Not All Heroes From Earth Are Bad [EN]: Chapter 254

There’s a concept known as the ‘sixth sense.’

A sense beyond the traditional five.

It’s the ability to intuitively grasp the essence of something, rather than understanding it through analysis and judgment.

It’s often associated with precognition [the ability to see or know events before they happen].

‘I can’t explain it, but I feel like we need to do this now!’ ‘This time, I just know it’s right! I have a feeling!’

Most people consider this sixth sense to be unfounded nonsense.

It’s easy to dismiss it as mere wishful thinking, a ‘feeling-like feeling.’

In reality, there are countless instances of people ruining things by acting solely ‘on their feelings.’

The higher someone’s position.

The more important the matter.

They rely on rational judgments based on objective perspectives and logical analysis.

‘Hmm, something feels off…’

However, Pope Orban IV, the emperor of the Holy Empire of Gatrein, was different.

He believed in this sixth sense more than anyone else.

Having spent a long time on battlefields.

Having faced death countless times.

With such experiences, there were times when his sixth sense truly manifested.

He had overcome numerous crises through this intuition, which was akin to precognition.

‘Something is wrong.’

The reason the Pope came to this place today was purely due to his intuition.

In the treasure vault located beneath the imperial palace.

In this place where only the Pope was allowed, he urgently searched for something.

‘Hurry…!’

After unlocking a complex series of locks, he retrieved a stone imbued with mana.

Commonly known as a magic stone.

It’s typically used to replenish mana for casting spells or creating magical tools.

Buzz…!

However, the magic stone the Pope held was different.

It vibrated as if it were conscious, recognizing the Pope.

The mana contained within the brightly shining magic stone was incredibly powerful.

Even combining dozens of top-grade magic stones wouldn’t equal this amount of mana.

The Pope, having examined the magic stone, finally sighed in relief.

‘Hah, it’s safe after all.’

In fact, he knew it rationally.

There was no way this magic stone could be damaged.

This place was impenetrable; even a legendary-level powerhouse couldn’t destroy it in a day.

If there had been an intruder, he would have noticed it long ago.

‘Perhaps my intuition was wrong this time.’

He had rushed here, thinking he needed to check this magic stone, but as expected, nothing was wrong.

‘Your Holiness!’

He heard a hurried voice from outside.

The Pope’s eyes narrowed sharply.

‘Kuan Obriel…’

Kuan Obriel, the leader of the Hounds [an elite intelligence and special operations unit].

For some reason, he had come to this treasure vault.

‘What is it? I told you not to approach this place.’
‘I apologize! But the matter is so urgent… I had to report it to you immediately.’
‘Wait there. I’ll be out soon.’

Kuan Obriel was a clever man.

He wouldn’t recklessly disobey his orders.

Something important must have happened for him to come here.

‘Hmm…’

The Pope looked at the magic stone.

He had a strong feeling that he needed to take it with him.

After pondering for a moment, he concealed the magic stone in his robes.

Even though it was a massive stone with a diameter of over 50cm [approximately 20 inches], it vanished as if it had never existed.

‘I apologize!’

As he went outside, he saw Kuan Obriel bowing deeply.

‘What in the world is going on? For you to come here in such a hurry.’
‘The attack on the capital was a diversionary tactic by those Drasen bastards!’
‘A diversionary tactic by Drasen?’
‘The Great Temple! The Great Temple is under attack!’

The report was shocking enough to make his head spin.

The Drasen Empire is attacking the Great Temple.

The purpose was obvious.

Those who had figured out how the ‘Empire’s Sacrifice’ [a powerful, likely destructive, ritual or ability] was activated were moving to destroy its foundation.

‘Was this their plan from the beginning…’

He had been completely outmaneuvered.

The reason Choi Hyun-seok desperately entered Gratiam and caused such a commotion.

He thought it was simply to assassinate him, but that wasn’t it.

