Chapter 130 - Episode 19. War of the Six Gods (3)
Chapter 130: Episode 19. War of the Six Gods (3)
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“Kim Yoonhwan. Four minutes remain.”
[I am sorry, but your friend’s name does not appear in our search. They may already be registered as a Doll, or be on the waiting list to be registered as one...]
“So you have no intention of negotiating.”
[Did I not tell you that your friend’s name is not here?]
“I’ll go up and check for myself.”
A powerful aura burst from Jaehwan’s body as he gripped Dokbul again.
Justice slowly raised one hand and narrowed their eyes.
[Are you serious?]
“The top floor of the tower is where I need to go anyway.”
The top floor of the tower.
The true end of the 〈Metaverse〉, reachable only after passing through the Alliance-controlled ninth floor.
Justice spoke in warning.
[Why do you wish to go there?]
“I told you. I have business there.”
[Whether it is wealth, honor, or strength, whatever can be obtained at the top floor of the tower, we can offer you the same.]
“No, you can’t.”
[Then this conversation was pointless from the start.]
The power of 「Fall」 began to gather within Jaehwan’s Dokbul.
In the distance, the volcanic eruption was growing larger and larger.
[You have fulfilled the Clear Conditions for the ‘Task’.]
[Survive until the world’s complete ‘Destruction’.]
[Time remaining: 15 minutes.]
Justice watched the falling volcanic ash.
[Arrogant Awakened One. Do you think this is our first time dealing with an ‘Awakened One’?]
Jaehwan’s brow twitched at the unexpected words.
[Do you know what humans become most vulnerable to when they turn into gods?]
Justice’s raised left hand dropped.
Andersen sensed the danger and shouted.
“Get out of the way!”
The next moment, something fired from the great warship’s cannon.
It was no ordinary shell.
The entire world seemed to shake unevenly, and Jaehwan felt his vision collapse for an instant.
「%@#$%Jae&%^Jae&^hwan%&hwan%^&Jae%&%!@#%$%&」
「#$A%$^#^$ki#%#$%Ryu@%#@#$%Maba%^&ra%$^#^」
Overwhelming noise gnawed at his ears.
Then incomprehensible messages began pouring into them.
「Die.■■Die.■■Die.■■Die.■■Die.■■Die.」
「Naked Stab. Naked Stab. Naked Stab. Naked Stab. Naked Stab. Naked Stab. Naked Stab. Naked Stab. Naked Stab. Naked Stab.」
「Star Stream dimensional collapse Star Stream dimensional collapse Star Stream dimensional collapse Star Stream dimensional collapse Star Stream dimensional collapse Star Stream dimensional collapse」
「Justice order justice order justice order justice order justice order justice order justice order justice order justice order justice order justice order justice order justice order justice order justice order」
Countless messages flooded in at once, violently assaulting his Mentality.
Pain like his head was about to burst filled his mind.
One by one, the sounds of the world disappeared. He could only see Justice’s lips moving as they muttered something.
[How is the world of gods?]
Too many values of information clouded his judgment.
All manner of Themes in the world flowed into his mind.
「Help mehelp mehelp mehelp mehelp mehelp mehelp mehelp mehelp mehelp mehelp mehelp mehelp mehelp me」
「Killthatbastardkillthatbastardkillthatbastardkillthatbastardkillthatbastardkillthatbastardkillthatbastard」
「Don’tsave medon’tsave medon’tsave medon’tsave medon’tsave medon’tsave medon’tsave medon’tsave medon’tsave me」
Some messages were simple.
「You can do it, can’t you? You can hear me, right? Kill every one of them. Because those bastards are...」
「Don’t. I’m scared. Please, this is fine as it is. Do you know what war is? People die. Everyone here will die because of you.」
「I don’t care. Just leave me alone. Don’t get in my way.」
Others were complex.
Words filled with sorrow, joy, hatred, rage, and every other emotion rained down through the air.
Justice looked upon the scene those words created and spoke.
[The moment every ‘god’ is born, they choose their Theme.]
Some gods heard only voices of justice. Some heard only the voices of those dying.
There were gods who heard only voices related to assassination, and gods who cared about nothing except nakedness.
No god could hear every Prayer.
Gods survived in this world by choosing their Theme and closing their ears to every other Prayer.
[What about you?]
Jaehwan staggered.
He had experienced something similar once before.
It had happened when he could not control the senses of 「Doubt」 and 「Understanding」.
