Chapter 227 - Chapter 227 (1/2)
Fifty thousand or so Hunters from all corners of the globe, here to defend against the super-massive Gate, watched dazedly as the black monsters began kneeling before Jin-Woo.
"Jesus....."
This sea of soldiers wrapped in black armour or black smoke seemed to go on forever. Every single one of these creatures possessed an incredible amount of magical energy, but there was something else that made the gathered Hunters doubt their own eyes even more.
"T-that, that, that! Could that be?!"
"Right at the end there, you see what's right at the end there, right?"
".....Yeah, I can see it."
Hunters pointed to the back of this army of black soldiers, their complexions paling greatly. More specifically, they were pointing to the three black Dragons at the back of the army who were obediently lowering their heads before their owner, as if they were house-trained pets or some such.
The gathered Hunters were now rendered completely speechless after discovering those Dragons being the part of the line-up of these black soldiers.
The Dragon that appeared for the first, and last, time in human history had been 'Kamish'. That one creature alone managed to wipe out almost every single elite Hunter alive back then, and the whole world was in danger of being thrust into a horrifying conflagration of destruction.
Seriously now, would people begin calling that Dragon with a name carrying the meaning of 'undying flames' for no good reason?
And so – only one such creature was enough to threaten the very existence of the human race, yet there were three of them now. It couldn't be helped that the Hunters gathered here to fight these things felt as if all of their energy was quickly abandoning them.
Just what would have happened if they decided to clash against this army? Hunters imagined the potential combat situation against these black monsters currently in bowing positions and felt goosebumps rapidly spread throughout their bodies next.
And at the same time, they grew really curious about the real identity of Hunter Seong Jin-Woo, standing before them as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Jin-Woo swept his gaze over the Grand-Marshal Bellion and the seemingly endless number of Shadow Soldiers kneeling behind their leader.
'So, this is the real Shadow Army....'
What Igrit said was right.
His black knight asked for an audience and spoke to Jin-Woo in his usual dignified manner yesterday.
[My liege, the Shadow Army has concluded all of their preparations.]
Jin-Woo needed a bit of time to completely digest those words. That's how surprising it was to him.
That was why he was in a dilemma.
He knew better than anyone here regarding the matters with the Sovereigns and the Rulers, as well as the truth behind the Gates. But the thing was, he himself wasn't certain about the overall narrative, so there was no way he'd be able to convincingly explain what was happening here to everyone else.
No, it was an impossibly tall order to convince every one of these Hunters coming from all over the world to stop the Gate before it turned into the worst calamity in human history.
And also….
In the one-in-ten-thousand case, no, make that one in ten million chance that Igrit's information was faulty, could he be able to handle the fallout from that?
That was why Jin-Woo decided to wait.
He decided not to make up his mind until he could confirm the truth with his own eyes first, and waited until the Gate opened up. And the result of that was now kneeling before his eyes.
Jin-Woo inwardly swallowed his saliva and scanned his soldiers. Although he was not responsible for raising these soldiers, he could still sense that every single one of them was connected to him.
It was a complicated network, connected like a spiderweb. And through this network, the level of sheer joy they felt at reuniting with their master was fully transmitted to him.
'This is the inheritance the former Shadow Sovereign had given to me....'
These creatures were all swearing their loyalty to their new master. Just like how quickly their hearts were racing, Jin-Woo's own chest was as well, now filled up with powerful emotions.
That's right.
He took a brief look at the Dragons at the back before returning his gaze to the front of the army.
The Grand-Marshal Bellion.
This guy certainly possessed a suitable amount of dignity and strength, fitting for the title he carried. There was a trace of torn-off wings on the back of his armour, though.
'Two pairs of wings....'
Jin-Woo recalled that regular silver-clad soldiers possessed a pair of wings, while the Rulers had six wings, and from that fact, he could roughly estimate the level of Bellion's capability.
Jin-Woo focused his sensory perception and the light within his eyes gleamed brightly.
