Beom Seok hung in the air, completely still, as if his body no longer belonged to him. His eyes burned like molten gold, piercing the darkness of the ruined temple. A terrifying aura radiated from him, stretching outward and making the sand beneath him tremble. Hands folded neatly behind his back, he hovered silently, unyielding, as the fallen divine snake trembled before him.
"How… how is this possible?" the snake hissed, its voice trembling, scales rattling like shattered glass. "This power… belongs to the ###########!"
It lunged, coiling upward, aiming for a strike from above, but Beom Seok didn't flinch. His tone was flat, almost bored. "You're irritating… for being a snake," he said, voice cutting through the roar of the wind and collapsing ruins.
A single movement. His index finger lifted.
"Your fight is over."
The golden energy that erupted from the tip of his finger was blinding. It wasn't just light—it was a judgment, an undeniable force that tore through the air itself. The divine snake screeched, thrashing violently, and then disintegrated in a burst of golden ash. The hunters' jaws hung open, eyes wide in disbelief. F-ranked? they thought. There was no way an F-ranked hunter could do this.
Then, as suddenly as it had happened, Beom Seok's body betrayed him. Consciousness returned in a violent rush. He plummeted from the sky, crashing to the sand with a sickening thud. Pain tore through him like molten iron, every bone, every muscle screaming. Blood poured freely. The desert around him blurred. Then… nothing.
You have cleared a dungeon [10/10]
The host will feel immense strain for forcefully using Absolute Power
The host has lost too much blood and is dying
Activating Authority over Life and Death to keep the host alive
The hunters scrambled. Hands shaking, faces pale, they lifted Beom Seok with frantic energy. Haneul's voice cracked as he shouted, "We're taking him out! Keep him alive!"
They ran through the desert, the gate looming closer with every step. The sand burned their feet, but they ignored it. They could not stop now. Not after this.
[Outside the dungeon]
Kang Chin's eyes widened as the dungeon gate flashed from red to blue. "It's… it's been cleared!" His voice tore through the air. One, two, three… dozens of low-ranked hunters would have failed this impossible feat, but these five had succeeded.
Park Woo, the Hunters Association President, stood still, face stoic but mind racing. "They're coming out?" he asked, voice calm but tinged with disbelief.
Then they appeared. Four hunters, dragging the unconscious F-ranked hunter behind them. The desert wind whipped against their faces, dust clinging to sweat-streaked skin. Silence fell. Even the guards near the gate stopped moving.
Beom Seok's body, limp and battered, was a shocking sight. Eyes traced the golden aura remnants fading from his skin, hands instinctively gripping weapons tighter, hearts hammering.
And then the world erupted. Shouts, cries, disbelief. Cameras, comms, everything went haywire. Nobody could fathom what had just happened.
Five hunters… cleared an S-ranked dungeon. One of them, an F-ranked nobody, had leveled the impossible itself.
The air seemed to shiver with the shock. And in the middle of it, Beom Seok hung on the edge between life and death, a single heartbeat away from oblivion.