Chapter 98

A battle between Awakeners of the same Rank is often compared to a game of Go.

If I attack, the opponent defends, and if the opponent attacks, I must defend.

Skill cooldowns, the habit of breaking down movements frame by frame, psychological warfare, and so on.

It is an extreme situation that demands all sorts of mind games and physical prowess at the same time.

In that sense, taking the first move creates a very advantageous situation.

Unlike Go, there is no act of giving a ‘komi’ in the battles of Awakeners.

That was why the fiend, Seong Yo-han, frowned.

The fiend had lost the first move to me.

As soon as the battle began, he was busy blocking the magic that poured down from all directions.

[Repulsion]

The fiend was slammed into the wall of a building.

As he tried to get up, I cast a Mental Magic spell at him.

[Homage of the Dead]

From under the ground, from the walls, from the air, black hands bound Seong Yo-han.

But a fiend is a fiend.

With just a single gesture, he succeeded in shaking off the high-level Mental Magic.

Around that time, Seong Yo-han managed to draw his sword.

However, as I said before, combat is similar to Go.

In exchange for drawing his sword, he had to allow an attack.

[Blade of Indra]

A crescent-shaped Aura flew toward the fiend.

His tattered clothes were torn away, revealing his Item. A pure white armor.

At the same time, a building near us came crashing down.

A jet of water from somewhere shot up into the sky.

When the fiend swung his hand, a part of the collapsing building came pouring down on me.

It’s my turn now! his eyes seemed to say.

But it was a meaningless resistance.

[Ares’ Shield]

Drrrrrk-

At the same time, the Aura I had shot disappeared, leaving a scratch on Seong Yo-han’s armor.

Kwoong!

His gaze changed. His movements changed, too. I matched him accordingly.

[Hypercognition Enhancement]

The remnants of the building that were about to pour down on the fiend’s head stopped in an instant.

As if time itself had decided to stop.

But that wasn’t it. The fiend and I, we had become excessively fast.

In an instant, the fiend’s body vanished.

In terms of compatibility, a Mage is at a disadvantage against a Warrior-type in a one-on-one battle.

I acknowledged that it was now his turn.

[Blink]

The moment I leaped through space, the fiend’s Longsword struck the spot where I had been.

If I had stayed there, my head would have been split open.

I was in the air, he was on the ground. Our eyes met.

He immediately leaped into the air.

Alright, then.

Let’s begin round two.

The ring-shaped Durandal transformed into a sword.

I could feel the hilt trembling.

Durandal was also excited. At the fact that he was fighting a proper Demon.

-Tricks!

The fiend sent a telepathic message as he extended his sword.

His movement, which was meant to cleave me from top to bottom, suddenly changed direction.

I quickly responded to his movement.

Paaaaang-!

The aftershock of the collision exploded in all directions.

For someone who called it a trick, the fiend couldn’t actually hide his bewildered feelings.

It was only natural.

He might not know it, but I had fought countless bloody battles with him in the Mental World.

What he would do, how he would attack, how he would defend.

I broke everything down, frame by frame, and prepared.

For this day.

As I finished my thought, the fiend’s face zoomed in.

The handsome face from the pictorials was nowhere to be seen. It was a distorted expression, like the face of a devil.

Perhaps I looked the same to him.

[Blink]

My attempt to escape the space was instantly thwarted.

By his compulsion, we clashed once more.

Seong Yo-han must be in a hurry, too. Because time was on my side.

A dark color spread across my entire field of vision.

It was an Aura made of his Demonic Energy.

It must have been the same for him.

He was probably covered in red and blue colors.

I did not miss that moment.

Using Repulsion, I snatched the sword from his hand. He didn’t just stand by, either. As if he had a trump card left, he succeeded in snatching Durandal from my hand.

Just as my Durandal was an Ego Sword, his Longsword also chose its master.

Meaning, it couldn’t be used.

We stared at each other’s swords for a moment, then dropped them to the ground.

It was the moment we entered the third round.

From now on, this was a fight not in the data of the Mental World. If we were to weigh the advantages and disadvantages, I was winning 6:4.

So I’m not worried.

I will win this fight!

Kwaaaaaa!

The moment I stretched out both palms, I grabbed his hands.

-Keuk!

-Heuk!

He spat out blood.

Thinking this was my chance, I pushed my Mana in, but he was pouring in Demonic Energy from his side as well.

As much as his face had crumpled, the shadow of his defeat deepened.

The next moment.

Without a word about who was first, we delved into the Aura we had created.

That was his fatal mistake.

-Oried.

-I await your command.

The fiend, his face still distorted, looked up.

The palm of a giant the size of a building was about to crush him.

It was a final gift for the fiend, who would have surely chosen to flee if I had summoned Oried from the start.

-Ha… ha.

He let out an empty laugh. It seemed he had given up on the fight.

Immediately after.

Kwoong!

The palm of the Elemental King Oried crushed the fiend flat.

I released [Hypercognition Enhancement]. As if pressing the play button on a paused video, the aftershock of the power spread.

Kwagwagwagwa-

Looking around, there was nothing left intact.

Literally, an entire city had been smashed.

Especially in the area at the center of the power, the very tectonic plates were shaking.

And there, where the ground was deeply gouged, the fiend lay.

Without even thinking of gathering the intestines that were spilling out.

“Keoheok!”

That’s a relief.

The fiend didn’t seem to have any intention of using the spell that Demons characteristically cast right before death.

As if resigned, he was chuckling even as he coughed up blood.

