Chapter 398. Dear Friend (2)

After asking Hawa to pray, Chi-Woo shoved his hand into his pocket without hesitation. The seven-sided die fell in a gentle parabola.

Rolling the World’s Milestone.

Stronger Luck will be applied due to the will of the World!

Result: ★★

Innate Ability Blessed Luck will be consumed (80 -> 78).

The flow of the world has further accelerated.

Fail. An event will occur.

An unexpected good news has occurred for the Sernitas, who are preparing for their next attack. The Sky Castle’s charging speed accelerates rapidly.

“No!” Chi-Woo screamed in shock. How did he get such a terrible result when he had been blessed with stronger luck thanks to awakening Asha’s power? The system said he wouldn’t fail in most cases when he threw the die. Before he could complain more, messages continued to appear.

Deterrence has been activated.

Using 6 points of Innate Ability Blessed Luck to nullify the recent event (78 -> 72).

Fortunately, he could at least cancel out the failed events with Deterrence. Chi-Woo rubbed at his chest. They were almost **ed. Seriously **ed. Although he had gained a bit of mistrust towards the will of the World, he needed to finish what he started. Chi-Woo threw the die again.

Rolling the World’s Milestone.

Stronger Luck will be applied due to the will of the World!

Result: ★★★★★★

Innate Ability Blessed Luck will be consumed (72 -> 66).

The flow of the world has twisted and split.

Success. An event will occur.

He succeeded this time. Although it wasn’t a huge success, it was at least a success.

The last gate is blocking the final road leading to Shalyh. This gate was built for a single purpose from the very beginning of its creation. Every brick piled up is imbued with earnest hope and wishes to fulfill this purpose.

However, the last gate, which has stood firm and tall following everyone’s wishes, is facing a huge crisis. Although it was revived, the last gate has already collapsed once.

To change the fate of destruction that is just around the corner, the hopes and wishes contained in this place have transformed into a living will and awakened the last gate. The gate struggles to fulfill its given responsibilities.

The gate expresses its will. A large-scale dimensional distortion magic occurs around the last gate.

‘Dimension distortion magic?’ Chi-Woo tilted his head. Something seemed to have appeared around the last gate, but he wasn’t sure what it was. Looking at the incident alone, it seemed like it would help maintain the gate. However, if anyone asked him if he could just rely on this alone, Chi-Woo would reply ‘no’ without hesitation since they needed to deal with not just the Demon Empire, but also the Sky Castle, especially considering the Sernitas’ constantly adaptive characteristics.

‘Even with 80 Blessed Luck, I couldn’t touch the Sky Castle.’ Thus, it would be naive of him to hope that 6 points of Blessed Luck would grant them an impenetrable defense. The message also explicitly made it clear that the gate was struggling. If they now had a lot of leisure and ease, there would be no reason for the gate to struggle.

‘Wait.’ At that moment, the muscles around Chi-Woo’s eyes suddenly tightened as he read the message carefully again. Then after a while, an idea flashed through his mind. “If I do this…” Deep in thought, Chi-Woo muttered to himself. “Once…at least once more…”

* * *

It was the fifth day after the siege began. The enemy’s coalition launched an attack as soon as the sun rose, but they didn’t attack as fiercely as before. Both sides only ended up causing the other a notable number of casualties. Moreover, the result of throwing the die last night also showed its effect. Although it was just limited to the gate, the effectiveness of the dimension distortion magic was amazing. All the attacks the enemy coalition launched at the gate with their offensive weaponry were nullified.

Of course, the magic couldn’t do anything about the soldiers that climbed the tower of the dead or the attacks aimed at their allies, but they gained a bit of breathing room just by the fact that the gate was intact and standing firm.

Thanks to that, humanity and the Cassiubia League were able to concentrate on the battle and keep their fighting will somewhat intact, but no one was ready to celebrate yet. The coalition seemed to have noticed the gate’s change, but wasn’t taking any action. Rather, as time went by, they were gradually decreasing the intensity of their offensive, which only indicated one thing—the Sky Castle’s Light Particle Beam was almost fully charged.

