Chapter 179
“Let’s do a position check. Enrique is excluded from combat and will be used as backup if the situation calls for it. Leo will lead the avant-garde,” Seong-Hwi said.
“Tsk. It’s a shame, but I guess it can’t be helped. My drones can provide ranged support, at the very least,” Enrique remarked, sweeping back his blond hair.
“Of course. Who else could take the lead of the vanguard?” Leo answered with a determined smile.
Seong-Hwi continued, “The targetman, Ri Yong-Su, will also be part of the avant-garde, behind Leo.”
“Leave it to me, Commander comrade,” Yong-Su answered as he pounded his plate armor.
“The mid-garde will consist of Onie Yuki, Chaya, and Song Ha-Eun. Yuki will act as a sub-tank and a keeper. Chaya and Song Ha-Eun will act as support, with Chaya confusing the enemies and Song Ha-Eun binding them,” Seong-Hwi said.
“Huuu... You want me to babysit two kids?” Yuki sighed as she stared at Chaya and Ha-Eun.
“Hyung-nim... I can also act as a poacher attacker,” Chaya remarked, dissatisfied that he was given a support role.
“Leave it to me,” Ha-Eun said as she averted her eyes from Seong-Hwi’s gaze, still finding it difficult being around him.
“I will not accept complaints. Lastly, the arriere-garde will consist of Douglas Montgomery and Evgeny Lazarev. Shooter and raumdeuter, respectively,” Seong-Hwi said.
“Man, it’s been a while since I’ve been in combat. I’m getting a little nervous,” Douglas remarked.
“Whoa, Douglas. What have we been doing until now, then?” Evgeny asked.
“A warm-up, I guess?”
“Ahaha! You’re tough! It must be the American in you.”
Douglas and Evgeny carried themselves with slight anxiety and composure, as one would expect from veterans.
“I’m a wing, but will also act as a playmaker attacker in the vanguard. Now, then...” Seong-Hwi trailed off as he stared at his right hand, holding something silver-grey, smooth and cold like a rubber hose.
Pwoo!
It was Bulgasal’s trunk. It trumpeted, in a good mood from holding Seong-Hwi’s hand.
“I’ll leave it to you,” Seong-Hwi said as he gripped Bulgasal’s trunk as if he were doing a handshake.
Pwoo! Bugasal answered as it spun around it's tail.
***
Bulgasal was in an amazing mood. It was finally freed from the tiny rice grain and had digested a metal meteor and two items with S-rank potential before hatching. It rubbed its belly with its trunk as it swallowed its saliva.
Pwoo! Perfect! I was getting hungry! You’re the best, Daddy! Bulgasal shouted excitedly.
Its father had prepared a feast for its starving self. It was certain that it was a celebratory gift for its birth, showing how much its father loved it.
Thank you for the meal!
Bulgasal placed its small trunk on the ground of the underground city, sensing the enormous amount of metal condensed underneath. Bulgasal was a divine beast that ate metal. Legends had it that it opened an era of peace by devouring all metal, eliminating war.
Bulgasal sucked all the metal underground with its small trunk, wriggling like a pump. No one knew where all that metal was going in its tiny body, but it had already devoured a metal meteor large enough to cover the skies of Ferrum.
[Bulgasal is eating the Iron Vein Seal.]
The entire city began to shake as a giant shadow loomed over it.
“What in the...”
“Amazing.”
“Is this the power of an S-rank item?”
“It’s the same rank as Kang-San’s Dual Dragon Swords...”
Bwoo—!
A deep horn that one would hear from a cruise ship echoed throughout the city. It was the satisfied trumpeting of Bulgasal, who had become as large as a building.
[Bulgasal has eaten the Iron Vein Seal.]
[Major corruption merits obtained.]
[Bulgasal is digesting the Iron Vein Seal.]
Bulgasal slowly returned to its original size of a small dog as it digested the Iron Vein Seal. It burped in satisfaction with its trunk, metal powder coming out.
Pwoo~!
The team members stared at Bulgasal in shock, having witnessed the true power of the beast that resembled a cute baby elephant.
“Here he comes,” Seong-Hwi mumbled, sensing another earthquake.
