Absolute Beings

Pernok had directly collected Dawn Temple’s sacred relic before.

That sacred relic at the time had been nothing more than a simple antique.

The sacred relic’s characteristic sacredness and mystique couldn’t be found no matter how much he searched.

Other temples’ sacred relics were the same.

Each temple’s sacred relics he’d happened to see while staying at Genesis Library also revealed only old-fashioned appearances from before, without characteristic sacred power dwelling.

The Holy Kingdom’s sacred relics were merely relics in name only.

He’d thought that way.

Until seeing Altier.

‘The treasure that destroyed wicked demons hundreds of years ago and only the Sacred Emperor manages. I thought it was baseless rumors since it hadn’t shown appearance until now, but was it true?’

The cup that resonated with Arisha and spread light could be known without even looking with Observation Eye.

The light coiling around that was sacred and great power that would even imprison souls.

It was certainly made using special minerals like artifacts such as The First.

‘The mana dwelling inside is the history itself that one nation has lived.’

Mana difficult to even guess the end was radiating inside the cup. With only a portion of that mana, the Floating Castle could easily fly for 10 years without landing.

But overwhelming mana only raised hostility toward enemies.

To those light didn’t touch, it merely appeared gentle and noble.

‘She asked to buy time, yet was hiding such a thing?’

If that turned toward him, there was no way to avoid.

He’d have to be trapped inside Altier until death.

‘But only this once.’

Altier grasped by Observation Eye had several flaws.

One was that there must be a possessor of innate talent mana who could activate Altier.

Another was that minimum mana was needed for Altier to activate.

Even solving the first, the second was the problem.

Because to awaken Altier required a nation’s Magus to continuously pour mana for 100 years.

The mana inside Altier now was the Holy Kingdom’s essence of history gathered over hundreds of years.

After sealing Chris, until gathering such mana again, Altier wouldn’t activate.

There wasn’t a single point Pernok needed to worry about.

‘To think they’d use trump weapons without hesitation.’

He felt the Holy Kingdom’s resolve facing Chris.

There existed no possibility Chris could escape from this thick history’s weight.

“Chris!”

When trampled Mardo howled trying to leave, Pernok struck down that back with force.

Cracks began forming in the overheated armor. Since he’d faced Trident Force head-on with armor converted solely to offense, even armor called the world’s strongest shield and spear couldn’t help but struggle to maintain form.

“Kraaaaaaak!”

Chris, who’d somehow knelt on both knees, screamed with veins standing out taut. Chris’s mana trying to escape Altier’s radiance surged creepily.

But the fiercely surging mana was soon buried in radiance. Chris appeared to be meeting his final moment unable to even draw out his characteristic long needle.

“…?”

The moment Chris lowered his hands as if resigning everything, suspicious movements were captured by Observation Eye.

Chris’s soul radiated thick color, then became more brilliant than radiance and began transmitting grayish energy to his body.

‘Spiritual power…?’

No, something was different from Pernok’s spiritual power.

A feeling like he couldn’t extract spiritual power but was trying to forcibly imitate it.

When awkwardness that surpassed mana but didn’t reach spiritual power rather caused discord, radiance entered its final stage.

Whoooosh-!

Light solely to imprison Chris blocked all things in all directions.

The moment barriers blocking so no one could interfere concentrated on Chris and tried to suck in his body together with light.

Chris’s heterogeneous power moved.

Within absolute pressure he couldn’t escape, Chris thought.

What was the best method to break through this?

In any desperate situation, his head that always calmly grasped the situation, analyzed and produced the best conclusion drew out all scenes he’d lived until now.

At one moment when countless Magus’ Magus Arts passed like pictures, the place Chris’s thoughts stopped was Pernok.

Etherealization.

If he had that special power whose precise name he didn’t know, he judged it would break through this desperate situation.

But Chris couldn’t reach etherealization with the power he currently possessed. He judged he’d absolutely never obtain that power even investigating a lifetime.

That moment, the absolute being’s survival desire that hadn’t been stimulated by danger even once after becoming an S3 Magus knocked on talent.

Eyes that saw through mana’s flow explored beyond, and his body trying to imitate Pernok’s power began squeezing out something new.

It was power one dimension higher purity that was mana yet not mana.

While spinning in his hand power difficult to name, Chris thought.

I cannot vanish from reality like Pernok.

Then how about changing all that mana oppressing me now into the form I desire then manipulating it?

Before thoughts that suddenly occurred seeing Pernok’s appearance assimilating with reality were organized, they transmitted through his hands to radiance.

“…?”

Arisha detected the abnormality that invaded Altier.

It had already entered final stage.

No one could avoid.

Even Arisha couldn’t reverse it now.

But Chris rose in this thick pressure and muttered as if chewing and spitting.

“Distortion.”

All mana should have been sucked in.

There decidedly shouldn’t be Magus Arts Chris could use.

However, something strange penetrated into Altier’s waves.

Power fainter than Pernok’s incomprehensible power but thicker than Arisha’s mana, seemingly reached the ‘middle’.

That ‘distorted’ radiance.

Though it was merely a distorted form around only Chris, Arisha was shocked at the successive Magus Arts.

“Thought Conversion.”

All radiance became identical to the power Chris emitted.

That moment, Chris scattered long needles in all directions.

Countless Magus Arts burst out from the needles simultaneously.

Gravity, barriers, reflection membranes, intervention…

Countless special-type Magus Arts confused radiance.

It wasn’t pressing down with power.

He reinterpreted radiance’s flow, essence and flowed it away as he wished.

A mere human was trying to manipulate divine authority.

“Kheurk.”

The moment Chris who wiped blood flowing from his mouth with the back of his hand had eyes rippling like amber, Arisha got creepy chills.

