Chapter 192 - Episode 25. Deus Ex Machina (7)
Chapter 192: Episode 25. Deus Ex Machina (7)
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The moment Deus Ex Machina rose to its feet, everything around it exploded into countless fragments. The Vicegerents who had fled too late and Hatchinold’s overseers, who had guarded the auction house to the end, were all crushed like bugs.
Jaehwan had faced an absurdly powerful being of the same caliber before.
The master of 《Chaos》, who had burst Lords apart like insects.
Catastrophe, the Sole King and one of the Three Ancient Gods.
The power pouring from that Gigantes rivaled Catastrophe’s.
World Force erupted from Deus Ex Machina, overturning Hatchinold’s ground as it reached Jaehwan.
Yet Jaehwan had no strength left to block the attack.
Rumble!
Then someone caught the attack in front of him.
A blond girl wrapped from head to toe in a dazzling golden torrent.
“Jaehwan.”
The instant he saw her face, he knew.
A face from memories five hundred years ago. Andersen’s longtime Vicegerent, and the reason she had climbed the 〈Metaverse〉.
“Get a grip! Are you planning to die here?”
Rachel Young. She was undoubtedly Rachel Young.
And the energy he felt from her entire body...
“Andersen?”
Andersen, who had escaped Jaehwan’s Unique World, stood there.
Andersen had regained the ability she possessed in her prime. The World Force accumulated in the 〈Metaverse〉 billowed around her.
“How did you-”
“There’s no time to explain. I don’t know either. I was suddenly thrown out of your world, and when I came to, I was in this situation.”
She was not the only one. Looking around, Jaehwan saw a flock of crows blocking the World Force shockwave Maiad had unleashed.
“You’re late, Andersen.”
It was Ethan Cart, the King of Crows.
Andersen turned to Ethan.
“So you were alive after all.”
“Of course. Did you recover Rachel’s body?”
“Probably.”
“What about Rachel’s soul?”
“Her soul hasn’t returned yet. But...”
Andersen clenched and unclenched her fist.
“She’s definitely here with me.”
“That’s enough.”
Ethan looked at Jaehwan, who was still sitting on the ground.
“There’s no time for greetings. Go. We’ll hold this place.”
Was it an illusion? Two more godlike figures seemed to appear beside the two gods walking ahead to protect him.
Andersen, Ethan Cart, Arteina, and Justice.
The heroic gods who had once challenged the final floor of the 〈Metaverse〉 were there.
Then voices called to Jaehwan from afar.
“Jaehwan-nim!”
Manri Shintong and Runald were running toward him. Pilgrim, Drake’s Vicegerent, and the mid-grade god Gale were there as well.
The people who had challenged the final floor with him in the 〈Metaverse〉 were rushing over to save him.
But Jaehwan shook his head.
You can’t come.
If you come here, you’ll all die.
He tried to say something, but no sound came out.
Only after coughing up all the silver liquid rising in his throat could Jaehwan barely stand. He saw the figure of Deus Ex Machina, with Maiad inside it. It was not a monster the gods of the 〈Metaverse〉 could stop.
“Everyone-”
Another explosion erupted.
Pain tore through Jaehwan’s entire body as he was buried beneath the ruins. Every part of him creaked. Excruciating pain surged through him, as if his freshly formed joints were being assembled again.
He heard the cries of dying gods beneath the cascading rubble.
I have to stop it.
I have to get up somehow.
Heavy stones pressed down on his entire body. He tried to move, but could not. The shock to his soul was too severe for him to move World Force easily.
“Get a grip.”
With a rumbling sound, light poured through the stone grave.
Jaehwan felt a powerful grip pull him out from beneath the rubble. Andersen was holding him. She seemed to have taken a blow to the abdomen, and silver liquid kept pouring from her exposed stomach.
“There’s still a chance. The Seven Divine Thrones have sent reinforcements.”
The Seven Divine Thrones themselves were nowhere to be seen. Deus Ex Machina’s 「Plausibility Destruction」 had likely severed their links, forcing them to flee. Those reinforcements were a rescue force sent to help the Seven Divine Thrones, who had temporarily lost their power.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Still, Maiad’s side held a far greater advantage. Every time Deus Ex Machina swung a fist, five or six Gigantes turned into scrap metal.
The group surrounding Deus Ex Machina was made entirely of Awakened Ones from the 「Rupture」.
“Find the Seven Divine Thrones hiding somewhere! They have to be around here!”
Vicegerents’ heads flew off in an instant beneath the Awakened Ones’ sword strikes.
That was when a whisper came from behind him.
