Toward the Second Tower (5)
Spreading my holy power, I confirmed that the only one carrying the aura of an evil god was Han Jin-o, who had already mutated into a monster.
That meant I would have to cut through these thousands of harpies staring me down just to reach him.
"Easier said than done. Sigh..."
I let out a long breath and started toward him at a measured pace. The ones that had been curled up like cocoons began to unfurl their wings, preparing to move.
Their eyes were no different from those of predators locking onto prey.
But I was not about to go down easily. Fighting thousands of enemies at once was a first for me, sure—but somehow, I would manage.
Through my rosary I equipped every piece of armor I had. Behind me, twelve flamberges spun clockwise at high speed.
I considered pulling out the cloak as well, then decided against it; in this situation it might only get in the way.
"All right. Shall we begin?"
Using the spinning flamberges at my back to wring every last drop of acceleration from my body, I wrapped myself in Holy Fire and shot forward.
Wherever I passed, the sand floor fused into smooth glass as if a high-heat laser had swept across it, and the harpies blocking my path burned to ash on the spot.
The moment the rest realized their comrades had been turned into crispy-on-the-outside, juicy-on-the-inside roast birds, they came at me from every direction without hesitation.
Flocks flapping through the air from all sides, packs charging across the ground like ostriches, and Han Jin-o himself watching it all with that twisted grin—this was the mountain I now had to climb.
The ones charging from the front simply impaled themselves on Durandal as I thrust my arm straight out, or else became fried chicken the instant they touched the Holy Fire wreathing me.
I kept driving forward until I judged I had closed a decent amount of distance on Han Jin-o. Then I planted my legs hard into the earth, killing my momentum, and at the same time pulled every spinning flamberge from behind me and fused them with Durandal.
"Gluon!"
With a crackling hiss the blade stretched into a long edge of pure light, shifting from red to white.
I spun my body. The harpies around me never even understood what hit them; their torsos simply melted and split cleanly in half.
That single swing must have taken out a few hundred. Using it on the ones in the air would have cost more than it gained, so for now I focused on clearing the ground forces as fast as possible.
After the cut, Durandal’s glow gradually dimmed and returned to normal. I gave it a testing swing, checked my condition, estimated how many more times I could pull that off, then charged straight at Han Jin-o again.
The instant I broke into a full sprint he reared up and beat his wings. A sharp sting bloomed across my cheek, and lukewarm blood began to trickle down.
"I thought he was just flapping—he launched feathers that fast...?"
I tried to touch my cheek with my left hand, only to find the hand would not move. Looking down, I saw one of his feathers had punched clean through the gauntlet and buried itself in my palm.
"Ghk...!"
A closer look showed more feathers had pierced my thigh and abdomen right through the armor. I yanked them out, flooded the wounds with holy power to close them at once, and reassessed the situation.
In the brief pause his attack had forced on me, several harpies screeched "Kyaaaak!" and dove, talons extended.
"Flamberge! Shoot!"
I launched the blades at them and detonated them a heartbeat before impact, blasting the creatures away. Using the smoke as cover I veered left and closed on Han Jin-o—only to find his face already turned toward me. After becoming a monster he seemed to have awakened animal instincts.
At the sound of wings unfurling I swung Durandal. A sharp clang rang out as I deflected the feathers he had fired, but a few still slipped past; the unprotected cloth of my clothes tore open.
Grinning, he rose to his full height, snatched up scattered signposts and poles, then half-flew, half-charged straight at me.
"Kh—! This is—!"
I brought Durandal up in time to block the pole he swung, but the sheer speed and force of his charge lifted me off my feet and sent me tumbling backward.
The impact was so violent that I bounced farther than the distance I had just covered, rolling and rolling until I finally drove Durandal into the ground and stopped.
"Hah... hah... This is insane. He’s way stronger than last time."
Back on Seonyudo I had only been slightly outmatched. Now I could barely keep up with his movements.
There was no time to catch my breath. More harpies came screeching in; I kicked off the ground, cut them down as I went, and pressed toward Han Jin-o once more.
Hyunseok needed the flock gathered in one place for his technique, and the harpies moved with Han Jin-o at their center. Reaching him was the only way.
As I closed in he began swinging the weapons gripped in all six arms. Rather than block them myself I used the flamberges to detonate or melt whatever he was holding, stripping him of that long reach.
He finally flung the ruined weapons aside and lunged, hands outstretched.
"Hoo— Gluon!"
I was about to layer the flamberges onto Durandal and swing when a harpy slammed into me from the side, spoiling the cut. Han Jin-o’s straight punch from my left landed square on target and sent me flying.
"Cough— ghk... Hah... Seriously...!"
Attack Han Jin-o and the harpies interfered; attack the harpies and Han Jin-o’s blows came flying. A perfect stalemate.
While my mind raced for a way to endure, a single idea flashed.
"Wait... do I even need to split my attacks? I’ve got holy power to spare."
Apparently the old habits from when I still fought in a man’s body had lingered; I had been fighting stupidly, never using my full strength.
I could only form twelve flamberges with perfect precision, but if I was only going to launch and detonate them, there was no need to lock them into that exact shape.
Spears were easier to throw, so I reshaped the flamberges into long spear forms and began generating them by the hundreds.
"Hmm, a name... Right! Let’s go with this— Ardvar."
Countless spears of flame suddenly bloomed above me. The harpies faltered, wings beating in place as they froze mid-air.
Only Han Jin-o, already a monster, showed no fear. He beat his wings harder and loosed another volley of feathers.
"You think that’ll work twice? Atlantes!"
