The Prince's Wind
The Polar Night surged from beneath my feet, splitting into five separate strands.
Polar Night — 40 total stat output
Compared to when I used my dark body, the power was smaller. But it was more than enough.
“This should do the trick.”
The five strands of Polar Night transformed into blades and tore through the water. The vortex formed by the fusion of water and wind was shredded apart in an instant.
“Our combo… it was dismantled that easily?”
“Ugh! Don’t you dare mock us!”
I clicked my tongue.
The domain ruled by Seth was the desert. Their combo itself had been excellent, but they’d tried to weave wind into a water attribute that was weakened inside a depleted zone. They were essentially cutting their own flesh.
Slicing through their loosened power with Polar Night was child’s play. In fact, the more they struggled to reinforce the broken restraints, the more it worked in my favor.
“You fools! Inside the domain ruled by my master, the power of water is halved!”
The two of them immediately canceled their linked powers at Abdul’s belated roar.
Too bad for them.
Abdul was already right in front of me.
“The real fool is you.”
“What did you say?”
“Seth’s power is maximized when used alone. You declared your domain and then tried a joint attack? Of course it wouldn’t work.”
“Y-you… you…!”
“If you’ve run out of tricks, let’s end this.”
I didn’t use any footwork techniques or full-speed charges. I simply advanced in silence, taking every one of Abdul’s attacks head-on.
What I would give him was a perfect defeat.
Let him taste utter helplessness.
My tightly clenched fist flew straight into Abdul’s head.
BOOOOOOM—!
The moment my fist connected, his head turned to dust.
- Quite brutal, aren’t you?
“Oops.”
I let out a small chuckle.
It wasn’t brutality.
Abdul still hadn’t given up.
I’d felt it the instant my fist struck him. What I’d destroyed wasn’t his actual head, but a ‘dummy’ created by Seth’s blessing.
The collapsed body of Abdul turned into countless grains of sand and wrapped around my outstretched right arm.
CRRRRRUNCH!
Like a crusher that could pulverize anything.
The densely packed sand pressed down on my arm with crushing force.
“I knew you’d try something like this.”
With my free left hand, I tore the sand away. Every single grain was infused with Seth’s blessing. The larger clumps I ripped off with raw strength, while the ones clinging to my body I burned away with Polar Night.
[Seth’s Sandstorm has been dispelled.]
The violently swirling sand crashed back to the ground. My vision returned to normal.
Thick killing intent filled the air around me.
“So that’s how it is.”
Silhouettes appeared through the settling sandstorm. There weren’t just one or two.
“Consider it an honor, Yu Jinho.”
“Honor for what?”
“Because all nine gods of the Red Desert have gathered in one place just to deal with you.”
Abdul shouted with overwhelming confidence.
The mission only allowed teams of up to three people.
The Red Desert had cleverly bypassed the Tower’s rules and formed a team of nine.
Now I understood why Jiyoung’s team had been so easily crushed.
- Didn’t you hear about this earlier?
“They probably helped in secret without revealing themselves.”
- How wicked. Those who cannot stand with dignity cannot even be hidden by the veil of night.
Nyx grumbled.
Nine against one.
Every single one of them was drawing out the maximum power of constellations they had contracted with from the Sinister faction.
It had been a while since I could go all out.
Void Projection
Manifesting the essence of a primordial species.
A shadow stretched out and a Tyrannosaurus dozens of meters tall burst forth.
“KAAAOOOOO!!!”
“Those shameless bastards cannot be forgiven.”
Nyx manifested in her homunculus body and climbed onto Lexy’s back.
“It’s a dinosaur!”
“The enemy count has increased, Guild Leader.”
“It’s the summon we heard rumors about!”
“It’s just a summon. There’s a limit to its combat ability. We’re the ones who will win!”
Well, calling her a summon in front of the goddess might make her angry…?
“How dare they spout such nonsense without fear! Contractor, let us show them your true power!”
“Yeah, yeah.”
I had been planning to smash them to pieces anyway.
The enemy had grown to nine.
I’d teach them that numbers alone didn’t mean anything.
* * *
The gaze of the constellation that had always filled him with satisfaction now weighed heavily on Abdul’s shoulders.
This can’t be happening!
Seth’s Sandstorm.
It was a skill Abdul could only use after receiving Seth’s blessing at maximum power. It severed connections with other constellations, drastically reduced all stats, and continuously dealt damage—a powerful domain.
On top of that, Abdul himself received a massive buff from Seth’s fully charged blessing, effectively doubling his combat power.
How did he endure Seth’s Sandstorm?!
Jinho had never once faltered inside the raging storm. Abdul couldn’t even stop him from walking straight toward them.
“The great constellations desire his death! Spare nothing!”
As if trying to shake off his fear, Abdul roared and charged forward.
Create Sand Statue
Sand giants crafted by Seth’s authority marched forward.
The players Abdul Hamad had personally selected—the so-called Nine Gods—began unleashing their own powers.