It was just to distract him and keep him off balance.

‘Why are you only reporting this now!?’
‘I apologize… I tried to find Your Holiness, who was away from his seat, but I couldn’t locate you.’
‘Did you just stand still then!? You should have acted first, even if it was just you!’
‘I’ve already done everything I can with my authority. Anything beyond that requires the commanders to move, but they don’t listen to me at all…’

That was only natural.

The military commanders only moved on the Pope’s orders.

Moreover, all military eyes were currently focused on Gratiam.

The Pope’s last order was to defend and support Gratiam.

In this situation, would the military move separately on the orders of the Hounds’ leader?

According to protocol, severe punishment would be handed down.

If the commanders had known about the Empire’s Sacrifice, the situation would have been different, but they didn’t.

In the end, it was inevitable that the commanders didn’t move.

If one were to assign blame, it would be to the Pope himself for creating this situation.

The Pope urgently asked again.

‘So, what is the state of the war?’
‘A total of 8 Great Temples have been attacked, and 2 Great Temples have already been destroyed.’

The Pope’s fist clenched tightly.

If just three more Great Temples were to fall, it would critically disrupt the Empire’s Sacrifice.

It was a dangerous card that shouldn’t have been used in the first place, but there was a world of difference between having that card and not having it at all.

‘It’s not too late yet. If we defend the Great Temples from now on, we can sufficiently salvage the situation.’

The Pope acted immediately.

From now on, quick and decisive support was the priority.

He had to send legends, heroes, and elite knight orders to stop the enemy.

‘What happened to Choi Hyun-seok and Park Hyun-ah? Have they been dealt with?’

Currently, most of the elite forces were deployed to surround Choi Hyun-seok and Park Hyun-ah.

Quite some time had passed, so the battle should be over by now.

‘They are still in battle.’

‘Those incompetents…!’

For a moment, the Pope’s eyes turned bloodshot.

It had been a long time since the battle began, yet they couldn’t even handle two people.

This was the height of incompetence.

His blood pressure rose, but he calmed himself and made a cold-blooded judgment.

‘We can’t stop both at once. If the elite forces leave now, we’ll miss Choi Hyun-seok and Park Hyun-ah. But if we leave them alone, the Great Temples will be destroyed.’

The Pope had to choose.

Whether to protect the Great Temples.

Or to kill Park Hyun-ah and Choi Hyun-seok.

The deliberation was short.

‘We can’t lose either of them.’

Gatrein was facing an unprecedented crisis.

If he failed in either, his plans of over a hundred years would all be for nothing.

So he would accomplish both.

The Pope handed his seal to Kuan Obriel.

‘From now on, I entrust all military authority to you. Send support by any means necessary! Ignore procedures and behead anyone who resists. Focus solely on protecting the Great Temples! Do you understand?’

‘Yes!’

‘Move immediately!’

Kuan Obriel left at once.

Despite his appearance, he was a powerhouse at the beginning of the legend level.

If he moved quickly, he could send troops to the Great Temples in various locations within a few minutes.

But that wouldn’t be enough.

To stop them for sure, he would eventually have to send the elite forces in the capital, Gratiam.

‘So… so this is why I needed this…’

The Pope took out the magic stone from his robes again.

This magic stone was different in purpose from ordinary magic stones.

If the role of a general magic stone was ‘storage,’ the main role of this magic stone was ‘sealing.’

The Pope’s power.

To be precise, it was sealing the power he had gathered when he was a hero.

‘There’s no turning back now.’

Crack-!

As the magic stone cracked, explosive mana began to pour out.

***

‘Haa… Haa…!’

Rough breaths could be heard from all directions.

The smell of the battlefield, a mixture of blood and sweat, had been familiar for hundreds of years.

Yet, for some reason, his body stiffened with fear.

‘Those monstrous bastards…’

Kinley Pucelle muttered to himself without realizing it.

