Episode 175 [Revelation – 1]
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Amidst the upheavals of an era, there are always those called ‘heroes’.
For example, as leaders of revolution, heroes of war, and founders of nations, they demonstrate wit that is hard to believe as a single person, subduing contemporary opponents and achieving great feats.
However, if you think about it from the perspective of those on the other side, how on earth are you supposed to stop the ‘hero’ who has shown such overwhelming performance and has become an unstoppable threat?
The easiest way is, of course, to eliminate the hero itself…
that is, ‘assassination’.
Now, at the Omega Team camp in Dresden, an operation to eliminate such heroes was brewing.
“…There have been several operations to eliminate Steele Rain so far, but they have failed every time.”
A man was speaking to the audience in the dark. And the room where they were gathered was covered with a strange flow of mana, but strangely, there was no air flow at the border.
The reason was that the ‘Silence’ magic, which blocks all sounds at the source, was applied three times.
“What kind of item did you have that made you react like that?”
“…Everyone, including Chu Kyo-yong, Ki Baek-jun, Red Berserker, and Sword Saint Shadow Baron, were defeated.”
Stillane Lee Hyun-wook’s name was now the biggest thorn in the side of villains.
How many times have you hit him so far? But it was all just a hardship.
And with each successive failure, the villain’s power inevitably diminished.
In that respect, the operation targeting Steele Rain became a poisoned chalice from the villain’s perspective.
“But it will be different now. In the past, when we attacked him on the battlefield… that is, we only targeted when he was fully armed and in a sensitive state. In my opinion, that is a defeat. The legendary level weapon he operates “The information collection item ‘Hugin’ probably has more performance than you can imagine.”
The person who calmly analyzed the problem like this was a man named William Kane, an early member of the Villain.
As he is an executive who has infiltrated the EPU for a long time and served as a bridgehead to dominate Europe, he knows quite a bit about how the Villain organization targeted Lee Hyun-wook and how it failed. “And since I usually stayed in Laputa, I didn’t have a chance to target him properly…” “ But now
…
he’s spending the night off-guard right in front of us.”
“Yes, and that too while completely entrusting your safety to someone else.”
William Kane thought that this time, it was truly a perfect opportunity sent by heaven.
“…So is the Hellfire magic scroll that will melt steel ready to start?”
In response to his question, a man standing in a corner walked forward.
“Yes! Now, if you just pour in mana, it will start working right away.”
“Okay, it’s 1 a.m. now… Let’s start the operation.”
There’s a good chance that you’re sleeping in the dusk of dawn, and even if you’re not, it’s the time to let your guard down.
Of course, here at Omega Team’s camp, dozens of searchlights are turned on, numerous guards are patrolling, and the area is covered with multiple layers of magic shield, so it’s not possible to hide from the outside. Infiltration was impossible.
“But no one would expect that problems would arise from within. “We aim for that blind spot.”
“Ugh—and if it’s Hellfire… no matter how bad he is, he can’t handle it.”
Here, Hellfire is the highest level of attack magic in the flame series, which literally means hell fire. It was an ultimate skill that was difficult for even the average A-rank wizard to cast alone. However, if you put it in a ‘magic scroll’, anyone can save mana
. It could be used simply by blowing it in.
Of course, putting that incredible skill into a magic scroll was not something that just anyone could do.
‘Eight A-rank wizards completed it by squeezing out mana to the point where their own lives were in danger.’
It was originally an item specially prepared to blow away the entire Omega team at the end of [Titanomachia]. However, William Kane decided that dealing with Steelaine was more important than that. After a while, someone’s voice was heard in William Kane’s Mana Messenger
. It came out.
– As a result of using the life-detection magic, Steelaine and the others are all in the dormitory and have not yet gone to bed.
Being still in the dormitory means that they are completely unaware of the threat that will come to them.
“Okay, let’s figure it out to that extent and don’t monitor too much. No. That bastard… Like I said earlier, he can figure out our intentions with strange moves like Hugin, so we have to be as careful as possible.”
– Then, can I start the Hellfire magic script right now?
“…Use it.”
– Yes!
“…….”
About 10 seconds later, a red light pushed away the thick darkness of dawn outside the window.
Qua—ah—ah—ah—ah— —!
A loud noise and shaking that seemed to turn the whole world upside down followed, and as I was about 500 to 600 meters away, I could feel the windows of the villains’ dormitories bursting out all at once and the air heating up. “Huh—a volcano erupted right in front of me
. “It seems like it is.”
“…With this level of destructive power, there won’t be anything left.”
This is the power of the strongest fire skill called Hellfire… Even the people who exploded it were impressed.
“My damn fire!”
