Chapter 128
Chapter 128
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 128
Chapter Title: The War Has Begun
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The war had begun.
The operation was already underway from the moment they left the central spot.
Yet two days had passed since then, and for some reason, not a single monster or demon had shown so much as a glimpse of themselves.
They were advancing long distances based on contribution points.
The scouts had surely finished their work, so the points must be rising.
But why did this quiet, stable peace—when everyone had dreaded the very battle they awaited—feel so terrifying?
"How much have we filled the contribution gauge?"
"Five percent, sir."
In war, a long rest was poison.
The boiling blood cooled, the muscles throughout the body stiffened, and the mind ground to a halt.
Even a faint state of tension vanished after just two days.
They were at the point where it was confusing whether they had come to wage war in this Demonus weakening operation... or to vacation.
Thud! Thud!
"Kyaaack!!"
It was truly bleak.
To feel relieved at the sound of screams.
Screams from somewhere—somebody—filled the San Marino Demonus.
And each time, the slackened tension among his subordinates snapped taut like a tug-of-war rope.
"Judging by the direction and distance, it's the American team."
"Mu-hee."
"Yes, I'll go check."
Mu-hee moved at Jin-cheol's words after confirming the direction on the map.
It had been helpful to infuse spirit energy into the shadows of all the major nations' hunters, just in case.
Mu-hee, who had vanished into Yong-un's shadow, reappeared not long after.
She shook her head.
"Not this time either. They're not fighting."
This was the fifth time already.
Over the two days, whenever irregular screams echoed from somewhere, Mu-hee had moved.
Yet the teams at those locations weren't battling at all—they were simply carrying out peaceful operations, just like Yong-un and his subordinates.
Thud! Thud!
In the midst of it all, the drumbeats rang out unfailingly once more, along with that peculiar energy fluttering down from the sky.
He gazed at the sky's landscape, unchanged from two days ago when they had left the central spot.
'Two days. Not even sensing the presence of monsters or demons.'
It was too strange—far too strange.
Had they poured everything into that first battle, leaving no forces behind?
Yong-un shook his head.
No way. There were surely still forces overflowing.
They had already confirmed through prior reconnaissance just how many monsters and demons filled the Demonus.
Then, out of habit, Sword Tiger spouted some nonsense.
"I'm not the only one hearing the screams, right? It's not like we're all dreaming—this scream echoes, but there's no source... Ugh, gives me chills."
"Pfft, dreaming? How could we all dream the same thing?"
The Poison Witch burst into laughter at Sword Tiger's words.
"Yeah, that doesn't make sense, does it?"
Sword Tiger laughed along with her.
As Yong-un sensed the oddity, his subordinates felt the same bewilderment.
They voiced absurd guesses.
But.
"A dream..."
Yong-un's expression changed at Sword Tiger's odd remark.
His gaze lifted to the sky once more.
The snowflakes of peculiar energy fluttered down, identical to two days ago.
With no change in the energy flow or the situation, he had been ready to dismiss it all—until Sword Tiger's word "dream" made everything feel alien.
Yong-un's lips parted for the first time in two days.
Jin-cheol approached and asked.
"Have you sensed something, my lord?"
"I have. But since it couldn't be broken and posed no threat, I deliberately ignored it."
Swirl. Swirl.
The peculiar energy snowflakes seeped into the ground.
No particular change occurred.
But this scene, witnessed countless times over two days, now appeared slightly different in Yong-un's eyes.
"However, I can't let it continue any longer."
Crackle.
From Yong-un's body, as he stared at the sky, crimson-black sparks erupted.
It resembled the soaring martial art visible to the Dragon Demon Corps, the Dragon Demon Incarnation, but its trajectory differed.
Where the Dragon Demon Incarnation brimmed with tyrannical energy intent on destroying all, Yong-un's crimson-black sparks held an inexplicable gentleness woven within.
Gentleness in lightning sharp enough to hurt on contact.
The contradictory crimson-black lightning gathered slowly along Yong-un's extended fingertips.
And as all his subordinates watched in awe.
The crimson-black lightning condensed at his fingertips burst upward into the sky with a pop! like exploding fireworks.
Rumble.
Natural disasters were calamities beyond human control.
But what if one person could create such a disaster? Could you believe it?
That was the crimson-black lightning shot from Yong-un's fingertip.
Soaring as if to pierce the heavens, it soon made the serene sky belch thunder.
And immediately after.
Flash! Boom!
Crimson-black lightning viciously struck the earth from the sky.
Whoosh.
"Ugh..."
His subordinates raised their arms to shield their faces.
It was their primal instinct protecting them from the fierce lightning and blinding flash.
"M-my lord..."
But lowering their arms, they looked at Yong-un with puzzled eyes—nothing had changed except the lightning strike.
Yet unlike his subordinates' expressions, a smile curved Yong-un's lips.
Two days.
For the first time amid the unchanging two days, the peculiar energy snowflakes had vanished.
Of course, the snowfall halted only briefly by the crimson-black lightning soon resumed swirling down as if nothing had happened.
Thud! Thud... Boom! Thud!
Kyaaa...aaaaaack!
The snowfall paused for a mere ten seconds due to Yong-un's thunderclap.
But in that short time, Yong-un obtained what he desired.
The reason for this boring, overly safe situation over the past two days.
'I suspected as much, but suspicions can kill.'
Yong-un's lips curved higher, his smile deepening.
The bewildered Sword Tiger asked him.
"My lord?"
"Everyone, prepare for battle."
"Pardon?"
Sword Tiger and the others were startled.
