Vulcan quickly prepared various magic spells including Destructive Core.
With eyes filled with regrets, he looked at Tom Logger and other soldiers.
Vulcan figured that he should at least have many spells cast and ready if getting all of the soldiers out was not possible.
‘If they get tangled up in the battle… then they will die anyway.’
However, a regret was, no matter how quick it was, still late.
Vulcan put his regrets behind. With bringing up the Thunder God’s Might as the last of his preparation, Vulcan moved to the front of the portal.
There was a giant demon who slowly showed himself through the portal.
The demon was smiling as if he was pleased. He was looking around as he smiled.
“Kuhuhuhu. You insects. You dare to try to attack me?”
The soldiers, who were trying to run, were shaking in fear and despair. They couldn’t dare to think about running now. They just plummeted where they stood.
Due to extreme fear, some even threw up or pissed their pants.
“…”
However, the look on Vulcan’s face was a little different from the rest.
He looked very disappointed about something.
With look of disbelief, Vulcan was using the SYSTEM to scan the demon’s abilities.
[Count Bramhal, Demon Force Vanguard Captain]
[477Lv]
‘I got scared for nothing.’
Vulcan sighed in relief.
Having noticed Vulcan sighing, Bramhal was infuriated. He glared at Vulcan and pointed at Vulcan with his gigantic finger.
“You runt! I am infamous even in the demon world. You dare to sigh when I am standing before youuuuuurrrrrrrrrrrk!”
[Your experience points went up by a small amount.]
Pasususususu.
Just like Nukuham, the one Vulcan fought last time, Bramhal was struck by the Ifrit’s Fist and lost his life.
Bramhal’s entire body became dust and got swept away by the wind. Watching this, Vulcan quietly muttered,
“I was not waiting for your arrival, you bastard.”
Uuuuuuuuung.
As soon as Vulcan finished saying that, the portal shook once again.
“Kickickic. It’s time to taste human blood!”
“Let’s pay them back for what happened seven years ago!”
“Kill them all!”
There were endless hordes of demons pouring out of the portal. Vulcan used the spells he had ready one at a time.
Each of the spells he prepared was for an opponent on par with Vulcan’s strength, so its power was absolutely astonishing.
With just one spell, several hundreds of demons died, and items started to pile up like mountains.
Vulcan started to lose the sense of urgency and alertness he had earlier. He was even yawning now.
Controlling the magic so it won’t destroy the ground was harder than killing the demons.
Having used all of the spells he prepared, Vulcan laid down Firefield around the portal.
Afterwards, again, endless hordes of demon forces came through the portal.
As they arrived, without knowing how or why, the demon forces became ashes and disappeared.
“Kiiiiaaaaaaaak!”
“Kuuuaaaaaaak!”
[Your experience points went up by an infinitesimally small amount.]
[Your experience points went up by an infinitesimally small amount.]
…
[Your experience points went up by an infinitesimally small amount.]
It was like watching countless herbivore animals crawling voluntarily into the mouth of a tiger. The demons, as if they didn’t value their lives, were continuously summoned through the portal and died.
Having witnessed this, the solders started to have lively looks flowing in their faces.
Initially, they were diligently retreating like they were ordered to by Tom Logger. However, when Count Bramhal made his entrance, they were petrified in terror. Afterwards, they were busy watching Vulcan’s incredible feat that they lost the timing for running away.
In disbelief, the soldiers mumbled.
“That… that big one doesn’t die easily even after getting hit by tanks’ cannon fires, yet…”
“I know… Also, against so many of them, he handled them all by himself… As I thought, he is the Savior… He is incredible.”
“We are cheering for you! Vulcan! You are our world’s hero!”
Before anyone realized, the sense of terror disappeared as if it was washed away somehow. Now, the American soldiers basically became audiences to a spectacular show. They were cheering for Vulcan.
Although the reason was a little different for Vulcan, nevertheless, the demons dying continuously like this was quite enjoyable for Vulcan to watch.
It felt like the stress that only been piling up in him until now was being resolved at an instant.
It felt like a max level video gamer was coming to a newbie’s hunting ground and causing a ruckus.
On top of this, there weren’t any newbies swearing at Vulcan for doing so.
There were just people watching him. They were his fans and cheer squads. They were pouring out more cheers in excitement as he dominated the field.
Vulcan even forgot about the ominous sensation that he felt earlier. He just focused on slaughtering the demon forces.
‘Although I’m just an escapee from the Act 2 at the moment… At Earth, I am the max leveler!’
Whuwaaarururururururuk
Kiiiiaaaaaaaak
Kyawaaaaaaaak
Like that, about one hour passed.
