Go Byeonggap could be called a spatial–type ability user. After all, he had his own subspace—Asvillam.

Of course, the ability he possessed was fundamentally different from those of other spatial–type users. Still, it was clear he held a fairly impressive power.

But it couldn’t be helped that he paled in comparison to Seo Sihui. And for good reason—among all spatial–type ability users, she was unequivocally the strongest.

Not only did she have her own subspace, she could directly manipulate space for offense or defense. She could also create high-dimensional passages called portals.

“Come back safe.”

“Yes. Both of you must return unharmed.”

Go Byeonggap and Seo Sihui received a send-off from the hunters.

Off to one side, the goblins stood as well. After exchanging a few words with his subordinates, Byeonggap turned to Dorma.

«Dorma, while I’m gone, you’re the acting Lord. Keep Asvillam well managed.»

«Yes, understood. I’ll do my utmost not to cause any trouble for the Lord.»

«Good. I plan to return by tomorrow evening at the latest, so don’t worry too much.»

«Safe journey.»

«Lord, take care!»

The two of them stepped out of Asvillam.

Even though evening had barely passed, Seoul was pitch black. This was what a civilization left untouched by human hands looked like—so bleak and desolate.

“We need to move to the place where the portal’s already been set up.”

“Where did you say?”

“It’s not that far. A wooded hill near Hanam.”

“…If we sprint all-out, that’s about two hours.”

“If we fly, it’s quick.”

Seo Sihui’s body was engulfed in light. Moments later, she had fully transformed into a massive dragon.

‘Every time I see that, my hair stands on end.’

Its long neck lowered to the ground. Byeonggap set his foot on it and climbed onto her back. Sihui launched into the air without hesitation.

“But what if the portal’s damaged?”

“Then there’s nothing we can do.”

“Can’t you just open another one?”

“It’s not like I can snap one together like in some game. I’m not going to talk from now on. Mr. Byeonggap, do your best to hide your presence.”

“Got it.”

Sihui rose until she was above the clouds. The sky—which had been brooding as if ready to dump rain—cleared into a pristine black. She paused for a moment, gauging their bearings, then began to fly.

Just as she’d said, Hanam was only a short trip away.

The two landed on a quiet, wooded hill. After about fifteen minutes of walking, they reached their destination.

“We’re here. Fortunately, the portal hasn’t been damaged.”

“This is it?”

Byeonggap’s eyes went wide as he swept his gaze across the surroundings. It was the same wooded hill as before—nothing different at all.

Sihui raised both hands above her head. At that, two of the trees became linked by a line of light, revealing a completely different space beyond.

“Let’s go through.”

“Yeah.”

They stepped through the portal.

Unlike Korea, which had been in evening, here it was morning—sunrise not long past. Byeonggap peeled off his coat and threw it aside in the muggy air.

“Whew, it’s hot. You sure travel light, huh. No plane tickets needed.”

Byeonggap tossed out the joke. Sihui didn’t spare the quip a single thought; she was too busy scanning the surroundings.

“Looks like we crossed cleanly. This is the southernmost tip of Brazil, right along the border with Uruguay. We’ll fly to Argentina. Let’s go straight.”

“Don’t you need to rest?”

“What have I done to need rest? It’d only waste time.”

She transformed into the dragon once more. The two of them soared into the dizzying heights of the sky, far too high to be observed from the ground. Even the best eyes would see them only as dots.

What followed was a tedious stretch of flight. Byeonggap tried to survey the ground, but if they couldn’t see him, there was no way he’d see them.

One thing was unmistakably clear, though: those blue pillars that rose from the earth and touched the sky.

‘Just as I thought….’

Byeonggap briefly turned his mind to the past.

A few days ago, he and Sihui had been chatting together.

She had been recounting in detail the time she chased Geonryong in Moscow. In passing, she’d mentioned the ‘blue pillar.’

The blue pillar. Byeonggap had seen it with his own eyes before. He’d fought the Divine Army at the very site where the pillar rose—it was impossible to forget.

The conversation naturally turned to the blue pillar’s true nature. What exactly was it? What was its purpose? The two of them put their heads together, wrestling with the mystery.

