Chapter 77
When Lee Shin had reached the 18th floor, the first person that came to his mind was Lakers as the servant of gods. He seemed like the only person capable of killing Lee Shin. However, after encountering Lakers, Lee Shin had realized that Lakers was a bit lacking.
Lee Shin had used his past life memories to win against Lakers; even without that, Lakers wasn’t as threatening as Ahn Jin. Consequently, Lee Shin felt Lakers wasn’t the gods’ only plan.
‘Then, who else could be targeting me?’
‘What am I missing?’
Continuously pondering these thoughts, Lee Shin thought about the unknown person called the Saint. And the second he saw the Saint, Lee Shin realized he was the gods’ real trap.
Phon Adrian looked at Lee Shin with a sincere expression of curiosity. However, Lee Shin had no intention of resolving the Saint’s curiosity.
Now was the time to deal as much damage as possible to the Saint. Else, he would quickly recover from the injuries the surprise attack had dealt.
[Thunderbolt]
Bam! Thud! Bam! Thud!
The lightning bolts striking down from the ceiling insistently attacked the floor.
Vuela noticed that the wound on the Saint’s abdomen was healing quickly, so he charged toward Phon again. Vuela’s swordsmanship, which combined intricacy with ferocity, continually targeted Phon, but he countered them all.
"Keugh!" Vuela gasped.
Vuela was hit by Phon’s divine power again, crashing into the wall. Exhausted, he gasped for air.
"Mr. Elf, you cannot beat me," said the Saint.
Upon hearing that, Vuela's eyebrows twitched in a sign of disturbance.
"Don't underestimate me,” Vuela said to the Saint.
As Vuela’s anger built up, the density of mana in his body and sword increased. And since he had received the Berserker class from the previous floor, the angrier he got, the more the true worth of that class was revealed.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
Vuela fiercely attacked, seemingly venting his anger, making the Saint use his divine power to block the attack and retaliate. However, the situation worsened as the Saint's attacks only made Vuela stronger. The more the Saint shed Vuela’s blood, the stronger Vuela became.
Vuela's sanity was also slipping away, but it didn't seem to matter. The Saint panicked as he fought Vuela—an opponent who grew stronger when injured—because it defied common sense. This exceeded the Saint's understanding and made him wonder how to change the battle's course.
‘This is quite tricky.’
There was a way to finish Vuela off in one blow, but the wizard, Lee Shin, had used spells at opportune moments to prevent that. The Saint had ordered the jailer to deal with the Elf, yet Vuela's return and the subsequent hindrance he had caused in the mission greatly disturbed Phon.
Facing a single human named Lee Shin was already giving him a headache, but dealing with this Elf was also quite difficult.
"Divine Rain," said the Saint.
From the clouds of divine power that gathered in the sky, raindrops as thin as thorns poured down onto Lee Shin and Vuela. Lee Shin cast spells to deflect the attack, but Vuela got hit by the rain head-on, as if he did not care, and kept attacking.
"Explosion," said the Saint.
Baaam—!
The explosion of divine power threw Lee Shin and Vuela away.
Baam!
The weakened walls of the building from the previous fight crumbled down, so Vuela and Lee Shin jumped off the building. The Black Night members and the Church members fighting outside turned their heads toward the Church when they heard the explosion.
When the Saint followed Lee Shin and Vuela out of the Church, the Church members lowered their heads toward the Saint. However, the Saint did not even glance at them, as he was solely focused on killing Lee Shin.
Phon raised his hand skyward, and the light of divinity began to shimmer between the clouds covering the sky.
[Divine Judgement]
A majestic giant cross appeared between the clouds. The Church members were shocked and fell to their knees, bowing their heads at its overwhelming presence.
The attack from the sky seemed like a punishment, targeting both the Black Night members and the Church members.
"This is unbelievable…” Maria muttered.
Maria’s jaw dropped as she stared at the cross. Then, she closed her eyes.
"Please..." Maria muttered again.
Even the undead fighting the paladins became serious at the sight of the cross.
"If we get hit by that, we will vanish," said May.
"Our master might be in danger,” said Bark.
"Do you think this is the time to be calm? We need to go and help our master right away!” Warrie shouted.
"Warrie, it’s okay to wait until the master calls us,” said May.
