Chapter 241

Chapter 241

NSSC headquarters was basically a massive warehouse structure.

That meant its interior was vast as well.

An enormous number of lightning bolts were crashing down across that vast space.

FLASH—!

A rain of lightning poured down without pause.

The lightning traveled along the steel framework and spread throughout all of NSSC headquarters.

CRUMBLE—!

The barrier that had barely been holding on shattered like glass beneath the lightning Lee Ji-ryeong unleashed.

“Krrgh!”

“Everyone, get outside. If we’re unlucky, we’ll get fried too.”

A large number of the Pegasus Raid Team’s Awakened hurried outside.

With their grades, they had no confidence in withstanding Lee Ji-ryeong’s lightning. Because of that, only a very small number of the Pegasus Raid Team’s Awakened remained inside NSSC headquarters.

The face of Kelda, Lee Ji-ryeong’s secretary and the rescue team leader, stiffened.

“The Captain is going all out?”

If Lee Ji-ryeong, a Grade S Awakened, went all out, the entire area would be devastated.

Even if Lee Ji-ryeong won, he would not be able to avoid responsibility.

Power holders from every direction would tear into him.

There was no way Lee Ji-ryeong did not know that.

He had seen the future.

A future in which neither he nor the Pegasus Raid Team would have one if he did not kill Zeon now.

That was why he was trying to fight Zeon, prepared to lose everything.

‘Then I’ll have to put everything on the line too.’

At that moment, someone sauntered toward Kelda.

It was Eloy.

In Eloy’s hand was Mad Nine-Tailed Fox.

She had retrieved Mad Nine-Tailed Fox, which had been confiscated when she was imprisoned.

With Mad Nine-Tailed Fox in hand, Eloy’s face was filled with confidence.

She was confident in hand-to-hand combat too, but she only felt settled when Mad Nine-Tailed Fox was in her hand.

Eloy glared at Kelda and said,

“You’re mine.”

“Can you handle me?”

“You cripple, what bullshit are you talking about? Handle you? I’ll lightly trample you underfoot.”

“Haa! I don’t like either you or Zeon.”

“Does not liking me mean you can beat me?”

“We’ll see who the final winner is.”

Kelda bit her lip.

CRASH—!

At that instant, an explosion erupted, shaking all of NSSC headquarters.

Zeon and Lee Ji-ryeong had clashed.

That became the signal, and Kelda and Eloy attacked each other.

CRASH—! BOOM—!

Kelda, who used gray Skills, and Eloy, who swung Mad Nine-Tailed Fox like a madwoman.

There was no room for anyone else to interfere in the fight between the two women.

Now NSSC headquarters belonged entirely to Zeon and Lee Ji-ryeong, and to Eloy and Kelda.

FLASH! RUMBLE—!

With the sound of thunder, an enormous cluster of lightning flew toward Zeon.

At that instant, the sand he had stored in his subspace poured out and blocked the front.

The lightning failed to pierce through the sand barrier and scattered in every direction.

The scattered lightning struck the Pegasus Raid Team’s Awakened in the wrong places.

“Ugyagya!”

“Krrgh!”

Its power had weakened after being blocked by sand, but it was still the lightning of a Grade S Awakened.

The electrocuted Awakened convulsed and collapsed.

“Fuck! Get outside for now.”

“This isn’t a fight we can get caught up in.”

The few Awakened who had remained hurriedly ran outside.

Meanwhile, the fight between Zeon and Lee Ji-ryeong grew even fiercer.

When Lee Ji-ryeong spread both hands wide, countless clusters of lightning struck Zeon directly.

Each lightning bolt carried tens of millions of volts, enough power to make a body burst apart with even a single hit.

In response, Zeon made a round sphere out of sand.

The sand sphere surrounding him blocked the lightning. But a considerable amount of it burned black and fell to the floor.

It was only natural for sand to melt under high temperature and high heat.

That was also what Lee Ji-ryeong was aiming for.

“That’s why you can’t handle me. Outside, you can receive as much sand as you want, but the sand in your subspace has a clear limit.”

He would burn Zeon’s sand, and keep burning it. If he kept burning that sand, it would eventually run out, and that moment would be Zeon’s end.

The problem was whether his mana would last until then, but for Lee Ji-ryeong, who had become Grade S, that was no problem at all.

