Became the Weapon Monopolist of the Gods-Chapter 48: Raid (2)

"Kuuwung—"

The sudden tremor began the moment I received the sword Idyuj from Marquis Cunningham.

‘An earthquake?’

While I was still confused, Cunningham’s attendant, who had gone outside to check the situation, returned.

“Your Excellency, something’s wrong.”

“What’s going on?”

“Someone has placed a barrier around the hall.”

“Hm.”

Marquis Cunningham stood up from his seat.

“Let’s go check.”

“Of course.”

I followed him out to the lobby.

The large hall was filled with hunters who had gathered for the festival.

Although it wasn’t the main event, there were still a decent number of people here.

Startled by the sudden tremor, they crowded around the entrance, muttering in confusion.

“What, what is this?!”

“The outside is gone!”

Outside the entrance, there was nothing.

It looked like a blank sheet of paper, erased as if with an eraser.

A void.

Only empty nothingness remained.

Thud, thud!

It was useless trying to go out.

Like the glass at a zoo, the void didn’t allow the hunters to escape.

“This might be happening only in this area.”

“Look for another entrance!”

The hunters searched all around for another way out.

Windows, emergency exits, back doors, the underground parking lot, the roof...

Every exit was open.

Even places that weren’t exits.

But...

“Damn it! We can’t even get out through the window!”

“The roof’s blocked too!”

Wherever they went, there was only the blank sheet of paper.

It was as though the hall had become a separate map in a game, isolated from everything else.

“How did this happen?”

“Is it a special gate?”

The hunters murmured in confusion.

Their voices carried a fear that they might never be able to leave.

“Everyone, come out here.”

It was then that a serious voice cut through the murmurs.

A group of people walked out from the interior of the hall.

The person speaking was a distinguished British gentleman at the head of the group.

“It’s Marquis Cunningham!”

“Oh, is that him?”

Hunters who recognized the Marquis whispered among themselves, stepping aside to let him through.

As the path cleared, Marquis Cunningham walked toward the entrance and reached out toward the void.

Thud.

His hand stopped at the boundary of the entrance and could not go further.

“Hm, it’s an isolation-type barrier.”

With his experience, Marquis Cunningham quickly assessed the situation.

“Can we get out?”

At my question, the Marquis shook his head.

“No, we can’t.”

He said, staring out into the emptiness.

“Someone locked the door from the outside.”

“What does it mean to say the door is locked?”

“It means the medium of the barrier is outside.”

Marquis Cunningham referred to the barrier as a ‘door,’ with the core medium being the ‘lock.’

“As long as the lock is outside, we can’t unlock it from within.”

“Is there absolutely no way out?”

“That’s right. We’ll have to wait for someone outside to break the lock or unlock it.”

Or we could wait for the barrier to disappear once its duration expired.

In other words, we had been trapped in a prison we couldn’t escape.

‘This is bad.’

I never imagined that I would get trapped while coming for a negotiation, so I frowned.

According to Marquis Cunningham, the hall was now completely cut off from the outside world.

The only saving grace was that we were in the middle of Seoul, close to the headquarters of Yeomyeong’s Constellation Guild.

If we waited, they would surely resolve the situation somehow.

‘The problem is the intentions of the one who cast the barrier...’

If it wasn’t just for fun, there had to be a purpose behind the barrier.

That purpose was easy to guess.

‘Are they after the Essence?’

Or maybe Idyuj?

Those two were the only important things I could think of.

If that was the case, the caster wouldn’t wait for the barrier to lift. They would take action in some form before then.

Whooo—

In an instant, a section of the hall lit up brightly, and a group appeared.

A pair of figures, one in white robes and the other wearing armor, emerged.

“What, what’s going on!?”

“Why are people suddenly...”

The hunters, surprised by the sudden appearance of the strange figures, were momentarily caught off guard.

Boom—

A few of the strange figures walked over to the door leading to the hallway and locked it.

Next, the door to the emergency stairs was closed, and the elevator was taken over.

Their movements were swift and organized, as if they had rehearsed this many times.

Meanwhile, the hunters could only watch in a daze.

They had come for the festival, unarmed and unprepared.

Step, step.

One of the strange figures in white slowly walked out.

He scanned the frozen hunters and spoke fluently in Korean.

“No one can escape from here anymore.”

His calm voice reminded the hunters that they were trapped.

Outside the hall.

Numerous hunters gathered before the white barrier that surrounded the building.

The barrier around the hall took on a rectangular shape.

“This is a full isolation-type barrier.”

It was Yeomyeong’s Constellation Guild Leader, Shin Soo-ah, who spoke.

This kind of barrier was tricky.

To lift it, we would need to find and destroy the hidden medium of the barrier.

There was another way to break it from the outside.

If you didn’t have the key, you could simply break the lock by force. It was a primitive method, though.

“Can we break it?”

“Do you think I’m ignorant enough to break a containment barrier, Team Leader?”

“......”

Hajinwoo couldn’t respond.

Though he had thought that to himself, he didn’t dare say it out loud.

