Chapter 165

-…It doesn’t seem like you’re in a resting mood, does it?

Even when Nadia reconnected after saying she would rest, I didn’t notice.

-By the way… Wow! Did you know that much more powerful weapons have been summoned than what Cube reported to me before? It seems like me and Shadow Library have influenced the administrator’s grade. Good. This worked out well. Starting from this moment, I, Nadia, will inherit the management and control of all weapons in the subspace storage. I was feeling bored anyway, so this opportunity to lift my mood has come.

Mumble mumble, I could hear Nadia’s voice, but it didn’t register in my head.

Only one thing remained, Nadia saying she would control the weapons. In other words, I wouldn’t need to worry about the weapons I’d <Transported> individually anymore, right? Good. That’s settled then.

My eyes pursued only the Prophet.

I gave rough orders with my mouth and cut myself off from Nadia.

“Kill them all!”

-That order is exactly to my liking.

Behind me, the waters split. Tearing through the deep sea, mythological age weapons charged forward. I didn’t need to check each one individually. I only had to kill the Prophet anyway.

Crack!

I let go of the Twin Fang Blades and gripped the divine hammer. No, did I grip it? It just felt like we’d become one.

Where did my hand end and the hammer begin? And…

“Where does your damn face end?”

The hammer in my hand stuck to that thing’s face. It flew forward.

Crash!

The entire space twisted and blocked my hammer.

The Prophet glared at the hammer embedded just a span in front of her eyes. Her transparent teeth ground together beneath her transparent skin.

“Right. You really are a dangerous bastard. If you grew just a little more, you would have become an even greater adversary than the Magic Emperor. I’m really lucky. That I can eliminate you here.”

“Is that so?”

Bang! Bang! Crash!

I was already beyond reason to be caught by such cheap provocation. Whether that thing babbled or not, my hammer never rested.

[Huuuup!]

[Thump! Thump!]

[Thump thump!]

[Sizzle!]

My entire body became a musical instrument.

Lungs made of mana breathed, a mana heart beat, ki exploded with bangs, and the Ki-blood throughout my body became taut bowstrings pulling at me. I could no longer remember technique names like <Collapse Strike> or <Bolt>. I just twisted my flesh and mana to their maximum and delivered the best attacks possible.

Ari, Gyeolli, and Inggolli. Wind, water, and fire—three elemental spirits dwelt in my hammer, explosively amplifying its destructive power.

[Time Acceleration!]

I moved like a god,

[Magic Eye!]

I saw like a god, missing not the slightest detail.

Crash!

A strange sound. Like tearing, like crushing—the space rippling between that thing and me blocked my attack. My accelerated perception quickly grasped the nature of this power. This strange spatial distortion was a trace of an Outer God intervening in the world. So this was a conflict of worlds. When the Outer God’s power forced its way in, I shattered it again with ‘my world.’

The Prophet could do nothing. Whether attack or defense, all the power that thing used was borrowed from outside the world. Before the power it borrowed could manifest, my hammer struck and shattered the gaps.

“Grrk…”

The Prophet’s hands and feet were bound, her face growing increasingly rigid, and the distance between us was now less than two steps.

Just one or two more hammer strikes and I could blow that thing’s face away!

But she suddenly relaxed the tension in her shoulders and let out a light sigh.

“Huh—Right. No matter how much our master’s power can transcend all magic and laws, it’s hard to handle raw mana attacks head-on. You’re right. Fighting an opponent who freely handles both Circle magic and Ki-blood magic like you is definitely disadvantageous for our side.”

Even though she was clearly being overwhelmed, she remained composed. Mana began surging from her entire body.

‘What? Is she planning to imitate Ki-blood magic?’

Ha! Go ahead and try.

Crack!

The hammer struck home. The last spatial distortion between us split apart. The Outer God’s power protecting her was banished from this world.

Now it’s your turn to get this embedded in your face!

“But you know.”

