Level Up Inquisitor [EN]: Chapter 215

“Kuaaaaagh!”

A terrible scream echoed through the large basement.

The group of heretical mages hiding in the city to maintain the magic circle were helplessly captured by Aile, who had suddenly stormed in.

Various body parts rolled around, and blood splattered everywhere.

Those forced to drink poison writhed in agony as they died, while those skewered by harpoons were already dead, decorating the interior by hanging on the walls.

Whirring!

A cross blazed fiercely.

The bound prisoner was burned so black that their form was unrecognizable.

Aile, who had been watching the scene, wiped the bloodstains from his cheek.

‘Now is not the time to indulge in these feelings…….’

Aile, startled back to his senses, turned his head.

The just punishment for the sinners had been fully executed.

Then, he approached the center of the large magic circle drawn on the floor.

In the center of the complex-looking magic circle, a black magic stone floated, emitting a dark magical power.

The identity of this black magic stone was to maintain and amplify the heretical mages’ magical power.

It was an essential device to stably maintain large-scale magic.

The fact that it was still being maintained even though the mages who were supplying the magic power had all fallen was thanks to this magic stone.

Clang!
Aile raised his longsword and struck the magic stone.

With a strong impact, the magic stone was split in half, and the magic power that had been maintaining the magic circle scattered.

Then, the magic circle that had been operating slowly lost its light.

Thud!
The basement shook greatly, and the magic circle, which had been messily drawn on the floor, disappeared as if it had evaporated.

Aile came out of the basement and went outside, and above in the sky, he could see a slight crack in the firm barrier.

“With that level of crack… if I take out about five more places, will it be destroyed?”

“No, that alone probably won’t be enough.”

“Then I need to hurry even more.”

At Ru’s voice, Aile moved immediately.

As it was a race against time, he had to move without delay.

With a map open on one screen, he checked the next suspected locations.

“Careful……!”

Then Ru’s voice was heard.

Only then did Aile come to his senses and barely feel something approaching him.

Kwaaaang!

An explosion occurred with a huge impact at the spot where Aile was standing.

Aile, who barely stepped back to avoid the attack, frowned in the dust.

Even though he was looking at the map, he barely noticed the attack of that scale until right before it happened.

If Ru hadn’t warned him immediately, he wouldn’t have been able to avoid it properly and would have been half caught in it.

Thud!

A man appeared, jumping down from the building.

He stared at Aile with a spear slanting on his shoulder.

“I can’t just let you run around the city.”

“Y, Yuron……?”

Aile couldn’t hide his surprise as he recognized the opponent’s face.

Yuron, the guild leader of Cerberus, one of the six major guilds.

He never expected that he, one of the six players who once represented Warlord, would be here.

‘But if he came all the way to this city, the reason is obvious…….’

Aile had already heard from Alisa about the shocking fact that he was a founding member and top executive of Alkione.

Yuron, who was in conflict with the Iron Cross and had a secret, deep relationship with the Apollyon Guild, was naturally in an antagonistic relationship with Aile.

Aile, who was actively searching for the cult’s heretical mages, was a big headache, so Yuron himself stepped up to deal with him.

‘I’ve seen the leaders of the six major guilds several times, but… I never thought I’d face them like this so soon.’

He involuntarily tightened his grip on the longsword.

To think he would face the leader of a six major guild as an enemy in the middle of the battlefield.

Aile had set big goals from the beginning when he first started Warlord, but even he had never imagined that he would be facing Yuron like this.

Even when he was struggling and unable to even connect to virtual reality, he had heard so much about Yuron.

‘Hoo.’

Aile, who was momentarily swept up in strange emotions, regained his senses.

As the opponent had been active in the top position for over a year, basic information about him was already known.

‘First of all, he won’t just let me go… Yuron’s current ranking is 9th. Among the founding members of Alkione, he’s the only one who has been pushed back without any changes. Is he still hiding his skills?’

Aile couldn’t easily be sure even with Yuron in front of him.

Even before this change, Yuron already had a much higher ranking of 5th overall, and even the ranking that had been pushed back four steps due to the rise of Apollyon’s top executives was still 9th.

“Hey, you don’t have to worry so much before even fighting.”

Yuron smirked, reading Aile’s expression.

“To hide my skills for over a year so that my ranking doesn’t rise… I can’t stand doing something so frustrating.”

Yuron was clearly a skilled player enough to be in charge of Armenia Online’s two prestigious guilds, Warlord’s six major guilds.

However, he was the lowest among Alkione’s founding members, and the proud Yuron acknowledged that fact and wasn’t ashamed of it.

Even he, who was directly involved, thought that the seven people who had gathered at the time were monsters.

More than anything, after learning that there were two players of completely different levels of skill even among those seven, he had no choice but to admit it.

“That’s a relief then.”

“But you can’t underestimate me.”

