Sillardo Leo.
He was the director of Lair’s sentries, and was at the same time the representative of the strictest investigation authority of the academy city.
Although he was also a director, he was different from the director of the munitions department who played around with numbers on a chair. Sillardo had already been a world ranker during the great war, back when he was in his thirties.
With his body that had been enlarged after a transfusion of a giant’s blood, he reached 3 metres in height. Even Yu Jitae, who was on a fairly tall side, looked small like David standing before Goliath.
The Regressor reflected back on the previous iterations. Sillardo Leo was an individual that would play a big part in the upcoming second great war and was one of the few remaining soldiers that wholeheartedly devoted themselves to the wellbeing of humanity, in this time of despondency. He was the type of person that had to live at all cost.
But Yu Jitae wasn’t interested in that right now.
“I’m Sillardo Leo, the director of the sentries. For assault, violence, blackmail, damage to property and well, a few other reasons, I will now arrest Mr. Yu Jitae, the guardian.”
“…”
“As the guardian, you have the right to keep silent and can hire an attorney. Do you have any objections.”
Blue mana fluctuated from the large shield on his left. Yu Jitae nodded indifferently. Whatever the reason, he had done a ‘bad thing’ and was naturally a target of arrest.
“I do not.”
“Then I ask for your cooperation during the process.”
He took out a chain artifact used for arrests. However, seeing that Yu Jitae remained standing without doing anything, the giant stopped moving and opened his mouth.
“However, you do not need to worry too much. From what I have just seen, I can understand why you would be upset as the guardian. As long as you cooperate nicely, most of your offences would be reconsidered…”
“Wait please. There’s something I’ve yet to hear.”
Yu Jitae interjected.
“Sorry?”
“Let me ask one last question before I go.”
He walked past the giant and headed to Kang Mungu. It was because he hadn’t confirmed who the briber was yet.
Kung–
But that was when a large foot reached out and blocked him from advancing any further. Sillardo’s leg, which had suddenly appeared, caused the Regressor to halt his feet.
“I apologise, but you cannot.”
“What?”
“You will not be allowed to approach him.”
“…”
“I ask for your understanding. The sentries have confirmed that an investigation into the protective necklace incident is warranted, and we have already requested the education department under my name as the director, for a warrant.”
He was saying that the rest was for the police, not for citizens.
Yu Jitae placed his hand on the back of his neck and massaged it a few times.
“Then I won’t approach, and will only ask.”
“We can’t allow that either.”
“For what reason.”
“We shall talk once we get into the car. Let’s go.”
“Then I can’t go either.”
The deep eyebrows of the giant twitched.
Although he had retired when he began hunting the demons in full-scale, Yu Jitae had belonged to Lair’s Local Police Force in the past.
There were strict regulations regarding investigations, which was also the same for Lair’s sentries. But none of the regulations required officers to stop others from asking questions, especially in a situation like this where the assailant was not clear.
In other words, it was just Sillardo being obstinate, probably trying to be the one leading the situation.
“You’ll have to go. Because I’m planning on taking you along.”
His following words were the proof.
Kung.
A large foot of an enormous giant was laid firmly on the ground. Oppressively, a strong aura surged forth.
Sillardo clearly knew that Yu Jitae was strong, but suppressing the strong was his specialty.
“Let me say it for the final time. Obediently cooperate with the investigation.”
“I’m trying to, but you’re interfering.”
“It’s for isolating purposes. How is it interfering.”
When the atmosphere flipped in an instant, Sillardo growled back.
“You,can’t be stiff-necked about it. As the head of security, you don’t feel ashamed for being unable to stop a cadet’s head possibly flying off, and instead you’re trying to stop others from digging into it?”
How would anyone but god know of all the crimes that would occur beforehand? However, the policeman did not make an excuse for himself.
“…It might be late, but I’ll do what I must henceforth.”
He raised the shield into the air.
“This is the last time. Obediently cooperate with the investigation.”
Then, he reached out into the air as blue flames flared up. As the fire scattered, a large blue hammer was revealed.
It was a Level 3 artifact, [Judgement of Tubalcain].
