I had worried that since they had fled through a Gate, they might be in another country, but contrary to that concern, the Mine’s hideout blatantly existed right in Incheon.
I suppose this is what they mean when they say the darkest place is under the lamp.
If things had gone according to the original plan, I would have flown straight there the moment I discovered the hideout and trampled it mercilessly, but that plan was rejected due to the demands of the other three.
Accepting the opinion of the three, who argued that they wanted to handle it themselves—perhaps wanting to test the strength they had gained from absorbing essence—we headed for Incheon.
Before going, I had contacted the Association in advance to evacuate civilians and prevent any harm, so the Mine’s hideout—which was already deserted enough to scream “secret base”—was even more empty.
And perhaps because they had noticed the hideout had been exposed during the evacuation process, when we arrived, the Mine members were already out to greet us.
An aura similar to that of Baekyeon, who had been corrupted before.
From the man standing at the very front, that aura was felt most intensely.
That man was probably the one called Sahwi, who had fought Rinnea.
At the appearance of me, whom he was seeing for the first time among our four, his eyes went wide.
“A dragon? There was a dragon too?”
“What, is this your first time seeing a dragon?”
“Huh, to think a dragon was with you. But even so, it’s still a small and frail dragon. Another gift to bring to Him.”
“What?”
Small? Frail?
No matter how accustomed I’ve grown to concealment techniques that hide my power, are you saying you can’t recognize this?
It’s so absurd I can’t even speak.
Not just me, but the whole party looked at him with faces that seemed to ask what nonsense he was spouting.
But whether he was clueless or simply excited that the gifts had increased, he paid no heed to our gazes.
I made no effort to hide my displeasure and looked back at my companions.
‘Can I really not kill him?’
‘Please bear with it a little longer…’
“Tch!”
Resolving to buy a gift box myself after the fight and neatly fold him into it, I stepped back.
“Is the dragon not going to fight? I was curious what dragon’s blood tastes like. What a pity.”
“You. Are you really crazy? If you’re going to die, die alone. Don’t drag us into it by needlessly angering that person. Ah, no. Could it be a strategy aiming for mutual destruction where you anger that person and we all die together? If that’s it, I’ll give you credit.”
At his provocation that continued to the very end, Rinnea donned her armor, drew her spear, and stepped forward.
Sinsua and Baekyeon, standing at her sides, also took up their weapons, and Sahwi snapped his fingers.
Then something squirmed within the shadows, and the shadows swelled in all directions as strangely shaped Mine members burst out from within, writhing.
If the Mine members originally standing behind Sahwi looked like humans merely dressed in black clothes, the ones that had just leaped out of the shadows were taking forms that gradually deviated from humanity.
Some had arms or legs similar to those of monsters, while others had heads that were completely different.
“Ugh, gross.”
“This too is the process of evolution by accepting His power.”
“If that’s evolution, you can keep it all to yourself.”
“I have already transcended that process and become His confidant.”
“Really…”
“It was a glorious process.”
Having realized from the conversation alone just how insane her opponent was, Rinnea gripped her spear tightly and charged, signaling the start of the battle.
Reaching Sahwi in a single step, the thrust Rinnea unleashed was blocked by black steel gauntlets that covered him up to his elbows.
Shocked that her spear had been blocked so futilely, Rinnea said,
“What is that?”
“The grace bestowed by Him.”
But Rinnea was not one to give up just because she had been blocked once.
She dropped the blocked spear and created a new spear of light, thrusting tirelessly without rest.
More than ten thrusts in a single breath assailed Sahwi, but he raised black mana, wrapped it around his gauntlets, and deflected every attack.
“Terrifying power. But that’s all there is to it.”
“Hoo… You think you can beat me just because your weapon changed a little?”
“Of course.”
Shhk!
Wildly rotating black mana formed beast-like claws on the outside of the gauntlets, and they dug into Rinnea’s opening, grazing her armor.
Since it was Valkyrie armor, it was not pierced, but for the first time, scratches appeared on her armor.
“See? Didn’t I reach you this easily?”
“……”
“Are you getting scared now?”
“Ah.”
Sahwi smirked as he provoked Rinnea.
Rinnea, who had been staring blankly at her armor where the scratch remained, rubbed the mark with her palm, but it was not something that would disappear from just that.
“Aaaaaah!! This custom-made armor still has twelve years of installments left!”
What? Wasn’t Valkyrie armor supplied by Odin?
Rinnea’s actions, which had been going wild over the scratch that wouldn’t disappear no matter how much she tried to erase it, suddenly stopped.
And emitting a dense killing intent that could be seen even through her armor, she looked at Sahwi, and a golden light different from before gathered in her hand.
“I—I’ll kill you!”
When the long shaft appeared, I had assumed it was just a spear.
But when the weapon was completed, a double-bladed axe-like head was attached to its end.
Polearm.
Rinnea drew a weapon I had never seen her use before.
She swung the polearm widely through the air and then charged at a swift speed.
