Screams echoed throughout the city. The dwarves, who had been helpless against the joint attack from internal and external enemies, repaired their formation to counterattack.

“Kill them! Kill them all!”

“We’ll tear you apart!”

“Stop them! Don’t let them rampage any further!”

The steel soldiers and automatic weapons created by Bafor played a crucial role in the counterattack.

“Grrrk!” grunted Manfu Kosa, the chief of security who betrayed Ferrum, passing out with his tongue out.

“Huuu...” Rika exhaled as she looked down at him, her hammer blazing with mana as fierce as the fire in a blast furnace. She shouted, “Advance! Protect our city and our families! Do not relinquish anything to the invaders!”

“Haaah!”

“Let’s go!”

The nearby dwarves surged with mana and Mineral Force as they faced the angels. The sounds of battle, the stench of sweat and blood, and the aura of death intermixed to create madness.

Rika turned in the direction of the Golden Iron Palace and sensed the immense clash of mana where the battle between World Rankers was taking place. No one could approach even a few kilometers around the Golden Iron Palace.

“Bafor... I believe in you,” Rika mumbled.

Her wrinkles, formed from her overcoming of countless struggles, wriggled. She believed that the dwarves would overcome this crisis as they always had.

“Alright! Let’s drive out the enemies! We are the proud race of steel!”

***

“This can’t be... It’s impossible!” Hadafu shouted in shock as he showered Kang-San in his Divine Beastification form with attacks.

“What’s impossible? The fact that an inferior race like me is overpowering an intermediate race like you?” Kang-San asked.

“A lowly human couldn’t possibly...”

Hadafu gritted his teeth. He couldn’t believe Kang-San had blocked all of his attacks. He was the Ten Thousand Arms, eighty-eighth in the world ranking, who could freely utilize various items, all with S-rank potential.

He was equipped with five S-rank potential items. His Aer Plate Armor made both offense and defense possible by using the power of air. His Chrysos boasted of unmatched physical attack power. His emerald helmet, Suppetiae, amplified the wearer’s stats and reduced the enemy’s stats. His boots, Contendo, could travel a distance of ten thousand steps with just one. Lastly, his Performing Chain Whip could move freely for offense and defense.

“You’re versatile. You might be a nightmare to the average person, but you couldn’t have met a worse opponent,” Kang-San said with a smile.

“Silence!” Hadafu raged as he charged at Kang-San, activating a skill.

[Activating Item Skill: Ten Thousand Steps.]

Hadafu vanished in midair with the power of the Contendo and instantly reached Kang-San’s flank to stab it with the Chrysos.

“Die!” he screamed as he activated another skill.

[Activating Item Skill: Sword Tsunami.]

The blade of the gold sword, Chrysos, split into tens of thousands of pieces. It should have been an undodgeable attack, but Kang-San simply raised his arms to block all of them.

“BASTARD!” Hadafu shouted. He didn’t feel like he was doing any damage, even as he thrust his sword at Kang-San. “Stop hiding in your shell like a turtle and face me like a man!”

His sword couldn’t penetrate Kang-San’s dark green tortoise shell armor covering his skin. He had heard the Tortoise Emperor’s defense was on the level of an intermediate World Ranker, but did not expect it to be so impenetrable.

I don’t see an opening! Hadafu shouted inwardly.

He tried to break the tortoise armor by attacking its grain with Mineral Force, but Kang-San defended that one spot perfectly.

“Huuu. What’s wrong? I endured Remus’s attacks for three days straight in this form. It hasn’t even been an hour yet!” Kang-San said.

“Son of a bitch... You’re stalling!”

“I’m not the one in a rush. I’ve learned not to let this sword sway me so easily.”

The Chinese characters on the Dual Dragon Swords shone brightly. It was the swords’ third Sword Poem.

Don’t make a hasty movement. Be like a mountain. Move silently and cautiously.

Kang-San said, “You’ve failed to actualize the will and wishes of your items, and are simply being swept by their skills. You should be ashamed of yourself as an artisan.”

“Bastard!” Hadafu’s face reddened in rage as someone who wasn’t Bafor—an inferior human lower in rank than him, no less—disrespecting him. He shouted, “Very well! Let’s see you try and block this as well! I will show you why I am known as the Ten Thousand Arms!”

He activated a skill he had been saving to use against Bafor.

[Activating Unique Skill: Blue Armory.]

A blue steel door manifested behind Hadafu. The door opened, and countless items he had collected until now poured out of the armory.

“HAAAH!”

The brass-colored Mineral Force burst forth from Hadafu and was connected to each item. He could control every item he was linked with; that was his unique caliber.

“I’ll tear you apart!” he screamed.

[Activating Item Skill: Deep Slash.]