She’d seen such an appearance once before.

At the appearance seeming to trace back that era of madness when Rakis’s Hegemon Emperor Arad had swept battlefields, Arisha was seized by oppressive feeling choking her heart.

“Die.”

As the chilling voice manipulated Altier, the sealing route began reversing.

The radiance that had left Arisha’s hands was now heading toward Pernok.

“Escape!”

Though an urgent voice burst from Arisha, there was no way for Pernok to flee from Altier.

Until that magnificent scene when Chris’s soul emitted color, dozens of long needles embedded at once and Magus Arts burst out all at once was merely 5 seconds.

Radiance changing direction was truly an instant, and when the voice arrived, inescapable barriers had already been erected in all directions.

“Khahahahahaha!”

Mardo’s body grew distant.

No, Pernok’s body floated.

“That monster has finally reached X!”

Mardo was sucked beside Chris.

Chris’s gaze looking at Pernok was fierce.

Though his pale face had no strength remaining, pride could be felt that he’d overcome both the Floating Castle and Altier.

“Huff, huff!”

Arisha, who’d consumed all mana to activate Altier, was panting atop the hill. There wasn’t even the slightest capacity to reverse direction.

You have no way to avoid.

As if saying so, Chris gazed at Pernok without a single waver.

Wooooosh-!

All this situation occurred in an instant.

Thanks to Chris who’d overcome the desperate moment with talent, the cards Arisha and Pernok had hidden to the end conversely changed into weapons strangling their own necks.

Once receiving Altier’s radiance that entered final stage, there was no way to avoid.

It was already too late to flow away like Chris.

Spiritual power to use etherealization had all been consumed when consecutively evading Chris’s attacks.

Even trying to draw spiritual power engraved in his soul again, Altier didn’t give time for power to recover.

As if it wouldn’t permit intervention twice, Altier rushed to its conclusion.

Pernok had no means to resist.

“A… ah no…”

Arisha’s voice that seemed dying was last.

Pernok was sucked into Altier and severed from outside.

That place was a space completely filled with radiance.

Like Netherworld, infinite so exits were hard to find, a prison-like place where trying to take one step made all energy in his body get sucked into space.

In a world where hunger and loneliness flowed like reality, Divine Punishment and Maximum Impact merely looked small as ants.

Observation Eye confirmed once more there were no holes here.

“…”

Though spiritual power was recovering again, even using etherealization, escaping space without escape routes was impossible.

Even mobilizing all power he currently possessed, there was no way to shatter the Holy Kingdom’s essence containing hundreds of years.

This itself was like a vessel sealing everything.

“Vessel…”

Suddenly, Pernok recalled Chimayos’s heart.

The heart containing spiritual power said to remain after destroying one nation.

Since there was no way to siphon that power, he’d made countless vessels until now but all had failed.

But what about this space?

If he unsealed the heart in this infinitely vast place and absorbed the massive spiritual power bursting out?

‘The body might collapse.’

But Chris was the same.

He’d realized the nonsensical notion of flowing away Altier.

‘However, ideal judgment alone can’t guarantee battlefield victory.’

If normal methods didn’t work, this side also had no choice but to go mad.

Pernok drew out the ring’s cubic.

When he released magic, it expanded to original size.

It was showing off exactly the same appearance as seen in the tomb.

He opened without hesitation the sealing sphere he’d only slightly opened within the vessel Tunnel Folk made.

That moment, the pure white heart poured out all spiritual power it had been holding back.

Wooosh-!

Spiritual power spreading widely in circular form thick as light and brilliantly radiant turned all things it touched to ash.

Within infinite space, spiritual power that wouldn’t extinguish eternally began filling.

Pernok entrusted his body to overflowing spiritual power whose reach he didn’t know.

Synchronization rate surged.

Synchronization rate – 75… 80… 85… 90…

It surged at speeds hard to control.

The moment Pernok began sucking in overflowing spiritual power.

Spiritual power that surpassed the body’s limits knocked on Pernok’s soul.

Pernok was trapped inside Altier.

Undeniable reality unfolded before eyes.

Arisha turned pale white, Mardo laughed, and Chris also curled up his lips.

Now what remained was only that troublesome castle.

If he killed even neutralized Arisha and collapsed the castle, the alliance army was finished.

The moment Chris drew out one long needle and tried to burst recovered mana.

Crackle!

A chilling sound struck his ears.

The place he urgently looked back.

Altier that had lost light was cracking.

Pure white light flowed out through spider web-like gaps.

“That’s…”

It wasn’t Altier’s radiance.

It was Pernok.

The incomprehensible power he’d used.

However, that quantity and density defied comparison with things faced until now.

BANG!

Altier shattered and something buried in pure white light revealed appearance.

It was grayish light taking human form.

It also looked like fog had gathered to form appearance.

But the moment it raised a finger, great light arrived in the area.

Light swallowed beyond the battlefield to the border in an instant.

Only after being buried did he realize.

This was the incomprehensible power Pernok had used.

The fact it was materialized spiritual power.

And Chris belatedly noticed.

That ghost-like appearance emerging from inside Altier carrying remote spiritual power was precisely Pernok.

Synchronization rate – ???

It couldn’t be measured.

It couldn’t be grasped.

When eyes met, souls seemed to be sucked in, when fingers wriggled, hearts seemed to stop.

He couldn’t describe it in any words.

Before this, any resistance was meaningless.

Even with Chris’s brilliant talent, even examining Pernok’s that appearance was impossible.

Hisssss.

And it pointed a finger.

While pressing a point in empty air as if pressing an ant, commanding while containing all things difficult for Chris to fathom.

[Vanish.]

Waves of spiritual power rushed in.

Light starting from the finger swallowed all of Chris’s world.