MDPS 32

 Chapter 32

My Dark History is Too Strong

Twilight Arena (4)

《Time Remaining Until Blocking Athenica, the One Shrouded in Ashes: 2:14:37》

“Wow. It’s already this late.”

For the past three days, I had practically lived in the tower.
Now, less than three hours remained before the strategy deadline.

Still, thanks to that, I managed to finish raising the second team.

Woooong—

…Judging from the way my phone was blowing up, it seemed like everyone was pretty worried.

「Hello. This is CEO Son Tae-ha. I don’t want to burden you, but there are many eyes watching from outside. I always believe in you, Adventurer Oh Hyun-woo. I pray you achieve good results today.」

A silent pressure to join the raid.

Given the situation, it was understandable.

After all, I had ordered all kinds of summons, equipment, and artifacts with company money, but hadn’t participated in a single raid yet.

Of course, it wasn’t that they begrudged the money—but rather, they were anxious about the looming dungeon break right before us.

【Twilight Arena Ranking Board】

1st – Hwashin Guild, Seo Joo-hyun – 3,108
2nd – Revolution Guild, Im Yul – 3,033
3rd – Hwashin Guild, Go Joon-young – 2,958
4th – Radiance Guild, Yoon Hae-joon – 2,857
⁝

That’s how bad the rankings of these so-called top rankers were.

Even the #1 ranked player fell far short of the 4,000-point threshold, with only 3,100 points.

Sure, many of them still had one more attempt left, but with such a huge gap in scores…

Unless they completely overhaul their party composition, there’s no chance.

In other words, everyone was tripping over themselves.

But no need to worry.

The protagonist always appears last.

《Hwashin Guild Seo Joo-hyun’s Twilight Arena Score: 3,353》

South Korea was in utter chaos.

On her final attempt, Seo Joo-hyun—the one everyone trusted—still failed to break through the dreaded 4,000 points.

Now, only about an hour remained.

《Time Remaining Until Blocking Athenica, the One Shrouded in Ashes: 1:22:38》

The people of Korea screamed at the sudden approach of destruction.

And soon, they began searching for someone to blame.

• f***, Seo Joo-hyun only raised her score by 200 points from her 2nd try?
  └ Hwashin’s useless as hell.

• What about That Nameless One?
  └ You think he’ll do it? Even 50F-tier guys can’t clear it, how’s he supposed to?

└ Look at everyone flaming Seo Joo-hyun. Even if she tried to protect her reputation, people are ripping her apart. If you were the Nameless One, would you even want to attempt it? If it were me, I’d flee overseas already.

└ Dungeon break’s gonna pop and we’re all dead. F***.

While everyone despaired—

A man walked toward the entrance of the Twilight Arena.

The crowd, the media, the murmurs—all fell silent in an instant.

An overwhelming presence. A calm, confident stride unlike anyone else.

Camera shutters went off in rapid succession.

Reporters rushed in. One of them hurried forward and asked:

“Are you challenging the Twilight Arena?”

Oh Hyun-woo lowered his gaze for a moment, then smiled.

“Yes.”

With just that one word, the buzzing air turned to stillness.

“Do you have confidence?”

Hyun-woo looked toward the entrance to the battlefield and replied:

“I will do my best.”

At the same time, a massive gate opened in a flash of light.

Behind him, the glow of the sunset spread out, as though illuminating the stage for the protagonist.

No one could speak.

They could only watch as Oh Hyun-woo stepped inside.

《You have entered the Twilight Arena.》
《You confront Athenica, the One Shrouded in Ashes.》

Athenica, the One Shrouded in Ashes.

Over 8 meters tall. Black armor engulfed in flames seeping from every gap.

Its face formless, a blazing crown floating above its head.

With four arms, it wielded a sword, a shield, and flames—an entity of the outer cosmos.

The victory condition: accumulate enough damage to break all four of its arms.

“I am the burning flame! The new sun of this dimension!”

【Athenica, the One Shrouded in Ashes】

■ Traits:

• Flames of Excitement: Inflicts ‘Ember’ debuff on attackers. Becomes Excited when a foe casts a non-damaging skill.

• Scorn for the Weak: Every turn, unleashes a powerful AoE. If an allied summon weak to fire is present, targets other summons first.

• Extinguished Spark: Takes +40% damage from water-element summons.

After reviewing Athenica’s traits one last time, I spoke to Hertia.

“Hert.”
“Yes, master.”
“Target Iris with the artifact.”

Iris was the key attacker for this raid.

When she has 2 or more debuffs stacked, all her attacks convert into damage proportional to enemy HP.

Useless in most battles where debuffs are fatal… but here, she’s perfect.

“Start with the shielded left arm.”
“Yes!”

Hertia moved first, launching a mana orb.

Then, using the artifact Heart of the Crimson Legion Tainted by Nightmares, she moved Iris, who struck the shield with her sharp blade.

“Tch! Such trifles!”

《Athenica blocks the attack with its shield.》
《Athenica casts ‘Ember’ on Iris, Shadow of Verdant.》

That was the first stack.

But it didn’t end there.

