Chapter 207. With Gods
With normalization complete, the royal palace, once awash with corpses and blood, had been completely cleared of all traces of the rebellion.
Ki-chan wandered around, taking photos with his cell phone of the royal palace regaining its lost authority.
The palace guards kept a tight watch, while knights patrolling the palace wore serious expressions.
***
The guards' faces were tense, as the palace had been taken over by rebels only a few days prior.
Meanwhile, Seo-woon listened to a heated argument between two children in the inner courtyard.
***
"So, our family's swordsmanship is much better." Holding a sword that appeared to weigh over 10 kilograms, the boy stood before the other boy, who was holding a book and arguing.
"Hmph! Magic is far more powerful than a knight's power. After all, it's area-of-effect spells that turn the tide of battle!"
***
The two children were arguing over whether knights or wizards were superior.
"Master! What do you think?"
"You, a great warrior who has survived countless battles, would know this better than anyone, wouldn't you?"
***
The 13-year-olds looked even younger than 10, giving the impression of being undernourished.
Seo-woon, impressed by the children's enthusiasm, was lost in thought for a moment.
***
"Well…"
"Come on, tell us! Without knights to protect them with their lives, wizards are nothing but half-baked creatures!"
"Idiot. That's why knights have to protect them, because they're so important."
***
The boy holding the book glared at the boy holding the sword at his words.
After glaring at each other for a moment, the boys turned their attention back to Seo-woon.
***
"I think they're both important."
"Oops!" "Oops!"
The two boys looked dissatisfied with Seo-woon's answer.
***
"Why do I have to take care of these kids?"
Seo-woon suddenly felt unnerved at the children's reaction.
He'd been wandering around the capital for a few days, even going so far as to hunt down mutant goblins that had recently crossed through the Quenta Empire and spawned in the Crescent region.
***
After raiding their hideout and obtaining poorly crafted skin medicine, Seo-woon was in the best possible mood.
Although on the verge of breaking free from the shackles of humanity, he was still human.
***
A man in his early twenties.
Looking at his forehead, which had already begun to form an M shape, he carefully applied the skin medicine and drifted off into a blissful sleep.
***
As soon as he woke up in the morning, Juriel and Senruk had abruptly left the two children with him.
"There's something I need to discuss with my cousins. They are children with extraordinary abilities. They will be cornerstones of Crescent in the future…
After losing their parents in the war and being left alone in the world, I convinced Dorian and the court sorcerer to adopt them. I think your meeting them could be of great help to them in the future. Just look after them for half a day."
***
What were they thinking, leaving the two children behind and just disappearing?
Seo-woon, who had suddenly been assigned to look after the children, looked at Ki-chan with a surprised expression, but Ki-chan quickly avoided his gaze and walked away.
***
So Seo-woon was forced to look after the children in the palace garden, which was over 10,000 square meters.
"Ugh. Stop fighting. Knights don't have enough ground attack power to turn the tide of battle, and even if magicians had that power, it wouldn't be easy to protect themselves, so what's the point of arguing?"
***
"But if it's one-on-one, a knight will clearly win!"
"If a magician has enough time to cast spells, how can they lose to a knight?"
"Who will give them time to cast spells?"
***
The boy holding the book was speechless at the words of the boy pointing a sword at his face.
Soon, Seo-woon's patience wore out and he frowned.
***
"If you can't come to a conclusion, why don't you both just fight?"
At his words, the children looked at Seo-woon with wide eyes.
"Both?" "Magic and swordsmanship at the same time?"
***
"Yes."
"But doing one thing is hard enough, doing two things at once is hard enough."
Seo-woon wrinkled his nose at the boy holding the book.
***
"Have you tried?"
"No, I haven't."
"Then how do you know if you can do it?"
***
The boy holding the book was speechless at Seo-woon's words.
Then the boy holding the sword spoke up.
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"You don't have to try to know."
"How?"
"If it were possible, many people would have done it by now."
***
Seo-woon winced at the boy's logical objection.
"Emperor Kutrapa."
Seo-woon's words left the boy holding the sword speechless.
***
For a while, the children stared at Seo-woon with dissatisfied looks, unable to say anything.
With two children who had been chattering loudly and annoyingly asking for opinions now quieting down, Seo-woon realized how quiet and peaceful the garden was.
***
It was a peaceful and joyful moment.
After gazing at the flowers and scenery in the garden for more than 10 minutes, the boy holding the book spoke again.
***
"I can't accept this!" "Exactly!"
The two children who had been fighting excitedly were now working together against Seo-woon.
***
"Why can't you accept it?"
Seo-woon frowned and glared at the two children, but they didn't seem at all afraid.
***
"Well... He's not alive, is he?"
"Exactly! The Kutrafa Emperor is an exception."
Hearing the two boys' words, Seo-woon snatched the sword from the boy's hands with a look of despair.
***
The boy hadn't noticed when his sword had been taken, and his hand flickered back and forth between it and Seo-woon's as if he were watching a mysterious magic trick.
The moment he held the sword, Seo-woon's mood completely changed.
