At the moment Atra saw the lifeless body lying in the pool of blood…

Her vision turned black, and her mind darkened as well.

The past and present overlapped.

A disciple who said he would go outside.

Lee Hayul, who said he would go outside.

Trusting naively that he would do well, believing blindly in her disciple.

Turning a blind eye, thinking it was not her place to interfere, even while feeling uneasy.

A disciple caught in the dungeon’s rampage.

Lee Hayul, caught in the dungeon’s rampage.

A disciple who disappeared, leaving behind only one arm.

Lee Hayul, with his arm torn off and lying in a pool of blood.

“Ah.”

A single lament escaped her lips.

Blood dripped from her tightly clenched fist.

Atra wanted to smash her own head.

She wanted to wrap Qi, drawn from her unique ability, around her fist and ram it into her skull.

It’s common to experience hallucinations from mental attacks. One method to cope is to commit suicide in the hallucination world.

She wanted to believe it was a mental attack causing hallucinations.

Her sharp senses and intuition told her this wasn’t a hallucination, but she clung to the slim possibility that it might be.

– …!

What stopped her was the faint, labored breathing of what she assumed to be a corpse.

Reality hit hard.

Atra, who had been standing like a stone statue, urgently knelt down.

Splash – The blood pool rippled as her knees hit the ground.

She checked Lee Hayul’s condition.

…It was hard to believe he was alive. Even with regenerative abilities, it would be difficult. But Lee Hayul was undoubtedly breathing.

Faintly, as if he might die at any moment, but he was alive.

He was alive.

That fact filled her mind.

With hurried yet careful hands, she picked up Lee Hayul. She took off her coat and wrapped it around him, then swiftly kicked off the ground.

The sky outside the shelter was regaining its original color.

The outer wall surrounding the city was gradually collapsing. Thanks to Lee Hayul, who took down the alpha entity that acted as the dungeon’s core.

She headed toward where she sensed people gathering near the collapsing outer wall.

There, the rescue team from the association was just about to destroy the dungeon’s outer wall and enter.

Naturally, the rescue team included a hero with healing abilities.

The healing hero stayed behind while the rest of the combat team entered the city through the collapsed wall.

Healing began.

The hero conducting the healing, with a look of urgency, suddenly grimaced.

“This is beyond my ability.”

“What?”

Beyond ability.

Atra’s face cracked at the unexpected response.

“Sorry, I didn’t hear you right. Could you say that again?”

“…Yes. This is beyond my ability.”

Pasenov, the high-level hero with healing abilities, bit his lip. His face showed clear urgency and frustration.

“The wounds are too severe. The unique ability that caused the wounds is dreadfully hindering the healing.”

This is beyond my ability.

Hearing the same words repeated, Atra’s mind tangled.

Beyond ability. Then what should she do? The only healing method she had was the recovery potion she usually carried.

She had already used it. It had no effect.

Even with quality fit for use in the labyrinth, it didn’t work.

A healing hero said it was beyond his ability. Then who should she go to?

She knew the answer. If one isn’t enough, go to two; if a high-level hero isn’t enough, go to the highest-level hero.

Neither option was available here.

Gritting her teeth, Atra picked up Lee Hayul again.

His body was cold. There was no warmth left. That feeling gradually extinguished her hope.

She kicked off the ground, wrapping both herself and Lee Hayul in Qi to avoid any potential harm.

She had to head to the association, where the gate was. From there, she needed to get him to a high-level healer.

– Huh, uh…

While relentlessly kicking off the ground…

Every faint breath she heard from him made her heart pound with fear.

Unstable. Lee Hayul in her arms seemed on the verge of death. He seemed like he could die any moment…

The smell of blood filled the air. The faintly sweet scent he used to carry was gone, replaced by the stinging odor of death.

All of it pained Atra. It felt like her heart was being torn apart.

‘I shouldn’t have let him go.’

The excuse that she couldn’t keep him by her side forever was stupid.

Regret.

As always, it was too late.

[At 12:15 PM local time in Scotland’s Shipnaha region, a chain dungeon rampage occurred.]

The first weekend of April.

The sudden news hit a peaceful world hard.

[The World Superhuman Association announced that this rampage in Shipnaha was a rare case without any precursors, involving the chain rampage of five fourth-level dungeons.]

A dungeon rampage.

No matter how peaceful the times, occasional disasters still claimed many lives.

[The casualties from this rampage are confirmed to be around 500 dead and 7,000 injured. These numbers are being updated and are expected to increase as investigations continue.]

The news spread quickly nationwide.

Dungeon rampages and the resulting human casualties are always major news and particularly eye-catching in daily life.

It’s sensational news. That’s all there is to it.

For those not directly affected, it ends with feelings of pity.

Atra was someone directly affected.

Near the entrance of the healing room.

She sat absent-mindedly, listening to the breaking news relayed through a hologram.

‘……’

It had been almost a day since Lee Hayul entered the intensive care unit.

Despite receiving healing from dozens of professional healers during that time, Lee Hayul had yet to regain consciousness.

