Chapter 467: Attack

He dreamed of a burning sky and a distorted land. The soaring hill was filled with corpses. No, the hill itself was made of corpses. The hill of death felt familiar for some reason.

It was Seoul, the city he had lived in all his life. It was reduced to ruins but a little of its form remained.

'A-Aaaahh.'

Someone was on top of the mountain made of corpses in the ruined city.

'Who... are you?'

A nightmarish being... a despair-inducing being was smiling brightly as they were munching on the corpses.

Crackle.

His vision distorted as his consciousness sank— no, it was resurfacing.

"Gasp!" Kim Tae-Hyun fell from his bed. "Huff, huff!"

He panted heavily on the ground. His eyes felt like they were burning. Tae-Hyun touched the area around his eyes.

"Huh?"

Only then did he realize that blood was flowing from his eyes.

"Wh-What the hell?"

Tae-Hyun touched his face drenched with tears of blood. The fact that blood was pouring out of one's eyes was enough to make anyone stricken with fear. He wiped the blood away with his shaking hands.

Tae-Hyun remained silent as he looked down at his hands smeared with blood and uneasily gripped the Eye of Nostrian around his neck.

'Is it a side effect from using its power?'

He didn't know; he had never experienced something like this even after using Foresight many times until now.

'Did something go wrong during the duel?'

Since the duel had been closer to a death match, it was not strange for there to be lingering side effects. Tae-Hyun had been bedridden for the past few days after his duel with Kim Si-Hun.

"Haaa."

Tae-Hyun took some tissues from his desk and wiped the area around his eyes. He threw the tissues drenched with blood into the trash can.

'What could that have been?'

He wondered if the vision in his dream would be what the end of the world would look like. The burning sky and the distorted land were engraved in his mind.

"It has to be a dream... right?"

Tae-Hyun shook his head to get the horrifying scene out of his head, but he couldn't shake off the uneasiness that had made itself home in his mind. No, it might have been because Tae-Hyun knew deep down that the scene of the end of the world wasn't a dream.

Tae-Hyun remained silent as he bit his lip and stood up.

'I have to... let hyung know.'

He needed to tell Kang-Woo about the horrifying future he saw. Tae-Hyun went out the door.

***

"You saw the end?" Kang-Woo asked.

"Yes." Tae-Hyun nodded with a serious expression.

Kang-Woo narrowed his eyes.

'The end, huh?'

He would have told them to cut the bullshit if it had been anyone else, but it was a different story if it came from Tae-Hyun, who could see the future.

'Could it be... Bael?'

That was naturally the first individual Kang-Woo thought of. It was not hard to imagine how the entire world would become Bael's meal if Kang-Woo were to lose.

"Hah," Kang-Woo smirked.

'How interesting.'

Kang-Woo already knew that he was severely outmatched; he was unfazed by someone prophesizing the end of the world.

'However the future turns out, it doesn't change what I have to do.'

Kang-Woo licked his lips with his long tongue. A powerful hunger that he had not felt since he brought the Deific Essence of Voracity under control strangled his stomach.

He swept up his hair and asked, "And you said the demolished city was Seoul, right?"

"Yes, I'm sure of it."

"Hm."

If that was the case, it meant there was a high chance that his final battle against Bael would be in Seoul.

'Not good.'

Seoul was one of the most populated cities in the world both before and after the Day of Calamity. Whether Kang-Woo won or lost the battle, the damage would be far too great.

'I at least need to move the battlefield elsewhere.'

He did not know when the battle would take place, but he needed to make as much change as possible before then.

'If I can't change the location, then I should make several underground bunkers throughout Seoul.'

If the future Tae-Hyun saw was about Kang-Woo's battle against Bael, there was a high chance that the battle would take place in Seoul no matter what Kang-Woo did. If that was the case, he needed to prepare so that there would be as little casualties as possible.

"Umm... Kang-Woo hyung."

"Hm?"

"Could the future I saw be related to the abnormal Gate phenomena?"

Kang-Woo thought about Bael but Tae-Hyun was thinking about the otherworldly invasions that were already taking place through the Gates. It was only natural since Tae-Hyun had not seen Bael.

