𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟐𝟖𝟕: 𝐋𝐮𝐱 2
Merlin unleashed a torrent of magic from his staff, tearing a chunk out of the floating island.
Crackle. . .!!
Countless chunks of stone crumbled into the ocean, the deafening roar echoing incessantly through the sky.
But that wasn’t all.
As if he had placed a glass bottle in a hydraulic press and shattered it, the torn-off section of the island began to be crushed from top and bottom.
KWANG!
Any onlooker would have mistaken it for the wrath of a god.
Merlin, his eyes bloodshot, was audaciously performing these incredible feats while suspended in the air.
His fury and rage were so intense that everything else was completely out of focus.
“I’ll kill you, you bastard. . .!! How dare you disrespect the Great Mage Merlin. . .!”
In truth, there was no need for such anger, and strictly speaking, it would have been more advantageous to escape than to kill Kid.
However, Merlin was filled with rage because of Min Siwoo.
Because of that one man, countless plans had already gone awry and failed, and Pandemonium was on the verge of collapse.
Now, only Merlin and Baba Yaga remained.
This unquenchable irritation had only continued to build, and then today’s incident had suddenly erupted.
He had always wanted to humiliate Min Siwoo, not as a member of Pandemonium, but as Merlin of ‘Misteltein.’
From beginning to end, Merlin had been manipulated by Min Siwoo, and he was in a foul mood as a result.
What’s more, his leadership role within ‘Misteltein’, which he had built up over many years, had been taken away by Min Siwoo in just a few months, leaving his pride in tatters.
Even today, despite the fact that he had called an emergency meeting, no one had shown up except for Baba Yaga.
No one at all.
Gandharva and Anubis, who had shown up, had only come to apprehend him.
Everyone had gone to the Gate following Min Siwoo’s ‘orders’, and not a single one had contacted him separately.
Not even a phone call to ask what was going on.
A golden tower he had spent years carefully building had collapsed in an instant.
The realization of this fact made Merlin’s blood run cold.
Just who is this guy?!
Was Min Siwoo, whom he had only met a few times, more trustworthy than he, a colleague of many years?
What difference was there between what he said and what Min Siwoo said, that things had turned out this way?
Merlin vowed that when the time came for the Demon King to rule the world, he would personally punish everyone in ‘Misteltein’ as they deserved.
He would not let them die easily.
And Kid would be the first sacrifice to herald that.
KWANG! KWANG! KWANG! KWANG!
A vast expanse of land, large enough to accommodate a dozen or so comprehensive sports fields, gradually condensed into a single point, then crumpled like a piece of paper.
It was an overwhelming display of power worthy of the title of Great Mage.
Merlin’s magical power was immense, and his control over it far surpassed that of the other ‘Misteltein’ members.
Crack. . . Crackle. . . Crackle!!
The vast expanse of land folded and crumpled repeatedly.
It crumbled into small pieces like cookies, and soon became large boulders of varying sizes.
Even Kid, who was inside that space, must have been crushed to death by the boulders, his insides bursting.
Merlin drove the boulders deep into the ocean.
Waves surged high, and the water churned violently.
Even if he had been alive inside the boulders, it would have been impossible to break out of the boulders that had been crushed and fused together by such pressure.
“Huff. . . Huff. . . Huff. . .”
Merlin took a deep breath and slowly descended to the ground.
Despite the short period of time, he had quickly exhausted his stamina from using so much magic power in one go.
“Damn it. . . You’ll pay for looking down on me.”
“Hehehe. The Great Mage truly lives up to his reputation.”
At that moment, a familiar voice came from behind him.
Merlin turned around in a hurry and pointed his staff forward.
It was a reaction close to a life-or-death instinct.
━━━━━Bang!!
Along with the sound of gunfire tearing through the air, Kid’s magic bullets pierced the darkness and collided with Merlin’s magic shield.
Clang! Clang—! Crack—!
The shield shattered pitifully on the third magic bullet.
A look of bewilderment crossed Merlin’s face.
The fourth and fifth magic bullets pierced Merlin’s stomach and thigh without mercy.
“Gah!”
Even with his body reinforced by magic and his SS-rank physical abilities, he couldn’t withstand Kid’s magic bullets.
Furthermore, his magic bullets became more powerful with each subsequent shot.
Merlin collapsed to the ground, clutching his punctured abdomen and thigh.
Blood gushed out, soaking his hands and clothes.
“Th. . . This is impossible! How. . . How. . .!? I clearly crushed you and threw you into the sea. . .!”
He asked, more outraged that Kid wasn’t dead than that he had been shot.
Kid approached Merlin slowly, a sly smile on his face.
“Oh, it’s nothing special. I just have a skill that lets me do that.”
“You despicable bastard. . .!”
“Hehehe. What are you talking about? What’s so despicable about a Hunter fight?”
Merlin’s eyes rolled back in his head as blood trickled from his mouth.
It was definitely not the look of someone accepting death.
Rather, it was closer to the gaze of a murderer who wanted to kill his opponent, even at this moment.
“The old man still has some fight in him. Even so, since we have a history, I’ll let you die without pain. How about you close your eyes and smile?”
“You, Min Siwoo. . . I will definitely. . . tear your limbs apart. . . and feed them to the lower devils. . .!”
“Now you’re openly siding with the demon race, old man. Have you lost your mind in your old age?”
Kid raised the corners of his mouth as he took aim at Merlin from a short distance away.
He had no desire to approach foolishly and get caught in some strange trap.
“Any last words?”