***
Although he was simply holding the sword naturally, his posture had shifted so dramatically that the children fell silent and swallowed hard.
As he held the sword and looked ahead, a breeze swept past, caressing the flowers in the garden.
***
The children's eyes widened as flower petals fluttered in the wind.
A clear aura began to emanate from Seo-woon's sword.
***
Seeing the bright blue aura, the children clenched their fists.
"Is that similar?"
***
Drawing his sword as naturally as breathing, Seo-woon had no intention of using any special techniques.
He was simply imitating what he had seen before.
***
Fearing that the sword might melt, he shielded it with his ki energy as he released a blue flame, which the children saw as a powerful and impressive aura.
***
Observing the children's expressions, Seo-woon smiled and extended his sword straight towards the floating leaves.
Seo-woon imitated the knight's movements as closely as possible.
***
His sword sliced the floating leaves in half, staining the air blue.
It was a masterful sword move that transformed single-layered leaves into two.
***
The children watched this scene for a long time as the number of leaves doubled.
Every time Seo-woon moved his sword, leaves multiplied, appearing as if by magic.
***
When Seo-woon jumped and landed, dozens of ice spears rose up around him, flying into the air and colliding with each other.
Kwaang!
***
The cold air gushing from the colliding and disappearing spears froze the flower petals dancing in the air.
The flower petals, frozen on their own, fell like snowflakes around them.
***
!!!
The children could only watch this scene in amazement.
One of the frozen leaves fell like snow on the hand of a boy holding a book.
When the cold feeling melted, the boy realized the leaf was thin and transparent.
***
"Huh!" "Did you split a leaf in half?"
The children, who hadn't even imagined that it was possible to split hundreds or even thousands of falling leaves in half with a sword, turning them into two layers, looked shocked.
***
"Look. Can you say 'no' without trying? Isn't it possible?"
"…"
"…"
Unable to answer Seo-woon's question, the children stared at the falling leaves in surprise.
***
After a while, the children raised their heads and looked at Seo-woon.
"Master!"
"Master!"
"Why?"
"How can we become like you?"
"When did you cast the spell?"
***
Seo-woon began to think about how he should answer the children so they would stop asking questions.
After a moment's thought, just as Seo-woon was about to speak, flower petals blowing in the wind began to freeze in the cold air.
***
-Crack! Crack! Crack!
The flower petals froze and shattered.
The cold slowly spread throughout the garden, instantly freezing everything around them.
***
"Hmph?" "What's going on?"
As the children looked around in surprise, Seo-woon's silhouette instantly appeared in front of them.
***
At the same time, white mist emitting from his hands began to resist the cold that was freezing everything around them.
"I didn't expect to see you so soon."
***
It was a girl with a familiar aura.
A girl with white hair.
Even her eyebrows and eyelashes were white, and her eyes were white too, giving her an air of mystery.
***
"You…"
"Curse god. Ebara. You know why I'm here, right?"
It had already been confirmed that the gods were unaware of what was happening in another dimension.
Although there was concern about encountering creatures, They believed they would be safe as long as they didn't act recklessly, but this unexpected situation made Seo-woon's face fall.
***
"Run to the keep. Don't go out."
Seo-woon's voice echoed in the children's heads.
The two children didn't have time to be surprised by the voice they'd never heard before and ran towards the keep.
***
As Seo-woon expected, Evara was focused on him and didn't pay much attention to the children.
"Back then, you blocked my breath with that white flame."
***
The moment Evara said this, the cold air around them became several times stronger.
Even the white flames of hell were shrinking, losing their heat.
***
Seo-woon's eyes deepened as he saw the white flames losing their power.
At the same time, his white flames darkened and transformed into black flames.
***
When the black flames of a different dimension appeared, her cold air could no longer envelop the surroundings.
As their powers reached a stalemate and the situation was locked, Evara threw herself at Seo-woon with her hands open.
***
-Whoos! An intense coldness spread around her.
Seo-woon also broke through the heat of the black flames and rushed towards her.
***
-Kvaang! With a single clash, a loud voice echoed throughout the palace.
Thanks to Team Voice's warning of danger as soon as Ebara appeared, no one in the palace approached the dangerous flower garden.
Instead, they hurriedly evacuated the palace.
***
-Kartrdrd!
Ebara blocked the attack that mixed the power of the storm and black flames with her delicate fists and glared at Seo-woon without stepping back.
***
On Earth, this single move could have destroyed Evara, but her true form wasn't so easily defeated.
The only sound that could be heard was Seo-woon's fist and Evara's energetic fist devouring each other.
***
After a long struggle, two stepped back simultaneously.
"Everyone escaped the palace."
As soon as Juriell's voice was heard, Seo-woon began unleashing all his power.
***
The storm absorbed them all without purifying its energy, and his body naturally rose into the air.
-Sssssss! In an instant, he lunged at Evara, and with a single blow, the entire flower garden was turned upside down.
***
As the conflict between gods and humans continued, the beautiful flower garden was reduced to ruins.
The earth was turning upside down, then freezing, then shattering, and the process repeated itself.
***
"This can't go on."
