Chapter 803

Human beings possess almost limitless potential.

With minds more capable than those of any other living thing on Earth, they built systems of their own and developed civilization.

From the primitive prehistoric age to the present, what humans had achieved was dazzling—especially the history and culture they had built over the past several thousand years.

Progress, progress, and more progress.

Humans never stopped discovering new things. With each discovery, they moved forward.

Until gunfire filled battlefields where swords and spears had once clashed. Until car horns replaced the whinny of horses on streets lit by neon signs.

Until they crossed five seas and six continents and finally ventured into space.

“Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.”

On the day that grand plan, named after an ancient sun god, succeeded, what did the god watching from somewhere think? A human had set foot on the moon for the first time and called that historic moment “one small step, one giant leap for mankind.”

No one could know the will of God. But an old man with the rather long name Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Ali was certain.

God must have been enraged.

Otherwise, He would not have unleashed a great flood called the Great Cataclysm.

Sending the great Prophet down to this land and commanding him to punish them surely meant that he was to punish humanity’s arrogance on God’s behalf.

“Do you not think so too, sinful infidel?”

“…!”

The middle-aged man trembled at the old man’s calm voice.

Drenched in blood, he stood amid his many subordinates. Only moments ago, they had been alive and breathing. Now they lay strewn across the ground.

He had nothing left but the sword in his hand and the mana boiling through his body, his fighting spirit still undiminished.

“Atone through death. Like those who went before you.”

“Go… fuck yourself!”

With a shout like a scream, the middle-aged man drew on every ounce of his strength and charged the old fanatic.

Whoooosh!

A strike that would likely be his last.

His sword flew faster than ever before, its blade blazing with aura.

Shhk!

A flash came out of nowhere, cleaving both the aura-wreathed sword and its wielder in two.

Splatter!

Blood gushed like a fountain.

As the headless corpse crumpled, something glinting fell at the old man’s feet.

A necklace. It was a necklace.

The old man stared at the crucifix necklace half-buried in the hot sand, then spoke.

“Any survivors?”

“None. That infidel was the last.”

The young man who had cut down the middle-aged A-rank Hunter as easily as breathing continued, “Amir, there are more infidels not far from here. If you let me go…”

“Their main force will have heard from them over the radio this time. We’ve dealt with them easily so far, but it won’t be that simple from now on.”

“No matter how strong the infidels’ forces are, we can defeat them!”

“You’re right, Hamid, son of Hassan. But have you forgotten what the Prophet said?”

Hamid flinched at the old man’s piercing gaze. A moment later, he realized what Amir meant, and his eyes widened.

“What the Prophet said… Could it be?”

“Yes. The time has finally come. The time promised by the Prophet and almighty Allah is upon us.”

“…!”

Surprise turned to joy. Joy to fervor.

The old man smiled as he watched Hamid’s expression change. Then he looked over the warriors of God surrounding them and murmured, “Inshallah.¹ The Prophet will lead us to the promised land!”

“Inshallah!¹”

“Allah hu akbar!²”

Their voices rose together in a mighty shout. The countless fanatics who had lain dormant deep in the desert for decades began their advance.

Toward the promised land they had awaited for so long.

Toward the place overflowing with God’s grace.

Rumble, rumble, rumble!

A vast cloud of sand swept across the desert.

If this world were a chessboard, what would my role be?

A pawn that could only move forward?

A knight that could go farther than a pawn?

A bishop crossing the board diagonally?

Maybe a rook moving in straight lines, a queen with the combined reach of a bishop and a rook, or the king—ironically, the most important piece and yet weaker than the queen.

Honestly, I didn’t know.

Even now, as the Alliance Leader of the World Hunter Federation, even with everyone in the world knowing who I was, I still didn’t know exactly where I stood.

What I could do on this chessboard, or how far I could go.

But one thing I could say for sure.

If that chessboard was a battlefield rather than the world, I could dominate it.

I could push forward like a pawn, leap over my enemies’ heads like a knight, then range across the board like a bishop, rook, or queen and swallow everything in my path.

Just like right now.

Baaang!

Flesh and bone burst apart before the spearhead even touched them. A Troll with its upper half blown away toppled like a rotten log, and someone shouted behind me.

“Damn it! How many times do I have to tell you? Kill them like that and I can barely use them as undead!”

Instead of answering, I twisted my body.

Whoom. Boom!

Three flails flying in from different directions tangled together.

—Kwo?

The ogres blinked stupidly, a beat too late to understand what had happened.

White Flame’s spearhead had already swept past their necks.

Shhk!

Three heads flew free of their massive bodies.

