Chapter 51: Phoenix Rescue Operation (1)

The Ghosts started to move in earnest once they had confirmed that the green flare had been fired to the sky.

Since they were all powerhouses that sat firmly on the 5th Stage, they could easily overpower the black robed beings that stopped them once they went all out.

The 2nd among the Ghosts easily let out dozens of sword attacks and tied up their black robed enemy. Coupled by Lintel’s extremely fast swordsmanship and the Ghosts' pressure, the black robed being that wielded a scythe was forced into a dead end.

Iron watched as faint sword lights from their swords aimed for the gap in the reaper’s movements. Their attacks resulted in the opponent’s robe being torn off while receiving plenty of injuries.

As he watched them fight, he could see that the Ghosts’ swordsmanship was different from one another. Each of their swords had fully shown their individuality. One used a brilliant and flashy swordsmanship that blocked the enemy’s vision  while the other used a dark sword that came down heavily from the sky. 

‘Is this the power of a 5th Stage powerhouse?’

Iron couldn’t help but mutter to himself as he stared at their swords that contained their individual characteristics. He looked like he was really envious of them.

This was a stage that he had achieved in his previous life. However, even if he had reached this stage back then he was still envious of these people. After all, they were people who had tremendous power after fully awakening to the 5th Stage. At the very least, they had a power that was completely different to someone who had incompletely climbed to that stage after embedding the fragment of the heart of a fire dragon in their bodies, someone like him. 

“Jealous?”

Iron nodded bitterly when he heard Carl Gustav’s question.

“There’s no rush. As long as you live as a Ghost you’re bound to climb up on that stage sooner or later.”

Carl Gustav reminded him not to be too hasty as he continued to check the situation of the surroundings and the gradually ending battle. 

Around 10 minutes later…

“Right. I thought something would definitely pop out.”

Carl’s sword left its sheathe as soon as he finished speaking. A powerful sword strike flew out with just a simple swing of his sword in the air. Surprisingly, it hit something that seemed to be stealthily approaching them. 

Bang!

“Quite good.”

Carl Gustav just lightly swung his sword to test the waters but when he realized that he did not hurt his opponent at all, he realized that his opponent was quite strong. So, he began to move earnestly. 

Twin swords appeared and flew in to answer his attacks. Carl Gustav quickly raised his sword and deflected the incoming attack. A powerful shockwave burst forth as soon as their swords collided. 

When Iron saw Carl’s movements he could see that they were seamless and natural. It was as if his body was one with his sword. In addition, there were powerful shockwaves that exploded whenever his sword collided with his enemy.

“6th Stage?”

Iron mumbled blankly.

But the longer he watched, the more his eyes could see that Carl had still not achieved the perfect 6th Stage. However, his strength at this level was already more than enough.

The black robed being that wielded the twin swords was starting to get pushed back by Carl’s offense. Thanks to the shockwaves produced by their collision, the robe that covered the mysterious being was slowly being torn to shreds.

―Tweet!

Iron wanted to move and try something to see clearly. But Baepsae had already pecked him strongly on his head and stopped him from moving before he could do so. Even Owl flapped its wings and settled on his shoulder while hooting loudly to criticize Iron for his stupidity. 

―Hoot, hoot, hoot, hoot!

Iron had no choice but to sit down and calmly scan his surroundings when Owl began his tirade of rebuke. He listened quietly as it told him that it did not have the intention of using its ability to help him out. 

By that time, Lintel had already fallen back and approached Iron. 

“I’m fine.” 

“With that body? I think even your divine beast got hurt though?” 

Iron shut his mouth when he heard Lintel’s words. Lintel ruffled Iron’s hair when he saw him acting so stubbornly. 

“At times like this, you should just sit back and trust your seniors. You’re already a new junior who has made a great contribution so we have to do this. Look at it from your seniors’ point of view.” 

Lintel turned to look at the battle that was gradually coming to an end.

They could see that the being that wielded the scythe while covered with a black robe was a being that had pointed ears. The mysterious being was none other than a dark elf. Even the being that Captain Ghost Carl fought was also a dark elf. 

