Chapter 303: Seventy-Fifth Floor, the Old Man and the Spirits (9)

[Resolve the old man’s regrets. Time remaining: 8 hours 53 minutes.]

I debated whether or not I should make an even more impressive entrance, but in the grand scheme of things, this event wasn’t much different from the others.

Hyun had only instructed me to assist the defenders, and it wasn’t my first time surviving a siege. My role was clear: rescue those in danger and eliminate the monsters attacking them.

How exactly I would present myself while fulfilling that goal continued to stew in my mind.

Not that I have many options to begin with.

When it came down to it, I had three main attacking strategies: my axe, lightning, and shadows.

Even though shamanism existed in this godless world, no one wielded lightning or shadow with overwhelming dominance like I did. Whichever method I chose, it would leave an impression.

Lightning was definitely the most visually striking, but if I were to use that, then I should just use everything at my disposal.

In the distance, catapults launched massive boulders, sending them arcing through the air.

Thud!

One crashed past the outer wall and swept away a cluster of soldiers. The defenders had their own catapults, too, but they didn’t do much to cull the overwhelming horde of monsters.

Some beasts scaled ladders, while others flew through the air and carried soldiers off the battlements, tossing them like ragdolls.

Screams rang out from all directions. The entire scene was drenched in despair.

I need to raise morale. Fast

Just like the previous events, Hyun had sent me into the thick of it—the best time to arrive in dramatic fashion. I could easily encourage the defenders and confuse the enemy.

There was a common trope that appeared in moments like this. For fiction in a medieval setting, it was a blaring horn. More modern combat scenes preferred the roar of jet engines or a sudden barrage of gunfire. Behind it all, sweeping orchestral scores would swell in the background.

Well, although I don’t have theme music, I can still deliver a hell of a sound.

I circulated my mana and reached toward the sky. Though it was midday, the sky was heavily overcast. Sunlight filtered faintly through the clouds over the open plains.

Lightning sparked from my hand and surged upward, striking the heavy clouds above. I had packed a good amount of mana into this one.

Under the dim sunlight, golden-blue bolts flared across the sky. The thunderclap that followed tore through the battlefield like a shockwave.

Rumble— Boom!

It was loud enough to make even my ears ring.

Everyone on the battlefield looked skyward. By then, I had already cloaked myself in lightning. One by one, those gazes fell from the sky and landed on me.

The monsters howled, sporting garbled, confused expressions, but the humans’ reaction was explosive. Cheers erupted from the walls.

“He-he’s here!”

“The god has descended!”

“Wooooaaah!”

I had to admit, the praise was pretty satisfying.

Looks like the princess and her knight did a good job spreading the word about me. Good little messengers.

Smirking, I summoned another bolt of lightning to strike down from above.

Rumble— Boom!

The massive bolt struck overhead, then rebounded and climbed skyward again. I let the rising current carry me upward.

In an instant, I soared into the sky.

Damn it.

From above, the battlefield came into full view. It looked even worse from up here than it had on the ground.

The monsters had probably breached the walls just before I arrived, as they were pouring through them now.

Guess I will start with lightning.

I needed to sow chaos and strike fear in the hearts of my enemies. Lightning made a far stronger impression than shadows creeping up from the earth.

Spreading both of my arms wide, I unleashed eighty percent of my mana. It was a hefty sum, but I had two reservoirs to draw from, so it was manageable. Besides, once triggered, the lightning would keep falling without using additional mana.

In the long run, it was actually more efficient this way.

There was no need to hold back. It wasn’t like the corrupted divine entity would be defeated with just lightning, anyway.

The sound of churning thunder echoed furiously from the clouds above the battlefield.

Rumble—

The monsters hesitated.

Now.

I lowered my hands.

BOOM! BOOM!

Bolts of lightning struck down in rapid succession. Dirt and mangled monster corpses exploded upward from the ground.

I turned my gaze toward the castle.

