Chapter 241
The NSSC was fundamentally built like a gigantic warehouse.
That meant its interior was equally vast.
And throughout that enormous space, an immense number of lightning bolts crashed down relentlessly.
FLASH!
A storm of lightning rained down without pause.
The lightning spread throughout the entire NSSC headquarters through the steel framework.
Crackle!
The barrier that had barely been holding together shattered like glass under the lightning released by Lee Jiryung.
“Ghk!”
“Everyone get outside. If we stay here, we’ll get fried too!”
A large number of Pegasus Raid Force Awakeners hurriedly fled outside.
Their ranks simply weren’t enough to withstand Lee Jiryung’s lightning.
As a result, only a tiny number of Pegasus Raid Force Awakeners remained inside the NSSC headquarters.
Kelda, Lee Jiryung’s secretary and the leader of the rescue team, stiffened.
“The captain’s going all out?”
If an S-rank Awakener like Lee Jiryung unleashed his full power, the entire area would be devastated.
Even if he won, there was no way he could escape responsibility afterward.
The powerful figures from every side would tear into him.
There was no way Lee Jiryung didn’t know that.
He had seen the future.
A future where, if Zeon wasn’t killed now, neither he nor the Pegasus Raid Force would have any future left at all.
That was why he had resolved to fight Zeon even at the cost of losing everything.
‘Then I suppose I’ll have to stake everything as well.’
At that moment, someone swaggered toward Kelda.
It was Eloi.
In her hand was the Mad Nine-Tailed Fox.
She had recovered the weapon that had been confiscated when she was imprisoned.
Holding the Mad Nine-Tailed Fox, Eloi’s face overflowed with confidence.
She trusted her barehanded combat skills too, but having the Mad Nine-Tailed Fox in her hand made her feel truly secure.
Staring at Kelda, Eloi spoke:
“You’re mine.”
“Can you handle me?”
“Bitch, what kind of stupid question is that? Handle you? I’ll crush you flat.”
“Haa… I dislike both you and Zeon.”
“If you dislike us so much, can you at least beat us?”
“We’ll see. Who ends up as the final victor.”
Kelda bit down hard on her lip.
BOOM!
At that moment, a deafening explosion shook the entire NSSC headquarters.
Zeon and Lee Jiryung had collided.
That became the signal for Kelda and Eloi to attack each other.
BOOM! KWAANG!
Kelda unleashed gray-colored skills while Eloi swung the Mad Nine-Tailed Fox like a madwoman.
No one else could possibly interfere in the battle between the two women.
Now the NSSC headquarters belonged entirely to Zeon and Lee Jiryung… and to Eloi and Kelda.
FLASH! KRRRRAAASH!
With a roar of thunder, a massive cluster of lightning bolts shot toward Zeon.
At that instant, the sand stored inside Zeon’s subspace poured out and blocked the attack.
The lightning failed to penetrate the sand barrier and scattered in every direction.
The dispersed lightning instead struck the Pegasus Raid Force Awakeners nearby.
“Gyaaaah!”
“Urgh!”
Although the sand barrier had weakened the attack, it was still lightning from an S-rank Awakener.
The electrocuted Awakeners convulsed violently and collapsed.
“Fuck! Everyone get outside first!”
“This isn’t a fight we belong in!”
The few remaining Awakeners hurriedly fled outside.
Meanwhile, the battle between Zeon and Lee Jiryung became even fiercer.
When Lee Jiryung spread both hands wide, countless clusters of lightning blasted directly toward Zeon.
The tens of millions of volts carried enough power to blow apart an entire body from a single hit.
In response, Zeon created a spherical dome of sand.
The sand sphere surrounding him blocked the lightning.
But a considerable amount of the sand turned pitch black and fell to the floor.
Naturally, sand melted under such extreme heat.
And that was exactly what Lee Jiryung intended.
“This is why you cannot defeat me. Outside, you can replenish your sand endlessly. But the sand stored in your subspace clearly has limits.”
He would continue burning Zeon’s sand over and over again.
Eventually, the supply would run dry.
And the moment that happened would become Zeon’s end.
