Chapter 198 – #43_Festival(4)
#196
1.
It was hell descended upon the mortal realm.
The musty odor that made one’s head spin mingled with malicious darkness, lingering at the tip of the nose like the perfume of a grim reaper.
If one wasn’t careful, severed fingers, pieces of intestines, and limbs would be trampled underfoot.
[Hello, valued customer! Thank you for visiting our store! We hope you have a happy shopping experience today!]
The announcement and classical music emanating from the still-powered speakers.
And the dissonance of this horrific scene was nauseating.
The new floor was the same.
Dozens of piranhas floated around with their eyes wide open.
Despite their muzzles being covered in blood, they reacted to the newly appeared prey as if they were still hungry, rushing towards it.
“…You bastards!”
The sight of a monstrous fish the size of a truck swimming through the air and attacking.
It was a sight that would instinctively make any human flinch or recoil, but Siwoo didn’t flinch at all.
He calculated the timing of the attack and swung his two longswords.
-Swish!
The sword in his left hand smoothly tore through the piranha’s flank, revealing its squiggly intestines.
The sword in his right hand extended in a straight line, breaking through the dense teeth and plunging into the piranha’s mouth.
Despite the difference in size, Siwoo didn’t budge.
These things were weak in brute force.
The shadow armor, which enhanced his body like an exoskeleton powered suit, easily withstood the charge of over 200kg.
-Thud! Thud! Thud!
Siwoo, like Aea had done before, twisted his ribbons and used their elasticity to launch them.
The ribbons, shot out quickly in a flexible curve, pierced through several piranhas at once.
Their momentum was so fierce that they created large holes.
-Flap flap flap
Instead of screaming, the piranhas just gaped their mouths as they died.
Amidst the fierce battle, all that could be heard was the sound of flesh tearing and intestines being crushed.
And the dry sound of the fallen piranhas hitting the ground in vain.
“Shit, shit, shit…”
Even without trying to look, his eyes were drawn to the corpses scattered everywhere like a backdrop.
Among the victims were young children.
There were even infants who hadn’t yet opened their eyes in their strollers.
There was also a middle-aged couple who would have been about the same age as Siwoo’s parents if they were still alive.
They were not lives that should have been so easily lost, like prey, like a meal.
His body and mind, already adapted to war, did not violently burn with anger.
Anger that clouded his vision would create openings in battle.
Instead, his heart smoldered quietly, seething.
Siwoo cursed as he grabbed the jaw of a piranha that had just charged at him with his gauntlet, stopping it in its tracks.
Its teeth looked as sharp as knives, but they weren’t strong enough to pierce his armor.
-Flap flap
The piranha struggled, seemingly flustered, but it was no different from a butterfly with one wing caught.
Against the overwhelming difference in brute force, it was a futile struggle.
“Die!”
Siwoo pulled the jaw down with all his might, and the piranha’s jaw shattered, tearing its muzzle apart.
He threw the piranha’s dangling lower jaw away like trash.
“Anyone hiding, come out! I’ve taken care of the monsters! I’ll get you out of here!”
As soon as he had roughly cleared one floor, Siwoo shouted at the top of his lungs.
“Come out! It’s safe now!”
Just in case his voice hadn’t reached the outer areas, he ran around every corner, even checking inside the restrooms, shouting.
“Hey! Anyone! Please answer me!”
Nothing.
Not a single answer came back.
Not a single survivor among all those people responded.
“………”
Siwoo’s face was cold.
With a distorted expression that would have made his twin cry, he looked up at the rooftop and moved his feet.
After that, there were no major changes as he went up the floors.
The piranhas wandered around, rummaging through clothes racks and mannequins like seaweed, and Siwoo beat them all down.
With a hammer, a spear, a longsword.
He slashed, stabbed, pierced, crushed, and smashed his way forward.
Siwoo carried out the series of actions naturally, without even breaking a sweat.
No matter what kind of weapon he held in his hand, his usage of it became more and more natural.
It was as if his body remembered forgotten memories, moving before he even consciously thought about it.
