Ch.5959. Recapturing Pohang (2)

A massive magic circle suddenly appeared in the sky, covering all of Pohang.

No one knew when it had formed.

Without any warning signs, the enormous magic circle that enveloped the entire Pohang area began to pulsate.

“Come. Please come, my Dragon God.”

Naturally, Yu-na was the one who created the magic circle in Pohang’s sky, and she was using her summoning ability to call forth the great Dragon God worshipped by the Balhut Cult.

With Yu-na’s words, the magic circle began to fluctuate, gathering enormous magical power. As thunder struck in the sky, something massive emerged from the magic circle.

As this entity appeared, the magic circle in the sky shattered like glass, breaking into fragments, and the massive meteor-like object began rapidly plummeting toward the ground.

The citizens of Pohang who witnessed this scene trembled in fear, wondering if a meteor was about to crash into their city. But for the Balhut Cult, this was the signal marking the final stage of their Pohang offensive.

With wild cheers, the cult’s soldiers rejoiced at the Dragon God’s appearance. Before crashing into the ground, the descending Dragon God spread its enormous wings wide, reducing its speed and gently landing on the surface.

“In response to my contractor’s call, I have come to Pohang.”

Despite landing as gently as possible like applying brakes, when the Dragon God touched down, the earth couldn’t withstand the impact, creating a massive tremor.

With a thunderous “BOOM,” the Dragon God made its presence unmistakably known to Pohang’s citizens through the enormous noise and vibration. It then slowly looked toward Yu-na, who had summoned it.

What happened next hardly needs explanation.

After retrieving Yu-na, Bahamut turned its attention to the zombie horde approaching in response to Yu-na’s provocation magic, considering how to deal with them.

“Behold! This is the god of the Balhut Cult! The brave and benevolent Dragon God, Bahamut!”

Yu-na, perched on Bahamut’s shoulder, was using amplification magic to introduce Bahamut as the Dragon God worshipped by the Balhut Cult.

Through Yu-na’s magically amplified voice, every citizen in Pohang could hear her words and see Bahamut’s form.

They could also naturally witness the countless zombies charging toward Bahamut.

It was like a battle between dragons and zombies straight out of a fantasy novel.

“…It seems certain that the mutant spider zombies possess intelligence. They’re fleeing at full speed despite being under the provocation spell as soon as I appeared.”

“But they can’t escape from you, Lord Bahamut, can they?”

“Of course not.”

The foolish zombies, unaware of the dragon’s power before them, were meaninglessly sacrificing themselves by charging forward despite the Dragon God’s appearance.

But the mutant spider zombies were different.

As soon as Bahamut appeared, they began fleeing into the city interior at full speed as if terrified by its immense power, despite being under Yu-na’s provocation spell, following their survival instincts.

Naturally, they began colliding with the zombies following behind them or outright killing any zombies that hindered their escape.

Despite the mutant spider zombie’s strong will to survive…

“Fire Wall.”

Such a strong desire to live went unrewarded.

With their backs to Jeokgye Reservoir, Bahamut witnessed the mutant spider zombies’ escape attempt and disgraceful behavior, and cast a spell to prevent their flight.

Upon uttering the name of the spell “Fire Wall,” massive flames began to rise from Bahamut’s center, forming a path toward the city and town.

The flames soon connected to form a wall-like structure that surrounded the zombies, and once the flames linked together, they created a barrier of fire blocking the zombies’ escape.

“KEEEEEEEK?!”

There were indeed some mutant spider zombies who judged that burning in flames was better than facing a dragon head-on.

These brave mutant spider zombies charged toward the massive flames, but unfortunately, the fire’s intensity was more than they could handle.

The moment they entered the flames, the immense heat and power instantly incinerated the mutant spider zombies, reducing them to black ash.

Moreover, zombies still affected by the provocation spell heading toward Jeokgye Reservoir met the same fate as the fleeing mutant spider zombies, turning to white ash upon entering the flames.

“There are fewer mutant spider zombies than I expected. It seems zombies still remain deep within Pohang.”

Despite displaying such overwhelming flames and firepower, Bahamut remarked that there were fewer zombies than anticipated.

Of course, the number of zombies before them was enormous, blackening the earth with their sheer quantity.

However, having experienced this once before, Bahamut felt that the number of zombies was similar to or slightly less than in Gyeongju, and could detect through magic that zombies still remained in downtown Pohang.

“There might be more intelligent mutant zombies. Since there were mutant spider zombies, there could be other intelligent variants we haven’t identified.”

“Hmm, that’s true.”

Yu-na mentioned the possibility of other intelligent mutant zombies, pointing out that this tactic hadn’t been very effective against the mutant spider zombies.

Bahamut nodded in agreement with Yu-na’s words.

“This tactic has outlived its usefulness.”

“No, this might be just right. For the cult’s Awakened to grow, they need an appropriate number of zombies to fight.”

“That’s true!”

