Steel-Eating Player Chapter 210

Episode 210 [ Final Battle – 2 ]

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“Now… let’s start demolishing the Demon King’s Castle.”

As Lee Hyun-wook said, heat-resistant clothing items began to be distributed.

Earlier, Agaidica explained that the ‘Heart of the Earth’ located 4km below the hole is an extremely high temperature zone. Therefore,

players must wear a mana shield to protect themselves from the heat before infiltrating. , received magic shield support from wizards, and wore items with heat dissipation functions.

And the blacksmiths prepared to deploy ‘walking magic drones.’

Before throwing themselves directly into that black hole , The purpose was to check what was there and then install a magic shield at the landing point.

We had to enter the enemy’s territory, a place called the Devil’s Castle. So it was natural to take all possible precautions.

And Kim Se-hee raised her voice after drawing everyone’s attention.

“Now, the wind is blowing out of that hole in reverse, but I’m going to control it and create a downward wind in reverse! Just like an elevator!”

Of course, it wouldn’t be as stable as the elevator.

“And of course, the tanks will go in first, so come forward.”

“Us—we were the first to go down the Hwangcheon Road…”

But that was then.

“—Ugh!”

“—Tsk!”

Suddenly, almost all of the players were complaining of a strange headache at the same time.

“………”

A moment of silence followed the strange experience.

“…I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who felt that feeling just now, right?”

“uh? “What did you feel too?”

“Why should I suddenly say something cheap?”

The feeling of goosebumps running up my back and my hair standing on end… In other words, it would have been a living thing’s survival instinct.

In other words, it was an intuition that a huge threat was approaching.

And Lee Hyun-wook also felt that.

‘This… is overwhelming.’

There is something of high rank nearby, like a dragon pier. And even though we did not meet in person, they began to be so active that their presence could be sensed.

‘Currently, the only person with a level of status in this area is the Demon King…’

However, the fact that he was suddenly able to feel this way could be seen as meaning that his ability had increased significantly at once.

‘…The question is why it suddenly rose like this.’

Lee Hyun-wook guessed that the guy was currently putting all his effort into building the Demon King’s Castle, so he couldn’t move easily.

That may be why the corps under my command was helpless despite Lee Hyeon-wook’s successive air raids and was unable to come out.

But…

– (!) [Demon King’s Castle], the essence of the power of your nemesis ‘Demon King’, has been completed!

* Soon, the ‘evil rampage’ will begin, and the Demon King will gradually become stronger by absorbing people’s life force.

This warning system message appeared before his eyes.

“Damn it, why already…”

This was completely different from the time Lee Hyun-wook had expected.

But another system message came to mind.

– congratulations! As [World Quest: Invasion of the Demon King] begins in earnest, ‘Hero Perks’ will be strengthened to ‘Level 2’.

* The Demon King gradually evolves every time it takes on a life.

Fortunately, this time it was positive.

Usually in fantasy, a hero appears in response to a crisis called the Demon King. Based on that cliché, do the hero’s perks also get stronger every time the Demon King gets stronger?

Lee Hyun-wook was wary of the shaking ground and quickly examined the details.

1) All abilities increase significantly. (+400%)

2) Resistance to all status abnormalities increases. (+200%)

3) You can ignore the Demon King’s special barrier.

4) You can ‘transfer’ the abilities of friendly players.

‘It just went up twice.’

Once again, all abilities were greatly improved.

And one more new feature was added.

‘Hmm, I can hear the abilities of a friendly player being transferred…’

But there was no time to experiment with that.

“You must get out of this place right now!”

It was Agaidica who shouted that. He must have sensed something and screamed at his subordinates, and all the Ancient Red Drakes began to scatter in all directions. “—Move quickly! The

ground here will collapse soon!”

“That’s right! The whole thing under my feet is starting to shake! It’s going to collapse soon!”

Lee Hyun-wook had an intuition of what was going on through Maru’s additional explanation.

“No way… the devil is rising above . “Is it?”

