Chapter 405. A Fracture (6)

Ismile said he surpassed the legend. Chi-Woo looked taken aback, but it didn’t seem like Ismile was joking. Was he really at that level?

“Of course, I’m not talking about the legend who can use all his original powers at 100%, but Chi-Hyun on Liber,” Ismiled explained.

Everyone knew that it was difficult for a hero to wield their full strength when they entered Liber due to a lack of backups from the World, and Chi-Hyun was no exception to this rule. He was able to receive certain privileges using his family’s merits, but he couldn’t use even up to 50 to 60% of his maximum strength. Yet the startling fact was that there hadn’t been any hero stronger than Chi-Hyun even considering that. Of course, everyone was suffering in the same stifling environment, but that made it even more surprising that Chi-Woo managed to display powers that overshadowed the legend, albeit momentarily.

Chi-Woo was most startled to hear this.

“Aren’t you only in Platinum tier?” Ismile asked. If a talented hero wanted to properly battle against Bael, they needed to reach at least Grand Master tier in normal conditions. And if Bael revealed her full potential and bet on her existence, one had to be at least in the Challenger tier to have a viable chance of putting up a fight. Even though Chi-Woo was from the Choi family, it was unbelievable and almost abnormal for him to overwhelm Bael as a mere Platinum tier hero. It wasn’t possible unless he had surpassed Chi-Hyun, an existence whose powers normal humans couldn’t wrap their heads around.

After hearing what Ismile said, more questions popped into Chi-Woo’s head. He had encountered the final boss too early in the stage levels. Perhaps it was understandable considering that this planet was one that could bring about the ruin of an entire galaxy, but the situation was clearly strange. Truthfully, Chi-Woo thought it had been strange since he first met Bael; to be exact, it was right after he used the Kobalos’ magic fire pit. Chi-Woo thought about the fire pit and gasped in realization. ‘Ah.’ His mouth gaped slightly open.

“Perhaps…it’s because of the fire pit…”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

The Kobalos’ magic fire pit granted the user’s desire, but for their wish to be granted, vital conditions needed to be fulfilled. The user needed to make an offering suitable for their wish or go through a trial to make up for the lacking amount. Chi-Woo had wished for protection when facing the Sernitas’ second attack, yet the offering he made in comparison to his wish was laughably shabby. Thus, the lack of payment for his wish was transformed into the form of a trial. As soon as that trial was set in place, though, it was struck by the Sky Castle’s attack and returned to where it came from. In other words, Chi-Woo had endured the fire pit’s trial in a way, and as a result, his wish was fulfilled.

“What wish did you make? Didn’t you pray for the Sky Castle’s attack to be blocked?”

“Uh…I made my wish more general and inclusive. I asked to be able to protect the last gate using whatever means possible.”

“Whatever means possible…” Ismile fell into deep thought after hearing Chi-Woo’s explanation. What if the ‘whatever means possible’ part of the wish had been turned into the mysterious strength that Chi-Woo was able to show? For example, it could’ve given a powerful buff to Chi-Woo, who was trying to protect the last gate, and a serious debuff to all enemies trying to attack the gate. Then, everything made sense. Chi-Woo’s strength increased exponentially, while Bael’s strength declined sharply. It also explained why Chi-Woo had suddenly gotten weak and powerless when their enemies ran away.

When the Demon Empire retreated, there was no need to protect that gate anymore. Since Bael’s defeat, one could say that Chi-Woo had successfully protected the structure. Thus, it was decided that his wish had been granted, and the mysterious power given to Chi-Woo disappeared. Of course, considering how unstable and unclear the whole process of the fire pit’s trial was, one couldn’t be a hundred percent sure that this was what had happened.

Nevertheless, in comparison to Chi-Woo pulling out the secret power inside him that Byeok kept warning him about, this was a very fair trade. After all, the fire pit granted his wish once he withstood its trials, and he only needed to sleep for a day or two to fully recover.

