Chapter 252: If Sky and Land Fights
Even with the sound of thunder behind her, Ramin didn't look back. She simply trusted her teacher, Owen, to handle the situation well.
When the road came to a fork, Ramin said to Gorgota, "I'll go this way."
Without a response, Gorgota ran down the path Ramin didn't choose.
Shortly after, the situation in the rear changed drastically. When many Canines had gotten close enough, Ramin thought a fierce battle would take place. However, the Canines had other plans. Having successfully gotten near the Rasdasil Ruins with minimal damage, they decided to risk the harm and began sprinting full-force toward the ruins.
Despite the sudden charge, the Empire's defense forces successfully reduced the number of Canines through counter-shooting, but those with enhanced physical abilities started breaking through the defense lines and ran forward.
'It's an excellent choice.'
If they engaged directly with the defense line, they could have been able to fight and even defeat the Empire's forces, but they risked getting caught up by reinforcements that might have arrived later. Instead of that, they decided it was better to run straight toward their objective.
Moreover, the Rasdasil Ruins were filled with countless covers, and many obstacles lay between the ruins that needed to be leaped over. Even soldiers with ordinary physical abilities could take down Canines with bullets, but chasing them was a different story.
'That makes twelve.'
Ramin tracked one Canine who had turned to run and swiftly killed them with her sword. A nearby agent startled and twisted their body, but Ramin threw her sword straight at them.
'Thirteen.'
Ramin retrieved her sword from the Canine agent who had collapsed after her blade pierced through their forehead, and then she kept running without stopping.
'More can be caught. A bomb or two won't be enough to destroy the Rasdasil Ruins.'
However, there were more than just one or two enemies left. Although she thought she had caught many, Ramin saw quite a few Canine agents running under the darkening evening sky.
She aimed her gun while running, but the running shadows quickly hid behind the next cover. Knowing that shooting into the air would only raise unnecessary alertness, Ramin continued running.
'It’s still a relief.'
Ramin wasn’t able to memorize the map of the Sky Castle, but she had memorized the map of the Rasdasil Ruins. There existed shortcuts that wouldn’t have been identified on maps drafted with collected intel alone.
'If I pass through this passage, I can intercept them.'
Ramin jumped into a partially collapsed underground passage and easily navigated through it with Vampire's keen night vision. Her goal was to outpace the Canines and assassinate them one by one from the front. As she came out from underground, Ramin spotted a Canine agent about to pass by the underground tunnel.
Ramin gave up on covert operation and increased her speed, which caused the Canine agent to discover her. Bleeding from her stitched wound, Ramin made a stab with her sword.
The Canine agent, dodging the sword, lost their mask that was worn askew.
Underneath the mask was a black-scaled Lizardman, who muttered, "...How could there be such a fateful encounter?"
"That's my line."
Ramin faced Del, the familiar Fang agent.
In the narrow corridor, too tight for swinging swords or aiming rifles, Del drew a dagger and swung at Ramin, who also drew her dagger in reverse grip and blocked Del's strike. However, Ramin read Del's intention too late.
"If I take you with me, my life won't be a waste."
Ramin realized that Del's other hand held a grenade with the pin pulled.
'Oh no!'
That was when it happened. The night sky was descending.
***
There was an expression: the sky was close, which was strange since the sky was always above everyone. However, every being in the Rasdasil Ruins felt the night sky descending as if it could be touched. The constellations remained unchanged. However, the stars twinkled sequentially as if with intention, and those who could read them sensed the implication in their twinkling and shivered.
-He’s coming.
The sky was speaking.
-The master of that infinite sky...
What was thought to be the night sky was just a curtain shaped like it. As the curtain was drawn back, suddenly, a swarm of butterflies with blue wings covered the sky.
-The ruler of beings with inverted flesh and bone...
After the butterflies disappeared, parts of the pantheon was shown. The presence of a behemoth tower overlooking the world was overwhelming. The tower was filled with numerous acolytes who glanced down below for a moment.
-The leader of the Pantheon...
But that too, was merely an illusion. Beyond another drawn-back curtain, a dark and deep abyss was revealed. A creature of the abyss, not of this world, peered into this world with pale eyes, its presence only partially illuminated by the light of this world.
