Chapter 511: The Sniper’s True Worth (1)

“……!!!”

Vernon’s face turned pale as he realized he had narrowly escaped death.

This wasn’t a reaction born of reason or judgment.

A chilling sniper attack, almost accidental, which he hadn’t noticed until just before it pierced his heart.

The opponent had almost certainly intended to kill Vernon with a single shot.

“Goddammit, what in the world…!!”

Vernon, whose shoulder had been completely pierced by a long harpoon-like object, cursed, his hand trembling faintly.

“What is this? A javelin? Or a harpoon?”

“An arrow.”

Soryu lightly brushed his own neck once and muttered.

“They’ve just massively increased its size and strength to amplify it. It’s definitely an object used for sniping.”

He approached Vernon without hesitation, touched the spike sticking out of his body and embedded in the floor, and nodded.

“There are traces of friction where it scraped against the bowstring. It was definitely shot from a great bow.”

“Goddammit, then that means…”

“A master archer with incredible skill.”

Soryu glanced back and said.

“And one capable of concealing their murderous intent so well that everyone here didn’t even perceive their presence until just before the hit.”

“A Level 8 monster.”

“You’re saying an archer who has reached the Peak of Extremes is aiming at us right now…”

It was natural for the atmosphere within Pandemonium to subtly shift upon realizing this fact.

No one was unaware of how dangerous it was to be unilaterally sniped without knowing the opponent’s location or abilities.

Lennok, who had recognized the opponent as soon as he saw the first shot, felt much the same.

‘I never thought I’d encounter her here.’

He hadn’t imagined that the external force cooperating with Aegis’s operation would be her.

He’d thought she was living a semi-retired life after being fired from the Agents, but had she taken on a new job in the meantime?

Regardless of her situation, her skill was undeniably that of a divine archer.

If the reinforcement here was the emerald archer Lennok knew, it would be best to get out of here as quickly as possible.

It was Evelyn, who had shown immense combat power even in the Hanghasa Labyrinth where she couldn’t exert her full strength.

Now that the stage was set for her to unleash her archery with maximum power, it was obvious just how powerful a snipe she would demonstrate—

WHIZZING SOUND!!

At that moment, a sharp noise echoed in everyone’s ears.

A strong presence, almost identical to the one that pierced Vernon, was now overtly heading towards them, no longer bothering to hide.

“Second shot…!! Which direction?”

“Towards The Idol!!”

“Is she targeting The Doctor?”

Unlike the first shot, which made no sound, a black radiance glowed, vibrating the entire sky.

Maiya, who had been silently looking up, moved immediately.

KIIING…!!

Three converging streams of mana, formed at Maiya’s fingertips, emerged through a hole in the theater ceiling. They rotated and rubbed, becoming a pale flash of light that collided with the second arrow aimed at The Idol’s head.

Maiya’s Miniature Universe, which pierced space, clashed with Evelyn’s snipe, unleashing a tremendous roar, and the air in the vicinity twisted and tore.

“…Hmph.”

As Maiya scoffed and exerted her power, the thick, twisted harpoon-like arrow veered off course and flew towards the back of the theater.

BANG!!

The power of the arrow, which fell at an angle, creating a huge circular hole before disappearing far away.

Even with Maiya directly intercepting it, all she could do was deflect its direction.

“Considering the term ‘Broken Arrow’, the next target will probably be…”

Soryu, realizing that the Aegis agents, including the black visor, had instantly retreated, raised his gaze to the theater ceiling.

“…the entire theater.”

No sooner had he finished speaking than immensely condensed streams of mana from the sky rapidly entered everyone’s sensory range.

Black arrows, much smaller than the one that pierced Vernon, about the size of a forearm, rained down all over the ceiling.

THUD THUD THUD!!!

The barrage of shots, like a bombardment, accurately struck the theater ceiling.

The impact ripped off the streamlined theater roof entirely, instantly casting the dark night sky’s scenery over the main hall.

“GODDAMMIT!!!”

The Idol’s arm, stretching high into the sky, was enduring the impact, but even it couldn’t hold out much longer.

As the violently vibrating and shaking arm of The Idol convulsed as if about to break off and fall, The Doctor immediately turned his gaze.

“Sabrinah, Chevyen. Please.”

“Until the settlement is complete… I have no choice…”

“What a pain, coming here after so long…!!”

Chevyen’s mannequin opened its mouth wide, and countless threads burst forth from within, heading towards the collapsing theater ceiling.

These were thread magic for puppet manipulation, fundamentally different from the mana threads Lennok used.

They attached these threads to the crumbling theater ceiling, temporarily maintaining its form.

Borrowing the power of the word spirit beads present inside the theater, Sabrinah once again activated her word spirit magic.

