Chapter 89. Ouroboros (5)

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Hansoo frowned while looking at the thrashing Ouroboros.

Uduk. Udududuk.

As it thrashed around, the outer shell layer of the World Tree’s Pillar area was being broken off without stopping.

Kuuuu

Hansoo clenched his teeth as he saw the fragments dropping down like meteors.

‘I need to plan things out quickly.’

Hansoo stabilized his breath as he saw the Seven Departed Souls flying in from the distance.

The plan of pairing up to take down four of the nerves wouldn’t work anymore.

Since the body’s thrashing had gotten quite aggressive as well as the outer and inner scales were gathering up above the nerves like waves.

The eight of them needed to gather, block the bladelike scale waves from all around and at the same time combine their strength to burn down the nerve in one go and then continue to the next one.

Boooom!

Hansoo, who had thrown out Ekidrang’s Relic, the Seven Star Marbles, in all directions in order to create footholds for the Seven Departed Souls, started to crazily Assault the scales charging towards them.

And the Seven Departed Souls flew in at a extreme speed around Hansoo.

***

Booom!

Miyamoto, who had used a skill to deflect the bladelike scale waves, checked over Hansoo who was crazily smashing down at the scales in the distance.

Not only Hansoo but the other Departed Souls were faithfully burning off the scales on the back of the Ouroboros and at the same time gnawing down on the nerves.

Catch their body on the marbles if the thrashing of the Ouroboros got intense and then go back down to attack, repeat process.

Miyamoto mumbled inwardly.

‘He’s amazing.’

They were throwing down attacks hundreds of meters apart from each other.

They had no leisure to look after each other since they were already busy enough dodging the storm like attacks of the Ouroboros.

But that guy was constantly resupplying the marbles and relics and helping them fight.

He was accomplishing a feat which was impossible without having the movements of all Seven Departed Souls who were hundreds of meters apart and the whip-like Ouroboros within his head and dissecting it.

They had already destroyed two nerves and were in the process of destroying the third.

If they smash this down then only one will remain.

Somebody else watching this might think that it’s going well but Miyamoto’s expression wasn’t that good.

‘Damnit.’

Miyamoto’s plan was simple.

While Hansoo was busy fighting against the Ouroboros, use Sofía, who was the weakest and easiest member to control, to attack.

It was easier to catch Hansoo off guard since she had known him longer in comparison to the other Departed Souls.

Make him unable to battle, take the relics and then run away after opening the Dimensional Portal.

But Miyamoto’s plan wasn’t really working out very well.

‘Why are there no open spots being created?’

He knew that Hansoo had his guard up against him

And because of this Miyamoto was attacking the nerve from as far away as possible from Hansoo.

So Hansoo would feel at ease.

At a distance where Hansoo wouldn’t feel threatened even if he were to launch a sneak attack.

It wasn’t that hard since the nerve itself was so big.

But Hansoo was constantly checking on Sofía and the other Six Departed Souls and moving around.

An open spot wasn’t being created despite him smashing apart the giant scales and utilizing a huge amount of energy.

Miyamoto clenched his teeth.

At this rate they’ll be able to kill the Ouroboros and he’ll lose the chance to obtain the relic.

Of course somebody could ask something like this.

— Wouldn’t it better for you if the Ouroboros died since it will become safer?

But Miyamoto knew.

That the army of the fifth calamity <Wasp Legion>, located at the top side of the Pillar, existed.

Which meant that this wasn’t the end.

‘That bastard would probably want to kill that thing too.’

And he felt a huge amount of greed towards those relics.

A production of a small sun-like amount of mana.

He would be able to act like a king in the next stage with those things.

‘If there aren’t chances… I just need to make them.’

He was strangely keeping an eye on Sofía more.

He didn’t know whether it was love, interest or just curiosity.

They hadn’t seen each other long enough for such things to bud.

‘Well. She is a bit pretty.’

It didn’t matter which one of those above things it was.

The important part was that he was keeping an eye on it.

That was enough.

And according to the intel Jukma gave him, he took care of people that he fought with.

Miyamoto started to focus on the soul fragment.

