Chapter 338

The battle was easier than he had thought.

Of course, that was only ‘than he had thought.’

The members of Night Rat may not have known fear, but their stamina and mana were not infinite. The enemy, on the other hand, numbered in the tens of thousands—a figure that felt infinite to the fewer than fifty members of the guild.

No matter how many they cut down—three, five at a time—the sight of thousands more locusts swarming in was a stark reminder of the overwhelming difference in their numbers.

Ragged breaths and stifled screams could be heard from all sides. The blood of his guild members rained down from the sky. Having confirmed the limits of individual combat, Sa-yoon called over Jaehee, who had joined the fray with all his summons.

“What’s the progress percentage?”

“It’s at 72.”

“Then we’d better draw some water and pray we can do this within the remaining three percent.”

Muttering to himself, Sa-yoon consumed a large amount of mana potion and shouted for the guild members to retreat from the domain at once. The tattered members supported each other as they evacuated.

“…If you’re going to do something, do it quick, hyung-nim! I think this thing’s gonna break in five minutes!” Gyeongjin warned from where he was collapsed on the ground.

“So weak.”

Though he had only whispered it, Gyeongjin, whose hearing was apparently enhanced by his stats, caught the words and shot back irritably, “I do all this for you and you still complain?” Sa-yoon ignored the noise and focused on controlling the frost energy scattered in the air.

Crack, crackle.

The chill that had been dissolved in the water vapor solidified, taking form in the air. The swarm of locusts split apart to avoid the sudden interlopers. One by one, Sa-yoon increased the number of ice walls materializing in the sky, creating seven distinct paths.

Paths made of ice walls, too high and thick to be bypassed by flight.

Their role was to separate the tens of thousands of locusts, preventing them from converging in one place.

If you’re going to fight one against many, you need the environment on your side.

A wide-open plain was too disadvantageous. Having created his artificial environment, Sa-yoon selected two of the seven paths and created ice awls above the locusts trapped within. Geon-joo, who had been watching silently from the side, wrapped an arm around Sa-yoon’s waist and drank a potion. The mana that had been rapidly plummeting from the overuse of his abilities surged, and the number of ice awls he could create doubled.

Sa-yoon took a breath and flicked his finger. The waiting awls began to fall with tremendous force, as if struck by a fist from above.

—KIEEEEK!

Screams echoed across the wide, empty space.

“Cough!”

At that moment, Gyeongjin coughed up blood again. The man’s face was deathly pale; he looked like he was on his last legs. There was no time to rest. Sa-yoon checked on the guild members, who had used the brief respite to recover with potions, and then gestured with his chin toward the ice walls.

“Same as before, split into teams and take one path each. Circle wide so you’re not surrounded and hit them from the rear. Executives, spread out and take down the S-Ranks to clear a path for the others.”

At his command, the figures clad in black moved without a word of complaint.

Unlike before, they didn’t meet the enemy head-on. Jongsik, who had circled wide to attack the rear of the locust swarm from the direction they had come, roared, the veins on his neck bulging.

“The one who kills the fewest has to clean the villa for a month!”

His voice, as broad and sturdy as his bear-like frame, thundered across the area. At his words, the guild members flew into a frenzy, swinging their swords and throwing bombs.

“Ah, a whole month? The smell of corpses will never wash out!”

“Kill! Kill!”

“I’d rather lick hyung-nim’s feet!”

The guild members’ horrified shouts mixed with the screams of the monsters.

Jongsik is a good leader.

Sa-yoon thought with internal admiration, then turned to Geon-joo.

“Watch how Jongsik speaks and acts to move the guild members, and learn from it. You’ll have to do at least that much if you’re going to lead a guild one day.”

“Why would I do that when I have you? It’s not like you’re going anywhere, leaving me behind.”

“There’s always a ‘what if,’ you know. A ‘what if.’”

Annoyed by the suspicious look in his eyes, as if Geon-joo thought he was harboring some secret intention, Sa-yoon gave his head a light bonk. Just then, the locusts’ movements began to turn frantic. It was a sign that Gyeongjin’s limited domain was fading.

Sa-yoon had Geon-joo bring the collapsed man over. Gyeongjin’s eyes had rolled back into his head, and he was taking shallow breaths. Sa-yoon slapped his cheeks a couple of times, and his eyes rolled back, his gaze slowly coming into focus. With a groan, Gyeongjin tried and failed to sit up, resigning himself to the sandy ground as his bed.

“Hyung-nim…” he rasped, his face contorted in a frown. His voice was so hoarse it sounded as if his vocal cords had been damaged from coughing up so much blood. Chan-hee, sniffling beside him, asked if he had pushed himself too hard. It was exactly the kind of melodrama he hated. Sa-yoon clicked his tongue and retorted.

“That’s right, Patrasche.”

“…Do you have to be like that, even at a time like this?”

“Don’t you know your mouth will get twisted if you sleep in a place like this?”

He tutted disapprovingly and held a high-grade potion to his lips. After barely managing to drink it, Gyeongjin leaned against Chan-hee and watched the battlefield. Dividing the area with walls had been more effective than expected. The guild members were suffering far fewer casualties than in the first battle, while taking down many more locusts.

And yet, despite their fierce fighting, the sky, where the locusts swarmed, remained stubbornly dark. Such was the nature of tens of thousands.

