Chapter 245 – A Turbulent World (2)
[You have earned a great amount of Karma in the sudden quest (Field Arrest 1)].
[You have contributed a lot to killing Ismenios. The Red Dragon has suffered great losses.]
[Final Ranks]
Rank 1. Nayu (501,953 Points)
Rank 2. ### (105,119 Points)
……
[You have cleared the quest with high accomplishments.]
[The authority of choosing your reward has been handed over to the Bureau. Please wait a moment.]
[You have earned ‘The Fourth Intrenian’ as a reward.]
[You have earned ‘The Fifth Intrenian’ as a reward.]
[You have earned ‘The Last Dragon’s Corpse’ as a reward.]
[You have earned…..]
…..
Yeon-woo was looking at the endless messages that were popping up when something bared its teeth from his hand. It was a soul trying to escape his grasp.
Kiaaaaaa!
It was on a different level than normal souls. Its body, vestige, and size were all abnormal.
It was the Summer Queen’s soul.
Yeon-woo had all kinds of enemies.
Each of their motives was different, and the extent to which they had hurt his brother varied as well. There were those like Bahal and Leonte, who personally stabbed his brother in the heart, and those like Valdebich, who merely disappeared without a trace.
In the case of the Gluttony Emperor or the head bishop of the Devil Army, they made an alliance to prevent new rivals from appearing.
From that perspective, the Summer Queen’s position was a bit iffy.
She didn’t care much about Arthia; she didn’t even look at the lower floors.
Even when Bahal joined the Red Dragon, she didn’t think much about that clan.
The people who fought against Arthia and his brother were her underlings, not her.
No, before that, the Summer Queen and his brother used to greet each other cordially.
There was no need for her to avoid a descendant of Kalatus.
However.
‘The Summer Queen turned her back on Jeong-woo eventually. In the end, she even stepped up to kill him.’
In that process, the fight between his brother and the Summer Queen began.
The Summer Queen was barely able to chase his brother out, but that was only after her Dragon Heart was destroyed.
The rest was history that Yeon-woo could extrapolate. The Dragon Heart had continued to crumble until it arrived at its demise.
And the result of that.
「Who…… are you……!」
The Summer Queen’s soul growled in Yeon-woo’s grip. She forced out her consciousness in the inescapable bind.
The Despair of the Black King was an incredible item that not even the soul of a Draconic species could escape.
Her vestige was filled with the intent to kill Yeon-woo.
The person responsible for all this. She couldn’t forgive the person that made her into this pitiful state, not even letting her move on.
「You……! You!」
Yeon-woo slightly lifted his mask to show his face.
“Does this answer your question?”
「H, How!」
The Summer Queen’s soul entered a panicked state for a moment and was speechless. The ashy figure trembled. It was because she had never heard of a dead person coming back to life.
Aside from that, she was a Draconic species with Draconic Eyes. If Heaven Wing came back, she would know, even if he wore a mask.
Just what happened? Her vestige shook.
Under normal circumstances, she would’ve understood the situation quickly, but the shock of becoming a soul still hadn’t disappeared.
The curse of Heaven Wing stained her soul.
-Unless you escape that way of thinking, you’ll never know. Ever. You’ll probably die suffering by yourself.
The way of thinking that Heaven Wing alluded to was the Summer Queen’s long-lived resolve to defeat Allforone and swallow all the gods and demons on the 98th floor.
During all that time as the last member of her species, she realized that she was unique in this world, and this lonely path was hers to walk.
But the person who had directly stood in her path was Heaven Wing.
A mere weakling, the leftovers of the now dead Kalatus, had mocked her life, not knowing his place. The Summer Queen couldn’t control herself and fought him.
However, even while Heaven Wing’s Sky Wings were breaking and he was falling to the ground, swallowed up by the fire of Breath, the pity in his eyes didn’t disappear.
-Poor pitiful Ismenios. The last dragon…..
「Heaven Wing! Heaven Wing!」
The nightmare that she had pushed into a part of her mind came bursting out. Her entire vestige turned black.
The Summer Queen’s soul shook up and down, as if telling him to let go of her.
‘It’ll be dangerous if she’s left alone.’
Yeon-woo forced a tighter grip on the squirming Summer Queen and frowned.
The Black Bracelet’s binds were shaking. He was only able to calm it down after using the 3rd Spirit.
‘It’ll be hard to digest this.’
A dragon was definitely a dragon. He thought that it would be hard to control it.
Just then, Yeon-woo felt something approaching him and put the Summer Queen back into his collection.
Even she wouldn’t be able to do anything if she was in there.
“Haha! You look fine. I couldn’t have imagined you would be the person to have done such a thing.”
The people who came next to Yeon-woo were Atran’s party members. The Ice King laughed with a cheerful face.
The attack targeting the Summer Queen. It was a memorable scene for the Ice King, who had fought on the battlefield for a long time.
Yeon-woo felt a bit wary of the Ice King. He knew that he wasn’t a bad person, but the unfounded kindness made him uncomfortable.
They had just met for the first time, and they had nothing in common except for the Martial King. It was the feeling of an outsider being uncomfortable by the friendliness of an insider.
He was wondering how he should reply when he felt another presence.
Swek—
The thick smell of blood that couldn’t be erased no matter how hard you tried. It was the Martial King and the One-horned tribe.
But the Martial King at the forefront of the group did not look happy. He looked stiff, unlike his usual chill self. His gaze and direction as he flew in was fixed on Yeon-woo.
There was a violent atmosphere, like he would swing his fists any moment.
The Ice King, Twice, and Nocturn moved Atran back to safety.
And like they expected, the Martial King’s fists headed straight for Yeon-woo. A fierce whirlpool waved around him, powerful enough to blow Yeon-woo’s head off.
