[You need to know me too. I can’t keep hiding forever.]
The voice was different from usual.
Though still youthful, there was a firm determination woven into it.
He had never felt such an emotion even during battle.
Was this a serious conversation?
Or was it just that the question was so difficult to answer?
Suddenly, Taehoo wondered if Ba’al might be someone entirely different from what he had thought.
‘Still, nothing changes.’
Thanks to Ba’al, he had grown to this point.
He had gained strength and been able to dream.
Right now, he was merely learning another side of Ba’al.
Taehoo waited silently for Ba’al’s story.
Then,
Snap!
The sound of a finger snapping echoed.
Along with the sound, the scenery before his eyes blurred and shifted.
It was a phenomenon similar to crossing a Gate.
A past memory Ba’al recalled.
His mental image projected before Taehoo’s eyes.
For some reason, Taehoo immediately understood what was happening.
[It will cost some energy, but this is better than explaining with words.]
Taehoo’s body, now semi-transparent, floated in the sky.
He looked down upon the land below.
‘This is…’
A flipped land that seemed ravaged by disaster.
Blood and corpses scattered across it.
A biting cold wind blowing through, carrying the thick stench of death.
Was this the scene of the Apocalypse?
Taehoo swallowed dryly without realizing it.
Not everything was dead.
A man caught Taehoo’s eye as he surveyed the land with a stern face.
The man was kneeling on one knee, vomiting blood.
Horns sprouted from his head, marking him as a demon.
Taehoo easily recognized the man as Ba’al.
And before Ba’al stood another figure.
[I witness an existence I cannot face!]
[I cannot bear the rank of this existence!]
[Filtering in progress!]
The message flashed.
‘What is this? Why?’
The outlines of everything looked strangely blurry. Taehoo rubbed his eyes several times, but the view remained the same.
Still, there was an oddly familiar feeling somewhere.
It was strange.
Could it be someone he knew? He rubbed his eyes again and again, but all he saw was a pixelated silhouette of a person.
[You are not ready to know this existence yet.]
Ba’al added an incomprehensible phrase.
‘Who on earth is this?’
Along with Taehoo’s question,
[OO. The God Above the Sky. Administrator of ᄆᄆᄆ.]
Ba’al’s reply came.
The name wasn’t fully audible, and only the vague description of “The God Above the Sky” was clear.
A colossal secret lay before him, but it felt like several layers of filters had been placed over his mind.
‘The God Above the Sky…’
What kind of relationship did that entity have with Ba’al?
As Taehoo’s questions swirled in his mind, his body suddenly appeared before the two conversing figures.
[Is that the method you have chosen?]
The God Above the Sky asked.
[We are as good as defeated. I have lost most of my followers… yet I have not even avenged them.]
Ba’al answered.
The playful tone Taehoo had heard before was gone.
His voice carried deep regret, anger, and emotions that could not be simply defined.
Taehoo’s heart ached as he watched.
In contrast, The God Above the Sky remained calm.
[Then we must prepare for the next battle, Ba’al.]
[No. I will not keep what I cannot protect. They wouldn’t want followers who lack strength either. I will abandon the rest of my followers.]
Ba’al replied resolutely.
Then he left without hesitation.
The God Above the Sky watched with a hint of sorrow.
Though his face was only faintly visible, the emotions hovering above it were clear.
‘There was a battle in which Ba’al suffered near-annihilation.’
Whether it was just Ba’al or the entire constellation that endured this was unknown.
But one thing was certain.
‘He did not avenge them.’
Ba’al’s words, spoken while suppressing his rage, implied there was an opponent even the strongest force in hell could not handle.
In the end, Ba’al realized he could not protect his followers before the enemy and relinquished his rights.
‘The demons who didn’t participate in the battle likely couldn’t understand Ba’al’s choice. I now understand why Kiel said he was abandoned.’
Taehoo roughly pieced together the situation.
[Your ability to infer the situation is impressive.]
Ba’al spoke admiringly.
He roughly understood what had happened in the past.
Then, who was the target of the war? Another question arose.
But
Even that was filtered out.
