𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟐𝟓𝟗
“Yo~ Long time no see?”
After finishing my conversation with Aizen and moving to the assembly point, I saw a larger-than-expected gathering of players, and amongst them, Heuksin, whom I hadn’t seen in a while.
“Long time no see. But what are you thinking?”
“Thinking? About Beluin?”
I nodded at his question.
“Even if it’s a Karzen Kingdom matter, I never thought you’d personally step up.”
“The opportunity to complete the Second Main Scenario and get the reward doesn’t come often.”
Heuksin spoke as if it were nothing special, and indeed, it wasn’t.
Just for the reward, huh?
But regardless of the reason, gathering guild members to fight Beluin was commendable.
No one else gathered except for the Yonggammusang Guild.
Still, just in case, I should ask.
“What about the other guilds?”
“Well, it hasn’t been long since Beluin appeared. It’s too early to see their reactions.”
“Well, that’s true.”
It would take at least a day to see the movements of other guilds.
Frankly, it was strange for Heuksin to gather guild members like this as soon as Beluin appeared. To gather guild members who have their own lives, it would take time.
‘Come to think of it, how did this guy gather his guild members?’
Even the Emperor Guild announces a day in advance to gather members.
But the Yonggammusang Guild members gathered here must have been summoned impromptu.
How could they announce in advance, knowing when Beluin would appear?
Heuksin, as if noticing my question, let out an annoying laugh and opened his mouth.
“It seems you’re curious how I gathered the guild members.”
“Are you going to tell me?”
“It’s not a secret. I just called them. Most of the guild members are always online.”
Always online?
Isn’t today Monday?
Just in case I was mistaken, I calculated again, and today was definitely Monday.
“Today is Monday, isn’t it?”
“Whether it’s Monday or Sunday, it doesn’t matter to my guild. From the beginning, I only accepted those who were staying at home.”
“……”
So, he only accepted people who were staying at home into the guild?
If that was the reason, it made sense why the guild members were gathered here now.
From the perspective of the Yonggammusang Guild members, whether today was a weekday or a holiday, they logged in and came here following Heuksin’s call.
‘It wasn’t a grand reason.’
Thinking about it the other way around, it was a decent method.
Usually, in Twilight, those who were skilled had long connection times.
No, they had to have long connection times to build up their skills.
In that sense, Heuksin’s choice wasn’t bad, but I was also curious about how it would be if the guild members had no income.
Not all Yonggammusang Guild members were born with silver spoons, right?
“More importantly, how about it? Are you confident about Beluin?”
While I was thinking about the Yonggammusang Guild members, Heuksin asked if I was confident about this battle.
“We’ll have to see when we fight, but…… I think it’ll be difficult.”
“Difficult?”
“First of all, he’ll be stronger than the Raid Apostles. Moreover, if he uses his Authority freely, it’ll be hard for me to win.”
Even the Apostles were difficult to defeat if they used their Authority.
So, Beluin goes without saying.
On the other hand, if Beluin couldn’t use his Authority due to the power of the Sacred Relic, there might be a chance to win, but somehow, I felt like the Authority wouldn’t be sealed.
Perhaps if a proper barrier was activated at the defense line, but that wasn’t the case now, so it seemed like we would have to be satisfied with just dealing with the Remnants.
‘Come to think of it, I’m fighting Beluin who uses Authority.’
Will this be alright?
Still, we had no choice but to fight because if not now, we would have to face the ever-increasing number of Apostles.
Also, since we didn’t know how strong Beluin was, I thought it wouldn’t be bad to have a reconnaissance battle. I started thinking about when we would depart, and before that thought could finish, I saw Aizen approaching.
“It seems like we’ll be able to depart soon.”
“How many people?”
“About 800.”
800 from the Emperor Guild, and the Yonggammusang Guild……
“We have about 2,000 here, so we can consider it around 3,000.”
“It seems like enough people.”
Well, if it’s enough, it’s enough.
If we clear the Remnants, only five will remain on Beluin’s side.
In a way, it was like 3,000 of us were going against five.
Moreover, since the difference in numbers was so overwhelming, I even thought that we might be able to catch Beluin like this.
“Alright, let’s finish the Second Main Scenario like this!”
In addition, Heuksin, perhaps thinking similarly, spoke confidently.
* * *
“We’re almost there. I can feel the power of darkness.”
A large-scale movement of nearly 3,000 people.
At the forefront of this group, the Bishop of the Karzen Kingdom’s Church of Light spoke with a worried voice.
However, I found the Bishop’s words absurd.
‘Feel the power of darkness, my foot.’
The Remnants are swarming right in front of us.
Looking at the 10,000 Remnants and the increasingly darkening sky, anyone could tell that Beluin was there.
In this situation, the Bishop’s words about feeling the power of darkness were absurd, but I didn’t say it out loud.
“It seems like they will attack us soon, so I will activate the Sacred Relic.”
Fortunately, this time, the Bishop didn’t spout nonsense and activated the Sacred Relic.
Just like when Arus activated the Sacred Relic before, a pure white light spread in all directions, dyeing the surroundings……
‘……it should be dyeing the surroundings.’
The light that spread from the Sacred Relic, for some reason, was gradually losing its light in the darkness created by Beluin.
Of course, it wasn’t completely lost, so the approaching Remnants seemed to be taking some damage, but they weren’t disappearing instantly like in the Ronda Kingdom.
“This is different from what I heard.”
Similarly, Heuksin, who was observing the current situation, spoke with a troubled expression.
