Chapter 185
Lee Jiryung’s eyes trembled.
“Are you insane? You carry sand inside a subspace?!”
It was shocking enough that an individual possessed such a massive subspace, but he had never once imagined someone would fill it with sand.
Whoooosh!
Even now, sand continued to pour out of Zeon’s subspace.
Before long, the ground was covered up to their ankles.
Zeon spoke calmly.
“Do you still think I can’t fight them?”
“Is it really okay to reveal that? Letting people know you’re hiding sand in your subspace won’t do you any good.”
“They’re not the kind of enemies I can fight while keeping secrets.”
“…Fair point.”
Lee Jiryung nodded.
At that moment, both the knight commander and Trigian attacked them.
Lee Jiryung wanted to face Trigian rather than the knight commander.
He wanted to defeat the stronger opponent and prove his greatness to the world—but the fact that the knight commander had locked onto him made that impossible.
“I’ll roast you to a crisp.”
Lee Jiryung unleashed pure white lightning at the knight commander.
Zeon also lunged at Trigian.
“Hahaha!”
Trigian burst into wild laughter, clearly pleased with his newly acquired metallic body, and swung his fist.
At that instant, a powerful, compressed, invisible projectile shot out from his punch.
‘A mana particle cannon?’
Zeon’s eyes widened.
The skill Trigian had just used wasn’t Cha Jincheol’s.
It closely resembled the mana particle cannon used by the elves who had attacked Deioden long ago.
No one had taught him.
Through assimilation and calculation, he had created the most powerful attack possible with Cha Jincheol’s body.
It was a terrifying level of adaptability.
There was no time or space to dodge.
Zeon moved the sand, forming a wall in front of him.
Boom!
The sand wall shattered under the impact of the mana particle cannon.
But the attack never reached Zeon.
He had layered multiple walls—two, three layers deep.
Hiss—
After blocking the attack, Zeon rose into the air.
The floating sand lifted his body.
Maintaining that position, Zeon swung his hand.
Whoosh!
Dozens of sand serpents shot toward Trigian.
They were Vipers—the evolved form of Sand Blaster.
The Vipers bit into Trigian’s body relentlessly.
But Trigian only laughed mockingly.
“Hahaha! It doesn’t even tickle. That’s nowhere near enough to pierce this steel body.”
He was thoroughly satisfied with his newly obtained body.
More precisely, the mechanical components delighted him.
It didn’t tire. It didn’t feel pain even when damaged.
As long as parts could be supplied, it could be repaired endlessly—and even become stronger by combining with other components.
Such a concept had been unimaginable in his original world.
Trigian saw limitless potential in this mechanical body.
And he was unleashing all those imagined possibilities against Zeon.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Mana particle cannons fired continuously.
Zeon neutralized or evaded every attack by forming sand walls.
Instead, nearby awakened were struck by the blasts.
“Gah!”
“Argh!”
Screams erupted everywhere.
Already, more than half of the Pegasus Raid Team lay collapsed on the ground.
As time passed, Trigian grew stronger, while the Pegasus Raid Team weakened.
‘Even if it’s risky, I have to take him down here. If he gets outside, it’ll be a disaster.’
This was the opportunity—while his resurrection was still incomplete.
If they dragged this out and Trigian fully regained his power, defeating him would become far more difficult.
As if that wasn’t enough, Trigian provoked him further.
“How long do you plan to keep dodging? You rat!”
No matter how many mana particle cannons he fired, he couldn’t hit Zeon, and his anger was boiling over.
“I’ll show you just how terrifying a rat can be.”
Zeon pushed his control to the extreme.
Wooooong!
At that moment, a strange sound echoed from the sand particles floating in the air.
Sensing something unusual, Trigian frowned—
Shhhhhh!
The sand particles began rotating at terrifying speed.
At the center of it all stood Trigian.
“What is this?”
He dismissed it lightly.
After all, he believed sand could never inflict real damage on his mechanical body.
Grrrrk!
But the moment those fine grains of sand began grinding away at his metallic body, he realized just how wrong he was.
“Ghk! Sand… of all things…!”
His mechanical body began to erode from the surface, turning into powder.
There was nowhere to dodge, no way to block.
The only option was to deploy a shield—but even that was ground away by the sand.
Maintaining the stance of the Sand Mixer, Zeon spoke.
“Briel!”
“Yes!”
Briel, nearby, answered immediately.
“Do you still have it?”
“That?”
“The one that froze the mechanized awakened earlier.”
“Oh, the special bomb? I’ve got two left.”
“Give them to me.”
“Here!”
Brielle pulled out two lubricant-freezing bombs from her pointed hat and tossed them to Zeon.
Thud! Thud!
Trigian approached Zeon with heavy footsteps.
He advanced, enduring even as his surface was being ground away.
The closer he got, the more powerful the Sand Mixer became—but Trigian never stopped.
