The Return of the Legendary All-Master

[Translator - Kiteretsu]

[Proofreader - Kyros]

"Damn it…"

The sentries gritted their teeth and began retreating toward the command post, dragging their wounded comrades with them.

Few remained unscathed—most were groaning in agony from gunshot wounds.

"Ggh... Leave me. There's no saving me anyway."

One knight, pierced through the abdomen, coughed up blood as he spoke.

"Shut up, Kal. What the hell are you saying? You want us to just leave you behind?"

"At this rate, we're all going to be captured… You know it—we didn't even get a chance to fight back."

"……"

"Our levels and stats are cut in half. You know what that means…"

They knew.

If this continued, they'd be wiped out.

Unlike the first opponents they faced, these enemies had an overwhelming difference in skill.

No one among them had managed to grasp their position, yet the enemy's shots never missed—striking them with precise lethality.

Only five remained.

From twenty, they were down to five. The other fifteen had all died with clean shots through the head.

"Still… it's strange. Why are they letting us go?"

Jade, who was helping a knight with a pierced leg limp along, voiced his confusion.

He had been in the rear and remained relatively unharmed.

"The attack stopped midway. There's a good chance something interrupted them."

Nahan, who had narrowly twisted his body just in time to take a bullet through his left shoulder, offered an explanation.

He had tied off the bleeding with a spare cloth.

"Either way, we need to get back quickly."

They had to report this to the command post immediately.

"Hey."

Just then, an unfamiliar voice called out to them.

At the chilling tone, the survivors flinched and slowly turned their heads.

There sat a man on a rock, watching them.

'Since when has he been sitting there…?'

That thought lasted only a moment.

The survivors checked his information—and their faces drained of color, bodies frozen in place.

Ten thousand.

That overwhelming number instantly snuffed out their will to live.

This was not someone they could even dream of resisting.

"P-Please, spare—"

Jade's plea never reached the end.

Before they knew it, the man had closed the distance and slashed Jade's throat for speaking.

As Jade's head fell, Kal—the knight he'd been supporting—collapsed to the ground alongside him.

"Begging for your life... You know how precious your own is, yet take others' without a second thought."

"……"

As if their excuses weren't worth hearing, the man cut them all down without hesitation.

The number of survivors dropped to zero.

Only then did the man turn away and leave the scene.

* * *

He had killed every last one of the scouts.

Now, all that remained was to strike the main force and seal the rift.

When Jeong-Hoon arrived at the entrance to the main base in a flash, the four knights guarding it flinched in surprise and began to raise their swords toward him.

Slice—

But Jeong-Hoon's blade moved a beat faster, severing all four of their necks in a single stroke.

<Their levels are so low, they couldn't even react.>

At this point, Jeong-Hoon's prowess was on par with Celestial-grade transcendent beings.

How could mere users at level 200 or 300 possibly stop someone like him?

'Finish this quickly and move on.'

Activating the Heavenly Demon Lord's Dominion, Jeong-Hoon stepped past the entrance, and it took less than five minutes to utterly annihilate the main force.

Just as he was about to seal the rift and move on, a single knight stepped slowly out of the dimensional tear.

No—more accurately, it was a demon wearing the shell of a knight.

[Information cannot be read.]

Jeong-Hoon narrowed his eyes.

What kind of being was this that its information couldn't be accessed?

"……"

The demon stared directly at Jeong-Hoon… and then grinned.

In that moment, a chill ran down Jeong-Hoon's spine, making his entire body tremble.

"…What are you?"

Jeong-Hoon barely managed to speak.

"Found you. Found you. Found you."

The thing repeated those words in a low murmur—Found you—and then turned its body and stepped back into the rift.

Jeong-Hoon tried to move after it immediately, but his body refused to obey, frozen in place.

<…Looks like we've been discovered.>

"Discovered? That thing was a named?"

<Probably just a puppet under someone's control.>

"Ha…"

So he'd been overwhelmed… by just a puppet?

<It seems they've been waiting for you to intervene in the invasion.>

"Makes sense. It was never just about pressuring Earth."

Jeong-Hoon approached the rift.

"Which means it's time for me to get involved for real."

<No way… You're not seriously—?>

"Yeah. I'm seriously."

Without hesitation, Jeong-Hoon stepped into the rift.

* * *

'There you are.'

Logos' lips curved upward like a crescent moon.

Before him, a hundred puppets stood in formation.

'Good thing I investigated the rift that was closing abnormally fast.'

The Amplification effect—he had anticipated it would be neutralized quickly.

After all, this invasion was always meant to be pressure, nothing more.

He had never expected Earth to actually fall.

As predicted, the Amplification effect was quickly removed—and on top of that, a debuff had been applied.

Just as he had been waiting, Logos deployed his puppets, and in that process, he encountered a monster whose level exceeded 10,000.

'It's 100%.'

Through the puppet, he confirmed the energy radiating from that being.

Though faint, the Power of Creation could be sensed.

It was still sealed beneath the surface of consciousness, as the conditions hadn't yet been met—but once that power was drawn out, things would undoubtedly become troublesome.

'I have to deal with him before that happens… hmm.'

Sending puppets to eliminate him was one option, but would that completely erase Tenebris? That was unlikely.

Even if it had lost its power, Tenebris was still a being equivalent to the Five Named.

Wiping out a single human wouldn't be enough to make it disappear.

'Which means I have to erase both Tenebris and the human it's attached to at once.'

