Stagnant Water of Apocalypse

Happy Ramadhan for those who celebrate it!! 

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Objectively speaking, it was Seongho who started this fight first.
Not only did he touch the sacred Church of Giudecca, he also attacked their magicians.
However, if people want to really find out who was the one who started the entire war between the two camps, it was the Transcendental Knights who was to blame.

Regardless, no one blamed each other.
After all, it was inevitable.
Now they were only focused on dealing as much damage as they could to their opponent.
That’s why quite a lot of magic poured into the place where Seongho stood.

The wizard who used the Thunder Storm spell clenched his fists.
Since it was a magic that contained enough power to incapacitate quite a few transcendental knights for a moment, the man who got struck just now would not be able to move.

Now, all they had to do was to approach him and capture him…

But to the surprise of the magician, the guy seemed to be fine.
Ether could be felt roaring for a moment from the man, before he pulled out a strange iron rod.

Looking at the strange rod, the group laughed.
It was clear to them that the man was quite out of his mind due to the Thunder Storm spell.

But unlike them, Margretha did not let her guard down.

“Don’t let your guard down! He has some strange weapons!

“Lady, you are too vigilant! Look at him!”

“Yeah!”

A roar of laughter broke out among the knights on top of the hornbill.
Looking at their relaxed demeanor, Margretha could only bite her lip.

Currently, the members of her group consist of people from many different groups.
Therefore, the chain of command was not established properly.
The only thing she could do was to give orders to the squad leaders before they relay it to their subordinates.

The downside of that kind of chain of command was its slow speed.
It was quite impossible for them to do a quick maneuver using this kind of chain of command.
However, since they only have 1 target, she felt like it should be fine.
Margretha did not find it difficult to catch the stranger in the distance.

But she was mistaken.

Seongho, who had been struck by lightning, took out a machine gun in a fit of rage.
Since he couldn’t kill them with one bullet, he thought that sending a rain of bullets to them should do the job.

What he was holding was an M249 machine gun.
However, since he couldn’t afford to waste any bullets, he put on a magazine instead of a belt bullet.

Clack-!!

When the gun was loaded and the trigger was pulled, bullets flew out as a deafening roar echoed.

BABABABABABAM-!!

One of the magicians fell from the hornbill’s back without even being able to scream the pain he felt out.

‘One down.’

Seongho moved the muzzle of the machine gun to another magician.
He was eager to kill one more of them and test whether the murderer sytem would be applied or not.
But when Seongho pulled the trigger, something unexpected happened.

A blue sphere appeared around the magician that he targeted.

‘What is that?’

At first glance, it looked identical to Sangshin’s way of defending.
If that’s the case, it meant that it wouldn’t break with any kind of shock.

Seongho gritted his teeth and threw the machine gun back to the dimensional bag before fishing out a rocket launcher.

The knights which were rushing at him became even more busier at that moment.

“Go! Go! Go!”

Clack~!! BOOM~!!

As the rockets launched to the air and hit the magician, he and the hornbill he rode were engulfed in the explosion.
A shield appeared in front of him for a fraction of second, but it quickly disappeared without a trace.

Now that Seongho had killed two people, he stopped for a few moments.
However, even after making sure he had not missed any sound around him, he could not hear any heartbeat at all.

‘As expected, there is no murderer system here.’ Since that was the case, there’s nothing he couldn’t do here.

Seongho glared at the knights charging towards him.
He didn’t have even the slightest intention to take them all.
But, he was aware that he had to cut their numbers.
He put the firearms into the dimensional slot and prepared for hand-to-hand combat.

When she saw Seongho do that, Margretha’s heart became even more impatient.
The two magicians that had died were someone who she felt that she would be better off without as they did not take her command seriously.
However, as they were people who were sent by the magic tower, she had the responsibility to take revenge for them.

‘I can’t let it continue like this…’ As Margretha said so, a golden glow emanated from the sword she drew.

Seongho was briefly distracted by the brilliance of the ether blade, but he could return to his senses quickly.
He opened a dimensional prison in Margretha’s rushing path.

The hornbill she rode entered the hole without any obstruction.
But Margretha was smashed in the jaw by the borders of the dimensional prison before following the hornbill.

At that moment, Seongho transformed into Abomination.

GRRRRRRRR-!!

The remaining knights were shocked when their superior suddenly disappeared.
At the same time, they were also shaken by the monster in front of them.

“It’s an Abomination!”

.
.
.

“UGHH…”

Margretha was struck in her chin and rolled across the ground.
However, this degree of shock was nothing to her who had inherited the power of her Pistel family.
She sprung up to his feet, lowering her stance and guarding herself.

But… nothing came to attack her.

The only thing that she saw was the hornbill she rode standing some distance away from her.
And after looking around for some more, she also found herself in an unfamiliar environment.
A forest where the sea breeze was blowing.

