The moment Necros let go of the rope, the atmosphere inside the dungeon changed dramatically.
A tension, as if a wild beast had been unleashed, swept across the battlefield.
It was the moment the suppressed madness of the Dullahan exploded.
“Power…! Strong Power!”
Berter let out a monstrous roar and charged forward at terrifying speed.
Sanghun Han’s eyes widened in shock.
“Kuaaaak! This crazy monster bastard!”
He brandished his machete, gripping it so tightly that the muscles in the back of his hand bulged.
The weapons of the two beings met in mid-air.
*Clang!*
The sound of metal colliding echoed throughout the entire dungeon. However, Sanghun Han’s confident expression rapidly turned to terror.
The moment his weapon touched Berter’s sword, a shockwave that pierced his wrist was transmitted.
“Sword… I want it!”
Berter’s gaze was fixed solely on the machete.
Surprisingly, Berter was exerting incredible strength even while tied to the rope. Even more shocking was that he was holding his own head in one hand.
The monstrous strength of the monster, pathologically obsessed with power, was beyond imagination.
*Kuuuuk!*
Sanghun Han’s arm began to tremble. What started as a slight tremor gradually worsened.
Even gritting his teeth and tensing his muscles, he couldn’t overcome that terrifying strength.
As Berter took one step forward, Sanghun Han was pushed back two steps.
He now realized the gravity of the situation.
‘This isn’t just a regular Dullahan!’
He squeezed out all his remaining strength to deflect Berter’s sword. But this was not the end.
Sanghun Han immediately assessed the next move.
‘I’ll die like this. What he wants is…’
His eyes flashed. He quickly made a decision.
Sanghun Han’s hand moved his machete boldly, but it wasn’t an attack.
It was to abandon the machete.
He threw his machete far away. Then, Berter’s gaze followed the machete.
“…Sword!! Mine!”
Berter, completely ignoring Sanghun Han, ran towards the machete.
Sanghun Han stood frozen in place, having lost his weapon.
His face was a mixture of fear and relief.
Relief at being alive, mixed with the powerlessness of knowing this was not the end but a beginning.
“Hah… ha…”
He gasped for breath. It was vivid proof of the immense pressure he had just endured.
Clutching his throbbing arm, Sanghun Han surveyed his surroundings.
The other hunters who had come with him were in similar predicaments.
No, the situation was actually worse.
“Uwaaaah! These guys’ holy power isn’t working!”
The desperate cry of a B-Rank Hunter beside him.
His holy skills had no effect whatsoever on the undead.
Due to Maru’s Holy Sword, the undead had become immune to holy attacks.
Maru held both a Demonic Sword and a Holy Sword, facing the hunters.
Meanwhile, Seyoung Jang tried to use her specialty. She took a deep drag of her cigarette and spewed red flames.
“Burn, you bony bastards!”
Red flames erupted mercilessly towards Necros.
However, Necros simply spread his bony hands casually. The flames stopped as if hitting an invisible wall.
Human attacks were no match for the power of an Arch Lich.
“What…?”
Seyoung Jang’s confident gaze was instantly replaced by bewilderment.
She never thought her attack would be blocked so easily.
Instead, the opponent returned the flames Seyoung Jang had unleashed.
“No way… I can’t!”
The flames began to slowly, very slowly, engulf Seyoung Jang’s skin.
At first, she only felt warmth, but as Necros’s mana was added, the heat instantly turned into unbearable pain.
Her fair skin turned red, blistering and swelling.
As the burns deepened, the epidermis sagged and began to char.
“Kuaaaak!”
Seyoung Jang’s scream echoed through the dungeon, but the flames mercilessly scorched her flesh.
A chilling smell of burning flesh spread, and her once smooth skin began to be covered in uneven burn scars.
On another side, Minchul Kang was struggling while deploying a blue mana barrier, but it didn’t last long.
“…”
The Death Knight was silent.
Whenever a blue barrier appeared, he would simply pick up his pickaxe and destroy it.
How much solid construction had he done in the meantime?
The Death Knight had an urge to destroy any barrier he saw. And it wasn’t just the Death Knight destroying Minchul Kang’s barrier.
The Death Knight was, after all, a mid-boss of Sector 1 on the first layer.
Behind him, loyal Skeleton Knights, holding pickaxes instead of swords, charged towards the barrier along with the Death Knight.
“Kuuuk! Please… hold on!”
But the prayers were in vain.
Minchul Kang’s barrier soon crumbled without a trace.
And that wasn’t all.
*Thwack-*
Before he knew it, the Death Knight, now wielding a sword instead of a pickaxe, had stabbed Minchul Kang in the abdomen.
“Keeok…!”
Without even a proper scream, the life drained from Minchul Kang’s eyes.
His body slumped, impaled on the Death Knight’s sword.
But that wasn’t the end.
A moment later, a blue aura rose from his corpse. The Death Knight’s sword was transforming him into an undead.
“Kruururu.”
“Minchul Kang, snap out of it!”
Sanghun Han yelled, but it was too late.
Minchul Kang, now a nameless ghoul, began to turn against them.
Greasy saliva dripped from his mouth, and his face no longer held any trace of human intellect.
As the hunters continued the unwinnable battle, their strength waned.
They were reaching their limits, both mentally and physically.
“Hoo… ho…”
Sanghun Han was barely extending his life with a dropped hunter’s sword nearby.
