The Weakest Hunter Ascends

The Hymn

Arthur shouted at the top of his lungs, his voice cutting through the panic.

"Everyone! Listen to me!"

The remaining Hunters snapped their heads toward him instantly.

Meeting their desperate, wild eyes, Arthur barked the command,

"You have to get down! Bow to the statue!"

The group blinked in utter bewilderment.

"Bow...?"

"You want us to pray to that monster?!"

A barrage of furious curses immediately erupted, directed straight at Arthur.

"Screw you! What kind of sick joke is this?!"

"Are you out of your mind?! Look around you, man!"

"Have you completely lost it, Arthur?!"

Greg’s face turned a violent, boiling red, his chest heaving with rage.

"I didn't think you'd crack under pressure like this, kid! If I could move without getting turned to ash, I’d march over and punch you dead in the jaw!!"

Arthur bit his lower lip hard.

Six of their friends had just been violently erased by the titan.

It was completely understandable that the survivors would explode at the suggestion of bowing to the very abomination that had slaughtered their comrades.

He couldn't blame them for the rage.

And the worst part is...

The worst part was that he didn't have a single shred of logical evidence to back up his theory.

He had nothing but a raw, frantic gut feeling.

It was a complete gamble.

But then...

"I'll do it."

The voice came from right beside Arthur.

Every eye in the room shifted in shock.

It was Mr. Sterling, the undisputed backbone of the group.

"Mr. Sterling?!"

"You're actually going to bow to that thing?!"

As the rookies spiraled into disbelief, Sterling kept his intense, steady gaze locked entirely on Arthur.

"Kid. You noticed something, didn't you?"

Arthur nodded resolutely.

"Yes."

"Is it that sensory instinct of yours again?"

"……Yes, sir. It is."

"Good enough for me."

Just moments ago, eleven people had survived a lethal strike solely because of Arthur's instincts.

Sure, Bill had just thrown his life away, leaving ten of them now—but if Arthur's senses were this sharp, it was a gamble worth taking.

Sterling slid onto his knees and lowered his brow to the stone flagstones.

The room fell into a heavy, suffocating silence.

"He's... he's actually doing it."

Seizing the opening, Arthur yelled out once more.

"Please, I beg you! Get on your knees and bow! It's the only way we walk out of here alive!"

Live.

Walk out alive.

The psychological weight of those words was absolute.

We can live?

Just by bowing?

One by one, the hesitant Hunters began dropping to the ground, mimicking the posture.

The momentum shifted rapidly.

Within seconds, even the furious Greg lowered his head, pressing his face against the dirt.

Yet, the cathedral remained unchanged.

The terrifying crimson glare continued to thrum within the titan's stone eyes.

Arthur felt a sudden, icy wave of dread pool in his stomach.

Was I wrong?

His eyes darted to Julie beside him.

No matter how generous he wanted to be, her current posture couldn't be considered a bow.

She was curled into a tight, shivering ball, clutching the back of her head like a terrified child.

What if the mechanism requires everyone to comply perfectly?

Arthur reached out, gently wrapping his fingers around Julie's trembling wrist.

She snapped her head up, staring at him like a cornered cat.

Arthur didn't speak; he simply met her gaze and gave a slow, reassuring nod.

Gradually, the tension in her muscles began to ease.

With careful movements, Arthur guided her arms forward, helping her shift into a proper prostrate position.

That's nine.

There was only one person left.

Himself.

Arthur dropped to his knees, pressed his palms flat against the stone, and slowly lowered his forehead until it touched the cold floor.

Finally, the atmosphere shifted.

"Wait... look! Look up!"

The Hunters who noticed the transition first let out breathless cries.

"The idol! Look at its face!"

"The eyes!"

The blinding crimson light humming within the massive sockets was visibly fading, dimming to a dull flicker.

"Holy shit... it actually worked."

Within moments, the red glow vanished completely, leaving behind nothing but empty gray stone.

"Yes! Oh my God, yes!"

The cathedral erupted into ecstatic cheers.

"The lasers are gone!"

"We made it! We're safe!"

Overjoyed, several Hunters immediately scrambled to their feet.

Even as they stood at full height, the giant deity remained perfectly motionless.

Arthur slowly lifted his head, letting out a massive, trembling sigh of relief.

"Whew..."

It was exactly as he had suspected.

This sanctuary operated strictly on a rigid, mathematical system of regulations.

But if that's true...

If his hypothesis held up, the nightmare was far from over.

