Chapter 78: The Vast Sky**
Grisella’s body went limp and began to fall. The power of Erosion that had kept her afloat in the sky had long since been severed.

Jinwoo caught her body and fell with it. Thud. He landed on the ground with a soft sound.

CRUUUMBLE—

The tower-like pillar behind Grisella cracked and began to collapse. It was the core of this Erosion, which had been integrated with Grisella's soul. With her death, it lost its power and crumbled.

At the same time, the sky itself began to crack. The surrounding pillars all collapsed, and the monsters either froze in place or fell to the ground.

It was a sign that the Erosion was ending. But Jinwoo did not let his guard down. Shin Do-woong, who had rushed over, was about to speak to Jinwoo when he saw something inside the collapsing pillar.

"What is that…?"

At the end of Shin Do-woong's gaze, something shimmering could be seen in the middle of the crumbling pillar. It resembled a portal from a Gate.

Jinwoo’s eyes narrowed. His senses were picking up a Black Flame—a flame on a completely different level from Grisella's or any of the other subordinates.

'His flame is still here.'

Grisella, the medium of the connection, was dead, but the being's flame was not completely gone. Not only was it not gone, but it was trying to escape through the portal inside the pillar.

Jinwoo immediately dashed forward.

"Kid!"

Shin Do-woong shouted as Jinwoo suddenly ran into the collapsing pillar. Why would he willingly enter a place where rocks that big were falling? To him, who couldn't see the escaping Black Flame, it was incomprehensible.

Fragments of the pillar rained down on the running Jinwoo. Some were small debris, but many were the size of houses.

They weren't aimed at him, but it was still a dangerous place. Unable to dodge everything, Jinwoo avoided what he could and cut through what he couldn't, sprinting forward.

Toward the portal in front of him. Toward the Black Flame that was just about to escape through it.

'Am I too late?'

The portal was still three steps away, but the Black Flame had already entered the hole. And the hole was beginning to close.

What was initially the size of a small door was now the size of a window. By the time Jinwoo took another step, it was barely larger than a mouse hole.

[Fool… kekeke…]

The Sky God's voice could be heard faintly. With Grisella dead and the Erosion collapsing, it wasn't clear. But he could definitely tell it was mocking him.

Jinwoo took another powerful step forward. And he thrust his sword into the portal just as it was closing.

Was it because he had thrust the sword in such a hurry? Or was his momentum too strong? Not just the sword, but his entire arm plunged deep inside.

But.

'I stabbed it!'

He felt a distinct sensation on his blade. He had succeeded in piercing the entity.

[Let go… you…!]

Jinwoo began to absorb the Black Flame as he usually did. But the reaction was different.

Until now, all the flames had been absorbed by Jinwoo without resistance. It didn't matter if it was a Monarch's subordinate or the soul of an Eroded dragon.

But for the first time, he felt resistance. It was so strong that it felt like his own arm would be torn off.

Meanwhile, the portal continued to shrink. Before the Black Flame could do anything, the portal closing alone was about to sever his arm in a dimensional space.

Should he let go of the sword and pull his arm out?

Or should he hold on and endure until the very last, desperate moment?

He wasn't given even a second to think. Jinwoo didn't let go. This was a chance to sever and absorb a piece of the Sky God's soul, even if it was just a fragment. He couldn't miss this opportunity.

[Grab the scabbard!]

The God of Moonlight Forest shouted loudly. It was the loudest and clearest he had ever heard her voice. Just how much power was she using?

Jinwoo reacted just as quickly, grabbing the Sky God’s scabbard with his other hand. At that moment, the glass bead, the divine artifact of the God of Moonlight Forest, began to glow.

The two divine artifacts resonated, directly affecting the portal. He didn't know the principle, but the shrinking hole stopped. It was temporarily fixed at the size of a mouse hole.

[No way…!]

Thanks to that, he was given a few more moments, and Jinwoo poured all that time into absorbing the being. After a short, final scream, a massive amount of flame began to pour in through his sword.

It was so overwhelming he felt like he would lose consciousness. If he lost his focus for even a moment, he felt he would be sucked into the hole and drift aimlessly through an unknown world.

"Keuk…!"

Processing it would have to wait. He could feel that it hadn't been properly digested, but pulling his arm out was the first priority.

As he withdrew his arm from the portal, the hole that had stopped began to move again. It slowly shrank until it disappeared completely.

"Hoo…"

Jinwoo collapsed to his knees, catching his breath. That was a close call. What would have happened if he had been forcibly sucked into the portal?

This portal was opened for a part of the Sky God's soul to return to its main body. Naturally, its destination would be connected to where the main body was.

'The Sky God, no, the Lord of the Ceiling's Divine Realm.'

If he had been dragged there, the outcome would have been obvious. He would have been devoured and forced to spend eons as the being’s slave, just like Grisella.

'Thank you.'

[The God of Moonlight Forest is relieved.]

When he thanked the God of Moonlight Forest for her help, that was the response he got. It seemed she had been quite worried.

He looked up and saw that rocks were blocking his way. The falling rocks had intertwined, forming something like a cave.

But he wasn't worried. Just as he expected…

"Kid! Are you okay!?"

Shin Do-woong lifted a boulder, creating an escape route for him. Through the hole he made, the vast sky was visible.

It wasn't the fake sky created by the Sky God inside the Erosion, but the real sky of the world he lived in.

Sirens blared as dozens of ambulances arrived and carried away all the people who had fainted.

