Chapter 32: White Witch (Part 3)

Zin started heading north to track the path of the prototype. The rain continued falling hard, and the path became muddy. Under the heavy rain, any traces of the prototype disappeared, and it became harder to track down.

But it was not difficult to figure out where the prototype would be heading to.

Its hate against human is very strong. Especially against the Wargrave…

He was able to guess based on how the witch demolished Hewl-Jin which had no connections with the Wargrave. It was clear how much hatred the witch would have against them.

It’s heading to the SMCP (Seoul Mass Confusion Point).

Two hundred years had passed, but there were still remains of street signs, and it was not hard to look for directions. Zin didn’t have the security code to download the data, so after Charl downloaded the information, he skimmed through some data over Charl’s shoulder. And by looking at the destruction of Hewl-Jin, he was able to determine the power of the enemy.

People were pierced and crushed to death, which meant it had tentacles. (Alien)

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There was mummy looking corpses that had the bodily fluid sucked out. (Vampire)

There were traces of darkness shooting from the underground, which meant it had the power to handle darkness. (Demon)

And top of that, it had used psychowave kinetic power. (Witch)

He was not sure what other powers it possessed, but he was able to determine those powers so far. The Wargrave had conducted tests by infusing many different powers into the body of the witch.

A devil that utilized the power of an alien, demon, witch, and vampire at the same time…

A monster had appeared with such power that was beyond its time. Zin had never faced such powerful enemy before.

But for a devil hunter, no enemies were unconquerable, and Zin had proved this by surviving until now.

And he was confident that he would be able to accomplish the hunter mission just like always.

—dibble, dibble!—

Zin kept walking through the heavily pouring rain. He didn’t know how fast a prototype walked, so he had to hurry.

The heavy rain erased all footsteps, so it was impossible to track it down using that method. Zin was heading toward the SMCP based on his instincts.

He was not much different in the past. He started searching devils based on rumors, and then traced and tracked the devils all the way to the end. Or there were many times when the devils would take action publicly. Luckily at the moment, the prototype was not aware that the devil hunter was tracing it.

And in the Korean Peninsula, the road always led to the same direction, unless one crossed the ocean. If the devil were to hide somewhere, it wouldn’t be possible for Zin to track it down, but as the days went by, Zin was more convinced that the prototype was heading towards the SMCP.

On the fourth day, Zin increased his pace.

Besides the sound of the pouring rain, the surroundings were eerily quiet and calm. Zin didn’t hear a monster cry out even once.

Is it dragging all the monsters with her?

The devil was by itself. And it was not possible for it to cover all the areas it can’t see. The prototype was controlling the monsters near it with the psychowave and herding them to the north. It was probably gathering the monsters at the SMCP to attack the fortress.

It’s probably pumped up.

The devil became free and was full of energy, now freely heading north. This was good news for Zin. The devil would not expect that it would be targeted by someone else.

Zin thought:

It easily took down the Busan fortress because the fight happened within the building.

The Wargrave fortress will not go down so easily by the monsters in the Ancient-Korea area.

The SMCP should be well-prepared if they’ve learned about the collapse of the Busan fortress.

There will be a direct attack on the fortress. The devil will have to lead the monsters in front.

Zin thought again.

I will snipe it when it lets its guard down after victory.

Time to take out the NTW-20, the first time in a long while.

Zin realized that it was time to take out the sniper rifle that he hasn’t used for a while. Using 20mm anti-devil ammo would be effective against mixed devils. The battle would be determined in a short period of time. It would be similar to hunting a duck with an overly powerful weapon, but he just had to make sure that he finished off the devil with the strongest weapon.

After making up his mind, he stood still for a while. To be exact, he wasn’t very happy.

“…”

In fact, Zin was back at Ard Point. And in front of him was a junkwagon. The prototype most likely moved faster than Zin, and he had to move faster in order to catch up.

In order to catch up, it would make sense to ride the junkwagon. Because of the heavy rain, the engine’s loud noise wouldn’t spread so far away. But Zin did not want to ride this piece of junk to his death.

“Damn… hmm.”

Zin cursed, then sighed. He thought about his long journey with her. It appeared that he picked up her habits as well. Zin stared at the junkwagon for a bit and then turned around.

I won’t get far with this because the wheel will get stuck under the heavy rain.

And if the wagon were to crash, Zin would get hurt. And if the wagon’s reactor were to blow up, that’d be a catastrophe. In the end, Zin gave up on the junkwagon and started running.

Running through the heavy rain, he murmured that he’d rather die than ride that piece of junk. It was a fact that Zin ran faster than ordinary people. But he wouldn’t outrun a junkwagon.

Two days after the rain stopped, Zin started following the monsters’ footprints. As Zin suspected, many footprints were leading to Seoul. The wave of monsters that started with the heavy rain swept through the peninsula.

