Chapter 196
Chapter 196
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 196
Chapter Title: Royal Clash and Sudden Gate
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Ignito's green flame wings slammed into the tip of Yong-un's Demon-Slaying Sword.
Boom!
The moment they collided, the green flames instantly enveloped Yong-un's entire body.
Yong-un was swallowed up in an instant.
Crackle-crackle-crack.
But from within the flames, violet light burst from his eyes, and the blaze wrapping around him vanished in a flash.
However, the assault didn't stop there.
Two white daggers from Spello came slashing down from above.
Screeech.
Yong-un twisted the Demon-Slaying Sword, which had clashed with Ignito's wings, to the side.
The moment the diagonally extended blade aligned straight overhead.
Boom!!!
Spello's daggers, meant to bisect Yong-un, hammered against the sword's blade.
"......"
In that split-second.
In this critical moment akin to a crisis, Ignito and Spello's eyes widened at Yong-un's unbelievable swordsmanship, which perfectly blocked the attacks from two Royal Classes.
"Hup!"
But surprise was just surprise.
Spello unleashed his prepared follow-up attack.
Crackle-crackle-crackle-crack!
The two white daggers that struck the middle of the Demon-Slaying Sword's blade sucked in Spello's mana to the brim and spewed it out.
In the blink of an eye, Spello's chill froze the entire Demon-Slaying Sword and reached out to devour Yong-un's hand connected to it.
At that moment, violet light flowed like water from Yong-un's eyes, blowing away Spello's chill as if scattering Ignito's flames.
"Supreme One!!"
All of the Phantom Assassins and Demon Dragon Squad instantly surrounded Yong-un.
Having realized Yong-un was under attack, the Phantom Assassins and Demon Dragon Squad lost their minds in an instant.
The order they had received from Yong-un before coming here.
'Don't kill them.'
The thin thread of reason holding them back from that order snapped.
"We'll kill them!!"
The Sword Tiger unleashed the demonic energy he had been holding back, drawing his Demon Dragon blade.
Myung-su also infused his daggers with thick demonic energy, his eyes brimming with murderous intent.
The leaders of the two forces charged forward with roars.
"Stand down."
The leaders, moving as if to slaughter Ignito and Spello, barely halted their steps at the voice of Yong-un, infused with supreme will that shook their hearts.
They then glared at Ignito and Spello in turn.
Swish.
Spello tried to retrieve his white daggers.
"Move... and I'll cut you down."
His movement froze on the spot.
Clearly, Spello held the positional advantage.
But why?
'That voice and those eyes...'
Right now, as their gazes met.
A powerful conviction struck Spello's chest—that the moment he pulled away his daggers, he would truly be sliced apart.
Beeeep! Beeeep! Beeeep!
Was it due to the mana explosion from the intense battle?
Suddenly, an alarm blared throughout the entire Korea Hunter Management Agency.
The floor had already sunk long ago.
A precarious situation where one wrong move could send them plummeting to the lower levels.
However, the broadcast echoing through the Korea Hunter Management Agency differed from their expectations.
"A Gate?"
Ignito and Spello couldn't understand the Korean in the broadcast.
But most of the broadcast was in English.
They grasped its meaning immediately.
"A Gate has appeared nearby."
Spello glanced at Yong-un without pulling away his daggers.
"I don't know if you hold an official position or not, but it seems a Sudden Gate related to demons has occurred."
"...?!"
What kind of timing was this?
"Ignito..."
"Uncle Spello..."
Ignito and Spello stopped fighting and looked at each other.
Then they turned to Yong-un and said,
"How about we call it here?"
"If we don't stop, the ones who suffer will be right here in Korea."
Yong-un, radiating supreme will, stared deeply into the eyes of the two Royal Classes.
Ten seconds of silence followed without a word.
Yong-un broke the silence.
"I'll let you go. But never set foot here again."
Swish.
The Demon-Slaying Sword pulled away from the two Royal Classes' attacks.
The two Royal Classes quickly widened the distance and began retracting their scattered mana one by one.
Ignito ignited flames at his feet and looked at Spello.
"Uncle Spello, hurry!"
"Wait."
Spello just stared at Ignito's outstretched hand for spatial transfer.
Then Spello shifted his gaze to Yong-un.
"I can't promise I won't come to this land again."
"Uncle! This isn't the time!"
"But I'll make one promise. At least next time, I won't come with hostility."
"Hurry!"
With those meaningful words, Spello grabbed Ignito's hand and vanished from the spot.
Natalia, already holding hands with them, disappeared as well.
The VIP room in the Korea Hunter Management Agency had been utterly demolished.
More than half-destroyed—it was reduced to rubble, requiring a complete rebuild.
Yong-un stood in the center, staring at the spot where Ignito and his group had vanished.
"We'll prepare countermeasures, Supreme One."
Swish. Clack.
Yong-un, who had sheathed the Demon-Slaying Sword in its scabbard, shook his head.
"Leave it be. It seems..."
Swish.
"There might be something we don't know about."
His gaze turned to the window, where dark blue sparks were crackling, forming a Gate.
