Chapter 183: Hostage
Kugugugugu!
A tremor stronger than ever before shook the very foundations of the Academy.
At the same time, a beam of light burst through the ground.
Everyone present stopped fighting for a moment.
“What is that……?”
Seo Da-hee, who had been supporting Yoo Yi-seo in battle, widened her eyes.
Lia’s voice flowed into her mind.
‘It’s the Groom! He’s back!’
She knew it as well.
The connection with him that had been severed for some time had been restored.
Then, something began rising from where the beam of light had erupted.
It was an enormous Gate.
A Gate so massive that even Tamuz the Giant, a High-ranking Executive of Pandemonium, looked like a child beside it.
To think something like that had been hidden beneath the Academy.
The eyes of Pandemonium’s High-ranking Executives changed when they saw it.
Their gazes trembled at the sight of the Gate before them, yet at the same time burned with intense greed, as though they absolutely had to obtain it.
Sure enough, Tamuz the Giant reacted first.
He moved his massive body and strode toward the Gate.
Oliver Raiders flew up to stop him and unleashed his Dragon’s Breath.
But Tamuz charged forward while blocking it with his palm, as though he couldn’t care less.
Cheon Ga-eun joined Oliver against that overwhelming momentum.
Only then did Tamuz’s advance stop for a moment.
However, the fact that Oliver Raiders and Cheon Ga-eun were holding back Tamuz also meant that no one remained to stop the other Pandemonium executives they had been keeping in check.
Sure enough, Robo’s beasts began moving, along with the giant tree Kobal had planted throughout the Academy.
‘We have to stop them.’
But there was no one available who could.
The Sword Emperor was holding back the Leader of Pandemonium, while Oliver and Cheon Ga-eun were stopping Tamuz.
Yoo Yi-seo and Seo Da-hee were fighting Serphin together.
The Instructors and Heroes rushed forward to stop them, but they couldn’t even last a few seconds.
Joy spread across Robo and Kobal’s faces.
All they had to do was reach the Gate, and the prophecy would be fulfilled.
The Gate leading to Hell would open, and their master would descend upon this land.
Then they would become part of the End and become masters and conquerors of countless dimensions.
Before long, their steps stopped in front of the Gate.
There were people standing in their way.
The first thing I saw when I returned to the original world was a black sky.
I had definitely been deep underground when I entered the trial of the Fragment.
All sorts of sounds echoed from everywhere.
Screams and monstrous roars.
I didn’t even need to see the situation outside to understand what was happening.
Then a nostalgic voice rang through my mind.
‘Groom? You really came back, right?’
‘Been a while. How are things over there?’
‘How do you think?! We’re one step away from being completely screwed! Why did you take so damn long?!’
‘A lot happened on this side too.’
‘Whatever! Two High-ranking Executives are heading your way right now!’
Two High-ranking Executives.
I looked at Park Siwoo and the others beside me.
They seemed to have noticed the situation around us as well and were already gripping their respective weapons.
Eunha was the first to sense them.
She straightened herself into a combat stance and growled.
“You all feel that, right? Two High-ranking Executives are coming.”
“Whew, I’m a little nervous.”
“Don’t worry. With how strong you are now, it’d be harder for you to lose even if you tried.”
Dan Chun-woo asked at my confident tone.
“How can you be so certain?”
“If all of you gang up on them with your current strength and still lose, you’d have to be idiots.”
Dan Chun-woo gave me a distinctly unimpressed look.
“I don’t know what kind of romantic fantasy you have about war, but this is how it’s supposed to be. And even if you gang up on them, it won’t be that easy.”
Their abilities had currently reached their peak.
If we were only considering raw combat power, they could probably defeat a High-ranking Executive even one-on-one.
But war and actual combat were different matters.
There was no telling what variables might arise or what hidden traps the enemy might have prepared.
Human life was fleeting enough that even a single stray attack could inflict a fatal wound.
Considering that, Park Siwoo and the others had experience that was far too concentrated in a single area.
The presences beyond us were growing stronger.
We began moving as well.
When we left the underground cavern, we saw them not far away.
The one in the form of a werewolf was Robo.
The one riding atop a massive tree trunk was Kobal.
The two recognized me and stopped in front of us.
“Devil Knight! You filthy traitor!”
“Did you enjoy your brief little rebellion?”
“It’s been a damn long time.”
It was unfortunate that after spending nearly three years inside the trial, these bastards were the first people I had to see upon returning.
I slowly began backing away.
Wol-ah was in my arms, so joining the battle myself would be dangerous.
At that moment, one of the tree trunks controlled by Kobal shot forward at tremendous speed.
Its target was obvious.
Wol-ah.
Bang!
Park Siwoo’s spear moved beside me.
He instantly assumed a spear stance and thrust it forward at hypersonic speed.
Thunderbolt Piercing Serpent (霹靂透虵)
Kobal’s tree trunk exploded instantly, and there was no longer any need for conversation.
The tree trunks Kobal had apparently laid throughout the area rose all at once.
Having already taken control of the surroundings, he began reshaping the terrain itself.
What was this, some playground we used to play in as kids?
Of course, it was vastly more dangerous than that.
Robo’s beasts emerged through gaps in the terrain that had changed in an instant.
Amid the chaos, Park Siwoo and the others began moving independently.
Dan Chun-woo’s sword cut through Kobal’s tree trunks.
Park Siwoo held his spear straight, spread Mana Mist, then unleashed Heavenly Descent of Dragon Aura.
A rain of condensed energy tore Robo’s beasts apart in an instant.
As I observed the battle, I noticed something strange.
