Chapter 212

There are only three things that exist purely in this world.

The first thing that exists is the void. It is nothing—a nothingness that is nothing at all.

The second thing that exists is god. It is something like foam that fills the empty spaces of the void.

The third thing that exists is the universe. In the sea where the void meaninglessly tosses and turns, small impurities that pop forth like popping popcorn.

And the small explosion at the moment when the universe is born with a ‘pop’—that was the Primordial Fire.

I am inside the Primordial Fire.

The little guy that had been like a small campfire soon devoured me with the force to swallow the entire world. Stars exploded with flashing bursts from all directions.

Within it, I recall the good times.

Though it took time, I finally succeeded in ascending to the 10th Step.

Back then, I was confident. Separating the 204 magical powers one by one was appropriate, and providing only the situation of ‘destruction’ as a simulation and letting them evolve on their own was a good judgment. When I abandoned control, the 204 magical powers fought and clashed with each other on their own, adapting to the environment and achieving optimization. That’s how I ascended to the 10th Step. I had assembled dead gods to create a new god.

[Finally, I can convey my voice. I am ‘Samantha.’ Divine Wizard. Thank you for gathering us who were scattered into the void and giving us new life like this.]

It couldn’t have been better. A divine intelligence created by 204 intertwined magical powers. She was even maintaining her identity as <Samantha>. The culmination of my lifelong research achievements. The greatest masterpiece in the history of magic that brought us this far. The fact that the god I created bore the name I had given her was so thrilling.

It was truly wonderful…

Ah, why did I promise the 11th Step?

-Are you alright?

‘Graaaaaah…! Don’t talk to me… Graaaah!’

It was because I thought the 10th Step I had achieved was incomplete.

For now, the 204 magical powers were maintaining balance, but when you examined it closely, it was ultimately a collective intelligence of separate magical powers.

I thought that killing off the separate individualities and creating one new individuality was how ‘creating a god’ would be complete.

I tried to melt down the 204 magical powers that had been separated in the flames of the Primordial Fire. Like refined metal, I wanted to bring forth a completely new magical power. I thought that was the only way to ascend to the 11th Step.

-Warning! Administrator’s danger detected. Attempting to isolate the Primordial Fire! Failed to control the Primordial Fire!

“Graaah! Don’t try… Graaaah! Graaaah! Aaaaaaah!”

It was a miscalculation.

This Primordial Fire, born from the void and melting and strengthening even god’s flesh, was far more vicious than I had expected.

‘Melting! I’m melting!’

It’s not anything else. My soul, the most fundamental will of existence, is melting away.

The flames of the Primordial Fire. Every time those star clusters brush against my skin, I lose consciousness hundreds of times.

Blazing supergalactic clusters, flickering galactic clusters, mirage-like dark matter, cosmic dust scattering like sparks, nebulae like oxygen, violently vibrating solar systems… One second stretches as long as a hundred years.

I’m not exaggerating.

That’s what the Primordial Fire was.

A power that makes you see the beginning and end of the universe in a single moment. A power that contains eternity in an instant.

Wrapped in galactic flames, Cube’s chattering never ended for me.

-But administrator’s safety is…!

I burned and blazed, hearing this short statement for 300 years,

“Don’t… do anything!!”

For this simple sentence, I writhed in agony and had to spend a full 200 years pronouncing it.

Why am I here? Why am I suffering this pain? What… am I exactly?

To avoid forgetting what must not be forgotten, I managed to respond word by word, overcoming that damned pain and centuries.

Refining 204 magical powers into one?

Far from that, just enduring was difficult enough.

It wasn’t just the pain I felt that was the problem.

[Pierce! Pierce! I’ll pierce through everything!!]

That damn Saíl was still in berserker mode. Whether driven mad by the heat, instead of embracing other magical powers, he attacked anyone and rampaged.

‘Graaah…! This bastard! It’s already hard enough, but if you rampage like that too…!’

[Pierce! I’ll pierce through! Should I pierce you too?]

‘No. I’m sorry. Lord Saíl.’

