Certainty. Arrogance. Belief.

That was the mindset of the rankers who survived.

The certainty that, no matter what, they would win this war.

The arrogance that they were stronger than anyone.

And powerful belief in the five peaks.

Those were the only things Hyunsoo could exploit—because the gap in forces was too large.

But because they believed, without question, that certainty, arrogance, and belief guaranteed victory...

this was the perfect chance.

Hyunsoo had already noticed.

Most people couldn’t escape the attack range of Fenrir Charge.

The moment they take splash damage, they get hit with a status ailment.

But high rankers could have at least one trump card that ignored it.

And in fact, the high rankers’ movements were shocking.

Some used rapid footwork—calculating the exact landing point of the stomp and the splash radius, slipping out.

Some used a tank skill called an “Unbreakable Shield” to force their way out.

Some cast magic.

Some simply used brute strength to break free of the zone.

And Hyunsoo had no intention of letting that opening go.

CLAAANG—!

“You fucking bastard!!!!”

Japan’s peak, Musashi—left wide open—barely escaped, only to get launched right back into the range.

His destination—

SHHK—!

Right under Fenrir’s foot as it rose again to trample.

KUUUUNG—!

The moment Musashi was crushed completely, impact and splash damage drove in.

KRAK-KRAK-KRAK—!

What kind of person was Musashi?

Musashi’s damage output is on the same tier as Kabel.

The king of ninjas.

That was Musashi.

And at the same time, he was the one who took the worst shock when hit by heavy blows.

That biggest threat—

[One of the enemy commanders, Musashi, is logged out.]

—scattered without accomplishing anything, crushed under Fenrir’s foot.

It was the moment the alliance lost its first “sky.”

It didn’t stop there.

Enemies who had barely gotten out by every method imaginable—

“.......”

“.......”

“.......”

Click—

They met fifteen hundred soldiers loading armor-piercing bolts into their quivers and drawing bowstrings.

The advantage of armor-piercing bolts was their insane destructive power.

KRAK-KRAK-KRAK—!

Those struck head-on fell right back into splash-damage range.

KRAAAAH—!

“U-UGHHHH!”

“NGH—!”

“God damn it!”

[7 seconds.]

Alliance Leader Kali endured the brutal damage, eyes bloodshot, glaring at Hyunsoo.

When this is over, you die.

Musashi died easily because he was a ninja.

Even now, fifteen hundred soldiers kept firing armor-piercing bolts, but people weren’t dying so easily.

They had enormous defense and total HP.

And that was also the weakness of soldiers and knights.

Soldiers, to begin with, had almost no skills they could use.

And even knights—if they had any—most relied on some form of “swordsmanship,” without the kind of explosive impact that could wipe the board.

[8 seconds.]

[Fenrir Charge ends.]

[HP drops below 50%.]

The instant Fenrir vanished, Kali faced a horrific scene.

Every one of the roughly five hundred high rankers was battered to hell.

[Defense power drops sharply.]

[Attack power drops sharply.]

Weapons and armor were broken, and every joint felt like it was screaming.

But luckily, the dead were fewer than fifty.

And Kali read Hyunsoo’s next move.

“Gather.”

FWOOOSH—!

All users with major injuries were trapped in one spot.

But Kali was faster.

The dagger Kali threw buried itself precisely into Hyunsoo’s abdomen.

THUNK—!

[Skill use fails.]

With a single dagger, she stopped the principle of One Strike, Two Halves.

Hyunsoo’s face flickered—colored with shock.

“You really thought your last move would work!?”

He’d been planning to log out more than half the remaining forces with that one strike.

But the high rankers had replayed and analyzed the continental war footage dozens of times.

There was no longer a powerful skill capable of sweeping them away.

...No. Hyunsoo might have one.

But even if he did, he couldn’t kill numbers like this.

He’d missed it.

“KRAAHAHAHAHAH!”

Kali cackled.

The final chance—the last chance to reduce their numbers exponentially—was gone.

Four hundred and forty survivors.

No matter how tired they were, they could still take fifteen hundred soldiers and one strong ranker.

But Hyunsoo’s expression stayed sharp.

“......Why do you think this territory was built by me alone?”

Kali’s laughter stopped.

In that moment—

figures who had been hiding among the soldiers, hoods pulled low, revealed themselves.

White cloaks embroidered with the crossed Sain Sword and Mjolnir.

One man threw back his hood—

and he was already drawing his bowstring.

The man—Ian—picked up the words.

“......Because you didn’t even include us as a threat.”

To world-class high rankers, Korea’s “small” rankers didn’t even register.

Because between certainty, arrogance, and belief, they thought their only match was Hyunsoo.

And they were just individual users.

They’d been buried under Hyun’s name—so they weren’t considered dangerous.

But the people they’d dismissed as “not a threat”—

they hadn’t spent these months doing nothing.

They had been training, refining their individual strength.

Ian.

Click—

He wasn’t as strong as Hyunsoo.

He wasn’t as great as Hyunsoo.

But—

FWOOM—!

He was a man who had been waiting for Great Atlas War too.

In Ares, he held the highest recurve-bow mastery.

And now, Jumong’s Horn Bow met his hands.

That wasn’t all.

He was a descendant of the divine archer Vaneka. Through a quest with her, he had finally obtained a single arrow.

Jumong’s Horn Bow had once been the strongest bow—legend above legend.

But as the “second Ares” began and Transcendent artifacts started appearing one after another, it faded into the background.

This was different.

A single arrow, red as if it were burning.

[Vaneka’s Flame]

The arrow named Flame met Jumong’s Horn Bow, which had a high fire-attribute attack power.

FWOOM—!

A rising firestorm centered on Ian.

