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Chapter 107: Star, The Winter Palace (7)

“Get as far away as possible!”

Cha Ye-Eun’s eyes widened when things took a drastic turn. ‘What in the world is happening?’

Just a while ago, the punitive force was in danger because the Grand General, who had killed the Myeongga Clan leader with a single strike, and the guards riding Snow Pterosaurs had appeared. She doubted the punitive force was going to get exterminated since many famous rankers were with them, but she thought they’d likely take heavy casualties. As if to prove her right, the volunteer Players had been sustaining a lot of damage.

However, a miracle suddenly occurred. A Dungeon Message popped up, stating the Winter King had died. From that point on, the Yetis and Highoff demonic beings began fighting each other.

“Spare no one,” the Grand General firmly ordered.

That was enough to instantly turn the tide and leave no means for the demonic beings to survive.

“Seonbae,” Jin Seok-Tae called Ye-Eun, bringing her back to reality.

She realized what she had to do right now. There was no reason to be caught up in their internal dispute. Their goal was to exterminate the Highoff remnants, not the Yetis, so it was better to avoid fighting with the Yetis if they could.

“Everyone, retreat—” Ye-Eun ordered, but she couldn’t finish.

Thud!

Before she could, the Grand General, who had landed on the ground, turned his head. In a flash, Ye-Eun felt a stinging gust of wind quickly brushing her cheek. She then heard a loud squelch. Feeling a shiver running down her spine, Ye-Eun instinctively turned in the direction of the sound.

“… Seon-bae…” Seok-Tae was coughing up blood, his stomach pierced by the Grand General’s greatsword.

The Grand General had already reached them. Seeing Seok-Tae caused Ye-Eun’s mind to go blank. Although she was normally calm, Seok-Tae always annoyed her. Still, he was her reliable and dear junior partner. Seeing him spill blood and collapse brought great shock to her.

Drip―!

Splash!

When the Grand General roughly pulled his greatsword out of Seo-Tae, a large amount of blood splattered and dyed the Grand General’s white armor red.

“You humans are ultimately the ones who have tainted our land,” the Grand General ominously spoke behind his long knight helmet, “As the keeper of this land, I’ll kill you all.”

He sounded like a judge during a trial, sentencing the guilty to death.

Thud―!

Seok-Tae helplessly collapsed on the ground, his blood painting the snowfield red.

Snap!

Something snapped inside Ye-Eun’s head at that moment. She immediately pulled out her revolver and opened fire at the Grand General. “Seok-Tae!!!!!”

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Whenever she fired magical bullets, which she designed and created, she left long scars on the sky. Each bullet had [Truesilver] inside it, and its shell was engraved with extremely advanced magic circles that would activate certain spells once fired.

It wasn’t only because she was beautiful that numerous Clans in Korea were cooperative with the Council and that she became the Council’s symbol. It was also because she was strong. That was also why she was given the title the ‘Iron Witch.’ The Grand General seemed to have felt the bullets’ power as well since he dodged some and deflected the rest with his greatsword.

When the first bullet was fired, its sparks turned into a dragon-shaped flame and sprang out at the Grand General. The second bullet unleashed a violent tornado, restricting his movements, and the third bullet released lightning energy. Mixed together, the lightning energy and the tornado transformed into a lightning storm. The fourth and fifth bullets summoned and fired a bunch of ice arrows at the Grand General.

[Fire Dragon], [Lightning Storm], [Ice Arrow], and [Mana Cloud]... Various magic spells had been activated, some of which were easy to use, while some were difficult to learn. Nevertheless, despite being totally different from one another, Ye-Eun harmonized and turned the spells into an impeccably powerful magic. That was why the Iron Witch was called the great witch in the world.

[The Celestial ‘Twilight-Piercing Owl’ is blessing you!]

[The Celestial ‘War-Loving Fighting Deity’ is blessing you!]

[The Celestial ‘Madness Infuser’ is blessing you!]

[The Celestial ‘A Blacksmith in a Volcano’ is blessing you!]

…

.

To top it all off, even though she didn’t have a Guardian, she was also the Saintess beloved and blessed by many Celestials due to her peculiarity. Thanks to the powers given by deities like Minerva, Mars, Bacchus, and Vulcanus, Ye-Eun put the Grand General, who had taken her lightly, on high alert.

Crash!

The Grand General unleashed a powerful swing of his greatsword, creating strong gusts of wind that nullified Ye-Eun’s magic spells.

Pzz, pzzzz―!

Paaah!

He seemed to have failed to eradicate all of them, however. On the Grand General’s armor were residual energies from the magic spells.

“… You’re the most bothersome human I’ve ever met.” The Grand General looked down at his hand, then pointed his greatsword at Ye-Eun. Now realizing she was the strongest member of the punitive force, he decided to kill her first.

Paah―!

That was exactly what Ye-Eun wanted him to do, though. She removed all the empty shells from her revolver. She then sprang forward as she reloaded her gun with new magical bullets. She mumbled incomprehensible incantations at the same time, causing Skill Effects to rise around her.

