Chapter 9 : Into the Unknown (pt.4)

The sky remained that same bleak, oppressive grey, with snowflakes still falling relentlessly—sometimes even more heavily than before.
No one needed to shout “Go!”—Rin was already surging forward, throwing a straight punch aimed right at Igor’s face.
But before the fist could fully extend, another, far more powerful fist collided with Rin’s, knocking him backward. His back slammed straight into a tree trunk with a resounding **boom** that echoed through the woods.
The thin barrier he had conjured for a split second shattered once more into tiny green particles.
Rin lifted his head and stared at the four-armed monstrosity now shielding Igor—one of the most formidable obstacles standing between him and any hope of getting out of this hellhole alive.
No time to hesitate anymore. No one wants to die out here in this frozen park, and no one wants to stay trapped forever in this damned place.
He stepped his left foot forward, right foot back, body lowered slightly into a coiled stance ready to explode toward his target.
Every blood vessel in his body pulsed harder than ever, but the Arkion veins coursing through him were even more ferocious—they surged like a torrent breaking through a dam.
His left foot pressed down harder; the ground cracked outward in a spiderweb pattern.
*Whoosh!*
A violent kick blasted the white snow upward, completely obscuring Igor’s vision.
“Surprised yet, kid?”
The indifferent voice belonged to no one else but the white-haired Rin himself. Igor had no idea when the boy had gotten behind him. On pure instinct, he whipped his head around—only to see that arm covered in bulging green veins already swinging toward him.
**BOOM!**
A tremendous shockwave erupted, hurling snow in every direction. The force was so intense that even the ancient pine trees—roots anchored deep for thousands of years—shuddered violently, as though they might uproot themselves.
“Not bad… but still not enough.”
As the snow cloud slowly cleared, Rin finally saw clearly what his fist had struck. It was the fist of Igor’s “father.”
“What the—!? He actually reacted in time?!”
The thought had barely formed when the counter-force hurled Rin backward again. No time to dwell on it. He twisted mid-air, stretched out the arm he’d just used in the clash, grabbed the nearest tree trunk, then used it to launch himself deeper into the forest, dodging and weaving.
He clung tightly to the bark, feet braced against the trunk, golden eyes still locked on his enemy. For a fleeting moment he noticed his current pose—crouched, clinging to a tree—and suddenly realised he looked exactly like that childhood idol of his: the guy in the tight suit who swung around New York on webs.
Almost on impulse, he raised his free hand: middle and ring fingers curled, thumb, index, and pinky extended.
“How stupid…”
He muttered to himself, wondering why the hell he’d just struck that pose. But then, out of nowhere, a green arrow shot from his wrist and vanished almost instantly.
“No way… seriously?!”
Still in disbelief, he tried again.
Once.
Twice.
Thrice.
Every attempt worked—but each time the arrow simply dissolved after firing.
“There it is!”
Before he could even process what was happening, his brain screamed a warning. He hurled himself away just as Igor obliterated the tree he’d been clinging to. Moving like a monkey, he leaped from trunk to trunk, desperately trying to shake his pursuer.
His pupils shrank to pinpoints. He’d gone deep into the woods, dispersed his Arkion across his body and blended it into the surrounding air—making himself extremely, almost impossibly hard to detect. Yet somehow Igor could still “smell” him out.
“How the hell…!? How is he doing this!? It’s only been… just over five minutes! And both times exactly the same!”
Lost in thought about all the variables, he slowed for a single fatal beat. Igor wasn’t about to waste such an opening. He rode atop his “father” like a mount.
The monster lunged forward with such force that the tree beneath them sank and spiderwebbed with cracks.
It charged straight to devour its prey—but misfortune struck. It missed. Not because the prey had pulled off some brilliant trick; simply because Rin had mistimed his step.
“Damn it! God—if You can hear me, please get me the hell out of here!” Rin thought desperately.
Perhaps Rin’s “God” actually listened. What greeted him wasn’t the expected impact of his back smashing into frozen ground—it was something soft. No—a back. Annie’s wolf.
