Chapter 241. A Horrifying Battle.
A blue veil divided Seoul from Gyeonggi-Do.
As the symbol of the cataclysm and the barrier that had imprisoned Seoul, which had become a living hell, was lifted, behind the veil lay an army of monsters as far as the eye could see.
Tens of thousands of gazes were focused on the dissipating veil as Lee Jun-Kyeong gave a single command.
“Burn it all.”
With his command, Saeynkaed stepped forward.
As the dragon began to make her move, the seemingly frozen army of monsters finally began to take their first steps.
BOOM!
Ogres, trolls, death knights, and chimeras stood in the front row as countless monsters with terrifying strength slowly accelerated as they ran toward the dissipating veil.
Saeynkaed was the only one who ran forward from within the borders of Gyeonggi-Do, alone in the charge with her fiery red hair flying in the wind.
Her mouth began to curl up as she laughed freely.
She had lived as a slave to the Sponsors for countless years, losing her sentience and intelligence as she had been controlled, forced into a mindless being that committed countless murders and horrifying deeds.
It was truly the life of a slave.
Her new owner had saved her from that life, but unlike the Sponsors, he allowed her to do what she wanted.
He had given her a chance to fulfill what she had wanted to do.
When the decisive battle began, Saeynkaed had wanted to be at the forefront.
She wanted to be the beginning, to mark the war to punish the Sponsors who could never be forgiven.
Saeynkaed had wanted to give rest to all of the pitiful beings like her with her own hands.
“Go.”
Complying with her wishes, her new owner had allowed it.
An army of monsters and Saeynkaed were racing toward each other, seemingly nothing more than an act of suicide on her part. It was something too horrifying to watch for any of the observers.
Crrrrack.
However, with the sound of bones crunching and popping, Saeynkaed revealed her true form.
–ROARRR!!!!
She was a massive red dragon, and she was the lord of magic and the strongest being in her dimension. She was a dragon of destruction that had taken countless lives as a Ruler.
Flap, flap!
A huge, red dragon rose into the sky and flapped its wings. The surrounding mana transmuted into flames, which were then launched from her wings.
BOOM!
The massive wave of fire fell directly onto the center of the charging army of monsters, creating an explosion.
A cloud of smoke obscured the charge of the army of monsters for a moment, but after a moment, as the smoke dispelled, the sight of the army still standing could be seen.
GROUGH!!!!
No matter if the attacking dragon had been Saeynkaed, it was still too much for even her to cause an entire army of monsters numbering in the tens or even hundreds of thousands to fall apart.
Moreover, these monsters didn’t even have any intelligence. They were just running forward without any fear for their lives to carry out the orders they had been given.
Flap, flap!
Then, Saeynkaed stopped in the air once again, flapping her wings.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
Towards her floating body, the Death Knights threw their spears as the chimeras fired their thorns, and the harpies began to hurl stones.
Flap!
However, with a single flap of her wings, all of the attacks coming towards her lost their strength and fell from the sky.
Jing!
A clear resonance rang through the air as, at the same time, a bright light obscured everyone’s vision. The sky behind Saeynkaed had been cloudy, the gloom hiding the sun.
However, suddenly, the sun rose.
Shine!!!
A huge storm of mana gathered around Saeynkaed’s mouth.
–I hope you find peace.
Saeynkaed’s slightly sad voice rang through the minds of everyone on the battlefield, and at the same time, the miniature sun that had finished condensing around her mouth shook, trembling with energy.
Soon, the miniature sun broke apart and spewed out a huge light that could blind even the gazes of the Heroes.
BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!
The return of everyone’s vision coincided with an incredible noise as they were greeted with the sight of everything lit aflame under the straight beam of fire.
"Oh my god."
Saeynkaed seemed to have used up all of her strength in that breath she had just released as she slowly began to plummet down. However, the dragon smiled as if she was satisfied.
More than ten thousand monsters had died in one fell swoop.
RUMBLE!
However, the monster army itself was still alive as they continued to charge toward her as she sat on the ground. Saeynkaed's appearance transformed back into her human form as she looked behind her.
“I have fulfilled your command.”
Her role had been to be the vanguard, and she had only served to announce the beginning of the fierce battle.
From now on, it was someone else’s turn.
Before anyone realized it, Lee Jun-Kyeong had appeared, standing next to Saeynkaed.
“You did well,” he said while raising a hand.
