Chapter 410
With the settling of the euphoria of victory that had swept across the world, the Myers family wasted no time in summoning the press to reveal their long-kept secret.
「S-rank hero William Myers collaborated with Natalia Kanayeva, the Seeker, to create a novel genetic material known as the Essence of the Sword. Demon’s Edge, one of the Ten Evils, was born when this very genetic material became tainted with demonic aura.」
The revelation of the truth—about Demon’s Edge, its bloodline, and the circumstances around the concealment of the truth—was a bombshell so huge that it threw not only the hero industry but the world into chaos.
No one had expected the Myers family to step forward with such transparency. After all, when someone from an influential family turned into a demon, the matter would typically be quietly covered up, with records erased and all evidence denied.
Thus it was natural, with such a sudden confession, for the public’s response to be polarized.
“Isn’t this something we can overlook? The Myers family has fought tirelessly on the frontlines all this time...”
“What nonsense. They’re the reason Demon’s Edge existed in the first place! Do you have any idea how many people that monster killed?”
One side believed the family’s contributions should allow them to move past, while the other demanded they be held accountable. They argued the Myers family had concealed the truth about Demon’s Edge for their own gain, which caused countless deaths.
It was a heated debate that continued to escalate, and soon, internal conflicts erupted within the Myers family itself.
“Anyone who benefited from the family’s power should face justice.”
“Why should we be punished for the sins of the head?”
Again, there were two sides. One sided with Aaron, the advocates for repentance. The other sided with Lloyd, the eldest son of the family head, to protect their interests.
And with so many stakeholders entangled in the Myers family’s affairs, it was inevitable that the situation would spiral out of control.
Jake must be having a tough time.
Aaron visited the victims’ families, offering apologies, with Jake steadfastly by his side. It was a grueling process, filled with hostile encounters, but they endured, determined to see their penance through.
The situation is still dire... but at least they have the Blessing of the Eternal now.
In the past, it was impossible to seek forgiveness from the dead. But now, the Blessing of the Eternal changed that. Heroes who had perished long ago were awakening in the Netherworld, allowing those responsible to seek atonement with the help of the UD Group.
Still, it won’t be easy.
While death could now be undone, time remained irreversible. And for the victims who had given up on life or were not chosen by the Blessing of the Eternal, there was no way to bring them back.
Well, Jake will figure something out.
Others would struggle, but Jake would find a way—he always did.
Knowing his friend was moving forward without hesitation, Se-Hoon chuckled before shifting his attention to another news story.
The real problem lies with Aria... and Lloyd.
Aria had completely vanished since the conference, leaving no message behind. Meanwhile, Lloyd and his faction were rampaging like lunatics. And in their desperate attempt to secure whatever influence remained of the Myers family’s legacy, they even sought alliances with external forces.
However, the reaction was less than favorable. Their intentions were far too obvious, and more importantly, Lloyd lacked the strength to serve as a leader.
He’s A-rank at best.
While being A-rank didn’t mean that he was weak, it was nothing compared to his younger siblings—one on the verge of reaching the pinnacle and the other already an S-rank. With such a disparity, his faction was crumbling; it was only a matter of time before his supporters abandoned Lloyd to fend for themselves.
It’s always guys like him who cause trouble when they get desperate...
Wondering if he should take precautions, Se-Hoon fell into thought—
CRASH!
Snapping back to attention at the deafening sound of something collapsing, Se-Hoon lifted his head from his phone and saw a shoreline piled high with wreckage.
The scene before him was grim: blackened, molten heaps of scrap metal, with scattered parts of automaton dolls still intact. He didn’t need to think twice to figure out the source of the noise.
They must have pulled something out the wrong way.
The wreckage was completely tangled together, and a single misstep could bring it all down. It seemed one of the workers had just made such a mistake, burying dozens of workers under the debris.
If it had been a regular worksite, it would have been a disaster.
Snap!
With a casual snap of his fingers, Se-Hoon opened up a dark void above the collapsed wreckage, and the buried workers—skeletons—were instantly teleported back to the surface.
“Thank you...!”
The skeleton foremen, their bodies covered in intricate enchantments, all bowed their heads in gratitude.
