It felt like he woke up from a deep slumber.
Sungchul opened his eyes and saw an unfamiliar ceiling, before he looked down at the messy room he had never seen before.
“Ugh… my head…”
Next to him was Soojin Lee who was groaning while holding her head, and tucked into her side was Bertelgia, wriggling to try and free herself from Ahmuge’s arm pits.
“Ey!”
Sungchul raised himself from the bed.
Though his head hurt with prickling pain, he tried to organize his thoughts on what he had just witnessed.
Sungchul’s eyes became wide open.
‘I see.’
There was no real memory left for him.
But one thing was clear despite his fuzzy memories.
That he had heard the voice of God.
“…”
Sungchul’s eyes that had been glazed over for so long finally glistened brightly with clear light.
“…”
Crack. Craack!
He massaged his neck and shoulders that had been still for so long before putting his feet down on the ground next to the bed.
But there was something on the ground.
Cling.
Something broke.
“Hmm?!”
Sungchul’s eyes were immediately wrinkled in horror.
It was because his heavy boots stepped on something and broke it.
And of all things, it was one of his few things he truly cherished, the neck of the golden ducky.
“Nooo…!”
He bent down to gingerly pick up the two pieces of his precious golden ducky and lifted them up with his palms up.
“Who’s responsible for this?!”
He immediately took a look around him.
Next to him were still Soojin, who was struggling to get a grip and Bertelgia next to her.
Sungchul discovered Ahmuge holding the Golden Key of Troimea in her hands.
‘This woman…!’
It wasn’t just the Golden Ducky that was rolling around the floor of the room. Doll that he had once gifted Criya, his side dishes, his box of spices that were worth far more than mere gold in their weight, were all rolling about the floor in disarray.
Sungchul barely restrained himself from grabbing her by the collar and lifting her up by her neck, and instead settled with pushing her head slightly with his finger.
“Kyaah!”
Ahmuge screamed out loud before falling backwards with Bertelgia in her embrace.
She hit the floor with the back of her head, but the warriors of this world have sturdy bodies.
“Ugyah!”
Bertelgia was also surprisingly sturdy herself.
She was originally fairly durable already, but she was wrapped in the Hand of the Ascendent, which nullified all damage to her.
Sungchul stood over the fallen Ahmuge with the atmosphere of the Grim Reaper.
“Why are you here? Explain yourself.”
Sungchul spoke calmly, but he did not contain his anger in his tone.
Ahmuge raised herself while rubbing the back of her head and noticed Sungchul glaring down upon her after the fact.
Even though she now understood this man a bit better, she had always been afraid of him her whole life.
Ahmuge completely froze up.
Just before his expression would have crumpled any further, the book in Ahmuge’s embrance escaped from her grasp and rose up like the phoenix.
“Wait! Let’s not have misunderstandings here!”
It was Bertelgia.
She wiggled out of the Hand of the Ascendent as she flew towards Sungchul.
“If not for this unnie, you would have been done for. Don’t you remember?”
“······.”
“…”
Sungchul crossed his arms and fell into thought.
He seemed to be having trouble remembering.
But he soon remembered most of it.
Especially once he recalled the part where Bertelgia showed up right before his transformations into the Black Giant and saved him, he couldn’t help but call out Bertelgia’s name.
“Bertelgia.”
She was now someone irreplaceable to him.
There was a bright and honest, undiluted smile on his lips.
“Hmm. It seems you finally recognize the greatness of I, Bertelgia.”
Bertelgia declared with the utmost confidence before she picked up some of the items off the floor before handing them to Sungchul.
“You know better than anyone that there’s no time to waste, right?”
“You’re right.”
Sungchul quickly got to work recovering his items Ahmuge dropped onto the floor and putting them back in his Soul Storage.
But he paused once he picked up the pieces of the Golden Ducky and stared at them for a moment. He put them away in his pocket instead.
‘I should repair them later.’
By the time Sungchul finished cleaning up, Ahmuge recovered enough of her wits to be functional again.
Sungchul and Ahmuge now stared at each other with completely different ideas about each other.
“…I decided to trust you.”
Ahmuge said before giving Bertelgia a wink.
“Oh my~”
Bertelgia exaggerated her response for fun.
“I am grateful that you would place your trust in me.”
Sungchul replied to Ahmuge in his characteristically calm tone.
His attitude or tone of voice had not changed in the slightest since when they had first met in the Summoning Palace, but now Ahmuge was able to tell.
