Chapter 328 : The Grand Scheme (1)
Hansoo confirmed who the man was and frowned.
‘...He’s young.’
He didn’t even look twenty.
As Hansoo frowned at this young boy, who should’ve only been at high school or even younger—
—rumble—
—the boy, Kael, frowned.
Where had it gone wrong?
Hansoo should not have been able to reach him.
The spell from the Rangkom’s Stake should’ve hidden him from the Ark-Roa.
The Ark-Roa should’ve eaten the transcendents in quick session, and then be stronger from the easiest to the hardest targets.
And then finally it would reach Hansoo.
Then he himself would attack them both when they were half-dead from fighting each other.
This was his n.
But instead, Hansoo had used the team he’d been raising for the Ark-Roa against him.
‘This guy is dangerous. This was why he’d been able to lead Sir Jang Oh to his death.’
Kael tightened his grip on the Rangkom’s Stake.
Whatever. This is good, too.
Since he should use his own hands to deal with his own issues.
<...I’ll leave the rest to you.>
Kael thought of Jang Oh’sst wish as he started to gather up strength.
—rumble—
An abnormal world.
And its insane rules.
Outer appearances did not prove the true power of a being.
And as if Kael was trying to prove this, a storm of energy started to rush out from his body.
Hansoo frowned at this.
‘2 star indeed.’
This kid had climbed over the wall too.
And he was different from the ones who’d used the to grow stronger.
—booom!—
Afterpletely gathering up his strength, Kael swung the stake at Hansoo.
The white stake, surrounded by a golden aura, aimed for Hansoo’s heart.
And the moment Forked Lightning and the stake collided—
—boooom!—
—a tremendous explosion urred as it swept through the surroundings.
—crackle!—
And Hansooughed as he sensed the tremendous amount of lightning crackling around his body.
‘He gathered a lot of energy into the stake, huh? And this is the Golden Demon’s Reinforcement.’
Golden Demon’s Reinforcement.
Skill rank 19.
The body, after being shrouded by golden light, boasted an irond defense and a very solid attack to match.
—booom!—
—boom!—
The golden spear and the white stake shed, causing countless shockwaves to ring out.
The ground split apart and lightning fell.
Though it was only a sh between two people, the surrounding few hundred meters copsed and the geography changed.
—sssss!—
The red spores seeped out from Hansoo’s body and multiplied inside the boy’s body to melt him down, right as the golden aura charged at Hansoo to smash apart his body.
—crunch!—
“Uaaahhh!”
As Forked Lightning was about to pierce through Kael’s defenses and go through his heart—
—Kael ignored the spear as he was also aiming for Hansoo’s heart with the stake.
—boooom!—
Hansoo quickly retreated to defend the attack, frowning as he looked at the insane boy.
That sh had beenpletely nned.
The boy had purposely let down his guard around his heart, and then waited for an opening.
All just to kill Hansoo, even if it meant risking his own life.
‘...I’ve never even seen this kid before, why does he hate me so much?’
The boy was too insane for this to be just simple rage.
A resolution to kill him even if it meant losing everything.
Then—
—Booom!—
Kael, who had been smashing at Hansoo with his golden aura, roared out in rage.
“If you hadn’t pushed Jang Oh that far! If you hadn’t brought the Abyss!”
Kael thought back to two years in the past.
Jang Oh had be a mess after his fight with Hansoo.
He had lost the fight and because he had overdrawn his soul, Taehee had been forced to act out personally, which had caused even more of a bacsh.
But Jang Oh had tried to save his vigers despite his condition.
And he would have seeded.
If the Obelisk hadn’t broken apart, which had caused a new, harsh environment to cover the entire Green Zone.
If the elevator hadn’t fallen into their world, which had brought down countless beasts with it.
Jang Oh and everyone else had tried their best, but it hadn’t been enough.
The damage on Jang Oh’s body had be worse after he’d overexerted himself trying to go up.
And Kael had asked.
As to why they had to try so hard to go up.
Because the ones led by Kang Hansoo were defending the line from a distance.
Though they were slightly damaged from the beasts, they were hunting in rtive safety.
But Jang Oh shook his head with a bitter expression.
Their situations were different.
If they remained... they’d be wiped out.
Because of the winners, they had to go up.
They had to go up and find a new way to survive.
‘Damn it.’
Kael grit his teeth as he thought of the past.
Jang Oh had died.
Fighting while the vigers went up.
He and the vigers could only shed blood and tears, unable to help.
Under Jang Oh’s protection, they had been able to safely gather runes and raise their respective mastery of skills.
But there was a limit to this.
A nt raised in a greenhouse will snap once it meets a storm.
