Chapter 689

—Kieee!

—Kwaak!

Countless demonic beasts evaporated with screams.

Hiding inside buildings was useless.

The beams of light pierced through the concrete and fell directly onto the beasts' heads.

Unlike the precision bombardment, the wide-area bombardment had a slight margin of error.

Even so, it was only about one or two meters, which posed no problem when it came to killing the beasts.

Occasionally, demonic beasts whose survival instincts had reached their peak managed to dodge the beams, causing them to destroy unrelated buildings or structures instead.

But no one complained.

If only this much damage was enough to wipe out every last demonic beast, they were more than willing to accept it.

—Kwooooar!

—Kraa!

Realizing that death was unavoidable no matter where they hid, the demonic beasts fled the slums in a frenzy.

Instinctively, they understood that their chances of survival were higher if they escaped into the desert.

The beasts that had charged proudly into the slums receded like the outgoing tide.

Divine Judgement relentlessly continued firing its beams, as if determined not to let even a single beast escape.

The demonic beasts that tens of thousands of Awakeners had failed to stop were completely driven back by Divine Judgement.

Faced with such an unbelievable achievement, the Awakeners stood frozen in shock for a long while.

But the silence lasted only a moment before someone finally shouted.

“Wooooah!”

“We won!”

“We drove the demonic beasts back!”

“This is our victory!”

The cheers spread throughout the entire slum and Neo Seoul like a contagious epidemic.

Not only the Awakeners, but ordinary civilians also rushed outside, shouting in triumph.

It was the roar of twenty million people.

At this moment, there was no distinction between you and me.

It didn't matter if they belonged to different races.

People from every district, the citizens of Neo Seoul, and the residents of the slums all cheered with one heart.

Since the Great Cataclysm, humanity had always lost its wars against the demonic beasts.

The hunting teams tirelessly hunted beasts, but the true rulers of the desert had always remained the demonic beasts.

Humanity had been forced to move while avoiding them, and before Zeon obtained the Teleport Gem, they had never been able to venture far beyond Neo Seoul and the Magic Stone Mine.

They may have won small battles, but overall, humanity had always been the one defeated.

Yet now, humanity had won its first great war against the demonic beasts.

For the first time, they had seized the upper hand.

Most people still didn't know what Divine Judgement truly was.

But they understood one thing—that it was an optical weapon high in the sky firing beams of light.

One thing was now certain.

As long as Divine Judgement existed, Neo Seoul would never again be exposed to the threat of the demonic beasts.

Neo Seoul had lost its Anti-Magic Barrier as a means of defense, but in exchange, it had gained the overwhelming offensive weapon known as Divine Judgement.

Although the transition had caused tremendous losses due to the beasts' assault, this outcome was more than worthwhile.

“This is insane!”

“Holy shit! What kind of power is this...?”

The Awakeners clicked their tongues in amazement at Divine Judgement's overwhelming might.

The slums, which had suffered the direct assault of the demonic beasts, were left heavily devastated.

Many buildings had collapsed, and most of the remaining structures had been severely damaged.

But the beasts that had invaded the slums had suffered such catastrophic losses that not even proper corpses remained.

Buildings could always be rebuilt.

What mattered was that Divine Judgement possessed enough destructive power to strike fear even into the demonic beasts themselves.

“As expected of the Mayor.”

“To think he secretly prepared a weapon like this.”

“With the Mayor here, Neo Seoul is invincible. Who would dare challenge Neo Seoul now?”

Every Awakener praised Jin Geum-ho for secretly preparing Divine Judgement.

The civilians were no different.

Thus, Jin Geum-ho's popularity throughout Neo Seoul and the slums reached its absolute peak.

Completely unaware that the one receiving all that admiration was Divine Judgement itself.

“...Hah. Mayor.”

Seo Tae-ran called out to Jin Geum-ho from the control tower and let out a sigh.

Her eyes were bloodshot.

From the moment Divine Judgement broke through the Mana Barrier and entered space, the control tower had not relaxed for even a single second.

Communication with Divine Judgement had been unstable because of the Mana Barrier, so they had no way of knowing whether it had successfully reached orbit.

It had truly been a nerve-wracking ordeal.

Seo Tae-ran and everyone in the control tower could only anxiously wait for a transmission.

As time passed without any contact, the fear that the mission might have failed gradually began to consume them.

Then, just as that anxiety reached its peak, they finally succeeded in establishing communication.

—I have successfully entered geostationary orbit.

The joy they felt upon hearing Jin Geum-ho's mechanical voice was beyond words.

Having safely reached geostationary orbit, Divine Judgement lived up to its name and rained heavenly punishment upon the demonic beasts.

—I have confirmed that all demonic beasts have retreated. Divine Judgement is entering recharge mode due to energy depletion. Do not worry if communication is unavailable for some time.

“You've worked hard.”

—You worked hard as well.

With those final words, Divine Judgement fell silent.

Seo Tae-ran no longer worried about it.

It had fired countless devastating beams of destruction.

It was only natural that its energy had been exhausted.

It would take quite a long time to fully recharge, but there was nothing in space capable of threatening Divine Judgement.

There was nothing to worry about.

“Haa...”

Seo Tae-ran collapsed into her chair.

Her entire body was drenched in sweat.

Now that all the tension had left her, every inch of her body ached.

What she wanted more than anything was to lie down and sleep deeply right there.

But no one understood better than she did that she couldn't.

With Jin Geum-ho gone, she now had to personally lead the reconstruction of Neo Seoul.