Now that I have got their attention, I need to give the defenders some breathing room.

I decided to target the flying monsters first. They were the same kind I had fought in the previous event, the ones with massive wings and long tails. They appeared to be some weird fusion between a bird and a dragon.

Aerial enemies were always troublesome, so it was better to take them out early.

I probably can’t wipe them all out in one go, but it can’t hurt to try.

I reached toward the cluster of flying creatures. Dozens of lightning bolts ripped through the air, streaking through the air like the threads of a massive web.

“

Kyaaaagh!

”

“

Skreeeeee!

”

The bolts shredded through the formation, striking them down from the sky. Their charred corpses plummeted, crashing onto the monsters below.

While they fell, I shifted my gaze farther into the distance.

That is unusual.

Strangely, the corrupted divine being didn’t have a fixed form. It looked like a giant cell, like the kind I had seen in an old-school RTS game[1]. It was roughly the size of a small house and was spewing monsters nonstop.

So that is the source of their endless numbers.

I considered blasting it with lightning just to test, but decided against it. If I missed even slightly, or didn’t seem to be able to hurt it, it could hurt morale. Either way, it wouldn’t be easy to breach.

A horde of monsters was packed tightly around it, seemingly guarding it.

Both on the ground and in the air.

Interestingly, a similar number of monsters were defending the corrupted being as were attacking the wall. If it weren’t for that thing guarding itself so heavily, they probably would have taken the castle already.

Although if that had happened, Hyun would have sent me further back in time, and the monster would have died already. So maybe its self-preservation instinct was actually helping.

The monsters clustered around it looked even stronger than average. Some of them held traces of corrupted divinity, but none were as powerful as the Screaming Parasite or the Rising Dread.

It seemed like the corrupted divine entity had distributed some of its power to create an elite guard.

Compared to the other divine monsters, powerhouses in their own right, this one probably had weak defenses.

For now, I decided to delay engaging it directly. I had burned through more mana than expected trying to lift the defenders’ morale, so I needed time to recover.

While I had arrived just in time to help, the situation around the castle was still dire. Since the lightning storm was still active, I could focus on supporting them while I recharged.

Besides, it will take some time to cut a path to that thing anyway. The more monsters I clear now, the fewer casualties the defenders will suffer later. Looks like I will have to put on the Mana-Accumulating Gauntlet of the Underworld.

If this were only my burden to bear, I would have just pushed through it.

I couldn’t do that when the lives of everyone here were in my hands, though.

There was no time to hesitate. I quickly slid on the gauntlet, making sure no one noticed.

Rumble, boom!

Lightning still raged overhead. As soon as the gauntlet latched on, a heavy rush of mana surged into me.

First, the main gate.

I let the flow carry me forward and fired a massive bolt of lightning in that direction. As I closed in on the castle, the monsters that had already breached the walls came into view.

Right before landing, I raised a hand in preparation to smite my surroundings. I dropped straight in front of the gate, just like a bolt from the sky.

Thud!

The monsters spilling through the half-destroyed gate were thrown into the air from the impact.

“

Keeeek!

”

Delayed cries rang out from inside the fortress a moment later, my charged landing spreading chaos outward.

“

Graaaak!

”

That should be enough. The other defenders can handle the rest.

With the back of the fortress shielded by a mountain, I just needed to block the front and outer walls.

Controlling the shadows along the stone wall, I summoned a dense line of massive spears. The monsters scrambling up their ladders dropped like leaves in the wind.

Good. That is working well, too.

It was my first time using Master of Shadows to such an extent during real combat, but it was working as intended.

I turned toward the next wave closing in and swung my axe.

That should buy the others a moment to breathe.

I was already back in decent shape. Just like the Drina River defense, killing such a large swath of enemies recovered my mana at a breakneck pace.

That alone said enough. Although the monsters here were far stronger than the lizardmen, my lightning had grown even stronger.

