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Chapter 156: The White Ghost Kings Sanctuary 1
Chapter 156: The White Ghost Kings Sanctuary 1
Chapter 156: The White Ghost King's Sanctuary 1
After the battle against Ivanov, Woohyuk quickly progressed in the tournament.
As he repeated the stage over and over again, certain people with quite a bit of strength appeared as opponents, but they weren’t enough to deal with Woohyuk.
Eventually, Woohyuk became the winner in his area and moved on to the next stage.
'Helena must have entered the first stage by now.'
She was the second in Eteria Rodinus to enter the stages.
The first was Saint Martinus.
The third was Ibn Rusud. Woohyuk had no idea why Helena was prioritized over him.
He could only guess that it was because Helena was in charge of monitoring him.
A series of system messages popped up as Woohyuk imagined Helena running on a battlefield full of monsters.
[This next stage is the last siege.]
[The Blue Team will have to defend the Citadel for a limited amount of time, while the Red Team will have to capture the Citadel.]
[All teams that do not complete their goal will return to the previous stage after the time limit has elapsed.]
[You are in the blue team.]
[Before the start of the siege, you will be given an opportunity to have a strategic meeting with the participants of the same team.]
[The strategic meeting time is 5 minutes.]
He could hear whispers and murmurs here and there.
Most of the participants were demons.
It was a natural result because all of the lower level monsters were killed in the previous stages.
'I have to become the leader.'
It was better to use the others as much as possible in order to conserve his own strength.
Woohyuk climbed on the platform in the fort and slammed the speech table with his palm several times.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
“Quiet down. From now on, I will command everyone.”
“What's your deal?”
“I can’t see any wings or horns. Is he a human?”
Ivanov's men were also into these ruins, so the demons did not find Woohyuk's existence bizarre.
They just didn't like that he was trying to control them.
Woohyuk noticed these thoughts being processed in the minds of the demons and came up with an appropriate solution.
“I will accept anyone's challenge. However, I’ll limit it to three people since we don’t have time.”
“Is that human crazy?”
“He thinks he’s the strongest here. What a joke”
“He’s just a dog of the Dragonlord. He should know his place…”
The demons stared at Woohyuk with ridicule.
No matter how low-level these demons were, their abilities exceeded those of ordinary humans.
While they were weak against divine energy, as long as it was a one-on-one duel without the use of divine power, the demons would be overwhelmingly advantageous.
That obviously only applied to low rankers, though. High rankers like the Overlords did not apply to this rule.
“Come on up already. We need time to plan the operation as well.”
“That cheeky… I will face you!”
One demon spat out resentfully at Woohyuk's confident attitude and stepped up to the podium.
The other demons immediately began cheering for him.
“Cardane, get him!”
"Show the puny humans the greatness of us demons!"
Cardane was one of the Demon King Astaroth's favorite thugs.
The reason he was here was to contact the Demon King immediately if the Sangreal Chronicles were found in the Sand Temple.
But currently, he was summoned to another dimension and was unable to perform his mission.
In the midst of this ordeal, a strange human had appeared and proclaimed that he would act as their commander-in-chief, which greatly angered him.
However, Woohyuk had no intention of taking this demon’s feelings into account.
Receiving a public challenge like this would allow him to show off his battle prowess to the other demons and make them obey him.
He did not intend to persuade them with words and befriend them.
“Are you the strongest demon here?”
"Indeed. I am Cardane, the 3rd corps commander of the Astaroth County. Killing someone like you will be a piece of cake.”
Cardane pulled out a pair of giant labryses from his back.
As he stepped forward, the axes emitted a purple glow and generated a strong electric current.
'Is he specialized in lightning like Volak?'
Woohyuk felt like he had faced Cardane in the past, but couldn’t remember the details.
He had fought countless enemies on battlefields for over 40 years, so he could not remember every demon he had faced.
While the 72 Demon Kings were doable, he couldn’t keep all the faces of their subordinates in his mind palace.
'Well, he doesn’t seem difficult to defeat.'
Those who mainly used lightning skills tended to try to win through speed.
Otherwise, they’d stand in the distance and bombard him with ranged attacks.
However, since Cardane was openly approaching him, the possibility of his battle style being the latter was nil.
Woohyuk unsheathed Grandia from his waist and waited for the demon to strike first.
'I should at least make a show out of this.'
The key was to show them the overwhelming power gap.
Therefore, he would end the battle with one strike to amaze the spectators.
Meanwhile, Cardane didn't know of Woohyuk's calculations and took on a proud stance to criticise him.
“Why are you standing so still? Did you wet our pants or something? Wanna go back to mama?”
“… .”
“If you’re scared of showing an opening by attacking first, I’ll do it instead!”
Cardane yelled and dashed to Woohyuk.
His labrys soon fell towards Woohyuk's head like a lightning bolt.
The large blade sparked and shone brightly like a lightning strike.
However, the attack did not reach Woohyuk at all.
"Too slow."
“…Huh?"
Cardane, who had cut down Woohyuk's afterimage, stared in confusion.
Woohyuk had disappeared from his view instantly.
...And his voice was resonating from behind.
Before Cardane could turn around,
Stab!
Grandia pierced through his heart and a pure white glowing blade protruded from his chest.
“Cough…!”
A painful look grew on Cardane’s face and he spat out black blood.
Afterwards, his strength left his body and he fell to the floor.
The demons who were watching the battle were astonished and could not shut their jaws.
“Im, impossible!”
"Ivanov's mutt killed Cardane in a head-on battle!"
Ivanov, the ruler of the Talis Kingdom, was being criticized and called inferior to the demon subordinates of Astaroth.
