The actual barrier he faced was at least ten times more terrifying than what he had seen in the video recorders.

  If he dug up a corner of the world and filled it with all sorts of ominous and filthy things, perhaps it’d look like this? The barrier that was soaring high into the sky as if to touch it, looked as if it had been built with malice and hatred. 

  He hadn’t even reached it yet, but the energy of the Chaos that was coming from beyond the barrier was enough to bring forth the War Dragon’s explosively hot temper.

  Kim Seon-Hyeok’s eyes turned red as he felt hostility and hatred towards the enemy roiling in the deepest part of his heart, inciting him to tear down and destroy the veil.

  Instead of resisting the raging waves of emotion, he chose to adapt to it. 

  “Edda.”
[I was waiting.]

  Before he even finished speaking, Edda flew up energetically. It wasn’t long before they had ascended high into the sky where the barrier couldn’t reach. 

  Looking down at the barrier from the cloudless sky, they saw that it wasn’t a wall, but an entire mass. Almost as if a black lid was covering the place, it was endless darkness all over.

  [The damned Fragment of Chaos must be in the center!]

  Aiming at the middle of the great Darkness, Edda took a deep breath and then spewed out a stream of gold light. The powerful dragon’s breath poured down towards the darkness.

  When directly hit by a stream of light that was like sunlight, the darkness melted away. It was as if the snow that had remained throughout the winter was melting under the spring sunlight. 

  However, the crumbling Darkness was only a fraction of the vast veil of darkness.

  Surprisingly, even the mighty dragon’s breath failed to completely penetrate the veil.

  [Four. Maybe even five. Of the ten pieces that make up the body of the Chaos, at least half of the pieces have come together into one!]

  Before Edda could finish venting out her anger, the distorted veil regained its original form.

  “Then, are there five Demon Kings in there?”
Even Park Sang-Jin, the Demon King that had destroyed the West only had one piece. But now, there wasn’t just one Fragment of Chaos that was capable of creating such a powerful being - there were five. It was no different to saying that there was a terrible malice within that veil that was capable of destroying the West at least five times.

  But contrary to what Kim Seon-Hyeok thought, the Fragments of Chaos merging wasn’t simply one adding to another. 

  [When one is added to another, it can be said to be comparable to three Demon Kings. And when two are added, it is comparable to nine Demon Kings. If three are added, it becomes stronger than thirty Demon Kings. So, if it is five pieces, it is safe to say that it is stronger than a hundred Demon Kings.]

  At Edda’s words, his boiling anger instantly cooled.

  “Then, if one more were to be added…”
[Then it would be no different to there being at least three hundred Demon Kings appearing in this world.]

  “Oh, my God…”
Without realizing it, Kim Seon-Hyeok turned to look at the Western sky. The West had become a barren land, and that location still contained a Fragment of Chaos he hadn’t managed to deal with. If by any chance, it combined with the Fragments gathered here, it would become a true hell. 

  [As time goes on, they will be drawn closer to their origins, and other Fragments will gather here.]

  To make matters worse, Edda was saying that it wouldn’t be strange if the other Fragments combined at any moment. After meeting Edda, Kim Seon-Hyeok had lost his fierceness, but now he felt himself coming to his senses. 

  “We have to destroy that veil immediately.”
He didn’t have time to wait for the pardoned Goldrake and Bluegon to return. He had to immediately tear down that wall and annihilate the Fragments of Chaos beyond it.

  [I also think the same as you.]

  Edda took a breath and light gathered from all directions. Soon, it quickly became a large mass. However, Edda didn’t release the gathered light and continued to breathe in deeply after that.

  It looked like she was planning on taking in all the air of the entire world.

  The light gathered and gathered again. Edda clenched her jaw and didn’t let the mass of light escape. It looked as if she had swallowed half the sun. 

  Grrrrr.

  When the light finally became too large to handle, Edda let out the breath she had been holding in. 

  Kaaaaa.

  The moment Edda’s roar resounded across the sky, the scorching sun fell to the ground.

