CHAPTER 77 — ANGRY MONSTER

After Holar Jun vanished, the house remained completely silent for a few seconds.

Eleanor stood before the unruined wall. Her clothes were exactly as they had been. The wound on her arm had closed, the blood splattered across the walls had been wiped clean, the broken furniture had returned to its proper place.

It was as if nothing had happened just moments ago. Yet Eleanor could still feel Holar’s finger upon her chest. A single finger. No aura. No Orin.

No pressure. Not even an attack. Eleanor had come at him with all her might, and Holar Jun had merely raised a finger. The second strongest person on earth... Had been hurled back two hundred meters.

Clara was looking at the ivory dress on the floor. Leon was gone. Percy was gone. Holar was gone, too.

The house had returned to its former state. Its occupants had not. Right then, the communication screen on the wall flickered on of its own accord. Eleanor lifted her head.

Red letters were flashing across the screen.

EMERGENCY BROADCAST

NORTHERN FRONT

THREAT CLASS: IMMEASURABLE

Then, the image appeared. The sky could not be seen. The horizon could not be seen. Even the earth could not be seen. The entire frame was made up of monsters.

Hundreds of thousands of bodies were advancing, trampling over one another. Flying beasts blotted out the clouds, creatures emerging from the underground tore apart the terrain, and colossal figures towering behind the horde were visible even from miles away. The number beneath the screen was climbing rapidly.

Estimated monster count: 3,741,000

The number updated once more.

4,106,000

Then again.

4,892,000

The system stopped counting. In its place came a single word.

MILLIONS

Clara slowly stood up. Four massive entities were advancing through the horde. The first was a crimson-scaled beast that turned the earth into glass as it moved. With every opening of its jaws, the snow atop the mountains melted, the moisture in the air turned to vapor.

The second’s body was encased in a dark, translucent armor. Light fractured as it passed before it, rendering the world behind it invisible for seconds at a time. The third was winged. With every beat of its wings, the clouds in the sky were cleaved apart, and defense towers miles away trembled.

The fourth, however, walked behind the rest. It was not the largest. Nor was it the most ostentatious. But the monsters around it would not draw near. Where it walked, nothing living remained.

A new warning flashed on the screen.

FOUR KING-CLASS ENTITIES DETECTED

ESTIMATED IMPACT: NINETEEN MINUTES

EVACUATION RATE: 11%

EXPECTED CASUALTIES—

The number changed a few times. The system could not calculate it. In the end, the line was erased.

Every screen in Awakeners City had turned on at the same time. In the homes. In the streets. In the academies. In the hospitals.

In the council halls. A few minutes ago, the entire city had been discussing the very same man. What Holar Jun had done to Leon. How he had stripped a student of his school, his family's privileges, and every ounce of authority he possessed in the city, with a single word.

"One man shouldn't have this much authority."

"He decided out of anger."

"Even a Pillar must be held accountable."

"He single-handedly destroyed a child's future."

In the council hall, the conversations piled atop one another. Then the image of the northern front appeared. The voices dwindled. When the Four King Monsters came into view, they ceased entirely.

A woman stared at the report in front of her.

"What is the status of the border troops?"

"The first line of defense is falling back."

"The second line?"

"Could not be prepared."

"The Pillars?"

"The closest Pillar will take forty-three minutes to arrive."

The color drained from the woman's face.

"Impact is in nineteen minutes."

No one answered. Because something had changed at the forefront of the horde on the screen.

No.

Someone had appeared. A single man.

Holar Jun stood alone before millions of monsters. His back was turned to the cameras.

The wind caused the tails of his long coat to flutter slightly. His hair was disheveled. His right hand was empty. His left hand rested behind his back.

Neither a line of defense nor an army stood by his side. Only Holar Jun. And the millions advancing toward him. The operators in the broadcasting system tried to measure his power.

Orin level: 0

The device scanned again.

Energy output: 0

The third scan initiated.

Element usage: undetected

An operator leaned over his screen.

"The device is broken."

The man next to him shook his head.

"The other satellites are showing the same thing."

"Impossible. How is he standing there, then?"

No one could answer. Because the question they were asking was wrong. They were trying to measure how much power Holar had. But Holar did not exist within what they called power.

Wycliffe stood at the front of 1-A. The lesson had long since halted. All the students were staring at the giant screen on the wall.

The food in Nathaniel's hand had fallen to the desk. For the first time, William wasn't making calculations. Arthur's eyes darted between the four King Monsters and the lone man standing before them.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

The numbers beneath the screen vanished one by one. Threat analysis. Power estimation. Probability of survival. The system replaced every line with the same phrase.

INSUFFICIENT DATA

Nathaniel whispered:

"Grandfather... is he alone?"