At the end of his gaze stood two figures: Choi Hyun-seok and Park Hyun-ah.

Those two were fighting against over a hundred thousand elite troops without backing down.

Although a thousand mages had started together, they died without making any significant contributions.

In reality, it could be said that only Choi Hyun-seok and Park Hyun-ah were fighting.

‘How much damage have we taken from those two…?’

What was the extent of the damage to their allies?

He didn’t know for sure, but it would be in the tens of thousands.

Among them was his longtime comrade, Asmund.

In this battle, the actual military strength of the Holy Empire of Gatrein would have decreased by more than 10%.

‘Kinley. Get a grip.’

He heard the voice of his comrade, Gelling Mustan.

‘There’s not much left. They’re tired too.’
‘Didn’t you say the same thing twenty minutes ago?’

Gelling shut his mouth.

As Kinley said, he had said that they were tired a long time ago.

In fact, others thought so too.

Including Kinley.

Everyone on the battlefield thought the same thing.

They were tired.

They were out of mana, out of stamina, and wouldn’t be able to hold on any longer.

But, it wasn’t true.

‘Anyone who wants to die, move first.’

They were still full of vigor.

They should have been tired.

They should have been too weak to even stand due to lack of mana and stamina.

Yet, for some reason, their momentum was becoming sharper.

‘We can’t win… At this rate, we’re all going to die…’
‘They’re not human… We have to run away…’

He heard trembling voices from all over the place.

Even Kinley, a legend, was stiff with fear.

No matter how elite they were, it was only natural for ordinary humans to be gripped by fear.

‘Kinley. We have to move. They’re trying to recover their mana by stalling for time.’

‘I know…’

Kinley gripped his hammer tightly.

The only ones who could overcome this situation were the legend, himself, and his comrade Gelling.

‘We’ll move on three.’

The moment Kinley and Gelling, who had steeled their hearts, were about to move.

An enormous amount of mana erupted from behind them.

KWAHHHHHHHH-!

Mana was surging from the middle of the capital, Gratiam.

‘Wh-what is that!?’

‘What’s going on!?’

Everyone was flustered.

A giant pillar of mana.

The mana contained within it far surpassed the level of a legend.

‘Is it an ally? Or an enemy?’

Kinley, who was about to rush out, had no choice but to stop.

He needed to know what the identity of that mana was.

If it was an enemy, he couldn’t move carelessly and had to come up with a new strategy.

‘Besides Park Hyun-ah, there was another being with that much mana… No, maybe it’s the magic corps of the Drasen Empire.’

It was close to impossible for one person to possess that much mana.

There was the existence of Park Hyun-ah, but that was an exception among exceptions.

Generally, it was common sense to think of such mana as a large-scale linked magic [a spell or ritual that requires multiple mages to combine their power].

And the only group on the continent that could use such linked magic, apart from Gatrein’s hero squad, was the magic corps of the Drasen Empire.

It was then that he heard a familiar yet unfamiliar voice.

‘What are you doing?’

Kinley was startled by the voice he heard right next to him.

He hadn’t sensed anyone’s presence at all.

When he hurriedly turned around, there was a young man with a strangely familiar face.

‘Who are you!’

He could feel a familiar mana signature from the man.

The enormous mana that had just been released from the capital.

Contrary to his expectations of the Drasen magic corps, it belonged to this man.

‘You still don’t recognize me.’
‘I’m asking who you are. Are you a secret weapon of Drasen!?’
‘Watch your words. Who do you think you’re spouting such nonsense to right now?’

The man’s eyes narrowed sharply.

At the same time, a suffocating energy constricted his entire body.

‘Could it be…?’

Kinley had felt this feeling before.

Only for a brief moment, but the feeling of being overwhelmed by the opponent.

It was the first time he had experienced it since becoming a legend, so he remembered it clearly.

‘You’re right about what you’re thinking.’

The man nodded calmly.

‘I am Pope Orban IV.’