“I.”

A buzzing voice was heard from the sky.

Suji gritted her teeth, anticipating the next words she had already heard before.

‘The Messiah.’

“The Messiah. Have you been waiting for me?”

How could even the lines be so predictable?

But that predictability was even more terrifying.

Because the next scene might be exactly the same as what she saw in the reward of .

Because the sight of people being swept away like dust on a rainy day might be recreated as it was. Because she might see again the sight where there was no hope at all.

And while the footage of meeting this bastard was hellish, the footage of Elaine shedding tears was also quite impressive.

She never wanted to make anyone look like that again.

“…I’ve been waiting. To kill you!”

As Suji screamed in rage, a huge mouth opened between the tentacles.

A huge, red mouth that was difficult to even measure in size opened in a round shape and spewed out wind.

Whether it was smiling or angry.

The party members’ bodies staggered in the extremely unpleasant wind that seemed to be permeated with malice.

They couldn’t even begin to attack like this.

“You should know. That you can’t win.”

It seemed that there was another mouth with a proper oral structure somewhere in the invisible sky. Judging from the way it kept talking like a human.

It was already very horrible now, and she had to see an even more horrible sight.

Instead of answering back, Suji blew a loud whistle.

A huge dragon, dozens of times the size of a human, bit Piece and carried him on its back, while Elaine got on a unicorn.

Suji was always ready to draw a sickle, preparing her wings.

That’s when it happened.

From one end of her field of vision, a huge stingray flew in. On its back were about a dozen hunters.

“Were you planning to finish such a big event with only four people?”

With such a loud shout, the knight fired a huge chained bow.

“Uncle Seunghwan!”

Suji was so surprised that she unknowingly called out the knight’s real name, even though she knew there was a camera.

She also thought that in this situation, something like a real name wasn’t such an important issue.

“How did you come with Wave?”

“We can’t just keep hesitating there forever, can we?”

The one who jumped off the stingray’s back while saying that was Creusa.

“Aunt Yeonju!”

Creusa must have become very accustomed to combat by now, as she easily dodged the tentacles flying towards her side and somersaulted in the air to stab a dagger.

Some of the government hunters, who were quite familiar, also greeted Suji briefly and quickly joined the battle.

Suji flew up among them and attacked while dodging as much as possible.

She couldn’t get behind it because it was too big, and she couldn’t avoid the enemy’s sight either.

‘Usually, when something is this big, shouldn’t it at least be slow?’

Kwang!

Kwang!

Kwang!

As if not at all bothered by the appearance of reinforcements, the monster did not rush its attack.

But each and every trivial attack was a range that was impossible for humans to avoid. Even if they had known in advance, it was impossible to block.

Ssaek!

Piece, riding the dragon, flew low and tried his best to rescue people, but it wasn’t easy.

Kwang, kwang!

As Suji flew between the tentacles and inflicted dot damage, she suddenly raised her head with a strange premonition.

The tentacles were rising in unison toward the sky, creating huge shadows on the ground.

It was a very short gap, but the range of the shadows was clearly visible.

‘It’s a ground attack.’

It was an attack pattern similar to the tower’s system that informed the attack range in advance.

“Dodge it!”

Suji screamed as if she was screaming, but the range was too wide.

Among the hunters who couldn’t dodge in time, two were smashed to a pulp, and another one fainted with crushed leg bones.

Anger and sorrow made her head dizzy, but there was no time for that as attacks flew in.

‘…You knew.’

That it would turn out like this.

That’s why she didn’t ask for help.

But the fact that they volunteered to come was because they had their own sense of mission.

It was something she couldn’t stop or blame them for.

Kwaaang!

The tentacles hit the ground more and more fiercely, as if swatting mosquitoes.

Suji kept swinging the swords held in both hands, focusing on attacking a single tentacle. Perhaps thanks to the effect of saturation bombing, she somehow managed to cut off about half of that incomparably huge tentacle.

Shuu.

But before she could get away, the barely severed tendons reattached, and flesh filled up the gap.

‘…Regeneration?’

Suji let out a hollow laugh in disbelief.

It seemed to automatically recover when the damage reached a certain level.

There were many monsters like this.