They drew their swords and demonic energy, scanning their surroundings warily.
They obeyed the Supreme One's command, but doubt lingered unmistakably on their faces.
Boom.
But that lasted only a moment.
Cracks formed around the ground where Yong-un stood, and his eyes—which no one knew when they had closed—snapped open.
His eyes turned crimson-black, then returned to normal.
Crunch. Rooooar—
As the cracks deepened and indescribably potent crimson demonic energy poured from Yong-un's body.
His eyes normalized, a deep smile on his lips, and his hand shot toward empty air.
He clenched his fist tightly.
Squelch.
Something was caught, and Yong-un yanked his gripped hand with full force.
Then.
Crack.
A rift tore through the empty air, and from the shattered fragments, something grasped in Yong-un's hand emerged.
Fwoosh.
Dark blue flames surged, and the thing in Yong-un's hand emitted a grotesque clack.
"Kieeeek!"
"That sound?!"
Slightly different, but unmistakable.
It was the scream from an unknown source echoing since two days ago.
Whack! Scatter.
"Quiet."
But the scream didn't last.
The skull gourd, wrapped in dark blue flames and clattering its teeth, shattered under Yong-un's crimson demonic energy.
The white powder of the broken bones trickled from his hand to the ground.
And with the fierce dark blue flames, the last embers of its life were extinguished.
The skull gourd vanished, and so did the screams.
Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-thud.
But something filled the void.
The rhythmic drumbeats audible only to Yong-un.
They now rang out rough and rapid, as if in rage.
"Wh-what is that sound?"
"Can you hear it?"
"Yes... It's eerie."
Eerie, indeed.
"Heh."
His subordinates were only now sensing what he had felt.
Yong-un eyed the white bone powder scattering in the wind.
A deep smile played on his lips.
Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-thud.
The drumbeats pounded like blows to the chest.
"Didn't I say it? Even in this moment of felt peace, the war rages on."
He welcomed the first change after two serene days.
And then, the first monster roars in two days.
Rooooooar!
Yong-un smiled as he strode through his subordinates, gazing intently toward the source of the roar.
He shouted to all.
"Prepare for battle!"
"Prepare for battle!"
War had always been like this.
Blood spraying, slaughter rampant—that was war.
Yet in the midst of war, an eerily quiet and comfortable calm?
It meant something unknown was afoot, or the enemy was plotting something massive.
And they were oblivious.
For one who had experienced war, the current situation was the worst possible.
But the silence that had amplified unease just moments ago was broken.
Flash.
A single bolt of lightning from the South Korean team shattered the two days of stillness.
Changes began rippling through the inscrutable war.
Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud.
"Rooooaaar."
The waiting Spanish team grabbed their gear from beside them.
"God of Battle!"
They called to their leader.
At his team's cries, the God of Battle—who had been watching the distant South Korean team—slowly rose.
"He keeps surprising me."
Yellow mana oozed from the God of Battle's body.
"The war begins."
"Everyone, prepare!"
"Let's go, lads!"
His mana release was a signal.
A wordless cue for the Spanish team to brace for the imminent battle.
Rooooaaar.
"Let's go."
The God of Battle's steps advanced.
Yellow mana rose like heat haze between his unimpeded strides, then faded.
As the Spanish team watched him.
At the end of his steps, monsters began appearing one by one.
The two days of silence were over.
Now was the time for a true war.
"Charge!"
Spanish team members surged past the God of Battle—who walked with hands in pockets—toward the monsters.
Sneer.
And in that moment of his smile.
His fist, clenched with a sphere of yellow mana—drawn back tight—thrust forward.
"Kuhahaha!"
Boooom!
With booming laughter, the yellow mana sphere shot like lightning.
Rooooaaar...!
The powerfully mana-charged yellow orb cleaved the air toward the monsters.
It slammed squarely into the maw of the lead monster roaring as it charged.
An explosion heralded the war's start.
Kaboom!
Bang! Boom-boom!
Boom! Thud!
Starting with the God of Battle's attack, explosions erupted across the entire San Marino Demonus.
All the major powers shattered the two days of quiet, commencing war.
Slash! Swish.
Yong-un, perched on a large rock overlooking his subordinates massacring monsters, briefly glanced at the sky.
'Why?'
The awaited war had indeed begun.
Whatever Yong-un had shattered had wrecked the enemy's inscrutable intent.
The monster waves charging the major powers proved it.
Yet why?
Swirl. Swirl.
Did those snowflakes of peculiar energy still fall?
The snowfall showed no sign of thinning.
At this unprecedented war progression, Yong-un's expression twisted faintly.
'What exactly are you trying to do?'
He rose from the rock.
Irritation surged.
The awaited monster wave change had come, and the enemy had reignited battle as he intended.
But the snowfall since two days ago remained utterly unchanged.
He could no longer stand by.
'If you won't move, I'll make you.'
He intended to check personally.
What influence those snowflakes had on this war.
And why they expended such vast inner energy to scatter them.
Crackle.
Purple glow erupted from Yong-un's eyes.
Simultaneously, several bolts of purple lightning struck around him.
Boom! Kaboom!
His eyes, brimming with purple glow, shot skyward.
He extended his hand toward the heavens.
Craaaack.
Purple energy condensed in his grasp, warping the surrounding space.
Then, it surged explosively upward.
Zing! Boom!
The elongated purple pillar connected to the sky, detonating where the clouds loomed.
Crackle.
A bizarre sound echoed from the heavens.
A sound unlike any from the sky.
'Show yourself. Reveal your intent!'