But even after racking their brains for a long time, no clear answer surfaced. That was when Landriol stepped in to help.

<You said Madmut is trying to construct a heavenly realm here?>

Landriol had chimed in abruptly. Byeonggap told him everything they’d uncovered so far, leaving out not a single detail.

Landriol fell silent for an entire day. It wasn’t until noon the following day that he finally offered his thoughts.

<I see. Now the tangled thread has come undone.>

Thus Landriol set the stage. What came next was nothing short of shocking.

<I heard that ever since demons overran Asvillam, Madmut tucked tail and fled. The bastard dragged every demi-human on the surface across dimensions with him. I found it curious. Why trail such a cumbersome tail instead of running alone? Because he cherished his creations? Hah! Not a shred of truth in that. Then why leave the spirits behind?>

<This question gnawed at me for ages. But no satisfactory conclusion came. Then I heard about the reconstruction of a heavenly realm, and a spark caught.>

<Every world has four layers: the underground, the surface, the spirit realm, and the heavenly realm. They aren’t arranged simply like floors of a building. Traversing between layers demands enormous energy. For a being with divine power like Madmut, the energy cost doubles.>

<Why do you think Madmut only descended to the surface after losing seven Divine Warriors? The bastard loathed losing his power. In a word: cowardice.>

<Even crossing a single world’s layers wastes vast energy. What happens when you cross dimensions? It wouldn’t be far-fetched to say Madmut would be halved. So he needed a vessel to store his power. Those vessels were the surface’s demi-humans! That also explains why spirits were excluded. Spirits are inherently spectral entities—poor vessels.>

<…I wondered why I sensed Madmut’s energy from you lot. Now I know the reason. You call his power ‘karma,’ don’t you?>

<Anyway, Madmut’s ultimate goal is to construct a heavenly realm on Earth. I hear he plans to consume the life energy of billions of humans to create it. It might be possible. But creating a heavenly realm and ascending to it are entirely different matters. I’ll guarantee that Madmut, in his current state, can never ascend to the heavenly realm under his own power. That’s why he’s stirring up all this cumbersome business.>

<Monsters cluster, a blue pillar rises, and from that pillar the Divine Army emerges—that’s what he said, wasn’t it? Naturally. That was the whole point of dragging the demi-humans here in the first place.>

<The blue pillar is a ladder. The Divine Warriors are laborers—they bear Madmut up to heaven. And the ones you call monsters, the demi-humans? They’re the sacrifice to summon the Divine Army.>

<If you want to stop Madmut, you have to beat the Divine Warriors into the dirt first.>

<Remember this. Six Divine Warriors remain.>

Landriol sank into deep sleep after leaving those words. Go Byeonggap struggled to rouse him, but Landriol didn’t stir. Even now, he was still asleep.

Lately, Landriol’s sleeping had grown far more frequent and prolonged. It gnawed at Byeonggap, a quiet worry he couldn’t shake.

Regardless, Landriol’s guesses made eerie sense. And if Byeonggap distilled them to their brutal essence, it came down to this:

“So we’ve got to take down six more Divine Warriors. And these ones—they won’t be half-dead zombies.”

Honestly? Byeonggap doubted they could pull it off.

Even taking down one—Alsharon, who was barely more than a zombie after dying and crawling back to life—had cost them monstrous casualties.

Could they really kill a full-strength Divine Warrior?

‘…Don’t lose heart. My people carry blood that kills gods.’

Byeonggap clenched his fist, steeling his resolve. Pacing like some greenhorn would only feed the frustration.

Then Seo Sihui’s voice echoed inside his head.

<I think that’s it.>

Lost in thought, he’d drawn to within arm’s reach of the pillar. When they’d first crossed into Brazil, it had been morning. Now, it was already late afternoon.

Byeonggap straightened up and fixed his gaze on the pillar.

‘Damn thing’s massive.’

‘Pillar’ didn’t do it justice—it was the size of a small apartment complex. Its cross-section alone could hold three soccer teams playing simultaneously.

