Chapter 233 - Episode 30. Lone World (8)
Chapter 233: Episode 30. Lone World (8)
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Boom! Boom! Booooom!
Thousands of Jaehwans charged forward and mercilessly hammered at Gigantes’s plating. Of course, 「Deus Ex Machina」 did not budge.
The Three Divine Artifacts’ fearsome reputation was no lie.
The Part with the toughest molecular structure in the Abyss. That was the Colossus, 「Deus Ex Machina」.
Creeeak.
But no matter how formidable Deus Ex Machina was, it could not avoid attacks aimed at the Part’s joints. Jaehwan’s blades, lodged into Gigantes’s joints and the tiny gaps around the cockpit, poured immense World Force into Gigantes’s interior. On top of that came the synergy of 「Naked」, which boasted the best possible compatibility against Gigantes.
It was a combination that made the impossible possible.
Screeeech.
With its joints paralyzed, 「Deus Ex Machina」 dropped to one knee. Seizing the moment, thousands of Stabs converged at once and burrowed into the cockpit’s connection points.
A moment later, the sound of steel tearing began to ring out.
It was astonishing.
After taking concentrated blows at its joints, the cockpit of 「Deus Ex Machina」 slowly began to crack. Through the twisted cockpit, Maiad’s shocked expression became visible.
Jaehwan did not miss the opening.
Even if 「Deus Ex Machina」 took damage, it possessed the ability to rapidly restore its plating through its user’s World Force. Considering the overwhelming difference in World Force between them, a drawn-out fight favored Maiad.
So this was the only moment that mattered.
Crackcrackcrack!
While thousands of blades kept Maiad pinned down, Jaehwan finally drew the trump card he had been saving until now.
Rumble.
In an instant, darkness swept across the sky of the Eighth Site. A sinister aura swept over the land, and from somewhere came the sound of wailing specters.
In Jaehwan’s left hand was the strongest sword the 《Abyss》 could boast.
「Void Sword」
The legendary artifact that cut souls. Catastrophe’s Void Sword, the weapon of the Sole King, had finally revealed itself.
[Interesting.]
Even while staring at the Void Sword rushing toward them, Maiad showed little sign of fear.
[Go ahead.]
「Void Sword」 was, by nature, a weapon that displayed maximum efficiency against living beings.
A soul struck by the blade of 「Void Sword」 would undergo Mutation through the effect of its innate Setting, 「Time Infection」, and in the end would become a Follower of Catastrophe.
Moreover, 「Time Infection」 was a Setting whose effect intensified the greater a being’s World Force and the longer that being had lived.
In that condition, Maiad was the perfect prey for 「Void Sword」.
Craaack!
Dodging the grasp of 「Deus Ex Machina」, Jaehwan drove 「Void Sword」 through the split cockpit. At the same time, the body of 「Deus Ex Machina」 moved with startling agility and barely slipped out of the attack’s range.
But Jaehwan knew for certain.
The sensation was incredibly faint, but it was enough.
‘It definitely connected.’
The blade of 「Void Sword」 had touched Maiad inside Deus Ex Machina’s cockpit. Now 「Time Infection」 would rapidly collapse Maiad’s mind, and even if Maiad managed to withstand 「Time Infection」, a considerable portion of their World Force would still be lost.
Frozen like a statue, Deus Ex Machina stood motionless, as though proving the fight had already been decided. The attack had clearly worked.
At that moment, a question flashed through Jaehwan’s mind.
‘Why didn’t Maiad use 「Plausibility Destruction」?’
Maiad already knew that Jaehwan had made a contract with Catastrophe. In that case, just as before, Maiad could have used 「Plausibility Destruction」, the authority of Deus Ex Machina, to sever the Void Sword’s link.
But Maiad had not done that.
This was Maiad. They were not the sort of enemy who would simply forget to use it.
Whoooosh.
With a deep hiss, Deus Ex Machina’s cockpit opened wide. Inside the fully exposed cockpit sat Maiad, dark red veins bulging starkly across their body.
Cough.
Black particles spilled with Maiad’s dry cough.
Even at a glance, Maiad had clearly taken severe damage. Maiad worked their lips with effort. What came out was not the amplified voice transmitted through Deus Ex Machina, but their own unfiltered voice.
“Jaehwan, you truly are an extraordinary person. To think you obtained two of the Three Divine Artifacts... There has only been one such being in the past several thousand years.”
Maiad was smiling through a darkened face.
Maiad was dying.
“I was right not to kill you back then, Jaehwan. If it had not been for you, 「Lone World」 could never have arrived.”
Something was definitely wrong. Even driven this far into a corner, Maiad still looked relaxed.
Cough, cough. Spitting out silver light, Maiad went on speaking.
