Chapter 490

〈Chapter 490〉 Part 1, Chapter 20, Section 22

The conquest of Flame King has ended. Not only Flame King but all other Star Kings were destroyed thanks to the brilliant efforts of spirits and heroes.

The leadership of the Administrator and Executioners was nearly flawless, successfully destroying fragments of Star King without a single casualty. The first battle against Seongju has concluded, and the world momentarily basked in the relief of having averted destruction.

Peeeeeeeeeek—

But that relief was short-lived. Just as people began to catch their breath, emergency alarms started blaring across everyone’s electronic devices.

[Emergency! Dimensional Gates appearing.]

Since the Azidahaka Gate incident, small-scale or localized dimensional gates had been occurring sporadically. But now, these gates began appearing indiscriminately in city centers, villages, mountains, seas, and rivers. Worse than the Azidahaka situation, the number of gates this time was even more severe.

[Safe zones from Dimensional Gates—None.]

Dimensional gates opened across the entire planet. If each gate unleashed monsters with a 10km radius of influence, the sheer number of gates covered the entire Earth.

[Listen well, Earthlings.]

A man in a yellow robe appeared before every living being on Earth. The fierce-looking East Asian man grinned, revealing white teeth.

[I am the master of Star King. You managed to block my first greeting rather easily.]

Some were confused by his resemblance to Seongju, but beyond the yellow robe, the sight of various eldritch creatures drove people into a state of mental anomie. Simply looking at them felt like their sanity was being devoured, forcing humanity to focus solely on the master of Star King.

[This is my second greeting… let’s call it a full assault. Surrender peacefully. Resistance is futile.]

The master of Star King laughed heartily, speaking with absolute confidence as if discussing yesterday’s events.

[I am your end.]

Executioner appointed.

.

Heroes gathered to conquer Star King had to hastily scatter back to their respective countries.

* * *

.

Kyaahhhhh—!!

The sky is filled with all sorts of flies. On the ground, hyena-like beasts prowl around. Gu, who had rarely visited his hometown and gathered with his relatives at his grandfather’s house, huddled silently inside with his family.

“I’m sorry… I’m so sorry.”

The old man, on the verge of collapsing, continuously apologized while shedding tears. Gu briefly blamed his grandparents for not moving to Seoul or New Seoul sooner, but the water had already been spilled.

“So why didn’t you bring them to Seoul earlier?!”

“How was I supposed to know this would happen?! Besides…”

The couple whispered heatedly while leaving unsaid words hanging in the air. Everyone in this small room knew what those unspoken words were, yet no one could voice them.

“Damn. What’s happening outside?”

“How would I know? We threw all our smartphones out onto the balcony when the emergency alarms kept ringing nonstop.”

When dimensional gates appear, emergency alerts are set to trigger automatically regardless of settings—a good idea under normal circumstances, but with gates opening every minute, it became humanity’s worst nightmare.

Grrrrr.

Gu’s family held their breath at the sound of beasts outside. Beyond the blackout curtains, pale yellow eyes seemed to pass by. If anyone had been wearing a smartwatch, it surely would have attracted an attack the moment it beeped.

Krrr.

The shadow of a monster disappeared beyond the window. As the family caught their breath after holding it, they began scrambling to survive.

“Radio. There’s a radio in the living room… Can’t someone just get it?”

“Father! Are you crazy?! What if there’s a monster in the living room?!”

“The heroes will come. The heroes are coming. The heroes…”

“They’re… not coming.”

Gu cut off any remaining hope with a despondent tone. He had already given up on everything.

“All the heroes have left Korea. And those who remain are fighting at Dokdo right now… We’re finished.”

“You little brat!”

Gu’s father grabbed him by the collar and shook him.

“Is that something you should say?!”

“Then what do you suggest?! If we’d stayed in Seoul, none of this would’ve happened!”

“Unfilial son! Do you know how hard your grandfather worked to build that fortune?!”