Kang-Woo shook his head and answered, "No, I'm sure it's related to—"

He stopped himself and frowned aggressively.

'Wait.'

Kang-Woo was thinking that it couldn't be anyone else but Bael; he had ruled out all other dangerous possibilities, including the otherworldly invasions, and focused only on Bael.

'No, no.'

Kang-Woo rejected his thoughts. No matter what the situation was, it was foolish to think about only one possibility among the countless.

'Bael might have nothing to do with the future Tae-Hyun saw.'

The otherworldly invasions were gradually getting worse and worse. The chance of it was low, but it couldn't be ruled out.

'I should make my move quickly.'

Tae-Hyun could only see five to ten seconds into the future. Even if he saw a far-off future due to the amplification of his power, Kang-Woo doubted that it would be as far as several years away.

"We need to gather the Guardians memb—"

Beep—!

A loud alarm rang from Kang-Woo and Tae-Hyun's chests. Kang-Woo took out the white token engraved with a golden shield from his pocket. It was the magic tool provided by the executives of Guardians that could open a Gate leading to the Hall of Protection.

[E-Emergency!] Layla's panicked voice echoed from the magic tool. [Requesting all Guardians members to gather in Seoul!!]

'The hell? Since when did it have a feature like this?'

Kang-Woo had been a Guardians member for years but it was the first time it was being used for an emergency gathering. In other words, the situation was so urgent that it needed to be used. Kang-Woo thought about the future Tae-Hyun talked about and his expression stiffened.

[W-We're being attacked! An enormous number of monsters are attacking Seoul!]

The communication cut off.

Kang-Woo and Tae-Hyun stared at each other with stiff expressions.

"Hyung, this is..."

"Let's move."

Kang-Woo quickly turned around. Fortunately, they did not have to go far since the Player hospital that Tae-Hyun was staying in was in Seoul.

"H-Hyung?"

"Stay still."

Kang-Woo lifted Tae-Hyun with the Authority of the Sky and flew out from the window.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh!!" Tae-Hyun screamed.

Kang-Woo ignored the screams and flew across the sky at supersonic speed.

"What the hell is that?"

He saw a massive red Rift several kilometers wide above Seoul. It was as if the sky was burning red.

"Shit." Kang-Woo clenched his fists. "They're done playing around, is it?"

There had been countless signs ever since the abnormal Gate phenomena first began. No, something like this was inevitable from the moment the Gaia System collapsed. Otherworldly invasions were the fate of a world with no protection.

"Alright."

Kang-Woo bared his teeth as he frowned aggressively. He swept up his hair and smiled.

'They dare covet this world?'

It was the world where he and the people precious to him lived... as well as the home of kimchi stew.

"Not a chance, you sons of bitches. This is my world."

The Demon King bared his teeth at the red sky.

***

Fwoosh!

Smoke covered the sky as intense heat filled the streets.

"Kyaaaaaahhh!!"

"S-Save me!!"

Screams rang throughout the burning city.

"Karakarakarakara!"

Monsters that looked like giant cockroaches were hunting the running humans. The three meter-long roaches were scurrying across the streets at incredible speeds. One of the insects grabbed a middle-aged man and opened its mouth.

Crunch!

It ate the man alive without hesitation.

"A-Aaaahh."

The woman who had been running with the man collapsed on the spot and looked up at the monster in despair.

"O-O light..." She recited the prayer of the Church of Splendor that she heard about recently, despite knowing that it wouldn't change anything. "O-O li—"

The roach that ate the man alive turned to her before she could finish her prayer.

Slash—!

Just then, a golden light fell like lightning and split the roach in half.

"Fucking hell, that's disgusting."

Viscous green fluids were flowing out of the roach's split halves.

"Let's see."

The man enveloped in golden light lifted one of the halves and opened his mouth widely.

Crunch.

The predatory insect was being eaten instead.

"Ptooey. Ew, that tastes like shit." The man who took a big bite out of the insect's corpse frowned and spit on the ground. "There are so goddamn many of them."

The man covered in golden light sighed and turned around. Countless insects were falling from the Rift above Seoul. The man slowly raised his hand.

Snap.

"Let's kill about half of them."

Golden flames engulfed the swarm of insects like a tsunami.