Chapter 190: Chapter 190

On the way out of the Demon King’s castle.

Choi Hyun-seok was discussing the system alerts with Park Hyun-a.

“You’re messing with me because I can’t see the messages, right?”

Park Hyun-a’s eyes were full of distrust.

That’s because the message content Choi Hyun-seok described seemed too playful.

“The system only mechanically gives quests and rewards. I’ve never heard of it making jokes like you say.”

“I’m telling you, this isn’t the first time! I’ve been getting playful hero quests from the beginning.”

Park Hyun-a leaned her face close to Choi Hyun-seok.

Her eyes were still full of doubt.

Choi Hyun-seok beat his chest in frustration.

“Look, older sister. Think about it. What would I gain from lying about something ?”

“Alright, kid. No need to get so serious.”

Park Hyun-a smirked and walked ahead.

“Fine. Let’s say that’s true.”

“Sigh, I’m telling you it’s true.”

Choi Hyun-seok scratched his head irritably as he followed her.

“By the way, older sister.”

“About that holy war…”

At the mention of the holy war, Park Hyun-a’s expression turned serious.

Choi Hyun-seok also continued with a straight face.

“Wasn’t the purpose of the holy war to kill the Demon King?”

The holy war declared by Pope Orban IV.

Its final goal was to take the Demon King’s head.

But now the Demon King had died by Choi Hyun-seok’s hand.

“Since we’ve achieved the goal, shouldn’t the holy war naturally end?”

Park Hyun-a furrowed her brow while stroking her chin.

“Actually, the Demon King’s head was just the surface reason. The real goal is obviously continental conquest.”

“But that conquest can’t justify continuing the holy war, can it?”

No country values justification more than Gatren.

Since they succeeded in killing the Demon King, the holy war’s final goal, it should naturally end.

“Just because the holy war might end doesn’t mean we can be certain. The war’s purpose hasn’t been achieved yet.”

“What? What purpose?”

“Think about it. Why did they start a holy war to take the Demon King’s head?”

After brief contemplation, Choi Hyun-seok answered.

“Because they no longer need the Demon King’s Army?”

“Right. The Demon King’s Army has served its purpose, and now they’re just obstacles to continental conquest, so their real goal is to completely remove them.”

The holy war’s purpose includes both taking the Demon King’s head and dealing a devastating blow to the entire Demon King’s Army.

“But the Demon King’s Army only retreated and lost territory. Their military strength is mostly intact. Besides taking the Demon King’s head, we haven’t really damaged them.”

“So the Pope must have a headache. They achieved the nominal goal so they should end the holy war, but the Demon King’s Army is still strong. At this rate, their plan to swallow the continent will be hindered.”

Based on circumstances so far, the Pope’s plan can be broken down into these stages:

Stage 1 – Weakening other human forces.

Stage 2 – Elimination of the Demon King’s Army.

Stage 3 – Integration of minor kingdoms

Stage 4 – Continental unification war.

Stage 1 was achieved through the Demon King’s Army’s necromancy.

Next, they tried to achieve Stage 2 (eliminating the Demon King’s Army) and Stage 3 (integrating minor kingdoms) at once through the holy war, but…

“The Demon King’s Army remains strong. Even if they unite the minor kingdoms, they’ll struggle. They’ll have to face both all human forces and the Demon King’s Army.”

As she spoke, Park Hyun-a thought of Demon King Tegrad.

She wondered if this might have been his intention too.

“The situation seems complicated.”

Choi Hyun-seok sighed.

“Well, these guys make their living playing these mind games.”

As they talked, they reached the castle entrance.

“Let’s go back and have a meeting with everyone…”

Just as she was about to suggest returning to Ultimoon Fes.

“You were having an interesting conversation.”

A strange man appeared before them.

He walked up casually and stopped in front of Choi Hyun-seok and Park Hyun-a.

“I hear the Demon King is dead. Is that true?”

“How rude. You should introduce yourself before asking questions.”

Choi Hyun-seok’s eyes gleamed coldly.

Given the circumstances, he was likely an enemy, but they needed to know his identity first.

“Would you understand if I said… Gatren’s hound?”

The man raised his hand.

Masked figures appeared and surrounded them from all directions.

Choi Hyun-seok tilted his head.

“Older sister, what do these hounds do?”

“How can you not know after fighting them so many times?”

Actually, it was natural for Choi Hyun-seok not to know about the hounds.

None of his enemies had ever identified themselves as hounds before.

“Simply put, they’re guys who handle the dirty work. Most of the Gatren guys you’ve fought were probably hounds.”

Choi Hyun-seok turned back to look at the man.

“So. You’re a hound?”

“Commander Kuan O’Brien.”

“Oh, not just a dog but the top dog.”

Choi Hyun-seok nodded repeatedly.

“Now that we know who you are…”

He loosened up his body and kicked the ground.

Mana surged from his body.

Form 4 – Authoritative Death

Purple mana shot forth with his extending fist.

Kuan O’Brien suppressed a sneer as he watched Choi Hyun-seok charging forward.

‘Rushing to your death.’

They had already analyzed Choi Hyun-seok and Park Hyun-a’s combat capabilities.

Through internal spies, they received information about the two appearing at the Demon King’s castle.

He had prepared for battle, leading all the hound members.

‘No matter how strong you are, you have no chance of winning.’

Purple mana shot forth as Choi Hyun-seok extended his fist.

“Such a weak fighting technique!”

