Heavenly Thunder
BOOM!
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Something's wrong.
Selenia bit her lip as she loosed arrow after arrow, cutting down monsters without pause. She had already slain more than a thousand of them, yet their numbers showed no sign of thinning.
Even granting that the North Korean region was dense with Gates, this many monsters simply should not have been pouring out.
Blood trickled down her fingers.
"Hey, Selenia! Fall back and heal already!"
Canteas flinched at the sight of blood streaming from her hands. How many times had she drawn that bowstring? Even the fingers of an archer called a goddess of the bow were bleeding raw.
"I can't. Stronger ones keep showing up."
"What about the other Hunters?!"
"They're holding the Gates. The remaining forces headed for the West and East Seas."
Monsters were erupting everywhere at once, and some of them were crossing the water to reach the mainland. Every spare unit had been sent to the coasts.
"And Emilton?"
"She went back to Belhart. It's not as bad as Earth, but something's happening there too."
"Damn it…"
Canteas let out a long breath as the situation sank in.
"Cheon Seol-gyeong! Over he—"
CRACK!
THUD!
"I'm busy enough as it is!"
Cheon Seol-gyeong, sent flying by a one-eyed Cyclops, ground his teeth and charged straight back in. SS-Rank monsters were mixed in among the horde, making it impossible to clear them quickly.
"GRAAAAH!"
"Selenia, beside you!"
An ogre closed on her flank and swung its club in a vicious arc.
But—
Whoosh.
CLACK.
"Uwoh?"
Selenia casually caught the club on the tip of her bow.
"Get lost."
She drove her fist forward.
CRUNCH!
The ogre's head exploded off its shoulders and sailed into the distance.
"Ah… right. She's strong as hell…"
Canteas nodded to himself as he watched. People made a common mistake about archers — they assumed that because they fought from range, they must be weak up close. That was a profound misunderstanding.
Archers were, by nature, strong. Anyone who had ever drawn a real bowstring knew how brutal the tension could be. Plenty of grown men couldn't even pull a high-draw bow properly. Selenia freely drew and loosed a bow dozens of times stronger than any ordinary weapon.
And elves are born strong to begin with…
Combine that racial physique with a lifetime of archery, and raw power was inevitable.
"You. Start fighting with your fists."
"Haa… I hate close combat…"
"Your fists look several times stronger than your arrows, though…"
People really should have seen that last strike. An S-Rank ogre's head, obliterated by a single punch and sent flying.
"Ugh, fine. No choice."
She pressed a button on her bow with a soft click. The curved limbs straightened into a single line, and a thin blade sprang from the tip — not a short dagger's edge, but a longsword's full length.
Emilton had forged it for her twenty years ago, blending orichalcum with millennial cold iron so that even a slender blade would never break.
She gripped the weapon.
SLASH!
Selenia cut through the monsters in a blur, spirit arts flowing through every stroke so the blade danced light and lethal.
BOOM.
"Huu…"
Cheon Seol-gyeong cleaved through the Cyclops and exhaled hard.
"Hey, Canteas. Something's off."
"You're only noticing that now?!"
Canteas, already restored to the 5th Circle, snapped back at him. The situation was anything but normal. They had killed countless monsters, yet the numbers refused to drop.
Is the Cult feeding them a continuous stream?
According to Selenia, monster waves were erupting across the entire world — a thoroughly unnatural phenomenon. They had to be using that artifact Shurike once carried: the Wrath of God.
It originally belonged to New Age. Looks like the Cult got their hands on it.
Waves were only hitting the countries where the Cult still had a foothold. That meant the Cult held the artifact. In the middle of their mutual slaughter, New Age had activated the Wrath of God to trigger the waves — and the Cult had either seized it or reverse-engineered a copy.
Rumble-rumble-rumble.
"More incoming!"
At Selenia's cry, Canteas and Cheon Seol-gyeong clenched their jaws.
Do-ha… get here already.
Canteas drew a deep breath and raised his staff.
While Hunters across the globe scrambled in chaos, someone paced the old Military Demarcation Line.
Something's gone wrong.
It was Diolve, sub-bishop of the Demon God Cult. A few days earlier he had planted Wrath of God artifacts in every Gate across North Korea, upgraded so they would activate on a timer without anyone needing to trigger them by hand — unlike the New Age fools.
And today, the artifacts planted worldwide had fired as planned. Monster waves were erupting everywhere.
So why, when the North Korean artifacts had clearly activated, were no monsters coming south? By now more than a thousand should have crossed the line.
Because of that elf who went through earlier?
Diolve recalled the elf he had watched streak past at incredible speed while he was on surveillance. He hadn't bothered to stop her. One elf couldn't possibly handle thousands of monsters.
Don't tell me it really is because of her…?
Nah. Impossible. Not unless one of the top-tier Cheonwaecheon had come in person.
He reached for his phone.
"This won't do. I'll have them send the monsters from the Chinese side down this way."
In that instant—
A thin red line appeared across the wrist holding the phone.
"What is this li—"
RIP.
Thud.
SPURT!
"GAAAAH!"
