Chapter 695

The eerie, white goblins trembled before the overwhelming force.

Thud!! Thud!!

The thundering roar reverberated and echoed throughout the entire silent expanse, where all other sounds had ceased to exist.

Thud!

Hyun-Ah, who was panting and shaking in fear, looked up. As she did, a colossal monster descended from the sky and landed next to Davey.

"The gigantic monster known to be unkillable," she murmured in disbelief, her expression betraying the mix of emotions that she was feeling. She then shifted her gaze toward the two figures walking into view from behind Kraith, the massive creature.

"At this rate, it wouldn't be surprising if humans went extinct."

"Rinne reports that we can deal with these monsters using strong main battery firepower."

Davey looked at Hyun-Ah. "Hmm... Nevermind."

As the two conversed as though they were simply strolling in a park, Hyun-Ah directed her gaze at Davey.

"Do you remember me?" Davey asked.

After a brief silence, Hyun-Ah muttered, "You..."

Based on her reaction, Davey figured that she did remember him. He had heard that the memories of humans on Earth had been distorted once before, so there was a high chance that she had forgotten everything. Perhaps her Ghost Eye had something to do with her being able to recognize him.

"Where have you been all this time? Why now?" Hyun-Ah asked with a light stammer, struggling to articulate her thoughts.

Instead of answering her, Davey simply walked past her and toward the nearest white goblin.

-Ki... Kiaa...

The goblin, which had stopped in its tracks in fright, took a nervous step backward. After a tense moment, it finally made a decision.

-Kiaaa!!!

After letting out a piercing scream, it bolted out of the scene. The rest of the goblins followed suit, scampering away.

"Stop," Davey calmly said.

As commanded, the goblins abruptly halted. Although they were nothing but monsters driven solely by their primal instinct to destroy, they were still filled with immense fear.

"Excuse me... What are you doing?" Hyun-Ah managed to ask despite her voice trembling.

Ignoring the goblins, Davey replied to Hyun-Ah with a grave tone. "Shin Hyun-Ah, twenty-three years old, third child of the Shin family. Am I right?"

His manner of speaking made Hyun-Ah freeze, preventing her from answering.

"Answer me, Shin Hyun-Ah. You're twenty-three years old and the third child of the Shin family. Your eldest sister is Shin Yeon-Hee, and your elder brother, Shin Hyun-Soo, passed away due to illness. And you've lived in poverty since you were young."

Learning how much Davey knew about her made her eyes widen in disbelief.

"Your only brother foolishly fell ill and lived the rest of his life in a hospital room. Am I right?"

"..."

"You were in the middle of an exam when he died, so you didn't get to see his final moments. That last fight you had with him became your lifelong regret. That's why you kept his ashes in an urn housed in a columbarium," Davey swiftly said. "After that, your uncle took you and your sister in, and, unlike before, you could finally live without worrying about money. Am I right?"

Hyun-Ah was clearly in shock. Nevertheless, after a short while, she managed to gather her bearings.

"If I answered... What would happen?" she replied.

"..."

"I've heard the stories about what happens when the Grim Reaper calls the name of a living person," Hyun-Ah said in a slightly quivering voice. Then, looking up at Davey, she tried her best to suppress her whirling plethora of emotions and whispered, "You... You're the Grim Reaper."

Davey pondered what him being the Grim Reaper or not had to do with anything.

With a wary expression, Hyun-Ah asked, "Tell me. If I answer your question, are you going to take me away?"

"What's your answer?"

"Does this mean I died here? No, am I about to die?"

A sigh escaped her lips before they stretched into a resigned smile.

"It's amusing to think about what just happened. While all the Awakened ran away from that huge creature, I was stuck here, surrounded by those pale monsters. It didn't seem like anyone would come and save me until, surprise, surprise, the Grim Reaper showed up. Don't you think this is all just so funny? How did things even turn out this way?"

In response to her rambling, Davey quietly took a step forward. With each stride he made, he seemingly pressed down on their surroundings.

"So, what's going to happen to me now?" Hyun-Ah asked as if she had given up on everything.

Wordlessly, Davey reached out his hand toward her, and then...

He lightly hit her on the forehead.

Smack!

"Ouch!"

"You've seen too many movies."

"That hurts! What are you doing?!"

"Get yourself together and get up. You have nothing to protect yourself with right now, so you can't sit around here forever."

"..."

When Davey tried to pull her back to her feet, she tried to stop him while also attempting to say something to him. However, before she could do anything else, she heard a bell ring.

Davey had thrown several amulets, which then floated in mid-air and produced five-colored threads of light.

-Kiaaa!

The threads then turned like blades, just as all the goblins completely froze. Shortly after, they turned into black powder.

Hyun-Ah watched the mysterious yet eerie scene in a daze.