I sprang off an ogre’s lifeless corpse and plunged toward the monsters packed around me.

Fire Dragon Divine Spear, Form Two.

Heavenly Strike.

Krrrunch!

Blood sprayed. Flesh split.

Ding. Ding, ding.

System alerts rang in my ears without pause as I leaped into the thick cloud of dust.

Open Inventory.

One weapon stored, another summoned at the same instant.

Pop.

White Flame vanished from my hand like an illusion. In its place, two short daggers settled firmly into my hands.

In a fight at this close range, they were faster and more efficient than any divine weapon.

I’d watched someone wield a dagger like this up close. With a single blade, he had earned the name Slaughter Saint.

And I watched him do it from right beside him.

For one brief moment, I steadied my breathing.

I calmed the internal energy pounding as though it would burst out of me. Light on my toes. Shoulders loose.

Remembering the Slaughter Saint’s advice, I copied the movements I’d seen him perform right in front of me dozens of times.

Then I took a step.

Ghost Illusory Slaughter Step.

Swish.

The wind that had always struck me head-on now slipped gently past.

I felt as though I were floating through the air in zero gravity.

Of course, I couldn’t claim I’d perfectly copied the Slaughter Saint’s personal martial art just by doing this much. But for dealing with these bastards right now, this much was enough.

Shhk, shhk, shhk!

The sound of slicing reached my ears only after flesh and bone had been cut.

Sound wasn’t slow.

I was fast enough to leave it behind. So were the daggers in my hands.

Thud, thud, thud!

I slipped among the monsters like mist, my daggers stabbing and slashing in flashes. Dozens fell, spraying blood.

No—they fell and rose again at the same moment.

—In the king’s name, I command you: answer the call.

Whoooooosh.

A voice seemed to ring inside my head rather than reach my ears, and a chilling cold swept across the battlefield.

It raised the monsters that had fallen moments ago and those falling even now.

—Krr. Grrrk.

Slow, rasping cries.

An eerie light glimmered deep in their eyes.

Reborn as new beings at the edge of death, the undead army obeyed their king’s command. Without hesitation, they charged the monsters pouring in from every direction.

—Kraaaaaa!

—Grr. Uh. Uh. Uh!

Thud. Kraaang!

The cries of living and undead monsters tangled together. Weapons swung hard into bodies on both sides.

But the living monsters felt pain. The undead had forgotten it when they died.

—Graaah.

Crunch! Splatter!

Outnumbered? It didn’t matter.

Even when weapons took their limbs or pierced their chests, they kept moving to the very end.

The Skeleton King had given them only one goal: before the magical power he had bestowed on them ran out, before they died a second death, they were to create another soldier.

Crack!

—Kyaaaah!

A monster screamed as its throat was torn out.

The undead that had done it, already missing an arm and a leg, was ripped to shreds by enraged monsters. That didn’t matter either.

Thanks to that, I—

No, we—had bought a little more time.

“Fire!”

“Fire Wall!”

“Lightning Spear!”

Fwoooosh.

Countless bolts of lightning and tongues of flame streaked through the air.

Behind the enormous transport vehicle blocking the way like a barricade, the monsters packed in so tightly there wasn’t a gap—like the first day of an E-Mart³ Black Friday sale—had no choice but to take the sudden barrage of attacks head-on.

Crackle. KRAAAASH!

—Kraaaaaa!

—Kgh! Grrrk!

Screams filled the air.

Lightning seared scales and flesh. Flames slipped through the gaps and burned bone and organs.

Many of the hundreds of monsters writhing in pain unlike anything they had ever felt even swung their weapons at their own allies.

—Kwoooooo!

Seized by their own savage instincts, the monsters charged one another.

But I didn’t let my guard down for a second.

“Hold formation! Don’t move a single step!”

I drove internal energy into the command. The Hunters who had begun advancing, swept up in the heat of battle and the thrill of gaining the upper hand, stopped in their tracks.

Battle was flow. Battle was momentum.

But there was a time to ride that momentum.

Against a force of well over ten thousand, taking out a mere thousand monsters wouldn’t win us the battle all at once.

Slowly. Carefully.

We had to win while keeping our losses to a minimum.

Besides…

I still can’t see him.

The bastard who had yet to show himself.

The Prophet.

And the S-rank monsters waiting for their moment among that sea of beasts—or somewhere in the sky above.

Until we took them down, neither this battle nor the war would end.

This fight… is only just beginning.

And at that moment, just as I muttered those words deep in my heart—

Thud. Thud. Thuuum.

An immense magical power surged from far away, making the desert tremble.