Wycliffe didn't answer. He had known Holar Jun for many years. He knew he was a Pillar. He knew he had spearheaded the founding of this city. He also knew he had slain four King Monsters.

But right then, he realized something else for the first time. He didn't know the limits of Holar Jun's power.

No one did.

Because Holar had never reached his limit. Perhaps he hadn't even come close.

Galahad stood on the roof of the academy, gazing at the screen. Percy was not by his side. It was an absence impossible to ignore. Galahad shoved his hands into his pockets. His fingers still remembered the warmth where he had held Percy's hand.

"He'll be alright," he had said.

He didn't know who he was saying it to. To Percy? To himself? Or to Holar, standing alone before the screen? Holar turned his head ever so slightly to the side.

As if he had heard Galahad's voice from miles away. Then he looked at the horde before him. The first King Monster opened its maw.

Crimson light coalesced deep within its throat. The thousands of monsters surrounding it immediately pulled back. The moisture in the air dried up. The rocks cracked. Measurement towers miles away breached their temperature limits.

It spewed fire. The sky vanished. A wave of flame large enough to swallow the entire northern front surged toward Holar. The screens turned white.

One second.

Two seconds.

When the image returned, Holar was standing in the exact same spot. Even his coat had not moved. The flames had not reached him. Holar raised his hand. The fire stopped.

Millions of tons of heat remained suspended in the middle of the sky, as if frozen. For the first time, the King Monster's eyes narrowed. Holar closed his fingers. The flame reversed course.

It poured into the open maw of the creature that had created it. For a moment, the King Monster's body glowed red. White light seeped through its scales. Then, its colossal form collapsed inward.

There was no explosion. There was no roar. It simply crumpled to the ground like a hollowed-out shell. The first King was dead. Not a single person in the whole world spoke.

The second King moved.

Its dark armor expanded, engulfing its surroundings. It generated a domain that devoured light, Orin, and every attack directed its way. The world before it went black.

Holar walked toward it. One step. The darkness split in two before it could reach his foot. Second step. The sundered domain could not reform.

Third step. The King Monster tried to retreat. Holar was already standing before it. He placed his hand upon the creature's chest. Nothing happened.

At least at first glance. Then, a faint crack appeared upon the dark armor.

A single fissure split into hundreds of lines. The lines spread across the entire body. The devoured light bled out from between the fragments.

The dark armor shattered. The body beneath it crumbled along with it. The second King could not even leave behind pieces large enough to fall to the earth. The winged one ascended into the sky.

It flapped its wings once. The clouds dispersed. It flapped them a second time. The glass of defense towers shattered from miles away. It was about to flap them a third time.

Holar looked up. The wings did not move. The creature's entire body was suspended in mid-air. It tried to thrash.

Its muscles tensed. Its bones cracked. The entirety of the sky trembled, as if bending downward beneath an unseen weight.

Holar lowered his hand. The King Monster descended too. It didn't fall. It wasn't dragged downward. The sky rejected it.

The giant creature smashed into the earth in an instant. Then the same force drove it down again.

Once.

Twice.

On the third time, nothing remained of its body but a crater stretching for miles. The third King was dead. Holar still hadn't said a word. He hadn't looked at a single screen.

He hadn't responded to a single word spoken about him in the city. The last King saw the deaths of the other three. And it stopped. While millions of monsters continued to advance, it took a step back.

A King Monster... Was fleeing from a human. Holar lifted his head.

The invisible domain of withering life surrounding the creature reached him. The earth blackened. Small airborne creatures died. Some of the monsters collapsed.

Not a single hair on Holar's head shifted. The last King turned around. It couldn't take its first step. Because Holar Jun had appeared before it. No one saw him move.

He hadn't traversed the distance between two points. One moment he was there. The next he was here. The King Monster swung all of its limbs at once. Its claws snapped shut with a force capable of tearing mountains asunder.

Holar raised his right hand and touched the creature's forehead.

"Don't make noise."

His voice wasn't loud. Yet all the broadcasting systems heard him simultaneously. The King Monster's body froze. The aggression in its giant eyes extinguished. In its place came a terror far too bare to ever be seen on the face of a monster.

Holar gave his finger a slight push. The creature's head didn't fall back. Its body wasn't thrown. It simply... Ceased to exist.

From head to tail, every piece that composed its existence disintegrated simultaneously. Neither blood, nor bone, nor shadow was left behind. The fourth King was dead. The millions of monsters stopped.

The first line of the horde fell back. Then the second. Then the rout began. Millions of creatures turned back the way they came, trampling one another as they fled.

Holar watched them.

He passed between the three Kings lying dead on the ground. Monster blood had splattered onto the edges of his coat. His right shoulder was torn where the first flame had passed; there wasn't a single mark on the skin beneath.

