Easy. Too Easy (2)
Out of the sixteen ‘unconquerable gates’ selected by the World Gate Management Bureau, two had already been cleared by Seon Yul.
That meant fourteen remained, and among them were places that truly looked impossible to clear.
However, the Hell Flame Gate was not quite at that level.
Rather, it had simply been abandoned because the environmental conditions were extremely troublesome, and it was located far too far from the mainland, making efficient ‘gate response’ difficult. As a result, it had ended up being classified as one of the unconquerable gates.
Still, regardless of the reason, it was undeniably extremely difficult to clear.
To be precise, for ordinary users, there seemed to be no special strategy other than wrapping their entire bodies in fire-resistant items.
Yet Seon Yul was hunting the Flame Soul cleanly without even a single fire-resistance item.
Wiiiiing…THOOOM!
When Seon Yul applied Powerful Strike to the railgun that had reached 100% charge, Cheon Li Yu designated the target and fired a tungsten round accurately toward the Flame Soul located roughly 160 km away.
ShaaAAAAAA—BOOOOOOM!
The tungsten round flew through the air and struck the Flame Soul with perfect accuracy, naturally dealing enormous damage.
The railgun already possessed tremendous destructive power even when fired normally, and with Powerful Strike added on top of it, its power naturally became comparable to that of a missile.
Naturally, the Flame Soul’s aggro skyrocketed as it searched for the one who had attacked it. Unfortunately, however, it could not find the target upon which to vent its rage.
Because the targets were Seon Yul and Cheon Li Yu, and both of them were inside Absolute Space, a completely separated dimension.
Moreover, after firing the railgun, Seon Yul deliberately closed the entrance to Absolute Space for a moment, perfectly separating the spaces. Because of that, the Flame Soul’s aggro simply scattered into the air and disappeared.
After about ten seconds passed, the Flame Soul eventually returned to its original position while still injured and submerged its body in the lava to recover.
Then Seon Yul opened the entrance to Absolute Space again and prepared the second bombardment.
The railgun began charging again.
Thanks to enchantments, the railgun could fire at full power with only 10% charge instead of 100%, so naturally, the charging speed was also extremely fast.
Originally, charging it to 100% required at least five minutes. But now it took roughly one minute to reach full power (10%), and by that time, Cheon Li Yu’s Target Designation ability had also come off cooldown.
Once both the charging and Cheon Li Yu’s preparation were finished, they aimed the railgun again and fired once more.
Wiiiiing… THOOOOM!
Once again, the tungsten round struck with perfect accuracy.
BOOOOOOM!
The Flame Soul, which had recovered a bit of damage over that one minute, suffered an even greater blow than what it had just recovered, accumulating shock.
Seon Yul continued repeating this routine.
Just as he had said earlier, he used his overwhelmingly long attack range as a weapon, striking unilaterally from afar so that the enemy had no idea where the attacks were coming from and could not respond.
However, the Flame Soul possessed an ability that allowed it to forcibly regenerate its body by absorbing fire-attribute energy from the Mana Lava overflowing around it.
This was one of the Flame Soul’s primary abilities, and thanks to it, the creature could endure the railgun bombardment for quite a long time.
Furthermore, because the Flame Soul was a spirit-type monster, it also possessed the effect of reducing physical damage by 50%, which allowed it to endure even longer.
But it was merely enduring.
Even a drizzle will soak your clothes.
And the rain currently falling on the Flame Soul was not drizzle.
It wasn’t exactly a torrential downpour either, but it was at least a fairly steady rain.
Thus, as time passed, the Flame Soul’s life force continued to decrease little by little.
At this point, even the SS++-grade raid monster Flame Soul began to feel that something was wrong.
There were clearly no enemies(?).
Yet some strange, unidentifiable attack was rapidly gnawing away at its life.
Once its health fell below half, the Flame Soul realized that things could not continue like this, and according to its instincts, it began using one of its abilities.
KIAAAAAAAAH!
Fwoooosh…Tssssssssssss!
The Flame Soul began gathering all the Mana Lava that existed on the Big Island.
Using that collected lava, the Flame Soul gradually began increasing its size.
Originally, the Flame Soul was only about three meters tall, merely a large flame.
But as it absorbed lava and expanded its body, it quickly began turning into a massive lava monster.
“The Flame Soul is changing.”