Since it was built down there, I thought it would always be there.

But it seemed like it was about to rise above the ground.

「—Too fast, too late!」

Soon the ground began to crack, and a huge crevasse began to open around the drill hole Lee Hyun-wook had drilled.

T-that-that-that-!

A column of heat, like a gas explosion, exploded from the gap.

pop–! pop–!

“Tsk!”

They soared into the sky like cannons, and even the airships floating hundreds of meters in the air were swept up in the column, lost their balance, spun around, and eventually began to get hit here and there.

Thump—— Thump——

“—Be careful of the top of your head, too!”

“evil! Damn it, we have to teleport away!”

They scattered here and there on the ground shaking from the earthquake, avoiding the cracking ground and the pieces of the airship raining down on their heads.

Qua—and—and—gwang——!

However, since they were all skilled, high-level players, they were not left helpless and each party attempted an emergency escape prepared in advance.

And those who got as far away from the scene as possible turned their heads and looked toward the crevasse.

From the wide and long gap, black smoke rose like a haze and rose up to the sky, creating a scene as if a huge blackout curtain had obscured half of the world.

Go—oh—oh—oh——

And then something slowly flew out from within the black smoke, and its shadow peeked out onto the black smoke…

“Whoa! What is that? It’s so big, isn’t it?”

“…I don’t know what it is, but it’s ominous.”

It was just a shadow, but I could tell that something very large with a lot of long, wiggly things hanging from it was slowly rising into the sky.

But soon it became clear what it was.

– Caution! A ‘Devil’s Castle’ has appeared in the area!

* The Demon King . All abilities of beings who have pledged loyalty are greatly improved. (+100%)

* The abilities of all other beings are decreased. (-30%) Except for the warrior. Soon,

it began to come out of the black curtain.

Go—oh—oh—oh——

Kim Se-hee, who was watching that scene, tilted her head.

“…You mean that’s the Demon King Castle now?”

Park Jun-mo, who was standing next to her, also tilted his head.

“Yes, but… I don’t know where I can see that it’s a last name.”

It had a shape that could never be called a building.

Gurgling— Gurgling—

It was… a living thing.

Yes, it was clearly a living creature…

In particular, it seemed like the part corresponding to the head.

Gurgling—gurgling—

A large head. It must have been described as such. It was a pile of dark red, shiny flesh with a diameter of about 2 km… There was a huge eye stuck in the center of it.

Gurgling – Gurgling –

The huge eyeballs moved up, down, left and right, and the pupils repeatedly contracted and dilated.

In other words, they were scanning everything in the area.

“Oh my gosh…”

The players who felt that gaze could not help but flinch instinctively.

Also, there were countless small eyeballs around those big eyes, and each time they closed or closed their eyes, the red glow disappeared. It seemed as if a light was flashing as it appeared again and again,

and then there was a mouth underneath it… a large, toothless mouth, with its greenish lips half-open, like a rotten mackerel, and a sticky, thick tongue writhing and sticking out. It came out.

It took in air—that is, every time it breathed, a rough breathing sound like phlegm rang out.

And finally, it wriggled with dozens of tentacles attached to its lowest end. At first

glance, it looked like a mollusk, but its facial features were clearly visible. Because it was stuck… it looked like the head of a one-eyed monster with a long beard.

‘That’s the Demon King’s Castle… It’s ridiculous.’

Even as Lee Hyun-wook, I was just dumbfounded.

No matter how I looked at that sight, it was beyond common sense.

Where did I look at that to say it was a castle?

And it was the first time I encountered something so bizarre even as a player who had gone through all kinds of terrible experiences.

” ……”

Perhaps they were feeling strangely intimidated, but they only looked at the terrible being with a blank expression and took no action, making it pointless that they were preparing to demolish the Demon King’s Castle. “—Everyone must come to their senses and prepare for the attack

. !”

The person who shouted that was Lee Seong-yoon, the gravity wizard.

