Chapter 133

Chapter 133

As if he had never seen Elder Go, Zeon focused on his battle with Raven again.

Goosebumps rose over the back of Elder Go’s hand as he gripped his cane.

It had only been for a brief instant, but Zeon had clearly looked exactly where Elder Go was.

“Did he really see me?”

Confusion appeared on Elder Go’s face.

A barrier had been deployed around him.

It was completely cut off from real space, so no Awakened could sense it.

Naturally, no one could see it with their eyes either.

Not even another member of the Numbers.

It was a fact he had confirmed countless times.

Yet for an instant, Zeon had looked straight at the place where he and the twin sisters were standing.

“Did he really see through the barrier? No, that cannot be. My barrier cannot be sensed even by a Grade S Awakened.”

Elder Go denied his own thoughts.

If Zeon had truly seen through his barrier, it would mean he was an Awakened beyond Grade S.

Until now, only two people had ever seen through his barrier.

Jin Geum-ho and Dayodun.

Both were inhuman beings who had lived since before the Great Cataclysm. That was why Elder Go had not thought it strange when they saw through his barrier. For them, it had been only natural.

But no Awakened other than those two had ever sensed or seen through Elder Go’s barrier.

If Zeon had truly found him beyond the barrier, then it meant he was a being on the same level as Jin Geum-ho or Dayodun.

“Impossible...... It must have been my imagination.”

At Elder Go’s muttering, the twin sisters looked puzzled.

“What is impossible?”

“No, it is nothing. More importantly, can you find out that man’s name?”

“It should not be difficult.”

“Then look into it.”

“Okay!”

The twins nodded at the same time.

At that moment—

BOOM!

An explosion sounded, different in scale from anything before.

Startled, they looked toward the battlefield and saw Raven being flung far away.

As though he had taken a tremendous impact, his coat was torn to shreds, and the bulletproof vest he had been wearing underneath was completely destroyed.

The sunglasses he had worn like a symbol were shattered as well, with only one temple remaining.

“Guh!”

Raven threw away the broken temple of his sunglasses and stood.

His entire body rang with pain.

It felt as if he had gone through a giant grinder.

If the force contained in Zeon’s fist had been even slightly stronger, he would have been torn apart as if he had truly fallen into one.

“I stepped in shit in the strangest place. I had no idea someone like you was hiding in the slums.”

“A lack of information always leaves painful wounds.”

“I admit it. I knew nothing about the slums, and nothing about you. I admit that is why I suffered this disgrace. But do not think I represent the East District. I am merely a single hound.”

“I know.”

“Ghh!”

At Zeon’s calm reply, Raven’s face twisted.

He trembled, unable to charge at Zeon.

His pride had been wounded, but he knew there was no point in rushing in, so he could not move easily.

At that moment—

“You fucking bastards!”

Jacob, who had been lying as still as a corpse after being struck by Raven, trembled as he raised himself.

In his bloody hand was the detonator he had tried to press earlier.

His bloodshot eyes bulged as he shouted,

“If it has come to this, we all die together.”

“Th-that?”

Raven stammered in confusion at Jacob’s sudden action. He knew what the object in Jacob’s hand was.

“Hehe! I knew this day would come someday, but I really did not expect it to be today. Still, if this many humans are going with me, the road to hell will not be so lonely.”

By chance, the place where Jacob stood was exactly where the bomb for hunting large monsters had been hidden.

If it exploded, not only he, but everyone near the square would be annihilated.

Raven shouted,

“S-stop, you bastard!”

“Fuck you!”

Jacob raised his middle finger at Raven and pressed the detonator without the slightest hesitation.

“Damn it!”

“Ah!”

Elder Go and the twin sisters sighed.

They were safe inside the barrier, but the people around the square would not be able to avoid death.

It was unfortunate, but they had no intention of intervening.

They were not so compassionate that they would look after the people of the slums too.

At that moment, someone entirely unexpected moved.

It was Zeon.

The instant Jacob pressed the detonator, Zeon threw himself forward without a moment’s hesitation.

It was too late to stop the explosion.

But he could narrow the blast radius as much as possible.

Zeon poured mana into the Gauntlet of Extreme Heat.

At that instant, a light powerful enough to blind everyone burst from the dragon’s eye embedded in the Gauntlet of Extreme Heat.

“Guh!”

“My eyes......”

Those exposed to the light were blinded for a moment.

Raven, Elder Go, and even the twin sisters lost their sight temporarily and staggered.

KRA-BOOM!

At that moment, the bomb buried beneath the square exploded.

Jacob was swept up in the explosion and vanished instantly, and just as the storm of flames was about to spread outward, Zeon reached the center of the blast.

“Cha-at!”

With a shout, Zeon suppressed the explosion with the Gauntlet of Extreme Heat.

The light bursting from the gauntlet wrapped around the storm of flames.

The firestorm could no longer spread and faltered, blocked by the curtain of light. But this alone was still not enough.

Zeon drew up even more mana.

“Guh!”

Blood appeared at the corner of Zeon’s mouth.

He had stopped the explosion from spreading farther, but this was not enough.

Zeon used his authority.

‘Sink.’

At that moment, the floor of the square where the bomb had exploded caved in.

Zeon had moved the sand beneath the ground to create a giant pit.

‘Now!’

Zeon pressed the firestorm down into the sand pit, then dodged away by a hair’s breadth.

KRA-BOOM!

As if venting its rage after being suppressed, the flames exploded even more violently.

Because all sides were blocked by sand, the explosion erupted toward the open sky.

