Not All Heroes From Earth Are Bad [EN]: Chapter 253

Gatren Holy Empire’s capital, Gratiam.

The massive city, boasting centuries of history, was being destroyed for nothing.

Every time magic, mana, and divine power collided and exploded, dozens of buildings crumbled.

“Damn it…!”

Choi Hyun-seok gasped and raised his arm as a monstrous hammer-like force flew toward him.

Kooong! Kooong! Kooong! Kwaaaah-!

Choi Hyun-seok was sent flying, crashing through three sturdy brick buildings.

Barely stopping and regaining his footing, magic flew in from all directions.

Choi Hyun-seok cursed and threw himself forward.

“Shit! Give me a moment to breathe!”

Priests and paladins were hidden throughout the city.

They cast magic whenever Choi Hyun-seok was isolated.

Just as he managed to evade the magic and gather his senses, Kinley and the legendary trio pressured him as if they had been waiting for this exact moment.

Joint Severing Crushing Skill

Form 3 – Shatter

Mustan Swordsmanship

Form 5 – Piercing Light

Kinley Fusel and Gelling Mustan unleashed their fighting spirit from both sides.

The attacks cleverly blocked his retreat, making it impossible to dodge both.

Choi Hyun-seok charged towards Gelling.

He intended to break through the relatively weaker fighting spirit head-on.

Swish-!

The sword thrust was too fast to follow, even with Choi Hyun-seok’s enhanced visual acuity.

Choi Hyun-seok raised his arm to deflect the sword.

Clang Clang Clang-!

The sword grazed his skin, hardened to the limit by mana, and sparks flew.

A long gash appeared on his arm, and blood flowed down.

Choi Hyun-seok ignored the pain and lashed out with his foot.

“Cough!”

Gelling coughed up blood and flew away as his abdomen was struck squarely by Choi Hyun-seok’s foot.

He could have finished him off if he had pressed the attack, but Choi Hyun-seok had to retreat.

Legend Asmund had approached and swung his sword.

‘If I just had a little more time…! This fight would have been over long ago!’

The battle showed no signs of ending.

Whenever he tried to finish one opponent, another enemy interfered.

The enemy who had been attacked recovered and rejoined the battle.

This situation repeated itself endlessly.

The enemy’s coordination was so tight that there was no gap to exploit.

‘At this rate, my stamina will run out first.’

Choi Hyun-seok was currently using Flomot [a fighting spirit technique that enhances physical abilities].

Its duration had increased as it was improved with mana, so he was still holding on.

However, it was still a fighting spirit that fundamentally strengthened the body, consuming a considerable amount of stamina and mana.

‘I can’t just stop using Flomot now.’

He couldn’t stop using Flomot just because it consumed a lot of stamina.

Putting aside the side effects, Choi Hyun-seok had been able to endure until now thanks to Flomot.

If he had fought without using Flomot, he wouldn’t have been able to withstand the enemy’s coordinated attacks and would have already been defeated.

‘If only one of the three was missing. No, if only the interfering priests and paladins weren’t there, I would have seen a way out.’

It was too unfavorable a fight.

In the first place, it was already a great feat to endure while simultaneously facing the legendary trio and Gatren’s elite.

Choi Hyun-seok didn’t want to just endure; he wanted to win.

‘I have to choose. Either raise the Flomot stage and somehow deal with them, or join up with Hyuna noona [older sister or close female friend].’

At this rate, he would never be able to last the planned one hour.

He had to either force himself to overcome the enemies or join up with Park Hyun-ah.

Choi Hyun-seok’s choice was the latter.

‘For now, the most important thing is to buy time. I need to join up with Hyuna noona and find another way.’

The decision was made.

Choi Hyun-seok immediately turned around and started running.

He would run straight to Park Hyun-ah and join her.

“You! Are you running away like a coward!”

Kinley Fusel’s voice, filled with rage, came from behind.

Choi Hyun-seok was dumbfounded.

“What? Cowardly!? Seriously, don’t you have any shame!?”

How dare they talk about cowardice when they were ganging up on one person.

As expected, all villains were equipped with hypocrisy as a default.

“Chase him!”

“Stop right there!”

“If I were going to stop when you told me to, I wouldn’t have run away!”

The tiresome game of tag that had continued for a while started again.

***

Park Hyun-ah felt like she was at a magic expo.

Wouldn’t it feel like this if you gathered all the magic in the world and detonated it at once?

Kwaaa Kwaaa Kwaaa-!

Hundreds of spells poured in wherever she went.

Each one alone wouldn’t even be enough to tickle, but when they gathered together, even Park Hyun-ah couldn’t ignore them.

“It’s endless! Endless!”

In fact, direct attack magic was relatively better.

What was really dangerous was debuff-type magic [magic that weakens or hinders the target].

Not only did it drain stamina and mana, but even she felt a chill down her spine if she occasionally got caught by magic that bound her body.

“Hoo!”

She could blow away all that magic just by releasing mana, but the problem was that there was a slight delay.

If her actions were restricted even for a second and she couldn’t move, she would inevitably be hit directly by countless attacks at that moment.

‘Am I some kind of acrobat? Seriously! How long am I supposed to last like this?’

Endless enemies.

She had dealt with at least 10,000 soldiers so far, but they kept appearing from somewhere no matter how many she killed.

Instead of the numbers decreasing, it felt like they were increasing.

‘The only good thing is that I crushed the hero squad.’

The reason Park Hyun-ah was able to endure this much was thanks to Martin Lusca.

The foolish Martin Lusca led the hero squad and rushed in first.

He was arrogant.

