Ch.280280. Reclaiming Seoul (1)

# Seoul’s Liberation

Everything around Seoul Station had been transformed into unrecognizable ruins due to the clash between the Cult of Immortality and the Seoul Allied Forces.

Not only that, but when the Dark Lord descended, his influence affected the entire city of Seoul, leaving everything that had existed in a circular pattern around Seoul Station completely annihilated. The damage was so severe that half of Namsan Mountain had been destroyed by the Dark Lord’s descent.

Nevertheless, the Seoul Allied Forces could confidently claim victory over the Cult of Immortality.

“Victory is ours! The Dark Lord has fallen to the Dragon God’s hand!”

“There’s nothing to fear anymore! All Seoul Allied Forces, commence the full attack!”

“Dragon God Bahamut is watching over our struggle! For the Dragon God! Long live the Seoul Allied Forces!”

The Dark Lord, whom the Cult of Immortality had believed in, ultimately fell to the Dragon God’s hand. He plummeted through the atmosphere in a pitiful state, having lost most of his body, reduced to nothing but a skull—a miserable condition witnessed by both the Cult of Immortality and the Seoul Allied Forces.

Of course, Dragon God Bahamut, whom the Seoul Allied Forces believed in, had also sustained severe injuries to the point of coughing blood. Nevertheless, he managed to rise up and display his majestic form to both the Seoul Allied Forces and the Cult of Immortality. Seeing this, the Allied Forces gained momentum and courageously moved forward to eliminate the remaining Cult members in Seoul.

With the Dark Lord fallen, they believed there would be no more variables, and the Seoul Allied Forces launched a full-scale attack to recapture Gangbuk, which had been seized by the Cult of Immortality.

Led by Kim Su-ho and Jin A-yeon, the Seoul Allied Forces advanced beyond Gwanghwamun and reached Jongno, while the Cult of Immortality could not withstand their momentum.

“We lost? We actually lost! Our god!”

The high-ranking members of the Cult of Immortality could not accept the fact that the Dark Lord had been defeated, and most Necromancers fell into great confusion.

Some Necromancers began to confront the advancing Seoul Allied Forces to somehow prove that the Cult had not been defeated, but the Seoul Allied Forces, having witnessed the Dark Lord’s fall, no longer feared the Cult of Immortality.

Riding on their endlessly rising momentum and morale, they began to deal with the undead army that blocked their way. The Cult of Immortality, having just lost most of their undead golems and Death Knights in the recent battle, had no means to suppress this momentum.

They began to be helplessly pushed out of Seoul, and even…

“A-are you alright, Lord Bahamut?”

“It’s… difficult to say I’m fine. It was a battle where I lost quite a lot.”

Dragon God Bahamut stood majestically behind the Seoul Allied Forces.

Of course, the Dark Lord had been a formidable opponent, and despite all the preparation, Bahamut’s physical condition was far from perfect. In fact, he needed immediate professional treatment, and Yu-na was actually focusing all her remaining magical power on treating Bahamut with tears in her eyes.

Perhaps thanks to her efforts, Bahamut’s wounds covering his entire body gradually began to heal, but it was true that he had no strength to participate in battle right now.

However…

‘It’s already a nightmare for the Cult of Immortality to face the Seoul Allied Forces, but if the Dragon God joins the battle now, the Cult will be completely destroyed!’

It was difficult for the Cult of Immortality to realize that the Dragon God could not move properly.

From the perspective of the confused Cult, although Bahamut had sustained injuries severe enough to make him cough blood, he had quickly risen again, suggesting he still had the strength to fight. They judged that once the Seoul Allied Forces’ indiscriminate attacks ended, Bahamut’s assault would begin.

Moreover, as their once-proud undead army began to crumble to the point of being outnumbered, it was time for the Cult’s leadership to make a decision.

“Retreat! He will return someday! This is not over yet!”

To somehow stabilize the collapsing Cult, they began shouting at the top of their lungs that the Dark Lord would return.

Of course, this declaration wasn’t entirely a lie. Despite his condition, the Dark Lord was still alive, and all Necromancers knew he was still connected to the Cult of Immortality.

However, the overwhelming power felt before his descent was gone, replaced by a barely perceptible connection on the verge of breaking. Nevertheless, the fact that the Dark Lord would return helped calm the confusion within the Cult of Immortality.

After all, returning from death was the specialty of the undead, and the Cult of Immortality, true to its name, pursued eternity and immortality.

So they wanted to believe the Cult of Immortality wasn’t finished yet, but unfortunately, the eyes of the leadership making such declarations were already wavering with fear of the Dragon God.

“Let’s return to our homeland! This place is no longer for us!”

“Damn it! We’ll regroup with the main force!”

The news of the Dark Lord’s defeat spread throughout Seoul in real-time, meaning all frontlines were beginning to collapse.

The Seorabeol-Yamato Allied Fleet, which had established a fortress at Incheon Harbor, switched to an offensive stance and began attacking Incheon. Even the Anyang front, which had received relatively less attention and focus, saw the Seoul Allied Forces gaining the upper hand and continuing to advance northward.

The Cult of Immortality had two choices: either flee to their homeland by boarding ghost ships at Gimpo, or join the main force stationed in Gangbuk to survive. Most chose to return to their homeland using the ghost fleet.

However, unfortunately, for them to return to their homeland…

“Try getting past the Allied Fleet if you can.”

“Damn it!”

Their survival was hopeless as they needed to break through the Allied Fleet that controlled the East Sea.

The remnants of the Cult of Immortality who had managed to reach Gimpo had no choice but to remain there, while the Seoul Allied Forces held the advantage on all fronts and successfully completed the recapture of Gyeonggi Province.

“We won. We actually won.”

