Chapter 212 – Demon Lord Berid (1)

The group all seemed dumbfounded by Sun-woo’s appearance as he put the dragon trying to wake back to sleep.

But moments later, Daniel came to his senses first.

He embraced Isabel and let out a silent cry of joy.

At Daniel’s appearance, people came to their senses one by one, and Goddess Frig in the saint’s form looked at Sun-woo with a serious expression.

She was concerned that a being with divine status was too multi-talented. Because gods usually specialized in almost one direction.

‘Well, since he’s not trying to become a god, there’s no need to worry about it already. Since his body has a long time before death, I should think about it slowly.’

Even if Sun-woo were an ordinary human, he had over 50 years of lifespan left, and thanks to the various powers that entered his body, it was hard to get a sense of how much his lifespan would increase.

Moreover, there was a higher probability of becoming a god of another world.

Becoming the sole god in Sun-woo’s dimension which had no gods also seemed quite nice.

Anyway, Goddess Frig decided to stop worrying about Sun-woo.

The saint’s body had already reached its limit.

The goddess exited the saint’s body while hearing Sun-woo’s telepathic message one last time.

[Don’t forget your vow to compensate Daniel.]

‘Tsk.’

Since it was a vow as a goddess, he had no choice but to grant it even though Isabel survived.

Moreover, since someone with divine status heard it beside him, there was no way out.

The goddess grumbled at Sun-woo as much as she could while exiting the saint’s body.

After the goddess left, the saint who regained consciousness completely collapsed from exhaustion.

Thanks to that, Knight Commander Iliana made a fuss giving her potions and such, and after hearing the story from the saint who barely regained consciousness, her face turned pale.

Because what she thought was the saint’s request was actually the goddess’s command.

Though the result ended well, she had failed to properly carry out the goddess’s command.

Meanwhile, the contamination on the dragon and surroundings gradually disappeared.

It had been a contamination zone originating from Zigmund’s Dragon Heart. Since the Dragon Heart returned to normal, it was natural for the contamination zone to disappear.

When that happened, the monsters that invaded the kingdom lost their power.

The kingdom, having gained momentum, could mobilize even regular soldiers to drive all the monsters back to the eastern mountain range.

In the midst of this, the second prince’s valor spread among the people.

Later, this incident became the beginning of discord between the crown prince and the second prince.

---

Shortly after Sun-woo finished his mission.

He was in Dimension Beta, the Empire’s second city. The free city Stuttgart.

The city had now completely transformed into a military city.

The barrier surrounding the city was completed as a solid iron wall over 10 meters high, and the forces standing guard wore proper armor.

Moreover, modern attire from Dimension Alpha like stab-resistant vests could be seen everywhere.

It seemed they had brought in much equipment through dimensional transfer during this time.

Of course, the gods and summoners of each dimension disliked material or technological exchanges between dimensions, but since Dimension Beta was already ruined beyond repair, it wasn’t a situation to worry about anyone’s opinion.

Stuttgart had been endangered several times by attacks from contaminated monsters during this period, but thanks to the prophet’s leadership and people’s united efforts, it had now transformed into an incredibly vibrant place.

“Now there’s no distinction between surface people and underground Edenites, Imperial soldiers and scavengers. Nobody looks strangely at mutants either.”

Even at Hayden’s proudly speaking words, Sun-woo only glared at him intently.

“Ahem, ahem. And thanks to me and other scout teams working hard, we’ve figured out almost all the contamination zone locations within the Empire. Since the contamination has already settled and the destruction effect isn’t great, we left them alone, but thanks to Brother Sun-woo, it seems we need to start destruction operations right away.”

Caroline, who knew the situation in advance, only found it amusing watching the embarrassed Hayden and glaring Sun-woo.

Hayden, who had been continuing his words, eventually bowed his head deeply toward Sun-woo.

“I’m sorry.”

But Sun-woo, still seemingly unforgiving, only raised his hand to pick at his ear.

Eventually, Caroline, who was watching, had no choice but to step in.

“Cut him some slack. Sir Hayden couldn’t help it either. How could he know that one night together would result in a pregnancy? Moreover, with Europe in chaos, that dimension became a mess and communication was difficult. Marriage in a world like this… You should rather bless it.”

This was exactly why Sun-woo was angry.

When he arrived here, Hayden had already married Clara without even telling him.

As Caroline said, marriage in this kind of world was something to bless.

In a situation where Clara was pregnant, ignoring it wouldn’t do, and it was true that he couldn’t help it since they couldn’t communicate, but being angry was unavoidable.

How dare he!

This young punk whose head hasn’t even dried yet!

Getting married before me!

When I couldn’t!

Even though he had become less concerned about marriage or sexual desire than before, being angry was natural!

“Haha, I’ll let you know first thing when the baby’s born. I hope you’ll become the godfather.”

He showed effort trying to appease Sun-woo’s anger with the bait of being a godfather, but the direction of appeasing anger was wrong.

But Sun-woo showed he was roughly calming down.

It was half joking anyway.

He had briefly indulged, but now they needed to conduct the meeting properly.

Hayden, who became a major of Stuttgart free city defense forces and received the title of viscount thanks to his achievements during this time (granted by a royal who came as a refugee, almost an honorary position).

Caroline, who attended as the representative of refugees.