The sight of a pillar of fire soaring high into the heavens was truly spectacular.

“What is that?”

“What happened?”

Raven, Elder Go, and the others gaped at the pillar of fire piercing the sky.

Because they had lost their sight for a moment, they had not seen what had happened.

That only made it even more shocking.

“He suppressed an explosion.”

“What method did he use? Is that even possible?”

“Insane.”

“Is that thing even human?”

They knew Zeon had clearly done something, but no one knew exactly what method he had used to focus the explosion into the sky.

The pillar of fire that had been soaring endlessly into the sky disappeared after a while.

Elder Go, who had watched the scene to the end, opened his mouth.

“At the very least, he is a Grade A Awakened.”

“At the very least? Then are you saying he might be Grade S?”

“That is insane.”

At Elder Go’s declaration, the twin sisters’ mouths fell open.

They wanted to ask whether he was mistaken, but they knew better than anyone that Elder Go had a precise eye.

If Elder Go said someone was Grade A, then that person was certainly Grade A.

And he had added the condition, “at the very least.”

Then he might be even higher.

Which one was true could only be known by clashing with him directly.

At that moment—

A group of Awakened came running down the main road connected to the square.

They were the Awakened of Dongdaemun.

“Over there.”

“Is it a terror attack?”

Although Zeon had suppressed the explosion as much as possible and minimized the damage, he could not hide the pillar of flame that had shot into the sky.

The Awakened of Dongdaemun, having seen the explosion, came running in panic.

“Where is he?”

Raven looked around, but Zeon was nowhere to be seen.

He had already escaped.

“Damn it. It cannot be helped.”

There was no reason to remain here any longer.

Raven gathered all his equipment and left the square.

Seeing that, Elder Go said to the twin sisters,

“We should go too.”

“Okay!”

They left immediately as well.

The Awakened of Dongdaemun arrived at the square after everyone had already gone and stood there in shock.

“Who the hell did this?”

“Was it the Scavengers again?”

The Awakened of Dongdaemun searched frantically for the source of the incident, but by then, everyone had already disappeared.

＊＊＊

“Damn it. That hurt quite a bit.”

Zeon grumbled as he rotated his right wrist.

It was something that would have made anyone else faint from shock if they heard it, but Zeon said it as if it were nothing.

What he had done was that far beyond common sense.

“If I did not have the Gauntlet of Extreme Heat, my arm would have been blown off.”

When he had first obtained the Gauntlet of Extreme Heat, he had not expected to make such good use of it.

Thanks to the gauntlet, he had overcome countless crises, and he had been able to properly conceal his authority over sand.

Since he had not taken it off even once over the past eight years, it now felt like part of his body.

Then he sensed someone’s presence.

“Zeon!”

It was Briel, arriving belatedly.

“You’re here?”

“Are you all right? I saw a huge explosion.”

“It was nothing. Let’s go home.”

“Now?”

“Yes.”

“Okay!”

The two completely left Dongdaemun.

Dongdaemun had been turned upside down by the string of incidents.

The Awakened were running around everywhere in chaos, trying to settle the situation, while the poor residents were too stunned to know what to do.

The entirety of Dongdaemun was in a state of panic.

Leaving that extreme chaos behind, the two returned to Sinchon.

Once they entered Sinchon, it felt easier to breathe.

They were clearly under the same sky, but the air felt far fresher. Even though it was still the same murky air mixed with grains of sand.

Zeon thought as he walked.

‘Who were they?’

The people who had hidden inside a barrier and secretly watched.

One old man and two young girls.

They had been too far away for him to see their faces clearly. But judging by their atmosphere and their ability to set up a barrier, it was easy to tell they were not ordinary Awakened.

‘Where did they come from? They did not step out even when Raven was losing to me, so they do not seem connected to the East District. Another district? Or the city hall?’

Nothing was certain for now.

But simply realizing that there were people watching him was a major gain.

At that moment—

“Hey!”

Someone huffed as she approached Zeon and Briel.

The moment they saw her face, Zeon gave a faint smile, while Briel shook her head.

The woman approaching them in a complete mess was Eloy.

She, who had been thrown out as bait to distract the Awakened of Dongdaemun, had returned covered in wounds.

Her clothes were torn to shreds, and there were quite a few wounds on her face and body, showing just how much she had suffered.

“Fuck! I was fighting, and you ran away instead of helping me? How could you do that to me?”

“You managed to get out of Dongdaemun.”

“Do you know how much I suffered? Those fanatic bastards swarmed me like a pack of dogs...... Ugh!”

Eloy shuddered as if the thought alone was horrible.

Fanatics had charged in without fear of injury or death.

It would have been easier on her conscience if she could have killed them.

But if she had killed them, the problem would have grown too large for even Neo Seoul to handle. The same was true for Dongdaemun.

Because they had to neutralize each other without killing, it had been an even more exhausting fight.

What infuriated her even more was that while she had been fighting so desperately, Zeon and Briel had run away.

“You ran away and left a comrade behind? And you still call yourselves comrades?”

“Calm down.”

“Calm down? How am I supposed to calm down?”

When Eloy shouted, Briel dug a finger into her ear.

“You may be a half-elf, but you sure have a loud voice. My ears hurt.”

“You really must be dying to get yourself killed.”

“Calm down. We got a clue you’ll like.”

“What? Really?”

Briel grinned as she watched Eloy’s expression change.

“What is it?”

“I’m not telling you for free.”

“You little brat......”

“Hehe!”

After that, the half-elf and the high elf continued bickering for a long while.