I Became the Successor of the Martial God Chapter 76

I Became the Successor of the Martial God

Chapter 76.

―An unforgivable atrocity!  

Mephisto raised both hands toward the sky.  

Then, an enormous amount of demonic energy erupted from his fingertips, creating countless meteors.  

Each one was a meteor of tremendous size.  

Kwaaaaah!  

The meteors rained down upon the earth simultaneously, triggering explosions of massive scale.  

Jin Seo-yeon, who had been watching, twisted their trajectories with magic, but it wasn’t enough to stop them.  

A sphere that the barrier couldn’t block exploded.  

“To cast a spell of that magnitude so effortlessly…”  

An extraordinary mastery of magic.  

Mephisto had revealed his power.  

―Go forth, my brethren! Make them pay for the blood of our kin spilled upon this world!  

From the transferred demonic realm, a black heat haze rose.  

What appeared to be a heat haze was, in fact, an army of demons. An uncountable number of diverse demonic beings descended upon the earth.  

“Fi—fire! Prepare to fire…!”  

“Wait!”  

“Yoo Baek-jun! Why?! We have to act now!”  

The moment the hunters tried to attack the demons, Yoo Baek-jun stopped them. He picked up the radio.  

“Let them come closer.”  

―Let them come closer? No, what kind of… Are you sure about this?!  

“I have a plan, so let them come.”  

But that wasn’t all.  

The demons transported from the demonic realm set foot on Seoul’s soil. Grotesque man-eating plants, hideously twisted beasts.  

―Kyaaaaah!  

―Light! The air outside! How long has it been?!  

In an instant, the ground of Seoul was overrun by demons. The hunters Yoo Baek-jun had restrained earlier trembled uncontrollably.  

“E-even now, you want us to wait?”  

“Huu…!”  

Yoo Baek-jun clenched his eyes shut.  

It was an unbearable situation. Man-eating plants with fangs were crawling forward, and beasts were charging at them.  

“Things have gone to shit.”  

Yoo Baek-jun looked up at the sky.  

Countless demons were descending. And the ground was no different. Literally, enemies surrounded them on all sides.  

He could see people trembling.  

To be honest,  

‘There’s no way to defeat him head-on.’  

Mephisto was no ordinary monster.  

A boss monster. One that far surpassed even S-rank—truly an impregnable monstrosity.  

Victory through conventional means was impossible.  

With a single gesture from him, Seoul would be obliterated in an instant.  

‘But.’  

He could see Mephisto laughing in the air.  

Yoo Baek-jun waited for the enemies to draw closer while gripping the Chalice of the Saint King within the subspace.  

The chalice was glowing brilliantly.  

Even in this worst-case scenario…  

‘There’s always a way.’  

A faint smile touched Yoo Baek-jun’s lips.  

He raised the Chalice of the Saint King high.  

Mephisto, who had been slowly descending, saw it. More precisely, the chalice in his hand.  

―Human, that is…!  

“Let there be light.”  

Mephisto’s shock.  

The Chalice of the Saint King erupted with light.  

And then.  

Paaaaaah!  

Light engulfed everything.  

* * *  

Peng So-young was staring at the sky.  

Innumerable demons were descending. 

Far more than the first wave that had attacked.  

They had barely survived that assault—how were they supposed to stop this one?  

“The Magic Tower! What about the magical weapon?!”  

“It’s unusable! The magic stones are depleted, and the main cannon’s recoil is too destructive to fire…!”  

“This is insane. Are we supposed to fight all of that?”  

Even the usually bold Peng Do-hyeok’s face had stiffened this time.  

Because the situation was far too dire.  

But they couldn’t give up.  

“Gather and form ranks! All hunters in the vicinity, assemble! If we scatter, we die!”  

“Y-yes!”  

The Peng family rallied the nearby hunters and formed ranks. Peng So-young was among them.  

She noticed the hunter beside her trembling.  

‘Me too…’  

Peng So-young was also trembling.  

Unconsciously, she searched for someone.  

Someone who, even in the face of such a crisis, would act as if he had foreseen it all.  

Yoo Baek-jun.  

“That’s…”  

Light was spreading around him.  

An intense divine energy repelled the surrounding darkness and surged toward the heavens.  

The darkness in the sky was instantly dispelled.  

―Ugh, uuugh! This light…!  

“Wh-what?! What’s happening now?!”  

And from that sky—  

―Wuaaaaaaah!  

Pillars of light poured down.  

Like a torrential downpour, pillars of light—large and small—rained continuously.  

Where they touched the demons, the light roared before exploding.  

Kwa-gwa-gwang!  

A chain of explosions lit up the sky.  

The demons were obliterated without even time to scream. Terror consumed them instantly, and the survivors began to flee.  

And on the ground.  

“Peng So-young! Look out!”  

“No, this is…”  

Sacred flames raced across the earth.  

Flames rising from the ground engulfed the land and the demons upon it.  

“Fire?!”  

“Uwaaah… Huh? It’s not hot?”  

Peng So-young reached out to the flames rising beside her.  

There was no pain. The fire harmed only demons, leaving humans untouched.  

In fact, her wounds were healing.  

―Kyaaaaaaaah!  

―H-hot! It burns! My body!  

But for the demons, it was different.  

The approaching demons shrieked in agony.  

Their bodies burned and melted upon contact with the overwhelming divine energy.  

Whoooosh!  

―Mephistoooooo!  

This was on a completely different level from the magical weapon. 

This was the Saint King’s divine power—an artifact imbued with the full might of the one who had driven them underground.  

―Oooh… Aaaaah…  

One of the Legion Commanders who had invaded the surface, the 8th Legion Commander Valum, had half his body melted away.  

