Vol 2. Chapter 128: The Salvation of God (65)
“All Master.”
Papapat!
An enormous amount of emitted energy easily ripped apart the incoming curses. Il-han immediately took a step back to secure some space then completed a series of ultimate spells.
“Ahk! It hurts! You!!”
The child brushed off pieces of sharp ice from his shoulders and put out the flame burning on his legs. It raised a shadow and pushed it forward like a tidal wave. However, Il-han faced the attack by taking a step forward and striking vertically with his claymore.
Pat!
The tidal wave was cut apart by a lightning flash and the enemy was revealed.
Bang!
A fist struck its head. The child screamed and attempted to back off, but Il-han immediately followed up with a roundhouse kick. The set of movements was akin to flowing water. If any martial artists had been present, they would have been put in awe by the smooth-flowing moves.
“Keuk! Ahk! Ouch!! It hurts!!!”
The child slowly grew larger while screaming. The transformation soon accelerated, then the black body of the child started to mutate horribly.
Whoosh!
But ignoring the transformation, Il-han swung his sword without a word and cut off the child’s leg. The child lost its balance and collapsed with a scream.
Kiyaaahhk!!
A black wolf appeared from the shadow on the floor, then chomped down on the child’s arm before attempting to drag it back into the shadow. The child severed his own arm and instantly regenerated a new one. It attempted to stand back up, but many cards flew through the air and pierced its limbs before it could.
Papapat!
Kiiing---!
The cards started emitting a brilliant light after penetrating into the limbs, then started a sealing ritual.
“What? What is going on? How is this happening?”
“Whether you like it or not, it’s happening.”
Il-han drew his sword with a nonchalant attitude. Of course, the black child was powerful. It was a sense of self created by the End Project. It was basically the embodiment of the End Project, a powerful cosmic monster.
But the moment his seal was lifted, Il-han wasn’t just a handsome, smart, wise and creative human being. He was a cosmic hero, the Human God – All Master. He was Milleon the Windless.
Almighty.
Il-han levitated into the sky and swung his right hand as if throwing a spear. A lightning bolt as thick as a building tore apart the space and smashed the child.
“…What? What is this!?!? Fuck! Fucking hell! Damn it!”
The child screamed with only its head left intact, but nothing changed. What was left of his body was also scattering away as ashes.
“This doesn’t make any sense! This can’t be happening! Can’t you hear me!? This isn’t how things are supposed to unfold! It can’t go like this! No!”
The child screamed until the very end, unable to accept the outcome. But it did not matter whether the child accepted the situation or not.
Paaass!
In the end, the avatar of the End Project scattered into dust and disappeared.
“Oh my…”
Il-han collapsed on the spot while watching the child disappear.
Il-han! Il-han! You’re watching from somewhere right now, right!? What is going on here? How did you save me?
As he turned his head towards the screen that the child had been observing, Il-han saw a girl shouting towards the sky.
“Haha. It will take some time for me to explain everything.”
“Then take your time.”
The space in front of Il-han distorted, then a girl appeared from thin air. It was a girl with a cute impression – the Primordial God.
“Oh, Sarah, you’re here.”
Il-han greeted her brightly, but the Primordial God spoke with a cold expression as if she had not heard his words.
“Explain. You can explain it to me now. Even if the time limit on Eight Shadow Clones ends and you go back to your main body, you can still explain it to me, can’t you?”
“…..”
Eight Shadow Clones.
It was a master skill created from the power of Martial God, Dark. It was an ability that allowed the user to produce seven alter egos possessing the exact same power as the main body and even the same equipment. The clones of the skill moved and thought separately, and when the skill was released, the main body absorbed the memories of all the clones.
“Yeah. I could do that.”
Il-han was one of the clones. Originally, Eight Shadow Clones had a time limit of five to ten minutes, but Milleon was able to eliminate the time limit by limiting the abilities that the clones possessed. As such, Il-han had been able to live on Earth for decades. He grew up together with Eun-jung, married her, and lived out his life on Earth 34 as Dae-ha grew up.
