Chapter 344. Refinement (3)

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-Boom!-

Countless pillars of flames fell down from the sky and smashed into the ground.

-Boooom! Booooom!-

The few pieces of scrap and rubble left behind immediately evaporated into gas.

They didn’t even liquify and instead had immediately turned into gas.

‘Oh my god.’

Jack was in a daze as he stared at the super dense materials disappearing into nothing.

The materials didn’t even get hit directly yet.

-Boom! Boom! Boom!-

Tens of thousands of attacks were flying towards them, but the Nelkipa was so huge that those attacks had quite a distance between them before they struck down.

But the issue lay somewhere else.

“Won’t we all die at this rate?”

-Roaaarr!-

Jack shouted, listening to the giant roars of Nelkipa.

Even if they didn’t get hit by those attacks, would it matter?

If this giant lifeform they were all standing on melted down, they would follow suit.

Since they’d end up lost in space.

And looking at the tens of thousands of attacks that were striking at them, that was actually a possibility.

Even if the lifeform was the size of a moon, the attacks striking at them seemed to have the power to do so.

But Hansoo just pointed towards the ground below.

“Look below.”

“…?”

And as Jack looked down, he couldn’t believe his eyes.

‘No way…’

-Ssssss-

Beneath the melting and evaporating city.

A bright land appeared.

Well, the bright skin of the lifeform they were on; the Nelkipa’s back.

-Boom! Booom!-

Although countless pillars of flames were striking down at the ground, the Nelkipa’s skin seemed to be fine.

‘Wha… What?’

Kiriel was at a loss.

Nelkipa’s skin should not be able to withstand such a powerful attack.

He knew this because the excavation center he had been living in was tasked with the job of digging into Nelkipa’s skin.

He hadn’t known it was the skin back then, but because it consisted of metals and ores, he knew that even ordinary people like him could melt it down.

Although the skin had grown increasingly harder the deeper they dug, they had managed to dig through the surface so it should’ve melted down at least.

Jack focused his eyes on this strange sight, and then soon realized why the Nelkipa’s bright skin could resist the attacks.

‘That…’

The bright blue layers, which they had believed to be veins of ore, were transforming.

Resembling crystals or diamonds.

-Boom!-

As another attack smashed into the surface of Nelkipa, the several hundred meters of skin started to turn bright and shiny.

It then dispersed, absorbed, and deflected almost every bit of the remaining fire.

Like a drop of rain hitting an umbrella and sliding down, the countless pillars of flame could not penetrate into Nelkipa’s skin and instead spread back into space.

“Ah…”

“This is why Melchizedek wanted it.”

-Boom! Boooom!-

Hansoo replied expressionlessly beside them as they watched the attacks raining down from above.

Melchizedek wasn’t stupid.

It wouldn’t start a war that it had no chances of winning against.

Just Angkara’s attacks alone weren’t enough to stop Nelkipa.

Kiriel looked confused as she asked Hansoo:

“Who… made this?”

She’d initially thought that this might be a natural born creature, but her thoughts had now changed.

Looking at everything from the cannons and the marks on the skin, it was clear that somebody had built this artificially.

Hansoo shrugged his shoulders at her words.

“How would I know?”

-Rumble! Rummmble!-

If they’d made this at the main planet, Angkara, they would have never set up an excavation center in the first place.

Since there would’ve been no reason for the colony to investigate something they had made themselves.

Of course, that wasn’t the important thing in the current situation.

-Boom! Boom!-

Hansoo looked at the raining attacks as he said:

“Let’s go.”

“… Where?”

Jack replied with a heavy voice amidst the thundering booms.

Where could they go in this current situation?

Hansoo replied,

“To the research center. As per our original plan.”

This giant creature, Nelkipa, was headed for the main planet <Angkara>.

Under Melchizedek’s control.

If they left it alone, then it would definitely reach the <Angkara> and land on the planet.

Then the true war would begin.

Between the slowly accumulated forces of Melchizedek on the Nelkipa, and the race of Angkara who’d been tempered by countless battles and wars.

‘I cannot let that happen.’

Hansoo thought to himself.

He could not.

The 5th zone would become a true sea of flames at that point.

Something much worse than this.

This was just the beginning.

This was not the most powerful attack that Angkara could send out.

It was just the fastest and easiest method of attack, which is why they’d activated it the moment Nelkipa started to move.

He needed to act before the war became more serious and more powerful weapons came into play.

He needed to take control of this giant monster.

And the easiest method was…

‘Catching Melchizedek.’

Melchizedek’s underlings were the ones that actually fought.

Which meant Melchizedek should be at the topmost or the bottommost floor.

‘Hostages have traditionally been proven to be useful.’

Since he didn’t have the strength to go to the actual control center yet, this was the next best option.

But there were clearly a few people who did not agree with him.

“What? Are you crazy? You don’t even know if there’s anything still there.”

“Damn! Shouldn’t we be heading to the elevator instead?”

Jack and the others who had followed Hansoo shouted in objection.

How would they know if anything remained of the research center?

It should’ve been turned into a pile of dust by now.

But Hansoo only chuckled at them.

“I never told to you follow me, right? And the research center should be fine.”