He decided not to question it for now.
After cleaning up, he raised his voice to look for survivors.
But not even a single echo came back.
By the time he reached near the rooftop, Siwoo no longer looked for survivors.
“They’re probably hiding anyway. What reason would they have to trust me and come out?”
In this terrifying situation, no one would come out just because one person told them to.
So, rather than searching for survivors one by one, it was best to prevent further damage.
That’s what he believed.
Meanwhile, the closer he got to the rooftop, the clearer it became.
The unpleasant flow of magical power that had been covering the building was overflowing from this place.
The dark, murky, and heavy magical power could be seen dripping down from the rooftop to the bottom of the building like a waterfall of mud.
The thickly locked rooftop door was blocking Siwoo, but he was certain.
Behind this door was the Dagon’s flute, the relic.
And if he opened this door and went beyond it, Siwoo would no longer be safe.
An unknown danger was waiting with its jaws wide open.
“……..”
-Creak! Thud!
Siwoo pushed the steel door as it was.
Even though he only pushed it lightly, the cement and frame that held the door in place collapsed entirely.
A cool and sweet air, completely different from the stale and fishy indoor air, brushed past his ears.
Before him was an altar.
On the altar, which was meticulously decorated as if offering a sacrifice to a god, lay a flute.
“What are you?”
And there was a sentinel guarding it, as if blocking access to the altar.
It was a white plate armor that was 2 meters tall.
A 3-meter-long spear in its hand.
A kite shield that could completely cover from the upper arm to below the knee.
The armor, which was crafted with elaborate and delicate carvings, looked so heavy that no human could wear it and move.
As soon as Siwoo came up to the rooftop, the white knight flashed two pairs of eyes from inside its helmet and immediately assumed a battle stance.
A homunculus.
The shiver that started from his toes and went up his spine to the top of his head and back down the moment he faced it.
His instincts, which had overcome many deadly situations, were telling him.
This guy was on a different level than the small fries he had faced below.
From now on, he had to risk his life.
But Siwoo didn’t back down.
He had a certain level of confidence.
He was no longer as powerless as he used to be.
Although luck played a part, with the advantage of elemental compatibility and the enemy being exhausted after the battle, he had defeated the 20th-ranked Della Redcliffe.
He had also killed the mother dog that had been running around destroying the neighborhood.
Above all, he didn’t feel the same terrifying force from this guy as he had felt from Aea.
He could do this.
-Click!
Siwoo got rid of one of the swords he was holding in both hands and made a shield, imitating the white knight.
Rather than awkwardly mimicking dual-wielding, it was much better to have a shield that could provide solid defense and counterattacks.
To stop that flute, he had to get past this guy.
Siwoo first twisted his ribbons in the air.
He planned to use long-range harassment as a probe, attacking from a safe distance.
-Screech!
The two strands of ribbon, twisted to their limit, sliced through the air like a spring that had been fully bent and then released.
The white knight’s reaction was swift.
The white knight, who had disappeared from the spot he had originally targeted, easily avoided the ribbons that had been launched at sub-sonic speed.
Having deflected the initial attack, the white knight had already rushed to within striking distance of Siwoo.
A speed that was unimaginable for a heavy armor that was 2 meters tall.
“Shit!”
Siwoo cursed and quickly turned his body.
A long, white spear came straight up from below.
Siwoo instinctively put up his shield.
The white spear flew so fast that it felt like it had disappeared.
But it wasn’t too late.
Siwoo had caught the attack in time.
The trajectory of a thrust was inevitably a straight line.
The shield, which completely covered half of his body, was an effective means of defense.
He blocked it.
Now he just had to prepare for the impact.
Just as he was about to become complacent, Siwoo felt a chill.
It was an indescribable, momentary intuition.
Siwoo immediately gave up on defense and tried to evade.
And he saw it.
The tip of the spear, which had been flying straight, bent.
Like a writhing snake, the spear bent from the middle of the shaft, persistently chasing Siwoo’s heart as he retreated.
