Thousands of emotions flickered across Thrymr’s face in an instant at the sudden intrusion of Thjazi.
"Why are you…” Thrymr mumbled to Thjazi, dazed and confused.
“Don’t miss this chance!”
However, he woke up at Lee Jun-Kyeong’s call.
Boom! Boom!
Thrymr completely drew out the power of his Galdr. At this moment, he was a true giant warrior.
As the insane giants fell and the path had been fully cleared, the first to charge toward the king was Lee Jun-Kyeong.
"Ha-a-eup!"
Flames flickered forth from Muspel's Spear and drew a long line. Lines of pure destructive red fire appeared.
Squelch!
Just like that, Muspel’s Spear plunged into the king’s forearm.
Gurgle!
With a strange sound, the wound began to spew fire, and the king’s arm burned black.
“You…!”
The king was enraged and seemed to be bewildered as if he hadn’t thought that they would have been able to clear a path. However, the king was strong, and Lee Jun-Kyeong had to back up in order to avoid the fist the giant had thrown at him.
Squelch!
Muspel’s Spear returned at Lee Jun-Kyeong’s call.
“Kill him!”
As Lee Jun-Kyeong readjusted his stance, Thrymr rushed to the king. The collision of the two colossal giants created a huge shockwave.
Boom, boom, boom!
The entrance to the royal palace that had turned to molten ore due to the wall of fire that Lee Jun-Kyeong had ignited collapsed.
"Ha-a-eup!"
Their attack wasn’t over yet either. Even Liu Bei and his brothers joined them. The three forces surrounding the king had begun to attack. Fortunately, the battle behind them had noticeably improved with Thjazi’s intrusion.
“For the sake of peace…!” Thjazi cried out among the giants and took down the insane giants with his bare hands, not needing an ax. They had gained the upper hand in numbers as the appearance of the giants, expressions twisted in anger, was changing the situation.
"Fenrir!"
Lee Jun-Kyeong decided that it was the right time to call Fenrir, and a white wolf came bounding forward.
Across the garden they had destroyed, Fenrir raced forward, his footsteps marred in flames that would burn everything.
Crack!
He pierced his thick teeth into the king’s neck. With an eerie sound, the king screamed, “Eeuuaghhhhhhh–!”
He turned and was about to knock Fenrir down with his fists, but was only damaged further at that time by Thrymr, Liu Bei and his party, and Lee Jun-Kyeong.
"Looooookiiiiii!"
As Thrymr erupted with his Gladr and was about to unleash another blow onto the king, the king, Utgard-Loki, finally invoked his own Gladr.
Boom!
“Know your place–!”
A black and golden light emanated from him. The light was directed toward his fist, and the two fists connected blows.
Boom!
There was a huge explosion, and a blast of mana raged forth like a typhoon, shaking the humans and forcing the giants to avert their eyes.
Bang! Crash! Bang!
The explosions didn’t end there. Thrymr rampaged to the king like someone who had nothing left to lose. The black light emanated from him and the black and gold light from the king inundated the royal palace.
The force from their blows rampaged out like explosions.
Even if the king’s fists crushed holes into his body and his flesh was torn apart, Thrymr rushed forward again and again, acting as if he was an insane giant—no, acting even more insane than even those mindless creatures.
It was as if a typhoon had formed, each fist forming incredible gales of wind.
Lee Jun-Kyeong and the other Hunters struggled to enter between the gaps in the force explosions.
“...”
At this point, if they had accidentally forced themselves into the middle of the fight, they would end up only being a hindrance rather than a help. Instead of being able to help kill the king, they would just die.
'That power…’
Lee Jun-Kyeong felt as though there was something alien about the power of the king. Now that his sensitivity to magic had reached its peak, he could tell something was different. Although he had seen the power of Thrymr, Thjazi, and the other giants, the Galdr used by the king, Utgard-Loki, contained something alien or foreign.
‘What could it be?’
He continued to think about it, but he wasn’t able to figure it out.
Bang! Bang!
Unbelievable blows continued to explode forth.