“Just get back to work,” Se-Hoon replied, waving them off.
“Yes, sir! Get the lines organized and resume operations!”
The skeletons efficiently realigned, forming a relay system. Skeletons above would toss debris down, and the workers below would pass it along in a seamless chain.
Clack- Clack- Clack-
They worked according to a rhythm, precise as a conveyor belt. And once the wreckage had been somewhat cleared, recyclable parts could start to be sorted out in real-time.
Any component that was damaged on the surface but still functional would be tossed to a skeleton waiting below by the skeleton foreman that would begin glowing.
“Sort it properly!”
Those recyclable parts were then transported to a designated tent on the shore where it went through the process again, non-stop.
Watching the flawlessly fluid operation, Se-Hoon’s eyes gleamed with intrigue.
This is running better than I expected.
While skeletons weren’t mindless, they weren’t as dexterous as undead with intact bodies. Normally, such precision would be beyond them. But thanks to the enchantments engraved into their skulls, that had changed.
A faint glow pulsed behind each skeleton’s cranium, allowing them to share real-time information and function at peak efficiency. Although it was a simple concept, achieving such a thing was incredibly intricate to execute.
Knowing that, Se-Hoon studied the enchantments.
Impressive... It seems she’s reached a new level.
Taking one last look at the operation, Se-Hoon turned and headed toward the tent of the mastermind behind the enchantments.
He walked inside, and there, amidst towering heaps of recycled parts, was the mastermind herself.
“Uhhghnnghh...”
She sat at her desk, her forehead pressed against the wood as she groaned incoherently.
“Ngghh... guhgh...”
The genius behind the enchantments—Lea—was writhing in frustration, rubbing her head against the desk.
“I want to sleep. I want to rest. I want to lie down. I want to quit...”
Her words suggested she was moments away from crashing out, yet her hands clung tightly to the desk, forcing herself to stay. Struggling, she reached for an energy drink with practiced efficiency.
Thud!
Then, using the desk for leverage, she leaned back and chugged the entire can in one go. The harsh carbonation burned her throat, bringing tears to her eyes, but she forced them back and steeled herself.
“Alright! Back to—”
Her face froze. She finally noticed Se-Hoon standing in the tent.And as soon as Lea realized what she had just done, she slowly buried her face back onto the desk.
“...”
“...”
An awkward silence filled the tent.
Wondering how to salvage the situation, Se-Hoon quietly stepped outside and then casually walked back in as if nothing had happened.
“Ahem.
How’s the work coming along?”His voice was unexpectedly gentle—an act of consideration that only made Lea feel even worse.
But Lea endured the embarrassment and nodded, trying to brush it off.
“It’s going fine. Nothing too difficult.”
The process itself was simple: comb through the wreckage, find usable parts, identify their functions, and sort them accordingly. The real challenge was the sheer volume of debris to sift through, not the work itself.
“Hmm...”
Se-Hoon scanned the piles of recycled automaton parts stacked inside the tent. Although some were still functional, their condition was far from ideal. If it were up to him, he would have discarded them altogether.
Lea, however, disagreed.
“Do you really think this will work?”
She wanted to use the parts to create a specialized automaton with her unique skill, Phase Manifestation, that could counteract Puppeteer’s technology.
But while the idea itself wasn’t bad, the problem was that Puppeteer had already faced a similar situation back in the Pleasure District.
She must have reinforced her control systems by now.
Control was Puppeteer’s greatest weakness, which meant it would also be the most heavily fortified. A half-baked attempt could easily backfire, making caution a necessity.
“I have to make it work. Otherwise, there’s no way to defeat her.”
During the last attack, Puppeteer had led over three hundred thousand automatons in an assault on Babel. Of course, most of them were B-rank or lower in strength, too weak to break through the barrier created by Li Kenxie. But underestimating Puppeteer based on that one event would be a grave mistake.
She’ll come back even stronger next time.
As the Ten Evils fell, the collective strength of the Demon Force only consolidated more, meaning Puppeteer’s forces as a collective would only grow more formidable.
With their support, the number of Single Numbers could be multiplied several times over from the fifteen confirmed during the raid on Babel.