  The enormous flash of light that swept through the veil couldn’t be compared to the previous one. As if the night was being driven away by the morning, the veil of darkness melted away. 

  However, the Darkness that engulfed the Holy Kingdom was massive and tenacious enough to withstand even the Dragon’s powerful breath. 

  Ooooooh.

  The Darkness constantly regenerated the dispersed parts of its body.

  [Companion! This is not enough!]

  “I! Know!”
When Kim Seon-Hyeok saw that the sun that had been dazzling enough to light up the whole world slowly losing its light, he took on the appearance of the War Dragon and spewed out flames. 

  [Howl!]

  When the wind was added to the flames shooting straight out, it became a storm of fire that burned everything. 

  Kwaaaaa.

  The powerful firestorm engulfed a portion of the veil. The blazing fire continued to burn the Darkness that had gathered after being dispersed. 

  “Damn!”
Kim Seon-Hyeok instinctively knew that alone couldn’t completely bring down the veil surrounding the Holy Kingdom. 

  Edda also thought the same.

  Sssssssssup.

  Another flash of light gathered at the Dragon’s mouth, and the War Dragon spat out another breath of fire. 

  However, neither the golden flash of light that the Dragon spewed out nor the blazing fire of the War Dragon exhaled could completely destroy the veil. 

  “More! More! More!”
Kim Seon-Hyeok drew upon all the power he had. He poured out the power of the earth he had gotten from Goldrake, the power of water connected to Bluegon, Redvern’s poison, and the Black Flames from the Red Wyrm.

  Edda let out several more breaths and attacked the Darkness.

  Gyaaaaaa!

  As if alive, the veil screamed, and then spewed out hundreds of demonic beasts as if it was spitting out filth. All of them were flying beasts with unusual momentum.

  [Since that place has already become the Demon Realm, what we need to do is not only tear down that Chaos’ shell, but the boundary of the world itself!]

  “Damn it! No wonder it was holding on for such a frigging long time!”
Watching the demons, who charged forward like starving ghosts, disappear without a trace from Edda’s breath, Kim Seon-Hyeok gathered another blaze of fire at the tip of his snout and spat it out. 

  “Disappear!”
The Darkness covering the Holy Kingdom seemed like it would disappear, but it continued to persevere.

  “Edda! Isn’t there any other way! You’re a Dragon!”
Out of frustration, he pressed her, but Edda shook her head.

  [Although it cannot be compared to the space and time storm that imprisoned me, it is still the veil that separates the boundaries of the world. If I could easily remove the boundaries of such a world, I would not have stayed outside the boundary for a thousand years.]

  Ultimately, she was saying they had no choice but to continue to attack until the veil was torn down.

  “Damn it! At this rate, we’ll be exhausted before we even meet the Fragments of Chaos!”
Even as he spoke, Kim Seon-Hyeok constantly attacked the veil. The same was true with Edda.

  The veil would distort and collapse. Then, it would regenerate. 

  The speed at which the veil was torn down, and the speed at which it was regenerated were perfectly balanced. It would be impossible for them to tear down the veil without breaking the balance.

  “I think we just need to do a bit more!”
However, it wasn’t easy to widen the slight difference. At this rate, there wouldn’t be a solution even if they fought for another day.

  “Huh?”
Kim Seon-Hyeok had been attacking the veil with all his might for a long time, when his eyes widened. 

  Bang.

  Suddenly, on the dark ground where dusk was falling, a small flash of light was seen in the far south.

  Bang, bang.

  The light flashed again. This time, it was more towards the west. 

  Bang, bang, bang.

  At first, the light flashed only intermittently, but slowly, it increased bit by bit until after a certain point, they started flashing all over the place.

  “That’s…”
[So it’s the humans.]

  Compared to the marvel performed by the Dragon and the Dragon Knight, the light was so insignificant and paltry; it was the magic the mages on the ground were shooting up simultaneously.

