"She reads minds."

As I dropped that bomb, both the girl and Alicia simultaneously turned to me with widened eyes.

"It's a passive radius," I explained, pointing a finger at the gloomy girl. "If you get within three steps, information from your surface consciousness is forcibly sucked into her brain. That's how a priestess with no combat skills has been able to travel safely inside a Tower teeming with monsters."

She simply avoided the thoughts of the beasts before they even saw her.

"…Wait a minute."

The girl, Darien, narrowed her eyes. The gloom in her expression sharpened into suspicion.

"I think I should say those words back to you."

She took a cautious half-step back, ensuring she stayed out of the range where her ability would trigger.

"Who are you? What kind of person knows about… this?"

I gave her a beatific smile.

'Found her.'

She didn't try to approach me to force a read. That confirmed it. This girl thought of her ability as a curse, a violation of privacy that she couldn't turn off. She was wary of using it recklessly on humans.

"I came here to meet you from the beginning," I said, crossing my arms. "Let's talk for a bit, Ms. Darien."

I observed her carefully.

Darien. The Saintess of the Silent Vigil.

Right now, she was just a cynical, worn-out girl leading a group of fanatics. But in Asteria Online, if left unchecked, she would grow into a major antagonist. She would eventually despair of humanity's greed, betray the Empire, and open the gates for the demons herself, believing it to be an act of mercy.

I was here to nip that future in the bud.

*****

We sat on some flat crystal rocks, a little distance away from her groaning followers.

"The Silent Vigil," I began, reciting the lore. "A group founded on the doctrine of a man named Schmidt."

Schmidt. The person the Hunter Association recognized as the first human to have a real 'Precognitive Ability'. He was powerful enough to be granted the moniker of 'Prophet' before the Tower era truly began.

"Oh, there was someone like that?" Alicia asked, tilting her head. "If there was such an amazing ability, the media would have been talking about it all day. Why haven't I heard of him?"

Darien, who was sitting with her chin in her hand, let out a heavy sigh.

"He died."

"What?"

"He committed suicide ten years ago," Darien said flatly. "He left a single note before any major announcement was made. It said: 'We have already entered the countdown to destruction'."

"…"

Alicia frowned. "That's… cheerful."

I smirked at Alicia's bitter expression and turned my gaze to Darien, who had been staring at me with a mix of curiosity and dread.

"You have to finish the story, Darien."

"Excuse me?"

I tapped my wrist watch, checking the time. Tony should be halfway up the Spire by now.

"The Hunter Association buried the note," I said softly. "They released the edited version. But the original text had a condition attached to the beginning, didn't it?"

Darien froze.

I leaned forward.

"'As long as we have started to climb the Tower, we have entered the countdown to destruction.'"

The air around us grew cold.

Darien's eyes were no longer sleepy. They were wide, trembling with shock.

"…How?" she whispered. "How on earth do you know that?"

"Somehow."

"Schmidt's existence is one thing, but the Association erased that line from history! They killed people to keep that secret! You're telling me you just knew it 'somehow'?"

I shrugged.

While Darien glared at me as if she wanted to dissect my brain (without using her powers), Alicia sighed and patted my shoulder.

"Don't bother using your little brain, Miss Saintess," Alicia said proudly. "My Boss knows a lot of things that you could never fathom. He's annoying like that."

Darien stared at us in disbelief, then slumped back, scratching her messy hair.

"Well, anyway, that's how it is. We are the organization founded to carry on Schmidt's will. We try to stop Hunters from climbing the Tower to prevent the 'countdown'."

She gestured helplessly at her followers, who were nursing bruises and broken noses.

"Though, as you can see, no one listens. We just get beaten up."

"Well, of course," I responded dryly.

"Excuse me?"

"Think about the economics, Darien," I said, checking my watch again. "Mana stones. Artifacts. Fame. The Tower is a gold mine. Why would they give this up just because some dead guy left a scary note? It's much more convenient for them to believe the prophecy is a lie."

"…You bastard!"

Suddenly, one of the followers who had been groaning on the ground shot up. His face was swollen, but his eyes burned with fanaticism.

"What kind of talk is that to the Saintess?!"

Hmm.

