Chapter 411. Sky Bridge

With a loud clamor, the buildings in the distance all crumbled down, and in between the soaring hazy smoke, one figure jumped out. It was Chi-Woo. He fell to the ground and rolled unseemly over a great distance. He tried to warily get up while coughing, but Bael rushed toward him before he could and caught one of his arms. She lifted him just like that, and Chi-Woo found himself getting dragged upwards.

“Don’t look down on me!” Bael yelled and slammed Chi-Woo onto the ground, which cracked like a dried-up field at the collision; and that was far from the end.

“Fiiiiight!” Bael raised Chi-Woo and flung him down again violently, leaving a crater covered in cracks on the ground. Bright pink blood burst out of his mouth, and Chi-Woo was entirely disoriented. Bael was one-sidedly flinging him around, slamming him down to the surface and throwing him as she wished. When he lost consciousness and regained it, he found his body taking the brunt of the impact again. It appeared that he was thrown onto the ground once more.

“Fight me properlllly!” He heard yells from time to time. Bael was attacking him with all her might. She could’ve ended this fight a long time ago. There had been many opportunities, but she didn’t do that. She simply couldn’t when she had thrown away everything she had built up until now to have this fight for the sole sake of revenge—to pay back what she suffered at the last gate. Yet now, her opponent was denying her very existence, and what angered her the most was that she couldn’t counter what he said. Thus, there was only one thing that she could do, which was to make her opponent acknowledge her even if it was through brute force.

However, no matter how fiercely she was pushing and pressuring him, Chi-Woo showed no signs of relenting. No matter how hard she attacked him, he didn’t show the strength he had displayed at the last gate. Of course, she didn’t know that the power Chi-Woo showed at that time was connected to Kobalos’ magic fire pit, and Chi-Woo was actually giving it his all right now. Thus, Bael was misunderstanding the whole situation, but she was right in some ways too.

From the very beginning of their fight, Chi-Woo hadn’t let his guard down with Bael and had utilized all his strengths. Yet he was still pushed back until he used up all his exorcism mana, and his AI Armor didn’t even activate anymore. As a result, the battle from then on became truly devastating for him, and he couldn’t put up a proper resistance as he was beaten up. It was crisis after crisis, but it wasn’t like Chi-Woo had absolutely no way out of this situation. In the majority of the crises that Chi-Woo had faced, he overcame them using the same method: by tapping into the mysterious power that existed deep inside him.

Nevertheless, this was a method no longer permitted to him. He could do it, but he shouldn’t. He had felt his limits at the Hala Forest, and he became certain of it when he briefly drew out the power to fight his brother in the past. After almost reaching it a couple of times, he was finally at the breaking point. He would surely cross the line with thoughts like, ‘Just one more time’.

Even his current state was very shaky, and it felt as if he would explode and erupt the moment he pulled out even the tiniest amount of this power inside him. His body was unconsciously reaching for the mysterious power out of some survival instinct, but every time he felt it doing so, he forcefully pushed it down. This matter brought another burden to him. It wouldn’t even be enough right now with all his senses focused on Bael, so it drove him crazy that he had to face another problem inside his body. But alas, it wasn’t as if he could give up on doing that either.

And with all her experience and knowledge, of course, Bael noticed that there was something off with Chi-Woo’s behavior. But not knowing the exact reasons for it, she naturally misunderstood Chi-Woo’s actions and yelled at him to fight seriously. Bam! Another building crumbled. After running at light speed for a while, she bit her lower lip nervously. She thought Chi-Woo would get serious after getting pushed this far, but he seemed intent on not succumbing even at the price of death.

Considering the Demon Empire’s unique cultural traits, it wasn’t too difficult to find existences with such characteristics: the determined, iron-willed ones whose beliefs never wavered even with swords pressed to their throats. It wasn’t too hard to understand Chi-Woo if he was the type; yet she was still at a loss for what to do in a situation like this. Perhaps her opponent was still waiting for her to return to her great demon self and recommence proper revenge, or something equally foolish as that. Just in case, she tried requesting the Sernitas to revert her information back into that of a great demon momentarily.

Yet the Sernitas didn’t answer. Normally, their voices would’ve been ringing inside her head, but they remained silent. She understood what their silence meant: she had already lost completely as a great demon, so she shouldn’t bite off more than she could chew; furthermore, she should stop wasting time and kill her opponent already. However, Bael had no intention of giving this one thing up no matter what, and the frustration was almost driving her mad. In the end, her rage found one outlet. Her eyes glared resentfully at the shadow getting up between the clouds of dust. The moment she saw Chi-Woo stagger forward, Bael felt her sanity falter.

“If you don’t want to die…!” Bael yelled fiercely and extended her arm. Psh! She flinched when she felt her arm bury into something.

“…Huh?” Bael gasped. Her fist had pierced into Chi-Woo’s stomach and penetrated through it. Bael pulled out her arm in shock, but her fist was drenched with blood and pieces of intestine. Chi-Woo was inflicted with a critical injury, serious enough to kill him instantly.

“What…why….?” Bael’s mouth gaped open seeing Chi-Woo lose his balance and fall to his knees. This wasn’t her intention. She thought Chi-Woo would finally put up a proper fight, and she didn’t mean to kill him at all. Shocked, Bael was hit by an unfamiliar and eerie feeling. It happened too suddenly for her to believe she had simply lost herself to her rage; it was almost as if her body had been controlled by someone else.