That Sungchul who had been living like a tool back then was a completely different person to Sungchul who was standing before her now.
“I’ll stick around the vicinity for the foreseeable future, so call for me if you need help with something.”
Ahmuge handed Sungchul a whistle.
It was a whistle made of beautiful coral, but roughly cut.
Ahmuge let out a beaming smile as Sungchul accepted the whistle.
“I am fairly confident in my abilities in stealth and assassination.”
“I recognize at least your skill in stealth.”
Sungchul grinned as he placed the whistle around his neck.
What seemed like an impossible wall around his heart cracked with so little resistance.
Now there was something Sungchul must do.
He could feel it.
The heartbeat of the Ancient God echoing from afar that he could feel even before he even opened his eyes.
“…William.”
It was time to go meet the Emperor.
No, it was time to give him a good whack.
“The Emperor is currently completely alone with no hope of aid. The warlords of the Coalition have all turned their back on him, and even his most loyal officers are starting to desert him one by one. If you don’t quickly go back, he really might do something drastic like you saw in your dream.”
Ahmuge summerized the Emperor’s situation quickly.
Sungchul’s eyes glistened.
Sungchul opened his Soul Storage to seek out his divine artefact to reaffirm his resolve.
But it wasn’t there. His artifact Fal Garaz.
“Mmm? Where’s my hammer?”
Sungchul, who had wanted to use his god-like power on the hammer, asked.
“That… it’s been lost.”
Bertlegia shook and answered bluntly.
“What…?”
Sungchul’s eyes were trembling.
“The Fal Garaz is being kept by the Coalition forces.”
Ahmuge answered from the side.
Sungchul looked to the side in surprise.
Ahmuge continued.
“Fal Garaz was recovered by Marakia-nim and is being kept at the main camp of the Coalition forces.”
“Marakia did?”
The situation was as follows.
Upon Sungchul’s defeat, the Fal Garaz returned to the form as it was seen at the Audience Chamber of the Dwarven Palace.
Back to the original shape of the hammer, contained within the impenetrable casing made of the fragments of the Sky.
The Barbarians abandoned the unusable Fal Garaz and instead took with them the rather impressive looking and sentient Krumbui to present to their King.
Fal Garaz, meanwhile, was met with a terrible fate.
The Barbarians dug a latrine pit and threw Fal Garaz down it.
The Fal Garaz became buried in the smelly wastes of the Barbarians and mocked horribly.
Once Marakia found out about it, he had Taigon bring Sylphid close to the enemy in secret and snuck the weapon out from their camp.
‘You Barbarians.’
Sungchul grit his teeth.
His eyes burst forth with his wrath.
But his rage quickly subsided.
The Barbarians were already fated to be exterminted by his hands soon anyway.
But something else caught his attention meanwhile.
“You’ve met Marakia before?”
Ahmuge mentioned Marakia as if she knew who he was in the past. Sungchul was interested in how she viewed him.
Of Marakia in the future.
“Of course.”
Ahmuge’s expression softened greatly.
It seemed as though Marakia was viewed unexpectedly favorably. Sungchul asked the follow up question.
“What kind of guy was he?”
“He was an amazing person. His strength and beauty transcended all racial and species boundaries, as all were charmed by him. How should I say. Idol of the battlefield? Something like that.”
“What the heck? That adolescent chicken is an… Idol of the Battlefield?!”
Bertelgia was so shocked by what she just heard that she interrupted the conversation with an uncharacteristically unclear pronunciation.
“It’s simply my impression of him.”
Ahmuge concluded her reminiscence with a smile.
The important thing was that they knew that Fal Garaz was safe.
At least for now, Sungchul felt gratitude towards Marakia.
“…Even he sometimes knows how to earn his meal.”
And there was yet another good news awaiting them.
The Coalition forces that had retreated from the fields of La Grange had set up encampment not too far and were monitoring the situation closely.
Fal Garaz as located quite close.
Ahmuge picked up her things. It seemed as though she was going to leave now.
“But the situation there isn’t that great either.”
“In what way is it not good?”
“The Order of Extinction contributed greatly during the retreat, and the Order is backing the Wandering King.”
“The Order of Extinction is backing the Wandering King?”
“Although we won’t know much more unless we look into it, it’s probably best to resolve the things with the Emperor first.”
Ahmuge said before she erased her presence with her own Soul Contract – Vanish.