Soon, there started to be a commotion outside the window, and the players came out to put out the fire.
But…
“That thing… isn’t just fire, it’s magic!”
“what? So does that mean it was an attack and not an accident?”
The fire blew up as many as five buildings in one blow and quickly ate away the remains of the buildings, growing in size… Players who felt the extraordinary force emanating from the fire could not help but be astonished.
An ordinary fire, no matter how large it was, could be extinguished with various types of magic.
However, fire created by magical power… the story is different if it is a high-level skill.
And soon, high-ranking wizards of Grade B or higher saw through the identity of the magical fire.
“—Don’t you all get too close! That’s ‘Hellfire’!”
Hellfire Few people saw it in person, but there was no one who did not know its notoriety.
“Hellfire… That’s ridiculous!”
“Why did something like that happen here!”
The flames of hell are more powerful than any other fire and cannot be easily extinguished…
“But are you still trapped in there?”
“…The center over there is S. Steelein’s quarters!”
As his name came out from somewhere, murmurs grew thicker here and there.
“What? Damn it, then who was after him?”
“Yes, that too with the Hellfire skill…”
Soon, war reporters rushed out and began broadcasting the scene live.
“—Emergency breaking news! This is Dresden’s Omega Team camp…”
Just like that, the sad news that the hero who saved the world yesterday was in the explosion spread around the world.
“Ouch—he’s still in there! We have to save him!”
“Move quickly! We can’t lose Steele Rain!”
Most of the players staying at the Omega Team’s lodging here were those who had a bad feeling towards Steele Lane, but no matter what, they did not want the person who was currently evaluated as the strongest force in mankind to die. Soon, about a dozen wizard players cast spells together and a huge magic circle appeared in the sky
. This was born.
“Now pour all your mana into initial evolution of Hellfire!”
Shoot—ah—ah—ah——!
Heavy rain began pouring down from that magic circle, a stream of water more powerful than any firefighting equipment. However, the moment the stream of water touched the hellfire, an explosion occurred and the flames spread further.
Per—uh—uh——!
It was a symptom of a steam explosion, and along with it, sparks of hellfire flew in all directions.
“Stop! If this continues, the hellfire sparks will spread to other buildings!”
In the end, the evolution work had to be stopped after just one attempt.
“…Does that make sense?”
“Ha, that doesn’t work either…”
It was a moment where it was proven once again that no fire extinguishing agent could extinguish Hellfire.
They watched with blank expressions the remains of the building quickly turning into ashes.
“But… wouldn’t he be able to escape?”
A woman muttered in a voice filled with strange hope,
“Okay, now that I think about it, I think I saw Steele Rain going into the fire!”
“Oh—that’s right! It was quite a while ago, during that meteorite event, right?”
He had been shown breaking through fire several times before.
For example, didn’t he overcome the fire of ‘Pheethon’ on Jeju Island?
“If he is a hero of that unrivaled caliber, he will definitely be able to achieve miracles.”
However, one A-rank wizard player shook his head.
“…I’m sorry if I sound like I’m hitting on you, but hellfire isn’t just strong fire.”
“yes?”
“The reason it’s so scary is because it virtually ignores ‘fire resistance.’”
No matter how powerful a tank is, the moment it touches the hellfire, it will melt like burning plastic…
“…….”
In the end, the players were just preparing to retreat far away to avoid the spreading hellfire.
“Currently . About 10 minutes have passed since an unidentified Hellfire attack erupted at Stillane’s quarters, but his fate and fate are still unknown, and many experts believe that Steelein is dead—” As time passes, the number of reporters reporting this terrible moment increases
. Only the voice became more and more gloomy.
But then—
“Huh? But doesn’t the movement of that flame seem… a bit strange?”
Yes, strangely, at some point, the Hellfire’s flames were being sucked inward rather than spreading outward. It was not a movement of the flames dying down, but rather flowing somewhere. “…Hellfire originally had the characteristic of gradually shrinking like that
. “Do you have it?”
Someone asked a question to the A-rank wizard player who explained the Hellfire skill a little while ago.
But he also looked like he didn’t understand, shook his head, and opened his mouth.
“Oh, I don’t know. “That… honestly, I don’t know.”
Huuuu——
But the strange scene became increasingly clear. Yes, it was clear that the fire was flowing toward the center.
“I don’t know what the hell that is, but doesn’t that make the lights go out?”
Meanwhile, the villains among the military crowd began to feel puzzled and ominous at the same time.
‘What on earth is that? I’ve never heard of it before.’
William Kane, the leader of the villains, also felt something different and used the vision-enhancing skill ‘Hawkeye.’
“Pfft!”
When I glared at the dark light, my eyes hurt, but I endured it and looked inside the flames.
