After receiving some first aid, Luna was more than happy to see that her face was no longer glued to the strange earth of this world. The bitter taste of soil still lingered in her mouth. The pain in her abdomen was still there, but as an irritation after Hyeon did his best to close the wound inflicted by Qi.

  No one except Luna knew this. As she had expected, no one here had sensed the attack. Since when did cursed creatures have the ability to use Qi like this?

  Was it its connection to a real deity that gave it this ability?

  With a sigh, she stared at the scar on her stomach again and pulled down her shirt to cover it. She then gazed upon the Siege Tower. Judging from everyone’s expressions here, you could tell they could feel the power pressure sourcing from the ancient structure ahead.

  The remaining mundane soldiers had it worse because most appeared frozen in place. Some were dead from the intense pressure…while others fought against it with sheer willpower.

  Luna was slightly affected by the pressure because she had already undergone this type of experience when sparring with her father a long time ago.

  ‘He had the pressure of a beast.’ She giggled in her mind when she remembered how desperate she always was to win—only to cry herself out after a few seconds.

  Although the tower was practically calling to them, the signal from Snow and his time had not come yet.

  Luna wanted to assume the worst. But the worst would be Snow dying permanently, marking the beginning of their defeat at the hands of a corrupted deity.

  If the inside team failed to defeat the corrupted deity, they were supposed to launch a signal and alert the first army. Luna knew that everyone inside wasn’t some proud warrior who didn’t know when to accept defeat.

  “Something’s wrong.”

  Luna gathered her thoughts and moved her gaze to a worried Lena who hadn’t taken her eyes off the black tower.

  Before she opened her mouth to speak, they both felt a powerful shift in the air, and the siege tower shuddered at a seismic level. The fallen city trembled. And with it, some of its long-standing structures crumbled to bits or red rubble.

  It felt like the entire floor was on the verge of collapsing.

  Len didn’t hesitate to summon her forged weapon. Then faced her little sister. “Can you still fight?” she asked Luna, giving her concerned look.

  Luna straightened herself and nodded. “Yes. But I need a sword to fight as a swordsman of my caliber. Hehe….”

  “You’re making such terrible gags even after almost having your entire body split in two.” Lena’s face darkened with fear and regret. She didn’t want Luna to her in this state, so she faced the floor and let her tears fall.

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  Each drop was like a ball of liquidized silver that froze once it hit the ground.

  Not knowing what to do to comfort her sister, Luna kissed her teeth and rubbed the back of her neck. She awkwardly approached her sister and patted her shoulder.

  “Sisters are supposed to look out for each other. I know you would’ve done the same big sis. Though you can treat me to fried noodles later or gimbap when we get back to our world.”

  “But I am a terrible cook.” Len giggled and sniffed before she dropped her sword, pulled Luna in, and put her in her warm embrace.

  Being the person she is, Luna didn’t seem to enjoy her sister’s hug. The idea of being this close to a person usually bothered her because she loved her personal space. But, for just this once, Luna put aside those irritative thoughts and hugged her back.

  …even someone as cold as herself needed some hugs once in a while.

  ‘And she has a soft chest too…I’m so jealous.’ Luna sighed mentally.

  “I will protect you, even if it costs me my life.”

  Len whispered, her voice now cold. White sparks danced her eyes when she said those words as if it were a promise to her self.

  They remained silent for a while in the small room before both their communicators started beeping and Shin’s voice immediately sounded after the final beep.

  …However, he didn’t sound like his usual calm self, his breaths were uneven, and background noise made his voice hard to hear as he spoke.

  “The guardian of this floor, the undead king…has been defeated by Captain Snow. After his defeat…a devil. He was a guarding a devil of the first rank….”

  He was silent for a moment before another seismic tremble reached both Lena and Lunaris.

  And when it stopped, Shin’s continued. “We need help. Captain Snow and Rita are doing the best they can. But…our Auras are inactive. It has erased the concept of second gates….”

  The communicators stopped after another tremble and it disconnected shortly after.

  Once it disconnected, the pair ran out of the building and turned their eyes to the dark tower. It was the middle of the day, but Monic’s dark clouds were still blocking the intense red light from reaching. The structure was as ominous as ever.

  Luna shivered. ‘The Concept of Second Gates? Erased?’

  She moved her eyes to the icy wasteland and her eyes widened when she noticed that the ice her sister had created was breaking down and disappearing. The devil's powers were erasing Len’s with terrifying ease.

  ‘How do you even combat something with that power?’ she asked herself as she tried to brainstorm a way of fighting a corrupted deity with such a broken power.

  Where do you start understanding the bizarre concept behind its powers?

  “I have to go to the tower.” Luna suddenly spoke after thinking. “It seems the devil is only focused on wiping out potential threats. It won’t see me coming.”

  “Threats…?”

  Luna nodded.

  “Yes. I believe that the devil has erased its biggest threat, which is the concept of Auras. I also believe it can only erase one thing at a time considering that you still sense your zenshi. I think what makes it dangerous is the range.”

  “But I can feel the second gate. I can still use my Aura.”

  “We’re far enough for now. But the range of its power is growing,” Luna pointed at the ice while wearing her calculative expression. “Your ice is not only melting but completely dissolving into the air…into nothing.”

  Just to be sure, Luna had tried to sense for qi in the air. But, to her surprise, there was nothing but a powerful dark energy lingering in the air.

  …it was corruption, something very common in Devils.

  She swallowed her saliva and continued. “Tell everyone aside from Healers to restrain their Auras. Every ascender heading to the siege tower will have to stick to their first gate.”

  Len nodded and quickly switched on her communication. She summarized everything and all of the summons were dismissed and auras were turned off in response to her communication.

  All the cursed creatures had either escaped or had been killed so there was no need for anyone to go all out anymore.

  Now that that was done, Luna informed Mira and Valentine to prepare themselves for their first fight with a devil since they were the only ones who could easily fight it without being affected by its powers at the moment.

  “So that’s it?” Lena sighed after going through the plan. It sounded so much better than her original one of attacking with the entire first army.

  ‘Since was she this good at strategizing?’ she almost laughed at herself when she remembered Luna was a pro gamer.

  “Yes, we will also need Gail and Darkness. They’re both very good at manipulating their zenshi so we will need them.”

  ‘If the devil doesn’t try to erase the zenshi itself.’ She tried not to think about the worst that could happen while in the Siege tower.

  “But first, I need someone to lend me a sword since mine…..”

  She remembered her beautiful katana. The enchanted weapon had been destroyed when trying to block the invisible slash from the Sword Knight as Valentine had called it.

  “We’ll get fixed when we find a forge-master at the Sanctuary.”

  “I know.” Luna’s response was solemn.

  The reason behind this feeling was that the sword was forged by the Wielder of Calamity. Due to that, It was one of the few things that reminded her of her father.

  And now that it was gone, Luna couldn’t help but feel somewhat bitter.