Even Cao Cao was probably polite to the last emperor… but this bastard respected nothing. Now I don’t even have the strength to fight. I just huddle in a corner, clutching my soul that’s trying to melt away. I can’t do anything about it anyway.

It wasn’t just him acting this way. They’d all gone mad.

[Grow! Grow! Keep growing and changing!]

The sublime Terra Madre, Gaia’s magical power bubbled like abnormally proliferating cells, destroying the surrounding balance.

[Make it. Make it. Knead and make it!]

The cold observer, Hephaestus’s magical power was hammering all the surrounding magical powers.

Even the mighty gods’ magical powers were like this, so the other magical powers were a total chaotic mess.

If they kept fighting and clashing among themselves, earnestly going through this Warring States period, there would eventually come a time when balance was dramatically restored. That moment was when our tragic protagonist <Samantha> would open her eyes again.

[Aaaaaaah! Kyaaaaaaah!]

Every time she opened her eyes, she screamed. The collective intelligence <Samantha> that appeared only briefly when the 204 magical powers achieved dramatic balance. She must have literally felt the agony of every cell in her body being torn apart.

[Aaaaaaah!]

Perhaps thanks to these screams, I’m still alive.

“Samantha.”

Even though calling her name once took a hundred years.

[Grrrrrrr! Haaah!]

Even though I wanted to cry and scream in pain like Samantha.

“Samantha.”

I kept calling that name.

I reached out my hand. I grabbed and shook the magical powers that were swelling, bursting, and twisting in all directions. While shaking them, I urged them on.

“Snap out of it. Hey, hey. Get it together. You need to gather your strength so I can survive too.”

[Ah… uaah… aaaah…]

“Hey. Hey. Stay strong.”

Call me cruel if you want.

The limits of a human soul are originally only up to the 8th Step.

How could I stop magical power at the 10th Step from going berserk? Anyway, <Samantha>, who had gained consciousness, had to do it. It was too harsh a demand for a newly born god, and an unstable… no, defective god at that, but it was the only way.

“Hey.”

I grabbed and shook her roughly…

[Huaaah… aah…]

The magical powers twisted and turned, grabbing my fingers. <Samantha>, who had been moaning in pain, was responding to me.

‘Ah…’

A cool sensation flowed down my spine. My mind snapped clear. What is this? It’s not entirely bad… but it’s simultaneously cool and scary. What is this?

Without realizing it, I pulled away the magical powers clinging to my fingers.

“Ah, why do you keep grabbing me?”

[Graaaah!]

Ah… this is really strange.

I’m in agony too. I’m screaming tremendously too… but strangely, <Samantha>’s screams worry me so much. They worry me so much that I momentarily forget my own pain. That’s why I grumbled even more.

“Hey. Hey. Stop hurting and get it together, will you?”

If I keep acting like this, it’s just like…

Ugh. Hey, get a grip!

When I ascended to the 10th Step, at that moment when 204 magical powers balanced around me as the center, a god was born within me. That god was connected to me by soul. Like a child whose umbilical cord hadn’t been cut, she dwelt within me, making me her home. That god was <Samantha>.

‘Damn, what am I thinking?’

I don’t know what emotions I’m feeling toward a magical exoskeleton that until recently I carried around in my handbag.

But I see <Samantha> suffering.

If this girl faints, then the magical power fragments that split off from gods like Saíl and Grim Reaper will start acting up again. Thinking that made my chest feel stuffy again.

“Hey…”

My hand that had been roughly shaking stopped hesitantly.

“Hey…”

I hesitantly stroked the suffering magical power.

A few strands of magical power tightly gripped my fingers.

I didn’t know what to do again.

* * *

‘Hah… how old am I now…’

Crying and laughing in the Primordial Fire flames… that already felt like old memories.

Well, it really had been a long time.

In the Primordial Fire flames, one second was a hundred years.

Accepting new emotions, acknowledging them, giving up, sacrificing… I overcame so many ordeals before finally standing in this place.

And in the end, I became the 11th Step and could face the Outer God. I could keep my promise.

‘Samantha.’

