Side Story 45. The Story After (45)

‘Did I get a little carried away?’

Should I have cleaned up the chaos in the party hall a bit more before coming out?

Lee Hoyeon, regretting it for a moment, soon shook his head.

With Irene, Alice, and the Guild Leader-nim there, the internal chaos would be sorted out quickly.

‘I couldn’t miss an opportunity like this.’

Lee Hoyeon looked out at the wide field.

I heard this place was chosen among several candidate party locations, maybe that was part of the terror plot too.

KUUUNG-! KWAAANG-! KOONG!

Hundreds and thousands of magic powers striking the barrier.

It was the unpleasant magic power of the monsters.

Right now, Lee Hoyeon was standing inside the barrier.

Going straight outside the barrier might be dangerous, so he adjusted the coordinates slightly.

“This is a good place to fight.”

Lee Hoyeon smiled as he looked at the numerous monsters beyond the field.

Doki- Doki-

The thumping excitement of combat senses, felt for the first time in a long while.

Lee Hoyeon surrendered himself to the fighting spirit filling his entire body.

No matter how troublesome things got, Lee Hoyeon loved magic and had a personality that enjoyed combat.

“I thought I’d never get to fight in a large-scale battle like this again….”

The Demon King died, and I thought there would be no more threats in this world.

Yet, they gathered here stubbornly like this; from Lee Hoyeon’s perspective, he could only be grateful.

‘If it’s the last time anyway, I should enjoy it properly.’

Lee Hoyeon placed his hand on the barrier enduring the attacks.

The barrier, collaborated on by himself and the Iris Guild, could easily withstand ordinary attacks.

Furthermore, now that Lee Hoyeon himself had appeared, even just pouring magic into it would ensure it never broke….

‘Then I wouldn’t have a chance to fight.’

Lee Hoyeon poured magic into the magic circle inside the barrier.

After finishing preparations to seize control of the barrier at any time, he opened a part of it and stepped outside.

“The target has appeared!”

“Prepare to attack!”

Thousands of monsters attacking the barrier in the field turned their gazes towards Lee Hoyeon.

Their killing intent and unpleasant emotions pressed down on Lee Hoyeon as if trying to crush him.

The battlefield air, aiming for each other’s lives.

Lee Hoyeon felt his lips curl up involuntarily at the sensation, felt for the first time in a long while.

‘Isn’t this a bit psychopathic?’

Lee Hoyeon imagined himself chuckling foolishly before the battle.

And then he glanced down.

The neat suit Scarlet had prepared for him was still the same.

‘Maybe it’s okay now.’

In the original world, image is important.

The current Lee Hoyeon gave the impression that whatever he did would create a good image.

His thoughts concluded, Lee Hoyeon surrendered himself once more to the combat senses.

This situation, with thousands of monsters in the field staring only at Lee Hoyeon.

It was truly a situation that brought a smile to his face.

“Nice to meet you, you bastards.”

Lee Hoyeon summoned his magic power and walked forward.

*

“…What? Lee Hoyeon came out alone?”

“Yes.”

“What does that mean… Still, maintain combat readiness. Don’t let your guard down, absolutely not.”

A burly-looking monster gave orders to his subordinate with an unpleasant expression.

It was a subordinate in charge of liaison with the EK Guild inside the party hall.

“Lee Hoyeon escaping the party hall alone. Surely he isn’t thinking of stopping us all by himself, is he?”

“He might be. The genius mage Lee Hoyeon is treated like a disaster-class monster.”

“Don’t bullshit me. Crankx. No matter how strong Lee Hoyeon is, does that make sense? He’s just one mage.”

Vera, a woman standing next to the monster, frowned with her arms crossed.

“Do you know how many monsters a single mage has killed?”

“Those guys were stupidly ambushed. The situation now is different.”

“Hmm. I think so too… but those who have actually met him rate Lee Hoyeon very highly. Don’t let your guard down.”

Crankx, the burly man, spoke while looking at the barrier.

In fact, he agreed with her words.

The operation would be carried out seriously, but he didn’t think they would lose.

The opponent was merely one mage.

Killing thousands of monsters alone was physically impossible.

‘The question is whether we can break the barrier before the rescue team arrives.’

The fate of the monsters hinges on this operation.

If the EK Guild regains its rights, the monsters who have taken control of the EK Guild’s interior can advance into the human world again.

After the fall of Pandemic, the golden age of monsters would dawn again.

Then, a part of the barrier opened, and a single figure burst out.

Crankx looked straight ahead and raised his spear.

“The target has appeared. Prepare for combat.”

With his appearance, the flow of the air on the battlefield changed.

Vera, who had been grumbling until just moments ago, also assumed a combat stance.

“Nice to meet you, you bastards.”

Lee Hoyeon smiled brightly as he looked at the monsters staring at him.

Everyone seemed full of the will to fight.

This kind of battlefield was Lee Hoyeon’s favorite place.