Two more commandments remained on that stone tablet.

The Second Commandment: Praise the Lord.

The Third Commandment: Prove your faith.

Right then—

RUMBLE!!

A violent, bone-rattling tremor tore through the cathedral floor.

Arthur’s face hardened instantly.

Here it comes.

His dark premonitions were right on the money.

The game was only transitioning to the next phase.

The gargantuan stone deity was slowly, agonizingly pushing itself off its massive throne.

"What?! No! No, no, no!"

The Hunters who had been hugging and weeping with joy just a second ago froze instantly, turning into pale imitations of the statues around them.

"Why isn't it over?!"

"This can't be happening!"

The words died in their throats as pure, unadulterated despair reclaimed the room.

The titan rose to its full, impossible height.

It swept its lifeless stone gaze across the tiny intruders, shifted its weight, and took a massive stride forward.

****

THUD!!

Each time the titan's massive foot struck the flagstones, the entire pocket dimension violently shuddered.

THUD!!

It was so colossally tall that the crown of its head practically scraped against the dizzying heights of the vaulted ceiling.

THUD!!

Though the survivors were entirely paralyzed by the sheer, ungodly scale of the entity, the distance between them was shrinking rapidly.

"Arthur! Arthur, what do we do?!"

"How do we stop it?!"

The very rookies who had been cursing him out moments before now scrambled toward him like frightened children, crowding around him for salvation.

"Is there a trick to this?!"

"Say something, kid!"

Grown, hardened men were openly weeping, on the verge of complete psychological collapse.

In a matter of minutes, Arthur had become their only lifeline.

Arthur quickly hauled the frozen Julie to her feet, his mind racing through the exact phrasing of the text.

"The Second Commandment. 'Praise the Lord.' That's the trigger."

"Wait, you mean...?" Greg blurted out, a spark of recognition cutting through his panic. "The stuff written on the tablet?!"

"Exactly."

"Worship the Lord. Praise the Lord. Prove your faith."

"We have to satisfy all three conditions in order."

Arthur's words came out in a frantic, rapid-fire blur.

He had no choice; the titan was already closing the distance.

THUD!!

A massive, suffocating shadow loomed over the huddle, draining the color from their faces.

"Let... let me try."

A young Hunter who usually kept to himself suddenly stepped out of the group.

"What?! What are you doing, man?!"

"I used to sing in my church choir back home," the rookie said, his voice trembling but determined as he ignored Greg's hand trying to pull him back. "If this thing wants 'praise,' I can handle that."

Regulating his breathing, the young man stepped out into the open path of the approaching titan.

He took a massive, deep breath, looked up into the lifeless stone face, and began to sing.

"I come to you, Almighty Lord..."

His clear, beautiful tenor voice echoed perfectly throughout the massive stone cathedral.

"...Renew my spirit, cleanse my soul... Bless me with your unyielding grace..."

The titan froze, its massive foot hovering inches above the floor.

"Look! It stopped!"

"Oh thank God, it's working!"

The Hunters gasped in pure, ecstatic relief.

The gargantuan deity remained perfectly still, as if entirely captivated by the melody.

All other noise in the room died away, leaving nothing but the young man's solo ringing against the vaulted ceiling.

Emboldened by the immediate success, the rookie poured his heart into the next verse.

"All the weakness found within me... Through your love, I shall conquer..."

But back in the huddle, Arthur was the only one shuddering as a violent, ominous dread gripped his chest.

No... this is wrong.

Arthur swallowed the warning rising in his throat.

This dungeon operated on its own internal, ancient logic.

The young man was offering praise using the regulations of modern Christianity, not the rules of the Cartenon Temple.

The titan had paused—but was it actually accepting the praise, or was it simply processing the noise?

Arthur gripped his weapon, his mind spinning.

The only reason he didn't scream a warning was because he couldn't think of a better alternative to buy them time.

It happened in a heartbeat.

CRUNCH!!

A heavy, sickening sound reverberated through the quiet chamber.

"Ahhhhh—!!"

One of the female rookies shrieked, losing total control of her senses.

The titan's massive foot had slammed down without warning.

Where the young singer had been standing a second ago, there was nothing left but a horrific, crimson smear painting the flagstones and the sole of the idol's boot.

Panic detonated through the room once more.

"Jesus Christ!"

"Run! Run!"

The emotionless stone face of the deity had twisted into a mask of pure, unadulterated fury.

"It's pissed off!"

"Get away from it!"

The group scattered in all directions.