[Bind together.]

The collapsing theater roof, under the indiscriminate rain of arrows, began to mend in real-time with the help of the two sorcerers.

CRACKLE!!!

They couldn’t fully repair or block the entire theater, but it would be enough to somewhat mitigate the immediate arrow rain.

But Soryu watched it and calmly shook his head.

“It’s just a bombardment with reduced power, scattered over a wide area. This won’t last long.”

“If she starts shooting those harpoon-like arrows again, we won’t last even a moment.”

“Range, power, speed, precision. It’s an absurd level of archery. Do you have any idea who it is?”

“There’s only one monster among the archers active near Vulcan with that level of skill.”

Maiya, who had lightly jumped down from the cracked theater ceiling, said.

A faint smile, never before seen on her face, was now present.

“It seems the Agent’s Divine Bow has come as direct reinforcement.”

“Hoo, so that Evelyn Marcia…”

The Doctor immediately understood Maiya’s words and let out a significant smile.

They had faced each other once in the Hanghasa Labyrinth and competed for The Cradle.

“The external forces I heard about from that guy were two people. It’s safe to assume there’s at least one more superhuman with tactical value equivalent to the Divine Bow.”

“…There’s another monster like the Divine Bow outside this city right now?”

“…”

WHIZZING SOUND!!

An arrow struck at Maiya’s feet, digging into the hard hall floor, rotating, and twisting and splitting the stone.

Hundreds of arrows relentlessly rained down, targeting the theater. The power of just one of them was this strong.

Everyone fell silent as the deadly rain poured down from the night sky, relentlessly pounding the streets around the theater.

This was the full power unleashed by a Level 8 designated sniper after sufficient preparation and warm-up time.

Everyone keenly felt how absurdly high its power, range, and effective range were.

Logier and Chevyen silently looked at each other and nodded.

“Monster. Let’s get out of here.”

“I wholeheartedly agree…”

Now that the interim settlement was complete, there was no reason to remain here and contend with the special agency Aegis.

Moreover, supporting them was an archer who fired a single shot sharper than any sniper the members of Pandemonium had ever faced.

This entire situation was essentially a stage set for Evelyn Marcia to unleash her full power without reservation.

“Maiya, how many can you block?”

“The one shot at Vernon? Well.”

Maiya rolled up her sleeves and replied indifferently.

“It’s different from the Labyrinth. This is the range where the Divine Bow herself can exert her maximum power. If I try to block it head-on, I can’t even guarantee ten shots.”

Regardless of how versatile Evelyn could be in close combat, her essence was undeniably an archer who had reached a transcendent state.

Sniping from such a distant range, where even her location and distance were unknown, possessed power that was difficult even for Maiya to withstand head-on.

“It’s always best to avoid it, but that’ll probably be difficult.”

Maiya’s gaze turned to the colossal idol where The Doctor was seated.

What did it mean to pour such powerful archery into this theater?

A declaration of intent to completely shatter the idol that The Doctor himself had created, right here and now. Knowing that, they couldn’t just flee.

The Doctor, who had been deep in thought after hearing Maiya’s words, spoke.

“I’ll open a gate.”

“A gate? Can you do it?”

“Once, if I consume the causality of the Old World that I’ve settled so far. But it will take time.”

The furball’s bright blue eyes swept over the gathering.

“Someone needs to step up and distract them. Can you do it?”

WHOOSH!!

It was early dawn, and a chilling wind swept through the air.

This was a bombing zone where a wide-ranging arrow rain, encompassing the entire theater, poured down relentlessly.

Two men walked down the main road outside the theater’s front entrance, which had become a thorny path.

A masked sorcerer draped in a jet-black robe and a young man with an ice-cold expression.

“Blood Demon and Logier will take the back entrance, Sabrinah and Chevyen will handle maintenance, Maiya will deal with the sniping…”

Soryu said, avoiding an arrow that grazed his ear without even looking.

“Excluding the injured Vernon. So, we’re the ones drawing attention by pretending to clear a path.”

CRACKLE!!

An arrow grazing his feet drilled through the sidewalk blocks and shattered them.

The environment instantly grew harsh, as if bombardment, not just arrows, was falling from all directions.

“…”

“What are you looking at so intently?”

Soryu, who had snapped another arrow he’d caught in half, asked.

In response to the question, Lennok put away the small piece of paper he had been staring at.

“Nothing.”

It was information about famous martial artists from the Old World, obtained through a deal with Vernon.

He had glanced at it for a moment, but there wasn’t much he could learn from a quick scan in such limited time.

For now, he had no choice but to focus on the task at hand.

