SFRW-Chapter 253

Ch. 253 Sword God From The Ruined World

The creatures of the Sky Forest rushed toward the massive flames that had erupted, as if in a desperate frenzy.  

“What’s wrong with them? Are they going crazy just because of a little fire? And hey! Isn’t it common sense to try to run away when there’s a fire?”  

Choi Kang-soo couldn’t hide his bewildered expression as not just venomous insects and beasts, but even ordinary animals charged at them as if possessed.  

And it wasn’t just Choi Kang-soo—the rest of the party felt the same.  

Even the timid rabbits of the Sky Forest, which would normally flee at the slightest rustle, now had red, ferocious eyes and charged bare-bodied.  

Creatures resembling Earth’s squirrels bared their teeth and pounced from the trees, gentle-looking deer screamed and rammed their heads forward, and the cheerful, nameless birds swooped down menacingly.  

Venomous insects and beasts would have attacked them regardless of the fire, but the ordinary animals left Seo Do-jun’s group perplexed.  

At first, they had no choice but to kill those that charged, but as their numbers rapidly increased, a sense of reluctance toward meaningless slaughter began to grow.  

“Wouldn’t it be better to put out the fire?”  

Shinjo made the suggestion, not wanting to kill any more innocent creatures.  

Seo Do-jun, too, felt uneasy and told Choi Kang-soo to extinguish the flames.  

“R-Right? With this much smoke, that Bolikos guy or whatever must’ve noticed the situation by now, right?”  

Choi Kang-soo said this while turning his back on the charging animals to put out the fire.  

Once the flames died down, the animals quickly turned and disappeared as if nothing had happened.  

“…Talk about a quick change of heart.”  

At Choi Kang-soo’s remark, the whole party sighed at the sight of the animals vanishing in an instant.  

Of course, they still had to deal with the venomous insects and beasts that remained aggressive.  

Just as they were finishing off the remaining creatures—  

“Twek?”  

An unfamiliar voice pierced the eardrums of Seo Do-jun’s group.  

The first to react was Twek, whose name had been called.  

“Lord Bolikos!”  

A relatively small-framed werewolf dropped down from a tall tree.  

‘Is that guy Bolikos?’  

Seo Do-jun studied Bolikos carefully.  

His height, a full head shorter than Twek’s, was the first thing that stood out.  

But despite his small stature, the aura radiating from Bolikos far surpassed Twek’s.  

“What’s going on?”  

While addressing Twek, Bolikos calmly observed Seo Do-jun’s group.  

“We came all this way to find you, Lord Bolikos.”  

“To find me?”  

As Bolikos crossed his arms, signaling for a detailed explanation, Twek began recounting everything from the moment they had met Seo Do-jun’s group.  

Listening quietly, Bolikos locked eyes with Seo Do-jun.  

‘Is he really… human?’  

Bolikos’s arms trembled faintly, and his fur stood on end.  

The shock was that intense.  

Just meeting Seo Do-jun’s gaze made him instinctively realize this man was on a completely different level from any human he’d encountered before.  

“…You even went through the altar’s verification?”  

“Yes!”  

Regardless of anything else, if the Fallen Angel’s Altar had confirmed their truthfulness, there was no need for further doubt.  

Bolikos approached Seo Do-jun and extended a loosely clenched fist.  

Knowing that a light fist bump was a gesture of goodwill among werewolves, Seo Do-jun reciprocated.  

Tap.  

Only after their fists touched did Bolikos speak.  

“I don’t know about the rest, but starting a fire in the Sky Forest was reckless.”  

“There was no other way to meet you.”  

“That may be, but…”  

Bolikos frowned as he looked at the corpses around them.  

While the venomous insects and beasts didn’t matter, the fact that even weak, innocent animals had thrown their lives away to protect the Sky Forest was heartbreaking.  

And there was another problem.  

“…Hmm. Strange.”  

Bolikos tilted his head and looked up at the sky.  

“What’s wrong, Lord Bolikos?”  

At Twek’s question, Bolikos answered immediately.  

“If the Sky Forest was damaged this much, Romak should’ve gone berserk by now.”  

Romak wasn’t just a means of entering the Sky Forest—he was its apex predator and guardian, treating it as his home.  

Yet despite the fire, Romak hadn’t shown himself, which Bolikos found inexplicable.  

—Kyaaaaaaa!  

Just then, Romak’s shriek echoed throughout the Sky Forest.  

“Now he decides to move?”  

Though the timing was later than expected, Bolikos assumed Romak must have had a reason and quickly urged everyone to leave.  

“That nuisance isn’t worth fighting. It’s better to avoid him.”  

Choi Kang-soo tried to retort at Bolikos, who spoke as if he’d fought Romak before.  

“There’s no need for any more pointless battles.”  

When Seo Do-jun agreed with Bolikos, Choi Kang-soo had no choice but to stay silent.  

Bolikos motioned for them to follow, and the group complied.  

But then—  

“He’s flying in the opposite direction?”  

Choi Kang-soo stopped mid-step, puzzled as Romak flew away from them.  

“…Huh? What?”  

Bolikos, who hadn’t even considered the possibility of Romak moving elsewhere, showed genuine surprise for the first time.  

“Seems like there’s another intruder besides us.”  

At Seo Do-jun’s words, everyone turned to him, questioning if it was true.  

“Vampires?”  

Seo Do-jun muttered while looking in the direction Romak had flown, and Bolikos, with his sharp hearing, didn’t miss it.  

“Vampires?!”  

If a vampire had broken through the Sky Forest’s barrier, there was only one possible culprit.  

“…Vampica!”  

At Bolikos’s words, Twek’s eyes widened, and Seo Do-jun grew even more certain—they might encounter Vampica, the Transcendent and overseer of Iostem.  