“If you need me, use the whistle. I’ll be close by.”
Ahmuge could no longer be detected.
It was only after Ahmuge was gone that Sungchul realized just how much time had passed.
For him, it felt like he had closed his eyes and opened, and yet there were so many changes. In not only himself but in the world as well.
“It has been a month since you fell unconscious.”
Bertelgia answered as she dug into his pocket.
But there was something already in the pocket. It was the golden ducky.
Bertelgia struggled and twisted around like a cuckoo chick to push the Gold Ducky fragments out.
“Ack! So uncomfortable!”
Sungchul retrieved the fragments and put them in different pockets as he nodded.
“A month, you say?”
It was quite a long time.
And especially during times of desperation and peril like the present, the weight of one month was likely heavier than ever before.
There were so many things to do.
Sungchul was once again made aware of the weight he carried on his shoulders as he made his way to the door.
His large and rough hands were placed on top of the door handle and his characteristically calm tone filled the room.
“Let’s go, Bertelgia. It’s time to earn our meal.”
When he opened the doors, there was nothing in the hallways.
“Eh? Where are all the golems?”
Bertelgia poked a bit out of the pocket and muttered to herself.
“Golem?”
There were no traces of golems anywhere. But this was not that important at the moment.
Sungchul passed the empty hallways and left the house, plunging the entire place into a deathly silence.
Who knows how long it had been?
“…”
In the darkness, one figure slowly revealed itself.
It was a book.
It was Artificial lifeform in the shape of a book, Bertelgia Unit 49.
Beyond the closed the closed door, she could hear the laughter and joyous voice of Bertelgia.
“I keep telling you, but I don’t eat!”
Unit 49 stared at the door for a long while before trembling and turning around.
“…Lucky.”
*
La Grange was once again cast under thick shadows of rain clouds.
Raindrops as thick as marbles were once again drenching the streets of the Capital City.
Sungchul turned his gaze to look afar.
Everywhere outside the city wall was nothing but the encampments of the besieging Barbarians.
The barbaric caveman-like camps and tents stretched endlessly from horizon to horizon.
And at the center of the main camp of the Barbarians was the gigantic Magic Formation that could only be seen properly from above.
It was the profane Magic Formation that could summon the God of Order.
Sungchul kept in mind the general location of this Magic Formation.
Sungchul looked closer to him.
The people defending the walls of La Grange were not only the soldiers.
Man and women, old or child, everyone that could hold a weapon and move were on the walls to defend their city.
Sungchul looked up at the sky from where the thick raindrops were coming from.
At the center of the swirling cyclone of a cumulonimbus was the Floating Palace, looking quite vulnerable.
But the Emperor would not be found there.
Buuuu~
The Barbarian’s terrifying warhorns could be heard from outside the city walls.
Several hundred siege engines erect all along the outside of the city wall unleashed their payload towards the city in unison.
Sungchul noticed that the projectiles looked humanoid in shape.
‘Are they shooting warriors at the wall like before?’
Sungchul quickly took back his thoughts.
There was no motion in the body that was free falling towards the city, as it rag-dolled down.
It was because it was a corpse and not living. A heavily rotten corpse filled with diseases.
The Barbarians were throwing dead slaves and prisoners that had succumbed to a prolonged and excruciating torture.
Thump.
The heartbeat of the Ancient God could be felt below the feet.
The heart of the Ancient God that could make the impossible possible created a defensive barrier all around the city.
The maggot infested corpses ran into the invisible walls as if running into glass and slid down the wall releasing all sorts of rotting, putrid fluids to land in a heap of other corpses forming a mountain at the base of the outer wall.
The moat surrounding the city had been filled and turned into a mountain long ago.
Thump. Thump.
The Barrage from the Barbarians continued for a while, and the heart of the Ancient God continued to beat for a good while in response.
“…Where is the Emperor?”
Sungchul looked up at the Floating Palace and asked in a low tone.
“He’s underground. At the most secure location not even I can sneak into.”
Ahmuge’s voice could be heard from beyond the void.
“Next to the heart of the Ancient God I suppose.”
Then there was the perfect passage way for him to go.
The passageway created by the Wandering King.
Sungchul retraced his memories and headed towards the ancient fountain.
Below the broken and heavily weathered fountain was the passage way leading to the underground.
The way was thoroughly blocked.
But Sungchul possessed God-like might.
