The Daeryong Group scandal that sent great ripples through Korea.
But it did not become a major topic overseas.
In truth, when one got right down to it, incidents on that level were already commonplace in other countries.
Even when people heard the news, many merely felt that Korean public opinion was reacting unusually strongly, and most simply let it pass with a shrug.
“...This is going to become troublesome. So they’ve finally started reaching into the establishment as well.”
Of course, those who had been keeping a close eye on the situation there from the beginning were an exception.
All the more so if they were directly involved.
“What a shame. Such a shame. It will be hard to find another place where every condition fits as perfectly as Daeryong.”
New Delhi, the capital of India.
In the middle of a room where mandala-patterned fabrics were arranged like a maze, a brown-skinned woman reclining against a floor sofa murmured softly.
Then, as if trying to soothe her displeasure, she kept puffing on a hookah, exhaling dense clouds of smoke.
Sky blue, pink, light green.
Each time she breathed out, pastel-colored mist spread and billowed through the room.
‘...Tsk, it can’t be helped. I expected it to some extent.’
After spending some time like that, her irritation slowly began to settle along with her hazy mind.
After all, hadn’t she taken that into account and deliberately refrained from restricting the information passed to that greedy old man?
‘Though it is a waste to have lost one move without even getting to use it properly.’
In truth, it was not as if she had gained nothing at all.
Thanks to this, she had learned that the opponent’s influence and information-gathering ability within Korea far exceeded the level she had previously assumed.
She still did not know whether that would hold true overseas as well, but if she took even that into account going forward, she would be able to move far more efficiently.
‘Should I leave Korea alone for the time being? Moving in a situation like this won’t bring much benefit anyway.’
After sinking briefly into thought, she—Oracle—slowly nodded.
In any case, there was nothing to be done about what had already passed.
What she had to do now was draw the larger picture for the future while taking all of that into consideration.
“Phoo—.”
Pale yellow smoke streamed at length from her mouth as her eyes narrowed half-closed.
An amorphous mass of smoke swayed this way and that, dancing in billowing waves.
As she stared at it blankly, the focus slowly vanished from her eyes.
Wung— wuung— wung—
A torrent flowed through her mind.
All manner of elements that composed the world collapsed and intertwined, while various concepts that could not be defined mixed and separated repeatedly, writhing all the while.
Mountains and seas coexisted, and human-like clouds ate hammers from the sun while reading foxes.
Gun-shaped insects, elephants that drank lightning, starlight made of mud...
After swimming through hallucinations whose connections could not even be discerned, her mind returned about an hour later.
“Hmm.”
As soon as focus returned to her eyes, she naturally put the hookah to her lips and reached out to the side with one hand.
Then she picked up one of the communication orbs placed there and immediately contacted someone.
-What is it, Oracle? So suddenly.
“It’s nothing much... You said you were in the Philippines, didn’t you?”
-That’s right. Those rat bastards have been so annoying that I was planning to wipe them all out this time, but I can’t see where they’ve hidden themselves. There are so damn many islands, I was just getting irritated.
“Go to Dinagat. It seems they’re hiding there and trying to do something.”
-Ho? Now that is good news. If I know the location, dealing with them won’t be difficult. No matter how hard those little bastards struggle, they’re still just rats.
Hearing the bright voice of the Southeast Asia branch chief through the communication orb, she slowly nodded and opened her mouth.
In truth, telling him the location of the resistance organization was only incidental. The real point she had intended to raise from the beginning was something else.
“And I’m thinking of sending the Executor your way soon.”
-...That madman? I heard he was busy in Africa.
At her words, the branch chief’s voice turned reluctant.
He, too, prided himself on being an excellent lunatic who would not be outdone anywhere, but the one just mentioned was such a burdensome figure that even he had to yield several steps.
“Yes. It seems we need to respond a little more actively. You already know, don’t you? The Lawgiver, the Duke, and the Scribe have been taken down, and the Doctor has entered hibernation as well. It would be troublesome to suffer any more losses here.”
-Ahem. If that is Oracle’s will, then it can’t be helped.
The Southeast Asia branch chief sounded thoroughly displeased, but he accepted it as though he had no choice.
If a superior had already deliberated and made a decision, what use was there in objecting now?
And the fact that he himself had felt vaguely uneasy also played a part.
After all, even the European branch chief, the “Duke,” a powerful man whom even he could not take lightly, had died an untimely death not long ago.
“Good. Then do your best.”