Such severe injuries.

The worst part was that the unique ability that caused the wounds was so insidious that even professional healers struggled to remove its remnants.

– Thud thud thud

Footsteps, not bothering to hide their presence, approached. Atra looked up.

A man in a uniform was crossing the corridor towards Atra. A familiar face.

Maxwell.

An extraordinary member of the association’s disaster management department, responsible for handling the aftermath of dungeon incidents, and someone Atra knew a little.

“It’s been a while, Clyde. Two years, huh?”

“…Yeah.”

Her hair, which had become disheveled in a short time, and a voice devoid of strength.

A dark, lifeless complexion and eyes that had lost their light.

Maxwell sighed deeply inwardly. He expected it, but she was in bad shape.

Maxwell knew Atra’s circumstances. He knew about the past tragedy of her disciple and her relationship with Lee Hayul.

He had an idea of what she might be feeling right now.

He hesitated briefly but still had to do his job.

“Supreme Hero Atra Clyde. Will you accompany us in reviewing the observation records from the accident scene as the guardian of Cadet Lee Hayul?”

The accident scene, observation records.

Atra’s eyes wavered.

…

…

The interior was generally dim. Atra gritted her teeth, glaring at the hologram floating in the center of the room.

The hologram showed the scene just before the dungeon rampaged… specifically, Lee Hayul’s appearance.

It was captured by a magical device endowed with the authority of the Tower of Observation.

It couldn’t transmit while the space was isolated, but now that the isolation was lifted, it could be played back.

In the footage.

Strictly speaking, it wasn’t Lee Hayul. The figure had a completely different build and appearance.

“At the time, Cadet Lee Hayul was confirmed to be carrying a cognitive interference magical device.”

Atra nodded at Maxwell’s explanation.

Bang! A loud noise erupted in the footage. Simultaneously, Lee Hayul staggered, grimacing and holding his head.

Atra guessed it was the ability ‘spatial perception’ that Lee Hayul had mentioned.

Did the dungeon rampage affect space, and did he get hurt through spatial perception?

The footage continued.

As the dungeon rampaged, the sky turned ashen.

In such a bewildering situation.

Lee Hayul first took care of a nearby child and headed to the shelter. Along the way, he used magic to kill monsters and reduce their numbers.

The footage continued.

After sending the child into the shelter, Lee Hayul himself did not enter.

Just a cadet, barely awakened for less than two months, he unhesitatingly dove into the heart of the rampaging dungeon, killing monsters and saving people.

A clawed attack from an enemy barely missed Lee Hayul. A fluttering cloth barely blocked the attack.

There were too many monsters. Too many people to save. Lee Hayul had no time.

He used magic to deal with monsters from a distance but occasionally had to take hits himself.

There were also moments when he had to shield civilians with his body.

He blocked all of it. With artifacts, Qi, and sometimes with his body when there wasn’t time to use either, blood spilled.

‘……’

The injuries were minor. There was no incident where he sustained the kind of injuries he had now.

The footage sped up. For hours, Lee Hayul didn’t stop killing monsters and saving people.

The footage slowed down. In one corner of the footage, a familiar monster appeared.

The monster that lay beside Lee Hayul with a shattered head, the alpha entity maintaining the dungeon’s rampage.

Boom! The monster in the footage kicked off the ground. It was quite fast. Too fast for the Lee Hayul Atra knew to react.

A massive foreleg pulled back. The foreleg quivered with concentrated power.

In the next moment, Atra gritted her teeth, predicting what would happen.

Bang! With a massive impact, Lee Hayul’s body slammed into the road. Atra’s fingertips trembled.

Lee Hayul, who had been tossed aside, twitched while scratching the asphalt.

His true form revealed as his cognitive interference magical device was dislodged by the previous strike.

‘……’

From Atra’s perspective, Lee Hayul’s face was clearly visible.

A face contorted in pain, trembling in fear.

She understood. It was a natural reaction for Lee Hayul, who hadn’t experienced real combat.

His feet dragged back. He backpedaled. Naturally. He had to. He had to run.

Atra wished fervently that he would run away.

Then, his legs stopped.

It was a fleeting moment. A split second. Lee Hayul’s face twisted.

Fear and pain.

With a face reflecting all that turmoil, Lee Hayul kicked off the ground.

Forward.

Toward the monster.

Wrapped in Qi, he stood against the monster.

Atra, staring blankly at the footage of Lee Hayul, recalled a conversation from a certain day.

A question about how he would handle a dangerous situation.

At that time, Lee Hayul had scratched his head, nervously eyeing her and answering through a hologram.

– [I would probably run. I’m a coward who can’t fight for my life.]

After answering, he had watched her reaction, worried she might be disappointed.

‘Why…’

The image of Lee Hayul, gritting his teeth and confronting the alpha entity despite his body being a rag, overlapped.

Why didn’t he run away?

The person who could answer that question was still unconscious.

Regret filled her.

Too late, far too late.

End of Chapter