Chapter 255 - Chapter 255 (2/2)

Jin-Woo was fully confident of defeating these new enemies if they were on the level of being driven back by the Army of the Heavens.

The voice of the Shadow Sovereign seemed to heavily press down on the envoy's shoulders and he nervously swallowed his dry saliva. Regardless which forces they were, none of them would prefer to have this man as their enemy. The Ruler's agent suddenly felt pity for this race of 'Titans' now.

By the way, if this meeting wasn't to ask for reinforcements, then why were they even here?

Jin-Woo replied as if he had seen through the agent's thoughts.

"What you asked me back then…. I thought it's about time that I tell you my answer."

"Ah, ah. I see. You were talking about that matter."

The Rulers made an offer to make available a location that the enormous power of the Shadow Sovereign wouldn't cause an issue. It seemed that he was able to come to a decision due to this crisis. The envoy nodded his head after seeing Jin-Woo's determination-filled expression.

"I understand what you're trying to say. As soon as this crisis is resolved, we...."

"I'm remaining on Earth."

"....Pardon?"

The envoy's brows rose up after hearing that unexpected reply. However, Jin-Woo's voice remained composed, with just a hint of a grin etched on his lips.

"You know, I still want to live here."

He wanted to spend his time in this world populated by his family, friends, as well as others that he'd like to meet and talk to. After he ran into Association President Woo Jin-Cheol, no, Detective Woo now, he had finally realised what he wanted to do.

'Well, it's a bit cumbersome that he keeps calling me up so he can buy me food, but still.'

In any case, Woo Jin-Cheol was a good man. And that was precisely why that young detective being dragged around by him could carry a happy expression like that.

'I'd like to be with those people.'

Jin-Woo thought that he'd like to be by their sides and be able to laugh along with them. The envoy spied on Jin-Woo's smile and replied with a sheepish smile of his own.

"Actually, I…. I was getting really bored with staying in this world, you see. What a relief this is. Now I can finally return to my world as well."

One year since that day. If one said it was short, then it was, but if one said it was too long, then it could be, as well.

The envoy's mission of remaining in this world to wait for the Shadow Sovereign's decision had finally come to an end. And seeing his expression, it was rather clear that the odds of him changing his mind were absolutely none.

"Well, then...."

While looking as if a load had been taken off his shoulders, the envoy stood up from his seat. He then bowed his waist towards Jin-Woo, no, the greatest hero who brought the war of two worlds to an end.

"I entrust this world to your capable hands."

***

Jin-Woo stopped digging through his closet and scratched his head.

'This isn't good....'

He couldn't see a single piece of garment that could hide his face. But then again, he bought a hoodie and a baseball cap to hide his face riddled with scars he earned while working as a low ranked Hunter, so it was only obvious that they wouldn't remain anymore in the new timeline.

Left with no choice, Jin-Woo decided to create the clothing he wanted.

The black smoke quickly enveloped him and became thick like actual liquid, before transforming into a hoodie that he used to wear so much in the past. He pulled the hood up and stood before the mirror in his room.

'How long has it been, me in this look.....?'

He experienced renewed reminiscence of the time erased, as the reflection was like looking at his past self. His lips exposed below the hoodie curled up into a grin.

"Nice."

With this, his preparation was over. And his figure slowly submerged into the shadow beneath his feet.

***

Somewhere in the desert, west of the United States of America.

The American government sealed tight the surrounding area and invited every expert they could get their hands on to this place, but in the end, every single one of them failed to come up with a meaningful hypothesis.

"I wonder. Well, this could be...."

"I've researched many strange weather phenomena across the globe for over 30 years, but this is my first time seeing something like that."

From the get-go, how could any expert, regardless of the numbers gathered, be able to explain the phenomenon of cracks developing in the atmosphere?

Crack, split...

Even as they dithered about, the empty sky was slowly but surely breaking apart bit by bit. Understandably, the American defence forces surrounding this area just in case something bad happened were very tense right now. If one were to exaggerate the scale a bit, more than enough combat forces had been gathered here to literally blow away a foreign nation.

The commander confidently spoke to the President of the U.S.A.

"Even if something pops out of there, Mister President, we shall take care of them. Yes, yes, sir. The scale of the crack has grown much larger since its initial discovery...."

While chatting on the comm device, the commander shifted his gaze over to the ranks of the soldiers without thinking too much and discovered a certain man walking closer to his position.

A man whose face was obscured by the pulled-up hoodie was walking straight towards the commander's location.

"Who the hell is that guy? How the f*ck did he even enter here?"

- "Is there a problem, commander?"

"No, sir. Let me call you back a bit later, sir."

The commander hurriedly ended the call and, along with his adjutants, quickly ran towards this unknown man.

"Excuse me! Who are you?"

This was a restricted zone secured by a water-tight cordon of soldiers, yet how could a normal-looking civilian waltz right in completely unhindered? Signs of irritation floated up on the commander's face as an annoying situation suddenly came to visit him.