[When the time comes, there will be a day you can know.]
Even Ba’al seemed powerless.
Showing this much had clearly cost him energy; his voice was devoid of strength.
Though Taehoo still had many questions, he thought it best to stop here.
It was better to push aside what couldn’t be helped.
His intuition told him the answers would come only far in the future.
‘Still, the amount I’ve learned from the questions is not small.’
Ba’al’s acceptance of followers after having abandoned them all.
The dark side hidden beneath his lightheartedness.
That Ba’al had trusted him enough to reveal such weaknesses.
Knowing this feeling alone made the other information feel like a small bonus.
Taehoo smiled warmly.
With the smile, the scenery returned to normal.
His body felt heavy, like waterlogged cotton, and hunger rushed over him.
An intense hunger so severe it bent his waist.
‘What, did I starve for hours…?’
Only a few hours had passed in his subjective sense.
But when he saw a figure walking from afar, he had to reconsider.
Jiho, who was supposed to arrive in three days.
He saw Jiho approaching from a distance.
That meant.
‘Three days have already passed?’
Three days had flown by faster than expected.
And beside Jiho were Sungcheol’s family.
The two boarded the Nam family’s private jet.
Sungcheol’s family, brought by Jiho, kept looking around the jet nervously.
They occasionally shivered when looking at Taehoo and Jiho.
‘They must be scared of the situation.’
It was a feeling Taehoo could understand well.
All he could do was divert his attention elsewhere.
Above the phone he casually looked down at, news articles appeared.
[The Nam Clan’s two youngest complete the Coming-of-Age Ceremony as the youngest ever!]
[Three Hunters who entered together died. However, the Dungeon was cleared.]
[The Nam Clan’s youngest, Nam Taehoo’s shocking move…]
Such articles scrolled by.
[Public attention is increasing, isn’t it?]
Ba’al, reading along with the articles, spoke.
‘That’s only natural.’
It was a given progression.
The Nam Clan’s Coming-of-Age Ceremony was always a focus of public attention; if anything, this news was late.
‘Whether from my father’s side or grandfather’s, they must have deliberately controlled the information.’
Taehoo shrugged it off and searched for other articles.
There was something he wanted to confirm.
‘By now, this should have been reported.’
His prediction was soon proven correct.
[Ranking 1 Nam family and Ranking 5 Joo family declare intent to conquer one of Korea’s highest-grade Gates, a Magic Domain!]
The article even mentioned Namjin’s return to active duty.
With this, Taehoo could easily confirm his memory was correct.
‘No time to rest when I get back.’
The private jet pressed onward through the dark night sky.
At the Round Table, four figures sat in their places, faces cloaked in shadow.
The contrast was so sharp it was hard to distinguish their faces.
They were reading the articles Taehoo had just seen.
“An alliance between the Nam and Joo families? They’re aiming to clear a Magic Domain…”
“And Namjin is returning.”
A hiss-like exclamation came simultaneously from all four.
“The Magic Domain is one of Korea’s top Dungeons. Who knows what treasures it holds inside?”
Their voices were unpleasant, like scraping metal.
“That must be stopped.”
“Are you willing to make an enemy of both families?”
“We must do it without them knowing.”
“The risk is high.”
“But we can’t just let the Nam Clan’s strength grow any stronger.”
“We have people we’ve raised for this purpose. We need to reduce their power.”
Voices arguing pros and cons, and debating methods, mixed chaotically.
The strange thing was that though all spoke in unison, they understood each other perfectly.
“Then let’s vote. Will we interfere with clearing the Magic Domain?”
For: For, For, For, Against.
The vote was decided in an instant.
“Then send the replicas there.”
The secretive meeting ended there.
Taehoo and Jiho returned safely to the clan.
For some, it was the best news; for others, the worst.
Crash!
Jiuk finally lost his temper and threw something.
‘How did these bastards even come out alive? What the hell was Im Sungcheol doing?’
To Jiuk, Sungcheol had been a reliable card he’d nurtured for a long time.
He wasn’t talentless, and his desperate will came from his care for family.
There was no shortage of reason to trust his abilities.