“If you return to the main body with your current experiences and memories, Milleon will take care of the rest. I’m sure you know better than I that he is a good human being.”
“Yeah. He might even make another clone and have him go to Eun-jung’s side.”
The new clone would possess the same memory as himself and display the same pattern of behavior. The Primordial God was right. Everything would be perfectly solved once he returned to his main body. Nevertheless, Il-han shook his head.
“I don’t want to be a part of Milleon.”
He closed his eyes and reflected on his life. He thought of Eun-jung, who came looking for him possessing a huge Divine Spirit. The trip they went on even knowing it would be their last. The way she moaned with joy. How she breathed her last.
He thought of Dae-ha.
The newborn that cried loudly. A toddler crawling on the floor. A child who followed him like a duckling while smiling brightly. How he screamed and shouted every night because of his nightmares. How his expression gradually turned pessimistic.
He thought of Yeong-min.
The image of a child staring blankly at him while covered in blood, suffering to suppress the killing intent he was born with. The way Yeong-min looked at him. The way his eyes shone.
“I want to die as Kwan Il-han… As Ham Eun-jung’s husband, as the father of Kwan Yeong-min and Kwa Dae-ha…”
His appearance began to blur. If Eight Shadow Clones ended like this, his memories and experiences would be returned to Milleon. The Primordial God spoke while looking at his fading appearance.
“I like you.”
“Pfff!”
“Why are you laughing!?”
The Primordial God shouted with anger and Il-han erased his smile and faced her.
“Ah, thank you. But I’m a married man.”
“…You’re too mean even to the end. Really.”
Il-han let out a strenuous laugh while rejecting her for the 23rd time.
He spoke.
“I’ll leave it to you.”
“You’re such a bastard.”
Wooong!
Silver energy began to rise from the hands of the Primordial God and took the form of a sword. She would extinguish Il-han’s existence before he disappeared fully and became integrated into Milleon.
“…Good-bye.”
The Primordial God raised her sword, and Il-han closed his eyes. Eun-jung was smiling brightly at him in his memories.
Then,
Tung.
“Huh?”
The Primordial God became surprised when she saw an object blocking her sword. Below the sword was a large key. And the key was embedded in Il-han’s chest.
“…what is this?”
She spoke with confusion.
Click!
The key started to turn.
***
“…What is this?”
Meanwhile, Milleon had a dumbfounded expression as he recuperated in the Unique World. Strange lines of text were floating in front of his eyes.
- A clone slot is locked!
- Skill, Eight Shadow Clones, will be downgraded to: Seven Shadow Clones!”
“What is…”
Confusion was evident in his usually calm face.
“What is this…?”
***
I opened my eyes.
I was sitting on a rock. A metal ball full of strange patterns was lying on my hand.
Duuuuduk!
I reached out and skimmed over the ball. Dozens, no, hundreds of characters engraved on the sphere followed behind my touch as if they were being torn away.
Then, I threw the metal sphere.
“Kyahk!?”
The steel sphere expanded in an instant and quickly took the form of a woman’s figure. Hawa looked around her surroundings with a dazed expression before fixing her eyes on me.
“What did you do just now?”
“I borrowed a bit of transcendental powers. I restored everything, so there shouldn’t be any problems.”
I stood up from the rock while speaking. Hundreds of texts were floating around me like a swarm of bees.
Woooong---.
A world of perception expanded indefinitely when I closed my eyes. I grabbed the necklace from my neck and grabbed a few letters from my surroundings before sticking it on the ornament.
The words created with the characters were as such:
It was a function that originally didn’t belong to the key, since the key’s real power lay in opening things. Locking was just an additional ability.
But it didn’t matter.
Click!
I locked the intended settings without being too late.
That was right. I locked settings.
It should not have been possible, but I achieved it by twisting the direction of power. It was made possible through the power of Liberation, Transcendental Weapon Number 4.
