Chapter 45

Ho-Gyoung thought about his past days.

He thought about the gazes from countless people.

It was pretty fun for him to watch scrunched faces of all these people who used to be called the most powerful warriors in their own worlds.

Against a wall they could never go over, or against a mountain they could not climb, countless warriors had look of despair in their faces.

When Ho-Gyoung was in the lower dimension, and when he was the strongest that far surpassed beyond everyone else, he had witnessed many such people.

In front of him, everyone was equal. It didn’t matter if one belonged to good or evil. There was no need to rank anyone as skilled or unskilled either.

It didn’t matter who it was.

Masters of large nobilities, monks who trained in the arts of internal energies for 60 years, best swordsmen in the world who earned their titles after countless battles…

‘No matter who they were, they were literally dying from despair, and I never got bored of the look on their faces.’

After uniting the Murim world, when he no longer had anything further to achieve, he was transported to Asgard all of sudden. Even then, his hobby did not change.

Although his power was no longer overwhelmingly superior to others like how it was in the lower dimensions, his talent was still too great to stay hidden. He was still the absolute power even in the Beloong City.

When he even surpassed Bellon, who was the number one in Golden Ranking before his arrival, he laughed in satisfaction and joy as he had a drink in his mansion.

It was extra delicious for him to watch the look of despair on faces of these powerful warriors who easily brought countless foes to their knees or greenhorns who have never faced any difficulties until arriving at Asgard.

However, now that he was facing a humongous mountain in front of him, a man overflowing with golden lightning, a man who was giving off animosity toward him without any hesitation, Ho-Gyoung could not help the expression on his own face.

The height that Vulcan reached was far beyond anything Ho-Gyoung ever imagined.

This was not something he would have been able to fight even if he had prepared for it.

‘The look on my face now… I probably… have the same face as they did.’

He tried his hardest to remain calm, but he knew the look on his own face was different from his usual look.

His face was so hardened that the area near his eyes trembled occasionally.

Because he was so nervous, his neck felt stiff.

He felt like he became just a Second-Rate bodyguard that was standing in front of him a moment ago.

‘I absolutely hate… embarrassing myself.’

He got a hold of himself as he hoped his appearance was not too pathetic.

Even if this was going to be his end, it was not right to show disgrace.

Ho-Gyoung feared that more than death.

Without saying anything, he went after Vulcan.

KIGIGIGIGING

From behind Vulcan, several energy blades appeared and were launched toward his waist.

Several tens of energy blades, each about three feet in length, joined together like sharp teeth of a shark.

Creating energy blades without any medium in mid-air itself was an incredible feat, and their sizes were also unbelievable.

However, to Vulcan, they posed no threat.

Vulcan moved around in zigzag paths with his lightning fast movements, and as of result, the energy blade teeth always chewed on empty air.

Vulcan peeked a smile at Ho-Gyoung.

Watching this, Ho-Gyoung suddenly felt anger and wanted to say something, but he felt mana was covertly moving under his feet.

‘This can’t!’

BOOM!

He quickly threw his body and dodged it, but he was still exposed to the heat, and it was enough to completely burn off his shoes.

Ho-Gyoung’s face was hardened in despair. Watching this, Vulcan said,

“You are suppose to be a man with blades as his specialty, yet all you are doing is trying to come up with petty schemes. You must still be thinking that you are on the top.”

“Kuk.”

Vulcan could have sent another wave of attack immediately after the last one, but he wasn’t. It appeared he was that confident. He had that much to spare in margin of risk.

Vulcan was still looking at Ho-Gyoung with a big smile. Watching this, Ho-Gyoung knew immediately what Vulcan was thinking.

‘He is… just toying with me.’

Because Ho-Gyoung have done it often against other worries who were beneath him, he could tell for certain.

Ho-Gyoung no longer cared about putting up an emotionless face. Instead, he grabbed hold of his blade with both hands and charged toward Vulcan.

KAGAGAGAGANG.

Using the the highly compressed energy blade technique, the one that even Dokgo-Hoo had to be satisfied with drawing out 6.5 ft, Ho-Gyoung managed to draw over 10 ft.

Every time he swung his sword, the ground was cut open and overturned as if an earthquake happened.

Considering the Asgard was made of materials substantially harder than lower dimensions, its destructive power was unbelievable.

However, it was not hitting the target, hence useless.

He swung the sword with all of his strength, tried to raise it and pressure Vulcan with it, and even tried to overwhelm Vulcan with countless unpredictable swings in attempt to confuse his vision. However, none of them worked.

