Rapture (3)
A veil of light, spreading from the ring, rapidly formed into the shape of a massive sphere.
[It's time.]
He gave the signal to Kim Gun.
Just before Kim stepped through the North Gate.
'Summon iron sphere.'
He summoned it high above the prayer hall.
A red line extended from the sky to the prayer hall, where the cultists had gathered.
Screeeeech-!
The red line pierced through the floating land and struck the very bottom.
BOOOOM!
A massive explosion erupted from the deep crater left behind by the ripped-apart sanctuary, shaking the surrounding ground.
"Phew, haah."
I wiped the cold sweat from my forehead and opened my eyes wide.
[You have slain Cultist {Celestial} (Lv. 15).]
[You have slain Cultist {Celestial} (Lv. 15).]
[You have slain Cultist {Celestial} (Lv. 15).]
As a giant hole was torn in their sanctuary, the prayer hall was half-destroyed,
and the explosion's shockwave killed countless cultists instantly.
Every high-rise building nearby, including Lotte Tower, had either collapsed or shattered.
It was a catastrophe of my own making.
The sight of blood and scattered corpses almost made me gag, but I clenched my teeth and held it back.
'Didn't kill them all.'
Because the iron sphere pierced straight through their land, the impact was weaker than intended.
Then suddenly-
Flash!
The veil of light completed itself into a perfect sphere.
In that moment-
"Hah, hah..."
"Hahahaha!"
"Ahahahahaha!"
Manic laughter erupted among the surviving cultists.
It wasn't just Jung Hyunsoo laughing.
They all laughed like lunatics.
Crack-
Their backs bulged, and then pure white wings burst through their bloodstained ceremonial robes.
Like their robes, their wings were also tinged with red.
Dozens of cultists, now winged, rose into the sky in unison.
And then-
Flash-
The light blinked again, and in an instant, both the laughing cultists and their sanctuary vanished without a trace.
Almost simultaneously, the North Gate's duration expired, and it closed.
I turned to Lilith, who had been watching everything beside me.
"What do you think?"
"It looks like the place where Lilith lives!"
"I figured."
The domain Jung Hyunsoo created by sacrificing over a hundred thousand mental bodies bore a strong resemblance to the place Lilith had made.
"If that's the case... I wonder if this is possible too?"
"What is it?"
"Well..."
Lilith listened carefully to my question, then nodded.
"If we can just take control of the control tower, I think it's possible!"
"Really?"
"Yup!"
There were still five retainers who hadn't escaped the enemy's sanctuary:
Ha Donggeon, Kang Deoksoo, Oh Eonju, Lee Junhyuk, and Jang Sungjoon.
Each one was a powerhouse, their strength among the best.
The only issue-
'The Eye of the Absolute.'
Bzzt-
Using the Eye of the Absolute on them now only showed a noisy, distorted
screen.
The one saving grace:
[Can you all hear me?]
"Yes."
"We hear you."
""
The communication ring still worked perfectly.
On top of that, they were strong enough to handle themselves even without my support.
All I could do now was trust them.
[Everyone, start moving toward the center of that place.]
And then-
[The order to minimize killing is hereby revoked. Unleash everything you've got against the enemy.]
***
"Hm."
Kang Deoksoo looked around.
"This is a problem."
He wanted to move toward the center, just as Kim Jaehyun had instructed.
But he had no idea where that was.
Because―
"Where is this place, even?"
All he could see were intricately tangled rails and a thick fog that obscured everything.
Rumble...
"Hm?"
As he pondered, a faint vibration reached him from afar.
Rumble-ROAR!
The tremor grew rapidly, and soon, a train burst out from the mist.
"So that's how it is..."
Vrrroooom-
As Kang Deok-soo activated his power, his entire body was covered in a suit of steel armor.
He gazed calmly at the high-speed train barreling toward him.
Just before the train hit him—
"Hmph!"
With a short, sharp breath, he launched a full-body tackle straight into the train.
CRASH!
The train, charging forward with immense force, collided with Kang Deok-soo-and was crushed upon impact.
Immediately afterward-
"Cough!"
The train transformed back into a human.
He was a man with a yellow diamond insignia on one shoulder and a large capital "A" on the other.
Returned to human form, his neck was twisted in a way that made it clear there was no chance of survival.
Whoosh-
Soon after, his corpse disappeared, and a system alert indicating a reward appeared.
"Huh?"
While Kang Deok-soo stood dazed at the unexpected turn of events, winged humans emerged from the surrounding fog, engaged in serious discussion.
All of them bore diamond insignias on one shoulder.
Among them, a woman with a "Q" on her shoulder asked a man with a "K":
"What happened? That person is unauthorized. So how is he completely fine?"
"...Surprisingly, that might be his weakened state."
"...?"
The woman looked at Kang Deok-soo with a horrified expression.
The other knights muttered among themselves:
"A demon."
"A demon has entered the sanctuary..."
"We need to eliminate him fast."
Kang Deok-soo casually stretched and muttered to himself:
"Okay, okay. Got it. So if I want to get to the central area, I have to wreck all of you, right? Simple enough."
The man with the "K" emblem tilted his head in confusion at Kang Deok-soo's odd behavior.
"What is he trying to do...?"
Then, Kang Deok-soo spoke:
"Rise."