At Shera City, where Zin had visited a couple of days ago, the monsters had finished slaughtering the people. Zin quickly passed through the city’s bitten and mutilated corpses.

They were killed not long ago. Not even a day ago.

Zin picked up his pace; he felt that a battle might have started at the SMCP. The monsters’ footprints were now gathered closer together.

Zin ran through the ruins.

—thud! thud!—

—bamm!—

Kraaah!

The cries of the monsters and the gunshots resounded everywhere. There were collapsed building in the Gangnam downtown area where many tall skyscrapers had once existed before. Zin was getting closer to the MCP that appeared near Gangnam, the fortress surrounding the area, and the monsters surrounding the fortress.

As he was nearing the battleground, Zin quickly climbed up a building that had broken in half. He positioned himself on higher ground. The sky had lightened after the rain, so he had clear visibility—he could see the wall of the Wargrave fortress.

The battle scene was intense.

—bang! bang!—

As the laser cannons from the fortress wall fired away, dozens of monsters ended up burning to death.

There were this many monsters in the Korean Peninsula?

Although weak, it was still scary to witness the flood of monsters that the witch had driven from the southern region of the peninsula.

To Zin’s surprise, the prototype had extraordinary control over the monsters. The monsters were attacking the fortress wall, stepping over the dead corpses of their kind.

A witch could turn monsters into mindless machines. Monsters controlled by a witch would attack without the fear of death, and would take a bullet willingly.

An army of monsters controlled by a witch was truly a formidable force. However, the fortress’s resistance was not to be taken lightly either. The shower of laser shots from the fortress disintegrated the monsters at every second. And it was not just the laser cannons. Wargrave soldiers on the wall were holding off against the line of monsters by using powerful weapons. They were outnumbered, but the monsters only had the advantage of numbers.

Zin pulled out the giant sniper rifle NTW-20, and was getting ready. The distance was about one kilometer away, and he had to locate the target.

Luckily, without having to switch positions, he was able to find the enemy.

“Aaarggh!!!”

“Help!”

As the gray-haired witch stretched out her hand, five strings of tentacles shot out, grabbing the Wargrave soldiers by the neck and throwing them down to the ground.

—crunch! crunch!—

The monsters instantly devoured the fallen soldiers.

I suppose they don’t have the power to break through the fortress walls.

The tentacles swiftly grabbed any enemies and threw the soldiers to the ground. With her tentacles, the witch blocked off all attacks made towards her.

Wargrave soldiers were killed, but the number of monsters weren’t infinite either. And the witch’s power was limited as well. Shortly after, the fortress wall opened up, and white smoke shot outside the wall.

Krrrrrrrrrr!

The monsters clinging on the wall were melting away from the smoke.

The fortress wall was also utilized as a weapon. The smoke attack instantly dissolved the monsters.

—bam! bam!—

As soon as the weapons were switched out on the fortress wall, they fired blue shots at the monsters.

Many fortresses were built with these types of attacks in mind.

—bang! bang! bang!—

With a blue flash, thousands of grenades blew away the monsters surrounding the fortress. In a split second, the area in front of the wall became empty. The monsters surrounding the fortress were badly destroyed. Wargrave had controlled their firepower in order to get the monsters within range. And as soon as the monsters closed in, they were able to deal heavy damage by concentrating their firepower.

One of the soldiers on top of the wall sighed with relief.

“Now I think we can take a breather… What’s that?”

The privates did not know about the existence of a devil.

“A special team is on its way. Hold on. The officer is on his way.”

“But this time…”

“Shut up. Hold your ground.”

The soldier nodded at the senior’s words. All sorts of attacks did not affect the gray-haired witch. The witch was guarding against the attacks made towards her, but she didn’t attempt any additional attacks since the monsters were put to a halt after the initial attack.

Zin was observing the situation through the scope.

Regular attacks are not effective… Is it due to the powers of the alien and vampire?

The witch was pretending to block off attacks with a wall of tentacles, but she was neutralizing all physical attacks. Zin waited for the right time to attack.

Now… what’s your next move? Most of the monsters were destroyed. So, are you going to engage in a melee attack by climbing up the wall?

Zin thought that the witch wasn’t interested by the death of the monsters, and she looked rather relaxed.

—thud!—

As soon as a loud bang was heard, she laughed.

“You guys are focusing too much on the outer wall.”

Krrraaaaoohhhaah!

Soon, they heard many monsters’ cries from inside the inner wall. The Wargrave’s main forces were deployed to defend the outer wall.

It meant that there were no available forces to protect the inner wall area.

So the attack of the outer wall was a decoy.

—boom!—

The inner wall was under attack, and the fortress could be seen shaking. Cannons installed in the inner wall kept on firing, but the monsters in the inner wall were very different from the ones on the outer wall. Fully-armed Wargrave special forces came out of the outer wall to hunt the gray-haired witch.

“All of you, die!”

—bam! babam!—

A giant tentacle started to hit the concrete wall.