"What are you doing? Are you planning to stay here forever?"

Flustered, she shouted, "W-wait!"

Verdandi and Rinne, who had been arguing with each other, turned to Davey and Hyun-Ah.

"Did... Did I tell you about my siblings?"

"You did."

"In that much detail?"

"I guess you don't remember."

Seemingly unable to understand what he meant, she looked at him in confusion but then quickly followed him anyway.

***

After Kain left with Verdandi to meet his people, Davey led Rinne and Hyun-Ah into a building that was on the verge of collapsing. At the same time, he began asking Hyun-Ah about everything that had happened on Earth, thinking that he'd need information to get started on anything.

"So you transported supplies to this dangerous place even though you're not an Awakened? Were you trying to be bold or stupid?" Davey said.

"Ugh... Just shut up! It's only natural for a doctor to go where there are sick people!" Hyun-Ah retorted.

"So, your sister, whom I saved... Is she doing well?"

"... Yes. My sister is recovering. But as you said, she's physically very weak, and due to the situation, she's currently in Daegu."

"Daegu?"

"Yes. There aren't many cities in Korea that are in good condition right now. Allied forces are encamped around the Nakdong River defense line, and a large portion of the supplies coming from Busan are sorted in Daegu before getting distributed as aid to different parts of the country."

What she described was definitely not something a private company would do. Moreover, even though she had the best of intentions, it still made no sense for her to come to such a risky place just to provide supplies.

Just as Davey was about to ask a follow-up question...

Beep... Beep!

He turned toward the sound, finding Hyun-Ah quickly taking out a small mechanical device from her pocket. The device, which Davey guessed was some sort of alien detector, had a display akin to a radar on its small screen. On one part of it was a constantly flashing dot.

"This is a gadget that the Alf Online production company distributed worldwide. It shows the location of monsters."

"..."

The radar flashed again. The one dot had turned into five.

"They're coming this way." Although she spoke calmly, she turned pale as quickly as the situation worsened.

The five flashing dots multiplied to dozens, then ultimately became uncountable and difficult to keep track of.

Just before the dots reached the center of the radar, they suddenly disappeared.

Noticing Hyun-Ah's silence, Davey issued an instruction to Rinne. "Rinne, annihilation mode."

At the same time, he grabbed Hyun-Ah, who was staring blankly at her gadget, then snapped his fingers.

Bang!

As if taking his snap as a signal, the building they were in collapsed, revealing a colossal, eight-meter-tall monster with pure white skin. Aside from its size and skin color, its appearance resembled that of an ogre.

-GRAAAGH!!!

With a deafening roar, the monster stretched out its hand toward Hyun-Ah.

Crack! Bang!!!

As the white ogre reached for her, the rest of the wall shattered, and more enemies appeared.

"Did you do something to them or what?" Davey asked.

With wide eyes, she fervently shook her head. Davey could only sigh at the sight of her being utterly petrified.

"Alright. I kind of get what's going on."

This situation should have only been possible in ridiculous soap operas. Nevertheless, Davey knew all too well what could've caused all of this. Something had happened on Earth that made these creatures appear. Moreover, it was possible that another being was controlling them. In other words, someone had unleashed them to kill Hyun-Ah.

'Are the Malicious Spirits behind this?' Davey wondered.

However, after giving it more thought, he realized that unless they had a loose screw, they wouldn't target Hyun-Ah this persistently. If it wasn't them, then that left him with only one possible answer.

Hyun-Ah was being targeted by someone she must've had an extremely terrible relationship with.

"W-we have to run away..." she stammered, albeit barely, through the immense fear.

However, Davey didn't move. Instead, he simply looked at the monsters.

"I guess I should leave at least one alive as a sample."

He then reached out toward the white ogre that was going after Hyun-Ah.

Smack!

Light flashed, and the ogre's face sank and collapsed.

'That's one down...' Davey muttered.

Though he knew that the Malicious Spirits were running rampant, he wasn't expecting the same to be true here as well. If he had known, then it all would've been pointless for them to try hiding from him.

"Alright, come on." Davey grabbed Hyun-Ah and lifted her. "Let's start cleaning." Right after he spoke, darkness enveloped the sky.

Rumble!

Startled by the sudden gloom, Hyun-Ah looked around. Her wide gaze then darted to the sky, where she found a gigantic shadow bringing forth strong gusts. It didn't take long for her to realize that it belonged to a huge black dragon.

As the mighty creature made its enormous presence known, the powerful shockwaves and buffeting winds shattered the remaining windowpanes. Adding to Megalodria's cataclysmic attack, Davey struck the air with the Transcendence's Demise.

