Chapter 399. Dear Friend (3)

After a period of inaction, the Sky Castle awakened again. The last gate was dead silent, and in the end, humanity and the Cassiubia League didn’t retreat. There were many who fiercely protested and insisted on leaving, but Ismile shut them down with one single sentence: it was too early for them to retreat when the Cassiubia League’s reinforcements were still coming, and there was a way for them to block the Sky Castle’s attack.

Of course, he couldn’t quell the doubt of every single hero and League member with those words alone, but the effect that Chi-Woo’s name had on humanity and the League far surpassed Ismile’s expectations. When he told them that the Seven Star leader had found a method to stop the Sky Castle’s attack, people decided to believe Chi-Woo once again. And thanks to Ismile, Chi-Woo gained an opportunity to prove himself.

This was the time. The sun was rising, and the day was getting brighter. While letting out a terrible roar, a giant cannon came to view from the Sky Castle. It went through the same process as before. It shot up as if it would pierce the clouds and tilted downward gradually. Everyone from humanity and the League pursed their lips seeing the giant cannon aimed for the sky. And as everyone exchanged looks silently, unable to find the words to describe their terror, Chi-Woo alone stood tall.

“We carried out everything as you told us to,” an old voice said from behind Chi-Woo, and Chi-Woo nodded. “Then, we’ll leave this here…” Chi-Woo heard the sound of something being put down and felt a presence move farther away. With this, the preparation was done.

Chi-Woo looked piercingly at the Sky Castle. He clenched his teeth hard, and his mouth shook slightly. It would be a lie for him to say he wasn’t nervous. If he could, he wanted to act immediately, yet the timing was the most important aspect of this operation. He needed to wait until the Sky Castle was prepared. Soon, Chi-Woo saw giant beam particles blooming inside the cannon; they were so big it made the Sky Castle waver, and then the cluster of light bloomed like flowers.

It was a sign that the Sky Castle was almost ready to make the shot. There was really not much time left now. As seconds passed, the light particles inside the canon became bigger and bigger.

“That attack is…” Chi-Woo said in a low voice, “Aiming at you and me.” He spoke as if he was conversing with somebody even though there was no one around him. It was like he was monologuing. “If the message I saw yesterday is true—” Chi-Woo looked below him while speaking. Of course, nothing was near his feet either. “My wish and yours will align.”

The light particles that had been expanding in size now filled up the canon. It was then Chi-Woo turned around and looked behind him. On the gate walls’ floor were drawings of large circles with all sorts of geometric symbols. And in the middle of the magic circles, there was one dark, blackish fire pit. Chi-Woo inhaled deeply.

“Please...make the same wish as me,” Chi-Woo said and got on one knee. He took a fistful of broken debris on the ground and placed it inside the fire pit. Simultaneously, the Sky Castle finally made its last count.

—Blasting Particle Beam Weapon.

—Fire.

An enormous beam of light poured out from the canon, illuminating the surroundings while it pierced through the sky. After seeing the canon blast off, Ismile looked below him. To counter this blast, it was the time for Chi-Woo to act now.

‘What is he doing?’ Chi-Woo wasn’t doing anything. He was simply praying with his head bowed down toward the fire pit. Then his eyes reflected a faint reddish light as the magic circles around the fire pit began to shine. What followed was a vibration strong enough to make his balance falter. At the same time, the cannon’s beam of light was now falling while leaving a long tail in the sky like a meteorite. At that moment, Chi-Woo’s eyes flashed open. The fire pit was now shaking like it was furious, and Chi-Woo looked up at the sky.

‘…What?’ Ismile then saw Chi-Woo extend his hand, clutch the fire pit, and raise himself up. Then he threw the fire pit with all his might toward where the light beam was falling from. Ismile flinched in surprise and clearly witnessed the opening of the fire pit split sideways in the air. And…

***

In the vast universe, there was one great god who was in a sour mood these days. It hadn’t been long since one wish reached them; it was a wish asking for a powerful weapon that could destroy anything. Things were fine until that point. It was common for mere mortals made up of clumps of blood and flesh to make such wishes, and listening to those wishes was a form of entertainment for immortal beings like them. Thus, the god thought that they would take a look at the mortal behind the wish, and if things seemed interesting, they could play with the mortal a little.