“Dark elf…” 

Iron and Lintel both had somber expressions as they mumbled to themselves.

He had heard in his past life that dark elves had also appeared at some point but he had little to no information about them. 

‘Dark elves appearing in this situation?’ 

The two of them looked like they had extraordinary skills. But the longer Iron stared at them, the stronger his doubt became. He wondered why these two beings did not appear during the monster wave back then.

‘Why is that so? With that level of skill…’ 

In his previous life, those who stood at the 5th Stage and above were great forces. People achieving the 4th Stage were too common but climbing to the 5th Stage was extremely difficult to the point that they could already be considered as rare powerhouses.

The rarest beings, the masters and those at the 6th Stage were strong powerhouses. Once someone became a master, they would immediately be a commander while those who reached the 6th Stage would either become generals or special unit commanders.

So, how about the 5th Stage? If those at the 5th Stage ate just a bit more jjambap, they would immediately be given a sweet promotion and become a colonel. But if they tried hard enough, they could even get discharged with some stars.

These just show how incredibly important those at the 5th Stage and above were to the military and to an area’s force. So, knowing that these two dark elves were absent during the monster wave made Iron doubtful.

Iron continued to ponder solemnly as he watched the fight end.

Fortunately, the Ghosts were able to suppress the dark elf that wielded a scythe. They even went and helped Carl to suppress the other dark elf. 

In fact, they would have already finished earlier if they had killed them. But their mission was keeping them alive and only overpowering them so it took a longer time. After all, they had to suppress their power so they would not kill them accidentally.

“We’ve completed our mission.” 

“Good job.” 

Carl nodded his head and praised the Ghosts. 

“Let’s take those guys for interrogation…” 

But before he could finish his words, Carl felt something. He immediately swung his sword to parry what was coming their way.

Bang!

The huge shockwave blew Iron and the other Ghosts away. They all received some damage from the impact. However, the problem was not with Iron and the Ghosts who got pushed back.

“Cough!” 

“Captain!” 

Lintel shouted out in shock when he saw Carl vomiting out a mouthful of blood. The rest of the Ghosts looked horrified. They were shocked to see Carl getting injured with just one attack. 

Carl hurriedly gave out his order to the Ghosts. 

“All of you, disperse!” 

All of the Ghosts scattered when Carl shouted his orders. Iron also grabbed the owl’s foot and flew up in the air to avoid getting tangled with the being that attacked Carl. 

When he turned to look at the ground, he saw that the elves that the Ghosts had captured earlier had already staged a suicide and killed themselves. 

“This crazy shit! Shit! Shit!” 

Lintel also ran away as he swore up and down at the situation that they were suddenly put in.

When all of the Ghosts, including Carl, scattered and dispersed from the area, something quickly flew in and dropped before exploding like a bomb. It seemed like whoever was staging these attacks had already planned to crush the dark elves' bodies to make sure that they wouldn’t find anything. 

Bang! Bang! Bang!

“Where the hell…” 

Even with the help of the owl who flew up quickly, Iron still failed to see the thing that flew in. However, what was certain was that it was a being that had enough destructive power to injure someone at the beginning stage of the 6th Stage like Carl Gustav. 

“Why didn’t they appear from the very start?” 

With that level of skill, it would have been better if they appeared right when the Ghosts were putting pressure on the dark elves. But they only appeared when the two were suffering and on the brink of being interrogated. Although the Ghosts had fully restricted their movements to prevent them from running away they were still able to stage a suicide. It seemed like the attack on Carl was just a pretext so the dark elves could have the time to kill themselves. 

No matter how hard he thought, he still found this situation to be strange.

“Think. Think.”

The gears in Iron’s head started to turn like crazy as he felt the pressure of this desperate and urgent situation.

Why did a powerful being only emerge now? Because they think their subordinates are trivial? But it seems like their movement was made to protect their honor.

“Or they’re hiding something.” 

The first and only other thing that Iron could think of was that they were hiding a huge secret. If that was the case, then it made sense that they only have enough time to buy their subordinates time to commit suicide. 

“What if they were forced to move because they’re in the middle of doing something important?” 

