Chapter 131. Crown of Thorns (5)

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Hansoo frowned as he felt the minute presence of people transmitted through the ground.

Though there was quite a distance, they would arrive very quickly.

‘But I can’t leave this place yet.’

Hansoo finished his thoughts and smashed his Forked Lightning against the Akadus that was charging towards him.

Boooooom!

The tens of thousands of silver Akadus, who were protecting the factory, charged in madly and were cutting apart the Akarons.

“Uwaaaak!”

“Kuhuuhh!”

The giant factory, that had long stopped producing the Akadus due to lack of resources, had turned into a mess from the shockwaves and soundwaves of the battle.

And a capsule shaped something was located in the center of this factory.

<Soul Telautograph>

And a black crown, which seemed to be made of a thorny tree, was placed inside it.

‘I wondered where it was…It was here huh.’

Oteon clenched her teeth as she looked at the telautograph.

They needed to get over there and take over the black crown.

“Great Patriach Mekido shall protect us! Fight!”

Oteon shouted out loudly and squeezed out the remaining power of the forbidden technique as they charged towards the Akadus.

Crack!

It hadn’t even been an hour since they started to fight with the Akadus who were protecting the Factory.

Though they had been able to get near the factory, almost half of the Akarons had died off.

And the living ones weren’t in that good of a shape either.

“Kuuuu…”

“Uaaak!”

Akarons who had been turned into a mess were making painful expressions and were rolling around the ground.

The moment the forbidden technique got released, a tremendous amount of pain rushed over them.

But even during this suffering, the eyes of the Akarons were fixated on the Crown of Thorns in the distance.

Taruhol suppressed the pain that was jumping around within his body.

‘The side effects will die down eventually.’

The important thing was activating that crown and stopping the Akadus.

Taruhol smashed his fist onto the chest of the Akadus.

Booooom!

The Akadus, which still moved despite receiving damage to its head, stopped working as the core got smashed apart.

Kiiiiing

Taruhol clenched his teeth in order to suppress the pain and then shouted towards Hansoo who had been fighting next to him.

“I need to wear that crown?”

“Yes. The Akaron with the strongest physique must take it on!”

The Crown of Thorns wasn’t something created for humans.

When he sees Taruhol acquiring the Crown of Thorns and see him using it properly, he will implant a soul fragment onto him.

And then create an alliance between humans and the Akarons.

Since the humans wouldn’t be able to easily do much to the Akarons if they have the Akadus along with the Crown of Thorns to control them with.

‘And I…Will obtain Mekido’s holy weapon, Dragon Essence Blade.’

It was written in the memory crystal that the Dragon Essence Blade would come out when they acquired the Crown of Thorns.

As Taruhol heard Hansoo’s words, he made stomping noises as he crazily headed towards the Soul Telautograph.

“Guard him!”

“Help the first pillar so he can arrive there intact!”

The numerous Akarons who had been crying out in agony pulled out the remaining bits of their strengths and slowed down the Akadus.

And Taruhol ran even more urgently after seeing this.

The amount of casualties will rise tremendously at this rate.

He would need to acquire the Crown of Thorns as quick as possible before casualties rose too much.

Booooom!

While they were constantly moving up.

Hansoo suddenly stopped fighting and backed off.

Oteon, who had been fighting near the tunnel along with hundreds of other Akarons, shouted towards Hansoo.

“Where are you going!”

The formation would break down and the casualties would rise even more if Hansoo left.

Hansoo shouted towards Oteon.

“Wait for me. There’s something I need to deal with.”

Hansoo then felt the humans, who had gotten quite close, as he rushed towards them.

***

“Let’s go in quickly! We don’t know what they would do!”

Rong Wian found the remnants of those guys, befitting of his position and role, as he shouted.

A tunnel which did not look simple even from a single glance.

And the traces of Akarons existed all throughout the tunnel.

Rong Wian felt urgent after realizing that it had been quite a while since they went in.

‘It would be a disaster if they escape through the portal!’

The people who had escaped along with Rong Wian started to run madly.

And they looked at the surrounding tunnel as they ran.

A strange tunnel that was artificial even from a simple glance.

And a small amount of excitement started to fill up the minds of the adventurers.

It seemed like a relic site of the Akarons, another reward might be prepared in a place like this.

But their expressions turned grim after a bit of running.

Powerful shockwaves and sounds of clashes came through the tunnel and rushed over their head.

Despite them being quite a distance away from the battlefield.

They didn’t know what was inside but this told them that it was dangerous.

