Chapter 681

“If you lose your mind, leave your spot and use this.”

What Jinhyuk handed over was an old token.

It was an emergency contact token for the Operators, something Sleeper Owl had given him after the war with Unknown. It had a special ability that could summon an allied Operator active outside.

After receiving it, Pesis waited for the right moment, then immediately left his post and delved deep into the canyon.

To be precise, he headed for the very place where Ian Gregory and Tadayoshi Gensuke were searching for clues about the Necronomicon.

“This way.”

Pesis carefully followed the markings.

His eyes, as they traced the path, shone brighter than ever.

“Yeah. I definitely smell it.”

1Person2Chickens, the female Operator who had now joined the Veteran Corporation, looked at Pesis with a surprised expression.

The most important objective in this canyon had never been saving the fairies or the Spirit Beasts. Nor was it preventing the canyon from falling into darkness, or enforcing the will of Livolt and the remaining Spirit Kings.

The most important thing was securing key clues to the Necronomicon and finding the book itself.

Everyone was overlooking that and only dealing with the enemies right in front of them, so they couldn’t see who was really gaining the advantage.

Even as the battle raged on, Pesis and 1Person2Chickens were rapidly closing in on the Necronomicon’s key clues.

‘Good.’

Jinhyuk gripped First Blade.

The best-case scenario was to eliminate Jack Eden and the magic tome, but if that was too risky, stalling for time like this wasn’t a bad option either.

Swish, swish, swish, swish!

The long, segmented blade shot toward the ships and planets floating in the air.

Whoosh!

A shield was deployed instantly, but it wasn’t enough to withstand the surge of the violet Sacred Relic.

Kaboom, kaboom, kaboom, kaboom!

Flames erupted with a massive explosion.

The sight of ships hundreds of meters across falling one after another was unreal. The fact that it was all being done by a single person was even more absurd.

“What kind of guy is that?”

Clemence muttered, dumbfounded.

Jinhyuk had already been showing terrifying combat power, but from a moment ago, it was as if his shackles had come off. He’d grown several times stronger, like he’d become a completely different person.

More fleets were being cut down and shattered than the eye could even follow, and broken fragments rained down like a downpour.

“Kieeee!”

“Keeeek!”

The undead forces were being ground into dust.

Jinhyuk, manifesting several Unique Holy Spears at once while freely wielding swordsmanship, close combat, magic, and gun techniques, was a natural disaster all by himself.

Ordinary soldiers were out of the question. Only those with Primordialization above 70% could barely withstand him.

“Stop nibbling at him! Overwhelm him all at once! Pour everything out—enough to sweep away even our allies!”

Clemence shouted, veins bulging in her neck.

“Easier said than done. Do you know how fast that guy is?”

“Tch!”

The returnees clicked their tongues and tightened the encirclement.

Even as they grumbled, each of them had already prepared a sure-fire move. The melee types and the magic types positioned themselves accordingly.

Kaboom, kaboom, kaboom, kaboom!

The Serpent Sword rampaged frantically, then was retrieved, opening a slight gap. It was so small and subtle it wasn’t easy to exploit.

However, there was a moment when that gap became the largest—when the same pattern repeated seven times.

Aiming for that was the best option.

“Kroooo!”

A massive magical beast, ten meters tall, was caught in the blade and reduced to a lump of meat. It was the exact moment the seventh strike ended.

…Now!

The returnees moved at once, as if measured with a ruler.

[Special skill ‘Prideful Call’ is activated!]

The tank moved first.

Jinhyuk’s body flinched as the taunt hit.

It wasn’t a wide-area skill, but a single-target one—and the effect was certain.

Because it was a type of taunt that appealed to instinct rather than mental resistance, the fact that it was unfamiliar to Jinhyuk played a major role.

A winning move that pierced the gap.

[Space Compression ‘Shrinking Orb’ is activated!]

A translucent orb with a radius of a hundred meters rose around him.

[Special skill ‘Path of Flames’ is activated!]

[Unique Ability ‘Infinite Distortion Field’ is activated!]

Whoosh!

As the power of fire was added, the orb began to shrink rapidly.

“You shouldn’t even dream of teleporting.”

“It won’t be easy to break either. It’s my masterpiece—made solid.”

As he said, there was nothing Jinhyuk could do but swing the Serpent Sword.

The blade that had flown far away returned without accomplishing anything.

He also used rapid-fire through [Unique Holy Spear – ‘Outlaw of the Wilds’], but even those bullets couldn’t pierce it.

Not only space compression, but several advanced formulas and spells were clearly layered together.

The old man, who had just summoned another undead legion, wore a bitter smile.

Four Death Knights in dark armor drew their swords and poured Mana into the orb from four directions.

‘Did they set it up to prevent it from being destroyed from the inside?’

Jinhyuk’s gaze returned to the orb.

At this rate, the rapidly shrinking orb would compress even flesh within seconds.

Right then.

[Dark Caterpillar spits out ‘Acidic Liquid’!]

[Purple Tree releases ‘Motorein Yellow Dust’!]

