Chapter 46
Breaking the iron bars wasn't difficult.
All I had to do was wrap mana around the hammer and swing it at the iron bars.
Boom!
With a huge explosion, iron fragments scatter in all directions.
Seeing how easily it broke, even more than expected, it seems they focused more on impacts from the inside rather than the outside, as it was used to confine people.
At this rate, I should be able to smash them all in a few minutes.
Thinking I could destroy all the prisons in a short time, I looked at those inside.
"P-please save..."
"Don't come closer...!"
"Ugh."
Even though I broke the iron bars, instead of trying to escape, they backed away into corners, showing only fear.
Of course, when even those with the benevolent name of “volunteer organization” were scamming, there was no way they could trust a strange man whose name they didn't even know.
Moreover, a person who suddenly appeared and started smashing iron bars without warning.
From their perspective, it must have been quite a terrifying sight.
So, thinking it wasn't unreasonable for them to act like that, just then, Liana beside me tapped my shoulder and smiled gently.
"I'll handle this."
Then she stepped in front of me and spoke in a louder voice than usual so that everyone around could hear, "Whether we're enemies or not, this is your only chance to escape from here anyway, so why don't you run away on your own?"
To be honest, I thought Liana would say something cliché like, “We're on your side!” to them.
I laughed, thinking I didn't expect her to attempt negotiation in this way.
This is actually better.
Even if we shouted that we were on their side to the confused people, the likelihood of them believing it would be quite low.
It was probably a better judgment to make them recognize what was beneficial, even if it was a bit rough.
So, thinking it wasn't a bad judgment, I turned my gaze towards another iron bar with mana wrapped around my hammer again.
After releasing many people at once and making them escape outside, chaos descended upon the auction house.
I watched with satisfaction as the auction house's security personnel couldn't even enter, then looked back.
About 15 minutes left.
If possible, I hoped they would buy time until Siren unlocked it.
But almost everyone had escaped, and the sharp ones were trying to enter this place, so this was probably the limit of the benefit we could get from the chaos.
Thinking this was satisfactory enough, I moved towards the entrance.
They're starting to flood in.
I could see a few people approaching, pushing through the crowd outside.
Judging by how they were pushing such a large crowd with mere physical strength, they were probably not ordinary people, so I called Daisy.
"Daisy, please assist."
"Myeong!"
After patting Daisy's head as she nodded, I walked forward and scattered Daisy's fire everywhere.
The sun's fire that only burns those with ill intentions towards me.
I quickly looked around, hearing screams from all directions.
About two people are enduring it.
The fact that they remained calm even with Daisy's fire all over their bodies meant they were perfectly defending against it.
It meant that there were at least two people I had to seriously deal with.
The moment I made that judgment, I immediately pushed as much mana as possible into the hammer and took a breath to use a point explosion.
Feeling the powerful mana wave created by mixing my mana and the sun spirit's mana, I gathered it all together.
When I felt all preparations were complete, I immediately attacked the enemy who had just barely escaped the crowd.
Boom!
Thanks to Daisy's assistance and the massive mana poured into my body, the opponent couldn't react at all and was slammed into the ground.
I struck the fallen one's head once with the hammer and looked around.
Seems they've noticed.
It didn't matter much. I was able to avoid the worst-case scenario of two formidable enemies attacking me simultaneously.
So, deciding to confront them head-on, I manifested flames towards the man rushing towards me.
Daisy's characteristic intense flames blocked the opponent's path.
But the man suppressed it using mana and swung his sword at me.
It was faster than I expected, but I had enough countermeasures for this, so it wasn't much of a problem.
"Daisy."
The moment I called Daisy's name, large flames poured down on him.
He threw his body to the side to avoid it, and seeing this, I threw my hammer to temporarily block the opponent's movement.
Bang!
Then I quickly grabbed the sword that had fallen and swung it to pressure the opponent.
Although I wasn't as good with a sword as with blunt weapons, it was a weapon I occasionally used when sparring with Loraine, so I could break the opponent's flow without much difficulty.
"Y-you crazy bastard!"
The opponent's voice, clearly flustered, rang out loudly.
Watching the opponent's movements become increasingly urgent and filled with unnecessary actions, when I thought the opponent had been cornered enough, I immediately stuck Daisy's fire to the enemy's face, obscuring their vision.
