Tearing the Gate Apart - Chapter 98

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 98.
Snap. Thud!
Blood seeped through the gap in the severed glove.
One might have expected surprise.
Ha Gyeong’s face remained expressionless.
‘I’m used to this sort of thing.’
He had never let his guard down in the first place.
An Awakened One carrying Abyss Energy suddenly feigning friendliness?
Nothing could be more suspicious than that.
So he had deliberately shown an opening.
And the ambush came immediately.
Cha Minwoo cursed under his breath and pulled something from his chest.
“Damn it, sh——.”
A dark object unfurled with a sharp snap, emitting a faint glow.
Crackle! Whoooosh!
Soon a translucent barrier enveloped the surroundings.
From within that shell, Cha Minwoo launched another attack.
“Die! Please just die!”
“Why would I?”
“You’ve got no more skills to use anyway. Just stay still and die like you’re supposed to!”
“Hah! How brazenly shameless can you get?”
Ha Gyeong couldn’t help but let out an absurd laugh.
Who made all these demands while committing an ambush?
He calmly blocked the incoming attacks.
‘This is a bit tricky.’
Truth be told, killing him wouldn’t have been difficult.
Ha Gyeong still had plenty of powerful skills left.
He could finish this with just Chanhon alone.
But that would leave only a corpse.
And he’d learn nothing.
So Ha Gyeong intended to subdue him as thoroughly as possible.
Yet Cha Minwoo was no easy opponent.
“Hgh!”
His rough breathing cut off as his form vanished.
The next instant, an attack erupted from behind Ha Gyeong.
A rare Awakened One who could only master Stealth-related Skills.
Cha Minwoo was precisely that type of assassination-specialist melee dealer.
Whistle—! Clang!
Yet his desperate strike was pathetically blocked.
Ha Gyeong moved as if he had eyes in the back of his head.
He twisted the Crimson Edge and flicked away the dagger.
Then immediately launched a back kick.
Boom!
“Urgh!”
Cha Minwoo, sent flying through the air, barely managed to land on his feet.
Normally the impact shouldn’t have been severe.
It was just a spin-in-place kick, after all.
But Ha Gyeong’s attacks carried his 5th Stage Tempering Ability.
Cha Minwoo clutched his abdomen and gasped for breath.
“Why… why does it hurt so much?”
“Don’t rack your brain over it. It’s just a difference in skill.”
Ha Gyeong swung the Crimson Edge, trying to cut through the barrier.
If his teammates got involved, subduing this man would be far easier.
But from behind came the sound of bitter laughter.
“Hehehehe! Struggle all you like. See if you can even scratch it.”
“What are you talking about?”
“It’s a barrier that warps spacetime itself. Beat on it all day and it won’t do a thing.”
“Is that so?”
Ha Gyeong paid it no mind and began slashing.
Not at the barrier itself, but at the device Cha Minwoo had pulled out.
Crash! Shatter—!
The membrane surrounding them shattered into pieces.
Cha Minwoo’s jaw went slack as he blinked rapidly.
Ha Gyeong found it bewildering.
“You just break the generator creating the barrier. There’s nothing difficult about it.”
“Are you insane?”
“What?”
“That’s a device even Kang Woo Jin from the Death Hound Guild couldn’t break. How on earth——.”
Ha Gyeong stared intently at the ruined black device.
It didn’t look particularly impressive as an Artifact.
But an odd aura emanated from it.
Abyss Energy.
That vicious power was lurking within it.
Ha Gyeong immediately brought the Crimson Edge down once more.
Whoooosh! Crash—!
“Argh!”
Then an ashen aura burst forth.
And at the same moment, Cha Minwoo’s assault resumed.
He managed to block the barrier generator’s explosion somehow.
But what came next was a problem.
Cha Minwoo’s presence had vanished completely.
Ha Gyeong spun quickly around.
‘Where did he go?’
But that was the very instant—
A sharp metallic ring suddenly echoed from behind.