In response to his call, the Knights of Steel answered.
Seven armored knights rose onto the roller coaster rails.
"...No way!"
The man with the "K" emblem gasped.
When adding Kang Deok-soo himself to the seven summoned knights, the total matched the number of diamond knights surrounding them.
Earlier, they had lost four of their comrades to something that fell from the sky right before they moved into the sanctuary, leaving only eight of them.
And then-
Clack!
The seven Knights of Steel charged into the fog.
"Everyone, run...!"
Just as Diamond K tried to give the command, he realized far too late that a halberd had pierced his heart.
Choking back the blood gushing up his throat, he asked:
"H-How...?"
"I could hear everything."
"!!"
It wasn't that they had been foolish enough to talk and reveal their positions.
The thick fog in the area dulled the senses, which was why they felt safe discussing things.
Unfortunately for them, Kang Deok-soo's senses far surpassed those of any human. Even dulled, they were enough for him to detect every one of their locations.
Whoosh―
As the Diamond Knights were annihilated, the fog began to lift.
With the visibility restored, the towering Lotte Tower became visible at the
center.
"Wait... didn't that thing collapse?"
He had seen it shattered right after the meteor strike, but here it stood unscathed, as if nothing had happened.
Thanks to that, he knew exactly where to go.
"There it is."
***
"Stay back!"
Lee Young-jae of the Clover Knights, bearing the "K" emblem, stumbled backward in desperation.
"S-Stop!"
The man in front of him was a disaster in human form.
The man had the power to crush a human's skull with just a reach of his hand.
"Y-You devil!"
It was chaos.
In this blessed land, their powers had grown several times stronger.
And surely, the power of the demons had weakened.
Even so, they couldn't do anything.
Despite their strength having leveled up and the demons' strength having diminished, the gap was still overwhelmingly vast.
The most terrifying thing was that their power had no effect at all.
Srrrk-
Lee Young-jae once again used his power. This time, it wasn't to attack but to
escape.
Just as his ethereal body was about to pass through the wall-
Grab-
"Gahk!"
He felt something clutch his neck.
Normally, no one should have been able to touch him.
And yet, the demon's power so effortlessly seized his ethereal form.
Dragged before the man by immense strength, Lee Young-jae thrashed in fear.
With bloodshot eyes, the man asked:
"Can't you hear the screams of this place?"
"Guhk, gah!"
"You are the demons."
The man with crimson eyes-Jang Sung-joon-was truly enraged.
Because he could hear the screams of countless souls trapped in the place they called a sanctuary.
In the ground, in the walls, in the trees, in the air.
This wasn't a sanctuary-it was hell itself.
"That's why I cannot forgive you."
Jang Sung-joon's telekinetic power intensified—and Lee Young-jae's life was extinguished.
Huff, huff.
After obliterating the Clover Knights by himself, Jang Sung-joon followed the guidance of the souls toward the center.
***
Jung Hyun-soo was in a panic.
"What the hell are those things?!"
They were monsters.
He had thought everything would be over the moment the sanctuary was completed.
In this space, everything was supposed to go his way.
But reality was unfolding in the complete opposite direction.
"Why?!"
His once-unshakable knight order was being crushed one after another.
Even the five uninvited guests, small in number as they were, couldn't be dealt with.
"Useless fools!"
It was absurd.
From Jung Hyun-soo's perspective, the force they possessed was far beyond anything conventional.
Not even the superhumans of Seoul had ever been this overwhelming.
And besides...
That massive explosion that occurred before the sanctuary was complete.
A nightmare that instantly wiped out hundreds of his spare lives.
What the hell was that?
Had the sanctuary's completion been delayed even a little, everything might have fallen apart.
Moreover, repairing the facilities destroyed by it consumed most of his energy.
If he had surplus energy, he would've been able to deal with those who were now wrecking the sanctuary.
If only I had a bit more time...!
And then-
Crash!
The floor shattered, and a man with a spear appeared.
Jung Hyun-soo immediately recognized the spear in his hand as the same one that had pierced his heart several times before.
"You...!!"
The man pointed the spear at Jung Hyun-soo and muttered to himself,
"I've arrived."
Fwoosh-
At that moment, black flames ignited at the tip of his spear.
The moment he saw it, Jung Hyun-soo's eyes flipped in rage.
"You fool...!"
This wasn't like before-when his heart had been impaled.
Now, Jung Hyun-soo had access to the power of 144,000 souls.
Crack-
His body slowly began to expand.
Muscles tore through his pure-white uniform. His teeth and nails grew into sharp claws.
"Grrr... I'll kill you."
Boom!
Just as he tried to stab his claws into the heart of the spear-wielding man-
Flash-
A radiant light burst from the man-Ha Dong-geon-spreading in all directions.
And then someone appeared before Jung Hyun-soo.
"]"
The first emotion he felt was awe.
He dropped to his knees before the unknown presence.
Then came fear.
As if he had glimpsed into an unfathomable abyss, he tried to avert his gaze.
And for a brief moment-
You bastard...!
A flicker of hostility arose.
And that-
Thwack!
-was enough to shatter Jung Hyun-soo's head.
[T/L: Read extra chapters on my ko-fi page "Pokemon1920" : https://ko-fi.com/pokemon1920 ]