Instead of dodging, Kuan countered the attack.

He too is a legendary-level fighter.

He wouldn’t be pushed back by fighting technique from someone who had just reached the legendary threshold.

“Gatren Holy Swordsmanship.”

Gatren Holy Swordsmanship.

It was a familiar fighting technique, commonly used by those from the Holy Empire of Gatren.

However, when used by someone who had reached legendary status, it was completely different.

Gatren Holy Swordsmanship

Form 2 – Sacred Ascension

He spun once, swinging his sword upward from below.

Neither too fast nor too slow.

The movement was clean, without any waste.

The sword pointed to the sky.

Simultaneously, a massive dragon-shaped magical force rose from the ground.

The magical dragon charged forward as if to swallow Choi Hyun-seok’s mana.

A gust of wind arose as the two fighting techniques collided.

‘It’s being pushed back!?’

The dragon-shaped magical force burst apart.

The purple mana not only tore through the dragon but was now rushing toward him.

Kuan O’Brien hurriedly raised his sword.

His body was pushed back as it collided with the mana.

A harsh friction sound came from the ground.

A streak of blood flowed from Kuan O’Brien’s mouth.

‘What kind of power is this…!?’

It was just one exchange, but the difference in power was stark.

O’Brien sensed that something was wrong.

‘This isn’t just a legendary threshold. This is…’

He had fully entered the legendary realm.

In terms of pure destructive power, he could easily rank among the upper echelons of legends.

“How is this possible? Just days ago you were struggling against the Cardinal…!”

Kuan O’Brien couldn’t understand.

The battle between Choi Hyun-seok and Cardinal Vincenzo had been fully reported by the Imperial recorder.

He had personally analyzed that battle in detail.

Choi Hyun-seok’s power then was nowhere near this level.

In response to his question, Choi Hyun-seok merely shrugged.

“Just leveled up a bit.”

He loosened his shoulders and wiggled his fingers.

“Shall we move on from the warm-up to the main game?”

Kuan O’Brien gave a signal.

The gathered hound members began casting a large-scale spell formation.

They had already completed all preparations.

The magic activated instantly before it could be blocked.

Countless blades appeared.

Thousands of blades filled the sky.

“Shit… This isn’t good.”

From the formation’s shape and the magical power involved, she could tell this was no ordinary magic.

“Let’s take them out before it’s too late!”

Choi Hyun-seok charged forward, ignoring the magic.

He figured the situation would be resolved if he could kill their leader, Kuan O’Brien.

However, that was too naive a thought.

The blades filling the air spun fiercely, blocking his path.

Choi Hyun-seok deflected the blades using mana, but there were too many.

Block one, two more would come.

Block two, five more would fly in from behind.

The magical power was so strong that wounds remained even with mana protection.

At this rate, he would die from the blades before reaching the enemy.

“Older sister! What should we do!?”

“We have to break through!”

“Breakthrough! We have to crush the casters’ heads!”

Currently, Kuan O’Brien and the hound members stood still, not moving.

They were probably concentrating on maintaining the large-scale magic.

“If we can take down just a few casters! The magic will weaken! Then we can, definitely, escape!”

Park Hyun-a shouted with difficulty while dodging blades.

Choi Hyun-seok nodded and activated his mana.

‘I need to break through with full power, all at once.’

Since the blades kept blocking the way, using moderate power would only drain their strength.

He needed enough power to shatter all the blades at once and reach the enemy.

‘I’ll use the fighting technique at full power.’

Since obtaining mana.

Choi Hyun-seok had never used fighting techniques at full power.

His body couldn’t handle it because his mana was overwhelmingly stronger compared to his other stats.

‘But now it’s possible.’

However, his overall abilities had increased after killing the Demon King.

▫Name: Choi Hyun-seok

Though the gap still existed, it had decreased significantly from before.

‘I’ll put everything into it!’

Choi Hyun-seok raised his output to the limit.

‘With Nobilrace Form 4…!’

‘Nobilrace Form 4 – Authoritative Death’ was a fighting technique modeled after ‘Reidrun-style Fighting Technique’.

The greatest advantage of Reidrun-style Fighting Technique is its overwhelming output.

In other words, it’s a technique optimized for brute-forcing mana like now.

Rumble rumble rumble…!

The ground began shaking around Choi Hyun-seok.

The blades continued cutting into Choi Hyun-seok’s body.

Choi Hyun-seok stared straight ahead with unwavering eyes.

Finally, all the mana gathered.

Choi Hyun-seok’s fist moved.

Form 4 – Authoritative Death

A massive storm of mana was fired.

The storm, seeming as if it would devour everything, flew fiercely toward Kuan O’Brien. Get full chapters from 𝔫𝔬𝔳𝔢𝔩·𝕗𝕚𝕣𝕖·𝘯𝘦𝘵

As if waiting for this, blades appeared to block its path.

The blades shattered miserably upon colliding with the storm.

Hundreds of blades were destroyed in an instant.

However, twice as many blades waited behind them for the storm.

In the end, the purple storm couldn’t pierce through the blades.

Though about three-quarters were destroyed, hundreds of blades still remained.

Choi Hyun-seok frowned and fell to his knees.

His body felt like it would break apart from using such excessive output.

Just then, someone patted his back.

Choi Hyun-seok raised his head with difficulty.

He saw Park Hyun-a grinning.

“Let me show you what happens when you give a mage time.”

Park Hyun-a wiggled her finger.

A pillar of flame plunged into the ground.

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