Chapter 200
Chapter 200
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 200
Chapter Title: Horizon of Promise, Now I Go to You (1)
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0.
The pure white noble young master's laughter—Saito Nan's—echoed in Do Ye-jin's ears.
「Ha…… Ahahahahaha!」
No......
I won't look......
I won't get sucked in...... I'll hold out......
「Your mental fortitude is better than I thought, Arishel'rap.」
Alien light pouring in from beyond his eyelids......
Hold your mind...... hold it together......
Do Ye-jin gasped for breath, desperately fighting to stay conscious.
「But you're still just a mongrel. Did you think this level of willpower could block my power?」
Invisible tentacles.
They groped and coiled around his mind...... a nauseating sensation surging up.
“Stop it, please……!”
Get lost.
I thought I'd given up everything.
Why, why, how...... am I holding on like this......?
1.
Bwooom-bwooom-bwooom-bwoooom─────!
A cannon blast so massive it rattled their skulls.
────Kwaaaaang!
The 21st barrage.
Seo Hwa-yoon's heavy assault mech's shells rained down indiscriminately on Choi Sin-yul's position.
10cm-diameter iron slugs and high-explosives.
The slugs shredded the urban areas and roads mercilessly, while the high-explosives engulfed the forests in raging flames.
“Seriously…… that's just ridiculous.”
Seo Hwa-yoon muttered blankly as she used 《Shape Memory》 to reload her weapons.
Because.
Even after all that.
From the devastated, burning earth and billowing smoke.
“Is that a human, or a monster?”
Choi Sin-yul emerged with a face cold and utterly expressionless.
Unbelievably intact.
His snow-white hair and robes not a speck of dust on them.
“Now! Take him down!”
In that instant, frontline squad leader Hunters charged in, each swinging their weapons.
Park Yun-hee with her double-headed saw-axe.
Yeo Pyeong-heon with his serrated twin swords.
Doggo Yeong-jae with his Unique Skill, 《Forgery》, summoning replicated subordinates.
“Pathetic…….”
Choi Sin-yul extended his left hand.
Frigid energy coalesced in midair into crystalline form, forging an ice sword.
Click.
He gripped it.
Then swung it leisurely, almost lazily.
──────Kaaaaang!
A rupture like eardrums bursting.
Park Yun-hee's saw-axe spun through the air.
“Guh…… guaaaaaah!”
......And Park Yun-hee clutched her severed wrist, shrieking in agony.
“You bastard!”
Then Yeo Pyeong-heon.
He slashed at Choi Sin-yul twice with his twin swords.
Spurt────!
But soon both legs were sliced off by the crystal blade, and he collapsed in a heap.
All in just 2 seconds.
Not even 10.
“Fuck that! Try talking shit after seeing my Unlimited Power!”
Doggo Yeong-jae's forged subordinates.
The ones he'd drawn with ink on paper—weak and small, but not to be underestimated.
《White Crystal Ice Veil》.
The moment Choi Sin-yul extended his right hand and clenched it slowly.
Shatter-shatter-shatter-shatter────!
Vicious micro-crystal blades in the air shredded them back to ink.
“Is that all?”
Insane......
This is insane......
Before that overwhelming combat prowess, the <Association> Hunters backed away one by one, murmuring.
That's.
That's no human.
A god...... wearing human skin......
2.
“Haa…… haa…… haa…… haa…… hup…….”
Death...... was near.
Before her eyes stretched a world of death. A hellscape tangled with snail corpses, hunting dog remains, and human bodies.
Today, too.
Today, too, she survived......
Gong Min-young let out a long breath, comparing the scene to her own still-beating heart.
“How can we...... ever thank you?”
One Hunter said.
Ow, it hurts like hell...... Gong Min-young suppressed the pain of her shattered shoulder blade and barely stood.
“No need. How many of you are still alive?”
Fortunately.
No further attacks came.
Most of the enemies had chased after the <Association>'s main force—the train.
“Most survived, yes.”
“Can everyone move right away?”
“Of course.”
Then let's move now.
Gong Min-young was about to say it when she clamped her mouth shut.
“AUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU…….”
The hunting dogs lifted their noses high, sniffing frantically, then began howling.
What......?
Gong Min-young, master of Anridal's hunting dogs, could naturally understand their tongue.
How......?
That person's alive......?
“AUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU…….”
It was impossible to accept.
How could it be......? I saw it with my own eyes...... saw that person die......
“W-what is it?”
“Why are those dogs acting like that?”
The Hunters, sensing unease from the dogs' bizarre behavior, asked urgently.
But.
But if.
If these guys are telling the truth.
“Sorry.”
Suddenly, blood surged hot through Gong Min-young's body. A thrill named hope.
“You'll have to go on without me from here.”
“Yes? What suddenly?”
“I think...... I need to go fetch my groom......”
Gong Min-young mounted her beloved dog, Erringa, and galloped toward Gangbuk-gu without looking back.
This is my chance. My chance!
A chance to score points without that scary Jeong Ha-kyeong unnie knowing!
3.
Please.
The entire climb to the summit.
Shin Tae-yeop's body was soaked in cold sweat.
Light not of this world.
Beams from a distant alien realm stabbing down onto the peak, flickering pale endlessly......
Don't be late, please.
......Each time, a bone-chilling cold froze his soul, making his joints throb.
“We've reached the summit at last……!”
Finally, Park Ji-won whispered breathlessly. Then came Heo Cheon-gyeom's trembling voice.
“Fuck, what the hell is that……?”
Atop Black & White.
Around 650 meters altitude. Anyway, high enough to overlook the divine palace atop Surak Mountain in one glance.
“What to say…… it's beautiful…….”
