Chapter 235
Chapter 235
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 235
Chapter Title: King of Chaos
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“Hmm.”
Seo Woo-jin’s brow furrowed slightly.
‘The impact feels weak.’
He had clearly kicked Beno square in the chest.
Yet the shock seemed far less than expected.
“Did he dodge it?”
It wasn’t a full-power strike, but he hadn’t anticipated Beno dodging it.
Of course, he couldn’t deflect all the force.
Otherwise, Beno wouldn’t have gone flying while vomiting blood.
Seo Woo-jin chased after him with a dissatisfied expression.
“Urgh...!”
The sound of Beno, who had seemed like he’d fly endlessly, finally stopping and groaning reached his ears.
“Attacking out of nowhere like that.”
He wiped the blood from his mouth and grimaced.
“You lack manners.”
Seo Woo-jin let out a hollow laugh at those words.
What manners were needed between those who must kill or be killed?
Deciding there was no need to listen to any more of Beno’s nonsense, Seo Woo-jin resolved to simply kill him.
But at that moment,
Whoooosh-!
Demonic energy erupted from Beno.
It was enormous.
Incomparable to any mere demonic beast.
‘As expected of an Apostle?’
But that was it.
Just like when he first saw him, Beno was indeed a bit weaker than the other Apostles he’d fought so far.
“Calm down first. I have no intention of fighting you.”
Beno spread his arms wide, as if to prove he truly had no will to fight.
A perfect defenseless stance.
‘What’s this?’
Seo Woo-jin frowned at the sight.
He couldn’t fathom what scheme Beno was up to.
‘No way he actually wants to talk?’
He couldn’t believe it.
To them, Seo Woo-jin was one of the enemies who absolutely had to be killed.
Yet Beno was acting this way, so there had to be some reason.
‘What should I do?’
Killing Beno would be easier than flipping his palm.
He’d unexpectedly deflected the earlier attack, but if Seo Woo-jin truly intended to kill him, it wouldn’t be impossible.
‘Maybe I’ll hear him out.’
He was a little curious about why Beno was risking his life to talk.
“If my words don’t sit well with you, you can strike me down then. It won’t be too late.”
At that moment, Beno helped make the decision.
“Fair enough.”
Seo Woo-jin nodded.
There was no downside either way.
No, more accurately, Beno posed no threat to Seo Woo-jin at all.
If the original Seo Woo-jin couldn’t beat him, there was no way he could handle Seo Woo-jin in Demon King Transformation.
“Alright, let’s hear it.”
After a brief moment of thought, Seo Woo-jin nodded.
‘I’ll satisfy my curiosity and then kill him.’
He couldn’t let an Apostle live.
Beno was no threat to him, but he was plenty dangerous to the other heroes.
It was best to reduce their numbers as much as possible while he could.
Extracting some information first wouldn’t hurt.
“Good choice.”
Beno smiled.
The blood at his mouth made it look quite eerie.
“Before we talk, let me ask one thing first.”
“What is it?”
“Do you know exactly what the ‘King of Chaos’ is?”
* * *
They were growing exhausted.
Not just the low-rank heroes—even the A-rank heroes could barely hold on by sticking together in groups.
‘Too many.’
It was on another level from fighting a hundred or two hundred.
The enemies grew stronger the more numerous they were, and with only thirty thousand to block, there were far too few heroes.
Just over seventy in total, so it was inevitable.
Most of the absent members were among the strongest heroes, to boot...
The heroes being pushed back was unavoidable.
Even Goo Dong-hwan, who had laughed as he entered the fray at the start, now looked visibly strained.
‘At this rate, we’re all done for.’
Injuries were starting to appear.
If Sung Yu-ra hadn’t gone berserk and died, those injuries could have been healed in an instant.
If Baek Si-woo hadn’t gone missing, the fight might have been much easier.
If even the injured heroes who had pulled out could rejoin properly, they could unleash firepower incomparable to now.
Everything felt like a regret.
And the biggest absence of all was, naturally,
“Where the hell are you, Woo-jin?”
Seo Woo-jin.
Even if Sung Yu-ra died, Baek Si-woo vanished, and twenty-four heroes were out...
As long as Seo Woo-jin was there, none of it mattered.
The Seo Woo-jin he knew was a man strong enough to laugh off a crisis like this.
Some might scoff at it as baseless confidence.
But anyone who had fought alongside Seo Woo-jin knew.
His true power was so overwhelming that even they couldn’t gauge it.
As exhaustion set in and wounds accumulated...
The void left by Seo Woo-jin loomed ever larger in Goo Dong-hwan’s mind.
“Summon!”
Suddenly, Kim Da-hye’s shout came from beside him.
Her voice sounded so weary she’d even forgotten her usual speech pattern.
Whoooosh-!
A bright light burst forth.
Goo Dong-hwan instinctively turned toward it.
Curious what she had ‘summoned,’ no doubt.
