Chapter 366

Chapter 366
## Chapter 366

Terror (3)

He utilized every single asset at his disposal, operating tightly within the boundaries of his present situation.

Summoning the High Elf of the Elven Kingdom, Harris, along with the honored guest of the Azerion Imperial Palace, Hesperon, was a calculated component of that strategy.

‘Naturally, even with advance notice, their time away cannot be prolonged. They must conclude their assignments swiftly and return.’

And as one would expect,

They were by no means the sole operatives deployed.

“Every squad has assumed their positions, Lord. We have also informed the subordinate syndicates, ensuring none of them dare to make a reckless move. Even if the Heaven’s Turn Society attempts to take advantage of the current turmoil, they will fail.”

“Excellent. Convey to them that any instigators of disruption will face absolute annihilation. My patience is non-existent at this moment.”

“…Understood, Lord.”

Deep within a secluded alleyway, an eerie tranquility prevailed—a stark contradiction to the violent chaos currently consuming Seoul.

Heinz the Second, listening to the briefing from Jin So-ran, tilted his head slightly to inspect the item clutched in his palm: a tiny, fractured crystalline sphere.

‘This was unforeseen. They aren’t relying on standard military explosives.’

It was a single-use magical weapon, a volatile explosive device he had successfully intercepted just prior to its detonation, relying on his heightened perception and the power of 「Insight」.

Though it had been meticulously hidden and shielded, once its presence registered in his awareness, it could not evade his dominion.

‘This is… excessive. What drives them to such extremes? What is their ultimate objective?’

The gravity of this situation surpassed his initial assessments.

Even if they had been provoked by the maneuvers of Korea and Howard Industry, orchestrating a coordinated assault of this magnitude would place a massive strain on the resources of the Heaven’s Turn Society.

‘This is the capital city of a highly developed state. The preparation time and capital required to execute this… it is staggering. To simply… squander it all in this manner… ’

Furthermore, this catastrophic event would inevitably escalate the international dread and anxiety regarding this anonymous adversary.

Particularly following the recent assassination attempt on the Pantheon dignitary within the United States…

‘…I will manage what is within my immediate grasp. My primary physical form must remain concealed. Even utilizing Hans’s “Individual Projection”, I would face a severe disadvantage should the Master of Heaven’s Turn Society appear in person.’

His choice had been correct, favoring reconnaissance and tracking over an open, direct brawl.

Granted, if the crisis escalated to an absolute disaster, he retained the option to call upon Hans and the remaining duplicates… though that remained a final resort.

‘I require the others to generate a massive distraction, pulling all scrutiny away from my primary body. This opening cannot be wasted. Now that they have stepped into the light, I will systematically wipe out their network in Korea, leaving absolutely nothing behind.’

Just as he was cementing this determination,

Jin So-ran, who was actively trading telepathic updates with her operatives, knitted her brows and stepped toward him.

“Lord, we have detected highly anomalous movements within Gangseo District. A level 6 executive is on the ground inspecting the area…”

“I will handle it.”

He had already intended to mobilize.

By neutralizing the disasters encountered along his path, he could draw an even greater amount of attention.

Given his extraordinary velocity, he would still reach the target zone without delay.

“Understood, then…”

“Provide the specifics as we move.”

Heinz, brushing past her confirmation, launched himself toward the western horizon.

A scarlet bolt of radiance, resembling a localized gale, tore across the night sky of Seoul.

Everywhere his trajectory took him, raging infernos were extinguished, the rubble blocking the paths of trapped survivors crumbled into harmless dust, and unexploded munitions awaiting detonation were systematically neutralized and dissolved.

While this display was certainly dramatic enough to command attention, he had no intention of stopping there.

Right in the center of the devastated sector, amidst a panorama of total ruin and panic,

…a blinding illumination suddenly flared to life.

Flash—

A comforting, radiant glow—not piercing, but profoundly gentle and restorative—blanketed the entire area.

As every eye gravitated toward the source of this brilliance, a silhouette cloaked in light marched forward, stepping out from the luminous fog.

Clank— Clank—

A towering, majestic presence, outfitted in pristine, ivory plate armor.

A measured, metallic ring accompanied each stride, and the serene energy radiating from his form began to calm the panicked and wounded survivors.

“W-wait… Is that person…?”

“C-could it truly be…!”

The civilians, collapsed in agony and exhaustion, identified his form and began to move.

Even those hovering on the edge of consciousness, weeping through their pain, and those cradling their relatives with tears streaming down their dirt-streaked faces, lifted their eyes with newfound optimism.

“Saint-nim!”

“P-please save her… my mother…!”