“This is…” She lowered her sword and walked around.
Only when she arrived on a beach did she see a grey wolf sitting beside a boy who was fishing.

“Where are they and who are they?” Margretha was taken aback by the peaceful scenery.

Jiman, who was fishing with Dingo, noticed her presence at that moment.
He had been waiting on the spot since the operation began as he was assigned to be the lurer of the knight’s hornbill in case they were able to cross to Seoul.
But he never expected to meet her like this.

“At this point, it seems like it’s not a coincidence, right, Dingo?”

Woof-!!

Dingo barked as if answering Jiman’s question.
Meanwhile, Margretha becomes more and more wary of the two.
Of course, she was not afraid of the wolf.
She was just lost because of the whole weird situation.
After being hit in the jaw by something and rolled on the ground, she woke up to see this idyllic scenery instead of a fierce scene of battle.
Which mean, the man in front of her couldn’t be anything but a normal person.

“Who are you?” Margretha said in a low voice.

“Me? My name is Eum Jiman.
And this guy over here is Dingo.”

“Eum Jiman? What a strange name.”

“Ah, that certainly could be the case for people over there.
How about you? What’s your name?”

“My name is Pistel.
Margretha Pistel.”

“Nice to meet you.” Jiman smiled at her.

Margretha’s heart melted a little at his unpretentious laughter.
In fact, the man–who looked more like a boy than a grown up man–in front of her looked so harmless.
And even though she could feel some ether coming out from the man, She had no reason to go wild at all.
After all, a lot of people had gained the ability to control ether after the apocalypse.

“Where is this place?” Margretha asked.

“It is a peninsula on the southeast of the Lotus continent.
It used to be our home.”

“Home, huh? Come to think of it, I can see the site of the house.”

“This place used to be a really nice place, but circumstances forced us to move.”

“After the apocalypse, everyone had the same problem as you.” She stood next to Jiman as she said so.
Life in the Ezekium Garrison always gave her a headache, but it was not the case here.
All she could feel was peace.
It was to the point that she wanted to just put all her responsibility down and live in this place.

However, she knew she couldn’t do so.

“Are you… the stranger who came to us?”

“Isn’t it strange? We live in different worlds, but we have similar faces.”

“Similar? Your face and mine are quite different.”

“It’s similar, you know? We both have eyes, nose and mouth.
We also has two limbs.”

Margretha laughed at his innocence.

“When you say it like that, I guess you are right.
Anyway, can you tell me why I am here?”

“Well, I have a brother who lives with me.
He sent you here.”

Only then did Margretha’s face harden.

“Is your brother a big man with dark hair?”

“Maybe…”

“Then…you are my enemy.”

As Margretha drew her sword, Dingo lowered his stance and growled.
But Jiman still had a smile on his face.

“Are you going to kill me?”

“N-no…”

She knew better that there’s no point in arguing with the boy in front of him.
On top of that, what is the use of hostages to transcendental knights? Furthermore, she had no intention to swing her sword at an unarmed civilian at all.

She just wanted to get out of this place quickly.

“Margretha will be out in a minute.” Jiman suddenly said, up until now he had been keeping track of the time inside his head.

“It’s a really unique ability.
Imprisoning the enemy in a place like this.”

“If you’re unlucky, you’ll drown in the open sea and die.
But, I think brother didn’t have any intention to lock Margretha up.”

“Is that so?”

“By the way, I have something to ask of you.”

“What is that?”

“Don’t fight against my brother.
He’s a really scary person.”

“Then, do you want me to just die quietly? I am not weak enough to not be able to fight him.” Margretha answered, her pitch raised

Jiman shook his head at that moment.
“Since Margretha is a knight, of course you are strong.
Still, you are no match against my brother.
After all, he has everything set up to catch you.”

Jiman knew that In terms of sheer fighting power alone, Margretha would have the upper hand against Seongho.
After all, she’s a transcendental knight who freely uses the high-purity ether blade.
However, power alone wouldn’t be enough to beat Seongho.
He was someone who would do whatever it takes to win.

Margretta raised her voice in her anger.

“Whether I’ll die or live, I will only know once I do it.”

“Ah, there’s that saying too in Lotus?”

“Aren’t you the one who said that we are similar?”

“I guess so.
By the way, you have 5 seconds left.”

And at the moment that five seconds had passed, Margretha’s vision changed.
Gone were the innocent boy and a wolf from his vision, they were replaced by a man with cold countenance.
On top of that, she couldn’t see the forest and the sea anymore.
There were only corpses all around.
Without even checking them, she could tell who it belonged to.

Which means, the man had defeated all the knights.

“So, you don’t die, huh?”

“This…”

Margretha clutched the sword harder as rage clouded her judgment.

.
.
.

While Seongho was fighting against the Transcendental Knights, Da-jeong and Mikyung were waiting near Yeouido.
The place they were waiting at was the boundary between an active battlefield and a clear land.
The reason they did so was simple, it was due to Seongho’s plan.

