Chapter 163 - Episode 22. Climbing the Branch (5)
Chapter 163: Episode 22. Climbing the Branch (5)
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White in every direction.
The Leader stood in a white space whose end could not be seen. Overwhelmed by its sterile-room whiteness, he blinked a few times and took a deep breath.
Behind him, a door with an antique design stood slightly open. Before long, his enemy would appear through it.
The rival he had waited a very long time to see.
“Your duty is to protect that Tower.”
Chronos, master of the Fifth Site, did not want the Leader to fight.
Chronos had sent one of the Seven Heavens in his employ, along with the Clockmakers.
With that much force, they could surely kill not only a Seven Star, but anyone in the 《Abyss》 apart from the Seven Divine Thrones.
Even so, the Leader had a vague expectation that Jaehwan would appear through that door.
Like a general preparing for a final battle, the Leader slowly walked to his left. After some time, he came upon a row of glass capsules shaped like coffins. Dolls lay inside them, though none had names written on them.
They were his old Companions.
His Companions who had vanished during the 「Great Disappearance」 seven hundred years ago.
Their empty shells remained, like vaccines made from dead viruses, with only traces of their souls left behind.
[The Driver is looking at you.]
The Leader looked up into the empty air.
[The Driver asks whether you still wish to revive your Companions.]
[Did you come to mock me, Driver?]
An unpleasant laugh echoed through the air.
The Leader continued expressionlessly.
[Keep your promise properly. This is the last time.]
[The Driver says, ‘Of course. You will obtain what you desire.’]
His long-cherished wish was now before him.
He did not know whether it was possible.
Still, he could at least try.
The Leader believed that alone was enough.
[I have one question.]
[The Driver says, ‘What is it?’]
[The Commander must have met you at the end of the Tower too.]
[The Driver says, ‘He did.’]
After hesitating for a moment, the Leader asked.
[What question did he ask?]
[The Driver says, ‘It seems you still have something you wish to know.’]
The Leader fell silent.
It was not an important question. Still, it had taken him a very long time to ask it. Everyone had questions like that. For the Leader, this was one of them.
[The Driver says, ‘Would learning that change anything now? You have given up on the end.’]
[I am only curious. If you do not wish to answer, then do not.]
[The Driver says, ‘He was a man who knew that whatever path he chose, he would ultimately be unhappy. That is the fate of those who climb the Tree.’]
[What does that mean?]
The Driver did not answer.
The Driver's presence soon vanished with a light laugh. The Driver had always been like this.
He felt a vibration from his chest and rummaged through his clothes. The Cube containing the sealed Yu Seolha was trembling.
Compared to three days ago, the Cube's exterior had been badly damaged. It could not withstand Yu Seolha's World Force as Yu Seolha tried to escape it.
Yu Seolha had told him to return to the Rupture.
“Siwoon. Are you really going?”
The Leader still remembered his last conversation with the Commander.
It had been when he was still Kim Siwoon, Rupture's Second Commander, rather than Eoduksi.
“I am.”
“It seems you need a new question.”
“Think whatever you want.”
The Commander did not try to stop him.
The Leader could not read the Commander's expression. They seemed sad somehow, perhaps even a little depressed. Yet the Commander always looked sad and depressed, so perhaps that had been his own misunderstanding.
Even at that final moment, the Commander had been looking up at the sky.
“Can you still see it?”
“Yes.”
A man who had spent his entire life chasing the ideal suspended in his own sky.
A lonely man who had to live a life where he alone could see the truth of the world.
The Commander had said,
“I thought you would be able to see it with me.”
Had those words wounded him? Kim Siwoon bit his lip.
“You are insane.”
Then the Commander laughed like a truly insane person and said,
“Perhaps I am. Can a ‘truth’ seen by only one person truly be the truth?”
“……”
“You cannot touch it, feel it, or smell it. You can only know that it is floating there. How is that different from a dream or delusion? Is ‘that’ really ‘there’?”
Kim Siwoon could not answer. It was a question he did not understand.
A question he would never find an answer to.
“Go, Siwoon. Find another question.”
That was why he was now running from that question.
“I hope the question you find will be one that interests me too.”
The Leader's memories scattered across the white space, as though an illusion had warped apart.
The Leader took a light breath and spoke.
[When did you arrive?]
“Just now.”
He turned around and saw Jaehwan standing there.
As expected, Jaehwan had reached this place.
“Was that the ‘Rupture Lord’ just now?”
Jaehwan stared at the Leader's fading memories.
The silhouette blurred in an instant.
The Leader nodded.
“I see.”
Without asking anything further, Jaehwan drew Dokbul.
“Let us begin.”
[Very well.]
The final battle began.
* * *
Jaehwan had fought countless powerful enemies until now.
Excluding Catastrophe, the Ancient God he had been completely unable to resist, the strongest person he had fought was Samyeong Hun, the Second General of the Ninth Zone.
More precisely, that had been true until he fought the Leader.
Once, twice, three times.
Jaehwan's Dokbul collided with the Leader's gauntlet.
Jaehwan's 「Selflessness」 had advanced beyond comparison with when he fought Samyeong Hun.
Even so, the Leader perfectly kept up with the movements of 「Selflessness」.
Even when Jaehwan activated 「Doubt」, he could not see the Leader's weakness. Even when he used 「Understanding」, he could not grasp the core of the Leader's Setting. His Awakening abilities were being blocked one after another.
