Chapter 331. The Grand Scheme (4)

“Annoying. Seriously.”

Hansoo chuckled as he looked at the monster going through a metamorphosis in front of him.

-Crunch-

-Squirm-

The Ark-Roa’s shape was changing at a rapid pace.

Into the familiar look of that woman from the past.

-Crunch, Crunch-

And soon, a very calming voice came out from the Ark-Roa’s mouth.

“Success.”

Hansoo mumbled at the monster that looked and sounded like Taehee.

“A beast controlled by a soul fragment…”

‘Ingenious.’

A soul fragment could only be implanted into a human.

To let the Ark-Roa devour a being controlled by a soul fragment, and then controlling it.

Of course, if it were as simple as that, then Hansoo wouldn’t have been so shocked.

-Squirm-

Taehee, in control of the Arc-Roa’s body, smiled softly at Hansoo.

“Well, there’s still a few things to swap around, but… it looks like it succeeded. Well, anyway, I’m very thankful to you, Mr. Hansoo.”

-Sssss-

Taehee continued to speak, all while making strange noises from various parts of her body.

“Our actual plan isn’t for the annihilation of humankind. We just want <Omnipotent> strength to control them.”

A perfect system using the soul fragment, the Lord trait, and other traits which allowed for perfect control.

The sad part was the low amount of people with such traits, which led to a low amount of people who could serve under them.

Though a normal person would decide to kill off everyone in case of potential dangers, but Clementine was not a normal person.

“You should understand us more than anybody else, since… you wouldn’t have tried so hard to suppress us if you didn’t.”

They, and Hansoo, only wanted one thing.

— A strength that was perfectly controlled.

So they had asked him two years ago.

To join them.

“So? You still want me to join you?”

Taehee nodded.

“You caused the world to collapse, right? We know why you did it. You either didn’t know what would happen if everybody’s strength was limited by hat wall or maybe you wanted more strength.”

No one could control billions of people.

But controlling the few transcendents that were born from those people was much more manageable.

Even more so if the controllers were much stronger than the ones being controlled.

“Join us.”

‘Since you are someone even we would want.’

Taehee muttered quietly at Hansoo.

This was the truth.

There was a reason why they had delayed their plans so much.

She was the one that had been against Kael avenging Jang Oh and releasing the Ark-Roa.

Of course, if the Ark-Roa had been released much earlier, they would’ve found Hansoo much earlier as well.

Burying Hansoo, who had been fully capable of controlling the lower zones, something which even they decided was too difficult and had given up on, was too much of a waste.

During these two years, there had been a lot of people as strong as Hansoo.

But even after two years, they had not seen anyone like Kang Hansoo.

‘Other than Clementine.’

Taehee continued to speak to Hansoo.

“How about it? Join us. If you join us, then we have no more reason to fight.”

Hansoo nodded.

“There’s nothing bad about it.”

Taehee’s expression brightened.

A powerful ally was valuable.

They had experienced this already.

Though he’d woken up after two years and the world had changed, the benefits they would gain if Hansoo stood by their side was not something that could easily be measured.

Since a tiger wouldn’t become a cat just because it had woken up from a deep sleep.

And if they could gain the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd zone that Hansoo controlled?

Nothing more was needed.

“Good. Really good…”

“But I have a condition.”

Taehee stopped for a moment but then nodded as she spoke.

They never expected him to accept that easily anyway.

And they had the capacity to accept all sorts of conditions.

“Speak.”

“You guys said this before, that you wanted to control each other completely.”

The more power they had, the better.

That’s why they were performing countless experiments in the upper 3 zones.

Like controlling the Ark-Roa with the soul fragment here at the 4th zone.

But there was one idea that they believed in.

— A power that cannot be controlled is not needed.

So they focused more on controlling strength rather than raising it.

The Ark-Roa experiment looked quite simple, but it had taken a year and hundreds of experiments conducted in the zones above.

But Hansoo only chuckled.

“Sadly, me too. My only condition is for you guys to serve beneath me. If you can agree to that, then I will join you at any time.”

Taehee’s expression turned ugly at Hansoo’s words.

“I didn’t know you were this greedy. Do you know how much difference there is between us…?”

Hansoo had eaten zones 1, 2, and 3 below.

But they had control of zones 5, 6, and 7 above.

Though the amount was the same, the difference in strength was too vast.

