Chapter 143

Chapter 143

Damian looked bitterly at the Mammoth lying collapsed and gasping for breath.

It was the only legacy his dead father had left behind.

After his father’s death, they had shared life and death together for a full eight years.

Thanks to the Mammoth, he had been able to grow the White Bear Caravan to this extent.

Without the Mammoth, the Damian of today would not exist.

That friend was now collapsed, waiting for death.

Their gazes met.

In the great eye staring at Damian, there was not the slightest trace of resentment.

“Thank you! Go ahead and wait for me. I’ll follow you soon.”

At that moment, the Mammoth closed its eyes.

Its breath had stopped.

Damian swallowed his tears of rage and looked out over the battlefield.

The inside of the fortress had now become a complete warzone.

The original Scavenger had been joined by Dongdaemun Awakened, and even unidentified Awakened.

Because of that, the Awakened of the White Bear Caravan had been forced onto the defensive.

If the fortress had not been plastered with all manner of traps, items, and Magic, they would already have been annihilated.

BOOM—!

A cargo wagon exploded, sweeping away the nearby Scavenger and Dongdaemun Awakened.

“Kwaaak!”

“Guh!”

The Awakened’s arms flew off, and legs were torn away from bodies.

The Awakened caught in the explosion rolled across the ground in horrific states.

Those whose breath had been cut off were better off. Those who had barely managed to survive could only pant in their wretched forms.

Other Scavenger and Awakened cruelly trampled over those survivors as they passed.

The ones who were trampled died without even being able to scream.

“There are valuable items on the fourth floor.”

“Fuck! We have to loot the fifth floor. The Spirit King’s Crown is there.”

“Move, you sons of bitches.”

The Scavenger passed through the devastated second floor and went up to the third.

There were Awakened of the White Bear Caravan on the third floor as well.

Damian said to them,

“Activate the trap.”

“Okay!”

One of the White Bear Caravan’s Awakened answered and activated the trap.

At that instant, countless arrows were fired from the walls.

THWIP, THWIP, THWIP, THWIP!

“Aaagh!”

“Kuhk!”

The Awakened, turned into porcupines, screamed and collapsed.

They were all wearing workshop-made armor. It had powerful defensive power, enough to deflect the attacks of most monsters, but it was useless before the arrows fired from the walls.

Damian muttered,

“These are all items excavated from dungeons. Ordinary workshop-made goods can’t block them.”

Most people, when they thought of dungeons, only thought of the core items.

Once they conquered a dungeon and obtained the item, they would leave without hesitation. But Damian was different from them.

Traps existed in quite a few dungeons.

Damian had not merely destroyed those traps. He had brought out every component of the traps. Then he had installed all of those parts into the cargo wagons.

He had recycled them frugally and thoroughly.

At that moment, Alexandro approached Damian.

His entire body was covered in an enormous amount of fresh blood.

That was how many people he had killed.

“Hehe! Looks like every Awakened in Neo Seoul has come swarming in. No matter how many I kill, there’s no end to them.”

“Why are you whining over just this much?”

“Whining? You try fighting them yourself. See if you can still say that.”

“This is only an extremely small portion of Neo Seoul’s Awakened. If the truly proper forces step forward, we’ll be erased in an instant.”

“Well, I could tell just by looking at the mayor. If that man had made up his mind, we wouldn’t have dared attempt anything like this.”

“Yes! For some reason, he’s standing by and watching us. Thanks to that, we seized our chance.”

The chaos inside had already reached its peak.

The Scavenger, Dongdaemun, and even groups of unidentified Awakened had entered and were running wild.

If they had cooperated with one another, the White Bear Caravan would not have been able to hold out no matter how many traps the place was plastered with.

Fortunately, they were keeping one another in check and even attacking one another.

Thanks to that, the White Bear Caravan was barely managing to hold on.

Alexandro laughed.

“This is really fiery. It’s been a long time since I had a fight like this.”