“Hey, you.”
When had he approached?
Jaehwan spotted a red-haired man hiding several steps away. The man was covered in wounds as well. He had pulled his hood low over his face, apparently hiding from the Awakened Ones’ search.
“Don’t be so guarded. You know my face, right?”
Hair burning like crimson flames. An impression that was both playful and fierce.
Jaehwan realized who the man was.
“Ignis.”
“That’s my god’s name.”
“Scorching Karavan.”
Karavan beamed at Andersen’s correction.
“Right! You remember me? I look a little rough right now, but still-”
“Was your link with Ignis severed?”
Karavan’s eyes widened.
“You... do you know something?”
Instead of answering, Andersen looked toward Deus Ex Machina. As if charging energy, the World Pressure around Deus Ex Machina’s center kept rising.
Karavan gritted his teeth.
“So it was that bastard. Damn it. Ignis-nim isn’t dead, is he?”
“They are one of the Seven Divine Thrones. They would not die from something like that. But they will not recover from that state for a while. They took the shockwave head-on, so they could be like that for months.”
“Months? Who are you? How do you know that?”
Andersen briefly looked down at the light of 「Naked」 around her, then shook her head.
“There’s no time to explain in detail. You want to know how to restore the link, right?”
“Yes.”
“There’s a way to recover it more quickly. But we can’t do it here.”
As Andersen said that, she glanced toward the battlefield.
Karavan understood what that look meant.
“Help us. Then I’ll tell you how.”
Even if he had lost his god’s power, Scorching Karavan was still Ignis’s Vicegerent. If he helped them, their chances of escaping would rise sharply.
Andersen helped Jaehwan through the stone grave, but Jaehwan’s body suddenly stiffened.
“What is it?”
Jaehwan’s eyes were fixed on the battlefield. Andersen saw the same sight.
The world was completely silver.
Foam was scattered at their feet, as though a silver sea had rolled in.
Someone unfamiliar with the 《Abyss》 might have looked at the sight and said this.
Beautiful.
Jaehwan’s shoulders trembled faintly. Countless souls lay sprawled across the sea of spilled silver.
It had only taken one explosion.
Jaehwan looked at the faces of the Followers collapsed on the ground. Some were familiar. Others were not.
He tried to find Runald’s face among them.
He tried to find Manri Shintong’s face. Ethan’s. Gale’s and Pilgrim’s.
They were nowhere to be seen.
Then a song, like an auditory hallucination, drifted in from somewhere.
The Naked God crossed the final hill.
Where had all those friends gone?
Jaehwan pulled away from Andersen’s support and staggered forward. He crossed the stone graves, taking one step at a time toward the battlefield.
Andersen grabbed his shoulder.
“What are you trying to do?”
“That ‘Deus Ex Machina’ is still a Gigantes in the end.”
“What?”
Jaehwan and Andersen were no longer linked. They stood in different Sanctuaries, and Andersen could no longer hear Jaehwan’s thoughts.
Even so, she felt as though she understood what he was thinking.
Even in this state, he refused to retreat. He intended to fight that monster alone, though even the Seven Divine Thrones could not handle it.
“This time, you’ll really die.”
For an instant, Andersen saw the face of a small child in Jaehwan’s profile.
An innocent child who refused to abandon a childish dream.
A child who could keep challenging the impossible because he did not know the meaning of that word.
Something trembled deep within Andersen. It was a sensation from somewhere beyond even a god’s sensitivity. The tremor spread from the fingers touching Jaehwan’s shoulder through Andersen’s entire body.
Andersen decided to accept that feeling.
Perhaps it was all right for someone like this to exist in the world.
Golden aura rose from Jaehwan’s body as he recovered a small amount of World Force. It seemed he had converted the trust scattered across the ground into World Force and absorbed it.
Andersen spoke.
“I’m coming with you.”
Jaehwan looked at Andersen with slightly surprised eyes.
“You could die.”
“I know. That’s why I should come with you.”
Andersen smiled quietly, like an adult indulging a stubborn child. Jaehwan’s eyes wavered. It had been a very long time since a Companion had said something like that to him.
But Jaehwan did not know at that moment.
Sometimes, innocence could only be protected by someone else.
For someone to remain innocent, another person had to bear the burden beneath that innocence.
Jaehwan would only understand that fact much later. For now, all he could do was throw out a Petty remark to hide his agitation.
“Then why can you use that Setting without taking your clothes off?”
“If you train as much as I have, you can think of yourself as naked without actually stripping.”
“I see.”
“So practice more.”
