Spectrum Prison
Demian gazed at the mammoth sprawled on the ground, gasping its last breaths, his face etched with bitterness.
It was the sole legacy left by his late father.
For eight long years after his father's death, they had shared every trial and tribulation.
Thanks to the mammoth, he had grown the White Bear Caravan to its current size.
Without it, Demian as he was today wouldn't exist.
Now, that companion lay fallen, awaiting death.
Their eyes met.
There wasn't a shred of resentment in the mammoth's massive eyes as it looked at him.
"Thank you. Go on ahead and wait for me. I'll catch up soon."
At that moment, the mammoth closed its eyes.
Its breath had stopped.
Demian swallowed his grief and surveyed the battlefield.
The fortress interior had become a full-blown warzone.
The original scavengers had been joined by Dongdaemun Awakeners and a group of mysterious ones.
The White Bear Caravan's Awakeners were being pushed into a defensive corner.
If not for the fortress plastered with traps, items, and magic, they would have been wiped out already.
Boom!
A supply truck exploded, sweeping up nearby scavengers and Dongdaemun Awakeners in the blast.
"Argh!"
"Gah!"
Awakeners' arms flew off, legs severed from their bodies.
Those caught in the explosion rolled across the floor in horrific states.
Those who died instantly were the lucky ones; the survivors, barely clinging to life, wheezed in agony amid their mangled forms.
Other scavengers and Awakeners trampled those survivors mercilessly as they passed.
The crushed ones died without even a scream.
"There's a rare item on the fourth floor."
"Fuck that! We need to loot the fifth. That's where the Spirit King's Crown is."
"Get out of the way, you bastards!"
The scavengers pushed through the devastated third floor toward the fourth.
White Bear Caravan Awakeners guarded the fourth floor as well.
Demian called out to them.
"Trigger the traps."
"Got it!"
One White Bear Caravan Awakener responded and activated the trap.
Suddenly, countless arrows shot from the walls.
Pew pew pew pew pew!
"Aaaagh!"
"Kreeek!"
The Awakeners collapsed screaming, turned into pincushions.
They all wore workshop-forged armor, tough enough to deflect most monster attacks. But against the arrows from the walls, it was useless.
Demian muttered.
"These are all dungeon-excavated items. No ordinary workshop gear can block them."
Most people thought of cores when they heard "dungeon."
Conquer the dungeon, grab the item, and bail without a second thought. But Demian was different.
Many dungeons had traps.
Demian didn't just disarm them—he stripped out every component and mounted them on the supply trucks.
Recycling at its finest.
That's when Aleksandr approached Demian.
His body was drenched in massive amounts of fresh blood.
He had killed that many people.
"Heh heh! Feels like every Awakener in Neo Seoul showed up. Kill 'em all day, and they keep coming."
"Quit whining over this much."
"Whining? Try fighting yourself and see if you say that."
"This is just a tiny fraction of Neo Seoul's Awakeners. If their real heavy hitters step in, we'll be erased in seconds."
"Yeah, you can tell just by looking at the mayor. If he'd wanted, we couldn't have even tried this."
"Exactly. For some reason, he's turning a blind eye. That's how we got our shot."
The chaos inside had reached its peak.
Scavengers, Dongdaemun forces, and unidentified Awakeners were rampaging.
If they'd cooperated, no amount of traps could have held them back.
Luckily, they were turning on each other too.
That was the only reason the White Bear Caravan was hanging on by a thread.
Aleksandr grinned.
"This is intense. Haven't had a fight like this in ages."
"What about Jack?"
"Heh heh! Already sent him out. Kicked his ass when he wouldn't go, crying and all."
"Good call."
Demian smiled.
Jack was a subspace Awakener.
Not an item—a natural ability.
His subspace was enormous.
Big enough to hold every item the White Bear Caravan had brought.
Truth be told, with him around, they didn't need to drag a train of trucks.
But using the mammoth to pull them was to protect Jack from prying eyes.
Subspace items were rare; subspace Awakeners even more so.
Someone with a massive one like Jack's was virtually unique.
Aleksandr had dumped all the magic stones earned from item sales into Jack's subspace.
He'd bet Akutsuk's fate on Jack.
Neo Seoul's prosperity came from the magic stone mines, no question.
Stable supply enabled this hyper-advanced civilization.
Akutsuk, on the other hand, struggled with magic stones.
Monsters dropped them sometimes, but supply was low and quality inconsistent.
Dungeons were plentiful, though, so items were easy to come by.
Some might argue dungeon items were rarer, but that was only half right.
Good gear boosted Awakener power, sure. Protected citizens better from monsters.
But items alone couldn't rebuild civilization.
To match Neo Seoul, you needed magic stones.
That was why Aleksandr came here with Demian.
Ordinary items or goods wouldn't fetch this many stones—Neo Seoul managed supply strategically.
So they'd dangled irresistible dungeon finds.