Sahwi seemed to think he could wrap mana around his gauntlets like before and block the attack, but that was a huge mistake.
Kuuuuuung!!
With a roar, the ground where Sahwi stood was deeply hollowed out.
Even though he had dispersed the impact, the aftermath had caused the ground to sink.
“What power…!”
“How many battles do you think I’ve fought against worthless things like you? Did you really think I was going all out against a single guy like you? Know your place.”
“Krrgh!”
An enormous amount of black mana surged out with a shout and pushed the polearm away, but Rinnea instead used the recoil to spin her body, and this time she swung the polearm from below to cleave him in half.
Startled, Sahwi quickly twisted his body, but his right arm was cut off and sent flying, and the victor of the battle seemed decided.
“Huh, who would have thought you were hiding such power.”
“Why? Are you regretting it now? It’s already too late for regrets.”
“You only know after you’ve seen it.”
Black mana erupted from his entire body.
Did he have some hidden technique as well?
When the form concealed by the dense mana was revealed, what stood there was no longer human.
A black wolf standing on two legs with black fur growing all over its body was there.
Grrr—
“How long has it been since I brought out this form.”
“Every line you’ve been spitting out since earlier is a real gem.”
Rinnea scoffed and charged at the fully transformed Sahwi.
Her target was his right.
The attack aimed at the opening where his arm was missing was blocked by an unexpected means.
At the spot where his right arm should have been nothing, an arm made of black mana had formed.
But it seemed there was a penalty, as black mana was draining out like a flood.
He would not be able to maintain it for long.
And he likely knew that himself.
“Let’s hurry and settle this.”
“That’s what I should say. I’ve wasted too much time on someone like you.”
They kicked off the ground and charged at each other.
Becoming lines of gold and black light, everywhere they passed was mangled, and they clashed several times in an instant.
Creating small craters where they collided, the two exchanged tens or hundreds of blows and prepared to deliver their final strikes to each other.
Sahwi gathered all the black mana he had been pouring out to create a substitute right arm and focused it into his left arm.
His last remaining arm twisted grotesquely and grew huge.
The golden light gathered on Rinnea’s polearm also shone even brighter.
The polearm sparkled like starlight.
The moment their weapons were about to collide as they accelerated in a straight line toward each other—
Fwish!
The golden polearm that had been glittering like starlight until just a moment ago went dark, and Sahwi’s attack swept through the air above Rinnea, who had ducked until her body was nearly touching the ground.
‘Huh?’
For a moment, Sahwi’s face and mine looked exactly the same.
What. Weren’t we supposed to clash finishing blows and end it?
As expected of that god’s subordinate, he had pulled something incredibly sly.
“Kuk!”
The black mana surrounding Sahwi’s body, into which he had poured his remaining strength, vanished, and Rinnea—aiming for that exact moment—raised her polearm high.
“Fuhuhuhuhu! Did you think I would fight fair and square? Did you think you were facing a saintess?”
With a face that even made me, watching, want to sock her one, Rinnea’s polearm ruthlessly split Sahwi in half.
Sahwi, cleaved in half, died just like that without leaving any last words.
“Ah.”
And only then did Rinnea realize what she had done. She undid her armor and turned this way with a pale, blood-drained face.
“L-Lord Nidhogg?”
“Do you have something to say?”
“I-I got carried away by the atmosphere and…”
“You call that an excuse?!”
“Kyack!”
I couldn’t hold back anymore and body-slammed Rinnea.
***
The moment Sahwi was split in half and met his death, a man reacted to his demise and turned his head to look in the direction of Korea.
“Hmm? Sahwi is dead.”
A handsome young man wearing a black robe with half his face covered by a mask.
His identity was precisely the person Sahwi had called “Him.”
Despite learning of his subordinate’s death, the man nodded calmly without any change in expression.
“As expected, Sahwi alone was not enough to handle them yet.”
The man shook his head and turned his gaze, and there was a remote rural village burning.
A rural village that had originally been peaceful, where children played and adults farmed, now had buildings burning and its people all turned into corpses.
The man who had reduced the once ordinary village to this state walked forward without feeling anything.
As he cut across the village like that, he stopped at a painful groan coming from below.
“Unnngh…”
“Hoo. Still alive?”
“S-save me… It hurts…”
The child’s hand, waving slowly in the air—perhaps unable to see properly—was filled with pain and despair.
And as if responding to it, the man reached his hand toward the child.
Then sticky black mana fell toward the child like liquid.
“If you accept this, you will be able to survive.”
When the child’s body was swallowed and vanished into the black mana, the man walked out of the village again nonchalantly.
And not long after.
—Kwooooooooh!!!
A beast-like howl echoed from the village he had passed through.
“Another failure, I see. Unfortunately, it seems he wasn’t the material to accompany me in the new world.”
Leaving behind the unceasing beastly howls, the man used black mana to open a Gate and entered.
And in the place where the Gate disappeared.
Only a beast remained there, rampaging and destroying everything around it indiscriminately.