“Ah—!”

Heinrich, standing at the center of their agonizing pleas, acted without a moment’s hesitation.

Saaaa—

He unsheathed his sacred blade, its edge casting a brilliant luminescence.

The magnificent weapon, gripped firmly in his battle-hardened hands, drove down into the concrete, gouging out a small crater.

“Main God, look down with benevolence upon these helpless lambs…”

He whispered a sacred invocation, and immediately following, his 「Grand Blessing: Wings of Radiance」 surged to life.

And then,

…a true miracle, undeniable proof of the divine, materialized before them.

Sacred energy, pouring from the holy blade and multiplied by his luminous wings, rippled outward, bathing the entire district in a sea of platinum light.

The fatigued felt their vitality return, the wounded watched their lacerations close, and those on the brink of expiration drew in deep, stable breaths.

“Ah! Bless you! Bless you!”

“Saint-nim! Thank you so much!”

Optimism ignited within the souls of those who had been utterly conquered by hopelessness.

They had been brushed by a celestial power, a reassuring anchor in their hour of deepest misery.

Naturally, it was impossible to salvage every life.

“S-Saint-nim! I beg of you… my mother…!”

“Huuu… Tae-hyun…”

Not even Heinrich possessed the authority to reverse death itself.

He lowered his head in profound sorrow, his expression solemn, and offered a quiet benediction for the deceased.

Yet, he could not linger in this location.

Countless others demanded his presence across medical centers, makeshift camps, and the active blast zones.

He could not squander a single second.

He rushed onward to the subsequent destination, directed entirely by the intelligence compiled through Hesperon’s 「Cybernetic Eye: Callicas」.

It promised to be an exhausting and relentless day.

—

Superhumans were far from the only ones operating during this unprecedented domestic catastrophe.

The Association and the Guardians were actively pulling citizens from the wreckage and neutralizing lingering hazards.

Awakened individuals aligned with the state, irrespective of their specific branches, deployed their talents to render aid.

Clergymen of Pantheon offered immediate medical interventions and mended the broken.

And even civilians—firefighters, law enforcement officers, and courageous bystanders—jeopardized their own safety to assist others, completely devoid of supernatural gifts.

An innumerable multitude had risen to the occasion amidst the devastation, and owing to their collective valor, the crisis was swiftly being brought under control.

The initial hysteria and disarray triggered by the synchronized strikes across the metropolis were waning, and the emergencies were being systematically resolved.

And there existed individuals who monitored the entirety of this sequence from start to finish, logging and scrutinizing the incoming intel—.

“The Lightning Empress possesses power far beyond our calculations. She lacked this level of destructive capacity during her engagement with Alpha…”

“Is it attributable to that ‘Mjolnir’ artifact she claimed? This complicates matters. I must completely scrap the datasets we previously compiled.”

“Black Smoke of the Supernatural Management Bureau failed to show… and the Association President’s capabilities show no significant deviation. Do we mark that as a positive variable?”

A massive subterranean room, lit solely by the collective glow of countless display screens.

A man of thoroughly ordinary features sat at the head position of the conference table, stroking his jaw analytically as his associates traded observations.

A vast array of metrics, pulled from a multitude of reconnaissance channels, flashed across the monitors.

‘Hahoe Mask and Phantom. They govern the criminal underworld of Korea, so their intervention was entirely foreseeable. However… was the arrival of the Saint merely a random variable? Or does he possess a mechanism to oversee events in Korea from an alternate realm…?’

He locked his eyes onto one specific display, deeply immersed in speculation, before shifting his gaze to an adjacent monitor.

Photographs and intelligence profiles regarding the freshly identified actors were arranged there.

Two particular individuals commanded attention.

“An armored combatant, categorized as a high-tier elemental spirit summoner, and a… convalescing champion operating a mechanized exo-suit.”

The mechanized armor pilot’s capabilities appeared reliant on specialized magical artifacts rather than personal spiritual reserve, but the spirit summoner was highly probable—almost definitively—a transcendent entity.

He could not state with absolute certainty that these represented all the hidden powerhouses lurking within Korea, but unmasking an additional transcendent was a massive breakthrough.

‘Exactly how many transcendents reside within this tiny territory?’

He clicked his tongue, shaking his head in sheer astonishment.

This entire deployment served multiple intentions.

Several subordinate targets were woven together… but the primary objective was to evaluate the total capacity of Korea, the adversary’s central hub of operations.

After all, the prior catastrophes suffered by the Heaven’s Turn Society were fundamentally caused by their absolute ignorance regarding their opponent, were they not?