However, the man didn't show any signs of fear, even though he was surrounded by heavily-armed soldiers. The uninvited guest coming to speak to the commander was, of course, Jin-Woo. And he certainly had something to say.

"Please, withdraw your troops from here. This place is dangerous."

His English didn't sound natural.

'Is he a foreigner?'

The commander formed a deep frown and in order to put the fear of God in this uninvited guest, he shouted out at the top of his lungs.

"Do you have a death wish?! Do you seriously not know who is in real danger here?"

'What do you mean by that, mister? It's you, obviously.'

Jin-Woo knew that convincing these people with words would be impossible, so he released just a tiny bit of his power. When he did, the commander, his adjutants, as well as all the soldiers watching Jin-Woo floated up in the air at once.

"Uh, uhhh?!"

The commander became flustered and he quickly took a look around him. There was only one person with both of his feet firmly planted on the ground. Not only that, the vehicles, various machinery and equipment, and even heavy tanks were floating over a metre in the air.

Having witnessed something that couldn't scientifically happen, the eyes of the commander began trembling hard.

"B-but, how?!"

Deciding that this much was enough, Jin-Woo brought them back down to the ground.

However, the first thing the commander did upon landing was to yank out his sidearm. His highly-agitated voice rang around loudly in the desert sky.

"What the hell are you?!"

Jin-Woo raised both of his hands up to his shoulders to clearly indicate that he didn't want to fight and calmly continued on with his explanation.

"Soon, enemies possessing similar powers as what you saw will emerge from that spot in the sky. And...."

He used Mana to take away the commander's sidearm and had it float over to near his head.

When the pistol suddenly began moving towards Jin-Woo seemingly on its own, the nervous soldiers quickly cocked their rifles and got ready to fire, but the commander was equally as quick to raise his hand to stop them from doing anything.

"Hold your fire!"

While he was busy calming his subordinates down, Jin-Woo used the 'invisible hand' to pull the trigger of the pistol now aimed at his face.

Blam! Blam! Blam!!

Bullets that failed to even touch Jin-Woo's body fell powerlessly to the ground. The gazes of the soldiers relying on their firearms until then were rapidly filling up with sheer astonishments and panic.

Jin-Woo could sense their hearts freezing up, too. He swept his gaze around and took in their eyes of shock and panic, before calmly continuing on with his explanation.

"Your weapons will not work against the incoming enemies."

Soon after that, his gaze landed on the commander, still rooted firmly in his spot.

"Are you willing to watch the meaningless deaths of your subordinates?"

"What should…. What am I supposed to do, then?"

"Withdraw your troops from here as far as possible. I shall be the only one to remain here."

"You alone...? Are you planning to fight against the enemies by yourself?"

Him alone, was it….

Jin-Woo didn't particularly feel the need to explain himself any further, so he just nodded his head.

"..."

The commander shut his mouth and began weighing his options, but then suddenly, he yanked out his spare sidearm tucked neatly in the back of his pants and fired several shots at Jin-Woo.

Blam! Blam!! Blam!!! Blam!!!!

Every single bullet fired from the commander all tumbled to the ground powerlessly as soon as they reached Jin-Woo's vicinity.

This man was a 'monster'. No, at this point, wasn't he more like a character from some mythical legend, rather than a simple monster?

The commander bore witness to the miracle that kept repeating itself and eventually lowered his weapon. He then spun towards his soldiers and shouted out loudly so that they could hear him.

"All personnel, pull-out!! We withdraw from here, as quickly and efficiently as possible!!"

The adjutants quickly relayed the commander's new order to the rest of the defence force.

"Pull out, now!!"

"Pulling out!"

This well-trained army quickly distanced themselves away from the potential combat zone. Jin-Woo observed their withdrawal process before shifting his gaze over to the large fissure rapidly developing in the sky.

He could sense it now.

He could sense the intense greed of the enemies wanting to devour this land.

He could even sense their heavy breathing as if they were close by.

For the first time in a while, his Black Heart began pounding hard again to notify him of the entrance of new enemies. A grin formed on Jin-Woo's face as he summoned his shortswords from subspace.

Soon, they would….

Craaak

Split, crack!!

The atmosphere rocked from an intense impact force and the dimension finally split open. With that, giants seemingly made out of rocks stepped onto this land.

They belatedly discovered a small lifeform below their feet while emitting a thick amount of hostility towards them and began snorting in derision.

[What's this? Just you alone wish to stop us?]

This feeling – Jin-Woo closed his eyes to enjoy this stillness before the battle and slowly opened them back again.

Ba-thump, ba-thump, ba-thump, ba-thump!

His heart was beating loudly.

He finally unleashed all of his powers and spoke up.

"Does it look like I'm alone to you?"

With that, his shadow extended in the blink of an eye to encompass the vast land behind him, and the Shadow Army of ten million rose up at once.

< Chapter 255 > Fin.