Were they trying to do something urgent and have to finish it as soon as possible but they were interrupted because of what I did?

First, they tried to remove Iron as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, they failed to do so. Then, his comrades, the Ghosts, came and caught them because they did not expect their skill level. In such a situation, the dark elves that were captured were only given enough time to kill themselves and hide the information about the situation by the strong being instead of being saved. This meant that they were either hiding something or they were preparing for something that they couldn’t be interrupted. 

What are they preparing?

“Are they trying to do something because they haven’t prepared enough?” 

Iron mumbled to himself as he hid behind a rock. It was difficult for Owl to fly for a long time since it had injured its wings and its mana was still not yet fully recovered so he had no choice but to land in a safe space. 

He lowered his body as his mind kept on turning. 

“The dimensional crack? No way…” 

Iron raised his face as he looked at the white wyverns’ territory incredulously. There, he looked at the blurry figure of the bird that was still staring at him. 

“The dark elves are related to the dimensional crack? What about the phoenix?” 

Iron continued to mumble as he worked the gears of his head once again. Then, a thought suddenly flashed in his head. 

“Is there any connection between the divine beast and the dimensional crack?” 

Iron turned to look at Owl and Baepsae to confirm this train of thought. The two of them nodded their heads silently. 

“Ha! This crazy shit… seriously?” 

When he finished his deductions, Iron’s face was painted with absurdity.

Meanwhile, Owl stroked Iron’s head with its wings as if it was telling him that he had deduced things well. Baepsae also chirped and pecked his head to praise him for being smart. 

Iron couldn’t help but stare blankly at the sky as the two divine beasts praised him. The shock of the information was too great that he couldn’t come back to his senses at that moment. 

But he was forced to come back to his senses when Owl pinched his ears with its wings. 

―Hoot!

Iron hurriedly gathered his senses when he heard Owl telling him to get his grip together. Baepsae also chirped in agreement before pecking his head to help him recover. 

“Can you tell me more details?” 

Baepsae shook its head firmly when it heard Iron’s question. Even Owl shook its head. They looked like they could not tell him anything more than this. 

In the end, he still needed to find things out by himself.

“Ha… You’re telling me that the monster wave is not everything. Right?” 

It seemed like the monster wave, which drove the continent to its destruction in his previous life, was just a huge fragment of the entire situation. There was a huge danger that was lurking on this continent that was far beyond the monster wave in intensity. 

Iron couldn’t help but frown when he realized the thing that he needed to block to survive had somehow grown larger and more dangerous. 

“It’s already so hard to block a monster wave, do I have to do something more than what I’m doing now?”

Iron was left speechless as frustration engulfed his being for a moment. 

He realized that this was a problem that could not be solved just by raising and nurturing the entirety of the North’s power and avoiding the danger somewhere after.

Even if he blocked the monster wave, if there was something that was far beyond that, then he would not be able to survive until his targeted end. 

“Let me ask you one last thing. Is the dimensional crack that will cause the monster wave related to the divine beasts?”

Owl shook its head at Iron’s question. It seemed like the connection between the divine beasts and the dimensional crack was only limited to the Winter Mountains. 

“Then, what was the problem when I was at the academy? Was it related to you?”

This time Owl nodded its head. 

Iron was lost in thought when it saw Owl agreeing. 

“Dimensional cracks appeared in the Northeast because the dark elves caused problems with the divine beasts.”

As that thought brewed in his head, Iron slowly got up from his sitting position. 

“Did you finish your conversation well?”

Before he knew it, Carl Gustav and the rest of Ghosts appeared in front of him one by one. 

“…Yes. Is your body alright?”

“We encounter something like this on a daily basis.”

Iron looked relieved when he heard Carl tell him that everything was fine. 

“More than that, I think we need to retreat.”

“We don’t need to do that.”

“The opponents…”

“Are strong.”

Carl nodded in agreement to Iron’s words. He was admitting that he could not handle it on his own. 

“That’s why we called for a monster…”

“Yes?”

“Please look over there.”

Carl pointed at somewhere. Then, something fell down from above as a huge storm appeared and easily swept away the white wyverns’ territory.

“Wow…”