-The returner who wields forgotten powers...
That was another illusion. What appeared next was the original night sky. But having seen the fragments of that other world, this was no longer the same sky. The darkness between the shining stars was a curtain of infinite possibilities.
-Night Sky is coming.
Above the Rasdasil Ruins, Night Sky floated. This being, wearing a water buffalo's skull over his head, was wrapped in a curtain darker than the night sky.
Sung-Woon opened his eyes in his Hierophany body.
'So this is what it feels like.'
It was his first time using Hierophany since the start of all these events. The sensation was distinctly different from just being a god.
'I can be attacked, and is it because I have stats? It feels similar to using Divine Control, strange, but not uncomfortable.'
But there was no time to savor this unfamiliar sensation.
Hegemonia, from the moment of Sung-Woon's appearance, was charging at full speed on her apostle and mount, Kazaha.
Sung-Woon floated in mid-air. Both his and Hegemonia's Hierophany forms were roughly 10 meters.
'The size is more or less fixed by some rules.'
The Lost World was a game, and players always found the most optimized build. There were builds for development directions, but the same went for creating a Hierophany body, the avatar they directly controlled on the ground.
Novices said that the bigger the Hierophany body, the better, but even with Divinity, one couldn't completely ignore physical laws. For example, a 100-meter-tall Hierophany body, almost invulnerable to most weapons, consumed unnecessarily large amounts of Faith points to sustain. And there was no need to aim for too small a size because not using the excellent physicality imbued with Divinity of an Hierophany body was also wasteful.
Unless one intended to create a spellcaster, often using a variety of skills, the most optimal form in terms of the laws of physics and efficiency in the game was around 10 meters.
'It’s not just the body either.'
Sung-Woon saw Hegemonia, now charging through the air, coming towards him. Though it seemed like a distance of hundreds of meters, Kazaha closed tens of meters with each stride, folding the ground literally. It was too fast for the eye.
'Skills are the same.'
Though Hegemonia was still a hundred meters away, Sung-Woon drew his sword from his waist.
Clang!
It was just the clashing of blades, but the light wave created at the moment of collision gouged the earth and pushed the sky. Hegemonia, who was believed to be approaching, had already passed Sung-Woon and was turning around in mid-air, soothing Kazaha.
Neither player was surprised by the way movements seemed to be cut short for the attack or the blocking of it.
'The Omit skill was always OP.'
Players could create what they commonly called the Skip or Omit skill, which was a combination of various Small Areas. Normally, every action had a preceding and a following action. For example, swinging a sword would have actions leading up to the swing and retrieving the sword afterward, and Skip could omit either the preceding or following action, or both.
Hegemonia skipped the process of reaching Sung-Woon to attack him and also skipped the moment of creating distance to avoid a counterattack.
Sung-Woon, watching Hegemonia wait for the next opportunity to attack, saw the scars left on the ground and sky from their brief contact.
'I understand the attack skill now. It was Space Cut.'
This was also a skill frequently used by players of The Lost World, able to strike regardless of the Divinity level. Sung-Woon knew it was an attack skill chosen by Hegemonia, who was aware of Sung-Woon's higher Divinity level. However, it was a high-cost skill requiring many Small Areas and a lot of Faith points, so restrictions were necessary to make it manageable.
'Hegemonia's restriction must be when cutting with a blade.'
The condition of the skill activating only when cutting with a blade posed quite the challenge.
Usually, players preferred a surefire strategy of striking with Space Cut from a distance as soon as they saw their opponent, choosing to limit the number of times the skill can be used. Of course, this was meaningless if they couldn't subdue the opponent within the limited number of uses.
'Given Hegemonia's skills.'
Hegemonia muttered.
-You blocked the Space Cut? What did you use?
-I don’t know. Was it not you who made a bad swing?
-Don't joke. I saw you swing your sword.
-Are you just going to keep watching?
Hegemonia, while engaging in a psychological battle, approached Sung-Woon in a spiral.
Sung-Woon thought.
'The third seemed like a defensive skill, but I'm not sure. And I have to guess if there's a fourth.'