RUMBLE! FLASH—!

Once again, lightning shot toward Zeon with the sound of thunder.

Zeon dodged the lightning and swung his hand.

Dozens of streams of sand in the shape of venomous snakes flew toward Lee Ji-ryeong.

It was Viper, one of Zeon’s frequently used Skills. However, the Vipers never reached Lee Ji-ryeong’s body.

That was because a veil of lightning formed around Lee Ji-ryeong and blocked them all.

The Vipers caught in the lightning veil burned black and fell limply.

“I told you it wouldn’t work.”

Lee Ji-ryeong sneered at Zeon.

A lightning Magic user and a Sandmancer.

In the desert, Zeon might be far stronger, but here, Lee Ji-ryeong, a lightning Magic user, was bound to be far stronger.

Choosing an advantageous battlefield was also an ability.

Trapping Zeon inside NSSC headquarters had been a divine move.

CRUMBLE—!

Zeon fired Viper again, but this time too, it struck the lightning veil and vanished. That meant Zeon’s strength was also diminishing.

Yet no urgency appeared on Zeon’s face.

FLASH—!

Zeon dodged a cluster of lightning flying at him in the blink of an eye and snapped his fingers.

“Sand Soldier!”

At that instant, dozens of Sand Soldiers rose from the sand.

He could have made more Sand Soldiers, but because he did not have much sand left, he summoned only a few dozen for now.

The soldiers that rose from the sand attacked Lee Ji-ryeong according to Zeon’s will.

“Hmph! I told you it’s useless, yet you stubbornly refuse to listen.”

Lee Ji-ryeong waved his hand with an annoyed expression.

A cluster of lightning burned the Sand Soldier running at the front.

CRUMBLE—!

The Sand Soldier collapsed with black smoke.

If it had been human, it would have been frightened at the sight of its comrade dying or fled without realizing it. But Sand Soldiers were not human.

They had no fear, and they did not think in complicated ways.

The concept of retreat itself did not exist for Sand Soldiers.

They moved only according to Zeon’s will.

Zeon’s will was attack.

Lee Ji-ryeong was likely the same, but Zeon had no intention of retreating from this fight.

Lee Ji-ryeong was his enemy.

An enemy wrapped completely in an ill-fated relationship.

Even if Zeon surrendered or asked for reconciliation, Lee Ji-ryeong would never spare him.

A fight that would end only when one of them died.

He had no intention of whining because the situation was unfavorable.

He would face his enemy with every means he could mobilize.

That was the survival method Zeon had learned in the desert.

CRASH—!

With an explosion, one Sand Soldier burst apart again.

That was only the beginning.

BOOM, BOOM, BOOM—!

The Sand Soldiers charging at Lee Ji-ryeong exploded one after another.

Wrapped in a veil of lightning, Lee Ji-ryeong was the Lightning God himself.

The Lightning God who had descended to earth freely summoned lightning and struck Zeon.

The Skill Lightning Field (Lightning Field).

This was the domain of Lee Ji-ryeong, the Lightning God.

In this place, Lee Ji-ryeong displayed power no different from a god’s.

A rain of lightning was pouring down.

No matter how much an Awakened had surpassed human limits, they could not dodge this many clusters of lightning.

With no other choice, Zeon had to raise sand barriers and block the lightning clusters.

CRUMBLE—!

The sand struck directly by the lightning, with its tremendous high heat, did not simply burn; it crystallized.

The sand had melted and turned like crystal.

At that sight, Zeon’s eyebrow twitched.

The reason he could remain calm even as his sand ran out was Exion.

The strongest weapon he possessed.

The moment he took out Exion, his abilities would double.

Even so, the reason he had kept Exion in reserve was because it was his trump card, one he had to hide until the very last moment.

If he took Exion out this early, the same kind of check as this would come again. That was why Zeon had tried to face Lee Ji-ryeong using only his pure ability, without taking out Exion.

CRASH—!

At that instant, a tremendous lightning bolt on a completely different level from before struck Zeon directly.

Giga Lightning.

A Skill with dozens of times the power of ordinary lightning struck Zeon.

The sand barrier protecting Zeon shattered, exposing him to the current.

“Kuhk!”

Zeon was flung backward with a scream.

White smoke was rising from all over Zeon’s body after he had been struck by Giga Lightning.

