Chapter 396: Unquenchable Wrath (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 396: Unquenchable Wrath (2)
“I refuse. I only bow my head to the god I serve.”
The Saintess coldly rejected even Lu Bu's final offer.
No sooner had she finished speaking than the sound of a considerable number of footsteps echoed from outside the airport.
Thud, thud, thud, thud!
The first to enter were Chinese soldiers in dark green military uniforms.
Following them, Minister of National Defense Chen Lao entered the airport, his expression and gait tense.
He exchanged a brief glance with the Saintess before stepping forward and shouting at Lu Bu.
“Lu Bu! What is the meaning of this? It wasn't enough to shut down the Beijing airport on your own whim, and now you're trying to assassinate a guest of the government!”
After Lu Bu had left, the Saintess had immediately contacted the Minister of National Defense, explained the situation, and requested support.
He had hesitated for a moment, but realizing he had no other choice, he came to provide aid.
It couldn't be helped.
Within the country, Lu Bu's power was growing so immense it threatened to shatter the very heavens.
Without help from the outside, the entire nation was on the verge of falling into his hands.
At his outcry, Lu Bu laughed coldly.
“Hmph… So confident, yet all you could summon were the government's dogs?”
To this, the Saintess shook her head and replied.
“They are not the only ones.”
Soon, the sound of footsteps was heard once more.
Clank!
Clank!
With the heavy clang of metal on the floor, knights armed head-to-toe in silver armor stepped inside.
Their number was a full hundred.
They were the guardian knights of the Vatican.
They were a fighting force averaging B-rank or higher, providing staunch support to the A-rank-and-above Paladins.
It was they who had guarded the Saintess's hotel in disguise.
“I wondered who it was. Just the riffraff who were guarding the hotel.”
Truly arrogant words.
To treat a hundred knights, clad in silver armor forged with divine power, as mere riffraff.
But no one could challenge his words.
If it were anyone else, perhaps.
But Lu Bu was so powerful that no one dared take issue with his arrogance.
“This works out well.”
Lu Bu nodded, looking at the three hundred soldiers and one hundred knights brought by the Minister of National Defense.
The reason he had finally decided to reveal his ambition after so long was twofold: he had judged that he could grow no further on his current path, and his subordinates' power had finally surpassed his minimum standards.
However, that was merely his own judgment.
Through this, he would realize more clearly.
Whether his ambition would truly crumble into a vain dream, or if he would achieve his goal and stand tall in this new era.
He reaffirmed to himself the path he would walk.
‘Hegemony.’
The path of an Asura, mercilessly trampling anything and everything that stands in his way.
To walk that path with him, they would have to prove they met the minimum qualifications.
Lu Bu struck the floor with the counterweight at the end of his Bangcheon Halberd and opened his mouth.
“All troops, take the Red God's Might.”
Red God's Might.
The ill-fated product he had once tried to distribute worldwide, only to be thwarted by the spell formula created by Kim Do-jin and Han Ju-hee, forcing a halt to its sales.
But Lu Bu had not given up.
He had continued to research Red God's Might, and the red pills his subordinates now took from their pockets possessed far more advanced performance and stability than before.
Of course, he still hadn't found a way to bypass their spell formula and couldn't sell it, but Red God's Might was not created solely for commercial purposes.
As a means to strengthen his subordinates, the value of Red God's Might was more than sufficient—it was overflowing.
Side effects?
Even those were meaningless for his subordinates.
Because the problematic red energy from Red God's Might was under his control.
“As you command!”
His subordinates answered with a short but thunderous cry that filled the airport, and swallowed the Red God's Might resting on their palms.
Kim Do-jin saw it.
He saw the mana flowing around the bodies of those blocking his path turn red.
“…Rage-13.”
Watching the airport's interior turn red, he felt it.
This won't be as easy as I thought.
* * *
Watching the massive red haze rise before my eyes, I swallowed unconsciously.
“…This is unexpected.”
What they all swallowed was Rage-13.
A perilous drug that grants immense power in exchange for making one's emotions boil with rage and bloodlust, causing the user to become unknowingly intoxicated by it, and ultimately leading them to ruin.
I knew that even though I'd created a spell formula to stop its sale, Lu Bu wouldn't give up on it.
I expected him to research it relentlessly, break the formula, and try to sell it again, but…
“I never thought he'd be feeding it to his own subordinates.”
At the edge of my vision, the area around Lu Bu was also burning red.
It was clearly different from the flow produced by the subordinates who had taken Rage-13.
While his subordinates' energy burned wildly and unstably, Lu Bu's energy, though burning just as fiercely, had a very steady flow.
In other words, that red energy was under Lu Bu's complete control.
