The Archmage’s Destruction Strategy - Chapter 22

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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#022. A Girl Obsessed with Battle

The awakened girl who succeeded in finding Sung-jun after all sorts of hardships.

Shirasaki Miyu extended her hand toward Sung-jun and entered combat stance as if she was ready to fight immediately.

Then she shouted at the grimoire flying around her awkwardly.

“Let’s go! Baphomet!”

“…I refuse.”

“What!?”

“I must have told you continuously on our way here, right? That guy is the official successor of the 13 Great Demon Lords who created me, and an existence equivalent to the essence of modern magic. If your combat sense has reached the pinnacle of talent, then his magic has reached the pinnacle of technique. You will lose. Probably even if you challenged him ten million times, that result wouldn’t change.”

“You’re my tool.”

“A tool with a will.”

Watching Shirasaki Miyu and Baphomet suddenly start a comedy routine from the sky, Sung-jun let out a deep sigh.

Then he spoke to Shirasaki Miyu, who was still burning with fighting spirit.

“You said your name was Shirasaki Miyu, right? In our first and last fight, you were defeated by me. Since then, have you come up with any new way to beat me?”

“…No…”

“Then did you prepare any other combat methods besides the grimoire?”

“…That’s not it either.”

“Then perhaps you’re confident in hand-to-hand combat?”

“Do I look like that type to you?”

“If you have no intention of fighting, could you please step aside for now? The man trapped underneath looks like he’s suffering.”

Hearing Sung-jun’s words, Shirasaki Miyu finally realized there was a person trapped under her feet and stepped back in surprise.

Then Park Hyeon-jo, whose face was covered in dirt, spat out the soil that had entered his mouth and got up from the ground.

“Ptui! Ptooey!! What the hell are you doing, you damn bitch!! Do you really want to die!?”

“Baphomet!”

When Shirasaki Miyu called for Baphomet upon seeing Park Hyeon-jo take a combat stance, magic circles were immediately summoned near her body.

Because the opponent Baphomet had given up fighting was Sung-jun, not Park Hyeon-jo.

However, before the two could even deploy their techniques, a terrifying torrent of mana began to swirl through the surrounding space.

“Both of you, stop moving.”

“This bitch started it first!”

“Call me bitch one more time. I’ll smash that mouth of yours first.”

“Do you think I can’t do it if you threaten me like that?”

“I’m sure I told you to stop?”

Sung-jun’s second warning didn’t end as just a warning.

As soon as Sung-jun lightly waved his finger, eight massive magic circles appeared simultaneously, surrounding Shirasaki Miyu and Park Hyeon-jo.

The two immediately relaxed their stances upon seeing magic circles powerful enough to erase their existence from the earth the moment they moved even slightly.

“W-wait! I really wasn’t thinking of actually fighting!”

“I’ll stop. That’s enough.”

When Sung-jun waved his hand again, the massive magic circles that seemed ready to activate at any moment scattered with sparks.

Park Hyeon-jo, who had been watching this, looked at Sung-jun with an incredulous expression and said.

“What was that just now? Is that also an awakened ability?”

“It’s a type of awakened ability. Though it’s probably a bit different from the type of ability you have.”

“I’ve seen many awakened from other countries, but I’ve never seen awakened who use abilities like you two.”

“It’s not a common ability. At least as far as I know, there are only three awakened in total who can use abilities of the same type as mine. And all three of them are here right now.”

“Ugh… I originally thought I was the only one…”

Listening to Shirasaki Miyu’s disgruntled grumbling, Sung-jun said.

“Let me be clear: the way you use magic is heretical, not orthodox. Moreover, since it’s an ability that relies on an already completed grimoire, there’s no room for further development.”

It wasn’t that there was absolutely no way for Shirasaki Miyu to become stronger.

Adding new spells to an already completed grimoire.

However, to use that method, the caster trying to add spells had to possess magical abilities superior to the creator who made the grimoire.

Of course, Sung-jun already had the ability to do so, but he had no intention whatsoever of upgrading Shirasaki Miyu’s grimoire, who was neither ally nor enemy to him.

For him right now, there was an important ‘goal’ that he had to achieve even if it meant taking his still inadequately trained disciple into dangerous territory.

