Chapter 303: Episode 303

We gently touched down onto the asphalt. Pitch-black smoke billowed out from the raging wreckage, spreading rapidly upward as if trying to smother the starry sky.

I didn’t even need to ask Ea to scan for thermal life signs. Through the sheer density of the oppressive mana radiating from the flames, I could already tell the bastard was still alive.

“Well, here we are. I promised I’d catch up to him for you,” I said, carefully setting her on her feet. “I can leave the actual fighting to you now, right?”

“Of course.”

Hong Yeon stepped forward, her golden eyes locking onto the crater as her grip tightened on her hilt. Through the thick, swirling smoke, a silhouette was slowly, methodically trudging toward us.

He looks absolutely hideous.

Alexandro had shed his human disguise, fully adopting the monstrous form of a Fiend. Jagged, mismatched limbs protruded aggressively from between lumpy, tumor-like masses of pulsing flesh, and six glowing, manic pupils were embedded into each of his deeply sunken eye sockets.

Where his mouth should have been, a sickening, fleshy mass that vaguely resembled a beard wriggled and pulsated like a stranded mollusk.

-Be extremely careful, Tower Master, Ea warned through our mental link. -He is a Fiend possessing an entirely unknown power metric.

The Fiend’s wriggling flesh-beard violently twitched. Instantly, the empty air surrounding his massive body began to warp and distort, physically ripping open into jagged dimensional fissures. From within the dark voids, horrifying monsters began clawing their way out into the world, one by one.

Hong Yeon’s expression instantly grew dead-serious.

“…A Fiend that can directly manipulate dimensional rifts. I’ve never even heard of such a thing.”

“Yeah,” I muttered, summoning my mana. “He’s definitely a big shot.”

It wasn’t hard to guess why Carnival Land had been the only place without any rift outbreaks all this time.

“We absolutely have to catch him here.”

“Yeah. We aren’t letting him leave.”

I had initially planned to step back and let Hong Yeon handle it, but I changed my mind. I was going to make absolutely sure he died right here, right now.

“Everyone, come out.”

Cheir.

Soma.

Ops.

Cardia.

The four elemental seventh-order spells rotated in the empty air. As I drew a magic circle over my chest, they were violently sucked into my body.

<Kim Yusin Original – Deformation Meister>

Dazzling blue wings unfurled from my back. The appendages dissolved into feathers that fluttered in the empty air, a few of them attaching to my body. The feathers seamlessly transformed into a fabric-like material, weaving themselves into a brilliant, flame-like blue suit.

It looked exactly like a superhero’s transformation sequence. Hong Yeon’s expression as she watched from the sidelines was quite the sight.

I raised my hand. Instead of raw mana, a single feather manifested at my fingertip and soared into the sky. Acting as a flare, countless feathers surged forth, scattering in the wind.

The feathers began to alter their forms while drawing a massive circle in the air. Their color bled into pure white as they grew thicker, forming solid blades and hilts.

They transformed into the shape of my favorite sword, Spectre.

One hundred Spectres, forged through the seventh-order, rotated in a massive, sweeping ring, and I casually tossed the real Spectre strapped to my back right into the center of the vortex.

“Yusin. They’re coming.”

The monsters Alexandro had summoned through the dimensional rifts began to charge at us.

I lowered my raised arm. The Spectres, trembling like arrows nocked on taut bowstrings, shot forward, leaving brilliant pure white trails in their wake.

The Spectres embedded themselves into the monsters’ bodies, bursting them open in bloody sprays. As the frontline recoiled in agony, others shoved their way past the dying to advance.

Keeping my index and middle fingers together, I flicked them to the side.

The swords began to dance on their own, as if possessing a will of their own. They sliced through one monster’s neck, pierced through another’s heart, wrenched themselves free, and severed yet another’s arm.

One hundred swords cut down the horde with completely different trajectories and movements. It was as if an army of invisible soldiers was fighting on my behalf.

I plucked out a few feathers and dropped them to the ground. The feathers dismantled and reassembled their structural components, forming the shape of a brazier.

Then, I pulled out a new feather and dropped it into the flames.

<Flame Tauros>

The feather that fell inside the brazier incinerated. Immediately, the movements of all one hundred Spectres abruptly halted, and the magic circles of Flame Tauros were simultaneously etched onto their polished blades.

I tightly clenched my fist.

The monsters were swallowed by the chained explosions. Once the smoke cleared, the Spectres moved on their own, ruthlessly resuming their slaughter. The monsters’ frantic attempts to swat the blades out of the air were utterly futile.

Right then, a flying monster with bat wings pierced through the smoke of the explosions and dove straight at us.

A Lord Gargoyle?

It was the same type of monster that had attacked when I operated the Sky Castle during the Cataclysm disaster. Just as I suspected, Alexandro had been behind that incident, too.

Countless fine lines slashed across the charging Lord Gargoyle’s body before it abruptly dismantled into neat, rectangular cubes and plummeted to the ground.

“Yusin.”

Hong Yeon straightened her knees and sheathed her sword.

“Alexandro is scattering the monsters indiscriminately.”

Just as she said, monsters were slipping away to the left and right through the thick explosion smoke.

He intended to draw our attention by having them attack civilians while he made his escape.

“Leave it to me.”

I tapped the earpiece in my right ear.

—”Samia. I’m counting on you.”

—”I’ve been waiting for your signal, hunter Kim.”

Instantly, a warp gate ripped open around me, and airships flew out with heavy whoosh sounds.

The airships, roughly the size of billiard tables, overtook the escaping monsters in a flash and transformed into the shapes of Iron Golems as they crashed to the earth.

There were twenty Iron Golems in total.

-All golems have been equipped with AI. They can fight on their own without you having to control them.

