“Kkeu… Kkuuak!”

Dark-crimson blood pooled across the floor. Kevin, one of the Last Eighteen, finally knelt. Right up until his breath stopped, he spat curses denying the world.

“Haaah… haaah…”

Seo Sihui gasped, panting harsh breaths. Her body trembled like an aspen in the wind.

“Ugh… ugh…”

Her right arm was rotting away. Damiano, the poison-wielder, had gotten her good.

As if that were all. There wasn’t a single unscathed spot on her body. It was evidence, along with the heads of the Last Eighteen members lying at her feet, of how brutal the battle had been.

Seo Sihui squeezed her eyes shut and severed her own right arm. If she left it, the poison would spread throughout her whole body.

She warped the space around the wound to stop the bleeding. Twice she nearly blacked out in the process.

Seo Sihui slumped down, her back against a tree. Half-lidded eyes took in the scene around her. Bodies, bodies, bodies. No matter where she looked, all she saw were cold corpses.

Team B was annihilated except for her. The soldiers were all dead too. She doubted the other teams fared much better.

A wave of doubt washed over her. What was she even getting out of all this? Would the world truly find peace through their sacrifice?

Three children raised as weapons, dying in vain. Did Alpha, Beta, and Omega resent her right before the end?

Seo Sihui thought she might cry. She’d thought herself long dried up, but it seemed that wasn’t quite true.

“…”

Suddenly, the hairs on her remaining arm stood on end. She didn’t have the energy to be startled, so she raised her head slowly. The distant sky. Space expanded, like when a rift formed, and something began to emerge from it.

Giants clad in platinum plate armor. Holy Warriors.

Her heart dropped. A few seconds later, she let out a hollow laugh. Shit, an obstacle after an obstacle.

Who the hell is supposed to take those down? Me? Don’t make me laugh. I don’t even have the strength to stand anymore…

Seo Sihui whined inwardly. Of course, there was no one to listen or comfort her.

After a moment, she forced herself up. Every joint screamed, begging her to rest. But she ignored it and kept moving.

Because that was the price of her choices.

* * *

Ferdinand, one of the Last Eighteen, couldn’t understand this situation. No, he didn’t want to.

South Korea—a small eastern nation he barely knew and didn’t care to know, save that it was the Archbishop’s homeland. Setting foot here had been a mistake.

“Damn it. Damn it. Damn it!”

Wu Wei was dead. William and Lanzring were dead too. Companions who had survived to the very end in his previous life were dying so pathetically now.

By now, they had to admit it—how dissolutely they’d lived since the regression. Drunk on the shade of paradise, steeped in liquor, drugs, and pleasure day after day, the result was a catastrophe.

The Korean hunters coming at them with poison were bad enough. But then came the reinforcements…

“Keeeek!”

“Kyahahaha! Kya-ha-ha-ha!”

“Goddammit!”

Now even black-winged things were hounding them. At this very moment, those monsters had blackened the sky.

“Get the hell away from me!”

Mid-sprint, he spun and lashed out with his sword—a technique that amplified vibrations through karma. The Grugle he struck shattered like a broken wineglass and died.

Beyond the collapsing corpse, another Grugle rushed in. It shot forward like a rocket and rammed Ferdinand square in the back.

“Gahk!”

Thud! He tumbled across the ground, rolling several times. When he scrambled to his feet, rage and frustration twisted his face.

“You son of a bitch!”

Blinded by fury, Ferdinand swung his sword wildly, like a cornered beast. Stinking chunks of meat piled up around him by the second.

Then another Grugle slammed into his back.

“Gahk!”

He toppled again, rolling across the floor. When he got up, he was even angrier. Then another hit him in the back.

‘Why the hell only my back?’

A jolt of unease hit Ferdinand. The Grugles surrounding him were laughing.

“Kyahahaha! Kya-ha!”

“You… you bastards… Are you playing with me? With me? How dare you scum!”

Seething, he gripped his sword with both hands, readying a killing blow. The swarm of Grugles surged toward him.

But at that exact moment, a colossal torrent of karma crashed down from above, engulfing the entire swarm.

It was a tsunami—a towering wave of suffocating, dense karma. Ferdinand instinctively looked up.

Go Geonryong, the Archbishop of the Hexagram Order, was there.

“Archbishop!”

Ferdinand shouted reflexively. He hesitated, torn between relief and the urge to vent his fury. He decided to keep his composure for now.

Go Geonryong leaped down from the building and landed before Ferdinand. Frowning, he surveyed the Grugle carcasses, then asked bluntly.

“What are these?”

“How should I know? I don’t fucking know either!”

Ferdinand forgot his earlier resolve and snapped. Go Geonryong didn’t seem to care.

“You had enough time. Why isn’t the Ark evacuated yet? Because of these things?”

“Goddammit! It’s not about whether there’s enough or not—do you have any idea what happened while you were gone?”

Ferdinand told Go Geonryong everything that had gone down: an armed force of soldiers and hunters had stormed in, sparking a massive battle.

“…Where are the others?”

“Wu Wei and William are dead. Lanzring too! As for the rest, I don’t know if they’re alive or dead—how could I, when I don’t even know where they are!”

“Dead…?”

Go Geonryong’s expression hardened slightly. Ferdinand kept ranting, but Geonryong shut out his senses. Then he focused.

His extrasensory perception reached out, hunting for the presences of his members. When about a minute had passed, he opened his eyes.

“Hey, Archbishop! Are you even listening?”

“Ha… Unbelievable. They really are all dead, aren’t they.”

“All—all dead!?”

Ferdinand’s face went white. He stumbled back on his own accord and muttered.

