Episode 205 [Battle of the Demon King – 4]
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Lee Hyun-wook is preparing for the war against the Demon King and expanding his weapons. In addition, they were not sparing any investment in various fields.
And in his opinion, the next most important field after magic engineering was definitely ‘information operations’.
Thus, the Secret Police Bureau, headed by Chief Woo Seong-moon—the so-called ‘Black Swan’—was in charge of intelligence and security-related operations…. ‘
…this smokescreen operation was perfect.’
For example, when our troops were carrying out an operation, they used jamming, mirage magic, and silence magic to cover the eyes and ears of the enemy so that they would not be caught in the enemy’s information network – that was ‘Operation Smokescreen’.
‘And a dozen airships belonging to the [Holy Bomber Squadron] that advanced toward North Korea were also equipped with such devices, paralyzing all communication networks in the area.’
In other words, even if any of the enemies witnessed the mechanical dragon, they were blocked from reporting it to the superiors.
Thus, the Demon King’s side may have figured out that the ‘Death Hives’ spread throughout North Korea were being attacked and destroyed by something, but they still did not know exactly what it was.
That’s why….
Qua—and—and—and——!
“You crazy… what on earth does that mean?”
“…Does that firepower make sense?”
“And you can feel the strong divine power!”
The Demon King, including Gordon Price, had no way of predicting the moment when the sacred mechanical dragon would appear in the sky and take away air supremacy in an instant. In other words, they had no choice but to
be helpless.
“Shit, it’s completely counterintuitive, right?”
“I think this really hit home…”
This was the price I paid for underpaying my intelligence capabilities.
Woo—woo—woo—woo——
Before I knew it, two bone dragons were drenched in divine power and crashed, engulfed in white smoke, and flying around them as if guarding them were large and small flying undead—bone wyverns, zombie griffins, etc. Pierced by lasers, swept away by divine power missiles, they rained down like a swarm of burning moths.
Ji—i—i—i——!
Bur—bur—bur—bur——!
It was quite a shocking appearance, like the British MK tank that appeared during World War I, breaking up the boring trench warfare.
Not only that, but many airships advanced together and fired all kinds of cannons, turning the ground into a sea of fire.
The undead legions on the ground that had advanced freely, believing in their aerial superiority, including the Bone Dragon, were also swept away by the lightning and collapsed in vain.
Keeeee….
At this, the Demon King’s vassals had no choice but to look at Gordon Price with a bewildered expression.
“Hey Gordon… what happened now?”
Many of them were vassals of the Demon King who believed in Gordon Price.
And the Gordon Price they knew was originally a leader they could trust more than anyone else.
However, at some point… after confronting Steele Lane, to be exact, their trust in him was rapidly eroding. He was leaving.
“…Wouldn’t this cause a big change in the plan?”
But even at this moment, Gordon Price’s expression did not change much. He was just twirling the glass in his right hand and looking out the window. Seeing that, the Demon King’s vassals somehow regained a sense of stability.
As such, Gordon Price was always cool-headed, and after a moment of silence, he would make a judgment that was close to the correct answer.
“But Gordon will find the answer.”
“That’s right, you’re receiving support from the Demon King, right?”
So the Demon King’s vassals waited quietly for his judgment.
But… Gordon Price’s inner thoughts were quite different.
‘How on earth is this going on?’
Even he was feeling a deep sense of despair.
‘Why is everything going according to his will, without exception?’
As mentioned earlier, he has been predicting and controlling every situation so far, and in this way, he has slowly encroached on the world.
However, everything changed after the variable called Steele Rain appeared.
‘It never went the way I wanted… This is ridiculous.’
The guy never for a moment moved within Gordon Price’s expectations, but the cliché that he was like a ghost didn’t fit him that well, and he moved around in a mysterious manner, destroying the villain’s empire that Gordon Price had built.
‘Damn it, I thought I could crush him with the overwhelming power of the Demon King on my back…’
But even now, I still felt like he was one step ahead… or maybe even a long time ahead.
At that time, the devil’s voice came telepathically into Gordon Price’s head.
– Gordon Wasn’t any information collected about that?
The voice was calm, but I could tell that there was a lot of discomfort that was different from usual somewhere.
And above all….
‘…Didn’t you say that you came from the future 8 years after the Demon King?’
However, seeing that he spoke as if he had no idea about the existence of that mechanical dragon, I could interpret it as meaning that it was a much more advanced being that was unexpected even eight years later.
‘Damn then, what on earth is Steele Rain? Could it be that they came from much further in the future than 8 years ago… Looking at those magical engineering technologies, they certainly can’t be considered contemporary with us…’ At this point,
all sorts of thoughts came into my head and my head became complicated. And along with a strange sense of awe for Steelay, he couldn’t help but have doubts about everything the Demon King had promised him.