Robo, who had been there moments earlier, had vanished amid the confusion.
That damn bastard.
They knew their victory condition far too well.
If even one High-ranking Executive reached the Gate and opened it, the complete revival of the End would begin.
But hadn’t I already said it?
It would be difficult for us to lose even if we wanted to.
A streak of light pursued the vanished Robo.
Eunha had been the first to notice the abnormality.
She caught up to him in an instant, reached out, grabbed him by the nape, and hurled him away.
Before I knew it, the battle had split into Park Siwoo and Dan Chun-woo dealing with Kobal, while Eunha and Helena handled Robo.
It was a favorable matchup for Park Siwoo and the others.
Kroaaaaaar!
Helena’s Dragon Fear reverberated across the battlefield.
The movements of the beasts obeying Robo froze, and even Robo himself stopped for an instant.
Helena was practically Robo’s worst possible matchup.
Robo was undeniably powerful and difficult to deal with because he controlled countless beasts as though they were his own limbs, but Helena wielded the power of a Dragon, a being standing at the pinnacle of all living creatures.
Eunha didn’t miss that opening and rushed in with a devastating strike.
Fighting while surrendering herself completely to instinct, Eunha looked like a blood-starved beast.
Kiiiiing!
While Robo reeled beneath Eunha’s attacks, Helena flew into the sky.
The mana existing within nature began gathering at a single point according to Helena’s will.
Dragon Breath.
The most destructive attack wielded by Dragons poured down toward Robo.
Robo noticed and tried to evade it.
But Eunha clung tenaciously to him and blocked his escape.
“You fucking bitches!”
Helena’s Dragon Breath engulfed Robo.
He barely twisted his body aside and avoided a direct hit, but one side of his chest, including his right arm, was completely blown away.
Seeing that, I turned my head.
That side would be finished soon.
I shifted my gaze toward Park Siwoo and the others.
Unexpectedly, Park Siwoo and Dan Chun-woo were struggling against Kobal.
Well, their compatibility against Kobal wasn’t particularly good.
No matter how powerful the two of them were, it meant nothing if they couldn’t get close to him.
Kobal was a Domain-control Boss who displayed his greatest strength within his own territory.
Among Pandemonium’s High-ranking Executives, he was second only to Tamuz in raw power, and when it came to how troublesome he was, he ranked first.
Having merged with the giant tree, he drained all the Life Force from the surrounding area and survived like a cockroach, while also inflicting various debuffs.
And that wasn’t all.
He manipulated roots and trunks as though they were his limbs and even commanded corrupted spirits.
The spirits he summoned by absorbing the surrounding Life Force bombarded Park Siwoo and Dan Chun-woo.
Park Siwoo spun his spear like a windmill to block them.
At this rate, it would take them forever to reach Kobal.
Maybe I should help them a little.
I activated Demonic Authority and summoned spears through 【Dark Relic】.
Park Siwoo’s face brightened when he saw them.
After receiving the spears, they immediately hurled them, wiping out the troublesome spirits in an instant.
With those cleared away, Park Siwoo began scattering the remaining spears all around.
The launched spears embedded themselves throughout the giant tree.
Seeing that, I realized what Park Siwoo was planning.
He was creating a path.
A path that would let them reach Kobal in a single burst.
The two leapt forward, using the spears embedded throughout the giant tree as footholds, and rapidly closed in on its center.
At that moment, my head spun and my vision distorted.
What was this?
I knew exactly what it was.
An illusion.
Among Pandemonium’s leaders, there was only one bastard—no, one woman—capable of something like this.
Serphin.
I wasn’t the only one caught in Serphin’s illusion.
Her illusions were so close to reality that even powerful individuals had difficulty responding to them.
Park Siwoo and Dan Chun-woo froze for an instant.
A momentary opening created by carelessness.
Pandemonium’s High-ranking Executives were not the kind of opponents who would miss it.
The roots of the giant tree whipped around and sent Park Siwoo and Dan Chun-woo flying.
They crashed into the ground before shaking it off and getting back up.
Fortunately, neither seemed badly injured.
Then what about Helena and Eunha?
Judging from the situation earlier, Robo should have been dead by now.
But the notification about the Corrosion Rate increasing when a High-ranking Executive of Pandemonium died still hadn’t appeared.
I turned my gaze toward them.
Helena and Eunha had stopped just before delivering the killing blow to Robo.
Why the hell hadn’t they killed him yet?
I followed their gazes and saw someone floating in the air.
My expression twisted instantly.
Serphin was there, her black wings fluttering behind her, possessing a deadly beauty.
And beside her floated two unconscious women.
Yoo Yi-seo and Seo Da-hee.
Serphin had taken Yoo Yi-seo and Seo Da-hee hostage and was threatening us.
“You’d better get away from Robo right now. Unless you want to watch these pretty girls get brutally torn apart.”
Park Siwoo and Dan Chun-woo, who had realized what was happening, also stopped moving and approached us.
The fierce battle temporarily came to a halt.
I cursed inwardly.
I had tried to finish off those two as quickly as possible precisely because I had feared something like this happening.
But at the same time, a suspicion arose.
Were those two really the real ones?
Serphin specialized in illusions and nightmares.
In other words, the Yoo Yi-seo and Seo Da-hee in front of us might not actually be real.
I immediately tried contacting Lia.
‘Lia. Lia?’
No matter how many times I called her, there was no response.
Had she really been taken out?
With Yoo Yi-seo and Seo Da-hee’s strength, defeating Serphin might have been difficult, but they should have been more than capable of keeping her in check.
Then, from behind us, I heard an unforgettable voice.
Sniffle.