Chapter 118: Shocks Circulating
A shockwave ripples across the world. "Gojo has died." People couldn’t believe it. Gojo had been a beacon of hope for humanity, second only to the Knights of the Sanctum.
But it wasn’t a lie. Not for long.
Communication failed. Phones went dead. Internet vanished. TVs flickered out. People stared at the sky, remembering the Day of Woe—only to see the monsters return.
Same old horrors, spreading fear as before… and among them, a monstrous figure that looked disturbingly like the "Leader."
Even places that had been untouched now teemed with demons. People lost hope.
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【China — Leo Garcia——】
We barely made it from Bangkok, Thailand, all the way to China.
Normally, we’d’ve flown straight to a safe country in Europe. But with comms down and monsters possibly in the air, long-distance flights were too risky.
China was the best option we could find. There are over fifty powerful paranormal agents known as the Vermilion Bird—strong enough to handle this.
Right now, we’re heading for Chengdu, China—the headquarters of the Vermilion Bird. We landed at the airport, split into a few cars, and hit the road.
"Gojo’s dead? Feels like a nightmare..."
In this car: me, Gress, and Freyja. Freyja was the only one who’d fought the Black Knight before—her face said it all. Something was off.
"He said the Black Knight couldn’t beat Gojo, right, Freyja? I felt Gojo’s movements were slower than usual… what do you think?"
I think the Black Knight was stronger than when I fought him… but I don’t think he could beat Gojo. Something felt off.
Freyja felt it too, then—so that means—
“Gress, you did the鉴定, right? What did you get?”
“That’s… uh…”
Gress hesitated. I was about to ask what was wrong when—
“I couldn’t鉴定 it… sorry, boss.”
“Can’t鉴定!? That’s impossible!”
No way. Gress has the unique skill “Eye of Magic.” He can鉴定 anyone, anytime. Never once before had that ever failed.
“Completely invisible?”
“No… I saw the name—Hybris. Hero class. Level 99. Normal鉴定 worked fine. Just… the details wouldn’t show.”
“So only the ‘Eye of Magic’ didn’t activate?”
What the hell… no way—
“A skill that seals unique abilities…!?”
“Boss! That’s it! That explains why Gojo seemed off—he had an insane number of unique skills!”
“We don’t have any unique skills except Gress. To Gojo, that guy was like a natural enemy… we should’ve backed him up…”
“Too late for regrets, Freyja. We couldn’t keep up with those two. If anything, we’d’ve just slowed Gojo down.”
No use crying over it now. What matters is what we do next.
“Two things we’ve learned about the Black Knight, then.”
“Two? What else did we figure out besides sealing unique skills?”
“If he’s a Hero, he should have the ‘Light’s Blessing’ skill. You fought him at night. Gojo was stronger during the day—probably because of that.”
Fight the Black Knight at night. My “Light’s Blessing” won’t work then—but stopping his power is more important…...
[Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China]
The worst news hit us the moment we arrived at “Suzaku’s” headquarters.
“Another wave of monsters appearing across the world?”
“Yes—reports started flooding in, but then communications went down. We can’t confirm the details, but monster numbers have skyrocketed in multiple countries, including the UK and the U.S.”
Liu, Suzaku’s deputy commander, answered.
“UK… so the Dragon’s back again?”
“Multiple sightings. He’s appeared in large numbers.”
My face fell. So did Anna’s and Carlo’s. We’d entrusted the kids Gojo had asked us to protect to a UK government agency.
We’d assumed the Dragon population there had dropped enough to be safe.
“Sending the kids to the UK—of all places… I messed up completely…”
I clenched my fists, guilt crashing over me.
“It’s not your fault, Leo. Nobody saw this coming. I’m one of them.”
Carlo said it, but I’m the one who gave the order. The responsibility is mine—no doubt about it.
“Trying to rescue them now? Impossible. We’ll just have to trust the UK government.”
True—we can’t even get there. Just standing here, helpless, is infuriating. Worst of all, I feel terrible about Gojo.
Three days since the massacre. We, the Sanctuary Knights, have been waiting here at Suzaku’s base, day after day.
“Can’t reach them, boss. Not a chance.”
“…Yeah…”
I wanted to contact the British government, but the communication situation was getting worse—probably because of the rising mana levels.
We’d lost contact with the support member from the Sanctuary Knights in Switzerland, so we had no idea what was happening in the rest of the world.
"Are the Leaders still not back?"
"Almost everyone’s out searching… but it’s been tough, huh."
In China, monstrous creatures were flooding out in massive numbers, and casualties were piling up. The Suzaku members were putting everything they had into finding the Leader in China.
But it looked like they were struggling, just like Karlo said.
We’d received a cooperation request from the Chinese government regarding the elimination of the Leader. Even if they hadn’t asked, we were planning to work with the Leaders anyway…
"Once the Leaders find the Leader, we’ll move out too. Don’t slack off on the preparations."
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We split Suzaku into three teams, focusing our search on areas with high mana concentrations—but we still couldn’t find the Leader.
Back when Gojo was around, we’d managed to take him down.
If this Leader’s as strong as he was back then… just thinking about it makes me feel hopeless.
"Leader, maybe we should head back for now. He might not even be here."
Liu’s words weighed heavy on me. Since the second team had gone far out, we couldn’t reach them directly. If the Leader was found, we’d send word to headquarters using a summoning beast.
We decided to return to Suzaku’s main base.
As we turned to leave the search, cold rain started falling.
"Gojo… did you really die…?"
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"Boss! The Leaders are back!"
The Leader returned with dozens of Suzaku’s members. I called out to Wang as he unloaded his gear at the facility’s entrance.
“How’d it go?”
Wang shook his head.
“We searched desperately with our members, but nothing. Any word from over here?”
“Nope. Nothing’s come through from our end either.”
“Huh….”
Wang slumped, utterly drained.
“Wang… this might be a bad time, but… how many weapons and armor pieces did Salman lend to Suzaku?”
Instead of Wang, Deputy Leader Liu answered, sitting cross-legged.
“About enough for twenty people. That’s helped a lot.”
“Twenty… huh.”
“Got something in mind, Leo?”
Carlo frowned, turning to me.
“Even if we take down the Chinese Leader, that won’t fix anything. The monsters appearing worldwide? That’s definitely because of the black gem the Black Knight hung in the sky.”
“The gem Leo saw rising into the sky?”
“Yeah. If we don’t destroy that gem, this hell won’t end.”
Everyone’s faces darkened.
“We’ll have to go back to Bangkok. Face the Black Knight… and that Leader again. To do that, we need supernatural talents… and weapons for them. But…”
“Most of Salman’s confiscated gear was scrapped… we’re seriously short on numbers.”
Carlo bit his lip, frustration flashing across his face.
“Damn it, that damn Hans screwed everything up! Still causing trouble now, after all this time! If I find that bastard, I’m gonna punch him square in the face!”
Elias was unusually emotional. No surprise there—I feel exactly the same way.
As I turned to head back to the facility room, Sister Wang murmured in a tiny, worn-out voice.
“Leo… do you really think Gojo is dead? I can’t… I just can’t believe it…”
I’d never seen Wang this weak before. I want to say something hopeful… but this isn’t the time for lies.
“Wang… if Gojo were alive, would he just leave the world in this state? No. We have to accept it. Gojo’s gone.”
It’s up to us… just us…