Chapter 94 - Episode 13. Catastrophe (8)
Chapter 94: Episode 13. Catastrophe (8)
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“Fortress Lord!”
“You have done enough. Rest now.”
Jaehwan gently pressed Cayman’s shoulder as he struggled to rise. Then he swung Dokbul, blazing with flames, and drove back the blue lion before him.
The lion saw the wound on its forepaw and let out a savage roar.
Samyeong Hun spoke.
“So it was you!”
His words were laden with emotion.
Samyeong Hun looked at the human standing proudly before him. Turbid energy seeped from all over Jaehwan’s body. His energy waves were unstable, and he looked utterly wretched.
All because of a single 「Product」.
It had begun when the Cultivator of a Tower they had contracted with died. Towers occasionally collapsed when their functions were paralyzed or their Systems malfunctioned, but a Cultivator had never been killed by a 「Product」.
Yet it had actually happened.
Even then, Samyeong Hun had been optimistic.
Higher species such as demons and angels specialized in Tower cultivation, but their actual combat power was lacking. Besides, it was only one 「Product」. Even if he went on a rampage, how much damage could he possibly cause?
That careless assumption had brought tragedy to the Ninth Zone.
The Nether Ghost Envoys, prepared over decades, had been wiped out. The 《Palace of Rebirth》, which had stood for over nine hundred years, had collapsed. Every precious 「Fruit」 had been destroyed. They had lost three Warlords and more than a dozen Lieutenant Generals.
Because of a single 「Product」, the Ninth Zone had suffered damage that might take decades of investment to repair.
And that was not the end of it.
To deal with the aftermath, over a hundred Lords, including five Generals, had to come to 《Chaos》 by “dying.”
“Could that be the one?”
“How laughable. We came all this way because of one little 「Product」?”
The Fifth General, Mikata, and the Sixth General, Serim, had remained silent until then, but finally voiced their dissatisfaction.
Black Cloud Lord Mikata, said to command clouds. Dragon Leg Lord Serim, who had risen to the rank of General through kicks alone.
They were far beneath Samyeong Hun, but they had still reached the highest realm in the 《Great Realm》.
“...Did I truly have to come as well?”
Blade Wind Lord Samyeong Yuha of the Samyeong Great Family added her own complaint.
Had something like this ever happened in the 《Great Realm》 before?
Five Generals gathering because of one 「Product」?
It was beyond their understanding.
Samyeong Hun gave a bitter smile.
“I also think this may have been excessive, but it was necessary.”
They had to prepare for every possibility.
For example...
Samyeong Hun’s eyes curved into crescents as he looked at the Strange Factory behind Jaehwan.
Though that was unlikely.
Samyeong Hun continued as he looked at Jaehwan.
“Still, this should be entertaining. He may not look like much, but I hear he is an Awakened One who opened Creation.”
“Creation? Is that true?”
As if he had been waiting for the question, energy waves burst from Jaehwan’s body.
The power that had defeated Samyeong Garam. The aura of 「Hypothesis」 flowed from his body.
Creation.
The name of the dead end that humans who abandoned the System could reach.
Jaehwan plunged his hand into the split darkness, and a sword resembling pitch-blackness slowly slid out. It was Fall, the strongest weapon he could use at present.
“He has reached the stage of Materialization.”
Samyeong Hun smiled with interest. Poison King Lord Nokmyeong Chundo, who had been watching, spoke.
“He has more tricks hidden away than I expected. But that will not be enough to face us.”
Samyeong Hun agreed.
Over the last five thousand years, he had witnessed the emergence of dozens of Awakened Ones. Most had not even reached the third stage, but occasionally, peerless geniuses had achieved the fourth stage of Awakening or beyond.
Among the fourth-stage Awakened Ones Samyeong Hun had seen, Jaehwan was on the weaker side.
Rumble.
Deep darkness rippled, and Jaehwan’s Unique World appeared behind him.
A bizarre eye at the end of the sky.
Crows flying near it.
Corpses crawling everywhere.
“What kind of Worldview is that...?”
Starting with Blade Wind Lord Samyeong Yuha, the nearby Generals began commenting with interest.
“A giant eye. He must see the 「First Nightmare」 that way.”
“No. Could the eye represent 《Big Brother》?”
“I have no idea what those crows are.”
“He sees humans as corpses. I like that.”
Their questions differed, but their thoughts were exactly the same.
That man was insane.
