Chapter 523: Where the Thunder Sleeps (4)

"Friend, huh..."

Ceylonso stared at Seo Jun-Ho for a while.

He rolled three of his eyes to look up at the sky.

The typhoon of magic was so overwhelmingly powerful that even his eyes, which could no longer feel magic, were trembling while staring at it.

"Interesting."

Ceylonso raised his hand slightly and called out. "Harty."

"Yes, General."

A man of average build approached Ceylonso and bowed.

The man was glaring at Seo Jun-Ho with deep-seated hostility.

"Take the soldiers down the mountain. Deliver this order to the other units as well."

"...I'm sorry?"

Deputy Harty looked at Ceylonso in surprise upon hearing the order to retreat.

"Please withdraw your order, General," Harty protested at once.

"Can you not see what's above our heads?"

The typhoon of magic hovering over their heads looked like it would devour them at any moment. The moment Ceylonso saw the typhoon, he immediately realized that this mountain would be his grave.

"All of you will die a horrible death if you decide to stay here..."

"We don't care. We will stay and die with you, General."

"I do not approve of that," Ceylonso answered firmly, "All of you were His Majesty's subjects before you became my subordinates. The subjects of His Majesty must move for His Majesty's benefit. Staying here will result in everyone's death, so a tactical retreat is necessary."

"..."

Harty bit his lips. He could also see that the human being in front of them was a monster that they wouldn't be able to beat.

'General is trying to save us by sacrificing himself...'

Harty felt complicated. He was grateful for Ceylonso's consideration, but he also didn't want to leave Ceylonso here.

Ceylonso seemed to have seen through Harty's thoughts as he spoke softly, "Return safely and deliver my message to His Majesty."

"...What message shall I deliver to His Majesty?"

"Tell His Majesty that his unfaithful servant Ceylonso Bestard is asking for forgiveness for leaving without witnessing the end of the great task with His Majesty."

Harty bit his lips until they bled.

However, the general's orders were absolute on the battlefield.

"Yes, General."

"Well, then. You may go."

Seo Jun-Ho finally spoke, "How delusional. I don't remember allowing any of you to escape."

"Hahaha!" Ceylonso laughed boisterously with his seven eyes narrowed. "Young enemy. Your strength has indeed reached the skies, but do you seriously think that you can get past me and harm my men?"

"Why not?"

"If you really think so, then..." Ceylonso opened his seven eyes. "You might die here, you know?"

Swoosh!

Flames abruptly rushed toward Seo Jun-Ho.

Seo Jun-Ho stared indifferently at the fire giant in front of him.

"Deputy Harty! Go...!"

"...It was an honor to have been under your command, General."

Harty was bleeding from his eyes and mouth, and he glared murderously at Seo Jun-Ho before shouting, "Everyone, retreat! Share the same order with the other units!"

The orders were quickly disseminated, and the Overminds immediately abandoned the Players to retreat.

Seo Jun-Ho turned to look at the Overminds.

He was about to freeze them, but Ceylonso's sword strikes bored down on him.

"You should focus on me."

'Tsk.' Seo Jun-Ho clicked his tongue. He had no choice but to admit that the swordsman in front of him was strong enough to demand his full attention.

"Hahaha! This old man has never been this happy until today...!" Ceylonso's attacks aimed at Seo Jun-Ho's vital points, and they were strong enough to be fatal.

'His swordsmanship is perfect...''

Seo Jun-Ho could finally see why Kim Woo-Joong was defeated.

It wasn't because Ceylonso got lucky nor did he play dirty.

'He won using his swordsmanship alone.'

The monster was powerful enough to the world with his sword alone.

'...What a shame. If I were a swordsman, I would have reaped a ton of profit from this battle...'

"Freeze."

The temperature dropped abruptly, and Ceylonso was slowed down.

However, that wasn't the end of it...

'Overclock—two hundred percent...'

In addition to slowing down his enemy, Seo Jun-Ho also decided to activate Overclock to become even faster.

'Clock Up.'

