Chapter 149 - Twist (1)

'I'm not sure…!'

It didn't matter how much he thought about it, he couldn't think of a human belonging to the Abyss who dual-wielded swords.

‘Is this guy also a new NPC that appeared for the first time in Asrian like Louise?’

GRRR.

He heard commotion growing from a distance.

That probably meant that devils were getting closer to them.

«Shadow Shield», «Shield»!

Hyun used two skills and began moving.

The sword cut Ain, and «Shield» clearly activated.

Fwoosh-!

The moment he thought a strong mana wind was blowing, he was already out of the stun state.

"Fun. You have many interesting techniques… show me everything you've got."

«Shield» also doesn't work!

«Purification Roar.»

The skill he'd just used was one that eliminated all of your abnormal statuses except for physical defects.

'He's a Named that's at least level 350…!'

Hyun knew the requisites for that skill…

—A humanoid NPC with an overwhelming level.

His specs were far beyond Ain's after receiving the benefits of «Assimilation».

The difference between their Agility scores was probably a multiple of two or three.

It was a known fact that the person with a speed advantage in a fight had a higher chance of winning.

Basically, Hyun and Ain had met an opponent they'd never be able to win against.

「Hyun… I think we're going to die…」

Ain's voice trembled.

Although she was confident in her 1-on-1 combat skills, she knew what specs the humanoid NPC in front of her had, so she was sure they were going to lose.

「Don't you have a return scroll?」

「No…」

「Hmm. I guess there's nothing we can do about it.」

「Hyeong, just now the Duke…!」

They heard TarrTarr's voice at that moment.

Since Hyun was talking with Ain, he hadn't heard what he said, so he was about to ask him about it when suddenly…

Hyun saw a hole in the man’s stomach.

"Hahaha…"

A laugh was heard from the darkness.

—A chilling laugh.

But when Hyun heard that unpleasant laugh, hope was reborn in his heart.

He knew who it was.

The laugh started getting louder, and then Demonic Energy mixed in the voice.

The darkness cleared, and then Bahmir appeared.

Every time he laughed, a strong current of Demonic Energy shook their surroundings.

"HAHAHA! I never thought you'd be able to guide me here!"

The man who had his stomach pierced looked at himself, horrified.

No one had expected the Duke to appear in the Core.

The man was having a hard time accepting his death.

"C-cough… How…?"

Flap- The man knelt. He saw Bahmir's face through his blurry eyesight.

"How did the Duke…?"

"Hmm?"

At that moment, Bahmir felt something strange.

He gave the man a suspicious look.

"Don't tell me…"

He took the gloves off of the man.

There was a rune of blue lightning on his hand.

As his life ended, the rune disappeared.

"Was he part of the Heavens?"

His dual swords fell to the ground.

Fwoosh! The body scattered away into light.

But the Duke could control the soul of the dead, so his eyes were probably still seeing the dead man's corpse.

"Why is someone from the Heavens’ forces here…?"

He fell into thoughts after having seen the rune that was on the man’s hands.

Wasn’t it the forces of Deception that had taken the castle from him?

Although they were different, they would never cooperate with the Heavens.

It was a situation that not even he understood.

"I shouldn't have killed him…"

Bahmir regretted it for a little while.

Bahmir knew that something was happening that he wasn't aware of, but he had no way of knowing what it was anymore.

The Duke remained still while thinking about something.

Hyun and Ain were also confused.

「Hyun, he was clearly someone from the Heavens’ Forces, right?」

「Yes.」

「What's going on…?」

「I'm not sure…」

Just like Bahmir, Hyun also wasn't sure what was going on.

An NPC from the Heavens appearing in the castle of the Duke? That was something that they couldn't have even imagined while playing Asra.

First, he had to think about who that guy was.

'The Heavens…?'

At first, he had a hard time figuring out his identity because he was trying to think of a dual-wielding sword NPC belonging to the Abyss, but once he changed the forces, there were a couple of people he could think of.

「Was he maybe a… Holy Knight?」

「Those crazy people? They betrayed the Heavens?」

「Maybe it isn't a betrayal. Maybe…」

Hyun looked at the quest window.

The details of the quest that said they had to regain the castle from the forces of Deception had changed.

Among the hidden quests, there were a few that unlocked new ones.

Hyun thought about the new word, 'Heaven's,' that had appeared between 'Deception' and 'Darkness.'

「Maybe this quest isn’t as simple as I initially thought.」

He began having a headache.

According to the quest's details, it just looked like a fight between two factions of the same forces.

But seeing how the incident differed from Asra's history, Hyun had difficulty figuring out what was going on.

"First, I'll recover my castle."

Bahmir walked toward the magic circle and placed his hands on it.

The Duke's Demonic Energy and the restricting magic circle began synchronizing at a speed that couldn't be compared to when Louise had put her hand there.

Magical power exploded from the center of the Core.

The power spread, forming a concentric circle, just like when you throw a stone into a calm lake.

From the underground, to the surface, and up to the roofs of the buildings.

From the Core, toward the inner wall, and to the outer wall from there.

The wave of magical power spread through the ground and the wind before finally reaching the sky above Kaidan castle.

The moment the entire place was covered by the restricting magic circle, Bahmir said something.

"Kill them all."

After thinking about it for a short while, he corrected himself.

"Except for a few."

