Chapter 58
Chapter 58
Chapter 58
The Ten Alliance (3)
The mysterious old man's clothes were completely torn by the ice blades, and dozens of bloody marks remained on his skin.
Nevertheless, the mysterious old man gritted his teeth and approached the Witch.
The moment hidden swords protruded from both his sleeves, aiming for the Witch's neck.
Kwang!
I also rose to the Witch's side and kicked the mysterious old man's chest.
The mysterious old man lost his balance and plummeted toward the ground.
But the feeling on my foot was strange.
'He has a shield.'
Just before touching his chest, there was definitely a feeling of breaking through something.
I descended to the ground and looked at the Witch.
The Witch nodded. She, too, had noticed the shield.
'He wouldn't rush at the Witch without any preparation.'
Strictly speaking, the mysterious old man had the same shield as me. It meant a mage had intervened.
"Huu."
The mysterious old man who had fallen to the ground rose up again. In the meantime, the Witch also descended beside me.
"A Demonic Swordsman."
A magic formation emitting light appeared all over the mysterious old man's body.
The complex patterns were drawn even on his neck and face, giving off an eerie feeling.
"We have to kill them all."
The Witch skipped the process and stated the conclusion first.
"Why?"
"Kisan and Roltui. The mage who researched Chimeras and the mage who researched magic formations. Right now, that human has both characteristics."
"Obviously, they were killed by you?"
"Right."
"Then that explains why this guy came here."
"He probably tried to form an alliance. If guys like that become Demonic Swordsmen, it becomes troublesome."
I wanted to hear more explanations about Chimeras and Demonic Swordsmen, but there was no time for that.
Because the mysterious old man, who had revealed his true form, moved again.
"We have to kill him."
I nodded and ran toward the mysterious old man.
The eyes of the mysterious old man, who was rapidly approaching, were dyed red. His muscles were swelling as if about to burst, and a powerful killing intent was felt.
'He's not normal.'
His palm technique and my palm technique clashed.
Kwagwang!
An explosion erupted, and our palms met.
Instantly, sparks arose between our palms and attacked my body.
'Shield.'
I hurriedly deployed my shield to block the sparks.
'How......'
Not only magic, but the opponent also didn't get pushed back in the internal energy confrontation and stood firm in place.
But after a moment, flesh burst from his back.
He had endured with his hands, but couldn't withstand the internal energy that had entered through his body.
It was definitely a fatal wound.
Yet the opponent, undeterred, turned his body and kicked my side with a leg technique.
Kwang!
Since it was an attack that followed immediately after the internal energy palm technique confrontation, I couldn't dodge it. I protected my body with the shield and Ganggi to prevent bones from breaking, but was pushed back 5 meters.
The mysterious old man didn't stop at this and ran toward me again.
Instantly, frost formed on his body.
"Finish it!"
I pulled my internal energy to the extreme.
The mysterious old man simultaneously deployed his sword and hidden swords, rushing in while aiming for vital points.
I didn't dodge and met him head-on.
I created Strong Fists with both hands, and the moment the opponent's hidden swords approached, I bent my body and deployed Dragon Ascension.
Tuk.
I passed by his body. The Strong Fist precisely cut his side in half.
Yet the mysterious old man still showed his fighting spirit and turned his body. Thick blood was pouring from his side.
I didn't attack him anymore.
Because thick frost was burrowing into his wound.
The mysterious old man's body was instantly eroded by ice. And at the last moment, the ice shattered into pieces.
The mysterious old man's corpse was also torn into dozens of pieces, each contained in ice.
"Tsk."
I also had wounds on my shoulder and side. The shoulder was fine, but the side was cut quite deeply.
The hidden sword had tracked me to the end and cut me as it passed by.
Even though it was a technique combining Blood Shadow Step and Dragon Ascension, the hidden sword had followed.
"He was a Berserker."
The Witch explained the mysterious old man's condition to me.
When engraving the shield on my body, I had heard that term.
A magic that draws out abilities to the extreme but destroys the mind.
"Demonic Swordsman."
That term felt quite heavy.
"We have to deal with the other guys too."
As I shifted my gaze along with the Witch, someone was standing between the Ten Alliance members and us.
"Kkilkkil."
He was an old man with a hunched back and a face full of age spots.
Every time he laughed as if amused, his rotten teeth were fully exposed.
Disliking that face, I tried to run, but my body became heavy as if something was pressing down.
Syuuk!
A giant magic formation with a 50-meter diameter appeared around me.
The light of the magic formation swallowed not only me but also the Witch in the air.
Kung!
When I barely took one step forward, my foot was deeply embedded in the dirt. An enormous weight was felt.
Meanwhile, I saw another emaciated, tall figure in a black robe conversing with the Ten Alliance.
Their atmosphere was quite serious.
I raised my head. Even this was not easy due to the weight.
When the Witch felt the weight, she didn't resist and descended to the ground.
"Can you break it?"
"1 minute. It's a quite elaborate magic formation."
It seemed they had aimed for this position from the start. The mysterious old man had served as bait for this.
The ground began to freeze with the Witch at the center.
"Those guys made some agreement. Hurry."
The Witch only closed her eyes with no answer.
Then at some point, ice fragments shot up into the sky from the ground.
The weight that had been binding my body also disappeared simultaneously.
I tried to rush out immediately, but blood poured from my side.
'Damn it.'
There was no time to hesitate.
But something blocked the way ahead. It was walls of magic rising layer upon layer.
I passed through while breaking them with force.
At that moment, the Ten Alliance began moving somewhere.
The Witch also realized the situation and poured a blizzard toward them. Then the tall figure turned his body and spread his robe wide.
