Chapter 1293: Beyond Human Demonic Realm (16)
Deep in the jungle where the Sun Ship Megiddo crashed, halted by the veil drawn around the mausoleum.
From the deepest part of the Demonic Realm, having bypassed the settlements of the Order Alliance and the Guido Cult in one leap, appeared a gunner.
Unbelievably, the face was that of a Transcendent Lennok had once seen before.
Arthur Mason.
One of the Giants of the Sunlit World who accepted the Prohibition Edict, a bounty hunter known as a hero of the civil war.
A Magic Gunner known for killing the most superhumans who sided with Kaiser during the civil war.
Had a superhuman who personally participated in the Victory Ceremony held in Vulcan arrived at the Four Archangel Demonic Mirrors even before Lennok?
“Don’t just stand there silent like a dead fish, say something. Are you mute?”
“…”
Clack, clack.
He gracefully spun the two shotguns in his hands, repeatedly loading and unloading their magazines.
With each motion, the mana and heft of the shotguns in Arthur Mason’s hands grew stronger, accumulating power.
“Ah, perhaps you’re worried about voices being heard? You’re a needlessly timid fellow, considering your reputation. Don’t worry, I’ve already cleared out anything nearby that could cause a commotion.”
Arthur grinned, a wide smile spreading over his bushy beard.
“If need be, even if one of us dies, it won’t be found out for a while.”
“…”
He had appeared with a strange proposal, but he didn’t seem entirely favorable to them.
To begin with, a mercenary who had only recently been staying in Vulcan appearing in the Demonic Realm was suspicious beyond measure.
Aileen, standing next to Lennok, also seemed to harbor similar sentiments, her expression a frown.
“Mercenary… of all things.”
“Do you know him?”
“They’re a high-level conquest-oriented organization made up of war mercenaries. Most of them will do anything for money, and precisely because of that, they’re considered top-tier among conquest factions.”
Aileen replied.
“Despite their poor reputation, most of their members are famous for possessing powerful or unique abilities. And that man, among them, is clearly Vulcan’s…”
“Hero of the civil war, you said?”
“…Human Hunter.”
Lennok and Aileen simultaneously uttered different names and fell silent.
Arthur, who had been twirling his shotguns, heard their words and grinned.
“Oh, so you both know my face? Well, that makes things easier.”
In the silent jungle, Arthur leisurely spoke, loading and unloading his magazine.
“Let’s get to the point. I’m operating on a request to find someone in the Four Archangel Demonic Mirrors. Her name is Maiya Lonsdale, famous as an Enforcer from the Machine City.”
“…Maiya Lonsdale.”
“From what I’ve heard, she went missing in the Demonic Realm before the Great Upheaval, and it’s been several months. To me, she’s probably already a corpse, but it seems the client wants to recover at least her remains.”
Arthur said nonchalantly.
“I somehow managed to reach the inside of the Demonic Realm with that Jumper guy’s ability, but while chasing her traces, I ended up being blocked in front of the mausoleum. For an Enforcer, she seems to have succeeded in entering the mausoleum before going missing.”
“…”
“It’s an alias for a long-range spatial transfer ability user belonging to the Mercenary faction.”
When Lennok glanced over, Aileen explained naturally.
“He’s famous as the spatial transfer ability user who can travel the longest distances on this continent, but he’s also a crazy bastard who doubles his fee for every increment in distance, so…”
“…He must be incredibly rich.”
Was that why Arthur Mason, who had even participated in the Victory Ceremony, was able to arrive in the Demonic Realm before Lennok?
It seemed he had arrived in the Demonic Realm by borrowing the ability of another mercenary, Jumper, and then immediately began exploring the area around the mausoleum from within.
Once Lennok seemed to grasp the situation, Arthur finally grinned and slung his shotgun over his shoulder.
“Anyway, what I found out while exploring around the mausoleum is that it seems to be designed so you can’t enter it alone.”
“Can’t enter alone?”
“At least two people are needed. To be precise, a person who has eaten a Dead Flower and a person who hasn’t must enter the mausoleum simultaneously.”
Arthur held up two fingers, picking his nose as he spoke.
“While investigating how Maiya Lonsdale entered the mausoleum, I accidentally learned the method, but it’s a bit complicated to explain. If you accept my proposal, I’ll tell you in detail.”