Now they had a mountain of stones. Enough to rebuild civilization, if not to Neo Seoul's level, then substantially.
If that happened, Aleksandr didn't care what became of his own life.
"You didn't just send Jack, right?"
"Of course not. Sent Ellen and the others like we planned."
Ellen was a navigator like Demian.
But his skills paled in comparison. So on the way here, Demian drilled him intensively.
Passed on all his know-how, made him memorize the route.
Fortunately, Ellen had excellent memory and remembered the path to here perfectly.
"Told him a safe route, so as long as he doesn't stray, he'll make it back to Akutsuk fine."
"Heh heh heh! Damn right. He's our last hope for Akutsuk."
Aleksandr bared his teeth in a grin.
He looked just like a massive white bear smirking at prey.
Demian said to him,
"Sorry. This is all because of me..."
"Told you not to say that. We're brothers."
"I'm the one imposing. The age gap and all."
"Hey! That's just how it is with bros. Don't hurt this old man's heart."
"Huhu! Fine, fine. Why's a big guy like you so sensitive?"
"'Cause you keep drawing lines."
"Who's drawing lines? I'm just sorry."
"Nothing to be sorry for. Thanks to you, we've had experiences most people never get in a lifetime. That's a win at life."
"Glad to hear it."
That was when it happened.
Bang!
"Argh!"
A thunderous boom echoed as one White Bear Caravan Awakener blocking the fourth floor flew back, reduced to a bloody pulp.
The one who'd sent him flying was an Awakener as massive as Aleksandr.
It was Brickston, the leader of Dongdaemun's berserkers.
Dongdaemun Awakeners followed right behind.
"Forget the rest. Secure the Spirit King's Crown first."
Their target was the Spirit King's Crown too.
Demian smirked.
"Do they even know what the Spirit King's Crown is, rushing like starving dogs?"
The world wasn't beautiful.
Behind pretty names lurked all sorts of ugliness.
The Spirit King's Crown was one such thing.
But its power was real.
Splat!
"Urk!"
Another White Bear Caravan Awakener was smashed into paste by Brickston's hammer and sent flying.
Brickston charged relentlessly.
Like a colossal monster, slaughtering White Bear Awakeners in his path.
Aleksandr said,
"Can't let that bastard run wild. He'll wipe out all my boys."
"Captain!"
"We gotta hold till the elf bastards bite."
Demian bit his lip instead of replying.
The situation was growing more dire by the second.
They were holding with traps and item advantages, but even that was reaching its limit.
A little more time, and the White Bear Caravan would be annihilated.
That was when it happened.
In the distance, a group approached.
Figures cloaked in robes and mantles, hiding their faces and bodies.
The moment he saw them, chills ran up Demian's spine.
'Elves.'
They thought they were hiding their identities, but they couldn't conceal their slender builds.
One or two, maybe. But hundreds all that slim? Only one race: elves.
Demian said to Aleksandr,
"Elves incoming. Hold for three minutes. Exactly three."
"Got it!"
Aleksandr nodded and leaped to the fourth floor.
"Kahaha! You're with me, you fanatic fuck."
He swung a fist at Brickston.
A massive gauntlet encased his hand.
"You bald bastard..."
Brickston swung his enormous hammer in response.
Clang!
The gauntlet and hammer collided, unleashing a massive shockwave.
"Urk!"
"Damn it!"
The fanatics and other Awakeners trailing behind were blasted back.
Brickston and Aleksandr's huge frames staggered from the mutual force. But only for a moment—they regained balance and charged again.
Boom!
It was like watching giant monsters clash.
No other Awakener dared intervene in their brutal fight.
The fierce battle raged on.
Thanks to Aleksandr, Demian caught his breath and eyed the rapidly approaching elf horde.
"Come on already, you shits."
As if in answer, the elves accelerated.
No matter how they disguised as humans, they couldn't fool Demian's eyes.
He hated them more than anyone—he recognized them instantly.
"Invaders from another world. Parasites squatting in human lands. Come on. I'm waiting right here."
Demian's eyes were bloodshot red.
One day.
For this day, he'd lived the past eight years in relentless fury.
Not a single peaceful night. Every moment treated as his last, whipping himself forward.
As if hearing his call, the elves closed in fast.
Demian's mad smile deepened.
That was when Demian spotted a figure riding the sandstorm from afar.
Too distant to make out the face, but he knew instantly who it was.
"Hyung!"
The one human he owed a debt to.
Zeon.
Demian apologized to Zeon.
"Sorry, hyung! You can't come here. If you get involved, my picture gets ruined."
The world's one and only sand manipulator.
If he intervened, even Demian would have to change plans.
Demian didn't want that.
He muttered,
Spectrum Prison
Instantly, a massive magic circle appeared around the fortress.
The seven-colored light formation swallowed everything.
Zeon, the elves, everyone fighting inside the fortress.