CH 355

Silence and tension filled the air. Soon, the giant stopped shrinking, yet no one made a move, as despite shrinking, it was still appropriately enormous. Also, its skin was still boiling.

‘Shouldn’t we run away?’ Kang Ji-Hee felt impatient. It was a minor change, but it felt like the calm before the storm. She and the rest couldn’t help being nervous.

‘But I can’t seem to move at all.’ Anxiety and Haures’ threat prevented her from moving freely. ‘And besides, I want to see who wins.’ 

Kang Ji-Hee was curious to see who would come out victorious. Would Kim Gi-Gyu return safely? She wasn’t certain, but she prayed that he would. Until now, Gi-Gyu had proven himself to be a powerful figure, so Kang Ji-Hee thought he would come out of this alive.

Suddenly, the dragons in the air began crying loudly and moving. They had been circling the corpse until now, but they were now flying together.

“Kwerrrk!” The darkest dragon in the middle looked like the king of all the dragons. Named Dark Dragon, it roared, and two more sets of wings appeared from its back with a cracking noise. It spread all its wings and flew straight toward the sky. It flew as if gravity was just an opinion; it quickly became a dot in the sky.

“Get ready,” Haures announced. Kang Ji-Hee turned toward him and saw that Haures had raised his hands to summon his sorcerous energy.

‘Is he forming a barrier?’ She couldn’t be certain, but the form his sorcerous energy took resembled a barrier.

“Prepare yourselves!” Haures yelled again. Kang Ji-Hee and the Angela Guild members quickly got ready to use their skills when suddenly, Dark Dragon screeched. It exuded a black cloud of energy that rained down dark droplets on the other dragons, which extracted sorcerous energy from them. All this sorcerous energy pooled and quickly formed a barrier.

This barrier was almost complete when something shot out from the giant and flew toward Kang Ji-Hee. Thankfully, the barrier protected her.

Whack!

“...!” She was so shocked that she couldn’t even scream. Whatever hit the barrier exploded, and then Kang Ji-Hee and the other Angela Guild members recognized what it was from its splayed pieces.

“It’s flesh… Some body part, perhaps,” Human or not, they couldn’t tell, but it was definitely flesh covered in blood.

Haures coldly explained, “He couldn’t digest it… So he is vomiting his meal. Get ready! If even one of those chunks gets through the barrier and reaches us, we’re all dead.”

It was a warning, threatening and cautionary.

***

“...” Gi-Gyu’s head was throbbing, and he had difficulty opening his eyes. Thankfully, circulating Life once returned everything to normal.

“Where am I now…?” Gi-Gyu asked with his eyes open now. The last thing he remembered was seeing Ironshield’s memory of eating Andras. Then, he had felt something snap. After waking up, he had found himself in an unfamiliar place again.

Even before Gi-Gyu turned his face, he heard familiar voices.

“Are you awake now?”

“Grandmaster.”

“Kwerrk…”

“Kirrk!”

Unlike the voices, the scene in front of him looked unfamiliar.

“What are all these?” asked Gi-Gyu. Hal came running to help him stand, but Gi-Gyu refused. He wasn’t in bad enough condition to need help. Instead, he was busy trying to know the situation.

The world he saw had a crimson veneer on it. He could see so many corpses that he couldn’t even count them all; some seemed human. There was a massive mountain, the size of the giant he had killed, of flesh, blood, bodily fluids, and corpses before him. It was a frighteningly grotesque sight.

“When the giant burst, he must’ve hurled all the bodies he couldn’t digest,” Haures approached Gi-Gyu and explained.

“...” Gi-Gyu continued to stare at the countless corpses. ‘These are all the bodies Andras injected into Ironshield.’

It was a terrible realization. Gi-Gyu was used to gruesome sights, yet even he felt like vomiting with disgust.

“Blerg!”

“Blerggg!”

“Ugh!”

When Gi-Gyu turned around, he saw that many others were already throwing up. But mostly, it was just the Angela Guild members, including Kang Ji-Hee, vomiting and gagging. Gi-Gyu saw the pile of vomit in front of them and asked, “How long was I out?”

No one answered, so Gi-Gyu pointed at the giant and asked again, “How long has it been since I left… that?”

“About 10 minutes in human time,” Haures answered.

No one had to explain for Gi-Gyu to realize that he was one of those corpses that the giant had vomited.

“Any survivors?” Gi-Gyu asked, just in case. Perhaps one or more bodies had woken up like him.

“...” Haures remained quiet, but it wasn’t because the answer was no. It appeared that he felt uncomfortable because there was another survivor.

“Where?” Haures’ reaction told Gi-Gyu the survivor wasn’t someone they wanted alive. He had a good guess, so he turned to stare at the meaty pile before hearing the answer.