“Perhaps he's found a way to resolve the drug's side effects.”
Lu Bu is very simple, but he isn't stupid.
There's no way he wouldn't know that an uncontrollable ally is no different from an enemy.
And yet, for him to order his subordinates to take Rage-13…
“It means he can either negate the side effects, or the subordinates gathered here are nothing more than disposable pawns.”
It has to be one of the two.
Well… it doesn't matter which it is, but what bothers me is the red energy itself.
I've experienced that energy once before.
The way it affects the body is quite different, but it was the same energy that Shin Jun-seong produced when he burned his own life force to gain incredible stats and pressure me.
Lu Bu's energy was remarkably similar to that.
What does that mean?
“An Apostle of Wrath (Ira)…”
He must not be an ordinary believer, but an Apostle, just like me.
If that hot-headed bastard isn't an Apostle, who would be?
Which means the red mana of that drug must also originate from the Divine Authority of Wrath.
“Hmm… This is perfect.”
Inside my body, an energy of the same color as theirs—a Red Aura (赤氣)—already lies dormant.
The amount is so minuscule it's practically nonexistent, but the foundation is already there.
Just then, Lu Bu's cruel voice echoed through the airport.
“Kill every last one of them who dared to defy me.”
“As you command—!”
With voices even more intense than before, Lu Bu's subordinates rushed forward, each trying to be the first.
In response, the Minister of National Defense and the Saintess gave orders to the soldiers and knights.
“All troops! Eliminate the traitors who dare to bare their fangs at the government!”
“I'm counting on you, everyone.”
Leather shoes, combat boots, plate greaves.
The different footsteps overlapped, creating a strange harmony.
Clang! Boom! Splat!
The shriek of weapons clashing.
The shattering sound of brilliant silver armor breaking and cracking.
The wet tear of bodies, both friend and foe, being ripped apart.
Amidst the cacophony of sounds that assaulted my ears, I walked calmly forward.
“Stay right behind me.”
“I will.”
With the Saintess stuck close to my back.
“Kuaargh… Die!”
The moment I stepped onto the battlefield, swords, spears, and axes rushed toward me.
I drew the sword from my waist and gently swept it, deflecting the attacks.
“Gluttony (貪食).”
I awaken the heterogeneous energy dormant within my body.
Groooowl
I can feel it.
The roar of the black energy flowing through my body.
Hungry.
Give me food.
“Alright, it's time to eat.”
I reached out a hand toward one of the opponents I was facing, and a black energy flowed from my palm.
Its amorphous shape gradually transformed into that of a fanged monster and moved toward the opponent.
If I let it, it would devour all of the man's abilities.
But that's not what I want right now.
There is only one thing to prey on.
“Devour only that red energy.”
As I specified the target, the energy, true to its nature of showing no self-control before food, quivered once as if throwing a tantrum, wanting to eat everything.
…This was worse than a child's tantrum over vegetables.
But this time, I was firm.
“If you don't obey me, I'll never call on you again.”
As I said before, an uncontrollable ally is no different from an enemy.
That applies to the energies I wield as well.
No matter how effective it is, if it doesn't obey my command, it's bound to become a poison someday.
I have to tame it with this opportunity.
So that it will only eat what I want it to eat.
Groooowl…!
After flaring up once as if in defiance, it soon went limp and opened its maw wide.
Chomp!
With a gruesome sound that only I could hear.
“Keuk…?!”
The red haze rising from the opponent's entire body was ripped away.
And that torn-off energy traveled through Gluttony's esophagus and accumulated entirely within me.
[Starving Gluttony devours the Divine Authority of Wrath, ‘Unquenchable Wrath’!]
[The absorbed power of the Divine Authority is minuscule, and no effect has occurred.]
The energy of the ‘Unquenchable Wrath’ I just obtained was added to the ‘Burning Wrath’ I acquired from Shin Jun-seong.
It was only natural.
Although the way they affected the body was different, the two energies were qualitatively the same.
“Y-You, what have you done…!”
The man who had his energy stolen grew weak.
To a degree incomparable to when I simply stole his abilities.
I grinned at the man as he staggered in confusion and thrust my sword.
“That was a good meal.”
Slice!
Leaving the falling man behind, I turned my eyes to another opponent.
The Red Aura (赤氣) inside me, now heavier, stirred.
This confirmed it.
If I devoured the energy of all the men here, I would be able to obtain something new.
“What could it be? I'm very curious.”
My greed stirred for the first time in a long while.
At the same time, the black energy that had finished its meal and returned to my body shimmered in response.
Yes.
Let's eat to our heart's content.
My gaze, gleaming with greed, swept across the entire airport, now transformed into a battlefield.