Of course, it wasn’t because Sanghun Han was strong.
The undead monsters’ goal from the start was to exhaust the hunters’ stamina.
Except for the Death Knight.
* * *
As a moment of quiet fell upon the battlefield, faint wailing began to be heard within the gloomy air of the dungeon.
At first, it was as faint as the wind, but it gradually became clearer.
It sounded like someone was singing mournfully from afar.
“What is this… sound…”
Seyoung Jang muttered, forcing herself to lift her face, contorted by burns.
Her skin was still swollen red with the remnants of burning flames, and blood flowed from several places.
Nevertheless, sensing new danger, she anxiously scanned her surroundings.
The sound, which had been like singing, was now transforming into the sorrowful lament of a woman. The shadows on the dungeon walls seemed to flicker as if alive.
“……!”
Goosebumps covered Seyoung Jang’s entire body.
Her trained hunter instincts sounded an alarm. This was not mere fear. Real danger was approaching.
“Snap out of it! Banshee!”
Sanghun Han yelled desperately, but his warning was already too late.
Translucent figures appeared from the shadows.
Their faces, clad in black dresses, were not fully revealed, but pale foreheads and empty eye sockets were visible through their long, flowing black hair.
They were Banshees.
“N-No way!”
If she had known Banshees would be here, she would have packed mental attack resistance items, but she never dreamed they would appear in the Minotaurus Dungeon.
Above all, Banshees are C-Rank monsters.
Under normal circumstances, Banshee attacks shouldn’t affect A-Rank and B-Rank hunters here.
However, they were already exhausted in both stamina and spirit.
The fear of having their bodies taken over by Banshees gnawed at their spirits even further.
One Banshee approached Seyoung Jang slowly, as if dancing. She tried to flee, but her legs wouldn’t move.
The Banshee’s wail was paralyzing her consciousness.
“No… please… no…!”
Sincere pleas escaped Seyoung Jang’s lips. Her eyes were filled with terror and despair.
Despite clearing countless dungeons, this was her first time in such a situation.
The next moment, the Banshee’s slender fingers slowly reached for her forehead.
Seyoung Jang tried to resist with all her might, but her body wouldn’t move at all.
She felt her mind rapidly emptying.
“Ah…”
Her last words escaped her lips. In that instant, the Banshee’s cold fingers touched her forehead.
The moment they made contact, Seyoung Jang’s body stiffened. The light in her eyes vanished, and her pupils dilated.
“Seyoung-ah!”
Sanghun Han shouted. But his voice didn’t reach Seyoung Jang.
The Banshee’s form gradually seeped into Seyoung Jang’s body. It disappeared completely, as if water being absorbed by a sponge.
A moment of silence followed.
“…Seyoung-ah?”
Sanghun Han called out cautiously. Anxiety and fear made his voice tremble.
Seyoung Jang slowly raised her head.
Her eyes were completely different now.
And her lips moved softly.
“Seyoung Jang is no longer here.”
Seyoung Jang’s body had been consumed by the Banshee.
And the Banshees were approaching the remaining hunters, including Sanghun.
“No! This can’t be!”
Sanghun Han shouted. He swung his sword wildly, but it was only a temporary resistance.
“…Hahaha, damn it…”
One hunter pulled out a dagger.
The thought occurred to him that it would be better to commit suicide by stabbing himself in the neck than to have his body taken by a Banshee.
Thus, someone ended their life by stabbing their own throat with a dagger.
But even that the monsters did not allow.
*Clink!*
With a gesture from Necros, the corpse was brought back to life as a skeleton.
“Hah… To think there was such a dangerous dungeon.”
Sanghun Han laughed hysterically, seemingly dumbfounded.
‘Yerin Jeong came out alive from a dungeon like this?’
It was absurd.
‘Don’t make me laugh!’
Most of all, seeing Kanghyeon Lee’s familiars fighting alongside them, the answer was obvious.
“Were all of them Kanghyeon Lee’s familiars then.”
Facing death, or rather, contact with the Banshee, Sanghun Han finally understood the whole story.
Kanghyeon Lee was not someone who could only summon one skeleton.
He was truly a legendary necromancer who could summon Death Knights, Arch Liches, and numerous undead monsters.
“This was the plan from the beginning.”
Sanghun Han realized that he had been played by Kanghyeon Lee from the start.
“Kwahahahaha!”
At first, he felt wronged, but then he burst into laughter.
He thought.
Yerin Jeong probably didn’t know what kind of being she had brought with her.
Thinking about it somehow gave him a moment of solace.
“Come on, welcome!”
He dropped his sword on the ground decisively and spread his arms wide.
Then, he smiled at the approaching Banshee.
The Banshee approached him and stood before him.
Her pale lips slowly parted. Sanghun Han closed his eyes.
The Banshee’s cold breath touched his face.
“Now… I will become you.”
Sanghun Han’s last words came out. And the Banshee’s cold lips met his.
In that moment, a shudder ran through Sanghun Han’s body.
An extreme chill, as if diving into ice water, spread through his blood and throughout his entire body.
This was not a simple kiss.
It was a kiss of death that stole the soul.
The moment Sanghun Han became one through the Banshee’s lips.
“Sanghun Han is no more.”
The voice came from the Banshee, or rather, Sanghun Han’s mouth.
Now, there were no humans left here.
Instead of the hunters’ souls, Banshees filled their places.