Since everyone had clearly witnessed the power of the Light Particle Beam that destroyed the gate in one blow not long ago, the atmosphere was grim. Opinions that they shouldn’t keep fighting like this or they’d all die, and that they should give up on protecting the gate and withdraw as fast as possible gained strength. It was also around this time that Ismile visited Chi-Woo, or to be more precise, he visited him late at night, when the coalition forces had withdrawn.

“I’ll admit that you tried your best in your own way,” Ismile said as soon as he saw Chi-Woo. “You implemented a large-scale dimension distortion magic around the gate…I get your intention. You’re trying to send the Sky Castle’s attack to another place, right?” He kept talking on his own. “It makes sense. The reasoning is pretty solid.” However, Ismile’s words took a turn as he added ‘but’ and continued, “It would be better if you hadn’t immediately implemented the dimension distortion magic after the Sernitas’ attack.”

“…”

“Shouldn’t you have known better than me?”

“…”

“Didn’t you say you entered the Sky Castle before? Then you should have seen it all.” Ismile’s tone took on a hint of reprimand. He was essentially asking why Chi-Woo had implemented the dimension magic immediately while knowing the Sernitas’ special trait.

The scariest characteristic about the Sernitas was their insane reserve of information. The vastness of the information they’d collected while wandering around the universe was impossible to measure. If they searched through their information, there must be information about a countermeasure against dimension distortion magic. However, Chi-Woo had revealed their card too hastily, and Ismile was criticizing him for that.

“To be frank…the atmosphere on our side isn’t very good either,” Ismile spoke in a roundabout way, but Chi-Woo clearly understood what he meant. The Cassiubia League and humanity also knew that a dimension distortion magic had been placed around the gate, but they couldn’t really trust it. The sheer power of the Sky Castle’s beam had left such a deep impact that they were still reeling from the shock from the first day. Thus, they firmly believed that a magic of this level could not stop the Sernitas.

“We have to make the decision now. Before it’s too late.” Ismile raised his shoulder again, as if there was nothing he could do now. “If you want to say anything, say it. For the last time.” Ismile sounded like he had already made his decision; if he had asked this question last night, Chi-Woo would not have been able to say anything. He would have accepted the reality that there was no other way and reluctantly agreed to withdraw. However, that was not the case anymore.

“I know,” Chi-Woo said. “The Sernitas will probably attack using information that will allow them to pierce through the dimension distortion magic.”

Ismile looked taken aback by Chi-Woo’s words. “Aha… Would I be mistaken if I said it sounded like you were merely using the dimension distortion magic as bait?”

“I would say that’s half true,” Chi-Woo continued calmly, “It could be considered a bait and a trap at the same time—a trap that the Sernitas will willingly step into.”

Ismile’s eyes slightly widened. In short, Chi-Woo was saying that the Sernitas’ countermeasure to address the dimension distortion magic would be a critical blunder for them. “Before I ask you what the hell you’re talking about—wait.” His eyes sharpened. “Let me just ask you one thing.” He continued to talk while staring intently at Chi-Woo. “You’re one of the commanders of this war, right?”

“What?”

“Don’t deny it. I’m well aware of your importance here, and no one thinks that the leader of Seven Stars will be anything short of a commander.” Ismile grinned. “This isn’t a joke.” He lowered his voice and said, “Don’t underestimate the weight of the words coming out of your mouth. At least hundreds of thousands and at most hundreds of millions of lives will all depend on what you say next.” The fate of countless lives would be determined by Chi-Woo’s words; that was what the position of commander entailed. Ismile asked again, “You’re proposing this plan with full understanding of that, right?”

Chi-Woo knew this. Although some may think like Hawa, there were surely people who didn’t think the same and wanted to live instead. Nevertheless, Chi-Woo was attempting to push forward. Yunael had told him to not be afraid of a problem that he didn’t know the answer to. If he was confident, he should make his answer the right answer.

Chi-Woo stared at Ismile and replied without hesitation, “Yes, I know.”

“Then I’m…looking forward to it.” Ismile exhaled a long snort. “All right. Tell me.”