“Ah, what? That was it? I thought you possessed some secret power you had been deeply hiding.” Ismile looked a bit disappointed by Chi-Woo’s explanation. As said many times before, humanity wasn’t in a good situation, and their presence was embarrassingly weak compared to the Cassiubia League. If Chi-Woo was able to show the strength and prowess that he had shown when facing Bael at any time, their situation would change completely. It would shake up the whole power dynamic among the factions currently established on Liber. Thus, Ismile was disappointed to hear that it was all false hope.

“Who knows? If an enemy attacks the gate once more, the power may be activated again.”

“You really think so? I think you’re thinking too positively about this damned, fallen World.”

“How could you say this World was damned and fallen? Don’t insult Liber. You don’t know how kind she is.”

“…What are you saying all of a sudden? Have you gone crazy?” Ismile looked baffled, but while this conversation was happening, the World was watching and feeling extremely touched by Chi-Woo’s words.

“Anyways, even if that’s the case, don’t rely on it so much. You said it was a holy relic, right? Even though it uses a god’s power, there’s a limit to it. You know how fickle gods are.” Ismile’s tone was calm, but Chi-Woo could hear the worry in his voice. It didn’t matter whether his wish was still in effect, or if it ended with just one use. He had already used up all of it and more during the single incident. It would’ve been ideal if he had managed to uproot the main threat, but unfortunately, he didn’t seem to have done that. And though his enemy was inflicted with considerable damage, they hadn’t backed away yet.

“What is going to happen from now on?” Chi-Woo asked.

“…Who knows?” Ismile answered and looked past the gate’s walls to where the coalition was. “Let’s wait and see what they will do.”

***

The coalition army was dead silent as if everyone was in mourning at a funeral. The atmosphere was heavy, and the uplifted, charged mood they had been in when they first arrived was nowhere to be found. The unimaginable had happened. Agares managed to bring Bael back, but the price he had paid to do that wasn’t small. There used to be twenty great demons in the beginning, but now there were only eleven left. All nine great demons they had lost were considered mid to upper ranking in strength, and they lost all of them in a single battle. The extinguishment of single-digit ranking great demons like Belial and Marbas was especially painful.

After going through all that fuss to reorganize their ranks, everything was rendered futile. The Demon Empire lost half of its original strength, perhaps even more with Bael’s fall. As they feared, Bael wasn’t in a good condition. They had expected this somewhat, but they didn’t think her condition would be this severe. It was because she had put part of her existence on the line and was struck with a great blow from her enemy. Her enemy had truly done a number on her, and realistically, she was in no condition to recover under regular treatment. In other words, she was so deeply injured that it could lead to permanent death.

Any other great demon might have been extinguished the moment they were struck by the last attack. It was because she was Bael that she was still hanging on, but she was basically dead. All her veins were damaged, and she was barely maintaining her breathing. It looked as if all her lifeline was used up, and seeing Bael suffer in great pain, Agares quietly turned around. He passed through the curtains and walked outside the tent before letting out the sigh he had been holding in. They couldn’t hope for Bael to step onto the battlefield again. No—even her recovery seemed too much to hope for, and it appeared that they had to worry about her immediate survival.

Even if Bael survived by some great fortune, she would never be able to wield the same level of power as before. She wouldn’t be able to even dream of rising to the top again, and she would be living like an ordinary demon, unbefitting the title of a great demon. And apart from this war, how would the factions within the Demon Empire react to this news? First of all, it seemed inevitable that Bael would have to step down from her first-ranking position. And because of several great demons aiming for the newly opened position, the Demon Empire would face another civil unrest—perhaps that was an understatement of what would take place.

In the first place, Agares wondered if they would be able to return to their base camp even after accepting defeat and retreating. There was no way the Abyss, their current ally but potential foe, would let them go in peace. The Demon Empire had no excuses to make since the Abyss had followed all their decisions until now. They even let the Last Dragon go to the mountain range, yet they failed to siege the gate. This was wholly the Demon Empire’s responsibility to bear.

