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Chapter 341

Somewhere on Earth, in a remote mountain, people dressed in white uniforms appeared.

They were as large as humans and led by a dog on a leash. Without uttering a word, they began to search the mountains. Like drug detection dogs, they roamed around until, at some point, they began to dig up the area.

And then, ta-da! To everyone’s surprise, a secret tunnel leading to an unidentified temple emerged. Once they found the temple, the people in white charged in and subdued the necromancers inside.

The armed men took out communication devices. After some time, once the connection was established, one of them spoke.

“Subjugation complete.”

[Confirmation.]

After a brief exchange from what appeared to be the representative, they hung up, and the armed men disappeared in an instant. All that remained was the neatly cleaned underground structure, as if nothing had happened at all.

Needless to say, their identity was Ice Palace. Initially, they had no way to locate branches except by relying on Lucrecia’s ability, but they compensated for that weakness by controlling Frost Wolves.

Why Frost Wolves, you ask? Because among the many creatures living in the snow, they were the only ones that feared the branches and kept their distance.

In a way, the idea of using Frost Wolves was akin to it sprang from Yeon-woo’s mind.

Back at the Baek In-hwa Gate, she once mentioned that Frost Wolves never approached the lake where the Frost Alligator resided.

That means, Frost Wolves might possess the ability to sense both the strength and the morale of an entity. One could say their instincts are quite acute.

Based on such assumptions, the search party operated, and results showed that those guesses were indeed correct. Although the area was considerably smaller compared to Lucrecia’s, once within a certain distance, the Frost Wolves would start to whimper.

This could be considered animal cruelty, but they were certainly rewarded well for their findings.

Across the world, the Ice Palace armed men searched through the terrain like they were catching mice— solely to corner Toyo’s Demon King. That was all that filled their minds.

In the process of mechanically handling the branches, casualties did occur, but they did not stop. No one could say they had not lost a loved one to the Demon King.

*

“How’s the processing rate?”

“Excellent. Thanks to the Ice Palace members moving surprisingly efficiently.”

No matter how much Yeon-woo tried, she couldn’t remember how widespread the Cult of Oblivion was or how many branches existed. However, she could recount roughly where the key battles took place.

While the battle raged, the moment Lucrecia managed to locate the main base, Yeon-woo’s rough blueprint was essentially complete.

Eliminate all escape routes for the Demon King. Eventually, they would have no choice but to retreat back to the well-defended main base that hadn’t fallen. That way, they could gather strong allies and storm the main base.

If the temple fell as a result, that would be lucky, but even if the Demon King returned to his Gate, it wouldn’t pose much of a problem.

By installing the dagger and devices used to rescue Nea and asking Osiris to use the dagger, they could also pry open the Demon King’s Gate.

But that meant they had a way to go after the Demon King, although it didn’t necessarily guarantee they could capture him.

Still, critiquing herself over that aspect was challenging. The assumption that there is a certain way to eliminate the Demon King was fundamentally flawed.

In the end, there was no method to kill the Demon King besides a reckless attempt at it. They were an existence so powerful that it felt impossible to regard them as mere lives.

Nonetheless, it was irrefutably true that they had secured a considerably advantageous position. They had to leap into the Demon King’s territory, but it was now possible to take a proactive stance.

Most importantly, having snatched Usir’s skull from Nephren-Ka was a major victory. In Yeon-woo’s memory, no matter how strong the undead she summoned was, the entities from the underworld would be several times more troublesome.

While the undead had a clear weakness in purification, the creatures from the underworld could only be dealt with by killing them until they were dead.

There was a chance. A chance so high it was undeniable. Yet, that strange sensation she felt when face to face with Nephren-Ka… that feeling reminiscent of Dawn should be taken into consideration.

Upon receiving reports about progress and situations, Riley exited Yeon-woo’s room. Following in his footsteps, Dawn and Amir appeared.

“What do you think, Dawn?”

“It looks quite promising.”

The easiest way to get an answer was to ask someone from another dimension. When Yeon-woo asked Dawn about that sensation, Dawn lightly nodded in agreement, saying that if she felt that way, the possibility was high.

“Then, what’s the deal, Sebek?”

[Hmm…]

Upon hearing Yeon-woo’s words, a palm-sized crocodile appeared above Amir’s head, pondering deeply. That was because Nephren-Ka belonged to the pantheon of Egypt.

Strictly speaking, it was more of a pharaoh, but Egyptian pharaohs were revered as gods after death, often regarded as a type of lesser deity.

However, sensing another deity from someone like that? Something was off.

[Well, it’s true that he had a divine position. However, we’re not particularly interested in pharaohs, you see.]

One could say it was the unique arrogance typical of supreme gods. Boasting strength, they seldom show interest in other gods.

That was why Nephren-Ka could fly away halfway to rebel after smashing Osiris’ skull, but that could be considered self-inflicted.