Given the number of monsters that were popping left and right, Davey thought that he didn't need to worry about ruining his image as a Saint in this situation. Besides, there were no rules forbidding him from sending skeletons to battle.

[Deathlore]

-Kiaaa!!!

As the devil mana moved actively, a huge female ghost appeared behind Davey. She then unleashed a dreadful scream, causing the ground to crack. An incredible number of skeletons then rose from the rift, worsening the already horrifying scene.

"No matter the era, wave attacks will always be a fearsome tactic," Davey mused. [1]

It didn't matter how many were killed; the wave of enemies would simply never end. The tactic was almost like an absolute law that applied across all times and cultures.

To top it all off, the skeletons awakened by Death Lore, a high-level devil magic, were invincible to slashing and piercing attacks because of their lack of flesh. Moreover, although breaking them was the only way to stop them, they could instantly repair a broken limb. They could also simply ignore their injury and focus on attacking.

-KIAAA!!!

Tap, tap, tap!!

With their bony weapons, the skeletons rode their skeleton horses into battle and unhesitatingly stabbed the white kobolds. The kobolds screamed and fell as their blood splattered all over the streets.

Though shocked by the use of the dead in combat, Hyun-Ah thought it was fitting for the Grim Reaper. Dozens of times more skeleton soldiers were now attacking the hundreds of monsters that had terrified her earlier. The Storm Dragon, the army of skeletons, and the bizarre phenomenon of the slain monsters' corpses rising and attacking were all truly surreal to her.

"What... What is this... A monster attacking its fellow monster..." Hyun-Ah stammered, unable to believe what she was seeing. Megalodria's overwhelming presence would have made her faint, but being next to Davey neutralized its pressure.

"Sir Davey, Rinne analyzes that Rinne no longer has any work to do."

"No. Look," Davey said as he pointed to the sky. A huge sky whale, tens of meters long, had burst through the clouds.

-Phwargh!!!

Megalodria turned its head toward the whale and watched it unleash huge and deafening sound waves. The fearless intrusion of the monster into its territory naturally angered Megalodria. After all, despite the wisdom it possessed, it was still a vicious beast at its core.

"Here's a gift for you," Davey said, concentrating a bit more as he used necromancy to summon the skeleton horse Phantom Steed.

Rinne, remaining as stoic as ever, quickly ran toward the Phantom Steed and mounted it.

"Rinne rates this gift highly as it will ensure very good mobility!" she shouted with ambitious eyes.

As she and the Phantom Steed soared into the sky, she stowed away her huge main firearm and created a massive metal lance.

The majestic Phantom Steed and the enormous metal lance created quite a striking sight. Rinne's small stature made it somewhat incongruent, but her size or the weight of the weapon didn't matter. After all, she was over two hundred kilograms herself.

"Initiating Lance Charge! The probability of annihilating the enemy is judged to be 99.2%."

"What's the 0.8%?"

"The absence of taste data, presumably lost due to Sir Davey's actions, analyzed as the cause of Rinne's grumpiness."

Rinne still hadn't gotten over the scolding that Davey had given her for eating the lunch boxes.

Despite its lack of vocal cords, the Phantom Steed let out a sound reminiscent of a horse.

Neigh!!! Then, together with Rinne, it transformed into a flash of light that was close to a catastrophic heat ray.

"..."

Watching the two, Hyun-Ah was once again shocked.

However, this wasn't anything new to Davey. He was more curious about how the Malicious Spirits were going to react after seeing this spectacle.

"Get going. Exterminate all the monsters in this city. Spare the humans, though. Don't harm anything that even remotely resembles a human even if it acts like an animal. I will personally take care of those who disobey."

This was Davey's way of sending a clear warning to the Malicious Spirits. If they acknowledged his presence, he would praise them. However, if they remained silent even after this upheaval, this place would serve as his base camp, and they would forever regret this day.

***

When Davey summoned the Divine Beasts and the King of Mythical Beasts, intelligence agencies worldwide quickly noticed their significant energy in the city of Sokcho on the Korean Peninsula. Gorbachev Satellite 1, a Russian satellite that happened to pass by, captured images of the scene. Although a massive shockwave disabled it shortly afterward, it had managed to transmit the images beforehand.

The sheer number of monsters, which reached hundreds, was alarming. However, the enormous black dragon and battalion of pure-white skeletons terrified the world leaders even more.

Unaware of the creatures' origin or nature, world leaders advocated for the deployment of nuclear weapons to eliminate the massive threat despite knowing that survivors were in the area. Discussions grew grim as they considered obliterating the city of Sokcho and its surroundings before the giant black dragon, skeletons, or monsters could go on a rampage.

1. The wave attack mentioned here originates from the human wave attack, also known as the human sea attack, which is a tactic that suppresses the enemy through sheer numbers instead of powerful weapons. ☜