The lightning hands finally struck the ground with a deafening BOOM.
The impact sent a violent shockwave through the lower level of the destroyed apartment complex.
Broken tiles, chunks of concrete, and loose debris exploded outward in every direction as the enormous glowing palms smashed into the floor.
For a brief second, the entire area lit up with crackling blue-white electricity.
The hands dug deep into the ground, carving out a massive crater beneath them. Dust shot upward like a cloud as the rubble shifted and cracked under the force of the landing.
Seung-hoo, Zi Yue, and Joon-seok descended right into the center of that crater, the lightning constructs absorbing the force of their fall.
The ground trembled once… twice…
Then everything settled.
Small rocks rolled down the edges of the crater while the last bits of debris clattered across the broken floor.
Seung-hoo exhaled slowly.
The glowing lightning hands behind him flickered a few times before dissolving into sparks that faded into the dusty air.
He gently loosened his grip on Joon-seok and Zi Yue, allowing both of them to stand on their own feet again.
Zi Yue's legs wobbled the moment they touched the ground. She instinctively grabbed onto Seung-hoo's sleeve again for balance, her heart still racing from the fall.
Joon-seok stumbled slightly as well, though he managed to keep himself upright despite the injuries on his shoulder.
For a moment, none of them spoke.
Only the faint sounds of rubble settling and the distant rumble of the damaged building echoed through the hollow lower floor.
Seung-hoo glanced at them both, checking quickly for serious injuries.
"Are you okay?" he asked, looking at Joon-seok.
Joon-seok blinked a few times, still trying to process what had just happened.
Then his expression suddenly changed.
Instead of fear… it turned into pure excitement.
"Y-yes!" he said quickly, nodding with the energy of an excited kid. "Thank you for saving my life!"
Seung-hoo blinked.
The reaction caught him slightly off guard.
Joon-seok straightened up a bit, his eyes practically glowing with admiration despite the dust covering his face.
"As a D-rank hunter, ever since you became stronger, I've been training for a long time just to be beside you!" he continued eagerly.
Seung-hoo stared at him.
For a moment, his face stayed calm.
But inside—
His chest felt strangely warm.
He's alive.
The thought echoed quietly in his mind.
Back in his previous life, Joon-seok had never spoken to him like this. They had started out around the same level, slowly climbing the ranks together through countless dangerous missions.
They had argued.
They had competed.
They had trusted each other with their lives.
But hearing him talk like this now—like a fan meeting his hero—
It felt… oddly satisfying.
Seung-hoo slowly tilted his head upward, crossing his arms slightly as if pretending to look proud.
"Hmm," he hummed lightly, enjoying the praise more than he expected.
If anyone had seen him from the outside, they might think he was calmly accepting admiration like a typical high-ranking hunter.
Inside, though?
He was grinning like an idiot.
He trained to stand beside me…
For a brief moment, Seung-hoo allowed himself to enjoy the praise from his former teammate.
But then—
His brain finally processed something Joon-seok had said earlier.
The pride on his face disappeared instantly.
He snapped his head back down toward Joon-seok.
"Wait—wait—wait!"
Joon-seok immediately stopped talking, startled by the sudden interruption.
He looked at Seung-hoo attentively.
"Yeah?"
Seung-hoo stared at him with a confused, almost disbelieving expression.
"D-rank?" he repeated slowly.
Joon-seok blinked
"You're a D-rank?" Seung-hoo asked again, his voice rising slightly.
"Yeah?" Joon-seok replied, confused by the reaction. "Why'd you ask?"
Seung-hoo just stared at him.
In his previous life, Joon-seok had never been anywhere near that low in rank. Even early on, he had climbed quickly thanks to his natural strength and instincts in battle.
By the time the major rift disasters started happening…
Joon-seok had already been much stronger than that.
Seung-hoo's eyes narrowed slightly as he looked at him.
"…That's not right," he muttered quietly to himself.
Zi Yue, who had finally steadied her breathing, looked between the two men in confusion.
"What do you mean it's not right?" she asked.
Seung-hoo didn't answer immediately.
His mind was racing again.
More changes.
More differences from the timeline he remembered.
Joon-seok scratched the back of his head awkwardly.
"Well… I mean, I only awakened two years ago," he said. "So I'm still working my way up."
Seung-hoo slowly turned his head toward him again.
"…Two years?"
That made even less sense.