White flame coalesced into a round shield; the same white light etched feather patterns across its surface.
Thud, thuk, thung—his feathers struck the shield and melted on contact, dripping to the sand. I walked straight toward him.
One slow step, then another. Realizing his feathers no longer worked, he let out a bestial roar, pointed at me, and ordered the flock.
From far off they darkened the sky like an oncoming night. I unleashed every spinning spear of flame above me in a single volley.
With a series of booming reports the flaming spears—Ardvar—skewered every harpy in their flight path, then detonated in massive blasts that reduced them to handfuls of ash.
"Whoa, these things pack a punch~"
I kept launching spears into the remaining flock while sprinting at Han Jin-o.
Even with some still left, I triggered Gluon again. Durandal hummed and vibrated as the reinforcement took hold.
I swung. He tried to block with a wing, but Durandal’s edge—sharpened further by Gluon—sliced through the steel-like right wing as if it were paper, melting and severing it clean.
"Kyaaaaak!!!"
Even a steel wing felt pain; he flinched for a split second. I seized the opening and swung again.
"Haaaaah!"
Both hands gripping Durandal, I cut from upper right to lower left. The left wing he had wrapped around himself for defense was sheared off just as cleanly.
Without pause I reversed the blade upward in a vertical slash and took his entire right arm. Only then did he clutch the stumps and sink to his knees.
Every remaining harpy swarmed me to protect their fallen leader. I finally looked up at the roof of the National Assembly Building. Hyunseok’s group was already there, a massive sphere of storm swirling above them.
"Perfect timing!"
I drove Curtana into the ground, raising a barrier that swallowed the harpies’ simultaneous assault.
All that remained was for Hyunseok to finish the job.
The moment we tried to climb onto the roof of the National Assembly Building using Pedro’s threads, the sound of harpies stirring reached us.
"Looks like it’s started."
Yeonseo spoke calmly as she took hold of Pedro’s thread. Pedro glanced at me, a little tense.
"Don’t worry. It’ll be fine. We just do what we can. Got it?"
"Y-yes!"
We rose. Not every harpy had left the roof, so Yeonseo’s summons made short work of the stragglers. Looking down, I saw Charlotte being sent flying by the monster that had once been Han Jin-o.
"Cha—Charlotte...!"
I nearly threw myself after her; only Yeonseo’s grip kept me from wrecking the entire plan.
"Kh...!"
"I know you want to help her, but we can’t forget our role!"
"I know... but—! Wait...?"
A sudden blast of scorching wind made me look again. Hundreds of flaming spears had appeared where Charlotte stood, followed by explosions so dense they nearly blinded us. In moments nearly half the swarm was gone.
"See? Nothing to worry about. Now hurry up and get ready."
Yeonseo set her summons to guard us. I was about to activate my technique when—
"Hold on... throwing it like this won’t do anything!"
"What do you mean?"
"Last time we used Charlotte’s flames to create the explosion. If I just whip up wind here, there’s no way to wipe out that many!"
"True... my ice might even get in Charlotte’s way..."
While Yeonseo and I fretted over the problem, Pedro suddenly raised his hand.
"Um, so as long as we can make an explosion, that’s enough?"
"Yeah, but right now we don’t have a way to—"
"Then I have a way! I’ll make threads out of iron, and cut them really short—like dust!"
"Ha! Not bad, kid. You’re talking about a dust explosion?"
"Yes! Combine them with Hyunseok hyung’s technique and throw it over there. Charlotte noona’s already got the place so hot it’ll go off right away!"
I immediately began casting Absorb Twister. Beside me Pedro fed in threads made of highly flammable material.
"Good...! This is it! Yeonseo, the signal?"
"Wait...! Now!"
Looking toward Charlotte, I saw Han Jin-o clutching the stump of his right arm as he knelt, every remaining harpy clustered around him.
"Goooo!"
The Absorb Twister I hurled swallowed the swarm the instant it touched them. Then an explosion larger than anything Charlotte had made earlier blossomed before our eyes.
The blast that erupted in one spot ignited the swirling sand around it, setting off another detonation, then another in a chain reaction that devoured the entire flock.
In short, the whole area around the National Assembly Building was being swallowed by successive explosions.
"Uh... this is okay, right...?"
"Of course not, kid. We’re done for."
Yeonseo hastily raised a wall of ice in front of us; I layered a wall of wind in front of that.
But the chain reaction raced faster than we expected, about to engulf even the surrounding buildings—when a crimson dome suddenly expanded from Charlotte’s position, covering everything right up to our feet.
I was screwed. Completely, utterly screwed. That was the carefully considered conclusion I reached.
I had no idea what Hyunseok and the others had just done, but the objective seemed achieved.
Look—those harpies weren’t just roasted; they were being reduced to black ash by the blasts.
Even inside the barrier the searing heat still washed over me. Sweat poured down my face as I watched the spectacle, until—
"Wait. At this rate the whole place is going to get caught in the explosion, isn’t it?"
I finally glanced back and saw Hyunseok and Yeonseo frantically raising walls.
"Haa... No choice. I really didn’t want to use this, but..."
If things continued, the National Assembly Building itself—and the children inside—might be swallowed by the blasts. I expanded the barrier.
A vast dome large enough to cover me, Han Jin-o, and every last harpy bloomed outward.
Inside the dome a fire-fed whirlwind rose until it touched the ceiling. All around it, explosions bloomed like fireworks, filling the space with light and flame bright enough to blind.
The harpies were instantly wrapped in fire and left only black ash behind. Even the monster that had been Han Jin-o could not withstand the chain of flame and heat; he simply burned away to nothing.