Chapter 462
Pachachang!
KWAANG!
tal clashed against tal, tearing through the air with explosive sound.
“Graaaah!”
Oh Jin-ho roared and flooded his engine with mana.
A mana engine powered by mana itself.
For soone like Oh Jin-ho, whose entire body had been replaced with machinery, a powerful mana engine was essential.
The better the engine, the greater the power it could unleash.
Among chanized Awakeners, one of the key asures of strength was how advanced one’s mana engine was.
In that sense, Oh Jin-ho was lucky.
The engine embedded in his chest was the RX-2, a masterpiece even by West Sector standards.
The RX-2 mana engine was the crowning achievent of Kim Jang-woon, a master craftsman from the West Sector. The RX-2’s defining feature was its overwhelming output.
Of course, it consud mana at a terrifying rate, but if the user could handle it, it granted monstrous strength.
Oh Jin-ho was the perfect match.
He had been born with an unusually vast amount of mana for a chanized Awakener. For him, the RX-2 mana engine was like a set of wings.
Wiiiiiing!
The engine in his chest spun furiously, generating a torrent of energy.
Kwachijijik!
The tal wolf gripped in his hand was being ripped apart from the waist up.
The beast bit down on Oh Jin-ho’s arm and thrashed wildly, but against his tal body, it did nothing.
Kwa-jik!
The tal wolf split in two with a sharp crack.
Oh Jin-ho threw the torn halves aside and searched for the next target.
While he and the large chanized Awakeners held the line, those in the rear opened fire.
They aid with precision, targeting only the tal wolves to avoid hitting their allies.
—Kyaang!
—Kreugh!
Under their precise fire, the enemy ranks began to collapse.
The chanized Awakeners showed no hesitation.
In the blink of an eye, they annihilated the pack of tal wolves and pushed forward.
Waiting ahead were more tal beasts.
The Awakeners’ faces twisted in disbelief.
“What kind of dungeon is this? Monsters made of tal?”
There was no way creatures made entirely of tal could be natural.
“Could these be golems?”
“tal golems… this place is a gold mine.”
Ordinary Awakeners would have struggled terribly here.
tal golems were nearly immune to standard magical attacks. But to chanized Awakeners, they posed no problem.
They only needed to crush them with greater force.
Sotis their chanical parts broke under the impact. Even so, it wasn’t a problem.
“chanics! Parts replacent!”
Those damaged fell back, calling for support.
The chanics rushed forward, removing shattered parts and attaching new ones.
Step by step, the chanized Awakeners advanced, replacing broken limbs as they went.
“Impressive.”
From the rear, Zeon murmured as he watched.
It was truly a remarkable battle.
A style of combat no ordinary human would dare attempt.
Only chanized Awakeners could fight this way—abandoning humanity to pursue sheer efficiency.
Before them, the tal beasts fell like autumn leaves.
“Hold on. Extracting tal.”
“Beginning analysis of the magic circle.”
The chanics rushed to the corpses of the fallen tal beasts.
They, too, were Awakeners—specialists in tal extraction and magic circle analysis.
Even in the midst of the chaos, they tore valuable tals from the carcasses and used them to reinforce the frontliners’ parts.
The chanized Awakeners guarded them fiercely, knowing that the chanics’ work ensured their own survival.
“This tal doesn’t exist on Earth. Mana conductivity exceeds double the normal rate.”
“The magic circle will take ti to decode. I’ll remove only the inscribed section.”
“I’ll fuse the extracted tal into existing parts.”
The chanics moved like clockwork.
In monts, they achieved their goals and retreated to safety.
With the rear secure, the frontliners once again threw themselves into battle.
While they fought, the chanics continually upgraded their equipnt, feeding the frontline with freshly enhanced parts.
“Magnificent.”
Zeon’s voice carried genuine admiration.
He had never seen combat like this before.
Only the chanized Awakeners of the West Sector could wage war in such a way.
Before their might, the tal beasts were obliterated.
Thanks to that, Zeon had no need to intervene. He calmly observed the temple instead.
His eyes lifted to the ceiling, to the mural etched there.
A divine being surrounded by light.
No, not just divine—a god.
Zeon read the letters hidden in the design.
“The sa script as El Harun.”
He had stayed there only a few days, but it was enough to recognize the writing.
“Graawen?”
Zeon frowned.
It was a na he had heard before.
One of Uslan’s subordinates, the dwarf Dempleton, had once said that all dwarves worshiped Graawen.
One of Kurayan’s Twelve Gods, and the god of the dwarves.
He had babbled on about how Graawen would one day descend upon the world to save them.
“So this is a temple to Graawen, the smith god?”
