Thud, thud, thud.

The hunter, Agartha, and the Saint crouched down as soon as they exited the room with the red inscriptions, keeping low while eyeing the passage leading to the next area.

Every time the sound of footsteps echoed through the space, Agartha pricked up her ears, and the hunter slowed his breathing, focusing on the scents around him.

The hunter was sensing something strange. The Foreign Entity’s footsteps weren’t as heavy as he expected. This only made him more cautious.

The reason for his heightened awareness was due to one critical factor: the Foreign Entity was alone in this vast area.

While Tanthan had been gaining fame as a knight, the hunter had been traveling around, hunting down every lesser Foreign Entity he could find. Through this experience, he had discovered one important fact about these beings: they never invade each other’s territory.

Because of this trait, if there was a stronger Foreign Entity nearby, weaker ones would retreat, reducing the size of their territory.

However, this cave was expansive, with personal spaces scattered throughout. For a Foreign Entity to monopolize such a large area alone, it had to be more powerful than a typical lesser Foreign Entity.

In other words, this was not an opponent they could afford to fight while carrying an unconscious Tanthan. That’s why they left him behind.

Trying to sneak Tanthan out without being detected? That was out of the question. Foreign Entities were hyper-sensitive to their territories; it would only be a matter of time before they were caught.

That left them with one option: confront and eliminate it.

Click.

The hunter loaded shells into his double-barrel shotgun. These rounds were more powerful than before, designed specifically to pierce a Foreign Entity's weak points. And his highly trained body was stronger than it had been in the underground prison.

Ratatatat!

The hunter signaled to Agartha and the Saint. Once they nodded, confirming their readiness, he sprinted toward the room where the footsteps were coming from.

His first action was quick and decisive: locate the enemy.

As soon as the hunter confirmed its position, he moved in.

Click, boom!

With practiced precision, the hunter aimed the shotgun and unleashed a deafening blast, red shells flying in all directions.

"""Б҉̧̛̳̥̙̒̆̿л҉̡̫͐͝я̸̢̝̲̊̕т̷̨̛͎̃͒̑ь҉̫̣̈͂̈͜͡!̷̛̫̯̓͜!̷̧̱̙̆̔͡!҈̢̯̾͞"""

The Foreign Entity howled, the sound pounding against their ears like a physical force.

But the hunter knew instantly—this wasn’t a cry of pain, but of anger.

"Damn."

That meant the hit wasn’t fatal. Disappointed, the hunter finally took a good look at the Foreign Entity.

It was reflecting all the light from the cave, as if it were made of shattered glass shards pieced together haphazardly. Compared to other Foreign Entities he’d seen, it had a relatively harmless appearance, but the sheer density of the crystals gave it a repulsive, unsettling aura.

The footsteps they had heard were the sound of the crystals on the ground vibrating and clashing together, detecting movement.

"It’s coming!"

The crystal shards converged in the center of the Foreign Entity, and it charged toward the hunter. Its movements seemed reckless, relying entirely on its durability.

But—

Thud!

"""С̷̡̛̖̜́̓у̸̯̯̣̍͜͡к̴̡͔̣̱͗̐̈́̕а̷̡̲̮̟͋̓͠!̸̧̥̥̬̏̔͛͠!̷̡̛̝̱̔ͅ"""

The hunter kicked the Foreign Entity, sending it crashing into the wall. It happened to slam into the part of the wall with the Scribe’s inscription, but the hunter didn’t care—those words couldn’t be erased physically, anyway.

To physically strike a Foreign Entity like that…

After fighting so many lesser Foreign Entities, the hunter’s mental fortitude had grown so strong that as long as his opponent wasn’t on the level of a greater Foreign Entity, he could resist any mental contamination.

"""А̴̢̛̒ͅа҉̨̛̭̓а̴̡̜̬͇͑͛͞а҈̢̯͕̲̀̏̕!҈̱̞͕̔̊̈̕͢!!!"""

The Foreign Entity let out a furious roar, its savage energy indicating that it was ready to attack again. Despite looking like nothing more than broken glass shards, its power was formidable.

The hunter glanced at the Saint, who seemed eager to help but hesitated. He must have realized that this wasn’t a mere lesser Foreign Entity and wasn’t sure what to do.

There was no way a scholar like him, even one of the more physically adept ones, could handle this.

The hunter would have to finish this alone, he thought, when suddenly, light footsteps echoed through the space.

Before he could react, there was a loud thud as something landed squarely on the Foreign Entity.

Agartha.

"Damn…"

The hunter almost cursed in disbelief, but what happened next shut him up.

