Chapter 163: Skewer (7)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 163: Skewer (7)
Sometimes, there are days like that.
Mornings when you wake up naturally, even before your alarm.
When the sunlight streaming through the window isn't blinding but perfectly warm, and the air is impossibly fresh.
Today was one of those days.
The day began so refreshingly, and everything went wonderfully well.
“Wow.”
As luck would have it, even though I took my time, I wasn't late for class.
Training went remarkably well, too.
The spear forms I’d been wracking my brain over lately came to me easily and smoothly, perhaps because my body felt so light.
And then, at the end of that perfect day…
But as they say, doesn't misfortune always strike without warning?
– Ping.
I had just finished all my classes, returned to the penthouse, and was about to lie down on the sofa.
A short notification chimed from my watch.
It was Kang A-rin.
[RIN]: Hae-in, I need to talk to you.
[RIN]: Not Guangdong, Hunan
[RIN]: Let's talk about the details in person. Come to Maengju Building.
“…Ah.”
And she wasn't wrong.
The news, arriving without warning, was enough to make my head spin.
I clutched my head.
[belief_]: I'm on my way.
It looked like the day was about to take a turn for the worse.
*
The top floor of the Maengju Guild, Kang A-rin's office.
Dozens of holographic screens covering the walls filled my vision.
I sat at the table and began to scan the various materials and information displayed before me.
It was everything Kang A-rin had compiled on the Mana Eruption in just a few hours.
From the location where the mana reaction was detected to the status of civilian residents.
Kang A-rin spoke to me as she manipulated the holographic screens.
“According to Team Leader Yu Serin, there’s a high probability that the Mana Wave in Guangdong Province was false information, intentionally leaked to mislead us about the location.”
“So the real source of the wave is in Hunan?”
“Yeah.”
She nodded at my question and displayed a graph of the Mana Wave sent by Yu Serin on the screen.
“At first glance, it’s indistinguishable from the mana emitted by a typical Gate, but…”
Kang A-rin manipulated the screen again. She overlaid a second graph on top of it—the true wave, filtered through Yu Serin's Insight Eye, with all impurities removed.
“Looked at this way, it’s a different story. It’s exactly the same as Shanghai last time.”
I stared at the purple wave graph on the screen, tapping my fingers on the desk.
Seeing it like that, I could tell, too.
It was an energy I knew well.
‘The Evil God.’
Everything became clear.
They were after Yu Hana's Fragment of Order.
And at a much faster pace than I had anticipated.
I had also moved my own plans forward, but they were far ahead of me.
A chill ran down my spine.
If… Kang A-rin hadn't recruited Yu Serin.
If Yu Serin had died, caught up in the Lotus Guild's internal power struggles.
We would have lost the Fragment, completely unaware.
And I still wouldn't have known.
Realizing the Fragment's existence was an unexpected variable, but it seems the butterfly effect of Yu Serin worked in my favor.
There was no more time to waste.
I stared at the holographic map of China and began to think.
‘Should I go right away?’
As soon as possible.
The faster, the better.
There's no need to hesitate.
So, who should I take?
That... was the problem.
Yu Serin and her team, Phantom, who were already dispatched to Guangdong, were a given.
It's a rule for all Heroes to assist on-site whenever Mine activity is confirmed.
And Yu Hana.
She had to go, since she was the owner of the Fragment of Order.
The risk factor would only be eliminated once her body fully accepted it.
Then, what about the rest?
Just take everyone?
If an Apostle were to appear, it would be well worth it.
But... let's consider if an Apostle could even appear right now.
The Evil God should be pouring all its power into its own resurrection at this time.
And yet, it had already dispatched five precious Apostles for the attack in Hamgyeong-do.
Moreover, one of them was completely annihilated.
The other four retreated with injuries.
It was an almost miraculous achievement that could never be replicated.
The Evil God was already shouldering an enormous burden and loss.
So, to deploy a large number of Apostles again on top of that?
I could guarantee it.
Unless the Evil God had given up on its resurrection, it was an illogical move.
In that case, the threat in Hunan Province was likely not an Apostle appearing in person… but an attempt to steal the Fragment using its powerful elite Mines.
Besides, let's assume we all head to Hunan Province.
What if the Fragment of Order in Hunan was a decoy from the start?
What if the real target was Kang A-rin's Fragment of Desire, hidden in the Pentagon?
Coincidentally, the Pentagon had recently reopened to outside visitors under the pretext of halting research.
If they attacked the Pentagon while our forces were concentrated in Hunan, we wouldn't be able to respond.
We had to split our forces.