With that, he could take a gander at the truly humongous reserve of magical energy the Grand-Marshal chose to hide because of the presence of his liege.
'As expected....'
Because he possessed this much power, he was indeed qualified to lead a Shadow Army that contained even Dragons.
Jin-Woo raised his head.
The Shadow Army. The king wishing to go to war had finally regained his soldiers.
Ba-thump, ba-thump, ba-thump.
Jin-Woo took a long, hard look at his soldiers as his heart raced faster and faster. The thing was, those kneeling before him weren't the only Shadow Army, now were they?
If these guys were the soldiers that belonged to the former Shadow Sovereign 'Osborne', then Jin-Woo too possessed his own loyal soldiers, as well.
'Come out.'
Even more Shadow Soldiers materialised from behind Jin-Woo at his beckoning. Their numbers had already ballooned to near two thousand by now.
Beru, Igrit, Greed, No. 6, Fangs, Iron, Jima, Tank, etc., all filled up the space behind Jin-Woo. And then….
Chut.
….They too knelt down and lowered their heads, just like the Shadow Soldiers that came out from the massive Gate. Every single Shadow Soldier, surrounding him from both sides, swore their allegiances in silence.
Jin-Woo nodded his head.
Finally, the separated Shadow Army had become whole.
A powerful force capable of standing up against the enemies and their armies had been completed. Things seemed to be unfolding quite smoothly right now.
However, Jin-Woo could feel quite a few gazes flying in his direction, stabbing him rather painfully on his neck, and he just had to take a look behind him.
'….....'
'….....'
That's where he discovered tens of thousands of Hunters standing there staring at him, along with hundreds of reporters risking their lives to record the historic battle that was supposed to take place here.
Understandably, all of them were sporting the same sort of expression that screamed, "Just what the hell is going on here??"
'Okay, so now....'
As a sort of reply to their frozen-stiff expressions, Jin-Woo formed an awkward smile.
'….How am I supposed to explain this?'
***
Quite obviously, the whole world was in an uproar.
Well, every single monster emerging from the super-massive Gate started kneeling before Hunter Seong Jin-Woo, and this shocking scene was broadcast live to the entire world, so the pandemonium breaking out was rather understandable.
Viewers were watching on with anxiety and dread as the Gate opened up, so it was quite hard for them to drag themselves out from the pit of heady mental shock, akin to someone smacking them unexpectedly in the back of their noggins.
Pretty much every single online community went into a heated frenzy over this matter.
- What the freak? Those black monsters just now, just what the f*ck happened? Is anyone capable of explaining this sh*t?
- Don't tell me, all those monsters are Seong Jin-Woo's summons????
└ Horsesh*t.... I heard from somewhere that well over a hundred thousand monsters came out from that Gate.
└ What the hell. How can summons pop out from a Gate? You should start spewing things that make sense.
└ Oh? Why don't you, good sir, enlighten us, the ignorant masses, then?
└ First of all, they all look exactly like Hunter Seong Jin-Woo's summons, don't they? But still, how can summons come out of a Gate?
Many displayed the reactions of disbelief, but there were also a few who viewed the incident in a different light.
- Still, isn't it a relief that those monsters weren't our enemies?
└ For real. ㅇㅈ.
└ If they were, we'd all be dead by now. I saw an interview and they say there were three Dragons in the horde, too.
└ Three Dragons LOLOLOL So f*cking crazy. LOLOL
└ Kamish comes out, sees them, he be like, "Nope", goes away ROFL
└ What are you even talking about? Kamish died almost nine years ago, so how can that thing come out and goes away again?
└ The commenter above mine, whoooosh. You must be a delight in dinner parties.
- Argh, this sh*t is driving me nuts. Seriously, man.... I wish Hunter Seong Jin-Woo just comes out clean and tells us what happened....
Meanwhile, TV stations continued to repeatedly broadcast the same shocking scenes from back then, and did their best to analyse and come to a suitable conjecture.