The Nevada Exclusion Zone.Inside the SSS+ Dungeon: "Target Zero."Depth: 0 Meters (Entryway).
The transition was instantaneous and nauseating. One moment, they were standing under the bruised purple sky of the Nevada desert; the next, the army was swallowed by a world of grey.
"We're... finally inside," a soldier whispered, his voice trembling as he lowered his rifle. "But..."
He looked around, his eyes wide with confusion.
"Why are there no monsters here?"
The interior of the dungeon was not a cave, nor was it a ruined city or a hellscape of lava. It was a vast, infinite plain of grey ash and obsidian pillars that stretched up into a sky that didn't exist—just a swirling, colorless void. The ground was flat, featureless, and silent.
There was no wind. No smell of rot. No distant roars.
"Yeah, it's literally suspicious that there are no mana readings here," a member of the World Hunter Association (WHA) Intelligence Division muttered, tapping furiously on his holographic datapad. His face was pale, bathed in the blue light of the screen. "I'm running a broad-spectrum scan. Thermal, magical, seismic... nothing. It's flatlining. It's like we stepped into a vacuum."
Panic began to ripple through the ranks. The soldiers gripped their weapons tighter, their eyes darting around the empty landscape. They had expected a horde. They had expected to be fighting for their lives the second they crossed the threshold. This... this emptiness was worse. It was the silence of a grave before the coffin lid slams shut.
"Don't be incompetent!"
The booming voice of Nicholas, the "Titan of the West," shattered the fearful murmurs. The massive American Hunter stepped forward, his golden armor clanking softly. He swung Mjolnir, his Divine-grade hammer, resting it casually on his shoulder.
"I experienced something like this before," Nicholas rumbled, his eyes scanning the horizon with the intensity of a predator. "Decades ago. A Dungeon in the Pacific. It was empty until we reached the center. Monsters like SS and SSS-Ranks... they aren't like the mindless beasts you shoot in C-Rank gates. They have intelligence. They can hide their presence, mask their mana signatures, and wait."
Nicholas spat on the grey ash. "It makes them so much more dangerous. They don't charge; they hunt."
His words carried the weight of history. Everyone knew the story. Nicholas had risen to SS-Rank after that very raid—a raid that had turned into a massacre. He had been the sole survivor, slaughtering every monster in a berserker rage to avenge his fallen comrades.
"So you're saying there's a high chance there would be an ambush?!" Morgane asked, stepping up beside him. Her staff glowed brightly, the only source of warmth in this cold world.
"Yes," Nicholas replied grimly.
He looked over his shoulder at Damien. The red-haired soldier was crouching near a strange formation of ash, rubbing the grit between his fingers. Damien wasn't looking at the horizon; he was looking at the ground, his brow furrowed.
'He knows something's off, too,' Nicholas thought. 'The kid has instincts sharper than most S-Ranks.'
"There's something off about this dungeon," Nicholas announced, his voice amplifying with mana. "Prepare for an ambush! Shields up! Eyes open!"
As if on cue, the reality of the dungeon shifted.
-BOOM!
The ground fifty meters in front of them exploded. A shockwave of condensed mana rippled outward, knocking the front line of soldiers off their feet.
From the cloud of debris, a figure emerged.
It was a monster, but it stood on two legs. It was humanoid, towering at nearly ten feet tall, encased in natural armor plating covered in razor-sharp obsidian spikes. Its skin was a sickly, pale grey, blending perfectly with the environment.
"YOU ARE QUITE SMART FOR A HUMAN," the monster boomed. Its voice sounded like grinding stones. It wore a crazed, jagged smile that stretched too wide across its face.
"The... the mana readings!" the WHA analyst screamed, his datapad sparking as it overloaded.
"What does it say?!" Morgane shouted, raising her staff to cast a barrier.
"It... It says SSS-Rank! Oh god, why?! It's just the entrance!"
The soldiers froze. SSS-Rank. The designation for monsters that required a national-level response. And it was just standing there, grinning at them.
The monster cracked its neck, the sound like a gunshot. It looked at the army—thousands of men and women—like a wolf looking at a flock of sheep.
"FRESH MEA—"
Before the monster could finish its sentence, golden lightning tore through the air.
-ZAP!
Nicholas appeared instantly in front of the beast. He didn't waste time with speeches. He didn't waste time with probing attacks.
"SHUT UP!" Nicholas roared.
He swung Mjolnir with the force of a collapsing star.
-BAM!
