Chapter 351: Massacre

Ureureureureung―!!!

The sky over Manhattan, New York, USA, split in half.

Beyond the rift, a massive ship-shaped flying object revealed its form.

An ark floating in the sky.

Beneath it, sticky things like spiderwebs poured down.

The spiderwebs tightly wrapping around the skyscrapers of Times Square ensnared fleeing people and began pulling them up toward the ark soaring high in the sky.

"Oh my god! Save me!"

"For the shadow! Fill the ark's power!"

Hideous spider demonic beasts and priests of the Shadow Cult poured down endlessly, riding the white spiderwebs.

The priests' madness-filled shouts and the citizens' screams turned New York into a living hell.

At that time, the underground bunker of the White House in the USA.

Kwaang―!

President Robert slammed the conference room table in anger.

"Just what in the world is happening! Department of Homeland Security! CIA! Just what were you doing until something like that appeared in the New York sky!"

"I-I apologize!"

New York on the screen was truly turning into a hell. The Chief of Staff urgently opened his mouth with a pale face.

"Your Excellency! A direct contact came from Ilsung's Kim Minwoo! He says he will send support right away!"

"Kim Minwoo?"

Robert's eyes widened.

The out-of-standard military power that had resolved the Magenta incident in Shanghai in a single breath.

If he comes…….

However, the one who cut off those words was the Pentagon's Secretary of Defense.

"Your Excellency, absolutely not!"

"What?"

"After the Earth 2.0 update, a whopping one hundred SS-rank Awakened poured out in our USA too! And the S-rank Awakened reach tens of thousands!"

The Secretary of Defense pointed at New York on the screen and raised his voice.

"This is an opportunity! It is a golden opportunity to show off to the whole world the prestige of the USA that has been crumpled lately while being dragged around by the Ilsung Group and Kim Minwoo! For us, the world's number 1 Awakened powerhouse, to receive the support of a Korean Awakened because we can't even stop a mere terrorist group? The whole world will laugh at us!"

"He is right! We have the Dragon Guild! We also have an overflow of newly risen heroes who awakened to SS-rank. It is different from the Shanghai incident!"

At the aides' agreement, President Robert's lips trembled minutely.

He was just having his insides rot while being dragged around by Kim Minwoo in energy, information, and even power.

Robert clenched his fist tightly and shouted.

"……Politely decline Kim Minwoo's support. Fully mobilize the 1st to 10th guilds in the USA! And pour in all the state-of-the-art modern weaponry! We will retake New York with our own hands! Immediately!"

Manhattan 5th Avenue, New York.

A massive golden cross soared on the street that was turning into a hell.

It was the Guild Leader of the Dragon Guild, the USA's 1st rank, Thompson.

Having bloated his muscular physical body, he raised the holy knight's greatsword high and roared.

[Thompson casts Judgment of the Sanctuary (SS)!]

Kwaaaang―!

A massive sword of light plunged onto the crowns of the heads of the giant spider demonic beasts crawling down the outer walls of the skyscrapers.

He was one of the USA's top-tier Awakened, and one of the 10 elites who had been dispatched to receive training at the Ilsung Guild in the past, like the Chinese Awakened.

During the Super Rookie Selection Match in the past, Thompson had been pointed out by Park Siwoo.

His body was too stiff.

The advice that he was shrunk back tightly for defense.

Furthermore, getting blown away effortlessly day after day by the spear Cedric wielded, he had to bitterly realize just how inefficient his dull trajectory was.

Later, when he entered the Ilsung Training Center in Korea, he rolled around until his bones literally broke under Kim Minwoo and Cedric, perfectly correcting those bad habits.

The knack of abandoning the stiff posture that was just full of tension, deflecting attacks through accurate force distribution, and driving force into a single point with an accurate trajectory.

As the blessing of the Earth 2.0 update was added to that hellish teaching, Thompson had finally been reborn as a perfect SS-rank holy knight.

"Push forward! Show those bastards the power of the great USA!"

"USA! USA!"

As if responding to his roar, three spider demonic beasts broke through the glass windows of the skyscrapers and lunged at Thompson simultaneously.

"Guild Leader! It's dangerous!"

The Awakened following behind urgently shouted, but Thompson snorted while holding a pure white tower shield.

If it were the him of the past, he would have shrunk his body as much as possible behind the shield to withstand the pouring impact.

However, the current him slightly twisted the angle of the shield and smoothly deflected the spider's massive front legs.

Kaaang―!

The immense weight brushed past the shield, and the spider demonic beast's posture collapsed helplessly.

That perfect opening.

'To a single point, with an accurate trajectory.'

The sensation engraved in his body while being stabbed hundreds of times by Cedric.

Blinding holy power condensed above Thompson's greatsword.

Not a dull slash that was just full of tension, but a sharply forged golden trajectory cut through the empty air.

Seogeok―!

Kwaaang!

Just a single sword strike.

The spider demonic beast's massive body was cleanly cut in half like slicing tofu, spilling out sticky bodily fluids.

"Oh my god……."

"Captain Thompson sliced the demonic beast in a single strike!"

It was the moment the American Awakened let out cheers mixed with astonishment. The priests of the Shadow Cult, who had come down from the ark in the sky, poured dark magic toward Thompson.

"Arrogant heretic bastard! Taste the pain of the abyss!"

Dozens of terrible magic bullets flew in, but Thompson did not dodge.

[Thompson casts Blessing of Light (SS)!]

