Part 1, Chapter 10, 27

At the time Phoenix got screwed.

The world was plunged into greater chaos than that caused by Mint Chocolate.

“What’s the Villain ‘s response?!”
“None! Lost near the Caspian Sea!! The green monstrous human’s signal also disappeared with him!”
Baek Heea, who had hastily thrown on her uniform over her pajamas and rushed out, gathered information by coordinating with associations in various regions. While she was asleep, Phoenix had flown to England and burned Mint Chocolate to ‘aggro’, so to speak.
“For what reason, exactly…?”
He said it was a gift, but what’s the point if he burns it? Baek Heea wanted to grab him by the collar and ask why, but the person in question was bickering with another SS-rank Villain and then engaged in a chase, speeding 4,500km above ground.
“A ploy to lure out that wolf-like monstrous human?”
But it doesn’t make sense. What SS-rank Villain in the world would get so angry over merely burning Mint Chocolate that they’d appear? It was more convincing to think that he burned it to issue a challenge because Mint Chocolate was green, similar to the Villain in question.
“What’s Britain’s response?!”
“There’s no official response yet, but the Royal Family has announced that they have no connection whatsoever with the incident!”
“But the monstrous human’s signal started from the Royal Palace…!”
Baek Heea’s face turned pale. The two monstrous humans glaring at each other in the air took the forms of completely different animals, an eagle and a wolf, but their colors and the aura emanating from them were vastly different.
“Who’s the Villain and who’s the Hero…!”
Phoenix is clearly a Villain. He is an undeniable evil-doer who killed Gwanggeom and murdered ability users.
However, anyone who saw the wolf monstrous human fighting Phoenix by stirring up wind would think differently. Even just from photos and videos, the wolf monstrous human’s momentum was so fierce it looked as if it would kill someone at any moment.
“What judgment did make?! About that monstrous human!”
“……While there is an unsettling aura, they haven’t committed any particular crimes yet, so no separate judgment as a Villain has been made.”
“……Is that so.”
Baek Heea gulped down water to hide her burning insides.
It hadn’t even been half a day since they decided to make a back-alley deal, but she was already starting to wonder if a deal with Phoenix, who was already causing trouble overseas, was truly alright.
As the commander of the association, should she support the wolf monstrous human who attacked Villain Phoenix?
Or should she, from afar, support Phoenix, who was making a back-alley deal for national interests?
While Baek Heea was agonizing over which side to take, an urgent call came in from The Central of the association.
“Report to Praetor-nim! This is the association!”
“……! What is it?!”
Interception following the deployment of all Heroes? Or perhaps mobilizing the Round Table? While Baek Heea was recalling all sorts of possibilities in her mind, the operator, with a stiff face, reported the content that appeared on their screen.
“…Code name assigned to the unidentified ability user! As of this moment, the subject is named !”
“Understood! Then, what’s the response to Fenrir?!”
“…None!”
“Huh?”
Baek Heea momentarily mistook it as a missing report. But her subordinate’s report truly ended with just the ‘naming’ of the monstrous human.
“……A code name, it’s important. It is important, but…!”
Shouldn’t they at least provide a guide on how to respond? What on earth is Praetor Yoo Young-ho, who went into ‘The Central’, doing?
“No way, they just gave him a name and that’s really it…?”
Baek Heea realized a truth she didn’t want to know and her jaw dropped.
* * *
[Harang-ah. What’s going on right now?! Huh? Did you hear anything?!]
“I’m about to go crazy myself, aren’t I?…. Calm down.”
Seok Harang calmed down the flustered Eun Yuha. Seok Harang herself was utterly confused by the sudden situation, but she had to at least prevent a rampage caused by Phoenix.
[He’s not going to lose or die, is he?]
“Calm down. Huh? That’s why I’m going now, isn’t it?”
Seok Harang was flying west, cutting across the night sky. The place where Phoenix’s signal disappeared was the Caspian Sea, and if he had plunged into the water, Seok Harang could find him quickly.
“So, unnie-ya, please calm down those rascals in Seoul. Even if they don’t listen to me, they’ll listen to you a little, won’t they? Eun Yuha, why are you like this?”
[Aren’t you worried?]
“I’m flying like this because I’m worried, aren’t I? Got it? I’m going to speed up now, so I’m hanging up!”
[Wai-]
Seok Harang unilaterally hung up the phone. Beside Seok Harang, who was flying through the sky disregarding national borders, a woman on a red horse, fully armed, was galloping through the sky.
“I never imagined something like this would happen.”
“Why weren’t you by his side?!”
“Who could have predicted this! He said he’d return to Seoul a day later!”
Phoenix said he would return to Seoul after finishing his schedule. Xiaolin, who had never been badly burned before, simply thought he would finish his schedule in New Seoul; she never imagined he would leave her behind and fly to the other side of the world.
“It hasn’t been long since he awakened the Awakened Dragon, and he’s already doing this, seriously!”
“Jeokto! Faster!”
The two SS-ranks flew and galloped through the sky, ignoring the signals pouring in from all directions.
And it wasn’t just the two SS-ranks flying towards the Caspian Sea.
***
“Haa, haa!”
Anastasia panted as she threw open the conference room door. In the secret bunker were ability users of the Vladimir family, who were gravely observing the situation in the Caspian Sea.
“Who during the meeting… Daughter?!”
“Dad, I, right now…!”
Anastasia stumbled. Fortunately, thanks to the gray-haired girl who supported Anastasia from the side, she didn’t fall.
“Who are you-”
“Ru unnie’s younger sister. But that’s not important right now.”
Hwanryong seated Anastasia in a chair, then pointed at the Caspian Sea on the conference room monitor and drew a circle with her finger.
“We need to establish a defensive line immediately. Otherwise, we’ll all die.”
“What do you mean…?”