Yuron smiled and slammed his spear on the ground.

However, before seriously fighting him, there was something he was curious about.

“But you, didn’t you receive a direct offer from Dagoth?”

“Why is that?”

“Even if you didn’t know at the time, you could have changed your mind when you heard about us later, right? Why are you going through all this trouble to oppose us? You should know that this path returns faster and with greater rewards than money or fame, which can’t even be compared.”

Yuron leaned on his spear and asked him as if he was genuinely curious.

Then, after thinking for a moment, Aile replied simply.

“I’ve already made a deal with someone else. More than anything, I don’t like what you guys are doing.”

“Ah, is that the reason? You don’t like that we exploit users or massacre innocent citizen NPCs [Non-Player Characters] and offer them as sacrifices or something like that?”

Yuron let out a hearty laugh as if he found it amusing.

“It’s just a game, so what? The ones who die aren’t real lives anyway, right? Warlord was the first to promote freedom and open up all possibilities, and we just chose one of those paths. Is there a law that says users can’t play the role of villains?”

“Yeah, there wouldn’t be any external problems with doing that. I don’t particularly intend to say anything about playing that way.”

“Then why……?”

“I’m just saying I don’t like it.”

Aile’s answer was still simple.

Not wanting to betray the Order and Ru, and opposing and blocking Apollyon was purely his own will.

If he were simply pursuing high rankings and success as he had initially set out to do, it would have been better to join Apollyon, the most influential force.

But he didn’t want to do that, and he didn’t know exactly why himself.

It was just that Apollyon had chosen the path of profit as villains, and Aile had simply chosen to block them.

“Ah, I see… I just couldn’t understand it with my head, so I wanted to ask you once. Guys like you occasionally appeared in Isthorn and interfered with us. Of course, the endings were all trivially the same!”

Thud!
Yuron, who had kicked off the ground first, approached him in an instant.

Aile, who had hurriedly raised his synchronization rate to the fullest, raised his longsword and blocked Yuron’s spear.

Clang!
The heavy weight and vibration were transmitted through his hand.

He received an even greater impact because the opponent had narrowed the distance with a dash skill, and his health dropped a little just from blocking it head-on.

On top of that, Yuron continued to inflict erratic attacks by quickly rotating his axis.

After using a long-distance dash skill, there was bound to be a delay in the movement, but Yuron’s movements seemed to ignore such restrictions altogether.

“That was quite a satisfactory answer just now!”

Clang clang clang!
Yuron, who grinned slyly, poured out a tremendous offensive.

It was a blatant movement as if he was saying that if he didn’t show any openings, he would forcibly create them and drag them out.

Even in a situation where he was only focusing on defense, it was all he could do not to give away any big openings.

‘Tsk… his skills are real after all.’

Aile frowned and was pushed back.

Even though Yuron’s ranking, which was once 5th, was currently 9th, his skills had not declined in the slightest.

It was just that Apollyon’s top four executives had risen all at once.

His skills were still at the level of a six major guild leader who represented Warlord.

It was the first time Aile had fought such an opponent directly, and he could feel the difference in class just by exchanging a few blows.

‘No matter how I look at it, it’s not the time to save my strength… should I take out the legendary skill without regretting it?’

Aile struggled fiercely in the urgent situation.

Yuron’s specs, skills, and experience that he had accumulated were all top-notch.

No matter how much Aile had recently raised his specs, he would inevitably be greatly lacking compared to the six major guild leader class.

The fact that he was barely holding on now was thanks to the various buffs given by the gods.

However, if he used the legendary-grade skill ‘Goddess’s Blessing,’ he might be able to reverse the situation.

However, the Goddess’s Blessing skill had a cooldown time of a whopping six hours, so he wanted to save it even more in this situation.

Once he used it, he might not be able to use it until this whole incident was over.

Kwaaaang!
Aile was precariously pushed back by Yuron’s extended wide-area skill.

Of course, the best course of action in the current situation was to simply shake him off without having to fight and neutralize the cult members who were setting up the barrier.

However, judging from Yuron’s skills now, it was impossible to shake him off in his current state.

Even after diligently looking around, he couldn’t see any variables that could drop Yuron.

“Is this all you’ve got! Is this all the high rankers are capable of these days!”

‘Tsk…….’
Aile was increasingly being cornered by Yuron’s fiercely attacking spear.

If he continued like this, he would be defeated.

Inevitably, Aile’s gaze turned to the Goddess’s Blessing skill.

Clang!

“What……!”

But at that moment, a man’s dagger that had suddenly intruded aimed for Yuron.

Even Yuron couldn’t react properly to the appearance of the uninvited guest who had appeared without any sign.

He barely blocked the dagger, but he was hit by the subsequent kick and bounced off.

Kwaaaang!
As Yuron, who had fallen out, was embedded in the wall, Neshua, who had turned his head, slowly opened his mouth.