The light that had been covering the altar began to fade.
Silence descended upon the uninhabited island as if by some unspoken agreement.
Karen let out a low breath as she examined Min So-yul.
Different. No, wrong.
That wasn't Min So-yul.
It was something that had just emerged from the light.
"Captain, what do we do?"
"Stand by for now. Let's observe the situation a bit longer."
Min So-yul, who was supposed to serve as a stepping stone, had vanished.
Whatever this was, the situation had gone terribly wrong.
This wasn't in Karen Whittaker's calculations.
"Chairman? Are you alright?"
"What happened? Was the ritual...?"
Thump!
An executive of Cheonilgyo lowered his head.
"Huh... what?"
A question mark was inevitable.
Because this was a sight not usually seen.
Someone's hand piercing through his own heart.
"Your god has descended. How dare you be so arrogant?"
Three seconds after the executive with a shattered heart collapsed.
Swoosh!
Light scattered in all directions, severing the necks of nearby followers.
Blood spurted like fountains from each one, spraying into the air.
The followers who had been watching blankly began to turn away one by one.
"Ahhhhh!"
"Aaaagh!"
At the burst of screams, Nekiel shook his head with a sneer.
"Gathering such vermin as followers? Foolish. But still, not bad."
The reason he chose Min So-yul instead of the sacrifice was simple.
She was receiving far more worship.
Perhaps entering as a sacrifice and receiving Min So-yul's help might have been better in the long run.
But thanks to encountering the nightmares and the sin of gluttony in the sanctuary, he had grown impatient.
He needed power.
Not later, but right now.
"You will be reborn as my servants."
He swung his hand lightly.
Light shot toward the fleeing followers and the sacrifice.
As expected, the followers' bodies split apart.
Crunch!
But the sacrifice side failed.
A transparent barrier distorted the space between them, scattering the light.
"Oh?"
Nekiel turned his head with interest.
Eun Gang-seok was pouring energy from his demon eyes.
When their eyes met, Eun Gang-seok raised both hands.
"I don't intend to interfere. I just need to send that person over there back home safely since she was captured innocently. The rest, you can do as you please. It's none of my business."
"Interfere? You dare to interfere with me?"
He had explained himself in detail, but it seemed only the word 'interfere' had lodged in his earhole.
Twisting his lips, Nekiel reached out toward Eun Gang-seok.
Cold sweat ran down Eun Gang-seok's temple.
This is why he hated cults.
Crash!!
He dodged the scattered light and threw himself behind a rock.
Meanwhile, the influencer who had been the sacrifice was being extracted by the American team.
Crash!
"What the hell."
Shouldn't light be blocked by rocks?
How could light be made to even break rocks?
Whoosh!
While Nekiel's attention was diverted, Drake moved in.
Drake split hundreds of steel wires—enough to cut through cars—and spread them wide across the sky, covering Nekiel.
"Good attempt, but..."
A flash of light drew Drake's gaze.
"You're slow. Like a caterpillar."
"Sh...!"
Bang!!
A fist slammed into Drake's back, driving his body into the ground.
"Kugh...!"
He barely managed to land and manipulated the wires to slice at Nekiel's wrist.
Crackle.
Drake frowned as a strange energy seeped into Nekiel's wrist.
This wasn't the light he had been using before.
It was a pitch-black, sticky energy that he absolutely didn't want to touch.
It seeped into the wound, and a grotesque hand sprouted.
"How dare you touch my sacred body."
Boom!!
He rolled to avoid a spear falling from the sky.
The others quickly joined in to help Drake.
Nekiel let out a deep sigh and swung his newly formed hand wide.
This time, it wasn't light that scattered.
Hundreds of pitch-black particles of unknown material.
Crunch. Crackle.
Sounds of twisting and breaking echoed from all directions.
"He's got all sorts of tricks. Or rather, versatile."
Eun Gang-seok muttered.
These were bodies that had clearly died—hearts pierced, necks severed.
It was only natural for them to return to the earth.
But they were defying nature and rising again.
"You foolish beings who don't know your place. Rejoice. And be grateful. The moment your breath ceases, I will show you mercy, forgive you, and raise you again."
Eun Gang-seok shuddered.
He was lazy, but he had lived decently without doing anything wrong. To end up as an undead?
That was worse than death.
"Hey, demon eye guy. I need some support."
"I'll do it from a distance."
Thumbs up, the others charged forward.
Eun Gang-seok stepped back and used his demon eyes in sync with Nekiel's attack timing.
The American team exploited that gap to hammer Nekiel with attacks.
'Troublesome.'
Not only was the bastard's power itself absurd, but the undead that had just risen were incredibly annoying too.
They protected their master so desperately that even with their heads blown off, they blocked the path of incoming attacks.
"Kugh...!"
For a while, they seemed to fight valiantly, but the approaching members met the same fate as Drake.
Even with support, they couldn't hold out long and were sent flying in all directions.
'A gap this big...?'
Karen's face darkened as she watched.
Having worked with them for so long, she knew better than anyone how skilled they were.