There were often Hierophany bodies with five or more skills. However, Sung-Woon knew Hegemonia. She wasn't a player who would ignore the optimized builds developed by other players. Using more than five skills would mean weaker skills. Three or four skills were the unspoken rule among The Lost World players.
Several earth-shattering exchanges followed. With each clash of swords, the sky was torn apart, and the earth crumbled.
The gods' battle was so fierce that the mortal beings couldn’t even approach, so the Union Kingdom Army, which thought they had created a path, had to find a detour.
This was fortunate for the Empire’s Army. After regrouping, the apostles of the Empire plunged back into the battlefield, guided by the gods of the Pantheon. A battle thought to be completely lost began to turn around.
Meanwhile, sitting in the commander's position of the World Watcher, Dordol watched the gods' battle from afar. This Ogre, who had to envision all possibilities, even considered the defeat of Night Sky, always preparing for the worst-case scenario.
Again, the Angry One concealed themself.
Suddenly, the sky filled with light, and the World Watcher shook violently. Even Dordol, an Ogre, nearly fell from the intense movement, but they quickly stood up.
Then a lookout shouted, "Commander!"
"What's the matter?"
"Night Sky is...!"
The cross-section of space seemed to graze Night Sky, and then a blue nebula burst out from the body. It was evident to anyone that it was a wound of a god.
***
"He's hit!"
Saying this, Crampus slammed the desk.
After several exchanges, Hegemonia's attack had finally reached Sung-Woon. Even though it was a Space Cut, it wouldn't defeat him in one hit, but it was clear there was an impact.
"I knew it! Nebula was a pro gamer? So what? Even if he was, what game did he play? Where's the guarantee he'd win?"
Despite Crampus's outrage, Wisdom remained unshaken.
Lunda then said from beside, "Well, if Nebula was a pro gamer, he must have played 4X games, right?"
Explore, Expand, Exploit, Exterminate. Derived from the X in each of these words, 4X games was also the genre The Lost World belonged to.
Lim Chun-Sik then said, "Are there pro gamers for 4X games?"
"Maybe? Could be..."
"Or was it RTS he played?"
Real-Time Strategy Simulation. The biggest difference from general simulation games was its real-time nature. Quick thinking and decision-making were essential skills, not just in the game world of The Lost World, but in its reality too.
AR1026 looked at Wisdom and then said, "Since Wisdom said he would have an advantage in Hierophany body fights, maybe it's MOBA."
A game genre that could be translated as Multiplayer Online Battle Arena. The requirement to grow abilities and fight with limited skills was somewhat similar to fights between Hierophany bodies.
However, Wisdom didn’t affirm any of the speculations.
"No answer yet. Think about it, and you'll know."
Crampus, in disbelief, said, "Is this a quiz?"
"Shall I tell the answer?"
"No, wait. If you're going to say it, just wait… Any hints?"
Wisdom replied, "Nebula hardly used this in The Lost World originally, but this time, he played it well and almost always succeeded."
"Even if you say that, I've never seen Nebula in the game. We were in different ranks."
Eldar chimed in, "But he was famous in videos, right?"
Famous gameplay videos circulated among the players. Talented streamers had fought against Nebula, and his exceptional play was well remembered by other players.
The players didn't struggle much to find the answer.
"Now that I think about it, he was well-known for not chatting."
"But this time, he was quite active."
Thinking the answer had come out, Crampus said, "Ah, so it's like psychological warfare?"
"Exactly."
"Even if that's true...are there games like psychological games? There might be some, but would there be pros in such games?"
"There are. Games close to applied psychology."
"Like what?"
Wisdom replied, "Fighting games."
***
Sung-Woon's blood covered the sky and then gradually disappeared.
'Is this leaving me with about 7 percent Faith points?'
Initially, those watching the gods' battle focused on Sung-Woon's wound, but soon realized they had missed something more important.
Hegemonia, along with Kazaha, seemed to be descending to the ground, then Hegemonia got off Kazaha. Only then did they see the cut on Kazaha's neck, sustained by divine power, then its head fell to the ground.
Hegemonia looked up at Sung-Woon.
-...Nebula!
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