Episode 10: Calculations of Revenge / Chapter 172: Each’s Calculations (5)

TL: emptycube / ED: Obelisk

After piercing through the Blue Manes’ border defense, they were quickly advancing to the center of their territory when they heard something howl.

While they didn’t know what it was, the fact that it was howling was certain. In response, the warriors’ weapons vibrated like brass instruments, their hearts thumped like drums, and the planets rang out like bells. Even space itself shook like a reed.

‘Ahwooooo!’

This sound wasn’t heard by their ears. It was a resonance created by the vibration of everything, including the world around them.

The warriors, who advanced following Choi Hyuk and his Berserkers in a trance, stopped in place. Their ears perked up at the sound escaping from their hearts. It was a chilling sense of dread.

Countless stars appeared in the darkness of outer space.

Whether they were there since the beginning or had only now been born from the darkness, each pair of eyes shined brightly and dark shadows with fluttering lush manes made their appearance.

“Chasing Manes…”

One of the warriors following the Berserkers made a stifled cry.

The most elite troop of the Blue Manes. It was an attack troop personally led by their leader. Even while the Blue Manes were publicly suppressed, they had raised their name in infamy by ruining countless troops and species.

They could sufficiently guess that they were strong with the information they had gathered until now.

However, the punitive force assembled this time was composed of the top elites of the alliance. They didn’t lose out to them at all.

Yet, for some reason, they felt a suffocating pressure.

“Look over there.”

Someone mumbled.

The appearances of the wolves were slightly strange. Their front paws were larger and more ferocious looking, and there were small eyes stuck on their excessively long manes. Each wolf had an unknown skull of a beast on their heads.

No, they were monster skulls. The warriors unconsciously looked at Choi Hyuk.

The monsters’ new weapon that warrior Choi Hyuk first reported to the alliance. A method where a monster could fuse with another by equipping itself with it. They were new weapons that had the possibility of even surpassing the alliance’s karma weapons. The wolves had fused with living monsters and were using them as weapons and armor.

“Crazy… Does this mean they really came to an agreement with the monsters?”

“How? The monsters aren’t existences that can be communicated with!”

Murmurs began to spread.

The wolves were watching them with overwhelming numbers and overwhelming vigor.

They were only confronting each other, yet the warriors were already becoming exhausted and restless. Wherever they looked, they saw strange wolves staring at them like statues. Like claustrophobia, emotions of fear and suffocation flared up in the warriors.

The mood seemed like they had lost before even fighting.

Choi Hyuk acted in order to cut this flow.

Kririring, kang!!

The moment ‘Choi Hyuk’s Imprint’ rang out while twisting its body, Choi Hyuk was already in front of the ‘Chasing Manes’. Just as they were about to exclaim, ‘As expected of Choi Hyuk…!’, Choi Hyuk shot backwards with a bang. Without being able to maintain a steady posture, he was pushed back.

A large shadow was cast in the place Choi Hyuk had attacked. While emitting a cold darkness that ached one’s bones, the head wolf revealed his teeth.

“I can’t believe it. Is this really all? Have only feathers gathered without a single wing?”

The moment the head wolf appeared, everyone held their breath. Their karma was suppressed. They couldn’t move their bodies. It felt like the fates they had grasped since they had become high-ranked warriors were being shredded apart like tissues.

At this moment, even Lee Jinhee was stricken with fear.

She had grasped the fate ‘Challenge’ when she became a high-ranked warrior. However, the head wolf seemed like the peak of challenges. A limit she could never overcome. A despair that she could never challenge again. She couldn’t even move a finger. Her karma, which proudly flowed through her body, stiffened and became as heavy as a rock.

Just then, she heard a rough pant next to her.

Grit. She heard someone grit their teeth.

When she looked around, it was Ryu Hyunsung. His eyes were so red that they seemed like they would cry tears of blood at any moment.

“Ry- Ryu hyung?”

Lee Jinhee became uneasy from the beast-like sounds Ryu Hyunsung was making.

“Ryu hyung! Don’t do it!”

Despite Lee Jinhee’s attempt at holding him back, blood dripped from Ryu Hyunsung’s eyes. It seemed he even bit his lips too hard as blood also flowed from his lips.

While everyone was being dominated by the head wolf’s vigor, Ryu Hyunsung’s body trembled before he shot forward with a bang.

“Hey! Ryu Hyunsung!!!”

Lee Jinhee screamed. The head wolf, who had instantly shot Choi Hyuk backwards, was still there, yet…

Without knowing, Lee Jinhee shot after Ryu Hyunsung.

At the same time,

“Get up!”

Bae Jinman’s shout shook the warriors. A golden brilliance spread out endlessly with Bae Jinman at its center. The golden brilliance reduced negative emotions and increased positive ones as it connected the warriors’ fighting spirit.

When numerous warriors’ hearts interconnected and they began to depend on each other, the fighting spirit they had lost slowly recovered.

“Damn it!”