The king and Thrymr were strong, and it wasn’t an easy decision for him to make to throw himself into the wake of those explosive forces.
However…
"…"
Lee Jun-Kyeong couldn't give up.
‘The king…’
He would kill him.
It didn’t matter if the wake between the blows were dangerous. Even if Thrymr’s rage was even greater, Lee Jun-Kyeong had no intention of conceding the final blow.
‘I will be the one to kill the king.’
Lee Jun-Kyeong affirmed his conviction again and looked for an opportunity.
Thrymr had landed wounds on the king at his own expense, so Lee Jun-Kyeong’s opportunity lay there.
[There are 5 minutes left on the mission time limit.]
In fact, this was the reason why Lee Jun-Kyeong was trying to be the one to defeat the king.
[<The Sky of the Apocalypse> is urging you to hurry and kill the shameful bastard.]
[<The Sky of the Apocalypse> is...]
<The Sky of the Apocalypse> was urging Lee Jun-Kyeong. That had been the voice he had heard when he entered the palace.
[You have been granted a mission!]
[Defeat the impersonator.]
Lee Jun-Kyeong had absolutely no idea who was being impersonated, but he definitely knew that the impersonator in the message meant the king. That was why it was time.
Lee Jun-Kyeong was currently imbuing all of his strength into Muspel’s Spear. The more power he imbued, the more the flickering flames along its body dimmed down. Muspel’s Spear slowly began to lose its light.
[The magic infusion has reached its limit.]
He had learned this while watching over Park Jae-Hyun’s shoulder. Lee Jun-Kyeong pumped all of the enormous mana he now had in his possession into his weapon.
Then, he quickly ran through an opening he saw in the fight between the king and Thrymr. Lee Jun-Kyeong could feel his skin tingling as if he had entered the midst of a storm. Even though he had strengthened his skin with mana, the storm that rose by the mana they emitted was dangerously sharp.
“Die!”
Thrymr had lost all reason and was running wild to the point that he didn’t even notice Lee Jun-Kyeong's intrusion.
The king, on the other hand, grew even stronger as his anger rose. His black and gold Galdr grew a little darker. The Galdr exploded around them like a bomb, forcing Thrymr and Lee Jun-Kyeong back.
Bambambambam!
The king's Galdr smashed the debris around them into even smaller pieces. It was an incredible power.
‘This is the full extent of the king’s power…’
Smirk—
However, that was the reason Lee Jun-Kyeong laughed.
“Looks like it’s matchable!”
Suddenly, Lee Jun-Kyeong threw himself into the black and golden Galdr and thrust forward with Muspel’s Spear.
BOOM!
The black and gold Galdr was engulfed in flames.
"You deserve it!"
***
"Cough!"
Lee Jun-Kyeong vomited blood and stepped back. He had blocked the blow that had come toward him, but the aftershock still damaged his organs. This showcased how strong the king’s fist had been.
“Gasp… Gasp…”
Thrymr’s condition wasn’t normal either. Rivers of blood flowed from the holes in his body, and the shredded flesh on the ground piled up like a gruesome mountain. Due to their intense battle, the royal palace was also being completely destroyed.
Nevertheless, Thrymr still murmured like a madman, “I’ll kill you…”
He would kill. Kill the King.
There was clearly only one thought left in Thrymr’s head.
Furthermore, the king wasn’t in a normal condition either.
“Whew…”
The king had also received successive blows from Lee Jun-Kyeong and Thrymr. Especially from Lee Jun-Kyeong, as every time he attacked the Hunter, he also took damage.
Hiss.
[You have exceeded the limit.]
Muspel’s Spear, which had seemed to have lost its heat, glowed red again. The heat from the spear was enough even to hurt Lee Jun-Kyeong’s hand, whose fire resistance had already reached its peak. This same heat was what had been damaging the king this entire time.
'A little more.'
Lee Jun-Kyeong raised even more power from his core.
"DIE!"
Moreover, Thrymr had rushed forward again, and his fist had finally connected with the king’s face.
"Ha-a-eup!”
