As the Summer Queen blew her Breath at the three Martial Gods, the rankers of Red Dragon spread around the Cheonghwado’s base. Explosions burst out in extravagant colors, followed by the smell of burning and blood.

The Cheonghwado’s players tried to stop them, but the surprise and unexpectedness of the attack left them defenseless. After all, they’d only gathered for the Saber God. On top of that, the Breath of the Summer Queen made them drop to the ground.

Red Dragon made sure to take advantage of that weakness, swinging their auras around. The Cheonghwado’s players easily fell to Red Dragon. Finally, the Cheonghwado understood why Red Dragon was considered the ruler of the Tower and why they had the confidence to say they would take on Allforone. Although only a part of their forces had appeared, they were already overpowering the Cheonghwado.

Clang! Boom! Team 2 of the Foreign Legion, led by Phante and Edora, made a lot of contributions, perhaps because they had practiced the Eight Battle Formations to the death. They pushed the Cheonghwado back steadily without batting an eye. Edora shouted orders to lead them in the right direction, and Phante moved ahead of them, leaving white thunder and ashes in his wake.

As she clutched her sword in the middle of the chaotic battlefield, Edora was grateful that the One-horned tribe hadn’t joined up with the Cheonghwado yet. If her father had been here, the damage to both sides would have been immense. She was also a bit worried for Yeon-woo, who was absent.

“I’m going to leave this place to you for just a moment.” Without giving her a chance to reply, he suddenly disappeared.

What was he trying to do? Edora hated Yeon-woo a little for being so secretive, but she decided to focus on the fight. To hide the fact that he was gone, they had to make sure they led the fight to victory.

***

Swoosh. Yeon-woo quickly moved among the chaos of the battlefield. With the magic power of the Neidan of the Four Legendary Beasts and his Dragon Body, he only left a blurry footstep with Shunpo wherever he went. The players couldn’t even read Yeon-woo’s movements, especially since they were distracted by the fighting. They were surprised to see sudden bursts of fire but didn’t think too much about them, assuming they were just remnants of explosions.

As Yeon-woo moved to his destination, he was free to do what he wanted. ‘Come out.’ The Black Bracelet glowed with a black light for a moment and let out energy. Yeon-woo sensed around thirty presences around him.

「Master.」

「What are your orders?」

Just as Yeon-woo had turned Shanon into a Death Knight and Boo into a Lich, he also changed the other Spirit Familiars.

[Guai]

[An evolved form of Spirit Familiars. They have some awareness, so they can communicate. They wait in the shadows and can create a physical body when they wish. Generally, they have a lot of influence from evil, and they are greedy enough to find chances to eat weak souls that come their way.]

The title “One Who Leads Death” made it easier to evolve the Spirit Familiars, and he even managed to add twenty more to his original ten. The Guai were extremely useful in many ways. Not only could they easily change their forms, but their strength had also improved from when they were only Spirit Familiars. In their ghostly forms, they could hide their presences, and in their physical forms, they had a power that was almost equivalent to that of a semi-ranker. Also, as their awareness increased, they could make decisions, and thus use their powers more effectively. Their capabilities were beyond the time they’d broken the alliance of the clans.

‘Spread out.’ Yeon-woo didn’t plan on stopping there. This was a battlefield. Death was everywhere, and precious souls were wandering around. It was like a buffet for the newly evolved Guai. As soon as they received his order, they disappeared into the shadows, ready to eat to their hearts’ content. Since the players on the battlefield were skilled enough to join a large clan, there were plenty of rankers who had been killed. If the Guai ate them, they would experience extreme growth. They could even end the lives of players who were just hanging on by a thread.

As Yeon-woo gathered the souls, he laughed in quiet delight. It was clear his collection would be filled with useful creatures. He had to move silently to hide his presence, but he was thankful that Red Dragon and the Cheonghwado had made the situation possible for him. He laughed at the stupid guys fighting among themselves. However, it was really too soon to celebrate because Leonte and Bahal were still alive. He would only relax after the war grew worse, and he killed them.

Yeon-woo started to slow down as he became closer to Leonte, hiding his presence as much as possible and preparing to ambush Leonte from behind. There were many guards ready to defend Leonte and also plenty of fighting in the vicinity. He also sensed Bahal’s presence nearby. ‘He’s here to get Leonte as well.’

After Bahal’s first meeting with Yeon-woo, he had immediately gone to search for and attack Leonte. At the time, Yeon-woo wondered why, thinking that it didn’t make sense for Red Dragon to declare war on the Cheonghwado. But now, he knew why. ‘The stone.’ Leonte had sacrificed multitudes of players to create it. Yeon-woo didn’t have much information about the stone, but he understood that Bahal wanted to get his hands on it after reading Bahal’s letters to the Saber God.

Yeon-woo didn’t know how Bahal got information about the stone, but knowing how much Bahal desired it made it easy for Yeon-woo to predict Bahal’s and Leonte’s movements. Leonte was clearly planning to borrow the strength of the Sword God and use whatever power he had left—anything to save his skin. That was the moment Bahal would appear. He believed that Leonte would use the stone once he’d been backed into a corner.

‘Obviously, that’s only if Leonte actually had the stone.’ Leonte would clearly know Bahal’s intentions, and since he didn’t have the stone, he had to figure out a way to defend himself. If Leonte and Bahal confronted each other, the damage to both sides would be immense. In the meantime, Yeon-woo would be lurking behind them. ‘I’ll attack them from the back.’ Yeon-woo planned to use the Guai, who’d already grown stronger from wandering around the battlefield, along with his Dragon Body and showing the face of his brother.

In the distance, he saw Leonte and Bahal fighting, just as he expected.

***

Kaboom!