An entity the size of a dump truck destroyed the ground like an eggshell with a powerful vibration. He roared as if delighted to be freed from the stifling seal at last.
[Shell of Tellus of the race Chaos, discovered.]
Although he was only a shell, the aura of the former thirty-fifth World Ranker was immense. He was like a terracotta soldier made of red clay. He had a round head and a body made of dirt and rocks. His thick arms, with fists the size of small cars, were also double-jointed like those of other subterraneans. However, the thing that stood out most was the fist-sized os embedded in the middle of his chest, exuding a highly-destructive, dark-grey Chaos Mana.
Tellus’s voice echoed from the monster before the team.
This... is me. I wish you luck.
***
“Think of him as a Hispar-rank Chaos!” Seong-Hwi shouted, sensing the Chaos Mana that gave him goosebumps.
He was the same rank as Adolf Hixler, the boss of the dungeon, Dungeon in Progress, and the assistant director of Weishaupt Research Institute. Seong-Hwi had only been able to kill Adolf thanks to Seriel, the fourth-grade angel who borrowed the power of Archangel Gabriel, and Taizet, who had possessed Krypta.
Back then, I was practically fed the kill, but I can do it myself now! Seong-Hwi said inwardly, his eyes shining as he stared at the Shell of Tellus, relishing in his freedom.
Graaah!
The Shell of Tellus suddenly stomped his feet and shot toward them like a cannonball.
“Leo!” Seong-Hwi shouted.
“Huy gaga! Huy yo!”
[Activating Unique Skill: Spirit of Maasai.]
[Activating Unique Skill: Armification.]
[Activating Unique Skill: Rhodes’s Roar.]
Leo raised Rhodes, who had become an oval shield, and assumed a defensive stance.
Gaaaah!
The Shell of Tellus bellowed as he swung his fist at Leo.
“Kurgh!”
The sound of bone breaking echoed as the Shell of Tellus’s fist slammed into Leo’s shield, but Leo’s defensive stance did not falter. He was slightly pushed back, but managed to stop him in his tracks. He had perfectly accomplished the primary task of a stopper.
“Fall back, Leo! Taunt! Bind!”
“Leave it to me!”
“Go!”
[Activating Unique Skill: Empty Words.]
[Activating Unique Skill: Sticky Swamp.]
Yong-Su, who had been waiting behind Leo, took off his straw hat and threw it in the air. The Straw Scarecrow was conjured from the hat and activated Empty Words as it blabbered nonsense. The Shell of Tellus struck the Straw Scarecrow, annoyed by the mana it exuded, spraying straw throughout the surroundings.
Ha-Eun took that chance to spread the Sticky Swamp on the ground. The Liquid Monster clung to the Shell of Tellus’s feet to reduce his mobility.
Seong-Hwi shouted, “Yuki! Trap him!”
Yuki pulled her hands out of her windbreaker and let her mana surge.
[Activating Unique Skill: Mannequin Control.]
[Mannequin - Filipe Kabuka]
[Mannequin - Vilis Daudzins]
[Mannequin - Sam Louwyck]
[Mannequin - Michael Carter]
[Mannequin - Eiza Gonzales]
[Mannequin - Lou Yixiao]
...
Her D Weapon, Mannequin Army, appeared. Three hundred mannequins, all with their joints clacking, charged at the Shell of Tellus, whose legs were bound by the Sticky Swamp.
Graaah!
The Shell of Tellus viciously swung his fists around, and the mannequins that were even grazed were destroyed.
“He fell for it!” Yuki shouted, unfazed by the destruction of around fifty of her mannequins.
She had summoned them solely to lure the Shell of Tellus to where she wanted—where a hunchback living mannequin was situated. The mannequin pointed its right arm with a gold ring on its finger at the Shell of Tellus, activating Almighty Gold. Six gold plates packaged the Shell of Tellus as if he were a toy gift.
Graaah!
The Shell of Tellus rampaged inside the gold box, massive dents forming on its surface.
“Seong-Hwi! It won’t hold for much longer!” Yuki shouted, shocked by her rapidly depleting mana.
Seong-Hwi flew above the gold box, sprouting iridescent wings.
[Operating Wings of Evolution.]
[Twelve Wings.]