And the shield he had been carrying from the start was [Fragment of the Great Wall], a Level 4 artifact. It was the fragment of the Great Wall of Extreme North, which had divided a continent of another dimension into two in a distant past, even before dragons existed,
It was an unbreakable shield.
“…”
Killing intent gloomily trickled out.
“How dare you!”
After sensing that, an intricately formed alternate dimension erupted out of Sillardo’s body and covered the world. Inside a new blue world filled with scattering strands of azure light, the director of sentries ran in towards Yu Jitae.
“EVIL ONE–!”
His yell shook the dimension.
Each step of the large body trembled the dimension like hundreds of buffalos shaking the ground and flooded Yu Jitae.
Mana gathered onto the hammer. As the blue light exploded out with its luminosity, it resembled a falling comet and gushed towards Yu Jitae.
Kwaang–!!
But the light was blocked by something and its vigorous strike bounced back. The bluish mana stormed like a tornado back to where it came from and pushed the world away. As the alternate dimension wavered and trembled, flames sparked into the air.
Sillardo doubted what he was seeing. The hammer was stopped in mid-air and was unable to be pushed any further.
[Shapeless Sword (SS)]
The Regressor easily pushed his sword forward and both the hammer and the giant were pushed back.
Lowering his body, he ran in at Sillardo for a stab. Despite his speed reaching a point where he was invisible to the eye, Sillardo instinctively managed to match the invisible sword with the centre of the shield and blocked the stab.
Kwagagagakk–!
A tremendous impact unstabilised the shield. That one clash greatly surprised Sillardo.
It was a stab. How could a simple stab be this heavy?
Yu Jitae approached him again and swung ‘something’ in a big motion. The moment Sillardo thought to himself that he had managed to block it again, that ‘something’ dug into the shield and his body flew dozens of metres and crashed into the ground.
A simple suppression would never work at this rate. He resolved himself.
[Blue Ocean (A+)]
The skill that allowed one to synchronise with the dimension covered the giant’s body with a bluish light. This wasn’t enough. Sillardo began enabling all the authorities and skills in order to protect his body.
[Steel Chains of Avian (A-)]
Seven large metal chains of blue creeped out from the walls and the ceiling of the alternate dimension and put a restraint on Yu Jitae’s legs, arms, chest and neck. It was an undodgeable skill as long as the target was inside Sillardo’s dimension.
[Aura of Peace (A)]
An inexhaustible amount of stamina surged up inside him and all his physical capabilities explosively increased. Even after that, he enabled more than 10 other B ranked skills and blessings.
[Execution Ground Declaration (AA+)]
Finally, the territory of the judge spread across with him in the centre. All the proclaimed evils inside the domain lost a portion of all their abilities, which then supplemented Sillardo’s strength.
All sorts of transcendent lights surged out of his body.
Now, he was stronger than average organisations of superhumans.
“…!”
It was then.
The moment Sillardo finished his preparations, he was instead shocked and couldn’t move. He muttered.
‘What in the…’
[Execution Ground Declaration (AA+)] was the strongest authority he had. It was one of the few authorities in the world that allowed one to suppress someone stronger than oneself as long as they were inside the declared domain.
However, the power level that had been absorbed from the target was so unimaginably great that it was impossible to logically understand.
‘How could something like this happen…’
Before he became the head of the sentries at Lair, he had been the president of Superhuman Without Border. He had ended many wars and skirmishes, and had contested against countless rankers before eventually suppressing them.
And the amount of power absorbed by [Execution Ground Declaration (AA+)] during those fights was around 30% of his own stats on average, which sometimes reached 40% depending on the opponent.
That was the numeric version given on a status screen that was only seen by him.
Holding his shield, Sillardo stole a glance at the status screen.
<Power absorbed inside the Domain: 833%>
But what in the world was this…
Then, the policeman looked at the criminal walking towards him.
Without a word, expression or gesture, the man was carrying something like a weapon in one hand as he approached Sillardo. The steel chains of Avian, and the alternate dimension covering him stretched extensively to stop his feet but the man walked forward without batting an eye.
