Chapter 87

Grind, grind.

Hundreds of eyes dangling from hundreds of heads rolled in their sockets. Grind, grind, the eyeballs spun like slot machines, then fixed themselves one by one.

They watched me. Ten, twenty—the number of eyes piercing into me rapidly increased.

‘I’m being suspected.’

A chill ran down my spine.

I had been mimicking the magical power singularity, wrapped in black and red magical power. If I were discovered now, I’d have little chance of survival.

‘What should I do? I need to… decide quickly.’

Cold sweat trickled down between my eyebrows.

‘Ugh…’

But I couldn’t focus.

My fingertips trembled faintly, and my back was damp with sweat.

Overwhelmed, or perhaps panicking.

I lowered my head. I couldn’t meet the creature’s eyes. It felt increasingly massive. Now this monster seemed not like a five-story building but something that reached the edge of the sky.

That enormous thing was peering at me.

I felt infinitely shabby, small, and about to crumble completely.

The gaze.

The gazes drilling into my trembling back.

Everything in the world was watching me.

The monster before me scrutinized me with hundreds of pairs of eyes, questioning my identity,

While magical powers filling heaven and earth never blinked, asking, ‘What will you show us?’ ‘You won’t disappoint us, right?’

Even my companions behind me must be watching me with bated breath.

‘Should I… retreat for now?’

I felt like I was drowning in the sudden rush of pressure, fear, anxiety, and impatience. Whatever the conclusion, I needed to escape this swamp quickly.

Then I realized something.

‘Get a hold of yourself!’

I bit my lip. It split, and beads of blood formed. Sticky and metallic.

‘How pathetic…’

The gaze.

Am I afraid of that now?

Being born and raised in this land means living with calamities’ gazes following you lifelong. It means proving yourself before magical powers until the day you die.

Afraid? Now?

There’s a saying Earth humans liked.

‘When you gaze long into the abyss, remember that the abyss also gazes back at you.’

What a leisurely thought.

An abyss that waits until I look at it? Is there something so gentle?

If I were to adapt it to our world, it should be revised:

‘When the abyss gazes at you, you must also glare back at the abyss. Somehow, if you wish to live.’

Grind.

I clenched my teeth and raised my head. I faced the monster before me.

Fifty pairs, sixty pairs—I engaged in a staring contest with the eyes that had grown more numerous. What are you? Why doesn’t [Simulation] work on you?

How, despite being so painfully mixed together, can you still identify me?

As I gathered myself and looked again, I could see it.

What is the essence of matter?

Earth scientists first described it as tiny particles, and later preferred the expression of ‘information,’ devoid of material properties.

Information.

Though slightly different, I too sympathize with this expression.

If someone asked me about the ‘essence of matter,’ I would answer without hesitation: information, or more precisely, ‘mana patterns.’

The horrifically jumbled monster was gasping as if about to breathe its last,

Yet paradoxically, its essence was becoming increasingly distinct.

The mana patterns that each life form possessed had mixed together, becoming hazy like fog, and within that, larger and newer outlines were forming.

The birth of a new mana pattern. This signified the birth of a new species.

I had witnessed a similar phenomenon before. When evolving Iron Blood.

Even then, [Simulation] hadn’t been perfect.

And now it wouldn’t activate at all. The reason is…

“It’s a being that has never been recorded at all in the database… no, in the Akashic Record.”

In other words, this monster wasn’t yet complete.

I could kill it now.

Though estimated to be an A-grade calamity, it was still incomplete. Wouldn’t Iron Blood and Saíl work?

Rumble. Lightning struck.

Around the towering monster, magical powers forming the singularity kept sparking with lightning. It added majesty to the already terrifying monster.

Suddenly, a strange thought occurred to me.

Should I kill it, exploiting its vulnerability before it’s recorded in the Akashic Record?

Is that really the right approach?

+ – + – +

“What… is he doing over there?”