Whoosh!
"Arghhhh!"
This time, unable to block the flames created by Daisy, he screamed in pain and swung his weapon around wildly.
Realizing this was his last struggle, I stepped back for a moment and grabbed my hammer.
Then, gripping the hammer tightly, I slammed it down on the opponent's head, driving him into the ground.
Boom!
The opponent was embedded in the floor, barely leaving a proper form, as if crushed.
There was probably no chance of survival, but just in case, I was performing a confirmation kill and about to return to Siren when someone approached, laughing.
"You've done something interesting!"
A man approached me with a very bright expression, pushed the fallen enemy aside with his foot, and spoke to me with a voice full of interest, "I never thought there'd be a bastard trying to raid our auction house. Haa, this is why you need to live long and see. Right? Young Master Damian?"
Judging by how the artifact Liana distributed wasn't working properly, he seemed to be a quite high-level magician.
Thinking this might be the most difficult battle I've had so far, I looked to the side.
It would be better to fight moderately and then escape.
Since this was the very center of the enemy's headquarters, even if I somehow defeated this opponent, there was an extremely high chance that new enemies would pop up, so it would be better to fight moderately and then run.
So, deciding to grab what was inside and run as soon as Siren unlocked it, I was about to rush at the enemy when suddenly, darkness engulfed everything, and hundreds of eyeballs started popping out from everywhere.
Like a scene from a horror movie, hundreds of eyeballs simultaneously look at me, emitting intense mana.
I didn't know what those eyeballs meant.
But thinking I should just burst them anyway, I smiled slightly and brought down my hammer filled with Daisy's power onto the floor.
Crack!
With a huge explosion, flames burst out everywhere, burning and bursting all visible eyeballs simultaneously.
Seeing dark red blood droplets bursting out everywhere, I briefly said, "Come out."
At those words, a loud laugh was heard from the front, and then applause followed with a light exclamation towards me.
"Wow. It's the first time I've seen someone break this in one go. Hey, what are you?"
Thinking it wasn't worth answering, I immediately swung my hammer and shot flames towards where the enemy was.
But he quickly avoided it and moved to the side, looking me up and down.
"How did a delinquent bastard who couldn't even hold a sword properly become this strong? Huh, did Loraine teach you well? Or are you a genius? Hey, say something."
Usually, there were two reasons for trying to lead a useless conversation.
To gain information or to buy time.
And considering this was the enemy's headquarters, it would be right to see that he was doing this to buy time, which was the latter.
The problem was that this guy seemed to be quite strong.
The reason for dragging out time and avoiding battle despite being strong...
The moment that thought crossed my mind, I was reminded of the “door” behind me.
Could this guy be waiting for the door to open too?
And the reason he was waiting was to steal it.
I couldn't understand why black mages would try to steal each other's items, but one thing I could be certain of was that the item inside was definitely not an ordinary item.
As that thought struck me, I resolved to somehow secure the item inside and return, strengthening my will.
Then I retreated backwards while setting fires to prevent the opponent from approaching the door.
As I quickly retreated, the black mage clicked his tongue and said to me, "You're sharper than I thought."
Thinking he couldn't leave me alone like this, he gathered massive mana and tried to attack me.
As I was looking at that mana and preparing to block it, Siren, who had been unlocking the door, spoke to me in a somewhat tired voice, "...I've unlocked it."
The moment I heard those words, I thought it would be best to just grab the item and leave.
I took Siren and Liana and immediately entered the door.
As we entered, what we saw was a strange place where dozens of locations were entangled in a chaotic mess.
Thinking we might get sucked into a strange place if we weren't careful, I tried to stay calm as much as possible and looked around.
Siren pointed ahead and said to me, "Something is hidden here."
"Can you take it out?"
"Just a moment."
Siren drew her hand vertically through the air and then pulled out something black from inside.
Wondering what it was, as its appearance was strangely familiar, I looked more closely.
I could see it was a dark black heart reminiscent of a shadow.
As I was thinking I didn't know what this was, Siren beside me showed a surprised expression and told me the identity of this thing.
"...That's the artificial sun."
The moment I heard those words, I realized that the crystallization of the artificial sun that the North had wanted so badly had come into my hands, and I momentarily wore a blank expression.