Chapter 237
Papapapat!
Sparks and bursts of flame exploded along the violet current.
A storm of purple electricity filled the chamber.
The intense violet flashes were blinding enough to burn the retina.
The current mercilessly battered the holy knights.
“Ghk!”
“Urgh!”
Several holy knights dropped to their knees after being electrocuted by the unexpected attack. But none of them lost consciousness.
It was thanks to the heavy armor they wore.
The heavy armor specially crafted for holy knights possessed defensive power capable of deflecting most attacks.
That was why they managed to endure Levin’s Purple Lightning without collapsing completely. Still, the skill’s power was so overwhelming that they hadn’t escaped unharmed.
Their entire bodies tingled and burned, leaving the holy knights unable to regain their senses easily.
Only Vice Commander Victor remained unharmed within the violet storm.
A faint white barrier covered his body.
He had activated Holy Shield, a technique only high-ranking holy knights could use.
A moment later, the raging sea of purple electricity filling the chamber disappeared, and the room regained its normal light.
Victor’s eyes widened.
“This can’t be!”
Both the intruders and the highest-grade magic stone stored in the prison chamber had vanished without a trace.
The only people left inside were himself and the holy knights.
Victor shouted,
“The intruders stole the magic stone and escaped! Capture them immediately!”
“Yes, sir!”
The holy knights, finally recovering from the shock of the electrocution, rushed outside.
As Victor ran at the front, thoughts raced through his mind.
‘These aren’t ordinary opponents. To disappear with the magic stone in the blink of an eye… they definitely possess some kind of special skill.’
They had vanished from a completely sealed prison chamber without leaving a trace.
That was impossible unless they had used teleportation. But teleportation technology had not yet been realized.
Neo Seoul was researching it, but only the theoretical groundwork existed so far, with little actual progress.
‘Then Blink? No. Blink can’t activate if the user’s line of sight is blocked. And its range is barely ten meters.’
Only a handful of awakeners in Neo Seoul could use Blink, the inferior version of teleportation.
Victor roughly knew all the awakeners capable of using Blink.
‘It wasn’t them. They were clearly children.’
Though it had only been for an instant, he had definitely seen them.
A boy with a buzz cut and earrings, and a girl wearing a pointed hat.
Fortunately, when the buzz-cut boy unleashed the purple lightning, Victor had instinctively activated a skill.
‘Infinite Pursuit.’
It was a skill used to hunt the enemies of the church.
It secretly planted a scent on the target’s body.
A scent detectable only by the skill’s user.
The victim would never even realize they carried such a smell.
Using Infinite Pursuit, Victor traced the targets’ movements.
“They’re on the first floor.”
They themselves had been dozens of meters underground.
Just moments ago, the targets had been in the same room as them. Yet suddenly, they had moved all the way to the first floor.
If it wasn’t teleportation or Blink, then only one possibility remained.
‘An awakener with object-phasing abilities.’
He had never once heard of such an awakener existing.
But the evidence spoke for itself.
The intruders possessed the ability to pass through solid objects.
Victor immediately barked an order.
“Strengthen the church barrier! Even an object-phasing awakener won’t be able to pass through a reinforced barrier.”
“Yes, sir!”
One of the holy knights responded and immediately activated a telepathy skill.
—Intruders detected. Raise the Holy Sanctuary barrier to maximum level immediately.
—What’s happening?
The priest in charge of the barrier asked in return.
At that moment, the holy knight exploded in anger.
—Didn’t you hear me say intruders got in? Raise the barrier to maximum immediately!
—A-Alright. Just wait a moment.
—What do you mean wait? Do it now!
Meanwhile, Victor and the holy knights arrived at the first-floor chapel.
They saw the backs of Levin and Brielle as they passed through the church doors and disappeared.
Daaang! Daaang! Daaang!
At that moment, the bells hanging from the church spire rang out, and the barrier surrounding the church strengthened.
But by then, Levin and Brielle had already escaped the church.
“Damn it! We’re too late.”
“Deactivate the barrier!”
When the barrier reached maximum strength, even the holy knights themselves couldn’t pass through it.
Bang! Bang!
As proof, Victor and the holy knights were violently repelled by the barrier.
The holy knight capable of telepathy shouted furiously at the priest managing the barrier.
—Lower the barrier!
—What nonsense are you talking about? You’re the ones who told me to strengthen it.
—The intruders already escaped!
—What?!
The priest hurriedly deactivated the barrier.
Watching the barrier slowly fade, the holy knights wore anxious expressions.
Victor ground his teeth.
“To dare invade the Holy Sanctuary… I will never forgive them.”
The fact that unknown intruders had defiled the sacred church filled him with humiliation.
He swore to capture the thieves who stole the highest-grade magic stone and tear them limb from limb.
Just then, the barrier fully dissipated.
Victor and the holy knights immediately began pursuit.
Dongdaemun had already shifted into a state of wartime lockdown.
Whenever the bells hanging from the spire of the church—called the Holy Sanctuary—rang, all of Dongdaemun would be sealed shut.
Every exit leading out of Dongdaemun was closed, while holy knights and priests blocked all major roads.
Ordinary civilians were forbidden from leaving their homes, and with countless barriers and magic circles activated, Dongdaemun became completely isolated from the outside world.
Victor activated Infinite Pursuit once more.
“The bastards still haven’t escaped Dongdaemun. All holy knights are to capture them immediately!”
Zeon moved his right wrist around.
Because of the restraint clamped around it, his movements felt unnatural. But it wasn’t only his body that felt wrong.
The mana inside him had hardened like stone and refused to move.
