Just before I could say anything, a mighty roar came from the direction of the illusionist gate. That monster seemed to finish its warm up and ended the fight already.

“Go and clean half of his inventory,” I motioned my head towards the headless body, “then come back at once. Don’t delay or else…”

I didn’t need to remind him of the dangerous monster. Yet even with my words, the scarlet red eyes of his didn’t seem to return to normal.

“That motherf*cker! I want to kill him a thousand times over, no… A million times over, hell no… A…” as he kept cursing and increasing the times he wanted to kill that already dead illusionist over, I found my way towards my chariot, avoiding that on the verge to explode dude.

Come on! That illusionist was already dead. Besides, it was obvious now he wasn’t the one who cursed him in the first place.

But who was it? As I returned to the surface of my chariot, my head kept spinning non-stop. “Dragons and Selvators are strong indeed, but they despise curses,” I muttered to myself while feeling more puzzled.

These two races had their arrogance standing in between them and dirty methods just like curses. As for the succubi, their way to fight was something very different than the nature of this curse.

They used to curse the hearts of men, not their souls and powers.

And the fifth race… they were the berserkers! A mighty and violent race that turned their minds off during fights and got addicted to battles.

Berserkers using curses? That was surely unheard of!

Something was amiss here, something was fishy. Who was it? Was this the scheme of the angels? In fact the only answer that suited such a treacherous nature of the cruise was the angels.

But if they had such ability, why didn’t they use it over me instead? Why target the jumper out of all the people in my forces?

Even if that answer was logical, and solved this mystery perfectly, it didn’t seem quite right. It was so perfect that it made me suspicious about the whole thing.

*Roar!*

Amidst my thoughts, the mighty roar of that monster jolted me awake. I turned to see it venturing outside the castle and going to the other shore of this city.

“Don’t tell me it’s going towards New York city!” I was startled by this. Yet the jumper was still kicking the headless body of that illusionist in immense anger.

“Stay here,” I shouted, “don’t get yourself killed bud,” I added in a soft voice while turning my chariot fast and headed towards the direction of the emptied castle.

I switched the mode of my chariot to be in the intermediate form.

The speed of the chariot wasn’t at its top, but it was much faster than that behemoth. Not to mention that monster kept smashing through buildings, not leaving anything intact while using its immense body to spread devastation everywhere.

In my eyes, it seemed that monsters were the nemesis of any sign of civilization. That was normal. After all, monsters had such weird hatred towards any aspect of human civilization without any proper reason.

The moment I reached the inside of the castle I couldn’t help but gasp. This wasn’t a battlefield, it was literally a scene that crawled out of hell itself!

Fire spread all over the place, but that wasn’t the main issue here. The dead bodies of the races made it so hard to not get the urge to vomit.

“Damn! I have to stop him from reaching New York,” I couldn’t even imagine how it would be if that brutal creature found its way to the other bank of Hudson river.

But now I have another problem to solve. “How can I control that gate?” I raised my head up there and started to ponder about this.

I knew the forces on the other side were trembling in fear by now. They wouldn’t get awakened so soon. But it wasn’t wise to waste time here.

“Let’s give it a try,” the first thing I thought about was the emblem in the heart of these ruins. I found it fast and despite all the devastation around, the emblem was still shining its bright silver white light.

It was bigger than any emblem I saw before, and it was activated already. Even with the boost coming from it, the forces here didn’t stand a chance against brute and terrorising force.

“It’s not working,” I simply controlled the emblem and chose to deactivate it. But I didn’t get any control over that gate. “The next method then,” I simply controlled my chariot, activated its fully powered form for two reasons.

I needed to rise high in the air to reach that gate. Of course the intermediate form could deliver me there, but my safety would be in question.

The difference between the strength of the chariot’s barrier was immense considering both forms. So once I activated the fully powered version, and added many stat points into my chariot shining little star pillar, I soared to the sky and got near that gate.

“Keep your hands off my race gate!”

Just as I was less than twenty metres away, such a violent shout came from deep within the gate. I was aiming at the body of the gate itself, yet a flash of silver white light came out from the centre, arched in the air before it slammed fast against my chariot.

*Rumble!*

The clash between that strange flash of light and my chariot’s shield made the chariot for the first time ever tremble. I was standing on the front but when I first saw that flash of light I hurried towards the central pillar, providing it with more stat points.

I didn’t lack stat points now. The sheer amount I got from that killed illusionist was more than what I already had inside my inventory!