Soon, I found a black shadow deep within the red shimmer.
‘…It’s a person, right?’
One person was standing tall amidst the flames of the fire that could not be extinguished or withstood.
“No way…”
And soon, other players must have caught the scene as well, and murmurs spread everywhere.
“—Look over there . ! “It looks like someone is standing there!”
“…You’re a human, right? Is it really Steelane?”
“What? That’s ridiculous! What happened?”
And as Hellfire calmed down even further, cheers began to erupt from everywhere.
“Huh!” That’s it! He’s right! “He’s standing there!”
“How are you so fine in Hellfire?”
“…Maybe he didn’t die standing up?”
And what a huge sword he held in his right hand… Hellfire was being sucked in there.
At first glance, it looked like a Mowglai, and many people assumed it must be a Mowglai.
However, the sword he was holding was a completely different item from Deputy Director Hwang Yeon-soo’s ‘Panic Room’.
[Item Information]
– Name: Completely Cooled Sword
– Effect: Can absorb heat and emit ‘heat’.
‘I didn’t even know I would be using this sword in this way.’
Lee Hyun-wook knew that the identity of this latent item was ‘Levatain’, but he did not know how to release the latent item. Therefore, I was trying various methods from time to time…
‘…the first thing I tried was to apply heat.’
As stated in the description of this item, it can absorb heat and release heat.
This meant that there was a high possibility that the potential liberation formula was related to ‘fire’.
‘So I constantly came into contact with various types of fire.’
As a result….
– The completely cooled sword wants even stronger ‘heat of flame’!
* caution! Currently, this sword absorbs all ‘Fire’ properties around it!
After about a dozen attempts, such a system message came to mind.
However, there were limits to the powerful fire magic that Hyunwook Lee could obtain. I planned to ask General Choi Jeong-cheol when I had time, and if that didn’t work, I also thought about going to Inferno.
But now, the hellfire that had suddenly fallen overhead had become the ‘key’.
‘This time too, their conspiracy actually benefited me.’
Hwaaaa——
It took about ten minutes to eat the whole Hellfire like that…
– Congratulations! Some of the potential of a completely cooled sword is released and it becomes a ‘sword with renewed heat’!
[Item information]
– Name: Sword that regains heat (Hero)
– Effect: When heat is absorbed, it becomes ‘Magma Sword’.
…Isn’t it not the legendary grade ‘Levatain’, but the hero grade ‘Sword with Recovered Heat’?
‘what? Even though I swallowed a hell of a lot of Hellfire, I still haven’t been able to release my
potential…’ Still, a certain level of advancement was achieved, but it meant that I would have to absorb fire equivalent to Hellfire a few more times in the future. That’s how much this sword called Levatein possesses tremendous firepower when completed.
“Whew—I thought I was going to die from the heat.”
“Ha, I thought I was going to burn to death.”
Park Jun-mo and Kim Se-hee spoke from behind the steel barrier made of adamant behind Lee Hyun-wook.
They had suffered minor burns, but this was enough after drinking a recovery potion.
“Now we have to find the arsonist, right?”
Kim Se-hee said that and ordered Hani to push out the toxic gas around her.
“I already found it.”
“Ah… you’re fast as expected.”
Lee Hyun-wook slowly walked forward. The place he stepped on collapsed with a thud.
It was a very brief fire, but the heat was strong enough to turn bricks into powder and rebar into molten metal.
He made his way through the smoke and ashes to stand in front of dozens of cameras and hundreds of players.
“Uh…Stilane…are you okay?”
Someone asked somewhere, but Lee Hyeon-wook walked forward without answering.
Then the players naturally split off to the left and right and made a path.
The metal covering his body—the steel body was fine, with only a little soot.
On his shoulder was a black crow. He was sitting there, and its eyes were scanning all around.
Behind him, a red-hot giant sword was radiating heat.
Meanwhile, the villains could not help but take a step backwards as they watched him.
“…Don’t act rashly, everyone . .”
In the end, William Kane had no choice but to whisper quietly to his hesitant subordinates,
“No one will know that we did it anyway.”
The ‘Dark Elf Shadow Hunter’ who cast that Hellfire magic scroll has already escaped this area.
And the time they had a secret meeting with him and delivered the magic scroll was extremely short and secret.
In other words, William Kane was convinced that there were no eyewitnesses.
“Now our actions will never be discovered.”
Hearing his whispers, the villains took a breath and began to work hard to control their expressions.
But… strangely
enough,
Steele Lane was approaching them, looking straight at them. He had
a grave expression on his face as he walked out of the flames of hell. His nemesis… He is gradually getting closer.
Gulp –
William Kane, who made eye contact with him, almost smiled business-like without realizing it, perhaps because he was nervous.