“You okay, Kamiyama-san?!”
Those clear blue eyes turned toward him—only to duck immediately as “Mother” attacked.
“Tch! This damn quest!”
Gritting his teeth, Rin squeezed out the very last of his Rakion. Once again a blue spider-silk thread shot from his wrist. Using the wolf’s back as a foothold, he swung, spider-like, then delivered a powerful kick straight into the face of the demonic creature trying to slaughter his teammate.
It collapsed into the snow, visibly stunned by the blow.
Rin landed, grabbed Annie’s hand, and ran deeper into the forest.
“Pain… it hurts so much… But how… how the hell!?”
Wave after wave of agony crashed over him, threatening to drown his willpower. His head spun, pounded like it was being hammered, filled with incessant buzzing.
“Let’s hide here for now.”
He dragged Annie behind a massive ancient tree and slumped down, concealed among the dense foliage.
“Damn it… I’m almost out!”
His head throbbed worse by the second—as though thousands of hornets were stinging his brain from the inside. His body grew heavier, vision blurring, ears ringing endlessly, arms going numb as though they were disconnecting from his body.
His heart hammered furiously, like an F1 engine red-lining, threatening to punch straight through his ribcage. Sweat soaked his clothes completely, plastering them to his skin.
Then, abruptly, a strange voice echoed inside his skull—clearer and more piercing than anything he’d heard before, as though it came from somewhere far above.
“Hey! Eat the snow! Eat the snow!”
The thought grew louder and more insistent, like a dam about to burst, flooding everything. It eroded his reason, urging him to obey. The compulsion felt a hundred times colder than the pain in his head.
His golden eyes widened, fixed on the fresh snow. No more thinking. Rin frantically scooped handfuls and shoved them into his mouth, cramming it down his throat.
“Ka… Kamiyama-san! What’s wrong with you!?”
Annie grabbed his arm and shook him, trying to pull his hand away from his mouth. Her panicked voice snapped him back to reality for a moment—but before he knew what he was doing, he grabbed another handful and stuffed it into her mouth too. She choked in shock.
“Hey! What the hell is wrong with you?!” She almost screamed.
“I… sorry.”
He muttered, lowering his arm. His dazed golden eyes stared into space as he mentally replayed every detail from the moment they entered the Dungeon until now.
“Why does he always know exactly where I’m hiding?”  “How do I beat him?”
The questions looped endlessly, yet every path still led to a dead end after just six minutes.
“The snow here… it’s not normal…”
“It feels drier… and there’s a faint green glow…” The dark-haired elf girl murmured, eyes fixed on the falling flakes.
“You’re still noticing stuff like that right now?”
“Wait—more than six minutes have passed already.”
“He always finds me in under five minutes. Every single time.”
“After I ate the snow… my Arkion recovered—very slowly—but something felt different. And he hasn’t located me since…”
“Could it be… the snow!? He’s been watching us from the very beginning!”
“This snow is made from his own Arkion—but at an extremely low concentration, almost zero. When I ate it, my Book automatically converted and assimilated that energy into my body.”
“He’s using the snow as eyes to track us… but if that were completely true, he wouldn’t need five whole minutes to find me.”
“Or maybe he can’t see directly through the snow—maybe he can only sense foreign Arkion signatures within a fixed area…”
“So when I ate it, my Arkion started mimicking his signature!” Rin said, the corner of his mouth curling into a grin he couldn’t suppress.
“Huh!? I always thought you were kinda dumb, but suddenly you’re a genius!”
“Shut up, idiot!” He flicked her forehead.
Then—an idea flashed through his mind.
“Wait… could it work?”
He stood, placed his hand on a nearby tree for a few seconds, stepped back, packed some snow into a ball, and threw it at the spot.
Instantly, a barrier appeared and blocked the snowball.
“It worked…”
He dropped to his knees again, frantically scooping and devouring snow—every single flake he could reach.
A while later, while Igor was still searching with his “family,” the prey he sought finally appeared.
“Looking for me?”