But just as the attack landed, I saw the stat number inside the chariot to decrease like running water. “This can’t be allowed to go on!” I clenched my fists and instead of defending and evading that deadly mysterious ray of light, I brazened myself and threw my chariot directly towards it.

After all that flash stood between me and that ring of that gate. Without the need to think about it, the illusionist who sent such a flash of light aimed to stop me from touching the gate.

The seconds passed like days at such a dangerous moment. Yet I kept pushing my chariot against that ray of light. Strangely enough, a pushing force resisted my chariot to decrease its speed. Yet I didn’t even flinch from getting towards my goal.

If the gate belonged to me, then that ray of light would be severed. That attack would lose all the power it had and no harm would befall me at this point.

I didn’t have time to appreciate my earlier decision to operate the chart at its full power. If I didn’t, then I was sure my shield would be crushed and my life would be in danger.

“Come on!” As I got closer, I also kept an eye over the greatly swinging number of stat points at the chariot. I was throwing stat points like I was a flooding river, yet in a span of a blink of an eye the stat points I threw got exhausted and the number would decrease to a frightening low level.

If I paused for a couple of seconds, only a couple of seconds, then my chariot would be emptied of its fuel and be rendered powerless.

“Be mine!” At such a moment, I roared and threw myself over the ring metres above my head and slammed my hand over it. To be sure I created a deep wound by my sword, letting the blood gush out from my hand.

I didn’t have time to experiment things here. One way or another this damn gate would be mine!

You got in contact with a foreign race world gate

The last owner of the gate is now dead

The gate is considered ownerless

You have the right to conquer the gate

The gate is now yours

Congratulations! You now obtain full control over the gate

As long as you are alive, the gate will always be under your control

“F*ck you!” I cursed in a voice filled with deep hatred, enmity, and immense joy of such close victory. Just as the rows of the system messages flashed in front of my eyes, I saw the central zone of the gate turn into something solid.

That ray of light was instantly severed, alongside a mighty painful scream that came from the other side for a few seconds before the world ushered under heavy deafening silence.

*Thud!*

Without any surprise, I fell over the surface of my chariot and turned over my back. At this moment I realised that my entire body was soaked in cold sweat while heavily panting as if I was short of breath.

“Huff… Huff… I f*cking survived this… Huff… Huff…”

I felt a strange weakness assaulting my body just like the same exhaustion anyone would feel after spending hours at a gym. I knew this wasn’t a physical exhaustion, but due to mental overstress.

“I need to… F*ck!!!”

*Roar!*

Just as I was muttering to myself, a gigantic head loomed over my head, filling my entire eyesight when that deadly monster appeared out of nowhere in front of my eyes.

It had such a scary face that drove the blood out of my body! At this moment I felt like I was met face to face with death.

Its giant two eyes with elliptical vertical golden iris were looking straight towards me. I reflexively held my breath, fearing it could attract him to my place.

*Roar!*

It opened its mouth and I saw rows of sword-like teeth inside. The air it came from was filthy and thick, suffocating me to the point I wanted to sneeze and cough.

I didn’t know how but my two hands moved at this moment and slammed my mouth and nose shut.

*Roar!*

This time it started to move its head right and left, sniffing around like it was looking for me. I thought of moving my chariot away, but feared that closing the air current created by it would attract that behemoth’s attention.

It would go away at any moment, yes, it surely would!

I just needed to stay still and not do anything for now. Just wait, wait you dumbass!

It felt like my entire life just passed in front of me in these short seconds. Yet eventually that monster moved aside and started to look around, even hitting a few areas with its tail and giant claws.

“Phew!” when it moved a few hundreds of metres away, I could finally have a breath of relief. If my earlier counter with that deadly ray of light made me soaked in sweat, then such brief moments with that monstrous behemoth made me feel like I aged a decade or two!

“Damn you!” I cursed in a low voice, fearing it might hear me, “I was almost dead out of fear!!!”

After a few minutes I finally got the strength to stand up again. Despite that, my legs were shaking and trembling.

If I had time, I’d rather curse that monster and start to kill it. Yet it was just on top of my chariot, only a few tens of metres away. I still recalled its stinky hot breaths like they were still present!

It was an awful experience, one that wiped out any sense of accomplishment by taking that gate. Damn! That was a close call indeed!

“It must have sniffed my scent when I jumped up there,” as I stood at the front and watched that damn bastard getting away and spreading destruction and death all over, I finally started to think rationally again.

It seemed the bubble I bought had a limit to its sealing effect.

As things finally settled down, it was time to check the last messages that arrived when that monster came.

Congratulations! You have conquered one world gate