A bursting presence emanating from the sturdy muscles covering the giant’s body.
“Khehehe—.”
Unlike Heinz’s calm and chilling aura or the Duke’s weighty pressure pressing down on the crowd, the energy sharply stimulated the instinctive sense of crisis of those present, making it impossible to look away.
Like a volcano on the verge of exploding, with no way to predict when or how it would erupt.
“Stay alert! Don’t rush in recklessly!”
“Leave the outer perimeter to the outer squad! It’s dangerous if we spread our numbers thin!”
“Is that… really a human? No, it’s definitely a demon?”
Vampires, who feast on the blood of living beings, and powerful individuals who surpass their limits, instantly realized the truth the moment they faced that man.
On the surface, he appeared human, but he was anything but.
Gulp—
‘What in the world is that monster…?’
Monster.
That was the shared thought that arose in the minds of those present.
Especially with the beast skin covering his face like a mask, it only intensified that feeling.
At a glance, he was the very embodiment of a half-human, half-demon.
“…What are you doing here? How did you get inside? …No, do you even know what you just did?”
In the air thick with tension, the Duke stepped forward slowly, lowly growling.
This barbaric intruder had inflicted a fatal wound on one of the Buncheon Society’s transcendent beings and killed two of Dracul’s vampires upon entry.
The fact that he was clearly an enemy was undeniable, but given they had no information about him, they thought it prudent to gather some details before the fight began.
‘What could the reason for his attack be? Is he related to Phantom? If so, is he the one fighting with the outer squad? As for how he got here… he could have that kind of ability. The problem is that these creatures appeared out of nowhere.’
The Duke’s mind was a tangled mess facing this unidentified foe.
Despite the Buncheon Society’s unparalleled intelligence network spanning the world, they could only guess about the identities of the intruders.
Naturally, they had completed all their research on Phantom… Heinz as well!
However.
Naturally, the uninvited guest, Harley, had no intention of answering the Duke’s questions.
“Huh? What are you saying? I don’t understand your words. Speak English, dude!”
He casually replied in English to the Duke’s Romanian.
With his ability of 「Xenoglossy」, the language barrier meant nothing to him, but it was just a little prank to play along with his deception of his origins.
Just as the Duke was about to speak again, slightly furrowing his brow…
“But hey, don’t worry too much! In this world, there’s a great means of communication called physical dialogue! Ha-ha-ha—*!”
With Harley’s madness roaring, his muscles began to twitch violently.
Gik! Kkikigg—!
Then, a loud metallic sound emerged from his body.
A cacophony that could not come from a living being, but rather from large machinery.
Chiik—
Simultaneously, his entire body flushed red and a hot steam started pouring out, causing the air to heat up and shimmer.
Poo-deuk— Poo-deuk!
Instead of being large, his muscles expanded even more, his limbs bulging, and claw-like sharp nails sprouted from his fingertips.
With madness seeping beneath the scales covering his body, a dark, red haze-like 「Biotic Aura」 began to rise.
It was the ultimate form of a specimen that had exceeded its limits after endlessly seeking growth and was the pinnacle of biological evolution.
“…What is that?”
“A mutated demon? No, it’s beyond that level…”
“The energy is overwhelming. Everyone, stay mentally sharp! If you get contaminated by that, you’ll instantly turn into a mad vampire!”
The members of Buncheon Society instinctively took a step back at the sudden transformation of their enemy.
Like prey facing a predator reigning at the top of the food chain.
Then, realizing the instinctive reaction they just displayed, their expressions twisted.
For those proud individuals, showing such a weakness was humiliating.
Huff—
But regardless, Harley, now nearly three meters tall from the combustion of massive amounts of energy, simply stared fiercely at them, exhaling steam.
“Kuh-heh, well then…”
Under the beast mask covering his face, a jaw filled with shark-like teeth was exposed.
And as if the underbite twisted while drawing a line…
“…Let’s start the hunt! Kheheh!*”
With a mad, ferocious laugh, he lunged forward rapidly.
*
A black figure stealthily slipped out of the center of the forest battlefield and moved swiftly to the periphery.
‘Got careless.’
The culprit, an assassin dispatched from the Buncheon Society’s Greece branch under the order of the Doctor, chilled himself internally.
Fortunately, even in this dire situation, he managed to preserve his life, but his current predicament was far from optimistic.
‘Losing an arm and a leg is fatal. I managed to apply some emergency measures for now, but…’
He glanced at his right side.
A severed limb had been replaced with a pitch-black artificial arm he crafted using his dark chakra for mobility.
‘…I didn’t expect that monster to be at that level.’
It was a mistake to hover near, trying to gauge the strength of the abruptly appearing intruder.
Who would have thought he could see through their concealment and sever his limbs with just a grasp!
‘As much as I want to escape now…’
But in this chaotic situation, he couldn’t simply retreat after taking severe injuries.
Moreover, unlike monsters who regrew severed limbs like vampires, he, a purely human, needed to accumulate merits of some sort to seek proper treatment from the Doctor later.
‘There’s no other choice. That monster has a significant disadvantage against us so first, I need to support the outer squad and clear the other intruders…’
However.
His thoughts didn’t last long.
———!
Through the disrupted energy perception due to his injuries, a beam of light flew towards him silently and without warning.