“Like the chaos that emerged from China, SS-rank monsters could pour out…!”
At Anastasia’s words, the conference room fell into a serious state of emergency.
***
“Woahhhhh!!”
Gawain was flying through the sky, crudely releasing mana from beneath his legs. Compared to Phoenix flapping his wings or Fenrir galloping through the sky, his speed was clearly slower, but Gawain flew through the sky like a Scud missile.
[Gawain! It’s dangerous! This situation isn’t in the prophecy!]
The Oracle on the screen screamed, trying to stop Gawain. But Gawain shook his head and put force into his outstretched arms.
“Even if it’s not in the prophecy, I must go!”
[He’s an SS-rank Villain! He’s an existence on par with him! Honestly, he’s not merely an SS-rank!]
“Nevertheless!!”
Gawain’s eyes, stained reddish-gold, sparkled as he shouted, as if reaffirming to himself.
“I am a Knight of the Round Table! I cannot forgive Villains who threaten peace!”
What if the green wolf monstrous human-the one called -hadn’t lured Phoenix away? Gawain kept seeing visions of Big Ben collapsing and London turning into a sea of fire, at the very least.
[I told you, that future didn’t exist!!]
“You never know!”
[Even you don’t believe my prophecy?! Aaaah! You’re picking on me because I’ve been wrong a lot lately, aren’t you!!]
“…….”
Gawain was silent. The Oracle, who had been banging on the screen, shouted, her face flushed crimson.
[Fine! Let’s say you go! So how are you going to stop!!]
“……Well!”
Gawain.
He was merely flying through the sky by spraying mana like a rocket, simply releasing an absurd amount of mana from beneath his legs and flying in a straight line.
Only, straight ahead.
[How are you going to stop when you need to!! Are you just going to crash straight into the ground?! Like a missile?!]
“I have a plan!”
Gawain shouted with a confident expression.
“I’ll use the Caspian Sea as a buffer to land!”
[That means you’re going to crash!!]
Gawain.
He had boldly flown from British soil, but he didn’t know how to stop midway.
* * *
The epithets of the executives are, naturally, ‘monsters’ corresponding to their motifs. Whether humanoid or monstrous human, their essence is simply that of monsters exceeding tens of meters in size.
Hydra is a nine-headed snake.
Fenrir is a wolf.
Azhdahak is a black dragon.
I was tossed around like a ping-pong ball between the three monsters.
Kyaaaak!!
Fenrir swung its tail, sending me flying into the sky. I tried to raise my guard and block the tail without time to move, but Fenrir’s tail was thicker than my height.
Kagagak!
The blade-like wind wrapping around its tail tore my armor apart. Even though I was reinforcing my defense by infusing maximum mana into my armor, Fenrir’s blade-like wind overcame even elemental compatibility and scraped my armor.
Pa—ang!!
Fenrir launched me vertically, and above me, a black dragon, its scales shimmering in the darkness, had its maw open. Azhdahak, who had been watching me with a massive body incomparable to a Black Flame Dragon, spread its wings towards me.
Chajajak.
With the sound of blades aligning, thousands of blades shimmering between its scales were launched at me like boomerangs. The mana blades, assimilated into darkness and shadow, hid their forms and tried to split me in half.
Hwareuk!
I ignited flames and surveyed my surroundings. The azure light illuminated all the black blades, and every single one of them was targeting me.
[Is it controlling all of them…!]
I quickly spread my wings and ascended vertically. The shadow blades changed their trajectory and chased after me, and the trick of simply changing direction to make the blades collide and ricochet didn’t work.
Chakang!
Even if the swords collided, they didn’t ricochet but merged into one. I flew through the night sky, up, down, left, and right, searching for an opening.
But the night sky was entirely Azhdahak’s domain. Azhdahak hid its entire body in the darkness, threatening me by firing swords from all directions. I hastily deployed a spherical shield around myself.
Kagagang!
The obsidian swords couldn’t penetrate my shield and bounced off. I took emergency measures by infusing mana into the deep gashes on my armor and caught my breath.
[It’s not even giving me time for that.]
Pabababak.
The swords that had initially bounced off the shield flew back towards me and began to chip away at it. Although I reinforced the shield by infusing mana, Azhdahak’s swords slowly began to create small gaps in the shield.
Through that small gap. Wind began to flow in through the tiny opening, just enough for a blade to barely enter.
[At this rate, I’ll be suffocated.]
Perhaps because they revealed their true forms as monsters, their attacks were incredibly fierce. The night sky battlefield was the optimal space for Fenrir and Azhdahak’s coordinated attacks.
[And below, there’s a monster with its maw open.]
Perhaps wary of my focused attacks, Hydra had only its head sticking out of the ground, waiting for the two monsters to drop me. Deep within its wide-open maw, a swamp of poison that would melt anything it touched was seething.

