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Chapter 50: Reunion

He had long lost control of his own body. From a quiet corner of his mind, Lee Jun-Kyeong watched his body move without a master, according to its instincts. He couldn’t even scream. His mind had fallen far from its usual commanding place and was only able to access the vision through the eyes of the body, seeing and feeling everything from within the body that moved like a robot.

“No!”

George's voice drifted in from the outside. What Lee Jun-Kyeong could see was his right arm thrusting Muspel’s Spear toward Heracles. He wanted to stop. This wasn’t his will. It was just the instincts of a savage beast, the desire for survival and slaughter.

‘No…’

However, his body still refused to move according to what he wanted. The Dragon's Bloodstone had been affected by the red ore. Whether it was the processed red ore he had poured over the spear, the blood of the monsters that he had hunted, the blood of Catalyon that had been eroded by demonic magic, or the blood that the Dragon's Bloodstone had transformed into dragon’s blood, all of it was pumping into his body.

‘Am I going to die?’

The end result was obvious. His body was full of impurities, so it wouldn’t be able to handle the influx of so many different sources of mana. Like the other Hunters who were part of the experiments with the red ore, it would overflow from his body and destroy his very being.

‘How regretful.’

He had obtained a new opportunity. He had thought that he would be able to fix everything and act according to his own will. With that in mind, Lee Jun-Kyeong had prepared for that step by step and had been satisfied with how he had grown.

First, the Northern Army Guild, then Heracles.

Although he had faced monumental obstacles, he had been able to overcome them using the entirety of his abilities. Furthermore, he had grown the confidence to overcome whatever came his way in the future.

‘Was I overconfident?’

In the end, it was clear that he had been arrogant. He was an ordinary person, part of the slave caste without any power, an inferior member of the general public, and rejected by the world of Hunters.

Back then, he had claimed that if he was given the opportunity, he could grow to the same level as them, or even better, but there was no reason for everything to go the way he had wanted.

‘How regretful.’

He was filled with regret again, caught in a plight caused by the side effects of the Dragon's Bloodstone. Suddenly, in the midst of despair, Lee Jun-Kyeong thought of another possibility.

.

The mana stream.

Mana, alongside all that had been explosively mixed within him, had given him access to a whole new dimension of power.

‘If I only had a chance…’

He could try to combine them into something of his own.

With the onset of the aurora-like flame, his body had moved without hesitation, acting on instinct. During that time, he had been exposed to a new form of spearmanship and learned how to drive the mana in his body.

‘But there probably wouldn’t be any other chances.’

On the day he had first returned to the past, he had found out that the convenience store owner, who was the only person he held close, who was like an older brother to him, was Heimdall. That same day, he had met Athena, the leader of Eden, who was someone whom he would never have been able to even catch a glimpse of before.

There would never be another opportunity like that day: the day he had been pierced by his Hyung’s sword and returned to the past.

'Damn it.'

It wasn’t fair. There was more he could have done.

Crack!

With the deafening crash of thunder, a thunderbolt fell from the sky, falling into the center of the flames that he had emitted, which were now engulfing the mountains. Nothing could be seen beyond the eye-piercing glow of the bolt.

Boom!

A metallic crash rang out.

***

Everyone was startled by the lightning that fell from the sky. In the aftermath, Jeong In-Chang rushed to Lee Jun-Kyeong while George was already on the verge of reaching Heracles. As for Inebu, he knew precisely what was going on.

"Oh, my God…” he gasped.

Clang!

There was a sudden chirping sound, followed by a flash of light.

After a while, as their sight began to return, the gathered Hunters could now see a single woman.

“...!”

She had long, straight hair that was almost entirely white with a slight glow, and she wore armor that seemed as if it wasn’t supposed to exist in a human world. A tower shield was hanging on one arm, and it was almost as tall as she was.

“I…It’s been blocked!”

She had blocked the spear that Lee Jun-Kyeong was thrusting down with all his might. Muspel’s spear trembled and shook, trying to somehow pierce through the giant tower shield and stab Heracles.

"Stop."

Thud.

Lee Jun-Kyeong fell to his knees immediately at her order. Jeong In-Chang blinked profusely as his eyes filled with confusion. Inebu stood there quietly, musing over the new situation.