Whoosh—! Bam!
“Cough!”
Ha Gyeong whirled to see Cha Minwoo sprawled on the ground.
Jon had rushed in and swung the Titan Flail down on him.
“Yo, bro. You okay?”
“Thank you. You reacted quickly.”
“I’ve been looking for you this whole time. Didn’t see you though, so I got suspicious and circled around.”
“That guy put up some kind of barrier. That must be why.”
“But what the hell? Why the sudden ambush?”
“I’m not sure either. We’ll figure it out now.”
Realizing what had happened,
the other team members came rushing over.
Ha Gyeong swept his cautious gaze across them all.
None of them carried Abyss Energy.
They all bore expressions of genuine shock at this unexpected turn.
Soon Seo Hyeonwoo approached with a darkened face and asked:
“Wh… what happened?”
“I think he tried an assassination angle. We’ll investigate why right now.”
“Hah!”
Seo Hyeonwoo’s expression was one of disbelief.
He couldn’t help himself.
After all, Cha Minwoo belonged to the Foresight Guild.
Yet he showed no sympathy or defense.
Seo Hyeonwoo pointed at Cha Minwoo with a stern face.
“If he targeted a comrade’s back, he’s not fit to be an Awakened One. From now on, he’s no longer a guild member of ours.”
“I appreciate your judgment.”
Ha Gyeong thanked Seo Hyeonwoo for the decision
and immediately called for Rokan.
“You. Come out.”
The creature’s hood shuddered,
and a small canine emerged slowly.
―Yaaaawn! How rude to disturb a noble’s peaceful slumber… Huh? What’s this?

Rokan’s eyes went wide.
The presence of Cha Minwoo seemed to surprise him greatly.
Ha Gyeong posed his questions carefully.
“You find it strange too, right?”
―Yeah. I thought you were the only Mutant using Abyss Energy.
“This guy?”
―Ha! Just kidding. If the conditions are right, anyone could use it.
“So then?”
―The problem is someone planted it in him. I can tell just by looking. A noble did this.
Ha Gyeong recalled something Rokan had said before.
Hadn’t it been exactly like this?
That a noble from the Empire had entered Earth.
Ha Gyeong furrowed his brow and asked:
“Could it be that guy you mentioned back then?”
―Likely as not. And… he’s probably not far from here.
It was quite an astounding deduction.
So this noble who’d crossed into Earth was targeting him.
Ha Gyeong stood with a grave expression.
Then Rokan quickly wagged his tail defensively.
―This time it’s not like I knew and hid it. I just saw this guy for the first time.
“I know. Who said anything?”
―Your eyes looked like you were about to kill me.
“I do need to deal with anyone who pulls something like this.”
―It won’t be easy.
“Can’t you track him? You sensed when he came through the Gate before.”
―That was just reading the lingering Abyss Energy left at the Gate. Here on Earth, he’s probably hiding very discretely.
“This will have to go in the report anyway.”
Ha Gyeong stared at the sprawled Cha Minwoo.
Now he had to decide how to handle him.
While the man had committed a capital crime, immediate execution was problematic.
Even Ha Gyeong, who cared little for appearances, recognized that.
If he was too brutal, no one would want to stand with him.
Besides, he needed to conduct a more thorough investigation when they returned.
But then something unexpected happened with Cha Minwoo’s body.
Ha Gyeong tilted his head.
“This is…”
He sensed refined Abyss Energy.
Searching Cha Minwoo’s belongings, he found a black cube-shaped object.
A barrier generator that twists spacetime itself and contains the subject.
This one seemed to be a spare.
Ha Gyeong smiled with satisfaction.
“I’ve made a decision. Let’s bind this one and continue.”
“With what? Any normal rope he could just snap.”
“This should be enough.”
In response to Seo Hyeonwoo’s question, Ha Gyeong produced a Resonance Rope.
Soon Cha Minwoo had been wrapped up like a chrysalis.
The overly cautious team members had wound it around him again and again.
