The Returner Chapter 213

Christopher McLaren was enjoying his rare break from action to the fullest
All because of that godd*mn zombie crisis, just how many weeks did he spend repeating the hellish regime of staying awake for several days in a row or getting three hours of sleep a day at best?
Only after the situation normalised to some degree that he finally found himself with a much deserved rest, a first in many months.
"I’m going to retire soon." (Christopher McLaren)
At this rate, it was pretty much a sure thing that he’d kick the bucket before his time.
He imagined himself dying from a hail of bullets fired by an unseen assassin, or dying in his bed surrounded by his kids and grandkids while holding their hands. However, he definitely would like to avoid the fate of keeling over at his desk from overwork and passing on like that.
"Nope, that won’t do." (Christopher McLaren)
He had dedicated decades upon decades of his life to this cause already. Which meant that he deserved to retire now and spend the rest of his days in peace.
He spent a better part of fifty years as a workaholic.
His wife was treating him as a stranger now. His children addressed him as if he was a strange uncle living next door. But, once he retired and his workload decreased, it should be easy to repair the damaged relationships.
After all, Christopher McLaren was an expert when it came to manipulating human minds.
"Looks like I should hand in my resignation." (Christopher McLaren)
Mister President would be jumping up and down in a barely-concealed fury, but there was no way Christopher McLaren could continue on living this way.
Also, his sixth sense was rarely off the mark and it was busy warning him that things would only get worse in the coming days. Once he got dragged into those incidents, then forget about keeling over his desk, his end would be on top of the toilet bowl, instead!
He definitely didn’t want that.
"Hmm, did I get a bite?" (Christopher McLaren)
He was currently lounging on top of a yacht floating quietly on the Pacific Ocean, with a fishing rod dipped into the water’s surface. He slowly got up as the line began trembling for the first time in a while.
That’s right.
A man is supposed to live like this. (Christopher McLaren)
Unfortunately, his leisure time couldn’t last for long.
Rinnnggg….
Christopher McLaren’s phone suddenly began ringing.
"Mm?"
He warned his underlings never to call him unless it was a serious emergency, but these d*mn fools didn’t seem to know the definition of emergency at all.
They had been calling him up again and again ever since a while ago, which succeeded in raising his irritation level by a notch. Seriously now, how did a potential threat to the President’s life qualify as an emergency?
Wasn’t POTUS accompanied by at least a dozen top-class snipers wherever he went?
Perhaps because these punks hadn’t gone through the Cold War era espionage game, they didn’t seem to understand what real danger looked like.
Christopher McLaren answered the call angrily and began yelling at the top of his lungs.
"What the hell do you think a holiday is supposed to be?! It’s a holiday, because you’re taking a break! Stop calling me for a matter that doesn’t need my attention! God d*mn it! I should’ve sided with those trying to pass the law about not calling people after the work hours!" (Christopher McLaren)
Christopher McLaren shouted out and with a deeply dissatisfied face, he listened to what was being said on the other side of the line before asking back.
"England? What the hell? It’s happening not even our country but in England, but you dare to interrupt my one precious day of rest? Hey, you! Are you freaking stupid?! You let the English deal with the English problem, so why are you calling……" (Christopher McLaren)
It was then, Christopher McLaren’s body suddenly shuddered.
"What did you say?!" (Christopher McLaren)
– "According to our agent on site, the unknown monster in London is displaying similar traits to the creature called ‘demon king’ that showed up in the desert, sir!"
"….What bullsh*t is this?!" (Christopher McLaren)
This couldn’t be happening.
There was another existence like that?
Every ounce of firepower possessed by the great United States of America failed to even leave a scratch on that monster. Not only that, even Yi Ji-Hyuk nearly died fighting that thing.
Only thanks to the intervention of the heavens did they manage to overcome that perilous situation, but if not for that, the country called America would have ceased to exist by now.
Yet, there was another one like that?
"Video! Where is the video footage?!" (Christopher McLaren)
– "It’s impossible to film the creature, sir! That thing is destroying everything around it."
"What about London?!" (Christopher McLaren)
– "We estimate it’ll completely be destroyed in less than two hours, sir!"
"Sh*t!" (Christopher McLaren)
Christopher McLaren’s brain began spinning at a higher gear.
If that demon king b*stard laid waste to England and crossed over to the European mainland, then the scale of destruction would utterly be unprecedented.
And since the whole world was intrinsically connected, the annihilation of Europe would also signal the end of the world, too.
That thing had to be stopped.