That would explain the tal beasts.
With Graawen’s authority, creating tal golems would be effortless.
The deeper they ventured into the temple, the stronger the tal monsters beca.
“Damn it!”
“Ugh!”
Injuries mounted.
Arms were torn off, legs crushed.
The chanics rushed to repair and replace damaged parts, but the tide was turning against them.
Even elite chanized Awakeners could not withstand such overwhelming numbers forever.
Oh Jin-ho shouted,
“Save your ammo! Switch to lee! Draw the vibration blades!”
“Yes, sir!”
Those providing covering fire holstered their weapons and drew long blades.
Jiiiiing!
The blades humd at an invisible frequency.
Forged from the pinnacle of West Sector technology, the ultrahigh-frequency vibration blades could slice through tal and beast alike as if cutting paper.
“Go!”
“Kill them!”
Every chanized Awakener, save the chanics, switched to lee and charged.
Sseok!
Swaaak!
The vibrating blades carved through their foes without resistance.
Thanks to them, the massive chanized Awakeners at the front finally had a mont to breathe.
“Huff… huff…”
Oh Jin-ho gasped for air.
Even with his entire body replaced except for his head and heart, the intensity of battle pushed his systems to their limit.
Kwachik!
While he caught his breath, a beast lunged from behind and sank its fangs into his arm.
The tal limb crumpled under its jaws, rendered useless. But there was no pain.
At tis like this, he wondered if he was still truly human.
He grabbed the beast’s head with his remaining hand.
Crunch!
Its skull caved under his brutal grip.
The headless beast collapsed at his feet.
He glanced down at his ruined arm and shouted toward the rear.
“Hey! Damn it! Any spare left-arm parts?”
“Sorry, sir! All used up!”
“Then I’ll fight one-handed!”
He tore off the broken arm and dove back into battle.
Not just him—all chanized Awakeners fought the sa way.
Broken parts could always be replaced back in Neo Seoul.
If luck favored them, they might even upgrade.
As long as they lived.
As long as they survived, everything could be repaired. That was why they did not fear damage.
Zeon’s expression hardened slightly as he watched them.
“Savages, the lot of them.”
It was ironic.
In a sense, chanized Awakeners were the most perfectly evolved humans of their era.
By rging with machines, they had drastically increased their chances of survival and maximized physical potential.
But the problem was, they no longer felt pain.
Without pain, they fought recklessly, like beasts.
After a brutal struggle, the last monster finally fell.
“Huff! Huff!”
“Ha, ha, ha!”
The chanized Awakeners stood panting, exhaustion etched across their faces.
Then it happened.
Kuuuung!
The air inside the temple trembled violently.
Sensing danger, Oh Jin-ho shouted,
“The boss is coming! Everyone prepare for battle!”
“Yes, sir!”
The chanized Awakeners scrambled into formation.
Thund, thud.
Heavy footsteps echoed through the temple.
Even without seeing it, they could feel it—sothing massive was approaching.
Tension filled every face.
Oh Jin-ho swallowed hard.
“Maybe… we’ll need his help after all.”
Even before it showed itself, the pressure was suffocating.
He had never felt such intensity before.
“It might really be an S-class beast…”
Then, from the shadows, it appeared.
A colossal humanoid figure—a golem.
Standing over ten ters tall, its broad shoulders and posture resembled a gorilla’s.
But the most shocking thing was that every inch of it was made of tal.
“Impossible…”
“A tal golem that huge? How is that even possible?”
The chanized Awakeners’ eyes trembled.
Their own bodies were machines, yet even they were nothing compared to this.
The gouges it left in the floor revealed its imnse weight.
Dozens of tons at least.
The fact that such a massive being could move at all was astonishing.
The giant tal golem looked down upon the intruders of the temple.
—This is the sanctuary of Lord Graawen. All who trespass shall be eliminated.
Its tallic voice reverberated through the hall.
Oh Jin-ho bit his lip.
“Don’t make laugh. You’re just a damn tin can.”
—Atlas, initiating combat mode.
Kuuuuuu!
The massive golem, calling itself Atlas, leapt into the air.
“Damn it!”
“Everyone, move!”
The chanized Awakeners scattered, shouting.
But one failed to react in ti.
His leg joints had been shattered. He could not move.
Despair spread across his face.
“Damn it!”
KWAANG!
Atlas’s enormous foot ca crashing down, crushing him flat.
He didn’t even have ti to scream before being obliterated.
And then sothing even more terrifying happened.
Srrrkk!
The crushed parts of the fallen Awakener began to lt and absorb into Atlas’s body.
—Analysis complete. Assimilating.
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