At first glance, Evara and Seo-woon seemed evenly matched, but Seo-woon, wielding the black flames, was struck by a cold wind.
***
If he hadn't acquired Jeon-dae-sung's Diamond Fist and Diamond Blood, the cold wind would have frozen and severed his limbs, but cold continued to flow into Seo-woon's body.
The cold wind was so powerful that he could barely block it with black flames.
***
He had never imagined such a thing.
Evara's power, beyond his imagination, began to awaken a dormant crisis within him.
This wasn't Cloyd.
Once he died, his life would be over.
***
It was a matter of life or death.
At that moment, Seo-woon began absorbing earth energy from the ground beneath her feet.
He couldn't easily replicate Jang Do-cheon's ability to condense earth energy, but he felt compelled to at least communicate with the earth through his feet.
***
- Whistle! Bang!
Meanwhile, he whipped his legs around like a whip, blocking Eva's attack once more with his slender body.
A white chill radiated from Seo-woon, as if he were showcasing his ferocious energy.
***
Even his joints were cold now, and the chill was penetrating faster than he'd expected.
"I have to let it flow. If I can't, it ends here."
***
Seo-woon's eyes deepened as he restrained himself, pushing himself to the limit.
In her eyes, he saw Eva preparing her next attack.
***
-Whoosh! Eva's forehead wrinkled as she thrust her fist forward.
This was because the cold air that had spread in every direction with each of her previous attacks was nowhere to be seen this time.
***
Feeling as if all the energy she had expended on the attack had been drained, she quickly stepped back.
She wanted to ask what he was doing, but her pride prevented her from opening her mouth.
***
Shielding herself with black flames, Seo-woon completely dispersed them and slowly lowered her hands, exhaling deeply.
"Hoh."
***
The white, cold air that had accumulated followed her breath, completely expelling it.
Seeing Seo-woon without his black flames, Eva frowned and asked, "What are you thinking?"
***
Seo-woon didn't answer her question and simply stared at her.
Ebara felt an unfamiliar discomfort growing inside her as she saw the man who had just been grimacing and blocking her attacks now staring at her with an expressionless, calm gaze.
***
She soon realized that this discomfort stemmed from the fear of the unknown or her opponent.
"Die!"
***
Unable to accept her fear, Eva exploded with even more coldness and lunged at Seo-woon.
-Snap! Snap! Snap!
Her attacks, filled with intense coldness, mysteriously lost all their power with each touch of Seo-woon's body.
***
Without their intense coldness, these attacks were nothing more than a child's slightly sharp physical attacks.
Enraged by this incredible sight, his attacks accelerated.
***
Seo-woon could see nothing but a blizzard raging around him and his devastated surroundings.
All he could see was Ebara, unleashing her attacks in a pitch-black void.
***
He was acutely aware of his semi-trance state.
If his concentration deepened even slightly, he could forget he was in a fight and become lost in new sensations and awareness.
If his concentration wavered even slightly, he could lose the feeling of coldness flowing through him and into the ground.
***
Even in such a dangerous situation, Seo-woon remained unwavering and centered.
He didn't get too caught up in the delicate sensations he was experiencing for the first time, nor did he lose his concentration out of nervousness.
***
He surrendered to the sensations and continued to face Eva.
Just then, Seo-woon's eyes, lost in their depths, regained their vibrancy.
***
-Crack! Crack!
The sounds of hitting flesh and cracking ice echoed simultaneously.
For the first time in the fight, Seo-woon launched a counterattack.
***
The sharp storm energy condensing in his fingertips shattered Eva's shoulder with a single blow.
The wound, which ripped from her shoulder to her arm, froze her instantly.
She staggered backward, her expression in disbelief.
***
Her eyes widened, and a mixture of fear and disbelief gripped her.
Seo-woon, certain he could dispel her coldness, counterattacked with familiar reflexes and responded by emerging from the pitch-black void surrounding her.
***
His eyes blazed with murderous intent as he glared at Eva.
In this world where he appeared as a child, being recognized as a god didn't matter to Seo-woon.
An enemy who could not be left alive.
***
"I will kill you."
The moment he made his decision, Seo-woon's body moved.
The moment he felt his body blur, he was already reaching for Eva's delicate neck.
***
Eva was still in panic, unable to even think of defending herself.
Just as Seo-woon's hand was about to pierce her neck, the entire world lit up, and Ki-chan blocked Seo-woon's path.
***
Surprised, Seo-woon quickly retracted her attack and stepped back.
At that moment, Gwang-gun and the demon twins, Juriell Liling-wei, blocked Seo-woon's path as if to protect Eva.
***
-Kunk! He turned his head at the sudden loud voice and saw Cassenia lowering her heavy body and staring at him with wild eyes.
He was momentarily taken aback by this sudden change, but Seo-woon's eyebrows furrowed.
***
"Metis..."
The moment those words left his mouth, a laugh erupted.
"Hahahaha. Last time, you were so arrogant, forcing me. How does it feel to see my true power?"
***
Seo-woon didn't answer and closed his eyes.
When he opened his left eye again, it was glowing bright red.