Thanks to Chartia and Ma Doo-sik's perfect protection, no one was injured. At most, they had a few scrapes from falling when they fainted.

Still, they had to be checked just in case. As they worked on cleaning up the aftermath of the Erosion…

"You've worked hard, Hunter Kang Jinwoo."

"You dealt with it so quickly. Truly amazing."

There was much to discuss with Ma Doo-sik and Chartia.

After a few words of mutual consolation, the real conversation began.

"Hunter Kang Jinwoo. By any chance, do you know what a Monarch is?"

The word "Monarch" came from Ma Doo-sik's mouth. Shin Do-woong, standing next to him, didn't look particularly surprised either.

"Did you hear about it from Grisella?"

"I heard her mention such a being a few times. I was planning to question her about it in detail, but…"

Ma Doo-sik's gaze shifted. Lying there was Grisella's body, which Jinwoo had brought back. It was covered with a cloth.

"The Monarchs are…"

He didn't know where to begin. But everyone here was an S-class Hunter. Veterans who had experienced up to the 5th Floor.

Jinwoo explained that the 13 Gods of the 2nd and 3rd Floors were the Monarchs of Erosion, and that among them, the Sky God was the one responsible for Eroding Earth. He had intended to keep it brief, but the explanation inevitably grew longer.

The reactions to his story varied. Ma Doo-sik’s face was full of wrinkles as if he had a headache, while Shin Do-woong didn't hide his sharp expression. Chartia also wore a serious look he had never seen before.

"It seems Grisella was a slave to the Sky God. She escaped his shackles and came here, but it seems it was all a trap."

"So that's…"

"Wait a moment, Jinwoo. There are rumors that you brought down the Sky Temple on the 3rd Floor. Did you do it knowing all of this?" Chartia asked a sharp question.

It was true that he had known about the Monarchs and the Sky God beforehand, but Jinwoo shook his head.

"What I'm telling you now are things I learned while I was active on the 3rd Floor. The Sky Temple, as you'll know if you hear the story, was first disturbed by Mahiri, not me."

To explain how he came to know about the Monarchs or the Sky God, he would have to explain his visit to the Elf world, the incident in Ireland, his past life, and many other things.

So he simply said he found out by chance on the 3rd Floor. The process wasn't what was important anyway.

"Hngh. This all sounds very important, but the problem is, hearing it doesn't give me any ideas on how to solve it," Ma Doo-sik said, perfectly voicing what everyone was feeling.

They now knew that beings called Monarchs existed. And that one of them was targeting Earth.

But even knowing that, there was nothing they could do. For him, as a mayor who wanted to solve pressing issues, the situation was endlessly frustrating.

"Is that so? Just a part of him descended and he was that strong?"

Shin Do-woong, on the other hand, was radiating fighting spirit, gripping his spear tightly. His eyes were sharp as he recalled Grisella's power inside the Erosion.

"Even after becoming S-class, I'm still a long way off."

He said it in a light tone, but his voice was anything but.

Even among S-class Hunters, combat power varied, but he had never felt an insurmountable wall. He believed that no matter how strong an S-class was, he could eventually surpass them with enough training.

But Grisella was different. She was clearly a level above. And if that was just a fragment of a Monarch, the main body must be far, far stronger.

Around that time, Ma Doo-sik, having organized his thoughts, shook his head.

"According to her, there's one of his subordinates on Jeju Island. I'll have that information confirmed and let you know right away."

He would dispatch Hunters from the Bureau to report on the situation on Jeju Island. Obtaining and sharing information with the nation's Hunters was one of the Bureau's duties.

The immediate discussion ended there.

But one person remained. After Ma Doo-sik and Shin Do-woong left to attend to their own business, Chartia, who had stayed behind, asked Jinwoo.

"Jinwoo. May I make a grave for her?"

Chartia’s eyes were on Grisella's body.

"A grave for Grisella?"

"Yes. I want to bury her in a suitable place."

When one of their own dies, Elves retrieve the soul and offer it to the World Tree. Was that racial instinct still present in Chartia?

No, even without that, anyone seeing such a pitiable corpse would want to give it a proper burial.

"I have a suitable place in mind. I want to bury her with a tree."

"Please do."

There was no reason to object. Ma Doo-sik wouldn't object if Chartia took care of Grisella's body.

He might have wanted to take the body for research, but he wouldn't be able to say that in front of Chartia, who was known to be the reincarnation of an Elf.

Besides, researching it would yield nothing different from a monster's corpse. Grisella was no longer an Elf, but a poor slave consumed by Erosion.

Amidst the noisy ambulance sirens, the day came to an end. But for Jinwoo, a task still remained.

Returning home, Jinwoo had no time to rest. He immediately fell into a solitary meditation.

The fragment of the Sky God's flame he had absorbed.

It had not yet been properly assimilated. Because of it, Jinwoo's own flame was a chaotic mix of blue and black.

'This isn't good.'

He had a strong premonition that this was not good. This mixing was by no means a positive development.

He would rather it turn completely black than be mixed. Of course, the best outcome would be to return it to its original blue color.

For that purpose, Jinwoo closed his eyes and delved into his inner self. He planned to understand the Black Flame through meditation and fully absorb it as his own.

As he did, a strange sight unfolded.

He was clearly closing his eyes. Until a moment ago, all he could see was the blackness behind his eyelids.

But now, a vast, open sky stretched out before his eyes.