CH 272

The moment the Head Crusher Guild members charged into the main square.

Fwaaaaah!

Blood spurted out of Cardinal Romulus’ arm like a fountain.

“A-Arm! My arm!” he screamed.

“Does it hurt?” Siegfried asked. He stepped on the torch that the severed arm was holding.

“You dare! Do you really think you will be safe after doing this to me, the chief inquisitor of the papacy?!”

Chwak!

The Blood Butterfly’s Wings fluttered and severed the remaining arm of the cardinal.

Thud…!

The cardinal’s remaining arm fell to the ground.

Shwaaaa!

And another fountain of blood spurted out of the stump.

“Ack! Aaack! Gwuaaaa!” 

Cardinal Romulus squirmed on the ground like a cockroach on a hot pan.

“Do we have a Healer?” Siegfried asked.

“Yes! I am a Healer, guild master-nim!”

A Head Crusher Guild member raised his hand and ran over to Siegfried.

“Please stop his bleeding.”

“Yes, sir!”

The Healer cast healing magic on the cardinal’s wounds.

The wound closed and stopped bleeding.

“N-No! I can’t reattach my arm if you do that!” Cardinal Romulus shouted in desperation.

“But that’s why I did it?” Siegfried said while tilting his head in confusion.

“Hiiik!”

“Okay, it’s time for your legs.”

“N-No! Not my legs!”

“Yes, your legs,” Siegfried replied with a smile. His wings fluttered twice and severed both of Cardinal Romulus’ legs at the same time.

Slice! Slice! Wooong!

The Healer immediately healed the wounds and stopped the bleeding.

“Ack! AAAACK!” Cardinal Romulus screamed in agony. The chief inquisitor who had punished countless heretics would now have to live without his limbs from now on.

“Just kill me! Just kill me right now!”

“But I don’t want to...”

“You evil bastard! You servant of the devil! You dare do this to a servant of god—Kuheok!”

Cardinal Romulus could not even finish cursing as Siegfried kicked his mouth.

Crack!

The cardinal’s teeth fell to the ground.

“Ugh… yo zare… ze bob will shill yoo…! Yo shin zom will be saze zo ze gr…”

“What the fuck are you saying?” Siegfried grimaced. He revealed a mischievous smirk before saying, “Let’s take this away as well while we’re at it.”

Thud!

Siegfried stomped his foot on a certain spot.

Crack! Pop!

There was a crack and a pop followed by…

“KWWUOOOHHHH!”

The cry of a wounded beast reverberated throughout the main square.

“My saass…! My zewels!”

“Huh? Weren’t you a cardinal? Why are you sad when you probably don’t need them, anyway?” Siegfried asked, seemingly perplexed. He couldn’t help but be confused after hearing a clergyman complaining about losing their family jewels.

“Seems like you were quite busy behind closed doors, eh?” he sneered.

Meanwhile, the Head Crusher Guild members were busy evacuating the female NPCs and guiding them to the escape route.

“Kyu! Let’s go, owner punk!”

“Yeah!”

Siegfried and Hamchi made a run for it as well after giving the cardinal a complete makeover.

***

Chae Hyung-Seok and the Genesis Guild searched every corner of Aria City, but they saw no signs of Siegfried anywhere. The only thing they found were a few NPCs still in hiding.

“S-Spare me, please!”

“Die, trash.”

“Kuheok!”

The NPC fell into a pool of blood and died after getting cut by Chae Hyung-Seok’s sword.

“Take whatever valuables there are!”

“Hurry! Hurry!”

The Genesis Guild members got busy plundering.

‘Where the hell is that bastard?’ Chae Hyung-Seok wondered.

They would have run into a few suspicious figures by now, but they didn’t find even a single suspicious ant during their search. They only found a bunch of NPCs in hiding and a few Adventurers looting the city.

‘Where did he go? Did he already make a run for it? No, he needs to pass by the security checkpoints if he wants to leave the city, and if he attacked any of those checkpoints, then…’ 

The Papal Forces would immediately surround and kill him if he dared to attack any of the checkpoints. In addition, the alarms would blare the moment he attacked the checkpoints.

In other words, Siegfried and his lackeys were still in the city.

‘But where are they hiding? Are they huddled up in a corner somewhere…?”

It was then.

‘Don’t tell me?!’ 

Chae Hyung-Seok froze on the spot upon thinking of something.

“Fuck!” he cursed and shouted, “Leave all of that and follow me! Hurry up!”

“Why?”

“What’s the rush, guild master-nim?”

“Let me loot these first…”

Chae Hyung-Seok’s temper flared after seeing the nonchalant attitudes of his guild members.

“You fucking idiots! Run to the main square at once! Those bastards are over there! Hurry!” he screamed at the top of his lungs before running like crazy toward the main square.

He infused mana into the V-shaped badge on his chest and sent a message to all of his guild members in Aria City.

[All guild members. Stop everything and rush to the main square at once. I repeat. Rush to the main square at once!]

On the way to the main square…

‘Damn it! Why didn’t I think of that? The bastard will hit the main square without me there!’ 

Chae Hyung-Seok kicked himself for realizing it too late and gritted his teeth. He should have just waited instead of searching for the insect. He should have hidden in the buildings surrounding the main square and patiently waited for Siegfried to show up.

He could have easily surrounded and killed Siegfried if he had done that. Unfortunately, his impatience backfired on him.

‘I hope I’m not too late!’ Chae Hung-Seok prayed as he ran as fast as he could toward the main square.