He pressed the Hand of the Ascendent into his right hand and pressed upon the stones with his godlike power.
Crunch!
The thick wall of stone crumbled under his might and revealed a very dark stairway headed underground.
To the secret passageway only Kromgard, who had been around since the planning of the city, and his innermost circle.
Sungchul looked around before heading into the stairway without hesitation.
“There was a passageway here?”
Ahmuge sounded surprised from beyond the void.
“Didn’t you stalk me before?”
Sungchul replied.
“I noted that you met up with that suspicious lich and go into a suspicious tunnel before heading directly towards the Floating Palace.”
“Why’s that?”
“As a rule, I avoid narrow places with few options for escape in case it is a trap. I already knew that your final destination was the Floating Palace, so I just headed there first to wait for you.”
“Wise.”
As they exchanged words, the two people and a book arrived at the passage way at the bottom of the stairs.
But there was something in here.
It was the Soldiers of Salvations.
The Soldiers of Salvation who had been strewn about in the darkness noticed Sungchul’s presence and rose up like corpses, their seemingly randomly placed eyes giving off blue glows.
Sungchul had no more weapon to use. Though he did have Weapons of Calamities, it would be best to avoid using them from now on.
But Sungchul was also a skilled martial artist.
And he also had his magic, and the most reliable god-like strength.
“I haven’t been feeling well for a while. This is perfect. How considerate for them to provide free sandbags for me. I guess even the Foolish Idle King has some redeeming qualities to him.”
The dark tunnels became lit up with countless blue glows. The entire tunnel was filled with Soldiers of Salvation.
Sungchul’s feet were filled with God-like power.
Crunch!
The stairway he was standing on was destroyed as it propelled him forward like a canon.
S-s-s-s-s-splat!
As if he had transformed into a bullet, he penetrated through dozens of Soldiers of Salvation in a single charge.
Even before the crumbled and deformed Soldiers of Salvations were ripped to shreds and could fall to the ground, the right hand with the Hand of the Ascendent spun around like a windmill to utterly destroy any and all Soldiers of Salvation in his way indiscriminately.
Afterwards, a shovel appeared in his hand.
Pang!
The head of the diamond shovel smashed into the head of one Soldier of Salvation.
“As I thought, it feels best to whack something when you fight.
Unstoppable force.
Before his fist and shovel, the Tunnel might as well have been empty for all the difference it made.
After leaving behind countless corpses of the Soldiers of Salvation, a pale figure appeared before him.
It was the Imperial Sewer manager, Akun Gandharva.
“What’s going on?”
He didn’t seem to have realized what was going on.
It was because Sungchul’s assault forward was too quick.
He had simply come to investigate why a large number of Soldiers of Salvations were lost all of a sudden.
Akun realized one step late that Sungchul was barreling down the tunnel and quickly tried to block the tunnel.
A thick steel wall blocked the passage way between Akun and Sungchul.
Boom.
Sungchul looked up the giant steel wall that blocked his way forward.
‘I miss Fal Garaz.’
Of course, it wasn’t like he couldn’t pass through here without Fal Garaz either.
The Hand of the Ascendent was forced below the ignius stone floor to allow him to grasp the edge of the steel wall.
After god-like strength passed through his body, the immense steel wall was simply lifted out of the way.
A result of unfathomable strength.
Sungchul glared at Akun who looked petrified by the sight and charged forward.
“I…Imperial Commander in Chief sir!”
Akun attempted to try to speak to Sungchul, but Sungchul’s fist had already landed on his head before he could speak.
“Ack!”
The Imperial Sewer Manager who had been present since the construction of La Grange met a meaningless death.
‘But I was so close to revival and immortality…?!’
The body that lost its head grasped at the air as it collapsed on the cold floor.
“…”
It was only after Akun died that the Soldiers of Salvation showed fear towards Sungchul and shuffled away.
With all the obstacles out of the way, the tunnel was completely empty.
Sungchul walked the length of the empty hallway.
Towards the place where the heartbeat of the Ancient God can be heard.
And soon there was the terrace where the Ancient God’s heart could be seen.
Sungchul stood at the edge of the terrace and looked down.
The Emperor of the Human Empire, William Quinton Marlboro was squatting next to the faintly beating heart.
He looked exhausted and desperate.
There was no one by his side.
There was a few servants standing far away, unsure what to do as they loitered around in earshot of him.
His many followers and supporters were all gone.