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“…I’m sorry.” Then, she carefully pushed off the corpse. It tumbled over the top arches and fell from the gate. Hawa peeked from beyond the walls and looked below her. Because of how tall the gate was, the corpse was still free falling and hadn’t reached the ground. It soon became small as a dot, but Hawa was an archer. She focused all her energy on her eyes and didn’t take her gaze off the corpse. The corpse continued to drop endlessly until it reached the ground. When she saw what happened, Hawa’s eyes opened wide. She blinked hard in shock and chewed on her lower lip.

After standing like a stone statue for a bit, she backed away from the watchtower and hurriedly looked around her as if she was searching for someone. Fortunately, she didn’t have a hard time finding who she was looking for. It was because the place where he was standing was more chaotic and spectacular than anywhere else. Lightning fell from a clear sky, and after checking the spot it struck, Hawa quickly passed through the busy battlefield to relay the news before it was too late.

***

Since the siege officially began, Chi-Woo had been busily running around on top of the gate walls. Because of the sheer numbers their enemies had, they were attacking from everywhere. He wanted to jump outside and swing his club around as he wished if possible, like he had done in the beginning. Yet he couldn’t do that. It was because humanity and the Cassiubia League needed to hold off their enemies at this last gate to protect the pathway to Shalyh.

Furthermore, their enemies were no idiots. This was evident by how the commanders were no longer fighting at the frontlines anymore. Great demons were staying at the back while giving orders and sending out heaps of soldiers. And since the entire coalition army was putting special attention on this area, a moment of recklessness could be the death of him. Thus, he and his allies needed to hold on until reinforcements from the Cassiubia League came.

Yet for some reason, Chi-Woo felt anxious. The more urgently he moved, the more he felt he was running out of time. He got a foreboding feeling that if they continued to endure like this, the frontlines that they were barely maintaining would be destroyed in an instant. Considering all his past experiences, Chi-Woo didn’t take his intuition lightly, and he knew there was a reason behind this feeling. He ran around the castle walls to find the reason, but he was too busy blocking the mass number of enemies pouring in to do any investigation.

Fortunately, in this unfortunate situation, he still saw signs of progress. Just a second ago, he even saw one part of the top of the wall be swiped clean of enemies. This meant that some of his allies were showing great prowess in this war like he was. For now, Chi-Woo thought their priority was holding on until reinforcements came, and he was about to kick off the floor when he suddenly felt someone clutch his shoulder. Chi-Woo, who had been on high alert, swung his club as soon as he turned around, and he barely managed to stop his swing before hitting his target’s head.

Hawa inhaled deeply and sighed in relief when the club stopped before it hit her temple. Chi-Woo and Hawa exchanged looks.

“…I thought you were an enemy,” Chi-Woo said in a slightly hoarse voice after pulling back Armed with the Sixth Element.

“Listen to me carefully,” Hawa said in an assertive tone. After hearing her brief explanation, Chi-Woo furrowed his brows. He understood that she had discovered a strange phenomenon.

“Could you perhaps be mistaken?”

“Look around you,” Hawa quickly said.

He did, and a look of surprise soon overtook his face. War was no child’s play, and even in this very instance, people were dying one after the other. Thus, though it might be different for demons who disappeared after their extinguishment, their allies’ corpses should remain scattered around them. Yet there weren’t as many corpses as there should be. Chi-Woo looked around and saw that there were almost none. What happened? Was it because they were taking so many more lives than losing their own?

No, certainly not. As someone who had been fighting at the frontlines of this battle since the very beginning, Chi-Woo knew that their situation wasn’t that favorable.

‘Then…. What?’ Chi-Woo’s thoughts were interrupted when something caught his eye. The enemy soldiers who had newly arrived on top of the gate were lifting the dead garulas and throwing them over the walls.

‘Why are they doing that?’ Chi-Woo naturally wondered. Why would they take care of enemy corpses in the middle of battle? Was it to clean the battlefield? Unless the soldiers were mad drunk, it didn’t make any logical sense. It made Chi-Woo think that there must be another reason behind their actions that humanity and the Cassiubia League did not know about. Chi-Woo ran, almost flew in the direction, and after dealing with the troops there, he looked down from the gate. At that moment, a falling corpse hit the ground and—

‘…Huh?’ It didn’t slam into the ground. As soon as the garula corpse landed, it got sucked in from below and disappeared—just as Hawa told him she had witnessed. Chi-Woo’s face stiffened. For the first time since he started the battle, Chi-Woo forgot about the situation around him. It wasn’t because he was confused, but because something came to his mind as soon as he witnessed this scene.

When the Sernitas’ Sky Castle suddenly landed contrary to their expectations, it laid its roots deep into the ground and extended thousands of branches. Because the White Horse General’s protection disappeared, Chi-Woo had thought the roots were only meant to offset the territorialization effect on the land. But what if they had another goal in mind? What if that was simply a distraction to conceal their true intention?

For example, it could’ve been a step in their preparation to siege the gate, which was to gather the fallen Cassiubia League and humanity members as nutrients. If someone heard Chi-Woo’s hypothesis, perhaps they would’ve said that his imagination was running too wild and called him a conspiracy theorist, yet Chi-Woo was one of the very few members of humanity who had trespassed into the Sky Castle; there, he had clearly witnessed how the slaves that the Demon Empire handed over to the Sernitas were being used.

