Boom!
The +13 Vanquisher’s Grasp shot forward like a bullet and struck the head of the figure reaching for the crimson jewel with pinpoint accuracy. The +13 Vanquisher’s Grasp carried a force so immense that the figure was blasted away.
“...!”
The cardinals froze in shock at the ambush.
“Secure the soul fragment first!” one of them shouted.
However, Siegfried was a step ahead of them.
“Go!” he shouted, releasing the Three-Legged Crow to swoop in and retrieve the crimson jewel.
“Kieeeee!”
The Three-Legged Crow appeared and flew fifty meters in the blink of an eye as if it warped space itself and moved through its fabric. It snatched the crimson jewel with its beak and returned to Siegfried’s side.
Everything happened in less than half a second.[Alert: You have obtained Blood Spinel Soul!]
A message popped up in front of Siegfried’s eyes, confirming that he had secured the final Soul Fragment of Apocalius.
“Y-You dirty bastard!”
“Scumbaaag!”
“You son of a bitch!”
The cardinals erupted in fury and screamed obscenities as they charged at Siegfried.
Their anger that burned like a raging fire was quite understandable, as they had risked their lives for two grueling hours just to defeat Mitrina the Devourer, only for Siegfried to swoop in and steal the prize that they had earned with their blood and sweat.
They wouldn't have been as enraged if Siegfried had merely stolen the last hit, as that was not what was important to them. Unfortunately, he had taken the most critical piece from the loot, which was the Soul Fragment of Apocalius.
“Kill him! We must reclaim the soul fragment!”
“Don’t let him escape!”
The cardinals rushed and attacked Siegfried, but they were no match for him.
It was not that they were weak, but they were completely drained after battling Mitrina the Devourer for over two hours. They had already reached their physical and mental limits, making it difficult for them to exert their full power.
Siegfried, too, was far from being in peak condition. He still had some injuries from his earlier battles, and his mana reserves were low as well. However, he was still in better shape compared to the cardinals, who had just finished fighting Mitrina the Devourer and had not been able to rest.
‘Master Shakiro is not among them. In that case…’ Siegfried realized that the biggest threat, the Weapon Seeker, was not present. Thus, he acted decisively and placed down Blaze Field before channeling his remaining mana to cast Torrential Flower Rain.
Shwaaak!
A storm of ice shurikens tore through the air and the cardinals.
“Argh!”
“Aaack!”
“Gwaaah!”
Screams echoed in the air as the ice shurikens ripped their targets apart.
“Let’s go!” Siegfried shouted.
“Kyuuu!” Hamchi responded and jumped down his shoulder.
Siegfried dashed forward, weaving past the cardinals.
“Stop him!”
“Don’t let him get away!”
A few cardinals desperately chased after him, but they had no chance of catching him. Siegfried’s title, Pesky Brat, had activated. In addition to his speed becoming unmatched, the title also had the psychological effect of enraging his pursuers with his fleeing smug figure.
Whoosh!
And just like that, Siegfried shook off the cardinals of the Church of Osric.
However, something felt amiss, causing him to come to a screeching halt.
‘Ah, I can’t leave without giving them a parting gift, right?’ Siegfried thought with a grin.
He turned around and slammed the ground with his +13 Vanquisher’s Grasp, triggering Splitting Heaven and Earth.
From the moment he entered the Feiogh Underground: Old Air Raid Bunker, he refrained from using this skill, as using it in an enclosed space like this could—no, would definitely collapse the tunnel.
However, he couldn't care less about that right now.
Why?
It was all because he wanted to bury the cardinals alive inside the Old Air Raid Bunker.
Rumble!
The fan-shaped wave of destruction from Splitting Heaven and Earth spread out.
Baaam!
The ceiling instantly collapsed, and massive chunks of rock rained down, burying everything.
“Good luck dealing with that,” Siegfried sneered with a mocking grin. Then, he said, “Let’s go, Hamchi.”
“Kyuuu!”
With that, Siegfried and Hamchi left, leaving behind the cardinals buried under the rubble.
***
Siegfried emerged from the western exit of the Fieogh Underground: Old Air Raid Bunker.