“Grandfather, please stop. It’s my fault…”

“Dear, Gu! Lower your voice-”

Kwa—ang!!

The wall between the bedroom where the family was hiding and the balcony was instantly shattered. Had the creature moved another meter closer, its gleaming silver claw could have skewered someone whole. Gu nearly fainted at the sight.

“Aaah, uh, ughh….”

The massive claw was covered in concrete dust and dried blood. Turning his head, he saw a flying-type monster over 5 meters tall baring its teeth and grinning menacingly. What he thought was a claw turned out to be a sharply honed tail spike.

“Wasp..?”

Kyaahhhhh!!

As the insectoid monster roared, Grandfather was the first to collapse, foaming at the mouth in mental breakdown. Paralyzed by fear, the others watched as Gu suddenly sprang up, arms spread wide.

“Don’t come here, damn it!!”

Kiieeeek!!

The monster seemed to enjoy Gu’s scream, pointing its horn at him while moving its body. Gu shut his eyes tightly.

Pu—-uk!

The sound of something sharp piercing through was heard. But it didn’t hurt. Opening his eyes in surprise, Gu saw…

“Whaat?!”

In front of Gu stood a bald man in a hoodie who had plunged the monster’s horn into the floor while landing. The grotesque wasp-like creature growled as the sky began raining down blue flames.

Pa-ba-bak!

Kiieeeek—!

Arrows falling like meteor showers incinerated the monster precisely. Only the monster burned. Gu gaped at the city bathed in blue flames.

“What the…?”

“What are you doing?”

A feminine voice came from above. Turning his head, Gu saw the familiar blue-haired maiden with wings landing beside the bald giant.

“You suddenly rushed out to save someone? Wow, impressive.”

“Shut up. Let’s go somewhere else quickly.”

“Not yet. Let me close the dimensional gate first.”

The maiden raised an oddly mismatched white hand cannon and fired it into the sky. Gu quickly covered his ears, but no sound came.

“Huh?”

“Only those sensitive to magic power can hear the gunshot. Don’t worry about it. Ah, Samcheok is clear. Let’s move elsewhere.”

The maiden put her hood back on and spread her wings. Gu collapsed in relief.

“Your attempt to protect your family was pretty cool. Keep protecting them… though it might be embarrassing.”

The maiden smiled radiantly before flying off into the sky.

“We’ll protect the Earth… and ourselves since we live here too.”

Hwa-lek–!

The maiden and the bald man disappeared like light. Gu picked up a feather of blue flame that had fallen at his feet and muttered.

“Could that guy really have been…?”

And then Gu fainted.

Fortunately, no more monster signals appeared in Samcheok.

* * *

“Damn. I think I remember him.”

“Who? That guy from before?”

“Yeah. When someone has an embarrassing memory, you never forget their face.”

I carried Deokbae and headed south from Samcheok. Along the coastline, beaches, apartments, hotel rooftops—dimensional gates opened locally in numbers too numerous to count. Though I closed over ten gates just traveling from the East Sea through Ulleung-do, the number of unclosed gates remaining in Korea alone exceeded hundreds.

“Seongju, this is real.”

“Didn’t you expect this kind of situation?”

“Yeah, but I never imagined it would hit the climax from the start.”

Dimensional gates usually opened somewhat systematically. Even during the Azidahaka Gate incident, they primarily appeared in major global cities. Never had they opened in such random locations like what I’m seeing below.

“Assistant No. 2. Go close that gate.”

“…Are you serious? The septic tank exploded!”

“The monsters are suffering too. Hurry up and deal with it.”

“Can’t you just burn it from afar? Isn’t that your ‘purifying flame’? What if I get splattered on my clothes? You’re the one who has to carry me around later, right?”

“Damn.”

Unable to refute the valid points, I reluctantly aimed my TAT downward and fired a magical projectile.

Tttooooooo—!!

