An Overwhelming Display of Power
If he had decided to show his strength, then it was only right to display something utterly overwhelming.
He could have wiped them all out in the blink of an eye, but then those with discerning eyes would be the only ones who understood what had happened. Everyone else would remain clueless.
Therefore, even if it meant accepting some inefficiency, he had to put on a grand spectacle.
After firing another couple of salvos of Crimson Lotus Flame Bullets, burning roughly half the enemy forces to death, Han Yujin felt the rapid influx of Karma and summoned the Monghyeon-gyeong.
The mirror’s front face reflected the Maigbra Settlement. Immediately afterward, it flipped to show the surrounding land collapsing under the destructive force of the Cloud Dragon Summoning spell.
At the same time, a Cloud Dragon burst forth from his wrist, swelling to an enormous size in an instant.
A roar that defied description—resembling a storm repeatedly surging and shattering upon collision—thundered across the battlefield, threatening to rupture eardrums.
The Cloud Dragon that appeared, seizing everyone’s attention, scattered pure white clouds like a mythical creature from legend and swiftly circled the outer perimeter of the Aheti race’s settlement.
Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwang—!!
Ku-ru-ru-rung…!
Kkwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwang—!!
With it came earth-shaking booms and violent earthquakes.
As if encircling their settlement and tearing an entire mountain range from the earth to isolate it, pure white clouds swirled with terrifying momentum, carving deep ravines and hurling debris far into the distance.
No, calling them mere ravines would be an understatement.
The lingering white clouds continued to whirl, forming what were practically sheer cliffs.
They were so deep that the bottom could not be seen, and the madly swirling cloud storm seemed capable of shredding skin at mere proximity. Anything that made direct contact would undoubtedly be torn to pieces.
Thus, a barrier of cliffs and cloud storms was erected around the Aheti settlement.
It was a sight reminiscent of a god isolating its prey like a rat in a cage before delivering true punishment.
— W-who are you…?! Why are you subjecting us to such pressure?!
Around that time, Chief Maigbra Aurak’s telepathic voice reached Han Yujin. It was filled with extreme urgency and unmistakable fear.
— There may have been a misunderstanding, so please withdraw your hand! Whatever you command, we will obey with all our strength!
“Hahaha…”
Han Yujin laughed at the unconditional surrender, delivered while groveling flat on the ground.
Though it was a low chuckle, it spread across the entire battlefield, carried by the radiant halo of the Six Paths of Reincarnation that had been deployed to calm the chaos.
“One of the humans you were attacking was me, and yet you say you’ll obey whatever I command without question?”
A brief, stunned silence followed his words.
— W-we surrender! Please spare us! From now on, our tribe will become the loyal servants of humanity!
The plea continued, only slightly rephrased. Of course, Han Yujin had no intention of accepting the offer.
Even among humans on the same Earth, endless disputes and conflicts arose without pause. If an inherently hostile alien race with completely different ways of thinking and culture were added into the mix, how much worse would the chaos become?
Even a moment’s reflection showed there was no benefit whatsoever. In a situation where they had been killing each other, there was no reason to show mercy, and above all, he could not allow any information to leak to their ‘Great Chieftain.’
“If our positions were reversed, would you have spared us so easily?”
The moment he finished speaking, he no longer waited for a reply and swung his hand once more.
In that instant, over a hundred strands of purple lightning flashed with blinding brilliance and crashed down across the land with deafening thunder.
His targets were the elite warriors among the Aheti combatants. In particular, not a single one of the exposed S-rank level fighters escaped the Purple Heaven Divine Lightning assault.
“Huk…!”
A German S-rank hunter, standing only a dozen steps away, watched in horror as the enemy he had been fighting on equal footing—constantly threatening his life—turned to ash in an instant. His heart nearly stopped.
Similar scenes unfolded everywhere. As the second and third volleys of Purple Heaven Divine Lightning rained down in succession, each strike caused everyone to shudder in terror.
Right then—
A roar like that of an enormous beast erupted.
This time, even a blurry illusion appeared, rushing toward the floating Han Yujin. Though it was nothing more than sound and an image, the power contained within it felt vividly real against the skin.
However, the mid-to-late stage formation attack crumbled to pieces the moment Han Yujin glanced at it, as if it could not endure his gaze.
By then, both of his eyes had already transformed into the Yin-Yang True Dragon Eye.
When he waved his hand next, one section of the settlement exploded with a deafening boom, as though an invisible giant’s palm had slammed down upon it.
With similarly light gestures, various parts of the settlement were crushed and shattered, sending explosive sounds and vibrations radiating in all directions.
After casually dismantling the formation as if it were a game, he made a grasping motion. A deep azure Taecheong Hyeonsu manifested in the targeted empty space and shot toward the center of the settlement with ferocious momentum before vanishing.
The moment it disappeared, the presence of the chieftain—who had still been pressuring the hunters—shuddered violently. A few seconds later, the ground erupted like a volcanic explosion, revealing the chieftain wrapped in the Taecheong Hyeonsu.
He struggled desperately to escape the power that was gradually freezing him with Indestructible Ice and binding his limbs. The aftershocks of his spiritual energy were considerable, yet the fact that he still could not move an inch made him resemble an insect caught in a spider’s web, merely waiting for death.
When the captured chieftain was dragged right before him, the being trembled with even greater fear and stopped resisting entirely. He froze more completely than a frog before a snake.
The deployed Dream Illusion Mind Snatching Art pierced through the Aheti race’s unique mental defenses like paper and swept through all of his memories. As expected of a chieftain, he possessed a great deal of critical information. In particular, his knowledge of their dimensional wandering secret arts was flawless and complete.
