Chapter 98
Chapter 98
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 98
Chapter Title: Brown Beard's Fury
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The inner castle was rigged with countless traps designed to counter intruders.
Traps that unleashed spears and swords forged from rare metals only found in the demon world were everywhere.
Pssht!
Poisoned arrows.
Bang!
Bullets rained down on Go Yohan.
The Drvergs hiding nearby watched, holding their breath.
Gulp.
They swallowed dryly as they stared at the smoke.
“……!”
But soon they recoiled in horror.
These were traps crafted on the orders of an archdemon himself.
They had been designed with at least an archdemon in mind as the target.
Naturally, a few of them succeeded in wounding Go Yohan.
Drip, drip.
Special bullets infused with rare metals and demonic energy even pierced and embedded themselves in his flesh.
Go Yohan, bleeding from his wounds.
Ssssh.
Walked forward, all his injuries healing.
“Uwaaaagh!”
It was so terrifying no further explanation was needed.
Yet there was nowhere left to run.
Drvergs wielding hammers and axes charged at Go Yohan.
But the moment Go Yohan's hand moved.
Crunch.
They could only stare blankly downward at their own guts spilling out.
Dwarves were innately renowned as master smiths.
But overshadowed by that fame was their true nature as warriors.
“Dieee!”
From the start, the dwarves' weapons had advanced because of their burning desire to wield them better than anyone.
They knew no retreat.
Gulp, gulp.
And when fear struck, they chugged beer until drunk before fighting.
Of course, what they were gulping down now was not the honey mead the dwarves of Travania had drunk.
Boom!
Something unknown, not even proper alcohol.
From eyes stained red and skin growing even darker crimson.
Roooar!
They drew forth strength beyond their limits.
Hummm!
And power from their weapons far exceeding their normal capacity as they charged at Go Yohan.
“I.”
At that moment, Go Yohan grabbed one Drvergs by the throat and spoke.
“Don’t understand you all.”
It was sincere.
“With that kind of will and power, why did you submit to the demons?”
They should have fought to the end.
Crunch!
But the Drvergs' head who should have answered exploded into pieces.
“I.”
Go Yohan spoke again.
“Can’t comprehend it.”
Everything he had encountered on his way here were centaurs, Drvergs, and golems.
The archdemon Baratkgone had said he had seized their souls and corrupted them all.
Even so, it was hard to accept that all demons were just made up of Drvergs.
Something.
Ripple.
He sensed there was something he didn’t know.
Boom!
And soon enough, he would find out.
The explosion bursting open ahead of him wasn’t his doing.
That ongoing commotion from earlier.
Booom!
Was the work of someone else, not him.
“The dwarves are escaping!”
It came from something that hadn’t fully fallen to corruption.
And seizing the opening Go Yohan had created, they— who had waited endlessly for this moment— rushed out.
They were different from the Drvergs.
Brown skin, beards of various colors, eyes burning like fire.
Gulp! Gulp!
The drink they poured into their mouths.
“Liberation!”
Was unmistakably honey mead.
*
*
*
The dwarves who revealed themselves were in a pitiable state.
Once boasting short but sturdy muscles, they were now withered husks, no different from dwarf skeletons.
Even for dwarves who called wild beards the mark of true men, those dragging beards scraping the floor could only be described generously as burnt ropes— nothing else fit.
Boom!
They went utterly berserk, hunting down the Drvergs.
Bolts from crossbows and swung axes.
Crack!
Pierced Drvergs' chests and shattered their skulls.
Impressive even for demons whose horns hadn’t properly formed.
Moreover.
“…….”
The reason Go Yohan watched them with deep eyes.
Crunch! Crack!
Was that the Drvergs split and shattered by axes were vanishing.
Demons couldn’t be killed.
But what had enabled these dwarves to slay demons?
At that moment.
Pssht!
Go Yohan caught an incoming bolt.
“…….”
The surviving Drvergs around had already been wiped out, and the dwarves who did it now stared at him.
Flinch.
He felt another tremor.
“…What the hell is that monster.”
At the front of the dwarves, one with a fierce scar etched across his face spoke.
“…Damn it, I thought this was our chance to escape.”
He could feel the grip on the axe tighten.
“Was this an execution after all?”
“Seems like it, Steel.”
“Not Steel! It’s Orharcon!”
Amid their mad cries, the dwarves.
Slowly, slowly.
Carefully maneuvered to surround Go Yohan.
“We’re all gonna die, huh?”