The impact was cataclysmic. The monster's arms, raised in a desperate block, shattered. The creature was launched backward, breaking the sound barrier as it flew across the grey plain, crashing into a distant obsidian pillar.
The pillar crumbled, burying the beast in tons of black rock.
"Amazing, Sir Nicholas!" a WHA member cheered, pumping his fist.
"Thank you, Master," Gyeum Gayeol whispered, her hand resting on the hilt of her sword. She hadn't even drawn it yet; Nicholas had moved too fast.
Nicholas didn't smile. He let out a heavy sigh, steam rising from his armor. He looked at the pile of rubble in the distance.
"Don't celebrate yet," Nicholas grunted.
From the rubble, a dark, manic laughter echoed.
"HAHAHAHA! TO THINK A DAMN MORTAL COULD GIVE A SCRATCH TO MY STOMACH! VERY WELL!"
The rocks exploded outward. The Spiked Monster stood up, dusting itself off. Its arms, which had been shattered seconds ago, snapped back into place with sickening wet crunches. It was healing instantaneously.
"I WILL SHOW YOU THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A GOD AND A BUG!"
The monster channeled its aura. The grey sky darkened as mana gathered above its palm. A swirling orb of superheated plasma formed—a miniature star, burning with the intensity of a nuclear fusion reaction.
"TRY PARRYING THIS! HUMAN!!!"
The monster wound up and threw the star. It streaked across the battlefield, evaporating the air in its path. The heat was intense enough to singe the eyebrows of the soldiers hundreds of meters away.
It was an extinction-level attack. If it hit the ground, the vanguard would be vaporized.
Morgane screamed a chant, erecting a massive golden dome over the army. "Brace for impact!"
But Nicholas didn't brace. He stepped forward, outside the dome.
He gripped Mjolnir with both hands. His muscles swelled, tearing the fabric of his undersuit.
"Batter up," Nicholas growled.
He waited until the star was mere inches from his face. The heat blistered his skin.
-BAM!
He swung.
It was a perfect kinetic reflection. Mjolnir didn't just stop the star; it reversed its vector, adding Nicholas's own kinetic energy to the mass.
The star shot back toward the monster at double the speed.
The monster widened its eyes, its crazed smile faltering for the first time. "WHAT IN THE ACTUAL—"
It didn't have time to dodge.
-FOOOOM!
The star impacted the monster's chest.
"AAHHHHH!!!"
The scream was cut short as the heat consumed it. The monster didn't explode; it dissolved. Its armor melted into slag, its flesh turned to carbon, and finally, its bones turned to white ash.
Within seconds, the SSS-Rank threat was gone. Just a pile of grey dust blowing in the wind.
The army stood in stunned silence. Then, a roar of triumph erupted.
"HE DID IT!"
"THE TITAN!"
"WE CAN WIN THIS!"
Damien didn't cheer. He walked past the celebrating soldiers, his eyes locked on the pile of ash.
'Goddamn dumb bastard,' Damien thought, analyzing the fight. 'If you knew that orb could kill yourself, you should not have cast it in the first place. High mana, low intelligence. Typical.'
He approached the ashes. He crouched down, ignoring the residual heat radiating from the ground.
"Thank you, Nicholas," Morgane said, walking up to the Titan, wiping sweat from her brow. "That barrier... I don't know if it would have held against that heat."
"There's no need to thank me," Nicholas replied, unsummoning Mjolnir. He looked tired. "Sigh. Just be cautious. We're lucky that monster, even as an SSS-Rank, was just a newly born one. Not an experienced monster."
"Wait... newly born?" Morgane asked, confused. "What do you mean?"
Nicholas gestured to the ash. "It had raw power, but zero technique. It tanked my hit instead of dodging. It used a suicide attack as an opener. I bet it always relied on its stats and lacked battle intelligence. If that had been a veteran... we would be in trouble."
"I see," Morgane nodded gravely.
While the high command discussed strategy, Damien scooped up a handful of the ash.
'Weird.'
He brought it to his nose.
-SNIFF.
'Instead of smelling like ozone, burnt flesh, or sulfur... this ash doesn't smell at all. It's sterile.'
Damien let the dust fall through his fingers.
'It's like there's no trace of the monster's biology. No organic residue. Was that really a monster? Or was it... a construct? A puppet made of mana to test our strength?'
"Hey... are you alright?"
A soft voice broke his concentration.
Damien didn't look up. He knew who it was. The scent of cherry blossoms and cold steel gave her away.
Gyeum Gayeol.
