The Dungeon trembled, as though there were a fight happening inside.
Dae-hyun's grip on his sword wavered as blood dripped from the gash across his side.
Aliyah began staggering, barely able to stand, her mana flickering like a dying ember. Elijah panted, his clothes torn, his body screaming in pain.
They had fought through countless monsters, but this—this was something else.
Then came the sound.
Drip. Drip.
A single drop of black venom fell from above, sizzling as it met the stone floor.
Aliyah's breath hitched.
She didn't want to look up.
But she did.
And there it was.
A grotesque monstrosity clung to the ceiling, its enormous body covered in jagged, chitinous armor.
Eight nightmarish red eyes stared unblinking. Its massive, spindly legs twitched, poised to strike.
A Calamity-Rank Nightmare Spider.
This wasn't something they could fight.
It was something that could only kill them.
"Run," Dae-hyun coughed, barely holding himself up.
Aliyah tried to summon magic, but her body wouldn't respond. The earlier battles had drained her completely.
The spider moved.
Its grotesque body dropped from the ceiling with a deafening crash, splitting the ground beneath its weight. The impact alone sent Aliyah tumbling back, her body slamming into the cold stone wall. A sharp pain shot through her chest. Broken ribs.
"Argh..." she gasped.
Dae-hyun was on his knees, his sword barely lifted in defense. Elijah was struggling to stand, his knife long discarded.
The nightmare spider clicked its mandibles, venom dripping as it locked onto Aliyah.
And then—it lunged.
No.
Aliyah tried to move, but her legs wouldn't obey. She could only watch, helpless, as death rushed toward her.
But then—
A blur.
A body slammed into hers. Warmth. A sharp gasp.
Elijah.
He had thrown himself in front of her.
The spider's leg—pierced straight through his back, blood bursting from his mouth.
"Brothe—" Aliyah's voice collapsed.
Elijah coughed with his weak voice seemingly giving his last message.
"Crap… now its failing anyway... might as well experiment with the third option..."
The spider pulled its leg back, and Elijah collapsed, his body hit the stone floor with a sickening thud.
Aliyah's mind went blank.
Dae-hyun's voice was distant. "No—NO! Elijah!"
The nightmare spider loomed over them, ready to finish what it started.
And Aliyah…
Aliyah could only scream.
Amidst all this crisis, the system interface rang on the unconscious body of Elijah.
[Thanks to you, you became the sacrifice, and your body was enough to seal it.]
[You saved everyone! How heroic.]
[You should probably hire yourself as MC instead. lol]
[That being said...]
[I still hated this story.]
[ The Cursed by the Benevolent had been activated ]
*****
Elijah's eyelids fluttered open slowly…
The morning dew of spring gently roused him from his slumber.
By now… he was probably used to it all.
He forced himself to sit up, with a calm expression on his face that had become his second nature.
The pain from where the nightmare had stabbed him still lingered, but it was just another constant now. Something he had grown indifferent to.
As expected, the door suddenly swung open.
Marjorie, the maid, rushed in, but Elijah raised his hand in advance, cutting her off before she could even scream.
"I need a little rest. Can you please leave my room?"
She nodded quietly, stepping back to comply.
He stood up and glanced at the mirror.
That same young face in its early twenties stared back at him.
At first, it had been jarring to see himself like this. But now… it almost felt familiar.
Like he had become Elijah himself.
He hated the dark blue hair and the ocean-blue eyes, though. It reminded him too much of that devil child.
Seriously, that devil knew how to rub salt in the wound.
His hair was annoyingly long, always getting in the way during fights with the wolf packs. But trimming it felt like too much effort, so instead, he just tied it loosely into a ponytail.
A faint crunch from his pocket caught his attention.
He reached in, pulling out a crumpled piece of paper.
Ah.
The strategies he had written during the previous time loop.
'How convenient. I won't have to write them again.'
He sat down at his desk and began to write.
First, he scratched something out and muttered to himself as he did.
"So… once I die, I'll just time loop again. How convenient."
"Even if Aliyah and Dae-hyun are alive, the story will still timeloop. Perhaps I should try the hardest route."
He tapped the pen on the paper, a half-hearted thought drifting through his mind.
"And whatever I bring with me will come back, too. I wonder if there's a loophole in this… If it is, I will abuse it. This information will be needed it again."
Finally, his words came slower, more resigned.
"Lastly…"
"I'll try again."
"Again… and again."