But not just a palm-sized slime, how the hell were you supposed to defeat such a huge monster with regenerative properties?

“This is driving me crazy.”

It seemed that she had to cut it off at once, but it was too thick for that.

That’s when it happened.

Kkikikikik!

Along with the deafening noise, as if squeezing through a narrow bottle neck, the huge tentacles began to widen the hole in the sky.

It was a truly chilling sight.

Even the sun lying tilted to the west was obscured by the monster’s tentacles.

“Team leader! It seems that the nature of the hole in the sky itself is similar to a rift!”

That’s when Saint shouted loudly.

Suji nodded her head as she jumped high to avoid the tentacles stamping the ground.

That was her thought too.

From a common sense perspective, the sky itself did not physically exist.

That thing tearing through it like paper and entering must be some dimensional or temporal barrier.

Like a ‘rift’.

Kwang, kwang!

At that moment, the monster’s tentacles stamped the ground once again.

“Kyaaaah!”

A faint scream was heard from far away.

Even in this chaotic battle, Suji’s head whipped around.

“Isn’t that the sound of civilians?”

Piece, who was riding on the dragon’s back, must have heard it too, as he shouted urgently.

“It seems that the shelter has been destroyed! I will cover that side for now!”

Elaine’s urgent voice flowed through the terminal.

Oh no.

It was entirely possible.

From a distance, you could barely see the monster’s entire body, otherwise it was so huge that you couldn’t even tell what it looked like.

The shelters were quite far from the Han River, but it wouldn’t be strange if the monster’s attack reached the shelters.

“…We have to do something.”

Suji muttered anxiously.

Dragging out time like this will only increase casualties.

Even if more hunters participate in this situation, it doesn’t mean there will be more chance of winning.

If they can’t win now when the main body hasn’t completely crossed over, once the fully descends upon the earth, there will be no chance.

Then, the monster’s voice overlapped with the creaking sound.

“Humanity is self-destructing anyway.”

With a bubbling laughter, the monster rambled on again.

“Why should humanity, which pursues self-destruction, continue to survive?”

Suji clicked her tongue.

Self-destruction?

War, hunger, environmental issues.

The monster might be talking about those things.

In fact, until the common enemy called the hunter system appeared, humanity was already on the path to extinction.

‘…What’s the point of that? Why bring it up now?’

But that had nothing to do with her generation, and even if it did, it wasn’t something to listen to from a monster that kills humans like toys for a bet.

“It’s better to self-destruct than to be killed by the likes of you!”

Suji retorted and swung her sword again at the tentacle that had just regenerated.

‘It’s an opportunity when that thing is being careless. Think, think. Think, Seo Suji.’

She knew it herself.

If she fell here, humanity would be annihilated as it was.

There was already too much of a gap between the abilities of other hunters and Suji.

That gap widened even more as she broke through the tower to stop the Messiah.

The Messiah knew that too.

That’s why it’s trying to persuade Suji like this. Because it’s easier to get rid of the most annoying bug by sweet-talking it.

“Team leader! It seems that the nature of the hole in the sky itself is similar to a rift!”

Suddenly, Saint’s words flashed through her mind.

‘Then……’

She had a sudden thought that she might be able to approach where the monster’s main body was.

Rather, let’s fight somewhere else.

If she could get there, she could draw aggro on both sides.

Judging from the way it revealed its legs first, she might be able to find a weakness.

In a situation like this where there were so many people to protect, Suji couldn’t fight with peace of mind either.

Suji returned the rapiers in both hands to her inventory and summoned the .

Inside the tower, she really thought it was a huge scythe, but in front of the Messiah, it only looked like a toy toothpick, which was funny.

“I don’t know.”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know about things like humanity. I’m still in my prime, and I was about to take a proper break, but I’ve been dragged into this damn betting game! I have to live to play some more!”

Suji shouted as she wielded the with both hands.

Jjiiiiik!

The efficiency of damage increases by 3% due to the activation of the trait .]

It seemed that the gift from the ‘great beings’ was not in vain, as a critical hit landed just in time.

Even with the critical hit, it was difficult to move the scythe. As if using a terribly dull blade.

It seemed that the space beyond the rift was a place that should not be trespassed.