I told you not to forget, didn't I?
It was a fleeting moment.
*Swaaaaaaah...!*
A pitch-black curtain wrapped around the front of the platform.
The troops that had been surging forward, driven by an ominous energy, slowed their pace.
And a moment later, when the curtain was drawn back, something was revealed.
A clear line drawn between the black knight and the troops.
"Do not cross this line."
Seira aimed the demon sword Tarkan.
"If you cross this line and try to reach my master, I will cut you down."
A heavy silence settled over the square.
Those watching from a distance could only tilt their heads in confusion.
It had looked like a clash was about to happen at any moment, and now suddenly there was silence.
"S-Sir Minud! W-What should we do?!"
"Please give us orders!"
"Command us...!!"
Minud, the knight at the vanguard and in command, broke out in a cold sweat.
In his heart, he wanted to scream at those clueless bastards who didn't know anything.
To tell them to just shut up.
He barely managed to move his eyes and stare at the knight in front of him.
She wasn't particularly large.
She had the build of an average woman, just a little tall.
But why was it?
It felt like he was blocked by an absolutely impenetrable wall.
To be more precise, his instincts, honed to the extreme, were foreseeing the future.
A clear future where the moment he crossed that line, his head would fly off.
Seira, who had been watching Minud, opened her mouth.
"Knight. Trust your instincts. Those instincts have never been wrong."
Before her voice even faded.
"What are you doing?! Stop them right now!!"
Porcan's roar exploded.
"Sir Minud!"
"We have to attack now!"
"Sir Minud!!"
A monster beyond measure in front, Porcan behind.
While he was stuck, unable to move forward or backward, the sound of many people's presence was heard.
The citizens of Eteropolis, who had been watching from a distance.
Thanks to them, the eyes of everyone, including Porcan and those in the standoff, shifted there.
"W-What is this now..."
It was all completely incomprehensible.
The citizens, who were usually quiet as mice, were now blocking the space between the platform and the troops.
"We've been silent all this time. When the hero fell, when his comrades who fought alone were driven out."
An old man, once a puppet magic engineer, walked forward.
"That alone is shameful enough that we can't even lift our heads. But if we stay silent this time too... I don't think I could forgive myself."
"If you're going to harm Vayla, kill us and go!!"
"We won't move a single step from here!"
This time, it wasn't just Minud.
The entire force began to waver.
It couldn't be helped.
The ones blocking their way now weren't strangers.
They were someone's family or neighbors they had grown up watching.
Jinhyeok, watching this, smiled.
As expected, he hadn't been wrong.
The embers were still alive.
But then.
Why isn't this friend moving?
He looked down at Vayla.
He had definitely inserted the core as Ruvollf had instructed, but she didn't stir at all.
He was wondering if he needed to wind her up or something, looking around here and there.
'Oh, shit.'
He made eye contact.
With Vayla's turquoise eyes, which he couldn't tell when they had opened.
"Oh, hey."
He barely managed to force out a greeting, but the response wasn't great.
Vayla just blinked and stared at Jinhyeok.
"Who are you?"
"I'm a friend of Grandpa Ruvollf."
"Sir Ruvollf is my father's disciple."
He was a little surprised.
So she calls him father.
"You are a friend of my father's disciple."
"That's a bit long, but yeah."
Vayla, raising her hand, tilted her head.
"Why am I moving? I shouldn't move. That's why I removed the sphere."
"You removed the sphere? By yourself?"
This was something he was hearing for the first time.
And it was also fascinating.
"Yes."
"Why?"
"I was created to protect peace. But if I move, I would harm the city's peace."
It was a way of thinking that was believable enough to think she was human, yet simultaneously lacked the selfishness that any human would inevitably possess.
"It's okay. Not anymore. See the people protecting you now?"
"The citizens of Eteropolis. They are the ones I must protect."
"Right. Those people are protecting you now."
"That's strange. I'm the one who should be protecting them, so why are they protecting me?"
"You could say they're returning what they received."
Vayla tilted her head, and Jinhyeok smiled.
He figured it would be better for her to figure it out on her own later than for him to explain it now.
It's definitely not because it's hard to explain and he's trying to brush it off.
"You useless bastards!!!"
It seemed Porcan's patience had reached its limit.
Screaming loud enough to make ears ring, Porcan activated his magic engineering circuit.
With a dazzling light, a massive stimulus was applied to his muscles.
His entire body began to tremble, and his size grew larger and larger.
"I'll just kill you all! You fucking vermin!!!"
The only reason he had held back until now was because of the variable that was that outsider.
But he no longer needed to.
Because they had already awakened.
The calamities that could tear that variable apart and still have plenty left over.
Porcan reached his hand towards the sky.
"I, Porcan Veldor, Head of the Administration Bureau, declare! The rotten Eteropolis is coming to an end!!"
Above the magic engineering city of Eteropolis.
The things that had been sleeping there began to descend.
They were magic engineering weapons developed with most of the city's budget.
Porcan glared at Jinhyeok, who was sitting on the platform.
"That composure ends here!!"
Timing his descent with the falling weapons, Porcan spread his arms wide.
"Now! The calamity descends!!!!"
*Kuaaaaaaang!!*
Heavy chunks of metal fell, and vibrations spread throughout the entire square.
