Chapter 172

“You’ve arrived! Is everyone doing alright?”

“We’re fine. What’s the situation?”

“Things are less problematic here than in other regions. However… the citizens are in a state of confusion.”

Looking at Saebom’s deeply darkened expression alone, it wasn’t difficult to guess the atmosphere outside.

Taewoon and Baran’s guild members quickly stepped up to support the public institutions, putting all their effort into resolving problems large and small. Meanwhile, urgent reports continued to flood the guild’s communication network.

“Reports say that followers of the Gwangseong Church with unidentified identities are appearing all across the country…”

“Not only that, but it seems they are intentionally causing trouble at shelters in various regions to incite the people and lure them into the various branches of the Gwangseong Church.”

No one present knew the exact intentions of the Gwangseong Church, but everyone could perceive that the situation was turning ominous.

“Perhaps… they used Sharliaete’s Holy Ground to secretly bring the forces of the Gwangseong Church into this land.”

“That’s the most likely possibility. They really left behind a nuisance of a problem.”

“Why are they drawing people in? No matter how I think about it, it doesn’t seem to be for a benevolent purpose…”

As Yerin said, they were practically the main culprits of this disaster.

Amidst the continuous communications, Taewoon felt a strong intuition that the situation was crossing a point of no return.

‘It seems… this isn’t a problem that can be solved by responding in this manner.’

In Taewoon’s opinion, the Gwangseong Church seemed to be achieving their plans one by one.

There was no meaning in simply cleaning up after their movements as they were doing now.

In the worst-case scenario, it was entirely possible that the window of opportunity had already passed.

“…No matter how I think about it, this is not good. We must get the citizens who were persuaded by the Gwangseong Church and took refuge in their Holy Sanctuaries out as quickly as possible.”

“Yes, I agree. But if we do that… we might completely lose the trust of the citizens this time,”

“Even so, isn’t that far better than standing by and watching them end up in a state worse than death?”

At Taewoon’s words, which sounded as if he were certain a disaster was imminent, Hongyeon also let out a sigh and appeared to ponder for a moment.

At that exact moment, another emergency communication arrived from the Association.

Surprisingly, the content was exactly the same as what Taewoon had just been thinking.

“As of this hour, retrieve the citizens persuaded by the Gwangseong Church by any means necessary…”

“It seems… the situation is more serious than we thought.”

Everyone present was greatly shocked by the unconventional order. Hongyeon, sighing as if the inevitable had finally arrived, spoke to everyone with a grim expression.

“There’s no need to overthink it; an all-out war with those bastards has begun. Now, this fight… won’t end until we repel Saint Kyurihi and completely root out the Gwangseong Church from this land.”

“…….”

“The damage is going to grow uncontrollably. If it was going to end up like this anyway, I should have just cleared out those annoying bastards decisively from the start.”

Clicking her tongue, Hongyeon hurriedly contacted surrounding guilds to plan raids on the Gwangseong Church branches in each sector. Soon, Taewoon and his party also headed out, moving toward the nearest Holy Sanctuary.

However, by the time Taewoon’s group took action, brilliant pillars of light were already soaring up from various parts of the city.

The Gwangseong Church had already completed their preparations to achieve their objective.

“W-what on earth is that?”

“I don’t know, but… it’s a magical power that gives off an ominous feeling for some reason.”

Until now, the followers and Fingers of the Gwangseong Church that Taewoon had encountered all handled power originating from Kyurihi, exhibiting magical power that felt holy at a glance.

But the pillars of light visible now exuded an aura closer to ominousness than divinity.

Perhaps this was the true nature of Kyurihi that had not been revealed until now.

“…We need to pick up the pace.”

Recognizing the severity of the situation, Taewoon’s group moved as quickly as possible toward the nearest pillar of light, soon arriving at a Gwangseong Church chapel located near Hwajeong-dong.

Immediately after, what unfolded before Taewoon’s eyes was a somewhat grotesque and shocking sight.

“W-what are they doing?”

“Prayer? A ritual? Whatever it is, it doesn’t look like anything decent!”

Juyeon, a guild member acting with them, frowned with a fighting spirit and walked forward quickly, and Taewoon followed behind her, closing the distance to the pillar of light.

‘What? It’s more solid than I thought!’

Contrary to initial expectations, the chapel surrounded by the pillar of light possessed a solidity similar to Sharliaete’s Holy Ground, completely blocking access from the outside.

This was not something that mere ordinary priests of the Gwangseong Church could pull off.

Noticing this, Taewoon entered his Apostle Transformation State and began to closely examine the wall of light before him. Soon, he discovered that the source of this power existed somewhere else, not here.

