Chapter 166 - Episode 22. Climbing the Branch (8)
Chapter 166: Episode 22. Climbing the Branch (8)
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The enormous eye at the center of the sky looked down at the Leader.
Fighting the faint fear welling up from the depths of his heart, the Leader held that eye’s gaze for a long time.
He knew what that ‘eye’ meant.
He had already used an Awakening ability to examine Jaehwan’s Unique World. He had known there was an eye like that hanging in its sky.
Yet Jaehwan’s Unique World, manifested through Sanctuary Manifestation, felt completely different from the glimpse he had caught before.
Had he ever seen a Sanctuary this vivid?
The stench of rot and blood flowing beneath his feet clouded the Leader’s mind. His breathing suddenly sounded loud. His heart pounded, and the hairs on his skin stood on end. The sensation of this world brushing against every hair on his body made him shudder.
This world had fallen.
The loneliness of that solitary truth made the Leader stagger.
He felt a horrifying thrill at being able to sense that destruction. At the same time, he despaired at the thought that most gods besides him would never be able to share this sensation.
It was a sensation only those who had crossed a certain threshold and gained a special kind of sensitivity could experience.
This was not simply a Unique World. This world was a reality that existed before his eyes.
Yet because no one wanted to see it, it was a truth known only to a few.
[There really was another one. Someone besides the Commander.]
The Leader began to laugh like a madman. He wore the expression of someone who had found the answer to an important question in an unwanted way at some point in a long life.
Jaehwan asked, “Have you seen a similar Worldview before?”
[Not nearly this similar. The only thing they have in common is that there is something floating in the sky. Still...]
Jaehwan had never seen so many emotions stained together: deep agitation, rage, despair, and sorrow.
[It hurts a little.]
Then the Leader’s sword moved.
It was a strike that allowed neither questions nor answers. At the same time, that sword strike was both the Leader’s question and his answer.
Jaehwan met it, swinging Dokbul to block the attack.
Something had been triggered in the Leader. Ever since seeing the eye in the sky, he had slowly been losing his reason. A storm of emotion raged across the excited Leader’s vision. It almost seemed as if Jaehwan could see the Leader’s feelings.
The Leader had always been cold and rational. The mental barrier he had maintained was now on the verge of collapse.
「“Stop, Commander.”」
It was an extremely faint crack.
Jaehwan did not miss the words leaking out through it. Every time their swords clashed, his 「Doubt」 and 「Understanding」 read the Leader’s world.
He read the hopes and despair, dreams and reality of the Leader, who had once been human and lived as an Awakened One like him.
「“Not everyone can see the same world you do.”」
Someone was speaking within the Leader’s memories.
「“Then I need to make everyone see it. I have the power to do that.”」
「“That is violence. Not everyone has to see it to be happy.”」
「“But this is the truth of the world. I cannot let them turn away from the truth and live like livestock.”」
A gray-haired man was speaking.
「“The same goes for you, Siwoon.”」
The next moment, the world was dyed red.
Within that blood-red memory, Jaehwan briefly met the gray-haired man’s eyes.
Then Jaehwan understood.
The opponent the Leader was fighting was not Jaehwan. Through Jaehwan, the Leader was facing another being.
Someone who used a Worldview similar to Jaehwan’s.
A man who had glimpsed this world’s secret, just as Jaehwan had.
“You did not live to bring your Companions back.”
The Leader fired fragments of 「Metallic Ash」 and swung the 「Ash Sword」 to kill that man.
He created the Three Divine Artifacts and rose to the first seat among the Seven Stars to kill that man.
He became Chronos’s subordinate and the Leader of the Alliance to kill that man.
“You lived to take revenge on the one who killed your Companions.”
But as life often went, the Leader had failed to get his revenge.
Jaehwan could not tell whether he had failed, or whether he had never tried because he knew he would fail.
Years passed as he hesitated.
Then, at some point in his life, the Leader unexpectedly met Jaehwan.
With a roar like a scream, the Leader charged. He looked desperate, like someone pouring out every bit of rage he possessed.
The Leader was strong even without using 「Time Rewind」.
But this was Jaehwan’s Sanctuary. It was a world ruled by the god of 「The World After the Fall」, where neither yesterday nor tomorrow existed.
The Leader, thrown away by Jaehwan’s Stab, staggered back to his feet.
Rumble.
Gray energy condensed over the Leader’s sword.
「Time Rewind」 was no longer possible. This was clearly the Leader’s final strike.
The 「Ash Sword」 began to grow. One meter, two meters, three meters, four meters...
In an instant, the enlarged sword flew at Jaehwan as if it would cut down the entire area along with him.
Jaehwan did not retreat.
「Path of the Wave」
When the Stab carrying the Sanctuary’s power split the ash blade, World Force scattered through the air like snow.
Jaehwan and the Leader stood amid the gray landscape.
[I wanted to deny the truth for a long time. That was why I ran the Metaverse.]
His voice was cracking like splitting ash.
[I believed that even a world without truth could be true.]
Jaehwan understood what the Leader meant. But he also understood that Jaehwan’s understanding could not bring the Leader any comfort.
“Will you not manifest your Sanctuary?”
Dokbul pointed at the Leader’s throat.
[I do not have a Sanctuary.]
The Leader knelt on one knee and smiled.
[I lost it long ago.]
Deep regret filled his voice.
If the Leader could have manifested a Sanctuary, this battle might have gone differently. Even so, he did not seem to resent that fact at all.