If this continued, we would clash with 10,000 Remnants, so I understood his concern, but there was no time to be leisurely thinking like this.
“We need to make a decision quickly. Aizen.”
“We will attack.”
“Attack in this situation?”
When Aizen, who I thought would almost certainly suggest retreating, said we should attack, I asked again.
“If you look closely, they are taking damage even now. It will just take time, but if we hold on, there’s a high chance that the Remnants will be annihilated.”
At his words, I looked closely at the Remnants and saw faint gray smoke rising from them.
‘As Aizen said, they are taking damage.’
But I couldn’t be sure how much damage it was.
If we had to hold on for an hour, we would definitely suffer considerable damage, but if it was only about 10 minutes, it would be okay to fight like this.
“Heuksin, what about you?”
“We’ve already activated the Sacred Relic. There’s no turning back now.”
Even Heuksin was thinking of fighting, so the decision seemed to be made.
“Alright.”
Although the Sacred Relic’s effect was unexpectedly reduced, retreating now would be the same as the end of the Karzen Kingdom.
So, even if we couldn’t catch Beluin, I thought that if we could at least deal with the Apostles, this battle would be a success. I nodded and prepared for battle, and Aizen and Heuksin also gave orders to their guild members, preparing them for battle.
“Prepare for battle!”
“Focus on defense! The Apostles will disappear soon!”
Anyway, leaving behind the noisy shouts of the guild members, I used Jayer’s Guardian Shield, Shield of Light, and Battle Awakening, and stepped forward, looking at the Remnants charging towards us.
“I’ll stir things up first, so get into formation.”
“Please do.”
“Please, my foot. It won’t even make a difference anyway.”
Against the Remnants swarming in large numbers like this, it wouldn’t make much difference even if I stirred things up alone.
“Giant’s Sprint.”
Crackle!!━
But it was better than doing nothing at all.
And since they were currently taking damage from the Sacred Relic, I thought that I might be able to deal with them with Giant’s Sprint, so I kicked off the ground and ran with all my might.
Kwaaaang!!━
‘As expected.’
It was only for a moment, but my Agility exceeding 5,000 and Movement Speed reaching 10,000 closed the distance between me and the Remnants in an instant, creating an impact similar to an explosion.
I must have blown away at least 100 of them, right?
Compared to the number of Remnants, it was a ridiculously small number, but there was nothing more I could do right now.
‘Anyway, if I keep using Giant’s Sprint, I’ll find a solution.’
Actually, if there were no significant obstacles, I could clear all the Remnants here by myself.
It would take time, though.
Since my Health and Stamina recovered to their maximum every time I used Giant’s Sprint, it was only natural.
Kwaaaang!!━
[Combat experience 102,000 acquired!]
[Combat experience……]
‘Oh.’
Experience points were coming in faster than I expected.
Gaining experience points meant that they were falling, and seeing the Remnants falling already, it seemed like the continuous damage from the Sacred Relic was significant.
Perhaps if we held on for about 5 minutes, most of the Remnants would fall?
‘The problem is those 5 minutes.’
Even now, I was reducing the number of Remnants with Giant’s Sprint, but I couldn’t block all the Remnants rushing towards the guild members.
But the number of guild members was also significant.
Although it was less than 10,000, the number 3,000 wasn’t insignificant either, so I could see them somehow blocking the rushing Remnants. After briefly confirming that, I thought they could hold on for about 5 minutes.
Whoosh!━
“……?”
Suddenly, I heard an ominous sound from somewhere.
I looked up to find the source of the sound, and soon witnessed three arrows flying towards my location.
‘Arrows?’
The arrows were shot in a parabolic trajectory, aiming precisely at me.
If I hadn’t noticed, I might have been hit, but since I already noticed, I thought dodging wouldn’t be a problem, so I took a few steps back, predicting the trajectory of the incoming arrows.
However, the arrows showed a result that deviated from my expectations.
Kwaaaang!━
‘Explosion?’
[You have taken damage! -4,534.]
[You have taken damage……]
Absurdly, the three arrows that landed on the ground exploded, engulfing me, and I took considerable damage as a result. I turned my head to check who shot the arrows, but unfortunately, all I could see were Remnants.
‘The damage itself isn’t much.’
It wasn’t a joke; it was only enough to be fully recovered by using Giant’s Sprint once.
It meant that I could ignore such attacks as much as I wanted.
However, considering the range of the arrows and the explosion, I thought it would be sufficiently threatening to other players, so after a brief moment of contemplation, I decided to focus on dealing with the Remnants as I had been doing.
After all, the arrows didn’t deal significant damage, and I thought that if I kept dealing with the Remnants, the arrows would be concentrated on me.
And seeing the arrows continuously flying towards me, I knew that things were going as I had expected.
‘By the way……’
The accuracy of the arrows is remarkable.
The arrows flew in at the exact moment when Giant’s Sprint ended, with perfect timing. Even though the damage wasn’t much, I couldn’t help but feel annoyed.
‘Could it be a Raid Apostle?’
Looking at the direction the arrows were coming from, it was definitely an Apostle.
What if the one who shot the arrows was a Raid Apostle?
‘Well, with this level of attack power, it wouldn’t be difficult.’
I might not be able to defeat Beluin, but I thought I could definitely defeat the Apostle who shot the arrows.
So, I ran for a while using Giant’s Sprint, taking the incoming arrows head-on, and I could see the results of the Sacred Relic starting to show.
Beluin’s Remnants began to disappear one by one.
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