Chapter 231 - Episode 30. Lone World (6)
Chapter 231: Episode 30. Lone World (6)
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“Gahhh!”
787th rebirth.
Jaehwan’s Dokbul pierced his heart.
Buddha thought Jaehwan would give up soon. No matter how extraordinary a god’s attack power was, he could not kill Buddha this many times. Eventually, Jaehwan’s World Force would be exhausted, and the opportunity would pass to Buddha.
Buddha believed that and waited.
.
.
1,862nd rebirth.
By now, he had died more times than he had when he received the approval of the God of Flames and the Dragon God.
Jaehwan’s combat strength was beyond anything Buddha had expected, but Buddha thought he could not have much left.
Jaehwan’s Dokbul crushed his face.
“Guh, heok!”
.
.
2,263rd rebirth.
Buddha thought.
‘This bastard is a demon.’
Feeling blades carve through his entire body, Buddha died without even a scream.
.
.
2,905th rebirth.
Buddha thought.
He was sure he had thought something, but the thought vanished.
Being reborn was slowly becoming painful. Before he could even establish his identity, death came again. Buddha began to wonder whether he had fallen into an illusion where he died endlessly.
A flying Stab took his life.
.
.
3,971st rebirth.
Buddha stopped thinking.
A moan, neither laughter nor crying, slipped from his lips.
“Kh, khuhuhuhut!”
Dokbul split his soul in half.
.
.
.
And finally, the 5,487th time...
Jaehwan looked at Buddha dangling from his hand.
He had not expected Buddha to endure this long, but even Buddha had clearly reached his limit.
“Want to do it again?”
Buddha did not answer. More precisely, he did not seem to have the presence of mind to answer.
The authority of the Eight Divine Thrones and the dignity of Rupture’s First Division Commander were nowhere to be found in Buddha’s trembling body.
There was no attachment to life in Buddha’s hollow, shadowed eyes. In a sense, that mental image was close to the perfect detachment Buddha had desired so desperately.
Jaehwan stared down at him and wondered whether Buddha, as he was now, might be able to grasp a clue about Ouroboros.
Of course, it was too late for that now.
“Were you planning to use Karavan as a hostage?”
As Jaehwan dragged Buddha along, he found Karavan’s soul, discarded by Buddha’s fleeing subordinates.
Karavan seemed to be regaining consciousness. He reached a hand toward Jaehwan, then passed out again. The marks of the desperate battle he had fought to protect his Site were clear all over his soul.
Jaehwan remotely moved the airship Destruction and carried Karavan’s soul inside. His life seemed to be in danger after losing his god, but Cheongheo was there. He would survive somehow.
It looked as though Cheongheo’s battle would soon be decided as well.
Jaehwan looked around the dust-filled battlefield, then stopped at one spot.
“How long are you going to keep watching?”
Holding Buddha by the neck, Jaehwan threw him into the dust.
Something caught Buddha’s body. It sounded like flesh striking a solid steel plate.
Then a voice spoke.
[Impressive. Truly.]
“...”
[I did not expect you to reduce our First Division Commander to this state. Oh, Buddha. You only have one set of Clothes left. Are you all right? You have not entered Nirvana already, have you?]
It was impossible to tell whether the voice was joking.
Jaehwan knew its owner well.
“Maiad.”
A gigantic body emerged from the dust.
Its armor was vivid red, as though drenched in blood.
The machine stood over ten meters tall, looking down at Jaehwan as if mocking him.
Jaehwan had seen that Gigantes before.
The Abyss’s strongest Part and one of the Ancient God’s Three Divine Artifacts.
「Deus Ex Machina」.
Jaehwan’s 「Gestalt’s Eye」 shone as if resonating with it. It seemed the Three Divine Artifacts recognized one another.
Jaehwan and Maiad looked at each other for a moment.
They were among the few beings in this world who could see 《Big Brother》.
In a sense, they acknowledged one another. That did not mean they acknowledged each other’s worlds.
Their worlds could never coexist. That was why they stood opposed now.
[You have certainly changed from before.]
Perhaps sensing Jaehwan’s presence, Maiad’s voice held an unusual note.
Jaehwan was undeniably far stronger than he had been during the Hachenold Catastrophe.
But Jaehwan was not the only one who had grown stronger.
“Same goes for you.”
Maiad gave a faint smile.
[If you have come this far, you must know everything now. There is no need for either of us to waste time on unnecessary explanations.]
“Right.”
[Then come.]
Deus Ex Machina and Jaehwan stepped forward at almost the same time.
A battle between a human and a colossal giant.
Despite the overwhelming difference in size, their World Force was so evenly matched that it was impossible to tell who held the advantage.
As Jaehwan’s 「Fall」 burst into flames, Maiad’s 「Mountain of Corpses, Sea of Blood」 swallowed the world. As Dokbul let out a fierce roar, Deus Ex Machina answered with a growl.
At last, the final battle for the fate of the 《Abyss》 had begun.
* * *
There was an expression: earth-shaking, heaven-shattering.
Karlton had heard it often enough to know it well. It probably came from the martial world, though he did not know its exact origin.
Before coming to the 《Abyss》, Karlton had used the phrase himself from time to time.
Earth-shaking, heaven-shattering.
A force that startled the heavens and shook the earth.
It was a flawless expression for the greatest feats of martial might.
That was only true before the 《Abyss》.
Once someone truly witnessed a sight that startled the heavens and shook the earth, even that expression began to feel inadequate.
