Never Retreat

~Seogwipo City, Jeju Island~

Golden Lion Guild Leader Golden Chul swung a massive two-handed hammer at the charging merman.

"Aaah!"

With a popping sound, the merman's head disappeared. Around him, dozens of mermen were already reduced to tattered pieces of meat.

"Golden Chul!"

"Hwang Yeon-ha, you bastard!"

Golden Lion Vice Guild Leader Huang Yeon-ha, who had recently been promoted to S-class Hunter, was still calling her damned brother's name even after becoming an S-class Hunter.

"Have you heard from Team Leader Park? I heard there's a monster in Jeju City."

"They said they got into the car and drove straight away. The airport was secured without any problems."

"What is this all of a sudden?"

The Golden Lion Guild recently had a number of Hunters who were knighted in TTG Temple, so they came to Jeju Island to flex their horses, the symbol of knighthood.

After clearing a few gates to earn money for the trip, they were about to return home when something happened.

Suddenly, a large group of monsters landed on the shore of Jeju Island.

"Boss, I have a call from the governor of Jeju!"

"Put him through!"

Golden Chul grabbed his subordinate Hunter's smartphone. Then he heard a voice over the receiver.

[Is this Golden Chul?]

"Oh, yes. This is Hwang Golden Chul, Governor."

[Yes, yes--- This is Park Jong-wook, Governor of Jeju Island.]

The voice on the other end of the line was gravelly and cautious but Golden Chul knew why he was calling.

"We've put out the fire, and we're heading straight back to the airport. Our headquarters has been attacked and we need to clean it up."

[He, no------.]

There are hunters in Jeju City, but not in large numbers.

This is due to the island's limitations and the fact that hunters from Busan have been dispatched.

But now, the coast of Busan has also been attacked by marine monsters. If the Golden Lion Guild hadn't been lucky enough to visit the Jeju Island Ranch, Jeju City would have been defenseless.

This alone should be considered lucky enough, but------

[The coast guard ship has confirmed the approach of the monsters! Please protect our Jeju Island, no matter how much it costs!]

"------"

Golden Chul hesitated to answer. Normally, he would have accepted the money and helped defend Jeju Island but right now, the entire country was being attacked by monsters.

It's a far cry from the last massive gate incident.

Back then, they were able to reduce the number of monsters released in advance by attacking the gate and preventing damage to property, but now the monsters are just coming at us in droves.

The government has even declared Defcon 1 and entered a state of war, which means that monsters are not the only enemies.

"I'm sorry. Our family is crowded in Pangyo. We have to run to their defense right now."

[Well, that can't be possible...!]

The Golden Lion Guild's home base is in Pangyo. All of the guild's real assets were concentrated there.

If they couldn't protect Pangyo from the monster attack right away, the Golden Lion Guild would suffer not only human casualties, but also a huge amount of property damage.

As a guild leader, his decision was not wrong. But──

"Big brother------"

Huang Yeon-ha grabbed Golden Chul cuff. Her younger brother had received his official knighthood from the TTG Temple last month and was even knighted by King Leon himself.

"Protect the weak, do no injustice."

His cheeks still tingled from the slap. The torn, bloodied, and tattered cheeks reminded him that there was no such thing as too much.

"This is to remind you. You must value your calling and your duty above your life. Follow your honor, and all will follow."

It wasn't just him, it was his sister, and his guildmates.

"------damn."

Golden Chul raised his hammer. The stardust hammer on his shoulder was still solid after blowing up so many monsters.

"Where is the landing site?"

[Mr. Chul---!]

After Golden Chul ended the call, his subordinate asked cautiously.

"Are you okay, if Pangyo is blown away, half of our guild's wealth will be blown away."

"We'll get the money back. There are more important things than that."

People are more important, he says, but he doesn't say it out loud. He stroked his sister's hair and chuckled.

"We can't run around with our backsides to the monsters, it's embarrassing."

With Golden Chul decision, the members of the Golden Lion Guild decided to stay on Jeju Island.

Oddly enough, the money they would lose wasn't too much of a loss, for one reason...

Because they knew something more valuable than money.

* * * *

A military technology analysis company has analyzed the most important strategic objectives for South Korea in 2032.

It was commissioned by the South Korean Ministry of Defense to analyze objective metrics and apply them to wartime operations, but this year's results are quite different.

Unsurprisingly, the number one strategic marker is Yongsan, home to the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the U.S.-South Korea Alliance.