After that, the sounds of friction and explosions continued without pause.
And then, at some point.
"...?"
Porcan could only form a question mark.
The sound that was constantly ringing was, how to put it, less like weapons falling and more like scrap metal being dumped haphazardly.
He looked up at the platform.
The outsider was still relaxed.
Seeing that figure, an indescribable chill washed over him.
*Thud.*
And the falling sounds had stopped at some point.
'That can't be. Impossible. It's not possible.'
Denying reality in every way, he slowly turned around.
A dust cloud had risen, limiting his vision, but he could instinctively tell.
What was there was not the magic engineering weapons Porcan had been waiting for.
*Swaaa.*
As the dust cloud thinned, it began to leak out.
The eyes of the beings watching him from atop the pile of scrap metal that was the result of shattering the legion Porcan had been waiting for.
"Our Yodel Ranger friend is pretty curious, you see. He found it while messing around with the compass and sticking things on it. But, Sir Porcan."
Jinhyeok, rising from his seat, stared at Porcan.
"You were shouting about endings and calamities and all that a moment ago, weren't you? All confident. Don't tell me... you were relying on just *that*?"
Naturally, Porcan couldn't answer.
Not even when Jinhyeok, having come down from the platform, walked through the parted crowd and approached Porcan.
*Thump, thump, thump, thump.*
Porcan's heartbeat quickened.
At the same time, his brain's processing speed also accelerated.
First, the two bastards on top of the scrap metal, the chain and the tattoo.
They were the ones who had casually turned magic engineering weapons into scrap metal.
The odds were slim.
And the black knight in front of the platform, he instinctively realized.
That she was the strongest in this space.
So, the only option left was one.
The outsider who came from outside the Tower, who somehow managed to bring those beings into the city.
If he killed this guy, maybe everything would end.
*Kugugugugugu.*
He concentrated the power of his magic engineering circuit into one spot.
Before they could reach this place, while everyone was off guard, right now.
He had to finish it in one blow.
He focused on the sound of the approaching footsteps.
And when he heard the sound one more time.
*Sgaaaaaaahk!!*
He swung the magic engineering spear attached to his arm.
A spear of ultra-high speed, with its speed amplified to the maximum.
Dodging at this distance was impossible.
*Kwaang!!*
A rough friction sound was heard.
Two greatswords, drawn from somewhere, blocked the spear.
Porcan frowned.
'A swordsman...!'
He hadn't even thought of it.
Because even hours ago, when Porcan's fist was thrown right in front of his face, he had been bare-handed.
"Whoa, pretty strong."
Porcan gritted his teeth.
That was his line.
A spear with the full power of the circuit poured into it.
And he blocked it head-on without any pushback.
*Kang!*
Pushing the spear away, Jinhyeok opened his mouth.
"But I guess the magic engineering circuit doesn't help much with memory."
He closed the distance in an instant and swung his sword.
"I told you, didn't I? The only reason you're alive is because of that one step you didn't take."
This time was different.
Porcan hadn't kept that distance.
"Arrogant talk!!!"
He concentrated the circuit on the spot where the sword would land.
Porcan's body, made of magic engineering itself.
His reinforced body wouldn't be cut by a sword like that.
*Kwaang!!!*
As she expected, the sword didn't cut his body.
Even so.
*Kkeuleok!*
Blood gushed from his mouth.
The sheer, brutal force applied to his body.
It felt like his brain was ringing.
"Pretty tough."
"I'll kill you!!!"
Various magic engineering weapons emerged from Porcan's body.
They clashed endlessly with Jinhyeok's sword.
*Kwaang! Kang! Kwagagak!*
'Why.'
Porcan bit his lip.
'Why won't it hit...!!'
Attacks that kept grazing by, just a hair's breadth away.
Even attacks he was sure would hit were deflected, slipping away right before they landed, and it felt like he was going crazy.
In contrast, Porcan's weapons were being smashed one by one.
And even though his body wasn't being cut, the damage was accumulating to a level that couldn't be ignored.
'I need to decide this.'
He focused his magic circuit into his eyes and analyzed Jinhyeok's movements.
Incredibly efficient movements.
Jinhyeok never missed even the slightest opening his opponent showed.
'This is it.'
Porcan curled the corners of his mouth.
And to lure Jinhyeok in, he intentionally exposed a vital point.
Sure enough, Jinhyeok reacted instinctively and was pulled deep in.
After all, a body reinforced with magic engineering couldn't be cut.
There would be an impact, but if he could take the enemy's head in return, it was more than worth it.
As Jinhyeok closed in right below him, a victorious smile spread across Porcan's face.
'Got you!!!'
And then, in the fleeting moment he was about to bring down his attack.
A voice was heard.
"You thought, 'It won't cut me.' Right?"
The moment the words ended, a crimson aura wrapped around the greatsword.
"That's careless. Very much so."
*Seokeok!*
In an instant, Jinhyeok slashed across Porcan's vital point and passed by.
Porcan, bloodshot eyes bulging, turned to look at Jinhyeok.
"You fucking bastard... You were aiming for this from the start..."
Before Porcan could even finish his words.
*Puhwaaaaaaahk!!!*
Blood gushed out.
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T/N:
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