D.I.O

The Masters had been nervously watching the mammoth Tan when they groaned as their surroundings abruptly changed.

“The crater’s gone! No, wait, I can’t even see the rocky ridge that the earthquake raised. More importantly, what are these buildings? Wasn’t everything near the Magic Tower razed? The tactical system and my smartphone also aren’t working!”

“Something… something has changed. Could it be that we’ve switched locations? This place still looks like Korea, though….”

The sky had suddenly turned gray, and in a flash, numerous buildings appeared out of nowhere. The foreign Masters present didn’t know the local geography, so they weren’t aware of their location, but the Korean Masters recognized the new buildings.

“This is Cheonan City before it was razed,” Arc murmured.

Miho asked Arc in a low voice, “…The place where the Legion and Grotesque ran amok?”

“Yeah. However, it’s not so simple as stating the surrounding buildings have been restored. Something feels off….”

Everyone’s faces changed subtly at Arc’s calm explanation.

‘Who the hell is this girl?’

‘I don’t know who she is, but thanks to her, I was able to survive….’

‘If it were Merlin, I would have understood, but there’s another user who can use an ultimate magic spell?’

Arc received the others’ questioning gazes, but unfortunately, she had no time to answer them.

“Grr….”

“Kyak!”

From the ground, the walls, the sky, and inside the buildings, bestial growls echoed. The Masters’ expressions changed when they felt a rush of demonic qi.

“What the hell? Aren’t those demons?”

“I think it’d be more appropriate to call them demonic beasts… Everyone, be careful! These things are strong!”

The Heaven above the Heavens were recognized for their skills, but weaker Masters existed as well. Bruce Wayne was the de-facto leader of these individuals, and he shouted as he noticed that the incoming monsters’ strength easily exceeded that of the average user in their party.

However…

“Kyak!”

“Grr!”

“Screech!”

All the shadow demonic beasts that initially showed up, exuding fearsome demonic qi, soon disappeared as they went back into their shadow forms.

“What? What happened?”

“They’ve hidden through some form of shadow camouflage! Keep your guards up….”

“Don’t be silly. Just get together, you idiots.”

The Masters’ eyes gathered at the origin of the irritated voice. The speaker, Cruze, was carrying a huge sniper rifle. Even though she was the weakest amongst the Heaven above the Heavens, her skillset and power were significant and demanded respect. Thus, the murmuring died down as the Masters regained their cool.

As he internally rued the inevitable situation of having to play second fiddle to Cruze, Bruce Wayne asked, “Do you know anything about those things?”

“How would I know? Regardless, no matter how great these monsters are….”

Cruze smiled and looked up at the sky. Tan, or Leviathan, wasn’t moving, but he still exuded a tremendous presence and aura.

“Naturally, they’re not going to rear their heads out before that monstrous beast.”

“That means… at the very least… we can assume it wasn’t Leviathan that changed locations, right?”

“You’re pretty smart, aren’t you?”

Cruze nodded and looked around. The number of Masters was dreadfully few; their forces had diminished considerably.

“We took on many casualties. Moreover, a good amount of people didn’t make it here…. The only able-bodied Masters are Hanma, Jeros, and Aung Nina. Of course, that’s not counting your party.”

Cruze frowned after hearing Bruce Wayne’s words.

“What about Adol? I saw that he was injured, but-”

“I confirmed that he logged out. Adol lost part of his soul, so he’s as good as dead.”

“Oh, it’s too bad he’s gone….”

With a nervous expression, Cruze bit her fingernails, then she turned around without a word. Bruce Wayne furrowed his eyebrows, but since he had interacted with Cruze for a considerable amount of time in DIO, he cleared his thoughts and started taking care of the other Masters.

“Do you need a tank? While I’m not a defensive expert, I think I can block things fairly well.”

Lancelot had been silently following Cruze as if he were her bodyguard, and he offered his help with a puzzled expression. He had a fighting style that focused exclusively on attacks, but his singular attack style was why he was good at countering enemy attacks and [offsetting] them. Although they were in peril numerous times, Lancelot had blocked Tan’s attacks up to now. So, Lancelot wondered why Cruze sought Adol, a veteran shield-wielding tank.

At that moment, Cruze spoke some unexpected words.

“Hey.”

“What?”

“… Can you sit this one out?”

Lancelot paused. When he turned his head, he saw Cruze avoiding his gaze.

“What nonsense are you saying?”

“I… I don’t feel optimistic about this. You should go into the tower and come out with Merlin- Whoa?!”

Bam.

Cruze grabbed her forehead and groaned after sustaining a quick but fierce blow. She could counter any type of surprise attack, but no matter how talented she was, the martial arts that Lancelot had developed weren’t easy to deal with, especially from such close proximity.

Cruze was still taken aback by the blow when Lancelot spoke.

“Your words just now…”

Lancelot continued in a low voice.

“… are greatly insulting to me.”

