Chapter 155
Chapter 155
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 155
Chapter Title: The Road to the Cold Hell (6)
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***
Early evening.
Having finished their preparations, the group grabbed a simple meal before immediately heading to the western part of the city.
Instead of sneaking in through the sewers, Yeomyeong's party boldly boarded a carriage.
Because so many people were crowding the sewers, paradoxically, there were fewer eyes on the main streets.
After traveling like that for a short while, a building draped in sunset glow came into view outside the carriage window.
The only completed building in the city, and the West Palace Lord's palace—the Jo Pantoriano Building.
Yeomyeong gazed at it for a moment before speaking.
“…Neti, you don't have to join the fight. You can stay in the rear.”
A remark laced with concern and consideration. Neti, who had been looking out the window as well, widened her eyes.
“Huh… brother-in-law? In a fight like this, I'm way more useful than my sister, you know?”
It was a bold claim. Seti jabbed her side hard, but Neti ignored it, opening her bag and levitating two rifles into the air.
“I'm a specialist in telekinesis and force fields, so I'm way more useful than my sister, who can't do anything but fight. I've even learned a martial art like the Flying Leg Art that allows high-speed movement, so I won't lag behind in combat. You know that, right?”
Yeomyeong nodded, recalling Neti's swift footsteps chasing after them at the northern station.
“And as for combat power, well, levitating guns and firing them overflows any need.”
As if to prove her words, Neti levitated two more rifles with her telekinesis.
The sight of four rifles floating around the carriage was quite a spectacle, but Seti, sitting beside her, let out a deep sigh.
“…You have no real combat experience, and you can't fine-tune your spells. Why didn't you mention that?”
“Well, that's…”
“Neti, we're not going out to play around. You could get hurt—or worse, killed. So… like Yeomyeong said, just provide support from the rear. Got it?”
“…”
Neti didn't argue back. Her sister's words were an undeniable truth, and any rebuttal from her would just be stubborn nonsense.
As Neti quietly returned the rifles to their places in silence, a flash of light erupted outside the window.
Everyone inside the carriage turned their heads simultaneously, but the light had already vanished.
The only thing Yeomyeong could sense was one thing: the twisted mana lingering where the light had been.
“…Shepherd magic.”
Yeomyeong frowned.
Using magic so openly? And such powerful magic that anyone who could sense mana would notice?
There were two possibilities he could think of.
They had cast it so urgently that hiding it was impossible…
'Or they don't care if they're discovered anymore.'
His deliberation was brief, and his action swift.
“Everyone out. We're heading into the sewers from here.”
Yeomyeong said that, then opened the carriage door and jumped out.
“Huh?”
While Neti responded dumbly, Seti grabbed the wooden crate with their weapons and followed behind Yeomyeong.
Left alone, Neti hurriedly climbed out of the carriage and descended into the sewer hole where the two had gone.
Of course, she didn't forget to toss a gold coin to the carriage driver.
Splash.
Confirming Neti landing in the sewer water, Yeomyeong immediately spread his mana throughout the sewer interior.
There should have been a bribed guard nearby, but his senses picked up something else instead of the guard.
The repulsive presence unique to the Shepherds.
Not alone, either—it was accompanied by dozens of zombies. They weren't even bothering to hide.
“…What should we do? Take out the Shepherds first? Or check the building quickly?”
Seti, sensing the Shepherd presence as well, asked. Yeomyeong set down the wooden crate labeled 'Magic Wand' and opened the lid.
Inside were packed anti-tank rockets and warheads commonly known as 'Aladdin's Magic Wand.' Yeomyeong slung one over his back as he replied.
“Both. Kill every one we see and get to the building as fast as possible.”
Neti nearly blurted out that it sounded like a completely insane plan, but she clamped her mouth shut upon seeing her sister hoist a rocket as well.
***
BOOM!!
An explosion roared through the enclosed sewer. Flames soon devoured the space, spewing out a shockwave.
All that remained below were the ragged Pig Heads and zombies.
It was a gruesome scene, but the girl who had wrought it didn't bat an eye as she trampled the corpses and crossed the sewer.
And just as she sensed another group of Shepherds.
“Neti, reload.”
Seti tossed the empty rocket launcher to her sister.
Neti caught the launcher with telekinesis, loaded a rocket warhead she'd levitated similarly, and handed it back to her sister.
Perhaps thanks to repeating the process nearly ten times already, her reload took less than 30 seconds.
Of course, her sister's firing speed was even faster.
“Intruders?! Sound the alarm…!”
A Pig Head waiting at a sewer junction spotted the group and shouted, but it couldn't outpace the rocket.
A heavy launch sound and backblast filled the sewer, and the fired rocket flashed in the darkness.
The next moment.
BOOM!!
The Pig Heads were swallowed by the explosion, reduced to blood and scorch marks.
A few zombies survived(?), spared by the blast radius, but before they could turn their heads, Yeomyeong's sword traced a long arc.
Leaving the decapitated zombies behind, the group kept running.
It was a string of battles too brutish for infiltration, too one-sided for combat.
“How much farther?”
Neti asked, her body laden with rocket warheads dangling via telekinesis.
