The Heaven’s Judgment
Ahmed Hassan wore the look of a man who had lost everything.
In the middle stretch of the unnamed king’s resting place, Yoon Sang-hyuk had said, “Let’s see what the Tower of the Dead can do,” and every guild member assigned to the raid stepped forward.
Each of them summoned the strongest undead they could call forth. Ahmed Hassan summoned Skeleton Generals, Knights, Mages, and more.
He had allowed himself a sliver of hope that, if they unleashed an army of several hundred undead, they might at least have a chance of victory.
It was his first time reaching the middle section, but lately both he and the guild had grown somewhat stronger with support from the Holy Knights of the British Order.
That small hope, however, was crushed so quickly it seemed to crumble into dust before his eyes.
The undead they had brought, though outnumbering the enemy three to one, were swept away in an instant by the undead that appeared in the unnamed king’s resting place. They were annihilated without even destroying a fifth of the summoned horde.
What made it even more humiliating was that afterward, the five undead Yang Su-chan had summoned wiped out the remaining undead in their entirety.
And if that had been all, Ahmed Hassan might not have felt quite so hollow. The next thing was Park Ho-sung single-handedly smashing the mid-boss, the captain of the unnamed king’s knights, in the stone chamber beyond.
“Guild Master.”
“...”
Ahmed Hassan stared blankly at Ali Gabr as the man spoke to him.
“Do you think it’s possible to step out of the Masked Lord’s shadow?”
“Hah. Ha. Is that what matters right now?”
A chill had suddenly run down his spine, and he rubbed at his throat with one hand.
“Doesn’t it strike you as a blessing that we weren’t treated as enemies?”
He had thought the only being they needed to be careful of was the Masked Lord. That had been a grave mistake. Yang Su-chan alone was strong enough that, if he truly set his mind to it, he could slaughter Ahmed Hassan and every guild member of the Tower of the Dead without breaking a sweat.
And what about Park Ho-sung?
It was shameful to even think it, but if Ahmed Hassan fought Park Ho-sung, he felt like he would die before he even got close enough to touch him.
The thought of having provoked a country full of monsters like these sent another cold shiver across his body.
“What are we supposed to do about that bastard?”
“Huh? Sorry, I didn’t catch that.”
“Michael Buren. I managed to get through this somehow, but with that psycho’s personality, the Hammer of God won’t let him off lightly.”
Once again, he thanked God that he was still alive.
The two men talking fell silent as if by agreement the moment Yoon Sang-hyuk’s group approached.
“Are you all right?”
“Does I look all right to you?”
Despite his inner feelings, the words that came out of his mouth were sharp. It was because every undead he had summoned earlier had been annihilated.
“Come to Korea with me.”
“Why Korea?”
“There’ll be something good waiting for you there. Take help from this one, and from a few others besides. You’ll be a lot better off than you are now.”
Yoon Sang-hyuk pointed at Yang Su-chan.
Ahmed Hassan looked at Yang Su-chan with wide eyes.
“Honestly, I really don’t want to teach you, you know. As someone who loves undead, watching someone fail to use them properly is just painful. I can’t show you everything I have, but even so, you’ll get a lot better than you are now.”
Teaching someone else the unique techniques you had developed was never easy. Ahmed Hassan himself had never shared with others the information he had gained about hunting grounds that yielded good items or quests that led to high-level skills in Eternal World.
“Anyway, keep that in mind. And there’s one thing you absolutely need to understand. Don’t rely too much on levels, gear, or skills. As Park Ho-sung here proves, there are definite limits to those things.”
If he had relied only on levels and equipment, the Masked Lord would never have been able to clear, alone, the places in Eternal World that even guilds could not conquer.
Without the will to become stronger, without the will to see the end of that rotten world, there would be no Yoon Sang-hyuk now, no Masked Lord.
“Remember this. The moment you settle, you fall behind.”
* * *
The top floor of the unnamed king’s resting place.
At the summit of the dungeon, whose structure resembled a pyramid, the final boss of this place, the Forgotten Ancient King, appeared.
The stone chamber was several times larger than the biggest room they had passed through so far.
Across from the entrance, on a raised dais, sat the final boss, the Forgotten Ancient King, upon a throne made of bone. Beside him stood the captain of the unnamed king’s knights and the captain of the mage corps, both serving as attendants.
