Chapter 748

“Jin Taekyung has accepted Japan’s request for assistance.”

Michael Silbert listened to Huginn’s report and answered calmly.

“And?”

“Ares Guild and Peace Guild have assembled five teams of handpicked Hunters, and the Korean government has mobilized the Air Force to take them to Tokyo. I’ve prepared the Hunters’ profiles, just in case.”

Huginn handed him a tablet containing detailed information on every Hunter in the relief force. Michael glanced at it, and a faint smile crossed his lips.

“Well done. Any assistance from outside Korea?”

“None at present. China would be a great help if it joined in, but it lost its core forces in the war against the Arch Lich, and its relations with Japan are poor. It won’t answer the request.”

China had already suffered enormous losses fighting the Arch Lich and in the terrorist attack on Beijing ten days earlier.

Even with its vast number of Hunters, taking on a top-tier monster capable of causing a disaster by itself would be a heavy burden. All the more so when the request came from Japan, a country with which China had appalling diplomatic relations.

“There’s no need to worry about China. Even if the old Chairman wants to help Jin Taekyung, circumstances at home won’t allow it.”

Huginn realized there was something he had not yet been told.

“Are you planning to strike China again?”

“Someone might get the wrong idea if they heard you say that. A terrorist attack is an unfortunate event no one can predict before it happens. Don’t you agree?”

Michael held his gaze. Huginn lowered his head.

“My apologies. I misspoke.”

“Don’t worry about it. Everyone makes mistakes.”

“…”

“And this is only my personal opinion, but I suspect Shanghai may be the next target.”

His tone was casual, but Huginn could smell the thick blood embedded in those words.

Shanghai was China’s most populous metropolis. After Beijing, which had been struck ten days ago, another staggering loss of life was all but certain.

China is paying dearly for siding with Jin Taekyung.

And China was hardly alone.

Most people saw the series of attacks as indiscriminate terrorism. But the countries and Guilds that had shown Jin Taekyung a friendly face were being punished.

And it’ll end one of two ways.

Huginn muttered inwardly as he looked at his superior.

There stood a conqueror with greater ambitions than anyone else in the world, pressing toward his grand objective.

So why did Huginn feel this way?

I have a bad feeling about this.

The situation was perfect. Leviathan was a monster as powerful as the Arch Lich. And unlike the battle against the Arch Lich, in which no fewer than six S-rank Hunters had taken part, Jin Taekyung could expect no outside help this time beyond the forces already at his disposal, including Japan’s.

But…

If Jin Taekyung manages to overcome even this…

The thought came to him ominously.

What if, just this once, his superior had made the wrong choice? What if this trap became the sturdy rope that pulled Jin Taekyung out of the mire?

A vibration soon buried Huginn’s doubts.

Rrrrrumble.

“Entry into the operation area complete. Preparing to descend in ten seconds.”

The pilot’s report came through the speakers as the aircraft shook. Then Huginn heard his superior’s quiet voice.

“It’s begun.”

Michael, now clad in dazzling silver armor, was looking out the window.

A city engulfed in the cries of monsters and towering flames. The battlefield where the name Michael Silbert would once again be etched into the minds of the world.

“Prepare yourself, Huginn.”

He pressed a crown-engraved helmet onto his head. Looking like a god of old, he spoke to his crow once more.

“Prepare to become the best—beyond anyone’s doubt.”

The wait had been long. The pain had been deep.

Now he wanted to paint his name across this many-colored world. Not Cheon Taemin’s. Not Jin Taekyung’s.

Michael Silbert’s.

Humanity ruled five oceans and six continents. It had named every living thing it knew, past and present.

Rabbits. Dogs. Cats. Horses. Dinosaurs…

But there were exceptions.

Some beings passed down from the distant past possessed forms beyond humanity’s ability to comprehend and overwhelming power. It was difficult to explain them as anything else.

One such being was now bringing disaster upon humanity.

Goooooong.

A low cry reverberated in every direction.

Beneath deep waters filled with countless pieces of wreckage and mixed with blood, a gigantic mythical beast advanced with the waves, smashing and sweeping away everything that stood in its path.

Craaaack!

Some called it a crocodile. Others compared it to a whale.

In the end, humanity could find no way to define it. It was too enormous to be treated as a mere animal, and it possessed a mysterious power no one could explain.

So they called it a monster beyond explanation. Over the centuries, it acquired a name that meant this creature and no other.

Far away, amid human screams, that name rang out.

“Le—Leviathan!”

“This is an order! All B-rank Hunters and below, leave the battlefield immedia—”

WHOOOOOOM!

The shouts and screams vanished. A wave of overwhelming force swallowed and shattered everything in its path.

People. Buildings. Even the pitiful defensive Magic.

Grrrrr.

Leviathan let out a satisfied growl as waves dozens of meters¹ high swept through the surrounding area.

It had been so long since it had awakened from that tiresome sleep. So long since it had rampaged to its heart’s content.

Yes. That was the last time.

