Chapter 255: Starry Night
Giant ice rocks, traveling at kilometers per second, ignored various atmospheric layers and fell like rain.
'Since they're ice chunks falling from the sky, could they be meteorologically classified as hail?'
Sung-Woon cast his gaze into the distance for a moment. Though there was some distance to the center of the Rasdasil Ruins, due to several layers of protective magic circles that warded off the Meteor Shower spell, there seemed to be no significant impact on the outskirts.
'Fortunately, it doesn't seem like the central part of the Rasdasil Ruins was affected, but...'
Sung-Woon assessed the changes in the terrain brought about by the Meteor Shower.
In just a few seconds, the area beneath where the ice rocks struck was clouded in dust and steam. The magic circles blocking the Meteor Shower were now starting to dissipate, but the altered landscape was likely to remain for some time.
However, these changes didn’t block Sung-Woon's vision. A Hierophany body's sight exceeded human visible light, extending to infrared and ultraviolet, naturally corrected for Sung-Woon. The landscape, as seen through this enhanced vision, showed that the ground where Hegemonia had been standing had sunk by about one hundred meters.
'I thought such an attack might impact a Hierophany body...'
Sung-Woon clicked his tongue lightly.
In his vision, Hegemonia remained unmoved as she was. It seemed to be a result of Sung-Woon’s magic having no divinity despite him being the god of magic, as well as Hegemonia's defensive skill, which had not yet been fully revealed.
'But this narrows it down a bit.'
Therefore, Sung-Woon was not surprised when Hegemonia emerged from the pit, accompanied by an aurora.
'Space Cut to slash through the barrier, Skip to close the distance...'
A massive white stone pillar shot from Sung-Woon's hand. Though it appeared to be merely projecting mass, the outer surface of this summoned pillar was densely inscribed with calculations that a typical Wizard would carefully inscribe during a ritual.
The moment it came into contact with Hegemonia, the pillar split, projecting the light created by that division in all directions. Typical division magic literally turned the target into dust, but Sung-Woon found such magic inefficient. Moreover, such pure magical formulas would be ineffective against a Hierophany body sustained by divine power.
With his understanding of nuclear fission, he knew that attempting to divide a target with division magic consumed too much causality. Magic, like divinity, always evolved to avoid causality constraints. Sung-Woon applied the division magic to the inanimate white stone pillar, releasing all constraints imposed by causality while maintaining the massive explosion produced by nuclear fission. Although the uranium content inside the white pillar wasn’t substantial due to the limits of causality, it was enough for a localized nuclear strike.
The first atomic nuclei collapsed due to magic, and the energy created by fusion exploded in light, electromagnetic fields, and heat.
'As expected.'
However, the light did not reach Hegemonia. The rays were twisted and absorbed by an invisible barrier surrounding Hegemonia, extinguished in the process.
'...Is it Entropy?'
Sung-Woon identified it as Entropy, one of the Hierophany body skills in The Lost World. Although it was an excellent defensive skill that blocked various projectiles and attacks, it had a weakness—it consumed Faith points with each attack it blocked, which essentially defeated the purpose of a defensive skill for a Hierophany body.
Since a Hierophany body could recover as long as there were Faith points, even though Entropy consumed relatively less faith, with Faith points being used for both health and defense when a Hierophany body regenerated, Entropy’s cost wasn’t significantly lower to make it a better choice.
But regardless, Entropy was a frequently used skill.
-Realized it, have you?
Hegemonia spoke and swung her sword, which Sung-Woon blocked. Five successive sword strikes, all skipped, came almost simultaneously. Given the concerted attack was physically impossible to dodge, Sung-Woon took the hits.
Sung-Woon's dummy was ripped apart, and he reappeared at a distance from Hegemonia.
Sung-Woon thought.
'There was a reason for stalling.'
While Sung-Woon could predict Hegemonia's combat moves, the overall actions didn't quite make sense. Considering Hegemonia's goal, defeating Sung-Woon's Hierophany body was important, but the primary objective seemed to be invading the central part of the Rasdasil Ruins. Defeating Sung-Woon without collapsing the Rasdasil Ruins wouldn’t be a significant gain.
'But using that skill means...'
A feature of Entropy was its ability to accumulate stacks. In The Lost World, certain types of skills required more than just consuming Faith points. No matter how high the Divinity level, how strong the Hierophany body, or how much Faith points remained, some skills couldn’t be used. These types of skills required an additional resource beyond Divinity, known as stacks. Entropy could accumulate a stack called thermal energy each time it received an attack.
The problem was that Sung-Woon couldn’t prevent the accumulation.
'Entropy stacks even if you do nothing.'
And Sung-Woon believed he had a rough guess of the last skill Hegemonia would use.
'This is troublesome. Even knowing it, I can't stop it.'
Hegemonia raised her sword with both hands.
-Even if you've realized it, it's too late.
Flames burst through the gaps in Hegemonia's armor. Her armor turned from red to white-hot, and her horned helmet followed suit. From the ashes where the flames burned and disappeared, a gigantic hand emerged.
Inside the gauntlet around the hand, lava flowed, and flames scorched the air, revealing the forearm and shoulder. The giant was enormous, towering over a hundred meters. As the flames fully engulfed it, the giant's true form was revealed.