She had to rebuild it even better than before so that Jin Geum-ho's reputation would never be tarnished.

Seo Tae-ran immediately summoned the city's leadership.

“Everyone, gather at City Hall.”

There were no exceptions.

Unless they had suffered life-threatening injuries, everyone was to report to City Hall.

---

“Hmm.”

Tesserina let out a low groan.

A building with its upper floors collapsed came into view.

Embedded in the upper section was an enormous object.

The creature with the thin membrane wings was none other than the giant bat Levin had been fighting.

Levin sat atop the giant bat's corpse with an awkward smile.

“Haha... Of all places, it had to fall here.”

The precision strike from Divine Judgement had also struck the giant bat's head while Levin was fighting it.

The bombardment was so powerful that its force field vanished in an instant, causing the giant bat to lose consciousness briefly.

Levin seized that opening and killed the defenseless beast.

The problem was that the giant bat had happened to crash directly onto Tesserina's lair.

It wasn't Levin's fault, but he couldn't help feeling guilty.

Numerous barriers and defensive magic formations had been protecting Tesserina's lair, but they had been unable to completely stop the giant bat's fall.

Its mass had simply been too overwhelming.

As a result, part of the lair's upper section had collapsed, and the barrier had been damaged.

“Damn it!”

The damaged lair itself wasn't the problem.

It could always be repaired.

The real issue was the barrier.

Nigel, the Half-Dragon, was residing inside the lair.

She feared that with the barrier damaged, Nigel's presence might have been exposed to the outside world.

“No... It'll be fine.”

Muttering to herself, Tesserina repaired the damaged barrier.

Rebuilding it wasn't particularly difficult for her.

She instantly moved the giant bat's corpse beneath the building before completely restoring the barrier.

“Phew...”

Wiping the sweat from her forehead, Tesserina let out a long breath.

The work had taken only twenty or thirty minutes, yet it had consumed an enormous amount of mental strength and mana.

It had been the most nerve-racking moment of her life.

Seeing such an unusual side of her, Levin couldn't hide his worried expression.

“Noona, are you okay?”

“Yeah, I'm fine! Where's Zeon?”

“I saw him land in the desert earlier. Why?”

“It's nothing! Just take care of that bat bastard's corpse. I'm going to see Zeon.”

“Don't worry. I'll clean it up.”

“Good. I'm counting on you.”

Tesserina immediately cast a spell and flew into the sky.

From above, the slums looked desolate.

Many buildings had been destroyed, and corpses littered every street.

Even so, the people were not in despair.

Instead, they shouted with joy, celebrating their victory.

Losing family and comrades was heartbreaking.

But they still had a tomorrow to look forward to.

Workers from City Hall and every district had already begun collecting the demonic beast corpses.

The B-rank and lower beasts struck by Divine Judgement hadn't even left proper corpses behind, but the beasts killed by the Awakeners remained largely intact.

Those corpses were valuable resources.

Using their materials, the slums could be rebuilt in no time.

“The resilience of humans truly is remarkable.”

Watching humanity prepare for reconstruction the moment the war ended, Tesserina couldn't help but admire them.

Such diligence was precisely what had allowed humans to build a colossal city in the middle of the desert.

No other race was as industrious.

Not even elves, nor even the famously hardworking dwarves, could compare to humans.

While once again marveling at humanity's resilience, Tesserina arrived where Zeon was.

Below, she saw Zeon sitting with his back resting against Abyss's corpse.

Making sure not to startle him, she landed gently and asked,

“Are you okay?”

“As you can see.”

“So you finally killed Abyss.”

“I managed somehow... but dealing with the corpse is the real problem.”

“You're not planning to hand it over to Neo Seoul, are you?”

“It'd be too much of a waste.”

After all, it was an SS-rank demonic beast.

Neo Seoul had never once hunted such a creature.

Nothing about it had been studied yet, but its value was undoubtedly immeasurable.

Even if he handed it over, he would have to receive proper compensation.

After staring at Abyss for a moment, Tesserina spoke.

“Then Brielle and I will take care of it.”

“I'd appreciate that.”

Brielle was an alchemist, while Tesserina was a dragon who had reached the pinnacle of magic.

If the two worked together, they would surely be able to create extraordinary items or generate tremendous value using Abyss's materials.

Tesserina immediately opened her subspace and stored Abyss's corpse.

The enormous beast over a hundred meters long vanished as if it had never existed.

“Phew.”

Only then did Zeon let out a sigh and stand up.

His entire body ached as though he had been repeatedly beaten with a sledgehammer.

As he rubbed his shoulder, he remembered the special potion Brielle had made for him.

Since it came to mind, he immediately uncorked it and poured it down his throat.

The moment he drank it, warmth spread through his body, and the pain disappeared.

He could also feel his depleted mana rapidly recovering.

“I feel much better.”

“You should've drunk it sooner.”

“True enough. But did something happen?”

“There's something that's been bothering me.”

“What is it?”

“The truth is... the barrier around my lair was damaged for a while.”

Tesserina explained what had happened to her lair.

The longer she spoke, the more serious Zeon's expression became.

“Hmm... So you're saying Lord Nigel's presence may have been exposed for a brief moment?”

“That's right. If, by any chance, Raykas realized Lord Nigel is here...”

“It would be a catastrophe.”

Rumble!

At that moment, Zeon's senses detected a sudden surge in the flow of mana.

“It seems... that has already happened.”