Lee Jun-Kyeong concentrated his mana even further, and his mana stream and the flow of mana started to move more slowly under the influence of his internal qigong. He drew in the latent mana around him and injected it into Muspel’s Spear.
[Muspel’s Spear has leveled up due to the strong heat.]
Still, Lee Jun-Kyeong wasn’t satisfied.
‘A little more.’
He continued imbuing the spear with mana, and his weapon continued to endlessly fill up with energy.
A strange heat emanated from the spear. The heat was so hot that it even burned the very air itself, and it continued to condense and condense onto the weapon.
Crash! Bang!
As if he had caught on to what Lee Jun-Kyeong was doing, Thrymr exerted himself even more in order to force the king to spend more energy.
Boom!!!
However, the king wasn’t standing still either.
‘I only have one shot.’
The power of the king was strange. The more his body was damaged, the closer he got to death, but his strength continued to get stronger. The more they damaged him, the more damage he would inflict on Lee Jun-Kyeong and his allies.
Therefore, Lee Jun-Kyeong knew he had to do it.
‘Once. Only once.’
He had to end it with one blow.
Eventually, another notification rang out.
[The maximum limit of flame that Muspel’s Spear can contain has been exceeded.]
[Muspel’s Spear has begun to break.]
As soon as he heard the notification, Lee Jun-Kyeong threw his spear as hard as he could. It flew through the air, and then it suddenly disappeared.
It had obviously been thrown, but no one could see anything. However, Lee Jun-Kyeong knelt down on one knee and fell to the ground.
Thud.
An immense wave of exhaustion echoed through him, and his body felt as heavy as if a thousand pounds was weighing down on him.
He had taken every last dreg of mana from his body for that blow, even up to the last drop of the incredible mana he had obtained through the help of Won-Hwa. It even included the zhuo qi that Won-Hwa had spoken of.
‘Could it have helped me?’
What he had done had been possible because the black beads had given him strength. Lee Jun-Kyeong slowly raised his head and looked ahead.
“Whew…ahem.”
Then, he stood up, his legs trembling. Everyone’s eyes were on him and the king.
“...”
“...”
The reason was simple.
"Uh… eughk… uh…"
The king was someone who had ruled Utgard and manipulated the frost giants, and he was the one who had chased away Thrymr and killed Thjazi’s father.
He was the same impudent being who had upset <The Sky of the Apocalypse>.
[<The Sky of the Apocalypse> is satisfied.]
[Mission Success]
That very being had a gaping hole in his chest—a hole too large even to consider that Muspel’s Spear could have made it. It was a massive hole as if a stake had fallen from the sky and pierced through his chest.
Sparkle.
That hole was completely empty, and through it, the sun could be seen shining.
“The… The sun?”
The Hunters were puzzled when they saw the sunlight. There had been no more sun in China, which had turned into a land of death. The land around them only had a softly shining light.
However, the sun that had once disappeared, had now risen.
"Whew…"
When Lee Jun-Kyeong exhaled again, the sun that had shone for a moment disappeared.
Squelch! Woosh!
Destroying everything in its path, burning it all to bits, accompanied by a hair-raising sound, Muspel’s Spear appeared back in Lee Jun-Kyeong’s hand.
Thud!
[You have completed an unbelievable achievement!]
[You have completed ‘The One Who Raises the Sun’ achievement.]
[Your affinity to fire greatly increases.]
[Mission rewards have been granted.]
[Your stats have greatly increased.]
[Your state has been completely restored.]
Several notifications rang in Lee Jun-Kyeong’s ears.
"…"
A silence emerged.
Just like the voice in the notification had said, Lee Jun-Kyeong had just accomplished an incredible achievement. Filled with a deep feeling of satisfaction, Lee Jun-Kyeong looked over at the giants.
“...”
They stared back at him, breath caught in their throats.
Thump.
One of the giants dropped an ax.
“Grr.”
A person close to Lee Jun-Kyeong growled pleasantly.
"Mr. Lee… Are you really human?" said Jeong In-Chang, spewing bullshit.
