One Minute

The energy flowing from the bow transformed into a golden arrow and rested on the bowstring.

Yuseong drew back the bowstring to its limit using his superhuman strength while infusing it with magic power, aimed at the mass of energy presumed to be Carlos, and released his fingers.

With aftershocks strong enough to briefly halt his falling body, the golden flash traced a line through the air, and the arrow that pierced through space hit Carlos directly.

Boom!

After an intense flash of light too bright to look at directly, the sound of explosion reached his ears a while later.

The power exceeded his expectations, and Yuseong, who belatedly worried about Bruce and the other users’ safety, instantly adjusted gravity to create a foothold and threw his body sideways.

At that moment, a beam shot through the explosion and pierced the space where Yuseong had just been.

‘That… that was close to death.’

It was only because he had activated something close to precognition that he managed to survive – otherwise, he might have been reduced to ashes except for his arms.

As Yuseong kept all his senses on high alert preparing for another surprise attack, he spotted Kasim rising into the air through the smoke.

Woong!

The words flowing from Kasim’s mouth became glowing characters that circled around him, and numerous brilliantly shining magic circles appeared.

A high-dimensional magic so complex that even Eye of Truth couldn’t grasp it all at once.

“I’m sorry.”

“What!”

When the elf woman who suddenly appeared before Kasim swung her staff that looked like a tree branch, dozens of magic circles and thousands of magical words shattered.

When the elf swung her staff again, this time grotesque flowers bloomed from the World Tree.

“Wait…”

Papapapap!

Hundreds of light beams fired from the flower buds pierced through Kasim, who wore a dumbfounded expression.

Fortunately, since Kasim was a lich rather than human, he didn’t die, but smoke rising from various parts of his body showed he had clearly taken considerable damage.

When Yuseong noticed the elf’s gaze turning toward him, he quickly adjusted gravity to increase his falling speed and landed on the ground.

Then without even a moment to rest, he urgently used Flash Step to retreat backward.

Swoosh!

A suddenly flying fist barely grazed the tip of his nose.

“So you’re that new user. Han Yuseong, was it?”

“Carlos?”

A rough voice like scraping metal and sunken eyes.

He looked exactly like the Carlos seen in the video.

Without saying anything, Carlos threw a strike with his other hand.

Yuseong stepped half a step back and deflected Carlos’s elbow aimed at his head upward with his palm.

The next attack came without pause, but Yuseong responded calmly without panic.

He smoothly deflected the whip-like kick and intercepted punches aimed at vital points before they could fully extend.

After exchanging dozens of moves in a brief moment, Yuseong used Carlos’s power to throw his body backward.

“Hooh…”

Carlos looked with interested eyes at Yuseong who landed on a nearby building’s rooftop and cracked his wrists.

He had heard the new user was growing at an unbelievable rate, but he hadn’t expected this level.

To so easily block his attacks that even made Three Strong struggle and could take down Three Intermediates in one hit.

However, despite his seemingly relaxed appearance, Yuseong was extremely tense inside.

‘This is supposed to be the weakest among users? Are you kidding? He’s a complete monster!’

Surviving Carlos’s attacks was truly a miracle.

Prediction close to precognition, slowed perceived time from Asura Perception Way, Tyrant’s arms that absorbed 99% of impacts, body-energy-mind and spirit-energy-mind balanced through sparring with Hae Cheongyeong.

If even one of these had been lacking, he would probably be a corpse rolling on the ground by now.

“What were you thinking starting something like this?”

“Is that your last words?”

Though he tried to buy even a little time through conversation, Carlos didn’t even listen and raised his fist.

But Carlos couldn’t charge at Yuseong.

Because swords flying from all directions at terrifying speeds created a formation while displaying various sword techniques.

Controlling swords with energy using twelve swords in total.

There was only one person capable of such a technique.

“Bruce!”

Bruce, who appeared behind Carlos using ultimate form transformation, threw a fist wrapped in black energy toward the opening created by the twelve swords.

Bang!

With the explosive sound, Carlos’s abdomen burst open.

This wasn’t an ordinary punch.

It was an attack imbued with Infiltration Path that thoroughly destroyed the inside.

It was a fatal blow that would have instantly killed even a large monster with tough vitality, but Carlos didn’t fall.

Starting from his shattered spine, his missing organs and skin regenerated in the blink of an eye.

It was regenerative ability that was unbelievable even seeing it directly.

“As expected, he won’t die.”

“For someone of MartialGod’s caliber to resort to surprise attacks, how disappointing.”

“It’s too early to be disappointed by just this.”

Bruce, who moved to Carlos’s front as if using spatial movement, immediately threw a punch.

Strong, Flow, Swift, Heavy, Illusion.

Ultimate martial arts containing various principles unfolded from Bruce’s entire body.

Fist techniques pierced the body, palm techniques destroyed the inside, finger techniques struck vital points, and leg techniques cut everything in their trajectory.

Carlos was instantly reduced to a miserable state.

As if that wasn’t enough, twelve swords carrying different types of energy mercilessly penetrated all his vital points.

It was a fatal wound that not even a Great Taoist Immortal could survive, but Carlos’s face wore a bright smile.