《The artifact’s modifier ‘Tainted by Nightmares’ activates!》
《Athenica blocks the attack with its shield.》
《Athenica casts ‘Ember’ x2 on Iris, Shadow of Verdant.》

Thanks to the additional proc, Iris now had 2 debuffs stacked—

Triggering her passive.

《Two or more debuffs detected!》
《Iris’s attacks convert into HP-proportional damage!》

Hertia’s turn ended, and Iris’s turn came.

Pew-pew-pew!

Her arrows flashed, piercing through Athenica’s armor.

“Graaagh!”

Other summons followed, unleashing their attacks.

Soon, cracks appeared in the supposedly indestructible left shield arm.

《Critical Hit! Athenica’s Left Shield Arm is fractured.》

Only Temina had actions left. She now had a crucial role.

“Temina! Use Skill 2. Deploy the canopy!”
“Yes!”

《Temina, the Flame Canopy, creates a massive barrier!》
《Negates one enemy skill this turn (except water-element attacks).》

Athenica reacted instantly.

“You dare trick me with petty tricks?! Move again and I’ll burn you first!”

《Athenica becomes Excited!》
《Next attack target: Temina.》

Perfect. That meant the deadly AoE would be skipped.

Athenica’s turn came, unleashing a massive single-target strike—

Boooom—!
Claaang!

But Temina’s canopy successfully blocked it.

The second turn progressed in a similar way.

This time, Temina’s skill was on cooldown.

Time for my relief pitcher.

“Dorian. Use Skill 1.”
“As you wish.”

《Dorian, Scholar of Balance, places weights on the Scales of Life.》
《All party damage this turn is equally distributed.》

Booooom!

“Why… why do you not burn?!”

What would’ve been an instant kill if concentrated—
was reduced to mild pain when shared across the party.

And thanks to Iron’s passive boosting defense by 20%, plus Ryuk’s healing skill (heals allies by the fire damage taken)…

We endured.

《Athenica’s Left Shield Arm is destroyed!》
《Athenica’s defense decreases by 50%!》

At last, one arm was destroyed, weakening its defense.

But now came the real danger.

《Athenica casts Conflagration.》

Whenever an arm breaks, Athenica unleashes a powerful AoE.

And in this phase, there’s no way to nullify it through “Excitement.”

But I had prepared someone for exactly this.

“Meril. Now. Become the sacrifice.”
“I have awaited that command!”

Meril knelt, clasped her hands, and began cursing herself.

Blood poured, forming a crimson magic circle.

《Meril, the Black Priestess, uses Sacrificial Sin.》
《Casts Focused Taunt on Athenica.》

“You insolent wretch! You dare serve another god before me?!”

《Athenica cancels Conflagration!》
《Athenica casts Sword of the Sun on Meril!》

A massive flaming sword slammed down on praying Meril.

Boooom!
Fwoooosh!

The damage was beyond any canopy or scale.

But Meril did not die.

《Meril is in an Immortal state.》

“W-what sorcery is this?!”
“Haah… Please, grant me even harsher punishment!”

That was the raid structure.

• Hertia + Iris: break the arms.

• Temina + Dorian: skip the AoE.

• Iron + Ryuk: manage HP.

• Meril: tank the instant-kill AoE.

Repeating this cycle—

《Athenica’s Right Sword Arm is destroyed!》
《Athenica’s Right Flame Arm is destroyed!》
《Athenica’s Left Blue Flame Arm is destroyed!》

Finally, all four arms were broken.

Just as we prepared to finish—

“Out of my way! I am a being summoned from the stars! All who stand before me will burn!”

《Athenica uses Wheel of Annihilation.》

Two massive wheels of fire manifested in its hands, burning the ground itself.

This was the so-called “Desperation Phase,” when its HP dropped low.

“Perish without a trace!”

《Hertia enters Incinerated state.》
《Caligo, the Liberator of Death, enters Incinerated state…》
⁝
《Taking 4 damage per second.》
《Taking 24 damage per second…》
《Taking 48…》

The faster the wheels spun, the faster the DoT stacked, reaching absurd levels.

But this—this was what I had been waiting for.

“Caligo!”
“It’s been a while since I meddled with the laws of the outer cosmos!”

The cube in Caligo’s hands floated, glowing.

《Caligo’s Law of Exchange activates!》
《‘Incinerated’ debuff converts into ‘Guardian of Flames’ buff!》
《Guardian of Flames absorbs all fire damage, then explodes with the absorbed amount upon expiring.》

The flames that had been burning the summons vanished, replaced by cloaks of fire shielding them.

When Athenica’s fire wheels disappeared, so too did Guardian of Flames.

And then—

BOOOOOOOM!!!

《Guardian of Flames explodes!》
《Critical Hit!》
《Athenica is expelled from real space!》

“You… youuuuuu!”

Having lost all four arms, Athenica roared in agony.

“This humiliation… I will repay a thousandfold!”

It glared at Oh Hyun-woo before being sucked into a massive warp.

Then Hyun-woo’s score appeared.

He looked at it, and smiled faintly.

《Successfully blocked Athenica, the One Shrouded in Ashes.》
《Unaffiliated Nameless Adventurer’s Twilight Arena Score: 4,428》
《You are now Ranked #1 in Twilight Arena.》