And to achieve that ‘goal’, Sung-jun was thinking of using the man before him, Park Hyeon-jo.

“Since we’ve met, let’s introduce ourselves. My name is Ma Sung-jun. I’m an awakened from South Korea, and the child next to me is my disciple, Yeonse-a.”

“I’m Park Hyeon-jo, an awakened from China’s Tianwu Guan.”

“I’m Shirasaki Miyu, an awakened belonging to the Japan Conquest Union. The book floating next to me is my grimoire, Baphomet.”

“Good. Mr. Park Hyeon-jo. If you’re from Tianwu Guan, you probably know something about the situation in China. If you provide me with some information, I’ll give you appropriate compensation.”

Although he promised compensation, the things Sung-jun had weren’t particularly valuable.

Of course, there was some food left in his bag, but since it was food they needed to eat on their way to their destination, there wasn’t enough to spare.

And since gold or precious metals didn’t hold value in the current situation either, Park Hyeon-jo immediately rejected Sung-jun’s proposal.

“Forget it. You probably don’t have anything proper anyway, so let’s just pretend we didn’t see each other and part ways.”

“What if I gave you this?”

Suddenly, Sung-jun took something out of his bag, and Park Hyeon-jo’s expression changed drastically upon seeing what was in Sung-jun’s hand.

The glass bottle Sung-jun took out of his bag.

Because its identity was expensive liquor that Sung-jun had previously found while searching through the collapsed mart.

“Is that alcohol?”

“It’s quite expensive liquor.”

“Follow me. Such liquor needs proper side dishes to go with it.”

Park Hyeon-jo guided the group to near the small cave where he was staying.

Rather than a cave, it was a smelly and dirty dwelling with just a crack between rocks where one could barely squeeze in and take shelter from rain.

There, Park Hyeon-jo lit the extinguished campfire and took out a small rabbit from inside the cave and began roasting it.

“Please sit. Hand over that bottle to me.”

“Whether the deal goes through will depend on the quality of information provided.”

“Tch. Fine. What are you curious about?”

“Why on earth did a man of your caliber flee all the way here?”

Hearing Sung-jun’s words, Park Hyeon-jo let out a deep sigh.

Then he began telling the story of what he experienced in China.

***

“We gave it the name ‘Yeojiggwi’. Because of its ability to read and counter all of our attacks as if it were reading the future.”

The situation on the Chinese side that Park Hyeon-jo conveyed was utterly disastrous.

Because the Pioneer, who they thought would fight alongside his disciples, betrayed them and returned to his own world, they had to face the Gate incident with only awakened from Tianwu Guan, the awakened training institution he had established.

But the Chinese government didn’t just helplessly take the beating.

Although powerful Corrosion Entities that had never been seen before were pouring out simultaneously from Gates that had suddenly begun running wild, befitting a nation that possessed the strongest awakened forces in the world numerically, the Chinese government immediately activated the emergency operation they had prepared.

“Do you see this red orb? This orb that all awakened from Tianwu Guan carry at their waist not only symbolizes an awakened’s strength according to the number, but also serves as a ‘call bell’ instructing them to join operations when an emergency occurs. Awakened from Tianwu Guan who saw the orbs at their waist glowing brightly each took their beloved weapons and assembled at the designated location.”

Led by Seo Moo-gyeol, known as ‘Blood Chain’, Tianwu Guan’s strongest awakened who held the ‘Nine Circle Strong’ qualification proving him as the strongest awakened, the awakened gathered from across the nation actively utilized the martial arts each had mastered to face the pouring monsters.

And among them, the prowess of Seo Moo-gyeol, called China’s strongest awakened, showed abilities that deserved to be called absolutely overwhelming.

Whenever the red chains that writhed as if alive swept around him, the limbs of giant monsters approaching him were cut off like cubes and fell to the ground.

“This Seo Moo-gyeol person must have been incredibly strong.”

When Seoa, who had been listening to Park Hyeon-jo’s story, asked with pure admiration, Park Hyeon-jo gripped the liquor bottle and laughed self-deprecatingly.

“He was strong. Whenever his Blood Chain, red chains like blood, danced, giant monsters were torn to pieces. At that moment, I even thought that perhaps there might be no match for him in the world. But… the moment ‘that thing’ showed itself in Beijing, I realized that all of that was arrogance.”

