After Paranet and Tapagol
Yujun moved in the direction Paranet and Tapagol had run.
He had left the Demon God Worshippers to the two of them, but he could not honestly stake a victory on his summons alone. They were far stronger than before, yes — and still, a bishop's power was nothing to dismiss. Yujun had killed a bishop easily once. His summons were not Yujun.
They haven't been unsummoned yet. That means they're alive.
He activated his senses. A range that had already been broad stretched until the difference was like heaven and earth, and the situation around Paranet, Tapagol, and the Demon God Worshippers drew itself in fine detail.
...They're fighting better than I thought.
The bishop was not standing idle to watch. He was casting in earnest, and Tapagol — exceptional in magic resistance — took every spell head-on, giving Paranet the room to run wild.
I thought they wouldn't mesh at all. It's the opposite.
They were driving the Demon God Worshippers so boldly that he almost wondered whether he had rushed over for nothing. Harp's breath had cut the enemy's strength in half, but the greater share of it was Tapagol, grown still stronger after absorbing the King of the Undying.
A colossal golem at level 999. Its specs were so high that falling easily would have been the strange outcome.
When Tapagol gigantified, a core that stayed hidden at normal size was laid bare — yet the body was so enormous that striking that core was grueling work. Even a blow landed with high accuracy met an outer wall protecting the core that was brutally hard. In short, bringing Tapagol down required an attack powerful enough to pierce that wall in a single strike, and accuracy close to perfect at the same time.
Had Tapagol stood still, perhaps. It never stopped moving, and the cult's close-combat warriors — elites included — were knocked from the air again and again, unable to escape the humiliation. The lasers that fired intermittently from its eyes were especially threatening, and simply closing in was no easy thing.
Boom! Crash!
Body Slam... Thousand-Pound Drop!
Every time Paranet collided with someone, several bodies went sailing through the air.
The Demon God Worshippers did not stay still, either. They worked at the pair's weaknesses and slowly began to drive them back. What made the worshippers frightening was that they did not so much as flinch when a believer died beside them. There was almost no unrest.
Paranet suffered for it most. The moment his mana dropped too low to use skills, he had to fight on the Heavenly Demon Divine Art alone, and that by itself could not push the Demon God Worshippers back.
Yujun, who had been watching, joined the fight then.
Thud!
Sword in hand, he leapt in among the Demon God Worshippers and began to swing with abandon. The Guardians of Balance had been difficult to treat as true enemies, so against them he had offered only threats and gone no further. His body had itched with the frustration of it. Against the Demon God Worshippers, there was no need to hold back.
Earlier, the worshippers spun some ridiculous excuse.
A greater threat was coming for the world, so they would call the Demon God down to stop it? The story was laughable. Even if it were true, what they did could not be tolerated. If the Demon God Worshippers truly moved for some great cause, they should have raised promising players long ago. If they had been looking to the future, they should never have brainwashed people and spent them as disposables.
Yujun felt his anger rise higher still. What if he had been only a little weaker? What if his growth had been slower? The cult would have brainwashed him, and he would have held the same beliefs as the rest of them. Imagining a possibility that was not so small left a foul taste in his mouth.
He cut through the Demon God Worshippers without particular care and slowly closed on the bishop.
Bishop Shomain had survived a breath Harp had fired with every intention of killing him, and his instincts were just as sharp. The moment he sensed the approach, he chained Blink after Blink and opened the distance. Worshippers swarmed so thickly that no ordinary method could close the gap, so Yujun used one that was not ordinary. He activated Super Concentration, then teleported with Flash.
Flash, the superior form of Blink. Longer range, and a shorter cooldown.
Shomain was caught from behind. As the bishop tried to Blink away again, Yujun seized him by the nape.
"Ghk!"
Strength that allowed no resistance. His neck crushed in a grip like iron, Shomain felt his breath choke off in ragged bursts. Yujun slammed him hard into the ground and did not loosen the hand on his throat.
Thud!
The instant Shomain tried to draw up his mana, Yujun tapped his heart, light and quick.
"Hah—!"
A little more force and the mana would have backflowed.
"Stay still."
Shomain gulped empty air and nodded without a word.
"You came to meet the Guardians of Balance. With permission from above, I assume?"
Shomain said nothing. His eyes went wide and his mouth worked, but no sound escaped.
So they lay a geas even on bishops.
A shame. A bishop would know far more than an ordinary believer. With no way to lift the prohibition, there was nothing he could do for now.
Yujun's fist moved.
Crunch!
The bishop's head became pulp.
Three levels rose this time as well.
Is three levels apiece just the house rule for bishops?
The experience coming in was considerable. Hunting nothing but bishops would not be a bad way to live.
If only there were an undead bishop.
An event was underway that granted bonus experience for killing undead, and he could have seen the full effect of it.
The remaining Demon God Worshippers were cleaned up quickly. A group that had lost its leader and broken morale had no choice but to see its strength plummet, and they had already been cowed by Yujun's arrival. Tapagol and Paranet hunted them with gusto.