Yuria watched Baek Jun-woo in the distance. Though he appeared as small as a millet seed, to Yuria’s eyes, he was as clear as if he were right in front of her.

“You can see him? There’s so much lightning that even Wizard Eye can’t penetrate.”

Lytol asked urgently. Fel, Hwarin, Horatio, Del, and other mages, along with Monggu, gathered around Yuria.

“How is the Divine Mage doing?”

Fel asked in an anxious voice.

“Be quiet.”

Yuria silenced them and stared ahead, saying anxiously:

“What on earth… is he waiting for…!”

A massive tower formed from countless life forms mashed together. Before that ominous Night Calamity stood the tiny figure of Baek Jun-woo.

Until hundreds of pairs of grinding eyeballs all shot their gazes at the top of Baek Jun-woo’s head, he had his eyes completely closed.

It didn’t look good at all.

“Fight if you’re going to fight! Run if you’re going to run!”

Excited as she watched, Yuria finally,

Clang!

“Damn it!”

She grabbed her bow and stood up, cursing.

Her eyes clearly saw the tower-like monster beginning to collapse. Not a good sign at all.

Between the blood and flesh pouring down like a waterfall, interconnected hearts beat, and large, sharp teeth grew, targeting Baek Jun-woo.

It looked just like something tearing out of a cocoon to be born. Born? It was already an A-grade calamity before… so now it was…?

Goosebumps rose on her skin. Yuria shouted:

“Baek Jun-woo Nomad! Follow me…!”

Tap! Whoosh!

But before Yuria could finish, someone darted forward with a light footstep. Long black hair tied back. It was Hwarin, the 2nd Circle mage. With tightly pressed lips, she ran toward Baek Jun-woo in the distance.

Yuria stared at her retreating figure with wide blue eyes, then,

“Uh… uh? Charge! F-follow me anyway!”

She belatedly followed.

“H-hey! The leader didn’t say to follow him…! This is overstepping, it could even put the nomad in danger…!”

Lytol, left behind as everyone rushed forward, raised his objection too late,

But there was no one left to hear.

Ting ting ting!

The group had already plunged into the magical storm. Only the sound of the magical storm hammering against shields was audible.

“Damn it…”

With a deeply furrowed face, Lytol finally rushed forward too.

+ – + – +

‘They’ve come.’

I opened my eyes. First, I saw the falling heads and eyeballs. Flesh pouring down like a waterfall. Beyond that, flashing teeth, a heart beating like the sound of a generator. Breathing like an earthquake. A ferocity that could swallow me in one gulp.

Finally, it had torn its cocoon and been born. A Night Calamity of unknown grade.

‘Ah…’

But what captivated my attention wasn’t just that.

The sky had opened.

Not the sky above my head, but a true connection between the highest place and here. A massive, sacred mana pattern had extended its stem to this land.

The gray mana constituting my body, the entire earth, and everything in the world shone with a brilliant silver light.

‘My God… everything… is connected as one.’

In that moment, I saw the invisible relationships of the world.

Until now, I had thought that wind was wind, I was myself, and there was no connection between me and a blade of grass by the roadside. But that wasn’t true. We were all connected at a higher dimension. Larger patterns extended their stems to create smaller patterns. Just as fine roots connect through the stem to abundant branches and leaves, so were we.

In the Tower of Covenant, everything is connected. Even a single bird and a pebble.

‘So that’s it. That’s why even shattered continents remained connected through the Tower of Covenant?’

Is that what made it so special?

The Tower of Covenant. Perhaps it’s not a tower but a tree. Perhaps we’re all hanging from its branches.

Mana flows along the Tower of Covenant, creating everything in the world, all those colorful patterns.

And now, within it, a new pattern was being engraved—something that hadn’t existed before.

A monster with massive heartbeats and a body submerged in deep darkness, extending large, pointed teeth. All the records of the world became connected to this monster that had just been born.

Finally, the calamity was recorded in this world.

And that meant…

“Simulation.”