His severed hand hit the ground, blood fountaining from the stump.
Footsteps approached from behind the screaming Diolve.
"The whole world suddenly goes to hell, and I come looking for answers… of course it was you lot."
It was Baek Do-ha — the man who had transcended his limits, ascended to the Hwa-gyeong realm, and reached the 7th Circle.
"How long has it even been?"
He pulled out his phone, checked the time, and nearly jumped. Only a few hours had seemed to pass in the Abyss. Three months had gone by out here.
"No wonder… I was starving."
While Do-ha studied his phone, Diolve gritted through the pain and fumbled for something. Whoever this man was, he had to signal his comrades.
"Keh-heh. You idiot! You let your guard down!"
Click.
BOOM!
Diolve yanked a cord with his teeth and fired a signal flare from a mechanism folded into his remaining arm.
Whoosh.
Snatch.
Hisssss.
"You were squirming around so I figured I'd watch… and all you had was a flare?"
"…Huh?"
The red signal flare that had been rocketing skyward was suddenly sitting in his opponent's hand. Diolve's pupils shook. This was no ordinary commercial flare. It had been specially engineered with divine power so it would never extinguish and could be seen even in broad daylight.
And he had just… caught it?
Never mind catching it — when had he even moved?
Do-ha squeezed.
Hisssss.
"You're using divine power for this kind of junk now? The Demon God would grab the back of his neck if he knew."
He snuffed the flare and shook his head. Wasting the sacred power granted for great works on something as trivial as a signal flare.
He scanned the surroundings.
"Four of them total."
Four people had flinched when the flare went up.
"They're all pretty far out."
Noeryeongsinbo — Lightning Spirit Step
Do-ha drew up his energy and shifted ever so slightly. His body flickered like a hologram.
Flicker. Flicker.
Thud. Thud.
"Hey. You're the only one left."
He tossed four severed heads at Diolve's feet.
"…That's impossible."
The strength drained from Diolve's body as he stared at his dead cultists. They had been hidden dozens of kilometers apart — spaced so that if one fell, the others could immediately report to the Cult. And they had all died in the blink of an eye.
How was that even possible? Even teleportation would have been slower.
"My power's grown so much that controlling it is a pain."
Do-ha rolled his legs experimentally and clicked his tongue.
BOOOOM!
"Everyone's at their limit. You — stay put. I'll finish this and come right back."
He glanced toward distant North Korea, then sealed Diolve's pressure points. He would have loved to torture the man for information, but his comrades came first.
His body blurred and vanished.
Gulp.
ROOOOOOAR!
An SS-Rank wyvern unleashed its breath at Canteas and Selenia. Weaker than a true Dragon Breath, yes — but against fighters this exhausted, it was still a crushing blow to block.
CLANG!
Hissssss.
"Urgh, you half-evolved lizards…!"
Canteas ground his teeth behind his shield. In his original body, dozens of wyverns wouldn't have been a problem.
"All this over a mere five…"
No one could blame him, though. Canteas had already faced thousands of monsters today.
"Canteas! Brace your legs!"
Selenia sprinted up from behind, planted a foot on his shoulder, and launched herself high into the sky. It was time for the archery technique she had once used to stop Belial's assault.
She drew the bowstring, pouring spirit power into the shot.
But she had overlooked one thing — her ruined fingers.
Twang.
"…Ah?"
Blood made the string slip. The carefully gathered energy scattered into empty air.
The five wyverns saw her hanging motionless in the sky and opened their jaws wide. A creature that couldn't move midair made excellent prey.
"Selenia!"
Canteas cast Fly and shot toward her — but Do-ha got there first.
He caught her out of the air.
"You did well."
"Do-ha…"
"Haha! Hey! Do-ha, you're ba— wait, huh?"
Canteas's smile froze as the incoming breath filled his vision.
Ah…
Right. He was still in the air.
WHOOOOSH.
Soft landing.
"You worked hard holding the monsters back."
"It was nothing."
Great Heal
Light shimmered. Selenia's wounds closed as if they had never existed.
Whoosh.
THUD.
"What the— Canteas, why are you that messed up?"
Do-ha, still meeting Selenia's eyes, startled at the sight of Canteas hitting the ground. Smoke rose from his entire body as if he'd been roasted.
"…You damn bastards… both of you can just die."
"What was that, you little—?"
Great Heal
Do-ha healed Canteas as well.
"This is what you get for slacking off every day instead of training!"
Laze around long enough and of course trash like this starts landing hits on you.
"Wow… that actually pisses me off."
Rumble-rumble-rumble.
While Canteas clutched the back of his neck, monsters began pouring in from the distance.
"We'll talk later."
"Hey — what about your realm? How far did you get?"
"My realm?"
Do-ha smiled and rose lightly into the air.
Baek-bo Myeol-hwang Gong
First Step: Cheon-roe — Heavenly Thunder
RUMMMMMBLE.
FLASH!
CRAAAAASH!
CRACK-CRACK-CRACK-CRACK-CRACK!
Hundreds of lightning bolts — each as thick and massive as a truck — slammed down onto the monsters' heads.