The armor, now cooled to black, creaked with every movement, making agonized screams from the dead struck by blades and war cries from those bathed in blood. The exposed flesh, where the skin seemed torn away, was covered in flowing lava. With death, the master of war remained in the form of a skull at the center of the head.
The skull, entwined in lava, kept swaying as if unable to discern the constantly changing situation of the battlefield and the cycle of life and death.
‘Is it Avatar?’
The skill, known as Avatar or Incarnation, was a kind of transformation skill. While it was a transformation skill, this form went beyond the already formidable Hierophany body, shedding all physical limitations. Due to this, the size could grow to be manageable by the player, becoming almost impermeable to all physical weapons. Unless facing another Hierophany body, it was virtually impossible to fight.
Most importantly, the form of the Incarnation reflected one of the player's chosen Domains. Players could select a few attributes for each Incarnation, but they had to follow existing templates. Therefore, Sung-Woon immediately recognized what Hegemonia's Incarnation represented after seeing it.
'It's the Incarnation of war.'
War itself lifted a sword. It was massive, about 300 meters in length, absurd even considering Hegemonia’s size as an Incarnation.
-Everything now...
The speed of the sword swing was skipped.
-Ends...!
A crown on top of the head of the Incarnation of Hegemonia exploded in a cross of light. Being enveloped in it would render all resistance futile even for an apostle, but it was merely a signal for using a skill.
-...Aaaahhhhh!
From the space sliced open by the Incarnation of Hegemonia, countless soldiers poured out. Hegemonia had split space to create a connection to the Red Land, the Angry One’s Afterlife. Thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of warriors of various species, either riding beasts or running on foot, rushed toward the Rasdasil Ruins.
'A Space Cut considering the summoning skill of the Incarnation of war.'
Before Sung-Woon could react, Hegemonia’s blade struck. Sung-Woon's dummy shattered, and he reappeared. But Hegemonia's hand grabbed and burst Sung-Woon. Again, Sung-Woon emerged anew, and this time Hegemonia trampled him. The speed of omission was so fast it seemed as if war had countless arms.
Sung-Woon counterattacked whenever possible, but war itself appeared to have mastered all battles and battlefields conceptually. Unable to land a significant blow, Sung-Woon checked his Faith points.
'Only three percent left?'
A brief calculation ran through Sung-Woon's mind in a moment.
Hegemonia, relatively tiny compared to Sung-Woon, pointed the tip of her sword at him.
-At the same time, I will slice through.
All pre-movements were skipped. Sung-Woon knew 'at the same time' meant not just himself, but also the Rasdasil Ruins behind him.
-That's a problem.
Before Hegemonia's blade, which only knew slicing, could reach, Sung-Woon stabbed himself in the chest with a dagger. What Hegemonia sliced through was Sung-Woon's empty shell.
And Sung-Woon had already moved two kilometers behind in front of the Rasdasil Ruins, leaving his shell. Sung-Woon parried the belatedly arriving Space Cut from Hegemonia with his sword. The Space Cut distorted at a close angle, grazing the center of the ruins.
Countless armies poured towards the Rasdasil Ruins, and war closed the distance of the Red Land's army's path in just a few steps, eventually overtaking them.
-Can't block anymore!
Hegemonia's sword, rushing forward, soared up.
Sung-Woon also used his fourth skill. His cloak slightly fluttered.
Hegemonia failed to notice the flutter. She was simply bewildered that she couldn't skip the sequence of swinging her sword.
'What's this? It's like...'
It was like being caught. If held by another player, one couldn’t use Skip.
The Incarnation of Hegemonia tried to activate Space Cut, but the blade hardly moved. Hegemonia belatedly realized that the sky was melting.
-...This is?
The sky slowly melted, gently rotated, and flowed. The spreading light was too beautiful. Then it was revealed that the melted sky was just a thin, delicate curtain. In its midst, a being wrapped in the curtain bowed, hood pressed down.
-...Nebula! This is...!
-Incarnation.
-But you didn’t…
-I did stack.
The One Overshadowed by the Sky said,
-My death and my blood became the offering.
The One Who Sacrificed Oneself continued.
-What to stack for becoming an Incarnation is up to the player.
Hegemonia tried to shout.
With a skill like Shedding, it was too easy a condition. It didn’t even consume Faith points.
But strangely, before she could speak and belatedly realizing Sung-Woon had the skill Future Sight, Hegemonia heard the Preceding Viewer's words.
-So my Incarnation, other than holding you, has no power.
Before War could retort about how that would even be useful then, the Purposeless One added.
-And that's enough.
War, Hegemonia, realized three truths.
If all the space above the ground was the sky, then Hegemonia herself was already in the arms of Sung-Woon, and not only Hegemonia but all beings on this earth would be the same, and the third was...
But the One Who Makes Purpose said.
-With what little Faith resources remain, it's difficult to just defeat you. I must sweep away all the apostles and armies of the Angry One.
Hegemonia felt her mind clearing up. Sung-Woon wanted not just to defeat Hegemonia herself, but aimed for a more perfect victory.
Then the third truth dawned. Sung-Woon could use the Light of Pasa on anyone he came into contact with.
-Oh.
The stars twinkled.
Constellations slowly moving in the night sky's shimmered; heroes and greats of the past, those who were ordinary but memorable for their deeds, those who became lessons in other's lives through unparalleled tragedies, those with sad and happy stories—all lights that people thought were part of themselves—twinkled.
The night sky spoke.
-See you again.
War was enveloped in light.
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