Cheon Li Yu, who noticed it first through her Divine Eyes, spoke.
Hearing this, Seon Yul instinctively realized that the phase had changed.
“It’s almost over now.”
A phase change meant the raid monster had begun using all of its available means. In other words, clearing this phase would end the fight.
Meanwhile, the Flame Soul continued growing rapidly until the word ‘large’ no longer seemed appropriate and ‘gigantic’ suited it better.
“It keeps getting bigger.”
“Are there any other changes?”
“Ah… the lava that was completely covering the island is gradually disappearing from the outer edges. It seems like it’s absorbing the lava covering the island to increase its size.”
“It keeps getting bigger…”
After thinking for a moment, Seon Yul turned his gaze toward the railgun that had just finished charging.
“Li Yu-nim. Let’s give it another shot. This time… we’ll lure it over here.”
As he said this, Seon Yul applied Powerful Strike to the railgun.
“Yes!”
Cheon Li Yu immediately focused her mind and prepared to designate the target.
As soon as she finished preparing, Seon Yul pulled the railgun’s activation lever again.
Wiiiiing… THOOOOM!
Another tungsten round flew through the air in a ballistic arc across the roughly 160 km distance.
Then…
BOOOOOOOOOOM!
It exploded as it struck directly into the body of the Flame Soul, which was still increasing in size.
KIAAAAAAAANG!
At that moment, the enlarged Flame Soul turned its body and looked toward the direction the tungsten round had come from.
This time, Seon Yul did not bother closing the entrance to Absolute Space.
He intended to use Gigantification and Materialization simultaneously to lure the ever-growing Flame Soul closer.
RUMBLE… RUMBLE…
Just as Seon Yul intended, the Flame Soul slowly began moving toward Maui Island, where Seon Yul had opened the entrance to Absolute Space.
Even while moving, it continued rapidly increasing its size as the lava known as Mana Lava was absorbed in ever-greater quantities.
At this rate, it seemed like it might absorb all the lava of the island and grow so large that even the word ‘gigantic’ would seem inadequate.
Because it had grown so large, the Flame Soul could now be seen faintly with the naked eye without using Divine Eyes.
Watching it, Seon Yul quickly began preparing for further attacks.
He brought out the K9X, the K3 Stealth Tank, and even the GAU-8, placing them to one side.
“Li Yu-nim. From now on, we’ll keep striking that thing with the railgun and draw it closer. The goal is to stack so much aggro that it crosses the ocean and comes all the way here.”
“Yes.”
Hearing Seon Yul’s words, Cheon Li Yu immediately stood close beside the railgun and waited for it to charge again.
How big will it get? It might reach about 2 km in height…
Seon Yul thought about how large the Flame Soul might become.
But no matter how large it became, that didn’t really matter.
What Seon Yul was aiming for was for the accumulated aggro to become unbearable and force the creature to step into the ocean.
No matter how special the lava used by the Flame Soul was to materialize its body, lava was still lava.
Which meant that the moment it submerged its body in the ocean, it would inevitably take damage in some way.
First, he would inflict damage through the sea.
Then, once it came closer, he would concentrate firepower to inflict a second strike.
And the finishing blow…
“I’ll start with that.”
Seon Yul looked at the items he had purchased in large quantities beforehand and stored them after registering them in the Universal Tool Shop.
For this finishing attack, he had also opened an entrance to Absolute Space at the proper position in advance with Cheon Li Yu’s help.
It’s actually better that it canceled its spirit form and materialized.
In a way, a spirit body was a counter against Seon Yul.
Most of Seon Yul’s attacks were based on physical force, and a spirit body significantly reduced physical damage.
But the creature had absorbed lava and constructed a physical body, canceling its spirit form.
The Flame Soul had intended to greatly increase its vitality through gigantification and materialization while also obtaining extremely powerful attack power to eliminate the unknown enemy at once.
In most situations, that intention would not have been bad.
‘Come. Come to the position I want… please just come.’
The most important factor Seon Yul considered when conducting raids was choosing the battlefield.
When he killed Arachne.
When he wiped out the glacier bat swarm.
And now, when hunting the Flame Soul.
In every case, he lured the enemy onto the battlefield he wanted before fighting.
This was Seon Yul’s number one principle of raiding.
The Flame Soul continued approaching exactly as Seon Yul desired.
Toward the ‘hole’ that kept launching attacks at it.