Though they were impressed, none of the Generals feared Jaehwan’s world. No matter how unique it was, it remained a small world with no Parts, a world that possessed nothing but its Worldview.
“It seems to be a rare Worldview, but it is still far behind those Rupture bastards.”
Several conditions were needed before a world opened through Creation could properly blossom. Yet Jaehwan possessed nothing but a Worldview.
Creation was only the beginning of Awakening. Had Jaehwan lived another thousand years, things might have been different. For now, he was only a novice who had just opened his world.
Then Samyeong Hun noticed the souls of 《Chaos》 cheering.
I see. It was only because of that man.
Disappointment passed through Samyeong Hun’s eyes. For a brief moment, he had considered the incomprehensible willpower and vitality of those souls close to Sublimity. Yet all of it was rapidly fading.
Sublimity? What nonsense.
They had endured all this time by trusting someone like him?
What supported them was nothing more than futile hope for salvation. Samyeong Hun knew exactly how such hope ended, and a cruel sneer touched his lips.
Then there was only one future they would come to know.
Dokbul in Jaehwan’s right hand and Fall in his left spewed black flames as he advanced. Several Lieutenant Generals who rushed in carelessly were struck by the black fire and sent flying.
World Stab.
As the air compressed, overlapping explosions thundered out.
Explosions that tore apart the entire space, one after another.
Several Warlords who had let their guard down could not endure the blasts and walked the path of soul extinction.
The Generals only watched with bored eyes.
“It is useful, but only this much?”
A few swings of their swords shattered the shockwaves from World Stab. The authority of Generals, which neutralized all spiritual power, had been unleashed.
“May I face him?”
The first to step forward was the Fifth General, Mikata. As the weakest of the five Generals, it was only natural.
Unexpectedly, Samyeong Hun shook his head.
“No. I will face him myself.”
“Oh? You personally?”
Nokmyeong Chundo looked intrigued.
The proud Black Shadow Strategist was personally stepping forward to catch a mere bug?
Nokmyeong Chundo cackled.
“Then I will join you.”
“No. I will do it alone.”
“Tch.”
Nokmyeong Chundo took a step back under Samyeong Hun’s fierce gaze.
That old man from the Nokmyeong Great Family dares...
Among the Nokmyeong Great Family’s strange arts were techniques that controlled or bewitched souls. If he left this to that old man, the 「Product」 he had finally found might be stolen in an instant.
Samyeong Hun looked at Jaehwan and thought.
He was still far weaker than a General, but an Awakened One who had opened Creation might someday surpass them.
Considering the speed and scale of a 「Product」’s growth, perhaps he could rise even higher.
Above the Generals, the strongest among Lords, stood the supreme beings of whom only twelve existed even in the 《Great Realm》.
...A Great Lord might be a stretch, but still.
Samyeong Hun lightly deflected Jaehwan’s onrushing blade, then exploded with blue energy from within his body.
No, it was not spiritual power.
It was a denser, more powerful force at its source.
World Force.
As Jaehwan’s Unique World shrank back, the surrounding space divided into square sections.
Only Jaehwan and Samyeong Hun could enter that space. A tangible barrier enclosed the two of them.
It was what a Unique World with physical force might feel like.
I see.
Jaehwan felt that he now understood the difference between Awakening and Adaptation to some extent. Perhaps, as Samyeong Garam had said, there was only a paper-thin difference between the two.
If an Awakened One directly created a world and used that world’s power, an Adapter borrowed the power of a world that already existed, the System.
To an Adapter, a Unique World was the System itself.
“Come at me with everything you have. Though it will be little more than a childish tantrum.”
His voice seemed to reverberate through space itself.
“It will be the last tantrum you ever have.”
Seeing the power of 「Blue Madness」 leaking from Samyeong Hun’s body, Jaehwan gripped Dokbul tightly.
It was power that seemed to be the highest point a being could reach.
Stronger than any being he had ever faced.
At least, as far as existence itself was concerned.
When he overlapped Fall in his left hand with Dokbul in his right, the two swords became one. A black sword ki dozens of meters long rose from the blade.
It was power that cut the world.
Fall Sword.
Jaehwan’s sword collided head-on with the blue lion.
He took one blow, then landed one cut.
Countless specks of silver light scattered from his body. He swallowed the clot of blood boiling up from deep inside him.
The blue lion struck by the sword form writhed in pain. Its approaching forepaw was severed, and its thick mane was torn apart.