Ever since the president's residence was moved from the Blue House to Yongsan in the early 20th century, it has been a major target, and South Korea spends a significant amount of money each year to defend it, including a large number of gendarmes and hired hunter guilds.

Other strategic targets include the Jeju Naval Base and the 7th Mobile Corps, but somewhat unusually for a military target, Naju has a new strategic value.

Naju, home of TTG Temple.

Selected as a Guild site by the otherworldly survivor King Lionheart and accelerated by the display of the Epic item Georgic's Hammer, it has become a religious holy site comparable to the Papal States in the Italian peninsula and Jerusalem in Israel in less than half a year.

But it's not just a holy place of religious significance.

Thousands of Man-At-Arms are trained here every quarter, blessed crops are grown that are considered a strategic resource for South Korea, and it is the home of the Knights, who are specialists in fighting against demons.

In addition, Mokpo Coast and Yeongsan River, two major habitats inhabited by the Kikiruks, a large surviving migrant race, are nearby, and star iron, the most important strategic material, is transported every day.

Naju TTG Temple is a religious, economic, political, and military shrine that guarantees the future of South Korea.

However, not many people are worried about the security situation here. The Man-at-Arms and the Kikiruk warriors, with hundreds of knights stationed here and now numbering 20,000, were a force that surpassed the army.

But

"Assemble the battle groups! Form up!"

The mainstay of the TTG Temple Warriors were the knights. Pre-modern knights on horseback, twirling spears and chanting the name of their god.

Their superhuman strength, which surpasses that of modern war machines, is the key to turning the tide of battle.

But what if they happen to be all overseas?

"Chief Kim Jin-soo, they're coming up the Yeongsan River and they're landing. The Kikiruks are holding them off, but they're missing their main force!"

Chief Kim Jin-soo, an employee of the Hunter's Association who had followed Ha-ri to become a knight of the TTG Temple, was one of the few knights present.

He and his thirty or so other knights were fighting the monsters on horseback, but they were overwhelmed.

The only saving grace was that he had a map core, thanks to Yappy's always-on holographic mapping.

"The Yeongsan River is directly connected to Naju City! Send an additional hundred troops! All of the Kikiruk knights are on that aircraft carrier. Take five knights too!"

"Ha, but we're already sending a fourth force! If the power keeps leaking, the defenses here will be------."

As Leon and the main body of the Knights headed to Washington, TTG Temple was making good progress on the surrounding gates and dispatching troops.

In reality, the ones residing here are trainees and raiders who have returned for a rest. Even so, it is difficult to move to protect the flood of tourists.

"What about the other guilds? When will Hanbit Palace arrive?"

The only ones who can be counted on in this situation are Lord Park Yong-shin and his Hunters.

Although they were never knighted for their alleged demon worship, they are the only remaining fighting force in the TTG Temple.

"They're on their way, but they're late because they're on a business trip to Taiwan!"

"Damn it!"

Chief Kim Jin-soo thought about asking the president of the association for help, but he would probably have his hands full as well. It's a good thing he didn't call back the association's employees who were dispatched to the TTG Temple right away.

"This is ridiculous. I've never heard of a nationwide monster wave like this!"

Not only Seoul, but Incheon, Mokpo, Naju, Jeju Island--there's not a place that hasn't been attacked.

The association's estimate of monsters is at least 100,000.

And that's just the ones that have landed in South Korea, not counting the marine monsters still on the move off the coast and the ones that are dashing through the minefields along the armistice line.

'If only the troops that were sent out would return---!'

But even that is hopeless. The raiders who are attacking the gate can't hear the news from the inside.

The power vacuum in TTG Temple, which is actively attacking the gates at the civilian level, exposed the vulnerability in this way.

"Hey, Chief---! Over there!"

Seeing where his subordinate's finger was pointing, Chief Kim Jin-soo was dumbfounded.

"A gate at this time?!"

From a direction not too far from the TTG Temple, only a few thousand meters away, the distinctive flicker of a gate could be seen.

And it wasn't just Kim Jin-soo and other people at TTG Temple who saw it.

Tourists and pilgrims who came to the shrine to make a pilgrimage also saw it.

-Why, it's okay, the gate is normal, and it takes more than ten days for a dungeon break!

Kim's instincts rejected this common sense.

The North Korean army turned out in droves.

The shooting down of a chartered plane carrying TTG Temple members.

A monster wave attacking all of South Korea simultaneously.

Meanwhile, the Joint Chiefs of Staff headquarters, where the president and generals gathered, was raided by militants believed to be spies.