“…But how did Nephren-Ka become a Demon King in the first place? From what I hear, he hasn’t caused the world to perish, has he? If he had, Earth would have already been destroyed.”

Of course, he could qualify by destroying other worlds, but both Earth and Arkeion hadn’t been destroyed by him, but by other Demon Kings. Nephren-Ka couldn’t be said to have eliminated them.

By that logic, one might ask why there was still a Demon King in Arkeion, which hadn’t perished, but oddly enough, there was a separate story for that.

[That’s something we have no way of knowing. That guy, who had no presence, suddenly popped up and gained the title of Demon King out of the blue, shocking all of us.]

“That’s not helpful, you know??”

[Not really? If you think about it, it could be quite helpful.]

In response to Yeon-woo’s remark, Sebek opened his small mouth, seemingly upset. Asking with that body wouldn’t hurt at all, yet it seemed pointless.

“Hmm. I want to resolve this unease as much as possible before fighting…”

At Yeon-woo’s comment, Shar, who had been quietly sitting beside her, had raised her hand energetically. Nodding at Yeon-woo to speak, Shar boldly announced.

“So the current situation is that Toyo’s Demon King is an ordinary god, but the aura of another dimension is felt, and that’s the problem?”

“That’s right. Did you come up with any thoughts?”

“Isn’t it that gods can’t form contracts with one another?”

At Shar’s question, Yeon-woo looked at Sebek and Dawn. Dawn spoke up first.

“There’s no prohibition against it. It’s just not something that happens. There’s no reason to form a strange contract of taking on another’s godly might while leaving your own behind.”

“So if we assume the Demon King made a contract with an otherworldly god, then everything would make sense, right?”

Upon hearing those words, Yeon-woo contemplated deeply. If the aura she sensed from the Demon King was due to a contract, then bingo.

As for the qualifications of the Demon King, if he had indeed made a contract with a dimensional god who had destroyed another world… it seemed ambiguous, but it could be possible depending on the contract terms.

[That indeed does seem plausible. Thinking about it, if that weakling suddenly grew strong and began rampaging, it would imply he had an external power source…]

“True. The contract relationship between gods is exceedingly rare, so it slipped my mind…”

“Wait, hold on. So, does that mean if we defeat the Demon King, we might have to fight the otherworldly god again?”

[That seems likely? Even if we defeat Nephren-Ka, we wouldn’t have defeated the Demon King.]

“This is insane…”

While others might think it’s great that their questions got simplified, Yeon-woo could only feel utterly doomed.

The opponent was the Demon King. Even if Nephren-Ka’s status as a puppet was revealed, it didn’t mean that his abilities would disappear like a puff of smoke. Hadn’t she needed to go all out just to block a haphazardly thrown main spear?

It would be one thing if Nephren-Ka was backing them and they faced the Demon King first. The burden was of a whole different dimension if there was another formidable opponent remaining after taking down Nephren-Ka, especially since there was no information on who that was.

In other words, it meant they would face an opponent of Demon King caliber without any information and only their wits. The burden that realization placed on her was anything but trivial.

Until now, Yeon-woo had only faced enemies with at least some minimal information. The reason being? Simple. This gave her the highest chances of winning. Because she couldn’t afford to lose.

“Ugh, what the heck… What’s the difference from before I regressed…?”

Grasping her head, Yeon-woo muttered absently, suddenly stopping as if she had realized something. Well, right, before I regressed, I used to do this without a thought?

“It might actually not be such a big deal. Suddenly, I feel like courage is bubbling up!”

Yes, that’s right. Being able to do what she couldn’t before her regression was nothing to worry about. It was proof she had grown.

However, becoming unable to do what she could before her regression was a definite regression. Sure, diving in without any information was not exemplary behavior, but the truth was there was no other choice.

If they tried to gather intel, someone would inevitably be sacrificed. She knew better than anyone else since she played the role of a scout.

She survived somehow, but others died every single time. If four or more people, including herself, returned alive from a raid, that was already a considerable feat.

She understood it was an unavoidable action to increase humanity’s odds of winning. Still, even if they called her foolish, Yeon-woo didn’t want to partake in that.

Peace built on someone’s sacrifice could hardly be called true peace.

“I feel like I can do this! Alright, alright. But still, I have to be cautious to the utmost…”

As she struggled, pondering, the three watching Yeon-woo suddenly started to whisper among themselves.

“Looks like he finally came to his senses… How unfortunate…”

[He was such a good lad…]

“He’s not too old for that yet!”

“Reality has a way of knocking on the door, sis. It’s time to accept it.”

“That’s not true, okay!? I’ll make sure to scold those nasty comments, Dawn!”

“Will you really not?”

Showing her anger by swinging her fists furiously, Shar found herself kneeling humbly before Dawn, who was pleading for her to stop. Shar’s punches were dangerous. They might be controlled in strength, but they would undoubtedly hurt a lot.

Thus, a peaceful moment passed before their plan against the Demon King began.

(To be continued in the next chapter)

 

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