Moderates in Name Only
The Moderates were moderate in name alone. All they were really fighting for was their own share of the spoils, and just like the Hardline Faction, they would stoop to anything to get what they wanted. Stabbing their fellow celestials in the back and taking their heads was the baseline. They even dragged the other races of the Continent into the war, widening the board until the whole conflict sprawled.
There were no virtuous factions in Heaven.
The celestials didn't conscript anyone by force. Like-minded souls simply gathered and set themselves against one another, so there was no reason to feel guilty about which side you chose to stand on.
Shhk. Thk. Yujun moved without a sound, assassinating the Moderates' celestials one after another. Most of them never even realized they were dead until the instant his sword severed their necks.
Yujun glanced at the welcome window, and in that same instant three celestials charged him at once, weapons raised. He didn't need a skill to handle a number like that. Raw stats and the sword's attack power were enough to cut all three down in a single breath.
"Intruder!"
"Form up and engage!"
"I can't see the enemy!"
"Don't use area magic—we have to take him down clean!"
Yujun was slaughtering them from the very heart of the enemy ranks, and this was the environment he fought best in. Afraid of killing their own, they couldn't recklessly loose high-powered wide-area magic, and the formation flailed in confusion around him. There, he could run wild like a madman.
Drew their aggro clean.
Every celestial was desperate to find him. They could just barely make him out with the naked eye, but his presence refused to lock, and the frustration had to be maddening. That was how stealthily, and how fast, Yujun was moving. After cutting down five more, he sent a signal to his party through the messenger.
His companions, waiting at a distance, and the Hardline celestials began to move. With his senses pushed to their limit, the movements of every nearby player came to him as if he were seeing them all at a glance.
Most of the prisoners got caught again.
He had released them to draw the Moderates' eyes, but he hadn't expected them to do nothing but draw those eyes and then get recaptured. He had thought at least a few would slip away clean.
I owe them. This time I'll make sure they get out.
Yujun started to cast at the celestials still charging after him, then hesitated. His magic was strong, but it was nothing next to the sword.
Not magic. The sword.
Weapon Earthquake, unleashed through the Planet Destroyer's Sword. He was dying to see what kind of power that would produce. Thud. He drove the blade into hard ground studded with great stones, and of course the sword sank through the earth with ridiculous ease.
Rrrrrumble. A vast tide of mana began to pour from the sword, and Weapon Earthquake activated.
Weapon Earthquake
EX Tier
Grrrnnn—! The rank alone made it a bully of a skill, and on top of that came the effect of his Genius trait and the attack power of the Planet Destroyer's Sword. Weapon Earthquake already covered an area to rival most large-scale magic. Once Yujun's attack power was mixed in, the result defied imagination.
The ground didn't cave in, but nearly every celestial with their feet on it died where they stood. The skill attacked the inside of the body with a devastating shockwave, and the celestials, who had no idea what Earthquake even was, could only take it helplessly.
"Ghk—!"
"Koff—!"
"Wh-what?"
"What's happening?"
The celestials who had spread their wings and taken to the sky in search of Yujun stared, eyes wide, at the unexplained deaths of their kin. Not a single celestial was left standing where the wave had passed.
Celestials above my level are getting rare. The pace has slowed.
There were still plenty of them left. Weapon Earthquake's range was wide, but the camp the celestials had built was enormous, and they were scattered far apart. So he couldn't claim to have killed a truly massive number... and yet a smile touched Yujun's lips. Watching a celestial who had only been grazed by the wave collapse, vomiting blood, he felt in his bones just how strong Earthquake really was.
I can keep using Weapon Earthquake for a long time.
When he had first obtained it, it hadn't felt all that impressive for an EX-tier skill. Using it with a level 800 Transcendent sword was a completely different story. Since it scaled so heavily with the sword's attack power, he had a feeling Weapon Earthquake would see a great deal of use from here on.
I'll be hitting level 700 soon.
The celestials were a better source of experience than he had expected. Heaven seemed full of players in the mid-to-high 600s.
Quite a gap from the Continent.
And celestials were a powerful race to begin with. You could assume their actual combat strength exceeded the level shown on their status window. That was probably why even Dokgo Minsu and Kim Yohan, blessed with excellent perks, hadn't been able to avoid captivity. Among the other races taken prisoner, players under level 600 were rare. Anyone lower than that wouldn't have been able to stick their nose into Heaven's war in the first place.
Yujun entered the large building where Dokgo Minsu and Kim Yohan had been held before. Because he had smashed every iron door last time, the prisoners had all been gathered into a single room, which saved him the trouble of wandering all over the place. Two armed celestials stood guard outside, but Yujun killed his presence, closed in, and cut them down with a simple swing.
"Urk—!"
He kicked a door even thicker than the ones he had broken before.
BOOM!
