Clang!
The moment the fatal rupture echoed, an eternal crack was etched in, one that could never be erased. The massive body of the golem halted in place.
But only for a moment.
…Crack, crackle!
The prelude to a silent collapse.
From the golem's body, which had seemed infinitely repairable no matter what blow it received, stone dust began to crumble.
At first, little by little.
Then more clearly, more rapidly.
Until it finally became irreversible.
Crunch! Rumble!
The head, having lost its core, fell. Arms and shoulders rolled across the floor, and the legs turned to dust and collapsed.
That was the end of it.
The desperate struggle of the second-generation Arcana-style combat golem. And the hope Ruslan, the secretary who had summoned it, had been clinging to.
"......"
Secretary Ruslan forgot even how to breathe. He stared at the now-crumbling combat golem in utter shock.
'What… what is this…'
He couldn't believe it.
The Arcana combat golem he had activated was the latest model, a trump card acquired by pouring in an absurd amount of money, enough to make even the Richmond Group hesitate.
Even his master, Lord Richmond, had once pointed at that golem and declared that, with it, they could withstand a royal guard raid for at least ten days.
And yet, it had crumbled.
Ten days?
No.
It didn't even last ten minutes.
Against that guy called Kim Jangcheol or whatever, and his companions.
"......"
Who the hell are those people?
Where did freaks like them crawl out from?
And what was that dark blade that man, Kim Jangcheol, unleashed just now?
He couldn't comprehend it.
The situation felt far too irrational.
But he tried not to lose his composure. He did his best to analyze the situation.
Thanks to that effort, he recalled something.
Now that the combat golem was destroyed, this place—
'Is going to collapse...'
Secretary Ruslan became frantic.
He remembered what his master had once told him long ago. That while the combat golem was powerful and reliable, it was not the storage's final security measure.
The true final measure lay elsewhere.
It was the storage's self-destruction.
'There's no time…!'
His steps grew urgent.
If the combat golem was destroyed, the magic circle to collapse the storage would activate.
And in a very short time. Its purpose: to bury any intruders who managed to destroy even the golem.
'I—I… Huff, huff! I won't die here!'
The only escape route.
The path leading up to the mine.
Ruslan charged into the crowd gathered there. He shoved and scrambled, trying to push his way out first.
But it was not an easy task.
'Too many people…!'
Cutting in line?
Impossible.
It was packed too tight. Everyone was terrified and desperate to get out first. Trying to squeeze through that kind of gap? That was no easy feat.
Everyone was trembling in fear.
That's how desperate they were.
"Out of the way—!"
The desperate cry of Secretary Ruslan echoed emptily.
***
…Huff!
A moment of true self.
A brief rampage.
A sorrowful storm passed.
The black light faded from the corrupted divine sword of the evil god.
In its place remained a sparkly, girly, heart-sparkle magical girl wand.
"....."
Kim Jangcheol steadied his breath and looked at the wand in his hand.
A strange feeling welled up.
The holy sword of the evil god, Bragia.
Back in the game, he had farmed and upgraded this weapon diligently. And near the end of that journey, he had customized it, playing around with its appearance.
In the end, he had finished it with this magical girl wand look, chuckling to himself.
He never imagined it would actually possess this level of power. Or that even a fraction of its real power could unleash such destructive force.
'That was seriously…'
Dangerous.
He almost lost control of the sword. The sword's energy burst from it. The violent torrent of the evil god's sighs.
If he had truly lost control?
He wouldn't have just destroyed the golem—everything around them would have been reduced to rubble.
That much, he could feel most clearly as the one holding the sword.
"....."
And yet, he couldn't forget the sensation.
The moment the core inside the golem's head was pierced—that feeling like something had passed through his very soul.
'There's no way to describe it with words.'
Maybe it was something beyond human language. Something that could only be called overwhelming, bone-chilling.
But perhaps, he wasn't the only one feeling that way.
"Thanks for the weapon."
Still riding the wave of excitement, he handed the evil god Bragia's holy sword—no, now restored to its customized magical girl wand form—back to Aged Kimchi.
But Aged Kimchi's expression as he received it… was perfectly blank.
"....."
Aged Kimchi stayed silent.
He looked at the wand that had returned to his hand.
'I…'
What should he even say?
The sight he had just witnessed.