Every corpse on the meat mountain belonged to someone Ironshield had absorbed. The corpses weren’t even the victims’ original bodies. The pieces left of their mind had used whatever they remembered to create these. The real bodies had already melted and melded inside Ironshield.

‘And the screams I heard were from them.’ Gi-Gyu guessed that these creatures had tried to force-sync with him. He looked away. What happened to them was unfortunate, but there was nothing he could do.

“Where is he?” Gi-Gyu asked Haures again. He stepped forward and added, “Where is Ironshield?”

Gi-Gyu was certain the survivor among all these corpses was Ironshield.

***

“He’s here.” Haures escorted Gi-Gyu to a place far away from the meat pile.

“I’m relieved,” Go Hyung-Chul muttered when he saw Gi-Gyu.

When Gi-Gyu smiled, Go Hyung-Chul argued, “I wasn’t worried about you or anything, so don’t get any ideas.”

Gi-Gyu’s smile widened. ‘Say that after wiping your tears.’

Go Hyung-Chul was now stronger than a high ranker, yet he had forgotten to wipe away his tears. Gi-Gyu could see how much Go Hyung-Chul had worried about him.

“By the way, what happened to you?” Gi-Gyu pointed at Go Hyung-Chul’s neck.

Go Hyung-Chul married his eyes before replying, “Ah… That damn wolf! Never mind. I don’t want to talk about it.”

‘I have a guess now.’ Gi-Gyu could deduce what had probably happened without further explanation. Go Hyung-Chul looked away in annoyance, and Gi-Gyu finally saw the survivors. He was shocked to see that there were two survivors.

“It wasn’t just one?” Gi-Gyu had been certain that Ironshield was the only survivor. Therefore, he hadn’t even asked Haures about it as they had walked here.

Go Hyung-Chul asked in confusion, “You didn’t know?”

Gi-Gyu knew it wasn’t Haures’ fault and that he shouldn’t have assumed stuff, but Haures still slumped in shame.

‘Besides, it doesn’t matter.’ Gi-Gyu didn’t care if one or two survived. It was a good thing that more had lived.

“...” Gi-Gyu got closer. Only the chests of the survivors were heaving; if not for that, they would have been no different from the corpses outside. Gi-Gyu didn’t recognize one of them, but the other one looked familiar.

“Ironshield…” Ironshield’s face was twisted and deformed, but Gi-Gyu was sure who he was.

“This guy…” Go Hyung-Chul pointed at the man lying next to Ironshield. “He’s the unknown player we told you about before.”

“What?” Gi-Gyu didn’t hide his surprise. The mysterious player was one of the reasons Gi-Gyu had come here. This man was why Haures and the rest had been attacked and trapped.

“I have no idea who he is.” Gi-Gyu studied the player, who looked Asian but had blond hair and pale skin.

‘He’s definitely human, but…’ Gi-Gyu couldn’t tell who he was. The player was alive, so Gi-Gyu decided to find out more about him later. He decided to inject a bit of Life into the unknown player to keep him alive.

“...!” Gi-Gyu pulled his hand back in shock.

“What’s wrong?” asked Go Hyung-Chul.

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“This player… He has a high affinity toward Life.”

“What?”

“I don’t think this is the first time he got injected with Life.”

“...” Go Hyung-Chul tried to understand what Gi-Gyu was saying, but he looked confused.

“I don’t think I can save him,” Gi-Gyu announced. “I can extend his life a little, but he’s too damaged. His existence itself was damaged.”

The same had happened to those two angels who had died in the Vatican. Once one’s existence was damaged, Life wasn’t enough to bring them back. Gi-Gyu could feel that this player had suffered a similarly fatal injury. Because he had a high affinity toward Life, he hadn’t been annihilated. He could live a while longer, but that was it.

Taking another step, Gi-Gyu stood in front of Ironshield.

“...” A complicated look appeared on Gi-Gyu’s face as he stared at Ironshield, who looked dead. “Ironshield…”

They had a terrible history between them. Gi-Gyu remembered how Andras had claimed that Ironshield’s purpose was to be killed by him. For an unknown reason, Andras had let Ironshield eat him. Before his death, Andras had ordered Ironshield to climb the Tower and be killed by Gi-Gyu.

‘Andras definitely has a secret plan…’ Gi-Gyu thought for a moment before reaching toward Hal.

“Hal.” When Gi-Gyu called out quietly, Hal handed him his halberd.

“...” Everyone remained quiet while they watched Gi-Gyu. No one said a word or made a suggestion. Their eyes glowed as they stared.

Gi-Gyu raised the halberd before plunging it into Ironshield’s chest.

“You can rest now,” Gi-Gyu announced. Ironshield’s death was simple, unlike their history.

And finally, Ironshield was dead.