She approached him slowly, her movements graceful and hesitant. Two days ago, she had learned the truth. She had read the classified files on Damien's past—the death of his parents, the tragedy of the Twin Dungeon, the loss of Melissa.
She finally understood why Damien hated Hunters. Why he viewed them as "Monkeys."
She understood his hatred because she lived it. She sympathized. She empathized.
Years ago, her own sister had died in a dungeon break in Busan. Not because the monsters were too strong, but because the local Guild had abandoned the civilians to secure a loot chest instead. Gayeol had been a child then, powerless and broken.
But instead of rejecting the system like Damien, she had embraced it. She became a Hunter to change it from within. She sought out Nicholas, the Titan, begging him for guidance. She trained until her hands bled, until she couldn't feel pain.
Three years ago, she returned to Korea from her training in Hawaii. She walked into the headquarters of the guild responsible for her sister's death. She didn't arrest them. She slaughtered them. Every single one.
It caused an uproar. The Korean government wanted to execute her. But her power was undeniable. She was too valuable. So they rebranded her. They called her the "Sword of Hope," the "Sword Empress." They erased her crime and made her a hero.
She saw herself in Damien. Two souls forged in the same fire of grief, who had chosen opposite paths.
"Damien," she said softly.
Damien stood up, dusting his hands off. He ignored her completely, walking past her as if she were a ghost.
"I... wait!" Gayeol called out, following him.
Damien walked straight to Nicholas.
"There's something off about the monster's corpse," Damien said abruptly, cutting into Nicholas's conversation with Morgane. "There's no smell. Nothing at all. It's like killing a hologram."
"Really?" Nicholas asked, his eyebrows raising.
"Yeah. Go smell it yourself."
Nicholas frowned. He walked over to the ash pile, kneeling down.
-SNIFF.
"Yeah... it's weird," Nicholas muttered. "Usually, S-Class entities leave a stench of sulfur or ozone that lingers for days. This... this smells like dust."
Nicholas touched the ash. It felt cold.
"Damien's right," Nicholas said, standing up. "This feels wrong. It feels—"
"DODGE THE ATTACK!" Damien screamed, his [Survival Instinct] screaming in his skull.
But it wasn't aimed at them.
It was aimed at the flank. At the soldiers.
-SQUELCH!
The sound was wet and heavy.
Simon, who had been coordinating the perimeter defense, suddenly gasped. His eyes went wide, staring down at his chest.
A hand—a clawed, grey hand—was protruding from his sternum. It held a beating heart.
"Wh... what?" Simon whispered, blood bubbling past his lips.
Behind him stood a monster. It was slender, almost skeletal, wrapped in shadows. It had no face, only a smooth, grey surface with a single, vertical slit for an eye.
"To think you really did fall for that trick," the monster whispered. Its voice wasn't booming like the first one. It was slithering. "Hahahaha. How was the puppet I made? Magnificent, right? It distracted you perfectly."
The monster crushed the heart.
-SPLAT.
Simon's eyes glazed over.
"SIMON!" Lucy McClane screamed from the command vehicle, her voice tearing with horror.
"COMMANDER!!!" his battalion roared.
The monster laughed. With a casual flick of its wrist, it decapitated Simon. His head rolled across the grey ash, stopping at the boots of his youngest Private.
"Fire! FIRE EVERYTHING!" the Private screamed, tears streaming down his face.
-BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!
Thousands of rifles opened fire. Tracers lit up the grey world. Tank shells whistled through the air.
The monster didn't even move. It just stood there, vibrating.
The bullets passed through it. The tank shells exploded on the ground behind it.
"Phasing," Damien hissed, his hands shaking with rage. "It's a Void Stalker."
"Whoohoo!" the monster cheered, dancing through the hail of gunfire. "I thought I couldn't get much excitement from mere cattle, but your fear smells delicious!"
It moved.
-SWISH!
It was a blur of grey motion.
It danced through the front line of Simon's battalion. Heads separated from bodies in a spray of red mist. It wasn't fighting; it was harvesting.
"It is annoying to see weak people like you trying so hard!" the monster cackled.
It stopped in front of the young Private who had been trembling earlier. The kid was frozen, his gun clicking empty.
-CRACK!
The monster stomped on the kid's head, smashing it like a ripe melon.
"Wasting your bullets on a being like me! Hahahaha! What now?! What now?!"
The slaughter was absolute. In ten seconds, fifty men were dead.
"It... It reads SSS! Another SSS!" the WHA member screamed, falling backward in terror. "They're everywhere!"