“Hehehe, is this all you’ve got?”

As if rewinding time, Carlos’s body began returning to its original state.

While Bruce froze briefly at this supernatural regeneration, Carlos launched a counterattack.

A kick that was neither technique nor anything special, just utterly ordinary.

That was enough.

Carlos dove inside faster than Bruce could react, broke through his self-defense gear and drove his foot into his thigh.

Crunch!

“Kuh!”

“Now you won’t be able to run away.”

With an ominous sound of flesh being crushed, his mobility was sealed.

Even in his severely injured state, Bruce didn’t panic and calmly blocked Carlos’s attacks.

He predicted the trajectory of attacks coming at speeds beyond the limits of perception, and before commands could even drop from his brain, his body and internal energy moved to deploy the most suitable martial arts for the situation.

It was truly a response worthy of the name MartialGod.

However, perfect defense didn’t guarantee good results.

‘What monstrous strength…’

Even though he deflected the force to the maximum using extreme skill and mysterious martial arts, the remaining power broke his stance and shook his internal organs.

Like clothes getting wet in drizzle, the damage Carlos inflicted accumulated bit by bit, while the damage Bruce inflicted recovered instantly.

The battle’s outcome was obvious.

Crunch!

“That’s it?”

Bruce, who took a punch to his chest, flew back spewing blood.

Just as Carlos was about to launch himself to pursue, he felt a light impact on the back of his head.

When he reflexively turned his head, he found Yuseong raising two middle fingers at him and made an expression like a demon god of slaughter.

“…You must be dying to die.”

Though it was an obvious provocation, it was effective precisely because of that.

Carlos gathered magic power in his hand and shot it toward where Yuseong was.

The magic power didn’t even graze Yuseong, let alone hit him, but that didn’t matter.

Bam! Bang! Clang! Boom!

When the mass of magic power hit the building and its form broke, a massive explosion occurred creating a huge mushroom cloud.

A scene like a nuclear bomb had gone off.

Meanwhile, Yuseong secretly approached Bruce who had been sent flying far away without Carlos noticing.

‘Thankfully he fell for it.’

Nine Phases Manifestation could create up to nine clones, but more numbers weren’t necessarily better.

Anyone would suspect clones if there were multiple copies of the same person.

So Yuseong only made one clone to deceive Carlos.

“Please hold on a bit longer.”

The moment he moved to a distant building supporting the staggering Bruce, a massive explosion sound came from behind.

He could tell what happened without even looking back.

Yuseong took out a recovery potion from subspace and poured it into Bruce’s mouth and wounds.

“Didn’t you say you were confident?”

“…I’m ashamed.”

Instead of making excuses, Bruce lowered his head.

Yuseong was about to say something but closed his mouth.

Though not in perfect condition, this was Bruce who had subdued even Lucifer.

No one would have thought that Bruce, Kasim who was classified as equal to Bruce, and two users just below them wouldn’t be able to handle a single user belonging to Three Weak.

Strength comparable to Harnak he had fought in the undead city before.

Watching Bruce and Carlos’s battle, Yuseong could see where that bizarre power came from.

‘It’s the World Tree. The World Tree is extracting energy from the ground.’

The World Tree was absorbing energy from the ground, converting it to magic power, and transferring it to Carlos.

No, not just from the ground.

Through Yuseong’s golden eyes, he could see the World Tree absorbing massive energy from the atmosphere and sea as well.

‘Of course he’d be strong when he’s using the planet’s energy.’

Yuseong ground his teeth at the sight of the World Tree glowing brightly like a Christmas tree.

He didn’t need to think hard to know how dangerous this was.

Just looking at the visible sea, it was turning black, and a terrible stench was rising from the air.

Not even 10 minutes had passed since the battle started, but Tokyo was turning into a land of death.

At this rate, not just Tokyo but the Kanto region, central Japan, all of Japan, maybe even the whole world could become a land of death.

“This crazy bastard…”

Yuseong cursed while watching Carlos fighting Isaac, Ryuhei, and the lately arrived Olga.

This madness had to be stopped as soon as possible.

‘Should I use nukes?’

With a user’s influence, nuclear weapons could certainly be mobilized.

Once people learned the World Tree was absorbing Earth’s energy, even civilians wouldn’t oppose using nuclear weapons.

However, after brief consideration, Yuseong shook his head.

Even with nuclear weapons, there was no guarantee they could destroy the World Tree.

“Mr. Bruce. Can you bring down the World Tree?”

“It’s possible. But it will take time.”

“How long?”

“Three minutes, no, one minute.”

“I’ll buy you time. Please bring down the World Tree within that time.”

When Bruce extended his hand, a sword that gave off a profound sensation appeared tearing through space.

The moment he grabbed that sword, materialized internal energy began swirling around Bruce.

Even Carlos, who had been happily chasing the users around, seemed to sense the ominous energy as he began flying quickly in this direction.

Yuseong half-opened his eyes and operated Infinite Origin Force at full power.

Blood Energy red as blood gathered on both arms and thick mist spread around.

“One minute, just hold out for one minute.”

Grinding his teeth, Yuseong threw himself toward Carlos.