The Prophet grinned with her completely transparent skull.

“Even so, it’s just mana wielded by a mere human, isn’t it? Even if a pig holds a famous sword, it’s not frightening.”

Then, flash!

‘Huh?’

[Time Acceleration] and [Magic Eye]. Thanks to my perception pushed to its limits, I could see her movement. But response was impossible. Movement that transcended even time. The moment I sensed it, it had already reached me.

Crack!

My body grew heavy. My breathing stopped short.

-Wake up! It’s dangerous, wake up!

-Woo… woooo…

-I’ll erase the strange energy, hrrr.

Only after hearing the spirits’ urgent voices did I realize I’d taken a hit. My side had been torn away. Thanks to water spirit Gyeolli grabbing me at the last moment, it was limited to my side. Without her, it would have been a fatal wound with my chest blown open. But instead, Gyeolli suffered serious injuries and groaned with “woo woo” sounds.

[Time Reversal!]

I used [Time Reversal] for the second time today. My brutally torn left side rapidly regenerated.

The ultimate recovery technique, [Time Reversal]. Even though I still had three uses left, I didn’t feel at ease. Water spirit Gyeolli, who had guaranteed free movement underwater, was seriously injured, and the Prophet was targeting me even at this very moment.

‘How did she suddenly become so strong? What the hell is that insane mana control?’

The mana surrounding the Prophet moved like an eleven-dimensional Möbius strip in impossible ways. My three-dimensional eyes couldn’t understand it no matter how I looked. That side was a gambler switching cards right before my eyes, and I’d become a sucker going broke with my eyes wide open.

“Hahaha! Power should return to those worthy of it! Look here. The one moving the mana within me is my master! Even if it’s the same mana, it’s completely different from what a lowly creature like you wields, isn’t it?”

Ah… So her mana control was the Outer God’s mana control? No wonder the level was too high… For a moment, I thought it would be nice to learn that control method, but I quickly gave up. Right now, survival. Focusing on just that was already precarious.

[Spatial Leap!]

Rumble!

An explosion occurred where I’d just been standing. She’d merely thrown a punch, but 10 kilometers of seawater was blown away, revealing empty vacuum.

‘I need to move several steps ahead. To survive!’

Once she began using power like a Ki-blood magic user with the Outer God’s help, she became truly overwhelmingly strong. Reading two or three moves ahead was too slow. I needed to read at least five, seven moves ahead.

Just like this!

[Spatial Leap]

This time it wasn’t a reckless escape jump like before.

Whoosh!

Exactly one step. My body moved exactly one step to the side of her attack range. Her swung fist only pushed seawater away again.

Boom!

But the indirect impact from her strike was equivalent to high Circle magic anyway. I had no choice but to grit my teeth and endure. My all-weather coat with [Toughness] effects tore, and bone-numbing shock crashed over me, but I held my ground without being pushed back to the end. With Ari’s wind barrier and the mana skin I’d created by reaching 5-star Ki-blood, I had to withstand this level of indirect impact.

Thanks to that, my turn came.

‘A thing like the Prophet. I can read ten moves ahead.’

Of course, [Simulation] didn’t work on her. But I’d accumulated truly sickening amounts of combat experience in [Simulation] until now. The Outer God might have helped with mana control, but ultimately the one moving the body was the Prophet herself. My overwhelming experience saw right through her moves.

“What, what?”

Toward the flustered thing, I gripped the large, heavy divine hammer with both hands and swung it with all my strength. I didn’t push through. At the last moment, I cut through like throwing the hammer away.

Crack!

The hammer struck her side. She couldn’t even be pushed backward. The impact I’d cut through at the end drove all the shock into her interior.

“Grraaah…”

I struck another blow with the hammer to her jaw, which had dropped to chest level.

Crack!

But… this one was shallow.

“Grrk…”

Suddenly my side felt like it would tear apart, and I couldn’t maintain proper balance.

‘I used [Time Reversal], didn’t I?’