The Sernitas treated everything besides themselves as a form of information. They simply judged whether or not the information was helpful to their goal or not. Moreover, they only took the best traits of these resources and used the rest as fuel and ingredients through a special process. When the thought came to his mind, Chi-Woo realized his hard work on top of the gate had all been useless. The source of his anxiety didn’t exist here; it all came from the Sky Castle standing at the rear of the Demon Empire’s and the Abyss’ armies. They had basically wasted all their efforts on something meaningless, ignoring the actual root of the problem.

‘Mr. Ismile was right.’ There was no way the Sky Castle’s role ended with just the erasure of territorialization of the land. They were actively participating in the siege of the gate. He should’ve realized this truth earlier.

‘Perhaps…it was their intention to pour mass numbers of the coalition army from the beginning in order to draw humanity and the Cassiubia League’s attention away from the Sky Castle.’ Chi-Woo couldn’t let things be. He needed to destroy the Sky Castle at all costs. But the thought left him at a loss.

‘How?’ His hands were already occupied with holding down their positions. Even if he somehow managed to venture beyond the gate, he would still need to penetrate through the Demon Empire’s and the Abyss’ main camps. And even if he managed to reach Bael or the Abyss’ King, there was no guarantee that he would reach the Sky Castle. Going through such a large army seemed like an impossible task.

‘What should I do?’ The more Chi-Woo thought about it, the more lost he felt.

‘I need to talk to Mr. Ismile first…!’ Chi-Woo quickly turned to spread the news, but something gave him pause. He just realized that his surroundings were too quiet. He didn’t hear any clamoring or explosions. Instead, he heard his allies cheering and saw that the enemies swarming toward them were now suddenly backing away. They were receding like water in a drain. His allies must be rejoicing because they thought that their enemies were retreating.

Only Chi-Woo didn’t appear happy. If his guesses were right, this was no time to celebrate at all. The fact that the Demon Empire and the Abyss were retreating meant that the Sernitas had secured enough resources for them to carry out their plan. Chi-Woo looked intently at the Sky Castle under the distant light.

***

—Charging finished.

An alarm rang from the Sky Castle. The news was relayed to the Demon Empire and the Abyss, and two forces ordered their troops to retreat immediately.

“It’s a bit regretful. I thought we would be able to bring them down before the Sernitas does,” Bael said pitifully.

“It’s commendable how well they resisted until now, but it’s all over,” the Abyss’ King said nonchalantly.

—Carrying out prepared project.

Drrrrrrrrr! The Sky Castle suddenly began to shake intensely. It felt as if there was an earthquake going on. A giant pillar stretched out from the center of the island, so large and massive that it looked as if it would pierce through the sky. Then, it began to tilt bit by bit like the barrel of a canon. The circular hole at the end of the pillar pointed toward the gate.

—Identifying coordinate of target… Setting aim to target…complete.

—Launching Particle Beam Weapon.

Chi-Woo watched the giant pillar point perfectly toward him.

—1%...7%...15%...23%...30%....

A cluster of light particles began to gather inside the pillar’s giant, black hole-like opening. The ground shook, and even the air around the Sky Castle began to waver. Not long afterward, small masses of energy bloomed from the center of the pillar, and as its opening spun, the light particles got sucked along. Then, the spin grew faster and faster.

—52%...

When it was charged past 50%, the cluster of light particles that was about the size of a fist wiggled and moved until it expanded quickly in size. It became so big that it covered the whole front part of the island without any room to spare. And because of the compressed energy it contained, space began to distort around it. Bael looked at the sight in surprise, and even the Abyss King let out a short gasp. Though they were expecting this, they couldn’t hide their surprise because of the massive power they felt from this mass of energy.

—100%. Starting countdown.

—10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…

Chi-Woo, humanity, and the Cassiubia League all stared blankly at the scene. They needed to block this attack at all costs or evade it. Many thoughts passed through their heads, but nobody opened their mouths or began moving. They instinctively felt from their bodies that they couldn’t block this attack, and there would be little point in escaping from it. Thus, there was nothing they could do when the countdown reached 0.

—Blasting Particle Beam Weapon.

—Fire.

The white clumps of light that had been coloring the sky blew up in an instant. Booooom! A spectacular explosion occurred in front of the Sky Castle as it shot out a single beam of light. The beam ripped through the air and left a long afterimage as it shot upwards. Then, after reaching its highest point, it changed directions. It drew a steep arc like an eagle spotting and accelerating towards its prey—the one person standing on top of the gate wall. At that moment, Chi-Woo clearly felt what was to come.

The AI Armor inside his body sucked out all the exorcism mana it could from him and created a barrier. It managed to block the beam for a very slight moment, but in the end, the beam tore down the AI Armor and pushed through in just a couple of seconds. In that short period, Chi-Woo witnessed the semi-transparent barrier in front of him crack as numerous spider webs spread, and the beam passed through.

There was no warning or signal beforehand. As if this was meant to happen, his barrier broke like thin glass, and Chi-Woo gaped seeing the huge mass of energy fall toward his face. He couldn’t block this attack no matter what. It was greater than the all-out attack his brother had launched at him in the distant past.

No, he did have one option. Like that time, Chi-Woo was about to follow his instinct, but stopped himself. If he pulled out the mysterious power inside him, everything would be over. He wouldn’t be able to come back this time, and everything would be destroyed. He had a foreboding feeling as he recalled the scene in the future where he stood alone on top of piles of ashes.

That brief hesitation determined the result. In that decisive moment when the beam stopped right in front of his eyes, Chi-Woo’s vision became completely white.

“No—!” Then, with someone’s yell, he felt a strong pull from his belly button.