-Hah, things are going to get annoying from here on. I’ll have to relieve some stress in advance by crushing those rats.
With that, the communication ended.
Oracle narrowed her eyes and stared silently into the empty air.
As if trying to forcibly uncover something unseen.
“...I still can’t see anything. But...”
Missing variables because of that excuse once or twice was one thing, but when it happened several times, one was bound to develop a certain knack.
Though her combat ability was not particularly remarkable, she too was a being who had stepped into a realm beyond transcendence in this field.
And on top of that, did she not possess an information network spanning the entire world?
Thanks to that, it was not so difficult to infer the next target the “enemy” would aim for.
‘Then I should slowly begin preparations.’
Preparations to receive the troublesome guest who had been causing no end of interference.
***
Africa, notorious for the worst public order.
Even before the existence of Awakened ones appeared, that land had never known an end to fighting, and now it had long since become a literal hell on earth.
On this land, a person’s death was not even major news.
Most governments struggled just to protect the capital and other major cities, and their control over the provinces was practically nonexistent.
As a result, warlords and criminal organizations had sprung up everywhere like mushrooms after rain, occupying regions and fighting battles every day.
Naturally, at the center of it all were not soldiers with guns and blades, but returnees who possessed supernatural abilities, and they repeatedly fought and killed one another using every technique they had learned in other worlds.
It would likely be no exaggeration to say that this continent was the place on Earth where supernatural battles occurred most actively.
“Khh— kkghh— D-demon...!”
For that reason, what was happening now was not all that common.
A transcendent-class Awakened who had continued fighting on this land for more than ten years was showing terror.
Considering that he was usually a murderous fiend who tore people apart with his bare hands without batting an eye, it was an even more unbelievable sight...
But anyone who faced the scene before him would have no choice but to react the same way.
Whoosh—
Red.
Everything in all directions was red.
All that could be seen were roughly blazing flames and sticky blood covering the cracked earth.
Squelch— crunch—
No, that was not it.
There was one thing here that was not red.
A figure slowly approaching him, stepping on chunks of flesh crushed beyond recognition.
No, could that being truly be called a “person”?
Lying on the ground covered in blood, both legs severed, the Transcendent of South Sudan, who had commanded the greatest force in the area, blankly looked up at the approaching opponent while thinking that.
Black scales reflecting the blazing firelight from all directions, a massive body over three meters tall, four sharp horns protruding from the head and soaring toward the sky, a pair of bat wings spread behind the back, and a long tail swaying like a whip, tipped with a point as sharp as a spearhead.
By anyone’s reckoning, it had the form of a demon that had just climbed out of hell.
‘Is that truly an Awakened like me? Could it actually be a being from another world?’
Two eyes shining with blood-red light above teeth that jutted out roughly like a shark’s.
The moment his gaze met them head-on, the perfected mind he had achieved upon reaching transcendence shook dangerously.
“Kh, damn it!”
Crunch—
After staring in terror at the demon slowly approaching him, he bit down on his own tongue with a distorted face.
Pain filled his mouth, snapping his mind awake.
Then he forced himself to raise his body and corrected his posture.
Thanks to a Transcendent’s regenerative power, the severed surfaces of his legs had long since stopped bleeding.
One had been cut below the knee, and the other from the middle of the shin, so his balance was uneven, but that much was not a major problem for him as a Transcendent.
‘...There is no chance of winning.’
He knew that better than anyone.
Just moments ago, all of his elite Awakened subordinates had been ground down by that single demon, and even he himself had lost both legs.
When he thought about the fact that among them had been quite a few Master-class powerhouses who, while not equal to him, were veterans of battle, he could keenly feel just how absurd this situation was.
‘But I have no intention of dying so easily.’
Gritting his teeth, he glared.
This was a matter of pride.
He was a butcher who had made his name widely known in another world, and the strongest man who had ruled South Sudan. He could not fall to an opponent whose identity he did not even know without leaving so much as a worthwhile wound.
Aether surged up along with his fighting spirit, burning away his life as it covered his entire body.
Halt.
At the same time, the demon that had been slowly approaching him came to a stop.
Of course, it was not for the convenient reason that it had been overwhelmed by the opponent’s fighting spirit, which disregarded even his own life.
It was simply that, at just that moment, a message had arrived from someone it could not ignore.
[......]
After checking the contents of the message, it slowly nodded.
It had intended to enjoy things a little more leisurely, but it seemed it would have to start wrapping this up now.
