The Power of the Seal
The moment Anubis touched the ground, he drew up his mana without the slightest hesitation and unfurled a magic circle.
Dozens of circles rose around him, then shot out in every direction, detonating wherever they landed.
He had never properly studied magic. He was simply forcing it into being through the overwhelming power of an SSS-class being.
"……!"
When several of those circles streaked toward the building, Butler Ju hurled himself into their path and drove a fist sheathed in aura straight into them.
BOOM!
The circles exploded midair under Butler Ju's aura, and both the blast and the mana scattered into the empty sky at his command.
"Hoh? So you're protecting the false king?"
The twelve vassals, Hwa-rim, Min-ha, and Jeong-Hoon were still inside the building. Watching Butler Ju stop the circles from reaching the structure, Anubis snorted and unfurled another volley.
Because the magic was forced into existence, he could neither steer its flight nor choose a target.
He could only scatter it around himself.
But even a handful of circles flying toward the building was enough to serve Anubis's purpose.
Scattering the circles cost him a vast amount of mana—yet Butler Ju spent even more to cancel them out.
Beings of the same rank usually possessed roughly comparable total mana. Simply wearing Butler Ju down was already an advantage for Anubis.
"Still, I don't like it. You claim you'll stand against me, yet you refuse to fight at full strength."
Anubis was growing stronger by the second. Their brief exchange had already taught him how much further he could climb.
And so Butler Ju's restraint grated on him.
"If you won't use your full power, I'll make you."
Having scattered the circles, Anubis gathered mana into his spear and thrust it skyward.
A colossal magic circle bloomed high above the building.
Butler Ju fired a blast of aura straight at Anubis, intending to interrupt the cast.
THUD!
Anubis simply raised a small circle in front of himself, deflected the aura, and charged as if he had been waiting for exactly that opening.
Butler Ju's gaze flicked back to the sky. The massive circle was still there, still holding. His face twisted.
Improper magic had its own advantages. Pour enough raw mana into it, and no further refinement was required.
Outside the building, Butler Ju was alone. The urgency of subduing Anubis and stopping that circle before it fell made him impatient—and he met Anubis's rush with a punch of his own.
An advanced form of Paseong, compressed to its barest minimum. Used at full power, it would have torn every scrap of ambient mana into itself and reduced the surrounding area to ash.
BOOM!
"Keheheh! Not enough. Still not enough! Show me more of your true strength!!!"
Sensing that the impatient Butler Ju was finally putting real force into his blows, Anubis canceled the attack and swept his spear in a wide arc.
Butler Ju seized the shaft, used it as a pivot, and drove a kick into Anubis's body.
Anubis simply released the spear and answered with a kick of his own, a magic circle blooming beneath his foot.
CRASH!
Butler Ju's aura and Anubis's circle collided, and a shockwave tore through the area.
In that same instant, the completed circle above began its slow descent toward the building.
RUMBLE!!!
The sheer force of a magic circle that could shred the air itself made Butler Ju's expression darken.
But Anubis had already grown too strong to simply brush aside.
He was flinging magic around by pure instinct, and without a proper technique to counter it, there was no shaking him off.
At this rate—!
In the end, Butler Ju decided he would have to deploy Paseong properly—even if it meant disobeying Jeong-Hoon's orders and reducing the city to rubble—when suddenly—
Whoooosh~
"……Huh? Wh-what? What just happened?! Why is my magic—?!"
The magic Anubis had unfurled vanished without a trace.
The circle that had been about to crush the building disappeared as if it had never existed at all.
"H-hey!"
Afraid for a moment that he had somehow lost his power, Anubis flung magic at the shattered glass still scattered from his earlier cast.
The shards flowed back together, settled into his grip, and became a spear once more.
His magic was fine.
"Quite the sensitive soul, aren't you? Or is it just that you're so doped up you're hypersensitive to mana?"
Watching this, Butler Ju let the tension drain from his shoulders and tossed the mockery Anubis's way.
He still had no idea what had just happened—but he was certain of one thing. Anubis could not destroy the building.
The moment Butler Ju dragged Anubis outside, Jeong-Hoon looked slowly around the laboratory and let out a long sigh.
"Gaju? Aren't you going to recover the data?"
"Huh? I never said a single word about recovering data."
He had only remarked that this place seemed more important. When Jeong-Hoon shrugged, Hwa-rim shook her head and started gathering materials on her own.
Apparently Jeong-Hoon's instincts were telling him something was still left here.
"Hmm. If this line is connecting, does that mean my family has already been crushed?"
"……You're Silvio Rosso?"
"I'd prefer you call me Don Rosso."
Jeong-Hoon had been staring fixedly at a monitor when it suddenly flickered to life, revealing the mafia boss whose whereabouts had been completely unknown.
