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Chapter 42: Illusionary Army (7)
Chapter 42: Illusionary Army (7)
Chapter 42: Illusionary Army (7)
TL/Editor: Rungir
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The Red Hat, one of the top three human hunting groups in the empire, stood out in an ironic fashion. Despite their name, the mercenaries of Red Hat actually wore white hats. But they were known as Red Hats for a simple reason. After every mission, their hats would be dyed red with blood.
Standing among them was Yukon, their leader.
"How did this happen…" he mumbled, rooted to the spot, disbelief in his voice.
His gaze fell upon a horrifying spectacle.
Boom!
One by one, his comrades were exploding into nothingness. Their bodies detonated as though set off by an unseen force.
Boom!
The deafening roar reminded him of thunder, or more accurately, a shell detonating beside his ear. Amidst the chaos, a man appeared before Yukon's eyes.
That man.
The thunderous roars, the carnage, it all originated from the fists of this scarred man.
"I didn't know there was someone like this…"
Who was he?
An unforeseen factor, powerful enough to upend the whole situation.
Prince Zion, their target, and the woman with red eyes, both had disappeared. More than a third of the mercenaries were already gone.
"This rotten scoundrel! Attack at once!" roared one of the hunters. Over ten mercenaries charged toward the man.
Each of them skilled enough to craft a blade of pure mana on their sword.
“......”
The man pulled back his fist, watching the onslaught with indifferent eyes.
Crack!
Space around him seemed to tighten.
Finally, as the man's fist lashed forward…
Boom.
A shockwave, starting from his fist, spread around him.
A moment of silence followed.
Then…
Crack!
Space, where the shockwave had traversed, warped, and everything within started to crumble.
The charging hunters were no exception. They disintegrated into dust, leaving no bodies behind.
The spectacle left the scene wrapped in silence again.
How long did the silence last?
"Ghost King…" A trembling voice of a hunter broke the silence.
Recognition took time, given the years that had passed. But the moment he saw the man's powerful punch, he knew.
One of the empire's heroes, the captain of the Maelmae, whom the hunter had briefly served under on the empire's border with the demon realm.
"Ghost King? Liam Rainer is... him?" Yukon, who had heard the hunter's mumble, repeated the name as if to confirm what he had heard.
Yet Yukon knew confirming the identity of the man was a pointless exercise.
Within the empire, the number of people capable of throwing such a punch could be counted on one hand.
'Why is a war hero here...'
Victory was out of reach.
The moment he recognized the man as Ghost King Liam Rainer, any chance of winning vanished.
'No, can we even run?'
Yukon retreated, consumed by this thought.
In his line of sight, Ghost King advanced steadily towards him.
Boom!
"Is that... Uncle Liam?"
Ferna stared in disbelief at Liam's back, as he laid waste to the hunters before him like slaughtering poultry.
It was hard for her to reconcile this man with the gentle soul who planted carrot seeds in her backyard garden.
'I thought he was just an unskilled, retired soldier.'
That notion evaporated when he easily dispatched the first hunter to grab her neck.
Even with her lack of combat experience, Ferna understood the martial skill Liam exhibited was far beyond the capability of an ordinary retired soldier.
Thud!
Each thunderous sound signaled the obliteration of at least one, sometimes a dozen, hunters.
Ferna couldn't see the details of the combat. All she saw was Liam's familiar, broad back.
"This rotten..."
Perhaps believing escape was impossible, Yukon, the Red Hat leader, charged at Liam in a final, desperate assault.
Roar!
A deep green magic began to gather and ignite at the tip of his spear.
Mana Flare, or Qi Fire.
An event occurring when condensed magic power bursts into flame, a feat only an extraordinarily skilled warrior could achieve.
Indeed, did he not lead a group of mercenaries governed by the survival of the fittest?
"Die!"
Yukon thrust his spear at Liam, pouring all his remaining strength into the attack.
Due to the Mana Flare at the spear's tip, the surrounding air started to burn.
"......"
Watching the incoming spear, Liam slowly extended his fist.
Contrary to Yukon's spear, devouring all in its path, Liam's fist was calm, almost devoid of power.
When a human fist of flesh and bone collided with a steel spear, one would naturally expect the spear to pierce the fist. But the outcome was different.
Crack!
A web-like fracture spread from the spear's tip the moment it touched Liam's fist.
As if these fractures extended through Yukon's body beyond the spear.
Boom!
Along the fractured lines, Yukon's spear, and his body began to disintegrate, as if made of fragile biscuit.
"......"
Liam gazed at the remnants of Yukon and the now empty battlefield, his eyes indifferent.
Shortly after, his gaze fell on Ferna, who was trembling slightly as she looked at him.
"It's alright..."
About to console Ferna, Liam held his tongue. His body was surrounded by lifeless forms and drenched in blood. He feared she might recoil from the gruesome sight.
But, unexpectedly,
"No, sir! How could you not teach me swordsmanship when you are this formidable!"
Ferna cried out, marching toward Liam.
She had caught on to his apprehension and was trying to lighten the atmosphere.
"I told you, I don't know swordsmanship,"
Liam replied, laughing at the girl's consideration.
However, his smile faded as doubt clouded his eyes.
'I remember the warning about the village.'
His mind drifted back to his conversation with Prince Zion.
At the time, Prince Zion had declared that their village was doomed.
The human hunters could have been the cause, but Liam felt they were not.
He had effortlessly dealt with this level of threat.
