Counterattack (1)
Once you've seen Hain Al Gul's true form, you won't be fooled by it a second time.
No matter how beautiful a guise he—or she—takes.
Unless it was someone like Asmodeus, the pinnacle of mental assaults, even the Prison of Illusions wouldn't snag you twice.
It was tantamount to sealing away Hain's most powerful weapon.
"How dare you filthy wretches!!"
At the enraged roar laced with fury, manticores came pouring out from deep within the castle.
Enormous adult specimens—at least four or five of them, by the look of it.
Hain bellowed in a rage, but the bastard was running on fumes now.
His greatest asset, the Death Knight, was gone, leaving only brainless bug monsters and manticores that had survived by sheer dumb luck.
Jeonghyeon's party was seizing the advantage.
"Everyone's faced manticores before, right?"
"Yeah!"
"Of course."
"Let's get to it!"
Junseok's absence was felt, but they could still handle this.
Thanks to Jeonghyeon fully unleashing Uldran's mana, the lesser undead couldn't even get close—and that breathing room let Jeonghu focus solely on the manticores.
Philip was massacring the hordes charging like it was a tower defense game, while Nus put up a solid fight even merged into a zombie's body.
"Ugh... this is me..?!"
The zombie swung its fist as Nus willed it, like it had lost control of its own body.
Shwaaak!
Nus's form stretched long toward wherever the zombie's fist flew, sucking up the undeads' mana.
"Reach out, you little shit!"
At Nus's urging, the zombie thrust its hand into empty air, unwittingly unleashing mana it had probably never tapped in life.
Kieeeek!
It nailed the Death Knight's true body dead-on as it sought a new host.
From afar, the battlefield looked like pure pandemonium—but Jeonghyeon's party held firm at its center, methodically slaughtering foes from their positions.
"No way..."
Panicked, Hain could only watch in horror as her spawn dropped one by one from a distance.
Her legion, the plague incarnate that no one could touch, was being swept away so pathetically.
Over half were already gone.
"No...! No!!"
Hain's screams reached even Jeonghyeon's ears. He was startled by the voice.
'That pain-in-the-ass Hain Al Gul acting like this?'
They'd grown this strong already.
It made him think they might actually stand a chance against Malekith's legion commanders before long.
And the stronger Jeonghyeon got, the weaker Malekith became.
If his commanders were on Hain's level, ending them before fully maturing could spell real hope.
With momentum on their side, Jeonghyeon's party began advancing on Hain—slowly, steadily.
"Damn it...!"
Hain tried to hide her body and flee somewhere else, but—
"Not happening!"
Jeonghyeon singled out Hain with a King's Decree.
"Kuh!"
Her mana bound, Hain couldn't escape the area.
"You filthy wretches!!"
Opting for all-out war, Hain unleashed every ounce of hidden mana.
A colossal poison cloud erupted from her entire body, cascading down on Jeonghyeon's group like a torrent.
It was called a cloud, but the mana packed in it rivaled a breath attack.
"Garibaldi! Nus!"
Jeonghyeon released the King's Decree and called Nus to erect a barrier.
They loaded all the absorbed Ignirn mana into the vast shield Nus spread wide.
"Hrah!!"
Garibaldi layered on his own mana and set it ablaze.
Fwoosh—! Roarrr!!
The barrier, now a blazing inferno, was just small enough to cover the group—but big enough to hold off the massive poison fog.
Fsssh.
Hain's poison hit the shield and burned away into oxide.
"Jeonghyeon! The barrier...!"
"I know...!"
Where Philip pointed, Death Knights and dullahans were hurling themselves at the shield, heedless of their own destruction.
As one burned up, another undead followed right behind.
Suicide attacks, using their bodies as battering rams to breach the barrier.
Ignirn's mana wasn't infinite—there had to be a limit.
"Damn it...! If this breaks, we're all fucked! Think of something!"
Back to his usual snarky tone now that the decree had lifted, Nus strained to hold the barrier—but even combined with Jeonghyeon's mana, their foe was a Demon King.
The poison cloud gnawed at the shield's exterior, while undead exploited any flicker in the flames to claw through.
"No good ideas?!"
Garibaldi, at the front facing the breath onslaught, kept conjuring flames to burn it back—but cold sweat beaded on his brow as his mana dwindled.
"Shit...!"
A headache started pounding.
Mana at its limit, and if that gap shattered...
The undead wouldn't even be the problem.
This toxic fog would devour them in seconds...