There had been no trail after he entered the building, so the family had assumed he was still inside. He had already fled.
"That's hilarious. Why the hell should I respect you?"
"Hahaha. The head of the family is quite the rude one. Won't even show your face, and no intention of introducing yourself either?"
"If you're curious about my face, look me up online. Name, age, address—it's all out there. Don't tell me you don't know how to use the internet?"
Jeong-Hoon met Silvio's mockery with mockery of his own and snorted. Silvio's expression hardened like stone.
This was a man who had not hesitated to use violence the moment Anubis was rude to him. He did not have the patience for a prolonged exchange of insults with Jeong-Hoon.
"There's no talking to you. I wanted to see how impressive this false king the family put forward really was—but you're nothing but a savage."
"Then stop striking poses that don't suit you, say whatever you called for, and get lost. I'm busy."
He was wearing a helmet, so he couldn't actually do it, but Jeong-Hoon made a show of digging at his ear as if he couldn't care less. Silvio's face flushed a deep, furious red.
"The master may be dead, but the Organization is still intact. If you think everything we have is confined to that tiny patch of Korea, you are badly mistaken."
"Ah, so that's what you wanted to say? Well, if you think what you showed in New York and here in Korea is the full extent of the family, you're just as badly mistaken."
Hearing that the goal had been to announce the Organization's continued strength, Jeong-Hoon finally understood the shape of the whole incident.
He had wondered why they would go so far as to stage a raid—and even commit suicide—right under his nose just to get attention. It had been to prove the Organization was still standing.
A warning to the family? No.
Silvio was speaking as if he were warning the family, but that was clearly not the real audience.
"Hey. To every member of the Organization listening to this call, and every collaborator working with them—let me spell it out. This guy is trying to rally you by claiming the Organization is still strong enough to stand against the family! He made a mistake. Now that I know you haven't been wiped out, I'm going to mobilize every resource the family has and erase you."
The moment Jeong-Hoon saw through it—that Silvio had used him to steady an Organization reeling from its leader's death—Silvio's breathing became visibly ragged.
"W-whatever you say, the Organization will not waver. R-release the seal! Death to the false king! Truth to the world!"
As if trying to hold every affiliate still listening on the line in place, Silvio shouted the slogan. Jeong-Hoon only smirked.
"Hey. You're stuttering. And if we're doing slogans, it should go like this."
Jeong-Hoon flicked his fingers. Hwa-rim, who had been watching the call from behind him, stepped in front of him and dropped to one knee.
"Guard the seal! Loyalty to the Gaju! Peace and order to the world!"
Hwa-rim delivered the family's slogan with absolute confidence. The monitor showing Silvio went dark, and the video call cut off.
"……Whew. Secretary Kang. I think we're done here, so let's head out. Huh?"
"Is something the matter, Gaju?"
"No. I felt something unpleasant up above, but it's gone now."
Jeong-Hoon had been about to suggest they leave the building. He lifted his head, then immediately shook it side to side. Hwa-rim looked puzzled.
She could feel the mana signatures of Butler Ju and Anubis clashing around the building, but nothing beyond that.
The exact moment Jeong-Hoon had mentioned, however, was the moment Anubis's building-crushing magic had vanished.
Still locked in combat with Butler Ju, Anubis suddenly felt a crushing pressure of mana and hauled up his own power in response.
His movements eased slightly—but the sensation of being squeezed never went away.
"Who dares interfere in this fight?!"
"Mm, yeah. Crushing an SSS-class really is tough."
Anubis roared in fury. From inside the building, Park Jin-Yang strolled out at a leisurely pace, muttering to himself.
He was only an S-class still hammering at the wall of SS-class. Simply holding down an SSS-class Anubis with superpowers amplified by mana was already extraordinary.
"Insolent whelp!!!"
Anubis charged at Park Jin-Yang and drove his spear forward.
Park Jin-Yang was run through without the slightest resistance, as if the spear had met nothing at all.
"……?"
Something felt wrong. Anubis had definitely stabbed him—yet there was no sensation in his hands.
"Kh—!"
Realizing he had been trapped in a powerful illusion without knowing it, Anubis swept his arm through the air. The illusion shattered.
"Hmm. Thirty seconds. Longer than I expected."
With the illusion broken, Ko Yu-Yeon acknowledged that his ability had failed and shook his head.
And what filled Anubis's vision was no longer just Butler Ju, Park Jin-Yang, and Ko Yu-Yeon.
All twelve vassals, Hwa-rim, Min-ha, and Jeong-Hoon himself had already left the building and surrounded him completely.
"W-when did you—?"
"In the thirty seconds you spent thrashing around alone inside that illusion?"
As Anubis stammered in shock, Jeong-Hoon answered dryly and flicked his fingers.
Everyone attacked at once.