The Raid Party then entered the newly opened passage.
* * *
After the ambush incident,
the Raid Party’s mood had soured.
Already uneasy from the Dungeon’s high difficulty,
Cha Minwoo’s treachery had only worsened things.
Of course, the man himself showed no sign of remorse whatsoever.
“Hehehehe! Ha Gyeong! His Majesty the Emperor will tear you into a thousand, ten thousand pieces!”
“This idiot still hasn’t come to his senses.”
Crack!
His mad ravings were pointless.
One blow from Jon’s knuckles sent him unconscious again.
Though he probably hadn’t actually lost consciousness.
Knocking out human awareness is quite difficult,
and Awakened Ones are remarkably tough.
He was almost certainly just staying still to avoid more hits.
Ha Gyeong approached Cha Minwoo.
“Time to get started.”
“What are you doing? Isn’t this enough as is?”
Jon held up the Resonance Rope in his hand.
Until now, Cha Minwoo had been dragged along behind by the team members.
The parts touching the ground were worn away, but no one pitied him.
That was the fate of a traitor, after all.
Ha Gyeong showed the cube he’d picked up earlier.
“I’m going to confine him with this.”
“Ah! That’ll be definitive then.”
He immediately activated the mysterious Artifact.
[Twilight Distortion activated]
[Installing a spacetime barrier at the designated location]
Crackle! Whoooosh!
Cha Minwoo’s form then vanished without a trace.
Remarkably, not even a hint of the barrier was visible.
Ha Gyeong nodded in understanding.
‘So that’s why nobody could figure out what happened.’
What a seamlessly hidden device.
Ha Gyeong regarded the cube with interest.
But his enthusiasm faded quickly.
‘Single-use then? That explains why he carried two.’
At any rate, Cha Minwoo was safely captured in what was essentially a Poké Ball,
and now it was time to go after the Final Boss.
Ha Gyeong turned to Seo Hyeonwoo and asked:
“Ready?”
“Yes.”
“Let’s go.”
No lengthy preamble was necessary.
Now that they’d committed to the challenge,
there was only one path: forward.
No matter what dangers awaited them.
As they entered the boss chamber, a massive stone statue greeted the team.
Its height was comparable to Guardian Sever Sentinel.
But its mass was roughly twice as large.
[You have encountered the Abyss Dungeon’s Boss, Split Blader]
Split Blader was a stone statue wielding a broad blade.
This time there seemed to be no special mechanics.
The creature moved immediately.
Rumble rumble rumble!
Given its enormous size, the entire Dungeon trembled.
Ha Gyeong called out to the front-line team members:
“The Whisperer won’t function, so orders are meaningless. You’ll have to move on instinct! Go pull it now!”
“Y-yes!”
The Tankers moved at last,
and the melee dealers positioned themselves near the Final Boss.
But that was precisely when it happened.
[Split Blader deploys Wall of Severance]
Rumble! Rumble rumble!
The massive stone statue drove its blade into the ground.
Dozens of meters high, a thick wall erupted into being.
Similar to the spider boss they’d faced before—
the wall created by Queen Aurela the Golden.
The difference being it rose all the way to the ceiling
and its surface was twisted and convoluted, maze-like in appearance.
Regardless, the skill’s purpose was unmistakable.
Ha Gyeong spun around hastily.
‘I can’t see the front line or the back line at all. It really lives up to its name.’
With the Whisperer unusable, there was only one path forward.
Charge forward desperately, regroup with the Tankers,
and destroy the Final Boss’s outer shell as quickly as possible.
The other team members had the same idea.
They all began running at once.
But Ha Gyeong stood motionless in place,
staring at the Wall of Severance Split Blader had created.
And he was considering something.
‘What if I just break it?’
Gate Tearers
Author |
Moraetop
Publisher |
Samyang C&C Co., Ltd.
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Editorial Department
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No part of this book may be used in any form or manner without written permission from Samyang C&C Co., Ltd. – Dream Books.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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