‘Somewhere in the Sky Forest lies a relic of the Fallen Angel.’  

Now, they had a choice.  

Search for the Fallen Angel’s relic.  

Or fight the Transcendent, Vampica.  

But the decision wasn’t Seo Do-jun’s—it was Bolikos’s.  

“If Vampica’s here, we must hurry! He’s definitely after the relic!”  

Instinctively, Bolikos recognized Seo Do-jun’s strength.  

But he doubted Seo Do-jun could stand against a Transcendent like Vampica, so he believed they had to evade him and find the relic.  

Fortunately, the Sky Forest was vast, and its strange energies made detection difficult unless one deliberately revealed themselves.  

Even for Vampica, it was possible to move undetected.  

“Have you found any likely locations for the relic?”  

After hearing Bolikos’s explanation, Seo Do-jun asked directly.  

Bolikos bit his lip and shook his head.  

“Sadly, no.”  

Despite having searched the Sky Forest for a long time, Bolikos hadn’t even found a trace of the relic.  

“Not even a guess?”  

Twek, too, felt the urgency—if Vampica was breaking the barrier to enter, the situation was dire.  

“I’ve failed you.”  

Bolikos’s voice was filled with remorse.  

The Fallen Angel’s relic was essential to maintaining even the slightest balance in their war against the vampires.  

As their de facto leader, Bolikos had personally taken on the task of finding it.  

But after so long without results, he felt nothing but guilt toward Twek and his entire kind.  

“Nonsense! No one has found it in all these centuries! You have nothing to apologize for!”  

Hadn’t Bolikos scoured all of Iostem alone in search of the relic?  

If anything, Twek believed the opposite—he should be the one apologizing.  

“Were there any suspicious locations at all?”  

At Seo Do-jun’s question, Bolikos admitted there had been a few.  

“But I’ve already checked them. As you can see, I found nothing.”  

Just as Bolikos gave a bitter smile, he suddenly looked up.  

“Ah! There’s one place I haven’t checked yet.”  

“You have an unchecked location?”  

When Seo Do-jun asked where, Bolikos answered immediately.  

“Romak’s nest.”  

“Romak’s nest?”  

A realization dawned.  

Seo Do-jun recalled Romak leaving his nest unguarded to intercept intruders.  

Bolikos seemed to share the thought, and the two nodded at each other.  

“Let’s search Romak’s nest right now.”  

At Seo Do-jun’s words, Bolikos immediately kicked off the ground and sprinted ahead.  

***

“Ghk! Ugh—!”  

“Waaaah—!”  

Near the Sky Forest’s barrier, the humans forcibly brought by the vampires continued to fall victim to the blade-like winds.  

The shields and armor they had trusted to protect them crumpled or split apart with terrifying ease.  

Once their defenses failed, the winds mercilessly shredded their skin and bones.  

Even after death, if their bodies could still serve as meat shields, the vampires used them without hesitation.  

But once deemed useless, they were discarded without a second thought.  

With most humans already expended, the next sacrifices were the half-vampires.  

Though they had lived faithfully as slaves before being chosen as vampires, they were just as helpless before the storm.  

“Kyaaaaah!”  

“P-Please, spare us!”  

Their bodies torn apart, the half-vampires begged for mercy, but it was futile.  

To the vampires, half-vampires were merely more useful than humans—nothing more.  

As their numbers dwindled, the vampires grew increasingly anxious, knowing they were next.  

Some glanced back.  

There, led by Vampica, Zillia and a few other vampires were safely breaking the barrier, using the others as shields.  

But progress was slow.  

Watching Vampica pour magic into the barrier with a twisted expression, some vampires even began to doubt.  

‘Can this really be broken?’  

‘This is a Fallen Angel’s barrier!’  

‘This is madness! No—suicide!’  

Doubt bred dissent.  

Though Vampica’s actions seemed arrogant, none dared voice their thoughts.  

Defying him meant certain death, so they could only pray he succeeded.  

Then—  

—Kyaaaaaaa!  

A piercing shriek tore through the air as Romak swooped down at incredible speed.  

“Damn it!”  

“It’s Romak! Prepare for his attack!”  

Though confined to the Sky Forest, every vampire knew how powerful Romak was.  

The moment he appeared, Romak flapped his wings, unleashing a gale at the vampires.  

The already brutal winds doubled in strength, battering them mercilessly.  

“Ghk—Agh!”  

A vampire, unable to withstand the force, vomited blood and plummeted.  

Some tried transforming into bats for protection, but this only made things worse.  

Pop! Pop! Pop!  

Bat-formed vampires burst apart mid-air, torn to shreds by the wind.  

Those who reverted in time were left missing limbs, coughing up blood.  

After strengthening the winds, Romak followed up with physical attacks—his razor-sharp beak and talons tearing through vampires.  

He had sensed their attempt to break the barrier and retaliated fiercely.  

As casualties mounted, Vampica’s eyes gleamed with fury.  

Breaking the barrier was important, but he couldn’t afford to lose all his subordinates.  

Withdrawing his magic, he snarled.  

“You insignificant pest!”  

A crimson spear materialized and impaled Romak’s skull.  

—Kyaaa…  

Romak’s massive body went limp, plummeting lifelessly.  

The divine power to kill even gods—before it, Romak’s long life ended without resistance.  

“Damn it…”  

The Power of Divine Slaughter demanded immense energy, leaving Vampica pale and gasping.  

Regaining his breath, he glared at the Sky Forest.  

No more black smoke rose anywhere.  

Anxiety began to gnaw at his impatience.  

“Damn it! Hurry!”  

Vampica resumed pouring magic into breaking the barrier.