In the short break, I focused on the heart of the enemy formation. There, at the heart of the packed horde, a warped figure with an unnatural divinity stood silently.

I misjudged what I could do.

It had been a while since I had last used the gauntlet, and I had underestimated how quickly I could build back power.

There was no point in dragging things out anymore. Considering how the corrupted divine being was guarding itself, if I charged in, its minions would follow. That would make things much easier for my allies.

It was time.

I exhaled once, then swung my axe powerfully, parallel to the ground.

Crackle—

A surge of lightning nearly ten meters wide tore across the battlefield. The frontmost monsters before me froze mid-charge.

Barely half a second later, their bisected bodies collapsed in a wet heap, exposing a direct path toward the collection of elite monsters.

I slammed my foot into the ground, shooting forward like lightning.

***

Muk-Hyeon was sprinting back and forth along the top of the wall. Monsters were climbing ladders, flying overhead, and storming the shattered gate below.

It was chaos.

The gate had been breached, but he couldn’t afford to head there. If he left the wall unmanned, it would quickly collapse.

The iron-beaked beasts circling above shrieked shrilly.

“

Piiieeeek!

”

“

Kieeee!

”

As Muk-Hyeon started chanting an imbuement spell, he narrowed his eyes at a group of flying monsters nearby. He threw the enchanted spear, piercing through four of them in a clean line before summoning it back.

Now wasn’t the time to feel good about the shot, however. He was still running to and fro, doing his best to support the wall, but the situation only grew more hopeless.

Damn it.

Even after the deaths of the two Evils, they were still overwhelmed. Humanity’s resistance was crumbling beneath the sheer numbers.

Muk-Hyeon clung to a single, quiet hope. The nameless god who had appeared before the capital.

He unconsciously glanced up at the sky, but there wasn’t a single sign. His thoughts started slipping into a darker place.

Maybe that divine being only saved us once so we could run. No, now isn’t the time to think too negatively.

He shook his head.

Please, just this once.

Despair was spreading across the faces of his fellow soldiers. Men died, one after another, offering a pointless resistance.

In the chaos of the battlefield, Muk-Hyeon closed his eyes and prayed.

Oh, nameless god... save us.

Just then, light flared against his shut eyelids.

Startled, he opened them wide.

Rumble— Boom!

A massive bolt of lightning struck the left side of the plain outside the fortress.

No way!

He turned reflexively, and there stood a figure wreathed in lightning. His heart leapt.

“

Waaaaah!

”

“He’s here!”

Hope lit up the defenders’ faces.

The lightning climbed into the sky, then began ripping through the battlefield. Bolts struck down all around. Monsters fell, one after another.

Muk-Hyeon kept his eyes locked on the figure, even as he fought along the wall.

The god, who had now secured the gate, paused briefly to scan the battlefield, then swung his axe. A wide, crescent-shaped arc of lightning shot forward.

Like a flash of light, he moved, dashing down the clear path. Monsters surged to block his way, but it didn’t matter. They collapsed like dominoes. Even the elite guards standing in front of the First Evil fell.

The god was surrounded on all sides by an overwhelming number of enemies, but nothing could stop him.

A giant sphere of lightning formed above the field. The god rose with it, his lightning lifted high, even as iron-beaked beasts rained from the sky.

Muk-Hyeon forgot to even throw his spear as he simply stared.

Everyone fell silent.

Because right there, in front of the last remaining force of the First Evil, the god stood aglow in radiant blue and gold.

***

「Invisible message: Challenger Kwon Su-Hyeok has displayed an overwhelming performance! His hold over this world’s faith has increased dramatically.」

「Invisible message: Challenger Kwon Su-Hyeok currently holds forty-eight percent of this world’s faith.」

1. An RTS (Real-Time Strategy) game is a genre where players manage resources, build bases, and control units in real time to outmaneuver and defeat opponents through strategic planning and swift decision-making. ☜