Chapter 98
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 98
Chapter Title: The Ninth Apostle
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“Ugh, why won’t my attacks... go through?”
Duelist Apostle Wayne Zhao spat out black smoke.
His entire body charred pitch-black.
On his shoulder was the mark of the Vajra Strike imprinted by Soma.
“Why won’t they work, no matter how much I hit him!”
He’d drawn the short straw.
Wayne Zhao’s specialty was 20 strikes per second.
A super-rapid barrage concentrating firepower in an instant.
Combined with his S++ grade skill Twin Fist Acceleration and his demonic power of triple speed boost, no one could withstand it.
First strike wins. Once the fist connects, it’s over.
But there was a skill that nullified all attacks.
‘Vajra Indestructibility’
For those 8 seconds it was active.
No attack could touch Soma.
A giant blotting out the sunlight.
Soma pulled out a pair of handcuffs.
Wayne Zhao scowled.
“Fuck! Just arrest me already? Do whatever the hell you want!”
“Do you... enjoy the fight?”
“Enjoy it?”
Wayne Zhao let out a mocking laugh.
“You call that a question, you moron? Smashing that kid’s skull with a dragon awl earlier? That was fucking exquisite! Whoosh! Crushing both his guts and head in 0.1 seconds flat—you wouldn’t get it.”
He raised both hands.
“Ah, whatever. Fine. Hurry up and cuff me. You’ve got your hands full with all these beasts crawling around anyway. Go do your damn job.”
“I... don’t enjoy fighting.”
Soma raised a hand the size of a pot lid.
“Do you think... you have any value left in living?”
“Huh, what?”
Crunch.
[Duelist Apostle Wayne Zhao has died.]
[Angel Realm Achievement ‘Apostle Extermination’ achieved!]
[Achievement rate 7%! Sequential reward: 7 blue coins granted!]
A few blue coins tumbled from his crushed mouth.
The Giant Apostle Surtr, who had been spewing flames from the bell tower.
Frowned.
“Imir told me to come help, but this won’t do.”
Unique cities were advancing from all sides, and the cultists were suffering repeated defeats contrary to expectations.
It was a perfect four-way siege.
Surtr, the temporary mercenary of Giant City Titanomachy, had no reason to throw his life away here.
He crushed a coin from his pocket.
[Craft Skill Coin ‘Eurotas’ Wind’ activated]
[Avatar, East Wind Giant Eurotas’ power explodes!]
An enormous gust surged from behind Surtr.
Combined with his specialty explosion, Surtr’s body rocketed out of the city in one go.
And a skilled landing.
Below the city stretched a perfect barren plain.
In a wasteland devoid of any life, a moving object would stand out.
Even so, it was easier to escape than from inside the city.
They wouldn’t scatter forces everywhere just to catch one guy.
“I’ll have to tell Imir he did something pointless.”
Surtr vanished into the sandstorm.
“He escaped.”
Soma watched his figure from afar.
“Squeak! Squeak!”
Beastmen with leopard bodies and spearhead heads were bound in glowing strings.
Telekinetic strings made by Ha Yeonsi.
“Sorry.”
“Squeeeak!!”
In a tone that didn’t sound sorry at all, she clenched her fist.
The strings tightened, quartering the leopard beasts.
“Kwerrrlele!”
“Gwi-merrrida! Give us mercy...”
“Enough.”
With a light gesture.
Dozens of red goblins preparing to hurl stones burrowed into the ground.
In succession, wyverns dominating the skies, iron-armored rhinos smashing building walls—all twisted in parts and rolled across the ground.
She said to Soma.
“There are... too many beast summoning circles.”
“That building...”
Soma pointed at one building with his hand.
“The basement of that building. Isn’t that where we destroyed a summoning circle last time?”
“Oh!”
Ha Yeonsi remembered too.
Ten days ago, the building where the black knights and necromancers had drawn a summoning circle.
Wings unfurled fiercely from her back.
[Angel’s Single Wing activated, High-Speed Flight (A++)!]
She blasted off with powerful air currents.
Yeonsi flew straight to the building.
Bursting through the first-floor ground, she arrived at the basement.
Corpses of the black knights they’d arrested before lay scattered.
The walls were inscribed with new magic circles in entrails and fresh blood.
“What the hell...?”
A voice flashed through Ha Yeonsi’s mind.
‘Beast summoning circles? I know them better than anyone.’
Ten days ago, the man who stayed behind to handle the aftermath.
Someone who knew the contractors and necromancers better than anyone—and hated them more.
“No way?”
Demon hunter Sanchez.
He’d vanished without a trace a few days ago.
She’d told Ju Gonghyeok, but he’d said, ‘Don’t worry about it.’
She’d assumed he was off handling her brother’s affairs somewhere.
“Why...?”
A question occasionally raised by others.
The gate guard captain, merely a mid-level manager.
How had he massacred an entire city’s demon contractors overnight?
How had he become a powerhouse untouchable except by the First Apostle, Isaac Jerolbane?
Boom!
Ha Yeonsi shot out of the building and landed in front of Soma.
“Soma, how many apostles have we taken down!”
“One arrested, one escaped, and the one I just killed—total of three.”
Ha Yeonsi counted on her fingers.
“Oppa said nine apostles joined the company in total.