“What about Jack?”

“Hehe! I already sent him outside. He cried and wailed that he wouldn’t go, so I kicked him in the ass and drove him out.”

“Well done.”

Damian smiled.

Jack was an Awakened who possessed subspace.

It was not an item. His own awakened ability was subspace.

His subspace was extremely vast.

It was large enough to store every item the White Bear Caravan had brought with them.

In fact, as long as he was there, they had not needed to go through the trouble of dragging along cargo wagons in a long line like this.

Even so, they had used the Mammoth to pull the cargo wagons in order to protect Jack from others.

Subspace items were precious, and subspace Awakened were even more precious.

It was safe to say there were almost no people who possessed a subspace as vast as Jack’s.

Alexandro had stored all the Mana Stones he had received in exchange for selling items into Jack’s subspace.

Alexandro had staked the fate of Akutsk Colony on Jack.

No matter what anyone said, the reason Neo Seoul had been able to develop to this degree was the Mana Stone Mine.

Thanks to the stable supply of Mana Stones, it had achieved such an ultra-advanced civilization.

In contrast, Akutsk Colony had difficulty obtaining Mana Stones.

Mana Stones did occasionally come from monsters, but the quantity was small and the quality was uneven.

On the other hand, because there were many dungeons nearby, items were easy to obtain.

Some might say that items excavated from dungeons were far more valuable, but that was only half true.

If one equipped good items, they could certainly raise the abilities of Awakened. Naturally, that made it far easier to protect the residents from monsters.

But civilization could not be rebuilt with the help of items alone.

To rebuild civilization like Neo Seoul, Mana Stones were absolutely necessary.

That was why Alexandro had come here with Damian.

If they had brought ordinary items or goods, they would never have been able to obtain so many Mana Stones from Neo Seoul.

Neo Seoul also managed its supply of Mana Stones strategically.

That was why their side had needed to scatter items that would tempt them.

Thanks to that, they had obtained an enormous quantity of Mana Stones, and if they used them, they would be able to rebuild a considerable portion of civilization, even if not to the level of Neo Seoul.

If that could happen, Alexandro did not care what became of his own life.

“Surely you didn’t send only Jack, did you?”

“Of course not. As we discussed before, I sent Allen and his friends along with him.”

The man named Allen was a Navigator like Damian.

However, his ability was so faint that it could not compare to Damian’s. So during the journey here, Damian had trained Allen intensively.

He had taught him all of his know-how and made him memorize the entire route they had taken.

Fortunately, Allen had an excellent memory, so he remembered the entire route they had taken to get here.

“I told him a route with no danger factors, so as long as he doesn’t stray from the path, he should return safely to Akutsk.”

“Hehehe! He’d better. He’s Akutsk’s last hope.”

Alexandro bared his teeth and laughed.

He looked just like a huge white bear smiling before its prey.

Damian said to him,

“I’m sorry. Because of me, you......”

“I told you not to say things like that. We’re brothers.”

“That’s a loss for me. Do you know how big the age gap is?”

“Hey! Once you’re close enough, all that doesn’t matter. Why are you hurting this old brother’s heart?”

“Hoho! Fine. Why are you being so narrow-minded when you’re such a huge man?”

“It’s because you keep trying to draw a line.”

“Who’s drawing a line? I just feel sorry.”

“I told you, there’s nothing to be sorry about. Thanks to you, I’ve experienced countless things other people could never experience even once in their lives. That’s enough to call life a success.”

“I’m glad, then.”

It was then.

BOOM—!

“Kraaak!”

With an explosive roar, one of the White Bear Caravan’s Awakened blocking the third floor was sent flying, reduced to a bloody pulp.

The one who had sent him flying was an Awakened with a body as massive as Alexandro’s.

It was Brickston, the Captain of Dongdaemun’s berserkers.

Behind him, Dongdaemun Awakened were charging in.

