Has That Guy Watched Too Many Comics?
Whoosh!
The wire Jeong-Hoon fired snared a kobold. He flexed his arm and yanked it hard.
“Grrraaagh!”
With the suit equipped, Jeong-Hoon’s physical abilities rivaled an A-class Awakened. The kobold, unable to resist, came flying toward him. Jeong-Hoon drove his dagger straight into it.
The dagger the previous Awakened had used to kill himself carried too much risk of being lost in the chaos of battle, so he had collected it and left it with Butler Ju. The dagger in Jeong-Hoon’s hand now was a custom piece made exclusively for him, its blade coated in black.
Clang!
Jeong-Hoon’s dagger punched through the kobold’s skull. The creature left a short death cry and went still. He kicked the corpse away for rebound momentum, launched himself into the air, spun, and stabbed the head of another kobold that had been closing in from behind.
“Keng! Keng! Grrrr!!!”
He yanked the dagger free from the pierced skull and straightened up—just as another kobold lunged for his throat. Jeong-Hoon swung his fist and smashed the creature’s head.
Splat!
The kobold’s head burst and went flying. Without missing a beat, Jeong-Hoon leapt again and drove a kick into the chest of yet another that came diving from behind.
“Ke-gaaak!”
“Ah, slightly off.”
He had expected the kick to kill it outright, but the kobold only went tumbling, wheezing as its life slowly drained away. Jeong-Hoon scowled, drew the pistol from his hip, and fired at the ground beneath him.
Bang! Splat!
A kobold that had been surging up from the earth died instantly under his shot.
“Haa… they really just don’t stop coming.”
He ejected the spent magazine, slammed in a fresh one, and muttered under his breath while shaking his head at the endless horde of kobolds still pouring in.
“I should’ve brought more people than just Butler Ju.”
“Am I not enough for you, sir?”
Butler Ju, mid-crush of another kobold’s skull, turned his head at Jeong-Hoon’s muttering. He wasn’t even using mana—simply walking up, reaching out, and crushing heads. Yet the number of kobolds he had already killed still exceeded Jeong-Hoon’s tally.
“No, it’s not that. I just get the feeling this isn’t the end of it.”
“…If the Gaju feels that way, then I will remain on high alert.”
Jeong-Hoon had once sniffed out the Organization’s leader on pure instinct alone. Butler Ju never took that instinct lightly. If the Gaju said it wasn’t over, then something else was coming—and the butler felt a prickle of unease.
Jeong-Hoon and Butler Ju stacked kobold corpses into literal mountains, yet neither the government nor any guild made the slightest move. No one so much as poked their head out, as if nothing were happening at all.
“…Butler Ju, this is just a guess, but they haven’t sealed the entire area and told everyone to stay away… have they?”
“It appears that is exactly the case. I can hear warning shouts from quite a distance telling people not to approach this place.”
When the kobold swarm finally thinned into a lull, Butler Ju listened carefully and reported at once. Having the army, police, and guilds lock the zone down and refuse entry was hardly welcome, but it did mean they could fight without interference. Sealing an area was hard on anyone trapped inside, yet from the outside it was an efficient strategy—nothing particularly suspicious about it.
“Whew. Looks like things have settled for the moment. Let’s pull back. Perfect timing—no one’s around, so we can slip away cleanly.”
He had lost count of how many kobolds he had killed. Magazines were empty, and the dagger’s edge had dulled enough that it needed a wipe and a fresh oiling. The lull felt like the ideal window. Butler Ju was about to nod when he suddenly sensed something and whipped his head around.
“Butler Ju?”
“Gaju. It seems your instinct was extremely accurate.”
Sudden mana flared. Butler Ju’s eyes sharpened. Jeong-Hoon nodded. He couldn’t sense mana himself, but he could see the kobold corpses slowly crumbling into ash and rising into the sky.
“Butler Ju, can you explain what this is?”
“My apologies, Gaju. This is the first time I have ever seen it. Nothing in my knowledge covers this.”
The ashes of the kobolds gathered, coalescing into a massive sphere. Butler Ju frowned as he answered. Even the family’s archives held no record of such a phenomenon. Yet leaving it alone felt wrong. He gathered mana into his fist.
BOOM!!!
The air itself exploded as Butler Ju’s Paseong shot toward the sphere.
Whoooosh—
Even a strike powerful enough to rupture the air failed to leave a single mark. The force simply passed straight through the sphere as if it weren’t there.
“…Is that magic?”
“Extremely high-dimensional magic. We can see it with our eyes, yet the phenomenon itself does not actually exist in this space.”
Butler Ju analyzed it instantly and scowled. To destroy something like that would require an ability user who could interfere with space itself—someone like Jeong Si-Min. Not mere space, but the dimension itself. Butler Ju possessed techniques that could touch dimensions just as Jeong Si-Min did, but using them—even firing into empty air—would level the surroundings with the recoil. He could not risk such an attack with the Gaju, his primary protectee, standing right beside him.
“That thing looks like it’s starting to take a human shape, doesn’t it?”
While the sphere undulated and rippled, Jeong-Hoon caught something and spoke. Butler Ju stared at it in puzzlement. All he could see was the churning mass; no human form. If a clear human silhouette had formed, an SSS-class like him would never have missed it. That meant either Jeong-Hoon merely felt it that way… or he was seeing something Butler Ju could not.