“…”
“Even if I eat a Dead Flower alone, I can’t enter anyway, and if I just wait here, I’ll only waste time, so I’m just making a proposal.”
Arthur grinned.
“Judging by how things are going, you guys don’t seem to have any intention of joining hands with the Order Alliance and the Guido Cult anyway, do you?”
“…”
Lennok understood why Arthur Mason was in the Demonic Realm at this moment.
Lennok, too, had learned through Pandemonium’s intelligence network that Maiya Lonsdale had gone missing in the Demonic Realm.
The possibility that Arthur’s explanation, given his prior knowledge of that fact, for why he was in the Demonic Realm was a lie, was low.
And because he had witnessed Lennok confronting the Grand Spell Master and the Apostle on the Sun Ship Megiddo, it also made sense for him to offer this proposal to Lennok instead of to the Order Alliance and the Guido Cult.
However—
“I have one question.”
“What is it?”
“If both a person who has eaten a Dead Flower and a person who hasn’t are needed, then who gets to eat the Dead Flower?”
“Heh heh heh…”
Arthur grinned and started to walk.
“We’ll have to decide that together now.”
“…”
“As much as I’d like to tell you to eat the Dead Flower since I told you how to enter the mausoleum, if you’ve been rolling around in the Central districts, you wouldn’t volunteer for such a foolish act just for a few pieces of information, would you?”
“So?”
“There’s a method our industry uses whenever these kinds of problems arise.”
Thud!!
Before Lennok knew it, Arthur, who had stopped right in front of him, spoke with his bushy-bearded face.
“If the stronger one makes the weaker one eat the Dead Flower, wouldn’t there be no trouble afterward for either side?”
“…”
So he meant he didn’t care whether he traded with Lennok and made him eat the Dead Flower, or just beat him up, force-fed it to him, and dragged him along?
And while doing that, he could fight Lennok and even check his skills, so he must think it’s perfect.
It was an utterly familiar mercenary’s method. Only then, understanding Arthur’s intention, did Lennok laugh.
“‘Clearing the surroundings,’ he said… Even that strange nonsense he spouted was for that purpose from the start.”
“Hehehe, is that even a question? Wanting to team up with the strong one, if possible, is the same even if you’re just playing a pickup basketball game.”
Clack, clack!!
Every time his words sped up, the magazines of the shotguns in his hands moved back and forth rapidly, making noise.
Arthur fiddled with the shotguns in both his hands, unable to leave them alone for a moment, as if it were an obsession or a routine.
“Are you going to do it or not? Decide quickly. I’m ready.”
“I will. Come at me.”
Lennok nodded.
Regardless of whether Arthur’s proposal could be trusted or not, having encountered him in the middle of the Demonic Realm, Lennok couldn’t just send him back.
He had planned to subdue him first and then confirm his true intentions, but if the other side came out like that first, there was no reason to refuse.
The time until the Dead Flowers nearby stopped their activity, as the flames of the Sun Ship Megiddo fell, was approximately—
“I’ll crush you in three minutes.”
“For guts, at least, you live up to your reputation.”
Arthur’s mouth stretched into a long grin.
“Just don’t cry and beg for your life!!!”
Bang!!!
As the spinning shotgun instantly loaded a magazine, it fired. With a tremendous roar, it scattered buckshot.
But what rained down on Lennok was not buckshot, but the barrel of the shotgun Arthur had released from his hand.
Thwack!!
Simultaneously with the ear-splitting gunshot, the shotgun flew upwards past Lennok, who had tilted his head back.
Did he turn the muzzle backward and pull the trigger, using the recoil to launch the shotgun like a projectile?
“Hahahaha!!!”
Before Lennok knew it, Arthur had gotten behind him, snatching the shotgun soaring into the sky and floating upwards.
Strange movements, using the shotgun’s recoil as acceleration to move and change his position and speed.
Clack!!
Before Lennok could turn his gaze, Arthur aimed the shotgun in his other hand.
The shotgun’s muzzle, intensely condensed with mana, this time accurately aimed at Lennok’s upper body and fired.
Bluish buckshot rained down over Lennok’s head, who had raised both arms, creating a powerful rupture sound.
CRASH!!!!
