Everyone on the ground was confused.

“Wh-what’s that?”

“M-Meteor Strike? Shit! Why?!”

It was a spell with the most destructive power, and even the Draconic Species would need to use up half of the magic power in their Dragon Hearts to cast it. The players that had been confidently advancing through the castle and the witches running away from them all stopped with wide eyes.

“Get down!”

“Everyone run away!”

“These damned prostitutes! Are they trying to bring everyone down with them?!”

A few of them believed that the witches were responsible. However, they knew that they wouldn’t be able to fight back and immediately ran as fast as possible from the impact site. However, it was too late for them. Before the barriers even completely vanished, the meteor landed in the middle of the castle, crushing it completely and creating a deep crater. The canyons split apart, a column of dust soared to the sky, and an intense heat expanded around the area.

Everything and everyone disappeared. The most mysterious clan, the Sea of Time, at the east vanished first without a trace, as though they’d never been there. Then, the shockwave reached the west and hit the West Wind Union’s mercenaries with a blast of heat.

“Frozen Wall! Ice Castle! Blizzard!” The Ice King struck the ground and thorns of ice shot up like the spines of a porcupine and twisted around each other to create a large wall. Along with the Iron Lion, the Ice King was one of the strongest in the mercenary world, but his reputation had fallen after he was defeated by the Martial King.

As though he were trying to prove that he still deserved his old reputation, he poured out his magic power. The other mercenaries moved around him, and magicians supported him with buffs and hardened the ice wall.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Rocks smashed against the wall. Small webs of cracks appeared, then froze again. The players that couldn’t use ice-type magic tried to block the rocks from coming in however they could. Twice swung his weapons to change the direction of the wind, and Black Skull used strange bugs to eat away the heat. Jang and Turn efficiently used their arrows or Aura to blow rocks away. However, they couldn’t catch all the pieces in time.

“Huh?”

“Crazy bastards! Block over there!”

“M-move!”

“Aahh!”

“Ugh!”

Moon Shadow didn’t see the pieces of rock flying towards their blind spot, and before they realized what was happening, their leader, Crescent, had already been blown to bits. The rest of the rocks crashed towards Moon Shadow, leaving only bloodstains behind.

Boom! After Moon Shadow fell, the problem grew worse since there weren’t enough people to hold back the barrage of rocks. The third squad of the Iron Lion guild that Atran had paid a handsome price for was swept away. The mercenaries behind them were incinerated by the heat, leaving only their screams behind. It didn’t matter if they were rankers or S-Class mercenaries. They had to protect themselves from the disaster.

Hell. It was hell.

“Dammit!” Atran screamed with bloodshot eyes, but his voice was drowned out by the sound of crashing rocks.

* * *

The same thing was happening in other places.

“Ahhhhh! Red Dragon!” Ione shouted, his face bloody. However, his cry was muffled by the noise around him. He was furious at the calamity befalling them, and he cursed Red Dragon and the Summer Queen for creating this situation.

Yeon-woo would have burst out laughing if he heard that Ione believed only Red Dragon had the ability to attack the Elohim like this. They had just barely gotten over the previous disaster when this new one swept them away as they were trying to recover. Ione wanted to grab his subordinates, but the wards he’d planted were uprooted by the blast. As his vision spun, he could do nothing else but scream. “Aahhh!”

* * *

The situation grew even worse. A few of the Magic Tower’s rankers were buried under the rubble as they tried to save themselves.

* * *

The disaster was followed by others. Boom! Boom! Boom! Whoosh! The air was forced inside because of the change of air pressure and a tornado continued to whirl around them. The Endless World of Night became an apocalyptic place of chaos, explosions, heat, and dust.

With his Fire Wings, Yeon-woo watched from above. When the Meteor Strike had crashed down, Yeon-woo used Blink to escape. ‘It’s worked better than I thought.’

All along, his plan had been to lure the Large Clans to Brocken Castle, and as soon as Kindred appeared, they would bring Meteor Strike down. At first, his comrades had dismissed this as a crazy plan, since most Outer Spaces were protected by barriers and defensive magic. They didn’t think it was possible to bypass them all. After all, if it were possible, the clans would have attacked each other’s Outer Spaces already.

However, after discussing it with Brahm and Boo, Yeon-woo was convinced that it would work. Since Walpurgisnacht had probably set up their defenses with the Philosopher’s Stones, he was going to use this against them.

As long as he got the Large Clans involved and found Ananta, he’d be able to hack into the system to bring down the meteorite. Since he had knowledge that the witches would never be able to learn from the Philosopher’s Stone, the result was a huge success. No place was left untouched. Although some players had managed to survive, they were in terrible shape. The area where the meteorite had landed was completely devastated. ‘The souls that I collected are pretty good quality too.’ Yeon-woo thought that Shanon and Hanryeong would be happy with them. Of course, there were also some missed opportunities.

‘Why isn’t the Summer Queen here?’ He thought she would be desperate to get a Philosopher’s Stone, but it seemed like her condition was worse than he thought. ‘Well, it doesn’t matter whether she’s hit by the meteorite or dies from the Devil Poison.’

Grinning, he slowly descended. Where the castle had once stood was a deep crater littered with rocks. Yeon-woo opened his Draconic Eyes wide to search for Kindred’s and Vieira Dune’s bodies. Vieira Dune hadn’t gone through Body Transfer, and with the castle gone, it seemed like all of her bodies had been destroyed, too.

At that moment, Kindred suddenly emerged from the ruins with a scream. “Cain!” He looked nothing like the Second Bishop of the Devil Army. He’d only managed to protect himself using Seventy-Two Bian, but all of his limbs were broken, and he was vomiting blood. Still, he glowered at Yeon-woo, his eyes no less threatening.

Although Meteor Strike was one of the most destructive spells, it still had limits, and Kindred was skilled enough to pull himself out of the situation. He was already recovering quickly. His eyes burned as though he were ready to rip Yeon-woo apart right there and then.

The demonic energy around him began to take the shape of an actual demon.

Swoosh!