[Yes. Divine Wizard.]

‘Thank you. And I’m sorry.’

[What do you mean… I should be thanking you. …And sorry.]

‘Right… then…’

I raised my eyes to look ahead. No, ‘I thought about looking ahead.’

Then my body made of shining magical power raised its head to look forward.

It takes my form, moves according to my thoughts, and speaks as I wish… but actually, this is no longer my body.

[We’ll definitely win!]

I see the world through <Samantha>’s eyes. The boundary of the 99th floor that Yuria had pierced through. Pitch-black darkness. The Outer God lurking in that darkness.

It was silent. It must have been surprised that Reverse Genesis was denied head-on. It must have been shocked by the birth of a new god. Perhaps it was even a little afraid.

But… that goes for me even more. Even having reached the 11th Step, I couldn’t be certain.

Could I really defeat that monster?

Even if I could win, would I still be myself by then…

‘No. Stop the negative thoughts.’

I shook my head.

I looked down at the World Tree grasped in my hand.

The final weapon left by craftsman Hephaestus. With this… the odds wouldn’t be zero.

[Yes. We can win. And there’s also the arrangement that Lady Gaia left behind, isn’t there?]

Right. It’s not the first time fighting a battle where I can’t be certain of victory, and there’s no need to be scared now.

But I’m afraid.

Because it wasn’t me who had to fight that battle.

[I, I will definitely win. I stake the Divine Wizard’s honor on it!]

‘Why are you staking my honor, you brat?’

[Hehe.]

A god giggling shamelessly. Sheesh. Having to send such a little kid into battle.

[Little kid? Though I only gained consciousness as ‘Samantha’ recently, the magical powers composing my body are all ancient gods who have lived through eons. You need to show a bit more respect for gods. Divine Wizard.]

Hey. If you put it that way, the Philosopher’s Stone composing my body has also been around since the beginning of time, and hey, the particles composing Yuria’s body have all been around since the beginning too, so hey?

[Is that the same thing? Tch.]

<Samantha>, who acts mature one moment and reveals her childish nature the next.

Hah, this is really annoying. Having to send such a kid into battle… I should be the one fighting… Why do I have to have a mortal’s soul!

My stomach churned, but there was no choice now.

I gathered my concentration.

‘Stop fooling around and let’s begin. I’ll support you.’

Whoooosh!

I became water. I became fire. I became wind.

It was something I’d done before. Transforming my body made of Philosopher’s Stone like a spirit. Combining with Ari, Inggolli, and Gyeolli. But unlike usual, the degree of fusion was very, very intense. To the extent that it would be difficult to regain my original form.

‘Go wild as much as you want. I’m inside you.’

At the 9th Step, I wore a magical exoskeleton,

At the 10th Step, I harbored a god within me,

At the 11th Step, I… conversely became part of the god.

Somehow it feels like my status keeps getting lower… Right. That’s just my imagination. Just my imagination.

[Yes! Samantha will now subjugate the Outer God!]

<Samantha>, who had followed my will until now, finally began moving on her own.

Whoooosh!

Magical power blazed along with the star clusters.

‘Graaah!’

I clutched my fading consciousness and spun my body, transformed into water, fire, and wind, throughout <Samantha>’s entire form.

Right now I have no physical form. I’m just lubricant and coolant.

Hissssss!

Cooling the rampaging magical power and Primordial Fire… a consumable. That was the method I had found to ascend to the 11th Step.

[Outer God, reveal yourself!]

A clear voice echoing throughout the universe.

The darkness being torn apart, and the Outer God’s overwhelming majesty gradually revealing itself behind it.

Others would think I commanded this tremendous magic, but in reality, it was all <Samantha>’s doing.

For someone who reached the most magnificent realm humanity could achieve as a mage, it’s rather undignified…

[I’ll absolutely never lose. Father.]

Still, it does feel somewhat rewarding as a mage…? But hey! Didn’t I tell you not to call me that?!

[Tch.]

Us, facing the final battle with the Outer God.

Back then, I was young.

And <Samantha> was even younger.