Chapter 368: Maestro of the Underworld

"Clear them all out."

Before the command had even fully left his mouth, the authority of the Maestro of the Underworld swallowed the plaza of District 5 whole.

There was no need for a separate baton.

The demonic sword Hell Rhapsody in Kim Minwoo's hand cleaved through the empty air, and was itself the very baton that led the symphony of destruction.

Uuung―!

At that moment, the entire legion was perfectly tuned on a soul level to his every single breath and muscle movement.

"Kraaah!"

"P-please, spare me!"

It was a one-sided massacre.

The elite soldiers of large guilds and the martial artists of the Demonic Cult, who had come swaggering down from the upper districts claiming they would subjugate the murderers, were torn apart like sheets of paper.

Of course, the rankers of the upper districts did not simply take the beating lying down.

The martial artists of the Demonic Cult and the upper guild members gritted their teeth and formed ranks.

Their bloodshot gazes turned toward the magnificent swarm of bones pressing in from the front.

"Don't panic! The Necromancer's main body is the monster, the rest are nothing more than skeletons!"

"Hold formation! Smash the bonepile and drive straight for the main body!"

The enemies were arrogant.

What appeared before their eyes was nothing more than slightly larger skeleton soldiers.

But that was a fatally wrong misjudgment.

These were Dragon Tooth Soldiers, born from the fusion of a thousand skeletons and composed of the essence of an ancient dragon.

The Dragon Tooth Soldier unit, which had once numbered barely ten, had grown to dozens as Kim Minwoo's stats and mana pool expanded overwhelmingly, now blanketing the battlefield entirely in black.

"Strike!"

A master of the Demonic Cult brought down a sword imbued with qi like a thunderbolt.

A lethal blow that would have reduced any mere skeleton to dust in an instant.

However......

Kwang―!

An instant before the qi made contact, the Dragon Tooth Soldier's joints twisted bizarrely, and it transformed in an instant into a heavy infantryman holding a massive tower shield, perfectly deflecting that crushing impact.

"Wh-what?!"

The moment the master reeled in astonishment, eyes wide open, under the authority of the [Maestro of the Underworld], in perfect synchronization with the direction of Kim Minwoo's sword trajectory as conductor, the Dragon Tooth Soldiers' combined assault erupted.

Through that perfect opening created as the impact was deflected from the shield, another Dragon Tooth Soldier on standby instantly transformed into an assassin, drove into the blind spot, and thrust a dagger in.

"Kraaah!"

Before even a scream could escape, Dragon Tooth Soldiers transformed into archers at the rear fired mana arrows upward, mercilessly piercing the brows of those trying to flee.

Defense, assassination, and long-range support all at once.

Through their unique trait of a formless skeleton, their movements, switching classes in real time without delay and driving the assault, were truly cogs with not even a hair's breadth of error.

"Wh-what kind of skeletons are these!"

"M-monsters!"

A fantastic symphonic performance that defied physical limits, perfectly synchronized to conductor Kim Minwoo's combat tempo without a single delay.

The elite soldiers who had come swaggering down from the upper districts realized before the Dragon Tooth Soldiers' overwhelming combined assault, which was on an entirely different dimension, that they had been reduced to nothing more than meat shields, and screamed with despair mixed in.

When they deployed barriers, Cedric's spear draped in blood-red dragon scales shattered even the space itself.

When they tried to hold formation, Merhen's catastrophic magic poured down mercilessly on their heads.

Dragon Tooth Soldiers with formless skeletons surged in like waves and sliced apart the throats of elite rankers.

The complexion of the Demonic Cult dispatch captain drained to the color of a blank sheet of paper.

He had clearly heard this one was a newcomer who had just barely risen to the Seven Lords.

He had been under the mistaken belief that compared to the existing Seven Lords, this one's roots were still shallow and their forces meager.

'This is impossible......'

A newcomer, all the same.

And yet, the strength was just far too overwhelming.

"Run! Fall back to the upper districts!"

The elite guild members of the upper districts, having completely lost the will to fight, threw down their weapons and began fleeing madly toward the portal.

But under the Maestro's perfect direction, the net had not a single gap.

Taang―!

The head of a fleeing enemy burst apart like a watermelon with a tok.

Taang! Ppaang―!

Each time heavy sounds of cleaving air rang out in succession, the heads of rankers attempting to flee to the upper districts were pierced precisely and slammed into the ground.

Atop the tallest spire of District 5.

Ifrin, revived as an undead, lowered the scope of her long rifle and trembled at the chill running down her spine.

'Kim Minwoo...... the power of this man truly defies imagination.'

She was inwardly astonished and filled with admiration.

The moment she was tuned through the authority of the Maestro, she felt something from deep within her very soul being elevated to an entirely different dimension.

The concentration of her magical power had become incomparably more perfect than before, and the trajectory of her bullets had grown sharper.

She was experiencing in real time that she had become incomparably stronger.

The Legion Commanders were equally filled with admiration.

"Kuhaha! This power! It boils within me! I'll kill you all!"

Vulcan swung his whip of black flame and sang Kim Minwoo's praises, while Olivia left blood-red afterimages as she artistically massacred the rankers.

Among them, the two with the most profound feelings were Cedric and Merhen, the two Legion Commanders who had been by Kim Minwoo's side the longest.

Cedric pierced ten Demonic Cult martial artists at once with his spear and gazed at the back of Kim Minwoo commanding the battlefield while gripping Hell Rhapsody.

"......It is deeply moving."