– …I asked you, Gordon, if you figured out what that mechanical dragon was.
“Ah…”
He answered the Demon Lord’s question in a low voice.
“Well… A few hours ago, we were aware of repeated unidentified attacks on North Korea’s ‘Death Hive’, but strangely, there was no contact with the area. It didn’t work out. And since the battle is taking place in New York and here at the same time… I’m sorry, but I seem to have failed to understand in many ways.”
– …….
This heavy silence represented the current situation.
“Then, Demon Lord, it looks like the second operation to buy time has been blocked… What should we do now? “I would be grateful if you could give me insight.”
– …Go to the next operation.
Gordon Price’s eyebrows twitched at those words.
“Well can I take it out now?”
– Yes, we have to somehow find time to complete the Demon King’s Castle.
Lee Hyun-wook was not the only one who prepared for this war.
They also mobilized everything to plan the war scenario.
And there was the worst tactic that would lead to the finale. .. It was called ‘Operation Heaven and Earth.’
– I will soon use ‘Squite’ and ‘Volcanic Height’ to isolate the enemies, so you divide into two and prepare to attack them. Gordon said these words
: Price looked out the window at the battlefield. Steele Lane was now quite a distance away from the camp.
“…So, this means that we will split their force in two and then destroy them individually.”
– Yes, no matter how bad he is, if the sky is blocked and rear support disappears, he will eventually collapse due to lack of firepower. I was going to save this strategy for the last perfect move… but now I have no choice but to pull it out.
Gordon Price thought that if this strategy worked, it could change the situation again.
‘And… you wouldn’t expect this.’
***
Lee Hyun-wook’s left hand slowly moved from the sky to the ground.
Accordingly, thousands of metal weapons filled with divine power rained down and struck the skulls of the undead on the ground.
Bur—bur—bur—bur——
With just one hand gesture, hundreds of undead were completely retired.
Not only were all of those weapons blessed by the saint herself, but they also had the effect of ‘Argetlam’ in Lee Hyun-wook’s right hand, so they were bound to act as fatal blows to most undead.
And in particular, the ‘Moglai Propeller’, which was made by tying two Moglai together with handles based on the Moglai to which the ‘Holy Sword’ was applied, was spinning rapidly—creating a violent gust of wind and whipping the plains.
To—do—do—do—do——!
Even if it passed by, no matter how large and high-ranking undead monsters such as zombies, trolls, ogres, skeletons, and red drakes skeletons were, they collapsed in vain without even a single bone.
And even if they somehow managed to break through all the attacks and get to where Lee Hyun-wook and the players were…
“—Warriors of the Red Volcano, we will punish the Demon King and his relatives who have polluted this land!”
Like this, the Ancient Red Drakes, led by Agaidica, the Guardian of the Red Volcano, stood in a line, formed a barrier, and let out flame breath…
Fu—wa—ah—ah——!
Not a single one could break through the ranks.
The atmosphere went to what is commonly called a ‘shutout win’.
“Huh? Looks like they’re running away!”
“Wow… I stopped this…”
In the end, the remaining undead army gave up on advancing and scattered, disappearing into black smoke.
‘Are you saying you won’t waste any more troops than this?’
In this situation, it seemed to the Demon King that it would be a pointless waste of troops, so he decided to withdraw the troops.
‘…I never thought it would be this easy. This is a bit surprising.’
Lee Hyun-wook was inwardly amazed. Even
though such a vicious necromancer’s army of death charged in with a perfect army, they successfully blocked it.
And it was even the first time for Lee Hyun-wook to see them running away like that. Soon, a
sacred mechanical dragon appeared overhead . It approached and landed in front of him.
Boom!
White smoke was billowing from the entire body of the gigantic being, and all kinds of overheated mechanical devices were emitting loud warning sounds. In fact, it continued for hours without stopping, numerous times
. As he was running around the battlefield, no matter how well-made hextech items were, they would have reached their limits.
Soon, Captain Seo Eun-ha, a knight wearing full plate armor, jumped down from above him and grumbled something.
“Pfft—isn’t this going to explode soon?”
She rode on it for hours, bombarded and obliterated dozens of death hives spread across North Korea, and then flew straight here to fight again. As a result, she was quite tired, and when she took off her iron helmet, she began to sweat
. It poured like a waterfall.
Lee Hyun-wook held out a mana potion to her.
“Captain Seo, how did you come at the right time?”
“Hah… what, you told me to finish it as quickly as possible?”
“That’s right, but it’s not too late now.”
