The Retirement of the Ten Thousand King
After the loss in the fourth set.
The Kirin Guild waiting room.
Under the shadow of defeat, the raid leader, the Divine Archer, finally spoke.
“This won’t do.”
After two consecutive losses, the Divine Archer had become certain.
“As long as my master is here, we will always lose the strategic battle. We must drag this into the extreme late game.”
The extreme late game—when all growth is complete and even strategy becomes faint. The only time when a single arrow or one mistake could decide the match. That was the sole path left for the Kirin Guild to win.
In other words, anyone who couldn’t maintain focus until the very end was unnecessary.
The moment those words left his mouth, every gaze in the room turned as if on cue toward one person.
The man who had single-handedly dragged the team into defeat with a single mistake in the previous set.
The Ten Thousand King.
The Divine Archer looked straight at him.
“Representative.”
“……Yul-ah. I can still do this.”
“No, Representative. You cannot.”
I only believe what I have seen. I only trust what I have judged. And I am never wrong.
The Divine Archer reached his conclusion with the same cold finality his master, the Mountain King, had shown in his youth.
“In the last set alone, you made three critical errors. You mistargeted during the objective fight, got cut off while rotating to side support, and that final whiff…… I won’t even mention it.”
In the late game, the Ten Thousand King’s body could no longer endure.
Therefore—
“You’ve worked hard. Please rest now.”
“!!”
Rest now.
Rest now.
The words echoed endlessly in the Ten Thousand King’s ears.
With the desperation of a man clutching his final lifeline, Han Jeong-do looked around at his comrades—the ones he had protected and cherished for so long.
But—
“Umm…… Representative, I think that’s for the best.”
“Honestly, that last mistake was pretty bad even for you, Representative.”
“Senior Ten Thousand King, please take a break.”
His comrades turned their eyes away.
The Flame Queen even let out a mocking sneer.
“Looks like even the Representative didn’t see this coming. Well, thanks for your service.”
You couldn’t touch the group, and now you can’t even touch me.
As if she had foreseen this moment from the day the Divine Archer joined, the Flame Queen walked right past him and sat down beside the Divine Archer.
One by one, the others followed her. Before long, no one remained around Han Jeong-do—around the Ten Thousand King.
Abandoned by his own comrades, Han Jeong-do let out a hollow laugh.
“Ha…… haha……”
This was the guild he had given everything to.
He had poured in his youth, his entire life. He had lived believing the guild was him and he was the guild. And for a long time, that had been true.
Yet now they were telling him to rest. That he was broken. Obsolete. Unneeded.
And so, the man once called a legend exhausted his final use and stepped down from the stage.
It was a lonely exit.
― “Insane! This is insane!! The Divine Archer dragged the game for a full hour with pure combat power and pulled off a come-from-behind victory in a single shot!! Kirin keeps the momentum going!!”
― “The key was replacing the Ten Thousand King! Successfully walking the razor’s edge for fifty-five minutes was the decisive factor!!”
― “I can’t believe it. This is miraculous…… Kirin Guild moves on to the sixth set!!”
※ Grand Final
4 VS 2
Mir Guild Victory.
――――!!
The canyon shook. It trembled with awe.
Bottom lane drowned beneath a downpour of arrows. Plant-based cannons unleashed devastating firepower, turning the tower into scorched earth.
Neither the jungle wrapped in forest nor the usual safe zones near the towers offered any sanctuary.
The entire map was within firing range. An attack could come from anywhere at any moment. Early game, mid game, late game—the canyon’s clock never stopped. Not even a single second of complacency was allowed.
This was that kind of match.
A bloodbath where even the slightest lapse in focus was forbidden!
And in that fierce bloodbath, two absolute beings clashed.
“Support bottom! Yu-shin, pressure mid.”
“Invade the enemy jungle and secure vision. I’ll handle the dribbling on this side.”
The Mountain King suppressed the Spear Ghost, who had been bombarding Yu Ri-ra, then sent the Hwarang to mid while he himself rotated to top.
The moment the bombardment was blocked, the Divine Archer pushed the Spear Ghost and Tinkerbell into the enemy jungle and drew aggro from mid.
His eyes read the chaotic battlefield. His ears caught every variable without pause.
He squeezed his brain to its absolute limit.
And his feet never stopped moving.
“Yu-shin, head to bottom. Yeon-woo, stack the minions. I’m coming now.”
“Enemy jungler is missing. Watch top—actually, I’m coming now.”
The Mountain King charged like a wild beast.
The Divine Archer flew like an arrow.
The moment the Mountain King spotted the Divine Archer, he fired off tree stumps and followed with a spinning kick.
The Divine Archer shattered the stumps with arrows held in both hands and drove a shaft straight into the Mountain King’s neck.
The instant the two men—wearing nearly identical martial uniforms—collided, the world itself twisted.
―――!!
A shockwave swept over the surroundings.
Minions exploded. The ground quaked. The forest scattered.
From the epicenter of the blast, the two men continued their brutal exchange.
Arrows blocked by wooden shafts. Fists deflected by arrows. Incoming kicks answered with kicks of their own.
“Hahaha, this is fun, Master.”
“Indeed.”
“I am satisfied. I am happy right now.”
“So am I.”
The two men had not contacted each other once since the finals began that day. Neither had sought the other out.
Because this moment was what they had waited for.
Meeting on the greatest stage, pouring out every ounce of their strength against each other—this was the only reunion worthy of master and disciple.
Therefore……
“Disciple, I will give it my all.”
“As will I.”
They poured everything into the fight.
Their eyes changed.
When they leaped backward at the same instant, the area around them had already been reduced to ruins. Even the terrain control rate couldn’t keep up with their destructive power.
Two absolute beings who had overcome every limit through traits, equipment, and pure ability—the completed forms of 200-potential talents acknowledged by Lee Shin himself.
