Ch.607Chapter 23. Patriotic General Do Ji-hwan (11)

The preparations were complete.

All that remained was to fire at each other and it would be over.

And for a moment, people had forgotten.

That the Ability User World Cup stadium was similar to a soccer field, with reinforced glass rising high between the field and the spectator seats.

That behind the reinforced glass, Association ability users were deploying barriers using mana power, but if their magical power was weaker than the impact generated when combatants fought inside the arena, serious problems could arise.

And that the magical power these two were gathering now—the magical power of two S+ rank users—was an incredible force unlike anything seen anywhere else before.

“Uh, umm… Is the glass going to break…?”

“Ah, no way. They’re heroes fighting each other, how could the glass break? That destructive power couldn’t possibly reach us…”

People in the stands began to show signs of anxiety one by one.

Everyone was becoming anxious rather than just excited because they had never before seen S-rank or higher beings clash with such powerful techniques.

“S-surely there won’t be any problems. That’s right…”

“Whoa, insane.”

Everyone in the stands was utterly astonished.

“Rise, flames of the nine-tailed fox!!”

Whoosh.

A massive pink flame spread behind Yoon Yi-seon.

Fluttering its nine tails, the fox standing on two legs grew so enormous that it poked its head above the open stadium.

A burning mass of flames itself.

“W-what size is this?!”

Previously, Mecha Tyranno Lord of Radiant Wings had appeared in Pyongyang, but people had only seen it through TV footage.

So this was the first time seeing such a gigantic being up close.

Even the battle of the two giants in southern Seogwipo had only been witnessed through video, making this the first time in their lives they had seen such enormous forms this close.

“Uh, uah, uaaah…”

“Insane!! What kind of size is this?!”

“It’s not just Yoon Yi-seon!! L-look over there!!”

Crackle!!

A cloud of lightning spread behind Thunder Empress.

What initially appeared to be a cloud gradually began to take shape, and that form resembled something you might often see in a museum.

“A g-general…!!”

The figure of a general wearing a helmet with two ornamental plumes was gleaming with blue mana.

Although there was no sword at the waist, blue electrical currents crackled and covered the surroundings over the gleaming blue helmet.

Rumble.

The two women who had summoned the pink nine-tailed fox and the blue-green general stood in the abdomens of their summoned magical giants, emitting magical power.

The brilliant emblems rising in their abdomens were emitting tremendous magical power.

“N-no way…!”

As the two giant forms moved simultaneously, pulling their bodies forward.

KWAAAANG!!

The ultimate giants they created collided with their fists, and light exploded.

“KYAAAAAAAH!!”

An incredibly intense magical explosion.

The powerful tremor that shook not only the air but the entire stands caused everyone in the audience to scream.

Everyone had forgotten.

That although they were young women, each one possessed firepower stronger than a nuclear bomb.

That while the visible forms were just aesthetically pleasing creations using their mana, the actual power they possessed could take the lives of all 100,000 spectators in the stands in just one second.

Everyone had forgotten that their clash could leave a crater as if a hydrogen bomb had exploded here, and that the Hero Association agents reaching out to the trembling glass windows were mere weaklings in the face of two S+ rank combatants.

And then.

“Huh, uh…?”

Everyone had momentarily forgotten.

“T-this is…!”

“A-as expected of SS rank…!”

That the background that allowed these two to receive spectators and use their ultimate techniques was, of course, because the safety of the audience was guaranteed.

That there was a being with the power to protect everyone from the explosion of magical power, no matter how tremendous the magical power used by the two S+ ranks.

“Wall of… ice!!”

The glass wall remained intact.

Only behind it, a more transparent yet thicker wall rose higher than the reinforced glass wall.

“W-wow….”

They had felt it when she instantly froze the Haeguneul headquarters, but that woman had already become a “god.”

As the rising currents of pink flames and blue-green lightning shot up more than hundreds of meters into the sky, she blocked all the impact of the explosion with an ice wall, preventing it from reaching anyone in the stands.

Even though there was no direct hit, the impact of two S-rank users clashing inside the World Cup venue was extraordinary.

To block that without spilling a single drop of anyone’s blood.

“Snow White is amazing….”

“Maybe Snow White is also like those people… Aah!!”

Beyond the transparent ice wall, the two giant forms that had collided fists shattered like mist.