Yet the being that had descended toyed with them like playthings.
Even nerfed by the synchronization rate, this was a situation that shouldn't normally occur.
It felt like having a terrible nightmare.
"Snap out of it!"
Eun Gang-seok grabbed Karen by the scruff of her neck.
An arrow of light flew toward that spot.
He nullified it again with his demon eyes and hid behind a massive rock wall.
"Damn, this is intense."
Karen looked up at Eun Gang-seok.
Despite his positive tone, blood was pooling in his eyes.
He wouldn't last much longer.
Crash!!
The light exploded, blowing away the rock wall that had been shielding Eun Gang-seok.
The American team had survived, but their condition was too critical to continue fighting.
"Unbelievably brutish."
Eun Gang-seok clicked his tongue and stared at the sky.
It was a ward he had set up with his demon eyes the moment Nekiel descended into Min So-yul.
He had used it like a flare often enough that the Hunter Administration had probably noticed, but the problem was time.
This was a remote island in the middle of the ocean.
It would take considerable time to arrange transport and reach this place.
Could they hold out until then?
And there was one more thing he wasn't sure about.
Was it even right to call hunters here to deal with something like this?
Unless they were as sturdy as Cheon Se-yeon, they'd be torn apart in an instant.
"Anything else to show me?"
Nekiel spoke leisurely.
Watching the humans being crushed by him gave him confidence.
With the leash of the synchronization rate in place, even that bastard who had invaded the sanctuary could be completely destroyed.
"If you have nothing left to show..."
Nekiel raised both hands.
A brilliant radiance gathered there.
A bigger attack than before. Eun Gang-seok maximized the output of his demon eyes.
He didn't know about later, but for now, he'd just hold out and...?
A chilling sensation brushed his cheek.
Eun Gang-seok wasn't the only one who felt it.
Everyone on the island, including Nekiel, turned their heads.
They all instinctively knew.
Something was coming.
Crack!!!
Ice crossed the sea in an instant and engulfed the uninhabited island.
Realizing what was happening, Eun Gang-seok spread his energy between the ice and the personnel.
A terrible cold.
If exposed too long, they would freeze to death.
And before he could even think about where this ice came from.
Whoosh!!!!!!!!
Something flew across the ice path at incredible speed.
Someone positioned precisely between the personnel and Nekiel.
"!!!"
The eyes of everyone, including Eun Gang-seok, widened.
Behind him stood a massive reaper-like figure.
Just looking at it made their legs go weak.
"Phew."
Jin-hyeok peeked back and let out a sigh of relief.
Thank goodness. Eun Gang-seok was completely unharmed.
As soon as he came out of the Tower of Despair, Jin-hyeok had checked the Player Hunter Administration's chat.
There, he found the coordinates of the ward Eun Gang-seok had sent up. The moment he saw it, his heart had raced.
A ward meant Eun Gang-seok was there, which meant there was a high chance he had encountered Nekiel.
He immediately dove into the frog connected to Guun-ri like a dive.
Then he summoned the Soul Reaper and used it repeatedly, crossing the Taebaek Mountain Range all the way to Sokcho.
'I came in a rush.'
As he caught his breath, a voice rang out.
"You finally came!!"
Oh, crap. That startled me.
So he had parasitized Min So-yul after all.
The cult chairman sure looked pathetic.
"Wow."
Eun Gang-seok, barely coming to his senses, pressed his forehead.
This was the first time.
He had never been this glad to see someone.
His internal best had arrived.
But that didn't mean he let his guard down.
He knew Runner Yoo Jin-hyuk was an unbelievable monster.
But even a Runner couldn't be free from the constraints of the synchronization rate.
So he needed to support him.
The bastard that just descended was on a completely different level from the enemies they had faced so far...
Crunch!!!
"Huh?"
A question mark formed.
Jin-hyuk leaped in an instant and drove his knee into Nekiel's face.
Nekiel reacted and fired radiance, but for some reason, it scattered the moment it touched.
What the hell did he do?
[Dokkaebi Fist]
Thud...!
Jin-hyuk steadied his stance and pummeled Nekiel with his fists.
It felt four times better knowing he was hitting Min So-yul too.
Nekiel flew straight back and crashed into the sea.
"Hmm."
Nekiel rose nonchalantly and let out a murmur.
"So light really doesn't work on you."
Seeing it firsthand, he understood.
How a mere human had captured the ferocious light of Azriel.
He didn't know the原理, but this human was simply one who couldn't be harmed by light.
"But what now? I'm not a half-wit who only has light."
The radiance surrounding Nekiel faded.
In its place, a sticky black energy emerged.
Under its influence, Min So-yul's appearance distorted, and a new face appeared.
"Ugh."
If he had to choose, it was a face he wanted to avoid as much as possible.
"Besides, it seems time has come."
Nekiel spread his arms wide.
"My land has arrived."
Rumble!!!
A massive tremor shook the island as the surrounding sea churned.
And above it, layers began to appear one by one, having been transferred.
"I declare."
Nekiel's lips stretched wide.
"This is my new sanctuary."
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T/N:
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