“My innate Setting has difficult activation conditions... Do you know how much trouble that caused me?”
With a bitter smile, Maiad moved Deus Ex Machina.
A moment later, a massive blade appeared in Deus Ex Machina’s grasp.
Rumble.
A sword whose hilt and blade were indistinguishable.
A blade steeped in ghostly energy.
Jaehwan’s eyes wavered. He calmly lowered his gaze and compared the sword in his own hand to the one in Maiad’s grasp.
Then he became certain.
Void Sword. That was Void Sword.
And that was not the end of it.
Jaehwan saw Maiad’s pupils inside the cockpit emit a green light as they spun violently. The shape of a coiling serpent.
‘Ouroboros’ had coiled itself within Maiad’s eyes.
* * *
Rumble!
Several Awakened Ones flinched as thunder crashed across the entirety of the 《Abyss》.
Gales of World Force were sweeping in from all directions. For Followers with low World Force, it was a wind threatening enough to be deadly. Thick storm clouds covered the sky, and the world darkened as though night had fallen.
“Seolha, give up already.”
“You first.”
Drip, drip.
Standing in the falling rain, Mirel, Rupture’s Fifth Division Commander, and Yu Seolha leveled their blades at each other. Their breaths came ragged after a fierce close-quarters clash.
The advantage had almost completely shifted to Yu Seolha.
Between Mirel, who had spent all day in the laboratory managing simulations, and Yu Seolha, who had honed her strength on the front lines of battle, there was a gap in skill that went beyond a mere difference in World Force.
‘He’s incredible.’
Yu Seolha’s lips twitched as she looked toward Runald, collapsed beyond the next block.
Originally, she had intended to deal with Mirel quickly and then take on Great Lord Varkant. But somehow, Runald had suddenly blossomed in power and taken Varkant down first.
‘He took down a Great Lord...’
Runald was at death’s door, but Yu Seolha felt that if they could somehow settle this war, they might still be able to save him.
Nameless, who was facing two Great Lords, was not in a bad situation either. However slight it was, Nameless was gradually gaining the upper hand in both attack and defense.
If Yu Seolha defeated Mirel and joined in, the direction of the battle would become even more certain.
‘We won.’
Premature optimism swelled in Yu Seolha’s chest.
She did not know what Maiad’s plan had been, but a future ruled by 「Rupture」 would no longer come.
They had won, and the tragedy would disappear.
Perhaps it was because joy had come too early. She failed to notice that the color of the rain fluttering through the air had changed.
Of course, even if she had noticed, nothing would have changed. This was never something she could have stopped in the first place.
The storm clouds were turning into blood clouds.
In the instant she thought, What is this, her entire body was dyed crimson.
Visions of corpses strewn everywhere appeared before her eyes.
As Yu Seolha blankly turned her head, she saw the back of a familiar man in front of her. The back of a man whose head had been severed. As the body slowly turned to face her, Yu Seolha remembered perfectly what that body’s name had once been.
‘What...?’
Headless Imai was speaking.
“Seolha.”
She staggered back a few steps, and then felt something touch her back. Yu Seolha hurriedly swung her chain scythe behind her, and splattered drops of blood flew up and struck her cheek.
Blood did not splatter in the 《Abyss》.
“Seolha.”
Kasim, with only his head remaining, smiled at her as tears of blood streamed from both eyes.
Yu Seolha screamed and stumbled backward. That could not be possible. At the place she retreated to lay Mirel, bleeding with all four limbs severed, and Buddha, chopped into dozens of pieces, his organs spilling out.
And then,
There was Yu Seolha herself as well, her heart pierced through.
Yu Seolha hastily shook her head and forced herself to stay conscious.
This was a vision. Even after realizing it was a vision, the scene before her did not disappear. Everything in the world was stained crimson.
The next moment, Yu Seolha sensed World Force draining out of her entire body.
“Don’t tell me this is... all of you...?”
Mirel’s face, as she stood confronting Yu Seolha, was rapidly turning pale. Watching Mirel steadily lose vitality, Yu Seolha realized she herself was likely no different.
The Awakened Ones fighting all around them began showing similar symptoms.
“Ugh, uaaaargh!”
“What? What’s wrong with you all of a sudden?”
Sirwen seemed almost excited that this had made the Awakened Ones easier to deal with, but the situation was not that simple.
Even Nameless, who had been fighting the Great Lords, was twisting in pain.
Everyone in 「Rupture」 who shared the same Worldview was losing strength.
Yu Seolha cursed and looked up at the sky.
“Damn it, don’t tell me...”
The sky was swirling as it absorbed World Force.
Feeling an overwhelming wave of dizziness crash over her, Yu Seolha finally lost consciousness.