Nicholas roared, a sound of pure fury. "YOU BASTARD!"
Nicholas and Damien moved simultaneously.
Damien activated [Agility: S] and [Stealth Specialist], trying to flank the creature. Nicholas charged head-on, Mjolnir glowing with lightning.
"Ohh? Look at those two disgusting beings trying to attack me?" the monster sneered.
It spun, its leg extending like a whip.
-WHAM!
It kicked Nicholas in the chest. The Titan, a man who could stop a train, was launched backward, skidding through the dirt.
Damien saw the opening. He lunged for the monster's neck with his dagger.
The monster didn't look. It just backhanded him.
-SMACK!
Damien barely dodged, the claws grazing his tactical vest, shredding the kevlar like paper. The force of the wind pressure threw him to the side, rolling him across the ash.
"Tch! Annoying old bastard and a little rat!" the monster hissed.
It turned its attention back to Nicholas, who was already getting up.
The monster swung its arm, its claws extending into long, spectral blades.
"DIE!"
It slashed downward, aiming to cleave the Titan in two.
Nicholas didn't dodge. He looked at the monster, his blue eyes devoid of any emotion other than cold judgment.
He raised Mjolnir.
-CLANG!
He caught the spectral blades on the head of the hammer. Sparks of mana flew like fireworks.
"What?!" the monster gasped. "You blocked my Void Cut?!"
Nicholas grit his teeth. "I'm the Titan of the West, you piece of shit."
-BOOM!
Nicholas shoved the monster back with a burst of strength. Before the creature could phase out, Nicholas slammed the handle of his hammer into the ground.
[Skill: Gravitational Anchor]
A purple wave of gravity magic pulsed out. The monster froze, its phasing ability locked down.
"Wait—" the monster stammered, fear finally entering its voice.
Nicholas teleported.
-ZAP.
He appeared directly in front of the monster. He raised Mjolnir high.
"DIE, YOU BASTARD!" Nicholas screamed.
-SMASH!
The hammer came down on the monster's skull.
-CRACK!
The monster's head caved in. But Nicholas wasn't done.
-SMASH!
He hit it again. The monster fell to its knees.
-SMASH!
He hit it again. The monster was driven into the ground.
-SMASH!
-SMASH!
-SMASH!
It was brutal. It was primal. Nicholas pounded the creature until there was nothing left but a wet smear of grey matter and black blood on the ash.
The monster—an SSS-Rank threat—didn't even have time to introduce itself. It died screaming under the hammer of the Titan.
Nicholas stood over the corpse, breathing heavily. His golden armor was splattered with black ichor.
'Tch,' Damien thought, pushing himself up from the ground. He clutched his side where his ribs felt bruised. 'I should have activated Black Death. I hesitated. And because I hesitated... Simon is dead.'
He looked at the headless body of his friend lying a few meters away. The grief hit him like a physical blow, cold and sharp.
Nicholas turned around. He saw Damien struggling to stand.
The Titan walked over, his expression softening. He reached out a massive, armored hand.
"Are you alright, kiddo?" Nicholas asked gently.
Damien looked at the hand. It was the hand of a hero. The hand of a savior.
He looked at Simon's corpse.
Rage, hot and irrational, flooded Damien's veins.
'Where were you?' Damien thought. 'You're the Titan. You're the SSS-Rank. Why didn't you save him? Why are you always too late?'
Damien slapped Nicholas's hand away.
"I don't need any help from a goddamn monkey," Damien spat, his voice dripping with venom.
He pushed himself up, stumbling slightly, and walked away toward Simon's body. He knelt down, closing his friend's remaining hand over his dog tags.
Nicholas stood there, his hand still suspended in the air. He sighed, a sound that seemed to carry the weight of decades.
'Stubborn brat,' Nicholas thought, watching Damien's shaking back. 'He really doesn't change. I really thought he had so much wisdom when he said he doesn't blame the Hunters, but rather the Monsters, back when I first met him at his parents' funeral. He was just a kid then. A sad, wise kid.'
Nicholas shook his head.
'But now... he is really full of hatred. It's consumed him.'
The Titan looked at the carnage around them. Fifty dead soldiers. Two dead SSS-Rank monsters. And they were only at the entrance.
'Sigh. If I knew that the Crutian Guild was running that operation five years ago... I would have saved Melissa. I would have saved the Prime Minister's daughter. Maybe then, he wouldn't have become like this.'
Nicholas wiped the black blood from his face.
'I'm getting too old for this.'