But Yeon-woo didn’t move to dodge him. He just stood there.
Eventually, the Martial King’s fist stopped right in front of Yeon-woo’s forehead.
Kwang!
A canyon behind Yeon-woo was blown away. Most canyons had already been broken from the Martial King and Summer Queen’s fight, and now everything was gone.
It was a dangerous situation where he could die at any moment, but Yeon-woo didn’t blink at all and just looked at the Martial King’s fist.
The Martial King frowned with dissatisfaction and flicked Yeon-woo’s forehead.
Tak!
“Keuk!”
Yeon-woo wrapped his hands around his head at the pain that felt like his skull was cracking. He hadn’t made any sound when his body was being destroyed from the buffs, but this flick of the finger was too painful.
The Martial King’s head tilted.
“Keuk? Keukkk? You ate everything that your teacher set up, but ‘keuk’ is all you say? You’ll only get yourself together after having one foot in the Styx and seeing the Summer Queen’s face on the opposite side, huh?”
Yeon-woo couldn’t bring himself to say that the Summer Queen’s soul was in his collection. He felt like he would be beaten to death if he joked like that.
But he must’ve had some kind of mental illness. Yeon-woo heard himself talking back.
“I was only trying to help…..”
Tak!
“Aack!”
“Why are you talking back?”
The Martial King glared at his disciple, who was on the ground with his arms around his head, and sighed.
Then, he asked with a serious face.
“Was that old lady one of them?”
Yeon-woo still hadn’t told the Martial King his identity and his goal.
However, the Martial King knew that his youngest disciple had a deep-seated grudge, and he was climbing the Tower for that very purpose.
He was asking if this was one of the ways of paying back that grudge.
Yeon-woo silently nodded, and the Martial King shook his head with exasperation.
The scale of his payback was tremendous.
His vengeance destroyed an Outer Space and involved the Bureau, the unions, and the large clans. Even the Blood Land participated in the end. It couldn’t get more chaotic than this.
He, the Martial King, had caused a lot of incidents when he was younger, but it couldn’t match his youngest disciple.
Yeon-woo looked like a serious scholar on the outside, but his actions were nasty.
‘Well, that’s why I like him.’
The Martial King chuckled to himself, thinking that he wasn’t normal either for thinking that this was fun.
“Anyways, you did this, so clean up after yourself neatly and come back.”
The Martial King patted Yeon-woo on the back and moved to where the Elders and the tribe members were.
“Our tribe leader can’t be true to his feelings.”
“Just say that he did well. Is that so hard to say? Or is it because you’re shy?”
“Shut up, you fools! Aside from that, where’s that bastard?”
“Of course he ran away.”
“Let’s go catch him first.”
The Martial King exchanged some words with his tribe members and turned his head to where Atran and the others were.
The Ice King cheerfully greeted him.
“Long time no see.”
“When did you come back out, sir? I didn’t hear anything.”
“It hasn’t been that long. You’re the same as you were back then. Your disciple, right? He’s exactly like you.”
“Is that a compliment or an insult?”
“Take it however you’d like.”
The Martial King grinned and looked the Ice King up and down.
“It seems like you’ve still got it. How about it? Shall we play a game later?”
“Hehehe. Don’t joke like that. If it was 10 years ago, I would, but my joints ache these days. I won’t recover if I’m hurt.”
“You still look good enough to lift a spoon. Anyways, I’ll see you next time.”
As the Martial King and the Ice King said their farewells, he met Nocturn’s eyes. But the Martial King didn’t say anything and just passed by Nocturn, like he didn’t know him.
No, he pretended like there wasn’t anyone there. Even if they cut off ties, they had still been teacher and disciple at one point. However, Nocturn looked unaffected.
The Martial King and the One-horned tribe disappeared as quickly as they came. It was to find their lost target.
Yeon-woo fixed his mask and got up.
The war was over. It had only lasted a few days, but he felt like he had been through lots of things during that time.
And on one side, he thought that even though he caught Vieira Dune and the Summer Queen, even though such a drastic change had happened, there were still a lot of enemies, and the Tower wasn’t affected in the slightest considering its size.
“Um, Oraboni.”
Just then, Edora carefully approached him.
“What’s wrong?”
“You have a…..bump on your head. Are you alright?”
“…….”
Yeon-woo smiled sourly after touching his forehead. The bump was huge. He still felt numb.
* * *
“Haha! Hahaha!”
Jang Wei was on the move after realizing that the One-horned tribe had begun their chase again, and he was escaping into the outer sections of the Tower.
But even though he was clearly being chased, the smile didn’t escape his lips.
However, it wasn’t a laughter of joy. It was one filled with sadness, hate, and disillusionment.
“So he’s here? Here? Here! I was wondering…..!”
Jang Wei couldn’t forget it.
The appearance of the Hoarder he saw as he was aiming for the Martial King. He had only heard the rumors, but he had never seen him. Even so, he felt two things when he looked at him.
Familiarity.
And also,
‘He’s dangerous.’
Why did he think that?
Although the Hoarder had a martial ability that didn’t fit the lower floors, as it stood equal to rankers, his skill wasn’t threatening to Jang Wei, a high ranker.
But still, the ‘warning’ of his instincts didn’t leave his mind.
It should’ve been a face he didn’t know because of the mask.
Why did he feel familiar? No, to be exact, the ‘atmosphere’ was familiar.
From far away, Jang Wei chased after Yeon-woo. He wanted to know the reason for the warning.
And in that process, when he saw the eyes beyond the mask, Jang Wei realized who it was right away.
Those eyes. Even though they were covered with something, they were eyes he couldn’t forget. The eyes that seemed indifferent, and at the same time, fiery like they were going to burn the world.
‘Sister. Chief is inside the Tower. He’s inside the Tower!’