“No way. …I, I need to go back. To Canada. I want to go back to Canada.”

“Ferdinand. Wait a moment.”

“Shut up! Goddammit. I never should’ve come here in the first place. I should’ve just stayed in Canada—Agh!”

It happened in an instant. Something dropped from the sky—a trident larger than any telephone pole.

Ferdinand was caught between the prongs, driven into the ground. He tried to squirm free, but the Holy Warrior gripped the shaft firmly, making it impossible.

Go Geonryong approached his bedside. Ferdinand’s eyes blazed as if on fire.

“What the hell are you doing! Get this off me now!”

“The plan has changed.”

“Changed how? …Wait, Archbishop. No, you bastard. What are you thinking right now?”

“I hold no particular ill will toward you. So don’t resent me too much.”

Go Geonryong grabbed Ferdinand’s head. The next moment, he yanked his hand upward, and a bluish mass came with it. At the same time, Ferdinand’s eyes rolled back.

“Ghk—gahh! St—stop! Please, don’t! Ghhk!”

“I’ll make good use of your power.”

Go Geonryong pulled out every last mass. It was condensed karma.

Having been, in a sense, gelded, Ferdinand went limp and died.

Go Geonryong crooked a finger at the Holy Warrior. From the warrior’s chest, a translucent sphere slowly descended. Inside the orb, like a giant soap bubble, was a woman.

Go Geonryong injected the karma he had extracted from Ferdinand into the woman.

“Make sure she isn’t harmed.”

As he murmured, the Holy Warrior treated the woman as if she were a treasured relic. Carefully cradling it in both hands, it tucked the sphere back into its own chest.

‘The flesh is complete. Now I only need to find a soul. And for that, not a single living human can remain on this land.’

Go Geonryong moved to clear the Ark without delay. From about five kilometers away, he sensed a massive presence. The one who had killed the members of the Last Eighteen was likely there.

Go Geonryong headed that way with a single Holy Knight. He didn’t know how the unbelievers had managed to capture the Last Eighteen, but they couldn’t be in peak condition either.

There was no way they could withstand him with a Holy Knight at his side.

Snap!

Someone stepped into his path as he hurried forward. Go Geonryong’s eyes widened. His lips curled slightly upward at the corners.

“We seem to be meeting often these days, Sihui noonim. You’ve managed to stay alive, somehow… but you look like a wreck. Did you kill all the members yourself?”

“Let’s settle this, Go Geonryong.”

“Is there any need to rush? Even if I don’t do it myself, you look like you’ll die soon enough. Where did you sell off another arm…!”

No time for words. Seo Sihui lunged forward, her sword leading.

“Still as hot-tempered as ever, I see.”

Go Geonryong and Seo Sihui — their second bout began.

* * *

Landriol and the Twelve Heroes climbed onto the apartment rooftop and looked down at the two Divine Warriors.

The Divine Warrior, wielding its massive frame, was slaughtering everything in sight. The resistance fighters. The Grugle. Even the Illumission members cowering in breathless terror. The Divine Warrior’s violence made no distinction between targets.

«How many of these Divine Warriors did we kill back then?» asked Landriol.

«Seven in total, including Alsharon, Your Majesty.»

Hashumblant answered at once. Landriol let out a small laugh.

«I remember. Now that you mention it, wasn’t it you who brought down Alsharon?»

«Yes, that’s correct. I’m honored you recall.»

«How could I forget? I remember it vividly — the day you faced Alsharon, and Trobatin and Patra fell.»

Trobatin and Patra gave a wry smile. He was speaking with a laugh now, but the memory of that day was something that could never be called a fond one.

Landriol’s smile faded as he looked ahead.

«How many Saraon did we grind away to capture those seven Divine Warriors? I have not forgotten the humiliation of that day for a single moment.»

«Just give the order. I’ll charge in right now and take their heads.»

The Sword God Arhi dropped to one knee as she spoke. Landriol placed a light hand on her head.

«Don’t rush, Arhi. As galling as it is, those bastards are strong. I don’t want to drive my people into a death trap a second time.»

«Do you have a plan in mind, my Lord?»

«Of course I do. If they’re going to flaunt their size, it’s only common sense that we come up with a size of our own. Gather!»

Landriol barked the order. At once, the Grugles stationed throughout every corner of the lord’s domain swarmed in.

He had once taken the demon’s power into his own body. He was accustomed to controlling that strength. Though the ability no longer remained, his skill and experience were still intact.

The Grugles gathered in an instant — both those who had demonized and those who had not. They all swarmed together without exception.

Landriol immediately conveyed the next concept.

«Merged.»

“KEEEYAAAHK!”

The Grugles shrieked and began to fuse together. With the strongest among them at the core, thousands upon tens of thousands of them tangled and clumped into a single mass.

It soon grew as enormous as a Divine Warrior. It wasn’t just its size that swelled — its power multiplied tenfold upon tenfold.

At that scale, it could not help but draw the Divine Warriors’ attention.

“WOOOOOOH—!”

“KEEEYAAAHK!”

The Divine Warriors Ludion and Ponpei charged forward, brandishing their massive weapons. The seven great Grugle behemoths that remained moved to counterattack immediately.

When the two forces clashed, their power was evenly matched.

«Your Majesty, please grant us permission to enter the fray as well.»

As they watched the Grugles battle the Divine Warriors, the generals’ fighting spirit blazed. Landriol nodded and drew his sword.

«Go and fight. Avenge thoroughly the humiliation and disgrace that our Saraon suffered on that day!»

«Yes!»

The final chapter of the Annals of Landriol. The last sentence therein began to be written.