Chapter 243. A Horrifying Battle Pt. 3

Lee Jun-Kyeong stood with Zeus and looked back as the sounds of desperate screams buffeted them from within the walls of the flames.

They could hear the sound of skin being torn and flesh exploding. As Lee Jun-Kyeong listened to the horrifying sound of hell, he looked away.

Woosh!

With the echoing of a wave, Surtr shot into Lee Jun-Kyeong’s hand. He had named this spear after the strongest technique that he had created. Even though it had been pulled out of the ground, the flames surrounding the Hunters didn’t die down.

From within it, he heard Jeong In-Chang’s voice in his head.

–Go.

Jeong In-Chang’s voice was filled with conviction.

–Do what you have to do. We’ll take care of this here.

Lee Jun-Kyeong nodded. The ones here were just bait, anyway. They were meant to hold onto his coattails, keeping him back even just for a moment.

‘No, this was just for show.’

To be frank, all of this was meaningless—from the legions of monsters to the Hunters, who were all Heroes. In fact, even ordinary humans were too.

There was no way that the Demon King would think that they would have been able to hold Lee Jun-Kyeong and the others back. All of this had just been something that the Demon King had wanted to show him.

However, that didn’t mean that it was something he could just ignore, which was why the others were helping him right now.

Lee Jun-Kyeong answered.

–Alright.

Jeong In-Chang had grown over the long period of time they had been together. He was truly now a Hunter worthy of the name Siegfried and had become his most trusted Hunter. Although the beginning of their fate together hadn’t been great, Lee Jun-Kyeong was still thankful for the brotherhood that had emerged from then on.

Thud.

Lee Jun-Kyeong took a step forward.

Jeong In-Chang and Lee Jun-Kyeong’s other companions would solve the problem here.

“We keep moving forward,” he said as those standing next to him nodded.

***

“You don’t look good. Are you nervous?” Zeus said as they traveled.

Lee Jun-Kyeong had announced the start of the battle with an overwhelming display of strength. It could be said that the situation was good, but Lee Jun-Kyeong’s expression was still stiff.

Lee Jun-Kyeong nodded. “I can’t help but be nervous.”

Everything really started from this point. What they would encounter from now on would be completely different from what they had dealt with so far. At the end of it all lay the Demon King.

“The Demon King… Do I have any chance of winning at my current level?”

Zeus, Merlin, and Arthur had also met the Demon King on the day that England had sunk and disappeared from the map.

Zeus responded without any hesitation, "No.”

He asked instead, “Would you be able to sink a great amount of land, like the entire island of England, with just one skill?”

“Can you subdue all of us without getting hurt?”

His questions continued.

“Could you have caused all that had happened to Seoul?”

Lee Jun-Kyeong answered after Zeus’ last question, “No.”

He couldn’t do it.

Lee Jun-Kyeong knew that he had gotten stronger, so much so that he could be said to have become an entirely different species from what he had been in his original timeline. The same could be said even when compared to how he had been when he had first returned to the past.

He had grown every second, every day.

“I can’t do those things.”

Despite that, he couldn’t do what the Demon King had done.

Was sinking the island of England something a person could do?

“That’s why I don’t think we don’t have any chance of winning,” Zeus said, appealing to the immeasurable strength of the Demon King.

“But…” Still, Zeus smiled. “We still have to try.”

What he said was right.

“We have no choice but to try, don’t we?”

“We’ll put our trust in you.”

Merlin and Arthur also spoke up.

“Dear Brother.”

Even Horus called out to Lee Jun-Kyeong.

“You have more potential than you think. Although I know you are already incredibly strong… I think you have the potential to grow even stronger, dear Brother.”

Horus’ voice was filled with conviction.

“I will put my trust in that possibility.”

Lee Jun-Kyeong nodded and looked at Athena.

The bond between him and her wasn’t that deep. Moreover, she was also said to be so cold-blooded that many often called her a robot. Although she was standing there without a single word, for some reason, her gaze that she cast over onto him was a little warm.

“...”

Lee Jun-Kyeong could feel her heart flutter through the look in her eyes. It wasn’t any feelings of love or romance and was something completely different from what he felt when he saw Ungnyeo looking over at him.

Almost… Almost like a warmth he was only receiving for the first time. Moreover, there was something else, as well.

‘Longing…?’

It was something that even Lee Jun-Kyeong couldn’t understand.

She was someone he would never be able to get close to due to what had happened in his original timeline, but even she nodded toward him without saying a word. Then, Athena looked over into the distance.

“...”

Lee Jun-Kyeong knew what she was looking for.

‘Seong-Gu Hyung…’

Heimdall was in Seoul. Lee Jun-Kyeong also looked into the distance with Athena as he stepped forward.

Thud.

After traveling like that for a while, everyone, as if they had planned it in advance, stopped in place.

Everyone here was among the strongest Hunters, Heroes among Heroes. They were beings that no one in the world could equal when it came to sensing the auras and mana of those around them. That was why they had stopped.

“The enemy.”

Moreover, those enemies, whose presence was so strong that they had to stop, were soon approaching.

***

The place where the fierce battle had begun was between Guri and Mt. Acha. It had already been so devastated and destroyed that the army of monsters had been able to move about freely.

However, this place was different. The land upon which Lee Jun-Kyeong was currently walking was near Ttukseom Island, with a clear view of the river. The cityscape and society here remained intact.

Lee Jun-Kyeong and his companions stood near Ttukseom Hangang Park. Towards them, footsteps approached.