Agartha had attached blades to her prosthetic arm and drove them through the gaps between the crystals, pinning the Foreign Entity to the wall.

Her movements were quick and precise, not what one would expect from someone who usually avoided risking her life.

Maybe she was trying to prove that she wasn’t just standing idly by.

But even so, he doubted that would be enough to stop a Foreign Entity.

After all, it was just shards of crystal—it didn’t seem like such an attack would immobilize it.

However, what happened next surprised him.

The Foreign Entity’s body shimmered as it tried to move forward, but it couldn’t move past a certain point. The blades in Agartha’s prosthetic arm seemed to be keeping it in place.

After a few frustrated attempts, the Foreign Entity realized it was stuck and let out a howl of rage.

"Hah! How do you like that? Special weapon just for Foreign Entities!" Agartha taunted, her childish boasting contrasting with the situation, earning her a look of mild disdain from the hunter.

Still, it was a good opportunity.

The hunter raised his shotgun and aimed at the central part of the Foreign Entity’s body, where the crystals seemed to cluster.

"Hold on, hunter."

The Saint stepped in, stopping him. The hunter glared at him, his expression clearly displeased, remembering how they had lost a Foreign Entity last time because of a similar interruption.

"What are you doing?"

"Think about it. What if your attack doesn’t work again? You’d be wasting your ammo. Last time, your shot barely did anything."

The Saint’s words made sense.

His earlier attack had indeed not done much. Without special rounds, it might take dozens of shots to take this thing down.

Wasting powerful ammunition like that would be a major loss.

After calculating his options, the hunter sighed and lowered his shotgun.

"Fine. So, what’s your plan?"

"I doubt that Foreign Entity can escape in its current state. Isn’t that right, Agartha?"

The Saint asked, and Agartha thought for a moment, tapping her fingers as if calculating, then nodded slowly.

"Yeah, I’d say we’ve got enough time to head back and get the knight to deal with it."

The hunter wondered just how durable Agartha’s blades were. He had a lot of questions, but considering Agartha’s mysterious background in the underworld, it wasn’t that hard to believe she had access to such materials.

It seemed they were planning to return to Londan, leaving the Foreign Entity tied up until they could return with reinforcements. The hunter begrudgingly accepted this, though he still felt uneasy.

"I’ll stand guard until then," the Saint offered, clearly excited at the prospect of observing the trapped Foreign Entity.

The hunter smirked to himself. The Saint wasn’t fooling anyone—he was just thrilled to study this unusual creature.

Still, thanks to Tanthan’s recent feats, the knights had been more motivated lately, so perhaps they would handle the situation properly.

For now, Tanthan’s condition was more important.

Like the birth of the universe from nothingness, consciousness slowly returned to Tanthan’s mind.

As his awareness sharpened, he opened his eyes and realized he was in the medical ward near the knights' headquarters.

"Ugh, my head."

He groaned, rubbing his aching head, and was met with a surprising sight: Muyeon, asleep with her head resting on his bed.

Wait, this seems familiar.

He couldn’t help but feel a sense of déjà vu. What had happened?

The only thing he was sure of was that the hunter must have brought him back to the knights.

Probably thought it was better to just let them handle it than let things get more complicated.

Thinking back, if things had gotten this bad, Aste should have been here too, but as he looked around, there was no sign of her.

Maybe she was just busy. After all, even though she claimed to be his maid, she still had her own duties.

Tanthan tried to get out of bed carefully, not wanting to wake Muyeon. But her finely tuned senses as a knight kicked in, and she shot upright the moment he moved.

"Ah!"

Damn, she nearly gave me a heart attack.

Catching his breath from the sudden movement, Tanthan watched as Muyeon’s eyes locked onto him. Her expression quickly shifted from shock to tearful relief.

"Sir Tanthan!!!"

"Whoa, calm down, Muyeon!"

Caught off guard, Tanthan didn’t know how to handle Muyeon as she suddenly threw herself at him, sobbing. He awkwardly tried to pull away since they weren’t in their knight uniforms, but Muyeon clung tightly.

We’re touching! his mind screamed.

"Ah! Uh… Ahhh!"

Muyeon suddenly realized the situation and jumped back, her face turning bright red with embarrassment.

"R-right! Sir Tanthan! You’ve only just recovered, but I have urgent news for you!"

"Y-yes?"

Still disoriented from Muyeon’s emotional outburst, Tanthan listened as she delivered her message, and his mind instantly cleared.

"A large group of Candles is preparing to invade!"

What? What the hell is going on now?