‘This is driving me mad. Seriously…’ This was the worst situation possible. Everything was in a mess, and Agares wondered how the situation got to this point and where this sudden monster of a human who defeated Bael had popped out from. Agares wiped his face as his head remained in a clutter. He couldn’t even laugh humorlessly or in bafflement anymore. It was then one demon suddenly came to mind: Shersha. She had told them fervently that they must not go to this war and warned that they wouldn’t be able to turn things around if they did.

At that time, she had said that they needed to free all their slaves and join hands with humanity and the Cassiubia League. If it was hard to get humanity on their side, they needed to convince the Cassiubia League before it was too late. She said that was the only way for the Demon Empire to continue surviving. Agares and other great demons had thought Shersha’s claim was crazy at that time, but now that they had gotten to this point, Agare thought differently. If they had listened to Shersha at the time or even genuinely contemplated her warning…what would’ve happened?

It was then Agare heard murmurings from around him. The legions were flustered. They looked at a loss of what to do. Agares looked up and narrowed his eyes. The troops parted to the sides to make way for one person. It was the Abyss King.

𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

“For what reason are you coming—” Agares said and stopped. The Abyss King had passed by him without a word. Paying no heed to him as Agares stood with his teeth and fist clenched, the Abyss King entered the tent. He met eyes with Bael as soon as he was inside. Bael was still shuddering quietly in rage and pain, but seeing the king, she stopped moving. The Abyss’ King looked down at Bael quietly.

Though they stared at each other without saying anything, a strange tension flowed between them. Then, after a while, the Abyss King spoke.

“This is a message from the Sernitas.” It didn’t ask for Bael’s well-being or the Demon Empire’s responsibility over the failure to siege the last gate. “The Sernitas expressed their desire to take back the Sky Castle now.”

The Abyss King relayed the message as it was told without any false statements, which made it all the more shocking.

“What?” Taking back the Sky Castle would mean that Sernitas was withdrawing from this war.

“Are you kidding—!”

“97%,” The Abyss King cut Bael off before she could finish shouting. He continued calmly, “That was the percentage of success that the Sernitas had calculated when we first arrived at this place. But the result of yesterday’s analysis…said that our chance of success has dropped to 16%.”

That was an 81% drop. The victory they had felt assured of slipped from their fingers in just a couple of days.

“Of course, they added that it wasn’t a definite percentage. Several phenomena outside the information they currently possessed occurred, and that is the percentage they calculated while considering all the hidden possibilities. If they disregard the probability of the unknown occurring, the result they came to is about 56%....”

56% wasn’t as bad as Bael had expected even though it had fallen significantly from the original figure. It was a number that made it seem like they still had a good chance of winning this war. Sensing the meaning behind her gaze, the Abyss King shrugged.

“The Sernitas think they won’t be able to completely discount the possibility that unknown events will continue to happen. If they consider how they failed when they were assured of a 97% chance of victory, they consider the risks too high at 56%.”

Bael’s face fell. Realistically, the Sernitas were in the best position among all the factions right now. Even if they threw all the cards they had onto the table, they would simply be losing one Sky Castle. Then what about the Abyss?

“Knowing how resolute the Sernitas are, we can’t do much on our end either.” The Abyss King looked piercingly at Bael and continued, “If the Sernitas are going to withdraw their Sky Castle, the Abyss is also planning to withdraw…” In other words, they would no longer be maintaining the coalition, and hearing this, Bael filled with rage.

“Calm down.” The Abyss King raised his hand. “I haven’t finished.”

It seemed that he still had something to say. “There’s nothing set in stone yet.” The Abyss King swallowed back the words, ‘…yes, at least for now’, and he had to try hard to keep down the laughter that was ready to escape from his mouth.