Thud. Thud.

Each step was accompanied by a strong aura of mana. Because they all were able to determine the figure of the other beings only using the emitted mana, they were all able to tell what those standing before them were.

“It’s the Hunters.”

“Could there really be Hunters with this level of strength?”

“Not to mention that there are dozens of them.”

They couldn't help but wonder.

From the feeling emitted by the mana, they could infer the enemies' skills and the secret organization they were a part of.

Surprisingly, they were all at the level of kings, which was the level of those standing with Lee Jun-Kyeong right now.

“It must have been some kind of trick,” Zeus said coldly.

He knew information about hunters from all over the world, including the powerful secret Hunters that the secret organizations had wanted to keep hidden. He knew that there was absolutely no way that dozens of people of this level of strength were hiding.

“They must have been forcibly created.”

Thus, those that had appeared before them so suddenly definitely were artificially raised to this level of strength. None of them could believe that such strength could just be created, but they also couldn’t believe that dozens of such beings had existed without their knowledge.

The approaching figures were getting closer and closer. Their steps felt leisurely, as if they all assumed a guaranteed victory.

Lee Jun-Kyeong spoke as he sensed their presence, his face frozen stiff.

“Rulers…” he said in a bewildered voice.

Everyone’s attention focused on those walking toward them.

“Rulers? No, that’s not right,” Zeus responded. “Those are definitely Hunters.”

The external figures of Rulers, no matter how humanoid they were, would have a different appearance.

Moreover, the mana emanating from within those approaching definitely had the signs of human mana. Therefore, Zeus was convinced that they were Hunters.

Lee Jun-Kyeong shook his head. But, those approaching were definitely Rulers.

“No, they are Hunters who have absorbed the powers of Rulers.”

“Huh?”

“What…!”

Lee Jun-Kyeong looked over at Saeynkaed standing next to him for a moment and then said, “I am more sensitive to anything related to Rulers than anyone else. Those are human Hunters, just as you said, Zeus. However, the power that they have…”

“You’re saying it’s the power of Rulers,” Zeus interjected as if he was shocked.

“Is that even possible?” Zeus asked before immediately shaking his head.

The question itself was meaningless.

Regardless of whether they were Rulers or something else, not only did it not make any sense for Hunters to be artificially created like that, but they also already knew who was behind all of his madness. It was the man who had been able to sink the entire country of England with naught but a single skill.

“If he was the one to do so, then I guess nothing is impossible.”

Zeus, finally accepting it, slowly drew his Thunderbolt. He had acquired a new title upon absorbing Chiwoo’s power, Jupiter. With the unlocking of his true power, his Thunderbolt had also become stronger than before.

“Ungnyeo did say that the rulers of Korea had been weaker than expected and that their numbers were few.”

“Thinking about the number of Rulers in the other parts of the world, that didn’t make sense, either,” Horus said in concert with Lee Jun-Kyeong.

Lee Jun-Kyeong realized that Horus had mentioned this before.

In the region of the Middle East, that entire large land mass, the number of Rulers within the numerous veils had been unexpectedly small.

“The United States…”

Moreover, Athena chimed in as well.

“It also had strangely few Rulers.”

Her eyes looked over at Saeynkaed.

“If it was about the size of the land I was in, then as you said, there should have been a lot more Rulers. However… It’s true that the number of Rulers, including you, was smaller than expected,” Lee Jun-Kyeong said while looking at Saeynkaed.

“Are you saying that they kidnapped the Rulers that were supposed to be around the world and used them as strengthening materials?”

Zeus had judged the situation accurately. They must have used the Rulers as strengthening materials for the Hunters.

There had been too many candidates for the Demon King to choose from, as the number of Rulers had been lacking in various parts of the world.

‘England.’

England had been sunk under the water, but there were Rulers that should have appeared there, for example.

If you included them with all the Rulers that Lee Jun-Kyeong and the others hadn’t uncovered…

Then, could those Hunters that were approaching them at this moment really be all of the artificially produced Kings?

“Do you think those are all of them?”

Everyone was silent at Lee Jun-Kyeong’s question. None of them were able to answer with any certainty.

“Seon Gong Pil Seung,” said Zeus, who was standing next to Lee Jun-Kyeong.[1]

However, when Lee Jun-Kyeong looked to the side, the Hunter had already disappeared. With but a single blink, a blue electric current drew a straight line in the air, so flashingly bright that it was stinging to look at.

“A lightning bolt…”

As Horus said, Zeus had become a single bolt of lightning that launched toward the enemy camp.

***

BOOM!

The Ttukseom Hangang Park, which had still been in good condition before they had arrived, was in the midst of devastation. Naturally, in this situation, there weren’t any idiots that would come across and accuse the perpetrators of vandalism. As Ttukseom Station collapsed, dust flew alongside the resulting explosion.

BOOM!

From the side came a shout, “Freeze!”

Merlin was freezing the water of the Han River and shooting it at the enemies. Possibly due to the cold winter weather, Merlin’s ice seemed even stronger at the moment.

Lee Jun-Kyeong hadn’t made a move yet. At this point, it was only Zeus and Merlin who were dealing with the Hunters who had absorbed the powers of the Rulers.

“There will be no defeat.”

As Arthur had just said, Lee Jun-Kyeong and his companions were all sure of it.

They wouldn’t be defeated.

1. 先攻必勝 is a Korean proverb that means the one to strike first is the one guaranteed victory. ☜