The only issue was whether Lee Jiryung’s mana would last until then.
But for an S-rank Awakener like him, that wasn’t a problem at all.
KRRRRAAAASH! FLASH!
Once again, lightning accompanied by thunder roared toward Zeon.
Dodging the attack, Zeon flicked his hand.
Dozens of sand serpents shot toward Lee Jiryung.
It was one of Zeon’s frequently used skills—Viper.
But the Vipers never reached Lee Jiryung’s body.
A barrier of lightning formed around him and blocked them all.
The Vipers caught in the lightning barrier were charred black and crumbled helplessly.
“I told you—it won’t work.”
Lee Jiryung mocked Zeon.
A lightning mage versus a sand mage.
Perhaps Zeon was overwhelmingly stronger in the desert, but here, in this environment, a lightning mage like himself naturally held the advantage.
Choosing a favorable battlefield was also a skill.
Imprisoning Zeon inside the NSSC headquarters had been a masterstroke.
Crackle—
Zeon launched another wave of Vipers, but once again they collided with the lightning barrier and disintegrated.
Little by little, Zeon’s strength was being consumed.
Even so, there wasn’t the slightest trace of impatience on his face.
FLASH!
Dodging another lightning cluster that flew toward him in the blink of an eye, Zeon snapped his fingers.
“Sand Soldier.”
At that moment, dozens of Sand Soldiers rose from the sand.
He could have created many more, but since his remaining sand supply wasn’t that large, he summoned only dozens for now.
The soldiers rising from the sand charged at Lee Jiryung according to Zeon’s will.
“Hmph. I told you it’s useless, but you really don’t listen.”
With an annoyed expression, Lee Jiryung casually waved his hand.
A cluster of lightning instantly incinerated the Sand Soldier leading the charge.
Crackle—
The Sand Soldier collapsed along with a plume of black smoke.
If it had been human, witnessing comrades die like that would have filled them with fear or made them flee instinctively.
But Sand Soldiers were not human.
They felt no fear and did not overthink.
The concept of retreat simply did not exist for them.
They moved only according to Zeon’s will.
And Zeon’s will was attack.
Just like Lee Jiryung, Zeon had no intention of backing down from this fight.
Lee Jiryung was an enemy.
An enemy bound together by bitter fate.
Even if Zeon surrendered or begged for peace, Lee Jiryung would never spare him.
A battle that would end only when one of them died.
Zeon had no intention of whining about being at a disadvantage.
He would use every means available to destroy his enemy.
That was the survival method Zeon had learned in the desert.
BOOM!
With a thunderous explosion, another Sand Soldier burst apart.
And that was only the beginning.
BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM!
The Sand Soldiers charging toward Lee Jiryung exploded one after another.
Wrapped in a curtain of lightning, Lee Jiryung looked like the Thunder God himself.
The Thunder God descended upon earth freely summoned lightning and struck at Zeon.
Skill: Lightning Field.
This was the domain of the Thunder God, Lee Jiryung.
Within this place, Lee Jiryung displayed power akin to a deity.
A rain of lightning poured endlessly.
No matter how far Awakeners had surpassed human limits, no one could dodge this many bolts of lightning.
With no other choice, Zeon had to raise walls of sand to block them.
Crackle—
The sand directly struck by the overwhelming heat of the lightning didn’t merely burn.
It crystallized.
The melted sand transformed into glass-like crystal.
Seeing that sight, Zeon’s eyebrow twitched.
The reason he had remained calm even as his sand reserves dwindled was because of Excion.
The strongest weapon he possessed.
The moment he drew Excion, his abilities would multiply.
Yet he had deliberately refrained from using it because it was a trump card that had to remain hidden until the very end.
If he revealed Excion too early, Lee Jiryung would immediately change his approach and start countering it.
That was why Zeon had tried to fight using only his own raw abilities until now.
KWAANG!
At that instant, a bolt of lightning on a completely different level from before slammed directly into Zeon.
Giga Lightning.
A skill dozens of times more powerful than ordinary lightning had struck him head-on.
The sand barrier protecting Zeon shattered apart, exposing him directly to the current.