At this moment, there wasn’t even a single Hero standing next to him.–Jun-Kyeong, we’ll be back.
Instead, a massive white wolf and a vast white tiger were running forward, each bound shaking the ground as if there was an earthquake.
***
"Oh my god…” Jeong In-Chang could only repeat that himself over and over as he looked at the scene before his eyes. Eventually, he came to his senses and looked around, noticing that everyone except for Lee Jun-Kyeong was still standing there.
Moreover, all of them were quietly watching everything unfold with their mouths shut.
“...”
He noticed somewhat haphazardly that they all would have been better off exclaiming like he did.
Won-Hwa was looking blankly ahead as if possessed by something while some of the others were even clutching their chests, their faces pale as if they were suffocating.
‘If it’s this shocking for me, who’s already gotten used to it…’
While traveling with Lee Jun-Kyeong, Jeong In-Chang had seen many things that could be called miracles. Things that seemed impossible for humans, or even any being, to do.
However, once again, the same words came out.
"Oh my god."
The scene before his very eyes was worth such an exclamation.
Lee Jun-Kyeong had opened the veil the previous time with a lot of difficulty, but he had just torn through the veil without any effort. On the other side, there was an army of monsters so massive it took their breath away.
“Saeynkaed will open the way.”
Then, as they had spoken about prior, Saeynkaed ran out alone.
Although Jeong In-Chang knew that she had been a Ruler and that she was a dragon, he was still anxiously watching her, who looked so frail and minuscule, run out alone toward the army of monsters.
However, at that moment, the dragon appeared as if to say that his worries had been meaningless.
Then, what happened next could only be described as one word: a massacre.
–ROARR!!!!
A wave of monsters were burning in a straight line, and the vanguard of the army of monsters was lit on fire with no end to the blaze in sight.
For a moment, he wondered.
If he was there, on the side of the monsters, what would have happened?
‘Just once… I could have blocked that only once…’
However, that was all he could do. When the dragon landed on the ground and reverted to her human form, beings far larger than she began to invade the battlefield.
RUMBLE!
“Princess…”
The princess, who was hiding in Jeong In-Chang’s arms, pulled her head out and cooed in admiration.
The monsters on the battlefield that Saeynkaed hadn’t been able to handle were being trampled by the massive white wolf and white tiger.
Neither the wolf nor the tiger howled. They simply silently swung their front paws and destroyed the battlefield with their quick movements.
The camp of the army of monsters had already been destroyed by now, no longer a threat.
Fenrir and Sangun still roamed the battlefield on all fours. The two divine beasts used neither mana nor magic, just destroying everything through their incredible bodies.
“You’ve really become incredibly strong…”
Fenrir had left with Ungnyeo and Sangun, who had been dead.
Jeong In-Chang had heard roughly what had happened to them through the princess, who had found out after going to see Fenrir.
‘They said that they had killed all of the Rulers…’
Apparently, Fenrir had slaughtered all of the Rulers, almost as if he had been trying to release all of the anger that had festered after being captured by Odin. That was why people had called Ungnyeo, whom they had assumed to be the owner of the terrifying Fenrir, a witch.
They thought she was the owner of the wolf.
Then, they said that once several Rulers had entered Fenrir’s stomach, Sangun had been resurrected.
Jeong In-Chang paused.
They had eaten Rulers.
With that much power…
BOOOOM!
The ground struck by Fenrir’s paw exploded, creating a thick cloud of dust.
Inside the cloud was the fleshy outline of a monster that had exploded and scattered about.
The camp of monsters collapsed, but the signal that Lee Jun-Kyeong had mentioned hadn’t yet appeared.
“Not yet.”
Lee Jun-Kyeong had said that the other side would have prepared just as they had, and without the sign, it meant that the other side still had something left from their preparations.
Then, at that moment, they started to see something.
“...!”
“That’s!”
Won-Hwa, who had been watching the massacre blankly with his mouth shut, pointed forward with wide eyes.
“...”
Zeus, Horus, Athena, and those who had been watching the massacre while thinking about something were also shaken.
Jeong In-Chang swallowed.
“They’re just ordinary humans…”
Behind the collapsing army of monsters was a group of auras that they could all feel. Numerous ordinary humans were flocking to the battlefield.
***
The battlefield that had been filled with only the sounds of explosions and the screams of monsters had a silence fall over it.