Demons fell to their knees. Seeing this, the other Legion Commanders abandoned their assault and fled skyward.  

But even there, was no safety.  

“A… a miracle?”  

“Ooh, gods above!”  

Among the Holy Knights praising their god, Ryu Il-woo couldn’t hide his astonishment.  

What was this divine energy? This overwhelming power, this purity, this sheer scale.  

He looked toward the epicenter of the light.  

‘Yoo Baek-jun, what did you just do?’  

And another thought.  

‘Just how far ahead did you foresee this?’  

He must have prepared something.  

He must have predicted this catastrophe.  

But was that even possible?  

Come to think of it, Yoo Baek-jun’s unique abilities were unknown. 

Perhaps…  

‘Does he have some kind of precognitive ability?’  

Given everything Yoo Baek-jun had shown so far, it was hard not to think that way.  

But now wasn’t the time for speculation. Ryu Il-woo looked back at the sky.  

A massive demonic figure loomed.  

―This light! This detestable light!  

The demon’s entire body was ablaze.  

Mephisto, engulfed in sacred flames, roared in fury.  

But his cry held no pain.  

―That damned…! Isn’t that the Saint King’s light?!  

Memories of the past resurfaced.  

The loathsome human who had obstructed them and ultimately sealed them away in the Underworld.  

As if possessed, Mephisto charged toward Yoo Baek-jun—or more precisely, toward the Chalice of the Saint King.  

The closer he got, the faster his body melted.  

―Lord Mephisto! Stop!  

―Calm yourself!  

―Guh, grrrr! Graaaah!  

Mephisto’s eyes turned red, and bloody tears streamed down his face.  

He raised both hands high.  

―We will return…!  

A rift in space opened behind Mephisto—like a gate.  

A dark energy enveloped the surrounding demons, and in an instant, they were pulled into the void and vanished.  

‘Spatial teleportation.’  

Mephisto’s unique ability.  

He possessed the power to manipulate space.

That was how he had tampered with the gate.  

“Th-they’re gone.”  

The demons remaining on the ground, those flying in the sky—all had disappeared.  

In their place, the entire transferred demonic realm was shrouded in a thick barrier of demonic energy. The demons had retreated there.  

“D-did they retreat?”  

“Finish off the stragglers! Kill them all while they’re disoriented! Hurry!”  

“Y-yeah! Right.”  

Some hadn’t escaped in time.  

Injured by the divine judgment, they writhed in agony on the ground.  

The hunters quickly dispatched them.  

“Whew, we pushed them back for now.”  

Yoo Baek-jun exhaled as he lowered the Chalice of the Saint King.  

The light from the chalice had dimmed.  

But unlike disposable artifacts, the chalice itself remained intact.  

‘Judgment annihilates all demons within a set radius. It also emits an aura that weakens them for a certain period.’  

That radius just barely reached the demonic realm.  

The aura’s duration was a maximum of five days. They had to deal with the demons before then.  

Or lure them out.  

‘Make them believe Judgment can be used again, so they’ll desperately try to destroy the Chalice of the Saint King.’  

Even if it meant enduring the aura’s damage, they had to force the demons to act.  

Yoo Baek-jun took another deep breath.  

“Yoo Baek-jun, what do we do now?”  

Jin Seo-yeon approached him, her expression certain that he had a plan.  

Yoo Baek-jun answered with equal certainty.  

“We gather the people.”  

And when the demons try to destroy the chalice, they would strike the demonic realm.  

“There’s something I need to ask of you too…”  

“A request? What?”  

“A barrier—no, I’ll explain later.”  

Yoo Baek-jun picked up the radio.  

“Chae Jeong-jun, call Dokgo-jun.”  

―D-Dokgo-jun of the Myeongseong Group? Why him…?  

“There’s something he needs to do.”  

Dokgo-jun was the perfect man for the job.  

Yoo Baek-jun looked up at the sky.  

“Live or die.”  

* * *  

The first wave had ended.  

People hiding in shelters slowly emerged, only to see Seoul in ruins.  

“Ahh…”  

“Just yesterday, everything was fine…”  

Even though nearly half of the invading demons had been eliminated mid-air, the damage was devastating.  

Roads were shattered, buildings collapsed, and many of the prepared defenses were destroyed.  

The financial losses alone would easily reach billions, possibly even trillions.  

“What is that?”  

“The sky…”  

And then, the floating continent in the sky.  

The pitch-black barrier shrouding the landmass only deepened the people’s unease.  

“Injured, come this way!”  

“Brothers and sisters! We will heal you! Over here!”  

Crimson Crusade’s priests and clerics set up treatment stations, tending to the critically wounded.  

The stations were stocked with an enormous supply of potions and scrolls, and dispatched Hunter Association staff used them to heal the less severely injured.  

“Where did all this come from? Wow, so many potions and scrolls… Did the Association provide them?”  

“No, the Sword Saint’s family supplied them.”  

“The Sword Saint’s family?”  

“Yes. They restocked the shelters before this crisis hit. We’re using them for treatment now.”  

The hunter being treated gaped.  

The sheer quantity of potions and scrolls was staggering, and the fact that they had been donated was even more so.  

Just how wealthy was the Sword Saint’s family?  

“…….”  

Yoo Baek-jun observed the scene.  

The city had suffered greatly, but the loss of life had been minimized.  

“I suppose this counts as fortunate.”  

A bitter smile escaped him.  

Ideally, the city would have been spared, but things rarely went as planned.  

He turned around.  

He was currently in the Sword Saint’s family conference room. 

Across from him—  

“So, why did you call me?”  

Dokgo-jun, who had been overseas and rushed back upon hearing of Korea’s crisis, stood there.  

Yoo Baek-jun exhaled.  

“I need your help.”  

There was something only Dokgo-jun could do.