Team: HH, Yahiko, thursdays (6/10)

The Martial King clicked his tongue.

You know what my policy is, right?

Yes, I am aware.

The Martial King always set forth three rules for anything involved with the One-horned tribe.

No interference. No involvement. No tolerance.

They wouldnt accept any interference. They wouldnt get involved in anything either. But when either of the two occurred, they wouldnt show any tolerance.

It was how the One-horned tribe was able to stand high and mighty above the quarrels of the Eight Large Clans and continue to grow until now.

But as Yeon-woo caused chaos in the Tower, the One-horned tribe could be dragged into it because of him.

The Devil Army and magical alliance openly mocked the One-horned tribe and the Martial King.

They said they were ready to fight.

The alliance of Blood Land and Black Dragon even expressed their desire to have the Martial King himself step up.

No, the fact that they said they would work with Yeon-woo, who wasnt that powerful in the first place, was obviously a measure to involve the Martial King.

But the Martial King didnt want to join them at all.

The only reason why he appeared in the fight with Red Dragon was because of the no tolerance rule when they were swept up in the battle during their chase for the culprit who hurt one of their members.

He just laughed at those who fought over who was the strongest.

He wasnt aiming for a mud puddle like that.

He had greater ambitions.

Allforone.

His only interest was in bringing down the guy who loftily looked down on him from above.

The Martial King had come to tell Yeon-woo that.

He had already sent two disciples out and barely found this one. And he was showing some potential as well. He didnt like how Yeon-woo always caused incidents, but the Martial King had done the same when he was younger, so he pretended not to see it.

But if Yeon-woo took it too far and splashed mud on him, he couldnt stay still.

And because Yeon-woo knew that well, he nodded. Before the Martial King was his teacher, he was a king who kicked his own brother away for his tribe. There was no way Yeon-woo couldnt understand his stance.

Even with that aside.

This is my fight.

He had to carry out his revenge with his own two hands.

I think you said the same thing some time ago. Well, whatever. Come back safely. Although, itll be pretty hard.

And with that, the Martial King disappeared.

Yeon-woo bowed, knowing that his teacher was still watching him from somewhere, and he entered the portal.

Pat

Light filled the world and blinded him.

* * *

[You have entered the hidden stage Tartarus.]

The air is too stale.

Theres also pressure on souls going around. Is it because its a place where divine beings live?

This is Tartarus..

The party frowned once they entered Tartarus.

A stale air. Ominous atmosphere. And a pressure that pushed them down.

It was a place where the living werent welcome, and mortals who didnt know level were forbidden.

The party members felt like their souls and bodies would be separated if they didnt hold onto their wits tightly.

Kahn and Doyle quickly activated Bian to escape the pressure while Victoria activated the artifact that Anastasia had given her to create a spherical barrier around them. When Creutz planted the holy sword Zulfikar into the ground, another barrier was added on top of it.

Henova, whose face was pale upon arriving in Tartarus, could finally catch a breath.

Then, he looked around to find Yeon-woo.

You said we were going to the temple of the King of the Underworld, but where are we?

Even from what Yeon-woo could see, their surroundings were completely devastated. Only a few traces left behind showed that there had been a battle here a long time ago.

Yeon-woo turned to Brahm, who created the scroll. But Brahm didnt seem to know either.

I inserted the coordinates you gave me.

Yeon-woo went over his coordinates in case he had accidentally given the wrong ones. They were correct.

[Vimalacitra smiles with satisfaction at the familiar scene of war.]

[Cernunnos quietly watches you.]

[Persephone silently urges you to quickly find her husband.]

While Yeon-woo frowned at the messages from his connected gods.

Hades said the last of his territory was a temple, correct?

Brahm asked after silently watching the sky.

Yes, sir.

Then it must be his holy territory. If so, there are two possibilities.

What are they?

The first is if Hades was destroyed while you were looking for materials.

[Persephone displays her anger!]

Uek!

Just then, Doyle suddenly wrapped his hands around his head and fell to his knees.

Whats wrong?

Kahn tried to help him up, but Doyle pushed his hand aside and lifted his head.

The party took a step away from him at the energy he exuded. The barrier around them shook.

Doyles eyes were shining green.

You dare discuss my husbands death? A mere debased being whos fallen from holiness?