The power. The essence. The feeling beyond it all.
And finally, a sliver of a long-lost memory.
'…Right. There was a past life where I carried this wand in the form of a sword.'
Among the nineteen lives he had lived through.
There was one where he had wielded that sword freely, unleashing its full power and sweeping away everything in his path.
In the end, the demonic energy had consumed one of his arms.
"....."
How did that version of me meet his end?
Unfortunately, he couldn't remember that part.
"You…"
At the end of his brief inner storm, Aged Kimchi looked at Kim Jangcheol. He wanted to ask.
What was that wand—no, that massive sword—just now?
How did you draw out its power, and why can't I remember the secret behind it?
But he couldn't ask.
Because Kim Jangcheol beat him to it.
And in a tone laced with that uniquely irritating, nagging vibe that struck like a slap to the back of the head.
"Wait, you've been carrying that around and didn't know it could do that?"
"......."
A sudden scolding.
Maybe it was because he hadn't expected the remark at all.
Aged Kimchi found himself stammering out a weak excuse.
"N-no, that is… Then how did you…"
"You're asking how I knew it had that kind of feature? Ha, come on.
It looks like it has a hidden feature."
"....."
No, it really doesn't.
It absolutely does not look like that.
Aged Kimchi wanted to object.
But he couldn't.
Because before he could even begin forming a rebuttal, Kim Jangcheol fired off another flashy line, half a beat faster.
"Just look at it. Something that looks this ridiculous has to have a hidden function. You twist the bottom, pop off a cap, flip it upside down, give it a shake, and bam—surprise feature unlocked. That's how these things work."
"....."
R-really?
But for something discovered like that, the power it showed earlier was way too—but again, Aged Kimchi didn't get the chance to form that thought into words.
Not because Kim Jangcheol's chatter continued—
This time, it was something else.
Rumble!
".....!"
A sudden roar echoed from the ceiling.
The ground shook violently.
All at once, the storage was engulfed in ominous vibrations. It twisted. Dirt and stones began to fall from all sides.
Thanks to that, Kim Jangcheol, who had just been nagging with his trademark deadpan face, flinched in surprise.
"Huh?"
He looked up at the ceiling with a strange sense of unease. And then he saw it.
A crack in the ceiling—something that hadn't been there before.
"......"
That… wasn't there earlier.
Did it just now appear?
Why?
Because the golem rampaged?
But then why… why is the crack still spreading right now…
'…Wait. It's not just spreading, it's really breaking apart!'
Crack!
The ceiling split open.
Even more dirt and stones rained down.
Soon, the tremors and vibrations spread throughout the entire storage,
accompanied by clearly widening, ominous cracks.
" ...."
No good.
Something's definitely wrong.
That is to say...
'No way?'
Kim Jangcheol felt his heart drop like a stone.
A worst-case scenario had suddenly crossed his mind. And the terrifying thing was—it sounded realistic.
'Is this storage about to completely collapse? Because the combat golem, the last line of defense, was destroyed? So now that it can no longer be defended, the final measure is to bring it all down and bury it… To destroy the evidence?'
The thought resurfaced.
Richmond was a corrupt wholesaler who manipulated the market by exploiting legal loopholes.
Every piece of evidence of his illegal activities was stored here, in this storage.
So Richmond must have prepared for this.
He must have figured that, someday, the kingdom would come for him. That they would raid the storage to secure proof of his crimes.
'So… if the worst-case scenario actually happened, and the royal authority did strike down this storage… He planned to just bury the whole place and erase everything as a security measure.'
The puzzle pieces clicked into place.
Richmond's intent was clear.
The sheer malice of it made Kim Jangcheol grit his teeth.
If he'd known this would happen, he would've punched him one more time yesterday. But now wasn't the time to regret anything.
What mattered most right now…
"Everyone!"
Kim Jangcheol shouted toward the mine's exit. About a hundred people were still waiting there for their turn to escape, shifting anxiously.
Eyes trembling as much as the floor and ceiling above them. Wavering gazes, nervous expressions. All those eyes.
The moment he met them, he knew it instinctively.
'At this rate... they're all going to die.'
Roughly a hundred people still hadn't escaped.
Would they all make it out before the place collapsed?
No. Not a chance. The spreading cracks in the ceiling, the tremors—they wouldn't hold out even one more minute.