Five went underground, and we’ve handled three...”
Still eight.
One short.
Soma’s face hardened.
“One short, but maybe he wasn’t counting the already dead Isaac Jerolbane?”
“No. Oppa doesn’t count the dead. Which means...”
An inexplicable certainty bloomed in Ha Yeonsi.
The ninth apostle was Sanchez. Him.
She suddenly asked Soma.
“Soma. You said you guarded the Dalai Lama, even throwing yourself into war zones and armed struggles?”
“Mm.”
“Sorry if it’s hard to recall. But just once... can I ask?”
She swallowed.
“If it were you back then, who would you go after first right now?”
An unexpected question.
Soma paused in surprise, then pondered deeply.
“Tactics depend entirely on premises. Our perspective versus theirs, our intel versus theirs—everything differs.”
“Go on.”
“But if it were me...”
Soma spoke gravely.
“I’d target the company chairman, but since everything about him is top secret—effectively the number one, the Executive Director of External Affairs.”
“The Executive Director?”
“The chairman’s safe but lacks charisma, so the Executive Director handles most external affairs and operations. Huge symbolic value, and it could fracture the company.”
Yeonsi looked toward company HQ.
‘What do I do?’
The Executive Director wasn’t at HQ now.
All executives had evacuated to a secret bunker.
Plus...
‘Oppa knew.’
Sanchez vanished without a word.
Yet he’d told her not to worry.
‘Sanchez drawing summoning circles in secret, heading off for an assassination...’
Ju Gonghyeok had tacitly approved it.
Yeonsi clutched her head and bowed.
“What do I do? What should I do?”
Ju Gonghyeok had given her what amounted to a final warning.
Do whatever.
But stake your life on taking responsibility.
Instinctively, she knew.
This was wrong.
Someday, Ju Gonghyeok would regret this.
But with beasts lurking throughout the city.
She couldn’t just leave.
“Yeonsi. I saw what happened back there.”
Soma spoke to her as she agonized.
“Choose as your heart leads. I’ll handle the aftermath.”
Soma Sangai, vowing to make it work somehow with the other fixers.
Even if they gave their all.
Without her, the sacrifices would surely mount higher.
That’s why Gonghyeok had tasked her.
‘I’ll be watching, so do it right.’
Ha Yeonsi gripped her staff tightly.
‘If only I could use a clone like Oppa...’
Her wings fluttered once.
- Child.
- This is no place for you.
Yeonsi startled and looked at her wings.
Her avatar was speaking in a clear voice.
- So he won’t regret.
- You must choose.
[‘Angel □□□’ borrows the saint’s power.
- Saint Swidinborg gladly lends his strength.
- Unique skill ‘Spirit Transformation Astral Projection’ created.]
“Ah.”
The angel grasped Ha Yeonsi’s shoulder and lifted her.
Like shedding a shell, a translucent Ha Yeonsi was pulled from her body.
[Spirit and flesh separated successfully.]
[Astral projection applied.]
- Hurry and go. This place is mine now...
Ha Yeonsi felt her consciousness fade before hearing the rest.
‘Who... are you?’
The glowing mass she looked up at seemed to smile faintly.
“Yeonsi?”
Soma worried over her sudden silence.
Ha Yeonsi, head bowed deeply, slowly raised a hand.
“I’m... fine.”
She lifted her head, and a faint halo glowed around her.
Yeonsi had left her body, and a new presence dwelled within.
Her white wings vanished inward.
“Hmm~”
She took a deep breath, then flicked her finger upward.
Crunch.
“Squeak?”
Beasts hiding in the rubble floated into the air.
She pointed outward, and they rocketed like cannonballs beyond the company perimeter.
“Let’s handle the next ones. No time to sit around.”
Soma opened his mouth at the odd discomfort, then closed it.
It was her choice, after all.
She, in place of Ha Yeonsi, looked around.
A nostalgic sight.
“Been a while here too.”
She moved to the next street.
＊ ＊ ＊ ＊ ＊
A scapegoat is needed.
That’s what Sanchez thought.
The city he’d guarded. ‘Kingdom’.
A city eroded by contractors and necromancers until it vanished.
Kingdom’s upper echelons had taken small gains, blind to their terror.
The citizens just followed the city’s decisions without question.
Mafia and necromancers gradually overran back alleys, people vanishing bit by bit.
By the time the city’s masters realized the gravity, it was too late.
‘People still don’t get it. How terrifying they are.’
Even knowing necromancers lurked somewhere, they hushed it up.
Fearing costs and all-out war.
Claiming they were now part of the economy.
The citizens remained oblivious.
‘Need an example.’
Humanity needed to thoroughly oppose contractors outright.
An example was required.
Only then would everyone open their eyes.
So he’d prepared beast terror summoning circles across the company sites.
This was humanity’s warning.
Humanity must know necromancers lurked in shadows, plotting horrors.
‘Still not enough.’
They hid everywhere.
Lying in wait to threaten humanity’s survival, leading to eventual ruin.
Sanchez, hating them more than anyone, could never tolerate it.
= Grrr...
His avatar, Baskerville, let out a low growl.
Meaning the scent trail was complete.
An apostle who hated apostles.
Sanchez Pereira arrived before the secret chamber hiding the Executive Director.