Fenrir and Sangun, who had been running wild, returned, standing next to Lee Jun-Kyeong alongside Saeynkaed.Even though less than an hour had passed since the battlefield had opened, half of the army of monsters were dead.
“Are you tired?”
“No. I’m fine.”
On the other hand, their side had suffered no damage, with only Saeynkaed panting slightly as if she was a little tired.
Rather, Fenrir actually just had a happy expression on his face, as if he had just been taken out for a walk.
Lee Jun-Kyeong stroked Fenrir’s head, who had shifted to the form of a small child, and looked ahead.
“Chwiiiik…”
The monsters were making strange cries and moaning in pain, and Lee Jun-Kyeong looked toward the place where the monsters were moving and opening a path.
“...”
A bitter silence spread as Lee Jun-Kyeong also closed his mouth at the sight before his eyes.
From the beginning, none of them had planned on messing about. This all had to end, and it was only just the beginning. The bastards before them had made their move just the way that they had expected.
“Move quickly!”
A voice broke the silence, clearly belonging to a person speaking Korean.
It was a sentiment clearly felt after the removal of the veil.
Standing before them were Hunters. Many Hunters had remained in Korea, and they were people who should have originally moved to save Korea and its people.
“I said move!”
However, they were herding ordinary people like livestock and putting them in the middle of the battlefield.
Lee Jun-Kyeong looked away. The surviving monsters stood, forming a wall as the ordinary people rushed into their center.
It was easy to tell.
‘There are at least as many as those that had been brought by Ungnyeo.’
It was close to or even more than a million ordinary humans being whipped like cattle and showing up in a situation they had no part in.
Lee Jun-Kyeong exhaled.
Their purpose was simple—let the ordinary people take the lead to block their advance.
“Do you hear me? You can see this massive horde of ordinary humans, right?”
Moreover, by taking the ordinary people hostage, they wanted to make them feel fear.
“Drop your weapons and surrender? There’s no reason for us humans to get our hands dirty and fight one another!”
They wanted to force Lee Jun-Kyeong and the others to surrender.
The one who appeared to be their leader, the one who had shouted, was someone who Lee Jun-Kyeong recognized.
He had been a Hero who belonged to Asgard and had been praised by the humans as an invincible Hero. Now, he was terrorizing Lee Jun-Kyeong and the others by taking ordinary people hostage.
“Lord Baldur doesn’t want Hunters to die uselessly!”
With strangely fluttering eyes, he continued to shout, using his mana as an amplifier.
“If you all cooperate, the world will be ours! You saw the monsters! Let's not fight pointlessly! “You guys won’t be able to beat us anyway!”
Moreover, throughout his entire speech, the lives of ordinary humans hadn’t been mentioned, not even once. They were just hostages, just objects.
No, those bastards had already crossed the river of no return. Lee Jun-Kyeong just stood still and didn’t move as the Asgardian Hero shouted again at the top of his voice.
“I’m going to count to ten now!”
It might have been because of his majestic mana, but his voice resonated throughout the entire battlefield.
“If you don’t surrender even after counting to ten...!”
Lee Jun-Kyeong looked behind him.
He could see Jeong In-Chang’s, Won-Hwa’s, and Ungnyeo’s agitated expressions, the expressionless faces of Zeus, Horus, and Athena, and even Merlin’s and Arthur's tightly closed lips.
“I’ll kill them all at once! It’s a waste of my time to kill them one by one, isn’t it?”
As he looked over at them, he continued to listen to the Asgardian.
"One!"
Lee Jun-Kyeong looked ahead again.
"Two!"
At that time, his companions, standing behind him, moved.
“Three!”
They all split to the side, left and right.
“Four!”
The army of monsters had moved aside for the ordinary humans
“Five!”
The companions behind him had made a path.
“Six!"
The bastard before them must have also noticed the change as his voice began to shake a little.
“Seven!”
However, before he could continue, Lee Jun-Kyeong’s soft but somehow much louder voice echoed through the battlefield.
“You don’t have to count the last three numbers.”
Jing!!!
A blue gate suddenly appeared, along with a resonance that caused the entire world to feel like it vibrated, appearing in an instant.
The man didn’t even have the time to count to eight.
“Jormungandr.”
Suddenly, he found himself face-to-face with the biggest snake in the world.
Lee Jun-Kyeong's voice resonated in the minds of ordinary humans.
–Do not worry.