Chapter 213
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 213
Chapter Title: Assault on the White Castle
Sung Si-hoon had slapped together a bizarre flying contraption from random junk scattered around—one that hardly looked like an airplane at all—and with Jang Tae-seok's tonfa serving as its engine, it finally took flight.
In truth, its shape was closer to a tiltrotor than anything resembling a proper plane.
As the tonfa belched out a massive roar, the thing we were riding—something vaguely airplane-like—slowly rose into the sky.
"Looks like something civilians would need a spare life to board safely."
It ascended straight up into the sky, then Sung Si-hoon gradually tilted the wing-like structure where the tonfa was mounted.
"It's fast, alright."
"You talking about the plane?"
Han Sang-ah's question left me with a complicated expression.
"Both the plane and the enemy's response."
Cracks spiderwebbed across the sky, and hundreds of bloodshot eyes rolled around in every direction. It was as if they'd anticipated we'd pull something like this, reacting with uncanny speed.
"We heading the right way?"
Jang Tae-seok's question earned him a pitiful look from me.
"If we were going the wrong way, why would the sky be changing like this?"
Just stay put. It'll clear out on its own—no need to interfere.
"Ah, right."
As Jang Tae-seok nodded in understanding, Choi Yeoreum scowled in disgust.
"What the hell is that? A bunch of grapes?"
The eyes bursting from the shattered sky began clumping together. Just like she'd said, they looked like clusters of grapes—except the "grapes" were eyeballs.
Hundreds of these eye clusters floated through the sky, drifting aimlessly and rolling their eyes this way and that. Then some of them locked onto our plane all at once.
"Incoming."
The eyes in the clusters that spotted us turned blood-red. They spewed crimson blood like rocket fuel, rocketing toward us at high speed—like water rockets.
"They'll pop, right?"
Jeong Oh-hoon replied to my question.
"If they don't pop, that would be weird."
As he spoke, Jeong Oh-hoon pulled a machine gun from his subspace storage.
"Yeah, go get 'em, human Aegis anti-air system."
I gave his shoulder a pat. This situation was perfect for Jeong Oh-hoon, the long-range interception expert.
"There's a ton of them. Can't shoot 'em all."
Sung Si-hoon responded to Jeong Oh-hoon's words.
"I'll use telekinesis to block any that get too close, or forcibly maneuver the plane to dodge."
This plane's power source was Jang Tae-seok's tonfa, not Sung Si-hoon's telekinesis. Plenty of room to spare.
Jeong Oh-hoon unleashed a barrage from the machine gun. The mana cannon rounds slammed into the eye clusters, detonating them one after another with explosive pops. The burst clusters let out ear-piercing shrieks like wailing ghosts before plummeting.
The spreading screams stabbed into our minds like needles, injecting raw terror.
"Not on my watch."
I immediately ignited Paradox Flame around the plane, enveloping it. Better to block the fear the screams induced than the sound itself.
Burning the noise outright would cut it off at the source, but that wouldn't exactly help us either. In a fight like this, losing our hearing would cost more than it gained.
Those plump eyeballs popping with cicada-like screeches at dawn were still annoying as hell, but at least the fear wouldn't drill into our skulls. Good enough.
"There's a lot. Like, really a lot."
But we had plenty of capable hands. Sung Si-hoon used telekinesis when needed, making the plane weave impossible trajectories to evade the exploding clusters.
Meanwhile, Jeong Oh-hoon poured out mana cannon fire, and Choi Yeoreum unleashed hundreds, thousands of flames.
Where Jeong Oh-hoon picked off eyes with precise shots one by one, Choi Yeoreum just blanketed the sky in a firewall, shredding the incoming ones.
She had mana to burn anyway, so her style worked fine.
"Can't just sit this out."
I glanced at Han Sang-ah as I said it.
"Pull me back if I look like I'm gonna fall."
She nodded. With that, I kicked off the plane and shot into the air.
"Ugh, ugly bastards."
Flying through the sky, I came face-to-face with one eye cluster. I thrust a mana-charged spear into it; the clump exploded, shrieking. I dug in my ear and used the corpse as a foothold to charge another.
Me, taken out by these? Pissing myself and crying for mom? Fat chance.
"One more."
Streaking through the sky at high speed, I skewered eye clusters with my spear like a needle through fabric, pressing the assault.
"Gotta close these rifts."
The cracks in the sky kept spewing more eye clusters nonstop.
These weren't true spatial tears. If something could rip open this many real rifts, Earth would've been done for ages ago.
It was a warped summoning circle variant. Cancel the magic, and the rifts would seal.
"Here... and here."
I vibrated the mana loaded into my spear and stabbed key points near the rifts. The oscillating mana shattered the cores sustaining them.
One rift sealed shut. But there were way more to go.