The disease of Awakened Ones Cheongheo had spoken of, ‘Alienation’.
[Seeing a world like a god’s does not make you a god, brat.]
Justice smiled and approached Jaehwan.
After Rupture’s second commander had turned the 〈Metaverse〉 upside down and left, the Alliance had developed a weapon specifically to deal with Awakened Ones.
The anti-Awakened One Setting weapon, 「Prayer Flood Wave」.
No Awakened One could keep their Mentality intact amid this tide of information.
Those who read, Dismantled, and Assembled the world of the 《Tree of Illusion》 to fight could not avoid hearing these ‘words.’
Yet if they closed their senses to avoid hearing the words, they could no longer properly wield the power of ‘Awakening’.
[At last, our Alliance will have an ‘Awakened One Doll’.]
The moment Justice slowly reached out, Jaehwan’s rigid body moved.
Only slightly and slowly, but it moved.
Jaehwan’s lowered head gradually lifted.
His bloodshot eyes glared at Justice.
[What?]
Startled, Justice signaled the great warship again.
A second wave of the flood crashed over Jaehwan.
「Don’t do this. You shouldn’t do this. Who are you to try something like that?」
「Don’t resist. It’s all right. The world is not that terrible. It is still a place worth living in.」
...
Within the endless stream of Prayers, Jaehwan’s arm moved very slowly.
It was clearly a movement meant to Stab at the enemy before him.
It was impossible.
Unless they were a god who had chosen a Theme, there was no way an Awakened One could resist this attack.
An Awakened One exposed to the flood of Prayers had to enter one of two states.
They would lose themselves in the flood of Prayers and collapse.
Or they would close their senses and become an ordinary human.
Jaehwan did not close his senses.
The silver flowing from his ears and nose proved it.
He was enduring.
He was hearing every voice, even those the gods themselves could not hear.
[How?]
Justice stepped back, unable to hide their shock.
Even as a high-grade god who had lived for more than two thousand years, Justice was not confident they could fully withstand such a baptism of Prayers.
A ‘god’ who could hear Themes that were not their own.
A being with a Mentality that would not collapse even within those distant 「Prayers」.
Had such a being ever existed in the 〈Metaverse〉, no, in the 《Abyss》?
[The God of Flames ‘Ignis’ cheers for ‘Jaehwan’!]
[The God of Flash ‘Rayray’ shouts not to use such cowardly methods!]
[A considerable number of ‘Anonymous Gods’ cheer for ‘Jaehwan’!]
Justice’s face twisted as they raised their left hand again.
If they dragged this out any longer, the Alliance would be the side at a disadvantage.
[It would be best to end this here.]
He was a valuable specimen.
His soul would surely have made an extraordinary Doll.
That was why, if they could not have him, it was better to destroy him thoroughly here.
[Die within the Prayers you could not turn away from.]
Leaving those final words behind, Justice leaped into the air with the Alliance members.
A vast amount of World Force gathered within the great warship floating above.
A barrage powerful enough to turn the aboveground into a wasteland in one strike was condensing.
Jaehwan looked up at the great warship’s cannon with bloodshot eyes.
His vision kept blurring, then returning.
「Please save me」
Like the other gods, he could not bear every Prayer.
Normally, he might have overcome this crisis by closing part of his senses.
But for some reason, he felt that he could not do that this time.
Jaehwan heard every Prayer.
「The world would be better off without someone like you. Die. Please die.」
「Why are you trying to do this? Why? Who are you to do this?」
「Don’t. You are a good person. You are...」
“As for me.”
Jaehwan’s hand tightened around Dokbul.
For one instant, a path appeared through the baptism of Prayers rushing toward him.
Jaehwan walked forward along that path.
“I’m not a good person.”
Unlike the other gods, Jaehwan did not know what his ‘Theme’ was.
He was neither the ‘God of Nakedness’ nor the ‘God of Stab’.
He was simply...
「“What are you?”」
A human walking through a destroyed world.
Sanctuary Manifestation.
「The World After the Fall」.
As if answering his call, a world was summoned beneath his feet.
The scenery of a destroyed world.
The tower where those he remembered had lived rose behind him.
The memories of the tower settled into the sword in his grasp.
「“Jaehwan.”」
Words heard through the countless Prayers.
「“Then what is it that you truly want to do?”」
Jaehwan looked at the sky.
A massive eye was looking down at him.
「World Stab」
Dokbul cried out.