Below the dais, a staggering number of the unnamed king’s knights, mages, and soldiers stood in formation.
“Wow, that’s insane.”
“Scared already?”
“What are you talking about? I’m Yang Su-chan, undead enhancer extraordinaire. I’m the master of the Necropolis and the king of undead, that’s me. A few truckloads of those trash undead are nothing.”
“And yet you summoned quite a lot.”
In front of Yang Su-chan stood several hundred undead, waiting for orders. He had emptied every undead he kept stored in his bracelet.
“A predator always gives its best, no matter how small the prey, right?”
“Earlier, you only pulled out a few because you wanted to show off.”
“Show off? What are you talking about... that was the best I could do at the time.”
Yoon Sang-hyuk laughed at the sight of Yang Su-chan stammering through his excuse.
“Have you cleared this place before?”
“This is my first time.”
Park Ho-sung answered briefly.
“We need to clear the fodder as fast as possible. If we’re even a little slow, that bastard over there summons them back. Once the trash is gone, the captain and the mage captain move in. When the mid-bosses are down to about half health, the big one starts attacking. With your skill, it shouldn’t be too dangerous, but watch out for the big one’s Life Drain, Return from Death, and Mind Collapse.”
Yoon Sang-hyuk explained the Forgotten Ancient King’s patterns.
“Of course, that’s only how it worked in Eternal World. I don’t know how it might have changed in reality, so take it as reference only.”
“Yes, sir.”
The Forgotten Ancient King would be taken on by Yang Su-chan and Park Ho-sung.
Yoon Sang-hyuk stepped back, and the two of them immediately prepared to begin the raid.
“Before my babies attack, give us a few big shots.”
“Understood.”
Park Ho-sung started first.
He used Mace Turn Undead in rapid succession, erasing more than a hundred undead, then struck them with water-attribute magic and lightning magic. After that, he cast Fire Wall and trapped half of the undead in a wall of flame.
Then Yang Su-chan’s undead began their assault.
At the front stood the undead Yang Su-chan had named the Blood Skeleton King. It was a Skeleton General enhanced several times over, with a magic circle enchanted onto it and tattoos drawn across its body using monster blood, making it far stronger than before.
Behind it followed the Blood Skeleton Berserker and the Blood Skeleton Warrior. Ten Poison Hell Bone Hounds, arriving a beat later, surged ahead of the Blood Skeleton King, carving into the undead ranks and shattering their formation.
As undead clashed against undead, Yang Su-chan started dancing and singing a song no one could make sense of. He insisted it was a song and dance meant to make his undead more valiant, but it was really nothing more than him shouting and flailing however he pleased.
Every time Yang Su-chan danced, dark mana seeped out of his body. That mana poured in torrents into the undead he had summoned.
Each of Yang Su-chan’s undead was special. Even the weakest of them possessed enough power to overwhelm a knight of the unnamed king.
- You insignificant beings.
Yoon Sang-hyuk looked at the Forgotten Ancient King seated on his throne. The Forgotten Ancient King, wearing a crown studded with shining jewels, rose from the seat.
Unlike its usual pattern, it reacted far earlier than expected.
As the Forgotten Ancient King stood, the knight captain and mage captain it had been supporting also began to move. The knight captain launched himself toward Yang Su-chan’s undead with startling speed, so fast it was hard to believe he was undead at all.
Yang Su-chan sent the Blood Skeleton King and the Berserkers against the captain. No matter how strong his undead were, they still could not completely overpower the unnamed king’s knight captain yet. Their purpose was to buy time while the others cleared the surrounding enemies.
Park Ho-sung, having split the undead in two with Fire Wall, swept through the undead on the opposite side from Yang Su-chan’s assault. The mage captain of the unnamed king had set his sights on Park Ho-sung.
Dark mana gathered around the mage captain. The cloudlike mass of darkness surged toward Park Ho-sung.
It was Dark Swarm, a sixth-circle black magic spell.
Park Ho-sung’s left hand moved nimbly.
“Anti-Magic.”
The moment he muttered the words, the Dark Swarm sweeping toward him vanished. Anti-Magic, the spell that nullified magic. While continuing to drive the undead back with his right hand, Park Ho-sung had used Anti-Magic with his left to invalidate the mage captain’s Dark Swarm.
He had defended perfectly, using Anti-Magic while launching offensive magic, something useless unless the timing was exact.