A sharp voice. A bunch of holy power was being exerted. Persephone herself had manifested into Doyles body to speak.

Persephone.

Brahm looked at Doyle, whose hair was standing on end, with narrow eyes. Even though she spoke words that belittled him, his eyes were heavy.

Brahma, if you dont watch your words..

What? Are you going to punish me? How? From that prison of the 98th floor?

Brahm scoffed even as Persephone radiated a violent aura.

He had shown a generous side of him while taking care of Sesha, but he was actually a cynical being with the nickname Exile. His dislike of supernaturals tied to the 98th floor was actually worse than before.

If youre worried about your husband, you should just shut up and watch.

Brahm put his hand on Doyles head like he didnt want to talk to Persephone anymore.

The hair standing straight on Doyles head settled down, and the green light in his eyes disappeared.

Doyles eyes widened, not knowing what had happened, then he smiled bitterly as he spoke to Brahm.

You were too harsh, Brahm.

Why? Guess she told you off?

Doyle couldnt say anything. Although it hadnt been long since he started serving her, he was still Persephones apostle.

But Brahm was also once a divine being. Doyle had heard a bit about Brahms situation from Yeon-woo, and he couldnt treat Brahm lightly either.

Just ignore her.

Brahm ended the conversation just like that and clicked his tongue as he turned to Yeon-woo.

Shes famous for being ladylike, but she goes off whenever her husband becomes involved. Tsk.

Yeon-woo saw Brahm in a different light.

Whats the second possibility? You didnt get to say it.

Oh, that? Simple. Hades temporarily changed the coordinates of the holy territory.

Yeon-woos eyes widened.

That means..?

That theres probably a fight going on somewhere. Since his holy territory is quite sizable, he probably wasnt able to change the coordinates by much.

Yeon-woo quickly summoned Nike and sent him into the sky.

Nike flapped his wings. As he drew a circle in the air, he could see darkness waving from far away.

Master! Theres something there!

Yeon-woo quickly tapped into Nikes vision.

The sky of Tartarus was always gray and dark, so it was hard to tell the distance.

[Draconic Eyes]

But when he observed the flaws, there was something that seemed as if it was completely wavering.

A Giant god.

Beings similar to the Titan he first saw when he entered Tartarus were fighting intensely.

Darkness split, and lighting shot down. The ground cracked, and a column of fire soared up. What poured down when space was split were monsters too horrendous to be described.

It was a battle of high stakes.

The problem was that it was hard to tell who was winning.

It would be nice if Hadess side was, but Yeon-woo felt anxious. If he was winning, why would he change the coordinates?

But its too far!

Nike squinted, estimating the distance. He was only able to tell because he was a Legendary Beast; normal players wouldnt be able to tell no matter how hard they tried.

Wings of fire, Blink, and Wind Path.. can decrease the distance somewhat.

Yeon-woo spun his magic circuit with all he had.

[Heaven Wing Mana Control]

[Magic Circuit Total Output]

Brahm, take your time coming.

[Wind Path Gale]

Kwaaang

Yeon-woo didnt wait for Brahms reply and quickly stepped on the fastest wind of Wind Path.

He could hear Kahn and Doyle shouting something from behind, but it was muffled by the explosion. He wasnt too concerned. Brahm would know what was happening through their connection, so he could explain to the party members.

All else aside, Kahn, Doyle, and Victoria were skilled in Bian and magic.

They would follow after him soon.

Sweek

Yeon-woo rode the Wind Path and used Blink consecutively. Boo buffed him from the shadows.

* * *

How far had he run?

Boom

Yeon-woo could see all kinds of monsters pouring out from the sky.

One, two.. nineteen at the very least.

Seeing a single Giant god who was kilometers tall fighting was shocking in itself, but watching a bunch of them move together made him speechless.

He wasnt even scared speechless.

There was just too great of a difference between them that he didnt even feel scared.

And.

Krrrng

Hades looked to be in danger as he swung his sword around, speeding through the Titans.

Darkness splattered like blood when he swung his sword, and limbs that were like mountains fell to the ground. His divinity was stronger than the Titans, but to Yeon-woo, Hades looked like a ship stranded in a storm.

He could feel Hadess exhaustion from fighting the Titans alone without any help for such a long time.