After walking right up to his face, the man swung his sword as killing intent gushed out of his shoulders.
[Shapeless Sword (SS) – Second Form]
[Chainsaw]
The one that had disintegrated the gates of the demon castle – the authority that had demolished the possessed spirit of Lakshata, the Seventh Lord of the Abyss post-extrication.
That tyrannic killing intent vibrated like an electric chainsaw as it fell down.
This is dangerous–
I have to block this…!
He raised his shield and used all the absorbed power to push the opponent away. A tempest of mana enough to push a mountain surged out from the [Fragment of the Great Wall] but he realised afterward, that a hand had reached out and was grabbing onto his neck.
Sillardo could see the man’s arm, which was so stupidly tough that the giant felt like his neck was going to snap.
“…”
Soon, the man’s invisible weapon came and touched the shield.
An unfathomable impact covered his body and trembled his consciousness.
At the same time, the alternate dimension turned into fragments of light and scattered into fine particles.
Sillardo shot out of the alternate dimension along with his shield. His body broke through the office walls and continued plunging down till he crashed into the ground.
A thunderous thud enough to destroy heaven and earth resonated across. Multiple shockwaves followed one another as the windows of nearby buildings and cars shattered.
At the same time, the floating island, Haytling, which was protected by dozens of spells, fell roughly 15 centimetres in altitude.
At the epicentre of the incident was a crater 30-metre wide.
‘…’
He blocked it but didn’t block it fully. The impact had been conveyed and had destroyed his internal organs.
“…”
Today, the sky was further and higher than usual.
That was the last thing Sillardo saw before his consciousness faded away.
***
“…”
After finishing with the formalities, they were on their way to the dungeon. Inside the Portal Bureau were a hundred cadets and dozens of guardians chattering away.
Yeorum irritatedly looked outside and checked the time. There were only 4 minutes left until they entered the dungeon and yet for some reason, Yu Jitae was yet to appear.
She asked Mihailov.
“You haven’t received any message from my guardian? I saw you call someone just then.”
Mihailov didn’t look too good. He shook his head.
“Why. Is he not coming?”
“Let’s focus on the raid for the time being.”
“What the hell. That’s annoying… why isn’t he coming?”
– We will be entering the safety area of the dungeon in three minutes. Please do a final checkup before we go in.
Hearing the announcement, cadets stood up from their seats. Yeorum did her best to hide the displeasure inside her and stood up. While the teams lining up at the front walked into the portal, Yeorum who was near the end of the line, kept glancing back at the entrance.
Her being unfocused was directly conveyed to her teammates. They also became fidgety and distracted.
Unable to withstand it, Sophia opened her mouth.
“Maybe your guardian’s busy with some work.”
“…”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“…”
“…Are you listening to me? You’re making us bothered as well for no reason. You can just see him after you come back.”
“Ah, please just shut up.”
“Bitch. Here I was worried about you…”
It was then. Yu Jitae suddenly appeared at the entrance. Even though she saw that, the look of displeasure remained on Yeorum’s face.
“What? Why you coming now. Why not next year?”
“Sorry. At least I wasn’t late.”
“You were. You’re super late.”
Yu Jitae was wearing different clothes from before and Mihailov looked doubtful but that didn’t matter. After walking up to the team, Yu Jitae handed them small chocolates for them to eat. “What’s this…” Yeorum grumbled.
“Good work for all your preparations. Wish you the best.”
“…Doesn’t suit you.”
It was soon their turn. Sophia looked back at Yeorum and saw her heaving a sigh. But when she raised her head back up, there was a comparatively calmer look on her face as she began stepping forward towards the portal.
“Jitae. How come you’re here…?”
Left alone, Mihailov asked with a frown but Yu Jitae shook his head in response. Then, he walked away without saying anything.
On the way outside the Portal Bureau, Yu Jitae called someone.
“Aah, it’s me.”
– …!
“No. It is my voice. We’re short on time so don’t say anything unnecessary. I’m calling because there is something I need some help with.”
– …?
“Right. It is time for that. Come as fast as you can please. Before things go out of hand.”