Thousands of emotions flickered across Thrymr’s face in an instant at the sudden intrusion of Thjazi.
"Why are you…” Thrymr mumbled to Thjazi, dazed and confused.
“Don’t miss this chance!”
However, he woke up at Lee Jun-Kyeong’s call.
Boom! Boom!
Thrymr completely drew out the power of his Galdr. At this moment, he was a true giant warrior.
As the insane giants fell and the path had been fully cleared, the first to charge toward the king was Lee Jun-Kyeong.
"Ha-a-eup!"
Flames flickered forth from Muspel's Spear and drew a long line. Lines of pure destructive red fire appeared.
Squelch!
Just like that, Muspel’s Spear plunged into the king’s forearm.
Gurgle!
With a strange sound, the wound began to spew fire, and the king’s arm burned black.
“You…!”
The king was enraged and seemed to be bewildered as if he hadn’t thought that they would have been able to clear a path. However, the king was strong, and Lee Jun-Kyeong had to back up in order to avoid the fist the giant had thrown at him.
Squelch!
Muspel’s Spear returned at Lee Jun-Kyeong’s call.
“Kill him!”
As Lee Jun-Kyeong readjusted his stance, Thrymr rushed to the king. The collision of the two colossal giants created a huge shockwave.
Boom, boom, boom!
The entrance to the royal palace that had turned to molten ore due to the wall of fire that Lee Jun-Kyeong had ignited collapsed.
"Ha-a-eup!"
Their attack wasn’t over yet either. Even Liu Bei and his brothers joined them. The three forces surrounding the king had begun to attack. Fortunately, the battle behind them had noticeably improved with Thjazi’s intrusion.
“For the sake of peace…!” Thjazi cried out among the giants and took down the insane giants with his bare hands, not needing an ax. They had gained the upper hand in numbers as the appearance of the giants, expressions twisted in anger, was changing the situation.
"Fenrir!"
Lee Jun-Kyeong decided that it was the right time to call Fenrir, and a white wolf came bounding forward.
Across the garden they had destroyed, Fenrir raced forward, his footsteps marred in flames that would burn everything.
Crack!
He pierced his thick teeth into the king’s neck. With an eerie sound, the king screamed, “Eeuuaghhhhhhh–!”
He turned and was about to knock Fenrir down with his fists, but was only damaged further at that time by Thrymr, Liu Bei and his party, and Lee Jun-Kyeong.
"Looooookiiiiii!"
As Thrymr erupted with his Gladr and was about to unleash another blow onto the king, the king, Utgard-Loki, finally invoked his own Gladr.
Boom!
“Know your place–!”
A black and golden light emanated from him. The light was directed toward his fist, and the two fists connected blows.
Boom!
There was a huge explosion, and a blast of mana raged forth like a typhoon, shaking the humans and forcing the giants to avert their eyes.
Bang! Crash! Bang!
The explosions didn’t end there. Thrymr rampaged to the king like someone who had nothing left to lose. The black light emanated from him and the black and gold light from the king inundated the royal palace.
The force from their blows rampaged out like explosions.
Even if the king’s fists crushed holes into his body and his flesh was torn apart, Thrymr rushed forward again and again, acting as if he was an insane giant—no, acting even more insane than even those mindless creatures.
It was as if a typhoon had formed, each fist forming incredible gales of wind.
Lee Jun-Kyeong and the other Hunters struggled to enter between the gaps in the force explosions.
“...”
At this point, if they had accidentally forced themselves into the middle of the fight, they would end up only being a hindrance rather than a help. Instead of being able to help kill the king, they would just die.
'That power…’
Lee Jun-Kyeong felt as though there was something alien about the power of the king. Now that his sensitivity to magic had reached its peak, he could tell something was different. Although he had seen the power of Thrymr, Thjazi, and the other giants, the Galdr used by the king, Utgard-Loki, contained something alien or foreign.
‘What could it be?’
He continued to think about it, but he wasn’t able to figure it out.
Bang! Bang!
Unbelievable blows continued to explode forth.
