CHAPTER 95: ANCIENT CONSTELLATIONS (6)

Lee Woo-Hyuk furrowed his brow, baffled. “Where on earth did all these monsters come from...?”

Guro-dong didn’t have a single low-tier gate, not even a one or two-star one.

“It doesn’t seem like these are ordinary monsters,” remarked Kim Seon-Young as she calmly surveyed the surroundings.

“If they’re not ordinary monsters...”

“They’re demonic beasts—artificially created ones.” Kim Seon-Young adjusted her glasses, her sharp gaze shining through.

Lee Woo-Hyuk gritted his teeth. “Is this the work of the Black Star Society?”

No other entity was capable of manufacturing thousands of demonic beasts.

“Those damn bastards...” he muttered, looking down at the ravaged corpses of those who hadn’t been able to escape in time.

For a fleeting moment, their corpses overlapped with the image of Lee Shin-Hyuk—the one he cherished the most.

“Shin-Hyuk,” he longingly called, but there was no answer. He struggled to suppress the seething rage that threatened to explode at any moment. “Haa...”

I’ll think about revenge later. Right now, I have to deal with the rampaging beasts attacking innocent people.

“Seon-Young, you focus on evacuating the survivors,” he instructed.

Kim Seon-Young bowed respectfully. “Yes, Guild Master.”

Unsheathing two daggers from her thigh holsters, she stepped over the rubble and headed toward the crowd of survivors, moving as agile as a puma.

Lee Woo-Hyuk’s eyes gleamed fiercely. “Now then...”

Beside the Stigma of Leo on his chest, eight carved strokes blazed brightly as a fierce whirlwind enveloped him.

“Let’s do this.”

One by one, the Valhalla Guild members took out their weapons.

“Okay!”

“Let’s wipe them all out!”

They charged fearlessly at the wave of demonic beasts.

“Krrraaa!”

The beasts spread out in a crescent formation, encircling Valhalla's task force.

Lee Woo-Hyuk dashed toward one side of the encirclement. “You mere beasts dare to use a formation?”

He raised his sword high and slashed down, shooting a blast of wind forward. The demonic beasts caught in the gust were shredded up and flung away as they sprayed blood everywhere.

Lee Woo-Hyuk slowly inhaled, cutting through the demonic beasts with unstoppable momentum. Focusing the power of his Stigma into his sword, he adjusted his stance.

“Whirlwind.”

His sword aura twisted and churned, turning into a menacing whirlwind.

“Kraa!”

“Kreeek! Kreek!”

The deathly gust of wind scattered chunks of monster flesh everywhere. Like a wolf tearing through a flock of sheep, the whirlwind tore up the beasts in the encirclement like paper.

Watching the scene, Kwon Oh-Jin wondered, Wow. Is that the true strength of Lee Woo-Hyuk, the Black Lion?

The Valhalla Guild Master's battle with Yoo-Jin hadn't even properly started before Yoo-Jin turned tail, so there hadn’t been much to observe back then.

No wonder they call him a candidate for the Seven Stars.

Lee Woo-Hyuk was rumored to be at the peak of eight stars, just a step away from reaching nine stars.

He’s on a completely different level.

The gap between Song Ha-Eun, who had just become an eight-star, and Lee Woo-Hyuk, who had reached its pinnacle, was like night and day.

But this gives me a bit of breathing room.

With the support of the Valhalla Guild and the association, the immediate crisis seemed to have been subdued. Kwon Oh-Jin took a step back and shot a wire at a nearby rooftop.

Bang!

Using the wire, he climbed to the rooftop and looked down at the city.

A lot of casualties, though. It can't be helped when thousands of demonic beasts pop up in the heart of the city.

Especially for non-Awakeners lacking a Celestial's blessing, the circumstances were no different from a natural disaster.

Kwon Oh-Jin clicked his tongue and furrowed his brow. “Keeping their hands off non-Awakeners, huh? What a bunch of bullshit.”

There was no guarantee that Cheon Woo-Seong was behind all this, but considering he led the Owl faction, he was likely involved one way or another.

I’ll think about why he orchestrated this mess later. There are more pressing matters at hand.

“My child, will you not assist them?” Vega asked.

“Just a moment.”

Using the heightened senses from the Stigma of Canes Venatici, he scanned the area. An endless wave of demonic beasts clumsily tried to create a formation as they charged at the Awakeners.

As I thought, the imperfect formations are a guise to hide the fact that someone is controlling the beasts.

While some monsters possessed higher intelligence than others, the creatures rampaging in Guro-dong didn’t seem capable of organizing such formations.

I need to find whoever’s controlling them. Whoever it is, they're the root cause of the chaos. Where are they, though?

He couldn’t see anyone with his naked eyes, and the Black Heaven was useless while the aura of the Black Stars clouded the surroundings.

“Ugh.”

The battlefield spanned several kilometers, too vast for him to pinpoint the source of control.

In that case...

He turned to his Celestial. “Vega, can you feel that unsettling aura you mentioned before?”

“I do. There's this sticky energy flowing all around us,” she answered with a frown.

“Is there a place where the energy feels the strongest?”

When it came to sensing the Black Star’s aura, Vega was far more adept than him. After all, she was a North Star Celestial, whom even other Celestials revered.