Finally, Sun-woo had gathered in one place to destroy the contamination zones that had been postponed.

As Hayden said, they were contamination zones that had been left alone because even destroying them would have little meaning.

According to the method Sun-woo brought, the contamination zones could be converted not into zones generating contamination but into barrier formations removing contamination.

“Think of it as similar to the method that purified Stuttgart. Use pure spirit stones or cores that aren’t contaminated, arrange the contamination barrier formation array in reverse order, then grant divine power and ta-da, the purification formation is complete.”

Though it was clearly not easy just from hearing it, they had no choice but to believe Sun-woo’s confident appearance.

Even for Sun-woo, it was something he wouldn’t have dared attempt until recently.

Divine power at refinement level plus uncontaminated cores…

It only became something barely worth trying now, after succeeding in extracting the demonic energy from the Dragon Heart in the previous mission and being able to freely use divine power with his ascended divine status.

“I’ll call all the ability users in the city. We’ll have to accept some damage to break through the contamination area, but if we can save everyone, nobody will back out.”

Hayden had already received full authority from Prophet Silvia.

Though there were other ability users of similar rank, she had given Hayden full authority over this matter.

“No, you don’t need to call anyone else.”

“What?”

“Just you and I will move.”

“What? No matter how strong Brother Sun-woo is, you can’t break through everything.”

“You know all the locations, right?”

“But,”

“Then that’s enough. I can spatial transfer too.”

“Unless you’ve been to the place yourself…”

Hayden, who kept bringing up counterarguments, recalled Sun-woo’s numerous abilities and stopped speaking.

If it was Sun-woo, moving to locations in someone else’s head might be possible.

“There are others who know the locations in more detail…”

“Even so, you’re the best at taking care of yourself, right?”

His final resistance was ultimately useless.

“It’s been a long time since you did a mission with me. Let’s do a mission together, just the two of us after so long.”

At Sun-woo’s appearance sending an intense smile, Hayden felt the back of his head prickling.

‘This is holding a grudge! It’s definitely revenge for earlier!’

Just as Hayden thought, Sun-woo planned to continue teasing a bit more with a joyful heart.

---

One day later.

Dimension Beta. New Continent.

A field where beasts deformed by contamination for a long period moved leisurely.

In its midst, a massive ruin was positioned.

A gigantic tower that looked unfinished.

It was a massive ruin that looked like the Tower of Babel seen in European religious paintings.

The ruin that had been overgrown with dust and vines for a long time had many people coming and going since recently.

People in black robes. Soldiers in uniforms, and warriors wearing swords and spears.

All of them with subtle red eyes were all contaminated summoners.

[Empire contamination zone #3 defense forces annihilated! Two attackers. Appear to be the same ones who destroyed zones #2 and #5.]

[Empire western contamination zone #3 operation stopped. Contamination zone transforming.]

[Confirmed that contamination around zones #2 and #5 has disappeared. Contaminated humans and creatures. Assessed that contamination was removed without death.]

On the tower’s first floor, mages in black robes were manipulating semi-transparent windows in a large room.

Due to various windows and magical effects, this place gave the feeling of a future strategic command center.

But unlike the modern atmosphere, this place was extremely chaotic right now.

Because of the enemy’s attacks that started yesterday.

The enemy appeared in turn at contamination zones dozens, hundreds of kilometers apart, smashing defense forces, and instantly modified contamination zones to instead purify their surroundings.

Thanks to that, contamination was now disappearing from the Empire in order.

[Screech, so things, have come to, this after all.]

The man in massive armor standing in back watching the situation muttered in a voice like scraping metal plates.

Almost all of the man’s body was covered in armor, and even the face exposed outside was distorted into a bizarre form over half its area.

The still intact face at best only showed what this person used to look like.

Blood Demon Yang Hwa-su.

It was him, who killed Sun-woo’s family and received fatal injuries from Sun-woo.

Having received treatment and modification from mages, he had settled in this ancient ruin.

“How about destroying the remaining contamination zones in the Empire instead?”

At the appearance of stolen contamination zones being used for purification, the mage beside Yang Hwa-su advised him.

He was a mage who looked down on him until the modification, but after completing the modification, he absolutely couldn’t look down on him.

Because the contaminated mages’ insane experiment succeeded.

The fusion experiment with a possessed Demon Lord.

It was an experiment preserving the body’s consciousness during the possession process with a Demon Lord, and after numerous failures, Yang Hwa-su succeeded.

An existence that could borrow a Demon Lord’s power without having the Demon Lord’s consciousness.

The contaminated mages couldn’t help but bow their heads.

[Just. Leave it. It’s. Time buying. Anyway. Now.]

Yang Hwa-su turned his head back.

The room’s rear. Through a massive window, the tower’s center was visible.

A summoning formation several times larger than the one Sun-woo saw in the desert was positioned there.

It was a magic formation prepared over a long time.

The Demon Lord first contacted by contaminated summoners.

It was a summoning formation to summon the Demon Lord who was the beginning and end that planned and completed all this.

The summoning formation was already operating for some time.

It was time for the Demon Lord to appear.

[Too late. Now. Lord Demon. Lord Berid. Will appear. It’s time.]

Yang Hwa-su declared while watching the increasingly glowing summoning formation.