“Deploy Sky-Piercing Palace.”

KUUUNG-

Inside the Sky-Piercing Palace covering the entire field, Lee Hoyeon spread his magic power in an instant.

And dozens of large magic circles appeared behind Lee Hoyeon.

Each one was a murder weapon threatening the monsters.

“I expected that much!”

Vera, the woman next to Crankx, signaled the monster mages.

As much as breaking the barrier was necessary, the counter-magic was thoroughly prepared.

“A monster is indeed a monster. Twisting dozens of large magic circle formations… But it’s the end now!”

Under the counter-magic deployed simultaneously by over hundreds of mages, the magic circles Lee Hoyeon had cast were undone one by one.

Lee Hoyeon examined the faces of the monsters during that time, then nodded his head.

“I was wondering how so many monsters were hiding… So they were disguised as EK Guild members?”

He saw faces of EK Guild members he remembered from the Iris Guild’s intel.

It seemed to be top-secret information known only to a few personnel, including the Guild Master.

Other guilds Lee Hoyeon didn’t know about probably had monsters hidden among them too.

“Their level isn’t bad?”

Lee Hoyeon suppressed a laugh along with his pounding heart and summoned his magic power.

If they couldn’t even block this much, he would have been disappointed; these guys were quite interesting.

“So, how about this.”

Lee Hoyeon placed his hand on the barrier.

Pre-arranged circuits activated, changing the core formations that made up the barrier to face Lee Hoyeon.

Seureureuk-

Simultaneously, the barrier vanished, and the magic power composing it was absorbed into Lee Hoyeon’s body.

Feeling the abundant magic power, Lee Hoyeon took a slow deep breath and gathered his magic.

“Th-the barrier! The barrier suddenly disappeared!”

“What did that idiot do?! It’s our chance! Charge! Charge!”

The monsters, confirming the barrier’s disappearance, immediately began to charge.

No matter how strong Lee Hoyeon was, he couldn’t immediately deploy such a large-scale barrier.

They didn’t know what he was preparing, but they couldn’t miss this chance.

“Yeah. I figured you’d charge headfirst once the barrier was gone.”

Lee Hoyeon reached out his hand as he watched the monsters charging towards the party hall.

The large-scale barrier, prepared for over a month by the Iris Guild and gathered brilliant mages, contained an immense amount of magic power.

Having absorbed all the magic power using the Sky-Piercing Palace, Lee Hoyeon could, for a moment, surpass his own limits.

“Reverse Heaven (逆天)”

A magic that steps into the realm of gods.

It was a divine art that could barely be cast by absorbing all the divine power of this world, but with an immense amount of magic like now, it was possible to imitate it briefly.

The moment Reverse Heaven was activated, all beings except Lee Hoyeon stopped moving.

No, to be precise, Lee Hoyeon’s thoughts accelerated thousands of times.

“Arc Consecration.”

The originally 3 Arc magic spheres circled above Lee Hoyeon’s head, numbering over several hundred.

Right now, it felt like he could truly do anything.

“Eclipse.”

And Eclipse, the magic representing Lee Hoyeon, covered the sky.

Thousands of black suns, each capable of burning hundreds of monsters, appeared.

“Magic of that scale without magic circles…?”

After the acceleration of thought ended.

Seeing the black suns covering the sky, the monsters’ steps halted unconsciously.

From their perspective, it was like closing their eyes and opening them to find suns descending upon them.

The monsters instinctively felt the magic power contained within Eclipse.

A mighty magic capable of easily erasing an entire country.

The moment that fell upon the field, this entire region would vanish.

“M-mages! Counter it! Hurry!”

“The magic’s structure itself is different from existing magic! Countering is impossible!”

“Ah, fuck…! Charge! Then at least charge! Staying still is just a dog’s death!”

Lee Hoyeon nodded as if realizing something upon seeing the monsters charging with death in their eyes.

“Ah. I made a mistake. I decided to keep them all alive. Gotta follow the rules. The rules.”

Thinking it was the final battle, he got excited for the first time in a while.

As Lee Hoyeon waved his hand, the black suns covering the entire field vanished like melting snow.

When the suns above their heads disappeared, the monsters instinctively felt it.

Their lives were in the hands of that monster.

“Rune Tracer.”

Ureureung-

The terrifying black suns disappeared, and the clouds in the sky began to move.

Dark clouds that suddenly appeared in the clear sky covered the field, hiding the sun.

Each one was a cloud imbued with powerful lightning.

“Don’t worry. I’ll adjust it so you don’t die.”

“H-haha….”

Seeing the dark clouds covering the sky, the mage Vera laughed blankly, as if her soul had left her body.

The fate of the monsters? That wasn’t important.

The monsters had to run away.

They had to hide in deeper places so they would never encounter that monster again.

“If I knew they were this strong, I wouldn’t have messed with them. You sons of bitches in the EK Guild….”

Of course, that thought came too late now.