“Right now, we have no way of guessing what kind of attack it will make, so we have to be as defensive as possible!”

As he said, since he could not predict what form the Demon King Castle would be in, he could not predict what kind of attack the Demon King Castle would make.

Lee Hyun-wook also agreed with his opinion.

“Let’s go to first defense!” Prepare all available defenses right now! And… even a means of escape.”

The best plan Lee Hyun-wook came up with was to prevent the construction of the Demon King’s Castle.

In other words, since the Demon King’s Castle was completed and appeared before our eyes, it was necessary to check the plan rather than force the battle.

But at that time, small things began to rise from the hole from which the Demon King Castle emerged….

Kwaaaa——!

They were all monsters.

Monsters such as Titans, Black Orcs, Undead, etc. were pulled by an invisible force, floating in the air and flying towards the Demon King’s Castle… and were soon sucked into the huge, wide-open mouth.

“Uh… what is that doing?”

“So you’re just eating your own side?”

At first glance, it looked like it was devouring it, but when Lee Hyun-wook looked closely with Hugin and Munin, it seemed like it was probably carrying monsters… that is, an army of troops into the Demon King’s Castle.

Lee Hyun-wook had doubts about that scene.

‘…Why are you loading it?’

If it were for battle, wouldn’t it be necessary to line up outside the Demon King’s Castle instead of inside it?

‘Then… it means I have no intention of fighting.’

His guess was correct.

The Demon King’s altitude gradually increased, and the Demon King’s largest eye looked upward and shot out a ray of light.

Then…

ooh—ooh—ooh—ooh——

A hole opened in the sky.

“…uh? “You opened a portal, right?”

A very large portal had been created. It was similar in size to the Wight Hall, but the difference was that its color was red.

The moment Lee Hyun-wook saw that scene, he no longer focused on defense.

He immediately lifted the Mana Messenger.

“—Team Leader Lee, bring the Fridwen and the Gauss ship here right now!”

– yes?

“We have to shoot that thing down now!”

Now the Demon King was clearly preparing for ‘space movement’. In other words, they were trying to postpone the battle with Lee Hyun-wook.

Hyun-wook Lee reaffirmed that among the previous system messages, those related to the completion of the Demon King’s Castle.

And I found that written at the bottom of the content was ‘* The Demon King gradually evolves every time it takes life.’

‘…The intention is to go to the big city and target the lives of civilians.’

In other words, it was a rational and evil plan to gain as much life force as possible through massacre and then become stronger to face Lee Hyun-wook.

Soon, Friedwen and Gaussham flew in from the rear.

But then—

gong——!

A ray of light flew in and struck Pridwen.

bang–!

Still, Fridwen was not pierced by the blow because it was equipped with the strongest magic shield generator, but it bounced far away like a bowling pin hit by a bowling ball and fell to the ground.

A strand of the Demon King’s tentacle had fired a ray attack.

‘shit.’

Then, a voice began to echo in the air.

“Steelane was quick to notice, but it was too late.”

It was the voice of the Demon King.

“…….”

「You and all of you… will pay the price for making the wrong choice and rejecting the offers I repeatedly sent you. All the beings you love and know will be my nourishment, and if you try to fight against me again… you will face your family, lovers, and friends who have become undead.” With

that curse-filled intimidation, the Demon King quickly gained altitude. I raised it…

Hung –

eventually disappeared into the black portal.

Couldn’t stop it.

“Uh, what is it…”

“…Where did it go?”

“Did you run away?”

The players had blank expressions.

They had no idea what was going on.

Lee Hyun-wook thought for a moment and came to a conclusion.

“Team leader Lee, check the Seoul area right now.”

And his guess is…

– Chik – It is said that the devil has appeared in the skies over Seoul!

Unfortunately, he was right.

The devil chose Seoul as his first victim. It is clear that he will destroy Lee Hyun-wook’s foundation from the beginning. It was a thought.

– It is said that a system message telling players to be careful of soul harvesting appeared in front of the players who were currently defending Seoul! What does this mean… Soul

harvesting. The Demon King was trying to take the life force.