***

Sofía caught her breath on top of the floating marbles and looked at Hansoo fighting in the distance.

‘He’s strangely paying more attention to me.’

His actions proved it even without words.

She could tell just from the precise controls of the marbles he had given to her.

That he was paying more attention to her.

At first her pride plummeted because she had thought that he was doing this because she was weaker than the other six but after observing for a while it seems like that wasn’t the case.

Since the movements of the marbles told her that he had complete trust of her.

‘It feels weird.’

Sofía, who had making a confused expression, shook off her thoughts and then started to focus.

Since she could just ask things she was curious about after.

Sway

Sofía, who was focusing in order to use her skill <triple freezing life jade orbs> which she had the most pride in, was greatly shocked when suddenly her body refused to listen to her orders.

“…Uh?”

A feeling of her whole body’s controls getting taken over.

She quickly looked at the other people just in case it was an attack from the Ouroboros but they didn’t have anything wrong with them.

‘Goddamnit… What is this!’

She tried her best in order to control herself but even her consciousness was fading as if it was making fun of that effort.

At that time the giant body of the Ouroboros flew in like a giant’s arm towards Sofía.

Kuuuuuuu!

‘God..Damnit…’

The marbles tried to get away with her body but it was fruitless.

Since the marbles were at most a help to her movements.

If Sofía didn’t move herself then she wouldn’t be able to get out of the attack range with just her body.

‘I’m dying in such a vain… I wonder if there won’t be pain.’

Sofía closed her eyes after mumbling in her almost disappeared conscious.

And in the final sight of Sofía, somebody rushing towards her could be seen.

***

‘This guy. To go this far. It’ll be trouble if she dies!’

Hansoo grinded his teeth while rushing towards the falling Sofía in the distance.

Then he started to ponder.

‘Shall I clean it up?’

Killing the Ouroboros was now possible even without Miyamoto.

And Miyamoto’s hostility towards him was beyond his expectations.

‘This lame bastard. You got rotten after 20 years of peace.’

He never expected that this guy would act like such a coward.

A person who had been acting like a King of the Red Zone for 20 years.

And the skills to match that.

He had thought that Miyamoto would show a look befitting that, and in fact didn’t gain much harm from fighting the Ouroboros, but for him to go this far.

Hansoo’s expression turned cold.

‘Clean it up.’

At this rate it was more of a disturbance than help.

But he had to save Sofía first.

Hansoo stepped off the marbles at an extreme speed and then caught Sofía.

He then hugged her and then raised his mana reinforcement to the limit.

‘It’s too late to dodge!’

And the giant body of the Ouroboros smashed into them like a whip.

Booom!

‘Kuhuk!’

Hansoo clenched his teeth at the force which made his whole body feel like it was getting smashed.

Hansoo’s body, which had been hit like a baseball being hit by a bat, started to rush towards the ground at an extreme speed.

Hoooong

Ekidrang’s marble rushed towards Hansoo very quickly.

Kigigigik

Hansoo used those marbles to reduce his speed in air and tried to catch his balance in air.

Since he will receive even more damage if he were to crash onto the ground like this.

At that moment the unconscious Sofía opened her eyes in Hansoo’s embrace.

And then laughed while looking at Hansoo hugging him.

With a completely different eye than before.

Kiiiing

Sofía started up the <triple freezing life jade orbs> again under Miyamoto’s orders.

‘Gullible bastard.’

It might be different from afar but if she were to attack from this distance then it’ll end just like that.

And even more so if he had been hit by the Ouroboros.

But the moment Miyamoto tried to laugh with Sofía’s face, a hand grasped Sofía’s wrist.

Kiiing

And because of this the jade-colored marble that was being made inside Sofía’s hand disappeared before it could even activate.

Miyamoto, who was controlling Sofía from the distance, spat out a sound at unconsciously at the sudden unexpected event.

“Uk?”

Miyamoto quickly tried to look at Hansoo but the sight of Sofía he was controlling started to quickly fade away.

‘What… What just happened…’

Miyamoto made a flustered face after being disconnected.

At the same time a chill ran down his back.