"Gotta smash some on the way and focus on moving."
I knew the direction, but not the distance. No need to close them all...
"Crazy bastards."
The eye clusters suddenly shuddered, merging into a colossal human face shape. I'd seen golems made of flesh before, but one composed purely of eyes? First time.
"I know."
The root of the terror carried in these eyeballs' shrieks was that sensation: it's watching. The inexplicable gaze out of nowhere, the creeping doubt that someone might be observing you.
Amplify the dread stalkers feel, and it'd probably mirror this nasty unease plaguing us.
Thousands, tens of thousands of eyeballs in the face shape all stared right at me.
"If stares could kill, I'd be dead thousands of times over."
As I glared back at the staring eyes, I felt my body start to drop. All the eye clusters I'd been stepping on had clustered over there—no more footholds.
"Pull me."
I hit Ineui's button and called to Han Sang-ah. Instantly, a pale lightning bolt connected my body to Sung Si-hoon's plane.
My body yanked toward it like a magnet. I made it back aboard.
"How do we deal with that eye face? Burn it?"
I shook my head at Choi Yeoreum's suggestion.
"Just ignore it and run."
Why bother with that thing? It was so grotesque it made my stomach churn just looking at it. Easier to flee now than when eyeballs littered everywhere.
The tonfa on the plane's wing roared even louder, accelerating. The eye-face chased us from behind.
"Don't rush. No need to go this fast."
The speed was excessive, so I cut in. We were pushing too hard.
The fear from feeling watched bred impatience.
Like quickening your pace in an alley if you think someone's eyeing you, or rushing your shower if you sense a peeper.
We needed to adapt to this level of fear by now.
"Yeah, got it."
Sung Si-hoon regained some composure, nodding and easing the speed. Neither faster nor slower than the pursuing eye-face—just right.
"Wanna pop off a few shots? It's seriously getting on my nerves."
Jeong Oh-hoon muttered, eyeing the trailing face.
"No point wasting ammo."
It couldn't keep up anyway.
"There, I think."
Unlike the others, Han Sang-ah—who'd barely paid the chasing eyes any mind—leaned out, glanced below, and pointed somewhere.
"Yeah, looks like it."
At the center of a massive hurricane of colorful smoke stood a gigantic castle.
"Diving in. Handle the crash yourselves."
Sung Si-hoon finished speaking and spun the plane's wings.
Our ride plummeted toward the castle like a shooting star. The pursuing eye clusters vanished without a trace, as if they knew further chase was pointless.
"An Erosion Core...?"
Lee Se-eun murmured mid-descent.
"Who knows."
Erosion Cores didn't look like that normally. You had to pass through a black hole to enter one.
But this white castle drawing closer had an eerie vibe reminiscent of one.
No, it wasn't just similar—it straight-up screamed Erosion Core.
"Eh, screw overthinking it."
Monsters can't operate outside Erosion Zones normally. But after we smashed the Gonshalok, that thing rampaged without one.
The black ore too.
"Looks like they pulled some trick to drag an Erosion Core onto Earth."
That explained the Black Sea and Turkey's twisted environments.
If this was an Erosion Core's interior dumped onto Earth, overlaying its rules...
The drastic terrain shifts made sense.
"What about the gimmick? Even if it's out here, the gimmick can't just vanish."
Han Sang-ah asked immediately.
"If it's an Erosion Core, the gimmick's probably inside the castle."
Seemed like an Alpha-class one. But exposed on Earth like this? Trickier.
Couldn't burn Earth with Paradox Flame.
It wasn't spatial distortion either, yet it'd scattered us—probably thanks to hauling the Core out here.
"Almost there."
Now...
Thud. Our plane slammed into the white castle.
Not even a scratch, of course. Insane durability. And aside from the front gate, no other entry points.
Windows existed, but they wouldn't open or break. Purely decorative.
"Guess we go in the front door."
As we approached the castle's entrance, a heavy rumble echoed, and the gate swung open.
"It just... opens?"
Jeong Oh-hoon stared at the door in wonder.
"It's probably programmed that way. Not like they want to let us in."
Like opening shop for customers during business hours.
Beyond the door lay a vast hall lined with doors equal to our group's number.
"One per door, huh."
We each picked a door and turned the knobs.
"..."
A quick glance down revealed a bottomless abyss crisscrossed by thin metal rods—about 3cm thick—strung like a spiderweb.
Any hunter's body could leap across this no sweat.
"But my body..."
Not here. No monsters, but my physical abilities were restricted too.
This space capped our strength output.
A button gleamed across the endless chasm. Looked like we had to traverse the rods by foot or hand to reach it.
Gazing into the bottomless pit again, it hit different. My vision blurred, breath caught, body trembled uncontrollably.