method.

—Never startle Resonar.

Do not, under any circumstances, trigger Resonar’s ‘core rule.’

Resonar was a boss with two core rules.

The first of those rules was ‘Echo: Reverberation.’

Complete same-attribute immunity and energy-amplified reflection.

If one Resonar individual was struck by a certain attribute, the opposite individual became ‘completely immune’ to attacks of that attribute.

At the same time, the opposite individual absorbed the energy of the struck individual and fired it as a beam strengthened hundreds of times beyond the original attack.

‘Same-attribute nullification has been activated.’

“Resonar Type 2’s body has changed…!”

The enormous Resonar Type 2 floating in the sky.

Its body had turned bluish.

‘In that state, Resonar will never be damaged by Frost attacks now.’

Gulp.

Min Ji-hee reflexively swallowed.

‘If the Apostle had not brought a second attribute… the strategy would have ended here.’

Min Ji-hee reflexively glanced at the Apostle, who was leaking darkness.

One of the cores of Reverberation, ‘complete same-attribute immunity,’ had already been broken through!

Now, if they could safely overcome only ‘energy-amplified reflection’…!

“What is Type 2’s reaction?”

“It is moving…!”

Large beads of cold sweat dripped from the control officer’s forehead.

Min Ji-hee, too, held both hands so tightly that blood could not flow through them, unable to even make a sound as she breathed.

Han Seol-ah’s role in this operation was only one thing.

To freeze Resonar Type 1 perfectly without dealing any damage to it at all.

The freeze had succeeded.

Had they achieved the goal of ‘dealing no damage’?

Min Ji-hee and the entire operations room watched Resonar’s reaction with tension.

‘If a beam comes out, we fail.’

Whiiiiine!

Beams of light gathered around Resonar Type 2.

‘…If fire comes out, we succeed.’

At the moment everyone swallowed their breath, thinking, ‘No way,’ as Type 2 began to glow.

Fwoosh!

Flames bloomed.

“Signs of a Flame Storm observed!”

“It worked!”

“It is a success!”

Waaaaaah!

Cheers burst out from the operations room.

‘Wheeeeew….’

The first phase of the Resonar raid.

100% cleared.

***

‘Good, exactly according to plan.’

Now, then…

Phase 2 begins.

“Tankers, it is your turn.”

You have to earn your pay, right?