That same nonchalant tone. Without waiting, Rin stepped out once more.
Like a machine following its program, “Father” charged at unimaginable speed—fast enough to race the wind—arriving in front of Rin in an instant.
“No need to rush…”
Rin said calmly as he leaped backward.
“Come on then, mad bull.”
As if determined to prove the insult, it charged wildly. The more Rin dodged, the harder it pursued—each step landing exactly where Rin had touched moments before.
After several minutes of cat-and-mouse, all it earned was an exhilarated shout from its prey:
“Now!”
The moment its final step landed exactly on one of Rin’s earlier footprints, everything Rin had prepared activated. Its legs were instantly bound by the ground itself. Sharp spears erupted from the tree trunks along the footprints, together with long chains.
They shot out like lightning, piercing the thick hide of the deformed monster before vanishing. The chains tightened, squeezing blood from every wound. In the end, it was reduced to a withered husk.
While Igor was still stunned—unable to comprehend how his “father” had fallen so quickly—a fist was already flying toward his face.
“Mother! Protect me!”
He desperately sent the command to the creature he called “Mother.” What answered was a heaven-shaking punch.
“Your mother’s busy with my teammate right now.”
Rin wasn’t sure whether an inexperienced fighter like Annie could handle it—but better her than this old bastard.
He closed in on Igor, pinned him down, and rained blow after blow into his face—each one unloading every ounce of suffering the Dungeon had inflicted.
Igor’s features distorted grotesquely. His face swelled, bruised purple, blood pouring endlessly from nose and mouth.
*Thud!*
“Guh…”
Suddenly, a clawed hand pierced straight through the left side of Rin’s chest—razor-sharp nails.
It was Igor’s “Mother.”
Blood gushed from Rin’s mouth, splattering onto Igor’s face and clothes. He watched in horror as his body began disintegrating visibly from the wound outward.
Seizing the moment, Igor shoved him off. Rin staggered, catching himself against a tree.
“Damn… it…” he gasped, blood still spraying from his lips.
“Thank you… Mother.”
Igor stood, walked over—and with one swift slash, decapitated his own “mother.”
“Thanks, kid. I’ve got a new mother’s body now.”
“As for you… let me see you off for a bit. It won’t hurt, I promise.”
He clenched his fist; green veins bulged across his body. A thick, impenetrable fog rolled in, swallowing Rin’s vision.
“What… what the hell!” Rin stammered in panic.
His golden eyes darted everywhere, searching desperately—but the mist was too dense, thick enough to obscure truth from illusion.
“Rin…”
A woman’s voice—soft, gentle, and chilling—rose from within the fog.
He spun toward the sound. His face froze. Black hair, brown eyes, that smile… unmistakable.
“Come to Mother, Rin.”
“You must be so tired all this time…”
“I’m sorry… for not being able to help you.”
The voice carried a hypnotic pull, invading his mind, drawing him toward the figure.
As he drew closer, a faint, wicked smile curved her lips.
*Thud*
A fist punched clean through the woman’s chest. The blood that flowed wasn’t human red—it was a mystical green. Slowly, the silhouette dissolved into the mist. It had been Igor all along.
“You… how did you know…?”
“It was so perfect… so identical…!”
In response to Igor’s shock came only calm words from the prey he coveted—words that stung even Rin’s own heart.
“My mother is already dead.”
“So… you don’t have a mother either… We’re not so different, are we?” Igor said, laughing—a laugh directed at both their cursed fates.
Rin withdrew his hand, letting Igor die alone in the freezing solitude.
In the distance a small gate flickered into view—mission complete. But Rin didn’t head straight for it. Instead he turned back.
Not far away lay Annie—barely clinging to life.
He hoisted her onto his shoulder and staggered forward, every step threatening to topple him. Each movement felt like it was draining the last of his life force; he forced himself not to stop.
The moment he crossed the gate, something inside him seemed to heal. He knew he no longer had to fight to survive out there.
Then, before Rin’s eyes, everything slowly darkened… darker… and finally went black.