Leviathan remembered its master.

The Demon King Asmodeus.

The absolute ruler who had united the chaotic Demon Realm and brought every monster to heel.

Yet even Asmodeus had fallen to human hands. Leviathan had retreated into the deep sea and gone to sleep.

With its master gone, it could no longer obtain the vast quantities of magical power and food it once had. To survive until the day he returned, it had needed to conserve its strength.

And the wait had not been in vain.

It’s changed. Nothing like it was when the Demon King was here, but it has changed.

Leviathan had still been uncertain when it awoke and crossed the ocean. The closer it came to this place, though, the more clearly it sensed the abundant magical power permeating the water, the land, the air.

And what, exactly, had awakened it.

…!

Leviathan’s enormous eyes flashed.

In the deep waters that had become part of the sea, a powerful energy reached it from among countless pieces of wreckage and human corpses.

That’s…

There was no mistaking it. The appetizing scent of a Magic Gem—the source of a monster’s power.

One untouched by human hands, still holding all its original energy. A mass of pure magical power.

An excellent source of food, more than enough to replenish the strength it had expended, had been waiting for Leviathan in the human settlement.

So that’s why.

Leviathan understood what had awakened it. The magical power now permeating the world, combined with something containing energy of that magnitude, had been enough.

Leviathan was the calamity and ruler of the sea. Starved by its long sleep, its body had responded to the pulse of power carried through the seawater.

If I can make that magical power mine…

Greed filled Leviathan’s eyes. A feast lay before it. Why refuse?

Whoooooosh.

Leviathan surged forward.

The water grew shallower as it advanced toward its prey, exposing part of its back. The beast did not hesitate.

It had already assessed the situation. The humans in its path were weak, and all around it surged seawater that obeyed its will.

“It’s coming!”

“Lightning mages, prepare!”

“Ranged units, fire!”

Fwish-fwish-fwish! Crackle!

Countless arrows and lightning spells streaked through the air. The hastily assembled Hunters poured every ounce of strength into their volley.

The result was dismal.

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!

The explosions cleared. The Hunters stared.

“What the…?”

A little scorching. Dozens of wounds.

No. Scratches.

That was the full extent of the damage they had inflicted on the monster before them. And the price that returned moments later was harsh.

Whoooosh—BOOM!

An enormous tail broke the surface and struck the water.

The tanks at the front clenched their teeth as a wave rose with a thunderous roar. They planted their half-submerged legs and layered their Tower Shields into a wall.

Clack-clack-clack!

Their movements were vigorous and as fast as lightning.

Fewer than a hundred Hunters remained, but every one of them was at least B-rank. They were seasoned fighters. They knew their duty.

“Formaaaaation!”

“Don’t fall back! Hold!”

“Protect us from the enemy, Great Shield!”

The tanks’ desperate shouts mingled with the mages’ incantations.

Then Leviathan spoke in a Demon Realm language none of them understood.

“Get lost.”

The enormous wave rising around it surged forward and split.

Splaash!

One wave became dozens. Dozens became hundreds of streams. Charged with powerful magical power, they took the shape of spears and fell upon the Hunters.

KABOOOOOM!

A shock wave arrived with a thunderous roar and shook everything around them.

Hundreds of spears made of water and magical power tore through the layered defensive Magic and crushed the Tower Shields standing before them like an iron wall.

Crack! Thunk-thunk-thunk!

“Urgh…!”

The water spears swallowed even the screams as they smashed armor and cut through flesh and bone.

The streams ran red with blood. As Hunters crumpled beneath them, a fierce wind swept overhead.

Tat-tat-tat-tat-tat!

Propellers churned.

Dozens of unmanned fighter jets broke through the storm and immediately opened fire with their guns and missiles.

Destroy Leviathan?

No one dreamed of it.

Their only goal was to hold the monster up, however briefly, until the main force capable of fighting it arrived.

But contrary to the hopes of those watching the scene from the operations control room, Leviathan’s power and authority were simply too overwhelming.

Goooooong.

The ancient beast that commanded tidal waves and storms roared. Lightning fell from the cloud-choked sky and swept through the unmanned jets.

Rrrrrumble—BOOM!

They crashed. Exploded. Sank.

At the center of the calamity, Leviathan drove its enormous body onward.

Its long sleep and the considerable magical power it had spent had left it slightly tired. None of that mattered.

That mass of magical power was drawing closer by the moment. Its scent was so appetizing it nearly overwhelmed Leviathan’s reason.

With it, Leviathan could regain its former strength. Cover this land with a tidal wave and claim it for its own.

Grrrrraaaah.

At last, with its prey before it, Leviathan opened its jaws wide.

Its crocodile-like maw swept toward the corpses and wreckage submerged in the deep water—and the mass of magical power hidden somewhere among them—to swallow everything in one bite.

It would have.

If not for a streak of light that descended onto the rippling surface of the water.

Fwoooooosh! Craaaack!

Blue-white light-flames, burning with tremendous heat, consumed the wave.