Of course, they wouldn’t do this all for free, but if this mortal succeeded in attracting even a little bit of this great existence’s interest, perhaps they would even grant this wish—as long as the price was proper. If one wanted something, one needed to offer something in return after all.

—Let me see…

The god fake coughed, but when they saw what was offered to them, they felt their mind go slightly numb. It was because the offerings were substances belonging to a mere mortal; more specifically, it was a mortal’s fingernails, hair strands, saliva, and so on. The god even saw some dandruff mixed in. Perhaps things would’ve been different if they belonged to another great being, but that was clearly not the case. No matter how long they looked at it, these things simply belonged to a lowly mortal’s physical body. It was inevitable as the one who made that offering was no one other than Jin-Cheon.

The great god stayed still, silently in shock at what they saw, but soon afterward, they became infuriated. It was an intense rage they had never felt before.

—How could a lowly clump of blood and flesh daaaare!!!!!!!!

How dare this man insult this great self? How dare he treat them, who had destroyed numerous planets and taken so many lives that it was almost impossible to count, dare to insult them in this manner? They, who stood with great authority over an entire galaxy? This was unacceptable!

‘Fine. I will go and grant your wish—as long as you can withstand my rage, that is!’ the god thought. And as they made up their mind, the god headed toward where the wish came from. But when they were about to reach the place, the dimension door shut. No matter how hard they waved their hands in the air or cried out, the disappeared portal never appeared again. In the end, the great being had to return to where they had been and shudder in pure humiliation and anger from what they had been put through. And as they continued to writhe in agony over what happened, another wish suddenly reached them.

The wish was simple; it was asking for the god’s protection. As a being who considered slaughter and destruction a part of their everyday life, the god didn’t like the wish from the very beginning. Thus, they were going to ignore the wish until they saw what was offered, and their attitude changed 180 degrees. It was just crushed-up debris. What…was this perhaps that guy from before? Even if it wasn’t the same mortal, it didn’t matter. They needed to release this anger that was boiling inside them somehow. This was the perfect timing.

The god quickly moved across the passageway created by the wish that had reached them. To avoid arriving before the dimension door closed like last time, they moved hurriedly and eventually arrived. The dimension door didn’t close.

—Kuuuuh….!

The god laughed. Yes, they caught this guy, and it was finally time for revenge. They would thoroughly make this mortal suffer. Feeling glee at the thought of bringing destruction after a long time, the god clutched the shining dimension door and pushed their head out.

—You damn mortals!

***

Back to what was happening on Liber. Right after Chi-Woo threw the fire pit at the beam of light shot from the Sky Castle, an unidentified portal opened on top of the fire pit, and something popped out, clashing with the falling beam of light.

—Listen mortals!

—I will kill—ughbrughurgheh! Kuaaaaaaah!

Heaven and earth shook relentlessly. Light and darkness mixed and scattered everywhere, turning the sky a monochrome hue. Ismile couldn’t comprehend what was happening before his eyes even a little bit, yet he was certain of one thing: the beam of light wasn’t falling anymore, and the thing that suddenly popped out of the fire pit could no longer get out. The two forces warred, offset, and even vaporized one another. Humanity, the Cassiubia League, and even the coalition army couldn’t peel their eyes from the clash.

It was such a shocking scene that no one could’ve expected it. After some time, the light and darkness that had been pushing each other began to fade. The light beam that the Sky Castle shot out gradually dissipated, shrinking from the width of the tower to the width of one pillar before vanishing without a trace, having not reached Chi-Woo or even the last gate.