‘This is… a kind of giant Magic Formation!’

Using the Holy Sanctuaries of the Gwangseong Church created across the country as base points, they created pillars of light and connected them all to reconstruct them into a single Holy Ground.

The pillar of light before him was merely a part of it; ultimately, all the pillars of light were no different from a single Holy Ground.

That was why it could exhibit such nonsensical solidity.

“What is this! It won’t break at all!”

“…Ordinary attacks won’t work. No, perhaps it’s not even a matter of that dimension.”

The Central Sanctuary that was said to be built in Seoul!

In Taewoon’s mind, the place that served as the root of these pillars was none other than there.

As he finished his thought, he glanced inside and saw the citizens who had taken refuge in the chapel lying down with serene faces, as if they had all fallen into a collective sleep.

And the priests were surrounding those citizens, continuously muttering something as if performing some kind of ritual.

“What the hell are they doing? Are they actually planning to offer the citizens as sacrifices?”

“…The method may differ, but in the end, a similar result might occur.”

If similar things were happening at the pillars of light across the country, the resulting outcome would be horrific just to imagine.

Taewoon contacted Hongyeon, who was at another pillar, shared the facts he had discovered, and told her about the Central Sanctuary.

However, the response he received was even more shocking.

[The Hunter Alliance in Seoul, led by the Daeheong Guild, has already attempted to enter the Central Sanctuary. But in the process… thirty-two Hunters were sacrificed, including one Level 7-rank Hunter and four Level 6-rank Hunters.]

“…What do you mean by that?”

[It wasn’t just the Third Finger. It seems the First and Second Fingers have already joined in and are blocking the entrance to the Central Sanctuary. And to be honest… there is currently no force there capable of breaking through them.]

If the opponents were the two Fingers, who likely possessed power of at least Level 7-rank or higher, deploying mediocre numbers would only result in them becoming sacrificial lambs.

Grasping the situation, Taewoon bit his lip, spread Mitra’s Wings, and soared into the sky. Soon, the Lightning of Destruction and an invisible Blazing Sword began to indiscriminately slash at the pillar of light.

As if responding to Taewoon’s anger, the lightning carved chaotic scars into the pillar of light with a more ferocious aura than ever before. The Blazing Sword, containing all of Taewoon’s Severing Arts, violently shook the pillar of light with every swing, repeatedly chipping away at its solidity.

‘It’s working! With my current power, I can break the pillar, even if only temporarily!’

When the possibility he had been skeptical of became a reality, Taewoon increased his momentum and began to circulate the magical power within his body violently.

At Taewoon’s full-power strike, the surrounding ground shook, and the atmosphere surged, letting out a thunderous roar.

Just as the Hunters on the ground were watching with astonished eyes, a gaze began to observe the surrounding area from ‘above’ Taewoon, who was flying high in the sky.

‘M-my god, this is…’

This distant and silent aura was the same as the gaze that had watched Hongyeon when he had faced Kalliedu previously.

Crushed by the weight of an achievement he could not possibly withstand, Taewoon began to fall rapidly toward the ground. Simultaneously, the gaze that had been steadily staring at Taewoon slowly vanished, leaving no trace.

Even as he collided violently with the ground, Taewoon let out a hollow laugh at the surging sense of failure, recalling the owner of the gaze he had just encountered.

‘Is this… the world-renowned Saint Kyurihi?’

The gaze he had briefly encountered was truly too transcendental and immense.

He was a being that the current Taewoon could not possibly oppose.

Beyond a simple difference in strength, it was at a level where he doubted if they were even on the same plane or bound by the same laws of existence.

‘This is… too stark a difference…’

Taewoon had achieved remarkable growth while hitting numerous walls. That was an undeniable fact.

Furthermore, hadn’t he just almost cracked the iron-fortress-like pillar of light and broken through its entrance?

‘But…’

All of that was nothing more than the struggling of a mere insect before the gaze of Kyurihi he had just faced.

As he realized this, an unbearable sense of helplessness and emptiness shook Taewoon’s body and mind.

In Taewoon’s opinion, this was not a gap that could be narrowed simply by conquering a few more Theaters.

‘In the end… does this mean Kyurihi himself has started to move?’

If this was how Taewoon felt, it wouldn’t be strange for other Hunters to feel an even greater despair.

He was seething with frustration, but he couldn’t just stay collapsed.

Finally, barely pushing himself up on trembling legs, Taewoon stared at the spot where Kyurihi’s gaze had vanished with an intensity he had never felt before.