-Clang!
Only after Siwoo struck the shaft of the spear with his sword was he able to escape the tenacious attack.
If Siwoo had tried to block it in place, the bent spear would have snaked through the gap in the shield and pierced his empty right side.
He had almost lost his life after exchanging only one blow.
And what was even more shocking was that this bizarre thrust that defied common sense was not magic.
Siwoo had been watching the white knight’s attack from beginning to end.
The last attack was purely a physical technique.
It was a spear technique that had been trained to the point of deceiving the senses, like magic, and a personal skill.
There was clearly something different about this one compared to the mindless homunculi he had seen so far.
He shouldn’t have judged combat power by the number of eyes.
This one was different.
Siwoo, who had retreated several steps, and the white knight, who was rushing straight at him.
The white knight raised his arm above his shoulder without giving him a chance to be flustered.
It was a powerful overhand strike, like throwing a harpoon to catch a whale, coming down from above.
Thanks to that, his armpit was exposed and his torso was open.
If he could penetrate the side now, he might be able to exploit an opening.
But Siwoo, who had been flustered by the first mysterious spear technique, decided to postpone his decisive move for a bit.
He had become cautious.
Instead, he carefully watched the opponent’s movements and countered.
-Swish! Swish! Swish!
And as if to say that his choice was right, the spear, which had changed from an overhand to an underhand, quickly occupied three spaces.
It was a fierce thrust that seemed to pierce holes in the space.
-Clang! Clang! Clang!
The fact that he had blocked the attacks, which were difficult to even identify properly, with his shield was purely thanks to his reflexes and his body moving on its own.
Siwoo felt a tingling vibration from the shield as he stepped back.
His hand hurt.
Even just looking at their brute strength, the white knight seemed to be similar to Siwoo.
Moreover, it wasn’t like the white knight was in an awkward stance with his power vaguely dispersed, but rather, it felt like all of his weight and power were concentrated on the tip of the spear.
It felt like he had been hit by a pile driver rather than a spear.
This was a disaster.
The reason Siwoo had been able to fight witches or homunculi until now was because he had used or exploited magical compatibility.
The law of shadows had an advantage in compatibility against most magic.
But the white knight’s strength came purely from physical power and the techniques he used with his spear.
He was not an enemy that could be dealt with through improvisation or trickery.
There was no time to rest.
He didn’t even have the leeway to use his ribbons.
This time, the white knight, with his shield forward, charged at him.
He couldn’t retreat any further.
He had to counterattack before he completely lost the initiative.
The whisper of instinct.
Siwoo also charged forward, pushing off the ground with his back foot while holding his shield forward.
-Bang!!!!!
The impact and noise were unbelievable for a clash between cold weapons.
The cement on the rooftop where the man and the homunculus were standing cracked like a cookie.
It worked.
For the first time, there was a gap in the homunculus’s attack.
In response to the homunculus trying to shield bash again, Siwoo also attempted a straightforward physical attack.
“Huh!”
This time, there was no sound.
Siwoo’s mouth, which had been clenched in anticipation of the impact that would fill his helmet, opened in vain.
The white knight, who had seemed like he was going to charge head-on, had subtly pulled his body back this time without countering at all.
The balance of his foot, which had stepped forward powerfully, was broken.
His whole body leaned forward as if he was about to fall.
In his tilting vision, he saw the spearhead flying towards his face as if it had been waiting for him.
“Ugh!”
What saved Siwoo from the critical moment was the two strands of ribbon.
Using the ribbons like arms, he forcibly supported himself off the ground and moved out of the attack range as if he was swinging his body.
“Hah… hah….”
Perhaps it was quite unexpected, the white knight did not rashly close the distance and instead pointed his spear at him.
His eyelid was deeply torn by the spearhead.
He could feel the blood flowing profusely, turning his right vision red.
Fortunately, his eyeball was not injured, but having his vision obstructed when the difference in skill was already significant was too big of a penalty.
He was completely cornered.
It was a desperate crisis.