All demons that were summoned to Earth through the portal became dust and got scattered to the empty air. There weren’t any more demons coming out of the portal now. There was just a mountain worth of items piled up.
Vulcan opened the inventory and retrieved all of the small fry items.
Watching this, the soldiers cheered for the victory. Even Tom Logger, with relieved look after thinking the situation was over, said to Vulcan,
“This definitely was a larger scale invasion than the usual… Mr. Vulcan, if you were not here, we would have been in a big trouble. On behalf of America, no, the world, thank you.”
With discipline, Tom Logger saluted.
However, the look on Vulcan did not ease up.
He didn’t respond to Tom Logger’s words. Instead, Vulcan continued to glare at the portal.
Malevolent energy could still be felt.
The energy was greater than the combined energy of all demons that came out so far, and Vulcan could feel that it was slowly approaching Earth.
‘I won’t know for sure until it comes out, but… Ugh… I really hope it is not the Demon Lord.’
Vulcan hoped for this desperately.
If the bastard who was approaching the portal now was someone who rivaled the power of the Demon Lord, it was going to be impossible for Vulcan to fight using just his own strength. It meant Vulcan was going to resort to being on the run for one month until the cooling time for the Cross Dimensional Teleportation to finally fill up.
Vulcan absolutely wanted to avoid things leading to that.
‘I hope it is someone I can handle by myself…’
With anxious gaze, he was glaring at the portal. A few seconds passed.
As if others noticed how anxious Vulcan looked, other soldiers, including Tom Logger, stared at the direction of the portal anxiously as well. An existence, who was being showered with everyone’s gazes, made the entrance.
A demon used his two hands and swept away the portal as if he was tearing down the portal as he came out of the doorway.
He had hardened body that looked as if a blade won’t penetrate if he was stabbed. He had large two horns. Also, he had a pair of wings. Watching the being who made the entrance, Vulcan unconsciously yelled,
“Uh!”
Vulcan looked as if he was glad to see this demon. It was like greeting a friend who Vulcan had not seen in ten years.
The demon looked exactly like Balgeram. Looking at the demon, Vulcan unconsciously used scan.
[Duke Balgerom, Demon Force Supreme Commander]
[827Lv]
‘Ah, he is not Balgeram. Of course. How is he supposed to escape from there.”
Balgerom looked so similar to Balgeram, so Vulcan mistook this demon for Balgeram.
Vulcan maximized the output of the Thunder God’s Might and got to front of Balgerom in heavy steps.
Vulcan had a faint smile hanging on his face. Depending on the interpretation, it could be a very unpleasant look to watch.
Also, Balgerom judged that the look on Vulcan’s face was that of belittlement. Balgerom looked around the area and said in majestic, powerful voice,
“You must be the rumored warrior. I’ve heard that you disappeared after destroying Nukuham during the first invasion, yet you returned and started to meddle again.”
“On top of that, all of the subordinates under my command… You slain them all, every single one of them. Seriously…. Really…”
As he lowered his voice little by little, Balgerom lowered his head.
He looked like a crunching gargoyle statue. He had his arms wrapped around himself and was shaking. Watching Balgerom, Vulcan quickly used Land-Fold toward him.
Vulcan got below Balgerom’s chin in a blink of an eye.
Supporting himself on the ground with his upper body, Vulcan used both of his legs to kick Balgerom in full force.
“You infuriate…. Kuuuhurrrrrk!”
Kwang!
Sustaining a huge shock, Belgerom’s magic spell was interrupted.
Balgerom was going to use a wide area effective magic and express his fury. However, instead of achieving his objective, he ended up in a pathetic state where he was being thrown off to the distance.
“Kuuuuk! You insect!”
Balgerom strained and forced his body to come to a stop. He opened his eyes big in anger.
In an instant, Vulcan already flew in and was there before Balgerom. Belgerom ground his teeth, but it seemed Vulcan could not care less.
Vulcan said in a calm voice,
“Although all of this will be resolved after I make the wish, but… Still, I can’t stand still and do nothing if people are going to be killed in front of my eyes.”
“The wish? What load of bullcrap are you talking about! Kuuuuaaaaap!”
Belgerom had no idea what Vulcan was talking about.
However, he knew with certainty that Vulcan was no pushover. Belgerom also recognized clearly that the invasion will fail again if he could not defeat Vulcan.
Because of this, to use his most powerful technique, Belgerom shouted and focused his power. Using that huge collection of energy, he summoned the flame whip.
With just one swing of this whip, Belgerom could break apart a few countries as if he was cutting cupcakes. This was Belgerom’s triumph card which contained incredible power.