That I could now practice what I was about to do.

I closed my eyes, then opened them.

“Ah, I died.”

The condition burden was too heavy, so I could only run the simulation once. Unfortunately, I died in that one attempt, but… I understood the trick.

Let’s do this.

There’s no turning back anyway.

It was a beast with unclear outlines.

It seemed to have four legs, or maybe six. It looked like a wolf, or perhaps a hippo.

What had been a lump of flesh had shed half of its body as it was reborn. Its body, dispersing like black smoke, seemed to have magical effects on its own, like Lytol’s <Magic Ball>, and the magical power writhing inside was so densely concentrated that its dark red flow was visible.

Rather than a creature…

‘It looks half like a god.’

Crunch!

It bit down. Suddenly everything went dark, and teeth sprouted from unexpected places, devouring heaven and earth.

The darkness forming its body was all mouth and teeth.

[Spatial Leap]

Quickly retreating backward, I looked at the ground the monster had bitten.

A stadium-sized section of earth had disappeared, leaving terrible teeth marks.

Haha,

To think I have to fight something like that.

Not a vulnerable opponent before birth, but one fully formed…

How foolish. I’m terrified.

But even so, I had no choice but to take this risk because of…

Rumble!

The lightning bolts that hadn’t stopped even after the calamity’s birth.

Though the calamity had finally been born, the magical storm hadn’t subsided at all. Rather, it raged even stronger, giving birth to a new Lightning Calamity.

Why? Why create a Lightning Calamity right after making a Night Calamity?

The answer lay in the muttering of the magical powers.

‘A stronger sacrifice!’

‘True lightning to judge the arrogant ones…!’

Looking back, it had been this way since the Sand Plateau. The magical powers here consistently wanted lightning. They had no interest in anything but creating stronger lightning by offering sacrifices.

Looking at the monster that felt like ‘night’ itself, I shouted:

“So in the end, you’re just… a sacrifice too. You son of a bitch!”

[Spatial Leap!]

I leaped high into the sky, avoiding the darkness and teeth extending toward me. Suddenly the darkness cleared, revealing a blue sky.

Blood sprayed in the blinding light.

“Kugh!”

When had it grazed me? My shoulder was deeply torn.

I had easily avoided it earlier, but this time I didn’t even see it coming.

‘A newborn creature already has such good reactions?’

It was chilling.

I couldn’t even imagine how strong it would be once fully adapted.

I can’t give it time. I can’t lose to a mere sacrifice.

Rumble!

I unleashed all my remaining magical power without reservation. Black and red magical power erupted through my Ki-blood, forming a whirlwind.

‘I… will become the center of the magical power singularity.’

To do so, I promised what the magical powers desired.

“Listen well, all of you. I am the Divine Mage. My lightning! Will burn the sacrifice.”

Rumble!

I created the same lightning that the magical power singularity was making. Just as I had practiced in [Simulation], I perfectly mimicked the magical power singularity. Or rather, I improved upon it. The response was immediate.

Whoooosh!!!

The magical storm raged. The magical power singularities that had been lingering around the monster now centered on me. The pressure was so strong that my body floated without even using a flight spell.

On the ground was the Night Calamity… no, the god-like magical beast, growling and showing its teeth in the darkness, while in the air, I stood embracing the raging magical storm.

Now, the duel begins.

Just as many life forms combined to be reborn as a completely different class of being,

The lightning would only be recorded in the Akashic Record after burning that magical beast.

The magical beast and the lightning were created from the beginning as a shield and spear relationship.

If this lightning burns the beast, I succeed.

If the beast overcomes the lightning, I fail.

I bet on the lightning.

Before I die, I must burn it to survive.

“When the abyss gazes at me… I’ll just gouge out its eyes!”

Crash!

The magical powers accompanied by thunder completely enveloped me. I couldn’t hear anything like wind. The explosions tore at my eardrums, and my limbs felt like they were being ground in a mixer.