Passing the main road outside the theater’s front entrance, they stood on a bridge over the river that flowed through the satellite city of Bailuts.

As they stood on the bridge with cold water flowing beneath them, agents wearing visors, as if on cue, revealed their presence from various points on the bridge, encircling the two men.

[A sorcerer of the manipulation type with a unique trait and a royal from Kabahim.]

The black visor, perched at the end of the bridge, slowly tilted his head, transmitting his voice.

[You’re moving slower than I thought. I expected you to crawl out much faster.]

Soryu replied with a cold expression.

“You know about us.”

[Do you really think your identities won’t be revealed when you walk around with your faces so openly?]

The black visor said, tossing and catching something in the shape of a syringe in one hand.

[It’s the same even if you cover your face. Truly important and core information simply cannot be hidden in the end.]

“…”

[Unless you’re a monster who can calculate and tailor every moment, or a psychopath with multiple selves inside. Expressions, tone of voice, gestures, breathing and footsteps, trivial habits and routines, sometimes play a more accurate role than biometric information in identifying someone.]

The visor slowly shifted his gaze, emitting an astonishingly compressed mana from his body.

[You must have crawled outside to find the sniper’s position, the ‘Broken Arrow’, right? If you don’t observe the arrow’s location from multiple angles to gauge the distance, even you would find it difficult to pinpoint where the sniping is coming from.]

At the same time, the agents slowly closed in on Lennok and Soryu.

[So, we’ll just hunt down the scattered Pandemonium members one by one, right here.]

Aegis thought they had deliberately come out to track Evelyn’s location.

If the other side didn’t anticipate The Doctor’s true objective, then that was fine too.

“It seems we have nothing more to say to each other, but let me ask one last question before we begin.”

Lennok subtly looked down at the river flowing beneath his feet and asked.

[Speak.]

“The foreign unit you brought. I heard there were two of them, where is the other one right now?”

Silence fell.

The black visor stood up and tilted his head slightly.

[Shall we leave that for a later enjoyment?]

“Enjoyment for later, huh…”

Lennok quietly mulled over the words, then let out a small laugh.

“As expected, it was a useless question.”

No sooner had he finished speaking than the river flowing beneath the bridge exploded.

BOOM!!!

The explosions, erupting from beneath the river as if sequentially planted bombs had detonated, sent dozens of massive splashes of water soaring upwards.

Before the Aegis agents could even react to the sudden explosions, Soryu immediately followed by drawing up his mana and unleashing a powerful cold wave.

CRACKLE CRACKLE CRACKLE!!!

The massive splashes of water that had surged from all directions froze solid, creating countless ice flower formations all around the bridge.

Seeing the enormous ice sculptures instantly filling the area, Lennok clenched his hand once more. The ice flowers then burst again, scattering countless ice fragments.

Thousands upon tens of thousands of ice fragments poured down, covering the sky above the bridge.

Amidst them, Soryu’s body seemed to melt, transforming into a handful of ice and disappearing, only to instantly weave through the agents standing on the bridge.

KAGAGAGAGAG!!!

Lennok connected the ice fragments with his mana threads, and Soryu manipulated the threaded fragments using his bloodline ability, ice manipulation.

They plastered the bridge all over with mana threads and cold fragment bundles, instantly covering the battlefield with their power.

[It’s an ice ability user, everyone focus!!]

[It’s a bloodline ability possessed by the Kabahim royalty. They say it’s a power from a domain of ability distinct from traditional magic formulas.]

[Were they aiming for an opportunity to change the tide from the beginning? Could it be that they deliberately lured us near the river…!!]

The Aegis agents also tried to respond to the two men’s swift movements, assessing the battle situation relatively quickly.

However, it was impossible to avoid all the storm of cold that Soryu wielded by melting his own body, and the movements of the mana threads he controlled within it.

[Ugh…!!]

[No, give up on this side!!]

In an instant, they completely swallowed up three or four agents on both sides of the bridge, cut off limbs, and froze the wounds.

Their combat skills were too refined for them to easily lose their lives in Lennok and Soryu’s momentary preemptive strike.

Nevertheless, the wounds created by exploiting brief openings quickly froze and became numb, making it difficult for the agents to participate in combat for a while.

As Soryu and Lennok’s figures crossed paths, the flow of cold and mana threads spun wildly and erupted over the bridge.

Hot blood sprayed from all directions, then froze solid and shattered beneath the bridge.

A beautiful, illusory spectacle, like blood-stained snowflakes fluttering down.

But the two didn’t just focus on maintaining their synergy and stalling for time forever.

“I’ll take the black one.”

SHIIIICK…!!

Soryu, half his body transformed into a block of ice, stepped forward and said.

“You deal with the pests.”