“Ghk!”
Zeon was blasted backward with a cry.
White smoke rose from his entire body after being struck by Giga Lightning.
And yet Zeon was still alive.
Thanks to the robe made from Leviathan hide.
If armor were ranked, Zeon’s robe would practically be an out-of-spec item.
Its defensive power was that overwhelming.
That alone had saved his life.
Lee Jiryung’s lips twisted upward.
He was convinced he had seized victory.
“Oh? To think you survived even that. But you won’t survive a second time.”
Crackle!
Sparks exploded across Lee Jiryung’s body.
Hammer of Thunderer.
It was the strongest skill Lee Jiryung could currently unleash.
Far stronger and more destructive than Giga Lightning itself.
No matter how incredible the defensive power of Zeon’s robe was, it would never be able to block the Hammer of Thunderer.
BOOM!
Before the skill was even fully unleashed, the ceiling of the NSSC headquarters exploded apart.
The night sky of Neo Seoul was revealed overhead.
Lightning poured down above Lee Jiryung’s head.
The lightning gathering around his body compressed into a single mass.
Bzzzt—
Lee Jiryung’s body trembled.
It felt as though lightning, rather than blood, was surging through his veins.
The exhilaration of truly becoming the Thunder God made him shiver with ecstasy.
Then Lee Jiryung noticed something strange.
Zeon was kneeling on one knee with his palm pressed against the floor.
Lee Jiryung mocked him.
“What? Giving up already?”
Even at the mockery, Zeon didn’t blink.
He was in a state of extreme concentration.
Only then did Lee Jiryung sense that something was wrong.
“You…?”
The atmosphere had changed.
This was clearly a space dominated by Lee Jiryung, yet an unfamiliar flow had appeared.
And at the center of it stood Zeon.
Instinctively, Lee Jiryung realized he could not afford to drag this out any longer.
Stretching out his hand toward Zeon, he roared:
“HAMMER OF THUNDERER!”
KRRRRAAAAAASH!
The compressed lightning within his body crashed toward Zeon.
The bolt was as massive as a large building.
It carried enough power to vaporize the entire NSSC headquarters instantly.
A force worthy of the name Hammer of Thunderer.
As the overwhelming lightning dyed the entire world white, Zeon’s voice rang out.
“Sand Gehenna.”
FWOOOOOSH!
At that moment, the temperature inside the NSSC skyrocketed.
In an instant, it soared to several thousand degrees Celsius.
The sand scattered across the floor melted under the ultra-high heat and transformed into lava.
Just as the name implied, the sand melted into a hellscape of molten magma.
From within the Sand Gehenna, a gigantic pillar of lava erupted upward.
The lava pillar shot forward like a cannon shell and collided with the Hammer of Thunderer.
KWAHHHHNG!
“Ghk!”
“Uwaaaagh!”
The enormous shockwave from the collision swept over the Awakeners outside the NSSC.
Like leaves caught in a storm, they were hurled in every direction.
By the time the Awakeners rolling helplessly across the ground regained their senses and looked up…
The NSSC headquarters had completely vanished.
Where the NSSC once stood, only Lee Jiryung and Zeon remained, facing one another.
Shock filled Lee Jiryung’s face.
“You…?”
“It’s a skill I realized thanks to you.”
Watching the sand burn beneath the lightning had inspired him.
What would happen if he melted and controlled sand using the authority of flame contained within the Scorching Gauntlet?
Even before this, he had occasionally mixed fire-based skills into his sand abilities.
But this was the first time he had received inspiration this intense.
An ordinary person would have stopped at inspiration alone.
But in that fleeting instant, Zeon materialized his inspiration into reality.
He drew out the full authority of the Scorching Gauntlet and applied extreme heat and pressure to the sand.
In an instant, the sand melted and boiled like a superheated hell—Gehenna itself.
And thus, Sand Gehenna was born.
If Lee Jiryung had turned the area into his territory through Lightning Field, then Zeon had declared this place his domain through Sand Gehenna.
Zeon raised his hand.
The masses of lava boiling across the ground rose into the air.
“Now then… shall we begin round two?”