Baek Seoin, who could only now move his body, swore as he saw Ryu Hyunsung and Lee Jinhee shoot forward. The worst-case scenario crossed his mind.

-!

Then sound disappeared. No, the howl that made their bodies and the planets tremble disappeared suddenly.

The head wolf, who had been looking at Ryu Hyunsung and Lee Jinhee as though they were laughable, turned his gaze.

His large paw clashed with ‘Choi Hyuk’s Imprint’.

Choi Hyuk, who had been flung away, had returned. While the ‘First Sword’ he used was calmly blocked by the head wolf, it brought the result of sweeping away the pressure the warriors were under.

The head wolf growled as he admired,

“You have a strange skill.”

Choi Hyuk didn’t reply. As if to engrave that he was his opponent, he shot forward and slashed again and again.

Every time Choi Hyuk and the head wolf clashed, dark, blazing flames clashed with a cold darkness and made waves. A wave of heat rushed over them, followed by a cold wave, and then another wave of heat.

These waves had the effect of waking the warriors, who had fallen into a trance. As they came to their senses, the warriors, who had been suppressed by the fear of death, indiscriminately reacted temperamentally.

“Damn it! Fight! Pierce through them!”

The warriors pushed forward. The wolves calmly moved their formation back before attacking the warriors, who had broken their formation while recklessly charging at them.

Dogfights broke out everywhere.

**

“Damn it… Berserkers! Move with your teams! Alexei! You go around and organize the Berserkers’ formation!”

Baek Seoin shouted in a mad mood. However, Alexei, who heard the order, didn’t even look at Baek Seoin.

“… Sorry. Everyone, follow me! Let’s go rescue the director!”

Alexei ignored Baek Seoin’s order and led his subordinates to Ryu Hyunsung and Lee Jinhee, who were isolated at the very front.

“Hey! Hey! You crazy…! Naro! We are going to cooperate with the highest-ranked warriors of the other troops! Ask them to help recover our formation! We’re going to be crushed at this rate!”

{Understood!}

Baek Seoin moved urgently. While they seemed to be dogfights, the wolves were actually pulling the punitive force members into their formation and dispersing and attacking them in groups of twos and threes. Clearly a disadvantageous fight for the punitive force.

Baek Seoin tried his best to recover from this situation, but his efforts were soon faced with another obstruction.

“Alliance scum. I was going to kill you soon anyways, yet you crawled here on your own.”

A highest-ranked wolf, along with other wolves who followed him, rushed towards Baek Seoin knowing he was the commander.

“I am Meteor-Chasing Mane. You won’t be able to grab my tail even in your dying moment.”

His silver fur that was hidden in the darkness revealed itself. It seemed ‘Meteor-Chasing Mane’ prided himself on the color of his fur as his ornaments, monster armor and claws were all silver as well.

Whoosh.

He disappeared after spouting self-indulging remarks.

Crassh!

Baek Seoin’s shield was torn away. Blood splattered.

There were similar scenes everywhere. It seemed they obtained information about the punitive force’s advance by observing them as they precisely intercepted key warriors. The seven highest-ranked warriors were all held back by powerful wolves, and Naro and the top executives of the Berserkers had to face the wolves that came to fight them.

It seemed a few among them were given ‘must kill’ orders as they were faced with wolves beyond their level.

Like how a highest-ranked wolf approached Baek Seoin, another one faced off against Ryu Hyunsung.

“Hey! Ryu Hyunsung! Get back! Go back to the formation!”

Ryu Hyunsung ignored the shouting Lee Jinhee and pushed forward.

“Why are you like this?! Do you want to die?!”

As he brushed off Lee Jinhee’s hand, which grabbed his shoulder, Ryu Hyunsung growled like a beast as he spoke nonsense.

“Again! Again! You want to lose?! Again?! You want me to stand still? You want me to see everyone die?!”

It seemed Ryu Hyunsung recalled the disaster that occurred when he awakened after experiencing the sense of despair the head wolf gave him.

Ryu Hyunsung’s eyes were filled with killing intent as though Lee Jinhee had become a great enemy of life and death.

At that moment, two wolves charged at them.

Among them, the highest-ranked wolf targeted Ryu Hyunsung while the wolf at the peak of high rank targeted Lee Jinhee. Both were ferocious. Rather than ripping them apart while wielding their claws, they charged at them like rhinos. Still, their flesh ripped apart and blood splattered as though saws slashed past them.

**

The head wolf sneered in ridicule.

“While we hid our power during this time… I didn’t think that they would send a fellow that hasn’t even reached the transcendent level.”

Choi Hyuk attacked with gritted teeth, yet the head wolf was overflowing with composure.

“Well… You are strong considering you are a highest-ranked warrior, but…”

The distrustful head wolf leisurely faced Choi Hyuk as he once again looked around at his surroundings. Then he confirmed that this was all there was to the punitive force. There was no way there was a hidden trap set up by the alliance.

The large wolf laughed as his fur stood on their end.

“It truly is a wonderful appetizer.”