But it would be strange to smile at this moment, so he forced the corners of his mouth down. “
…Are you okay, Steele?”
Rather, he spoke first. At times like this, he had to pretend to be casual and joke.
“Ah, I am William Kane, Director of the Guild Strategic Support Bureau of the EPU, in charge of the distribution of this operation.”
And since he was one of the people in charge of this field, he said this. The picture that came out wasn’t strange either.
But…
“I was covered in Hellfire at 1 in the morning. Is there any way I could be okay?”
“Oh… of course you do. You’re safe though—”
“And I… I know who did this.”
The moment William Kane heard those words, he also had the instinct to turn around and run away.
And then my eyes fell on the large sword floating behind Lee Hyun-wook’s back. That wasn’t Mowglai.
‘I don’t know what that is, but it’s the sword that swallowed Hellfire. If you swing that thing, we’ll all die.’
The heat emitted by the sword was so hot that the skin of anyone standing nearby could be burned.
“…So you’re saying you know who used the Hellfire skill?”
At that moment, the black mechanical crow sitting on Stillaine’s shoulder—Hugin—flew up.
Hung——
In an instant, it soared high into the sky and began to look down on everyone.
That meant that Steelein detected a target and began hunting further.
“…….”
For a moment, there was only silence among the hundreds of people.
Their eyes were focused on only one person, Lee Hyun-wook.
They all heard what Hyunwook Lee said… that he knew the culprit.
“…It’s not that Hellfire skill. “It was a magic scroll.”
Lee Hyun-wook answered late, and one of the villains let out a low groan without realizing it.
‘How do you do that…’
If you know that much information, it may not be a big deal to know their identity.
That’s why Lee Hyun-wook’s every movement, gaze, and voice began to feel like a dagger.
“Did you really think that I couldn’t kill you if you were all mixed up here and acting like a fool?”
It wasn’t something specific to anyone, but his eyes were especially focused on the villains.
To them, it couldn’t help but feel like an unspoken warning and it acted as an indescribable pressure.
“If that’s the case, it’s unfortunate… but I want to tell you that you’re looking at me too soft. .”
At that moment—
POO—WOO—WOO—WOO——!
The giant sword that was floating behind Lee Hyun-wook’s back began to emit smoke out of nowhere. Gray smoke was billowing out like a steam locomotive starting, and it looked quite menacing…
“Damn it!”
In the end, one of the villains couldn’t stand it anymore, twisted his body, took out a wand, and attempted an escape spell.
“—No!”
At that moment, the large sword ‘Sword with Recovered Heat’ standing behind Lee Hyun-wook’s back glowed red. Bright red
flames rose from the tip of his sword and expanded as if spreading wings.
Woe—evil——!
That ! The four villains standing in the range were eaten by the fire and crumbled into ashes.
“Kwaaaa——!”
Still, William Cain twisted his body in that moment and managed to lose only one arm…
but whoosh –
two silver arrows flew in and severed both of his Achilles tendons at the same time.
He stretched out one arm to Hyunwook Lee, who was lying face down on the floor and coming towards him.
“Please! “Are you suddenly attacking me because I did something wrong?”
“Hmm… are you still looking at me softly?”
“Pfft! Oh no, I really don’t know why you’re doing that…”
Lee Hyun-wook chuckled at his words and stepped on his ankle.
“…There is a proverb in Korea: When a thief goes crazy, it means exactly this situation.”
“Uh…”
“Can you explain why you tried to run away when I didn’t do anything?”
But at that moment—
boom—!
Suddenly, William Kane’s head exploded and his eyeballs rolled over.
‘You activated the latent spell as expected?’
The villain leadership must have been watching this scene—
they decided that it was better to kill this guy than to be captured alive.
Lee Hyun-wook exhaled and raised his head to look around.
“…….”
Everyone in the area said, He had a mesmerized expression.
And the whole world was watching the scene that had just happened.
“…Steelane, you’re going to have to explain what’s going on.”
Brian Thiel, the leader of Team Omega, who was coming up behind him, said that.
Lee Hyun-wook nodded and looked back at the players and cameras surrounding him.
‘Okay, now the time has come.’
The timing wasn’t bad.
‘…I’m revealing the villain’s name to the world right now.’
He earned the image of a hero by saving the world several times.
As a result, he is trusted by the world more than ever.
He even went through the crisis of being assassinated by someone just recently.
‘And he shared all those stories with the world. ‘
If you mention that unrealistic secret in this context…
‘…the world will believe you.’
Lee Hyun-wook looked into the lens of a camera and slowly opened his mouth.
“I have been fighting with a certain organization for a long, long time.”