He raised his hand toward the fleeing horde once. A thin, white line formed across the horizon. The line did not grow. It did not shine. It made no sound.

It merely advanced. Every monster it touched fell to the earth.

Those flying in the air died without losing their wings. Those beneath the soil fell silent before they could reach the surface. The white line cutting through the fleeing horde reached the other end of the horizon within seconds.

Then came silence. The sound of nearly five million monsters... Was cut off in an instant. Nothing remained on the northern front but the wind. The measurement system beneath the screen ran one last time.

Energy output: 0

Orin level: 0

King Monsters killed: 4

Total monsters killed: calculating

The system paused for a few seconds. Then it crashed.

In the council hall, no one stirred. The mouth of the man who had questioned Holar's authority hung slightly open. Another looked at the text before him. The proposal requesting a review of Holar Jun's ruling on Leon was still on his screen.

His finger hovered over the confirm button. He didn't press it. The oldest woman in the room finally spoke.

"This doesn't mean what he did was right."

No one objected to her. The woman gazed at the battlefield on the screen.

"But whoever wishes to remove him from that seat must first say who they will place in his stead."

Again, no response came. Because there was no one in the world who could fill Holar Jun's place.

In 1-A, Nathaniel slowly sat down in his chair.

"When Grandfather gets angry..." he said.

He didn't finish his sentence. Arthur replied without taking his eyes off the screen:

"Leon is lucky to be alive."

Wycliffe looked at him.

"It is too early to call this luck."

The screen was showing Holar's return. He wasn't walking like a victorious hero. He wasn't expecting applause in his wake. He didn't turn to the cameras, nor did he watch the city's reaction.

He was merely returning home. To the home where Percy was not.

The city's entrance gates opened. Holar Jun walked in through the ruined walls.

Upon his coat was the blood of four King Monsters and countless beasts. He held no weapon. There was no victory in his stride.

People had gathered on both sides of the streets. No one applauded. No one dared to greet him. As Holar walked, the crowds silently parted. Everyone had watched the exact same broadcast that day.

The stance of one man standing alone before millions of monsters. His slaughtering of the four Kings. His ending of an invasion the world could not withstand, in mere minutes.

Some felt gratitude as they looked at him. Some felt fear. Some still thought the punishment dealt to Leon was wrong. Holar cared for none of it. He passed through the city.

He didn't look at the academy. He didn't look at the council building. He didn't look at the path cleared for him. In his mind was only Percy's face.

"I waited for a month."

Holar could not forget that sentence. Percy had waited for a month. Without saying a word. Without asking for a thing. Without showing anyone the pain festering inside him.

Holar had saved the world. He had killed four King Monsters. He had protected the lives of millions. But he hadn't been fast enough to reach the tiny fracture opening in his grandchild's heart.

And for the first time... Saving the world meant absolutely nothing to him.

The door of the house opened. Clara was still in the same spot. The ivory dress had been left on the floor. Eleanor stood before the window. When Holar walked in, they both looked at him.

They saw the blood on him. The outside world had seen him as its savior once more. Clara, however, saw only Percy's grandfather. Holar took off his shoes by the door.

Just as always. Then he stepped into the living room.

Eleanor spoke softly:

"Four Kings."

Holar did not answer.

"Alone."

Again, he did not answer. Eleanor looked at him.

"Are you alright?"

Holar's steps halted for the first time. He had stopped the second strongest person in the world with a single finger. He had killed four King Monsters. He had obliterated millions of creatures.

But he had no answer to give to that question. He turned his head to Clara. Clara's eyes were red. The anger on Holar's face hadn't faded. But beneath it, something else showed.

Exhaustion.

Fear.

And a helplessness no power could touch.

"Where is Percy?" he asked.

Eleanor's expression shifted.

"With Galahad."

"Where did they go?"

"Percy wouldn't say."

Holar closed his eyes. He could find any living being anywhere in the world. He could wipe out a country with a single gesture. He could undo the things time had touched.

But he couldn't force Percy to stay by his side. If he did that, he wouldn't be protecting him. He would merely be locking him in another cage. Holar opened his eyes.

"He will come back," Clara said.

Her voice was very weak. Holar looked at her. Clara picked up the dress from the floor. Her fingers tightened around the fabric.

"He might be angry. He might hate me. He might never want to speak to me again."

Her breath trembled.

"But he will come back."

Holar did not answer. Clara lifted her head. This time her voice was stronger.

"Percy always comes back."

Holar's gaze slid to the door. Inside him lay a restlessness he hadn't felt even before the four King Monsters. But he didn't voice it. He looked at the door.

And waited for his grandchild to return home.

END OF CHAPTER