“…!”
Just as he was about to track the enemy, it launched an attack first.
‘Damn it…! Another monster…!’
Boom—!
And the one who attacked was none other than the High Elf Harris who had also been summoned to Earth alongside Harley, seamlessly blending into the forest with skills like 「Nature Affinity」 and 「Nature Harmonization」 while whistling.
‘Did he dodge at that moment? Not in great shape yet, but impressive.’
With a bow made from the World Tree’s branches, known as Themis, in one hand and an arrow in the other, he squinted his eyes.
“But I can’t just let you go.”
As the golden star within his emerald-colored eyes twinkled, the ability 「Observer of the Milky Way」 activated, allowing him to perceive the entire forest’s landscape like the most advanced satellite.
He could gather information on where creatures were moving, their energies, and their levels of mastery.
With all that information neatly sorted in his mind, he aimed his bow towards a specific spot and silently drew the string back.
‘All the ones here are minions of the Buncheon Society. I won’t let a single one escape.’
Harris’s mission this time was to restrain and eliminate not only the snipers and great mages on the outskirts but also ensure the main force of Buncheon Society could not interfere.
At the same time, his goal was to keep his identity concealed, and for him, who could now harmonize with nature using 「Soft Eight Trigrams Secret Skill (Modified)」, that was not a difficult task.
The support-type ability user who had already created grotesque eyeballs around was just taken care of, and the transcendent-level assassin who might be able to locate him had just…
Boom—!
Harris’s all-out attack was unleashed, and in an instant, the opponent disappeared into a cloud of ashes.
‘Now, I can breathe a little easier. Thanks to Harley marking him earlier, it was surprisingly easy to deal with.’
Normally, an elusive and mobile assassin wouldn’t be so easily dispatched.
Having achieved his intended result, Harris moved silently.
And just after that.
Zzzaaazz—!
Boom!
With a sniper’s shot tearing the space where he had just been, a barrage of magical bombardments came crashing down.
The ongoing attacks from the Buncheon Society’s outer squad, still stubbornly holding out through multiple skirmishes even before he had focused on the assassin.
‘To destroy nature to this extent. They truly are deserving of divine retribution.’
Harris furrowed his brow as he glanced at the devastated area due to their attacks.
How could he, as a protector of the forest, just stand by and watch?
With rising hatred for the Buncheon Society, he called forth spirits again and drew back his bowstring.
…In truth, if accountability for the destruction of the forest were to be placed, there was someone who should be captured first, but he deliberately turned his gaze away and ignored it.
In the center of the forest battlefield.
Boom—!
A claw wrapped in dark red energy collided directly with a hammer shining with an aura.
“Kheheh! Oh, how delightful! Good!”
“Hyaah!”
A fierce shockwave spread in all directions from the clash of tremendous strength, accompanied by the eerie sound of maniacal laughter.
The outcome of that confrontation was stark.
“Cough! This monster!”
Confident in his strength, the bludgeoning hammer warrior was sent flying backward, gritting his teeth.
But the crisis didn’t end there.
Losing balance, he spotted a massive hand reaching to cover his face and gritted his teeth to fend it off with all his might.
Slaaam—!
Upon impact with the hammer and hand, an annoying metallic sound echoed.
And taking advantage of that brief moment, his teammates nearby rushed in to rescue him from the brink of demise.
“Don’t charge directly! Use hit-and-run tactics to exhaust its strength…!”
“Do you really think that will work on such a giant?!”
“Right now, this is the best method! Let’s endure for now and…”
It was like a raid against a boss monster.
The issue lay in the fact that this boss not only had intelligence but also mastered expert-level martial arts.
“Kahahah! Don’t hold back, let’s play a bit more, friends!”
The monster with human technology, created for the weak to challenge the strong, began to rampage, while the screams of the struggling opponents echoed endlessly.
“Huff— finally feeling a bit better. Duke, don’t we have some unfinished business from before? Let’s wrap it up this time!”
“…Phantom!”
In the midst of that chaos, Heinz spoke in a leisurely tone.
He looked the opposing force up and down as if evaluating them.
That was the gaze of an appraiser assessing the quality of food ingredients.
*
Inside a building in downtown Bucharest.
Crash—! Clang!
Suddenly rising from his seat, the Doctor rushed forward in a daze.
Snacks laid out on the table tumbled, making a mess around him, but such trivialities were already far from his mind.
No, he had no room left to focus on anything else.
“What… is that…!?”
Approaching the holographic image as if entranced, he stared at the screen and muttered in a daze.
His words expressed a question, but he knew more about it than anyone else.
How could he not?
“No way…? No, it can’t be!”
The complete evolution project.
It was something he had conceived about ten years ago after coming into contact with the ‘Blood of the Apex Dragon’ from the Raubeda dimension, where countless dragon species and dragon hunters dwelled.
In fact, his attempt to capture Heinz this time was largely aimed at completing that research.
“Aaaah—! That’s definitely…!”
Not just a chimera made by forcefully attaching disparate bodies, but a project aimed at creating the ultimate life form that continuously evolves by acquiring superior genes…
“But… why is that thing here!?”
It was clear to him with the 「Eye of Truth」; he could recognize it at a glance.
“…That! Why is it here!?”