An explosive golden aura spewed from his entire body, scattering the flying dark magic the moment it touched him.

"Fuck! Small fries, move aside!"

The heavy charge unique to a tank.

However, its speed and footwork were as agile as an assassin's.

Digging right in front of the priests' noses in an instant, Thompson swung his greatsword horizontally.

Peobeobeobeok―!

“Keu, heok……!”

Where the blinding wave of light swept past.

The upper and lower bodies of the priests were perfectly separated and rolled onto the floor.

As the blood-drenched Thompson raised his shining greatsword and roared, the morale of the American Awakened boiled up like lava.

The advance of the USA's 1st rank guild.

The pride of the superpower country was blindingly exploding in the middle of New York, using Kim Minwoo's teachings as nourishment.

Hovering in the air, the pride of the USA, SS-rank mage Sophia, chanted a spell with her eyes closed.

In the past, the fake mage Sophia, who ignorantly spammed magic relying only on her mana pool, was no more.

In her head, the overwhelming mana control the God of Magic (Merhen) had shown was still engraved like a trauma and a textbook.

‘More precisely, without waste!’

[Sophia casts Hellfire (SS)!]

Dozens of massive fireballs generated from the tip of her staff did not explode blindly like in the past.

Twisting their trajectories like living creatures, they accurately struck only the core intersections of the spiderwebs and the joint areas of the spider demonic beasts.

Kwaaaaaang―!

The white spiderwebs covering the Manhattan forest of buildings blazed fiercely.

“Nice shot, Sophia!”

Aiming for that gap, the SS-rank assassin Jack popped out, wielding his twin swords and slicing the necks of the spiders clinging to the outer walls of the buildings.

Perfect transition between offense and defense.

The tank blocks, the mage sweeps them away, and the assassin cleans up the remnants.

Tens of thousands of top-tier Awakened the USA boasted were interlocking like massive cogs, retaking the streets of Manhattan.

“Oh, God! The Awakened have saved us!”

“Long live the USA! Long live Thompson!”

Cheers also erupted in the underground bunker of the White House.

“Did you see, Your Excellency! This is exactly the underlying strength of our USA! We don't need Kim Minwoo's help or the like!”

President Robert also unclenched his tight fist and put on a smile of relief.

Right, no matter how much the world had changed, the USA is the USA.

“Hmph! Daring to covet the great USA? I'll tear you all apart!”

Kane, a newly risen tank who had become arrogant after recently being promoted to SS-rank, also stood at the vanguard, raising his shield.

A spider's jaws dripping with venom bit down on the shield, but Kane snorted and crushed the spider's jaws with his mana-infused shield.

Kwaang―!

However, when one fell, three, five more poured down riding the spiderwebs.

“Hahaha! You bug bastards with only hard shells! It's a miscalculation to think of us at the level of the Awakened during the Shanghai incident!”

S-rank demonic beasts that would have required risking their lives as a party to face in the past were swept away like autumn leaves with a single shield bash from Kane, who had been promoted to SS-rank.

“Evacuate the injured citizens to the rear! Healers, maintain AoE healing and detoxification spells!”

The Guild Leader of the USA's 1st rank Dragon Guild, Thompson, took command at the front while raising his greatsword.

“Save the citizens of the United States! Let us show them the power of the great USA!”

Kane dusted off the spider bodily fluids on his shield with a tuk and looked up at the ark soaring high in the sky.

Arrogance was full on his face.

At that time, on the top of the ark.

The High Priest of the Shadow, Persen, was looking down at the battlefield.

A situation where the demonic beasts he had sent down were being helplessly sliced away by the brilliant performance of the American Hunters.

However, the corners of Persen's mouth were rather slowly going up.

“Hmm. As expected.”

He muttered with a turbid voice.

“Worthy of being called the world's 1st ranked country. They have their own underlying strength. They are well-trained hunting dogs incomparable to the Chinese bugs during the Shanghai incident.”

Priest Santos, standing next to him, asked as if anxious.

“High Priest, the resistance of those bastards is fiercer than expected. The front line is being pushed back, what should we…….”

“Leave them be.”

Persen let out a fishy sneer.

“Why do you think we avoided Korea, where that wicked Necromancer is glaring with his eyes wide open, and chose this faraway land of America?”

Persen's gaze headed not toward the center of Manhattan where the Hunters were active, but toward the outskirts of New York and the blind spots of the massive forest of buildings.

“No matter how excellently those Awakened bastards establish a defense line, there is no way they can simultaneously protect tens of millions of ordinary citizens living in this massive city.”

It was exactly as Persen said.

5th Avenue, illuminated by the cameras, was being saved by the Hunters' performance, but in countless back alleys and outskirts of New York beyond the cameras' reach, countless citizens were still entangled in spiderwebs and being dragged up toward the ark.

Seueueueuk―.

The massive mana gauge indicating the core of the ark was rapidly filling up while voraciously feasting on the life force of the citizens.

“Let them be intoxicated by the sweet illusion of victory. Since we have achieved our original purpose.”

Persen raised his staff.

Now it was time to perfectly break the haughty noses of those arrogant Americans and complete the ark.

“However, a feast becomes no fun if it goes on too long.”

Persen's staff tapped the floor of the ark heavily.

[The shadow of the great Apostle, Hadronox, covers New York!]

At that moment.

The blinding sunlight that had been illuminating New York vanished in an instant, as if someone had turned off the power switch.