“…Do we have to continue?”

“What are you going to do Rong Wian. It doesn’t seem easy over there either, are we going back?”

Rong Wian pondered for a moment at the words of Matel, another captain of the scout team who had the same idea as him.

It would be dangerous if they continued.

But then both the battlefield they came from and the one they were heading to were dangerous.

‘Shall I have a look.’

Rong Wian, after checking the battle with his skill <Spy Eye>, laid down a decision.

“Let’s just wait here, we don’t need to fall in danger by going in. And it seems like they would win anyway.”

If one side lost then they would all die.

They would return if that was the case but there wasn’t really a need for them to if they weren’t going to lose.

‘It’ll be better if there’s more casualties.’

Rong Wian laughed.

An escapee’s sins were hard to forgive no matter when.

It would be hard for them to dodge the aggression they would receive after the battle ending.

Which meant that the more casualties both sides had, the better it would be for them.

At that moment a strange existence came into his view.

A bright golden light.

‘What is it?’

Rong Wian freaked out as he looked at the person who had arrived before him.

An entirely golden existence that was closer to a dragon than a human.

‘This guy…’

It was the guy who had risen to fame recently in just a few days.

Rong Wian breathed in and out deeply and then turned around.

The one who always had the upper hand was not the desperate side but the leisurely side.

And they, the ones resting and charging up their power, had much more leisure than the ones who were fighting.

‘That side is urgent too, he shouldn’t be trying to make us into enemies at this point.’

His mind was set ease as he looked at the hundreds of adventurers who had been gathered here.

Rong Wian shrugged his shoulders as he spoke.

“It seems you’re busy, why did you come here?”

That idea was solidified even more as he saw Hansoo who was covered in blood from head to toe.

His voice sounded tired and that location seemed way too vicious to follow this guy’s word and fight.

Hansoo just spat out a short sentence.

“Choose quickly, as to what you will do.”

“…What?”

“Sadly for you… You only have two choices. Come with me, or remain here.”

One person smirked as he spoke.

“Aren’t you a bit too cold? We can just fight the silver Tiradus if we go back right? We aren’t that unfriendly you know.”

“You guys lost that chance already.”

Hansoo spoke out coldy.

He hadn’t brought the Akarons here.

The Akarons had risked their lives and came here of their own accord.

To this place which was much more vicious that the silver battlefield back there.

It was too late for these guys to go back.

“I don’t know what you’re saying… I guess we’ll just stay here then.”

Rong Wian felt uneasy from the threatening words but he made a smile as he denied the offer.

Hansoo heard these words as he looked around.

It seemed like everyone agreed.

No, they had escaped the silver battlefield since they agreed with this guy anyway.

Why wouldn’t the others escape, they had the ability to as well.

‘This is the end for you then.’

Hansoo quietly mumbled as he poured his power into his spear.

Rong Wian raised his weapons with a nervous expression from that.

“You want to have a go at it?”

That moment.

Hansoo used a tremendous amount of strength and swung the spear.

Booooooooooom!

Rong Wian freaked out but he laughed as he looked behind him.

“You’re a bit of a coward huh?”

Hansoo hadn’t thrown the spear at them.

Actually he had thrown it towards where he had come out from.

“Just say you’re scared if you are…”

Boooom!

At that moment.

A tremendously large sound was heard from the battlefield in the distance where Hansoo had thrown the spear to.

***

“Goddamit…”

Boooooom!

Taruhol grinded his teeth and smashed the wall in front of him after getting to the Soul Telautograph.

An extremely powerful energy barrier was surrounding the Soul Telautograph.

But Taruhol didn’t give up as he continued to smash it.

Since it wasn’t impregnable despite its strength.

At that moment.

Taruhol was surprised as he looked up.

Kiiiiiiing

The moment he smashed the wall with his energy, the ceiling located right beneath the holy land made strange noises as it opened up.

Along with a sound of something activating.

Kiiiingg

Taruhol unconsciously cursed out loud after seeing this.

“God fucking dammit…”

He didn’t know what was coming down within the energy barrier and the white steam.

But he knew just from its aura.

The thing that was coming down was extremely dangerous.

It wouldn’t be much of a problem if they fought it but they would get massacred since they were being pushed back by the Akadus already.

At that moment.

A single line of lightning smashed into the thing that was descending from the sky.

Booooooom!

“Uhhk?”

Taruhol looked towards where the lightning had come from.

It hadn’t come from within the Akarons but from the tunnels that they came in from.