Still, Jaehwan was not anxious in the slightest.
If anything, this perilous battle was teaching him things that solitary training could not reveal.
Sword and fist collided. Whenever a shockwave erupted, Dokbul hummed.
It sounded pleased.
Both Jaehwan and the Leader knew how precious it was to meet a rival they could clash against with all their strength.
[You have improved again.]
“Is this the time to be evaluating me?”
Jaehwan's skill truly had improved even compared to three days earlier.
[Even if you searched the entire 《Abyss》, there would no longer be more than ten people capable of facing you.]
“Soon, there will be nine.”
Jaehwan pulled 「Fall」 out with his left hand. When he overlaid 「Fall」 upon Dokbul, the sword took on the form of 「Fall Sword」, cloaked in a pitch-black aura.
It was one of Jaehwan's main techniques, the one that had cut down the Metaverse Six Gods.
In response, the Leader changed his gauntlet into the shape of a spear. Ash-gray World Force coiled around the blue spear, which resembled a trident.
In the instant they gauged one another's openings, the Leader moved first.
「Gray Imugi」
The Leader's trident drew strange curves as if dancing. In an instant, World Force shaped like an imugi shot from the spearhead. Accompanied by an ash-gray current, the imugi opened its savage jaws to swallow Jaehwan.
At nearly the same time, Jaehwan immediately changed Fall Sword's form.
「Fall Sword, Third Form.」
A black dragon leaped out from the open mouth of Fall Sword.
The black dragon and gray imugi formed a vortex and surged into the air, then began tearing at one another's bodies.
Jaehwan gained the upper hand first. His black dragon roared loudly and tore open the imugi's neck.
The Leader narrowed his eyes, seemingly a little surprised. He had not expected to lose in a contest of pure World Force.
[From this point on, I will give it my all.]
The Leader's entire body seemed to be covered in a circular ash-gray veil. Then an immense concentration of World Force, unlike anything Jaehwan had seen before, formed.
As if pulled by powerful gravity, the surrounding air was being drawn toward the Leader. The ash-gray veil covering his body disappeared.
The moment an ominous alarm rang in his mind, Jaehwan instinctively raised Dokbul with both hands.
Local Sanctuary Manifestation.
Something flew toward Jaehwan. Before he could even identify what it was, a powerful impact struck him and sent him flying. Even though Dokbul was covered in the Sanctuary's power, he could not withstand the recoil.
Jaehwan slid for over a hundred meters before barely twisting his body and stopping himself. He had deflected the impact with Dokbul, yet a deep wound remained on his chest.
「Raven Armor」
It was the Setting he had received from Ethan on the Metaverse's Sixth Floor.
Had the armor not protected his chest at that critical moment, he would have suffered badly in that clash.
[I meant to kill you. Impressive.]
The Leader emerged from the gray dust, his entire body clad in an ash-gray metal suit.
Jaehwan immediately recognized what the suit was.
A Skin.
Like every other god, the Leader had brought out his own Skin.
Yet it felt different from the Skins of other gods.
Even the Skins known as Legendary Skins in some circles did not possess such a strange aura.
What could that Skin possibly be modeled after?
“That is the first of the Leader's Three Divine Artifacts.”
Andersen's voice rang out. She must have regained consciousness at some point.
“The Part, ‘Metallic Ash.’ Every Skin in the Alliance was a prototype made to strengthen that Part of his.”
‘What was it modeled after?’
“Probably one of the Three Ancient Gods.”
One of the Three Ancient Gods.
Catastrophe did not have that appearance, so the god with that appearance had to be another one.
Jaehwan suddenly recalled Deus's Apostles, who had guarded the 「Strange Factory」 in 《Chaos》.
Could that metal Skin be imitating the Setting of Deus, the god of machinery?
When Jaehwan remained still for a long time, the Leader asked,
[Will you surrender?]
Jaehwan lightly loosened his creaking shoulder. It had been only one clash, but that had been enough to make him feel the overwhelming difference between them.
The previous collision had also damaged 「Raven Armor」.
If he took the same blow once more, the battle would completely turn in the Leader's favor.
“No.”
As though he had expected that answer, the Leader lowered his stance again.
The moment the Leader's heel moved slightly, Jaehwan gave a signal.
‘Andersen.’
“Got it.”
A thunderous roar rang out amid thick dust.
The Leader shot forward like a missile, flying at Jaehwan with enough force to crush his body.
Then, moments later, the Leader realized that something within the dust was gripping his gauntlet hard enough to crush it.
Dazzling golden light flowed from within the dust.
A song could be heard from somewhere.
Long, long ago,
There lived a Naked God.
With an intense explosion of World Force came the sound of something cracking.
The Leader hurriedly pulled back his fist. Cracks had appeared in his Metallic Suit, which should have been unbreakable by anything.
Andersen's voice came from within the dust.
“Yours is just a motif, but mine inherited the power of a real Ancient God.”
The Leader murmured as if amused.
[I see. So you taught him that 「Setting」.]
A Setting that displayed invincible power against opponents wearing ‘Clothes.’
Andersen's 「Naked」 manifested a brilliant golden radiance over Jaehwan's entire body.
A battle between a god wearing the most perfect ‘Skin’ in the world, and a god who had become the most perfect ‘naked body’ in the world.
“Let us play again, Leader, just like five hundred years ago.”
With an explosive roar, the second round began.
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