Ho-Gyoung thought about his past days.
It was pretty fun for him to watch scrunched faces of all these people who used to be called the most powerful warriors in their own worlds.
When Ho-Gyoung was in the lower dimension, and when he was the strongest that far surpassed beyond everyone else, he had witnessed many such people.
It didn’t matter who it was.
Masters of large nobilities, monks who trained in the arts of internal energies for 60 years, best swordsmen in the world who earned their titles after countless battles…
‘No matter who they were, they were literally dying from despair, and I never got bored of the look on their faces.’
After uniting the Murim world, when he no longer had anything further to achieve, he was transported to Asgard all of sudden. Even then, his hobby did not change.
When he even surpassed Bellon, who was the number one in Golden Ranking before his arrival, he laughed in satisfaction and joy as he had a drink in his mansion.
However, now that he was facing a humongous mountain in front of him, a man overflowing with golden lightning, a man who was giving off animosity toward him without any hesitation, Ho-Gyoung could not help the expression on his own face.
This was not something he would have been able to fight even if he had prepared for it.
‘The look on my face now… I probably… have the same face as they did.’
He tried his hardest to remain calm, but he knew the look on his own face was different from his usual look.
Because he was so nervous, his neck felt stiff.
He felt like he became just a Second-Rate bodyguard that was standing in front of him a moment ago.
‘I absolutely hate… embarrassing myself.’
He got a hold of himself as he hoped his appearance was not too pathetic.
Ho-Gyoung feared that more than death.
Without saying anything, he went after Vulcan.
KIGIGIGIGING
From behind Vulcan, several energy blades appeared and were launched toward his waist.
Creating energy blades without any medium in mid-air itself was an incredible feat, and their sizes were also unbelievable.
Vulcan moved around in zigzag paths with his lightning fast movements, and as of result, the energy blade teeth always chewed on empty air.
Watching this, Ho-Gyoung suddenly felt anger and wanted to say something, but he felt mana was covertly moving under his feet.
‘This can’t!’
BOOM!
He quickly threw his body and dodged it, but he was still exposed to the heat, and it was enough to completely burn off his shoes.
Ho-Gyoung’s face was hardened in despair. Watching this, Vulcan said,
“You are suppose to be a man with blades as his specialty, yet all you are doing is trying to come up with petty schemes. You must still be thinking that you are on the top.”
“Kuk.”
Vulcan could have sent another wave of attack immediately after the last one, but he wasn’t. It appeared he was that confident. He had that much to spare in margin of risk.
Vulcan was still looking at Ho-Gyoung with a big smile. Watching this, Ho-Gyoung knew immediately what Vulcan was thinking.
‘He is… just toying with me.’
Because Ho-Gyoung have done it often against other worries who were beneath him, he could tell for certain.
Ho-Gyoung no longer cared about putting up an emotionless face. Instead, he grabbed hold of his blade with both hands and charged toward Vulcan.
KAGAGAGAGANG.
Using the the highly compressed energy blade technique, the one that even Dokgo-Hoo had to be satisfied with drawing out 6.5 ft, Ho-Gyoung managed to draw over 10 ft.
Considering the Asgard was made of materials substantially harder than lower dimensions, its destructive power was unbelievable.
He swung the sword with all of his strength, tried to raise it and pressure Vulcan with it, and even tried to overwhelm Vulcan with countless unpredictable swings in attempt to confuse his vision. However, none of them worked.
Also, the look on Vulcan’s face…
It looked like Vulcan was treating Ho-Gyoung like some Third-Rate martial art teacher at some small town. It was making Ho-Gyoung really lose it.
His compressed energy blade was now at 14 ft, and exuding deadly power, it fell toward Vulcan.
“Kuuuaaaaa!”
BAM! BOOM!
“Ku… Huhuk… Kuluk, Kulkuk!”
However, instead of Vulcan, it was Ho-Gyoung that was bounced off.
Because it was the blade’s handle instead of the tip, it didn’t kill him, but it was a mighty strike that disrupted the flow of energy in his entire body.
Vulcan slowly walked toward Ho-Gyoung, who was having a hard time breathing.
From Vulcan's mouth, which was smiling, a cold voice was flowing out.
“If you don’t have anything else to show me, then let’s end it here.”
They were incredibly impudent words, the kind a mere greenhorn who had been in Asgard for less than six years shouldn’t say.
No matter who looked at it, the difference in strength was obvious.
It felt hopeless as if he had one of The Six standing in front of him.
At that moment, Ho-Gyoung truly realized that he could not possibly defeat Vulcan.
‘In this situation… I can’t even laugh.’
He had a pretty good guess since the first time he saw Vulcan. He figured it would be difficult even if he teamed up with Bellon, the battle king, and fought Vulcan.