Jaehwan nodded, and he and Andersen ran toward Deus Ex Machina at the same time.
Then...
The match was decided in an instant.
By the time Jaehwan came to, he was already lying on the ground without knowing what had happened. Even as the World Force exploding before his eyes blurred his consciousness, his mind struggled to understand what had just occurred.
How?
No matter how much he thought about it, he could not understand.
He had clearly been using the 「Naked」 Setting, and Maiad was inside Deus Ex Machina. 「Naked」 was a Setting that demonstrated absolute power against Gigantes.
A humming voice drifted in from afar.
[Jaehwan-ssi, you truly are a consistent person. Just as Seolha told me.]
“...”
[「Naked」 is a good Setting. Especially in an era like this, when Gigantes are everywhere. But have you ever considered why such a good Setting suddenly disappeared? Why every god who inherited that Setting met their ruin?]
A chill ran down his spine.
He should have fled then. He should have honestly admitted that it was not the right time and escaped.
But Jaehwan did not.
He could not.
The way he had lived all this time had caught his ankle again.
[With just a little thought, that Setting is very easy to break.]
His senses seemed to twist, and the Strength enhanced through 「Naked」 rapidly faded. A Gigantes fist flew toward him. With the sound of breaking bones, he rolled dozens of times across the ground.
This could not be happening. If the opponent was truly a Gigantes, this was a Setting that should never have left him at a disadvantage.
Then why?
Only then did Jaehwan see the form of the World Force surrounding him.
Understanding came even later.
Though he should have been naked, he was wrapped in rags. Fragments of memory from the 『Record of the Abyss』 stirred, and the name of a Setting crossed Jaehwan’s mind.
Manipulation-type Setting, 「Augmented Reality」.
Only then did Jaehwan understand what had happened.
[Jaehwan-ssi, if a Setting has disappeared from the 《Abyss》, does that not mean there was a reason for it?]
Maiad’s method of countering 「Naked」 was simple.
「Naked」 was a Setting that began when Jaehwan stripped. Using a manipulation-type Setting, Maiad had forcibly made Jaehwan “put on clothes.”
Fragments from the destroyed auction house pierced Jaehwan’s body. Thick dust filled the air. Silver powder kept flowing from his mouth.
Maiad’s voice was drawing closer.
[Let me ask you one last time. Do you have any intention of joining the 「Rupture」?]
“...”
[I understand.]
Jaehwan spat out the dust filling his mouth. He could not even guess how severe the damage was. His soul had been shaken to its core, and the surging World Force had vanished without leaving even a trace.
He knew Maiad was strong. He knew that after obtaining Deus Ex Machina, Maiad might have surpassed even the Seven Divine Thrones.
But after fighting Maiad himself, Jaehwan realized that it was beyond that level. He could not even begin to imagine how he could defeat Maiad before him.
“Commander. Wait a moment.”
The person who stopped the fight was a man who appeared beside Maiad.
“What’s going on? Why are you fighting that guy?”
Jaehwan knew him too.
The Formless Swordmaster, Imai Kazuki. He was the Third Division Commander of the 「Rupture」, who had helped Jaehwan alongside Yu Seolha in the 〈Metaverse〉.
[You’re late, Imai. Things simply turned out this way.]
“You’re not planning to kill him here, are you? That isn’t part of our plan.”
Imai looked back and forth between Jaehwan and Maiad, then spoke as if frustrated.
“If you kill that guy, Seolha will raise hell. Kasim, don’t just stand there watching. Say something. You’re the Fourth Division Commander, so why didn’t you stop the Commander?”
At Imai’s words, the large man nearby scratched the back of his head. He was Maiad’s subordinate, whom Jaehwan had been wary of since their first meeting.
“I’m scared of getting scolded by Seolha too, but this is for the Commander to decide.”
“But-”
[Imai. Step aside.]
At the calm yet weighty voice from the Gigantes, Imai immediately fell silent. The enormous World Force flowing from Deus Ex Machina began pressing heavily upon all of Hatchinold.
Rumble.
It was power well suited to the name 「Plausibility Destruction」.
This was the true power of the Rupture Lord, Maiad van Declan.
There was no need for Maiad to even use Deus Ex Machina’s Setting.
Jaehwan bit his lip as despair faintly crept over him.
He had not knelt even before Catastrophe, but this time, he could not remain calm.
[My time with you has been very enjoyable, Jaehwan-ssi. So I will yield you exactly one move.]
Jaehwan did not hesitate.
Only one method remained.
If he did not choose it now, even that choice would disappear.
‘Catastrophe. Lend me the Void Sword.’
Footnotes:
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