Chapter 71
Chapter 71
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 71
Chapter Title: The Exbrian Master's Intrusion
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Besides the transfer of magic techniques from Sonorim, I also received political and geographical information.
Sonorim told me in detail, without hiding anything, about what countries existed in Tellus, their relationships with each other, and what races and ethnicities there were.
As expected, the Exbrian Empire was a hub of evil. Not only did they oppress other races, but their iron-fisted rule through a perfectly stratified class system meant there was no such thing as human rights within the empire. They were constantly waging wars of territorial expansion by squeezing the life out of their people.
Their war crimes were so heinous that, if not for Helen's incident, I wouldn't have believed it outright. I would have thought it was just slander because they were enemies. But because of what Helen had done, Sonorim's words carried credibility.
“What is the purpose of this being called the Destruction God?”
I asked Sonorim, who had been providing information for a while and was taking a short break.
“Well, we can only speculate. We don't know for sure.”
“Even a great existence like you?”
“Hahaha, that one is not someone our kind can converse with. This time too, we only received an oracle and items unilaterally before coming over.”
“What about the Destruction God's minions? There are orcs like you and werewolves like Blitz, right?”
“What do you think happens to those who fall to the Destruction God's invasions?”
It wasn't that I hadn't thought about it before—it was a topic I didn't want to think about. They probably kill them all and make the planet their own, or turn them into slaves?
“Those who come through the gates like me had egos intact. But after their planets are invaded by the Destruction God and they're dragged away, their wills are erased, and then they're sent to invade other planets.”
“...So if we're conquered, we'll be sent to invade other stars too.”
“Exactly. The Destruction God's movements are something insignificant specks like us in the universe cannot resist.”
“Does that mean we should just sit still and die?”
“No. We have to struggle as much as we can. I will too.”
“But just a moment ago, you said it's an unstoppable current.”
“That is...”
Boom!
“What the hell?!”
The building shook with a massive roar, and Bureau Chief Baek Youngshin covered his ears.
Screams, the clash of swords, and sounds of something exploding followed one after another.
“Hunter Ijiseok, take Sonorim and escape!”
The noises were getting closer to the room we were in. Bureau Chief Baek Youngshin blocked the door with his body and pointed me toward the window.
“Director, our positions are switched.”
I grabbed the director's shoulder, pulled him back, and placed him next to Sonorim.
“Can you protect him?”
“Of course.”
Sonorim reached into the air and pulled out a staff. It seemed like spatial magic similar to Helen's.
“This.... What.... Weren't the weapons surrendered?!”
“They were. And I just retrieved them.”
Now that minimal protective measures were in place, it was time to figure out what was happening.
As I moved to open the door, I sensed killing intent from outside, so I kicked the door instead.
It was a reinforced door, so rather than shattering, the entire door flew off, slamming the guy behind it into the wall.
“What are you? Who are you people?”
Hunters with bloodshot eyes gathered one after another in front of our room.
“Aren't you Blue Dragon Guild members?! What the hell is this?!”
Bureau Chief Baek Youngshin shouted upon recognizing the intruders' faces.
“No grudges.”
I didn't know what their goal was, but their expressions looked more wrapped in fear than anger, and their bodies were covered in significant wounds. I wondered what could be so terrifying that they kept charging despite those injuries.
But I could deal with them first and figure out why later. There were eleven hunters in sight. They'd made it this far despite being outnumbered—probably because no one expected insane attackers targeting the Awakening Bureau, so there weren't many resident hunters.
I launched my body forward and smashed the jaw of the nearest hunter.
But these guys ignored me and targeted only Sonorim. They didn't even blink when a comrade fell. They even kept aiming for Sonorim while charging or casting spells even as they were under attack themselves.
But despite their aggressive assaults, Sonorim's barrier didn't break. And for good reason—the intruders were at best B-Rank. The one crushed by the door I kicked first might be A-Rank if we're lucky.
It took only a few seconds to take them all down.
“What's with these guys?”
Looking closely, each of the fallen ones had something attached to their necks. A round thing the size of a ping-pong ball was stuck to their throats. The texture was like a water droplet or slime made of black liquid. It stayed attached and maintained its shape even as the Blue Dragon Guild hunters thrashed around, so it wasn't ordinary liquid.
Boom!
As I approached to inspect it, the droplet on one's neck exploded, pushing me back. It had destructive power unimaginable from its small size.
“Ah.... No! We did as ordered!”
One of the Blue Dragon Guild members screamed and tried to scrape the droplet off his neck, but he only scratched his own flesh, leaving the thing unscratched.
Boom boom boom!
Then they all exploded in sequence.
When the second droplet exploded, I enlarged my body to reach the ceiling and wrapped myself in armor at the same time. I turned my back to shield the director and Sonorim. Even though we were several meters away, the explosion cracked the armor on my back.
There was some damage, but I blocked the attack, so the director and Sonorim were unharmed. The moment I relaxed, the floor collapsed. I shielded them from above against the falling debris.
“Director, are you okay?”
I pushed the debris aside to secure space. One side of the Awakening Bureau branch building we were in had completely crumbled.
“Thanks to you. Thank you.”