“As long as I kill you, this metal body can be restored in no time.”
The West District awakened were scattered all around.
Even excluding those already dead and stripped for parts, many were still alive.
He knew that even if his mechanical body was destroyed, he could repair it by harvesting parts from them.
That was why he could act so recklessly.
Clank! Clank!
Inside the Sand Mixer, his arm began to transform.
After a complex process, what emerged was a long barrel.
Electric currents flowed through it.
What Trigian created… was a railgun.
The most powerful weapon remaining in Cha Jincheol’s memories was the railgun, so he reshaped his arm accordingly.
“Die!”
Thoom!
Trigian fired the railgun.
Zeon narrowly avoided the projectile.
But not everyone was as fortunate.
Every awakened in the projectile’s path was erased.
Not even a trace remained.
“Insane…!”
“Oh my god…!”
The awakened froze at the sight of their comrades vanishing.
Thoom! Thoom!
Even then, Trigian kept firing the railgun relentlessly.
Dodging all the attacks, Zeon hurled the bombs Brielle had given him at Trigian.
Boom!
The bombs exploded at Trigian’s feet.
“With such toys, what do you expect to accomplish?”
“What do you think happens when those ‘toys’ mix with sand?”
“What?”
Rustle—
The substance released from the bombs mixed with the sand and seeped into Trigian’s metallic body.
The lubricant that allowed his body to move smoothly began to harden rapidly.
Combined with the sand, the internal mechanisms wore down and broke apart.
Creak… crack…
Sounds of rupture echoed from all over his body.
“What…?”
His face darkened.
As Trigian halted, sand endlessly infiltrated his body.
Flowing through the interior of his mechanical form, it completely destroyed it.
Boom! Pop!
Unable to withstand the strain, his body began exploding from the inside.
From the ruptured gaps, red sand poured out.
The sand attacked not only the machinery but also the flesh within.
“Ghk!”
As sand invaded his blood vessels, Trigian’s expression twisted in agony.
He collapsed to the ground, coughing—spitting out sand.
“This… Ghh!”
His body trembled violently.
The sand under Zeon’s control was destroying him inside and out.
“Aaaagh!”
At last, Trigian could no longer endure it and screamed.
—My king!
The knight commander sensed Trigian’s crisis and tried to rush over—but Lee Jiryung blocked him.
“Hyaaah!”
“Not so fast!”
Other undead knights tried to reach Zeon, but Levin and Eloiintercepted them, preventing any approach.
Crack!
At that moment, the arm that had transformed into a railgun fell off.
The joint had been worn away by the sand.
Clatter! Clatter!
Soon, other parts began to fall off as well.
In the end, all four limbs detached, leaving only his torso.
He stared at Zeon in disbelief.
“This cannot be… My resurrection… stopped like this…”
“If you’re a ghost, stay a ghost. The outside world is chaotic enough without you.”
“If I had been given more time… our positions would have been reversed.”
“That wouldn’t have changed anything.”
“You… do you even know my true power?”
“You don’t know mine either, do you?”
“…You’re saying you didn’t fight me with everything you had?”
“There are too many eyes watching.”
Zeon answered quietly.
Trigian looked at him in disbelief.
“Hah… how can a monster like you even exist… But don’t think you’re safe… just because you’ve killed me.”
“What do you mean?”
“Your world… Neo Seoul… heh…”
Rustle—
With a cryptic smile, Trigian’s life faded.
Zeon frowned as he looked down at the corpse.
Even in death, Trigian left an unsettling feeling.
—Aaaah! My king!
The knight commander, sensing Trigian’s death, went into a frenzy.
He screamed and tried to rush to Trigian—but Lee Jiryung did not let him pass.
From the knight commander’s violent reaction, Zeon was certain Trigian was truly dead.
And yet, the unease remained.
If left as it was, the West District awakened would recover the body.
Or the Pegasus Raid Team might take it back to Neo Seoul for research.
Leaving behind such a future threat was not Zeon’s style.
Fwoosh!
Flames ignited over Trigian’s corpse.
Zeon burned it using the power of his superheated gauntlet.
Wrapped in fire, the body slowly melted away.
“No!”
“Captain…!”
The West District awakened rushed forward to extinguish the flames—but it was useless.
Ordinary methods couldn’t put it out.
They could only watch helplessly as Trigian’s body turned to ash.
“You bastard… how dare you do that to our captain…”
“You think you’ll get away with this?”
They glared at Zeon with hostility.
But none of them dared to attack.
“You idiots—enough already. You saw it with your own eyes, didn’t you? Your captain was taken over by the dungeon boss. If you still want to be stubborn about it, I won’t hold back.”
“Who the hell are you calling idiots?!”
Eloiand Levin stepped forward, blocking them.
Faced with their killing intent, the West District awakened fell silent and stared at Zeon.
Their expressions were filled with fear.
‘The Sand Demon… As long as that man exists… we might not have a future.’