Chapter 21
Tower Management Bureau.
A place where the talented people selected by each floor's leadership were seated.
After the special power known as the Tower, which connected the worlds, came into being.
They managed the Tower through cooperation, not force or violence.
Their main job was controlling illegal crossings.
The fact that someone could cross into another world was a huge advantage for vicious criminals.
Especially on the 6th floor, where technology leakage was extremely sensitive, no one could tell what damage a criminal might cause once they got outside.
Inter-floor travel was strictly through the Bureau.
That was the only way it could be done.
Yes, that was what they had thought.
Wheeeng! Wheeeng! Wheeeng! Wheeeng!
The director of the Tower Management Bureau, McClen, was breaking out in a cold sweat.
Since the Tower appeared, the number of countries still holding together could be counted on one hand.
He had believed those days were over, but a tremendous energy wave was spreading over the skies above Neo Seoul, South Korea's new capital.
"Shit."
The curse that slipped out of his mouth.
Someone was descending directly from the 5th floor to the 3rd without passing through the Tower.
"What about the 4th floor? What are they saying?"
"The 4th floor side says there's only a slight tremor. It looks like they're tearing through the dimension and coming straight down to the 3rd floor."
"Shit-!"
The curse rang out even longer.
The situation was that bad.
"How can you tear through the dimension directly without passing through the Tower? Even the 4th floor's archmage shouldn't be able to do that!"
This wasn't simply someone coming down.
In the early days when the Tower first appeared.
The five-year inter-floor war was fittingly described as hell itself.
It was now a page of history, but the corpses and blood piled up back then had created today's peace—.
"Just what the hell... is coming down?"
Cold sweat broke out as his fist clenched hard.
He didn't know what kind of situation was unfolding, but whatever it was, it didn't look like it was descending with good intentions.
The moment civilian casualties on the Neo Seoul side got any worse—.
"It really could start another inter-floor war."
The situation was so dizzying that a stabbing headache surged through him. If it was a being that appeared by crushing through dimensions, it would easily trample a place like Neo Seoul.
"D-director! The Hunter Association has sent over a drone footage sharing link!"
"Connect it! Now!"
He clasped both hands together as if in prayer.
"Jesus- Jesus."
Some say that since the Tower appeared, the names of religions and gods are meaningless.
But Director McClen thought otherwise.
With beings like that existing, surely a saint nailed to a cross could exist too.
In that sense, while he kept on praying.
"It's connected!"
On the bureau's large main monitor, the drone footage filming over Neo Seoul is shared.
The dark clouds churn like a whirlpool, but what matters is the eye of the storm.
The blue lightning stretching out in every direction looked almost like the opening flare of war.
The moment his eyes met the being trying to emerge from within it, despair shoved its way through his entire body.
"Jesus Christ."
The sacred beast, the Azure Dragon, revered as the god of the old martial world.
The god of the 5th floor, recorded as having never once moved during the inter-floor war, was descending in person.
'It's over.'
Just its appearance alone would rain down lightning over Neo Seoul like a torrential downpour.
No, this might be the moment South Korea disappeared, and the trigger for the Second Inter-Floor War.
Then—.
"D-director!"
"......!"
A black-haired woman in business attire appeared on the screen.
One of the 3rd floor's famed Seven Extremes, a hunter ranked near the very top in firepower.
Meteor, Yoo Yena.
Right, she was in Seoul.
The moment he realized that, the director shouted at once.
"Tell them the 5th floor has to take responsibility and stop it right now while Hunter Yoo Yena holds it back! Unless they really want war!"
The dazed Bureau began moving busily once again.
"Please, Yena. Please—."
Before long, the lips that had been calling on God were only uttering Yoo Yena's name.
* * *
"......"
Over the skies of Seoul.
Yoo Yena stood alone, poised high above it all amid the falling lightning.
Even in the fierce wind and cold, her sophistication and neatness remained intact.
"Azure Dragon."
Beyond the warped space, the silhouette of the Azure Dragon could be seen. It wouldn't be long before it descended here in person.
"What brings you here?"
KRAAANG!
Yoo Yena's question was answered in a way that was anything but welcome. Without any reply, only blue lightning flew toward her.
"Do you truly want war? The lives of those on the 5th floor will only grow harder. War is best never begun, but if you come at us, we will not back down."
An ultimatum.
The moment that thing came down, Seoul would be half-destroyed at best.
The default was annihilation.
War was unavoidable.
KRRRUM!
But the Azure Dragon gave Yoo Yena no answer at all.
It only saw some insignificant creature blocking its path.
That was all it felt.
"Very well."
Gnash.
Yoo Yena gritted her teeth and raised both hands over her head.
In an instant, the swirling clouds began to slow, as if blocked by an invisible wall.
The falling lightning crashed against itself inside it, unleashing sonic booms.
"If you won't answer for whatever reason, I won't ask again—"
Yoo Yena's telekinesis had, however faintly, begun to push back the Azure Dragon's descent.