We need to dismantle her fundamentals.
Biological Enchantments and Celestial Magic—she had to deal with the core of Puppeteer’s abilities, which were the very techniques her parents had mastered.
Lea ran her fingers through the scattered parts once more. To most, they were just broken scraps. But to her, they held a unified intent—a pattern she could decipher and dismantle.
When she fully understood that pattern and formulated a countermeasure for it, Lea was sure that then, and only then, she would be able to take the Puppeteer head-on.
She seems more fired up than ever.
Instead of being intimidated by the last attack, Lea’s determination was burning brighter than ever.
Seeing her like that, Se-Hoon abandoned his plan to force her to rest. There was no point. Even if he knocked her unconscious, her subconscious would still be obsessing over work. That was why, in her case, the best solution to get her to rest was to help her finish as quickly as possible.
“Alright. I’ll lend you something to speed things up for you.”
“Huh?”
Lea looked at him curiously as Se-Hoon raised a hand.
Swish-
A black rift tore through the air, and from within, a silver-armored figure stepped out. Its sleek, predatory frame resembled a hunting hound, and its helmet was shaped like a beast’s maw.
Feeling the ominous presence given off by it, Lea froze in place from that alone.
“This is the Warhound. You’ve seen it before, right?"
“...Yeah.”
Crafted from Five Element Equipments and other rare materials, the Warhound was an extraordinary automaton that could nearly replicate all the abilities that Se-Hoon possessed. However, Lea preferred to avoid using it. After all, having the Warhound around meant that everything she did could be relayed back to Se-Hoon.
After what just happened, working together is the last thing I want...
While she was currently acting as if nothing was wrong, inside, she wanted nothing more than to lock herself in her room for a few days out of sheer embarrassment. Determined, she was about to protest—
“Don’t worry.”
Se-Hoon reassured her with an easygoing smile.
“I’ve severed the direct link. Just use it like the skeleton workers outside.”
“Se-Hoon...”
“Alright, I’ll be heading out. Let me know if you need anything else.”
With a light pat on her shoulder, Se-Hoon turned and left the tent under Lea’s watchful gaze.
Then, Lea, finding herself now alone with the Warhound, hesitantly looked at it.
“Uhm... Can you understand me?”
“... “
“No self-awareness, huh?”
The automaton remained motionless and silent. To confirm, Lea waved a hand in front of its face, pretended to poke its eyes, and even feigned a low kick.
And after seeing no reaction each time, she finally sighed in relief.
Thank god.
With the concern that whatever she did would be broadcast straight to Se-Hoon out of the way, Lea examined the automaton more closely.
“Hmm... Might as well put it to good use.”
Her eyes gleamed as she thought of all the tasks that had been too tedious for the skeletons.
“Analyzing...”
The Warhound’s mechanical gaze silently observed.
***
“Target requests meal assistance.”
“Target requests hydration.”
“Target requests back scratching.”
“Target requests shower—”
Enough.
Cutting off the Warhound’s reports, Se-Hoon’s expression turned blank as he stepped into his dormitory.
I told her to make use of it, but...
He hadn’t expected her to delegate trivial tasks to it instead of using it for sorting work. But while it wasn’t what he had in mind, he decided to let it slide.
I guess everyone has their quirks when they work.
Even Li Kenxie, back when he was still an S-rank hero, had done absurd things like bashing his head against cliffs or rolling down mountains to train. Compared to that, Lea’s current actions were relatively mild.
Speaking of which...
Se-Hoon lowered his gaze to his phone, looking at a message he had received from Aria a few days ago.
Aria: This is turning out to be harder than I thought. I’ll contact you when I’m done.
From the looks of it, Aria had vanished to prepare something significant. What it was, though, he couldn’t begin to guess.
Is she doing some undercover investigation?
Maybe she was lurking near Lloyd, waiting for the Demon Force to make contact with him? Knowing Aria’s personality, however, she wasn’t the type to sit around and wait.
Curious, Se-Hoon was mulling over all the possibilities in his mind when a sound distracted him.
Vrrr-
Picking up his phone, Se-Hoon checked the message.
Aria: I made it to the top of the tower.
“...?”