And only when Jang Oh had fallen did they realize that the only ones who could rise up within the storm and face it head on were those who had gained their strength within the storm.
‘F***ing... bastard! It’s all because of you!”
—booooom!—
Kael grit his teeth as he pushed Hansoo back more and more.
He had constantly been raising his strength for the day he would meet Hansoo.
He wasn’t dumb.
He realized that the strength gained through training—and not through something like the nursery—was the only true way of bing really powerful.
He’d realized that fighting in real life-threatening battles was the true way of bing powerful, so he’d roamed through the entire 4th area to hunt the beasts and absorb their strength.
This was why there were no powerful beasts within the entire 4th area.
Because he had devoured them all.
He had almost died a few times, but he’d been able to reach the 2nd star.
And he had constantly gathered energy into the Rangkom’s stake just in case.
And finally—
—he had met Hansoo.
The man who had turned Jang Oh into a mess and smashed apart the stage they’d been standing on.
The man whom he’d thought he could easily kill with this painstakingly-gained strength.
‘Why... why?!’
—boooom!—
Kael grit his teeth as he stared at Hansoo.
The reality was harsh.
His strength was not fake.
He had confirmed it after smashing everyone apart, including the transcendents.
He hadn’t cked off even after reaching the 2nd star, so he had been confident that he could beat Hansoo, even if Hansoo had be a 2 star.
But what was this?
What of the two years he’d spent training like a maniac?
Then—
—swoosh!—
The golden spear shed past the stake and smashed into his shoulder.
An attack much more fierce than his own.
“Ahhh!”
Kael screamed.
And the memories he had been suppressing slowly rose up.
Memories that had been locked away in case they might have been detrimental to his training.
He’d thought of the conversation he had with Jang Oh before his death.
He had beaten Jang Oh who had trained for over twenty years.
For someone who had only been in this zone for a year to be that strong, what would his life have been like?
And then he slowly thought back to the achievements this Hansoo guy had done in the past.
Achievements that he himself would fail even if he had ten lives.
‘...I see.’
Kael fell into despair.
He had been ignoring it until now.
No matter how hard he ran.
There was always someone who was soaring through the skies above him.
That just by simply trying his best didn’t mean he could beat everyone.
—crunch!—
As his resolution crumbled, more and more openings appeared.
And his opponent was not somebody who would miss such a thing.
Kael smiled as he felt Hansoo smash his body with his spear, breaking through his reinforcement.
He wasn’t enough.
But.
If he, the runner, was not enough.
He could just ask.
That person who was also soaring through the skies.
Kael closed his eyes and thought of thest conversation he’d had with Jang Oh.
‘Oh Mr. Jang Oh, this is the end for me. I have lost already. And... please help me. Clementine.’
The person who he’d idolized more than Jang Oh.
The moment he called out to the person who would be soaring through the skies far above them.
The voice of the fragment’s owner, Taehee, could be heard inside his mind.
And soon—
—kwaaaaadddududuk—
The soul fragment that had been hiding in the corners of his mind started to devour him up from inside.
..............................................
Above a mountain a bit to the west of the War Fortress.
—kiiiiing!—
A blue semi-shaped sphere, four meters in size, had been casted around four people, all of whom sat in the middle.
Two males and two females.
And one of the males, Taesang, looked at the couple in amusement.
‘...So these are Karhal and Ekidu, huh?’
A couple from the legendary era of the past.
The people that man had been searching so hard for.
But he could not figure out the identity of the other person.
This woman who stared into the distance, holding onto a il which reached down to her feet.
As Taesang looked in confusion at thisdy who had basically abducted him into this ce.
Thedy raised her eyebrows and mumbled:
“Huh? This isn’t good.”
“He was crazier than I thought...”
Ekidu, Karhal, and Taesang finally asked her the question they had been trying to figure out for so long.
“Who are you?”
The mysterious woman who had saved them.
Without the woman, they would’ve been swallowed alive.
Since they had seen how the monster hade searching for them while it hid its aura, and then moving away after failing to find them.
‘...How does she know how to use that anyway?’
The il in the woman’s hands.
The woman had been using the energy of the mana node with proficiency, which was why they’d been able to watch over the situation from rtive safety.
This barrier seemed to disrupt that monster’s senses.
Of course, they still couldn’t approach the monster.
The woman pondered for a moment and then spoke.
“Hmm...just call me Athena for now. I’ll tell youter.”
It was childish.
But she really liked that name.
“...You’re thest of the twelve? But why are you helping us?”
Athena smiled at the suspicion in Karhal’s words.
“Because it is now time to move.”
Athena muttered as she looked towards the War Fortress in the distance.