“Besides, what makes zombies frightening is their overwhelming numbers that exhaust ammunition. If I eliminate many zombies in advance, they become much less intimidating to face.”

When Yu-na self-deprecatingly said this method was no longer useful, Bahamut comforted her by saying this was actually a better choice for the cult’s growth.

Indeed, since zombies were threatening due to their sheer numbers, if they could control the population and establish means to hunt the mutants, the mutant zombies could serve as experience points to help the Balhut Cult’s Awakened grow.

Of course, finding a way to eliminate the city-filling hordes remained a significant challenge, but for Bahamut, against whom such quantity tactics were useless, this was a feasible approach.

“Then, let’s make it flashy.”

Either way, this was Bahamut’s first appearance in Pohang.

Since Bahamut needed to captivate the Pohang residents with a magnificent and grand appearance, showcasing a spectacular attack would be best.

“Flashy, you say?”

“The ultimate fi… no, that would be too powerful and problematic.”

At first, Bahamut considered using the strongest magic available, but seemingly thinking it was too extreme, immediately canceled it.

“Receive the breath of the dragon.”

In the end, the safe choice was the dragon’s trademark from fantasy novels—the dragon breath.

Having blocked the zombies’ escape routes with walls of fire, Bahamut began to ascend into the sky with Yu-na, as if intending to annihilate the entire area.

Rising high enough that the zombie horde appeared as tiny dots below, Bahamut opened its massive mouth while glaring down at the zombies on the ground.

“Yes! This is perfect! The dragon’s breath that Lord Bahamut bestows upon those vile zombies! People of Pohang! Please enjoy this spectacular strike!”

Blue energy gradually gathered around Bahamut’s mouth.

Each energy particle was magical power visualized as light, and Yu-na, perched on its shoulder, laughed loudly at this tremendous power, urging the citizens of Pohang to watch carefully.

The gathered magical power gradually formed into a sphere, emitting an intense blue light like a blue sun across the entire Pohang region.

Those witnessing it felt a sense of awe and reverence before this overwhelming power that made their bodies feel like they were boiling.

“Haah!”

With Bahamut’s shout, the spherical dragon breath struck the earth.

With a “BOOM,” the blue sphere fired from Bahamut’s mouth collided with the ground, causing a massive explosion.

The tremendous blast made the ears of watching Awakened and ordinary people ring, but they could clearly see what happened.

The zombies, trapped by the wall of fire and unable to move, vanished without a trace from that single strike.

The zombie horde that had appeared like a black sea just moments ago disappeared instantly from Bahamut’s attack, leaving only the blue-burning earth and the gradually dissipating wall of fire that had completed its role.

“Clean.”

“Indeed.”

A massive crater formed where the dragon’s breath had hit, and the agricultural products in the abandoned farmland, along with the zombies present there, were cleanly annihilated without even leaving white ash.

The area that had been farmland still showed the effects of the dragon breath, with blue flames flickering over the barren earth, and rocks beginning to bubble like hot lava.

As Bahamut slowly landed on this literally empty ground…

“Now, the time has come to conquer Pohang. People of the Balhut Cult! It is time for holy war! Lord Bahamut is watching this scene! Therefore, righteousness is on our side!”

The leader of the Balhut Cult and Priestess of the Dragon proclaimed loudly that it was time for holy war.

The Balhut Cult members who had been quietly watching the scene clearly heard Yu-na’s voice amplified by the amplification magic.

“OOOOOHHH!”

The Balhut Cult soldiers, already full of morale from Bahamut’s descent, began advancing into Pohang without hesitation at Yu-na’s cry.

Countless zombies had already vanished by Bahamut’s hand.

What remained was cleanup, and moreover…

“Fear not, brave warriors. I still have plenty of magical power received from my priestess. As long as I remain here, I shall grant strong bodies and powerful shields to the warriors who join this battle.”

Despite the zombies’ annihilation, Bahamut had not yet left Pohang and quietly stated that it would bestow great strength upon the Balhut Cult.

It seemed that the magical power gathered for Bahamut’s summoning had been effective, as Bahamut still had enough magical power to act despite using the dragon breath.

Since Bahamut had no intention of fighting anymore, it decided to use the remaining magical power for the Balhut Cult members.

“Strength. Protector. Haste. Bless.”

Strength enhancement. Protection barrier. Acceleration. And blessing.

Bahamut used all the buffs it could with its remaining magical power for the cult members bravely charging into Pohang.

“Yes, as Lord Bahamut says. We no longer need to be afraid. Even if something happens… as long as we walk with Lord Bahamut, we have no enemies.”

“Hmm.”

Seeing the magic casting complete, Yu-na declared to the entire Pohang region that the cult members no longer needed to fear anything because the cult was with the Dragon God.

Bahamut felt a strange chill at Yu-na’s words.

‘There’s nothing wrong with what she said, but somehow…’

Bahamut felt like it had become the villain.