Park Jin-Yang's gravity crushed down on the hand gripping Anubis's spear.
Ko Yu-Yeon's hallucinations paralyzed Anubis's vision.
Yeo Tae-Hyeon's subspace opened beneath Anubis's left foot and stole his balance.
"GRAAAAH!!!"
Under the cascading chain of superpowers, Anubis thrust out a hand to cast—only for the circle just beginning to form to be snuffed out by Woo Do-Il's ability nullification.
"Oops. Pardon me."
Then Han Su-Ho waved a hand, and the circle shattered into glittering fragments.
"I am a god! A god who will restore the truth to this world!!!"
Anubis went berserk with mana, thrashing hard enough to tear free of the superpowers binding him.
CRACKLE!
But Dong Sa-Seong's temperature manipulation followed immediately, and a film of ice coated Anubis from head to toe.
ZZZT!
Jeon Mun-Jae's lightning punched straight through him, electrocuting his entire body.
Had he not been rampaging with mana, either blow would have been fatal.
"You're no god. You're just a junkie!"
Jeong Si-Min spoke, and his superpower unfurled. A vast gray curtain wrapped the surrounding area.
For a short time, he had pushed his spatial ability as far as it would go and sealed the space off.
Butler Ju and Min-ha unleashed Paseong in the same breath.
BOOM!
The space Jeong Si-Min had constructed collapsed under a single hit of Paseong—but Anubis, fully exposed to it, was left in tatters.
"C-cough! This—this can't be. That I would fall to mere humans……"
Coughing blood, using his spear as a cane just to stay on his feet, Anubis had lost all will to fight.
He had gained mana and believed he had become a god—yet all that remained was humiliation and defeat, one after another.
"The monster's body you acquired. The ones who defeated that monster were humans. To borrow the power of the defeated and call yourself a god—your delusion knows no bounds."
Lee Young spoke calmly and loosed her magic—Hellfire.
"GRAAAAH!!!"
As Anubis writhed in the agony of being engulfed in flames, Hwa-rim slashed his throat with her dagger, Si-hwan drove a blade through his skull, and Fernandez pierced his heart with Jan-sal.
SHUNK!
"A monster's body really is different from a human's."
Even with his heart torn out, Anubis did not die.
Any one of those three strikes should have been fatal.
Yet Anubis's body slowly regenerated, clinging stubbornly to life.
A complete physical rebirth achieved through a monster's body and the power of the seal.
That was why Anubis's life would not end.
But experiencing death shattered a mind that was already collapsing—and it shattered further still.
You're no god. You're nothing but a corpse that failed to die. An undead. A demon stitched together from the carcasses of monsters.
"I—I am a g-god. A g-god who will bring t-truth to the world!!!"
Silvio's mocking words scratched at his ears.
Silvio was not even here—yet to Anubis it was the ultimate humiliation.
With his reason completely broken, Anubis detonated every last scrap of his mana and charged straight at Jeong-Hoon.
If he killed only the false king—only the Gaju—the seal would break.
He could restore the truth to the world. That was his mission.
The Organization's ideology, forcibly injected into him, had fused with a mind already ruined by drugs and then shattered by the experience of death—producing a blind, absolute faith.
On that faith alone, he thrust his spear at Jeong-Hoon.
The vassals had never imagined a half-dead Anubis would attempt a suicide charge. They scrambled to intercept—but Jeong-Hoon flicked his fingers and stopped them.
Instead, he walked toward Anubis with almost leisurely calm.
He extended a single finger. The tip of the charging spear and Jeong-Hoon's fingertip met.
Shaaaaa—
"……Wh-why???"
Wherever Jeong-Hoon's finger touched, the spearhead dissolved. The shaft dissolved. Anubis's entire body dissolved and returned to ash.
The body that had withstood the combined assault of the twelve vassals, Hwa-rim, and Min-ha crumbled as if it were nothing.
Unable to understand, Anubis could not even leave a proper final word before he became a pile of ash.
"The seal is currently being maintained by the Gaju alone, isn't it? Which means the power of the seal is the Gaju's power. Did you really think you could kill the Gaju with the Gaju's own power?"
Hwa-rim, the only one among the vassals who had already guessed the truth, explained it as if it were obvious. Butler Ju nodded.
This was what she had meant to say when she saw Jeong-Hoon sense Anubis's location.
Jeong-Hoon had not been sensing Anubis himself—he had been sensing the power of the seal.
And the moment Anubis made contact with Jeong-Hoon, the seal's power that had been forcibly drawn out simply returned to the seal.
"Ah, so that's how it was? No wonder he didn't scare me at all."
Watching Anubis scatter on the wind as ash, Jeong-Hoon shrugged.
A kobold raid would have felt more threatening. From the very beginning, Anubis had never registered as a threat to Jeong-Hoon at all.