The rumble that echoed through the ruined lower floors didn't stop.
At first it sounded like distant movement—something heavy shifting beneath piles of rubble.
Then the sound grew louder.
Concrete cracked.
Dust fell from the broken ceiling in thin streams.
Zi Yue stiffened as the vibration traveled through the ground beneath her feet.
"What… what is that?" she whispered.
Joon-seok slowly turned his head toward the darkness behind them.
And that was when it appeared.
A massive shape rose from the dust and shadow, unfolding itself slowly like a nightmare standing up after being asleep.
The creature was enormous.
Not just large—towering.
Its body stretched upward through several collapsed floors, its hunched back scraping against the broken beams above. If it stood fully upright, it would have been nearly the size of the entire apartment complex itself.
Gray, armored skin covered its body in thick plates that looked like hardened stone. Its limbs were grotesquely long, with joints that bent slightly wrong, ending in massive clawed hands that could crush entire rooms.
Two glowing eyes opened in the dusty gloom.
They locked directly onto the three humans standing in the crater.
Zi Yue's breath caught in her throat.
Joon-seok froze.
Neither of them had noticed it until now.
But Seung-hoo had.
He already knew it was there.
He had felt the creature's presence the moment they landed.
The vibrations in the ground.
The slow breathing in the darkness.
The massive pressure of its mana.
He didn't say anything, though.
He didn't tell them to run.
Running would only panic them—and against something this large, panic usually meant death.
Instead, Seung-hoo slowly turned his head toward the monster.
For a moment, he didn't even look at its face.
His gaze dropped first… to its feet.
The creature's foot alone was bigger than a small car, planted deep into the broken ground like a pillar holding up the building.
Seung-hoo's eyes narrowed slightly.
…Bigger than the one on the bridge.
The footprint he saw earlier suddenly made sense.
This thing had jumped from somewhere… and landed with enough force to crack an entire bridge.
Behind him, Zi Yue finally saw the creature clearly.
Her voice came out as a tiny, terrified whisper.
"…Oh my god…"
Joon-seok felt his stomach drop.
"That… that thing…"
But before either of them could say anything else—
Seung-hoo moved.
He stepped forward suddenly, his coat shifting with the motion.
Then he broke into a run.
Straight toward the monster.
"Seung-hoo?!" Joon-seok shouted in shock.
The gigantic creature reacted almost immediately. Its head tilted slightly as it tracked the small human sprinting toward it.
Instead of attacking right away, the monster began to move.
But strangely—
It moved in the opposite direction.
Its enormous body shifted forward, stepping past them as if trying to reposition itself inside the destroyed building.
The ground shook with each step.
Meanwhile, Seung-hoo continued running.
His boots pounded across broken tiles and scattered debris as he scanned the battlefield in front of him.
His eyes landed on something useful.
A massive slab of collapsed concrete.
It had fallen from one of the upper floors and now rested at an angle against a pile of rubble.
By pure coincidence, the slab formed a perfect ramp.
Seung-hoo changed direction slightly and sprinted straight toward it.
Behind him, Joon-seok could only stare in disbelief.
"What is he doing…?" he muttered.
Zi Yue gripped his arm nervously.
"He's not seriously going to fight that thing alone… right?"
But Seung-hoo was already halfway up the ramp.
As he ran, faint sparks of electricity began flickering around his hands.
At first it was just small flashes.
Then the sparks grew brighter.
Lightning crackled across his fingers, dancing between his palms like living energy waiting to take shape.
The air around his hands hummed with power.
Seung-hoo's eyes focused forward as he gathered the electricity.
The lightning began condensing, twisting together as if it were clay being molded by invisible hands.
And then—
The shape appeared.
A glowing circular frame formed in front of him.
But it wasn't smooth.
Jagged spikes erupted from its surface one by one, each made from sharp arcs of concentrated lightning.
The wheel grew larger as he ran.
The spikes stretched outward like blades, long and vicious, humming with dangerous energy.
By the time he reached the top of the ramp, the weapon had fully formed.
A massive spiked wheel of lightning, spinning slowly in the air beside him.
Electricity crackled loudly along its edges as the spikes glowed brighter and brighter.
Seung-hoo leaned forward slightly as he continued running along the concrete ramp, the spinning lightning wheel hovering beside him like a weapon ready to be unleashed.
And ahead of him—
The gigantic monster continued shifting its massive body through the ruins of the apartment complex.