Regardless of the cost, that possibility had to be stopped!
"Summon the elites first and foremost! We gotta support them somehow! Send a teleporter here right now, too! And also!" (Christopher McLaren)
The most important thing to do was….
"Call South Korea! Contact Mister Choi and request the NDF to lend their aid to England!" (Christopher McLaren)
Yi Ji-Hyuk. They definitely needed that guy.
– "We have contacted the Koreans already, sir! They told us that they have no method to teleport to England, and asked us to supply them with a teleporter."
"Send one, then!" (Christopher McLaren)
– "We have done that already, sir."
"Okay, fine. Don’t forget to send a teleporter to my location, too. And carry out the rest of my orders as quickly as possible. Ignore all inter-departmental procedures. I’ll take full responsibility!" (Christopher McLaren)
– "Yes, sir!"
Christopher McLaren ended the call and discarded the fishing rod in his hand before running straight into the yacht’s cockpit.
What with the end of the world coming to visit him seemingly every other day now, Christopher McLaren had no choice but to delay his planned retirement.
***
KWA-BOOM!!
Thick strands of black-coloured demonic energy rushed along the ground.
"Aaaaahk!"
This demonic energy wiggled around like a massive snake; it proceeded to wrap around an entire building before crushing it outright, while flinging vehicles getting in its path far up in the air.
"Help!!"
"What the hell is that thing?!"
There were more than one gigantic snake-like demonic energy.
Dozens upon dozens of black demonic energy spread out from the plaza located in the centre of London in all directions and blew away buildings and cars and any humans caught in their paths of destruction.
"Fire! Fire!!!!"
Tanks and APCs filling up the various streets fired their various shells into the centre of the black snakes.
Boom!!
Bang!! Ka-boom!!
Explosions rang out and loud booms reverberated around the city.
"Hmm?" (Delkaran)
Delkaran stared with some interest at the bunch of metallic objects flying at it.
The humans of Berafe also thought up of flinging metallic things to attack as well. Dwarves enjoyed deploying things called firearms, after all.
However, the demon king still found it rather interesting that these metallic things automatically exploded before reaching their targets and caused damage that way.
‘And it’s not just one or two, is it?’ (Delkaran)
Pointed metallic objects flying in besides the exploding ones seemed to cause damage by penetrating the target.
‘Humans can evolve in this manner, I see.’ (Delkaran)
The humans of this world didn’t know anything about magic; they certainly didn’t know how to use magic to improve their lives, either. Even then, it was still praiseworthy that they managed to develop such a civilisation even when saddled with rotten a handicap like that.
No, perhaps because they lacked the convenience of magic, they had no choice but to progress in this direction.
It ultimately didn’t matter which direction, though. Whether humans could use magic or not, the end result would remain the same.
No method would work on Delkaran anyway.
"Hmm?" (Delkaran)
The demon king deflected away yet another shell and raised its head.
"Hoh-oh?" (Delkaran)
Large metallic things, much larger than anything else thrown at its direction so far, were falling from the sky now.
"Oh, so that wasn’t the end, was it?" (Delkaran)
Those alone were plenty praiseworthy enough, or so Delkaran thought, but now, there were even more?
The humans of this world truly deserved to be called magicians, didn’t they? Because, it was a rather amazing feat to throw around such large masses of metal around without any Mana involved in the process.
"But, that is all." (Delkaran)
KWA-BOOOOOM!!
Concentrated bombing enveloped the centre of London.
The British government realised that there was no hope left and promptly decided to bomb the living hell out of their own capital city.
After taking into consideration the power the demon king called Delkaran had displayed in such a short period of time, they figured that the entire country would be destroyed if they hesitated because of the potential sacrifices.
This decision was a correct one. No one should criticise this line of thinking. Unfortunately, even such a decision had no effect in slowing down Delkaran’s advance by one single step.
"That stung a bit." (Delkaran)
The demon king tilted its head and leisurely walked forward.
Wouldn’t such a destructive power be on the similar level of an Arch Mage’s wide area attack spell? To think, these humans with no knowledge of Mana managed to hone their technology to reach the level of an Arch Mage.
"What an amusing world this is." (Delkaran)
In a way, this place could be several times more amusing than that of Berafe. The world alone was enough to hold Delkaran’s interest for so long, yet Yi Ji-Hyuk also lived here, too.
Indeed, what an amusing playground this place was.
However….
"I should still make an example out of their insolence." (Delkaran)
Delkaran waved its hand around and that caused the bombers returning to base high up in the sky to all explode one at the time.