It had clearly been locked tight, and it still flew open far too easily.
Strength really has gone up.
An eight-hundred-percent increase. It would have been stranger if he couldn't feel it. The prisoners startled at the noise, then lit up when they recognized the human who had freed them before.
"Don't just stand there—get out, quickly!"
"We're tied up..."
Yujun formed five swords with Sword Unity and cut the bindings of unknown material that held them. The false swords created by Sword Unity carried the same attack power as the Planet Destroyer's Sword, so the cords that had immobilized players in the 600s parted without resistance.
"Thank you!"
"Shin Yujun, right? I know you."
"Thanks, human!"
Every major race except the demons seemed to be here.
Come to think of it, I haven't seen any Demon God Worshippers lately. There had to be a reason they couldn't operate in Heaven. There ought to be Worshippers among the celestials too. A celestial blessed by the Demon God would be a final weapon, plain and simple.
The celestials' numbers had dropped so sharply that almost none came charging even as the prisoners spilled out of the building. And when one did, Yujun closed in at once and either took the head or drove his sword through the chest.
Stacking experience buffs, he could feel how unusually fast his level was climbing. Three levels left until 700.
Shhk. After he killed one more, no celestial was left charging him. Everyone nearby was already dead. Yujun started picking up the ownerless items scattered across the ground where they had fallen.
"Dad! I'll do that!"
Yujun tilted his head at Harp's words.
"Do what?"
"Pick up the items!"
"Harp, your arms are short."
"Then I just do this."
Harp's mouth stretched wide. His body swelled like a balloon, and his mouth opened just as wide to match.
"I just put them in here!"
"...You sure you won't hurt yourself?"
"I'll be fine! I just turn the inside of my mouth into a subspace for a moment."
"You can do that?"
"Yes! You probably could too, Dad! You just have to use Chaos!"
"Chaos really does everything, huh. I'll pass."
Even if he could, he had no reason to. He had an inventory. Still, if Harp went around collecting items for him, it would be very convenient.
"Anyway, leave all the tedious work to me! How about it?"
"Works for me. Thanks, Harp."
"Getting to help you is what I'm grateful for."
"Good kid."
Harp scurried off, huffing and puffing. While the little round white beast worked hard, Yujun checked the state of the battle. His party and the Hardline celestials were cleaning up what remained of the Moderates. No—more accurately, they were locked in a fierce exchange of blows.
I should help.
Yujun supported them using only the swords he had already suspended in the air with Sword Unity. Thuk. Thuk. The blades shot faster than the eye could follow and punched through the backs of celestial skulls. In a game it would have been outright kill-stealing—bad manners—but this was a battlefield where lives were on the line. No one was going to condemn him for it. If anything, they would be grateful.
The moment Yujun joined in, the fight ended in an instant. The celestials who had been fighting the Moderates let their arms drop, looking hollow.
"It's... over?"
"If it was going to be like this, why did we even come?"
"It's fine. We won without getting hurt. You could call it a tactically perfect victory."
"I'm just glad we're not dead."
That was when Sertiphs appeared at the head of several hundred celestials. Far, far too late. But he couldn't blame them. They hadn't arrived late. The vast host of Moderate celestials had simply been annihilated in a single moment, and that was the part that defied common sense.
A few celestials relayed Yujun's exploits to Sertiphs exactly as they had happened. Sertiphs listened closely, then tilted his head.
"All those Moderate bastards, by himself?"
"Yes. He drove his sword into the ground once, and nearly two hundred Moderate players were wiped out at the same time."
"...Magic?"
"It didn't seem like magic. There was no casting at all."
"Then it must have been a skill, not magic."
"So it seems. Then again, Shin Yujun is famous for his magic. It might be an ability fused with magic."
"He swept away players over level 600 all at once... He is certainly no ordinary powerhouse."
Sertiphs walked up to Yujun. He hesitated for a long moment, then spoke.
"You were right. You are worthy of a better reward. It is unprecedented, but... I will amend the terms of the mission."
"What matters isn't the amendment. It's what you're actually going to give me, isn't it?"
At that, Sertiphs smiled for the first time and nodded.
"Very well. What item do you want?"
What he needed most, of course, was that marble.
"Do you have a Synchronization Marble?"
"...A Synchronization Marble? Is that an item?"
"We don't have a single one."
"In all my life, I have neither heard of such a thing nor seen one."
"I see."
He wasn't terribly disappointed. He hadn't expected Sertiphs to have one in the first place. He could just go find Reban, the one who was supposed to possess a Synchronization Marble. Which left the next option.
"I want a consumable, not equipment. Pick one you think would suit me."
"...It sounds arrogant, but you have earned the right. Very well."
Sertiphs showed him two items. Yujun's eyes went wide when he checked them. Both were so good that choosing between them would be difficult.