“Could it be the seal…?”
Because Jeong-Hoon alone sustained the seal, he might have sensed something from the sphere. Butler Ju’s brow furrowed—then the sphere heaved violently and truly took on a human outline. It drifted slowly down from midair and planted two rippling legs on the ground.
“Grrrrrr!”
A low, throat-scraping howl rolled out of the sphere. Similar to a kobold’s cry, yet far larger—like the roar of some enormous beast.
“WAAAOOooh!!!”
The head of the humanoid mass sharpened into a clear canine shape and loosed a wolf’s howl.
Thoom!
“Kh!”
Space itself shuddered with the cry. The shockwave staggered Jeong-Hoon for an instant. Ash that had still clung to the human body with a wolf’s head scattered in every direction, revealing a two-meter-tall humanoid crowned with a dog’s head.
“…Kwahaha! Puhahaha!!! Success! It’s a success!!!”
The dog-headed man looked down at his own body and suddenly burst into wild laughter. The air trembled. It was just laughter, yet mana rode every note. Without the suit, Jeong-Hoon would have dropped to his knees. An ordinary person would have blacked out from the sound alone.
“Who are you?”
“…Me? Did I not just introduce myself?”
When the dog-headed man spoke, the surrounding mana quivered and delivered meaning directly. No translator needed. This was the same Awakened who had stabbed his own heart while shouting the Organization’s slogan and killing himself.
“Ah, are you asking for my name? Having obtained the body of a god, I have discarded my human name.”
“…Ridiculous. You barely learned to handle mana and already dare call yourself a god?”
Butler Ju remembered him clearly as a B-class Awakened before the suicide. That he had become at least S-class—able to wield mana—was certainly astonishing. But it was nowhere near enough to claim divinity. Butler Ju scoffed. The creature ignored the mockery and simply ran its fingers over its own face.
“Hmm. Because I used mere kobolds as material, is that it? A dog’s head is not to my liking.”
Even with a canine face, the open displeasure was obvious. He shook his head, then nodded.
“Well, it does give me a certain individuality. You asked who I am, did you not? I am the god who has seized the truth beyond the world distorted by the false king—Anubis.”
Declaring himself Anubis, he drew up mana. It wrapped his body into clothing, then formed a spear in his hand.
“…Manifesting matter from mana. He is certainly no ordinary foe.”
Butler Ju recognized the feat and frowned. It was a type of magic, yet the creature had simply compacted mana and realized it without any of the usual magical precursors. Skill enough, perhaps, to make someone delude themselves into believing they were a god.
“Well, that much is true, but… has that guy watched too many comics? Normally, saying something like that out loud would give anyone goosebumps.”
The helmet hid his face, but Jeong-Hoon’s expression was pure secondhand embarrassment as he stared at Anubis. Butler Ju couldn’t help a quiet snort of laughter.
“False king! I do not recall granting you permission to speak!”
Unable to endure the mockery, Anubis leveled his spear and charged.
“You think I will allow you to lay a hand on the Gaju?”
Butler Ju stepped in and seized the spear.
Szzzzzt!
He had wrapped his hand in mana, yet the suit’s fibers still tore with a sharp hiss. Sensing that the mana composing the spear was no ordinary power, Butler Ju shifted his flow—an application of the same Paseong that had once shattered Yong-Ha’s greatsword.
BOOM!
Butler Ju’s mana and Anubis’s collided in an explosion. Anubis staggered back.
“Not bad. I intended to make sure that insolent spear never saw use again.”
“Hmph! The same to you! For a servant of a false king, you are rather capable!”
The impact had been strong enough to detonate, yet Anubis’s spear bore not a single scratch.
“Uh, Butler Ju. I know you’re busy, but let’s fall back.”
“…Is retreat part of the plan as well?”
Anubis’s mana was stronger than expected. Butler Ju had been weighing how to subdue him without collateral damage when Jeong-Hoon ordered the withdrawal. The butler looked puzzled. Strictly speaking, the opponent stood only at the border between S-class and SS-class.
“I am stronger than that creature.”
“I know. I don’t think you’d lose. But looking at it, hasn’t that guy basically undergone a complete body reconstruction?”
The moment Jeong-Hoon mentioned full body reconstruction, Butler Ju understood exactly what he meant—and was once again impressed by the Gaju’s insight.
“Indeed. After full reconstruction, infinite mana is generated for twenty-four hours.”
The bodily reconstruction that came with an S-class Awakening, and the near-omnipotent power that accompanied it for a full day. Once Jeong-Hoon pointed it out, Butler Ju finally understood why Anubis felt so overwhelming compared to the strength he outwardly displayed.
“I am in awe of the Gaju’s insight. However, I must ask you to rescind the order to withdraw.”
“How dare you whisper in front of me!!!”
Anubis, who had been waiting through their conversation, finally lost patience as it dragged on and thrust his spear again.
Crack!
“I have discerned the method to defeat him. We will not be the ones fleeing with our tails between our legs—he will.”
“…H-how dare you!”
Butler Ju gripped the spear and smiled behind his helmet. The claim of having found the counter was no bluff; the suit around his hand now shed the spear’s mana without the slightest trouble.