In front of hundreds of millions of viewers worldwide—

[Two legends above legend meet.]

[They generate synergy.]

And Vaneka’s Flame burned hotter still.

The instant Kali’s cold sweat hit the ground—

TWANG—!

[Flame-Guided Shot]

Flame launched—an unavoidable strike that hit exactly fifty users at once.

FWOOM—!

FSSSH—!

One. Two. Three. Four.

Ten. Fifteen. Twenty.

Thirty. Forty. Fifty!

Most of their HP was already under 50%.

In just 0.6 seconds, the arrow rattled the battlefield with a rapid burst of impact sounds—

then returned to its owner.

SNATCH—!

As Ian lifted his hand, Vaneka’s Flame coiled back into his grasp—

FWOOM—!

And fifty users turned to ash at the same time.

“.......”

In the stunned silence—when no one could even find words—this time a woman nocked an arrow.

[Sure-Hit Arrow]

A familiar face even Kali recognized.

Korea had faced population decline; it wasn’t even at fifty million anymore.

And from that small country came its biggest star—

Hyeji, an Olympic gold medalist.

With each step forward, she fired one arrow.

The problem was—

FSSSH—!

FSSSH—!

FSSSH—!

FSSSH—!

Every single shot hit the users squarely between the eyes—100%—and triggered a guaranteed critical hit.

Is that a skill?

No.

It was pure skill.

And that wasn’t all.

A man with only a single sword ran straight through the exhausted rankers.

He too was labeled a “genius,” an Olympic gold medalist in fencing.

By sheer ability, he crushed everyone in his path.

And behind him—closing in—came a man’s kicking strikes.

BOOOM—!

KRAAAAH—!

BOOOM—! BOOOM—! BOOOOM—!

KRAAAAH—!

“U-UGHHHH!”

Taehun—an Olympic gold medalist in taekwondo.

With each blow, users soared high into the air, close-up in the camera.

The panicked users hurriedly regained their composure.

Among them, the most outstanding priest formed a massive defensive barrier for the users.

“Teresa’s Protection!!!!”

A huge barrier shaped by Ares’s #2-ranked priest.

[Teresa’s Protection]

[Natural healing increases by 10x inside the barrier!]

The rankers breathed in relief.

Yes—there were variables, but they still had the power of the rankers who ruled Ares.

And Teresa’s Protection produced an effect equal to 4,000% of the caster’s defense—

it would never break.

Diamond-bright, translucent power shielded them.

Then—

KRAAAAH—!

Every camera snapped upward.

At the same time, the rankers’ gaze lifted to the sky.

-It’s a dragon!

-The owner of the Dragon Light Sword!

Korea’s small myth.

A man standing on the edge of the Dragon Light Sword legend—born from Haemosu—gripped his blade with both hands.

In the first Ares, there were no dragons.

He was the knight who gained a dragon thanks to Hyunsoo.

From the tip of his sword as he accelerated downward, a green-skinned dragon writhed, revealing a complete form.

KHEEEEHK—!

The entire world watched, spellbound, at the dragon and the falling man.

But that man—

[Dragon Knight Resil Lv.445]

—was a level so low that the high rankers almost smirked.

And his dragon was only something “parasitizing an artifact,” not a real dragon.

Or so they believed.

A bloom of a smile spread across Resil’s mouth as he fell.

In the first Ares, there were no dragons.

But the Dragon Knight class existed.

That Dragon Knight was supposed to be forged in the second Ares.

He had obtained it while ignoring that—back in the first Ares.

And if the second Ares had already begun... what would happen then?

From Resil’s left hand, another dragon’s cry burst out.

KRAAAAH—!

[A legendary dragon descends.]

A black dragon began to emerge from his left hand, head first.

Wrapped in towering flames, it fell alongside the green dragon born from the Dragon Light Sword—

and something unbelievable happened.

[Two dragons dwell within the Dragon Light Sword.]

Two dragons were sucked into a single sword.

Resil hadn’t become a true dragon lord.

But—

[It deals an additional 850% damage.]

The power of the first dragon.

[It deals an additional 1,530% damage.]

The power of the second dragon.

Green haze and black haze scattered from the Dragon Light Sword.

[Two dragons dwell within the Dragon Light Sword.]

[It triggers an additional 2,841% damage.]

Resil’s descending blade collided with Teresa’s Protection.

KRAK-KRRRK—!

With a massive shockwave, cracks began spreading across the absolute, unbreakable barrier that boosted defense by 4,000%.

KRRRRT-KRRRRT—!

The rankers knew.

“.......”

They were packed together in one place because of Teresa’s Protection.

And they knew what would happen if that shield broke and they took the hit directly.

KRAK-KRAK-KRAK—!

The two dragons dropped straight into the crowd of hundreds of high °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° rankers.

KWAHHHHHHHANG—!

A huge explosion roared through Atlas as thick dust billowed up.

The view of hundreds of cameras filled with gray dust—

and when the scene finally revealed itself, the entire world gasped.

At that moment—

Chairman Lee Taeseong of Taeseong Group shot to his feet.

Before Taeha entered Great Atlas War, Taeseong had gathered Ares experts inside the group and asked about their odds.

They’d all called it insanity.

But now, as the dust cleared on the screen, a shocking sight appeared.

Out of the 440 survivors—

246 were scattering.

I thought it was impossible...

Taeseong remembered what Taeha had said before stepping forward.

If we win, Hyunsoo will declare it.

Taeseong had thought those words were reckless.

That he’ll become the first king.

And it was starting to become real.

And without realizing it, Taeseong let out a hollow laugh.

A kingdom about to be declared.

A kingdom they had all built together—

and one that might grow even larger than Taeseong Group itself.