Chapter 132

Chapter 132

Raven was a Grade B martial-type Awakened.

That alone made him powerful enough, but he had also been trained as a soldier and could handle all kinds of firearms with complete freedom.

He was not a Magic Gunner, but he could use firearms as skillfully as one.

A sword and a gun.

The two weapons, which seemed as though they would never match, harmonized in his hands and displayed absolute power.

Raven did not even think about drawing his sword.

He was confident he could deal with Zeon with a single gun.

The gun he held was a Desert Eagle.

It was an antique used before the world had fallen.

A piece of junk that should not even have fired anymore had been reborn as the ultimate weapon for killing people, thanks to an Enchanter.

With a single shot, the head of most Awakened would burst like a watermelon.

No matter how exceptional an Awakened was, they could not dodge a bullet aimed at them from point-blank range.

Raven aimed the Desert Eagle at Zeon’s forehead and said,

“Think of it as bad luck. Your fate simply ends here.”

“Do not decide someone else’s fate as you please. Mine is not cheap enough to be swayed by another person’s hand.”

“Really? I do not care.”

Raven grinned and pulled the trigger.

Click!

The sound of the hammer striking rang out.

But the bullet he had expected was not fired.

“What? Is it broken?”

Raven looked at the Desert Eagle with an expression of disbelief.

An ordinary gun could malfunction.

But this was not an ordinary gun.

It was an item reinforced by a skilled Enchanter.

There was no reason for it to suddenly break down inside Neo Seoul, which was not even the harsh desert.

Raven tilted the Desert Eagle. Fine sand slid out from the muzzle and chamber.

“Sand? Why is this inside the gun?”

Raven’s face filled with bewilderment despite himself.

It was a gun he usually maintained with great care.

He had checked it before coming here as well.

At that time, there had definitely been nothing wrong with it.

Raven glared at Zeon.

“Was this your doing?”

“Who knows?”

“So you are magic-type. Judging by the trick you just pulled.”

“It may be a trick, or it may be skill.”

Zeon smiled faintly.

That look made Raven lose his temper.

“Let us see if you can keep smiling after your head is cut off.”

Swish!

Raven swung the sword strapped to his back.

The blade sliced through the air like lightning and reached Zeon’s neck in an instant.

Clang!

At that moment, Zeon deflected Raven’s sword with his gauntleted fist.

“So you were not magic-type, but martial-type?”

“Find out for yourself.”

“I was going to do that anyway.”

Swish!

Raven swung his sword at terrifying speed.

His swordsmanship was precise and sharp. At the same time, it contained formidable strength.

A fragile human body would be split in two the moment it was caught by that blade.

But that was only if the blade connected.

Zeon avoided every one of Raven’s attacks by the narrowest margin.

When evasion was difficult, he used the Gauntlet of Extreme Heat to defend or deflect.

Enraged, Raven pulled the machine gun hidden inside his coat.

“You rat-like bastard! Let us see if you can dodge this too.”

Ratatatat!

He fired the machine gun without the slightest hesitation.

Bullets powerful enough to pierce a ten-centimeter-thick steel plate poured down like rain.

Even a powerful Awakened would instinctively shrink back before such an attack. But Zeon did not dodge the bullets and charged straight through them.

Tat-tat-tat-tat-tang!

Countless bullets struck Zeon’s body.

But not a single one pierced him.

It was because of the robe Zeon was wearing.

The robe made from Leviathan’s hide was not so flimsy that it would be pierced by attacks of this level.

The only exposed area was his face, and even that was completely blocked with the Gauntlet of Extreme Heat.

Raven’s eyes widened.

“Damn it!”

Bang!

At that instant, a powerful impact struck his abdomen.

Zeon’s foot had slammed into him.

“Guh!”

With a stifled groan, Raven was sent flying backward.

Zeon caught up to Raven and swung his fist.

Bang!

“Gah!”

With an explosive sound, Raven let out a suppressed groan.

Although he had blocked Zeon’s attack by a hair’s breadth, the shock still rattled his organs.

“What are you? What the hell are you, you bastard?”

Raven shouted and charged.

＊＊＊

On top of a building overlooking the square stood one man and two women.

There was a stooped old man leaning on a cane and a pair of twin sisters whose appearances were perfectly identical.

The twin sisters watched the fight between Zeon and Raven and gasped in admiration.

“Wow!”

“This is the first time I’ve seen Raven, that human hunter, driven into a corner like that.”

The twin sisters opened their eyes wide, as if watching a rare spectacle.

A sound of admiration also escaped the old man standing beside them.

“Even so, Raven is a fairly strong Grade B Awakened. To drive him into a corner like that......”

Raven was by no means easy to deal with.

Because he used both firearms and a sword at the same time, he was considered an extremely difficult opponent.

Of course, that was by ordinary standards.

It had nothing to do with the old man and the twin sisters.

They were far too strong to be defeated by someone like Raven.

The twin sisters looked at the old man at the same time.

“Who is that man?”

“Do you know anything?”

The old man shook his head.

“I do not know either. This is my first time seeing him.”

“There are things even you do not know, Grandpa.”

“I guess so.”

At the words of the twin sisters, the man they called Grandpa smirked.

Everyone else called him Elder Go or sir. Only the twin sisters called him Grandpa.

That was how close they were.

“It is not as though I know everything. The world is vast.”