“You joking?”
“But… why does he look familiar?”
They must have thought Go Yohan couldn’t understand dwarven tongue.
“What are you?”
Finally, Go Yohan opened his mouth.
“……!”
The dwarves looked flustered.
Because Go Yohan had spoken the tongue of the Travania dwarves.
“How do you know dwarven speech?”
“Where is Iron Hammer.”
At Go Yohan’s question.
Pew pew pew pew pew!
Bolts poured down on him.
[Space Lock]
But they collided with an invisible thin barrier and vanished outright.
“……!”
He sensed the dwarves’ confusion and fear.
“I am not your enemy.”
“…….”
“I seek Iron Hammer— is he not with you?”
The great king of the Travania dwarves.
He thought they would know.
“Shut your mouth—!”
Steel— or Orharcon as he was called— shouted, his beard quivering.
“How dare you speak of seeking our clan’s traitor and claim not to be our enemy!”
“……?”
“What in the hells are you!”
Dwarves possessed a special ability too.
That ability was what made them the greatest smiths.
The power to glimpse the essence of materials.
The power to sense their grain.
It was similar to Go Yohan’s divine sight.
Except theirs was inferior and degraded beyond comparison.
If Go Yohan’s sight pierced 4 dimensions beyond 3D space, their Steel Soul glimpsed only a fragment of 1D.
But some among them were exceptional.
Those who hammered steel, resonated with flames, and grasped its essence.
They were the ones who truly awakened the Steel Soul.
“…You!”
In dwarf history, only three had reached that realm.
The Will of Steel was the name of that power.
The ability where those who glimpsed mere fragments of 1D finally comprehended a full dimension.
“I.”
Go Yohan said toward them.
“Am Michael, the great holy knight and noble paladin….”
“You mad bastard!”
“The goddess’s knight…. What did he say?”
*
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“That silver-white hair! Sky-blue eyes!”
The leader of the escaped dwarves was once called Brown Beard.
“Through all history, only one human had those colors!”
Trapped in Baratkgone’s grasp, it had been decades since he last hammered freely.
Forced only to smith, he had finally awakened his Will of Steel.
And he.
“I am Brown Beard!”
In the past, the seven clan chiefs who served the dwarf great king, called kings themselves.
Brown Beard was one of them.
“I’ve… seen you exactly once.”
At Brown Beard’s words, the dwarves caught on and widened their eyes.
“N-No way….”
“Yeah! That madman…!”
They lowered their crossbows and dropped their axes.
“A color impossible to forget.”
Brown Beard approached Go Yohan, gazing at him.
“I tried to capture that subtle sheen and luster. But it was a color impossible to imitate. One unique shade in the entire world.”
Even then, Brown Beard’s Steel Soul had reached the pinnacle.
He was even in the running to succeed the dwarf great king, Iron Hammer.
“Even in this goblin-shit hole, it appeared in my dreams. Unforgettable.”
And then.
Pssht!
He swung his axe at Go Yohan.
A strike aimed squarely at his heart, without the slightest hesitation.
Boom!
But the axe was caught in Go Yohan’s hand.
“What are you….”
That was when.
Smirk.
A smile crept across Brown Beard’s lips.
“Prepared to kill Iron Hammer, but you’ll do just fine!”
In slowed time.
Pop!
He felt small bead-like orbs on the axe’s opposite side burst.
Empowered thus, the axe.
Vroooom!
Pushed forward, transcending even Go Yohan’s slowed time.
It was only the beginning.
Pop! Pop!
Two more beads burst, granting the axe immense propulsion.
Could one grasp it if a rocket’s thrust to launch into space dwelled in this tiny axe?
Crunch!
That sheer unexpectedness shook off even Go Yohan’s grip and buried itself in his chest.
“Why!”
In returned time, Brown Beard bellowed.
“Why has even a mad bastard like you lost that eternal color—!”
It was a scream.
“Whyyyyyy!”
No one knew how long Brown Beard and the dwarves had been imprisoned here.
But judging by their beard lengths, at least decades of smithing for demons.
Could they have stayed sane?
No, they had gone fully mad.
Eyes brimming with madness, beards trembling wildly.
“Why has that color faded! You lunatic!”
Brown Beard wailed.
As if his last hoped-for glimmer had shattered.
That instant.
Scraaape!
Something interfered in their world, sparking flames.
“Captain… stay back from that lunatic…!”
Lee Jaekyung appeared, drenched in blood, and shouted.