Ryu Hyeon-ja let out an unwitting sigh of admiration, then glanced at Lee Ha-ram and shut her mouth.
No, that's not wrong......
Shin Tae-yeop thought. This northernmost divine palace in Seoul was dazzlingly magnificent.
A grand ㄷ-shaped complex of corridors, halls, colonnades, altars......
Built entirely of marble?
The Gothic-style palace stood as a majestic white fortress amid the swirling snowstorm.
“Black! We're good, descend!”
Yeah, that's enough.
Shin Tae-yeop tore his gaze from the spectacle and steeled himself.
Just as altitude began dropping.
What the hell......?!
Suddenly, Black & White braked hard mid-descent, nearly flinging them off.
“Wha...... what......?!”
“That's...... a barrier!”
Shin Tae-yeop muttered blankly.
A bluish hemispherical barrier. It gleamed, encircling the divine palace.
Nothing's ever easy......
He bit his lip weakly, then asked.
“Can you break through?”
The wolf with illusory fur replied immediately.
「Of couuurse. But it’ll take tiiiime.」
It can......
And it wasn't lying.
Slowly, agonizingly...... but Black & White's muzzle led, its body pushing into the barrier.
But it was frustratingly slow.
Shin Tae-yeop, at the front.
The moment his body entered the barrier, he felt the divine palace's atmosphere shift completely.
This is...... blood......
And...... holy shit.
What the hell are those......?
At the center of the ㄷ-shaped corridor, the snowfield stained crimson—what was that blood?
Over that red snow.
A gallows-like altar stood.
“<Association> folks?”
“R...... real! Th-they're in uniforms......!”
......Two Hunters hung there, hands bound, chained.
But...... that thing......?
The instant they saw 'it'.
The boy and girl froze in instinctive terror. The divine beast still passing through the barrier shuddered too.
「Smeelll of staaars. So scaary……」
Overall shape: a massive snail at a glance.
An Ikilras helix etched on its alien shell...... a sickly pale larval body.
But no true snail.
Has seven tentacle-like eyestalks, or walks on deformed quadruped legs.
And crucially...... doesn't melt and devour human flesh and bone like that.
“H-Ha-ram...... that thing's eating...... people......?”
So horrified by the gruesome sight, Ryu Hyeon-ja covered her eyes with both hands.
“Probably......”
Even Lee Ha-ram, the Nowon-gu Hunter, looked shaken.
“I'd only heard rumors...... first time seeing it......”
Then suddenly.
Gong Min-young's testimony flashed vividly in Shin Tae-yeop's mind.
- There's a god born from Hwang Ga-in at Surak Mountain's peak.
Holy shit......
This is insane......
- Promising Hunters were offered to it as mountain sacrifices.
A sudden headache, and the overlapping hellscape before his eyes.
Elite Knight, Richard Hu.
That madman who killed innocents, then arranged their dismembered corpses in a helix.
Do Ye-jin......
Dude, where the hell are you? Don't tell me you're already......
“Tae-yeop oppa! Look, over there!”
Park Ji-won's urgent cry snapped Shin Tae-yeop back to reality...... and stole his breath.
At the edge of his vision.
Chained.
Writhing wildly, screaming—the last survivor.
- Arishel'rap, something like that.
Just one instant.
But in that instant, he saw.
In that instant, he knew.
- Means [Dawn of All Worlds] in the gods' tongue.
A girl with long black hair.
Her already slender frame even gaunter...... hair matted and bloodstained, hanging to her chest.
Ah......
His mind went blank white in a flash, something freezing cold in his chest.
“Don't you dare───────!”
That something.
Drove the ever-rational mage, Shin Tae-yeop, to leap from Black & White's back into empty air.
“────────touch her!”
Late cries of restraint scattered in the fierce wind whipping his face.
“Hey, Shin Tae-yeop!”
“O-Oppa......?!”
“Hey, are you nuts?!”
“Shishishi?”
Fierce air resistance buffeted him wildly.
His bright yellow transparent ponytail.
The wide coat tails like a uniform.
Frost sloughing from Shyrak's body.
In that chaos, Shin Tae-yeop constructed a magic equation in his head.
Don't be late.
Don't be late.
Please don't be late.
Equation deployment, mental arithmetic, providence alteration.
Suddenly, an invisible brush.
Drew a blood-red magic circle beneath the looming gallows.
Woooooong…………………!
Soon the circle's lines and runes spewed radiant light.
《False Flame Spirit Mist.》
No grand spell.
No combat magic for damage. Just a 2-star spell from the Holy Human Empire's 7-star system—a festival peacetime spell.
But right now, it's perfect.
The circle's internal pressure peaked.
In a blinding flash...... thick smoke erupted densely.
…………Pssshhhhh!
In that dizzying haze.
The boy reached the girl on the chains.
The fragile promise left by two men he once admired and still did.
At last.
He embraced her fiercely with both arms.
“Shishishishi………………!”
Shyrak breathed frost onto the chains holding the girl.
Creak-creak-creeeak──── Snap!
The frozen chain midway.
Unable to withstand the falling momentum, it shattered the next instant.
“Krgh……!”
Still holding the girl.
They tumbled hard across the snowfield.
It hurts.
Hurts like hell......
Even with chains and snow cushioning, the impact choked his breath in agony through his body.
“Hey...... Do Ye-jin......”
But.
Why is it.
“Shin...... Tae-yeop......?”
Finally, the spinning stopped.
Collapsed limply in the snow.
What burst from his blocked lungs with blood...... wasn't a groan, but laughter.
“You've gotten...... way weaker...... even weaker than some random Heo Cheon-gyeom passing by......”
“You...... how......”
“Hey, say it straight. Between us two...... now...... who's the rookie......?”