So then…
"Come this way! Everyone! Hurry!"
He shouted as he ran.
Toward the center of the storage.
Toward the thick pillar in the center of the storage, where Richmond's secret passage—the one he used alone—was hidden.
Trusting in a calculation, a hope, and a possibility that had flashed through his mind.
"Everyone! Move quickly! If you want to live, come here! Hurry!"
" ...! "
At first, the people were confused.
Afraid and overwhelmed. The ceiling looked like it could fall at any moment.
If they just waited a little longer, it would be their turn to exit through the mine.
But now he was telling them to go there?
To the center of the storage, where no exit could be seen?
"Come on—!"
Kim Jangcheol's cry grew more urgent.
The first to respond to that cry was Zephyros.
The moment he heard the shout, he thought:
His lord must have a reason.
So he responded.
"Come, let's head over there! Quickly!"
He encouraged the frightened, confused people. But they didn't listen easily.
Because they couldn't give up the escape route right in front of their eyes. One that looked like it might open for them if they just waited a bit longer.
But then—
Step, step...
Someone finally turned away from the escape path and started running toward the central pillar, answering Kim Jangcheol's call.
A young woman holding a child.
The same woman Kim Jangcheol had saved earlier.
'I believe in that man.'
She thought.
A little odd, sure.
So a bit confusing, too.
But she believed in that man's shout.
Had to believe in it.
The face that turned back to check on her after saving her. The eyes that had watched over her safety. That had been genuine. And she believed they still were.
So she ran.
Though her pace was slow.
Though she stumbled at times.
Still, she did not stop.
Her retreating figure caught people's eyes. It struck something inside their hearts, like a tiny pebble. Awoke the minds clouded with fear and confusion.
'Yeah. That man…'
'He fought for us.'
'He risked his life. He could've run away first if he wanted to, but he didn't…'
Everyone remembered.
The Kim Jangcheol they'd seen today.
What he had done.
What he had willingly sacrificed and endured.
And because of that—
Step…
Someone made a decision.
Another nodded silently.
Yet another grabbed their family's hand.
And they ran toward the place where Kim Jangcheol was calling. They gathered. They rallied.
And in their ears, Kim Jangcheol's voice rang again.
"Everyone! Get down! Cover your heads and lie flat!"
But Kim Jangcheol rose to his feet.
He gave Aged Kimchi a signal. A look that said, get up. Come with me.
"......."
Aged Kimchi looked at him with a complicated expression.
He didn't know.
What the hell was this guy thinking? Was he really going to be able to save these people like this?
"...What exactly are you thinking?"
In the end, he couldn't hold back and asked.
Kim Jangcheol shouted in reply.
"Here! Inside this pillar! There's a secret passage Richmond used alone!"
"That's true. And?"
"So even if this whole place collapses and gets buried, this pillar will hold out the longest! It'll be the last thing to fall!"
It was certain.
The Richmond he knew was that kind of guy.
Even if everything collapsed and all the evidence was buried, that guy would have at least one escape hole, ensuring his own safety.
So then…
"If we can just secure the space around the pillar so it doesn't collapse! If we can hold out long enough for people to climb into the tunnel inside!"
"You think we can save everyone?"
"That's exactly it. It's coming! Get ready!"
CRACK—!
Kim Jangcheol's shout turned urgent.
At the same time, a terrible rending sound tore through the ceiling, dwarfing all the others until now.
And then, it came crashing down.
The entire storage ceiling, starting from the outer edge where the escape exit had been, rushing toward the center where everyone had gathered—collapsing, crushing, flattening everything in its path.
RUMBLEEEEE—!
"......!"
Explosive clouds of dust.
The ceiling pouring down.
A chorus of terrified screams.
In the midst of it all, Kim Jangcheol amplified the Mana Seed to its maximum. Hoping that he and Aged Kimchi could at least support part of the falling ceiling.
'Please.'
A desperate hope, a solemn resolve.
And in that moment, as he raised both arms—
...KA-BOOM!
A shock unlike anything he'd ever felt before in his life slammed into his entire body.
[T/L: I am not getting any support from webnovel platform, so please support me and read ahead chapters on my ko-fi page "RevengerScans" : https://ko-fi.com/revengerscans ]