Ch.186Final Chapter. In the Name of Flame (3)

Flame’s Busan Branch.

It was a place where I once went on a long business trip with Soso.

From late spring to summer. I had implemented Flame’s headquarters system directly into the Busan branch.

So now that Seoul had fallen. Here in Busan, where most of Korea’s remaining hunters had gathered.

Flame’s Busan branch was serving as the new headquarters for hunters in place of the Association’s main office.

The others were exhausted from the battle in Rome. They were resting at the hotel where I had been staying in Busan.

But I was now visiting an office at the Busan branch.

“Min-soo Lee. You must be very tired, but you came to talk with me without resting. Is that alright?”

Secretary-General Seung-hoon Choi. Looking more gaunt than when I last saw him, he spoke to me with eyes full of concern.

“I’m more worried about you, Secretary-General.”

He had been leading Korea’s hunters in place of the severely injured Tae-hyun Jeon.

Without Seung-hoon, we would have lost most of Korea’s hunter guilds concentrated in the capital region.

And he was the one who had taught me the Resonance Compression spell. He was like a mentor to me.

I was grateful to him in many ways.

Seung-hoon shook his head.

“Not at all. Without the efforts of you and Flame’s elite… everything in Tokyo would have been in vain. With Japan’s considerable hunter forces, if they had been wiped out… we wouldn’t have been able to prepare for the final battle.”

He continued praising Flame’s achievements. Especially mine.

As a hero who once saved the Earth himself, he seemed to have high expectations of me.

“And Flame’s Busan branch. I heard this place has a lot of your personal touches. I apologize that the Hunter Association is suddenly using it.”

“Not at all. Here in Busan, our Flame branch is the number one guild. It’s only natural.”

“No. Flame is now the most influential guild not just in Busan but in Korea… no, in the world. Anyway, the systems set up here are perfect.”

He wasn’t wrong.

When I came to the Busan branch, I built the systems to match Association standards as much as possible.

Most Busan guilds had haphazard systems for dungeon clearing or villain elimination. But our headquarters’ system was exceptionally well-built to receive Association certification.

With Yuri’s permission, I implemented Flame’s system here exactly as it was.

“Everything is compatible with Association standards, making it perfect for serving as a temporary headquarters. How many moves ahead were you thinking!”

“It’s not that impressive.”

“No need for modesty. I’m certainly not one to give empty compliments.”

He was right. Secretary-General Seung-hoon Choi was famous among Korean hunters for his cold personality.

He had the image of someone who perfectly handled practical matters from behind Tae-hyun’s shadow.

But his praise continued. After a moment, he said somewhat awkwardly.

“Please, take a seat. I can’t keep the hero of the new era standing. Bring us some tea!”

Seung-hoon called out to his aide.

In truth, I was suffering from terrible burning pain, so I desperately needed coffee to distract my mind, even briefly.

“I’d prefer coffee, please.”

“Of course. Bring it iced!”

I appreciated Seung-hoon’s consideration.

I tried to open my system, but it no longer worked.

Now I understood why the system had been breaking down.

The system was a special hidden piece I had as Arel’s avatar, a sort of cheat I possessed as the original creator of this world.

The novel’s regeneration had already reached its limit after thousands of remakes. So it was natural that the system would break down at the end.

‘If I could use the Archangel’s Citadel remaining in the system… I could reduce the pain a bit.’

I had been enduring the severe aftereffects of releasing the 4th seal through the Archangel’s Citadel. Now I had unlocked the final seal and released the power of annihilation.

The aftermath of that fifth seal being released was turning my body to ash from within.

The only reason I was still moving and breathing like a human was because I had obtained all the powers of the divine beasts.

‘I’m practically half-dead at this point.’

But I was used to hiding that pain from others.

I drank the iced americano brought by Seung-hoon’s aide, momentarily forgetting the pain.

And I began to explain why I had come here.

***

Our conversation continued for quite some time.

“As you requested, press releases have gone out to media worldwide. Would you like to see?”

He displayed a large number of news reports on a screen in the office.

They were all about Flame’s achievements.

From two weeks ago when Flame’s elite killed Mun-yeom Seo, the top executive of the Red Lake, to the most recent recapture of Rome from the Red Lake. All those headline reports caught my eye.

[Heroes of the New Era: Creating New Fire in the Midst of Despair]

[Apostles of Arel Recognized by the Pope Himself: The Holy Land of Vatican Restored by the Apostles of God]

The media was extensively covering Flame’s achievements in such ways. There were not only articles but also numerous video reports.

“All of this is true. These articles are hardly exaggerating.”

As Seung-hoon said, it was true, but I had asked him to highlight Flame’s achievements at this specific timing.

It might have been a very presumptuous request coming from a 22-year-old rookie hunter.

But Seung-hoon had understood the true intention behind my request.

“Although the heroes of an era, the Five Celestial Saints, remain, in times of great chaos like this, new heroes are needed. And the public tends to rally around the achievements of such heroes.”

Seung-hoon was right.

The war situation worldwide had become overwhelmingly unfavorable for humanity.

And finally, the evil god’s revival had begun. As a result, a terrible fear of the apocalypse had spread throughout the world.

Even the Vatican, humanity’s spiritual center, had been corrupted by villains.

But I had decided to transform humanity’s fear into great hope.

