Chapter 250. Power (1)

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Tatatatak.

Einchel panted and cursed inside her mind while running.

‘Fuck! Melting down the entire maze to go down! Isn’t this cheating?’

Surprisingly, Arthus Krancheska was doing something that was unbelievable.

He had felt that it was a waste of time to look for the three portals that would lead him from the 1st to the 4th floor and had started to just melt down the ground under him.

From what she knew, there were hundreds of meters of land between the floors which meant that Arthus was melting through kilometers worth of hard granite to reach them.

Einchel shouted.

“Fuck! Is that supposed to melt down so easily? Why did we use the portal instead of creating a passage like that?!”

The Ain replied kindly.

“It’s not that we haven’t but that we couldn’t.”

The Great Seal.

It wasn’t a trap to hold down moles, would they have set it up in a way that could be dug through?

The Great Seal which used the mana node amplified the strength of the granite to the extreme and supplied it with a tremendous amount of regenerative powers.

It would regenerate very quickly even if it was destroyed.

It would be possible to go through it if one poured more energy than the mana node into it but no living creature could do such a thing.

Whether they were a Great General, a monster of the Empire or even the Ains.

Going through the granite with brute strength was an impossible feat up until now.

The seal even locked the space so teleporting through it was impossible so they could only use the portals.

But the situation was now different.

The seal had been destroyed and there was no more energy flowing in from the mana node into the maze.

It was possible to break it with strength now.

One of the adventurers shouted from behind.

“Fuck! Can’t we dig a hole through as well then?”

The Ain made an amused expression at the man’s words.

“And if we go up from here? It’s the center of their territory. You want to go into the center of the War Fortress?”

“Ugh…”

The people running realized.

That they couldn’t go up.

The land above was a death zone where countless residents of the kingdoms and players were waiting for them to come out.

They needed to dig up after going out from under their territory at least.

‘The Ains are probably doing the same thing.’

Hansoo mumbled to himself.

Though the underground area of the maze was vast and wide, there was a limit to a structure.

It would be easy for the Ains if the maze reached all the way up to beneath the Spirit Land but sadly there was quite a distance between the edges of the maze and the Spirit Land.

And since the Kingdoms, who had created the maze, already knew this, they would move their forces that way as well.

The Ains would have to battle them while climbing up.

Toooooong!

“Uwaaaak! These bastards, why are they here…”

“Run away! It’s the bug players!”

Boooom!

Though the maze was wide, there were a lot of players as well.

There were a lot of players in their path and Hansoo turned them into golden light whenever he saw them.

‘Continue like this.’

Hansoo couldn’t suppress his worries and stole a glance at the lingering Ain.

Then somebody else behind them shouted.

“Fuck! How is that crazy bastard chasing us so well!”

Ibanoph shouted with an uneasy expression.

It was because it wasn’t only the mana that they could feel.

They could now even feel the intense heat pushing at them from behind them.

And despite having run so much, the heat only continued to rise.

The maze was extremely large, how was he chasing them so well?

The moment Einchel heard Ibanoph’s shouting.

She started to frown.

‘Wait…’

Einchel carefully asked Hansoo.

“Is he… Following that?”

Einchel pointed towards Hansoo’s hand.

Well, towards the God’s Flail in his hand.

Hansoo nodded at her words.

“Yep.”

“… You knew?”

Einchel was dumbfounded at Hansoo who replied confidently.

A calamity of a person was chasing them.

Straight at them.

But for Hansoo to still hold onto the object that that calamity was chasing.

‘Shouldn’t we throw it away?’

Einchel made a confused expression.

She understood that it was an amazing object.

But if Hansoo could win with it, he wouldn’t be running away like this.

Which meant that their opponent was someone who he would have a hard time dealing with even with the flail.

No matter how precious it was, it shouldn’t be more precious than his own life.

Then shouldn’t he throw it away?

With it, Hansoo was in a tremendous amount of danger.

Though they could hide, Hansoo would be chased until the end.

‘Fuck… Should I move out alone?’

She shouldn’t have such thoughts as Hansoo had helped them a lot but the tremendous amount of mana behind them was that vicious.

Heat that told them that they would burn no matter what if they got caught.

‘Fuck it. I still have loyalty.’

Einchel gave up running away and decided on the second choice.

To persuade Hansoo.

Einchel carefully asked Hansoo.