When I stretched out my hand, the key that was in Seong Yo-han’s possession was pulled toward me.

It was the Item containing the secret art of Spatial Transfer that Seong Yo-han had just before the battle.

A System Message appeared in the air.

[Key of Dimensional Travel (EX)]

-You can go to a dimension whose Coordinate Values are known. (0/2)

-If the Coordinate Values are unknown, you will be dropped into a random world.

This was the second time I’d seen an EX-Rank.

Indeed, if it allows for Dimensional Travel, it’s worthy of such a Rank.

“Were you planning to escape with this?”

An Item that could be used a total of two times.

Seong Yo-han probably intended to kill me and go to another dimension.

To another world, instead of this one, which was destined for ruin.

And if by some chance he fell into the Demon Realm, he turned into a Demon to survive.

“If you had seen what I saw, I’m sure you would have become a Demon too. If you had seen that hellscape, that is.”

“I saw it too.”

“?”

“There are countless S-Rank Monsters, and there are those called Demon Kings. I saw it too.”

Seong Yo-han stared at me blankly.

As if asking how I could say such a thing after seeing it, with an expression of disbelief.

Seong Yo-han looked at me with a dying voice.

“Run. That’s the only way to live.”

He wasn’t saying it for my sake. This was, well, a kind of mockery.

As if to prove it, Seong Yo-han smiled vilely.

“No, that’s not right. It’ll happen even if I don’t tell you. No matter how aloof you pretend to be, you’ll end up making the same choice.”

I had nothing to say to a traitor.

Slice-

I swung Durandal and beheaded Seong Yo-han.

That was the end of it.

His final moments would not even remain in my memory.

Using Polymorph again, I returned to the base camp.

It was chaotic all around. The aftershock of the power had reached this far. Casualties were mounting.

The only fortunate thing was that no one had died.

“Healer! Where’s the Healer!”

“Th-there was a battle! Run!”

In the center of the pandemonium, a man was visible. The man who had taken a wad of 100-dollar bills and given me information yesterday.

The man’s face looked anxious.

“D-don’t worry, everyone wait. The S-Rank Healers on standby in the back will be here soon. So everyone…”

His voice, unlike yesterday, lacked confidence.

“There are definitely S-Ranks in the back…”

The man’s words were cut short. Because our eyes met.

The man said nothing and just stared at me.

“There’s no such thing.”

At my words, the man’s lips clamped shut.

“You have to protect your own life.”

I walked right past the man.

People see only what they want to see, and believe only what they want to believe.

Seong Yo-han, that man, and me too.

I had the belief that I would definitely protect this world.

When Buff Stones first appeared in Korea.

The first to take notice was the United States.

“According to the research results, Awakeners can reach A-Rank just by consistently using Buff Stones.”

“We can’t even make an identical product. It seems to be a technology that’s impossible to copy.”

In the face of these shocking results, the federal Awakener Association’s response was swift.

“This is… dangerous.”

“Let’s either get rid of it or take it.”

Hegemony had to be maintained.

To do that, this serious item had to be controlled.

It was a simple conclusion.

A justification?

They could just make one up.

“We can consider the actions of Choi Gi-woong and Yeo Ju-kyung a coup. Shall we make an issue of that?”

“We have to give them some breathing room. Since they say Seong Yo-han has entered the Mainland, let’s use him as a pretext.”

Of course, there were opposing opinions.

“What if they attack the Mainland? Those things, they don’t seem to have anything in their sights right now.”

“How dare they? Even Yeo Ju-kyung can’t break through our radar network. We can just kill her before she crosses the Pacific.”

The United States possessed nearly 50 S-Rank Awakeners.

At their forefront was Rachel Carson, one of the Three Sovereigns. If she handled Yeo Ju-kyung, there wouldn’t be a major problem.

Naturally, the battlefield would be Korea.

But it was then.

“…Seong Yo-han has been killed.”

“This is the image discovered by the Starlink tracking camera.”

In the satellite camera footage, Seong Yo-han’s head was severed.

An emergency committee was convened.

“Who was it? The person who killed him, I mean.”

“Please look at this.”

In the zooming screen, a face was captured. It was a figure who had been troubling the federation recently.

“Choi Gi-woong? How did that person… Wasn’t he in Korea?”

Naturally, all key executives of the Korean Association were being tailed. And Choi Gi-woong was a top surveillance target.

“That’s what we thought.”

“What do you mean, that’s what you thought? Is this a problem that can be dismissed with such words?”

“Did you think I knew this would happen? What’s certain is that Choi Gi-woong killed Seong Yo-han.”

“This is actually for the best. Let’s catch that bastard now.”

“We can’t.”

“Now what’s the problem!”

“He’s vanished. He’s not being picked up on the radar network or by sensory-type Awakeners. There’s a high probability that Choi Gi-woong has already returned to Korea.”

“…What about the possibility of a disguise?”

“If so, he would have definitely been caught by the Mana-sensitive radar. You know it. Even Yeo Ju-kyung can’t avoid it.”

“But he did avoid it!”

This was a serious problem.

It meant that all the means the federation had to pressure Choi Gi-woong were now under his control.

“So, you’re saying that if Choi Gi-woong puts his mind to it, he can come and go as he pleases, whether it’s New York or Washington?”

In other words, it meant that an S-Rank monster could be running rampant through the United States.

“What… do we do about this?”

Among the executives of the US federal Awakener Association, who had 50 S-Ranks at their disposal, there was no one who could answer that.