While approaching that hole, it continued absorbing lava and growing until its size was truly monstrous.
Just as Seon Yul had predicted, the Flame Soul had grown nearly 2 km tall, an absurdly gigantic being.
Having absorbed most of the lava that existed on the Big Island, the Flame Soul had become a truly colossal lava giant.
When another tungsten round flew from Maui Island, roughly 50 km away, the lava giant simply blocked it with its enormous hand.
BOOOOOOM!
The attack did cause damage.
But it immediately recovered by pulling in lava that was still flowing from the gate.
KIAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!
Due to the continuous railgun bombardment, its aggro had already reached near maximum.
Therefore, the lava giant did not hesitate to step into the sea.
SSSSSSSSSSSS!
Because its entire body was wrapped in lava, the seawater naturally dealt damage to it.
However, the Mana Lava composing its body possessed such intense firepower that it could continue burning even underwater.
Especially since the Flame Soul gathered the fish that had become monsters due to its aura and absorbed fire energy from them.
Thus minimizing the damage from the seawater, it began walking toward Maui Island.
SPLAAAAASH… SPLASH…
Bubbling, bubbling.
Every step the lava giant took caused the nearby seawater to rapidly heat and boil.
Because of its immense size, it could simply walk across the distance between the islands.
Although the cold seawater slowly chipped away at its life like damage-over-time, the Flame Soul judged it could endure this much.
But the moment it approached quite close to Maui Island…
Two more entrances to Absolute Space opened beside the original one.
And from those openings…
Bombardment poured out.
BOOM BOOM BOOM!
Seon Yul had begun unleashing firepower, starting with the K9X.
BOOM! BOOM!
Every shell struck the body of the lava giant.
Since the target was so enormous, missing was impossible.
And from the original entrance to Absolute Space, tungsten rounds from the railgun continued to fly out.
WHOOOOOSH… BOOOOOOM!
The railgun strike hit the lava giant’s head directly, powerful enough to tilt its head slightly backward.
Yet the Flame Soul endured all of it and continued advancing.
KIAAAAAAAAAAH!!!
Its intention was simple.
After reaching the mysterious hole, it would pour the Mana Lava, composing its body into it.
SPLAAASH! SPLAAASH!
The lava giant continued approaching.
Eventually, it endured all the bombardment and reduced the distance to the entrance of Absolute Space to about 1 km.
If it came just a little closer, the lava giant might even be able to extend its hand and block the entrance with its massive palm.
Perhaps because of that, every weapon inside the three Absolute Space entrances opened in front of the lava giant was pouring out firepower.
BOOM BOOM BOOM — K9X.
BOOM — K3 Stealth Tank.
DUDUDUDUDUDU — Miniguns and GAU-19.
BRRRRRRRRT — GAU-8.
All the firepower blazed simultaneously, briefly halting the lava giant’s movement.
BOOOOM! BOOOOM! BOOOOOM!!
But in reality, Seon Yul had waited specifically for this moment before unleashing all the firepower.
Why?
The reason was revealed immediately.
Tssssssss…
Another entrance to Absolute Space opened high above the lava giant’s head.
It wasn’t extremely high.
Roughly 1,200 meters above.
Because the lava giant was standing in the sea, the entrance, which opened at 1,200 meters in the air, was actually less than 100 meters away from its head.
After opening the fourth and final entrance to Absolute Space, Seon Yul looked downward from inside the dimension.
Inside Absolute Space, the entrance was opened on the floor.
Through that floor opening, Seon Yul could see the lava giant’s head.
“Let’s begin.”
After confirming the head, Seon Yul immediately began throwing the large storage tanks stacked beside him down toward the opening.
What was inside those tanks was…
Liquid nitrogen.
Seon Yul had prepared thousands of containers of liquid nitrogen beforehand to throw them onto the Flame Soul’s head and weaken its body in an instant.
Originally, he had prepared it because he heard the Flame Soul was a spirit-type monster, intending to shake the spirit slightly and deal a decisive blow.
But thanks to the creature materializing as a lava giant, it became even more useful.
Clink… RATTLE RATTLE RATTLE!
Liquid nitrogen containers poured down through the hole opened in the sky.
For the Flame Soul, whose body was made entirely of ultra-high-temperature lava, each container filled with an ultra-low-temperature substance became nothing less than a powerful bomb.
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