“Are you… are you talking about when you were in the old unit?”
When Lee Hyun-wook had just returned, Seo Eun-ha strangely used to be late to the scene of the incident one step at a time, and she brought up the old story.
“But… what happened to them?”
She asked, looking at the Ancient Red Drakes.
When she had just left the Wight Hall, she couldn’t help but be scared when she saw the hordes of monsters that filled the grassland.
But strangely, some of them were fighting on the side of our allies… She was just puzzled because she didn’t know the whole story.
“As you may have already noticed, they are now on our side.”
She smiled with an expression of bewilderment.
“But it looks like your feet are really wide? Even if we assume that the temperamental saint and the famously strict manager of the World Tree are human, the dwarves, dark elves, water spirit kings… now even them… when you think about it, they’re enormous, right?”
As she said, half of Lee Hyun-wook’s allies were monsters.
“But I don’t think we’re all there yet. So I’m in first place?”
As she said, Lee Hyun-wook’s allies had not yet arrived on the battlefield, as most of them were still working on finishing off the Flower of Death in New York. “They will be here soon
. And together, we plan to surround that mountain and uproot the Demon King’s Castle. Before that, Captain Seo, I need to replenish my mana and repair that guy too.”
Hyunwook Lee pointed to the mechanical dragon. Sparks flew from the back of the place, and then an explosion was heard.
Boom – Boom –
Of course, it was so big and strong that it didn’t mind that much damage.
However, Seo Eun-ha, who had to ride on it herself, looked very surprised.
“Wow… I was riding on a bomb that could explode at any moment, right?”
“Well, just in case, I guess I should attach a safety belt or something to the trunk of the World Tree so that it doesn’t get thrown away by an explosion.”
Seo Eun-ha then glanced at Lee Hyun-wook.
“Ah, even if I get burned from the explosion, I can heal myself, so I just need to hold on tight, right now?”
“Yes, I always trust Captain Seo.”
“…Are the blacksmiths in the camp over there?”
“Yes, Hee-seol is here too, so let’s go back and get maintenance first.”
Now, this place was about 2km away from the ‘camp’, so it looked like I would have to fly back to get repairs.
But then—
boom——
a loud vibration began to echo.
“Huh?”
Strangely, the source of the vibration was the ground. No…
thud——
“…what is that ringing in the sky?”
The vibration was shaking the air in the sky.
“What is this? Is it lightning or something?”
“Hmm, I don’t think that’s what it sounds like…”
Boom——
“Uh— look over there!”
Then Brian Thiel pointed to the sky.
Soon, Lee Hyun-wook saw a small being floating in the sky.
It was a ‘zombie griffin’ and there was a seal on it.
Lee Hyun-wook immediately observed the place from Hugin and Munin’s perspective and confirmed that the figure was wearing a black mask and holding a black scythe.
‘…He’s a necromancer.’
Boom——
And this vibration was the sound of the guy swinging the black scythe… Strangely enough, the guy was swinging the scythe in the air.
Boom——
Every time it happened, black lights flashed in the distant sky, creating a bizarre scene as if the sky was splitting open.
“Oh, that’s really unsettling.”
“Does anyone have any idea what that is?”
“Bitter—I don’t know.”
However, only Lee Hyeon-wook knew its identity.
‘That is… Squite. In other words, it is trying to seal the sky.’
Squite In Greek mythology, the scythe used by the titan god Cronos, the father of Zeus, was the weapon that served as the motif for the scythe of death, the Grim Reaper. It was the main weapon of the necromancer, also known as the Harvester of Death
. Since Kronos, the titan boss monster, is attached to him, it is highly likely that he has two.’
However, it had a rather strange ability, according to the legend that it castrated Uranus, the god of the sky… – Caution!
‘Sky Castration’ will be activated in the area!
* You cannot approach 50m in the air for 30 minutes.
* All ‘space movement’ skills are restricted for 30 minutes.
It was an item with the unique ability to seal the sky. Soon,
red chains began to fall from the sky. They tangled here and there, forming a dense network like a net, and then covered the ground. It started to come down.
And the dozens of airships floating hundreds of meters in the air were pushed back like fish caught in a fishing net, and they quickly started their engines to resist, but fell to the ground in vain. – Chick – evasive maneuver – evasive maneuver – crash
. Be prepared!
Still, it came to a narrow stop right before the fall and could only float vaguely in a space 50 meters below the ground.
And Lee Hyun-wook’s Hugin and Munin were also pushed away.
‘But… the question is why they are using that now.’
Lee Hyun-wook knew and expected that the necromancer would activate that item at some point.