"Darn it! If only I had my original strength." Warrie grumbled to show his frustration.
"Our master's signal has come, so let’s go into the shadow space,” said May.
Bark stopped trembling and entered the shadow space with Warrie, who had also stopped looking at the cross with bulging eyes.
Rumble—! Crack!
Lee Shin threw a steel spear at the clouds, but it was useless. The magic was very powerful, too powerful for anyone on the 20th floor even. Lee Shin thought that they had gone too far.
"Lee Shin, what are you going to do!" Vuela shouted, looking at Lee Shin.
Vuela, still somehow sane, rushed Lee Shin. Lee Shin said nothing and just looked at the Saint. Lee Shin could see the defensive barriers of divine power surrounding the Saint. He could tell that these barriers were incomparably stronger than those of Melphrope’s.
‘I mean breaking through them with brute force alone…’
Lee Shin's eyes glimmered with mana. In a world where religion held power, you could always find souls claiming their innocence. Black mana spread everywhere, and countless souls expressed their grievances from various places.
Lee Shin had tried not to use his power as much as possible, as the last time he used it on the third floor, he realized that it caused significant damage to a wizard’s psyche. Back then, thousands of demons, all with some kind of grievance, had come into Lee Shin’s view.
These demons, driven mad by injustice, only had hatred and malice. When these demons encountered Saint’s divine magic, their emotions became even more vivid. To these demons, judgment was just the powerful oppressing the weak. Countless demons that were unfairly swept away by the subjective standards of the powerful gathered before him.
"Are you okay with your existence being wiped out?” Lee Shin asked, looking at those countless demons.
Lee Shin could not hear their responses but could feel their emotions. To these demons, resolving their grievances was of the utmost importance. Malice, enmity, and death were the only remnants of their feelings, and therefore, it was unlikely that there would be any other opinions among them.
Countless demons surrounded Phon Adrian. The red ones swirling around him became so thick that they obscured his vision. The necromancer had simply used the remnants of these demons, and they seemed determined to erase Phon Adrian with themselves.
"Demon Explosion," said Lee Shin.
[The control of the demons has become smoother due to the power of death.]
[The consumption of mana has reduced.]
[The dominance has suppressed the will of the demons.]
[The mana of…]
[...]
Ahhh—
Arghhh—
The demons' cries echoed like an explosion in Lee Shin's ears, and the writhing energy of death around the Saint rapidly intensified.
"Keugh…!"
[You have taken away Phon Adrian’s divinity.]
[Your divinity has increased by 1.]
[You have taken away Phon Adrian’s divinity.]
[Your divinity has increased…]
The barrier of divine power surrounding the Saint shook and disappeared. Then, the cross, which could seemingly fall anytime, shook and disappeared too. The Saint felt pain the kind of which he had never experienced before. He couldn’t comprehend that there was a power capable of erasing his existence.
"What… what kind of… power is this?" The Saint muttered.
The unexpected blow had broken the Saint’s concentration, which also severed his flow of divine magic. He then suffered internal injuries from the rebound.
What was more serious was the strange thoughts that continually popped up in his mind. His emotions became erratic, and negative thoughts began to fill his head. However, it was the same for Lee Shin as well.
This time, Lee Shin had detonated way more demons than when he had done the same on the second and third floors. He had to pour out almost all the mana left in his silver wand, so he hardly had any mana left now. And to top it all off, the fragmented emotions of those tormented souls rushed toward Lee Shin.
"Keugh…" Lee Shin groaned in pain.
Lee Shin grabbed his throbbing head and fell to his knees.
"Lee Shin! Are you okay?" Vuela asked, looking at Lee Shin with a worried look.
The sudden change in the situation was beyond Vuela’s understanding.
"Yeah… I’m… fine…” Lee Shin replied to Vuela.
Fortunately, the increased dominance and black mana, along with this being his third time using Demon Explosion, helped him withstand the current situation. After taking several deep breaths, Lee Shin slowly walked towards the Saint, who still hadn’t recovered from the aftermath of the demon explosion.
"Lee Shin..." the Saint muttered.
"Who told you to do this?" Lee Shin asked the Saint.
“The… Dream-Eating… Dragon… told me to do this,” the Saint replied to Lee Shin.