Holy Tree’s Binding
Prince’s Tyranny
Red Twilight
…….
Fierce winds howled. Ancient flames scorched the earth. The power of constellations who had carved their names upon the stars poured down onto the half-collapsed temple.
“Child, let us head over there.”
Lexy broke through the barrage of attacks. At Nyx’s gesture, Polar Night spread out like a wide curtain. The fluttering veil of darkness absorbed the constellations’ assaults and protected Lexy.
“Yu Jinho is the priority over that summon. Only two of you, stop the dinosaur.”
Rashid and Hamil. The same duo who had tried to restrain Jinho earlier now stood in Lexy’s path.
The two of them didn’t have high offensive power, but they excelled at binding targets. That was exactly why Abdul had included them in the squad—to pin Jinho down.
“Leave it to us.”
“We will not disappoint you.”
The two gods recombined the powers of water and wind to block Lexy.
Abdul turned his gaze away from the dinosaur.
Tyrannosaurus.
It was already fairly well known that Jinho used a dinosaur as his summon. He had even summoned it during his recent Gold promotion match.
Abdul had already prepared a countermeasure for when Lexy appeared.
While those two tie down its feet, the remaining seven of us—including myself—will take down Yu Jinho!
With this much firepower, it should have been more than enough.
“Keep pushing without pause!”
BOOM! KABOOM!
Explosions rang out continuously. The floor of the northern temple was so devastated that its original shape was unrecognizable.
The Nine Gods Abdul had selected. Even though two were occupied, the rest understood each other’s abilities perfectly and executed flawless linked attacks.
It wasn’t widely known, but even Ahmed Gadem—the number one ranker in Egypt—had been helpless against their coordinated assault.
Thick clouds of dust. Even in a situation where distinguishing friend from foe was nearly impossible, the onslaught never slowed.
The barrage continued for roughly five minutes.
One of the gods, who had poured out most of his mana, collapsed to his knees.
“Huk… huuuk…”
The attacks from the Nine Gods had completely transformed the terrain around the temple. The result of using skills without even taking a breath. Even Abdul, the leader of the Red Desert and the constellation’s spokesperson, had to wipe away sweat.
“Did we get him?”
“There’s nothing that can withstand a direct hit from that.”
“It’s an attack that even rankers couldn’t endure. He’s definitely dead.”
The Nine Gods were confident of victory. Even Abdul smiled, certain that Jinho was dead.
At that moment—
The Master of the Oasis strongly warns you.
The Master of the Oasis…
The pressure felt like his brain was being split open. Abdul bowed his head deeply.
Because his synchronization with Seth had reached its peak, the intense will caused his mind to momentarily shake.
Even then, Abdul managed to decipher what Seth’s message meant.
“Everyone, combat stance! He’s not dead ye—”
SHIIIIIING!
Right before Abdul’s shout could finish, a black blade shot out from the dust-filled crater and sliced through one of the Nine Gods.
“Kuhk!”
One of the Nine Gods fell with a dry scream. It was a talented player who had contracted with the spider goddess Anansi.
The rest of Abdul’s group hurriedly tried to regain their stance.
“Is that all?”
Jinho emerged through the dust cloud, his entire body dyed pitch black.
* * *
The Nine Gods.
To think he had already gathered such talents.
It was certainly faster than in my previous life.
Abdul Hamad’s direct subordinates, the Nine Gods, were among the strongest even among those contracted with constellations from the Sinister faction.
In the original timeline, these guys only started making a name for themselves around 2030.
“This actually worked out well.”
All the talents Abdul Hamad had scraped together were missing a few screws. They were people I needed to crush for the sake of the future. They weren’t big enough fish to warrant the time it would take to rehabilitate them like Ping Lei.
Because I had taken their attacks head-on like I did with Abdul, my whole body was in tatters. If I hadn’t pulled two more of them away to deal with Nyx and Lexy, I might not have been able to endure.
But still.
“How the hell did you survive that?!”
“A Gold ranker stronger than a Diamond ranker?!”
“Th-this is impossible!”
The more desperate they became, the more perfectly it shattered the will of the Nine Gods, Abdul included.
“Let’s finish this.”
Shhhhhht!
My output rose as I synchronized further with Polar Night. I poured in the internal energy I had accumulated through the Asura Demon Spirit Heart Method.
The energy drained out like water from a bottomless bucket. Manifesting five Dark Shadow Soul-Chasing Swords at once rapidly depleted both my mental strength and internal energy.
The moment I swung my hand—
SHIIIIIIING!
Blades moving in multiple directions sliced the players’ bodies clean in half.
They tried to hold on using techniques borrowed from their constellations, but they couldn’t withstand the purest darkness of all—Polar Night.
All except one.
“The boss managed to block once, huh?”
“Kuhk… kuhuuuk…”
Abdul Hamad stood with a long gash across his chest. He opened and closed his mouth, trying to say something, but the next dark blade that flew in severed his torso from his head.
“See you again.”
I muttered quietly as I watched his head fly through the air.