Perfect. Ea, keep focusing on the Spectres.

From the Spectres currently carving up the horde, I siphoned off twenty blades and sent them flying toward the golems.

A secondary form alteration triggered in midair. The Spectres shifted into massive pikes and landed squarely in the golems’ hands. The Iron Golems, now resembling heavy-armored knights, ruthlessly charged forward and brutally skewered the monsters.

“That puts out the immediate fire.”

I turned my attention back to the front.

The pitch-black smoke and flames were entirely cleared away by a single, sweeping strike from Hong Yeon’s sword.

With the monsters’ numbers thinned out, she had instantly driven straight into the center of the chaos and was now standing just a few feet away from Alexandro.

As she closed in right under his nose, Alexandro dispatched one of the monsters flanking him. It was a humanoid beast completely lacking facial features, with crimson flashes of light flaring all over its body.

When her blade and the monster’s fist collided, surprisingly, Hong Yeon grimaced and was forced to step back.

What the hell is that?

-It is a type not found in my data. Estimated to be an Irregular of at least Rank 8 or higher! It is a monster capable of receiving a Cataclysm classification entirely on its own.

The monster’s stance, with both fists raised forward, was highly reminiscent of martial arts. Hong Yeon clenched her teeth and lunged, and the monster threw itself forward to meet her, leaving afterimages in its wake.

Countless afterimages of sword strikes and fists violently clashed, showering the surroundings in a storm of sparks. Right then, the green monster that had been waiting on the right leaped into the sky.

The creature’s torso spun like a vortex before abruptly morphing into a massive drill the size of a ten-story building, plummeting straight down toward Hong Yeon.

The crimson monster retreated, and Hong Yeon raised her sword to intercept the descending drill.

The ground she was standing on massively caved in. Against a drill the size of a building, Hong Yeon looked incredibly small, precariously holding her ground with nothing but a single blade.

She’s in danger.

I was just about to step in when the empty space around me began to distort, producing heavy, vibrating hums.

-Tower Master! The crimson Irregular is incoming!

I caught the flow of magical energy with the Deva’s Eye and snapped my head back. A fist, moving at a speed too fast to properly track, thrust past right above my eyes, missing by a paper-thin margin.

Directly ahead in the trajectory of the Irregular’s thrown fist, I could see a massive carnival ride literally flying through the air.

Are you kidding me?!

Thank god the park had been evacuated.

Faster than the crimson monster could retract its extended fist, I closed the distance right up against its upper body and kicked my leg up.

<Devastar>

Just like that, my right foot scored a clean hit on its jaw.

No, I thought it scored a clean hit.

Through the black smoke, I saw that the monster had lowered its arm to block my foot.

It immediately grabbed my right foot, but I instantly launched my body upward and kicked up with my left.

Once again, Devastar. This time, it landed perfectly.

Its head snapped back, and the grip of the hand holding my right foot loosened.

Taking advantage of the opening, I widened the distance between us. The monster staggered once before glaring at me.

It didn’t have anything resembling eye sockets, but the murderous intent rolling off it was suffocating.

“Alright.”

I extended my arm and summoned the real Spectre back into my hand. Feathers rose up on the surface of the blade before morphing into a magic circle.

“Wanna have a proper go at it?”

The monster fell silent.

Just as the monster tightly clenched its fists and leaped forward.

With her hair, now returned to its original crimson hue, fluttering wildly, Hong Yeon’s dropkick cleanly smashed into the monster’s face.

The creature shattered the ground as it was sent flying hundreds of feet away. Landing squarely on her feet, Hong Yeon let out a heavy breath.

“Uh, I thought you were in trouble back there.”

“Me?”

She pointed behind her.

The green monster that had turned into a drill earlier was now lying face down on the ground, twitching violently. Some sort of thick liquid was pouring heavily from its body.

“It is a bit of a shame that my sword broke, though.”

She held up a weapon that only had half of its blade remaining.

“I guess I pushed it a little too hard.”

“I’m sure you did.”

While we took a brief breather, the crimson monster flew back through the air and landed next to the green one. We turned around to face them.

Both monsters’ bodies completely liquefied and began to recklessly merge together.

The hybridized mound of dual-colored flesh surged upwards before rapidly morphing into a colossal purple abomination.

I scratched my head.

“They fused.”

“They did.”

“Should we fuse to fight it, too?”

“…Please don’t say something so vulgar.”

I snapped my fingers. The Spectres that had been slicing up Alexandro’s horde all congregated into one spot and began spinning in their sweeping cyclone once more.

I tossed a feather right into the center of the storm. The feather transformed into a magic circle, and all one hundred Spectres flew inside it.

Vwoooooom!

“Hong Yeon.”

She turned to look at me, her red hair fluttering in the wind.

“Don’t you want to try using magic for once?”

“…Excuse me?”

I raised my right arm straight above my head. A viscous blue liquid began to drip profusely from the magic circle, and from within it, a massive greatsword slid out.

The blade, its surface jaggedly protruding out like feathers, flew down like a streak of light and settled perfectly into my hand.

“I’ll lend this to you.”

I righted the heavy weapon. Honestly, rather than a sword, this was a clustered mass of magic containing all four elements. It was magic taking the form of a blade.

She carefully accepted the greatsword.

As soon as she took it, her legs faltered precariously for a moment, clearly startled by its sheer, overbearing weight.

“Can you lift it?”

“Do not underestimate me!”

She gritted her teeth and swung the greatsword with all her might, hoisting it onto her shoulder.

Meanwhile, the red-green fused monster trampled over the surrounding buildings and lunged toward us.

Hong Yeon’s eyes grew dead serious.

“Alright. I’ll give it a try. This magic.”

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