'Then we're done for...!'
Jeonghyeon squeezed his eyes shut.
Dredging up memories from the past.
'Poison breath is near impossible to beat head-on... So what else?!'
'Reinforcing the barrier won't cut it. Not in range for chain strikes either.'
'Mind domination with Uldran's mana? Against these...? Ah!'
Jeonghyeon's eyes snapped open.
"Uldran...! Uldran!"
He who had inherited the Mind Dragon Uldran's power.
"Garibaldi! Jeonghu! Can you punch through that breath and clear a path to Hain?!"
"Wha...t?"
"Philip, hold the rear!"
"Got it! I'll do it!"
Philip turned his back to Jeonghyeon, channeling mana into his mace.
"We have to make it. One second—no, 0.1 seconds is enough. Just get me eyes on Hain!"
Jeonghyeon poured his remaining mana into the Domination Circlet.
Garibaldi had asked for options, but he surely hadn't expected this.
Garibaldi swallowed dryly.
"We'll punch through somehow."
"I'll... do it too...!"
Quick-on-the-uptake Nus nodded on his own, and everyone tensed, sharpening their focus.
The barrier teetered on the verge of melting any second.
"Now!"
They cracked open just the front sliver of the shield.
"Haaap!!"
Garibaldi swung his sword with every last drop of strength.
Boom!!
Ignirn's explosive flame particles blasted forward, searing through the poison cloud.
"Burst!!"
Garibaldi clenched his fist, detonating it and carving a momentary path.
"Storm Dragon Fist... One Strike!!"
Jeonghu rocketed through the gap at blinding speed, praying it'd reach as he loaded every ounce of Ignirn's mana into his ultimate blow.
"One Strike!!!"
Pang—!
His fist spewed a straight-line flame, punching the cloud once more.
It all happened in a few heartbeats.
Krunch!!
The rear shield shattered right then.
"Now...! Philip! You got this...!"
Do or die.
In these desperate straits, the Soul of the Mountain always pulled through for Philip.
Via the Value Proof skill.
"Chain Strike!!"
Philip slammed down with all his might, tendons straining to snap—and a colossal boom erupted from the mace's tip.
No need for Ignirn mana additives.
Pure accumulated power from every swing Philip had ever made, unleashed in one devastating burst.
The overwhelming lethality of Value Proof, amplified by Chain Strike as always, cratered the ground like a cliffside shear.
In that split-second of Hain reeling from the unprecedented force.
Through the parting poison fog, Hain's eyes met Jeonghyeon's.
"Nice to meet you."
No need to charge or draw a blade.
He maxed out Uldran's mana and locked eyes.
"Who the hell are you, you bastard?"
The primer for a mental assault: "Who are you?"
As she'd wormed into Jeonghyeon's mind with those words, now he shook Hain Al Gul's psyche with the same.
Subspace Deployment
Instinctively mastered the skill's usage.
Mind Dragon Uldran's power can now be drawn out further.
A space of pitch-black void.
'This is... the inner world?'
Jeonghyeon had only ever had his own invaded before—he'd never stepped into someone else's.
"How dare you barge into my...!"
Before him stood a girl with stark white hair contrasting her dusky skin.
"Hain... so your true form's a girl?"
"Shut your mouth!!"
First time invading someone's psyche, yet Jeonghyeon somehow knew exactly how to handle it.
'Thanks to Uldran, huh.'
He was already behind Hain as she swung at him.
"!?"
"Mental attacks aren't your exclusive trick."
"How, you mere human...?"
"Looks like you're human too. From the Andellia Kingdom, right?"
Jeonghyeon smirked and snapped his fingers.
The inky blackness morphed into a massive palace over a desert.
Andellia Kingdom, before its fall.
"So this is Andellia Kingdom."
Pulled straight from Hain's memories—it had to be accurate.
"Get out of my memories!"
"Oh."
A mental assault specialist, as expected. Hain twisted her own space in an instant.
Undead soldiers began spawning from every corner of the illusory Andellia palace.
Crunch. Creak.
"You corrupted this place first... meaning everyone here was 'human' originally, right?"
Jeonghyeon mercilessly cleaved the charging undead.
"What are you fighting for?"
An out-of-left-field question.
Hain just glared, visibly rattled.
"I'm fighting for humans. Korean, American, or..."
Jeonghyeon's Blood Dissector gleamed with overlaid Demon King mana.
His right eye glowed red.
"...Afraksans."