CH 356

After being pierced by Hal’s halberd, Ironshield’s chest swelled; soon, it went down, and the wound began bleeding black fluid. It was because Gi-Gyu had injected Death into Ironshield through the halberd.

Ironshield’s death was complete and final. Gi-Gyu had destroyed Ironshield’s existence, so there was no way—no way—he could ever be resurrected. The black liquid spread all over Ironshield and ate him up.

Fshhh.

Soon, Ironshield’s corpse turned into dust and scattered in the air. When most of his body was gone, Gi-Gyu looked around in silence. Those who belonged to him were watching this event quietly, but Go Hyung-Chul seemed confused.

‘He won’t understand,’ Gi-Gyu knew why Go Hyung-Chul looked bewildered.  

“Wasn’t that”—Go Hyung-Chul finally opened his mouth—“too easy for him? You gave him such a quick and easy death.”

Go Hyung-Chul looked straight into Gi-Gyu’s eyes and continued, “I mean, it wouldn’t have seemed out of place even if you had killed him a thousand times over. You have the ability to do that and then make him your slave. You could’ve made him serve you for an eternity.”

Gi-Gyu had expected Go Hyung-Chul to say something like this. Go Hyung-Chul asked, “So… why did you end him so quickly?”

Gi-Gyu stared back into Go Hyung-Chul’s eyes; his other creatures just silently watched the black dust scatter. Gi-Gyu raised his palm, and some black dust settled on it. However, it soon faded and disappeared as if someone had blown on it.

Ironshield was no more. The 79th floor of the Tower was now his grave.

Gi-Gyu looked up at Go Hyung-Chul again. “You’re right. I resent him with all my heart, and he deserved a much worse death.”

“...!” Suddenly, Go Hyung-Chul flinched as if in shock. There was only nonchalance in Gi-Gyu’s eyes and not a bit of resentment and fury. However, that didn’t mean he looked relieved or satisfied.

There was nothing in Gi-Gyu’s eyes, and that made Go Hyung-Chul shudder. ‘It’s scary to see him like this.’

“In the past, I might have done the exact thing you suggested just now.” Gi-Gyu used to dream about torturing Ironshield, killing him, reviving him, and then restarting the cycle from the torture phase. He had wanted to do that over and over and over again—relentlessly and brutally. Gi-Gyu might have also synced with him to enslave Ironshield. After all, this might have been a satisfactory revenge.

“But… he helped in death,” Gi-Gyu added.

“Helped you?” Go Hyung-Chul looked confused again.

“Unlike Mammon, Andras was controlling Ironshield till the very end,” said Gi-Gyu. Mammon hadn’t lied to him—Andras had just fooled everyone with a plan different from everyone’s expectations. Gi-Gyu hadn’t remembered it at first, but the moment he had seen Ironshield earlier, he had remembered something. In this memory, Ironshield said, “I didn’t do this for you.”

***

Gi-Gyu was alone in some dark space. As time passed, the room became brighter.

-Ackkk!

-Help me!

Creepy, reluctant souls swarmed toward him, screaming, looking like a white liquid. He tried to push them away, but there were too many of them, and their resentment was too strong. No matter how hard Gi-Gyu tried to push them away, their sticky form dug into him despite his power. Soon, he looked like a giant snowman covered with white souls of vengeance.

‘Dammit…’ Gi-Gyu was losing his mind. The more souls stuck to him, the heavier his mind and body felt. Even worse, he could feel every bit of their pain from being eaten alive and having their power and essence stolen. The screams of these victims were enough to paralyze Gi-Gyu’s mind.

Suddenly, the souls began dropping. Gi-Gyu felt lighter and then used his power to push the rest of the souls away. The majority of these souls hardened and fell to the ground. When the white fluid covering his eyes finally disappeared, Gi-Gyu saw a man standing not too far away from him.

The man looked familiar. Gi-Gyu tried to call out his name, but a lump of souls was still covering his mouth. The man began walking toward him, and Gi-Gyu summoned more power and waited.

Gi-Gyu flinched when the man stood before him. He tried to use his accumulated power to clear the remaining souls on his body, but the man seemed uninterested. Then, and to Gi-Gyu’s surprise, the man yanked off the biggest ash-colored lump on him. It twitched in the man’s hand, and Gi-Gyu noticed that this lump's shape and color differed from all the others.

“Ironshield…” Finally free, Gi-Gyu whispered the man’s name. Ironshield stood at arm’s length while still holding the ash-colored lump. He looked exactly how Gi-Gyu remembered.

Ironshield remained silent and swallowed the ash-colored lump in one gulp.

“...” Nonplussed, Gi-Gyu watched him without moving a muscle. Finally, Ironshield spoke for the first time.

“Kill me.”

Ironshield continued, “Andras wanted to live as a parasite inside your shell, but I ate him just now. If you kill me, you can eliminate both Andras and me.”

Ironshield’s voice had no resentment; instead, he seemed at peace.

“Kill me,” Ironshield repeated when Gi-Gyu didn’t move.

Instead of doing what Ironshield had requested, Gi-Gyu asked, “Why?”

He couldn’t discern Ironshield’s motive. Before they could converse more, the soul lumps on the floor began crawling but not toward Gi-Gyu. However, unlike Gi-Gyu, Ironshield didn’t push the lumps away.

Ironshield answered with a smile, “I hope you don’t think I’m trying to help you. I just…”

Suddenly, Ironshield’s chest swelled up. He frowned as if in pain but quickly returned to normal and continued, “I just hate him more. That’s all.”

Ironshield pointed at his chest.

Gi-Gyu asked knowingly, “You mean Andras?”