Even so, Zeon was alive.

It was thanks to the robe made from Leviathan’s hide.

If defensive equipment were graded, Zeon’s robe would be no different from an item outside the standard.

That was how powerful its defensive power was.

Thanks to it, he was able to save his life.

The corner of Lee Ji-ryeong’s mouth twisted upward.

That was because he was certain he had seized the advantage.

“Oh! You survived even after being hit by that. But you won’t survive twice.”

CRACKLE—!

Sparks rose from Lee Ji-ryeong’s entire body.

Lightning God’s Hammer (Hammer of Thunderer).

It was the strongest Skill Lee Ji-ryeong could currently use.

It was a Skill far stronger and more destructive than Giga Lightning.

No matter how great the defensive power of the robe Zeon wore, it would not be able to block even Lightning God’s Hammer.

CRASH—!

Even before Lightning God’s Hammer was unleashed, the ceiling of NSSC headquarters blew away.

The night sky of Neo Seoul was laid bare.

Lightning poured down over Lee Ji-ryeong’s head.

The lightning gathered into Lee Ji-ryeong’s body and compressed there.

Tremble!

Lee Ji-ryeong’s body shook.

It was because he felt as if lightning, rather than blood, was rushing through his veins.

The exhilaration of becoming a true Lightning God sent a shudder through him.

At that moment, a strange sight entered Lee Ji-ryeong’s eyes.

Zeon was kneeling on one knee on the floor, one palm pressed against it.

Lee Ji-ryeong sneered at Zeon.

“Have you already given up?”

“......”

Even at his ridicule, Zeon did not so much as blink.

That was because he was displaying an extreme level of concentration.

Only then did Lee Ji-ryeong sense that the atmosphere was unusual and grow tense.

“You?”

The air had changed.

This was clearly a space Lee Ji-ryeong ruled, yet he sensed a strange current.

At its center was Zeon.

Lee Ji-ryeong instinctively realized that he could not drag this out any longer.

He stretched his hand toward Zeon and shouted,

“Lightning God’s Hammer!”

RUMBLE—!

The lightning compressed inside his body fell toward Zeon.

It was a lightning bolt as huge as a decent building.

It possessed enough power to vaporize NSSC headquarters in an instant.

It was power worthy of the name Lightning God’s Hammer.

When the entire world was dyed white by the tremendous lightning, Zeon’s voice flowed out.

“Sand Gehenna (sand Gehenna).”

FLAAARE—!

At that instant, the temperature inside NSSC rose sharply.

It had instantly climbed to several thousand degrees Celsius.

The sand piled on the floor melted under the ultra-high heat and turned like lava.

As the name suggested, a hell unfolded where sand melted and became lava.

A giant pillar of lava shot up from Sand Gehenna.

The lava pillar, fired like a shell, clashed with Lightning God’s Hammer.

CRAAAAASH—!

“Krrgh!”

“Waaaah!”

With a tremendous roar, an enormous shock wave swept over the Awakened outside NSSC.

Like leaves caught in a storm, the Awakened were blown away in every direction.

When the Awakened who had rolled pathetically across the ground came to their senses and lifted their heads, NSSC headquarters had completely vanished from sight.

In the place where NSSC had disappeared, Lee Ji-ryeong and Zeon were facing each other.

Bewilderment was clear on Lee Ji-ryeong’s face.

“You?”

“It’s a Skill I realized thanks to you.”

He had gained inspiration from seeing sand burn under lightning.

What would happen if he used the fire authority contained in the Gauntlet of Extreme Heat to melt and control sand?

Until now, he had occasionally mixed flame-type Skills into his sand authority. But this was the first time he had ever received inspiration this intense.

An ordinary person would have merely stopped at receiving inspiration. But in that fleeting instant, Zeon had given concrete form to his inspiration.

He drew out the authority of the Gauntlet of Extreme Heat to the utmost and applied high heat and high pressure to the sand.

In an instant, the sand (Sand) melted and seethed like a scorching hell, that is, Gehenna (Gehenna).

As the name suggested, Sand Gehenna unfolded.

If Lee Ji-ryeong had made the area his domain with Lightning Field, then Zeon had declared this place to be his territory with Sand Gehenna.

Zeon raised his hand. Then the lumps of lava seething on the floor floated into the air.

“Then let’s begin round two.”