But how?
Just as my deliberation deepened…
– Tap.
Someone gently placed a hand on my shoulder.
“What are you so worried about?”
When I turned my head, Kang A-rin was standing there.
She had come up beside me at some point and was looking down at the map.
Her red eyes held a fiery intensity.
Kang A-rin smiled and said, “Don't try to do it all by yourself.”
Her hand patted my shoulder lightly, as if in comfort.
“You have me, don't you?”
I let out a small laugh at her words.
The weight pressing down on my shoulders seemed to lighten.
They were reassuring words just to hear.
This time, too, I wasn't alone.
*
A place where the boundaries of time and space were blurred.
A floor filled with the ominous energy radiating from the Evil God's throne, which was forged from twisted darkness.
On the floor below, in the Apostles' space…
Two Apostles sat on thrones, facing each other from a considerable distance.
Below them, a vast arena was spread out.
A checkered battlefield made of jet-black obsidian and pale bone fragments.
And there, Mines in the guise of their respective roles stood waiting for their two masters' commands.
Chess.
It was Devil Chess, using living Mines as pieces.
To the Apostles, it was mere entertainment, but a single command could send a piece's head flying.
As the Apostle Belial made a languid gesture, a Mine from his side scurried across the space.
Judging by its bizarrely twisted form, wearing a bishop's mitre upside down, the Mine's role seemed to be the black bishop.
“Ah, for… fuck's sake.”
When Belial's bishop stopped moving, the 2nd Seat, Alexei, who sat on the opposite throne, muttered a low curse.
He looked at the board.
Belial's bishop was aimed directly at Alexei's king.
In other words, check.
But there were no pieces to block the bishop.
Yet if he moved the king… his queen—his strongest piece, in the form of a beautiful succubus, standing in the path behind the king—would be left exposed to Belial's bishop.
Meaning, if the king moved, his most important piece, the queen, would die.
Watching this, Belial smiled a cunning, snake-like smile.
“What will you do, Alexei? Will you abandon your lovely queen, or will you offer up the neck of your incompetent king?”
Instead of answering, Alexei gave a slight nod of his chin. He had decided to sacrifice his queen.
After all, he couldn't let the king die.
The corners of Belial's mouth stretched even wider.
At his gesture, the Mine wearing the inverted mitre moved slowly toward Alexei's queen, its face full of lust.
With long strides, the bishop began to approach the beautiful succubus, staff held high, its tongue flicking.
And what was about to unfold... seemed obvious.
The Succubus Queen looked desperately at her master, Alexei, and cried out.
Tears streamed down her face.
“Al… Lord Alexei! Please, please have mercy…! I did everything for you…!”
“……”
Alexei's brow furrowed ever so slightly.
“I concede.”
In the end, he conceded the game.
To be honest, trying to win after losing the queen was just too tiring and bothersome.
At his words, the bishop stopped moving, a look of disappointment on its face.
“Sob... Thank you…”
The succubus, relieved to have barely escaped with her life, collapsed where she stood and sobbed.
Alexei, having admitted defeat, asked Belial, “That was shitty. What was that just now?”
Alexei was fully aware that he had fallen for some kind of trick.
“It's a technique called a skewer. It means to pierce through,” Belial explained, quite kindly.
“A skewer…”
“If the king moves, the queen behind him dies. But even if the king doesn't move…”
Belial looked at Alexei and smiled cruelly.
“...it's not as if everyone can live.”
He was right.
After all, the king's death meant the end of the game.
Checkmate.
When Belial finished his explanation, silence once again fell over the space.
Alexei suddenly felt a cold sensation run down his spine. He narrowed his eyes and looked at Belial.
No way.
His gaze returned to the chessboard.
But now, Alexei no longer saw the black and white pieces.
The king, and the queen standing helplessly behind him.
Something else seemed to overlap with the pieces.
This chess game was hard to see as simple entertainment.
It was a simulation of the strategy Belial intended to use in the coming war.
It had to be seen as such.
Alexei slowly raised his head and looked at Belial again.
Belial, seeing that Alexei had caught on to his plan, smiled a bizarre and hideous smile, his face contorting.
However, Alexei had stood before a king once before.
And at that time, too, a defenseless queen lay behind the king.
Alexei... remembered the aura and the look in that king's eyes.
“……”
Belial, unfortunately, reality is not a game of chess.
Can a bishop truly defeat a king?
Can it kill a king who is trying to protect his helpless queen?
Alexei observed Belial impassively.
And then, he smiled.
“This should be interesting.”
Alexei truly felt that way.