“Last words. . . Last words. . . Kukukuku.”
But suddenly, Merlin began to laugh.
It was a difficult situation to understand.
“You don’t seem crazy, but I don’t know what’s so funny. Let’s laugh together.”
“Last words. . . Kukukuku. Why don’t I listen to your last words instead?”
“What are you talking about?”
As Kid lifted his visor and tilted his head in confusion, a bone-chilling cold enveloped his entire body, threatening to freeze him from head to toe.
It was absolute terror.
Kid realized that his fingers were stiff and unable to move, as if he had never felt such a chilling presence before.
He was holding a gun, but he didn’t dare bring his finger to the trigger.
He glanced sideways at the being passing by him.
A grotesque skull mask.
And a long, large iron rod that he was dragging behind him.
The man in the skull mask approached Merlin without even paying attention to Kid.
Merlin bowed his upper body, despite his battered condition, as the man approached.
“Master Kraken. How did you come all this way?”
“I saw everything that happened in the conference room just now on Hunter Tube Live.”
“Yes. . .? What. . . What. . .? Grrr! Min Siwoo, that bastard!”
Merlin, who didn’t understand what was going on at first, realized that Siwoo had broadcast live, and gritted his teeth.
He and Baba Yaga would soon be wanted criminals, but the thought of countless people witnessing his humiliating defeat in real time filled him with an unbearable rage.
“The Dimensional Gate project is your responsibility, Merlin. There isn’t much time left.”
“Yes, I understand, Master Kraken.”
Kraken glanced back and glared at Kid.
Kid couldn’t do anything.
He was certain that the iron rod would smash his head the moment he pulled the trigger.
An eternity seemed to pass.
Merlin and Kraken disappeared through the portal.
Kid took off his cap and wiped away the cold sweat that had dripped down, then kicked a nearby stone hard.
A sigh escaped his lips.
“Damn it. . . What was that?”
He bit his lip, disgusted with himself.
🔸🔸🔸🔸🔸🔸
Beneath Siwoo’s feet, thousands of letters, symbols, and shapes were densely packed together, forming a huge magic circle.
In the center of the intricate formation, a pitch-black island disk glowed ominously.
Then a sharp-toothed, sharp-shelled sea dragon burst out and charged towards Baba Yaga.
Kwagaga!!!
It devoured countless chimeras in front of it in one bite, and thrust its teeth into the center of the dark green magic circle.
Zzzing!!
However, Baba Yaga didn’t even spare a glance at the sea dragon.
She waved the letters flowing out of her grimoire with her staff, placed them on her tongue, and swallowed them.
She could feel her demonic energy skyrocketing in an instant.
The huge magic circle behind her began to slowly rotate like a gear.
Baba Yaga looked at the magic circle and parted her bright red lips.
“Kukuku. In truth, all the preparations were already in place. The only thing lacking was a more widespread distribution of Lux.”
“What the hell is that damn drug anyway?”
“Hmm, well, the name Lux itself is quite telling.”
“Don’t tell me it means light.”
Siwoo frowned at her words.
“My, you don’t have a sense of humor.”
“. . . .”
“Let’s just say it’s a backup battery.”
Baba Yaga uttered an incomprehensible metaphor.
“If you had spread as much as Kid had stolen, we would have been able to create a substantial number of excellent batteries. Such a shame.”
“I don’t know what gibberish you’re spouting. I’m not knowledgeable about witchcraft.”
“Hoohoohoo. To put it simply. . . The project is already underway.”
🔸🔸🔸🔸🔸🔸
At that moment.
On the streets of Philadelphia, filled with drug addicts.
Benjamin, a police officer, was patrolling as usual.
This was a notorious place, so the concept of patrolling was different from other areas.
It was impossible to catch drug dealers or drug addicts in the first place.
He mainly checked for gun accidents, traffic accidents, and gang-related incidents, and he didn’t bother with anything related to drugs.
He took a donut out of the cup holder next to him and took a bite, then took a sip of the warm Americano in the cup holder.
At that moment, something suddenly popped out into the middle of the road.
Benjamin slammed on the brakes, spilling his Americano on his pants.
“Ah, damn it! You crackhead junkies! Can’t you watch where you’re going? Get out of the way!!”
Benjamin honked his horn at the drug addict who had popped out into the middle of the road.
Beep!
It was then.
Tatatatata!
Hundreds of dark green beams of light poured down from the sky like rain and entered the bodies of the drug addicts.
“Wh. . .?”
Benjamin blinked at the strange phenomenon.
He hurriedly released the horn and scanned his surroundings, his eyes darting between the sky and the people below.
At first, he thought that the people were being attacked by some kind of magic.
A faint magic circle appeared and disappeared on the bodies of the drug addicts scattered messily on the streets.
Then they soon began to convulse.
Hundreds of people in the vicinity, all at the same time.
Benjamin pressed his radio and stammered as he described the situation.
Was this some kind of terrorism? Or was it an unheard-of operation by the Drug Enforcement Administration?
Rumble, rumble.
In the midst of exchanging messages on the radio,
Suddenly.
The convulsions stopped.
The drug addicts rose to their feet.
They looked up at the sky with blank, white pupils.
Benjamin felt a chill run down his spine at how alien they looked.
This is dangerous.
He quickly tried to step on the gas, and at that moment.
Kwang!
The window shattered and a zombie’s teeth sank into his neck.
As the ‘Lux Project’ was activated, all Lux addicts around the world transformed into zombies.The window shattered, and zombie teeth sank into the back of his neck.
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