The surest method was to capture the human the moment he crossed into the Divine Realm—and eliminate him there.

But considering he hadn't made a move toward the Divine Realm yet, it was likely he had already picked up on something.

Still, it didn't matter.

"In the end, I'll force him to cross over anyway."

Logos grinned slyly.

* * *

'Current invasion suppression rate: 98%.'

The Avatars' invasion suppression rate stood at 98%.

Not even a full day had passed, and it had already dropped to 98%.

If the Amplification effect hadn't been removed and debuffs hadn't been applied, it would've plummeted below 90% for sure.

They had assumed that rapidly boosting levels would resolve the issue to some extent—but instead, that rapid growth became their downfall.

Level is, indeed, an absolute metric.

The higher the level, the more powerful and advanced the skills one could use.

But the problem was, these people had obtained high-tier skills without knowing how to use them effectively.

'It's the same in games too.'

Even in games, players with the same levels and skills show vastly different performance.

Some crush others with their mastery and reaction speed, while those who simply pay to inflate their specs often lose to lower-level players with actual skill.

This was one of those cases.

They had rapidly leveled up by hunting low-level monsters, but their understanding and utilization hadn't caught up.

Of course, many adapted quickly and dominated—but on the flip side, there were also plenty who were so unprepared it was frustrating to watch.

The remaining 2% came from those lacking individuals who failed to stop the invaders within the time limit.

<Master, what should we do?>

Thanatos, who was managing all the Avatars, called out.

'What is it?'

<Watching these dumb humans get taken out in pincer attacks by far weaker enemies—it's making my blood boil.>

'Those kinds of people weren't Avatars anyway.'

Avatars were those who had grown under the guidance of transcendent beings—there was no need to micromanage them.

The real issue lay with the ones hiding away in shelters, wasting each day in fear.

<Still, it's frustrating…>

'Then once this invasion is over, pick out one competent person per class.'

<Pick? Why?>

'I'm thinking of uploading some videos.'

The internet had become active again.

Which meant he could now use HoneyTube.

<Got it!>

'Yeah.'

Jeong-Hoon turned his head and looked to the side.

In front of him stood the grand gates leading into the Kalderian Empire.

<You're going to annihilate them?>

"No."

With the power he possessed now, he could wipe out the Kalderian Empire in an instant.

But Jeong-Hoon didn't want to go that far.

'What I'm after is the Transcendent who holds dominion over this dimension.'

His goal was to eliminate that being and seize the Divine Relic in its possession.

To do that, the first step was to launch a raid on the Demon Realm tied to this dimension.

Jeong-Hoon pulled up a scanning map and began scanning the entire region.

[Kalderian – Scanning entire empire.]

<Why go out of your way to scan the Kalderian Empire?>

Tenebris tilted its head in confusion.

"Why do you think the Red Portal appeared here, in the Kalderian Empire, and not in any other kingdom or principality?"

<Hmm? Maybe just because they were the most useful?>

"That could be the case… but I think this place is the yolk."

<The yolk?>

"Look."

Jeong-Hoon pointed at a location on the scanning map.

The Duchy of Rodrian, located in the northern part of the Kalderian Empire.

Surrounding it were countless dungeons.

<And what about it?>

Even after seeing it, Tenebris looked unconvinced.

In that case, Jeong-Hoon would just have to show it with his own eyes.

He activated the Heavenly Demon Lord's Dominion and leapt toward his destination.

* * *

At that same moment…

The Kalderian Empire was in a state of emergency.

"Annihilated…? Are you telling me this is real?!"

Emperor Ruten of the Empire stared at the holographic screen in utter shock.

[1st Knight Division – Annihilated]

[2nd Knight Division – Annihilated]

[3rd Knight Division – Annihilated]

All the knight divisions they had deployed—wiped out.

The knight orders that had once been the pride of Kalderian hadn't even lasted a single day before being utterly destroyed…

Just what kind of monster existed beyond that rift?

Ruten clutched his throbbing head and waved his hand dismissively.

"Mobilize the Imperial Knight Order."

"Your Majesty, you must not send the Imperial Knight Order!"

Duke Alfair urgently raised his voice in protest.

The Imperial Knight Order was an elite unit composed solely of knights above level 1,000.

A force of just ten, yet they were the sword that safeguarded Kalderian.

In a situation where the 1st through 3rd Knight Divisions had already been annihilated—and with no clear intel on the enemy—dispatching the Imperial Knight Order was reckless.

If anything were to happen to them, Kalderian's military strength would plummet, and they'd lose the ability to keep the Ostro Kingdom in check.

"…The knight divisions were wiped out. And you expect me to sit back and do nothing in this situation?"

"That's not what I meant…"

"A massive reward was promised. A reward so great, it could allow us to crush the Ostro Kingdom."

"……"

The only reason Ruten had dispatched the knight divisions—his core military force—was the reward.

A reward so significant it could let them overwhelm the Ostro Kingdom.

If they secured it, Kalderian could regain its former prestige.

"So don't stop me. Contact Grand Duke Rodrian immediately."

Rodrian.

The lord of the northern grand duchy—and commander of the Imperial Knight Order.

"…Understood."

Alfair nodded reluctantly, and the other nobles gave their consent as well.

With the annihilation of the knight divisions, Kalderian had suffered enormous losses.

In this situation, abandoning the quest reward wasn't an option.

They had to recover from the loss—no matter what—through that reward.

"Make haste."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

[Translator - Kiteretsu]

[Proofreader - Kyros]