"T… thank you,” George gratefully said, placing his right hand at the center of his heart in a show of enthusiasm.

Thump!

“I greet Athena.”

The girl who stood in front of them was Athena.

Her gaze swept over everyone. Although Jeong In-Chang tried to look her in the eye, he was forced to succumb to the overwhelming power and bowed his head.

‘T…this is…’

He had finally felt the presence of a truly strong Hunter that Lee Jun-Kyeong had sometimes spoken of. She was one of the Hunters who held up the world and a member of the organizations that controlled it all.

'I didn't believe it before...'

Jeong In-Chang hadn’t believed Lee Jun-Kyeong in the past when the latter talked about this. Because he was a Hunter himself, he knew how ridiculous the things Lee Jun-Kyeong had claimed were. Someone who could bring a person to their knees with just a word and end lives with just their presence. He didn’t believe it, thinking that anyone who could do these things would be like a god.

But at this moment, he was witnessing it with his own eyes.

"Looks like I stepped into a mess."

Hearing the girl’s beautiful voice, he felt the need to clean up all of the dirty things around her immediately.

“This punk…”

Finally, Athena looked over at Lee Jun-Kyeong, who was still trembling and trying to pierce forward with his spear.

‘I’ve been pushed back?’

It was only a bit, but this little hatchling Hunter had actually forced her shield back. The entire situation dumbfounded Athena. The losers that had fled the Battle of Champions had noticed that Heracles was showing signs of madness, and the new rookie from Asgard, the Underdog.

She had entered the gate to try and fix the ruined Battle of Champions, to save the poor Hunter who could have been killed by Heracles, and to restore the pact made to Asgard. She needed to do all that even if it was a little late.

But suddenly, the gate had begun to change, and the still far-off Athena had only been able to arrive by riding the thunderbolt given by that person.

‘Looks like I owe Zeus one now.’

The situation was quite embarrassing. She had come to subdue Heracles, but he had already been dealt with and laid off to the side, half dead.

“This punk is…”

“He’s the Underdog, madam.”

Although George was in a horrible state due to the battle, he still stood at attention, speaking to Athena with the utmost respect.

“Ha…”

Athena exhaled in exasperation and closed her eyes. All of the changes within the gate had started from this punk and the ominous flame that now enveloped Catalyon Mountain was also from him.

'It came from this punk.'

It was an ominous and dangerous flame that even Athena had never experienced before. The lifelike mana was trying to steal her mana all the time, even now. She was really curious as to what it really was, but she was now sure that this punk was the more dangerous of the two.

She commented out loud, "He’s dangerous."

Previously, she had merely thought that he had been lucky enough to have joined Asgard simply through the fame he had earned through his super rookie title.

It may have been because she had been blinded by her own growth and had forgotten about the reality of most Hunters, but this was the first that she had heard of someone like this. To think even Heracles had been subdued…

“How absurd,” she muttered to herself, looking around at her surroundings.

[The gate will disappear soon.]

The boss had been defeated, and the foundation of the gate had been rocked by the explosive mana. It had reached the time for the gate to close.

‘It’ll be dangerous for us to leave like this.’

She wasn’t sure if this dangerous Hunter should be left to go into the world if the gate was about to collapse. He seemed to be a threat to everyone.

'Olympus...'

No, an ominous feeling rose throughout her body. He could become a threat to the entire world. He was in a critical state, as if he would die at any moment anyway, but she felt as though she still couldn’t leave him alone like this.

With that, Athena came to a decision.

‘I’ll kill him here.’

She knocked aside his spear, which hadn’t faltered up to this point, with her tower shield. Muspel’s Spear flew far away and stuck somewhere on the mountain. Then, she drew her spear with her left hand and raised it. At the moment her unwavering strike was about to pierce into Lee Jun-Kyeong, someone stood in front of her, protecting him.

“Stop it.”

It was a familiar voice.

“Heimdall,” Athena said as she looked at the rainbow that embroidered the sky, intertwined with lightning.

***

He heard flashes of voices intermittently around him.

- Why are you here?

- That's something I should be asking.