Yeon-woo quickly looked around.

Under the sky that Hades was fighting, there was a siege happening along large castle walls.

Dis Pluto was fighting the lower-level beings that the Titans had brought with them.

They pushed back the beings who tried to climb over the castle walls. The determination to protect the last of their territory could be seen clearly on their faces.

But despite their will, the situation wasnt in their favor.

Piles of monsters were stacked up around the castle walls like mountains, but there was no end to it as they kept on pouring down from the sky.

They didnt care about their fellow beings on the ground and stepped on their bodies to climb the castle walls. They used the corpses as shields or infused magic power into them to toss them into the holy territory like bombs.

On the other hand, Dis Pluto seemed tired from the long battle. A few of them couldnt take it and fell off the castle walls together with the monsters.

However, an interesting thing to note was that there were beings without divinity by Dis Plutos sides. Even at a glance, Yeon-woo could tell they were players like himself.

He didnt know how the other players got there, but he put the question behind him and began to rack his brain.

[Time Difference]

-Its too dangerous. Is there a way to block those monsters, even temporarily?

Yeon-woo spread his territory of recognition around. Fortunately, the divine beings werent interested in a weakling like Yeon-woo. It was a good opportunity for him.

Just then.

That guy.

A being caught the eye of his Extrasensory Perception. Surrounded by Titans, it was too small to be seen, but its level wasnt lacking at all when compared to the Titans.

It was a woman with long green hair. She was glaring at the barriers around the holy territory with a bored face. Black light was wrapped around the crystal she carried. An energy similar to that of the monsters. The crystal seemed to be a summoning artifact.

Will it work?

In his slowed time, countless calculations and hypotheses ran through his head. But what came back every time was failure.

Unless he was at the Martial Kings level, or even the Nine Kings, it was impossible to fight a divine being with the power he had. It was likely he would cause them to become even more furious and worsen things.

Maybe it could be possible if he had an Authority to kill divine beings, but there was nothing like that out of his 900 Authorities.

There was no way gods and demons would give him something that would hurt them.

He had to think outside of the box.

If I aim for just the crystal?

Chance of success was still only 5%.

The difference between him and his opponent was too great.

He needed to close the gap.

What if I pretend to go crazy and awake all the Authorities?

It could stimulate his settled fever again, but he didnt have the mind to worry about that right now.

The results came back soon.

15%.

Its a lot higher, but still. What if I use the method with Dragon Killers?

If he wasnt scared of his body being destroyed and using Regeneration.. 20%.

He had raised the chances by a lot, but it still wasnt enough.

Just then, a thought occurred to him. He had a weapon that gods and demons were afraid of. The divine item that binded supernaturals, Divine Iron.

The pieces of the Ruyi Bang..?

He spread his hand apart. The pieces he gained after defeating the Devil Army shined and spun around on his palm.

A smile spread across his face.

30%.

Yeon-woo stopped running. The time around him returned to normal speed.

[3rd Step Dragon Body Awakening]

[All Authorities released.]

Crunch, crunch

His body couldnt endure the strength that suddenly grew and began to shake. Regeneration activated to hold him still, and he forced the disconnected 900 Channelings to Tartarus.

He poured all that power into the Ruyi Bang.

Hwaaaak

[Fiery Golden Eyes]

The pieces of the Ruyu Bang cried out as they shined. Yeon-woos eyes shined in a gold color as well. Fiery Golden Eyes. The Monkey Kings eyes settled on top of his Draconic Eyes.

The pieces danced in the air and began to create something.

Clack, clack

A new golden weapon appeared in his hand. It was a spear about 2 meters long.

Yeon-woo pulled out Vigrid and fixed it to the end of the spear. Vigrids handle and the groove of the spear fit together like matching puzzle pieces. Gripping it, he got into a fighting stance.

Only

His body was still trembling. The Philosophers Stone was overheated.

[Dragon Killer]

[Holy Fire]

[Heaven Bracket Flame Wheel]

Fire shot out from the end of Vigrid. The Demonic Fire that the Great Sage had used when he burned the heavenly world flared up and combined with the Holy Fire to create a black-red Divine Fire.

He threw the long-spear that was in his hand. Vigrids option had activated and was already aimed at the target.

Grow, Ruyi Bang!