“You’re awake.”
A woman stepped out from the midst of the gigas. She walked slowly, but also very quickly at the same time. It was Min-kyung, the head of the Lee Family and one of the most powerful humans on earth.
“Good work.”
“…Is it over?”
I could feel everyone around us tensing up when she asked the question. Was that all? There were countless more people watching me through the broadcast.
“Yeah.”
So I nodded my head.
“The stage is over! It’s our victory.”
“…..”
Min-kyung looked at me with a blank expression on her face. The other gigas maintained the silence for a moment as well.
A while later,
“Hahaha!!! Finally!! Finally!!!”
“This is finally over!”
“Heuk. Uahhh… Huahhh… Huaaaah!!!!”
“Mom. Dad…”
Tremendous roars burst out at the same time. The communication network was filled with shouts, and I could see people running out of their gigas and shouting like crazy. I lifted my Justice Weapon and glanced at the bulletin boards. As expected, it was a huge mess as well.
‘Well, I still need to finish it off.’
The people could not feel it, but the power of the End Project was being stripped from earth and conglomerating in the middle of the universe. But it was different from the past when it destroyed all kinds of civilizations and devoured the settings of the universe. It was because most of its power had been taken away by humans.
‘Well, to be exact, I was the one who stripped it of most of its powers.’
I achieved number one in the stage clears by a humongous margin. Firstly, I cleared the stage for hundreds of thousands of years through automatic combat. After it was patched with a limit of 10,000 clears per player, I raised my Suppressor skill to level 10 and received 20 times the amount of rewards.
Was that all?
I exchanged the materials that the players bought from the vending machine using goods from the Unique World. It was safe to say that all the resources of the Unique World (such as metals and mana stones, etc…) were actually bones and flesh of the End Project.
“Huh?”
I had sent my consciousness to space for a while, but I quickly shifted my gaze when a figure approached me from the front.
It was my brother.
“Hyung.”
“I saw my brother. He was smiling brightly.
“Hyung!!!”
I sprinted while being overwhelmed with emotions. I could see him running towards me as well. There was a considerable distance between us, but I was a being superior to the Untouchable and he was a transcendent. The distance closed in an instant
I opened my arms.
My brother was coming!”
Pat!
And he passed right by me.
“…..?”
I stopped and spaced out for a moment. I could not understand what had just happened.
‘You passed me by?’
I became flustered and turned around – I saw my brother tightly embracing Min-kyung.
“Min-kyung!!”
“Ah! Uah…!”
Min-kyung was desperately trying to cover her face. She could not shake him off, nor meet his gaze. She flinched while covering her face.
“Heeup… Ah! How nice. I missed you so much.”
“No, no. No. No…”
“Why are you covering it? Show me your pretty face. Hmm?”
Despite my brother’s urging, Min-kyung could not take her hands off her face. She hesitated for a while and muttered the same words.
“No…”
“Why not?”
I, I’m so… I’m too old…”
There was certainly a difference in their appearance. Although she looked younger than her actual age after ingesting tons of spiritual pills, she still looked to be in her mid to late 30s. Moreover, wasn’t her actual age more than twice that?
On the other hand, my brother looked younger than his actual age, which meant he looked to be in his mid-teens. If I was being mean, I would say that the two people could be seen as a parent and a child.
“No, but still.”
My brother smiled innocently.
“Our Min-kyung is the prettiest.”
“…..”
The Iron-blooded Queen. The Indomitable Empress. The woman with all kinds of terrifying titles was trembling. She slowly took her hands off.
“…..”
“…..”
Their gazes met, and Min-kyung’s eyes quickly filled with tears.
“Heuk! Huaah! Huaaaaaanggg!”
Min-kyung, who could be considered an old woman, burst into tears like a child. Their eyes met once more, then after a while, their lips met.
“Ha.”
And as I watched the scene unfold,
“Hyung, you son of a…”
I had no choice but to laugh in a flabbergasted manner.