Cedric's blue eye glints wavered eerily.

They had met in the very earliest days.

Back when he was first summoned as a level 1 lump of blood, the memory of that Necromancer, who had held nothing but a wooden practice sword, mercilessly beating him as if he had lost his mind, insisting he would make him submit, truly felt like just yesterday.

The dreadful six days of humiliation, being beaten mercilessly by a wooden practice sword and force-summoned back dozens of times.

That same master was now wielding the authority of the Maestro and massacring the upper districts' top powerhouses like swatting insects.

'He truly became overwhelmingly powerful in an absurdly short time. I can feel him...... gradually drawing closer to the Lord's power at his peak.'

This artful pace of growth was at a level that completely shattered even the common sense of a knight who had lived for hundreds of years.

And Merhen, floating beside him, raining meteorites down on the enemies......

"Hehe! Our Minwoo's the best! Die, all of you idiots!"

There was not a trace of any profound sentiment whatsoever. She was simply operating in pure Minwoo's-the-best mode, turning upper district rankers to lumps of charcoal with a beaming face.

"Sweep them all away. Don't leave a single one."

Kim Minwoo re-gripped Hell Rhapsody and grinned.

The devastating combined assault forged by the Maestro of the Underworld.

This massacre grinding up elite soldiers of the upper districts like a blender was the most perfect and overwhelming debut stage heralding the complete domination of District 5.

＊ ＊ ＊

That afternoon, every intelligence network and news channel across the upper districts of the Heavenly City (Districts 1 through 4) was thrown into an uproar.

Urgent dispatches spread like wildfire through extra bulletins plastered at every plaza, electronic billboards, and each guild's intelligence network.

[Urgent Bulletin! Death Lord Kim Minwoo Seizes District 5 by Force!]

[Ascender Guild and Upper District Elite Alliance Annihilated in a Single Day!]

[Demonic Cult Dispatch Team Wiped Out! The Banner of the Death Cult is Planted in District 5!]

"......Good lord."

"The Death Lord actually crawled his way up?!"

The large taverns and guild alliance headquarters of District 4 fell into a state of sheer panic.

Unable to contain their astonishment at the unbelievable news, rankers of the upper districts buzzed with agitation.

"It's barely been any time since he had his territory confirmed at the Seven Lords' banquet and he's already striking upward! Doesn't this count as breaking the agreement with the other Seven Lords?!"

As someone shouted with their veins bulging, an information broker who had a grip on the news let out a hollow laugh.

"Breaking the agreement? My friend, read clearly what the Death Lord said to the Seven Lords back then. He said 'the districts below are mine, you'd better empty the districts above quickly.' Where exactly in there does it say he wouldn't come up himself?"

"......My."

Only then did people's faces drain white.

What they had believed to be an unspoken line had been nothing but their own misconception.

The Death Lord had intended to swallow everything above from the very beginning.

"Of all places, District 5......"

District 5.

It was the starting point of what was known as the mid-tier line, qualitatively different from the lower districts of District 6 and below.

From here onward, only genuine rankers gathered, and it was the core supplier of the enormous revenue and taxes flowing up to the upper districts.

"The higher-ups of the upper districts must be in a very foul mood. The tax line flowing up from District 5 is about to get cut off entirely."

"The tax line getting cut is the least of our problems. Word has already spread everywhere. They say that damned Death Cult has already burrowed to the bone in District 5 and is turning the residents into fanatics."

"And those who resisted?"

"What do you think happened to them! It seems that monster of a Death Lord swept them all away! If you don't believe, it's literally death and nothing else."

"......Good lord."

A chilling shiver ran down the spines of the upper district rankers.

District 5 had fallen.

Next would be District 4, and after that, District 3.

"At this rate...... our upper districts won't be safe either."

At the news of the Death Lord's merciless advance, the entirety of the upper districts began to tremble with the terror of annihilation.

At the same time.

Heavenly City District 1, the Demonic Cult headquarters.

Kwaaaaang―!!!

The massive round table made of the finest obsidian shattered into pieces and flew in all directions.

"......Kim Minwoo."

Yoo Honbi, the Heavenly Demon and one of the Seven Lords who stood at the head of the Demonic Cult.

From her blood-red pupils, a terrible murderous intent spewed out as if blood tears might pour forth at any moment.

"You dare...... annihilate my dispatch team and swallow District 5?"

Eudeuk. Her teeth ground together as if they might shatter.

Ever since Lupus died, she had been steadily seizing control of the political landscape of District 1 and was in the process of smoothly extending her influence all the way to District 5.

And that path had been trampled underfoot by a newcomer named Kim Minwoo.

"Heavenly Demon! Please withdraw your fury! We will immediately form a retaliatory unit and send them down to District 5!"

One of the Demonic Cult elders hurriedly fell to their knees and cried out, but Yoo Honbi's gaze cooled icily.

"A retaliatory unit? Don't talk nonsense. With even my elite dispatch team ground up, what good does sending a rabble do except pad out that bastard's skeleton soldier count."

She had seen Kim Minwoo's combat strength clearly.

That overwhelming ferocity and the ability to command death he had displayed at the banquet.

Yoo Honbi rose from her seat.

A dark crimson demonic energy coiled around her entire body and surged upward as if it would tear open the sky of District 1.

"Open the way."

At her chilling voice, the breaths of the Demonic Cult executives caught in their throats.

"That Necromancer bastard...... I will go myself."

A blood-red calamity aimed at District 5 was about to spiral out of control.