A missile capable of massacring countless Ancient Orcs?
A sniper weapon to support the heroes at key moments?
Whatever it was, he hoped it would help him and the other heroes.
But,
“Haha-”
What entered Goo Dong-hwan’s eyes was something entirely unexpected.
A dozen or so metallic suits straight out of a hero movie.
They offered decent defense against Ancient Orcs, but honestly, they weren’t all that useful to heroes.
Even so, Goo Dong-hwan smiled.
He knew exactly why Kim Da-hye had summoned them.
Shwoooosh-!
The metallic suits flew through the air, speeding toward those desperately fighting.
“Wh-what?”
The knights, including Rudain, voiced their confusion.
Three hundred had dwindled to just fourteen survivors.
Seeing the unidentified objects approaching, they panicked and swung their swords.
But the objects dodged the blades as if alive, then clung to their bodies.
“Hup!”
The knights squeezed their eyes shut, thinking they were under attack.
Even Rudain, a top-class knight, did the same.
He thought his end had come.
Yet no matter how long he waited, the expected pain never came.
Realizing something was off, Rudain opened his eyes.
“Hm...?”
Beyond his sharpened vision, he saw his subordinates.
But something was strange about their appearance.
The men who should have been in silver full plate mail were now clad in unfamiliar armor.
Rudain instinctively looked down at his own body.
He was the same as the others.
“What is this?”
It covered his entire body like armor, but he had no idea where it came from.
There was no time to ponder it deeply, though.
The Ancient Orcs’ attacks resumed.
“Block them for now!”
They were already on the defensive.
He could worry about it after surviving this crisis.
‘If I survive that long.’
Rudain was convinced he would die today.
The heroes might escape with minimal losses by banding together, but not them.
They would surely be buried alive among the horde of Ancient Orcs.
“I’ll take at least one more with me!”
Aura blazed to life.
With a serack-, his full-force sword strike cleaved through Ancient Orcs.
But exhaustion meant he couldn’t handle offense and defense perfectly at once.
A rusty sword slipped through the gap from his wide swing.
‘Ah!’
This was an unavoidable blow.
It would pierce his side and shatter his heart.
Rudain truly believed this was the end.
But...
Kaaang-!
The sword bounced off.
An attack that would pierce full plate mail effortlessly had been blocked by this strange armor.
Serack-!
He belatedly swung and decapitated the orc.
Rudain looked around in bewilderment.
Knights everywhere were having similar experiences.
The Ancient Orcs’ weapons couldn’t penetrate the armor.
Not even a scratch.
‘We can hold them off!’
Hope reignited in Rudain’s chest.
“Everyone, advance! Slaughter them all!”
With mana-infused roar from Rudain, the knights charged.
Now that they knew attacks wouldn’t work, there was no need to stay defensive.
The knights pushed back the Ancient Orcs with even greater ferocity than at the battle’s start.
But not everyone was filled with hope.
“Haa- haa-”
Rough breaths escaped Kim Da-hye’s lips.
Her remaining mana had been depleted by the recent ‘summon.’
Maintaining the metallic suits was draining it further.
She focused on recovery, but consumption outpaced replenishment.
Mana exhaustion was inevitable.
“...You okay?”
Lee Ji-ah caught the staggering Kim Da-hye, on the verge of collapse.
Blood-soaked, she looked at her friend with worry.
“I’m, f-fine......”
But Kim Da-hye couldn’t even respond properly.
“You pushed too hard.”
Goo Dong-hwan, who had approached unnoticed, supported her with a grim expression.
“If you’d used that mana for an attack......”
It could have swept away hundreds of Ancient Orcs.
But Kim Da-hye shook her head.
“Th-there, too ma-ny, knights dying....... Can’t let anymore.”
There was only one reason she’d pushed herself this far.
To protect the knights dying in droves.
She’d done her utmost for them, but alone, she couldn’t save them all.
In the end, she’d forcibly summoned the still-imperfect metallic suits.
To save at least those who remained.
Lee Ji-ah sighed at the sight.
It seemed so foolish.
But she couldn’t say anything.
She knew exactly what her friend was thinking.
All Lee Ji-ah could do was worry.
“Let’s guard this spot for now.”
Goo Dong-hwan pulled Kim Da-hye behind him.
She was combat-incapable now.
He couldn’t leave her alone like this.
“I’ll gather the others.”
If those who’d fought together gathered, they could easily protect one more.
As Lee Ji-ah moved her weary body to do so,
“No need.”
A very familiar voice came from above.
“Huh?”
Startled, Lee Ji-ah looked up.
It was Seo Woo-jin.
“Mister!”
Lee Ji-ah beamed with unbridled joy, while Goo Dong-hwan gasped in relief.
“Take care of Da-hye.”
Seo Woo-jin entrusted the exhausted Kim Da-hye to Goo Dong-hwan and landed on the ground.
“Sorry I’m late. I’ll handle it from here, so rest up a bit.”