SFRW-Chapter 287

Ch. 287 Sword God From The Ruined World

Three new Transcendents had appeared.  

Their emergence was a situation Seo Do-jun had not anticipated at all, leaving his face stiff with tension.  

Moreover, each of them possessed considerable power, making it difficult for Seo Do-jun alone to handle them all.  

A variable had emerged—and a severe one at that.  

‘First, I should observe the situation.’  

If things turned unfavorable, retreating might be the best option. With that in mind, Seo Do-jun immediately called Choi Kang-soo, Shinjo, and Grichuk to his side.  

“Uncle, what the hell is going on?”  

“Judging by their demeanor, they don’t seem like allies.”  

“H-o-w-e-v-e-r… t-h-e-i-r… t-a-r-g-e-t… s-e-e-m-s… t-o… b-e… u-s.”  

Just as Shinjo and Grichuk had assessed, Seo Do-jun could also sense that the newcomers’ stance was somewhat hostile.  

‘If this turns into a three-way battle, it might be slightly better.’  

Still, the situation was far from reassuring.  

At the very least, the worst-case scenario had been avoided—but among the newly arrived, a tall man with a plain expression was staring intently at Seo Do-jun’s group.  

‘As Grichuk said, they’re definitely targeting us.’  

If that was the case, the Six Seats and these newcomers might be in competition.  

While Seo Do-jun was carefully analyzing the situation, Luam bared his teeth at Qua, who had just called him a ‘skull-headed bastard’.  

“Immature witch, this isn’t your place to interfere. Get lost.”  

“Look who’s talking. You’re neither alive nor dead, yet you dare call me immature? You’re still the same insufferable skull-headed bastard.”  

As Qua snapped back, Raten, standing beside her, clutched his stomach and burst into laughter.  

“Pfft—HAHAHA! ‘Immature witch’? That’s hilarious! Don’t tell me you’ve been putting up with that insult all this time?”  

“Shut. Up.”  

Qua’s face twisted in irritation, and only then did Raten stifle his laughter with a few coughs.  

However, his eyes still gleamed with amusement.  

“Damn it!”  

Qua’s anger flared as she imagined Raten teasing her with the ‘immature witch’ remark for a while.  

“Can I just smash that skull-headed bastard? It’s not like he’ll die here anyway. I’ll break him cleanly—sound good?”  

At her words, Raten shrugged, while Seil, who had been silently watching Seo Do-jun’s group, shook his head lightly.  

“The target takes priority.”  

A rough voice escaped Seil’s lips.  

“This is so annoying!”  

Qua threw a tantrum like a teenage girl, but Seil simply shook his head again in response.  

“Tch!”  

Knowing Seil’s personality, Qua had no choice but to glare at Luam and mutter that they’d settle things later.  

“Alright, alright. Since eliminating the target comes first, I’ll finish this quickly.”  

As Raten stepped forward—  

KWA—AAANG!  

The ground ahead exploded, sending dirt and dust flying in all directions.  

“Cut the nonsense and get lost. The Six Seats will handle them.”  

It was Luam.  

As soon as he spoke, the ground trembled, and hundreds of undead emerged, surrounding Raten and the others.  

“Can’t do that. We came all this way because Barhaut specially requested it. If you didn’t want us interfering, you shouldn’t have created this situation in the first place. Now you’re telling us to back off? That’s not how things work. Right?”  

Raten spoke as if he had no intention of backing down, quietly moving his wrist.  

He had been trying to distract Luam while launching a surprise attack on Seo Do-jun’s group, but—  

PUPUPUPUPUCK!  

The black orbs he controlled were sucked into the dark hole Grichuk had created, then bizarrely bounced back to pummel Luam’s head.  

Of course, Luam had shielded himself, so he took no damage—but still.  

“…What the hell was that?”  

Raten’s eyes widened at Grichuk’s dark hole, which had redirected his sneak attack back at Luam.  

There wasn’t even a speck of shame or guilt for having attacked Luam by accident.  

“Hey! You damn bastard!”  