That was the power of the mana restraint.
“Interesting item.”
“Do you know how many people were worked to the bone to create that thing?”
Eloi asked while staring at the mana restraint with a horrified expression.
“I can imagine.”
“There’s a magical artifact development department at City Hall. They call it the New World Team.”
“That’s quite the name.”
“It’s packed with hundreds of lunatics obsessed with opening a new world through the things they invent.”
“They gathered that many people into a single team?”
“Some idiot decided that crazy bastards create better synergy when they’re grouped together and actually went through with it.”
“And who was that idiot?”
“Who else? The biggest power behind the scenes.”
“Jin Geumho?”
“Exactly.”
Eloi nodded.
Not every awakener specialized in combat.
People whose talents had awakened in research, like Brielle, were all gathered into the magical artifact development department.
Their support was limitless.
Money, materials—anything they wanted was supplied endlessly.
At first, there had been heavy criticism.
People said the department wasted ridiculous amounts of money. But after a few years, once the New World Team began producing results one after another, the criticism disappeared.
Every invention they released was revolutionary.
Armor forged from new materials.
Artificial limbs combining magic and machinery.
Firearms designed to hunt demonic beasts.
Various restraints, magic circles, and barriers created to suppress awakeners.
The inventions produced by the New World Team rapidly spread throughout civilian society and elevated the overall level of Neo Seoul.
The New World Team’s influence was the primary reason Neo Seoul had advanced so rapidly.
“It’s amusing. Gathering mad scientists and awakeners into one place.”
“Don’t even mention it. The departments supporting them are stressed to death because those lunatics cause accidents every single day.”
Fortunately, Mandy—Eloi’s other personality—didn’t work in the department supporting the New World Team.
If she had, Eloi’s personality would probably have been the one constantly in control instead.
Eloi stroked the mana restraint and muttered,
“Isn’t it fascinating? Hardening mana so people can’t use their abilities.”
“What’s even more fascinating is the material used to make it.”
“Why?”
Eloi looked puzzled.
After all, it was an invention developed by the New World Team.
Combining monster byproducts and metals to create new materials was nothing extraordinary for them. Of course, whether those materials actually produced the intended effects was another matter entirely.
Zeon ran his fingers across the surface of the restraint.
“I think it was made from a very special material.”
“What’s so special about it?”
“It’s difficult to explain in words…”
“Ah! Then don’t explain it. I hate complicated stuff.”
“Fair enough.”
Zeon chuckled softly.
But the gaze he fixed upon the mana restraint was colder than ever.
‘This feeling… Dragon Bone?’
Though only a trace amount, dragon bone had definitely been mixed into the restraint.
The reason Zeon realized it was simple.
The restraint emitted an aura similar to the dragon eye embedded in his Scorching Heat Gauntlet.
He had worn the gauntlet for eight whole years. And it had been over seven years since the dragon eye was embedded into it.
Naturally, he had become extremely sensitive to the aura of dragons.
‘Insane. They used Dragon Bone for something like this?’
Dragons—the strongest lifeforms.
As far as Zeon knew, only seven dragons had crossed over from Kurayan.
Krasias, the divine being that resembled a dragon and turned Earth into this wasteland, was an exception.
Due to the backlash from the terraforming process, it vanished without leaving behind a single trace.
Of the remaining seven dragons, one had been hunted by awakeners led by Deioden and Jin Geumho.
The second dragon, Hiyeltun, perished after a fierce battle with Deioden, leaving absolutely nothing behind.
Even Zeon didn’t know the whereabouts of the other five dragons.
He had wandered the world for eight years, yet had never once encountered a being that seemed to be a dragon.
‘Then this means they used the bones of the first dragon to create it.’
Deioden had never explained what happened to the first dragon afterward.
His sole purpose had been hunting dragons. He had no interest in how humans used the corpses of the dragons he killed.
‘So they used dragon corpses to develop Neo Seoul.’
Only then did one of the great mysteries that had lingered in Zeon’s mind finally unravel.
There was a technological gap of more than a hundred years between Neo Seoul and the other colonies.
Logically, such a thing shouldn’t have been possible.
Civilization naturally spread like ink dropped into water, staining everything around it. Progress inevitably diffused outward.
That was why a technological disparity exceeding a century made no sense.
‘That was the difference. Something Neo Seoul had that the other colonies didn’t. Dragon corpses.’
Neo Seoul had clearly used materials harvested from dragon corpses to create entirely new substances, allowing it to achieve such an advanced civilization.
At last, one of the great questions Zeon had carried for so long was answered.
Just as he shook his head at the shocking truth—
Step. Step.
Footsteps echoed from outside the door.
Someone was approaching the prison cell where they were being held.
Eloi immediately jumped to her feet and assumed a defensive stance.
“Did those NSSC bastards come back again?”
It was possible they had come to avenge their fallen comrades.
But only a single set of footsteps echoed through the corridor.
Not a group—just one person was approaching.
“So you finally came.”
As though he understood something, Zeon rose and walked toward the door.
Clank!
At that moment, the small window in the door opened, revealing the visitor’s face.
The visitor’s gaze met Zeon’s.
“It’s been a while, Zeon.”
“Lee Jiryung.”
The man staring at Zeon through the window was none other than Lee Jiryung.
His eyes burned with the fierce intensity of a lion.
“If you survived, you should have hidden yourself away somewhere or fled to another colony. Why return to Neo Seoul? Because of you, a lot of people have been inconvenienced.”
“So this is why you orchestrated all of this?”
Instead of answering, Lee Jiryung simply bared his white teeth in a smile.