“Sorry, but I won’t let you have it your way.”

Sizzle!

Acidic liquid that melted even stone, and yellow dust that steadily robbed the target of physical freedom. The Death Knights pouring Mana into the orb were swallowed by the haze.

“Kuh…”

“Keok.”

The Death Knights, focusing only on the orb, staggered with grievous injuries.

Whoosh!

Naturally, the eerie light cast over the orb weakened.

Jinhyuk didn’t miss it.

The Serpent Sword, drawn like lightning, swept through from within.

Crack, crack, crack!

The barrier shattered into pieces.

Thud!

“Kuaaaak!”

Sharp ice, created through Glacial Sculpting, pierced straight through the magician’s shield.

…Crackle!

As if that weren’t enough, the biting cold froze the entire area around the magician.

The combination of Jinhyuk and Medrey was so seamless it offset even the advantage of numbers.

How long had it been?

Despite the battle’s flashy, overwhelming spectacle, a strange sense of incongruity lingered.

Angelis narrowed his eyes.

‘He isn’t pressing further, even when the situation favors him.’

No—more precisely, he did push forward, but he avoided any point where the risk rose even slightly. Like a slippery loach, he kept walking a precarious tightrope.

It was behavior that made no sense for someone desperate for victory.

‘Why is he stalling in a disadvantageous situation?’

The power the two of them displayed clearly surpassed the formula of 1+1=2. Their synergy was unbelievable—three, four, even ten.

Even so, it still wasn’t enough to overturn an inferior situation.

He was shackled by the need to constantly supply Mana to his summons, and more than half of the fairies and Spirit Beasts—the main force of the surprise attack—were no longer able to fight.

Normally, the orthodox and reasonable move would be to throw a decisive blow when the momentum peaked.

But the fact that he was staying passive instead meant…

‘Could it be…?’

Something flashed through Angelis’s mind like lightning.

A familiar, ominous energy was being detected from far away.

Whoosh!

Flames engulfed Angelis.

Skin burned away in an instant. The shell tightly wrapped around what lay within scattered into a handful of ash.

“Wh-what?”

Clemence, right beside him, recoiled.

She couldn’t help but be horrified.

Because the Angelis she knew was completely different.

—

A kind of game.

For a being who lived for eternity, watching insignificant creatures struggle was fun in its own way.

And Yomaganto—one of the ancient beings, a great Outer God—had his own hobby to relieve his long, tedious boredom.

He lived as a returnee, wearing a human shell, visiting world after world, destroying or subjugating them, and then returning.

It was quite enjoyable.

Deceiving and trampling others was a fine way to pass the time.

So he intended to enjoy this one, too, with the relaxed attitude of an observer.

How dare they.

“How dare you try to pull tricks behind my back!”

To think they were only aiming for the Necronomicon.

The fact that they were doing something else when they should have been fighting for their lives filled him with heavy anger.

Kukukukukukukukuku!

[Yomaganto uses Unique Ability ‘Three Flames’!]

The flames danced madly.

Streams of fire, tens of meters long, spewed out from cracks in the ground.

“Kuaaaak!”

“Aaaaak!”

Screams erupted everywhere.

The returnees were thrown into chaos by the sudden disaster. They couldn’t believe that someone they’d been certain was a fellow returnee was actually an ancient being.

But what mattered now wasn’t the truth.

The flames, which distinguished neither friend nor foe, carried a fierce will—and moved to turn everything in sight to ash.

[The first flame evokes ‘Thirst’!]

In an instant, all the moisture in the air vanished.

…Dry.

Skin that had been soaked in sweat from the fierce battle just moments ago turned dry and cracked, blood seeping out.

Eyes stiffened and vision began to blur, while lungs fluttered desperately in search of fresh air and moisture.

“You don’t seem very surprised to see me. Even you wouldn’t have known I was an ancient being, would you?”

“No, I was pretty surprised. I just didn’t expect a proud ancient being to be wearing a mere human shell.”

The only reason it wasn’t as shocking as a total betrayal was because Jinhyuk had been certain the ancient beings obsessed with the Necronomicon wouldn’t leave everything to the returnees.

That forbidden book was practically their only weakness.

There was no way they would leave the power to pierce their hearts unattended.

At the very least, he’d expected one of them to be here.

‘Yomaganto, huh…’

Jinhyuk licked his parched lips.

A pretty troublesome guy had appeared.

An enemy focused on overwhelming firepower, in a confined stage like this canyon, was extremely dangerous.

He might have to be grateful Nyarlathotep hadn’t shown up.

“You annihilated Gros, and Tulcha was severely damaged because of you.”

Yomaganto stared at Jinhyuk.

“Your family was so annoying. I’ll say it now—everything I did was self-defense.”

Jinhyuk shrugged.

“I’m different from those morons. I’ve been living among humans, observing their lives themselves.”

Angelis had been nothing more than a fragment.

He had learned how humans thought while enduring the twists and turns of living as a resident across more than a thousand worlds.

Now that he had fully manifested as his true self…

…The Necronomicon would never be revealed to the world.