Chapter 150.
Kenato’s strength was indeed incredible. He was strong when he was part of the resistance force, but as he now had the power of the legion god, the mana inside him now far surpassed his prior self. In terms of just mana, he exceeded twice the amount that Jung Si-woo had. Considering his long lifespan, his skill levels wouldn’t be lower either. But that couldn’t guarantee his victory against Jung Si-woo.
His power was constantly decreasing as the force of the legion was being annihilated, and Jung Si-woo’s power was capable of turning the tide in any situation.
“I can feel a laser beam shooting out from your eyes, dude. Ah, is it coming out? I guess it may be possible with your god’s power.”
“You bastard…!”
And that was how Jung Si-woo could maintain his relaxed mood even in head-to-head combat with the leader of their enemy. He would be satisfied if that irritated his enemy, but it didn’t do much since the enemy was already on edge.
“Give me back what you stole.”
“What I stole? What is it?”
Jung Si-woo slyly opened his arms wide to show that he didn’t have the crown. But Kenato was more enraged by it.
“Inventory…you have the inventory! I expected you to be the disciple of the flame god yet…!”
“Ah, you don’t have one.”
The meaning behind it was simple. Inventory was only given to those entering the Sky Castle, Training Ground, Ant Cave, and the Abyss. As he lost his wings and the rights as a resistor when he entirely became a disciple of the god, he didn’t have the inventory anymore.
“Your courage to create this ruckus without fearing him is quite admirable, but…you should pay the price with your body.”
“With whose body?”
“With your damn bo…krgh!?”
At that moment, a longsword that appeared behind his back made a grand explosion. Kenato was a strong warrior who could catch up with Jung Si-woo, so he blocked it without breaking a sweat, but he realized that Jung Si-woo was out of his vision.
“You, fucking brat…!”
Kenato knew that he was being manipulated by him, so he endlessly cast his skills in all directions out of rage, but only the small fries were getting sliced. Thanks to infuriated Kenato, several thousand of his subordinates were killed.
[Boomerang skill has reached Lv11.]
[Hiding skill has reached Lv38.]
“Whoa, this works.”
Meanwhile, Jung Si-woo succeeded in diverting his attention with an unprecedented move and hiding his presence. Soo-rin had no choice but to praise him, but her face was a bit frozen.
“Ah, why do you sound like a jerk from the start?”
“Applying the skill that can only be used on my body to my weapon, I knew it was possible if I consider my weapon to be an extension of my body, but I didn’t expect it to be this easy…”
This was how he attacked Kenato. His first move happened when he opened his arms wide. At that moment, the longsword was shot using the Boomerang skill! Kenato would easily evade the weapon if it were simply thrown at him, so Jung Si-woo applied the hiding skill to the weapon. He just tested the sudden idea that weapons could be hidden if the body could, yet nobody would have expected it to work out so well!
“It sure has a different feeling than Throwing Strike. This maintains the status, hmm.”
“Alright, I got it. There’s your enemy.”
Soo-rin snapped Jung Si-woo out from his self-admiration and made him attack a different target. Although he wasted his sword when he escaped from Kenato, he still had plenty of mass-produced swords from Beto.
“Whew, then…shall we get started again.”
Fighting with Kenato would be a good experience, but even after defeating him, the small fries would be left behind. So to minimize the hassle, Kenato had to go on a rampage.
“I’d like to know what the leader of the flame god looks like.”
“It’s said that he is weaker than Kenato.”
But that was only because Kenato was the leader of the force. If his force was lessened, there was a possibility of the balance of power getting turned upside down.
“So I’d love to have them fight against one another if possible…”
“In the worst-case scenario, you might have to fight them two vs. 1, Oppa.”
“We have Se-ha and Caina on our side…yeah, let’s have Se-ha confront another enemy.”
Jung Si-woo continued with his planning while staying on the move. He swung the longsword with one hand and fired Critical Bullets with the other so that he could cause more of a stir. He didn’t hold back. As long as his natural mana recovery allowed for it, he slaughtered the humans that were transforming into monsters. As he no longer felt anything from killing them, Jung Si-woo thought that he had become stronger or reached a particular stage.
[Your level has increased.]
He reached Lv. 151. The number of humans he slaughtered reached over several thousand already, and it was surprising that they were comprised of elites and not some ordinary soldiers.
“Arggggh, I keep on feeling somewhat depressed.”
“Hold it for now. You can vomit in the sanctuary.”
“I won’t throw up.”
How many hours had passed since entering this place, or was it several days? Jung Si-woo realized that his hiding skill reached Lv. 45 in the middle of moving his body with the flow. Jung Si-woo felt that he had been chased for a while by Kenato, but he couldn’t quite catch him. Perhaps his hiding skill had steeply grown.