***

“We only have to go five hundred meters more! Please don’t push and maintain order!”

Siegfried and the Head Crusher Guild safely rescued all of the women from the main square.

“Lucy!”

“U-Unni!”

The sisters were finally reunited...

Ding!

The quest completion message popped up in front of his eyes.

[Alert: You have completed the Quest – Scene of Madness!]

[Alert: Collect your rewards from Luna!]

Luna hurried over to Siegfried and bowed a few times.

“Thank you! Thank you very much!”

To read the uncut version, go to pawread dot com.

“Ah, I just did what I had to do.”

“Please take this. It is the treasure of our family,” Luna said. She took something out of her pocket and handed it to Siegfried.

[Alert: You have obtained Noble’s Dimensional Inventory!]

[Alert: It is unknown what item is inside the Noble’s Dimensional Inventory!]

[Alert: Open the Noble’s Dimensional Inventory to find out what is inside of it!]

Siegfried didn’t check what was inside the item.

“Thank you, but please hurry and follow the others for now. We do not have the luxury of time to be standing here,” he said.

“Yes! T-Thank you very much once again…!” She bowed and thanked him.

“You’re welcome!” he replied with a smile.

There was a manhole connecting to the underground sewer just five hundred meters up ahead, and Siegfried was planning to use that to escape along with the NPCs. This was only made possible thanks to the strategic map of the city he had obtained earlier.

‘We’re almost there. We just have to reach the manhole, and then it would be smooth sailing from there on,’ he thought as he hurried to the front and led the way.

He was planning to secure the manhole and the perimeter around it, but…

‘Huh? Why is he here?’ Siegfried stopped and thought.

The one that appeared five hundred meters up ahead was none other than Chae Hyung-Seok and the Genesis Guild members running toward them like a stampede of angry beasts.

The best-case scenario would have been if they had missed each other, but a strange twist of fate made them run into each other right on top of the escape route of all places.

“Halt! Head Crusher Guild! Prepare for combat! Genesis Guild up ahead!” Siegfried shouted. The Head Crusher Guild members rushed to the front and prepared for combat.

While Siegfried and his guild members were trying to secure the front, Chae Hyung-Seok revealed a sinister smile akin to the smile of the devil himself.

“Hey~ Han Tae-Sung~ Where do you think you’re going?”

“…”

“And what’s with those NPCs behind you? Ah, are you doing a quest by any chance? No need to drag them with you then, you can just kill them right here~”

“What if I don’t want to?”

“Then, you’re the one who’s going to die!”

Wooong!

Chae Hyung-Seok gathered his mana and said, “Han Tae-Sung! You’ve finally gone crazy! Haha! Did that crown on your head blind you? Are you seriously going up against the papacy now?!”

“It’s called none of your business,” Siegfried retorted.

“Tsk tsk… That’s the problem with you,” Chae Hyung-Seok clicked his tongue in a mocking manner and continued, “You seem to have misunderstood your position. I have no idea how you managed to change your character’s name, but do you really think that’s going to turn you into a different person?

”An insect is still an insect no matter how hard it tries!”

“Ah~ Is that why you were asking an insect if you can pay in installments~?”

“T-That was—”

“Sigh… That was quite pitiful, Hyung-Seok~”

“…!”

“You talk too much. Just shut up and fight,” Siegfried said.

He mustered his mana as well.

Shwaaaa!

The Holy Rain fell from the sky.

Fwaaaa! Fwaaaa!

A fiery blaze shot up from the ground and evaporated the Holy Rain.

Siegfried’s debuff against Chae Hyung-Seok’s buff.

This was a clash between two polar opposites.

“Leave no one alive,” Chae Hyung-Seok said.

***

“You need to stay down where you belong!”

“Time to meet your maker!”

“Oh? There are a bunch of familiar faces here! Did you come here to die again?!”

The Genesis Guild members smiled as they rushed at the Head Crusher Guild members.

Whiiiing… Clack!

Thirty Iron Golems with cannons mounted on their shoulders appeared from the alley on the left of the Genesis Guild members.

“Fire!” Seung-Gu gave the command.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Sixty cannon balls ferociously flew toward the side of the Genesis Guild members.

“Ack!”

“What?!”

“Aaaack!”

The explosion swept away half of the five hundred Genesis Guild members.

“Fuck!” Chae Hyung-Seok cried out in anger at the sudden ambush. His cry was the signal for the rest of the Head Crusher Guild members in hiding to make their appearance behind the Genesis Guild members.

“Encircle them! Don’t let a single one get away!”

“This is called getting stabbed in the back! Keke!”

“They fell for this? They’re dumber than I thought…”

The Genesis Guild members had been surrounded, and an all-out brawl erupted between the two. The Head Crusher Guild had the overwhelming advantage.

In fact…

“Why are you getting pushed back?! I already buffed you, morons! Why are you losing to those insects?!” Chae Hyung-Seok cried out in anger after seeing his members getting pushed back

He was perplexed because his guild members had definitely received his Holy Rain and many different buffs. He didn’t expect that the Holy Saint’s buff would one day become useless on the battlefield.

“Can you finally see the difference between you and me?” Siegfried asked while walking toward Chae Hyung-Seok.

“Your buffs are no match for my debuffs.”

“…!”

“You should know your place, Chae Hyung-Seok,” Siegfried said with a grin.

Then, he made a beeline for the Guild Master of the Genesis Guild.