In the midst of all this, the monsters are rushing toward the TTG Temple as if it was a coordinated attack.

But a gate?

Is it really an ordinary gate?

-Keeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

The dungeon break happened at the same time as the gate was summoned.

The demons that poured out of it made eye contact with Kim Jin-soo.

"Fuck------"

There was only one thing he could hope for. A subordinate who wasn't here.

"Deputy Han, hurry up and save me------"

* * * *

-Kikikikik.

The army of demons that landed on the plains of Naju must have numbered over five thousand.

But Hellheart, the High Demon demon leading them, clicked his tongue at the men he had brought with him.

"Form a line. The gate is small because of the urgency of our arrival. Our forces are limited."

Their mission is one. The capture of the TTG Temple 'It'. In order to do so, many of the monsters accumulated during the last gate incident were used as bait.

Of course, the monsters that they bait will devastate the country.

"Mr. Hellheart. They're-- I don't see any Chaos ones."

"They are not suited for such a delicate invasion. Our objective is to capture the objective and leave quickly. We cannot wage war with them."

Hellheart lamented that most of the troops he had brought with him were half-demons.

The summoning of demons to the material world requires a corresponding sacrifice.

An Archdemon required hundreds of thousands of souls. The demons had suffered too much in the last Great War to expend the power of an Archdemon on a bait-and-switch operation.

For now, the Demons of Wisdom and Exploration could only scrape by with such meager forces.

"But their houses are empty. Tell the half-demons to form up and move, we can use them at a time like this."

The Demon Legion marches toward the TTG Temple. Hellheart led them through the golden field and pointed his baton at the target.

"Break their resistance! With so many civilians, it should be easy to make a hole."

There were only two thousand troops along with less than thirty knights left in the TTG Temple.

Both sides have low quality troops due to their respective circumstances, but in terms of size, the demonic side is overwhelming.

"Charge---!"

At Hellheart command, thousands of half-demon troops charged toward the defensive line set up by Chief Kim Jin-soo.

But Hellheart, who had gained wisdom and experience over the years, easily pushed back the TTG Temple.

"Ugh---! How can we stop them?"

"There are three times as many of them! They're targeting civilians, so hold your ground!"

"These damn demons---!"

Only a dozen minutes into the battle. Hellheart had dutifully taken down Chief Kim and the Man-At-Arms.

All the while, the plan to capture 'It' must be progressing successfully.

"Kkkkk, this is easier than I thought──"

"Demons!"

Hellheart smiled triumphantly as a group was approaching from the distance.

They were too poorly armed to be soldiers.

Farmers, or citizens, armed with pickaxes, shovels, and hoes. Thousands of Demera's "scarecrows," the goddess's defenders of the land, leaping bizarrely as they approached.

They seem to have risen to the occasion at the news of the village's plight, but they are useless amateurs in this battlefield of professionals.

"Huh?"

"Really?"

But there is a stirring among the half-demon legion.

They are not knights. If those were knights, Hellheart would have to worry about his own life before the line collapsed.

The reason the half-demons were astonished was because they felt that the people approaching from afar were familiar 'compatriots'.

Demons.

Demon followers, that is.

Slaves who had sold their souls and their kin to the demons.

Having failed to attain immortality, these demons are surprisingly well-connected.

It's only natural that they would interact with each other while serving the demons in their territory.

"McGrudge, I heard you were missing!"

"Isn't he dead? Why is he there?"

They had heard through the grapevine that not long ago, the Demon Archduke's estate had been attacked, burning dozens of villages and killing countless demons and the Demon Archduke himself.

It was an event that seemed too good to be true, but one that they had dismissed as the work of another realm.

And now, the truth is right in front of them.

"You fucking demons!"

Goddess Demera's farmers. Many of the first to benefit from Leon's establishment of a temple in Naju became priests of Goddess Demera.

Life and abundance. Love and mercy. Priests of the benevolent order that feeds the hungry--- The most senior of them all, Mr. Choi, called out in the name of the goddess.

"Chunsik, ask!"

The chain of command over the 'serfs' from Lionheart King -> Holy Knight -> Knight Commander -> Knight -> Priest was activated.

Thousands of serfs charge without a regard for their lives. It was a fierce charge from which not a single one could retreat.

[Holy Knight Gratas' 'How to capture giants with serfs' buffs serfs]

- 157.777% increased damage against demons.

- 101.666% increased damage against demons.