The rift didn't just open; it bled.
A viscous, tar-like substance dripped from the tear in reality, sizzling as it touched the dungeon floor. The skeletal finger hooking through the crack was followed by another, then a hand, its bones etched with glowing runes of agony.
"The seal..." Han Seol-ah's voice was a thin reed. "That's a High-Rank Dimensional Rupture. This shouldn't be possible in an E-Rank dungeon!"
"It followed the stone," Kang-woo said, his eyes fixed on the rift.
The 'Viper's Sense' screamed in his brain, a high-pitched ringing that made his ears bleed. Danger. Absolute, suffocating danger.
The Lich King's Remnant didn't fully emerge. Instead, the rift stabilized into a flickering doorway of violet fire. From the flames, a tall, slender figure stepped out. It wasn't the giant skeleton from before, but a wraith-like knight clad in shattered obsidian plate armor.
[Warning: Herald of the Defiled King has appeared.][Level: ??][Target: The Bearer of the Relic.]
The Herald didn't speak. It raised a jagged longsword that pulsed with a rhythmic, heartbeat-like light. With a single stride, it vanished.
"Down!" Kang-woo roared.
He tackled Seol-ah just as a wave of black force sliced through the air where they had been standing. The stone wall behind them was severed as if it were butter.
"Get off me!" Seol-ah pushed him away, her face pale. But she didn't aim at Kang-woo this time. She drew three arrows at once, her bow glowing with an intense, blinding gold. "If that thing gets out of this dungeon, the city is finished!"
"Your light won't kill it," Kang-woo hissed, pushing himself up. "It's a spirit. You're just feeding it energy."
"Then what do we do?"
"We distract it. I need ten seconds."
Kang-woo didn't wait for her answer. He summoned the Broken Soldier. The four-armed skeleton emerged from his shadow, but it was visibly trembling. The presence of the Herald was a direct suppression of its necrotic rank.
"Go," Kang-woo commanded.
The Broken Soldier lunged. It was a suicide mission. The Herald parried the Soldier's greatsword with a flick of its wrist and kicked the skeleton in the chest, shattering its ribs instantly.
[Your Summon has sustained 70% damage.]
Seol-ah fired. Her arrows streaked through the air, blooming into holy flowers of light upon impact. The Herald hissed as the light burned its cloak, momentarily slowing its advance.
Kang-woo knelt. He pressed the black Relic against the ground.
"Domain of the Dead... Expand!"
[Skill: 'Grave Sovereign's Territory' activated.][Sacrificing stored souls: 100/100]
The hundred souls he had just harvested from the spiders were unleashed. They didn't rise as monsters. They turned into a thick, swirling vortex of gray ash. The ash clung to the Herald's obsidian armor, weighing it down, dragging its feet into the stone.
"Now!" Kang-woo yelled.
Seol-ah didn't hesitate. She channeled every drop of her mana into a single, massive arrow of pure radiance. "Divine Punishment!"
The arrow struck the Herald's helmet.
BOOM.
A flash of white and violet blinded them both. A shockwave tossed Kang-woo back into the spider corpses.
When the light faded, the Herald was on one knee. Its helmet was cracked, revealing a void where a face should be. But it wasn't dead. It was laughing—a sound like dry leaves skittering over a tombstone.
"The King... waits..." the Herald rasped.
The Herald didn't attack again. Instead, it plunged its jagged sword into its own chest. The obsidian armor began to collapse inward, turning into a localized black hole.
"It's a self-destruct!" Seol-ah screamed, turning to run.
But the suction force was too strong. The entire cavern began to be pulled into the collapsing Herald. Rocks, corpses, and the air itself were being devoured.
Kang-woo felt his feet leave the ground. He looked at the Relic in his hand. It was vibrating, trying to fly toward the black hole.
If I lose the stone, I lose the contract. If I lose the contract, my soul is forfeit.
He slammed his dagger into the floor, anchoring himself. "Broken Soldier! The investigator!"
The mangled skeleton reached out and grabbed Seol-ah's arm just as she was swept past, pinning her to a heavy pillar.
The Herald's body exploded into a final, violent burst of shadow.
Silence followed.
The rift was gone. The Herald was gone. The dungeon entrance had collapsed, sealing them in darkness.
Kang-woo lay on the ground, his chest heaving. His vision was tunneling.
[Warning: Life Force Critical.][Remaining lifespan: 19 years.]
Three more years gone in an instant. He sat up, coughing. In the dim light of the glowing moss, he saw Han Seol-ah. She was slumped against the pillar, unconscious, her bow snapped in half.
Beside her, a small, glowing object lay on the floor. It had dropped from the Herald when it vanished.
A black ring, shaped like a serpent biting its own tail.
[Item: 'Ring of the Usurper' (Rank: Unknown)][Description: Allows the wearer to hide their true class from all detection.]
Kang-woo's hand trembled as he reached for it. This was his ticket to survival. With this, he could walk among the Hunters as a 'normal' warrior.
But as he slid the ring onto his finger, a new notification appeared—one that made his blood run cold.
[Warning: The 'Lich King's Mark' has been placed on the Investigator.][If she wakes up, she will serve as a beacon for the next Herald.]
Kang-woo looked at the unconscious woman. She had saved his life with that light arrow.
The 'Viper's Sense' tingled. Someone else was approaching the collapsed entrance from the outside. Many people. High-level signatures.
He had two choices: Kill her now to remove the beacon, or figure out how to hide a 'Marked' Bureau agent from her own people.
The sound of heavy machinery drilling through the rubble echoed.
"Over here! I found a gap!" a voice muffled by rock shouted.
Kang-woo stood over Seol-ah, his shadow looming over her defenseless form.