Despite that, Ho-Gyoung could not back down.
There was no worse disgrace than losing one’s life with his back turned.
“Since this will be the end for me… I might as well go after watching one more move.”
After squeezing out all of his courage to say those words, Ho-Gyoung raised his blade and used his greatest technique.
WOOOONG
It generated uncomfortable noise, enough to almost tear one’s eardrums.
Every one of the blades looked as if each contained enough power to cut through the sky and shatter the ground.
It looked more powerful than the Horuine’s Water God’s Wraith by several tens of folds. It intrigued Vulcan.
KUWAGAGAGAGAGANG
Several tens of thousands of blades rushed toward Vulcan like a wave.
There was no way Ho-Gyoung could have made this many energy blades. It was certain that there were real energy blades hiding amongst fake ones.
In fact, Vulcan could not tell which ones were real and which ones were illusions.
He had no need to tell them apart.
‘I just need to break them all.’
Vulcan lightly put forth his left hand.
‘Ifrit’s Fist’ charged forward as it crushed every single one of Ho-Gyoung’s blades.
KUGUGUGUGUGU
Unlike the lightning mastery, the fire mastery's rank was not increased, but still, because Vulcan made a leap in height, the magic was showing a significantly more power.
Vulcan figured this will be the end of Ho-Gyoung.
However, something didn’t feel right. A combat sense as someone who has reached a certain height was tickling the inside of Vulcan’s head.
Also, Vulcan strained his eyes in order to witness the end of Ho-Gyoung. He wanted to see it for certain.
‘Kuuu… Incredible heat…!’
Although not all of the energy blades were swept away, Ho-Gyoung could feel the heat penetrating through.
At this rate, it was a certainty that he would be losing his life.
However, he was about to die not with a bang but with a whimper, and he absolutely wanted to refuse that.
‘I have my pride as Ho-Gyoung the Blade King… I can’t hand over my life without putting up a fight!’
Ho-Gyoung focused all of his energy and sent it to his most treasured blade, the ‘Setting Sun.’
As the layer of protective energy blade started to thin, not just his cloth, but even his skin started to burn, but Ho-Gyoung didn’t care.
Instead, hoping for the moment the Setting Sun explodes, he poured in even more energy into the blade.
‘Once it is shattered to thousands of pieces, it will explode while being surrounded by highly compressed energy… If just one of these pieces pierce through his magic and strike that bastard…!’
Ho-Gyoung was already in shambles. The cloth and the hair on his entire body were burned to crisp.
However, his eyes were glowing sharply. His eyes were still glaring at Vulcan without losing any strength.
‘The moment he lets his guard down, the moment he puts away his sword thinking that he have won… That will be the chance my final move could pierce through his body…’
Ho-Gyoung definitely saw someone standing far in front of him, and the figure was still there.
There, he now could see the true identity of the figure in the distance.
‘You son of a bitch… You used skeleton illusion mag…!’
WHEEC
Ho-Gyoung’s head flew up high into the air.
By Ifrit’s Fist, his body became ashes and disappeared, and his blade, the Setting Sun, which was overcharged with energy, lost power and melted away from the heat.
Of course, Vulcan was an exception to all this.
He quickly moved away from the effective range of the Ifrit’s Fist and landed with style.
He looked around the scene.
“This can't be…!”
“Huh…!”
“This is not possible!”
They were the Order’s warriors that came after seeing the signal flare that Baek-Un shot to the sky.
It was a sight that they never thought they would see until the day they leave Act 1 or died.
Everyone saw that Ho-Gyoung was defeated by an overwhelming power. There wasn’t a single warrior who was not shocked.
“Hm.”
Vulcan, with pride in his eyes, glared at them.
The warriors all turned their heads away whenever Vulcan’s gaze met with theirs.
They looked as if they ran into a grim reaper. They were unable to hide their nervousness.
“What should I do?”
Having heard Vulcan’s voice just now, the warriors all flinched and started to shake.
Vulcan was the one who was overwhelmingly powerful, and it was the Order’s side that was being overwhelmed.
In front of a monster named Vulcan, they were no different from lambs in front of a wolf.
However, they were just a bunch of people who cared about their own lives than the honor of their group. They were not a united bunch.
They were just a collection of sands. Vulcan had no reason to fear them.
“It’s not like I’m a murderous maniac…”
‘Now that I have had my revenge, I have no reason to turn them all as my enemies.’
Vulcan utilized the power of spirit form and the Thunder God’s Might and rushed toward Beloong City.
He was already a being that lived in a different dimension from themselves.
In silence, they only gave blank stares at back of Vulcan as he charged toward the city.