“What kind of monster is that?”
Yoon Sang-hyuk muttered under his breath.
He had considered stepping in earlier than expected to help against the Forgotten Ancient King, the knight captain, and the mage captain, but seeing how Yang Su-chan and Park Ho-sung were handling it, that no longer seemed necessary.
- Insolence. You shall not return alive from this place.
The Forgotten Ancient King struck the floor with the staff in its hand. At once, a fan-shaped shockwave swept over Yang Su-chan and Park Ho-sung.
It was Mind Collapse, one of the Forgotten Ancient King’s area-of-effect skills.
“Kuhh-”
Yang Su-chan staggered, clutching his head, whereas Park Ho-sung seemed to take little to no damage. Unless someone’s mental fortitude surpassed the Forgotten Ancient King’s by a shocking margin, that simply should not have been possible.
Rather than falling back when the Forgotten Ancient King began its attack, Park Ho-sung advanced. His casting speed increased.
Each time he swung his wand or swept his hand through the air, powerful spells tore through the undead ranks. In between, he blocked the mage captain’s spells with Anti-Magic or shut them down at the source with Spell Cancel.
“Is he going all out?”
A giant red hand seized Park Ho-sung. The Forgotten Ancient King had used Life Drain. Park Ho-sung neutralized even that with Anti-Magic.
The Forgotten Ancient King seemed to decide that Park Ho-sung was the more dangerous threat, not Yang Su-chan’s undead, and focused its attacks on him.
Before long, the only enemies left in front of Park Ho-sung were the mage captain and the Forgotten Ancient King.
“Call Lightning.”
A bolt of lightning struck the mage captain. He dodged the Forgotten Ancient King’s attack with Blink, then landed another spell on the mage captain.
“Kuh...”
He was driven back hard by the Forgotten Ancient King’s close-range attack. He let out a short groan, as if the impact had rattled him. The astonishing thing was that even while retreating like that, both of Park Ho-sung’s hands never stopped moving.
While Park Ho-sung, the Forgotten Ancient King, and the mage captain were locked in fierce combat, Yang Su-chan finally brought down the knight captain and joined the fight.
“Leave the mage captain to me.”
Perhaps because of the memory of being struck by the Forgotten Ancient King’s Mind Collapse, Yang Su-chan targeted the mage captain.
With Yang Su-chan joining the front line, Park Ho-sung turned his full attention to the Forgotten Ancient King.
The Forgotten Ancient King used both magic and close combat.
After masking his vision with Fire Wall, Park Ho-sung used Blink to move into a blind spot and land a solid hit. Even in the instant he shifted through space with Blink, he was already preparing his next spell.
“Fire Wall.”
He raised a wall of flame on all four sides of the Forgotten Ancient King, then retreated a good distance. After that, both of his hands began weaving signs at impossible speed.
He was preparing something immense, and the time he spent casting was far longer than before.
The Forgotten Ancient King burst through the wall of fire. Whether enraged or not, it pointed its staff at Park Ho-sung alone.
- Insignificant one. I shall seal your soul within the prison of eternity. Rise again from death and become my servant.
It was the Forgotten Ancient King’s strongest skill, Return from Death. Darkness flooded the surroundings. It crept over Park Ho-sung, swallowing him whole.
Just when it seemed he had been fully consumed by the darkness,
“Heaven’s Judgment.”
Kwaaaa-rumble-
A thunderous roar shook the air.
Then came a single falling streak of light.
Everyone watching the battle shut their eyes and turned away. The flash drove out the darkness. From within it came the Forgotten Ancient King’s pitiful scream.
After a moment, when the light disappeared, the Forgotten Ancient King could no longer be seen.
“What on earth did I just see?”
Yoon Sang-hyuk muttered.
Heaven’s Judgment.
Just as the name said, it was judgment from heaven. A spell those with the mage class called divine punishment, an eighth-circle spell.
It was the absolute magic that the Crimson Witch, Christina Rubianco, had used during the assault on Demon King Castle, only to collapse from mana exhaustion afterward, now unleashed from Park Ho-sung’s hands.
As Yoon Sang-hyuk let out an empty laugh, Yang Su-chan’s anguished shout rang out.
“Hey, you crazy bastard! If you were gonna use a spell like that, you should’ve said something first. You killed all my babies!”