That was why Jiuk had entrusted him without hesitation.
‘But he couldn’t even kill one man?’
‘Fine, I can understand not being able to handle both of them.’
Taehoo was like a stone that had suddenly fallen into the pond.
But not even killing Jiho was absolutely unforgivable. Jiuk’s rage churned until it boiled over.
“Im Sungcheol… I’ll make you watch your precious family suffer in hell.”
Jiuk ground his teeth and picked up his phone.
After a brief ring, the other side answered.
But before Jiuk could even say to deal with Sungcheol’s family, he froze in place.
“What? Who took who?”
The phone slipped from his hand, meeting the same fate as the shattered pottery he had thrown moments ago.
How on earth?
Sungcheol might have been suspected as a spy inside the Dungeon.
But how could anyone outside know where his family was?
Jiuk’s fury calmed in an instant.
He regained his composure.
He instinctively knew this was no time to just rage.
His ability to stay calm when necessary had brought him this far.
Biting his fingernails, Jiuk reviewed what he knew about Taehoo.
Taehoo was a twin who had been worthless since birth.
No talent, timid personality, trembling whenever he saw a sword.
The Nam Clan’s talent had been left entirely to Jiho, his twin.
Yet at some point, Taehoo suddenly began to shine.
He earned Namjin’s favor, which no one else in the clan had ever gained.
A few years later, he made remarkable achievements in the arena.
And now, this Dungeon expedition.
He had thought it was all coincidence.
But if none of it was luck?
If it was truly all his own power?
A part of Jiuk’s heart refused to believe it.
Yet,
‘I must push those thoughts away. If I keep thinking of him as he was, I’ll get eaten alive.’
Jiuk hastily suppressed his rising feelings.
Now was not the time to relax while only seeing what he wanted.
‘I have to think again—slowly but surely—about how to eliminate him.’
At that moment,
Knock knock.
A sudden knock sounded.
“Who is it?”
Jiuk asked suspiciously.
He hadn’t invited anyone.
So this must be an uninvited guest.
An uninvited guest knocking on the door of the clan’s eldest at this hour?
His barely tamed anger flared up again.
An unwanted visitor.
Jiuk was no one to just turn away an uninvited guest in the dead of night.
Whoever it was, they wouldn’t be leaving on two feet today.
Jiuk thought so.
Then a voice came.
“It’s me, hyung.”
Jiuk felt his blood boil.
He forced himself to suppress his anger and approached the door.
He discreetly pushed the scattered debris behind the door.
This was an obvious provocation.
Such a shallow trick wouldn’t get the better of him.
If he could come to this door on his own two feet, he was still strong.
To Jiuk, Taehoo’s visit carried that meaning.
‘What an arrogant bastard…’
If the youngest dared say that, Jiuk had to be composed above all.
He took a deep breath and opened the door, eyes narrowed with a familiar smile.
“You must be tired after just returning. What brings the youngest to my room…”
Through the half-open door, he saw the youngest’s face.
But when the door was fully opened,
There stood someone who should never have been there beside Taehoo.
Seongcheol’s mother.
Seeing Jiuk frozen in surprise as he held the door, Taehoo gave a bitter smile.
“Someone wanted to personally greet you, hyung.”
Thunk.
Jiuk’s reason shattered upon seeing Seongcheol’s mother.
His hand, which had been on the doorknob, grabbed Taehoo’s collar instead.
In an instant, he pushed Taehoo against the wall.
Bang!
A loud noise echoed as Taehoo’s body slammed into the wall.
“Who the hell do you think you’re fooling?!”
It all happened so fast.
Seongcheol’s mother standing nearby could only widen her eyes.
“You dare try to betray me without knowing your place?”
Jiuk was a man who inherited the Nam Clan’s talent.
The strength in his arm was no joke.
His furious strike.
Jiuk was certain Taehoo was gasping in pain, unable to respond.
But as his reason returned, Jiuk saw something unexpected.
His wrist was still held, and he was standing frozen.
“Hyung, is this how you treat the youngest who just got back to the clan?”
Taehoo spoke with a sneer.