CH 268

⌜Did Golden Horizon miss them?⌟

The problem was elsewhere. It was the renegades of the Golden Horizon!

Golden Horizon was a coalition with powerful influence, much like the country it resided in, the United States of America.

Even before dungeons ravaged the world and turned it into chaos, there had been plenty of secret societies on Earth—Lake of Dawn, Mount Kunlun, and Sephiroth Zohar were but a few examples. Some of these underground societies even came to light and made their mark in the world.

One of the leading figures out in the open was Alistair Crowley, a legendary figure that was a source of inspiration for countless animations and movies. He and others had originally been members of secret societies based elsewhere, like Sephiroth Zohar, but they had turned traitors and betrayed their roots. These individuals had banded together to form the Golden Horizon.

Naturally, some of these traitors were members of Lake of Dawn. That was why the head of Sephiroth Zohar was asking if Golden Horizon really did not know about what the British secret societies had left behind.

“Some of them don’t even know.”

⌜Good. Then…⌟

“I will commence it tomorrow.”

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

“Damn it! I can’t do anything if the other side opens!”

A man kicked something with an irritated expression on his face. The kick, which seemed to be as mighty as a blow struck by the God of Destruction, passed right through the skin of the giant, squishy creature in front of him, squeezing out black blood.

Boom! Boom!

After kicking several times and reducing the unidentifiable twisted creature to a pile of goo, he turned his head and looked back.

The man was Korean, with a fairly handsome face and a tall, lanky stature. He was not holding any weapons, but those who knew him never even thought of underestimating him.

He was commonly known as ‘That Hunter,’ and some of his fans called him I.L.

His surroundings were horrific, looking like something at the bottom of Hell. The walls and ceiling looked like the guts of a massive creature, oozing with sticky tar, and all around him, hideous-looking bugs the size of a human head crawled about, drinking the flowing blood.

This horrific place was littered with the torn and tattered remains of monsters that seemed to have died recently. They ranged from a skinny, pale-skinned half-horse, half-lizard hybrid, to a monster whose tortuous tentacles looked like lumps of spaghetti noodles. There were also Demons with a horn on their forehead, bat wings, and coppery skin.

“Fucking hell. These motherfuckers keep popping up even after I killed so many of their pals. I destroyed so many monster camps, but they still keep coming out. Freakin’ cockroaches. And what the hell is Ji-Han doing?”

Weirdly enough, I.L. was cursing Jung Ji–Han.

“It’s going to take a while to clean this place up… Should I trust him and stay here? Or should I get the hell out? Damn it!”

It seemed that he had an inkling about what was going on outside.

He scratched his head for a moment, then pulled something out of his pocket. It was a very bizarre object—it looked like an egg with eyes all over it, and it was moving. At one end, it had something that looked like a compass.

“Should I stay or leave?”

He questioned the bizarre object. The compass spun around for a moment, then came to a screeching halt. The red needle pointed at I.L.

“Hm… I guess you are telling me not to go out.”

He looked ahead. A dungeon passageway filled with more grotesque chunks of flesh lay ahead.

“Okay, let’s go then!”

He pushed forward, stepping over corpses.

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

“Did you know about that?”

Ji-Cheok pointed to the dungeon Gate on the screen next to him.

“Of course I knew about it. It’s just that this is the first time it has appeared at this point in time.”

“You’re saying it like it’s something historically significant.”

Ji-Han showed up at Ji-Cheok’s house while he was getting ready. He had just grabbed his stuff and was about to head straight into the dungeon when his boss showed up.

“Where have you been and what have you been doing?” Ji-Cheok asked.

‘The world is about to end, goddamn it!’

“I’ve been doing all sorts of things to save the world. So was Reable.”

Next to Ji-Han was Reable.

“Hello~ A cute little Demon who works tirelessly to fulfill your wishes is here! I’m Reable!” Reable said as he struck a weird pose.

Somehow, Ji-Cheok was relieved. He had definitely built up some…trust with this mysterious demon.

«We still need to be wary of him, Master.»

‘I know… But for now, I have to trust him.’

“I saw what you did down there. It looks pretty great,” Reable said.

“It was a lot of work, and a lot of money.”

“I know. We are lobbying all over the world now, and we have got people on the political scene too. We also made sure A/B is doing things according to the plan.”

‘That’s great, but…’

“Also, that Gate is one of two signs that the apocalypse is being brought forward.”

“What do you mean, signs?”

‘How could there be such things?’

“There were five signs to begin with, but we already took care of three of them. The dungeon in the Philippines was one of them,” Ji-Han said.

“I see.”

‘Come to think of it, we had such a hard time in that dungeon in the Philippines…’

He had killed the Slow Forest Shade and become a God.

‘I guess that was the turning point.’

“So what happens if we don’t stop that?” Ji-Cheok asked.

“The end of the world will begin. Now.”

‘No way…’

“But you can’t go into the dungeon right away.”

“What?”