“We don’t need anything else. Secure the Spirit King’s Crown first.”

Their target was also the Spirit King’s Crown.

Damian gave a faint laugh.

“Do they even know what kind of item the Spirit King’s Crown is, to rush at it like starving ghouls?”

The world was not so beautiful.

All kinds of hideous things hid behind beautiful names.

The Spirit King’s Crown was one such thing.

But its power, at least, was real.

THUD—!

“Kuh!”

Once again, one of the White Bear Caravan’s Awakened was smashed into a pulp by Brickston’s hammer and sent flying.

Brickston was relentless.

Like a giant monster, he charged forward, killing the White Bear Caravan’s Awakened as they came.

Alexandro said,

“This won’t do. If I leave that bastard alone, all my boys are going to die.”

“Leader!”

“We have to hold out somehow until we lure in those elf bastards, don’t we?”

Instead of answering, Damian bit his lip hard.

The situation was growing more urgent by the moment.

They were holding out with all kinds of traps and the power of items, but even that had reached its limit.

If just a little more time passed like this, the White Bear Caravan would be annihilated.

It was then.

In the distance, he saw a group approaching this place.

They were people who had covered their faces and entire bodies with robes or cloaks.

The instant Damian saw them, goosebumps rose all over his body.

‘Elves.’

They seemed to think they had hidden their identities, but they could not hide their slender builds.

One or two might be possible, but hundreds of people could not all be that slim.

Only one race could be.

The elves.

Damian said to Alexandro,

“The elves are coming. Three minutes. Hold out for exactly three minutes.”

“Okay!”

Alexandro nodded, then jumped down to the third floor.

“Kahaha! Your opponent is me, you fanatic bastard.”

He swung his fist at Brickston.

A huge gauntlet was fitted over his fist.

“You bald bastard......”

Brickston swung his giant hammer to meet him.

CLAAAANG—!

The gauntlet and hammer collided, and an enormous shock wave erupted.

“Kuh!”

“Damn it!”

The fanatics and other Awakened following behind them were blown backward by the shock wave.

Brickston and Alexandro’s huge figures staggered at the same time. They had both received a tremendous impact from each other’s overwhelming strength. But that lasted only a moment. Soon, they regained their balance and charged at each other.

BOOOOM—!

It was as if giant monsters were fighting.

The sheer ferocity of their battle made the other Awakened unable to even think of interfering.

Thus, the fierce battle continued.

Thanks to Alexandro, Damian could finally catch his breath, and he looked toward the group of elves rushing over at great speed.

“Come on, you fucking bastards.”

As if answering his words, the elves charged even faster.

No matter how much they disguised themselves as humans, they could not deceive Damian’s eyes.

Because he hated them more than anyone, he could recognize them at a glance.

“Invaders from another world. Parasites who settled in human territory as they pleased. Come on. I’m waiting for you here.”

Damian’s eyes had become bloodshot red before he knew it.

Just one day.

For this day, he had lived fiercely for the past eight years.

He had not slept comfortably even for a single day, and he had lashed himself onward at every moment as if each day were his last.

As if they had heard his call, the group of elves drew rapidly closer.

Damian’s mad smile deepened even further.

At that moment, in Damian’s field of vision, he saw a figure flying toward them from far away on a sand-laden wind.

Although the figure was too far away for him to make out the face, Damian immediately realized who it was.

“Brother!”

The only human to whom he owed a debt of the heart.

It was Zeon.

Damian apologized to Zeon.

“Sorry, Brother! You can’t come here. If you interfere, the picture I’ve drawn will be ruined.”

The one and only being in this world who could control sand.

If he interfered, Damian would have no choice but to change his plan.

Damian did not want Zeon to intervene.

He muttered,

“Activate! Spectrum Prison.”

At that instant, a gigantic magic circle appeared around the fortress.

The magic circle, formed from seven lights, swallowed everything.

Zeon, the elves, and even the people fighting inside the fortress.