Kim Su-ho, who had driven the Cult of Immortality out of Seoul, looked around blankly while wearing his dragon armor stained with blood and flesh.

The city was in shambles after being controlled by the Cult of Immortality, but nevertheless, Gangbuk, which had been taken by the undead, had finally returned to human hands after a year.

Kim Su-ho removed his helmet and threw it aside, raising his weapon to the sky with tears in his eyes. The suicide squad that had followed him, seemingly understanding his feelings, uniformly raised their own weapons and shouted.

“We won! We actually won! We overcame the apocalypse!”

“We reclaimed Seoul! We achieved victory over the Cult of Immortality!”

“Long live Captain Kim Su-ho! Long live Dragon God Bahamut! Long live the Seoul Allied Forces!”

The roars of the undead were no longer heard in Seoul.

That alone was enough for the suicide squad to shed tears and genuinely rejoice in their victory, while simultaneously mourning the comrades who had fallen without witnessing Seoul’s liberation.

The eyes of the Seoul Allied Forces held both the sorrow of losing friends and the joy of victory over the apocalypse, as everyone began to cry and laugh at the same time.

However, there were clearly factions that could not rejoice in the Seoul Allied Forces’ victory.

“These damn Cult of Immortality members! They said we could win! They said we would win! But what is this situation? Our victory, our power!”

These were the former influential figures of Seoul who had cooperated with the Cult of Immortality to drive out Kim Su-ho.

The Cult of Immortality had been pushed back by the Seoul Allied Forces on all fronts in Seoul, and consequently, they had gathered at Gimpo to survive, responding in an organized manner. However, Seoul’s influential figures, who had been their collaborators, were completely abandoned by the Cult of Immortality.

More precisely, the Cult of Immortality had no capacity to care about Seoul’s influential figures, but from the perspective of these figures, they felt they had been used when needed and then discarded when no longer necessary.

In fact, their thinking wasn’t entirely wrong—once driven out of Seoul, the Cult had no reason to take responsibility for Seoul’s influential figures, so abandonment was inevitable sooner or later.

“What should we do? What should we do now?”

“L-let’s escape too! Whether abroad or anywhere, if we leave Seoul, we’ll have another chance!”

With the Seoul Allied Forces controlling Seoul, they would purge Seoul’s influential figures without mercy, given the many grievances they held against them.

In reality, the reasons for them to die far outweighed any reasons for them to live, and Seoul’s influential figures, not being fools, had long known they had countless reasons to die.

So they planned to use the transportation means still available to them to seek asylum abroad rather than remaining in the country, but unfortunately, while Kim Su-ho himself might not have minded, his subordinates would not allow them to escape.

“Arrest them all! They’re all national traitors who collaborated with the Cult of Immortality!”

“They say a gentleman’s revenge is not late even after ten years, and it seems that saying is true!”

The Seoul Allied Forces, especially the NTS that followed Kim Su-ho, began tracking down Cult collaborators within Gyeonggi Province as soon as Seoul was recaptured.

Since these influential figures were the former masters of the NTS, and all important information related to them was in the hands of the NTS, once the tracking began, NTS agents found the influential figures who had holed up in underground bunkers and began arresting them one by one.

Thanks to the Cult of Immortality, many of Seoul’s influential figures who had been protecting themselves with luxurious meals and magical barriers provided by the Cult in underground bunkers were captured one after another. Those arrested by the NTS uniformly left only ugly words behind.

“Ah! Now a dictator will be born in Seoul! You have destroyed Seoul’s democracy!”

“We are innocent! If we are guilty of anything, it’s that we had no other choice to survive!”

“Our actions were force majeure! It was a patriotic decision to protect the Republic of Korea!”

When the NTS attempted to arrest them, they all defended themselves with their own justifications, claiming innocence, but the response they received was utterly cold.

If Seoul citizens heard this, they would want to put not just stones but lead bullets in them—it was nauseating. The NTS agents who arrested them seemed to feel the same way, as they began to warn them with a chilling voice.

“If you knew that, would you have dared to betray His Excellency, who could have become a national hero? You know well. If you hadn’t coveted that tiny bit of power, your relationship with His Excellency would have been very different from before!”

Since Kim Su-ho had never been interested in founding or usurping a state, if they had cooperated with him without coveting power, they would not have been so miserably abandoned or arrested.

In the end, it was their choice to betray Kim Su-ho for immediate benefits, and the NTS pointed this out while simultaneously…

“You deserve to die! Because of you, our colleagues! So many people died! If it weren’t for you… the Cult of Immortality would never have invaded this place!”

The NTS agents, who had lost many colleagues and friends to the Cult of Immortality, including at the Han River defense line, expressed their resentment toward them with desperate voices.

The reason their hometown Seoul was ruined, the reason they had fallen like this—wasn’t it all due to the choices these people had made?

“This is the path you chose! So you must take responsibility for that choice!”

The influential figures of Seoul arrested by the NTS included:

Former high-ranking officials of the Republic of Korea, former local council members, unofficial vigilante leaders and military-related figures.

Finally, the guild masters of many guilds that had established themselves in Seoul were also captured by the NTS, and they successfully detained personnel dispatched by the Cult of Immortality.

This news reached Choi Yu-na, the leader of the Seoul Allied Forces, and her response was…

“I’ll leave their treatment to Mr. Kim Su-ho.”

She deferred their treatment to Kim Su-ho, who was directly involved, rather than herself as an outsider.

Accordingly, their disposition fell into Kim Su-ho’s hands, and his choice was…

“I will have them punished through a public military trial.”

He decided to punish them through a public military trial under military law.

Thus, a temporary court was set up in the middle of Gwanghwamun for a public military trial to punish Seoul’s influential figures, and a public military trial to punish the betrayers of humanity was held with thousands of citizens watching.