That too, Seoul . The entire population…

Lee Hyun-wook hurriedly gave an order:

“…There is only one way. Use the ‘World Bridge’ right now to open a wight hall to Seoul and track him down.”

But…

– But… the Seoul sky… is said to have been sealed with some kind of wide-area magic like this place before. Damn it! If that’s the case, won’t it be possible to open the portal? Squite. That’s what he was saying. But that’s not yet the

case

. The cooldown should not have expired.

‘…there was one more, after all.’

The Squite used here was brought by a necromancer. And the named titan ‘Kronos’ obeyed the Demon King… He had one more Squite. The sad news continued. – And the immunity of the sealed area was like

that

. It’s about 30km long, so if you use Whyte Hole to return to the Korean peninsula, you should choose around Suwon as your destination. If you

arrive in Suwon, use Park Jun-mo’s electric current to drill a hole, and traverse 30km to get to Seoul… –

. ..It will be too late.

There have already been countless casualties.

Lee Hyun-wook took a moment to catch his breath and lifted up the Mana Messenger.

“Team leader Lee… there is no other way. “Please prepare to return to Suwon right now and contact Seoul to inform us that a [Fire Dome] is needed.”

– Yes, we have already moved on from there. Operation Fire Dome will begin soon.

Lee Hyun-wook predicted this situation to some extent.

‘The Demon King has a wide-area space movement skill.’

When he first appeared, he used it to escape, and he also used it to travel around the world and subjugate monsters.

Therefore, Lee Hyun-wook anticipated that the bastard would make a surprise attack on the Korean Peninsula while he was away and made some preparations.

‘The easiest way to shake up the enemy’s lines is to disrupt the rear.’

And there are two places in total that he could target.

Taebaek Arsenal, where key facilities are located.

Or Seoul, the heart of the Korean Peninsula, where Lee Hyun-wook is based.

Among them, the Taebaek Arsenal was filled with all kinds of magic engineering turrets.

Then Seoul was the problem.

How best to defend such a large area?

Of course, there were many AMT troops and players, but that alone was somewhat unsettling.

So what we have prepared…

– Operation ‘Fire Dome’ has now begun. I will send you a video from Seoul.

Soon, a magic drone flew towards Lee Hyun-wook.

Ugh——

That magic drone was equipped with a crystal projector.

It floated a hologram in the air, and the video

showed… “…Seoul.”

I saw a very familiar cityscape.

Even the appearance of the devil’s castle encroaching on the sky there.

And something was pouring out of the Demon King’s mouth like vomit.

Ku—gu—gu—gu—

It was an undead army.

They dropped like airborne troops and began to spread throughout the city.

Like a virus moving through blood vessels, it started moving along the roads and alleys and attacking humans.

“Damn, if this goes on, Seoul…”

Seoul would be engulfed in death.

But then…

Qua—ah—ah—ah——!

With a roar, the hologram screen was filled with red light.

And from somewhere, A nonsensical being appeared:

“…Huh? What is that again?”

“It’s a dragon, right?”

An Eastern dragon, not a Western dragon. A red dragon too.

As many as seven such-looking beings appeared and filled the screen. They moved menacingly, looking at the Demon King with their bodies upright. Then he laid down and scanned the roadside.

The undead who were marching on it were completely wiped out.

Kwagwagwagwa——!

“Oh my god…”

But upon closer inspection, I realized they weren’t real dragons.

They were pillars of fire that writhed and moved like dragons.

It was moving as if it was alive and devouring the undead, so at first glance it could not help but look like a dragon. And it was so threatening that it wouldn’t be strange to call it that.

“Who on earth is doing this?”

What Lee Hyun-wook secretly prepared to protect Seoul was…

“…Inferno.”

A player who was evaluated as having the best firepower before the advent of Steele Rain.

Inferno, the savior of Busan.

The so-called person broke his long seclusion at an important moment.