It seemed the title of Saintess wasn't just for show. They were diligently defending her honor.

"From your attire, you're at best a porter!" the man spat, pointing a shaking finger at me. "But this person is in charge of the core of the church! Mind your manners!"

"Manners?" I scoffed.

I looked at the follower, then at Darien.

"I didn't come here to debate theology," I said, my voice turning cold. "I just wanted to let you know a few things."

"Pardon?" Darien asked.

"You guys are fools," I stated bluntly. "You have been brainwashed by a delusional man who was so out of his mind that he took the easy way out."

"YOU—!"

The follower roared, lunging at me.

FWOOSH.

A wall of crimson fire erupted between us.

Alicia stood there, her rapier drawn, the tip glowing with intense heat. Her eyes were cold.

"Take one more step," Alicia warned, "and I'll burn your eyebrows off. And trust me, that's the merciful option."

The follower froze, the heat singeing his hair.

I didn't even look at him. I kept my eyes on Darien.

She looked… small.

She had come here to intimidate hunters, to show the mysterious power of her cult. Instead, she had been exposed, lectured, and pitied by a "porter." She wanted to scream, 'Why do you know my secrets?!' but she was too terrified of the answer.

She was crying internally. I could practically feel it.

'Good. Fear is a good foundation for negotiation.'

I checked my watch one last time.

'It should be about time.'

Tony and the Iron Fangs were annoying, but they were skilled. They should have cleared the trash mobs and reached the upper chamber by now.

According to my calculations, they had just crossed the 'Boundary Line'.

The trigger.

RUMBLE.

A deep, vibrating sound echoed from the Spire, shaking the crystal ground beneath our feet.

It sounded like the earth itself was groaning.

"What… was that?" Darien whispered, looking up at the Spire.

I stood up, dusting off my pants.

"That," I said, pointing to the top of the tower, "is the sound of greedy men waking up something they shouldn't have."

I looked at Darien, whose face was pale as a sheet.

"Schmidt was right about one thing, Saintess. There is a disaster in this tower."

At the exact moment those words left my mouth—

—BOOOOOOOM!

The world screamed.

It wasn't just a vibration. It felt as if the sky had grabbed the earth and shaken it violently. The prismatic ground beneath us cracked, sending spiderwebs of fractures racing across the plains. The air pressure dropped so sharply that my ears popped.

"Wh-what in the world is this—?!"

Alicia grabbed my arm to steady herself, her eyes wide with terror.

"I may know a thing or two about that," I interjected, my voice calm amidst the chaos.

I grinned, looking between the horrified Knight and the frozen Saintess.

In short, the 'Terrible Thing' included in the progression of this Quest—the one I had been waiting for—was finally happening.

This was the event that, in the original timeline, would wipe out the Order of Silence, leaving only one girl alive to descend into madness. It was the event that would spiral out of control, reminding the world that Dungeons were not just farms for mana stones—they were ticking time bombs.

"If we don't do something right now," I said, checking my nails, "at least tens of thousands of people will die, you know?"

"…" "…"

Silence.

"…So," Alicia opened her mouth, her voice trembling. "If we don't deal with the Area Guardian right now, a huge explosion will occur and we'll all die…?"

"No."

I let out a smirk and corrected her.

"Taking down the Area Guardian is a given. But if we don't take a few additional measures while doing that… we'll all die."

"…"

"And it's not just us," I added cheerfully. "All the Hunters currently inside the Tower, the support staff outside, and the nearby town will be wiped out by a mana shockwave."

"…"

"Yeah. No pressure. Let's do our best."

"Are you even saying that as a human being…?" Alicia whispered, her face draining of all color.

She looked at Darien.

"The prophecy… was it all real?"

Of course, Darien was in no state to answer. She was muttering to herself, clutching her holy symbol as if her mind had finally snapped.

"P-prophecy? Was it written there? That it would end like this?" Alicia pressed.

"Mankind's greed will bring about a great disaster…" Darien recited in a hollow, mechanical voice. "…and the first sign will be a Great Explosion for purification…"

"…That wasn't just a scam?" Alicia gasped.

"It's usually treated as such," I cut in, stepping forward. "But as I said before, I believe it."

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