“The Gate is not fully open yet. Soon, the Lake of Dawn will perform a ritual to open it completely, and we have to stop them from doing that.”

“And if we don’t stop that, the world will end, right?”

“Even if we don’t stop the ritual, we still have a chance. It’s just going to be harder…”

“Then let’s get moving, where are we going?”

‘I can only move by myself through space with the Steps of Hermes. I suppose I could summon Reable since he has a contract with me, but I don’t think I can go with Ji-Han, can I?’

“The location is here. You can go with Reable.”

Ji-Han handed him a note. It was a note with coordinates for spatial travel.

“Just the two of us?”

“Yes. The two of you should be enough, and in the meantime, I will take care of business on the other side.”

Ji-Cheok didn’t even know there was another side, much less that there was business to take care of there.

With that, Ji-Han headed for the door.

“The Lake of Dawn will be there, so be careful,” Ji-Han said as he slammed the door and walked out.

‘Hm…. That guy still has a lot of secrets.’

“I guess it’s something that requires you to come with me,” Ji-Cheok said to Reable.

“Well, they left that giant dungeon open like that, so they must be strong~ And there must be a lot of civilians there. Just leave the genocide to me~”

“I’m not going to just stand idle while you do your thing.”

“Huhuhuhu. Of course you’re not.”

Ji-Cheok crossed the space toward the place the coordinates pointed to.

Boom!

“Ugh!”

He collided with something at the place where he teleported, and the shock fired him backward like a cannon shell.

‘Soul Telekinesis!’

The Soul Telekinesis skill suspended him in midair, and after stabilizing himself, he took a look around. What he saw left him in utter stupefaction.

What he was looking at was a magic circle at least several hundred meters in diameter.

The magic circle was not just drawn on the ground or anything like that.

Rather, it was made up of countless human corpses.

The corpses were stacked on top of each other, each one bleeding from a hole somewhere. The corpses and the blood surrounding them formed a giant magic circle. At the center of the circle was a mound of corpses that looked about five meters tall.

“Ugh…cough!”

There were people there still alive, groaning in pain, but there was no point in trying to save them. They would be dead before Ji-Cheok could do anything.

And the entire magic circle was protected by a red shroud.

Crack.

Something snapped inside him.

He could physically hear the last bit of his patience as a human being ripped to shreds.

—Just leave the genocide to me~

He remembered what Reable had said earlier.

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‘Ah yes. Of course. I will definitely leave that up to you. But I don’t think you should do it alone. I don’t want to be twiddling my thumbs while you do all the work.’

“Reable.”

Roar!

Reable crossed space to answer his call. He appeared right next to Ji-Cheok.

“Wow~ They did a pretty great job here. It looks like they tortured the humans before killing them. Quite the fine job with the ritual, indeed.”

“Will you be quiet? I am not in a good mood.”

“Of course, my Lord~ So what will you do now?”

“We gotta stop them. Even if it means getting human blood on my hands.

Ji-Cheok wanted to kill them all.

“Since they’re the bad guys… Can I make them Undead?”

Ji-Cheok did not say no. That was his deal with Reable, and he was not a saint, nor was he merciful enough to let something like this slide.

“Alright! Let’s do this!” Reable said.

Darkness billowed out of Reable’s body. To the naked eye, it looked like smoke, but it was not any kind of gas. Rather, what was pouring out of him was particles of real darkness.

“Since my contractor—that’s you—has become a God, I too can now use some of my original power. This world is indeed rich, but so many things are dying. Huhuhu. I would like you to witness the power I have recovered!”

The darkness around him exploded and expanded. From within, the Undead burst forth.

They fell all over the red barrier and began pounding it frantically.

“Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die!”

“It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! You like it? You like it? You like it? Die! Die! Die!”

“I’m hungry! I’m hungry! I’m hungry!”

They were like wraiths that had gone mad, pounding on the red barrier with maddening malice.

“Thy are…”

“Oh, I wasn’t the one who killed them. The spirits of those who are sacrificed in rituals are usually sent beyond, but when humans fight each other and die, the spirits of those left behind are damaged and corrupted by evil, and they become evil spirits.”

Reable hummed happily at his creations, then he continued to explain things to Ji-Cheok.

“Usually, they don’t do any harm, but… look! Now, they are Undead with great free will, and they hate the living!”

Ji-Cheok frowned.

“Just set them free. Let them suffer no more.”

“I can set them free, but it is difficult to stop them from suffering. They died in an unfair way, for unfair reasons. Their resentment and pain will never disappear. Hmm~ But if you want them to become pure spirits, just let them kill a lot of people. Revenge is fun~” Reable said, looking back at Ji-Cheok.

“You want me to just let them kill people?”

‘What the hell is he smoking?’

“Yes! Once their anger is released, the burden on their hearts will lighten. If they keep killing and killing, they will eventually become pure spirits. I am not such a bad Demon, am I? I’m doing this for them~” Reable said with a smile.

“Is this true?”

“Of course!”

“Okay… I understand.”

‘If that’s what these Undead need...’