Both were voices he could never forget. He couldn’t see them as he lacked the strength to open his eyes. But, those voices were so familiar to him.

- Athena.

- Heimdall.

One was the Hyung he respected the most and was closest to, a colleague and friend whom he had stayed with despite the new opportunities he had been given. The other was the voice of the same person who had killed that very Hyung right before his eyes.

They were unforgettable.

‘But why…?’

He wondered if everything had returned to the beginning. He couldn’t discern what was going on.

- Did you follow me using the lightning?

He could hear Athena’s voice again.

- ...

But he couldn’t hear his Hyung’s response. Meanwhile, Lee Jun-Kyeong was beginning to notice the changes in his body little by little. His body had been falling apart due to the combination of things that should never have been mixed, but was now stabilizing little by little. It had started from the moment he had heard the two voices.

The overflowing mana was beginning to scatter, and the wavelike energy, which was squirming like a runaway, was escaping through his hands like it had in the beginning. Lee Jun-Kyeong began to recover in this fashion little by little.

- Move. I’m going to kill him.

- Don't be ridiculous.

Lee Jun-Kyeong tried to stir his mana while shoving the sound of the arguing voices to the back of his head. Unlike the first time he had tried, a significant amount of the mana had disappeared, and the impurities running rampant within his body had also begun to settle down again. It seemed as though recovering wouldn’t be an issue as long as he focused his mana on re-tuning his body.

He focused and focused some more. He contemplated over what he had initially seen as a side effect of the Dragon's Bloodstone and considered the fundamentals of the mana stream.

- If you insist on killing him, I’ll take it as a declaration of war.

- Is he… really that important to you?

- Yes.

In the midst of all of this, he could still hear the voices.

- How amusing. And here I thought that you didn’t have anything that was important to you.

- …

- Does that mean he’s really that precious to you…

Athena’s voice sounded a little emotional.

Then, he heard another familiar voice.

- Please wait a moment!

- My name is Inebu, and I am a member of the Nile.

- The Commander of Egypt, I know of you.

- I am grateful for the recognition of the honorable Athena.

The words that followed were shocking.

- We, Nile, will request that the Underdog be protected.

- …

- As you can see, this is the Eye of Osiris. I have the right to represent Nile—no, Heliopolis, so please, Athena.

Inebu continued to speak.

- We request that Olympus accept the Nile’s request.

- But what is the reason for all this?

Athena's voice was full of doubt.

- That is…

After her outburst, it seemed as though they were discussing something, but Lee Jun-Kyeong couldn’t hear it.

Shhh.

The mana scattered throughout his body began to move, ever so slightly. It started to restore his body little by little, just as it had before. To think that the mana that had almost torn his body apart would now restore it again.

Although it was an absurd concept, Lee Jun-Kyeong continued to concentrate. He had finally glimpsed a tiny clue to creating a mana stream. Unfortunately, he didn’t pay attention to how much time had passed or how things had turned out.

Instead, he opened his eyes and croaked, "H…Hyung…"

The first thing he saw was Yeo Seong-Gu’s bewildered face and Athena, who was as beautiful as the first time he had seen her.

And, he looked at something else.

‘The sky…’

The sky was a mixture of rainbows, lightning, and flames, giving it a grotesque appearance.

At that point, something else occurred.

[<The Sky of the Apocalypse> sponsors you ‘Demonica Mana Resistance.']

[<The Sky of the Apocalypse> sponsors you 'Purification.’]

[<The Sky of the Apocalypse> sponsors you…]

<The Sky of the Apocalypse> had erupted with notifications. As if it had been held back up to this point, his Sponsor was now sending an incredible amount of sponsorships. Lee Jun-Kyeong wasn’t able to process anything due to the incessant notifications. He was only able to hear the final notification.

[You have acquired a skill without sponsorship.]

[You have completed an unbelievable achievement.]

[You have earned the title ‘One Who Carves His Own Path.’]

[Skill]

It was the voice he had waited and waited for.

[You have created a mana stream.]

1. Frequently, lightning and electricity can be described by metallic crashes, or in this case, a bird’s chirp in Eastern languages. An example of this is Chidori, which means one thousand birds.