The director brushed off the dust and stood, his face pale from the unexpected situation, but he didn't get agitated or panic. On the other hand, Sonorim's usual gentle and calm expression had changed to one brimming with orc-like fighting spirit.
“Sonorim, you know what that was just now, right?”
“I do.... I don't know how it got here, but it's definitely the handiwork of the Exbrian Empire's master from the East Continent. I could never forget that hideous thing.”
“Wasn't he unable to come here?”
“I don't know. I couldn't cross over either, so I got help from him—a non-spatial mage, no less.”
“What kind of guy is he?”
“Franklin Conlay Ehun. A master infamous even on the East Continent for his cruelty. He treats human lives, especially those of foreign countries or other races, like flies. That special magic and its power are notorious throughout Tellus.”
“Isn't he close by? The bombs didn't go off right away—they exploded after the fight. Isn't it remote control?”
“That seems unlikely.”
“Why?”
“If he were nearby, it wouldn't be this quiet. He probably set conditions or a timer.”
The director's phone rang.
[Director! Big trouble!]
“I know. I was inside the building.”
[What? No, that's not it! Multiple Awakening Bureau branches are under simultaneous attack right now!]
“What? Not just here?”
[People looking like Blue Dragon Guild members stormed in, got subdued, then exploded. Hurry back to headquarters!]
“I'm on my way. Hunter Ijiseok, did you hear that?”
“Yes. Let's go together.”
Sonorim used telekinesis on his silver-haired comrade to pull him up from the building rubble.
“Is he okay?”
His clothes were soaked in blood.
“No worries. Blitz may lack attack power, but his defense is top-notch. It'd take a master-level to kill him.”
Looking at him after hearing that, the torn flesh on his back was healing in real time. He seemed to have regeneration or recovery traits similar to mine.
* * *
The Blue Dragon Guild members who carried out the suicide attack were all searching for otherworlders. Sonorim and Blitz aside, Paul too.
And they partially succeeded. Paul had been taken by them.
It seemed they didn't explode from a time limit but when movement stopped in one place, because the ones who took Paul didn't detonate, but the subdued Blue Dragon Guild members exploded without fail after stopping and a set time passed.
A nationwide highest alert was issued to find the guy. Some grumbled about the fuss over one person, but a master-level was an S-Rank hunter. And this one was clearly missing a few screws, making him more dangerous than any modern weapon.
“Where's that bastard?”
I asked the Blue Dragon Guild master. I'd been requested by the director because I could spot most lies just by reading faces. Right now, the director and other Awakening Bureau executives, along with government agents, were watching from behind the magic mirror.
“I.... I don't know..”
“You're the guild master— if you don't know, who does?”
“I really don't know!! He came to our guild, stuck those damn things on our members, and threatened us. Said he'd blow them up if we didn't obey.”
“You just obeyed?”
“As if. We're the Blue Dragon Guild. We went to smash him first, but when the first guy's head exploded and flew off, everyone froze.”
“But why did he go to your guild? How?”
“T.... That... I don't know. Why or how he came.”
It's been a while since I saw someone lying this obviously. He was showing all the classic signs of a liar.
“Shim Taeju, you don't seem to grasp the severity.... Hundreds of Awakening Bureau staff were killed or injured in this terrorist attack.”
“I heard.... But our guild hunters are victims too.”
“Victims? Wanna say that to the families of the dead?”
I've heard criminals claim they're victims so often that if I got paid for it, I'd be a billionaire by now. Everyone has their sob story. But that doesn't give them the right to ruin innocent lives.
“I don't know means I don't know. Yeah! Lawyer! Call our guild lawyer!”
“You're misunderstanding something. You've violated the National Security Act, Gate Special Act, and Hunter Special Act—all of them. We could summarily execute you and it'd be justified.”
“W.... What?! I didn't do anything.”
“Oh? Then why were you the only one not under his control?”
“I was. I escaped thanks to my skill.”
“Skill?”
“I can create a solid duplicate body. I transferred the one on my right neck to the duplicate and put distance when it exploded, so I survived.”
“Convenient ability.”
“Normally I'd merge back, but it burst, so my power's greatly reduced. Don't know how long recovery will take.”
“Fine, I'll buy the skill part. But you're lying about not knowing why or how he came to Blue Dragon, right? Weren't you investigated and held a grudge after your guild members caused a scene at the gate demanding Sonorim and Blitz?”
“No! We got investigated so much over that!”
“So that's why—lost money, time, even members. You held a grudge and decided to get revenge on the Awakening Bureau, right? Your skill excuse is bullshit—you're accomplices with that guy?”
“As if! We just wanted to recoup our...”
“Recoup?”
Gotcha.
“Yeah, after losing out on the Sonorim and Blitz thing, you tried to squeeze info from Franklin for cash, right?”
“Ah.... No! I don't know anything! My underlings acted on their own!”
“Yeah, sure.”
“L.... Lawyer!”
After that, it was smooth sailing. As expected, they had brought Franklin to the guild and tried to extract info for profit, but got reversed, collared with bombs, and sent to the Awakening Bureau. They were told otherworlders would free them.
After finishing the interrogation, I stepped out of the room.
“Hmm.... We found out the last sighted location was the Blue Dragon Guild's training ground on the outskirts, but that was a while ago— is he still there?”
A government agent who had been listening outside voiced his concern.