“So you do not know everything.”

“Then are we just going to leave them like that?”

The fight between Zeon and Raven had grown even more intense.

There had not been much damage yet, but if they left it alone, it seemed likely that the people nearby would suffer greatly.

Elder Go said,

“I do not think I need to interfere. That boy is guiding the fight in a direction that minimizes the damage on his own.”

His gaze remained fixed on Zeon.

Zeon’s movements were so subtle that even the twin sisters had not noticed.

He focused all of Raven’s attacks on himself so that those nearby would not be harmed. At the same time, he skillfully diverted the attacks concentrated on him and dispersed their force.

Thanks to that, there had been no major damage or deaths so far.

The twin sisters spoke in turns.

“Is he martial-type?”

“What grade?”

“At least Grade B.”

“He is strong.”

“Still, he cannot beat us.”

“Of course he cannot.”

“Should we attack?”

“Should we?”

At that moment, Elder Go shook his head and interrupted their conversation.

“Do not.”

“Why? Do you think we would lose?”

“Do you?”

“That is not it, but it feels like it would become rather troublesome. If types like him are not dealt with in one strike, the aftermath is no joke.”

At Elder Go’s answer, the twin sisters frowned at the same time.

They seemed to think for a moment, then spoke simultaneously.

“We hate troublesome things.”

“We hate them!”

“Let us just watch.”

“Yes!”

Elder Go smiled at their conversation.

The twin sisters’ names were Eun Su-jin and Eun Su-young.

They were members of the Numbers, just like Elder Go.

The Numbers.

It referred to the execution unit directly under Jin Geum-ho, the mayor of Neo Seoul.

When a major incident that could shake the foundations of Neo Seoul occurred, or when an old enemy of Jin Geum-ho had to be removed, they were deployed.

Every member of the Numbers consisted of Grade S and Grade A Awakened.

Eun Su-jin and Eun Su-young were holders of powerful telepathic abilities.

Through telepathy, they could infiltrate an opponent’s mind, throw it into confusion, or control it.

Their mental abilities were so powerful that Grade B and lower Awakened would be defeated without even being able to resist.

Elder Go was a Barrier Mage.

If he wished, he could create a powerful barrier over the entire square.

The barrier he created would be completely cut off from reality.

Until Elder Go released it, no being could escape from within the barrier.

His combat power itself was nothing remarkable, but because of his powerful barrier ability and the versatility that more than made up for that weakness, he was recognized as a powerhouse even among the Numbers.

“Thanks to the mayor, I am seeing something interesting. This is certainly a high-level fight. Heh heh!”

Jin Geum-ho had secretly summoned him and given him the role of mediator.

A mediator was exactly what the name implied: one who adjusted the situation.

Jin Geum-ho wanted the board to grow larger, but at the same time, he did not want it to grow beyond what he desired.

If the board called Neo Seoul itself broke, it would be a great loss to him as well.

That was why he had secretly dispatched Elder Go and the twin sisters.

They possessed the abilities most suited to regulating the situation.

When Elder Go first received the mission, he had found it troublesome.

He was not as old as Jin Geum-ho, but he too had lived for a very long time.

He had experienced just as many incidents and accidents.

When he was young, he had enjoyed such things, but now that he was old, they were no longer entertaining.

Because of that, he had been considering retiring from the Numbers. But the fight between Zeon and Raven that he saw today had awakened his interest and curiosity once more.

The fight between Zeon and Raven was growing increasingly fierce.

Raven, driven by rage, was attacking Zeon with all his strength.

Ratatatat!

He fired the machine gun wildly and swung his sword in every direction. But none of his attacks inflicted any damage on Zeon.

Raven was a famous human hunter of the East District.

His combat prowess had already been proven.

Raven was strong.

But in this moment, he was not the strong one.

Before someone even stronger, he was endlessly powerless.

“What are you? What the hell are you?”

In the end, the enraged Raven shouted.

At that moment, Raven had already collapsed psychologically.

Zeon was a cliff.

A towering cliff so high that one could not even imagine breaking it down or climbing over it.

If Zeon set his mind to it, he could bring Raven down at any moment.

Yet the reason he did not was because of the prickling sensation he had been feeling for a while now.

It was someone’s gaze.

Zeon sharpened his senses and scanned the area.

But he could not find the owner of the gaze.

It was not because they were hiding behind an obstacle or inside a building.

If they had been hiding somewhere like that, he would have found them long ago.

‘Did they isolate space by deploying a barrier?’

An ordinary Awakened would not have been able to think of such a possibility.

But Zeon was no ordinary Awakened.

During the eight years he had wandered the desert, he had experienced countless things and met just as many Awakened.

Among them had been Awakened who hid by deploying barriers or magic circles.

At first, they had caused him trouble, but in the end, Zeon had found a way.

Whoosh!

Suddenly, a sandstorm blew into the square.

Since sandstorms always blew through the area, no one thought it strange.

But this sandstorm was special.

Because Zeon had summoned it.

The sandstorm covered the square.

At that moment, Zeon saw it.

The only space the sandstorm avoided.

It was exactly where Elder Go and the twin sisters stood.

‘There.’

Zeon’s gaze naturally turned toward the top of the building.

At that instant, Elder Go shuddered.

Because his eyes had met Zeon’s head-on.

‘That boy...... saw me?’