As if by agreement, both simultaneously faded away, and as time passed, the magical collision in the stadium faded like an illusion.

Tap.

The two women landed on the ground simultaneously.

Yoon Yi-seon was still maintaining her Firefox state, while Kim Yoon-ji silently hardened her face with electricity surrounding her body.

Step, step.

The awakening emblems that had been shining in their abdomens gradually began to lose their light.

Whether they withdrew their magical power themselves or the magical power disappeared after releasing such tremendous force.

The emblems of the two people that had been emitting incredible magical light before colliding began to lose their light and gradually fade.

And the moment those emblems completely faded.

Flash!

As light exploded, Yoon Yi-seon’s appearance changed.

Transformed from Firefox to her small frame, Yoon Yi-seon was uninjured but bowed her head deeply toward Kim Yoon-ji with a face full of fatigue.

“I lost.”

At that moment, the electricity around Kim Yoon-ji dissipated like a discharge.

The electricity flowing around her was no longer emitted, and the briefly flashing current only produced very small sparks before ceasing completely.

“…That was close. If you hadn’t used mana on the fire fox, you might have been the winner.”

“But without transforming, it doesn’t feel right. Using flames so freely without transforming is… whew.”

Yoon Yi-seon collapsed forward with a tired face, and Kim Yoon-ji quickly supported her and patted her back.

“You did well.”

WAAAAAAAAAA!!

Beyond the ice wall, the spectators’ cheers erupted as they praised the two who had shown them a spectacular battle.

The duel between the two S+ ranks ended with the victory of the senior, Thunder Empress Kim Yoon-ji.

* * *

“It was a friendly match so Yoon-ji won, but what do you think would have happened if it had been a fight to the death?”

“That’s a cruel thing to say with no reason even to assume.”

“What if the Syndicate created clones of the two and made them fight with the intent to kill each other?”

“The one with more real combat experience would win.”

I answered Baek Seol-hee’s careful question straightforwardly.

“Who has killed more people? Who has less hesitation using their ability to kill people? No matter how strong a hero is, they’ll be restricted if they hesitate to kill. For example, like you.”

“Me?”

“Yes.”

Baek Seol-hee easily created an ice wall that blocked the mana collision of two S+ ranks to save people.

However, if asked to topple that ice wall toward the spectator stands, Baek Seol-hee wouldn’t have been able to create an ice wall as high as the stadium.

After all, with abilities, a person’s ‘will’ is important before it manifests in reality.

“In terms of killing large numbers of people instantly, Yi-seon has the advantage, while causing large-scale power outages to create accidents and mass casualties would be Kim Yoon-ji’s advantage. They each have different strengths.”

“Hmm….”

“It’s the rhetoric that Hero Academy professors often use, right? Assuming current ability users suddenly go insane and become demons who kill people.”

Directly referring to Yoon Yi-seon and Kim Yoon-ji would clearly be disrespectful to them, but this is how education actually takes place.

“Ability users can go berserk and kill people anywhere, anytime, so be careful of their abilities. Back when Haeguneul was telling people to get their safety measures or insurance, they used heroes’ abilities to instigate fear.”

It’s less common now.

With all of Haeguneul’s leeches in prison now, there are few people who would feel anxiety and fear first about heroes’ powerful abilities.

There are some, but…

“If someone stronger than those with such destructive power demonstrates their strength directly, people will trust that person even more. Previously, only Lord of Radiant Wings was like that, but now there’s Baek Seol-hee too.”

“That’s a good sign.”

Even amid the clash of S+ ranks, and in all the magical explosions that will occur at the World Cup stadium in the future, spectators are safe.

Thanks to none other than Baek Seol-hee.

“This mock battle between retiring pregnant S+ rank heroes wasn’t simply to showcase the awakening emblems.”

Beyond their power.

“What they really wanted to show was the safety of the World Cup stadium, and the belief that heroes remain strong for the citizens.”

A message that retirement is for child-rearing, not because they’ve become weaker in terms of ability.

“I feel sorry for the people who were a bit startled.”

The strength of heroes who learned awakening techniques through Do Ji-hwan and gained awakening emblems, becoming strong enough to use ultimate techniques.

“Now everyone will know. The Korean Peninsula is safe even for World Cup games.”

The match was to demonstrate that.

“They drew attention to show that it’s safe.”