Lennok looked down at the barrier fragments glittering on his forearms and tilted his head slightly.
‘My Streamline Barrier was torn away by almost half in one shot. This is firepower hard to believe from a single individual.’
The Streamline Barrier, used under his Cheonbeon identity, is a barrier array specialized for search and vigilance, composed of three types: Junjeo, Jin-eon, and Chalhwa.
Although it’s not as specialized for defense as the Jeongryun Barrier, as it is fundamentally a type of Barrier Spellcraft, its inherent durability is quite substantial.
If it could pierce through such overlapping barriers with just one shot, it meant the buckshot’s power exceeded a Level 7 spell.
If he could fire buckshot of such power repeatedly just by pulling the trigger, Arthur Mason’s reputation was understandable.
“Are you just going to stand there and take it?”
Whoosh, clack!!
He spun the shotguns with both hands, instantly replacing all the depleted magazines.
Arthur grabbed the shotgun grip, stepped on the muzzle with his foot to embed it into the ground, and grinned.
“You said you needed to warm up, but your own personality is more laid-back than I thought. You won’t survive long in this Demonic Realm with that attitude.”
“It’s… not exactly that.”
Lennok turned his gaze with an expressionless face.
“Someone who imitates your style just came to mind.”
‘Mila’s combat method was a result of benchmarking this man’s.’
A unique combat method that used the shotgun’s recoil to gain speed, change direction, and even as a means of movement, freely disrupting his opponents.
Though there was a difference in that Mila used her superhuman abilities as well, as soon as Lennok saw Arthur, he realized who she had learned that method from.
If even Mila, who possessed excellent combat sense among the tower’s mercenaries, imitated that style, it meant the mercenary in front of him was also a monster confident in his senses.
“But I see. A Human Hunter, huh…”
Among what Lennok had heard recently, it was an epithet that was uniquely and utterly ominous.
That ominous name, not even hiding the fact that he hunts humans, was proof that Arthur was a master of man-to-man combat and a killer of the civil war.
According to what was heard at the Victory Ceremony, he had boosted his man-to-man combat abilities but at the cost of difficult restrictions, leaving him weakened in other combat situations.
That also meant Arthur stubbornly insisted on solo actions, fighting only in battlefields specialized for him.
“Why, are you finally thinking of remembering my name after all this time?”
Arthur rapidly twirled his shotguns, grinned, and turned around.
“If you have a request you want to entrust, look for the ‘Werewolf’ at the Mercenary counter. They don’t really like the term ‘Human Hunter’ at the reception.”
“That is, if you’re skilled enough to take my request.”
Lennok turned his body, spread both hands, and stepped forward.
“I’ll confirm it myself, so try to take it.”
“Huh?”
Whoosh…!!
Hiss…!!
At the sight of the wizard, wreathed in flames on his left hand and frost on his right, Arthur made a dumbfounded expression.
“No, what is it? Weren’t you a fire wizard—”
Whoosh!!
Before his words could finish, a fist-sized flame dropped down on the spot where Arthur was standing.
The flame, falling diagonally, crashed onto the ground and exploded, raising a dazzling pillar of flame there.
CRASH!!
Avoiding the continuously rising pillars of flame, Arthur sprinted across the ground.
Every time he pulled the trigger, shockwaves pushed his body, and he explosively accelerated, sliding across the ground.
“This crazy bastard!!”
Boom-boom-boom-boom!!!
He replaced magazines containing buckshot for movement and buckshot for attack several times per second, alternately firing towards Lennok and the ground.
Arthur’s figure slid over the Demonic Realm’s vines at incredible speed, continuously firing buckshot.
From that impact, craters formed on the ground and dust clouds exploded, but Lennok was not there.
Whoosh!!
As Lennok, scattering as flames and transforming half his body into fire, simultaneously appeared from behind, Arthur, noticing his intention, laughed madly.
“Hahaha!! F*ck, are you trying to fight me in close quarters?!!!”
“Do you really have to ask?”
“Just don’t regret it after getting beaten up!!!!”
Clack!!
Lennok’s flames and Arthur’s shotgun simultaneously burst forth in the air, colliding as if crossing, then bouncing off and scattering mana.
Following his hand gestures, flames and ice exploded and danced, and dazzling buckshot exploded along distorted trajectories.