"This is our land. It's not a place for gods to lay claim to."
She didn't know how much longer she could hold out.
She lowered her head slightly, and Seoul's city center came into view.
With the resolve to buy people as much time as possible to evacuate—.
'Please, stay safe.'
She swallowed a small wish in the midst of this disaster.
* * *
Eeeeeeeeng!
"Ack! Too loud! Show a little consideration for elves!"
The alarm siren pierced her ears. Echoing across the entire city, it quickly made the citizens realize the situation.
[This is an actual emergency.]
[Citizens are asked to evacuate to the nearest shelters, subway stations, underground parking garages, and the like—.]
The city was in chaos.
Most of the cars along the roadside had stopped, and people hurriedly searched for somewhere to evacuate in response to the alarm.
KWA-BOOOOOM!
"Aaah!"
"Mommmmm!"
With every bolt of lightning, screams burst from people like reflexes.
Yoo Yena was doing her best to hold it back from above, but it wasn't enough to suppress all the lightning.
"B-boss! Where are you going right now?"
"Right! There's an underground parking garage on the other side, not here!"
Kim Yang and Renea tried to stop me, but I was running in the opposite direction.
"You two go that way and evacuate!"
Looking up at the sky, I could see the silhouette of the Azure Dragon beyond the clouds.
That meant something had gone wrong with Baek Yeonhwa.
"Damn it! Why isn't she answering?!"
I'd been trying to call the other Seven Extremes member, Ryu Seoram, for a while now, but she wasn't picking up.
She was probably also being called away as a hunter to evacuate people or help Yoo Yena.
In the end, I had to step in.
No matter how much of a genius Yoo Yena was, she couldn't stop the Azure Dragon, one of the gods of the old martial world, by herself.
'There was only one person who could stop it.'
Baek Yeonhwa.
And I was the only person in Seoul who currently knew where she was.
'The police, the hunters—none of them are answering.'
I also doubted anyone would believe the words of someone who was nothing more than an ordinary civilian.
Hah! Hah!
"Aah!? My ears hurt!"
The two people kept following behind me.
I stopped for a moment and shouted at them.
"What are you doing?! I told you to evacuate first! I have somewhere to go!"
"W-where are you going, leaving Boss behind!"
"Nonsense! How could this maiden run away alone? I am an elf queen, after all."
Kim Yang and Renea were determined not to leave me alone.
Leaving Kim Yang aside, Renea had the bow on her back.
Her combat power was the same as what she'd shown when we caught Net Queen last time.
And she was even an elf queen... so there was a high chance she'd be useful.
"Fine, then Renea comes with me. Kim Yang, try not to get caught up in this as much as possible. Got it?"
"B-boss, promise me too. Don't overdo it."
"Don't worry. I'm always calm."
Yes, I was truly calm.
If the Azure Dragon descended and learned about Baek Yeonhwa.
Of course the 3rd floor would start investigating Baek Yeonhwa—.
And at the end of that, of course.
'We've got Meracle!'
Fuck.
If I messed this up, it could really become a huge problem.
A dangerous situation where one wrong customer could get me branded as the spark that led to Seoul's destruction.
I headed a little faster toward the abandoned complex where Baek Yeonhwa had said she'd meet Lukal.
Hah-! Hah-!
When I reached the entrance to the abandoned complex, an ambulance lay tipped onto its side, abandoned there.
I figured it was probably the ambulance I had called at Baek Yeonhwa's request.
Even from outside, the abandoned complex had already collapsed, no longer able to keep the shape of a building.
The moment I hurried inside, the air changed.
It was like a dragon's nest.
On the 4th floor, a dragon's nest is called a dragon's table.
A place where the lives of those who recklessly trespass into its territory are harvested.
Right.
Inside the abandoned complex was Baek Yeonhwa's dragon nest.
People were collapsed on the floor.
I couldn't tell whether they were alive or dead, but from the black masks they wore, they were the assassins Baek Yeonhwa had mentioned.
And above them.
Standing alone, lofty and still, was a half-human, half-god being.
Azure Dragon wings and horns, and a long trailing tail.
The tears flowing from her golden pupils looked like hope that some remnant of humanity still remained within her—but—.
KROOOOAAAHHH—!
There was no Baek Yeonhwa we knew in the figure before us as she unleashed dragon roars to threaten us.
'The yin and yang energies are in harmony, but this power is far too vast to handle carelessly.'
The words Baek Yeonhwa had said with a gloomy expression on interview day only struck my chest belatedly.
"So that was what she meant."
A little more.
Should I have listened more carefully?
That regret flickered through me briefly, too.
But what good would it do now?
KROOOOAAAHHH!
Another roar.
A warning not to come closer.
Yet strangely, it felt less like a threat and more like a plea.
Because she didn't want to hurt us.
Please, don't come any closer.
Toward Baek Yeonhwa, who was shouting as if begging—.
"Hah."
I took a breath.
Then I took one step forward.