It was not merely without defects; it even included various oral tips and points of caution passed down only through word of mouth.
Pu-hwaaaaaak—!
Before he could utter any plea or hate-filled words, Crimson Lotus Flame erupted like an explosion and incinerated him in an instant, erasing him from existence.
What remained was to completely “clean up” and occupy the Maigbra Settlement.
— Stand down.
The telepathic command, carrying a tone that instinctively compelled obedience, resonated across the battlefield through the halo of the Six Paths of Reincarnation.
The hunters reflexively began retreating in a hurry, while the Aheti combatants either prostrated themselves in terror or begged for mercy.
A small number of those with exceptionally strong mental fortitude half-surrendered to instinct and attempted to flee.
However, the instant they touched the cloud storm barrier surrounding the settlement, they were torn to shreds without even being able to scream, dying gruesome deaths. No defensive measure they possessed was enough to withstand a Nascent Soul stage practitioner’s spell.
Once the hunters had withdrawn and space had been secured—
Accompanied by a growl that shook heaven and earth, the Cloud Dragon—which had merely been maintaining the blockade—moved once more into the sky above the settlement.
Then, with a roar, pure white clouds poured from its opened maw. Guided by Han Yujin’s spell formula, they took the shape of a massive hand that seized an entire mountain peak and “ripped it out.”
Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwang—!!
An enormous roar and vibration spread out. From the center of that catastrophe, a colossal mountain was lifted into the air, clutched in the grip of the cloud-formed hand.
Kwa-ga-ga-ga-gak—!!
Immediately afterward, the swirling motion of the clouds ground it apart like a blender, pulverizing everything inside into fine particles.
It was not an ordinary mountain peak, but the core defensive command center of the settlement. Naturally, it was packed with elite warriors, all of whom absolutely had to die.
After several dozen seconds, the massive mountain peak had been completely ground away in midair. The debris, trailing long tails of white clouds, shot far into the distance and rained down across the vast forest like a meteor shower, bringing disaster wherever they fell.
The hunters below could only stare with their mouths agape, watching the entire scene in pure shock.
Some collapsed to the ground, searching for God. A few even began to worship Han Yujin, believing him to be the second coming of a deity.
It was an overwhelmingly divine spectacle—so unbelievable that normal judgment and movement became impossible, so indescribable that no one knew how to put it into words.
“…Is he truly a god?”
One S-rank hunter muttered those words before his legs gave out and he sank to his knees.
The scenes unfolding before their eyes were far more mythical than anything described in the Bible or other holy texts.
He had massacred thousands of powerful enemies in an instant with flames and lightning, sealed off all escape routes with cliffs and cloud storms, and crushed what had seemed like an impregnable enemy stronghold using invisible power.
He had neutralized their strongest counterattack with nothing but a glance, dragged their hidden leader up from underground, and killed him with ease.
Now he was ripping an entire mountain peak from the earth, grinding it to dust, and scattering the remains like a meteor shower in every direction.
The white cloud trails left by those fragments still filled the sky without dissipating. The roars and vibrations echoing from all around had yet to fully subside.
What on earth should such a being be called?
An EX-rank hunter, denoting a rank beyond measurement?
That was laughably inadequate. If that was a human, then humanity had clearly been defining the species called “human” incorrectly all this time.
Then what exactly should they call him?
Everyone harbored similar thoughts and feelings as they gazed up at the figure floating in the sky, their eyes filled with a mixture of fear and awe, unsure what to do.
Hmm.
By then, Han Yujin sensed through the Six Paths of Reincarnation that the emotions spreading across the area had sufficiently ripened. He gave a small internal nod. This should be enough to achieve his goal.
It was time to wrap things up.
The total population of the Maigbra Settlement was just under one hundred thousand.
When discussing statistics such as population size, it was by no means a large number. But when speaking of lives that all had to be exterminated, it felt overwhelmingly vast.
Fortunately—or perhaps not—he had obtained the Great Chieftain’s memories, allowing him to determine who should be killed and who could be spared.
Even if sparing them brought no benefit whatsoever, would be extremely troublesome, and carried various risks, he could not simply annihilate them all through his own arbitrary decision.
If I did that, I would become an object of immense terror and fear.
Even if the future awaiting the surviving Aheti prisoners was utterly miserable, or even if they were subjected to horrific biological experiments that would make death seem preferable.
Here, he had to hand them over to his fellow Earth humans so that the responsibility would be shared by all.
Of course, those who needed to die first had to be killed without fail. He could not allow any information to reach the ‘Great Chieftain’ lurking behind them.
I’ll send you off without pain.
With that thought, his Nascent Soul stage divine sense spread out far more densely and meticulously than before, thoroughly infiltrating the settlement. The moment he grasped every detail with the assistance of the spirit Elb—
The Monghyeon-gyeong floating above his head moved in front of him. It then began reflecting the images of numerous Aheti tribespeople, each one an individual who absolutely had to die.
Suddenly, a storm of crimson flames erupted and swirled within both of his eyes, which had been dyed by the Yin-Yang True Dragon Eye. In that state, his gaze fixed upon the enemies reflected in the Monghyeon-gyeong.
The Buncheon-si was unleashed.
It was a high-level spell that burned its targets across space and time. That power incinerated the dangerous elements scattered throughout the settlement in an instant.
It was an overwhelming force that permitted neither resistance nor screams. As the scenes reflected in the Monghyeon-gyeong changed rapidly, thousands upon thousands of beings were erased without even leaving ash behind—all within less than a minute.
— Tend to the wounded and clean up the battlefield.
Immediately afterward, Han Yujin’s telepathic command rang out across the battlefield once more.
It was the declaration that brought the battle to a close.