Choi Kang-soo pointed furiously at Raten and spat out a stream of curses.  

“You little brat with unwashed brains! Who the hell attacks without even introducing themselves?! You’ve got no damn manners!”  

The more he spoke, the more absurd it seemed, and his face turned red with rage as he continued hurling insults.  

“…What’s this idiot’s deal?”  

Raten didn’t seem to care at all about the verbal abuse.  

If anything, he found Choi Kang-soo amusing, chuckling and sneering.  

“You’re laughing?! You’re laughing now?! You little—! Come here! I’ll turn you into a corpse!”  

Choi Kang-soo had never been one to hold back when it came to insults, but compared to Raten’s audacity, he might as well have been a descendant of the Land of Courtesy.  

As Choi Kang-soo raged, Seo Do-jun spoke up calmly.  

“Seems like you want to fight us… What to do? They don’t look like they’ll let us go easily. How about this? The two of you fight each other, and the winner gets to face us.”  

At Seo Do-jun’s words, Luam gritted his teeth, accusing him of scheming again.  

“Hmph! Did you really think we’d fall for that? Maybe that empty-headed skull would, but… we’re not interested. In fact, how about we team up with them and kill you instead?”  

Qua snorted mockingly, but Seo Do-jun let out a soft laugh.  

“If you can do that, it’s not a bad choice. But you’d better think carefully about which side we’ll drag down with us. And… make sure none of you stab each other in the back.”  

From just this brief exchange, Seo Do-jun could tell how bad the relationship between the Six Seats and the Seven Apostles was.  

And yet they wanted to join forces?  

Seo Do-jun provoked them, as if daring them to see if they could truly trust each other.  

“…Tch.”  

Qua frowned, unable to refute Seo Do-jun’s words.  

As he said, the Six Seats—especially Luam—were absolutely untrustworthy.  

On top of that…  

‘Who knows what Ratio, hiding somewhere, might do?’  

The situation was burdensome in many ways. But she couldn’t just hand Seo Do-jun’s group over to the Six Seats, so she racked her brain for a solution.  

[What should we do?]  

Raten telepathically communicated with Seil and Qua.  

[They’re not pushovers. Especially that guy…]  

Qua pointed out Seo Do-jun as the most dangerous person present.  

[How dangerous?]  

Qua’s intuition was close to ‘future prediction’—something even the Seven Apostles couldn’t ignore.  

It had never been wrong before, so Raten and Seil scrutinized Seo Do-jun again.  

[We might need Kael and Felts here too.]  

“…What?!”  

Raten reflexively responded aloud, staring at Qua.  

Even Seil, who rarely showed emotion, raised his eyebrows in surprise.  

[He’s that dangerous.]  

Qua stood firm in her conviction, and Raten and Seil’s expressions grew grave.  

The Seven Apostles were currently scattered.  

Kael and Ver were searching for the planet’s Administrator separately, while Felts and Pio were tailing the Six Seats.  

Raten, Qua, and Seil also came here while searching for the Administrator.  

If they waited a little longer, all Seven Apostles could gather in one place.  

[Can’t the three of us handle it?]  

Qua shook her head at Raten’s question.  

[Even if it’s just the target, I don’t like our odds… And with that skull-headed bastard here, I can’t predict what might happen.]  

[Then what do we do?]  

As Raten looked at Qua impatiently, Seil, who had been silent, proposed a plan.  

[We’ll just stall. Buy time so no one can escape until the others arrive.]  

Qua nodded at Seil’s suggestion.  

For now, that was the best option.  

“…Ha. How pathetic.”  

Raten frowned, his pride wounded at having to wait for others without acting.  

But he couldn’t ignore Qua’s intuition or Seil’s proposal, so he moved first.  

Opening a black leather pouch, dozens of orbs shot out in different directions, forming a massive circle and spinning at blinding speed.  

“What the hell are you doing?!”  

Choi Kang-soo glared at Raten in shock.  

“What does it look like?”  

Raten grinned back.  

“It seems like he’s trying to trap everyone here.”  