However, to Vulcan, all this looked incredibly boring. He was sick of seeing this like a single play RPG game that he had beaten several dozen times.
Vulcan drew the blade from the sheath.
How Vulcan drew the blade was so swift and smooth that made one mistake and think Vulcan had been wielding it since the beginning of the battle.
Belgerom had a bad feeling about this. Right around when a thick shadow of anxiety was passing by Belgerom’s face, Vulcan transformed into Lightning Spirit and quickly narrowed the distance.
The golden energy was so intense and powerful that it was blinding.
Belgerom was a Demon Duke. His name was a synonym for terror itself. However, he was even forgetting his pride in this very fact. Belgerom was swinging his whip with his face filled with fear. Vulcan, as if he was laughing at Belgerom’s response, disappeared just before the whip could reach him.
Shuuuuuuk
‘What the… It was odd last time, but just h…’
Sugagak.
Belgerom was not able to finish the thoughts.
A powerful flash of light went through from the top of his head to the groin.
The strike was like the wrath of a god. Belgerom was done in defenselessly.
Even Belgeram, who had higher level than Vulcan, was helpless against the combination of Land-Fold and Thunder God Blade.
By this swift attack, Devil Duke Balgerom lost his life before having the chance to put up any decent fight. Instead, he became experience points and ended up aiding in the process of leveling up for Vulcan.
[Your experience points went up.]
[Level Up!]
[You defeated an opponent who is stronger than you!]
[You achieved an exploit.]
[Your exploit points will increase.]
“Ah, this guy had higher level than me.”
Vulcan was still at 821, so it seemed slaying Balgerom, who had the level of 827, lead to increase in exploit points.
‘Well, that’s good for me, although I had been stuck ever since I got to the Hero-rate.’
Feeling the joy, Vulcan felt the lingering sensations after the notification sounds of the SYSTEM.
It had been a while since Vulcan felt the joy from leveling up.
Moreover, there was the sense of accomplishment on the fact that he saved Earth with his own power. Combining the two factors together, Vulcan was in exceptionally good mood at the moment.
On top of this, although he obliterated countless demons, there was no casualty. It was literally an incredible accomplishment.
Vulcan flew through the air leisurely as if he was swimming and got to the portal.
The soldiers were not yet sure about what happened. They vacantly looked at Vulcan.
Tom Logger also had the same look on his face as he approached Vulcan, but he couldn’t say anything. Vulcan, with serious look on his face, raised his hand and stopped him. This was why.
Like that, Vulcan looked at the portal for a moment.
Everyone held their breath and watched Vulcan.
“…”
Although it was not long, but it felt like a very long time had passed.
Vulcan relaxed the stiff look on his face. He smiled big and said toward Tom Logger,
“I think we don’t have to worry now.”
“Yeeesssssss!”
“We are saved! We are saved!”
“Kuhahahaha! As I thought!”
As soon as Vulcan said those words, cheers from the people exploded from everywhere.
Overjoyed, the soldiers were unable to stand still.
Usually, the dispatched unit soldiers were highly disciplined. However, at the moment, even Tom Logger, the one in charge of the unit, were shouting in joy as if he just got a shot of happy medicine.
“… Haha!”
Vulcan watched them and also broke into smiles.
Vulcan was drenched in desolate life in Act 2 for decades. Because of this, he had not laughed properly for dozens of years. Watching the people in joy made him actually laugh out loud. It had been so long since he laughed like this last time.
‘That’s right… This is how people should live.’
He watched everyone being happy and sharing this moment together.
Vulcan felt like the hardship he had endured up to this moment was not some pointless grinding after all but worth something. It was to the point he could feel his eyes tearing.
Vulcan watched the soldiers being overjoyed for a moment longer. He then slowly got out of the scene and went to a quiet place.
He thought that he might actually cry if he stayed there a little longer. This was why.
‘It’s not like I cleared Act 2.’
At the moment, Vulcan didn’t really accomplished anything.
Vulcan thought that it would be embarrassing to be jerking tears in this situation.
However, it was quite difficult to suppress the emotion surging up. To calm his mind, he opened the inventory and checked the spoils he obtained today.
Wururururururururu.
Looking at items piled up like a mountain, Vulcan crumpled his face.
‘… Even at a glance, I think useless items make up 90% of them…’
The demons had levels far below the monsters of Act 2, so it could not be helped. However, he also could not help the sense of disappointment.
Still, he could not just throw away the items without checking them either.
Vulcan didn’t have anything to do anyway. So, like a merchant who was thoroughly checking the goods, he approached the mountain of items to carefully check the items’ options.
He had his gaze drawn by a dark red item that looked familiar.