Every time he felt like he was starting to gain the upper hand, overwhelming lightning strike came at him in occasion as if Vulcan was just fooling around, and that disrupted the flow of Ho-Gyoung’s sword play. It was making him infuriated.

Also, the look on Vulcan’s face…

That expression!

It looked like Vulcan was treating Ho-Gyoung like some Third-Rate martial art teacher at some small town. It was making Ho-Gyoung really lose it.

His compressed energy blade was now at 14 ft, and exuding deadly power, it fell toward Vulcan.

“Kuuuaaaaa!”

BAM! BOOM!

“Ku… Huhuk… Kuluk, Kulkuk!”

However, instead of Vulcan, it was Ho-Gyoung that was bounced off.

An attack that was twice faster than Ho-Gyoung’s came right at his stomach.

Because it was the blade’s handle instead of the tip, it didn’t kill him, but it was a mighty strike that disrupted the flow of energy in his entire body.

Ho-Gyoung threw up a fountain worth of blood as he back stepped about 20 steps.

Vulcan slowly walked toward Ho-Gyoung, who was having a hard time breathing.

From Vulcan's mouth, which was smiling, a cold voice was flowing out.

“If you don’t have anything else to show me, then let’s end it here.”

They were incredibly impudent words, the kind a mere greenhorn who had been in Asgard for less than six years shouldn’t say.

Ho-Gyoung wanted to tell Vulcan that, but the situation made him tightly shut his mouth.

No matter who looked at it, the difference in strength was obvious.

It felt like it would not have mattered if tens or even hundreds of his minions rushed to help him fight Vulcan.

It felt hopeless as if he had one of The Six standing in front of him.

At that moment, Ho-Gyoung truly realized that he could not possibly defeat Vulcan.

‘In this situation… I can’t even laugh.’

He had a pretty good guess since the first time he saw Vulcan. He figured it would be difficult even if he teamed up with Bellon, the battle king, and fought Vulcan.

In fact, even if there were three of warriors as powerful as himself, they would still have had to fear for their lives.

Despite that, Ho-Gyoung could not back down.

There was no worse disgrace than losing one’s life with his back turned.

“Since this will be the end for me… I might as well go after watching one more move.”

After squeezing out all of his courage to say those words, Ho-Gyoung raised his blade and used his greatest technique.

WOOOONG

It generated uncomfortable noise, enough to almost tear one’s eardrums.

With sounds of several millions of bees swarming, at an instant, several tens of thousands of blade like shapes filled the space. All blades were engulfed in red energies as if they had blood veins.

Every one of the blades looked as if each contained enough power to cut through the sky and shatter the ground.

It was like a large tidal wave made of blades.

It looked more powerful than the Horuine’s Water God’s Wraith by several tens of folds. It intrigued Vulcan.

KUWAGAGAGAGAGANG

Several tens of thousands of blades rushed toward Vulcan like a wave.

At that moment, it looked like Vulcan was about to be torn apart by a wave of blades.

There was no way Ho-Gyoung could have made this many energy blades. It was certain that there were real energy blades hiding amongst fake ones.

Ho-Gyoung was someone that ruled Beloong City for several hundred years, and this was his ultimate technique. Becoming of the title, the technique was very difficult and tricky to deal with.

In fact, Vulcan could not tell which ones were real and which ones were illusions.

However, he didn’t really worry.

He had no need to tell them apart.

‘I just need to break them all.’

Vulcan lightly put forth his left hand.

However, what resulted from his gesture was anything but light.

‘Ifrit’s Fist’ charged forward as it crushed every single one of Ho-Gyoung’s blades.

KUGUGUGUGUGU

Unlike the lightning mastery, the fire mastery's rank was not increased, but still, because Vulcan made a leap in height, the magic was showing a significantly more power.

Although he was still at S rank on the fire mastery, its power toward the end of the rank was certainly different from when he just obtained the S rank.

Vulcan figured this will be the end of Ho-Gyoung.

Since it appeared Ho-Gyoung squeezed out the last of his power to use his ultimate technique, it was obvious for Vulcan to think that way.

However, something didn’t feel right. A combat sense as someone who has reached a certain height was tickling the inside of Vulcan’s head.

Vulcan cringed for a moment, and eventually, he started to watch the scene nervously.

Also, Vulcan strained his eyes in order to witness the end of Ho-Gyoung. He wanted to see it for certain.