However, that “inferior” human’s subordinate had killed one of their strongest demons in a fair fight.
The demons who found this strange and scrutinized Woohyuk carefully.
“Now that I see it, the demonic energy in him is a bit peculiar.”
“Did he sign a contract with a Demon King from another faction?”
"Don’t tell me… Don’t tell me it’s Forneus, Lord Astaroth’s rival...?”
Suspicion spread throughout the demons, and false claims were being made.
Woohyuk spoke up again.
“Why would I do that? I’m already enjoying all sorts of riches and noble activities in the Talis Kingdom.”
“True. If he exploited the slaves working there, he’d have more than enough gold coins and sluts in his disposition.”
“We were thinking of useless delusions. Even if a Demon King from another faction tried to intervene, why would he entrust such an important role to a mere human?”
“True, you’re right. I guess I've been trapped here for so long that I’m becoming suspicious of everything.”
The demons nodded to each other and made expressions of relief.
When he succeeded in erasing their doubts, Woohyuk returned to the original topic.
“Anyways, any other challenger? If so, make it quick. We only have 3 minutes left.”
“Woah, two minutes passed by in an instant.”
“At this rate, we won’t be able to have a meeting and will have to start the siege battle right away!”
Tension grew among the demons.
In their hearts, everyone still didn’t want to recognize Woohyuk as the commander-in-chief.
However, he had proved to be the strongest of them all, and Cardane had died, so there was no other potential commander.
Eventually, the demons showed an ambiguous attitude and slowly surrendered to Woohyuk’s command.
“But do you have a plan in mind?”
“Right, spill the beans! Let’s see why you’re so confident in yourself!”
If they couldn't stop the red team’s offensive, they would have to return to the previous stage.
All of the hard work and effort spent until now, during both the survival and tournament games, would be in vain.
Woohyuk opened his mouth with a satisfied expression.
“In the past, one of the legendary masters said this. ‘If you wish to live, you will die; if you wish to die, you will live’.”
“…”
“If you fight with the will to die, this fortress will never fall. Why? Because I am here! The best commander you could ask for is with you.”
“…Sheesh, so it’s just all about you showing off?”
“Forget it. Just give us orders already. The siege is about to begin.”
The demons continued to listen to Woohyuk's words as they stood while complaining.
In order to live up to their expectations, Woohyuk began explaining the operation by showing a map of the fortress placed on the table.
“This fortress has a tower in each corner. And there is also a magic engineered weapon on the castle wall towards the drawbridge.”
The plan was simple.
First, they had to make sure the castle gates would not be broken through, but also prevent enemies climbing over the walls with ladders from the sides.
It would not be easy to pull off because the enemies had several siege weapons, but Woohyuk wasn't worried.
Because he had experienced this battlefield once in the past.
“…Finally, there is a secret passage that leads outside the walls. Using this, we can ambush the enemies from the rear with an elite unit specialized in mobility.”
“If we're lucky, we could destroy all the siege weapons, such as the trebuchets.”
“We could also wipe out the annoying wizards and archers in the back.”
Soon after the briefing ended, the demons went to their respective positions with raging fighting spirits.
They had confidence in what Woohyuk had explained, and were sure to win.
Soon, the siege battle began, and then…
[The time limit has passed.]
[The blue team has won because the citadel was not captured.]
[Before moving on to the next stage, the blue team will be given a 10-minute break.]
[The red team will be forcibly transported to the previous stage.]
After an hour of fierce battles, a victory message resonated in everyone's minds.
“We won!”
“Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
The demons of the blue team were thrilled and embraced each other.
The siege battle had proven to be far more difficult than expected.
They had taken a lot of damage, so this victory was of great significance to them.
“It felt like I went through the War of Gods and Demons again.”
“This siege was one of the most memorable battles amongst all the battles I ever experienced.”
“This is worthy of becoming a great saga once we return to the demon world!”
The demons had been asleep for a long time ever since the War of Gods and Demons, so this was their first big battle in a long time.
Their morale was rising as if it were piercing through the sky.
“As long as we stand united, conquering the western continent will be a piece of cake!
“That’s right. After conquering the small kingdoms, we’ll take over the Holy Aperian Empire!”
“Long live Lord Astaroth!”
The demons were inevitably obedient to the demon kings, but originally, they did not like cooperation.
They quarreled whenever they had a chance to increase their ranks, and armed conflict often occurred even within the same territory.
However, during this siege, they finally felt the need to unite.
As the atmosphere turned cheerful, the commander-in-chief Woohyuk stood on the podium.
Then everyone turned to listen to him quietly, admiration glittering in their eyes.
They had realized that Woohyuk's leadership was excellent during the hour-long siege.
However, they did not openly express their admiration and cheer for him because they had their pride as demons.
“Do you have something to say?”
“The siege is over. You don't have to keep leading us.”
“Yes, that’s right. Though it’s a different question if we end up having to unite again in the next stage.
Although his skills were excellent, Woohyuk was still a human.
Woohyuk watched the demons' bipolar attitudes for a while, then suddenly summoned Verserios and stabbed it on the floor.
The surrounding landscape immediately turned black and Asura's absolute space began to unfold.
“Wha, what is this?!”
“What the hell is he doing?”
The demons were flabbergasted and took many steps backward.
However, there was no escape route.
They were already in the Demon God’s territory.
“You guys have to die here.”
In order to get rid of the nuisances in the last stage, his competitors had to be eliminated in advance.
In other words, these demons were Woohyuk’s allies when useful, but his enemies when unnecessary
Moreover, he wasn’t very close with any of the demons, so he felt no remorse with his actions.
As the demons clumsily brandished their weapons, Woohyuk’s eyes flashed and he leaped into the crowd of enemies.