All three were employing the Flying Leg Art, so the group was traversing the sewers at an incredible speed.
She figured they'd covered enough ground to reach the West Palace Lord's building by now…
But the answer came from someone else.
“The Palace Lord's building? We've already arrived.”
From the darkness beyond the sewer, the voice of someone wearing a black hood.
The group halted almost simultaneously and checked the figure.
The voice's owner emerging from the shadows wasn't a Shepherd. No Shepherd had such a dwarfish body.
While Seti debated firing a rocket, the figure flung back his hood, revealing his face.
“Who sent you? The East? The South?”
The gaunt, zombie-like face blinked with bloodshot red eyes—it resembled the corrupted humans Yeomyeong had seen in Manchuria.
The twisted mana dominating its brain was proof.
Unlike those in Manchuria, it spoke coherently, suggesting it was a measured type…
Shepherds followed by corrupted humans. Yeomyeong felt an odd sense of déjà vu as he quietly gathered his mana.
Regardless, the figure sneered at the group.
“Whoever ordered you, it's too late. The West Palace Lord has already opened the path downward. Everything sleeping below is ours now.”
A smooth tone, like reciting poetry. Neti tensed up fully and carefully reloaded her rocket.
Guys like this usually had traps set or were incredibly skilled…
But before her thought finished, the figure's head spun a full turn.
Crack.
A gruesome sound echoed from the neck twisted 180 degrees. Soon after, it collapsed like a marionette with cut strings.
“…Insane.”
Did he just use telekinesis for assassination? How is that even possible?
Even the farm owner who called himself a grand mage couldn't do that. And it wasn't even that kind of spell to begin with.
Neti stared at Yeomyeong in shock.
Despite committing such an unnatural act, his expression showed no sense of accomplishment.
Gazing calmly beyond the sewer, he clearly thought it was no big deal.
'What the hell is brother-in-law's true identity…?'
As her doubts deepened, Yeomyeong lowered his sword and said.
“Neti, weapons up.”
“Huh?”
“Get your head in the game. The real fight starts now.”
As if on cue, black shadows began emerging from the far end of the sewer.
One, two, five, ten, twenty, forty…
In an instant, the sewer filled with them, their eyes all glowing red like madmen's.
***
A massive concrete staircase leading deep underground.
In this place untouched by footsteps for so long, two sets of footfalls echoed.
Click-clack, click-clack. After the rhythmic steps continued for a while.
Jo Pantoriano, the West Palace Lord, spoke.
“To think a space this vast… lay beneath the city.”
He stopped walking and peered down the staircase, its end still nowhere in sight.
What on earth was hidden down there to warrant building such a thick concrete bunker?
“…Is this really the armory?”
The West Palace Lord asked almost unconsciously. The one descending the stairs with him halted and replied.
“Yes, it's the armory.”
“What kind of weapons would require building something like this? It feels like a place sealing away a demon king or something.”
Amused by the question, perhaps, the other chuckled softly.
“A demon king? The thing below makes a demon king look like nothing.”
“…Nothing compared to it?”
“The demon king couldn't even scratch the World Tree, could he?”
The words carried layers of meaning, so the Palace Lord didn't grasp it immediately.
But the culture he'd accumulated over a lifetime soon uncovered the implication hidden in the statement.
There was only one weapon on this world from Earth that had destroyed the World Tree.
“…”
The Palace Lord swallowed hard and looked at his guide.
An Earthling wearing a disgustingly lifelike Horse Head mask.
For some reason, the face that had seemed trustworthy moments ago now appeared grotesque.
Silence hung between the stairs for a moment, and as fear crept into the Palace Lord's eyes.
The Horse Head bowed its head and said.
“Our country could find this only thanks to Your Excellency's merits.”
“Y-Yes, my merits are the greatest…”
“His Excellency will surely reward you handsomely.”
“…”
Yes, the reward. A chance to escape this rotten world and become nobility in advanced Earth.
Desire was a drug stronger than any other.
The Palace Lord pushed aside the rising fear and doubt in his heart, resuming his descent down the stairs.
He tried to.
But at that very moment.
A heavy impact thudded from the ceiling, seizing his ankle.
Thud!
Thud!
Thud!
Concrete dust fell from the ceiling in its wake. What was that?
“Enemy attack…? Hey, what's going on? How could enemies reach here already?”
“…”
The Horse Head didn't answer right away. It narrowed its eyes, gazing at the ceiling for a moment until the vibrations subsided, then spoke.
“No need to worry. It's nothing serious.”
“Nothing serious? After hearing that sound?”
“We've deployed forces throughout the western sewers, and the building is covered in detection spells. No need to worry.”
“But didn't we use such massive magic to unseal this place? If they tracked that spell…”
“If there's a bastard bold enough, we just kill them.”
The West Palace Lord wore a distrustful expression but couldn't bring himself to argue. The prowess Korea had shown thus far was undeniably real.
'Yeah, it's probably nothing…'
Just as the West Palace Lord tried to reassure himself.
BOOM!!!
The concrete ceiling cracked open, a massive hole punched through.
And emerging amid the scattering debris and dust was an intruder no one had anticipated.
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