Lee Shin had heard of the Dream-Eating Dragon before. It granted people’s wishes in exchange for their dreams. The class of this dragon was so great that even most gods could not easily face this dragon.
‘Ahh… the ringing in my ear is killing me.’?
Now wasn’t a good time to suffer from tinnitus, as the enemy could be stronger than Lee Shin had anticipated.
"But… how did you figure out what I was planning to do…?” the Saint asked Lee Shin, curious.
"Well, you’re a faithful believer. It was easy to see because of the idea that awakened citizens would naturally believe in a god. Besides, it didn’t make sense for someone like that to cooperate with Black Night,” Lee Shin replied.
"But, isn’t that possible if it’s temporary?” the Saint asked Lee Shin again.
"Secondly," said Lee Shin.
Lee Shin did not bother to answer the Saint’s question because the second reason was more important.
"The real Phon Adrian could’ve never directly attacked the Pope regardless of how evil the latter seemed. Even if he wanted to correct his father, he would’ve never resorted to such actions,” Lee Shin explained.
Lee Shin had realized this after seeing Lakers’ past. After all, the Saint couldn’t bring himself to kill his father for years despite having the strength and the knowledge of his father’s corrupt deeds.
"I... I… did that to my father..." Phon muttered.
Phon seemed muddled. After hearing Lee Shin’s words, he could not understand why he had acted like this.
"If you borrow the power of the gods, things like this can happen,” said Lee Shin, looking at Phon.
Lee Shin had no intention to help or save the Saint. Furthermore, Lee Shin did not even feel sorry for the Saint. If there was one thing that this ordeal changed, it was the increased hostility Lee Shin felt toward the gods.
[Thunderbolt]
Rumble—! Crack!
A strong lightning bolt struck the Saint’s heart, ending his fading life.
[You have taken away Phon Adrian’s divinity.]
[Your divinity has increased by 1.]
As Phon’s vitality dwindled, Lee Shin opened his eyes wide when he sensed the additional divinity stat. He had never expected to acquire a divinity stat like this. The surprise divinity stat filled Lee Shin with a hard-to-describe emotion.
Vuela, standing beside Lee Shin, froze when he sensed the sudden change in Lee Shin.
"What... did you do?" Vuela asked Lee Shin.
"Nothing," Lee Shin replied to Vuela.
Turning away from the Saint’s corpse, Lee Shin said, “The stage is not over yet.”
Lee Shin could end this tedious world only by killing the Pope, Melphrope. Even though he had only a handful of mana left due to using Demon Explosion, it did not matter. In the demolished building, Lee Shin could see the Pope gasping. The Saint’s sealing magic had already been released, but Melphrope was weak now.
"You bastard...!" said the Pope.
[Your skills have increased by 20% due to your divinity stat.]
Lee Shin’s strength rose, and the change could be clearly felt from his mana. Although he didn’t have much mana left, Lee Shin knew it would be enough.
[Lightning Drill]
A swirling thunderbolt escaped the tip of his wand.
[Due to the effect of Cruel Slayer, the probability of hitting the enemy's vital point has increased.]
[Due to the effect of Man Who Destroyed the Head of the Demon Monarch, the ability of the intermediate-class demon Melphrope Adrian has decreased by 10%.]
Crack—!
Pzzz—
Melphrope collapsed after getting struck by the lightning drill.
"Keughaaa!" Melphrope screamed in pain.
Melphrope screamed in agony and looked at Lee Shin with trembling pupils in confusion. Earlier, Melphrope had attributed his weakening to becoming a demon; now, he couldn't understand why he was getting weaker even after becoming a perfect demon. Lee Shin picked up Ethan’s sword, which had been on the ground, and approached Melphrope.
"Don’t try to understand,” said Lee Shin, looking at Melphrope.
Swoosh—!
The divine power within Ethan's sword combined with Lee Shin’s divine power and forcefully suppressed the demon power Melphrope had been clinging onto. The sword pierced Melphrope's heart, instantly cutting off his breath.
.
[You have cleared the 18th floor.]
There were two more floors left.
'They will choke you, if you don't prepare properly.’
The rewards for clearing the 18th floor appeared in front of Lee Shin.
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