Pang!

He waved his hand in the air and opened a portal; Bahmir brought TarrTarr to him.

"Will you look with me?"

No one nodded, but Bahmir opened another portal again.

Although his words sounded like a proposal, they had a force that made them impossible to refuse.

The group was forced to follow him into the red portal.

The portal was connected to the Core’s roof.

The group looked down at the castle while being buffeted by strong currents of wind.

As the black sun made the shadows darker, thousands of black lines connected the ground with the sky.

No, looking at them closely, they weren't lines but thousands of magic vortexes that were wiping out the devils.

The low-level devils immediately turned into light and scattered away, but high-level ones tried their best to escape the castle.

Bahmir smiled in satisfaction while watching the death parade in front of him.

"Isn't it glorious? This is the real strength of the castle."

Since the air of the Symmetrical World was red, it seemed as if the blood of the devils scattered away into the fog.

It didn't take more than a few seconds before everything disappeared.

"Because it’s my castle, only I can control it like this."

"Congratulations."

"Congratulations."

Two vampires appeared next to the Duke.

"Won't this affect the ceremony?"

"What? Haha."

As Rublen asked in worry, Bahmir laughed out loud.

"How rude, Rublen. I didn't use that much strength today."

"I didn't say it with that intention."

"Haha, I was joking. Joking! On a day like this, we should all celebrate. Isn't that right? Mablen, Rublen."

"Yes. I'll prepare immediately."

Ting-!

After hearing the notification bell, Hyun opened the quest window.

Ain and TarrTarr also checked the message.

[You've cleared the quest!]

- Is there anyone who wouldn't be happy when an arrow they thought would surely miss lands in the middle of the bullseye?

- Of course, they would want to try to shoot again in expectation of what could happen!

- Because Bahmir used to be a human, he knows the joy of when things work unexpectedly well!

[Duke Bahmir's opinion of you has increased greatly. He will reward you with the following!]

- 1,000,000 gold.

[You've found a hint of 'Event: Heaven's Encroachment'!]

- It seems like the forces that infiltrated Kaidan Castle weren't the forces of Deception.

- You didn't see anyone who belonged to Deception's faction within the castle, but who was that knight of the Heavens?

The message kept going on.

There were many words that could be a hint, but Hyun decided to think about those later on.

There was a voice call incoming.

'Yes, there was also this.'

Hyun accepted Robert's call to see if the conditions had been fulfilled.

「Is it over?」

「Perfect… It couldn't be more perfect.」

He could hear Steven's voice from behind.

Hyun thought that the closing was a bit weird, but it seemed like it wasn't going to be a problem.

He could hear the loud conversation between them.

「Director…! We can't make this into a movie! We lack running time. It said in the contract that we wouldn't do additional recordings…!」

「But still? No is a no!」

Hyun began laughing.

It was because he could imagine what they were talking about.

After a short while, the atmosphere calmed down, and then he could only hear Robert's voice again.

「Ah, production will take four months. Without the special effects, it will take three.」

If they released the footage without special effects, his identity would be revealed.

Hyun had been acting secretly, so that could become some sort of penalty for him.

'Three months…'

But if it was going to be three months in the future, he probably didn't need to care about that.

By that point, he probably wouldn’t be hiding anymore if things went as he planned.

Hyun spoke after thinking about it for a while.

「Please use the special effects.」

「Yes. I'll make sure no information is leaked…」

「Not me, but Louise. It's okay if you don't use special effects on me.」

Robert understood things very quickly.

He immediately understood the reason behind Hyun’s words. While smiling, he said there wouldn't be any problems with that.

After the call ended, Hyun looked around and saw Ain looking at him.

She was looking at him from a distance so short that he could feel her breath… He said something because he was feeling embarrassed.

"See? I told you that we could beat it."

Ain's eyes narrowed.

"Hng… but we would've died if the Duke hadn't come through TarrTarr."

"I also thought of that."

"Really? Then you intended to kill Salon?"

"N-no, but…"

Fufu. The tips of Ain's mouth went up as she saw Hyun mumble.

TarrTarr saved Hyun from the conversation.

"Excuse me… It seems like we’re the only ones left here. We have to follow them quickly, right?"

The Duke and his underlings had already passed through the portal and disappeared.

The portal was probably connected to where the celebration would take place. They wanted to receive rewards for completing the quest, so they had to participate.

They were going to be the protagonists of the celebration, after all.

The group entered the portal before it disappeared.

* * *

The Holy Kingdom…

Clang Clang-

The bishop frowned after hearing the bells.

It was midnight.

There were only two types of reports he would receive at a time like that.

It could be great news or really bad news, but there was a higher chance that it would be the second option.

The bishop got up from bed and looked at the crystal mana sphere.

As blue lightning bolts moved like worms, they soon formed words and a paragraph.

'So it didn't work…'

The bishop sighed.

He had received bad news after all, and it was news that bothered him a lot.

‘How could a Duke move at a time like this?’

It shouldn't have been time for him to move yet.

'Another good knight has returned to the Heavens!'

There was an unexpected event, but the Heavens lost another good knight. With that, it seemed like the Holy Kingdom’s plans would be forcibly pushed back.

'I should report this immediately!'

The pope should be praying at that moment, so the bishop's steps quickened.

He always had trouble sleeping because of thoughts related to the Heavens.

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