My side, which should have been regenerated, was gushing blood again.

-The power remains in your side, hrrr… I’m working hard to burn it away, but there’s not enough time, hrrrr…

Fire spirit Inggolli explained the situation. Even though I’d used [Time Reversal] to heal, the Outer God’s energy soaked into my side hadn’t disappeared?

‘How persistent.’

Well, if it’s divine power, transcending time would be natural, wouldn’t it?

[Time Reversal]

I had no choice but to recover my side once more. Now I had two [Time Reversal] uses left. But I couldn’t use them carelessly in case my side wound acted up again. From now on, taking even one hit would be dangerous.

But… so what?

I charged at her again.

Dodge and strike, strike again, dodge.

Even knowing that a single hit would be irreversible, I never gave ground. While continuously using [Spatial Leap], I never retreated. One step, two steps, half a step closer—jumping short distances, I clung to her persistently. I absolutely wouldn’t let her go.

Gradually… no thoughts came to mind.

Even though bloody battles raged all around between the Outer God’s army the Prophet had summoned and Pathfinder, I couldn’t see any of it.

At first it was anger toward the Prophet, but now only pure immersion remained.

Was I this strong?

Even without [Simulation], could I accomplish this much?

Gasp! Gasp!

My breathing reached my chin and my entire body felt heavy as if it would fall apart, yet… I was happy.

Boom! Bang!

The Prophet’s punches and kicks that didn’t even reach me, their shockwaves alone churned my insides as if my organs would burst, yet… even that pain tasted so delicious.

Dodge, avoid, swing the hammer. Clang! Crack! Bang! I felt like a blacksmith crafting a masterpiece called combat.

Just as I couldn’t take my eyes off the Prophet, the Prophet couldn’t take her eyes off me either.

We forgot everything else. We became absorbed in each other.

To kill without fail.

* * *

“…What am I even watching?”

Doom Knight Zeros doubted his own eyes.

Nine Dragons.

Nine beings counted as the strongest of the Tower of Covenant. Specifically divided into 4 Emperors, 2 Demons, and 3 Sages, Zeros was counted among the 2 Demons.

A Demon Lord acknowledged by all. He had slaughtered countless wizards until now and was confident he could kill even a Magic Emperor with sufficient preparation, but… seeing the battle unfolding before his eyes somehow made him feel like he should step back a notch.

“Can a mage fight like that?”

He couldn’t see them.

The bizarre jellyfish-like monsters casually blocking high-level magic.

The 4-meter steel giants flying around hunting the jellyfish monsters. The fact that the weapons those steel giants used were ancient relics from the same lineage as the knight orders’ armaments. None of this important information entered his eyes.

What caught his eye was just the fight between two people.

The monster with transparent skin showing eyeballs, blood vessels, and inner skeleton, and the boy wizard endlessly swinging his hammer with his tattered coat fluttering.

He absolutely couldn’t take his eyes off their battle.

How could this be?

Despite being a mage he’d hated his entire life, the boy wizard’s fight looked so beautiful and noble. It seemed like the boy was showing him everything he’d spent his life searching for.

He wasn’t the only one who felt this way. All the knights were entranced. No… they even showed eyes of longing for this beautiful combat technique.

The knights who had emanated killing intent and even attempted long-distance spatial movement using ‘Shadow Library’s’ power.

Their killing intent was dissipating strand by strand.

Confirming this sight, Evan Petrov lightly nudged Monggu’s elbow beside him.

“I told you, right? If we just brought him here, we could somehow persuade them.”

But his expression wasn’t particularly boastful. He too glanced at Baek Jun-woo’s battle with awestruck eyes.

“Of course… I never thought it would be like this…”

Evan gritted his teeth.

Now it was time to stop watching and move. To perfectly complete the mission entrusted by such an outstanding ‘warrior.’

Translator Note:
Damn, I was thinking to take a day break after translating this one, but now I can’t stop, can I?