“Damn it!” Leonte couldn’t hold back his anger and cursed. Bahal looked like a demon spitting out fire, ready to follow him to hell. Some of the greatest teams in the Cheonghwado were protecting him, including a few players that had never appeared in public. However, Bahal just pushed them aside as though they were nothing, stepping on them and destroying them. He was just like his nickname, Flaming Fist, and the distance between them decreased. “Are you going to hang on until the end, friend? I didn’t know you were such a stubborn person, hm?”

Leonte shouted in response to Bahal’s mocking tone, “Damn it! I don’t have the stone that you guys are looking for! It disappeared! It’s gone! If I had it, I would’ve used it by now, what would stop me?” Normally, he would’ve hidden the stone until the very end because the moment he acknowledged its existence, his great dream would tumble down. There was no doubt that the Sword God would take it and then punish him. The war had started because of him, after all, and the other Martial Kings already looked down on him. When the Saber God had attacked him for the stone, the Sword God had offered protection in exchange for it. And now, with Red Dragon’s attack, there was another sword under his chin.

If he actually had the stone, he wouldn’t feel so wronged. He’d even be able to fight back. However, the stone had truly evaporated into thin air, but they continued threatening him. Even though he’d told them the truth, their responses didn’t change. Even though he wished he could let them read his mind, there was no way he could prove he wasn’t lying, and it made him feel like he was going crazy.

Even the people assigned to protect him seemed more like captors.

“So you’re going to be like that until the end. Very well. Let’s do it, then.” Bahal looked at Leonte, thinking that it was his chance. Even if the stone had truly disappeared, he still needed to make it appear now. He had also been backed into a corner and he didn’t have much time. He didn’t know how long the Summer Queen could hold back the three Martial Gods since there was only so much she could do with a damaged Dragon Heart.

Before the world could discover her weakness, he needed to find the stone to fix the Dragon Heart and make her the strongest in the Tower. Bahal planned to capture Leonte through any means. Even if the stone was lost, he could force Leonte to recreate it. Red Dragon could get their hands on any materials they needed: people, elixirs, anything at all.

But Leonte gritted his teeth, furious at being so wronged. “‘Be like that until the end’? Fine. Let’s finish this, Bahal!” Leonte burst out all the magic power he had. Even though the consequences might be too much for him to handle, he had to rip the guy in front of him apart to feel better. Leonte summoned a large magic storm. It was this technique that had earned him the nickname “Storm Bringer”. He definitely wasn’t inferior to Bahal or the other Martial Gods in terms of strength.

Bahal was momentarily surprised at Leonte’s words and narrowed his eyes at a familiar smell. “Is this...the Mythical Dragon? Did you swallow Neidan? How did you get this?”

It was the Mythical Dragon their friend had raised before, but how did it fall into Leonte’s hands? However, Leonte just blew out a powerful storm as if he didn’t want to answer. Since the Mythical Beast had the strength to eat any property that got in the way, it easily swallowed down Bahal’s Fire Lightning. Furthermore, a magic circle began to form around Leonte, activating the defensive magic that the Sword God had left to protect him. As they opened, the buffs focused on Leonte.

At the same time, Bahal was debuffed and his movements slowed down. Blindness and poisoning followed before they disappeared after colliding with each other. Flaming Fist sprang forward, fire crackling out from his fingers every time he flicked them, evaporating into the air.

Leonte also sustained a lot of damage. This was a battlefield where one blink would lead to death, but neither of them backed down. Soon, Leonte appeared right in front of Bahal, who paused in surprise. He’d been the one hunting Leonte down, but all of a sudden, it felt like Leonte was the hunter now. He knew instinctively that he was in danger the moment he saw the violence in Leonte’s eyes.

However, it was too late. Leonte twisted and pulled out his secret weapon, and a bracelet wrapped tightly around his arm quickly uncoiled and stretched out. It was a sword that was also a spear, an ax, and a whip. The Sword God had left it in Leonte’s hands to use if he was in danger. It was the weapon he didn’t want to pull out until the very last moment: Gungnir.

The god Odin had used Gungnir to punish his enemies, and this great blade, which even surpassed rankings, burst into light that filled up everyone’s vision. Leonte screamed, “Die!”

Boom! Roar! The explosion spread out like a tornado, ripping everything around to shreds. Bahal, Flame Beast, and even Leonte’s guards were blown away.

Leonte bellowed in the center of the destruction. He had almost exhausted the Neidan of the Mythical Beast, but he was overjoyed at the thought of finishing off that damned bastard. If only he had this kind of power, he wouldn’t need the stone. But what if he had that power and the stone? The thought made him feel wronged again, but his hypersensitive senses suddenly noticed something fly out of the explosion.

“Leonte!” Bahal was running to him with a dangerous scowl, his eyes filled with anger and the will to kill Leonte no matter what it took.

Leonte laughed at Bahal. He had Gungnir, and he would’ve been confident even if the Saber God attacked him instead of Bahal, who was like a moth drawn to a flame. He swung Gungnir down. He would have to use up all the Neidan from the Mythical Dragon, but he had no other option. He was also thinking how nice it would be to use all the players here to make another stone as he stretched Gungnir out, its blade edge already infused with the Neidan.

Whoosh! Leonte began shaking as he felt something at his back. Blood poured from his mouth, and as the strength left his body, the magic power from Gungnir slowly faded away. He looked down with trembling eyes to see that a blade had penetrated through his chest. A large bloodstain was growing on his armor. He could barely turn his head to look behind him, and he saw the cold eyes of a masked stranger holding the sword that had pierced him. Leonte had a strange feeling that he was smiling under his mask. There was also something familiar about the stranger’s face shape.

“We finally meet.” Yeon-woo coldly mocked him.