Even if I burned it with flames, my body might corrode and melt from the toxic gas generated as the poison boiled. Hydra’s poison was an extreme poison that could even melt away a Core.
[They’re SS-ranks, so they’re certainly strong.]
They were ‘disasters’ capable of destroying a continent with just one of them. Since all three had united to kill me with all their might, I had to face them with all my might.
[And dialogue won’t work either.]
Kyaaaak!!
Kwooooh!!
Purple demonic energy surged in the monsters’ eyes. The corrupted mana, proving they were brainwashed, flowed more intensely than any other monster’s, making me feel as if I too would be swept away by their madness and violent aura.
A dangerous situation where, at this rate, I felt like I would also go berserk.
[This….]
I reduced the size of my shield. The tug-of-war of mana between me and the two monsters was becoming increasingly disadvantageous for me as time passed.
[At this rate, I’m really going to die.]
It wasn’t a joke; I could genuinely die. I hoped the shield would hold, and gathered my hands together, condensing mana.
Puk!
No sooner had I gathered mana in one place than an obsidian sword pierced through the shield and stabbed my shoulder. The blade-like wind that flowed through the gap in the sword cut my neck.
If the attacks continued like this, it was clear my body would be cut into hundreds of pieces. And the moment I was defeated, the three monsters would rush out of the Barrier and try to destroy the world.
So, I had to stop them here.
Even if it meant putting myself in danger.
[Sorry, but.]
The shield shattered. Fenrir and Azhdahak released their power as if they had been waiting, trying to tear me apart, and Hydra raised its head, attempting to devour my severed corpse.
[Because when I changed to my monstrous human form, the cooldown reset.]
So, without any hesitation, I could overwhelm them with even stronger firepower. I gently placed the blue orb that had formed near my chest into the air.
[Since it’s a rare occasion, shall I recite it?]
I’ve created it a few times, but this is the first time I’m detonating it.
[Khepri.]
The three monsters flinched and showed fear. Even I was afraid to detonate it, and the monsters screamed and retreated from the heat. But it was too late. The fiery demon would engulf them before they could release the Barrier and escape.
[Explosion.]
In a word, a solar explosion.
An immense amount of thermal energy exploded in front of my chest.