‘Kuuu… Incredible heat…!’

Although not all of the energy blades were swept away, Ho-Gyoung could feel the heat penetrating through.

Ho-Gyoung scrunched his face as if he just fell to hell.

At this rate, it was a certainty that he would be losing his life.

Regardless, because he figured he was going to lose, he had no interest in the outcome of the battle.

However, he was about to die not with a bang but with a whimper, and he absolutely wanted to refuse that.

‘I have my pride as Ho-Gyoung the Blade King… I can’t hand over my life without putting up a fight!’

Ho-Gyoung focused all of his energy and sent it to his most treasured blade, the ‘Setting Sun.’

He even poured in the energy that he was supposed to be using for maintaining the protective energy blades. Although the Setting Sun was renowned to be an exceptional sword, even Setting Sun was starting to crack because it was unable to withstand the excessive focus of energy.

As the layer of protective energy blade started to thin, not just his cloth, but even his skin started to burn, but Ho-Gyoung didn’t care.

Instead, hoping for the moment the Setting Sun explodes, he poured in even more energy into the blade.

‘Once it is shattered to thousands of pieces, it will explode while being surrounded by highly compressed energy… If just one of these pieces pierce through his magic and strike that bastard…!’

Ho-Gyoung was already in shambles. The cloth and the hair on his entire body were burned to crisp.

However, his eyes were glowing sharply. His eyes were still glaring at Vulcan without losing any strength.

‘The moment he lets his guard down, the moment he puts away his sword thinking that he have won… That will be the chance my final move could pierce through his body…’

Ho-Gyoung had thought this far, but he made a dumbfounded face after feeling a presence behind him.

Ho-Gyoung definitely saw someone standing far in front of him, and the figure was still there.

At the moment Vulcan’s blade was striking down toward him, in order to resolve his curiosity, Ho-Gyoung focused energy to his eyes to increase his eyesight.

There, he now could see the true identity of the figure in the distance.

‘You son of a bitch… You used skeleton illusion mag…!’

WHEEC

Ho-Gyoung’s head flew up high into the air.

By Ifrit’s Fist, his body became ashes and disappeared, and his blade, the Setting Sun, which was overcharged with energy, lost power and melted away from the heat.

Of course, Vulcan was an exception to all this.

Let alone any injuries, he didn’t even have a single scratch on his body. He was completely clean.

He quickly moved away from the effective range of the Ifrit’s Fist and landed with style.

He looked around the scene.

“This can't be…!”

“Our lord… Was killed by a rookie!”

“Huh…!”

“This is not possible!”

They were the Order’s warriors that came after seeing the signal flare that Baek-Un shot to the sky.

It looked like there might be several hundreds of First-Rate and Zenith-Rate warriors, and they were looking at Vulcan with hollow expressions on their faces.

It was a sight that they never thought they would see until the day they leave Act 1 or died.

Everyone saw that Ho-Gyoung was defeated by an overwhelming power. There wasn’t a single warrior who was not shocked.

“Hm.”

Vulcan, with pride in his eyes, glared at them.

Of course, there was nobody that directly faced his gaze.

The warriors all turned their heads away whenever Vulcan’s gaze met with theirs.

They looked as if they ran into a grim reaper. They were unable to hide their nervousness.

“What should I do?”

Having heard Vulcan’s voice just now, the warriors all flinched and started to shake.

It was one versus several hundred, but the difference in number meant nothing.

Vulcan was the one who was overwhelmingly powerful, and it was the Order’s side that was being overwhelmed.

They were masters of martial arts and combat who have climbed to where they were after stepping on countless other talented beings. However…

In front of a monster named Vulcan, they were no different from lambs in front of a wolf.

Of course, if each and every one of these warriors were loyal to the Order, even Vulcan would not have been able to fight them all at once.

However, they were just a bunch of people who cared about their own lives than the honor of their group. They were not a united bunch.

They were just a collection of sands. Vulcan had no reason to fear them.

“It’s not like I’m a murderous maniac…”

‘Now that I have had my revenge, I have no reason to turn them all as my enemies.’

Vulcan utilized the power of spirit form and the Thunder God’s Might and rushed toward Beloong City.

Nobody was thinking about stopping Vulcan.

He was already a being that lived in a different dimension from themselves.

Among the Order’s ranks, there was not a single soul who had the courage to stop Vulcan.

In silence, they only gave blank stares at back of Vulcan as he charged toward the city.