Something happened all of a sudden.

Alon couldn’t understand the current situation.

His brow furrowed involuntarily.

He saw a Scorpion breaking through the wall and entering inside.

It was darker than he remembered, but it was definitely a Scorpion.

A monster possessing the artifact of pride.

‘Why?’

As far as Alon knew, the Scorpion should have been hibernating in its cave until the protagonist went to deal with it.

In other words, it shouldn’t be wandering around like this.

Alon couldn’t understand the situation at all.

“Bro…ther?”

He turned around momentarily at the sound of Seolrang’s voice nearby.

Seolrang, who had been holding a black cat until a moment ago, was now looking at the Scorpion with trembling eyes, unbelievably.

Following her gaze, Alon turned his head,

‘Ah-‘

Only then did he realize there was a Beastman on top of the Scorpion.

A Beastman with gray-white hair.

The moment he recognized that presence.

“1”

The man looked at Alon and grinned, then disappeared leaving a trail of black lightning.

“Acceleration.”

Instinctively, Alon formed a seal and moved backward.

An instinctive move, without time to think.

And that saved Alon.

Boom-!!

The place where Alon had been standing was struck by black lightning, just a hair’s breadth away,

“Wow, that was quick? Honestly, I didn’t think you’d react. Too bad.”

The ground was completely shattered.

Through the rising dust, the man walked out with a thick smile on his lips.

With a leisurely demeanor, Alon quickly racked his brain.

However, no matter how hard he tried, Alon couldn’t recall the identity of the Beastman in front of him.

No, it wasn’t that he couldn’t remember.

‘…Is this the same situation as Duke Komalon?’

He was a character who did not appear in the original story. Realizing this, Alon looked tense.

“Who are you?”

The lips of the Beastman, emerging from the dust, slowly parted.

“Me? Well, how shall I introduce myself? The brother of the fool standing behind you? Or perhaps— an apostle serving the Great Pride?”

“An apostle?”

Alon’s mind became cluttered.

He had only heard a few pieces of information, but he had already started deducing the situation from those two words.

However,

“Seolgak, bro…ther?”

As Seolrang muttered again, Alon had no choice but to look at her.

The corners of Seolrang’s eyes trembled slightly as she saw the apostle’s face.

However,

Unlike Seolrang, the man referred to as Seolgak maintained a relaxed expression.

“Yeah, Seolrang. This is your brother.”

“How, how is this possible?”

She questioned, unbelievingly, as if she were swimming through a dream.

But Seolrang’s reaction didn’t seem to matter to him, as he didn’t remove the smile from his lips.

“What are you curious about, little sister? Wondering why I’m still alive? Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like we’re in a situation to enjoy ourselves. I have things I need to do.”

Instead, he looked at Alon,

“1”

and reappeared in front of him.

Seolgak, without hesitation, reached for Alon’s heart with his fist.

Alon couldn’t even react quickly enough,

But the fist did not pierce through Alon’s heart.

“What are you doing now, brother?”

Because Seolrang had blocked it.

“Bingo.”

Seolgak’s smile deepened.

“What are you doing?”

“What does it look like? I’m doing what needs to be done.”

“What task?”

Seolrang, who didn’t understand, asked again as Seolgak tapped her head lightly with his other hand.

“Yes, a task indeed. A task that must be done to rebirth my sister as ‘a great being.'”

Seolrang’s face still held unresolved questions.

Sullak sighed as if regretfully,

“Really— you’ve always been a high-maintenance sister. I prepared everything in advance before, but seeing that you’re still not broken and holding up well…”

“What are you talking about?”

Seolrang’s voice wavered, filled with confusion.

But no matter what emotions Seolrang showed,

“Don’t try to understand it unnecessarily, sister. From now on, I will make you into a being that suits you.”

Sullak grinned, and

“!”

At that moment, Alon recalled a conversation he had with the Golden Dragon Lainisius.

“Not at all. The bodies they descend into are initially created by the Apostles.”

“…Apostles?

“Yes, they often mentally break down those with high talent to make it easier for them to descend.”

It was a brief conversation.

Recalling that conversation didn’t mean Alon understood everything.

He still had no information about the ‘Apostle of Pride’ in front of him, nor about Seolrang’s past.

He only knew that her village had been burned down.

To make a proper causal connection, the information he had was woefully insufficient.

However, if there was one thing he could clearly predict,

“Let’s set aside the most precious thing for later and first tidy up the patchwork my sister has so diligently built.”

-That was about what was to come.

Soon.

Crack-!

Black lightning flashed, and the guild building where the Golden Mane tribe gathered began to burst instantly.

***

At that moment.

There was chaos in the fortress of the Colony.

“What in the world!”

Karsem’s eyes widened.

A massive monster had already crushed the entire wall and was now invading the inner city, wreaking havoc in the capital.

Fear, horror, and helplessness dominated him.

Even though he had learned magic for a little over half a year and reached the first rank, there was nothing he could do in this situation.