“I wonder how they’re doing…” Siegfried muttered.
He thought of Yong Seol-Hwa and the others still inside the bunker.
Were they dead? Or had they somehow survived?
Given the circumstances underground, the collapse of the bunkers' sections due to the explosives planted by the Church of Osric made it difficult to tell whether they were able to make it out alive or not.
However, there were eight other pathways leading to the central area, so they could have still made it out alive.
Siegfried was hoping that they had already made it out alive before he used Splitting Heaven and Earth, which caused additional destruction to the underground bunker.
“More important…”
Siegfried decided he needed to regroup with Cheon Woo-Jin as quickly as possible before anything else. With that goal in mind, he left the small mountain where the western entrance to the underground bunker was hidden and headed for the outskirts of Feiogh.
But then—
“...!”
He caught a glimpse of the Iron Palace in the distance, causing him to stop in his tracks and freeze up. The Iron Palace was a grand building that stood proudly atop Feiogh, but now, it was in shambles as if it had been bombarded.
And then—
Whoosh…!
He noticed a person was falling from the sky.
‘Huh? No way… Is that Cheon Woo-Jin?’ Siegfried squinted his eyes and tried to get a closer look at the familiar figure. An unsettling instinct gripped him, so he immediately unfurled his +10 Black Crow Wingsuit and took to the sky.
‘It’s him!’
Siegfried's fears were confirmed to be true; the falling person was none other than Cheon Woo-Jin. However, he was too far away from Cheon Woo-Jin, while the latter was less than a kilometer away from hitting the ruins of what was once the Iron Palace.
‘I have to fly faster!’ Siegfried poured what little mana he had left into his +10 Black Crow Wingsuit, pushing it and himself to the limits.
Nine hundred meters…
Eight hundred meters…
One hundred meters…
Grab!
With only fifty meters left before the ground, Siegfried caught Cheon Woo-Jin in mid-air.
However, he couldn't emerge unscathed from it.
[Alert: Insufficient Mana!]
[Alert: Insufficient Mana!]
[Alert: Insufficient Mana!]
[Alert: The +10 Black Crow Wingsuit has stopped functioning due to insufficient mana!]
Siegfried’s mana reserves ran dry, causing him to lose the ability to fly.
Baaam!
Both he and Cheon Woo-Jin crashed to the ground, and the impact generated a deafening explosion. Siegfried sprawled out on the ground, unable to move from the impact.
“Ugh…”
“Kyuuu! Are you alright, owner punk?!”
“I’d feel… a lot better… if you got the hell off of me…”
“Kyu?! S-Sorry!”
Hamchi realized that he was pinning Siegfried down and hastily scrambled off of him.
“Hey, help me up.”
“KYuuu!”
With Hamchi’s assistance, Siegfried managed to get back up to his feet. Then, he immediately staggered toward Cheon Woo-Jin, shaking him awake.
“Hey! Get up! Wake up!”
“Ughh…”
“Open your eyes! Come on! What happened to you? Tell me!”
“The base… was overtaken…”
“What?!”
“The personnel involved in the Homunculus Project… They were all… mind-controlled.”
“...!”
“The Church of Osric…”
It was then.
Cheon Woo-Jin passed out before finishing his words.
“Damn it!” Siegfried cursed under his breath at the unforeseen turn of events.
However, now was not the time to dwell on it.
“Clear the debris!”
“Over here! I need help!”
“There’s someone trapped here! Help!”
“Medic! I need a medic! Hurry!”
The ruins of the Iron Palace were in utter chaos, and rescue operations were in full swing. It was clear that something catastrophic had happened while Siegfried was busy on his mission in the Feiogh Underground: Old Air Raid Bunker.
‘This can’t be happening!’
Siegfried placed Cheon Woo-Jin in Hamchi’s care and ran to help with the rescue efforts.
Time to process the situation? There was none.
Right now, saving lives was far more important than anything else.
Why?
It was all because many of the Proatine Kingdom’s soldiers and officials were in the Iron Palace.
***
On that same evening, Siegfried took a break from the rescue operations. Both he, Han Tae-Sung, and his character, Siegfried van Proa, were utterly drained and exhausted after running around nonstop to help with the rescue efforts.