Boom!! Ka-boom!!
Like fireworks going off, flames and smoke danced in the air.
***
"God d*mn it!!" (Michael Douglas)
The man in charge of Britain’s ability users, Michael Douglas, stared at the developing situation through his glasses while spitting out several choice words.
The ground force proved to be ineffective so he even resorted to a bombing raid, but all of them failed to inflict a single scratch on the monster.
One half of London had vanished already.
Buildings had all collapsed, gas pipes in various parts had burst open and continued to blow up in a chain reaction of explosions.
Never mind the overall financial cost of this destruction, it was already impossible to tally the number of the dead right now!
"What am I supposed to do about this?!" (Michael Douglas)
It was indeed pretty horrifying that a monster suddenly appeared in the middle of the capital city without a need for a Gate, but then, this monster just so happened to possess an unprecedented level of power, too. Not only that, it was unusually aggressive, to boot.
Now faced with a situation he had never encountered before, Michael Douglas couldn’t do much beside spewing out a constant stream of swear words.
"What about America? What happened to the promised American support?" (Michael Douglas)
"They said they’ll do their best to support us as soon as possible! They are waiting for an assault team to be organised and then, they’ll teleport over here immediately!"
"When will that be, then?! God d*mn it!!" (Michael Douglas)
He knew that getting angry wouldn’t solve anything. If the situation could be changed for the better by him throwing a tantrum, then he’d have thrown it dozens, hundreds of times by now, but he knew that now wasn’t the time for this.
But, what else could he do? He felt way too frustrated right now to stop.
If it was at all possible, he’d have forgottrn about dignity or whatever and start shedding tears right away.
Just how many people would have died underneath the crumpled ruins of those buildings? Just how much blood was being shed right now??
"That monster b*stard!!" (Michael Douglas)
The world had more or less stabilised after the Black Monday incident. Many lives were lost that day, but the denizens of this planet found a way to respond against these Gates in time, and now, they even found a way to accept these portals as a part of their everyday lives.
The world had regained its stability somehow, yet this…
Just what was anyone supposed to do when an irregular monster like that popped out of nowhere without warning??
"Fire!! Don’t stop firing!! Shoot with everything you got! Second team, you also starting firing, too!!" (Michael Douglas)
Boom!! Bang!!
Tanks positioned in the first defensive line and the artillery on the second poured out a barrage of shells. At the same time, bombers filled up the sky to carpet bomb their capital city.
BOOM!!
Several areas continued to blow up, and the world-famous capital city they were so proud of was being dismantled by their own hands. How could anyone imagine what they were going through right now?
"Destroy that b*stard!!!" (Michael Douglas)
The ability users waiting for Michael Douglas’s order finally began shooting out their attacks; colourful arrays of Ether shots flew in Delkaran’s direction.
BOOOOM-!!
What resulted from that was a humongous explosion.
As if a tactical nuke had gone off, a massive mushroom cloud rose up from the explosion.
It was a spectacle created by the combined might of firepower and Ether. Although, it was a sad thing to see that such a spectacle just so happened to take place in the middle of London.
"Did we do it?" (Michael Douglas)
Even if they failed to kill it, as long as they managed to inflict some sort of wound, however minor, they stood a chance.
Unfortunately, Delkaran was a demon king. And before that, it was also a demon.
Demons were existences born to mock and toy with humans.
Once the huge mushroom cloud settled down, Delkaran’s unhurt figure revealed itself on the epicentre of the explosion, its reddish tongue slowly licking its lips.
"Very good." (Delkaran)
It had never imagined that humans were capable of wielding this level of power.
Such a level of destructive power had never been witnessed from the likes of mere humans. Only the ultra-high ranking magic spells fired by an Ancient-grade Dragon could manage to leave some impact on the demon king’s body.
However, that humongous explosion did just that, inflicting Delkaran with a dull ache.
"Very, very good." (Delkaran)
Pain always accompanied the life of demons.
Experiencing both pain and pleasure at the same time, the two red eyes of Delkaran hidden beneath the darkness began gleaming dangerously now.
"It’s now time to reward you." (Delkaran)
I shall show you, you humans.
In the world where there are no monsters, no divinity, and no demons….
I shall deeply brand what the existence of a demon king is!
"Ahahahahah!!"
A loud laughter exploded out of Delkaran’s mouth, as impossibly thick branches of Mana wiggled out from the demon king’s body like snakes and spread out to all directions.
Fin.