Chapter 410: Metamorphosis (1)
A man looked up from the underground space and sighed.
‘There’s so much to do but… nobody is helping. Everyone is trying to get in my way.’
At first, he’d been held back by the man called Pompeion.
He’d managed to dodge away from Pompeion and was about to cover the area he arrived at with the interdimensional barrier, but an unforeseen situation had occurred.
Since he had failed to acquire the Nelkipa, he had to succeed here no matter what.
‘I guess I’ll have to call those people.’
He wasn’t just going to call those weaklings outside, they had only received the outer shells.
Well, he couldn’t really communicate with them anyway, and neither did he want to.
The ones he wanted to call on were different.
The beings who not only received a new outer shell but had also used their inner souls to complete the ceremony.
As he decided to call those three—
—whooooosh—
—the red device in his hand started to rumble vigorously.
Then three flames appeared inside his head.
These flames weren’t simple at all—they were control fragments of the soul he had planted inside the beings of this world.
And as if they had noticed he had called them, one of the flames moved about and sent him a message.
<…What’s wrong? I told you not to use this if you didn’t have to, I told you this feels uncomfortable.>
A rough man’s voice.
It seemed like he wasn’t the only one who felt disturbed by this since the other two flames also showed similar emotions through the soul.
The man holding the red device used his soul to relay a message to the two men and the lone woman.
<We don’t have time to feel comfortable. Hurry over here and defend it. Your capital is about to be breached. I told you that there’ll be nothing left. You’re the ones who caused this whole situation.>
The three flames trembled.
All three felt shocked.
And soon—
—their souls started to vibrate again as they began to speak.
<Nell, didn’t you say you’d send over some people to stop him?>
<…It looks like these aliens are either missing their left or right brains. They could’ve just worked together to deal with him.>
<Nell, you go and handle this personally. We’re too busy dealing with Pompeion right now.>
The man holding the device made an annoyed expression as he spoke.
<All three of you. Get over here.>
The three flames trembled fiercely again.
<…That really is disturbing. You need all three of us to deal with one man?>
<And what about Pompeion? Because you made him so powerful, the three of us can barely hold him back. That’s the real issue here.>
The man smirked and chuckled.
<Don’t worry about that. Can you really say that Pompeion’s inactivity is due to your efforts?>
There was no reason for a lion to be scared of three dogs who were much weaker than itself, especially when the dogs were also scheming to strike each other in the back.
A lion would only be wary of another lion.
This was why he couldn’t reveal himself.
At least, not yet.
<Hurry and get over here.>
—rumble!—
The man sent the message, listening to the deafening noise grow increasingly louder with every passing second.
…………………………………..
The Blood Immortal.
Hansoo used Mary Valentine’s power to hold back the Dragon God Soldiers and continued to descend.
And as the two of them descended, Kiriel could see countless bright circuits covering the underground space below Neoreim.
‘…What are these for?’
The well-organized circuits had tremendous amounts of energy flowing through them.
Meanwhile, Hansoo checked the direction of their objective with the Relic in his hand.
—ooooong—
It was so accurate that it responded with every step it drew closer.
Like it wanted to show Hansoo exactly how to get there.
‘This way.’
And as he was about to head towards the direction of the other Relic.
“Ahhhhh! Kang Hansoo!”
Kuoooo!
Someone shouted from outside, their voice accompanied by the tremendously loud sound of animals chasing after the Relic.
And Kiriel chuckled at this.
“It seems like those things are really in a hurry.”
The sounds were growing louder by the second, telling them that Samuel and the Haetara were rushing towards their location.
Their frenzied behavior only meant that he was heading closer and closer to the goal.
The less composure their opponents had, the higher the advantage they would gain.
‘But… not bad.’
Kiriel saw one of the red scorpions being thrown down from above, its body beaten until it was left half-destroyed.
Although it was good that they were in a rush, but such urgency was actually making them use everything they had as well.
<Dammit! We need to break past these things no matter what! If we can’t then the higher-ups will end up killing all of us!>
<Half of us will block the scorpions! The rest will go down!>
Since Hansoo was heading in the right direction, it was causing their enemies to literally go on a rampage.
They were basically sacrificing their bodies just to create a small opening at this point.
Although the red scorpions had followed Hansoo’s orders and blocked their path, the rate of their destruction was increasing due to the Dragon God Soldiers going berserk.
“Ahhh! Stop right there!”
—kacha!—
The Dragon God Soldiers who had succeeded in passing through the scorpions aimed their weapons against Hansoo and attacked.
There was no need to kill or even damage him in the slightest.
They just needed to hold him down and the others would come to help out.
But the reality was cruel.
—whooosh!—
Hansoo covered himself in a dark translucent barrier once again and then placed his finger into his mouth.
‘Wait.. No… NO!’