And from there, he sensed the presence of Ignito and Spello, who had fled like cowards.
"Understood, Supreme One."
Myung-su bowed his head.
"Clean this up and explain the situation to the Minister when he wakes."
"Yes, understood. But where are you headed?"
Yong-un, eyes fixed outside the window, lightly placed his hand on the Demon-Slaying Sword.
"Something I want to check."
He stepped toward the shattered window from the battle with Ignito and Spello.
All his subordinates bowed their heads and shouted.
"Understood, Supreme One!"
Yong-un, about to leap from the window frame, paused while descending and looked back at Myung-su.
Myung-su's right hand, head bowed, trembled faintly.
Noticing it, Yong-un turned back to the window and said,
"You've grown."
"......"
Myung-su's body flinched.
Five words laden with profound meaning.
"Thank... you..."
Myung-su raised his head to respond, feeling it deep in his heart, but Yong-un had already vanished.
Tremble-tremble.
"...Supreme One."
Gripping his trembling right hand with his left, Myung-su smiled faintly.
He wanted to control his expression but couldn't.
Not just because of the Supreme One's words—Myung-su was immensely proud of himself.
'Me, who couldn't even reach S-Rank... facing a Royal Class and surviving...'
He couldn't remember the last time.
He had felt such deep joy in his own actions.
It didn't matter that he hadn't defeated the Royal Class.
Myung-su, who had always blamed and grieved himself for being a burden, had been helpful today.
That alone made him think all his efforts thus far weren't in vain.
'Yeah, that's enough...'
Shiver...
His trembling hand and the hands gripping it shook together.
Not from the aftermath of clashing with great power, but from Myung-su's resolute will manifesting as intense trembling.
Gazing at the window where Yong-un had disappeared, Myung-su reset his goal deep in his heart.
'Next time we meet...'
He would surely win.
Against the Royal Class Spello.
A goal so lofty he couldn't have imagined it before brushed past Myung-su's fingertips and faded.
"Heh."
Yong-un, landing on the ground from the top of the Korea Hunter Management Agency, wore a faint smile.
He looked up at the shattered top-floor window he had descended from.
"Well done."
These words wouldn't reach his subordinates.
But he wanted to say them.
That it wasn't because they were weak.
That the opponents they had faced so far had undergone blood-vomiting training far beyond theirs and stood at even higher levels of growth.
"No need to say it after all."
But it seemed unnecessary.
The fighting spirit emanating from them up here pleased Yong-un.
Crackle-crackle-crackle.
Yong-un erased his smile as he gazed at the top floor.
"Now, let's verify it."
Turning his head, his view filled with the spectacle of dark blue sparks forming the Sudden Gate.
"KyaAaAaAgh!"
"Run away!!!"
"Evacuate! You must evacuate!"
And the chaos from the Danger Red Sudden Gate.
Sensing Ignito and Spello's presences amid it all, Yong-un slowly drew the Demon-Slaying Sword.
"I'll confirm with my own eyes what you're hiding and why you fled in such haste."
With the Demon-Slaying Sword drawn, Yong-un's steps pressed firmly into the ground, one by one.
On the fifth step.
Bang!
With a gunshot-like roar, Yong-un's figure vanished from the spot.
It was an utterly bizarre situation, no matter who looked.
In the midst of a life-or-death battle.
The Sudden Gate that arose suddenly forced Ignito and Spello to halt their boiling rage and shift their priorities.
As if they knew something.
Whoooosh.
Flying swiftly over the evacuating crowd, Yong-un read their presences with a serious expression.
'Their eyes weren't those worrying about Korea's damage from the Gate's creation.'
Those eyes were...
Like those of people hastily covering something up, acting as if pursued.
This piqued Yong-un's curiosity.
What had made them so desperate?
What could move the supreme powerhouses, akin to the Ten Great Masters ruling the world?
Screeech.
Arriving at the Sudden Gate, carving two deep furrows in the ground.
Yong-un saw the backs of Ignito and Spello standing facing the Sudden Gate.
Roarrr.
Crackle-crackle.
The two, condensing their energy for a final strike.
And before them, the Sudden Gate boldly tearing open a rift, mouth agape.
Whoooosh.
Yong-un grasped the entire situation and released once more the supreme will that had pressured the two Royal Classes.
"I'll see for myself with these eyes."
The secret of the Royal Classes, who seemed to know well this suddenly appeared Sudden Gate.
Violet supreme will surged like sword energy along the violet-bladed Demon-Slaying Sword.
And in the blink of an eye, toward Yong-un arriving between the Royal Classes and the Sudden Gate.
"Stop!"
"No!!"
The two Royal Classes shouted in horrified voices and expressions.
At the same time, their condensed final strikes shot forth.
Whoooosh!
Shhhh-shick!
A green bull that would turn the entire ground to ash, incinerating everything black, and an ice bird that would freeze even the air, flew toward Yong-un standing before the Sudden Gate.
Swish.
Toward Yong-un, who assumed the stance of a sword master never seen before, violet light bursting from his eyes.