The children were now nearing the top of the vine, where it touched the boundary of the heavens.

The Tiger God of Blood was only twenty meters below the trailing players. Its breath smelled of rotting meat and ancient mana.

Suddenly, a sickening crack echoed through the sky.

The vine groaned. Near the summit, the fibers began to snap one by one. It was not the weight of the players that caused it; the rope was rotting from the inside out.

"The rope is breaking!" a woman shrieked. "Climb faster!"

"It won’t matter," Kang Min muttered.

He looked at the Tiger God. Several players had realized the same thing. They saw the rope failing and the tiger closing in. They remembered the hidden clear conditions of previous floors.

"We have to kill the tiger!" Gwon shouted, his mind clearing briefly as the threat of permanent death outweighed the miasma. "The rope won’t hold! Jump down! Fight it in the air!"

Gwon and three other brave players jumped from the vine. They used their movement skills to slow their fall, landing on the massive shoulders and head of the Tiger God of Blood. They began to hack at its eyes and neck.

The Tiger God roared, shaking its body. Two of the players were thrown off immediately, losing hearts as they plummeted into the fog. The remaining two were crushed by the tiger’s massive paws as it climbed over them.

The Tiger God was too strong for standard physical attacks. Its hide was reinforced by the blood of the mother it had devoured in the fable.

Kang Min stood alone on a fraying section of the vine. He reached into his shadow inventory.

"In the Old World, the Tale of the Sun and Moon had three tigers," Kang Min said, his voice quiet but clear over the sound of the wind. "The Tiger of the Sun was the hunter of the day. The Tiger of the Moon was the hunter of the night. But there was a third—the Tiger of the Twilight. It was the one that existed in the transition between the two states. It was the balance."

He extended his hand.

"Come out."

A surge of azure mana erupted from Kang Min’s shadow. The Blue Tiger he had tamed in the eleventh floor abyss manifested in the air. It did not fall. It stepped onto the air as if it were solid ground. Its blue fur crackled with lightning, and its eyes glowed with the power of the twilight.

The Tiger God of Blood stopped its climb. For the first time, its six yellow eyes showed a sign of hesitation. It recognized its counterpart.

"The third tiger has no significance in the common fable," Kang Min said, stepping onto the back of the Blue Tiger. "But in the Tower, it is the key to the hidden path."

The Blue Tiger roared. The sound was a harmonic frequency that shattered the tiger-spirits in the immediate area. Kang Min pointed his blade at the Tiger God of Blood.

"Go."

The Blue Tiger launched itself. It was a streak of azure light against the red-and-gold sky. It collided with the Tiger God of Blood mid-air. The two massive beasts fell away from the vine, locked in a violent struggle. They tore at each other’s throats as they descended toward the fog.

Kang Min stood on the Blue Tiger’s head, his boots locked into its mana-reinforced fur. He raised his blade. The maroon metal of the sword—Libra—glowed with a violet intensity as it absorbed the Narratives of the floor.

As they fell, Kang Min saw the Solar/Lunar Core pulsating inside the Tiger God’s chest. It was a sphere of swirling gold and silver energy.

The Tiger God of Blood tried to bite through the Blue Tiger’s neck, but the Blue Tiger activated its [Spectral Extension] skill. The blue mana formed a protective shell around its body, and the ghosts of the High Orcs it had killed on the thirteenth floor manifested in the air. Dozens of spectral Orcs grabbed the Tiger God’s limbs, pinning it in mid-air despite the lack of ground.

Kang Min jumped. He fell through the air, his coat flapping violently. He drove his blade into the center of the Tiger God’s chest.

The sword pierced the hide. The Tiger God let out a final, world-shaking roar before its body began to disintegrate into red particles. Kang Min reached into the wound and grabbed the Solar/Lunar Core.

The moment his fingers closed around the core, the sky changed. The sun and moon merged into a single, brilliant white light.

The vine snapped completely. The two children at the top were pulled upward into the light by golden threads. The remaining players on the vine screamed as they fell, but they did not hit the ground. They were suspended in the air by a sudden lack of gravity.

「Main Scenario: The Tale of the Sun and Moon - COMPLETED」

「Clear Result: True Hidden Condition Met.」

「Condition: The Third Tiger of Twilight has reclaimed the Cores.」

「Player Kang Min has acquired the ’Solar/Lunar Core’.」

The black fog at the bottom of the cliff vanished, replaced by a lush, heavenly garden that served as the transition zone to the sixteenth floor. The players who had survived with at least one heart landed softly on the grass.

Kang Min descended on the back of the Blue Tiger. The beast landed silently, its azure fur dimming as it returned to its master’s shadow.

The survivors stood in the garden, looking at Kang Min. Gwon had one heart left. He was covered in bruises and his spear was broken. He looked at the glowing core in Kang Min’s hand and then at the spot where the Tiger God had died.

"You knew," Gwon said, his voice trembling. "You knew the rope would break. You let us climb it like fools."

Kang Min walked past him toward the next gate. He didn’t look back.

"I didn’t tell you to climb," Kang Min said. "I told you to focus on the tiger. You were too busy breathing the miasma and looking for a target."

The system window updated for all players.

「Floor 15 Rewards Distributed.」