Chapter 165 - Chapter 165 (2/2)

No one argued that there was no time, that they had to get out of here. No, they simply watched on in a daze.

Choi Jong-In, who had been silently enduring until then, spoke with a powerless voice.

"Can we... ask you for this favour?"

These Guild members were like his family. If it was possible, he didn't want them to rot away stuck in a cold corner of this d*mnable cave.

Jin-Woo nodded his head and turned around.

Ba-thump, ba-thump!

His hearts were quietly beating away.

'I need to sense a little deeper.'

Basically, his two hearts always beat as one. He needed to concentrate really hard to separate the sound of the Black Heart beating from his regular heart. Jin-Woo gathered the magical energy sent out by this mysterious heart towards his fingertips.

'Did he do it like this?'

Jin-Woo tried to mimic the hand gesture of the Shadow Sovereign he saw within the data's playback.

His hand reaching up as if he was grasping something – without a doubt, he could sense enormous magical power going crazy within his hand right now.

'I can do this.'

Jin-Woo felt this powerful self-assurance enter his mind.

He immediately located the whereabouts of the deceased Hunters through their magic energy emission. His eyes gleamed brightly. Shortly afterwards, he stopped silently studying the interior of the chamber and spoke up.

"Ruler's Authority."

And when he did....

Dududuk....

All the remains of the Hunters buried under the rubble of the stone statues all uniformly rose up into the air.

"Heok!!"

"But, how?!"

Hunters watching Jin-Woo with bated breaths all cried out in shock.

Never mind the fact that he was able to locate all the dead Hunters in such a short span of time, he even managed to lift them up without touching them? Wasn't this like one of those telekinetic superpowers often seen in movies?

The floating Hunters were carried out of the doorway via invisible hands.

'How can this be....?'

'How can something like this even be possible?'

Just like how normal people would get surprised by the Hunters, these Hunters were getting even more astonished by Jin-Woo's feats.

Even Choi Jong-In, who could be called very knowledgeable when it came to the manipulation of magical energy, couldn't quite believe what he just witnessed with his own two eyes.

'Just what kind of a skill is that?'

It was certainly a skill he had never even heard of before.

After seeing Jin-Woo's powers personally, Choi Jong-In realised that he had been greatly mistaken about something. When he saw the angel statue for the first time, he thought that such a 'thing' would obviously be able to defeat Jin-Woo.

However, his thoughts were wrong. It was a complete miscalculation.

Which monster would be able to deal with a Hunter capable of wielding powers like this as if it was nothing to him? Not realising that he was doing it, Choi Jong-In began shaking his head.

'Utterly impossible....'

In actual fact, the angel statue was eliminated in an instant almost as soon as Jin-Woo opened his eyes. Only sighs of amazement could come out after seeing this young man's capabilities.

Jin-Woo carefully moved the cold, unmoving corpses of the Hunters to one side and summoned out his Shadow Soldiers. The restriction only applied within the temple itself so he could call them out no problem outside the doorway.

While the living Hunters couldn't close shut their slack jaws, the Shadow Soldiers proceeded to pick up the dead Hunters. Everyone forgot what they wanted to say and simply looked at Jin-Woo as he addressed them.

"Let's get out of here."

It was then, the dungeon rumbled one more time as if it was waiting for this moment. The Hunters all nodded their heads.

Soon after they set off, the Shadow Soldiers ran right behind them. Jin-Woo remained behind and watched them move, before turning around to face Cha Hae-In who also hadn't left yet.

Although her physical wounds had been healed, her expression showed how fatigued she was.

'That is obvious, though.'

Even he himself needed to put in a lot of effort to defeat that angel statue. She'd definitely be exhausted trying to defend against such a creature all by herself.

Jin-Woo walked over to her and asked.

"Would you like me to carry you?"

Cha Hae-In formed a thin smile and shook her head.

Grasp.

He reached out to grasp her wrist again, and she quietly stared at him. He wanted her to feel at ease, at least by a little bit, so he relaxedly spoke to her.

"We should get going, too."

Nod.

Cha Hae-In, depressed by the deaths of her comrades, wordlessly nodded her head.

***

Hunters began emerging one by one from the Gate.

Right up until then, those waiting around outside the Gate had no idea the scale of the event taking place within. However, they all realised that something really bad had happened after seeing the deceased Hunters being carried out by the Shadow Soldiers.

"Oh, my god...."

"Are those all....?!"

The members of the Bravery Guild who had reported this matter, and the female Association employee standing by, all saw this procession and their complexions turned ashen in an instant.

The number of casualties was just far too great.

Weren't these people the elite Hunters of the country? The Hunters belonging to the Hunters Guild and the Monitoring Division were called some of the very best, yet....

After everyone had emerged, Jin-Woo and Cha Hae-In simultaneously stepped out of the Gate. Enough time had passed on the outside and it was night-time already.

Reporter Kim had been staying put until then to keep an eye on the situation, and when he saw the conditions of those two, his eyes grew extraordinarily wide from sheer shock.

The heavy traces of intense battle were clearly visible on the bodies of these two rank S Hunters – dried up, caked blood; torn, ripped clothing; their dishevelled hair.

Sure, Cha Hae-In still looked quite lovely even then. But Hunter Seong Jin-Woo gave off a feeling that he'd been through a bitter war all by himself.

'This is it.... This really is it!'

Reporter Kim raised his camera with his trembling hands.

This was the reason why he became a reporter in the first place. And that was to document event such as this one.

He wanted to let others know that there were some people who willingly put their lives on the line to fight for the masses in some forgotten corner of their country, even though everyone's attention was focused on the events taking place in Japan.

Almost twenty of the country's top Hunters had perished here today. If such a Gate had broken open, then the scale of destruction and losses to life would have exceeded imaginations. These people and their sacrifices had prevented a future tragedy.

However, if Reporter Kim wasn't here, would others ever get to know about these folks and their heroic battle today? He had been circling around the Association just so he could stumble into a story like this one day.

Click, click!!

He was so emotionally moved that tears were forming in his eyes as he busily snapped away photos.

Woo Jin-Cheol lost all the strength in his legs right after leaving the Gate and settled down on the ground. Jin-Woo looked for him and walked closer.

"....Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim."

Woo Jin-Cheol tried to get up, but Jin-Woo stopped the older man. Instead, the latter pointed at Reporter Kim over yonder.

"He's taking my photos, but is that allowed?"

Woo Jin-Cheol smirked and made his reply.

"It is indeed disallowed to film you in an individual capacity, Seong Hunter-nim. However, just like how it was back in the Jeju Island raid, it's impossible to block the report on the incident itself."

Jin-Woo nodded his head.

Mom would get worried if she saw his messed-up appearance, though. He was sort of worried about that happening, but then again, it didn't mean he could forcibly stop the reporter from doing his job.

Indeed, that reporter was doing what he was supposed to be doing.

He also wished for someone to let the world know of the ultimate sacrifices these Hunters made while fighting to ensure that no tragedy would unfold in the near future, as well.

A quiet wind seemed to blow by. The sounds of distant sirens from approaching ambulances were carried by the winds.

Next morning.

Every newspaper carried the front-page headline of the dungeon break happening in Japan, except for one publication. It was the only one that carried the news of the dual dungeon incident.

This paper sold the most number of copies that day.

< Chapter 165 > Fin.