If the sky was sealed like this, not only could Lee Hyun-wook’s unique low-orbit bombardment be carried out, but he could not place many AD-2s in the sky to make steel rain fall, and airships would be useless. In other words,
I predicted that Lee Hyun-wook would tie up almost all of his moves and then try to attack them all at once.
‘I made a Gaussian box just in case that happens…’
But the timing right now was just awkward.
‘It is incongruous to suddenly seal the sky after it has already been defeated once.’
To gain just 30 minutes… As the Demon King, I couldn’t help but think I had brought out too big a card, and no matter how many cards I held, it wasn’t the right time. ‘In other words, there could be something more.
‘
And of course, that wasn’t all.
Ku—gu—gu—gu—gu——!
“Huh!” “What’s happening all of a sudden!”
Ku—gu—gu—gu—gu——!
The whole world began to shake very violently. With a vibration of this magnitude, it would be an understatement to say that the ground was crumbling. No one could stand properly, and those who had clearly been standing side by side were suddenly standing at different heights.
Gu—gu—gu—gu—gu——!
The ground behind him cracked and lava began to rise.
“Uh uh— everyone be careful!”
“I’m preparing a damn magic shield!”
At that time, Agaidica approached Lee Hyun-wook.
The guy seemed to know what was going on.
“This is the power to control the red volcano.”
“—What? What is that?”
“If we control the ‘Heart of the Mountain’ at the center of our underground city, we will be able to divide and unite the entire land.”
In other words, simply put, it meant that there was an object that could induce a change in perception.
‘What the hell is that nonsense…’
Before I knew it, a mountain hundreds of meters high rose behind me, and a large amount of magma began to erupt from within.
Thump—thud—
and a chunk of rock rained down on their heads like a meteor, and the airships floating in an awkward position were unable to make evasive maneuvers and began to get hit by it.
Boom—Boom—Boom—Boom—
Still, it was an airship equipped with a fairly strong magic shield, but if it was beaten indiscriminately like that, it would soon crash.
“Damn it, everyone activate the magic shield and get inside!”
In the midst of all this chaos, the players poured out their mana and created a powerful magic shield.
“Huh… What’s happening all of a sudden?”
They came to their senses and started looking around.
“Uh—wait a minute, aren’t we… isolated?”
The distance between their location and the camp was 2km, but it was completely blocked by the rising volcano.
In addition, since even the sky was sealed, it was impossible to cross using airships or mechanical dragons.
“We have to get back to camp now!”
“…It’s already too late.”
And some wizards tried to use return magic, but that didn’t work either.
‘…Sky Castration even blocks all spatial movement skills.’
And….
– Chic— This is camp, this is Camp Steele, answer—!
This voice was team leader Lee Kyo-jun.
Seeing something so urgent made it seem like something had happened there, but here, on the opposite side, nothing was visible.
“Oh, team leader, what’s going on?”
– Chick— A huge number of monsters are pouring in here now! Chick— Titan, Black Orc Undead… at least thousands! Only
then did Hyun-wook Lee realize the devil’s plan.
“I’m trying to tie you up and target the rest.”
The one who said that was Seo Eun-ha.
“They’re all over there, Hee-seol and the blacksmiths… and there’s supplies, too, and the intention is to prevent them from going into a long-term war. Oh, come to think of it, even a saint….”
As she said, blacksmiths such as Kang Jeong-du and Kang Hee-seol were present at the camp to support Lee Hyun-wook, and Emilia Müller was also waiting. At that time, Brian Till said, “But who is in the camp
now
? “You know, right?”
“That’s everyone except us.”
There were only a few leader players here.
“So… is there a player who can block that attack? “Additional reinforcements haven’t arrived yet.”
At his words, the expressions of each guild master, including Edward Woods, darkened.
This was because they knew that even if they were there, it would be difficult to guarantee defense, and the men they left behind would not be enough.
“Everyone in the damn camp is going to die.”
“Oh no…”
Finally, a few people cried. No matter how strong the players were, they couldn’t accept that their comrades were going to be slaughtered.
And if things continued like this, they would definitely be wiped out 30 minutes before the sky reopened. ….
then—
“…there is one.”
It was Lee Hyun-wook who said that.
“Huh?”
Everyone looked at him when he said that.
“There is an S-rank player in that camp.”
Hyunwook Lee lifted up the Mana Messenger.
Chic—
“Team leader, can you hear me?”
– Yes! I can hear it!
“Now tell Kang Hee-seol… to launch operation ‘Zeus Ex Machina’. And please tell me that I can use all the energy of the Steel Fleet, including Pridwen.”
And after a while…
– Chik – The thunder god of mechanical devices… The batteries are being charged for operation. Chik – The pilot is also ready and I will report on the progress.