The king and Thrymr were strong, and it wasn’t an easy decision for him to make to throw himself into the wake of those explosive forces.
However…
"…"
Lee Jun-Kyeong couldn't give up.
‘The king…’
He would kill him.
It didn’t matter if the wake between the blows were dangerous. Even if Thrymr’s rage was even greater, Lee Jun-Kyeong had no intention of conceding the final blow.
‘I will be the one to kill the king.’
Lee Jun-Kyeong affirmed his conviction again and looked for an opportunity.
Thrymr had landed wounds on the king at his own expense, so Lee Jun-Kyeong’s opportunity lay there.
[There are 5 minutes left on the mission time limit.]
In fact, this was the reason why Lee Jun-Kyeong was trying to be the one to defeat the king.
[<The Sky of the Apocalypse> is urging you to hurry and kill the shameful bastard.]
[<The Sky of the Apocalypse> is...]
<The Sky of the Apocalypse> was urging Lee Jun-Kyeong. That had been the voice he had heard when he entered the palace.
[You have been granted a mission!]
[Defeat the impersonator.]
Lee Jun-Kyeong had absolutely no idea who was being impersonated, but he definitely knew that the impersonator in the message meant the king. That was why it was time.
Lee Jun-Kyeong was currently imbuing all of his strength into Muspel’s Spear. The more power he imbued, the more the flickering flames along its body dimmed down. Muspel’s Spear slowly began to lose its light.
[The magic infusion has reached its limit.]
He had learned this while watching over Park Jae-Hyun’s shoulder. Lee Jun-Kyeong pumped all of the enormous mana he now had in his possession into his weapon.
Then, he quickly ran through an opening he saw in the fight between the king and Thrymr. Lee Jun-Kyeong could feel his skin tingling as if he had entered the midst of a storm. Even though he had strengthened his skin with mana, the storm that rose by the mana they emitted was dangerously sharp.
“Die!”
Thrymr had lost all reason and was running wild to the point that he didn’t even notice Lee Jun-Kyeong's intrusion.
The king, on the other hand, grew even stronger as his anger rose. His black and gold Galdr grew a little darker. The Galdr exploded around them like a bomb, forcing Thrymr and Lee Jun-Kyeong back.
Bambambambam!
The king's Galdr smashed the debris around them into even smaller pieces. It was an incredible power.
‘This is the full extent of the king’s power…’
Smirk—
However, that was the reason Lee Jun-Kyeong laughed.
“Looks like it’s matchable!”
Suddenly, Lee Jun-Kyeong threw himself into the black and golden Galdr and thrust forward with Muspel’s Spear.
BOOM!
The black and gold Galdr was engulfed in flames.
"You deserve it!"
***
"Cough!"
Lee Jun-Kyeong vomited blood and stepped back. He had blocked the blow that had come toward him, but the aftershock still damaged his organs. This showcased how strong the king’s fist had been.
“Gasp… Gasp…”
Thrymr’s condition wasn’t normal either. Rivers of blood flowed from the holes in his body, and the shredded flesh on the ground piled up like a gruesome mountain. Due to their intense battle, the royal palace was also being completely destroyed.
Nevertheless, Thrymr still murmured like a madman, “I’ll kill you…”
He would kill. Kill the King.
There was clearly only one thought left in Thrymr’s head.
Furthermore, the king wasn’t in a normal condition either.
“Whew…”
The king had also received successive blows from Lee Jun-Kyeong and Thrymr. Especially from Lee Jun-Kyeong, as every time he attacked the Hunter, he also took damage.
Hiss.
[You have exceeded the limit.]
Muspel’s Spear, which had seemed to have lost its heat, glowed red again. The heat from the spear was enough even to hurt Lee Jun-Kyeong’s hand, whose fire resistance had already reached its peak. This same heat was what had been damaging the king this entire time.
'A little more.'
Lee Jun-Kyeong raised even more power from his core.
"DIE!"
Moreover, Thrymr had rushed forward again, and his fist had finally connected with the king’s face.
"Ha-a-eup!”