His World Force surged in an instant and shot toward the sky.
At the same time, the great warship’s cannon beyond his Sanctuary erupted in flame.
Rumble!
An enormous collision of World Force.
But Jaehwan stood alone, while three of the Metaverse Six Gods stood on the other side.
[Rakers. Galateon.]
At Justice’s signal, the great warship’s cannon output increased severalfold.
The force of the Stab, which had advanced while destroying the enemy’s 「Setting」, began to falter and get pushed back.
Silver dripped from Jaehwan’s mouth.
He lacked World Force.
He had expended too much World Force when escaping the Cube and while fighting Rakers.
The flood of 「Prayers」 had also shaken his Mentality badly.
At this rate, he would be pushed back.
Jaehwan calmly controlled his World Force.
He could still do this.
He could face them.
Just a little more.
Just a little more.
Before he knew it, the storm of World Force had pressed right up to him.
Jaehwan unconsciously looked to the side.
An empty Worldview.
He saw his shadow standing alone against the destroyed land.
Would things have been different if he had Companions?
If Yoonhwan had been there. If Seoyul had been there. If Jay and Hiren had lived. If Cheongheo, Karlton, Sirwen, Cayman, and...
Several figures entered his wavering vision.
“Jaehwan-nim!”
Runald repeatedly used Stab toward the sky.
His World Force was weak, but it was undeniably a Stab.
That Stab mixed with Jaehwan’s World Force and pushed back the barrage.
“Gyaaaah! If we die, we die together!”
Andersen also squeezed out her tiny amount of World Force and fired the Moya Moya Crow Cannon with all her strength.
Then...
“You are certainly not someone who could be called a ‘good person.’”
Ethan stood beside Jaehwan.
“You have a terrible way with words, no respect for your elders, and you strip anywhere you please.”
Crows were gathering in the sky.
The World Force flowing from Ethan’s body was steadily growing denser.
“But I do not dislike that about you.”
Jaehwan knew Ethan was strong.
At least General-class. Perhaps even Samyeong Garam...
No. Ethan Cart, standing before him now, was clearly ‘beyond that.’
It should have been impossible.
He was a God Without a Vicegerent.
A god without Followers could never possess this much World Force.
Jaehwan asked, “Didn’t you say you lacked World Force?”
“I said I had no Followers. I never said I lacked World Force.”
Looking closely, Jaehwan saw trust flowing from Ethan’s entire body into his mouth.
All the trust he possessed was slowly converting into World Force.
“I was not planning to use this today.”
Perhaps sensing the enormous increase in World Force, Justice’s voice came from above the great warship.
[Ethan, it is useless. Do you believe you can stand against the Alliance when you already lost to us five hundred years ago?]
“Justice.”
The King of Crows looked at the sky and smiled.
“Do you know what I did during those five hundred years?”
Ethan had endured countless years living in isolation beneath the Alliance.
He gathered countless Parts, sold Products, and lived through a time without a single Follower.
Five hundred years passed that way.
Ethan glanced at Jaehwan.
“You must have been disappointed after seeing the Six Gods. I know. Watch carefully from now on.”
A Sanctuary opened, and crows cried out from somewhere.
Crows darkened the sky as they tore into the great warship.
As the great warship’s output dropped for an instant, Ethan spoke.
“This is what the true 〈Metaverse〉 Six Gods are like.”
Sanctuary Manifestation.
「Graveyard of Crows」.
It was not the Sanctuary Jaehwan had seen before.
It was so vast that he could not even estimate its breadth.
The entire sixth floor seemed to have become Ethan’s Sanctuary.
At Ethan’s gesture, an earthquake shook the entire sixth floor.
Something stirred beneath the ground, and Dolls began rising one by one.
Their number was strangely immense.
Tens, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands...
Dolls in crow masks rose without end.
[What are you doing... Ethan, what is this?!]
Justice let out a cry of shock after recognizing the Dolls’ appearances.
They had no choice but to react that way.
Every Doll there was someone they all remembered.
Hans, Christian, Marianne...
Those who had been Followers of the gods who had once stood with them.
Followers buried in this land were being reborn from history amid horrifying screams.
“You seem to have forgotten, Justice.”
One of the current Metaverse Six Gods.
Formerly third in the Metaverse rankings.
The King of Crows.
“This is the world from ‘five hundred years ago,’ where we fought.”
As long as this was ‘war,’ the crows would never lose.
Footnotes:
Chapter discussion