He had put one of his portals on an active battlefield.
So, when the Transcendental Knight followed Seongho to Seoul, their abilities would be blocked.

However, it was not known whether the plan would actually succeed or not.
After all, It was not clear yet whether the people of Ezekium could open the dimensional gate or not.
Even if it turned out that they could, it was still not clear whether they could open their portal to wherever they want or their portal couldn’t be set.
In any case, Seongho said that he prefered to prepare for all kinds of situations, so improvisation was important.
Da-jeong and Mikyung were in charge of that.

Originally Seokhyun was the one who was tasked with it together with Da-jeong.
But he left after hearing that something had happened in the Great Labyrinth, and Mikyung was hired to fill his place.

Suddenly, Da-jeong started to bully Mikyung, who had been acting suspiciously lately.

“What happened to you and Seongho?”

“N-nothing happened unnie…”

“You are smiling too much at Seongho lately and you still say that nothing happened? Tell me what you did in the bunker, quickly.”

When Da-jeong launched a tickle attack at her, Mi-kyung couldn’t stand it and declared surrender.
Normally, she would have run away with Blink, but she couldn’t do so today as she had to wait for Seongho.

“I kissed him…”

Da-jeong’s expression became strange at her answer.

“That’s it? A man and a woman are alone in the bunker, and yet, only kissing?”

Da-jeong decided to bully her even more and laid her hand on Mi-kyung.
But the joke ended there.
After all, a voice suddenly came out from the whispering jewel that Da-jeong placed around the two of them.

-Coming!

“Tsk…”

When Da-jeong turned around, Mi-kyung let out a sigh of relief.
The two then carefully aimed the net gun towards the portal.
Not long after, they could see Seongho jumped out from his blue portal while another blue portal appeared nearby.
Which means, Seongho’s prediction that they would have something similar to a portal came true.

From the blue portal, a blonde woman they had never seen before jumped out.

“I will not forgive you!” Contrary to her bloody spirit, the ether that rose from her sword suddenly went out.

How did this happen?

The moment Margretha thought so, the trigger of the net gun was pulled, and a set of nets came at her at a frightening speed.

Of course, she tried to dodge, but her actions were too slow.
Afterall, she was affected by the battlefield shackles, making all of her stats locked at 10.

“Ugh!”

Margretha was caught in the net and left to struggle.
She tried to cut the net with her sword, but just in time, seongho blew something out of a pipe at her.

“Ah…” She hung limp as a paralyzing dart struck her in the throat.

Da-jeong pulled Mikyung and watched Seongho pulling the net with Margretta inside it with a rope.

“Hey, she’s a girl! Be more careful!”

“You are noisy.
You don’t know how strong this woman is.”

“Her face is beautiful, could she even fight?”

“She’s a complete monster.”

“Really?”

Seongho answered Da-jeong’s question with a simple nod.
The ether blade that she used was no joke.
Moreover her physical ability which was far stronger than the physical ability of all transcendental knights Seongho faced gave him a massive headache.

No matter what kind of attack he used, it bounced back.
He couldn’t think of a way to subdue her at all.
Of course, if he mobilized the heavy weapons in his arsenal, he would be able to kill her.
But that defeats the purpose.

Therefore, Seongho had no choice but to run away through the dimensional door, and Margretha immediately opened the gate.
Not knowing what awaited her on the other side.

Before long, Margretha appeared in front of his party.

Mikyung opened her mouth in admiration.

“She’s totally a doll…”

“I know right? She’s really pretty.”

However, Seongho just rummaged through her backpack, as if he had no interest in the knight’s beauty.

Da-jeong sighed.

“It’s a start again, looting mania.”

“I think oppa really likes to pick things up.”

As the two chatted, Seongho glanced back and replied.

“That’s the reason why we live well.”

“You’re not groping her breasts while pretending to be rummaging her arms, are you?”

“Am I you?”

Soon after, Seongho entered the dimensional door again and brought several hornbirds and the belongings of the killed knights and magicians.

Da-eong then pointed to the next dimension door.

“What should we do with that?”

“Well… I don’t think it will disappear on its own.”

As soon as the words were finished, the portal opened by the knight disappeared.
Seongho was relieved and quickly put the supplies and the hornbills into the dimensional warehouse before putting Margretha on his shoulder.

“Let’s go.
I have to interrogate her.”

Da-jeong smiled and chuckled at that moment.

“A man captured a woman and wanted to interrogate her… Isn’t that a good premise for an erotic story?”

“Don’t say anything strange.
I don’t do anything dirty like that.”

“Of course! Our Seongho prefers to just kill.”

“I have a lot to ask her about.”

“Will she answer you, though?”

“I have to make her talk.”

How will Seongho make her open her mouth?

Da-jeong and Mikyung were curious about that.