They repeatedly accelerated and decelerated, changing directions and trajectories, clashing at a distance so close their clothes brushed.
The figures of the wizard and the Magic Gunner tangled complexly, then were pushed back with a powerful shockwave and spun.
Bang!! Whirrrrr!!
Tat-tat-tat-tat-tat!!!
“Crazy…”
When Lennok thrust flames into his side, Arthur pushed him back with his shotgun and fired buckshot to create distance.
When Arthur pulled the trigger simultaneously at Lennok’s feet and head, rupturing space, Lennok scattered cold to receive and push him back.
Intricate and technical martial arts and body techniques, to the point that even Aileen, watching from the side, was momentarily captivated.
Lennok, who used body techniques as incantations, and Arthur, who mixed loading and firing into every movement—their graceful movements continuously intersected without pause.
CRASH!!!
“Heh, for a wizard, you’re quite fiery…!!”
His hand holding flames collided with the large shotgun wreathed in blue light, and Arthur thrust his head forward.
On his face, glaring at Lennok, a deep smile, a mixture of excitement and bloodlust, lingered.
“There was a reason you carried so many flashy aliases. So this is the skill of the Apostle-Slayer who’s fought Adamant Thunder, huh?!”
“Three minutes are up.”
“What?”
Whoosh!!
Simultaneously with lightly bumping shoulders with Lennok, Arthur stepped on the ice beneath his feet and momentarily lost his balance.
The moment he made contact with the ice, whose friction coefficient was reduced to the extreme, Lennok grabbed his shoulder, pushed, tripped him, and grabbed him by the collar.
A distortion so perfect it made the mercenary, who was second to none in combat sense and balance among high-level superhumans, lose his senses.
‘Got me—’
Before the thought could finish, Lennok, clutching Arthur’s nape, violently slammed his upper body onto the ground.
CRASH!!
“Gah—!!!”
“Want to keep going?”
“You crazy bastard… What kind of strength…!!!”
He was said to be an 8th-level Grand Mage, but the power he felt was unbelievable.
To the point of feeling stronger than himself, a physical ability user who wielded heavy shotguns with both hands.
He didn’t recall hearing that Lennok had strong natural physical strength, so to what extent was he applying physical reinforcement with mana?
Arthur, who was pressed down on his stomach, grinned and snatched something from his waist.
“Sorry, but… it’s still far from enough!!”
Clack!!
A grenade that fell from Arthur’s waist rolled in front of Lennok.
Before he could even register that the grenade’s pin was already pulled, the grenade exploded.
Right in front of Lennok, it scattered a purple force field, instantly corroding space.
Woooooosh—
“Cough!!”
It wasn’t an ordinary explosion, but the deployment of a force field that seemed to distort and crush the space where the grenade had detonated.
But Arthur’s expression, as he coughed outside the grenade’s range, had become even more dumbfounded than before.
“W-what are you?”
C-c-c-crackle…!!!
The purple-hued spatial distortion force field chillingly froze and contracted.
Watching Lennok walk out, pushing aside the frozen force field with his bare hands, Arthur muttered.
“You’re not actually human, are you? Are you some kind of imperial royalty or a True Bloodline?”
“The superhumans belonging to the Mercenary faction seem to have a lot of money.”
Lennok smiled, freezing the surrounding air with one hand.
“That spatial distortion force field grenade you just used. If calculated by monetary value, it would be more expensive than gems of the same weight. Are you using such an item as a consumable?”
“Mind your own business about other people’s finances.”
Arthur, who stood up holding his shotgun, replied with a sulky expression.
“Anyway, it’s something I made with my Miniature Universe, so it doesn’t matter. I can still do a lot more.”
“No, it’s over.”
“What?”
C-c-c-crackle…!!
The bushes beneath Arthur’s feet froze, turning pure white.
Pure white frost spread thickly around, making it impossible for anything to move.
Arthur, realizing the cold spreading in all directions was starting from beneath his feet, lowered his gaze.
Realizing one of the shotguns he held was frozen pure white, he let out a low string of curses.
“…F*ck.”
“The two shotguns you use. Each has a unique mana pattern different from yours. Probably a type of Forbidden Armament, right?”