His directive was to harvest every shred of actionable data: their total roster, their operational limits, their vulnerabilities, their behavioral patterns under sudden duress…

The leadership cadre would handle the resulting fallout.

They had sanctioned these directives fully cognizant of the potential jeopardy.

‘It is regrettable that it concluded so rapidly. I could have harvested far more intelligence had the chaos sustained itself.’

With a dense concentration of transcendent entities intervening, the crisis had been suppressed with incredible speed.

The primary devastation from the detonations, along with potential cascading perils like infernos, ruptured gas lines, and secondary blasts, had been rapidly mitigated.

‘If only we had deployed a tactical nuclear payload… ’

He possessed the means to procure one had he deemed it necessary, but the timeline was far too premature for such irreversible escalation.

He lacked the administrative clearance to authorize an operation of that magnitude. He merely commanded the Korean sector, which had already been drastically crippled.

‘It cannot be helped. I shall terminate the campaign at this juncture.’

He smacked his lips, letting slip a trace of dissatisfaction, then rose from his seat and struck his palms together.

Clap—

“Focus up.”

The remaining operatives, who had been locked in debate over the operational theater, shifted their focus toward him.

“We are wrapping up operations here. Everyone has performed admirably under these severe constraints.”

These individuals comprised the core value of the Korean division—elite operators who had successfully navigated the brutal internal purges and established their utility.

Granted, several operatives were absent due to external assignments… yet this gathering still represented greater than fifty percent of the remaining personnel.

“Verify the database duplication and expunge every electronic footprint. Following that, scatter…”

This facility served as a hidden sanctuary, a convergence point for the leftover cells of the Heaven’s Turn Society’s Korean operations.

[“Who granted you permission to depart?”]

…And a direct pathway to hunting down the remaining fugitives who had fled into concealment.

“What?!”

“Intruder alert… Gah!”

“Ugh! How did they…?”

A freezing voice, sounding as though it cascaded from the lowest pits of the underworld.

An immense, suffocating weight, carrying the force of a solid mass, crashed down upon them, locking their musculature rigid.

Those with superior reflexes attempted to fight back, but the invisible restraint, unleashed simultaneously with the vocalization, totally incapacitated them, leaving them unable to shift so much as a finger.

Crack— Crackle—

The ambient temperature within the subterranean bunker cratered instantly, a coat of frost spreading across their skin, freezing their locomotion and dulling their perceptions.

This was pure dark sorcery, suppressing their vital signs without executing them outright.

[“Heh— This is quite a surprise. To think your sanctuary was nestled right within the DMZ.”]

As the entirety of the room was systematically neutralized,

…a silhouette slowly coalesced out of the absolute shadows that had carpeted the floor.

An entity enshrouded in pure obsidian, its entire silhouette cloaked in a dark, swirling miasma.

Spectral fires burned within its ocular cavities as it evaluated the room.

The exposed concrete partitions, entirely unadorned, were painted with intricate runic arrays, and even the technological hardware vibrated with an unnatural, foreign frequency.

‘…Equipment integrated with the mechanical systems of this realm. Effectively functioning as magical devices. And a localized, independent power generator?’

He pondered how they had managed to secure and relocate such extensive gear without alerting the authorities.

Furthermore, this location bordered North Korea rather than South Korea…

‘…Then again, they have already deeply penetrated China. North Korea would likely present a identical scenario.’

The DMZ, the dividing line between North and South Korea, maintained extreme surveillance protocols, particularly following the rise of Awakened combatants.

Even the whispered transcendent figure tied to the Supernatural Management Bureau was rumored to be stationed along this perimeter indefinitely.

‘Regardless, I shall uncover the truth shortly.’

Hahoe Mask shifted his gaze to the individual who had been issuing the commands, the clear commander of the cell, whose face was drained of color and twisted in sheer panic.

The man was straining violently against the unseen paralysis pinning him down, his muscles twitching and convulsing in vain.

But the effort was futile. He did not even rank as a transcendent.

‘The mental manipulator. Had Andrew not located him, I would have overlooked this nest entirely.’

Did the man even comprehend that his precise coordinates had been compromised entirely because of his own signature?

Hans let loose a frigid grin and slowly raised an arm toward the commander’s skull.

‘I ought to provide Andrew with a recompense… A linguistics decryption artifact. I possess the capability to forge one now, courtesy of “Forbidden Truths”. It ought to augment his current skillset.’

A reward that would undoubtedly cause Andrew to bellow in sheer exasperation.

The man desired nothing more than a peaceful furlough, an extended leave of absence… but presents were defined by the intent of the provider, not the inclinations of the recipient.