  ***

  “Keep releasing without stopping!”
The commander of the Empire shouted himself hoarse while looking up high into the sky.

  Although nothing was visible in the dark night sky, the commander knew that the Indomitable Grand Duke was definitely somewhere. 

  Of course, that didn’t mean he had noticed it from the beginning. Even when the first golden flash of light fell from the sky, no one on the defense line had realized what the sudden situation was. 

  But there was no way they couldn’t have noticed the situation when the light struck the veil not once, but dozens of times.

  “The Indomitable Grand Duke is fighting alone to break through the veil.”
The Sword Star had stepped forward and told them who the dazzling light was coming from.

  “No one other than the Grand Duke can scatter such dazzling light from that high in the sky.”
The Sword Star’s words spread throughout the entire defense line through messages delivered with magic. The Alliance, superhumans and soldiers alike, put their hands together and hoped that the auspicious flashes of light would defeat the veil.

  “How long will you make the Grand Duke fight alone?!”
Once again, the Sword Star brought the Alliance to their senses.

  “But what can we do? Even the most powerful magic can’t cause a single scratch, so what could we do?”
They had already attacked the veil several times, but they had discovered that none of their magic worked.

  “So you’re going to let him fight alone? The title of Imperial Mage is crying and the title of Knight is crying!”
The Sword Star shouted at the mages and knights who were overwhelmed by their sense of defeat. 

  Nevertheless, the superhumans weren’t easy to convince to step forward. They thought it was unwise to waste their energy when they didn’t know when another Wave might start. 

  Thump.

  Then, an infantryman of the Alliance picked up a rock from the ground and threw it at the veil. When the other soldiers saw this, they copied him and threw stones as well. 

  That was the beginning. 

  Woosh. 

  Although they hadn’t been given an order, the archers shot their arrows at the wall. The spearman grabbed their spears and got a running start, then threw their spears forward with all their strength. 

  Naturally, the arrows and spears they threw at the veil didn’t do any damage. However, it was enough to light a fire in the hearts of the superhumans who had been hesitating 

  “I thought you would have gotten a bit better with all your experiences on the battlefield. But you are still like a flower in a greenhouse. Worse than the ordinary soldiers.”
After clicking his tongue, the Sword Star stood next to the soldiers, then gripped his sword. He quickly pulled forth a blade covered in sword energy, and then, without hesitation, he hurled his sword toward the veil.

  Even if he wasn’t in his prime, he hadn’t lost his worth. [1] Although the Sword Star had lost most of his powers as an Adjuster and his level had dropped, that didn’t mean his attack was weak. But the veil took the Sword Star’s attack as if it was nothing and the light covering his sword went out as soon as it came in contact with the Darkness.”
“What an insidious thing.”
Although his attack had failed, the Sword Star didn’t give up. He gathered the sword energy and lit his blade and attacked the veil several times.

  “Captain, what should we…”
A knight watching this scene approached his leader and asked.

  “What do you mean, what should you do?!”
When his leader shouted at him, the knight startled and stepped back.

  “S, sorry……”
“If you don’t want to be inferior to those soldiers, then even if it’s now, you have to help.”
Having said that, the leader brought forth his sword energy and stood next to the Sword Star.

  “All knights! Attack the veil!”
As if they had been waiting for their commander’s order, the knights drew their swords and charged towards the wall. 

  “Stand back!”
But before they could wield their swords covered in the sword energies they had gathered, the mages shouted at them.

  “I have no intention of accusing you of not stepping up. However, you are the most powerful weapon against the demonic beasts. Please prepare for the Wave.”
At the knight commander’s words, a mage shouted at him.

  “That’s not what we’re saying! We’re saying that you’ll be swept up!”
Before he finished talking, flames, ice, and lightning flew towards the veil.

  ‘All troops, starting from now, attack the veil with all your might.’
The magic message delivered from the Empire’s mainland reached all the defense points of the Alliance. 

  1. The Korean proverb used here was 썩어도 준치. It means valuable objects retain their original value even if they are damaged.