“…”

Cruze gritted his teeth at Lancelot’s drastically uncharacteristic tone. She undoubtedly knew what he was saying. Cruze knew how Lancelot got to this point; she was gifted with her genius, but Lancelot had nothing.

He had cultivated his skill single-mindedly for hundreds of years.

It was easy to say ‘hundreds of years,’ but if anyone actually considered the implications and extent of that time span, it would be easy to see how improbable such a feat would be for any average human being.

Even if someone repeatedly studied every night for five years to take a single exam, the stress they received would be beyond imagination. If an individual joined the military as a medic, two years would seem like an eternity.

An ordinary human mind would never experience hundreds of years under normal circumstances. Hence, was it possible to cope with such a prolonged period, never mind cultivating that entire time?

“Still….”

Nonetheless….

“Can you retreat this one time?”

“…”

Lancelot hesitated. Cruze had never shown such consideration before, nor this soft side of hers.

As he held her shoulders with both hands and gazed at her face-to-face, he saw a frowning young red-headed girl looking back.

“… What’s the matter?”

“I have a bad feeling. That monster… I don’t feel good.”

“Is it your intuition?”

Lancelot knew from experience that, with her fearsome talents, Cruze was incomprehensibly endowed with great intuition. Moreover, the accuracy of her intuition was quite high.

Cruze faltered slightly before responding.

“That damned bastard was strong before, but I feel that things have gotten worse. We can’t resist….”

“Lea Schmidt. Byun Miri. Cruze.”

Lancelot cut Cruze off and spoke lightly. He called her by all her names, her German name, her Korean name, and her DIO ID.

“Uh, yeah.”

When he saw her hesitate, Lancelot, Byun Dongsoo, spoke clearly.

“I won’t stop.”

[Resolution] enabled his endless efforts and endeavors, and it wasn’t something Lancelot put aside when it became convenient. He couldn’t just put it away as if he were stuffing something in his pocket when at a disadvantage, then retrieve it later when the situation suited him.

“Even if the end is total destruction and annihilation… I won’t stop.”

If Lancelot stopped even once, he’d never be able to start again.

And because he knew this quality all too well… he wasn’t planning on stopping. He’d rather die running than halt before reaching the finish line or whatever goal he aimed toward.

“…”

Cruze was lost for words as she peered into Lancelot’s brightly shining eyes. There, she saw an unbreakable determination. Cruze had been born with talent, but she never had the [preparation] and training mindset to match it.

As she gritted her teeth and remained quiet, the Masters suddenly began to stir.

“Merlin?”

“It’s Merlin! He’s finally come out!”

Merlin looked up at Tan’s gigantic body with a calm expression. Before anyone knew it, the two who always accompanied him, Arc and Miho, as well as their three pets, flew toward him. Youngmin, the dimensional shifter, also approached and stood by Merlin’s side.

“Merlin! Did things go well?”

“Yeah. Oh, but putting that aside….”

Merlin threw something at Miho, who caught the item and made a blank expression.

“… A Soulstone?”

“It’s the last slave contractor left in DIO.”

When she heard Merlin’s incomprehensible words, Miho frowned in confusion.

“What are you talking about? I’m still around, no?”

Miho was an NPC who lost all her memories and who DIO suppressed; this proved that she was a slave contractor. Ordinary contractors weren’t subjected to such sanctions, and most importantly, she recalled the memory of her previous life as Heavenly Flower, a nine-tailed fox who was also called the Witch of Desolate Nation.

“No.”

Yet, even so, Merlin shook his head.

“That’s the last one.”

“What are you talking-”

“Operate Divine Weapon. Olympos.”

As he ignored Miho’s bewilderment and recited his Divine Weapon activation phrase, Merlin brought out a large longbow that looked like it was made of jewels. It had a completely different appearance from before, as it now appeared to be a masterpiece carved from jewels.

Creak!

As soon as he pulled the bowstring, the weapon seemed to protest, and in turn, this created a great amount of potential qi energy. The gathered Masters were surprised by Merlin’s sudden appearance and subsequent actions.

“Are you planning on striking first?”

“Hey, calm down! There’s no way an attack like that would work against such a monster right now….”

However, the Masters who shouted and protested stepped back immediately.

This was because they saw a red ruby floating above Merlin’s shoulder.

Whoosh.

Magic power whipped around Merlin. That was all. However, that simple movement conveyed a thousand words and made everyone shut their mouths. Even after seeing Tan’s extraordinary true body…

Merlin wasn’t just gathering magic power.

He was exuding immense power, as if [one world was being converged into one point].

“No, no, wait a minute… what is this?”

“Sparks… sparks… can this be….”

While they had low positions within the Noblesse, the pets who had experienced the wider universe from within this organization shuddered in surprise. And the ruby, which was exuding such a terrifying power…

Whoosh!

The ruby turned into an arrow of flame and was tautly strung to Olympus’s bowstring.

“Howling Spell.”

Merlin loosed the arrow.

“Apollon.”