They were offering an alliance, but it wasn’t for equal terms.

It was because of the potential of the three zones Hansoo had below.

But Hansoo chuckled.

“Yeah? Then what were you going to do if I agreed to your proposal today?”

“Of course…”

Taehee frowned.

They would implant the soul fragment into Hansoo.

The experiment had succeeded, and Hansoo was countless times more precious than one Ark-Roa anyway.

But they would need to completely <Control> Hansoo.

And Hansoo would not agree to such a thing.

Since Hansoo also wanted strength that was under his control.

Taehee finally understood Clementine’s words.

— Well. Ask him if you want to, but… he probably won’t agree with you.

She assumed he would agree since they had similar thoughts.

But her thoughts were wrong.

Someone who wanted to be in complete command was a control freak.

Just like Clementine.

There was no way two people who needed to be the head would ally themselves.

Even more so if they had a lot of pride.

Hansoo continued to speak.

“And if you wanted an alliance, couldn’t you have just said it before? Why were you hurrying to fuse with the Ark-Roa?”

Taehee stopped short.

She’d wanted to talk about the alliance first.

But the reason why she’d fused with the Ark-Roa was because of Clementine.

— Right. If you go down, fuse with the ark-roa first.

She now knew why Clementine had told her to.

Hansoo smiled coldly.

“Were you going to smash me apart and force me to accept if I declined?”

This damned world.

The most important thing wasn’t ambition, but rather the strength to back it up.

The strength to smash apart their opponents’ ambitions.

Taehee smiled as she said:

“Yes… that seems to be the case.”

“Since you guys are different from me.”

Then-

-Booooom!-

Tremendous amounts of energy exploded out from Hansoo and smashed into the Ark-Roa.

Though it was sudden, Taehee had expected it the moment their conversation had ended, and had been able to block it.

There was a limit to a soul fragment’s durability.

But it didn’t matter.

Since it was useless for them to talk further.

Her opponent would need to become a bit more… weak… to continue their discussion.

-Rummble!-

“Good! We now know that you won’t be controlled by us. That means… you don’t care about those coming up from below, right?”

She should have threatened him like this from the start.

Taehee smiled as she muttered:

‘We’ll come back to you in a bit. Will your thoughts be the same even then?’

-Swoooosh!-

Taehee’s consciousness started to fade away from inside the Ark-Roa’s body.

“GRR… GRAAAAAARRR!”

A huge roar echoed out from the Ark-Roa which had just regained its body.

It may have lost its control, but it still remembered.

Remembered everything that had happened.

It should have been roaming around the Abyss, but instead, it had been shackled down by a trick.

It would never be able to escape from these shackles now.

Since the fragment that had been embedded into its soul could still suppress and control it.

Its rage was then directed at the person in front of it.

“Fucking… Fucking humans! Kill… Kill them all!”

Its improved intellect had searched through its brain for a fitting word, but it was being blinded by rage.

-Booom!-

Strength exploded out from the Ark-Roa.

Strength that was dimensions apart from its greatly weakened state from mere moments ago.

‘… Well. It devoured an entire 2 star transcendent, makes a lot of sense.’

Hansoo defended against the attack, and as he was preparing to defend the next one by raising his spear…

-Boooom!-

… Something quickly flew in from the distance and smashed into the Ark-Roa’s side.

‘A flail?’

Then-

-Tatatata!-

Swiftly flying from the same location, a human landed next to him and said:

“I came to help.”

A pleasant attitude and voice, as well as having a lot of strength.

Receiving such aid was always nice in a situation like this.

If he could trust her, of course.

Hansoo spoke out coldly.

“I don’t think I’ll need it.”

‘One of the twelve, huh?’

Why had he declined Clementine?

Because he didn’t trust powerhouses whose limits had been broken.

Even more so if she was one of the twelve, which had flipped the 4th zone upside down.

Since she had been able to hide up until now, she seemed to have a few tricks up her sleeve. But that was it.

-Sssss-

Red smoke rose up from his hand.

‘One’s already hard to deal with, but two… wait… I feel like I’ve seen her before.’

Hansoo frowned.

Then-

— I will always follow you, Mister.

A long-lost memory rose up from his mind.

“… Kiriel.”

And as Hansoo unconsciously mumbled…

“Ho… How do you know my name?”

Athena asked in shock.