“What?”

Before they could continue…

“I’m leaving. Let’s go Kiriel.”

“Yes.”

… Hansoo loosened his hand and fell down to the ground a few kilometers beneath them.

-Boom!-

“Crazy bas…”

As Jack was at a loss watching Hansoo and Kiriel falling down, one of the people who’d followed Jack asked from behind,

“What shall we do now?”

Whether they went to the elevator or followed them, going down was the first priority.

Of course, he still had questions.

‘The research center should be fine? What did he mean by that?’

But Jack soon pushed away that thought as he focused on getting back down to the ground.

***

-Booom! Booooooom!-

“Ugh… Everyone focus on using ice-type skills and movement-type skills!”

Jack shouted out.

The moment they returned to the ground, a blazing degree of heat smacked them right on their bodies.

The metallic steam threatened to scorch their lungs, and the heat deflected from Nelkipa’s bright skin threatened to cook the soles of their shoes.

Of course, the attacks hadn’t stopped either.

-Rummble-

Jack watched the line of fire, calculated its trajectory and then shouted:

“Dodge!”

As soon as he shouted out, everyone activated their movement skills to the max and started to run away from their current positions.

And as they escaped…

-Booooooom!-

… The area surrounding their previous location had turned into a sea of fire several hundred meters wide.

From the giant pillar of fire that had come down from the sky.

-Chiiiii-

Despite dodging the fire, another wave of heat blasted down on their faces, so strong that it had almost destroyed their defensive skills.

Jack started to frown.

‘Damn. Thank god it moves in a straight line.’

It was an extremely fast attack, but due to the sheer distance of its origin, one could easily predict where it would land.

If they couldn’t, then they would be roasted whole by now.

‘This… This would even destroy the robots as well. Should we just run to the elevator?’

Jack mumbled as he measured the heat on the ground.

They wouldn’t melt down from this heat, but these attacks were not something those robots could withstand.

Which meant that even their tiny group would be able to get past the robots and reach the elevator.

‘But… What do we do after we go up?’

This giant Nelkipa was the entire 5th zone.

Even if they went up a floor, it was still above the Nelkipa.

They wouldn’t be able to dodge the flames anyway.

And more than anything else, he could not give up on Kiriel.

‘Where did they even go?’

Jack, completely bewitched by Kiriel, looked around to try and guess which direction she had gone.

-Boooom!-

-Clang!-

At that moment, they could hear the sounds of clashes in the distance.

‘There!’

As Jack subconsciously followed the sound…

“Huh? You followed us?”

… A voice could be heard through the metallic steam clouds.

‘Woah.’

Jack was shocked because he was still some distance away from the location of the sound.

He had thought that they’d be fighting together.

He saw that Kiriel was staring into the distance as if enchanted.

‘What is she looking at?’

-Boom! Boooom!-

Something was fighting against something else and causing a huge ruckus.

‘Who is he fighting with?’

The metallic steam and the powerful shock waves had turned the surrounding air hazy.

It was clear that the silhouette swinging the hammer around was Hansoo, but he could not identify the other being that Hansoo was fighting against.

Then-

-Booooom!-

‘Fuck…!’

Jack freaked out at the pillar of flame that was aiming straight at them.

And shockingly, three of those pillars combined with one another, and their range had increased to the entire surroundings in its area.

At this rate, that attack would hit everyone here.

‘Damn, we have to dodge.’

“Hey! Mr. Hansoo! Dodge it!”

-Boom! Boooom!-

He shouted at Hansoo, who was still fighting within the metallic steam, but Hansoo didn’t seem to hear as he continued to focus on attacking his opponent.

‘Damn…’

He had shouted to help, but there was no way for him to drag Hansoo out forcibly.

Of course, he didn’t want to do it either.

He then grabbed Kiriel’s wrist and pulled her back.

“Please! We have to move!”

And as if she understood his words, she moved back and out of range as well.

Jack’s expression brightened up.

To him, it seemed like she had given Hansoo up.

‘Good.’

And as they all escaped the range of the attack…

-Boooooom!-

… A giant pillar of flame crashed down from the sky, followed by blazing waves of heat that swept over them.

Jack inwardly sighed in relief as he looked at the scene since Hansoo should’ve been hit directly by it.

‘Good. This is… for the better.’

It was sad that Hansoo had died that way, but this was good.

Since it wouldn’t be good for him to follow that dumb bastard who’d insisted on going to the research center in a situation like this.

If Hansoo had died, then Kiriel wouldn’t have anyone to rely on. He just needed to seduce her well and then take her up.

-Tatata-

As Jack thought to himself…

“Damn it…”

“…?”

… Kiriel’s small words made Jack’s eyes move towards the place where the flame pillar had been. She was still staring at the exact spot she had been in.

And he freaked out.

‘No way…’

Amidst the sea of flames, something was continuously regenerating and burning up as it stood up.

With a more powerful and condensed aura than before.

Like a blade that had been retempered and refined again.

As Jack saw this scene, chills ran down his entire back.

‘He… He didn’t dodge on purpose. That insane bastard.’

Was that something a sane person would do?

Jack continued to stare, at a loss for words.