“Can’t you just leave it behind?”

Einchel got a reply instantly.

Not from one but two person.

“No.”

“No.”

The Ain and Hansoo replied at the same time.

If they left this behind and it got into the enemy’s hands, retrieving it was almost impossible.

Since they would have to go through their entire army, knights, defense brigade and their magic brigade.

So they couldn’t.

This was something that was very important for the future.

Einchel had nothing to say to both of their answers and cursed after a bit.

“Goddamit!”

One heard the prophecy and moved according to it.

The other had shown through action instead of words and hadn’t been wrong until now.

Both of them answering at the same time meant that it was a very important thing.

“… To run with this… Where are we going anyway?”

‘Fuck, they don’t seem like they’re going to give it up.’

Einchel muttered quietly.

If that object was such an important thing to them, it would be important to the other side as well.

Hansoo stopped suddenly at her words.

“Uhh? What? Why are you stopping?”

“We have to keep… What’s going on! Why did you stop?”

Everybody started to ask with uneasy expressions.

They needed to create as much distance as possible but Hansoo had actually stopped in place.

Hansoo looked around for a bit and then spoke.

“It doesn’t seem like he is going to give up. So we should fight.”

Arthus wouldn’t give up.

Which meant he needed to get rid of him before he becomes more of a nuisance.

‘This should be enough.’

If it was too close then it would be an issue.

Others would replace him and chase them again.

This is why he had run in the opposite direction of the Ains.

To get rid of the person chasing them at a distance where the others wouldn’t be able to sense it.

Hansoo touched the flail in his hand and made an amused expression.

He had obtained a shocking strength.

But before he could even see how powerful this strength was, a monstrosity had started to head their way.

‘Sheesh. They won’t even give me time to show off with this strength.’

Thinking about it, it has always been like this.

He ran, got stronger and faced an even stronger enemy.

‘Well. It’s the way it is.’

If he wanted to show off his strength then there was plenty of time to do so.

But he kept on losing that chance because of all the things he needed to do in a set amount of time.

While Hansoo laughed inwardly, everyone around him freaked out.

“Uh… Against that thing?”

Shocked phrases blurted out from the adventurers’ mouths.

***

Rummble.

The walls melted and the ceilings collapsed.

From the blazing tail that came out from the man’s body.

Arthus Krancheska, who had been breaking through the maze walls and was chasing the flail, stated to frown.

‘… Their movements stopped. Did they give up running away?’

Krancheska scoffed and shook his head.

Not possible.

There was a reason why he was releasing such a large amount of mana while chasing.

He was telling them to hurry and give up the flail.

Since they were quite smart, they would’ve understood by now.

‘It’s a pity that I can’t melt them all down but… I’ll just retrieve the flail and go.’

He wanted to burn everybody who broke the seal and ran away with the flail but the situation wasn’t quite great for him to let his emotions run amok.

The Ains and the army of Cykrus would’ve collided by now.

He needed to deal with the issue here and go back as quick as possible.

He needed to retrieve the most important thing, the flail, and go back.

‘But… I’ll definitely find you later and smash you one by one.’

Krancheska increased his speed after finishing his thoughts.

But after a bit of running, an unexpected scene happened.

“Huh?”

Two people were caught in his perception.

A human holding a flail.

And an Ain.

They were both very strong.

So strong that they couldn’t even be compared to the others.

This made him even madder.

These two remaining behind meant only one thing.

That they wanted to have a go.

‘Insolent, they dare to try and fight me?’

Krancheska’s eyebrows twitched.

Though they were busy, the flail was very important.

But they still sent him alone.

What did that mean?

It meant that he was more than enough.

But these guys had chosen to stay behind.

This was the same as looking down on him.

‘They dare?’

As he thought of that.

Arthus Krancheska’s pride was hurt as he let out an enraged shout.

“You fucking dog shit bastards!”

Though about eight hundreds bugs were out of sight, this didn’t matter.

Since they would burn up the moment they got close anyway.

‘Erase them in an instant.’

As he shouted out in rage.

Booooom!

The orb that was transplanted near Arthus Krancheska’s heart, <prison>, reacted to his rage.

The prison which would only get transplanted on the chosen.

The spirit of fire inside the orb, <Flame of Destruction>, squeezed out its power to the extreme.

Towards the two charging towards him.