Unfortunately, the female rookie who had shrieked lost her footing entirely.

Paralyzed by the gruesome sight of her friend's erasure, she remained frozen on the spot, screaming hysterically.

"Help—!"

Damn it...

Arthur was already sprinting, pulling Julie along in his arms, but he spun his head back, desperate to double back and yank the girl out of the kill zone.

Before he could step out, Sterling's hand clamped onto his collar, dragging him forward.

"Mr. Sterling?!"

"It's too late, kid. Move!"

Like a man swatting a fly, the titan brought its colossal palm flat down onto the screaming girl.

SPLAT!!

Arthur instinctively averted his eyes, his stomach turning at the sickening crunch.

It was too gruesome to bear.

"We don't have time to mourn!" Sterling barked, his voice raw as he ran alongside him. "Are you going to let Julie die too?!"

The veteran's words snapped Arthur out of his shock instantly.

He was right.

THUD!!

"Help me!!"

THUD!!

THUD!!!

The titan wasn't taking slow, methodical steps anymore.

It was actively hunting, sprinting across the cathedral floor and stamping out any human shape it could detect.

Each impact felt like a localized earthquake.

THUD!! THUD!!

Arthur gritted his teeth, pouring every ounce of physical strength into his legs as he hauled Julie along.

Julie kept her eyes squeezed tightly shut, clinging to his chest for dear life.

"We need to split up!" Arthur yelled.

"Right!" Sterling agreed.

Knowing that moving in a tight cluster made them an easy target, Arthur and Sterling veered off in opposite directions.

Arthur bolted toward the furthest perimeter, seeking refuge in the distant corners of the room.

But another Hunter had already beat him to the edge.

It was Greg.

Greg was running with absolute, frantic desperation.

Tears blurred his vision as images of his family flashed through his mind—his young son who looked just like him, his pregnant wife waiting at home for a payday.

He couldn't die here.

Not in a hole in the dirt.

Because he had sprinted without looking back, he had managed to outrun everyone, reaching the safety of the outer wall first.

"Haaah... haaah..."

As Greg leaned against the stone structure to catch his breath, Bill's old friend, Kim, screamed from across the room.

"Greg!! Watch out!!"

Greg blinked, his head snapping up at the sound of his name.

"What?"

Kim pointed frantically at the shadow looming directly over Greg's shoulder.

"Your back! Look behind you!!"

Before Greg could even turn his head, a cold, sharp gleam of steel cut through the darkness.

"Huh...?"

SHLIFF!

Greg was cleanly, perfectly bisected from the crown of his skull down to his pelvis.

The two symmetrical halves of his body slid apart, collapsing onto the flagstones.

"GREG!!" Kim roared, his voice cracking with grief.

The smaller stone statue that had just wielded a massive claymore smoothly returned to its resting position against the wall, freezing back into a lifeless monument exactly like the doorkeeper had done before.

Kim’s face twisted with pure, tearful rage.

"You absolute sons of bitches...!!"

THUD!!

THUD!!

The situation was a total death trap.

Behind them, the gargantuan deity was systematically crushing people into paste.

But if you ran to the safety of the perimeter to evade it, the smaller guardian statues would immediately wake up to chop you to pieces.

"My arm! My arm!!"

"Someone help me!!"

The interior of the cathedral had become a pure, chaotic meat grinder.

"Haaah... haaah..."

Cold sweat poured down Arthur’s forehead, stinging his eyes.

His limbs were growing heavier by the second, his lungs burning for oxygen.

Yet, amidst the terror, his brain was hyper-focused on a single phrase.

Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord...

The words of the Second Commandment looped endlessly in his mind.

The key to disabling this anomaly had to be right in front of them.

There had to be something inside this room they could utilize.

But during their initial sweep, they had checked every single corner.

There were no hidden levers, no mechanisms, no weapons laid out for them.

No... wait. The only objects in this entire room capable of independent motion are the statues themselves.

The thought hit Arthur like a physical blow, a sudden spark of absolute clarity exploding in his mind.

The only things that move are the statues...

Oh, you've got to be kidding me.

Arthur's eyes went wide.

"How did I not see it before?!" he muttered under his breath.

If the environment offered no tools, then the entities themselves had to be the tools.

The guardians triggered based on human proximity—meaning the entire room was an interactive puzzle.

What if...!

Sucking in a massive lungful of air, Arthur unleashed a roar that practically shook the ancient masonry.

"Everyone! Run to the statues holding the musical instruments!! Get as close to them as you can!!"