Chapter 241: The Great Raid (3)
Chapter 241: The Great Raid (3)
The Moon Shadow Party emerged from the purple portal in just one hour.
Seeing them return so quickly and without a single scratch, Park Min-woo greeted them warmly.
"You’ve worked hard."
"Please make sure no one gets near the portal," Kang Yujin requested.
"Understood."
Since they had already established a perimeter around the portal, all he had to do was signal the guards to keep their distance.
Upon hearing this, Park Min-woo gestured to a nearby Awakener. He relayed an order to the investigation team—who had been waiting to enter and survey the interior once Han Shin’s group cleared it—telling them to stand down.
Kang Yujin then gave a brief briefing, explaining that anyone entering the dungeon would face an immediate, one-sided onslaught from the demons.
"The moment you enter the dungeon, you’ll be surrounded and attacked by demons positioned on the high ground. You must be prepared to defend yourselves the instant you step through."
Several Awakeners were busy taking notes on everything Kang Yujin said. Park Min-woo agreed with her assessment that further entries should be postponed for the time being and immediately ordered his staff to notify other nations of the danger.
Right then, the purple portal Han Shin’s party had just exited began to tremble. A sharp crackling sound filled the air as the rift became unstable.
With a brilliant flash of light and a muffled explosion, the purple portal vanished.
The signs had been there since the party emerged, manifested as that faint crackling. The reason the demon-infested dungeon had collapsed was simple: not a single being possessing dark mana—not a single demon—remained alive inside.
The group moved to a nearby meeting room to provide a detailed report on the information gathered within the dungeon. Since this portal had appeared in the middle of Yeouido, a nearby building had been requisitioned as a temporary command center.
They informed the officials that the demons inside were subordinates of Baphomet and numbered approximately four hundred.
"That’s a higher number per dungeon than I expected."
Park Min-woo felt the weight of the situation settle in. Ten of these purple portals had appeared in Korea alone. While they couldn't be certain every portal contained the same number of enemies, if they assumed a similar scale for the sake of calculation, there were four thousand demons in Korea alone.
The Moon Shadow Party had just wiped one dungeon clean, leaving roughly three thousand six hundred, but that was still a staggering number. Furthermore, the situation wasn't limited to Korea; other nations were facing the same crisis.
"Can you estimate the strength of these demons?"
Sitri knew that the demons they had just faced were Baphomet’s elite soldiers.
"B-Rank Awakeners would need to be the baseline just to hold their ground."
The fact that Sitri didn't explicitly say they could win deepened Park Min-woo’s concern. They had to stop these demons somehow, but the situation was grim.
The demons had clearly spent their time away from Earth preparing. Sending demons in units of four hundred by opening so many dungeons was a calculated move.
First, although the dimensional rift had grown larger since the last attack, it was still not wide enough for powerful Demon Dukes to cross over in their full state. However, the current state of the rift allowed Count-level demons to cross with their powers intact.
This was a highly encouraging development for the demons, which was why they had launched such a massive offensive.
The dungeon that had just been cleared didn't contain a Count-level demon, only elites of the ranks below. However, in dungeons where a Count-level demon was present, only the world's top-tier Awakeners would stand a chance.
After quickly sharing the information they had gathered, Han Shin’s party decided to clear one more dungeon immediately. They were currently the only ones capable of handling the demons with such ease.
Another purple portal had appeared in Seoul, so they headed there and entered without delay.
This portal also contained Baphomet’s demons. The layout was almost identical to the previous one, with an immediate ambush waiting at the entrance.
Having anticipated this, the party responded with even greater agility and aggression.
The moment they stepped through, Han Shin, Grace, and Sitri charged forward, parrying and dodging projectiles. The demons had unleashed their volley the instant the humans appeared, but their attacks struck nothing but empty ground.
Thud! Boom!
Weaving through the barrage, Han Shin and Grace closed the distance in an instant and unleashed a flurry of attacks on the beast-headed demons.
"Aaaagh!!"
The nightmare began for the demons, starting with the scream of one clutching the stump of its severed arm.
Han Shin had already switched spears mid-combat. From the previous battle, he had already mastered the demons' fighting styles and identified their weaknesses.
Stab!
The sharp tip of his spear pierced the space between the eyes of a goat-headed demon. Without pausing, he swung the spear in a wide arc, cleaving through the demons rushing him from the sides. Black blood sprayed into the air.
Just like before, the demons couldn't land a single meaningful blow, but this time, their lines were collapsing even faster.
Sensing the shift in momentum, several demons in the rear turned and fled deeper into the dungeon.
The demons had been given a specific order: if the followers of the Benevolent God—Han Shin’s party—entered the dungeon and the tide of battle turned against them, they were to self-destruct the dungeon and take the humans with them.
Initially, there had been much grumbling about such an order, but the high command had been firm, and they had reluctantly agreed.
The demons in the first dungeon had been so overconfident in their initial assault that they hadn't even considered the possibility of self-destruction. They had all been slaughtered before they could even think of it.
However, this group was different. Han Shin’s party had come on so strong from the start that the demons were utterly overwhelmed and shaken.
While many of Baphomet’s demons were prideful and hot-tempered, not all were fools. Some were cold enough to recognize the vast gap in power between themselves and Han Shin’s group.
The demon currently retreating toward the Dungeon Core was one such individual. He decided that taking Han Shin’s party with him was far more honorable than dying in vain.
Reaching the Dungeon Core, the demon manipulated it to force the dark mana into a state of runaway instability. The overloaded core began to crackle and hiss, vibrating violently.
BOOM!!
A massive explosion followed, sending out a shockwave of black energy accompanied by rising smoke and flames.
Han Shin’s party and the remaining demons, who were still locked in combat, saw the explosion from a distance.
The ground heaved and rolled. The sound of structural failure echoed everywhere, and debris rained from the ceiling. Everyone realized that the space they were standing in was becoming unstable.
"Ugh!"
"We have to get out of here!" Han Shin shouted, cutting down the demons nearest to him.
The others agreed that his judgment was correct and sprinted toward the glowing purple portal.
"Block them!"
"Don't let them escape!"
"Aaargh!!"
The demons were desperate. Having received the order beforehand and knowing they were doomed anyway, they saw the self-destruction as their only way to avoid a meaningless death. They fought frantically to hold Han Shin’s party back.
They cast dark magic indiscriminately, hurling spells at Han Shin, Grace, and Sitri.
However, Laysia and Kang Yujin, who were guarding the area near the portal exit, intercepted every single attack.
Shaking off the demons' desperate struggle, Han Shin’s party leaped out of the dungeon. Immediately after they emerged, the flickering purple portal emitted a blinding light and detonated with a sharp crack.
Pop!
Many of the nearby Awakeners winced or shielded their eyes. They hadn't expected the Moon Shadow Party to return so soon and wondered if something had gone wrong.
Park Min-woo came running over, and Han Shin spoke to him.
"The bastards self-destructed the dungeon."
"Self-destructed...? Are you all alright?"
"Yes, we're fine."
Han Shin answered quickly, having already confirmed that no one was injured. However, beneath his helmet, his face was twisted in a grimace, mirroring the concern on Park Min-woo’s face.
The fact that the enemy was willing to resort to self-destruction was a massive risk. It meant Han Shin’s party could no longer push to wipe out the demons inside the dungeons without extreme caution.