* * *
Despite the divine feat Maiad had shown, Jaehwan did not become particularly tense. The reason was simple: unlike Jaehwan’s own, the 「Void Sword」 and 「Gestalt’s Eye」 Maiad had shown were not complete.
“So that’s your 「Setting」.”
“Yes.”
Just as Jaehwan possessed 「Fall」, he had always assumed Maiad must also have some unique Setting.
Jaehwan recalled what Nameless had once told him.
「To begin with! They did not originally possess that Setting. Maiad! Created that Setting after I parted ways with 「Rupture」. I do not know! What change of heart came over them in the meantime, but using the ‘Ouroboros’ that Buddha and I taught them, they created a completely different Setting. It may not compare to 「Gestalt’s Eye」, but at the very least it possesses power comparable to Buddha’s 「Reincarnation」.」
Now Jaehwan understood what Maiad’s Setting was.
Innate Setting, 「Truth Desecration」
Maiad’s innate Setting was the ability to replicate the Settings or Parts they had ‘experienced.’
“You are less surprised than I expected.”
“It doesn’t seem like such an impressive ability.”
“That’s right. At first glance it looks remarkable, but unfortunately, a fake is only a fake.”
That was why Jaehwan had not felt much of a crisis.
He could tell at a glance. The Settings Maiad had obtained through replication were nothing more than counterfeits, incapable of displaying even half the efficiency of the originals.
Lightly swinging 「Void Sword」, Jaehwan said,
“With power like that...”
“That’s right. With something like this, I cannot defeat you.”
Cracks had already begun spreading across Maiad’s Void Sword as it clashed against Jaehwan’s 「Void Sword」.
Dodging Jaehwan’s next Stab, Maiad continued.
“Stop. Stop swinging it, it’ll break. I didn’t create this to fight in the first place. The Three Divine Artifacts are nothing more than keys.”
“Keys?”
“That’s right, keys. Did you know? A key does not distinguish between a copy and an first.”
The fake Void Sword in Deus Ex Machina’s hand pointed toward the sky. At the same time, the fake Gestalt’s Eye embedded in Maiad’s eye began to spin.
“As long as it can open the ‘Door,’ the key’s quality or performance does not matter in the slightest.”
Five-colored light burst from the entire body of 「Deus Ex Machina」.
It was a movement Jaehwan had never seen before.
At the same time, towers began growing beneath 「Deus Ex Machina」. They were towers he had seen once before. The seven towers, including the Master’s Tower Maiad had cleared.
New towers rose up again beneath those towers, supporting them from below. As though several Masters had carved a single collaborative work, Maiad’s towers grew into one single tower and carried Maiad toward the very end of the heavens.
Something that should never have happened was happening.
Gripping Dokbul and Void Sword in both hands, Jaehwan immediately unleashed his World Force.
Sanctuary Manifestation.
「The World After the Fall」.
In response, towers began to rise beneath Jaehwan as well. 「Fortress of Regret」, created by Mulack. And 「Metaverse」, created by Neil Crash. But even the speed of those two towers rising was not enough to catch Maiad.
Jaehwan concentrated all the World Force in his body into his legs. Then, using the tower’s upward momentum as propulsion, he leaped into the empty air. The Setting of 「Raven Armor」, passed on to him by Ethan, spread out into wings.
He did not know what exactly was happening, but he would finish it in one stroke.
He had a premonition that he had to. If he missed this chance, it felt as though he would never be able to kill Maiad again.
By then, Jaehwan had already drawn close enough to be within arm’s reach, and Maiad’s lips curved into a radiant smile.
Jaehwan had seen a similar smile once before. It closely resembled the Driver’s expression as the Driver ascended toward the sky on the tenth floor of 〈Metaverse〉.
The face of someone who had witnessed a piece of the world they had yearned for more than anything.
“You will never understand how long I waited for this moment. How happy I was when I learned that you possessed the rest of the Three Divine Artifacts.”
Jaehwan felt strangely unsettled.
Maiad’s smile was fake.
Maiad’s actions were deception, and their life was a lie.
So why?
Why did the emotion in those eyes feel real?
[Ex Machina, Hidden Phase.]
[System Operation.]
A tremendous explosion blasted Jaehwan away.
As he drifted through the air with his ears ringing, Jaehwan witnessed the changed sky. Blood-red clouds filled the sky, and countless drops of blood fell from them.
That had once been someone’s Unique World.
And it was no longer a Unique World.
A world that had gone beyond one person’s delusion and finally become pure reality.
That blood-red reality shattered, tore apart, and infected every other world.
The screams of countless writhing worlds.
And a moment later, only a single world remained.
A world with no more struggle, and no more screams,
「Lone World」
High above, Deus Ex Machina had risen into the sky and was shining brilliantly as a red star.
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