Lee Jun-Kyeong concentrated his mana even further, and his mana stream and the flow of mana started to move more slowly under the influence of his internal qigong. He drew in the latent mana around him and injected it into Muspel’s Spear.
[Muspel’s Spear has leveled up due to the strong heat.]
Still, Lee Jun-Kyeong wasn’t satisfied.
‘A little more.’
He continued imbuing the spear with mana, and his weapon continued to endlessly fill up with energy.
A strange heat emanated from the spear. The heat was so hot that it even burned the very air itself, and it continued to condense and condense onto the weapon.
Crash! Bang!
As if he had caught on to what Lee Jun-Kyeong was doing, Thrymr exerted himself even more in order to force the king to spend more energy.
Boom!!!
However, the king wasn’t standing still either.
‘I only have one shot.’
The power of the king was strange. The more his body was damaged, the closer he got to death, but his strength continued to get stronger. The more they damaged him, the more damage he would inflict on Lee Jun-Kyeong and his allies.
Therefore, Lee Jun-Kyeong knew he had to do it.
‘Once. Only once.’
He had to end it with one blow.
Eventually, another notification rang out.
[The maximum limit of flame that Muspel’s Spear can contain has been exceeded.]
[Muspel’s Spear has begun to break.]
As soon as he heard the notification, Lee Jun-Kyeong threw his spear as hard as he could. It flew through the air, and then it suddenly disappeared.
It had obviously been thrown, but no one could see anything. However, Lee Jun-Kyeong knelt down on one knee and fell to the ground.
Thud.
An immense wave of exhaustion echoed through him, and his body felt as heavy as if a thousand pounds was weighing down on him.
He had taken every last dreg of mana from his body for that blow, even up to the last drop of the incredible mana he had obtained through the help of Won-Hwa. It even included the zhuo qi that Won-Hwa had spoken of.
‘Could it have helped me?’
What he had done had been possible because the black beads had given him strength. Lee Jun-Kyeong slowly raised his head and looked ahead.
“Whew…ahem.”
Then, he stood up, his legs trembling. Everyone’s eyes were on him and the king.
“...”
“...”
The reason was simple.
"Uh… eughk… uh…"
The king was someone who had ruled Utgard and manipulated the frost giants, and he was the one who had chased away Thrymr and killed Thjazi’s father.
He was the same impudent being who had upset <The Sky of the Apocalypse>.
[<The Sky of the Apocalypse> is satisfied.]
[Mission Success]
That very being had a gaping hole in his chest—a hole too large even to consider that Muspel’s Spear could have made it. It was a massive hole as if a stake had fallen from the sky and pierced through his chest.
Sparkle.
That hole was completely empty, and through it, the sun could be seen shining.
“The… The sun?”
The Hunters were puzzled when they saw the sunlight. There had been no more sun in China, which had turned into a land of death. The land around them only had a softly shining light.
However, the sun that had once disappeared, had now risen.
"Whew…"
When Lee Jun-Kyeong exhaled again, the sun that had shone for a moment disappeared.
Squelch! Woosh!
Destroying everything in its path, burning it all to bits, accompanied by a hair-raising sound, Muspel’s Spear appeared back in Lee Jun-Kyeong’s hand.
Thud!
[You have completed an unbelievable achievement!]
[You have completed ‘The One Who Raises the Sun’ achievement.]
[Your affinity to fire greatly increases.]
[Mission rewards have been granted.]
[Your stats have greatly increased.]
[Your state has been completely restored.]
Several notifications rang in Lee Jun-Kyeong’s ears.
"…"
A silence emerged.
Just like the voice in the notification had said, Lee Jun-Kyeong had just accomplished an incredible achievement. Filled with a deep feeling of satisfaction, Lee Jun-Kyeong looked over at the giants.
“...”
They stared back at him, breath caught in their throats.
Thump.
One of the giants dropped an ax.
“Grr.”
A person close to Lee Jun-Kyeong growled pleasantly.
"Mr. Lee… Are you really human?" said Jeong In-Chang, spewing bullshit.