Gyeongjin uncorked a mana potion and gulped it down, then wiped the blood from his mouth.

“Can I be honest for a second?”

“No.”

“We can’t win this, hyung-nim.”

“Did you not hear me say no?”

Who here doesn’t already know that? Why spoil the mood?

Winning against tens of thousands with fewer than a hundred people was impossible from the start. It would be difficult even if he had fifty clones of himself instead of the guild members.

But the guild’s objective was not to annihilate the locust swarm.

It was to buy time until Abaddon appeared, and to inflict damage on his minions.

And to provoke Abaddon into appearing.

Those two things were all that mattered. So even if they couldn’t “win,” it wasn’t a problem.

“It’ll be soon, anyway.”

“What’ll be soon? The duration of my domain? Or the time for all of us to die?”

“Abaddon, you bastard.”

Did he go crazy after coughing up blood for thirty minutes? Sa-yoon grabbed and twisted Gyeongjin’s ear for his nonsense, then looked toward the angel, who was watching them with narrowed eyes, and spoke.

“That thing is about to blow its trumpet again.”

The angel, which had been standing quietly with its trumpet lowered since its first blast, had begun to move again. The bell of the trumpet, which had been pointing at the ground, was slowly rising toward the sky, its speed increasing as the guild members killed more and more locusts.

The moment it blew the trumpet for the second time, that would be the second coming of Abaddon. Judging by the angle of the trumpet, that time was not far off. Sa-yoon looked at the man whose arm was still wrapped around his waist, even after bringing Gyeongjin over.

“Han Geon-joo.”

He took his hand and pulled it away. The health and mana that had been split between them returned to their original states. His own mana dropped, while Han Geon-joo’s condition returned to its peak. As he stared at the face that was now flushed with color, its eyes bright and clear, Geon-joo glanced once at the angel, then took a long look at the fighting guild members before speaking.

“You’re going to give it to me now?”

“Yeah. Who knows what will happen when Abaddon appears? Why wait? It’s better to get it over with now.”

“That’s true.”

The man, agreeing readily, lowered his head. Oh, come on. Have some consideration for the guild members’ human rights. Just as Gyeongjin’s lament was heard, Sa-yoon kissed Han Geon-joo, then slowly closed and opened his eyes. A hand lightly tapped his black hair. The one who had copied his Demigod Body rubbed his head against that hand.

“Don’t push yourself. If you think you can’t do it alone, tell me.”

“Just make sure you keep your promise not to step in if it reaches 75 percent.”

His words still held a thread of suspicion. Sa-yoon hummed and evaded the question. Han Geon-joo, in turn, didn’t promise that he would. Gyeongjin looked at the two of them with an expression that said, So this is what they mean by ‘birds of a feather,’ and shook his head.

BOOM!

At that moment, an explosion rocked the battlefield. It was a far more violent sound than before. As if by agreement, everyone’s gaze turned to the source, and they saw Yen, who was creating a mana explosion by injecting poison into his explosives.

When the poison-laced needle pierced the surface of the explosive, the poison would detonate first, devouring the Hwangchung. Then, the flames, which had been protected by the poison, would erupt, their firepower seemingly amplified by the initial blast.

“Wow, even his explosions are just like him.”

Gyeongjin muttered, looking at the sinister bombs. The dual explosion was clearly inflicting massive damage on the swarm, felling hundreds at a time. Geon-joo asked from the side if it was an item. Sa-yoon shook his head.

“It’s an alchemical bomb Yen made using his mana, so it’s closer to a skill.”

It was one of the masterpieces Yen, who rejected all things ordinary, had accidentally created during one of his crazy experiments.

The only problem was that said masterpiece didn’t distinguish between friend and foe.

“GAAAAH!”

“Yen, you crazy bastard!”

The guild members who had been caught in the blast threw themselves backward in terror. Hahaha! Yen let out a cheerful laugh that was completely out of place on the grim battlefield. Just as Sa-yoon shook his head, thinking that even he couldn’t deal with someone who was enjoying this like a child… the angel moved.

“……”

His senses instantly on high alert, Sa-yoon turned to face it. The angel, finally bringing the trumpet to its lips, spread its wings wide and tilted its head back.

BUUUUUUUUU!

The sound of the trumpet once again shook the area.

RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE!

No, it wasn’t the sound of the trumpet that was shaking.

The ground was vibrating. Feeling the tremor directly beneath his feet, Sa-yoon’s eyes shot wide open. He grabbed Geon-joo and evacuated the spot. Chan-hee dragged Gyeongjin along and fled as well. The moment everyone was a safe distance away, CRACK!, the ground split open.

It took less than a few seconds for the cracked earth to erupt upward.

BOOOOOOOOOM!

The ground roared as if an explosion had occurred deep within, and a black form shot rapidly upward. At its appearance, the fighting Hwangchung all stopped moving and turned to look.

—Kigigigik.

The locust army clicked their antennae, making a strange noise, and bowed their heads toward the black form. A moment later, the dark veil that had enveloped the risen being dissipated, and a figure several times larger than the locusts looked down upon the world.

It was surprisingly human in appearance.

The only differences were the wings on its back, the antennae on its head, and the stinger on its tail. Its black eyes, with no visible sclera, stared at Sa-yoon. Its mouth opened with a crack.

“When the sixth and seventh descend, the end shall come to the world.”

Ding!

A quest notification sounded.