Harp was not idle either. Firing condensed breath, the divine beast picked off the mages in particular, and the attacks were effective enough to contribute greatly to the worshippers' total collapse. Even without the bishop, their average level was high, so the experience rolling in was generous. Summons did not split that experience with him, and he left the cleanup to them.
With his senses, Yujun only confirmed the route the Guardians of Balance were taking.
They meant to acquire the Golden Lion Guild. High odds they'll head that way.
It seemed the arrivals from another dimension had been using points as well. He had heard that a few of them were tycoons on par with the Great Merchants of Heaven. Something on the scale of the Golden Lion Guild would be easy for them to take. The Guardians of Balance were not only rich. They were a powerful armed force, and the cult had not been wary of them for nothing. Had the cult not acknowledged them, it would never have tried to meet them at all.
Either way, I think I blocked it cleanly.
The cult and the Guardians of Balance joining forces. That had been the worst scenario. Fortunately, his intervention had kept the disaster from happening.
Doesn't look like there's much to worry about.
The Guardians did not seem to be plotting anything, and there was no powerhouse among them who could threaten him.
The players of the Elite Association had been watching the razor-edged standoff between the cult and the Guardians of Balance with their hearts in their throats. Then Yujun shoved himself into it out of nowhere, and they groaned.
"Ah..."
"That..."
"Strong or not, he's wedging himself right between them?"
"He's overconfident. Yes, he's unmatched on the Continent, but charging in alone without a shred of fear? That's a self-inflicted wound."
Every one of them knew Shin Yujun was a powerhouse beyond their reach, and still they shared the same thought: wasn't this too much? It could hardly be otherwise. These were not merely large crowds. They were the Guardians of Balance and the Demon God Worshipper Cult — two colossal factions even the Four Great Guilds could not match. That he had thrown himself into the very middle of them was beyond understanding.
But the situation began to run in a direction entirely unlike what the Elite Association had expected. The leader of the Guardians of Balance was seized by Shin Yujun and could not move a muscle, and the players under the Guardians froze where they stood, as if they had become stone statues. Even the Demon God Worshippers showed no particular movement.
"Is there some barrier over there keeping them from moving? Why can't they attack Shin Yujun?"
"It isn't that they can't. It's that they won't."
At the chairman's words, one of the members tilted his head.
"Why?"
"Because he already put them through the wringer. Shin Yujun has taken root in their heads as something to fear."
"Even so... isn't this the perfect chance?"
"Who knows. They may be thinking something we can't see."
They were still trading those words when it happened.
Kraaaash!
A tremendous breath struck the space where the Demon God Worshippers stood dead-on. Shot in a straight line, it drove through the worshippers in the center — more precisely, erased them without a trace. A breath of that much power, fired without warning, gave them no time to brace.
"..."
"Insane..."
None of them had dreamed he would attack out of nowhere in the middle of a standoff. And it did not end there. The Demon God Worshippers chose retreat and fled, the summons chased them, and the Guardians of Balance who remained began to attack Yujun. Not a single strike landed. A shield formed without so much as a cast stopped every spell cold.
The members of the Elite Association gaped at the shocking sight, but a spectacle even more astonishing unfolded a moment later. Dozens of swords appeared out of nowhere and tore through the Guardians' formation in every direction.
It went on for several minutes. Having seized the initiative against the Guardians of Balance beyond any doubt, Shin Yujun left without a backward glance.
"So he cleaned the whole thing up by himself? Does that even make sense? Unbelievable."
"Makes me wonder what I've even been doing with my life. Ha..."
"I suppose I underestimated him."
"That damned underestimating... You just don't have an eye for it. If you underestimate him every single time, when exactly do you plan to judge him properly?"
"And what about you? Did you know he'd be that strong?"
"They say if you keep quiet, you're halfway there. I never offered a word on the subject. Because I knew it would turn out like this."
"Must be nice, keeping your mouth shut so you don't look quite so foolish. I'm jealous. Truly."
"Ahem..."
Manuela, who had been listening to their talk with her eyes closed, pretending to doze, smiled with unmistakable pride. Yenil saw that smile, frowned, and spoke.
"What is that idiotic smile?"
"Idiotic...?"
"No, I only meant the smile was a little odd... no, bizarre, is all."
"I'll restrain myself from now on."
Not long after, Yujun returned to where they were.
"It's finished."
He walked up to Borhem, who was still staring blankly, and said it. Unused to receiving polite speech from Yujun, Borhem stumbled over his words.
"R-right. Well done."
"You do owe me a reward."
"...Ah. That's right. There were two rewards promised the other night, weren't there?"
"The location of one hidden dungeon, and one item related to divine beasts."
The conversation he had held with the Elite Association before had been about the reward. Well aware that Yujun was raising a divine beast, the Association had been the first to offer an item connected to one, and Yujun — who regarded Harp like a son — had accepted without a second thought.
The other was the location of a hidden dungeon. Had it been a low-level dungeon, he would not have taken the offer. It was the opposite. The monsters inside were of so high an average level that even the Elite Association did not dare touch them. They said they had been saving the dungeon to challenge it once their strength rose in the future. This matter had been serious enough that they ceded that crucial dungeon to Yujun.
"I'll give you the item first."