A grave silence circled the battlefield. Bael and the Abyss King had thought everything would be over by now, and they could only stare blankly with their mouths agape. They couldn’t believe what had happened even after witnessing it in person. What in the world…? Yet no one was more baffled than the foreign god who suddenly popped out of nowhere. Beyond being shocked, the god felt that the situation was terribly unfair. They had come out of the dimension door excitedly at the thought of getting revenge, but were attacked by a fearsome blow instead.

—T-This…bastard…

The god was so stunned that they stuttered. At this point, they realized what had happened somewhat.

—How dare…they use me…as a shield…!

As the god said, Chi-Woo’s main plan had been to block the Sky Castle’s beam with the fire pit. It would’ve been impossible to accomplish this task through the normal method as the fire pit required its user to go through a trial matching their wishes, and he would not be able to pay the fitting price in exchange for a powerful enough protection. Thus, Chi-Woo changed his way of thinking. If it was difficult to hope for a power to protect the gate, perhaps he could summon an existence who could withstand the Sky Castle’s attack for them.

Chi-Woo remembered the catastrophe that had almost happened when Jin-Cheon offered an unbelievably low price for a grand wish, and he came up with a plan around it. Of course, this plan also had its problems. First of all, there was the nature of the trials that the fire pit gave. The fire pit’s trial was limited to the person who made their wish, and no one else could intervene. Thus, in normal situations, the Sky Castle’s attack should’ve just passed through the god. Yet the foreign god and the beam clashed because of one reason: the World’s Milestone that Chi-Woo rolled last night.

When the last gate expressed its will to survive and cast dimension warping magic, it changed everything. The Sky Castle had recognized this change beforehand, analyzed the situation, and altered their attack accordingly. They had added new information so that the beam would be able to hit anything no matter what dimension the target was in.

As a result, the beam was able to penetrate through the dimension space that should’ve been restricted to Chi-Woo and struck the god. As Chi-Woo had told Ismile, the way he revealed his dimension warping magic beforehand to the Sernitas was both a bait and a trap. The fact that the Sernitas prepared everything beforehand thoroughly backfired on them this time. After all, who could’ve guessed that an item like the fire pit would come out of nowhere?

The second concern was the existence that would’ve popped out of the fire pit. Who knew what kind of unimaginable being would emerge? If an existence that even the light beam couldn’t deal with popped out, Chi-Woo planned to use Armed with the Sixth Element to throw the fire pit into the middle of the enemy base camp. Then, while the coalition army was in a mess dealing with an unknown enemy, he planned to run away. He even thought further ahead that later on, he would reach a temporary truce with the Sernitas in exchange for passing over information of the foreign god he had summoned and betray them later on.

—I will remember this…this grudge will never…

Fortunately or unfortunately, there was no need for Chi-Woo to worry about that. The foreign god quickly escaped from the scene. They did manage to withstand the Sky Castle’s attack, but not in a completely fine state. Even though the attack had been meant for a human, it consisted of information about other-worldly dimensions and all the power the Sernitas could amass. Sernitas was a group who had gone through countless evolutions so that they were halfway to immortality. Considering that the Sky Castle was a weapon that such beings had made with great effort, not even a foreign god would be able to take the attack completely unscathed.

If they could, the great being wanted to run wild in anger, but they had already suffered great damages. If they received a couple more of those attacks, they might not be able to turn things around.

—Someday…I will for sure…

Thus, the god quickly disappeared inside the dimension door. They gritted their teeth while hurling empty threats, and they swore to focus all their attention on recovering for the time being. Thus, a great being who shook up an entire galaxy entered a long slumber. Many planets were saved for thousands of years from the torment of the evil god as a result, but that was a story for much later.

Then, one stream of light extended from the last gate, shooting down and wrapping around the black fire pit. Chi-Woo pulled on it, and the Kobalos’ magic fire pit safely returned to his arms. The coalition army showed no response. They were silent as if they were shocked speechless. Chi-Woo held the fire pit with one arm and clenched his fist. With this, they could be sure of one thing, which was that they had blocked the enemy’s key attack once again; they successfully carried out the plan titled ‘Friend Shield’.