[Activating Item Skill: Almighty Wave.]

[Activating Item Skill: Flame Bomb.]

[Activating Item Skill: Ice Needle.]

...

Hadafu activated the skills of tens of thousands of items. Some items flew toward Kang-San while others emitted skills made of mana. A disaster that could level the entire surroundings filled the sky.

“I’ll rip that armor out of your skin!” he shouted confidently.

“Huuu,” Kang-San breathed calmly as Chinese characters appeared on the flat part of the Dual Dragon Swords.

I swear to heaven with the sword, the mountains and rivers tremble.

One sweep, all is shattered, the mountains and rivers stained with blood.

Kang-San crossed the swords and slashed the surroundings. Blood-red rays continuously shot forth from the swords and struck Hadafu’s items. However, there were far too many. Even the pieces of items that shattered from the blood-red rays became weapons once they were connected to Hadafu’s Mineral Force.

“Ahaha! Yes, continue your pointless struggle!” Hadafu shouted.

“I’d expect nothing less from a World Ranker. I suppose I must also risk my life,” Kang-San remarked, his eyes filled with determination.

He raised the Dual Dragon Swords vertically and unleashed the fourth and fifth Sword Poems.

I still have twelve warships.

One man standing at a pass can strike fear into a thousand men.

Twelve blood-red panokseons, or Korean warships, appeared in midair, and Kang-San got on the rearmost one.

“Let’s go!” he shouted.

The warships sailed forth in a straight line toward Hadafu, the paddles moving automatically. Hadafu’s items destroyed the warships one by one from the front. Kang-San had arrived before Hadafu once the eleventh warship was destroyed.

“Nothing will change just because you’ve closed in on me!” Hadafu shouted as he tightly gripped the Chrysos and drastically enhanced its attack power and durability with Mineral Force.

He could hear the sword screaming, but ignored it.

“This is the end!” Kang-San shouted, also unleashing a new Sword Poem.

It was the sixth Sword Poem he had actualized from the Dual Dragon Swords using his unique caliber.

Those who seek death shall live. Those who seek life shall die.

The dark green tortoise armor covering his entire body and the white snake defending his back were absorbed into the Dual Dragon Swords, leaving Kang-San completely defenseless. This skill disregarded defense and poured everything into one attack.

The Dual Dragon Swords destroyed the Chrysos and severed Hadafu’s right arm, cutting the Aer Plate Armor with it.

“GAAAH!” Hadafu screamed in pain.

However, even as he fell to the ground, he mobilized his Mineral Force and fired the broken pieces of the Chrysos’s blade at Kang-San.

“Kurgh!” Kang-San grunted as he stared at the blade fragment embedded in his left shoulder. He mumbled, “You’re tenacious, I’ll give you that.”

He heard the sound of Hadafu smashing into the ground. Instead of checking Hadafu’s condition, he turned to the pillar of light.

“Huuu. Now, then...”

As he was about to drag his exhausted body toward the pillar of light, the light was suddenly extinguished.

“Huh?”

***

“W-what in the—?!” Uriel shouted, also witnessing the pillar of light disappearing.

Bafor laughed, “Gahahah! You’ve failed! You underestimated this city!” 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

“Impossible!”

Uriel trembled in shock. He had been barely holding on against Bafor, who was overpowering him despite controlling all the metal in the city while fighting him. He would have expected nothing less from an upper World Ranker. However, he did not worry since the God of Heaven would soon descend on the city.

The Divinus Iter lost its connection! The naphal was canceled!

The God of Heaven no longer had a way to reach Ferrum. Their plan had failed. Just then, an immense amount of mana and Nature Force surged from the ground. A colossal tree sprouted, and its branches spread toward Uriel, who failed to dodge them because he had been preoccupied with examining the severed connection of the Divinus Iter.

“Dammit!” he shouted as the thick branches imprisoned him.

“This skill belongs to the elves...” Bafor trailed off.

Kang-San put pressure on his bleeding left shoulder as he approached Bafor and said, “It’s probably her. I’ve heard she has been pursuing Uriel. The princess... no, I suppose I should say the former princess of Sefirot.”

The tree moved by itself to open a path for a beautiful female elf to appear before Bafor and Kang-San. Her hair, skin, and everything about her was light pink, but only her eyes blazed terrifyingly with an emerald light.

“Uriel. I sentence you in the name of Floriana, a consul of the Sēmen. You are suspected of the obliteration of Superficies, and have been caught in the act of attacking Ferrum,” Floriana declared.

“Kurgh, I can’t believe you’ve already caught up to me, elven bitch!” Uriel shouted as he slashed the branches with Iahav.