To make matters worse for the opponent, Seo Jun-Ho accelerated his own mind using Wheel of Time (S).

Seo Jun-Ho's figure scattered like smoke.

"...!"

Ceylonso was confused.

His seven eyes frantically darted around to look for Seo Jun-Ho.

'I have seven eyes, but I still can't find him?'

Shiver.

Ceylonso felt a shiver down his spine, and he instinctively tilted to the side.

Splash!

Blood spurted haphazardly as Ceylonso's severed arm fell to the ground.

"Argh...! Why are you moving like a ghost?!"

Ceylonso jumped backward and stuck his sword into the ground. He kneeled and stopped himself from bleeding out before asking, "Are you really Seo Jun-Ho?"

"And what if I am?"

"I'm just asking. Your personality is more twisted than I thought."

"Only to my enemies..." Seo Jun-Ho had no reason to give any quarter to his enemy.

"Haha... yes, you are correct. We are enemies."

Ceylonso slightly nodded and grabbed his sword again.

"Then, I guess we both have our own people to protect..."

When Ceylonso's words fell, his seven eyes divided and doubled to fourteen.

"This is the power of the Lord of the Deep Sea—a monster with numerous eyes."

"..."

Brrr, brrrr!

Ceylonso's eyes divided once again.

His fourteen eyes abruptly divided into twenty-eight eyes.

"The Lord of the Deep Sea's strength and speed depends on the number of its available eyes. The number of eyes is fixed at birth, but the researchers back then used the dominant traits of the Lizardmen to give me the ability to divide my eyes."

Brrrr!

Fifty-six eyes riddled Ceylonso's massive face...

The sight was so bizarre and disgusting that even Seo Jun-Ho was repulsed despite his many years of experience fighting many different types of monsters.

"Is it that ugly?" asked Ceylonso.

"Is that even a question?"

Celyonso smiled. "Haha, I know. Even my son hates this look."

"Any last words?" asked Seo Jun-Ho.

"The empire is boundless..." Ceylonso trailed off.

Brr...brrr...

The eyes divided once more and encroached on Ceylonso's shoulders before coming down his arms. For some reason, Seo Jun-Ho felt pressured while under the gazes of a hundred and twelve eyes.

'Is this what Force feels like?'

It was Seo Jun-Ho's first time encountering the unknown energy that Ceylonso was giving off.

"...And there are lots of strong people in this vast empire. Do you truly believe that you can beat them all and achieve what you want?" Ceylonso continued.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

The issue wasn't whether he could do it or not...

'It has to be done, and I will do it...'

One hundred and twelve eyes met Seo Jun-Ho's cold eyes.

Ceylonso smiled. "...I see."

Ceylonso took a stance with his sword and said, "I hope you'll fail."

Seo Jun-Ho didn't even bother to answer.

He absorbed as much magic as he could from the atmosphere using the Black Moon Heart Method.

"I will put the trivial essence of my swordsmanship that I had been honing for a thousand years in this single blow."

Ceylonso had referred to his swordsmanship as trivial, but the energy coming from him certainly wasn't trivial. His Force was capable of standing toe to toe with Seo Jun-Ho's typhoon of magic, but it was quiet rather than fierce—just like Ceylonso's sword.

"Starry Ocean..." Ceylonso muttered solemnly.

Seo Jun-Ho heard a noise that shouldn't be here...

Swoosh!

He could hear the waves of the ocean encroaching on the sandy shores of the beach.

Ceylonso's sword aura had become an ocean of stars.

"S-Specter-nim!" Son Chae-Won screamed.

The starry ocean of sword auras seemed like they were capable of tearing Seo Jun-Ho apart.

However, Seo Jun-Ho simply sighed in front of it.

'What a shame... really...' This was the first time that Seo Jun-Ho felt extremely regretful that he wasn't a swordsman. 'It's beautiful... I can't believe that it's the only thing I can say because I lack the knowledge to analyze his sword in-depth...''

Seo Jun-Ho found it a bit of a pity that he couldn't face Ceylonso's sword with his sword.

"...Path of Flowers."