“That thing, you mean…”

Park Hyeon-jo’s eyes shook as if recalling the terror of that time.

“The one we call ‘Yeojiggwi’. Alone… it destroyed half of Beijing and killed ninety percent of Tianwu Guan that was there. A disaster.”

Sung-jun quietly asked.

“Why were you defeated? You should have had overwhelming numbers.”

“It was because of compatibility. That thing was… like the end of all martial artists.”

Park Hyeon-jo paused for a moment, then took another gulp of liquor as if his throat was burning.

“The first to swing his sword at that thing was Wi Jin-hyeong, ‘Ghost-Killing Sword’, a Seven Circle Strong level expert.”

Seoa asked as if she didn’t quite understand.

“Seven Circle Strong means… seven orbs, right? Wouldn’t someone of that level be incredibly strong?”

Park Hyeon-jo made an even more bitter expression.

“Yes, that expert who earned the title of cutting down even ghosts… fell covered in blood in just one exchange. Yeojiggwi pierced his throat so simply, as if it already knew where his sword would go. Only then did we realize. That what we were facing wasn’t simple strength.”

If the Silermantis that appeared in Seoul airspace was like ‘the end of all mages,’ then the Yeojiggwi that appeared in Beijing was no different from ‘the end of all martial artists.’

However, since they had received no advice about the Yeojiggwi from their master and the Pioneer who betrayed humanity, ‘Kwon Hwang’ Drenex, the martial artists of Tianwu Guan felt no danger as they watched the raggedly dressed man trudging through the mountain of corpses toward them.

That is, until they saw Wi Jin-hyeong, a seventh-circle master known as the ‘Ghost-Slaying Sword,’ fall covered in blood after just one exchange.

Wi Jin-hyeong, who had earned the title of ‘a sword that could even kill ghosts’ with his incredibly fast and sharp sword energy, met his death with his throat pierced without even being able to unleash a single technique of his proud swift swordplay.

And at that moment, the raggedly dressed man who had been walking slowly charged into the center where thousands of martial artists stood guard like a streak of lightning.

“Until then, we thought of him as just a ‘suicide seeker.’ There wasn’t any other fitting title for a madman who would charge alone against 10,000 Awakened from Tianwu Guan.”

As if recalling the terror of that time, Park Hyeon-jo trembled with his massive body.

“We were the suicide seekers. The moment we saw him, we attacked instead of running away.”

The abilities possessed by the Silermantis that Sung-jun and his master Mina had faced were ‘absolute resistance’ and ‘regeneration.’

The ability to gain resistance to any magic once hit by it, and the miraculous regenerative power that could instantly heal even the largest wounds, were abilities tantamount to disaster for mages.

Conversely, the ability possessed by the Yeojiggwi that appeared in Beijing could literally be called ‘the power to see the future.’

The ability to instantly understand the ‘counter-method’ for a technique the moment he saw the first movement of an opponent’s attack, as if he could see the future.

Using this ability, the Yeojiggwi analyzed and countered all the techniques unleashed by thousands of Awakened charging at him in an instant.

And each time he countered a technique like this, the corpse of the Awakened who had used that technique would be added to that spot.

“If it had just been speed, there would have been some way to deal with it. Or if it was simply great strength, there would have been a way to handle that too. But the ability to read the future? That’s not an ability you can win against. I’m certain that probably no Awakened anywhere in the world could defeat that thing.”

Instead of answering, Sung-jun handed the bottle he was holding to Park Hyeon-jo.

Park Hyeon-jo took the bottle Sung-jun handed him and drank the whiskey straight from the bottle.

As if trying to erase the terrifying memories with alcohol.

And after a moment, Park Hyeon-jo, who had downed nearly half the bottle in one go, looked at Sung-jun with bloodshot eyes and asked.

“So, what’s the reason for deliberately asking about those terrible memories?”

Sung-jun took back the whiskey bottle from Park Hyeon-jo’s hands and took a sip.

Then he spoke in a tone devoid of any particular emotion.

“The reason for going north in times like these is obvious.”

A calm voice as if he were just going to the mart for groceries.

“I’m going to hunt down the Yeojiggwi you just mentioned.”

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