He then attempted a secondary force conversion in a way he had never done before.
“Hup!”
[Converting Destiny Force to Demon Force.]
[Converting Destiny Force to Holy Force.]
[Converting Destiny Force to Draconic Mana.]
Four wings turned pure-white with circular patterns, four wings turned black with white pentagram patterns, and four wings turned gold with scale-like patterns. He had simultaneously brought out the powers of three superior races, the most destructive secondary forces in his arsenal.
“HAAAAAH!” Seong-Hwi shouted as he felt his back burning.
He fused all twelve wings over his right shoulder. The one wing resembled a single flame, flickering unstably. He brought out the full force of his Magic stat, which he had raised to A(45) with the remaining sixty million Karma after investing in Bulgasal. The amplified mana surged like a supercar going from zero to a hundred kilometers per hour in two seconds on a highway.
Cards from the Tarot Deck of Destiny poured like rainfall.
[Activating Unique Skill: Symbol Embodiment.]
[Ace of Wands]
[Two of Wands]
...
[Seven of Wands]
[Catastrophic Thunder, one of the symbols of No.16 The Tower]
[Activating Skill: Rust of Ruin.]
Twenty-eight wands combined to form one. Seong-Hwi infused it with Holy Force, Demon Force, and Draconic Mana, turning the red flames to blue, then white. He also added the powers of Catastrophic Thunder and Rust of Ruin to it. However, he did not end it there. He was determined to kill the enemy or leave a critical wound with this one attack. He activated all his traits.
[Activating Trait: Thousand-Man Killer.]
[Activating Trait: Mystery Killing.]
[Activating Trait: Foul Play.]
[Activating Trait: Natural Enemy of Chaos.]
“Urgh! Yuki! Open it!”
The skin was torn off Seong-Hwi’s right arm, holding the wand infused with immense power, exposing his blood-red muscles. Yuki opened the top part of the gold box as Seong-Hwi ordered.
GRAAAH—!
The Shell of Tellus looked up as he roared.
Seong-Hwi also roared in response, “DIE—!”
A devastating fire pillar shot forth from the wand and struck the Shell of Tellus directly. The sound of an aluminum can being crushed echoed, and the terrain turned upside down. Flames spewed everywhere, and the white fire pillar fired from Seong-Hwi’s wand pierced the ground without restraint.
“Ahhh! Get away!”
“Crazy son of a bitch!”
The city’s underground, which had already been hollowed out because Bulgasal had absorbed all the metal, collapsed.
“This way!”
“Haaap!”
Ha-Eun grabbed her teammates with the Liquid Monster and sent them to a safe zone. The vibrations continued without end.
“Such power.”
“What the hell’s with him? A playmaker attacker? An attack like that could only come from a wiper attacker, specialized in wide-area bursts!”
The team members stared at the ground, which had become an abyssal sinkhole as large as a landfill and so deep that no one could see the bottom.
“Huff! Huff! Huff!” Seong-Hwi panted heavily as he squinted, looking into the sinkhole.
[Activating Unique Skill: Symbol Embodiment.]
[Regenerating Crown, one of the symbols of No.2 The High Priestess]
[Ace of Cups]
[Two of Cups]
...
[Seven of Cups]
The power of the Regenerating Crown and the Cups healed his right arm as white smoke fumed from it. It was bound to be extremely painful, but Seong-Hwi did not even bat an eye; the immense surge of adrenaline dulled the pain.
Just then, Tellus’s voice echoed, Be careful.
Seong-Hwi’s eyes widened, sensing a presence from inside the sinkhole.
It wasn’t enough! he shouted inwardly.
Unsettling Chaos Mana lingered from inside the sinkhole. Seong-Hwi flew into the sinkhole without hesitation.
[Activating Unique Skill: Symbol Embodiment.]
[Harvesting Scythe, one of the symbols of No.13 Death]
[Deathly Aura is available.]
[Reaper’s Harvest is available.]
[Farewell Strike is available.]
...
[Duration: 00:00:15]
[Duration: 00:00:14]
...
Seong-Hwi couldn’t afford to lose even one second of the effects of the trait, Natural Enemy of Chaos, and the secondary force conversions. The battle had only just begun.