“Well, it’s not impossible, but...”

“What did you just say?”

“I didn’t say anything.”

Shin Soo-ah quickly changed the subject, pretending not to notice.

“Anyway, it’s impossible to break it today.”

“So it’s possible?”

“To break a full containment isolation barrier, there needs to be someone who can interfere with mana. But that’s beyond my ability.”

Shin Soo-ah continued, ignoring Hajinwoo’s words.

“My specialty is physical strength.”

She waved her delicate arm in a cute little gesture.

As she said, the most effective attack for breaking the barrier wasn’t physical strength, but ‘mana.’

Since the barrier was made of mana, the same type of mana was the most effective.

More importantly, to cut off the ‘flow’ of the barrier was far easier than breaking it.

Cutting off the flow of the barrier was a much easier way to neutralize it.

Mana, sharpness.

Neither of those were Shin Soo-ah’s area of expertise.

She turned and asked, “Do you think it’s possible?”

“I’ll have to try to find out.”

A woman walked up beside Shin Soo-ah.

Whooo—

A gentle breeze followed her steps.

Her silver hair fluttered in the wind.

Her blue eyes sparkled as clear as a lake, reflecting the sunlight.

She was Rachel Bonaparte, an S-rank hunter from France.

Swoosh—

A golden sabre was drawn from Rachel’s waist.

At the same time, the gentle breeze turned into a violent storm.

[Wind King’s Armor]

The awakening ability representing Rachel, an S-rank wind attribute awakener.

The cutting wind wrapped around the golden sabre, destroying everything in its path.

As the wind wrapped around the golden sword, the surroundings around Rachel became perfectly still, with not a breath of wind.

And then.

──────

Rachel’s sword swung toward the barrier.

Boom—

The barrier began to tremble.Bishop Nikolai scanned the hunters gathered in the hall.

As if looking for someone.

‘The Saint is not here.’

Marquis Cunningham had come to the hall for the purification of Idyuj.

If the purifier negotiating with Marquis Cunningham had been the Saint, Bishop Nikolai wouldn’t have carried out this plan.

However, despite confirming the entrants, the Saint was nowhere to be found.

Twice, three times, even after the barrier was cast, he had checked thoroughly.

‘The purifier is not the Saint.’

Bishop Nikolai smiled with certainty.

Boom—! Boom—!

Suddenly, the barrier began to shake.

It seemed like someone was starting to break the barrier from the outside.

‘I must finish this quickly.’

Chachang, chachajajang!

Inside the hall, Chinese hunters led by Ambassador Wang Wei were in confrontation with Marquis Cunningham.

The Essence that Marquis Cunningham possessed was the object that the Chinese side was after.

But Idyuj was not in Marquis Cunningham’s possession.

‘Idyuj...’

Bishop Nikolai’s gaze stopped at a point as he scanned the hall.

At the corner of the hall.

A young man was standing, observing the situation, holding Idyuj.

Bishop Nikolai moved toward the young man.

‘Hm.’

I fell into thought.

Marquis Cunningham and his attendants were fighting with the strange figures.

The regular hunters were being held hostage by the strange figures in white robes, just watching the situation unfold.

‘I’ll have to call them.’

It was impossible for me to handle all these strange figures alone.

To minimize the damage, I needed to summon Jeanne and Vanesha.

However, this ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) was a crowded hall.

If I summoned them, they would draw attention.

Just then, a strange figure in a white robe walked toward me.

Pointing at Idyuj in my hand.

“Hand over that sword.”

“Jeanne, Vanesha.”

Instead of answering the strange figure, I summoned the two of them.

“Seo-jun, what’s going on?”

“It doesn’t look good.”

“Take this for now.”

I handed the flags and scissors I had borrowed to the two of them.

“Ugh.”

In an instant, a chilling sensation ran through my hand, and I dropped Idyuj.

‘So this is what makes it a magic sword.’

While I was wiping my hand after dropping Idyuj, I heard a voice.

“Wh-Why are you here...?”

The strange figure who had demanded the sword froze, a look of horror on his face as his gaze remained fixed on Vanesha.

Vanesha looked at the strange figure’s sword with calm eyes, her gaze fixed on me.

“This... this is a m-mistake! I-I am the...”

The strange figure began to backpedal, trying to speak, but before he could finish.

Swoosh—

Before he could say another word, the strange figure’s head flew into the air.

“Are you okay, Vanesha?”

“Oh, yes. I’m fine.”

I tilted my head.

The strange figure had reacted as though he knew Vanesha.

But before I could say anything more, his head had already been severed.

Since he had mumbled in Russian, I couldn’t understand him.

‘The Russian guy couldn’t possibly know Vanesha.’

I shook my head and discarded the thought.

This wasn’t the time for it.

“Vanesha, please take care of the guys in white robes.”

“Understood.”

Leaving the white-robed figures to Vanesha, I turned to look at Marquis Cunningham’s side.

‘I should help them out.’

I summoned Twin Dragon Swords into my hands.