Thanks to that, Park Hyun-ah caught them off guard with the communication jammer she had prepared.

After dealing with the commander, Martin Lusca, she reduced the number of heroes as much as possible.

It was still early in the battle.

She had plenty of strength left, so she was almost able to crush the heroes.

Blocked chain magic.

Reversed mana.

The sudden death of the commander.

All of this meshed together to make it possible.

If she hadn’t reduced the number of heroes then, she would never have been able to endure until now.

‘Let’s focus. One hour! I just need to last one hour!’

Park Hyun-ah gathered her mana again.

Fortunately, she still had a considerable amount of mana left even in the midst of the fierce battle.

This was because she had a vast amount of mana to begin with.

‘I have about a third of my mana left. That’s enough.’

She felt like she was walking a tightrope every moment, but she was confident.

She would never fall until she used up all this mana.

‘How much time has passed?’

Park Hyun-ah checked the time.

The goal was to last one hour.

She had been fighting for quite a while, so there wouldn’t be much time left – or so she thought.

The reality was not so easy.

‘30 minutes!? Only 30 minutes have passed!?’

To be exact, it wasn’t even 30 minutes.

The clock showed that only 28 minutes had passed since the operation began.

‘I’m screwed… How am I supposed to last 30 minutes with this mana!?’

The mana that had felt so reassuring just a few seconds ago felt infinitely small.

More operation time remained than expected.

At this rate, her mana would run out before an hour passed.

“Noona!”

It was then that Choi Hyun-seok approached.

“What!? Why are you already crawling out here!?”

“I thought it would be advantageous to hold out inside the city, but it’s not! It would be better to fight together outside!”

The legendary trio was trailing behind Choi Hyun-seok like a tail.

Following them, the elite paladins and priests inside Gratiam poured out.

“Shit… It’s a string of sausages [a long line of enemies].”

“Now that it’s come to this, let’s just hold out together here.”

“What about the Pope?”

“We missed him.”

“That’s why I said it was a reckless plan.”

“Still, it’s not like there were no gains. We got information about the Pope.”

“You can’t use information if you’re dead!”

What good was information after death?

It was better not to have it.

“We can do it!”

Choi Hyun-seok shouted, dodging the incoming magic.

“We just need to hold out a little longer now, right?”

“There’s still 30 minutes left.”

“Excuse me…?”

“31 minutes left, to be exact.”

Despair fell on Choi Hyun-seok’s face in an instant.

He had also thought that a lot of time had passed, so he felt like the sky was falling.

“I guess my sense of time has become strange from fighting so intensely in a short period.”

“Forget the analysis. So, can you hold out? How much mana do you have left?”

“About 25%?”

“You should have saved it, you bastard!”

“But the legendary trio is also very tired. If we seize the opportunity and deal with just one of them, the rest will be manageable.”

Park Hyun-ah gritted her teeth, the words, ‘As if such an opportunity would come in this situation!’ rose to her throat, but she swallowed them down.

“Okay. Shit! Let’s do it.”

The battle had already begun.

Besides, there was nowhere to escape as all sides were blocked by barriers.

They had to settle things here, come what may.

“Even if we die…”

“Let’s take down one more of them.”

The two warriors jumped into the densely packed enemies.

***

The Drasen Empire’s command center.

Olaven Grimier watched the situation with sharp eyes.

“Commander! A report that we have succeeded in destroying the Great Temple in the Radion Territory!”

“The Great Temple in the Kirshin Territory is also on the verge of destruction!”

“How long will Kirshin take!?”

“I think we can destroy it within 10 minutes!”

“Too late! Even if you have to push yourselves, you must destroy it faster!”

Olaven’s voice contained an impatience that was unlike him.

Even he, who was always full of composure, was becoming anxious, which meant that the current operation was critical.

‘Already 30 minutes have passed. In the meantime, we have only destroyed one temple.’

The target Great Temples totaled eight.

Of those, only one temple had been destroyed.

Even if they destroyed one more in 10 minutes, there would still be six left.

‘We must destroy at least five Great Temples to prevent the Empire’s Devotion.’

They had to somehow destroy five Great Temples.

If they failed in this operation, the aftermath was obvious.

‘Gatren, cornered, will surely use that detestable magic.’

In fact, they didn’t know exactly what kind of power the magic ‘Empire’s Devotion’ would display.

They only knew the approximate effect of the magic, not the specifics.

Perhaps it was possible that it was a more insignificant magic than they thought.

Unlike their worries, nothing special might happen.

However, conversely, there was also the possibility that it was so strong that the continent would be destroyed.

As long as there was even a 1% chance that the continent would collapse, they had no choice but to stop that magic.

“What about enemy support?”

“There is no full-scale support yet! It seems that Choi Hyun-seok and Park Hyun-ah are definitely drawing their attention!”

“It wouldn’t be strange if support poured in at any moment. Turn the units that destroyed the temple to another location, and dispatch additional units!”

It would be over if the Pope noticed their operation.

All the Great Temples were connected to Gratiam by a space-time gate.

If the attack on the Great Temples became known, tremendous support would pour in at that moment.

Of course, Drasen was well aware of this fact, so they designated the space-time gate as the top priority before destroying the Great Temples.

“What about the enemy’s space-time gate?”

“We have only destroyed one so far!”

As expected, destroying the gate was not easy.

The enemy also knew that the gate was their lifeline, so they were desperately defending it.

‘Even so, the speed is too slow. After all, the biggest factor is that we didn’t anticipate the power of the Cardinals.’

The biggest reason why the operation was not progressing.

That was because of the Cardinals.

The Cardinals in each Great Temple.