“Hmm... Give me a moment,” she replied.

A bright silver light enveloped her before gradually expanding.

“Haa...” Returning to her true form, Vega slowly raised her hand. Blue lightning flickered at the tip of her index finger.

Crackle! Crackle!

As though splitting heaven and earth, she chanted, “Black Stars, reveal your hideous form.”

A flood of lightning covered the earth.

“What the hell?” Kwon Oh-Jin could feel the invisible blue lightning spread across several kilometers of land.

This is insane. She unleashed lightning over the entirety of Guro-dong with just a light gesture. If she weren't under the restriction...

Imagining such destructive power sent chills down his spine.

She can easily wipe out thousands of demonic beasts.

Once again, he felt the absurd might of these transcendent beings.

“Argh...” Vega grimaced as the restrictions began to take hold. Not long after, she pointed at a specific location. “I found it.”

Her finger pinpointed the top floor of a high-rise building, one of the sites where the demonic beasts were endlessly spewing out.

They're hiding inside there, huh? he thought. Not a bad choice.

Now that he knew where the culprit was, all that remained was for him to get there and kill him. The problem was, there wasn’t really a way to get up to the top floor. The building was too tall for the wire shooter, and there were too many demonic beasts for him to take the stairs up.

“What a pain.”

If only he had mastered Lightning Steps, the skill that Vega had mentioned in the past, he could’ve flown through the air.

Just then, Riarc climbed to the rooftop where Kwon Oh-Jin was and glared at him. “Hey, kid! What are you doing, just standing there?!”

Kwon Oh-Jin suddenly snapped his fingers; an idea had struck him.

“Right. Riarc, I have a favor to ask.”

“What is it?”

“I need to get to the top floor of that building over there.”

Riarc looked up at the towering high-rise and clicked his tongue. “That one? Sorry, but I can’t take you there. Even though the restrictions on me are weaker, I can’t use Lightning Steps outside the Sanctum.”

“I know.”

“Huh?" Riarc cocked his head. "What do you want me to do, then?”

“Remember when we watched that baseball game on TV?”

“I do, but what does that have to—wait a second.” Riarc’s jaw dropped. “A-Are you out of your mind?”

“Can you do it or not?”

“You crazy—!” Riarc shook his head, utterly dumbfounded.

Vega looked back and forth between them in confusion. “What kind of plan are you talking about?”

“I’ll explain later," Kwon Oh-Jin answered. "Riarc, don’t tell me you’re running out of strength?”

“Grrr! What do you take me for? This is nothing for me, the Star Spirit of the Weaver!”

“Hehe, great. I’m counting on you.”

With a smirk, Kwon Oh-Jin stepped forward.

It’s a linear distance of about five hundred meters. Getting closer would be ideal, but there are far too many beasts swarming the area.

“Well... fine," Riarc said. "If that’s your plan, I’ll play along!”

He transformed into his werewolf form, tore up the ground with his sharp claws, and ripped out a rebar.

Crack!

“Get ready, kid!”

He twisted the rebar into the shape of a bat and swung it with tremendous force.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

“Alright!" Kwon Oh-Jin shouted. "On the count of three!”

Vega’s face turned pale as she realized his intentions. “Wait, you’re not about to... M-My child! There has to be another way!”

Ignoring her protests, Kwon Oh-Jin crouched low. “One!”

“Grrr! Just don’t fall to your death, kid!”

“Stop being a wuss and put more strength into it!”

“This is as much as I can go!”

Riarc raised the bat above his head, his triceps bulging as if they might burst.

“Arghh!”

As the restriction began to take hold, he stomped fiercely and let out a ferocious roar.

Thud!

“Aaaaaah!”

Despite the excruciating agony tearing through him, he summoned every ounce of his mana. “This kind of pain... is nothing!”

Blue sparks erupted from his silver fur.

Crackle!

Bloody tears flowed from his eyes as his blood vessels burst one by one.

“Grraaaa!”

His skin cracked like shattered glass, revealing raw flesh and veins underneath—but even so, he didn’t stop.

“I, Riarc, will never yield to pain again!”

He recalled the countless years wasted, rotting away in helplessness and defeat as he failed to break past the wall of his limits.

No more.

Though he hadn’t yet overcome that wall, he'd seen a mere human endure the agony of death dozens of times and rise again each time. The Heaven-Defying Star had shone brilliantly in the murky night sky, casting a ray of change on Riarc. From that moment on, he had been reborn.

“Two!”

“W-Wait! Surely there’s another way!” Vega shouted.

Kwon Oh-Jin curled himself into a tight ball and channeled as much lightning as possible to his legs. Then, he jumped onto the bat.

“Three!”

“Goooo, kid!”

Riarc's roar was followed by a loud shock wave as Kwon Oh-Jin was launched into the sky like a cannonball.

Boom!

“Aaaaaah!” The thrill of defying gravity surged through him as the fierce wind cut against his cheeks. “I’m flying! I’m really flying! Hooooly shiiiiiit!”

He soared through the dusty sky above the monster-filled battlefield.

Finally, a brilliant blue lightning bolt landed on the rooftop of the Black Star Society's base of operations.