“Ah…no….I…” Bael mouthed, not knowing what to do. Chi-Woo breathed slowly. He could feel that a hole had been put into his stomach, and he didn’t have to look down to know it. He felt a breeze passing through his body, and it hurt, it hurt so much that he wanted to roll on the ground and scream this instance. Through his twisted lips, he let out a humorless laugh. While the situation was completely different now, who knew the difference in their power levels would be this great? He thought he would be able to put up a good fight if he was fighting the great demon Bael. But the Sernitas’ Bael was a fearsome monster beyond his imagination.

‘This is why…’ Chi-Woo suddenly recalled the moment he separated from Chi-Hyun at the Sky Castle. At that time, Chi-Woo had asked Chi-Hyun how he could leave his brother behind. They had to die and live together. Yet Chi-Hyun shot him down instantly, saying that Chi-Woo was too weak to be of any help to him. Chi-Woo couldn’t agree with his brother then and thought his brother was being harsh to him on purpose out of concern. Yet after experiencing what happened just now, Chi-Woo realized that fighting the Sernitas was much too early for him. It was the same now as that time at the Sky Castle. He needed to be at least Grandmaster tier to have a chance of facing the Bael and Sernitas union.

In the end, it was just as Chi-Hyun said. In his current Platinum tier, he was nowhere strong enough to fight this enemy. No, he already knew this beforehand. ‘So what?’ Chi-Woo thought. Should he whine about it now? Or tell Bael all this and complain about it—after all this time? Chi-Woo groaned and gritted his teeth. If he thought about everything that had happened since he entered Liber, it was always like this. Ever since he dropped into that nameless forest, nothing had been easy. The situation was always stacked against humanity, and they were always facing the worst-case scenario. Moreover, his opponents were always miles ahead of him. That was the kind of world Liber was.

Still, he was determined to save a world like that. He made a pinky promise to a girl, and he couldn’t crumble now if he was to keep that promise. He couldn’t back down. And surprisingly, Chi-Woo really felt like he could do it then. Maybe some people would’ve laughed at him and asked where his confidence was coming from because right now, his body was screaming in pain after getting thoroughly beaten.

The pain was greatest from his stomach area, and while his Divine Blood could heal him, the wound he got from Bael was too critical. His life force and vitality were getting depleted the more blood he spewed out from his lips and stomach. Thus, his body didn’t properly listen to him anymore, and his internal organs cooled rapidly.

Despite all that, he somehow felt like he wouldn’t lose. He wasn’t necessarily certain that he would win, but it would be a shame to fall down just like this. He didn’t want to lose. He needed to think that he was encountering a hurdle only a bit bigger than usual and needed to overcome it as he had done in the past. And if he just got through this hurdle—slow and steady as long as he could overcome it—then, he would see something he had been missing the whole time.

“…” Thus, Chi-Woo forcefully held onto the body that no longer listened to him and got up. Bael stared at him with wide eyes, dazed.

“You didn’t…die?” Happiness and shock warred on her face. She had critically wounded Chi-Woo despite her true intentions, and it had appeared inevitable that he would die. The injury she had just inflicted was similar to the injury she had received from Chi-Woo at the last gate; no, it could be seen as worse since Chi-Woo’s physical body was nothing more than a human’s. She had thought the fight would end meaninglessly and insignificantly like this, yet her opponent didn’t die and instead pushed himself off the ground.

His action was in stark contrast to hers; she had waited for death while shuddering in rage and ended up getting carried by the Abyss King to borrow Sernitas' strength. Bael felt a strange and slight sense of inferiority when she came to the realization.

‘…Huh?’ Bael suddenly flinched. She didn’t realize it, but her head gradually tipped toward the sky of its own volition. Why was it? Her opponent didn’t become any bigger, but Bael was looking up above Chi-Woo’s head.

‘Why…?’ For some reason, Chi-Woo looked much bigger than before.

***

Meanwhile, a fight comparable to the one taking place at Shalyh was happening at the last gate. Humanity and the Cassiubia League had opened the castle door and jumped outside. The Demon Empire and the Abyss didn’t respond properly in the beginning because the situation was too baffling for them, yet the situation quickly took a turn as they dove into battle. The Abyss King immediately took the lead, and Agares, who had been itching all over to fight, personally led the Demon Empire’s troops to counter their enemies. Thus, humanity and the League soon found themselves surrounded in a blood bath.

Yunael watched everything play out from the top of the castle walls. Now that they were surrounded by enemies, there was no turning back. Yunael gulped once while observing the war. Dozens of lives were disappearing by the second because of what she said. She began to feel regretful that she had spoken at all because she felt an enormous pressure now that everything was becoming too real. Yunael shook her head hard and stopped the train of thoughts. Then, she closed her eyes and savored the pressure she was feeling at the moment so hard that she couldn’t even breathe properly. This was what Chi-woo had told her to do—to feel pressured and dwell on it so that she would complete the task given to her at all costs.

Yunael had wondered if this was really the right thing to do, but it didn’t matter. Chi-Woo was a hero who went on a completely different trajectory than heroes like her. Everything he had done up to this point was proof of that, so she thought it would be the same this time. Thus, there was one thing she needed to do right now, which was to carry out this man’s plan into reality. The results would naturally follow. Yunael didn’t doubt that it would be the case. She had told him that she could do it.

“The Sky Castle’s barrier is weakened!” She heard the declaration she had been waiting for and nodded. “Let’s go,” she said. “Let’s make this decision the right answer.”

With those words, she felt her body enveloped by winds and soon, Yunael leaped up into the night sky with a few companions trailing behind her.