“But Oppa, as you do that…”
“Yeah.”
Jung Si-woo mumbled as he looked at the now different battlefield with a new expression. More than half of the humans either turned into monsters and killed each other or lay down on the ground as cold corpses. This was the ground filled with death and despair. The environment became the ideal location for neither the legion god nor the flame god but the death god Setnak.
At this point, both sides suffered a massive loss so that neither of them could achieve their original goal. Weak spots had appeared on the battlefield. And that would diminish the hiding spots for his assassination.
“I should start wrapping this up.”
“You’ve done well so far…there shouldn’t be any delays now.”
“Whew…”
Jung Si-woo took a deep breath and lifted his head. Thanks to how he cautiously and boldly killed the elites, the two forces were still fiercely fighting one another. Other monsters from different gods worldwide started to join the battlefield, but the difference in their powers wasn’t that much. Both the legion god and the flame god should have been bewildered by this unexpected turn of events. The situation where both forces were being diminished at similar rates as if someone intervened wasn’t favorable to either of them.
“But Oppa.”
“Hmm?”
“Those people…don’t they look like humans?”
“Huh?”
Jung Si-woo tilted his head at the sudden question by Soo-rin. There were humans on the battlefield; amongst them were the acquaintances of Jung Si-woo.
“This world will fall into the gods with this pace. Destroy all sacred treasures and gain back our freedom!”
“Let’s retake our training ground. It’s possible. We can DO IT!”
Surprisingly, there were several tens of thousands rushing in. The resistance force was only several thousand, but there were more that could manipulate mana in some way. And the important fact was that all of them weren’t corrupted by the gods. At least, not yet.
“Wait…if they had that much courage, they could have charged in when one of the two forces had been annihilated, right?”
Jung Si-woo stopped mumbling and thought about their words. There was a word that caught his attention.
“Destroy all sacred treasures and reclaim freedom…?”
“I think I know what they mean.”
Soo-in spoke in a slightly depressed tone.
“Oppa, you can even obtain the mana spread by the gods by your own, and I’ve been a bit affected by them despite receiving your protection. I was wondering why I kept on feeling heavy and depressed since a while ago.”
Her next word shocked Jung Si-woo, who was completely free from the bindings of the gods.
“The voices of the gods that tried to crush my spirit have been getting stronger. If not for the connection with you as a supporter, I couldn’t have been able to maintain my mentality. Come to think about it; I felt the same in Setnak’s 73rd Demon Castle…”
“What…?”
“And you’ve also experienced it before, right Oppa? As you get closer to the sacred treasure, the voices of the gods also became stronger.”
“Well…”
At that moment, he just took it for granted, for it was a fragment of the gods…but what if that was the true intention of the gods? If it was simple yet strong magic that lured humans into becoming their disciples? Jung Si-woo wasn’t able to come to that simple conclusion until now.
“So the reason why the gods bring down their sacred treasures is not to boost their powers and strengthen their disciples but…”
“Spreading their powers through it to convert the humans. And if the number of their disciples fall, they could use it to recruit more.”
It was something given. If just one sacred treasure was capable of converting and maintaining several hundred disciples, creating new disciples was an easy task as long as the power of the sacred treasure remained even when the disciples died.
‘Wow, that was the reason.’
Since the former disciples died out, the power of the sacred treasure sought new victims and strongly threatened their free will. As the clashes between the two gods heated up and the number of casualties increased, the voices became more muscular. That was why they risked their lives to destroy the gods and their sacred treasures by themselves rather than getting swept away by their powers.
“Power of gods, I think they are becoming more problematic than my understanding…”
“Oppa, there seem to be victims already among them.”
All people were wielding weapons, but it wasn’t solely to cut the throats of the enemies but also kill the allies who were turning into disciples of the gods. It was no different from a plague. The presence of the gods was just a disaster. Jung Si-woo made up his mind while looking at the situation.
“Good, it turned out well.”
“Oppa…?”
“Well, there aren’t any more places for them to hide anyways…whew.”
It wasn’t that painful to kill the humans that lost their humanity. But people who were humans until a few moments ago had turned, and their allies were killing them…this wasn’t the scene he wanted to see. So, he lifted his head.
“Everyone, follow my lead!”
“Ha…!?”
“That, that man!”
“The thief!”
Jung Si-woo made a great impression in revealing his presence and activated his War Cry. All humans, Kenato, and the other disciples of the gods entering the battlefield paid attention to him. Ah, alas, a familiar environment finally settled down. That’s right; everyone must pay attention to him! Jung Si-woo gathered and absorbed all the powers of the gods shouted once again with a confident smile.
“Everyone who wants to protect humanity, stay behind me! I will protect you guys at all costs!”
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