The magic that Seo Jun-Ho had managed to stuff inside of him using the Black Moon Heart Method burst out softly, scattering flowers that froze the approaching stars.

"Hah..." Ceylonso exclaimed.

He watched the frozen stars with one hundred and twelve eyes, then admitted.

"Subduing strength with tenderness, huh? That is a textbook maneuver, but..."

'...I can't read his next move.'

The flowers finally engulfed Ceylonso.

"...Cough!" Ceylonso fell on one knee and smiled sadly at Seo Jun-Ho.

Seo Jun-Ho was looking down at him.

'Wow. His existence itself is against the law....'

Force was an energy that was supposed to be more powerful than magic. The Overminds had firmly believed that it was the case for over the past thousand years.

However, Ceylonso started doubting the Force in the face of death.

"What in the... what was that power...?"

"It's the power of nature..."

"Kekehehehe... Argh!"

Ceylonso pressed both palms to the ground and coughed a mouthful of black blood.

His figure was riddled with wounds, and his cells were dying upon being frozen.

"Nature... Nature, you say..." Ceylonso thought of Seo Jun-Ho's advent as nature's revenge. the Overminds had abandoned both nature and magic for being useless, and now, both nature and magic had returned with vengeance.

"Your Majesty..."

'Perhaps we were wrong—perhaps the reason we couldn't untangle our shackles for more than a thousand years now is that we have sinned for choosing the wrong answer to our conundrum.'

Ceylonso's eyes stared at the moon in the night sky, and they eventually closed one by one.

"But please..."

'Achieve your goal...'

Ceylonso's eyes were finally engulfed by darkness, and his breathing came to a halt.

[You have leveled up.]

[You have leveled up.]

...

[All stats has increased by 14.]

[Under Limit Breaker's effect, Strength has increased by 5, Stamina has increased by 4, Speed has increased by 3, and Magic has increased by 2.]

"Cough!"

Seo Jun-Ho coughed a small amount of blood. It was the aftereffect of storing every magic in the surroundings in a fragile human body.

"Jun-Ho!" Skaya exclaimed. She had descended the mountain with the other Players.

"What happened here?" asked Skaya while looking around.

Seo Jun-Ho's final blow was so strong that the surrounding trees fell in the opposite direction.

"I killed their leader..."

"No wonder. The enemies suddenly ran away. Are you hurt?"

"I'm fine, so take care of them first."

Seo Jun-Ho called for a healer and watched him treat Kim Woo-Joong and the rest of the injured.

Son Chae-Won bowed. She expressed her gratitude with swollen eyes.

"Thank you very much... I owe you..."

"Don't mention it. Silent Moon has helped me numerous times before."

The Players cleaned up the surroundings while Seo Jun-Ho decided to walk over to Ceylonso's body.

'I'm really curious about your mindset and perspective. Weren't all of you simply trying to do research to resolve your population crisis?'

Seo Jun-Ho was about to place his hand on Ceylonso's forehead, but two of Celylonso's many eyes abruptly opened.

Flash!

"...What?"

Seo Jun-Ho was shocked.

Ceylonso had definitely perished, and it was evidenced by the fact that he leveled up.

Seo Jun-Ho was about to retrieve White Dragon from his Inventory.

However, Ceylonso interrupted him by slowly raising his upper body.

He looked down at his own body and muttered, "So this is for real... Ceylonso is dead."

Ceylonso had spoken as if he was referring to himself as someone else.

He turned to look at Seo Jun-Ho and said, "The Radio Tower and now Ceylonso? You have brought me two surprises in a short amount of time."

"...You're not Ceylonso." Seo Jun-Ho frowned and pressed White Dragon's spearhead against Ceylonso's neck. "Who are you?"

"How disappointing. You still haven't figured it out?"

Nonchalant eyes stared at Seo Jun-Ho.

"My name is Kineos Mullibach..."

'Is a corpse capable of emitting such energy?'

The domineering aura that Ceylonso's body was emitting weighed heavily on the Players' shoulders without mercy.

"... and I'm the usurper of this world."