Therefore, as Karsem watched the monster grow larger in his field of view,

“Prince! You must move!”

He turned his body after a belated shout from a knight.

He wanted to stand against the monster too, but he already knew.

It would be a certain death to confront it now, and rashly doing so would only lead to the deaths of the knights following him.

Unlike before, Karsem was fully aware of the responsibilities that came with his position as a prince, not just the power.

Thinking he needed to make a rational decision, he turned.

“We must evacuate until the Barbarians arrive!”

He joined the knights, but

At that moment.

“Uh-!”

He turned towards the source of the moan.

It was a young maid.

The girl had apparently sprained her ankle and was lying on the ground, sobbing.

The child looked up fearfully at the Scorpion that had already entered the inner fortress and reached the garden.

Seeing this, Karsem’s steps slowed.

He knew even then.

Even if he went now, the chances of saving the maid were slim.

It was foolish to try to save her.

Yet Karsem was conflicted.

He knew he was not a hero.

He knew he didn’t even have the strength to be a hero.

Yet still, Karsem’s mind replayed that scene.

Marquis Palatio and Seolrang, who had rescued Filian from death without a second thought.

His actions in saving the Merkiliane domain without any consideration for his own safety.

What about himself?

He was a pig on its legs; why had he worked so hard over the past half-year?

Karsem had run all this way because he wanted to be like that.

“Prince!”

“Run forward!”

As he shouted, Karsem pulled out the wand from his pocket and summoned the wind. Quite adept at magic for someone who hadn’t been studying it for even half a year, he quickly grasped the young maid and exclaimed,

“Whoosh!”

He rolled to the side just in time.

Boom!

Along with it, the Scorpion’s massive pincer struck with perfect timing.

Squeak!

As the pincer embedded into the now blackening, oxidized ground, Karsem sprang to his feet and ran madly towards a decorative well connected to the underground waterways.

“If I can get down to the sewer, it won’t be able to follow…!”

He once again chanted a spell to freeze the ground.

A slick path of ice formed instantly between the well and Karsem. He slid across it, dodging another monstrous attack, and was about to jump into the waterway when,

“Ah.”

He wore a look of despair.

The entrance to the well he had struggled to reach had collapsed due to the recent shock, now completely blocked.

Above him, the shadow of the monster loomed.

Karsem saw the monster aiming its pincer at him once more, and at that gritted moment,

“You’ve held up well.”

“…What?”

Karsem found,

Before him, a girl with unfamiliar eyes on her back.

And then,

Dozens of golden rods repelling the Scorpion’s pincer.

-!!!!

The Scorpion, frustrated by its thwarted attempts, roared madly, swinging its pincers.

The merciless attack started breaking the summoned golden rods, but,

“Hmm— It would be troublesome if the master were to rest during such times,”

Rine remained unfazed.

If it had been just a day earlier, she couldn’t have remained so composed in this situation.

Since she had fully awakened ‘the Eye of the Tracker’ only recently, her abilities wouldn’t have been enough to stop the Scorpion.

Today, the reason Rine could stay calm was simple.

Yesterday, as Alon left for the ruins,

Rine had found a hidden site somewhere in the desert through the first clue given by ‘the Eye of the Tracker’ immediately after its awakening, revealing secrets not even present in the library.

The information she gleaned from the ruins was scant;

Indeed, only two things: ‘the Eye of the Tracker’ is ‘the key,’ and a way to mobilize ‘the Eye’ to a limited extent.

But even that was enough.

She might not know exactly how to use ‘the Eye of the Tracker,’ but she knew the entities it could summon.

Therefore,

“Well, I needed to test a newly discovered fact anyway, so this works out.”

With a relaxed expression,

-“Gather.”

She uttered the command, and

With it,

Whooosh~!

A halo formed from the giant eye behind Rine.

Soon, many golden rods burst forth, forming some kind of shape around her.

The first thing that formed was a skeleton.

Over it, another layer of golden rods twisted around, encasing the skeleton.

And then, numerous rods chaotically intertwined above it, taking shape.

Thus,

What eventually emerged was a door so large it could easily surpass the height of the city walls.

And then,

Grooooaaaaarrrr!!!!

“The magic-tech weapon of the Ilaneph Empire, ‘Pluto.'”

With a sound that shook heaven and earth, the circular door opened.

Emerging from within was something that could even overwhelm the Scorpion,

“…Hand?”

Even Karsem, filled with despair, dumbfoundedly looked up at the mechanically crafted hand.

Made up of numerous parts and golden rods, it was a gigantic mechanical hand that seemed capable of grasping the sky.

Its mere presence made the world feel alien, a hand vast enough to obscure the sun, descended into the airspace of the fortress.

“Limited deployment,”

Rine commanded.

“Divine Punishment.”

The imposing hand of a god shot down towards the earth.

To punish the abomination that shouldn’t exist in this world.

Boommmmm!!!