Still, Samyeong Hun’s face, far in the distance, was filled with excitement.
“Excellent! You truly are worthy of defeating Garam!”
Jaehwan could tell.
Samyeong Hun was not fighting at full strength. He could not even tell whether the man was using half of it.
The blue lion quickly regained its momentum and bit into Jaehwan’s torso. With a wet sound, sharp fangs pierced his abdomen. Jaehwan flew through the air like a kite with its string cut.
His vision spun as he vomited silver light again and again.
Samyeong Garam had been at the level of a General.
The being before him was also a General.
They should have possessed the same strength as Generals. They should have borrowed the power of the same System.
Why was the gap so great?
“You are mistaken if you think I am on Garam’s level.”
The lion’s sweeping forepaw tore a massive piece from Jaehwan’s left thigh.
Simple, destructive attacks.
Each one carried a density of power Jaehwan could barely withstand. The battle gradually turned against him.
“Did you think gaining Creation meant gaining everything?”
Samyeong Hun’s voice was steeped in mockery.
“It is only the beginning.”
Had Jaehwan ever been pushed back this badly since arriving in 《Chaos》?
Strength rapidly drained from his whole body. A chill crawled over him through the turbid energy pouring from his body. Black energy spilled from his ears, nose, and mouth.
Samyeong Hun spoke in an amused voice.
“Your soul is severely contaminated. Did you face the Sole King?”
“...”
“Seeing that he let you leave alive, Catastrophe must be past his prime.”
Beyond the transparent barrier, Jaehwan could see the expedition members.
Cheongheo and Cayman were shouting something.
“Kid, stop!”
“Fortress Lord!”
“Run!”
They had all already reached the brink of death. If he kept fighting, they would die.
Jaehwan turned toward Samyeong Hun.
The blue lion approached one step at a time. Watching the lion walk, Jaehwan recalled the exchanges from before.
Every strike was powerful and carried a fierce momentum, but none of them carried any genuine intent. From the beginning, each blow had lacked killing intent...
Jaehwan suddenly lowered the sword he had held ready.
Then he asked,
“...What do you want?”
The General before him could defeat him whenever he wished. Yet he had dragged this out for so long, which meant he wanted something.
“Good. You catch on quickly.”
A satisfied smile appeared on Samyeong Hun’s lips.
“Surrender. Enter the service of the Ninth Zone.”
“...”
“One more thing. Bring me the ‘Tower of Awakening’ you created.”
So he was after that as well.
“And if I refuse?”
“Hmm. Refuse...”
Samyeong Hun laughed as though he had never even considered the possibility.
“I wonder if you can refuse.”
With a snap, part of the space distorted sharply. The ceiling of the barrier changed, and a recording began playing.
A vast ancient palace.
It was an unfamiliar place to Jaehwan.
Since all the land around it was black, he could only assume this was the Darkness Zone he had heard about.
The recording shook unsteadily, as though filmed with a handheld camera.
Its wandering focus eventually entered the ancient palace. After passing over an unsettling floor that resembled basalt, it went deeper inside, where a row of glass display cases appeared.
...What was this?
The camera carefully captured the items inside the cases one by one.
Their forms were familiar.
Comics written in a familiar language. Books. Computers and games, and...
No way.
The recording stopped at one last place.
Something he had never expected to see was there.
A body that breathed in and out at regular intervals, repeating weak breaths. The vessel that had contained his soul throughout the twenty years he had lived on Earth.
Countless emotions passed through Jaehwan’s mind.
“Do you not miss it?”
Jaehwan felt as though his heart had dropped.
“You can still begin life anew.”
He had never expected to hear such words from a Lord.
“I will give you the position of Eighth General.”
The position of the eighth General of the Darkness Zone.
An unimaginable offer for someone who had been nothing more than a 「Product」 just months ago.
“That is not all.”
Samyeong Hun continued with a smile as he watched Jaehwan’s clouded eyes.
“I will return the time you lost.”
The recording on the ceiling changed.
Countless high-rise buildings covered in gray. People passed between those buildings, walking noisily through the streets.
Jaehwan knew where that was.
He knew it far too well.
People walked while expressionlessly looking down at their smartphones. Car horns sounded everywhere.
It was strange. He had never thought there would come a day when hearing those sounds would make him feel this way.
Planet Earth.
A small peninsula on that planet.
His hometown was there.
Footnotes:
Chapter discussion