[Seeing your world is still some small comfort.]
“Comfort?”
[If there are two truths about the world, one of them must be false. One day, you will face another truth. I hope the truth you see truly is the ‘truth.’]
The Leader looked relieved. He no longer had any need or reason to turn back time.
Jaehwan looked at the hourglass. Before long, all its sand would fall. Once the sand ran out, the Setting’s backlash might cost the Leader his life.
“I will release the Sanctuary.”
[What?]
“Turn back time. Then you can live even after all the sand falls.”
Jaehwan did not know why he was saying it. He only wanted to.
The drained Leader spoke. It was his real voice, carrying no World Force.
“Why...?”
“I once killed an enemy like you, then regretted it.”
Jaehwan thought of Samyeong Garam as he looked at the Leader. The General who had made him realize 「Hypothesis」 and open Creation.
Of course, the Leader was different from him. Still, Jaehwan had learned something from this man too. Because the Leader had given him three days, Jaehwan had been able to defeat him and reach a new realm of Sanctuary.
The Leader did not need to understand those feelings.
Jaehwan was trying to save him now because of nothing more than a passing whim and his own arbitrary judgment.
The Leader looked stunned and empty.
“There is no time. I will release the Sanctuary, so survive somehow.”
The Leader shook his head.
“It is pointless. I do not have enough World Force left to turn back time. And if you want to go to the next floor, you...”
That was when an ominous spark appeared.
A faint sound like distant thunder seemed to come from somewhere, followed by a wave of foreboding.
The Leader’s twitching eyes rolled white.
“Kill me! Quickly, now!”
“Jaehwan!”
Along with Andersen’s urgent voice, Jaehwan’s Dokbul moved.
The Leader’s throat was less than a handspan away. It was close enough to kill him at once.
Then why?
Why did that distance feel so far away?
Time slowed endlessly, and a strange sensation pressed down on his entire body. His chest felt tight, as if enormous darkness had swallowed him whole.
「The World After the Fall」 was breaking apart.
The Leader’s entire body was dyed in brilliant light. The hourglass’s sand rose upward again, and the Leader’s wounds were healing.
Jaehwan could not understand what was happening.
The Leader had said he had no World Force left.
Then whose power was this?
Jaehwan’s arm holding Dokbul shook violently.
The force turning time back and the force trying to move forward were fighting each other.
The Leader slowly rose, then pushed Jaehwan’s sword away with one finger.
Jaehwan spoke. Or at least, he thought he had.
Who are you?
The Leader smiled.
It was not the Leader’s expression.
A being powerful enough to shatter even Metaverse's restraints.
That being was manifesting before Jaehwan through its link with the Leader.
“My god.”
Along with Andersen’s final voice, Jaehwan lost his hearing.
The Leader’s eyes shone pure white. The being manifested beyond those eyes was looking at Jaehwan.
Instinctively, Jaehwan understood.
This was the god who had given the Leader 「Time Rewind」.
A chill ran down his neck.
For the first time since coming to the 《Abyss》, he had this thought.
The enemy before him was someone he could not face in his current state.
Crackle.
With a small spark, the Leader frowned. His own will was likely fighting back.
After a moment, a voice flowed from the Leader’s mouth.
[Eoduksi. Do you intend to break your promise with me?]
An overwhelming current of energy burst through the air.
[Kill him. Protect the Metaverse.]
The Leader’s body began to move against his will.
The overwhelming presence of someone who could freely control the first seat among the Seven Stars and paralyze the time of an entire area.
[The God of Flames ‘Ignis’ rages at the intervention of the Seven Divine Thrones!]
[The Dragon God ‘Droyan’ glares at the God of Time.]
World Force on a scale that even Jaehwan could not endure came crashing down. Enormous time crushed them as if it would dissolve everything on the Ninth Floor.
Jaehwan looked at the Companions who had come up to the Ninth Floor. Karlton was crouched down, clutching his head. Runald and Rene were vomiting silver.
Jaehwan desperately extended his shrinking Sanctuary toward the Allies.
He needed to tell them to escape.
But no voice came out.
Then, the next moment, Jaehwan felt as if something had connected inside his mind.
With a thunderous roar, everything stopped.
The world fell silent. Messages rang through his mind.
[The God of Flames ‘Ignis’ is shocked!]
[The Dragon God ‘Droyan’ is shocked!]
[The God of Mortality ‘Thanatos’ is shocked!]
[The God of Aging ‘Shiyu’ is shocked!]
······
[All gods on the channel cannot hide their shock!]
As he listened to the endless stream of messages, Jaehwan realized he was not dead. The pressure of time crushing everything around him had disappeared.
Since when had it been there?
In his left hand, Jaehwan held a strange sword instead of Dokbul.
He thought he understood what had happened.
Why had he forgotten that ‘being’ was a god too?
That it might have been watching this battle.
A few steps away, the Leader stared in this direction with eyes that looked ready to split apart. The 「Ash Sword」 in his hand looked as precarious as a lamp before the wind.
Jaehwan looked down at his left hand.
The 「Void Sword」 was there.
Whenever the blade’s reflection on the floor rippled, the world trembled as if shuddering.
The true owner of 「Void Sword」, one of the ancient Three Divine Artifacts.
Perhaps the only being in this 《Tree of Illusion》 that could oppose the Seven Divine Thrones.
He spoke through Jaehwan’s mouth.
[Get lost, Chronos.]
Footnotes:
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