The only silver lining in this whole chaos was that the casualties were not as severe as he feared. The Iron Palace was built to be extraordinarily durable, and the defensive measures Duke Decimato had placed just in case of an emergency had helped mitigate much of the damage.
It was truly a narrow escape.
Most of the Proatine Kingdom's key personnel had survived, and those who were injured sustained only minor wounds.
Unfortunately, there were exceptions.
Gringore and Ninetail had suffered severe injuries and were completely unconscious.
They were barely hanging by a thread when they were found, but fortunately, Saintess Janette promptly arrived and treated them, saving their lives.
“They will recover after about a month of rest,” Saintess Janette assured Siegfried.
“Thank you so much,” Siegfried said, bowing in gratitude.
“You do not have to thank me, Your Majesty. I, too, am glad that they made it,” she replied with a warm gentle smile.
“Yes, it is a relief…” Siegfried muttered, his gaze focused on both Gringore and Ninetail, who were covered in bandages. Then, he growled under his breath, “I won’t let those who did this get away…”
It was then.
“Ugh…”
Cheon Woo-Jin began to move and finally woke up.
“Hey, are you finally awake?” Siegfried asked.
“T-The last piece… of the Soul Fragment of Apocalius… what happened to it?” Cheon Woo-Jin rasped.
“Here,” Siegfried took out the Blood Spinel Soul from his inventory and showed it.
“At least… that’s one good thing…” Cheon Woo-Jin said, letting out a sigh of relief while seemingly still in pain.
“What the hell happened?” Siegfried asked.
“The Immortal Alchemist… Acheron… He was the leader of the Church of Osric,” Cheon Woo-Jin revealed.
“Damn it… I knew it…” Siegfried muttered, not looking shocked. He had been suspecting for some time that the so-called Savior was not the true leader of the Church of Osric.
“I can’t believe… I fell for it… I’m so sorry,” Cheon Woo-Jin said, his voice filled with bitterness and guilt.
This was not Siegfried’s fault.
Cheon Woo-Jin was the one who had brought Acheron into the Guardians to protect her from the Church of Osric and to learn the secrets of alchemy. He was also the one who had pushed forward with the Homunculus Project.
Thus, it was natural for him to be consumed by rage and self-loathing after realizing that he had been stabbed in the back.
Just then….
“I killed them… all of them… with my own hands…” Cheon Woo-Jin said, his voice choking and his hands trembling in anguish.
“What do you mean? Killed who?” Siegfried asked.
“The ones who joined the Homunculus Project. I killed them with my own hands,” Cheon Woo-Jin said weakly, and his voice was heavy with despair.
“What?!”
“They were just NPCs but… I spent four years with them. Four years… Living and working together, every single day… and I—” Cheon Woo-Jin’s voice trailed off; as he found it difficult to keep talking. Talking about it alone made him feel like he was reliving the nightmare.
By the time Cheon Woo-Jin had left the underground bunker and arrived at the Heaven’s Eye, it was already too late. The Guardians involved in the Homunculus Project had fallen under mind control, becoming enemies.
The non-combat personnel had already been slaughtered by them.
When Cheon Woo-Jin appeared, he was ambushed. He was attacked by the comrades he had spent four years with.
The Guardians enhanced by the Homunculus Project closed in on him, and he only had one option against such a powerful group of enemies.
He had no choice but to kill them all.
Why?
If he had held back, he would have died.
Even worse, if they were left alive, they'd become tools of the Church of Osric and bring about the destruction of the world. Thus, with tears of blood and his heart being ripped to pieces, Cheon Woo-Jin eliminated them all.
“...”
Siegfried couldn't bring himself to console Cheon Woo-Jin.
Why?
It was all because he understood. As a fellow gamer deeply immersed in this world, he couldn't dismiss the deaths of NPCs as a trivial matter.
The weight of Cheon Woo-Jin’s anguish was something Siegfried could empathize with all too well, as he had gone through it as well.
Tokki's Thoughts
Tokki’s Thoughts: One of you saw this coming. You guys scare me sometimes… ngl…
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