Magic Armament. Ye-Eun, the Iron Witch and Saintess, had simultaneously activated the buffs she had memorized before she entered the battle.

Rumble…!

Two rays of light flew across the air.

* * *

Feeling the pain in her left shoulder, Yoo-Jin gritted her teeth. She turned as much as she could the moment she felt something flying in her direction, but it appeared she had failed to dodge completely.

A monster she had never seen in her entire life was standing before her. He resembled the Grand General since he wore heavy armor, but he emitted more powerful energy. At that moment, Yoo-Jin realized Chang-Sun had gotten her again.

She didn’t know where she was, but she was certain she was no longer in ‘Yeti Hill.’ Moreover, she was alone. Thinking she should escape—no, kill this bizarre monster before her first, Yoo-Jin ‘detonated’ [Hellfire Song], which was already blazing up.

Boom!

The uncontrollable fireball hit the Hongsal King. The condensed fire’s explosion packed enough power to shatter the Hongsal King’s armor and send him flying for quite some time. Just as the Hongsal King had cut off her left arm, Yoo-Jin destroyed the Hongsal King’s armor.

Pzzz…!

By the time the Hongsal King could finally stop, he was already quite a distance away from Yoo-Jin. He was also smoking and smelled burnt.

“… I wondered why a strange human suddenly showed up in the middle of the fight,” the Hongsal King spoke with a surrealistically ominous voice behind his red helmet.

His voice was mixed with a ghost’s horrible wail, almost as if he had kidnapped and squeezed a ghost until it wailed.

“It seems he has brought a useful dummy.” The Hongsal King stood up again.

The fragments of the armor shone in red light and quickly pieced back together. His eyes under the helmet also viciously shone.

“Useful?” Yoo-Jin’s face hardened as she looked at the Hongsal King.

Her mutilated left arm stopped bleeding, and black demonic energy rose and took the shape of an arm. She was using [Body Recovery], which used up a certain amount of demonic energy to restore one’s body to its original state. It was similar to the method the Hongsal King used.

“I’ll make sure to shut your mouth first, you arrogant monster.” Yoo-Jin pointed her staff at the Hongsal King, and flames rose from her feet. [Hellfire Song] had been activated again.

She activated [Dream Hallucination] as well, a powerful phantom spell she used to hold the Winter King hostage. It caused the world around her to bizarrely distort little by little. She planned to make the Hongsal King fall into a Delusion state, just like what happened to the Winter King.

[The Hohwan Mama and demonic energy are clashing and shrieking!]

The Hongsal King thought Yoo-Jin was Chang-Sun’s colleague whom he had hidden until now and ordered to fight on his behalf since he was losing against the Hongsal King. Although she wasn’t sure who exactly the Hongsal King was, Yoo-Jin believed she had to kill the Honsal King first to find Chang-Sun. They both had been swayed by Chang-Sun so much that they didn’t realize Chang-Sun was using them.

No, they were vaguely aware of it, but they were too furious to think rationally. The thought of getting rid of the obstacles before them and finding Chang-Sun filled their heads. They never considered the option of persuading each other since in the Hongsal King’s eyes, Yoo-Jin was an intruder who had tainted his land just like Chang-Sun, and Yoo-Jin would never yield to a monster.

Woosh, woosh, woosh!

Swish, swish, swish―!

In the end, the energy emitted from the two violently shook the twenty-fourth sector.

* * *

Sitting on the roof of the watchtower, which wasn’t that far away from the Hongsal King and Yoo-Jin, Chang-Sun watched the two using [Beast Senses] and [Viper Eyes]. “It seems to have worked.”

[The Rune ‘Concealment’ has been activated!]

‘I was worried they’d join forces, but they’re definitely not the type to do so.’?Chang-Sun observed.

After granting the Winter King’s request, Chang-Sun noticed he only had five minutes remaining until the Changgwi Cave curse was activated, so he waited until the Yetis and demonic beings had fallen into chaos. With no one to stop him from seizing that moment as an opportunity, he found Yoo-Jin very easily. It seemed using the Hahoe mask proved quite effective as well.

Ever since the Changgwi Cave curse had been activated, he had retreated from the battlefield and let the Hongsal King and Yoo-Jin meet each other. Yoo-Jin had lost her left arm right from the beginning, so he no longer had to worry about the Hongsal King and Yoo-Jin reconciling. They were both leaders as well, so they were very prideful.

‘I didn’t expect Lamashtu to hand her [Hellfire Song],’?Chang-Sun thought.

Lamashu likely adored his apostle, Gwak Do-Woon, very much. Chang-Sun felt bitter for a moment but soon shook his head. He had to use this moment as an opportunity, so he had no time to get sentimental. With Concealment Runes nearby, no one would be able to find him.

Today’s time limit was 24 hours, which was quite long.

‘It’s enough to complete [Reinforced Skeleton].’?Chang-Sun pulled out the best [Everlasting Ice Crystal] out of the eight from his inventory.

[Pulled out the ‘Frost Monarch’s Breath’!]

Paah!

Chang-Sun then ate the shiniest [Everlasting Ice Crystal] without hesitation.