The monster screamed as it burned to death. The sewage from the ruptured facility also began catching fire. The dimensional gate that opened in the pig farm’s waste pit in the Gangwon-do mountains burned along with the monster rolling in feces.

“Hmph.”

Taking a brief breather, another call came through the magical gear.

“Hey. A dimensional gate opened at the Shinan salt fields.”

“From Gangwon-do to Jeolla Province… At this rate, heroes will have to chase monsters around the clock.”

Even if I had a hundred bodies, it wouldn’t be enough. The heroes remaining in Korea were all low-ranking ones deemed non-essential for the Star King operation, and those capable of wielding K2 Core weapons were mostly concentrated in major cities. Therefore, dimensional gates opening in remote mountainous areas could only be quickly closed by someone like me.

“If this keeps up, we won’t have a chance to counterattack, right?”

“Right. They’re attacking like a storm.”

Bibiik!

The magical gear rang again. This time, a massive dimensional gate opened not in South Korea but in the former North Korean territory, even at the Baekdu Mountain crater lake. Not only terra monsters and terrarists but also unfinished dragon clones serving as officers began appearing.

“So Assistant No. 2, what’s the clearest solution to this situation?”

“Smash the head?”

“Correct.”

There’s no time to gather spirits.

Though there is one way to reach the moon, gathering spirits would take less than an hour, but I don’t have that luxury. Seongju might complete his ultimate weapon before I can gather the spirits, which keeps making me uneasy.

“Assistant No. 2, can I leave the aftermath to you?”

“Roughly make sure things are handled? Like this?”

“Yes.”

Fortunately, Deokbae caught on quickly. Spreading my wings fully, I began descending slowly toward the ground.

Plump.

Deokbae landed on two feet, brushing off the dust on his body. Every time he used to land badly during free falls, breaking into pieces or dying from cardiac arrest, but now Deokbae could stand up excellently worthy of his S rank.

“This, can you deliver it to Hikari later?”

“What is this?”

Deokbae looked curiously at the small core I handed him and slipped it into his pocket.

“My collection of last words?”

“Nope.”

“In case something happens, it contains things I wanted to say. Hopefully, it won’t be needed, but just in case. Hikari can decode it. If anything happens, go to Hikari.”

“If you die, I die too… Ah.”

Deokbae scratched his head while staring directly at me.

“Really going? Alone?”

“Yes. Looks like I won’t be able to show you the final act. Sorry about that. Puhhuh.”

“What about the others?”

“…With all this chaos on Earth, who has time to go to the moon? Unless we have spare time, that is.”

I extended my hand toward Deokbae. Though I’m physically Chang-yeom, thinking of Chang-yeom as the last person I’d speak with made me feel strangely sentimental.

“Good job.”

“…Cut it out. What handshake between us?”

Deokbae waved his hand dismissively and stepped back.

“Don’t disappear; come back alive. And brag about how you smashed Seongju’s pot… Ah, hurry up and vanish already!”

“…Puhhuh. Right.”

I pulled back my awkward hand and flew upward. Deokbae immediately put his hood up and sprinted off without looking back.

“…I shouldn’t hesitate either, right?”

Though they say I don’t need to, it’s time to leave. Just like Deokbu charged ahead without complaint, I can’t waste any more time either.

“One last word though. Hmm.”

Through the magical gear, I broadcasted a one-sided message to everyone. No reply was necessary.

“I won’t say much. I’ll go ahead, defeat the final boss, and come back.”

Whether Chang-yeom and I return together or just Chang-yeom remains to be seen.

Clunk.

I removed the magical gear from my wrist. All incoming information stopped reaching me in real-time.

“Let’s go.”

To the sky.

“Even alone, it might be impossible.”

To the final stage where Seongju awaits.

“Together, we’re enough.”

We flapped our wings vigorously, ascending vertically.

Seongju’s second ferryman.

To the moon.