—snip—
As Hansoo bit his finger—
—pshhhh!—
—an even larger spray of blood filled the air.
“DAMMMITT!!!”
Leaving the Dragon God Soldiers screaming in rage before an even greater number of scorpions, Hansoo and Kiriel quickly headed deeper inside.
Kiriel looked back with pity in her eyes.
“Although they’re our enemies… I really feel bad for them.”
Hansoo shook his head.
“Don’t.”
“Pardon?”
Hansoo responded without a change in expression.
“Their outcomes have already been decided.”
“…?”
Kiriel looked confused by Hansoo’s response and stole another glance behind her.
……………………
“Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!”
R-Palcon Ron was inwardly grieved as he looked at the couple disappearing into the distance.
‘Please… Somebody, help us…’
There was no hope.
An even larger number of scorpions were now heading their way while the two aliens were rushing down at a tremendous speed.
The aliens that were meant to act as reinforcements were on their way over, but there was still plenty of time before they would arrive.
They’d be massacred before those aliens would even get here.
Kuoooo!
‘Damn…’
Listening to the loud cries of the mountainous beasts, he felt like his future had been fully prophesized.
One, he would be ripped apart by the red scorpions.
Two, be stomped to death by the mountains.
Or three, killed off by the head of the family for not having accomplished their mission.
There were no such things as miracles.
‘Why am I struggling here…’
As R-Palcon Ron gave up and dropped his weapon, a bloody scorpion’s tail rushed towards him.
But at that moment—
—a miracle really did happen.
“Who said you could die however you wanted? You can’t die here.”
“Huh?…Uh? Family Head? How are you here?”
R-Palcon Ron saw a woman appear before his eyes and crush the scorpion. Baffled, he saw that it was K-Adelaia Ron.
‘…Is this a dream?’
He couldn’t believe his eyes.
Whether he was bewildered that the family head had crushed the scorpion without using the Dragon God Armor or a weapon, despite being rumored to have no offensive capabilities…
Or how she was here at this moment, when she should’ve been at the frontlines.
But one of his questions was soon answered.
Two male voices could be heard from behind K-Adelaia Ron.
“Damn… It really does take a toll on your health if you try to do a long-distance Quantum Transmission with just your bare body.”
“Shut up and clean this place up first. Do you know how valuable these Dragon God Soldiers are?”
“I know, don’t order me around, you bastard.”
—booom!—
A blinding light appeared before R-Palcon Ron’s eyes.
A light so blinding that despite being protected behind the visors, his eyes felt like they were burning up.
But he kept his eyes open.
And was utterly bewildered.
‘Holy…’
—booooooom!—
The red scorpions that they were having such a hard time against were instantly swept away by the attacks of the three family heads.
Of course, the scorpions weren’t the only ones that were destroyed.
The powerful layers that could even withstand a Miprosky-level weapon were melting away as well.
‘I never realized that they were this strong…’
R-Palcon Ron felt a tremendous amount of pride.
That mountainous amount of strength.
And their god-like attitudes.
This was it.
This was the image that suited the people who led these giant clans.
But at the same time, he was at a loss.
They were worth almost nothing to them after this but the family heads had still come to save them.
‘Head… I promise my utmost loyalty to you until the end.’
R-Palcon Ron felt that something was weird.
It was that strange expression on K-Adelaia Ron’s face.
‘…Is she feeling bad for me?’
Why was she feeling bad for him?
“Ron! This isn’t the time for that! Don’t try to act kind by yourself! We need to use everything we have to guard against those things!”
“Damn… I didn’t know their numbers had dropped by this much.”
K-Merrow Nell’s sharp words.
K-Ukatan Pael’s strange words.
“…Head? What do you mean?”
As R-Palcon Ron was lost in confusion—
—K-Adelaia Ron spoke out with an apologetic tone.
“I’m sorry.”
—kacha!—
“Kaaaaa!…What?!”
Shocked, R-Palcon Ron looked at his heart which had shrunk to almost nothing in an instant.
And it wasn’t just him.
— kachaha!—
— chakak!—
“Kuhukk!”
“Kuaah!”
Gasps and screams of pain could be heard from all around.
Then—
— rumble!—
—the powerful energy of the Flame being squeezed out from their hearts started to flow towards one direction.
Towards K-Adelaia Ron.
And every time she devoured the energy of another soldier, she would shine brighter and brighter.
And amidst his now fading conscious, R-Palcon Ron realized the truth.
Why they had been created.
Why the family heads had treated them so well.
‘We were just lunchboxes… Damn.’
R-Palcon Ron closed his eyes, glaring at K-Adelaia Ron with hate.
………………………………………….
— rumble—
“Uaaaahh…”
As Kiriel looked up at the melting ceiling, Hansoo touched the shining Relic..
‘It’s time.’