“The Sernitas are probably…” Chi-Woo spoke quietly. By the time he finished his explanation, Ismile blinked and stared blankly at him with a bewildered expression.

“What do you think?” asked Chi-Woo.

“Well…um…” Ismile gaped for a while. “How do I say it… Well, first of all, I think it’s a very interesting strategy, even though I don’t know if the word ‘interesting’ is the right one to describe a strategy that decides whether we all die or live.” He scratched his head like he really had no idea how this would turn out. “By any chance…what you just said.” He glanced at Chi-Woo and asked, “Is it simply your prediction? Or is it based on empirical evidence?” He was asking if it could really happen in real life.

Chi-Woo could understand why Ismile had such a hard time believing his words, but he smiled brightly and replied, “Of course, I’m saying it because I’ve experienced it once before.”

* * *

As Ismile predicted, the Demon Empire and the Abyss were already aware of the dimension distortion magic at the gate.

“They’ve played a pretty trick.” Of course, Bael and the Abyss King didn’t care in the least. “But it’ll all be in vain.” Bael made a bland smile and glanced behind her. “How much longer?”

“I’ve been told that they’ve secured enough nutrients, and the charging will be completed in the morning.”

Bael received an immediate answer and fell into thought. She had commanded the troops to withdraw around dawn. It was not long before the sunrise, and that big gate would be finished in just a few hours. Bael wanted to immediately go and destroy that gate even now…but she suppressed this feeling. No matter how determined they were to push through, she had had to deploy more troops than she had expected, and she was keeping a close eye on the Abyss’ movements. In her view, the Abyss could have easily subjugated and swept the mountain ranges on both sides by now, but they weren’t going out of their way to capture these areas. In other words, they were purposely not showing their full strength.

Bael had no intention in the least to protest because the Demon Empire was not showing their full strength, either. In the first place, they were merely in a temporary alliance where they briefly joined hands out of necessity. After the war was over, they’d go back to the way they used to be. Thus, she needed to be extremely careful and on the highest alert until the coalition achieved their objective.

As soon as the war was over, the other factions might suddenly try to twist the hand they were holding. In the first place, Bael didn’t expect them to peacefully part ways after the war. Therefore, she needed to keep their main force intact as much as possible in preparation for that time. Bael, who was already concerned about the events following the war, did not care in the least about the fate of humanity and the Cassiubia League that would disappear when the day broke.

At the same time, the Sernitas, who had succeeded in securing enough nutrients, was steadily preparing for their next attack. Moreover, as everyone expected, they had finished making preparations for all possible scenarios that could occur by analyzing the current situation thoroughly, including Alice’s ability to reverse time and space.

–Analysis complete.

–Identifying a large-scale energy in the dimension distortion category.

–Searching for the most effective response and solution among existing information…

–…Search results: 169.

The same was true for the large-scale dimension distortion magic activated through Chi-Woo’s World’s milestone. The Sernitas pulled their most certain card with the highest possibility of success from the information they had found. They adjusted the attack information so that even if the gate was divided into hundreds and thousands of dimensions, the attack would unconditionally hit it. Things progressed without a hitch. In the meantime, the Sernitas warily watched out for any new information, but no additional abnormalities were detected.

—Charging completed.

The sun finally began to rise.

—Implementing prepared task.

Fully charged, the Sky Castle bared its fang again.

Ddddddddddd! The ground shook. From the Sky Castle, a huge cannon reminiscent of the Tower of Babel extended and targeted the sky at an angle.

—Checking target coordinates…AI…

At that moment, the monotonous notification paused for a moment because they detected that their target had climbed on top of the gate, as if he was openly advertising his location. A few raised their doubts at this sight, but the notification went on.

—…Setting aim. Complete.

The Sernitas hadn’t let their guard down and instead made preparations for numerous scenarios; if their target was acting out of overconfidence in the dimension distortion magic around the last gate, they were going to make sure he realized how very wrong he was.

—Operating augmented Particle Beam Weapon.

—1%...7%...15%...23%...30%...

—…100%. Starting countdown.

The countdown has begun.

—10…