Whoosh—
Blood-red flames blooming from the demon’s hand climbed high along its wicked claws.
The surrounding space distorted from the aftermath alone, and cracks began forming in the earth beneath its feet.
“Hoo, hoo.”
Cold sweat dripped from the Transcendent’s face as he faced that tremendous pressure.
Though it flickered and burned, that was not true flame.
It was an ultra-high-density mass of energy that had taken form under the image of fire.
The essence of overwhelming destruction that had not only crushed his subordinates into blood, but had also taken both his legs.
“Uaaaaah! Die!”
In any case, he had nothing left now.
Without hesitation, he threw away his life, using his own body as a bullet to fire his final strike.
Toward the demon before him, who had taken everything from him.
Immediately after.
[Frh—]
A thin snicker escaped from the mouth of the demon, who had not uttered a single word throughout the slaughter.
As if only now had it been satisfied.
As if a satisfactory situation had finally been created.
Flutter—
The wings on its back spread wide.
The four horns let out a low resonance.
And facing the streak of light flying toward it like a meteor, it raised the corners of its mouth.
Then it extended the hand in which blood-red flames had gathered and swung it toward the light.
Lightly, as though tearing a sheet of paper apart.
———!
Space was ripped away in an instant.
There was no sound.
The roar that humans could perceive arrived only after that.
Rumble— kwaaaang—!
As the torn space restored itself, the tremendous shock wave generated by it crushed and burst apart everything within its trajectory all at once.
The axis of the earth twisted, causing an earthquake, and the clouds in the sky were scattered to pieces and vanished.
In the aftermath, remnants of energy flew in all directions, and heaven and earth were engulfed in flames.
Rumble— whoosh—
The site where overwhelming destruction had swept through.
Only the vibrations caused by the earthquake and the sound of burning flames remained there.
Where a person had stood moments ago, there was now only a massive scar left behind as if the earth had been clawed open.
The only one standing there unharmed was the demon, lightly shaking off its hand.
[...What a shame.]
It glanced down at its own chest.
Black scales covered its entire body.
Among them, a few had shattered.
‘It would have been more entertaining if he had used that much power from the beginning.’
Would it be able to meet someone who could quench its thirst at the place it was headed next?
Tilting its head slightly, it turned around and spread its wings wide.
To move on to the next location, as it always did.
Flutter— flutter—
Africa, a savage land so extremely closed off that little information about it was known.
The “Executor,” a member of the Chairman’s direct personal guard who had been roaming that land alone and carrying out massacre after massacre, headed for the Philippines.
Leaving behind only the souls of a two-digit number of Transcendents and an incalculable number of victims.
***
Inside the “Dragon Lair,” which was no different from a private dimension solely for himself.
“It is finally complete!”
A rough voice flowed out from the workshop area set up there.
A giant furnace where fierce flames blazed, an anvil imbued with mystical light, and state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities.
In the middle of it all, a dwarf raised the metal bracers in both hands high and danced merrily, his beard swaying.
“Wahahaha! That’s right, as if anything could be impossible for this body! It wasn’t even much!”
Howard the dwarf had been minimizing his erosion level and devoting himself to the production of a magical language-interpretation tool, a gift for Andrew.
Considering the difficulty level, he had been prepared for it to take a long time, but due to several environmental factors, that period had been shortened greatly.
‘That’s right. This “Dragon Lair” is a separate world unbound by any law!’
This place was neither Earth, nor Auterica, nor the Ganghwan Realm.
Naturally, it was bound by no principles, and there were no limits to the materials he could use.
Even if those materials were from another world that he was seeing for the very first time.
‘Truly excellent. A workshop with the best possible conditions. Of course, now that I have “Savior,” which ignores dimensional restrictions, I can do similar work in other worlds as well, but it won’t be easy to establish an environment as good as this one.’
A supreme magical workshop prepared solely for him, which he could enter and leave anytime, anywhere.
On top of that, a semi-permanent time-acceleration barrier that applied the flow of energy inside the “Dragon Lair” had been installed, so it would not be an exaggeration to say that, as a production environment, it was on the level of the heavenly realm.
While inside this workshop, he could make use of nearly one hundred times as much time as on Earth.
“Hoo, now I can give wings to Andrew’s range of activities.”
Howard smiled in satisfaction and gently stroked the beautifully crafted metal bracers.
Imagining Andrew’s delighted expression when he received them.
Naturally, he did not consider the other party’s wishes at all.
After all, there was no way anyone would dislike receiving such a precious item!