‘…No way.’

The reason why he had acted so drastically was in large part because he wasn’t worried about getting caught.

Since he just could just blame it on Sofía.

How would Hansoo know that it was his doing?

But the danger he felt run down his back told him.

There was no way that a threatening feeling from the Ouroboros would come at this time.

‘I’ve been caught.’

He didn’t know how he found out or what the evidence was.

But the important fact was that Hansoo was now targeting him.

‘Damnit. What do I do. What do I do…’

It felt like Hansoo would come rushing up from below at any moment.

He thought of controlling the other five Departed Souls and having a go at it but then he would need to get in danger.

Miyamoto made his decision in a short moment.

‘Run away. Then look for a chance from the distance.’

There’s no way that this crazy guy will slash down the sinless six Departed Souls.

He just needed to hide deep within the World Tree and then wait until everything finishes.

If he were to hide in this vast World Tree Mountain Range then how would that guy find him?

If that guy was planning to kill the Wasp Legion then he would be able to look for another chance with the Departed Souls.

‘Damnit. This is miserable.’

But Miyamoto’s theory was the same as always.

The one surviving is the stronger one.

Miyamoto pulled out his final card, the feather.

Not a fragment but a whole leaf.

He would be able to go anywhere with this.

Crumple

Soon Miyamoto’s body got covered with a bright light and started to disappear.

***

‘Huh.’

Hansoo swirled his tongue around at the guy who used the feather when he merely just broke the trait with Nurmaha’s Ring.

Maybe it was because he valued safety over anything but his ability to sense danger was beyond everyone else.

He was going to ignore it and look for a chance to clean up so he didn’t show anything but that guy had decided to run as soon as things didn’t work out according to his plan.

‘You didn’t spend 20 years in vain huh.’

Hansoo applauded Miyamoto as he ran away.

The way he ran was amazing as well.

An unstable World Tree leaf, <feather>, had a short teleportation range and the location was random also.

But from the light surrounding his body, it seemed like he had quite an intact leaf.

With that then he could probably run away to anywhere in the World Tree Mountain Range.

It seems like he was going to wait until the Dimensional Door opened in a safe place.

But there was something that guy didn’t know.

That when you become the Administrator of the World Tree, it wasn’t hard to find someone who had Miyamoto’s level of power.

Which meant if he wanted to hide then he had to get to a place that even Hansoo had trouble getting to.

‘I shall help you a bit. So your feather wouldn’t go to waste.’

Hansoo lightly laughed and then started to raise up the relic’s mana code.

Soon the cross on his forehead started to shine.

— Change setting of the teleportation coordinates.

At those words the World Tree, which was the reason of the teleportation power, started to change the coordinates of the teleportation.

And soon Miyamoto’s body disappeared within the light.

***

Hoooong.

Miyamoto looked at his surroundings after coming out from the light.

The place he had chosen to run away was the sanctuary he had created in the end of the World Tree just in case of an unexpected event.

But Miyamoto realized that something was wrong.

A cold wind blew past his face.

Only white clouds could be seen around him instead of the underground sanctuary.

‘This is… Branch?’

Miyamoto spat out a puzzled sound after checking beneath his feet.

An extremely thick branch of the World Tree that felt like the ground.

But the problem wasn’t that.

Bzzzzzzzzzz

Rapid beatings of wings.

And they weren’t just coming from one location.

A loud noise was coming out from all around the clouds around him.

‘Goddamnit… The Wasp Legion!’

A place where not even a Red Zone adventurer who came to the Branches for artifacts set their foot into.

Miyamoto’s expression got covered in fear.

“Kuaaaaaak!”

And soon the huge wing-beating sounds started to resonate from around Miyamoto.

***

‘I’ll come to take the things you have later.’

Hansoo coldly looked into the location in the sky and then jumped back into the Ouroboros.

Since there weren’t any more disturbances, he just needed to smash one more Nerve.

‘Anyways… Why is the clone controlling it like this?’

There’s no way that this guy would stay quiet like this.

Hansoo stopped rushing in and gazed at the Skull of the Ouroboros where the clone would be.