<I’ll try striking it. Hang on tight.>

“Got it.”

Seo Sihui straightened her body. From Byeonggap’s perspective, the whole world seemed to tilt ninety degrees.

A searing heat gathered into her enormous mouth. Then the flame of purgatory scorched the air as it lashed out.

KWA-BOOM!

The fire and the pillar collided. Thick smoke billowed, and blue fragments sprayed everywhere in chaos.

“It’s solid!”

<So it is. Good.>

The blue pillar had a physical form. And on top of that, it could be damaged by force.

That meant—maybe—they could neutralize the Divine Army without ever fighting them head-on.

Byeonggap and Seo Sihui had come all this way precisely to confirm that.

“Turn me around properly. I want to see if my internal energy works on it too.”

<Understood.>

Seo Sihui angled her body another ninety degrees. Byeonggap stood straight, drew his sword, and focused his internal energy. In an instant, colossal power coalesced onto the blade.

“Hyaah!”

He swung the sword fiercely. A crescent-shaped blade of energy shot out like a dart and slammed into the blue pillar.

Crack!

“Yes!”

The result was deeply satisfying. The pillar, struck dead-on by the energy blade, sprayed fragments in every direction. It looked almost like it was bleeding.

In truth, it was no more than a single ax-stroke into a five-hundred-year-old oak. That was fine. Whether it took five hundred or a thousand years, keep hacking at the same spot and eventually, it had to fall.

“Now that we’re here, let’s smash this pillar— Huh!? Hey… HEY!!”

Byeonggap froze and looked down. Thick clouds obscured the ground completely.

But every sense except sight screamed “danger signal” like mad.

Something was coming. Something vast and ominous.

“We have to run right now! Something’s—”

<I feel it too! Hold tight!>

“Krrgh!”

Seo Sihui pulled her body vertical and shot upward like a rocket. And in that very moment, the thick clouds parted to reveal an enormous form.

Its body was five times larger than a dragon’s.

Yes. It was a Divine Warrior.

‘What the hell! It’s that big?’

Even from a great distance, its sheer size made him quail. The Divine Warrior had no wings or anything, yet it flew through the sky freely, chasing Byeonggap and Seo Sihui relentlessly.

“Khuooooh!!”

The Divine Warrior roared a battle cry. It nocked a karma arrow onto its bowstring and loosed it at them.

That single giant arrow split into hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of arrows, raining down upon their heads.

“Kraaaaah!”

Seo Sihui swung her tail violently, warping the space around them. The arrows, their trajectories twisted, flew off into random directions.

Relief lasted only a moment. Byeonggap felt a chill run down his spine as he glared at the Divine Warrior. It had nocked another arrow onto its bowstring.

‘Dangerous!’

An arrow so black it looked like a chunk of the universe torn away.

Byeonggap felt a primal threat. It was, in a word, death.

“Damn it!”

Byeonggap snapped into stance.

“Huaaaaah!!”

He dragged out every bit of internal energy from his entire body. Golden internal energy gathered onto the blade in an instant.

Pshh!

At that very moment, the pitch-black arrow was shot, aimed straight at them. No exaggeration—it was like Namsan Tower itself flying at them.

Byeonggap swung his sword at the same time.

“Hyaah!”

The secret technique of the Mandala Knight Order.

The fourth form of the Eight Martial Arts: Explosive Rending.

The sword aura, heavy with the energy of Explosion, met the arrow. The two projectiles clashed in a fierce contest of strength in the distant sky. How many seconds had passed like that?

Boom! KABOOM-BOOM! CRACK!

“Ugh!”

“KRAAAAGH!”

An explosion so enormous it seemed to paint the world white erupted.

Seo Sihui was thrown back by the blast, while the Holy Warrior was swallowed up by it.

She didn’t let the chance slip.

<I’m going to fold space and fly! You won’t be able to breathe, so hold your breath!>

“Ah, got i—gulp!”

She truly folded the space and raced across the sky. It was, in essence, a heaven-shrinking technique.

Thanks to that, they covered thousands of kilometers in about five minutes. And five minutes later, they could crash headfirst into some nameless canyon.