Furthermore, Prince Zion seemed to anticipate that in the end, it would be Liam himself who would step forward to save the village.
'So what in the world is...'
His uncertainty deepened just as...
Rumble!
Suddenly, the ground beneath him started to quake.
Not only that, the entire Kurd Village area began vibrating as if in the throes of an earthquake.
"What, what is this?"
"Ahhhh!"
The villagers screamed, panic stricken, at the sight of their world coming apart.
"Ah, sir!"
Even Ferna, her eyes filled with anxiety, turned to Liam for answers.
Unlike the others, Liam was gazing upwards with a stern expression.
"That's..."
What he saw was a colossal energy curtain descending from the sundered sky.
'It's a barrier, and one of such an advanced level that I can't even begin to understand.'
Liam, who had faced countless battles at the demon realm boundary, had never encountered such a barrier.
No, he had never even seen a wizard capable of deploying such a thing.
'The range is too wide to evade.'
The sight, a first in his life, left Liam shaken.
Rumble!
In the meanwhile, the energy curtain that had touched the ground began to envelop Kurd Village and its surroundings.
The village was completely isolated from the outside world.
Inside, Liam gazed at the moon, now tinted blue, his fist clenched tightly.
'We've been cut off from the rest of the world.'
What in the world was happening?
Rather, what was about to happen?
Just as the anxiety of Liam and the others had peaked.
It appeared.
No, they appeared.
On the isolated world's horizon.
Rumble!
A multitude of soldiers began to rise, quickly forming into an army.
A low murmur slipped from Liam's lips as he watched.
"......Phantom Army."
The Phantom Army of Kronos.
Condemned by the ancient god Kronos to eternally re-live the same moment, this army comprised beings who existed in a limbo between life and death.
For the first time, a sense of despair crept into the hero's gaze.
'I can't stop them.'
Unless one could ascend to 'heaven', there was no stopping such an army single-handedly, regardless of one's personal strength.
Did Prince Zion foresee this catastrophe from the beginning?
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
Meanwhile, the meticulously arrayed phantom army began to steadily advance on Liam and the village.
The world within the barrier seemed to quiver, echoing the monumental force radiating from the advancing horde.
"We, we must flee!"
"But where..."
"Oh God... please, save us."
The villagers of Kurd voiced their desperation, faced with the impending calamity.
"Sir..."
Ferna clutched the hem of Liam's clothes, her voice trembling as she addressed him.
"Stay here."
Having held Ferna's gaze for a moment, Liam gently removed her hand from his clothing.
He then turned and began to stride toward the phantom army.
'I must protect them.'
Liam understood.
He couldn't stop the approaching disaster.
Likely, he would fall trying.
However, Liam feared the loss of those dear to him more than the loss of his own life.
Step by step.
An intense battle spirit emanated from Liam as he moved forward, seemingly dominating the space around him.
Simultaneously, his fists ignited with a radiant, white light.
"......"
With his preparations for battle completed, Liam moved beyond the confines of the village, standing before the advancing phantom army.
The oncoming calamity, its momentum building.
The time had come for Liam to engage the disaster's vanguard.
"Wait, you can't steal someone else's battle."
A voice echoed from behind.
Turning to its source, Liam found a woman surveying the army.
A woman whose chilling beauty was highlighted by her blood-red eyes, the same woman who had accompanied Prince Zion during their meeting.
It was Liushina Bloodwalker.
"I've waited so long for this moment."
Liushina's voice, filled with an inappropriate joy, rang out as she moved past Liam toward the encroaching phantom army.
Her eyes gleamed with unprecedented anticipation.
"What are you doing? You can't handle that alone."
Liam, who had attempted to face the danger single-handedly, called out to stop Liushina.
"I can. And..."
The millennia-old enchantress turned her head slightly.
"Who said I was alone?"
Her smirk was the last thing Liam saw before the world blurred.
Rumble!
Without warning, her chest split vertically.
Swoosh!
From within the gash, an enormous quantity of blood erupted.
An amount of blood that defied the limitations of the human body.
The ceaseless torrent began to saturate the ground beneath Liushina, staining it a vivid red.
Then.
Creeping! Creeping!
Thousands? Tens of thousands? Perhaps even more.
From the pool of blood, countless hands began to rise, too numerous to count.
Liushina, the thousand-year-old witch, had been branded the bane of humanity, a monstrous killer due to her countless victims.
How could she have possibly slain so many on her own?
The question was fundamentally flawed.
Because she had never been alone.
Screeeeeech!
So, all the devils harbored within her clawed their way out through her blood, forming an unholy legion.
The army of the damned.
The source of Liushina Bloodwalker's power, and the force that bestowed upon her the title of a one-woman army.
That power, dormant for centuries, now bared itself to the world once more.
"......"
The sight was both grotesque and overwhelming, enough to drive anyone to madness.
Involuntarily, Liam's mouth dropped open as he stared, transfixed, at the unfolding scene.
"Well, I'll wipe them all out."
Disregarding Liam, Liushina snapped her fingers, her face alight with a grin of delight.
With that.
Screeeeeech!
The demon legion let loose a chilling scream and surged towards the phantom army with feverish speed.
In response, the phantom army hastened their advance.
As the witch's horde and the army of the damned were on the verge of their cataclysmic encounter...
Crack!
The azure moon, hovering in the sky, split in two. From the chasm, a darkness as black as obsidian began to descend towards the earth.
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