The spear which flew in through the tunnel cut through the skies and smashed into the thing within the steam.

Kiruk?

At the same time 12 golden beams exploded out from the steam.

Towards where the spear came from.

***

Kiiiiiiiing!

A sound of something approaching them at a tremendous speed could be heard.

“What the hell have you just…”

As Rong Wian made a nervous expression at the thing approaching them, Hansoo laughed quietly.

“If you don’t want to do your part then I will make you do it forcibly.”

“What…?”

The moment Rong Wian was about to reply to those words.

Kwaaajijijik!

Something flew in from the tunnels as it turned six people into minced meat.

The people who had been charging towards it freaked out as they stopped in place.

“What! Fucking hell! What the hell is this!”

The bright golden existence which had flown from across the tunnel started to turn everyone into minced meat.

Kwajijik

Kwajik

“Uaaaak!”

“Aahhhhh!”

It was so fast that they couldn’t even see it.

But as their eyes got used to it, they could see what it was.

A similar look as the one of the silver Tiradus from the outside.

But its color and size was different.

12 golden Akadus that towered 5m tall.

Ooooonggg

“God fucking damnit!”

The adventurers started to madly attack the Akadus flying towards them but it was useless.

They were getting hunted down one by one.

Rong Wian shouted out in fury from this scene.

“You crazy bastard! Why did you bring this thing here? Are you still human! Everyone here is going to die because of you!”

If he had left it then it would’ve attacked the Akarons.

But he had purposely brought it here.

In order to make them fight it instead.

Hansoo coldy mumbled.

“This is a better choice than a failure.”

“What?”

Hansoo thought of the past.

They had thought of a lot of things and voiced their opinions to each other.

Eres, Kangtae, Keldian and his opinions were all different.

Eres always wanted to save people as long as they weren’t completely insane.

Since humans could change.

Keldian wanted to kill everyone who even had a possibility of coming in his way.

Quite similar to how Eres thought, since Keldian also thought that humans could change at any moment.

Kangtae would cut off their necks if they got in his way but would usually leave them be and not care about them.

Hansoo was in between Keldian and Kangtae but respected Eres’ opinion since his goal was saving the human race.

And he was also seeing the positive sides of the humans.

Hansoo thought of the report of the young Tekilon, who was ruling over the Red Zone.

But this was really the limit.

‘Eres, it seems like you were a bit wrong. This place… doesn’t have that much leisure.’

What if they were to fail because of this? All of them might die just because he tried to save a thousand lives.

No, for success he was willing to sacrifice tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people.

His thoughts, which were usually in line with with Eres’ ideals, jumped across Kangtae and reached Keldian’s level.

‘Change the benchmark. The ones who would go up and fight along with us in the Abyss… Will only be those who deserve to live.’

If these guys had fought with him then they would’ve been able to decrease the amount of casualties and acquire the Crown of Thorns together.

But since these guys refused, this was the only option to acquire the Crown of thorns.

By distracting the final guardian of the Crown of Thorns, the 12 golden guards.

“Uaaaaak!”

“Aaaaak!”

Hansoo heard the screams that were ringing from all around him as he threw them away as bait and discreetly flew back towards the Crown of Thorns.

***

“Damnit! It became even harder because of those bastards!”

Gwanje clenched onto his teeth as he looked at the Akadus that were charging from all directions.

They emptiness of those who had ran away could not feel any heavier than this.

‘Damnit… I want to run away too.’

He wanted to get away from this damned place along with his wife.

Most humans would die from the silver Akadus but people at his level would survive.

No, most of the Margoth levels were probably thinking this.

If they are able to escape her and hide then they would be able to find the portal by eating the corpses of the dead humans.

They could definitely survive with their power levels.

But what about after that?

Gwanje thought of his wife.

‘Fuck…I cannot let my wife live such a life.’

Living like a scumbag was enough for himself.

‘Hansoo you fucking bastard. Hurry the hell up.’

That guy would only survive if he and the others held on here.

Gwanje thought of the bigger picture that Hansoo was drawing as he clenched his teeth and smashed the Akadus that was charging towards him.

At that moment.

Kidududududu

A sudden sound rang throughout the battlefield as all of the Akadus suddenly stopped moving.

‘They succeeded…!!’

Gwanje made a joyful expression as he crumpled onto the ground in a sitting position.

“Hoooh…God damn. That was hard as hell.”

Gwanje muttered as he looked at the silver Akadus that had fallen in front of him.