‘I don’t even know what I’m supposed to call that.’
Watching the bizarre battle between a human and a Gigantes, Karlton could not look away.
The blasts that tore through the air every instant. The fierce exchanges fought to land even a single strike.
If even one of the shockwaves created by that battle brushed him, Karlton would not come away unharmed.
Every second, every moment, could bring death.
Even so, Karlton could not leave his spot. It was as though he had become a fixed doll.
「The World After the Fall」
Waves of black-blue Fall poured endlessly from Jaehwan’s Dokbul.
「Mountain of Corpses, Sea of Blood」
Waves of dark crimson bloodshed surged from Maiad’s Gigantes like a waterfall.
The two waves collided and canceled one another out, creating an endless landscape of emptiness. The air tore apart with a shriek, and pits too deep to measure opened across the ground.
The deepest of them had been created by the Stab Jaehwan had just unleashed at Maiad.
From within the pit, shaped like a massive speaker, Maiad’s calm voice emerged, amplified.
[Excellent.]
“...”
[I regret not trying to recruit you back then. Honestly, I did not expect you to become this strong.]
The enormous body of 「Deus Ex Machina」 emerged from the mound of dirt that had buried it. The way the Gigantes brushed dirt from itself did not look much different from a person.
[I know there is no point in asking you this, but...]
“Then do not.”
[I do not want to. Jaehwan, would you not join our 「Rupture」 and open a new world together?]
Perhaps Maiad found the words amusing. Without waiting for Jaehwan’s reply, Maiad let out a quiet laugh.
[Usually, this is the kind of line some demon king facing death would say.]
“You might be in that situation yourself.”
Maiad doubled over as if having heard a delightful joke.
The sight of the Gigantes clutching its stomach and laughing somehow made Jaehwan uncomfortable.
Maybe even that discomfort was part of the performance, Jaehwan thought.
“Enough with the act. Did we not agree not to waste time on unnecessary explanations?”
[That is true, but I cannot help regretting it.]
The bent waist of Deus Ex Machina slowly straightened.
As the Gigantes’s spine straightened, its horned head tilted slightly toward the sky.
The steel giant looked up at the heavens and spoke.
[Today, depending on the outcome of this battle, one of our two worlds will disappear from this world forever. Is that not a terrible thing? That is why I cannot stop talking. I truly like you, Jaehwan.]
Without a word, Jaehwan launched a Stab.
Maiad lightly turned and avoided it.
[In another sense, it is sad. You possess an Unique World so similar to mine, yet you cannot understand me at all.]
“I do not need to understand you. That is the difference between you and me.”
[What a lonely thing to say.]
Maiad was still looking toward the sky.
Jaehwan followed the gaze.
Maiad’s sky was different from his own. The star that had shone so brilliantly in Maiad’s sky was gone now.
[In this 《Abyss》, are you not the only one who can understand me? You already know what kind of future I dream of. Having reached your level, you could not fail to know. You must also have expected that your resistance would have no effect on the arrival of the new world.]
Deus Ex Machina stood with its greatsword planted in the ground, staring at the sky. It gave off an alien, sublime presence.
[Look at that sky. The sky where the arrogant being that watched over us has vanished. The old era is completely over. A new era will begin. The age of gods and Lords has come to a complete end. Now, only a little remains. In a little while, everything will change.]
Maiad’s voice held a faint tremor and barely contained excitement.
A few Awakened Ones watching the battle wiped tears from their eyes. Anyone who had dreamed of a great ideal and walked alongside Maiad would have been unable to contain their feelings.
It was not only because of the meaning of Maiad’s words.
There was something that could be called a person’s aura.
To Jaehwan, Maiad was nothing more than a slick con artist. To others, Maiad was the leader of an organization and the vanguard of a revolution.
Those who believed in Maiad’s world all looked toward the sky with the same expression. Whether that world was right or wrong, the meaning of the scene was not insignificant.
[Only a little remains now.]
Maiad’s voice sounded like a sweet temptation.
Jaehwan’s eyes deepened.
‘Only a little.’
Jaehwan came from a world where he knew the trap behind those words better than anyone.
Sometimes, a little while lasted forever. No matter how much time passed, the new era never came. The world that was supposed to arrive remained asleep forever. People always died dreaming of what would come a little later.
The System, holding that little while hostage, ruled over people’s reality and maintained its structure.
That was the foundation and organizing principle of this world.
“Stop acting.”
[Acting? What acting are you referring to?]
“Big Brother is not dead.”
[I apologize, but that being has already ceased to exist.]
“I can still see it.”
Jaehwan spoke as he looked up at his own sky.
A terrible eye was still fixed there.
Crows flew around it, and its bloodshot veins bulged ominously.
A giant pupil that was always watching him.
From the moment he first discovered that eye, 《Big Brother》 had never disappeared from his world for even an instant.
Not even when Maiad made the star fall.
Maiad smiled.
[Perhaps so. Jaehwan’s world belongs to Jaehwan, after all. But are you not the only one who believes in that world? And you already know what people call a world believed in by only one person.]
“I am not alone.”
[Soon, you will be. So let me put it precisely. In the worlds of everyone except you, 《Big Brother》 has ceased to exist.]
“...”
[Do you dislike that phrasing? Then let me put it this way.]
Maiad smiled strangely, as though Maiad truly were some great villain.
[《Big Brother》 never existed in this world to begin with.]
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