He would have the main dish when he advanced towards Alliance City with the monsters. He had a hunch that he would finally be able to repay the humiliation he had endured while hiding all this time.

‘Ahwwwoooo!!!’

The head wolf howled again, and this time, time stopped.

The countless eyes of the monster’s body that was equipped to the head wolf simultaneous opened and vibrated along with his howl.

All order collapsed. The swords of the warriors who aimed at the wolves’ bones and flesh, became soft as feathers, and the steps of a passing wolf became claws that slashed at the warriors’ hearts. Attacks that should have hit missed, and attacks that should have missed hit. It seemed that a portion of the universe’s fate had reversed.

The ones who first noticed this change were the Exalted Wings.

The stone plates, which were covered in darkness in the ‘Brain’ of Alliance City, all lit up at once.

{We have lost control over the Net of Fate at the Blue Manes’ coordinates.}

{Did the head of the Blue Manes do this? His strength is close to ours?}

{We’ll help so let’s immediate recover our control!}

Controlling the Net of Fate was the most important tactic in the war. If the Net of Fate was taken by someone else, the order of the universe would become disadvantageous to them.

However, the Exalted Wings couldn’t quickly regain control over the Net of Fate.

{No! You can’t! Invasion! It’s an invasion! An extensive one from the monsters! This… This is the largest scale ever. It’s multiple times bigger than when King Flame-Sky died in battle!!}

An Exalted Wing of the Speckled Light Tribe screamed. Even without his scream, the Exalted Wings felt the power of the monsters that encroached on the Net of Fate, which they maintained, throughout the universe. If the situation was like this, then they didn’t have the capacity to focus their strength on the wolves.

{Oh my god… The rookies of the alliance will all die! Flame-Hell!}

An Exalted Wing of the Armored Soul Tribe shouted roughly. The majority of the rookies that were participating in subjugating the Blue Manes were either Flame Wing Tribe members or those close to the Flame Wing Tribe. Those who disliked how Flame-Hell openly tried to increase the Flame Wing Tribe’s power couldn’t help but strongly express their discontent.

While those who would die were pro-Flame Wing Tribe, when an all-out war broke out against the monsters, each and every one of them were precious military resources. They couldn’t contain their rage when thinking about how a disadvantageous war began because of Flame-Hell’s greed.

{…}

Flame-Hell was silent. From the intelligence provided by the reconnaissance troops and Flame-Rain, who had left for the monsters’ universe, he had judged that there would be more time before the monsters launched an extensive attack, yet this situation was as if he was hit on the back of the head.

A precipitous situation where he couldn’t see ahead.

Just then, the Exalted Wing of the dragon race, Leviathan, made a doubtful report.

{Huh? The head wolf’s command over the relevant area’s Net of Fate… No! The Net of Fate itself has been destroyed…?}

{This is…?}

While everyone was shocked, Flame-Hell and Dark-Sound let out a sigh and managed to squeeze out a smile.

**

The moment the head wolf howled, Choi Hyuk felt a thrill surging from his heart.

The fully transcendent level vigor emitted by the wolf. The power to decide the fate of the universe. The fate the wolf created – ‘Second Coming’. The power he declared to return to the alliance that chased them out as terror.

Facing this overwhelming power, his karma, which seethed at the cusp of bursting and tickled at his heart, finally exploded.

The fate Choi Hyuk possessed, ‘Never losing’ and ‘Slash without fail’ grew explosively at a timing that seemed almost preplanned.

However, Choi Hyuk wasn’t surprised. He already knew, though he couldn’t explain it.

Even when he learned that the head wolf was assumed to have reached the transcendent level, he didn’t tremble at all. He felt like he could win. It wasn’t simply a prediction, he was confident.

Perhaps even Dark-Sound and Flame-Hell knew as well. The fact that, when he concluded his first revenge, he had already arrived at the proximity of the transcendent level. The fact that he could awaken if the right opportunity presented itself.

‘Choi Hyuk’s Imprint’ transformed from a ‘Weapon of Vow’ to a ‘Weapon of Conclusion’.

Following this, its name also changed from ‘Choi Hyuk’s Imprint’ to ‘Choi Hyuk’s Denial’. His vow to ‘slash without fail’ and to ‘never lose’ was finally complete and became a power that could deny all power.

He no longer had to gather his strength and swallow various emotions to use the ‘First Sword’. As soon as he stretched out his sword, the existing powers were, as though natural, denied and obliterated into nothingness. Even the ‘Second Coming’ the head wolf declared and the Net of Fate which the alliance had lost control over were no exception.

While the head wolf was still stronger, it was a difference in nature. Choi Hyuk’s unique karma, which could interfere with the Net of Fate when he was only a highest-ranked warrior, was enough to throw away the head wolf’s dominating fate even though he had only just reached the transcendent level.

“You… What did you…?”

Frozen as if taken aback, the head wolf glared at Choi Hyuk.

Choi Hyuk mocked.

“Round two, doggy.”