The robe spread like a cloak shot up into the sky and created a giant curtain.
The blizzard was blocked by the curtain, and all movements of the Ten Alliance were also hidden.
'How annoying!'
Wind Dragon Palm.
I punched holes through all the walls blocking the front. Then the wound on my side noticeably widened.
Ignoring this, I rushed at the hunchbacked old man.
But he was already seeping into the magic formation spread around him.
Missing the guy who completely disappeared into the ground, I ran toward the curtain.
I completely split the curtain from bottom to top with a Strong Fist.
The Witch passed through the curtain in the meantime and chased the tall figure. But at some point, the Witch stopped all actions.
All that remained was the magic formation that had lost its light.
"We missed them."
300 members of the Ten Alliance.
They had all disappeared.
'Damn it!'
I had dealt with the mysterious old man who had been on my mind, and the Ten Alliance had fled with their tails between their legs in front of everyone.
However, I wasn't pleased with the result at all.
After returning to Korea, I immediately received treatment. There were no major wounds aside from the cut flesh.
The news repeatedly played the same footage all day long.
It was scenes of the Witch and me fighting against those guys.
The movie-like scenes were broadcast non-stop for several days, and they conveyed the message that the Ten Alliance had been driven away by the Heavenly Demon Cult.
Due to this, the Heavenly Demon Cult's status soared to the sky, but the internal situation was serious.
The Witch didn't come out of the research lab for several days.
She recovered the mysterious old man's corpse and studied the magic formation engraved by the opposing mage.
The Witch, who came out of the research lab after three days, informed us of the results.
"Magic formations were engraved throughout the entire muscle tissue. The lower body muscles weren't perfect because they were experimental, but the upper body muscles had developed quite a lot. It's a combination of Chimera and magic formation power."
The conclusion of this difficult explanation was simple.
"Chimeras with engraved magic formations will appear."
The Witch explained in detail so we could understand.
"Chimera is a field related to bodily transformation and synthesis. They combine muscles or tissues of different life forms, or separate only the brain and synthesize it with the body. They mainly create Chimeras by combining monsters, but there are many who use humans."
It's creating new life forms.
"Magic formation research is a field many mages study. The first reason for using magic formations is for permanent manifestation of magic, and the second is for immediate activation."
She added various explanations as she had deep knowledge about magic formations.
"What I can do on the human body is limited to what I engraved on you guys. I can't do more than that either."
"It's not your specialty, right?"
Magic was so vast that there were guys who focused intensively on just one type.
"I don't know much about Chimeras either. I just know the theory."
Chimera magic was a field ostracized even in that world. Therefore, most were subjugated or treated as criminals.
Nevertheless, mages researching Chimeras started from the desire to become gods.
The birth of new life forms.
In fact, this started from alchemy.
"The highest of alchemy isn't turning iron into gold. It's creating new life."
It's said that there were actually mages who succeeded in this, but it was just a rumor.
Anyway, as that field expanded to Chimeras, it reached the point of synthesizing various life forms.
When research materials expanded even to humans, the Empire prohibited this, and mages were either executed or fled to remote places to avoid the law.
"There are many crazy bastards."
After hearing the Witch's explanation, I felt even more uneasy.
"So those guys just obtained 300 experimental materials, right?"
"With that much, the experiment could become perfect."
"Guys stronger than the mysterious old man will appear, right?"
"Probably."
While I was seriously thinking about this, I saw eyes that didn't match the mood.
Sparkling eyes.
It's So Iryeon.
"Hey, So Iryeon. Do you like this?"
"There are lots of strong guys."
She answered without hiding it.
"Don't you see the situation is serious?"
Contrary to my expectation, So Iryeon had an expression saying she didn't know.
She observed other people's expressions besides mine, then tilted her head.
"Why is everyone so serious?"
My head hurt again. But So Iryeon spoke confidently.
"It wasn't like this in the previous life."
"Back then, I was stronger than now."
"Cult Leader, did you only fight battles you seemed certain to win? I don't have such memories."
Everyone's gaze turned toward So Iryeon.
"Only the Cult Leader was the strongest; we always fought risking our lives. It was a succession of battles not knowing when we'd die, and we eventually died. Compared to then, isn't now rather easier?"
I was speechless.
Back then, we fought against the entire Murim. As she said, in the early days of the Heavenly Demon Cult, there was no day when wounds disappeared from the Protectors' bodies.
"Did I do something wrong?"
So Iryeon immediately stuck out her lower lip and read the atmosphere.
"It's my mistake."
I stated the fact.
"So Iryeon, you said the right answer. Yes, there's no need to be serious. If there are strong guys, we just need to suppress them."
"That's right, isn't it?"
"Yes. I learned something from you."
"Then Cult Leader."
So Iryeon's eyes brightened again.
"Let's have a match with me."
"Is that all that's in your head?"
"I like that the most."
I felt the gazes of others. Even Jimun Seo-saeng subtly nodded.
It was an unavoidable situation.
"Fine. But I won't go easy."
"Of course! I haven't been idle either."
So Iryeon jumped up while shouting hurray, and I prepared for the sparring match while sighing.
The sparring match proceeded deep in the mountains.
"Why did you follow?"
It's the Witch again.
"To watch."
"Is sparring a spectacle?"
"To figure you out. That way you won't act cocky toward me later."
She stated her intention quite openly.
"Do as you please."
The Witch sat down side by side with Jimun Seo-saeng.
"Cult Leader! Be careful!"
As always, So Iryeon started the sparring match simultaneously with facing each other. I too didn't want useless greetings.
'I need to fix her habits a bit.'
While having that thought, So Iryeon had already approached within close range.