The Mountain King and the Divine Archer. They had reached the pinnacle of humanity.
― “Shells are exploding in Kirin’s jungle! Arrows are raining down on Mir Guild’s bottom lane! The Mountain King catches the Spear Ghost from behind and lands a clean hit! The Divine Archer immediately counters! A direct hit on Yu Ri-ra in bottom—Yu Ri-ra retreats after seizing the chance……!!”
― “Someone please stop them! I can’t breathe!!”
― “Clash after clash!! When Mir makes a move, Kirin answers. When Kirin launches an operation, Mir pays them back in full.”
― “I think it’s safe to say this now. Everyone, this is what a heavenly battle looks like. From this point on, heavenly battles will be defined by this fight.”
― “You need to hold onto your sanity with both hands. What we’re watching is a battle between beings beyond the heavens. If you miss even a second, you’ll regret it for the rest of your life!”
Do not stop. Explode with everything you possess.
The Mountain King and the Divine Archer squeezed out every last drop of their potential.
Arrows and bombardment. Light and plants. The presence of these two men carved itself indelibly into this glorious battlefield.
On both sides, a single individual was carrying their entire team on their back. And these were people called rankers and world-class.
Yet what was truly astonishing was that it didn’t feel out of place at all.
Laning phase, small-scale skirmishes, vision wars, side lane management, line control…… Every existing doctrine and strategy appeared on the map as the heat of battle reached its absolute peak.
Then, perfectly timed with the spawn of the large objective ‘Hydra,’ both guilds’ full rosters finally clashed in the mid lane.
― “Object score is currently 3:1 in favor of Mir Guild. If Kirin gives up another objective buff here, they’ll have no path left.”
― “Conversely, if Mir secures this buff, they can drive the final nail into the coffin of victory.”
― “That aside, seeing them all together like this… it’s ridiculously flashy.”
― “Haha, it really is.”
Gumiho Shin Bo-ye, Spear Ghost Yang Kang-cheol, Tinkerbell Baek Ji-young, Flame Queen Kim Ji-ah, Divine Archer Son Yul.
And the Children of God—Park Su-bin, Baek Yeon-woo, Yu Ri-ra—along with the Hwarang Kim Yu-shin and the Mountain King Kim Jong-pil.
― “There are no gaps. Two guilds made entirely of rankers and world-class players. These are protagonists worthy of this glorious stage.”
― “Haha, Bureau, hurry up and decide on their new titles already! Three more rankers will be added next year!”
― “The ten strongest players in Korea at this moment. Only one of these teams will advance to the Asia League!!”
― “Are we starting?! Are we starting?! Let’s gooooo!!”
― “It begins with the Divine Archer!! The Divine Archer’s bow fires a beam of light!”
― “Uwaaaaah!!”
― “The Mountain King refuses to yield and drops bombardment!”
The Mountain King’s bombardment swallowed the area and disrupted the enemy formation.
Thick dust clouded vision and dirtied the battlefield, yet the Divine Archer stood alone and lofty as always.
He released the drawn bowstring. The Divine Archer’s arrow became a ray of light that engulfed the surroundings.
In a chaotic melee, dodging that light was impossible. Therefore, it had to be blocked!
The Hwarang shouted toward the sky. His Pridwen glowed. Silver shields descended from above. A wall of shields radiated brilliance, protecting the team.
At that moment, a dark flash pierced the central shield. The Spear Ghost leaped over the collapsing barrier and charged. Baek Yeon-woo’s sky-blue eyes flashed, and he blocked the Spear Ghost’s path.
Even in this frenzy, both teams’ marksmen refused to fall behind. Yu Ri-ra’s barrage of lightning bullets and the Flame Queen’s flames formed opposing walls.
A wall of lightning and fire. The Gumiho tried to break the balance with her prized illusion magic, but the Hwarang’s shields held firm.
It was too dazzling for the eyes to process.
Too chaotic for the ears to endure.
A battlefield impossible to read. But there was one man who made the impossible possible.
The Mountain King, who had been reading every variable on the field, placed both hands on the ground.
Plants surged across the battlefield.
― “Aaaah! Is this it?! Is this really it?!”
― “The late-game battle against Kirin! That final clutch play!!”
― “Aaaah, it’s ending! If it goes like this, it’ll be just like last time—!!”
Once the plants were cleared, trees would rise. And beyond them, the World Tree.
As expected, the World Tree towered among the vegetation. White runes began floating along its trunk.
It was about to unleash brilliant destruction—
But at that exact moment.
In a world that seemed to freeze like a lie, an arrow was fired.
The moment the light connected from the Divine Archer pierced straight through the World Tree—
WORLD TREE DESTROYED
Kwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang——!!
The World Tree exploded.
Amid the scattering fragments of magic power, the Divine Archer stood holding his bow. He was laughing with pure delight.
Yes! I can keep enjoying this wonderful fight!
Relieved, he drew his bowstring once more.
But at that moment.
As the dust cleared, what appeared was……
“??…A sword?!”
A massive magic greatsword large enough to blot out the sky. It was the same magic greatsword once wielded by the Sword Master Park Gwang-seob.
A magic greatsword created by Baek Yeon-woo squeezing out power until his sky-blue eyes turned red. And now, Park Su-bin’s giant was gripping that very sword.
“The opportunity has come.”
Let’s go. Park Su-bin’s eyes shone with clarity. His mink coat fluttered as the giant assumed a sword stance.
“Burning heart. Cool head.”
And then, aiming for a single point—
“Strike down———!!”
The greatsword spun as it descended. The ground shattered.
DOUBLE KILL
TRIPLE KILL
QUADRA KILL
PENTA KILL
“Now this is an interesting priest I’ve found.”