“Yes. That bastard is inside me right now.” Ironshield looked at Gi-Gyu again. “You look like you need an explanation… Well, you’re the only one who can solve my problem, so I suppose I owe you one. But I don’t have much time. If we miss this opportunity, Andras will become free. Personally, I don’t care, but…”

Ironshield sniggered and added, “You certainly won’t like what’ll happen after.”

Gi-Gyu waited quietly.

Ironshield looked a little relieved. “I’m sure you have realized by now that Andras has a secret plan.”

Ironshield seemingly knew that Gi-Gyu had seen part of his memories. Ironshield looked ashamed as he continued, “That asshole fooled everyone and tried to take everything for himself… He used me like a tool. Fucker even knew about my plan to escape and ruin his plan.”

“Take everything?”

“That’s right. That bastard”—Ironshield pointed at Gi-Gyu and announced—“tried to take you.”

“...?”

“Andras planned this whole situation. He released me to lure you, and he had been waiting inside me. He was planning to…”

“Force sync with me…” Gi-Gyu muttered.

“That’s right. He knew the souls would restrain you, and he would take that chance to force a sync with you. Normally, this would have turned him into your slave, but…”

Andras had apparently discovered a way not to get enslaved after syncing with him.

Ironshield continued, “It looks like you figured it out too. That’s right. Andras wanted to use me to escape the sync’s bounds after syncing. He ate me to become one with me. With this, there were two souls and minds inside my body. If he synced with you in this state, then…”

Andras could have separated the two entities and become free. Gi-Gyu hadn’t expected such a solution. A similar thing had happened with Paimon and Min-Su, but they had taken different steps. Paimon and Min-Su had synced before being combined, while Andras combined himself with another being before attempting to sync with Gi-Gyu. He was planning on separating himself afterward.

“Andras was going to detach himself later on and eat your body. Of course, I would have been destroyed in the process,” Ironshield explained. Andras had planned on using the tool named Ironshield till its death.

“Luckily, I was able to escape much of Andras’ influence. I believe eating his physical body helped me. And that’s how I”—Ironshield thumped his chest, which twitched visibly—“ruined his plan. I certainly resent you and that bitch Lucifer, but…”

A cold smirk appeared on Ironshield’s lips as he added, “I choose to get Andras instead. I can barely contain him right now. The only reason I have lasted this long is that the other souls are helping me.”

The ash-colored lump and the white lumps had apparently targeted Ironshield for this very reason. Perhaps that was also why they had targeted Gi-Gyu at the start.

“Now, is that reason enough for you to kill me?” asked Ironshield. Gi-Gyu knew Ironshield wasn’t lying. They were inside a shell, so it wasn’t difficult for him to tell if Ironshield was being truthful. Just as Ironshield had explained, Andras was planning to take Gi-Gyu’s body.

‘But I guess Andras will be annihilated because of Ironshield now.’ It looked like Andras’ plan would fail after all.

Gi-Gyu asked his last question, “Don’t you… have any regrets?”

“Regrets…”

Gi-Gyu wasn’t asking about the choice Ironshield was making right now. He wanted to know if Ironshield had any regrets about anything he had done in his life. Ironshield had given his all to create his reputation and guild; in the end, he had become the world’s enemy.

And now, he was about to disappear from this world completely.

“No, I regret nothing,” Ironshield replied firmly. “I didn’t make all my choices willingly, but I have done the same to others in the past. I have forced many to make choices they didn’t want, so… I’m ready to accept it all.”

A smile bloomed on Ironshield’s face as he added, “Of course, that doesn’t mean I don’t want revenge.”

“You’re right.” Gi-Gyu asked, “So how do I kill you?”

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He was currently inside Ironshield’s shell. Gi-Gyu needed a special way to kill both Ironshield and Andras here.

“Leave this place and give me Death.” Ironshield didn’t provide a long explanation. And just like that, Gi-Gyu left Ironshield’s shell.

***

Just as Ironshield had requested, Gi-Gyu had given him Death.

‘This is what he wanted.’ Whatever happened in the past didn’t change the fact that Ironshield had helped Gi-Gyu just now. Gi-Gyu’s resentment toward him was still immense, but Gi-Gyu had to admit that Ironshield had helped him greatly.

‘If Andras attached himself to me without me realizing that, then…’ Andras could have stolen his body, and things could have gone very badly.

In the past, Andras’ various schemes had tormented Gi-Gyu. Based on what Gi-Gyu knew, Andras was the type to carry out plans he had deemed had a good chance of succeeding. But this time, it looked like Andras didn’t realize how much Ironshield resented him. Andras’ last plan failed miserably.

“So that’s what happened,” Gi-Gyu explained to Go Hyung-Chul. Just as Ironshield had wanted, Gi-Gyu had given him a complete death. Both Andras and Ironshield were gone from this world.

‘Now, there is only Kronos.’ Kronos was like the final boss monster Gi-Gyu needed to kill.

“Haa… Haa…” Just then, Kang Ji-Hee came up to him, all out of puke but panting heavily. She had come with all the Angela Guild members, so Gi-Gyu guessed she wanted to talk to him.

Gi-Gyu and his creatures were watching the Angela Guild players when suddenly, Kang Ji-Hee turned and gasped. She was staring at the second survivor.

‘I think Ironshield said he could escape Andras thanks to that player.’ Gi-Gyu remembered Ironshield referring to this second survivor. He was an unknown player who was absorbed last. Ironshield had explained that because of this player's power, he could escape Andras’ grasp. This player was one more variable Andras had never anticipated.

Staring at the second survivor, Kang Ji-Hee suddenly exclaimed in disbelief, “Deputy Guild Master Lim Hyun-Soo?!”