“…”
“It took some time to analyze, but once the pattern is reverse-engineered, it’s possible to designate and freeze mana patterns that are out of control.”
Lennok, who had confirmed the power of Arthur’s buckshot, instinctively knew that those two shotguns were Forbidden Armaments.
Forbidden weapons crafted from high-level superhumans. As a Magic Gunner, he understood that such power couldn’t be achieved without such equipment.
That’s why, immediately after Arthur fell, Lennok forcibly froze the shotgun’s functions by reverse-engineering the Forbidden Armament’s mana pattern.
“Ha, I have plenty of weapons!! Do you think this will end here?!”
But Arthur, as if even more excited by Lennok’s words, raised his mana.
“Alright, it’s been a long time since I’ve liked something this much!! Let’s go all the way to the end—”
“This, isn’t this yours?”
Thud!!!
Before Arthur could say anything, Aileen, who appeared from behind, slammed a huge iron case onto the ground.
Unlocking the lock with one hand and opening the case, all sorts of heavy weapons, including a grenade launcher, tumbled out.
Clatterrrrrr!!!
“Hey, you. That’s—!!!”
“For someone wandering the Demonic Realm alone, his body seemed excessively light, so I rummaged around a bit nearby and found this hidden away.”
Aileen brushed her hands together and chuckled.
“Looking at it, it seems like your ‘Armory.’ Without this, could you really act so cocky in the Demonic Realm?”
“…”
Instead of just watching, claiming to help fight Arthur, she had been rapidly searching the vicinity, finding the mercenary’s weaknesses.
Aileen, too, seemed to have felt that Arthur Mason, who had appeared out of nowhere and made a proposal, was equally untrustworthy.
He had noticed it even during the three-way battle with the Grand Spell Master and the Seventh Apostle, but perhaps because she was a Ranger, she fundamentally knew well when to strike and when to retreat.
“If you want to change weapons and try again, I’ll do as you wish.”
Lennok slowly gestured with his hand, watching the scene.
“Shall we continue?”
“No. As you said, it’s right to stop here.”
Arthur, who admitted it cleanly, shrugged his shoulders.
“I lost. I won’t resist, so let me go.”
“Alright.”
Clack!!
Arthur picked up the shotgun, now free of frost, stuck it into his waist, and let out a deep sigh.
“Phew… Dammit, truly uncool.”
“…”
Arthur, who had been looking down at the ground with a complex expression, then spat on the ground and quickly turned towards Lennok.
The moment Aileen furrowed her brow at the sight of Arthur striding towards Lennok without a word—
Arthur, who approached without hesitation, reached out his hand towards the black flower blooming behind Lennok.
“Ah…?”
Snap.
Simultaneously grabbing and tearing off a black petal of the Dead Flower, he casually tossed it into his mouth.
As he began to chew and swallow the black petal, Arthur’s presence was instantly tainted with a dense death energy.
Whoosh…!!
Covered in the aura of death that gnawed at his entire body like insects, the mercenary crunched down on the petals.
Arthur’s expression, flickering as it was covered in the viscous death energy, distorted as if he had bitten into an insect.
“Ugh… This tastes like sh*t. I feel like I’m going to vomit right now…”
“…”
The petals of the Dead Flower are the essence, pickled in Death Energy, having absorbed death.
Naturally, consuming it is literally no different from accepting death into one’s body.
He hadn’t expected it, but as soon as he lost the match, he immediately picked and ate the nearby petals.
In a good way or a bad way, should he call him a true mercenary?
“Alright, is that enough?”
Arthur, who had eaten all the remaining Dead Flower petals in his hand, turned his body.
“If needed, I’ll eat more later, but for now, this much should suffice. Right now, I’m too nauseous to eat any more.”
“I felt it from the first time I saw you, but you’re quite impatient…”
Lennok, watching Arthur with his arms crossed, chuckled.
“I haven’t even agreed to your proposal yet, and you’ve already consumed the Dead Flower?”
“At this point, didn’t you just want to try eating those petals?”
“Yeah, fck. I’m fcking impatient and can’t stand even a little bit. Understand?”
Arthur spun around.
“So I’ll tell the Ranger the exact location of the entrance Maiya Lonsdale used. Prepare, because we’re entering the mausoleum right now.”