He had set up several layers of traps to outrun her, but she had already found him. New branches instantly replaced the ones that were burnt to ash after being slashed by Iahav. Floriana glared at Uriel, her frightening expression nothing like the generous one she had when with Seong-Hwi in the past.

She continued, “Uriel. I declare you guilty of disturbing the order of the Mirror World. You will be immediately sent to Justitia, where you will await the Sēmen’s official sentence.”

“Bullshit! The only one who may sentence me is the almighty God of Heaven!”

“Are you confessing that the Second Lord, Creo, was behind all this?”

“Ahaha! Orbis is not afraid of the likes of the Sēmen—”

Just then, Uriel stopped like a broken toy. His halo spun rapidly, exuding immense golden light.

[Activating Race Skill: Open Halo Channel.]

His halo channel was opened without Uriel’s will, and he became expressionless. Once he opened his mouth, he was no longer Uriel.

“It has been a while, Chesed.”

“Creo!” Floriana shouted.

He was now Creo, the one-and-only god of Orbis, the Second Lord.

***

Floriana examined Uriel with Veritas Oculus, flashing with a green light. Creo had indirectly descended using Uriel’s body. Uriel’s skin was splitting, and his white wings were burning.

“I see that Bafor and Lee Kang-San, my dependable companions of the Mirror World, are also here,” Creo remarked.

“Nonsense!” Bafor shouted but could only grit his teeth.

He did not dare to take direct action because of the immense weight held by the name of Creo, the God of Heaven.

“This is truly an unfortunate turn of events. I wished to consolidate our friendship with the dwarves,” Creo continued.

“God of Heaven, Creo! The Eighth Lord, Vipera Anguis, and the Third Lord, Regnator, have petitioned for your trial regarding the fall of the naga city, Superficies, and the murder of Lasapi, ninety-ninth in the world ranking!” Floriana shouted.

Creo answered, “I am sure you already know that is impossible. The Eighth and Third Lords simply wish to pressure me.”

“That does not change the disadvantageous position you are in. We consuls have also—”

“Ahhh, let us cease this pointless dispute. The fall of Superficies and the attack on Ferrum were carried out solely by Uriel. This child is excessively loyal to me.”

Kang-San smirked and silently mumbled, “Taken straight out of a politician’s playbook.”

However, scapegoat strategies were effective nonetheless.

Creo continued, “You may send this child to Justitia. Of course... if you’re fine with him as a corpse.”

“What?” Floriana asked as her eyes widened.

Uriel clapped his hands together before Floriana could stop him. His halo shattered, and blood poured out of his eyes, nose, mouth, and ears like a fountain.

“He killed his subordinate? An archangel, no less?” Kang-San mumbled in disbelief.

Bafor turned deathly white and shouted, “C-could that be... God’s Clap?!”

“God’s Clap?” Kang-San asked.

“It is Creo’s unique skill! I’ve seen it activated once before! A catastrophe will soon—”

Floriana interjected, “Look up!”

Bafor and Kang-San looked up.

“Ah...”

“What the...”

A colossal shadow was falling. It was a giant lump of metal, likely hundreds of millions of tonnes, bigger than Ferrum.

“The iron city... was it? I have... given you... the perfect... gift...” Uriel mumbled his final words before he collapsed.

The lump of metal, bigger than a meteor, fell toward Ferrum as it grew redder from the frictional heat.

“Ah...”

“What is... that?”

“I didn’t expect today to be my last day alive.”

Those remaining in Ferrum gave up on life as they watched the inevitable catastrophe falling from the sky.

“Floriana! Lee Kang-San! Help me!” Bafor shouted as he smashed his hammer on the ground. All the metal in Ferrum gathered to become giant pillars.

“I will also provide support!” Floriana said as she raised her arms, and the tree she had summoned grew even taller.

“I will try to break it into smaller pieces!” Kang-San said as he got on Kang-Il’s back and flew up toward the lump of metal.

Kang-Il fired pressurized water cannons powerful enough to slice even diamonds, but it was pointless. No matter how much he cut the metal meteor into smaller pieces, they would still rain down on Ferrum. Floriana’s tree also failed to act as support, continuing to burn from the intense heat. The giant metal pillars Bafor made also either broke or melted.

“Ah...”

Deathly silence dominated Ferrum. Its obliteration was inevitable. Just then, something smaller than a thumb flew up to the sky without anyone noticing it and created a miracle. The metal meteor, larger than the city, instantly vanished from the air as if it had been devoured by a monster.

Bafor, Kang-San, and Floriana could only stare in silence at the blue sky above Ferrum.

***

The Steel Rice Grain fell on Seong-Hwi’s hand and trembled, rolling on his hand as if saying it couldn’t eat any more.

“What in the world... is this thing?” Seong-Hwi wondered in disbelief.