At Shinjo’s words, Seo Do-jun nodded in agreement.  

The black orbs spun so fast that they appeared as a solid black ring.  

“Don’t touch them carelessly. You’ll lose a hand.”  

Raten kicked a nearby boulder as if to demonstrate.  

The moment the rock touched the black ring, it was sliced apart like paper.  

Choi Kang-soo scoffed at the threat and raised his Divine Sword to break the ring, but—  

“Pffft! Did you realize the three of you can’t handle this? Well, with that sharp-witted witch here, I guess you’re not reckless.”  

Luam saw through Raten’s plan and laughed mockingly.  

“Yeah, that’s right. But at the very least, we can stop whatever you try, skull-head.”  

Qua’s retort only made Luam chuckle ominously.  

“Oh? You think so?”  

As Luam’s laughter faded, ten humans slowly emerged from the largest tent.  

They were the direct subordinates of the Administrator, the Mercenary King Joi—the leaders of the continent’s Top Ten Mercenary Bands.  

“You think these will be enough to fight us?”  

Qua snorted dismissively. From her perspective as a Transcendent, they were nothing but ordinary humans—so weak that a single gesture could make their bodies explode.  

Luam’s green eyes gleamed with ridicule at Qua’s contempt.  

With a flick of his finger, one of the mercenary leaders raised his greatsword and charged at Qua.  

His attack posed no threat whatsoever.  

“Looks like the skull-head is desperate!”  

Qua, thinking Luam was trying to force an escape, didn’t take her eyes off him as she flicked her wrist.  

Orange flames burst from her fingertips, engulfing the mercenary leader.  

It was the ‘Witch’s Flame’—a fire that could erase even souls, the very thing that had shaped Qua into who she was now.  

In less than a second, the mercenary leader turned into a pile of ash.  

A meaningless annihilation.  

“What now, skull-head? Your grand preparations turned out to be useless.”  

Qua taunted Luam, but—  

“Kukukuku.”  

Luam’s sinister laughter only deepened.  

What was he so confident about?  

Just as Qua frowned in suspicion—  

CRREEAK—  

The space where the ashen mercenary leader had stood tore open.  

KOO—OONG!  

A massive leg burst through the rift.  

Just one leg was already three meters tall.  

Despite the sudden turn, Seo Do-jun’s group remained calm—only because they didn’t know whose leg it was.  

“…No way…”  

Qua’s face twisted in horror.  

She recognized the owner just from the leg.  

“Tulukas…”  

—KYAAAAAAAH!  

The creature that fully emerged was a monstrous bat-like humanoid.  

“T-That’s impossible… There’s no way a mere human could summon a creature from Antarian… H-How…?”  

Not just Qua, but Raten and Seil also stared in disbelief at Luam and Tulukas.  

Antarian—the world of monsters that no one had ever conquered.  

Not even Barhaut, the ‘Dimension Conqueror’, could set foot there. Ophel, the master of the Seven Apostles, also refused to approach it.  

It was a place even the Gods had abandoned.  

A planet as weak as Earth would be destroyed by even the lowest-tier Antarian monster.  

Tulukas was a mid-tier monster—far stronger than that.  

And Luam had summoned it using just one human life?  

That should have been impossible.  

But Luam had done it.  

What the Seven Apostles didn’t know was that the Administrator’s Direct force carried traces of Barhaut’s power, making them suitable vessels.  

Of course, that alone wasn’t enough—Luam’s immense magic and a special dark summoning ritual made it possible.  

It showed just how far Luam’s obsession and madness went to capture Seo Do-jun’s group.  

“Still, it’s just one.”  

Raten tried to reassure himself.  

Tulukas was terrifying, but one wouldn’t be a major problem.  

“Just one? Who said it’s just one?”  

Luam smirked at Raten.  

THUDTHUDTHUDTHUD—!  

The remaining nine mercenary leaders stabbed blades into their own hearts without hesitation.  

“…N-No way…”  

If all nine became vessels for Antarian monsters…  

A severe warning blared in Qua’s mind.  

This place was more dangerous than ever!