‘A ray of hope that comes after terrible despair shakes people’s hearts even more deeply.’

In a way, I was attacking the evil god’s greatest weakness.

Flame’s counterattack—humanity’s counterattack—was being reported worldwide. And Flame would become a new focal point for humanity.

I told Seung-hoon:

“Unlike the true god, the evil god builds its power through false terror and fear. So if that fear continuously accumulates in humanity, it becomes like a massive faith offered to the evil god.”

That is the false divinity known as anti-divinity.

So before the final battle, we needed to reduce the evil god’s anti-divinity as much as possible.

I saw that the comments on the news reports were reaching tens of thousands.

“We’re using the video footage you brought from Rome directly in the reports. This is completely reversing humanity’s atmosphere of despair.”

He was right.

Humanity saw hope in Flame.

And that belief was directed toward me and my companions in Flame.

As Arel’s avatar with divine status, their belief acted as faith for me.

“The flame of hope created by Flame will spread fiercely across humanity!”

Even Seung-hoon was showing uncharacteristic excitement.

He had believed in me, an unknown hunter, and given me his full support, so his contribution to this matter was significant.

But I remained cold.

“We cannot rejoice until the evil god is annihilated. Until then, I… the Eastern Sages must remain level-headed.”

“Indeed, you’re exceptionally rational. That’s what I value highly about you.”

After a moment of silence, he looked me in the eyes and said:

“But sometimes that calmness seems excessive. It’s strange. You’re just a 22-year-old hunter, yet you show a transcendence that doesn’t fear even death.”

Seung-hoon was sharper than I had thought. But I answered without revealing my inner thoughts:

“Any hunter in this era… in these times would be prepared for death. Surrendering to the fear of death is exactly what the evil god and Red Lake want. For the sake of our fallen comrades, we must not fear death.”

“Still, you’re the talent who will lead humanity’s future. You must never take your life lightly. For you and the Eastern Sages, it would be better if an old man like me died instead.”

I could feel his words were sincere. Then the Secretary-General told me about the evil god Setanus.

“Here are the logs from the battle the Association President fought a few days ago.”

It was the battle record between Tae-hyun Jeon the Regulator and the evil god.

It was the highest level of classified information among all Hunter Association records. But Seung-hoon showed it to me without any hesitation.

“As you can see, the atmospheric MCI recorded an unbelievable figure.”

I read the magical energy measurement displayed on the screen.

‘4720…’

When a great demon is summoned, the magical energy reading is around 500.

Even at that level, hunters below S-rank immediately exceed their MCI limit. And the demonized Mun-yeom Seo had recorded magical energy of about 1500.

‘If Arin, who became a saint, hadn’t been in Tokyo…’

Hunters would have suffered exposure worse than radiation. A magical energy reading so high that even S-rank hunters couldn’t withstand it.

But the evil god’s magical energy reading was more than three times that of Seo.

“The Association President said that this reading was even before the evil god released its true power.”

It was no wonder that humanity’s strongest, the Regulator, had been defeated.

“So no matter if you and Flame’s elite are apostles chosen by God… I cannot send young people like you to certain death…”

Unlike his cold appearance, Seung-hoon was a warm-hearted person befitting a hero of humanity.

Because he was such a Secretary-General, I could tell him my final request.

“That’s exactly why we must go. We have Ayel’s blessing with us.”

Seeing my firm resolve, he could say nothing more.

Besides, Seung-hoon knew from the Cross Society’s report that I was a divine entity.

After a moment, I handed him a report in the silence.

“Wait. This report?”

He quickly read the title of the report with curiosity.

“Prometheus? Implementation of a special resonance compression spell combining four elemental properties?”

Naturally, it was a title that would interest Seung-hoon.

After all, the resonance compression spell I was using was created based on his theory.

He read through the report in one go, as if entranced.

“This spell… is virtually the completion of the theory I envisioned. It offsets all the theoretical flaws in the spell and maintains balance among the four elements. Could this be?”

“Yes. I refined your idea once more, Secretary-General.”

Prometheus. It was the true divine beast fire beyond the Vermilion Bird’s flame.

It was the ultimate fire created by resonating all four divine beast powers I possessed. And that Prometheus was the power of annihilation I had—the avatar’s key to activating the incantation Epitheus.

I asked Seung-hoon, the creator of the theory, to check this spell one more time.

“This idea… even though you’re a special being blessed by God… it’s flawless as an evolved theory. If this spell can truly be implemented as written…”

He took out a pen and continued reviewing the spell.

“If this spell is really possible, it might be able to annihilate the evil god!”

It certainly should. It was a spell that compressed all my power of annihilation into one.

But after about an hour of review.

Seung-hoon seemed shocked by the conclusion his review revealed. For a while, he couldn’t speak.

Finally, he opened his mouth and said to me with a sigh:

“This… you really were prepared to die. The trigger for activating this spell, the raw material for that chain reaction is…”

His grim gaze turned to me.

“It’s your body and soul, isn’t it?”

I silently nodded at his words.

“How can someone as young as you throw away your life like this!”

Secretary-General Seung-hoon Choi grabbed my shoulders and told me it was absolutely unacceptable, but after another hour of conversation, I finally convinced him.

And I completed the spell he had reviewed. As a colorless key, all my preparations were complete.

Two days later, all hunters of the three-nation alliance headed to Seoul.