Chapter 159

Get In Line (3)

Its features were blurred, making it feel strange to look at it.

Visual information was delivered to the brain, but it didn’t become organized in my head, and I couldn’t grasp its gist.

It was a different kind than mental domination or cognitive distortion. If that were the case, [The Successor’s Eyes] would’ve reacted.

The man slowly stood up.

I couldn’t describe what its face looked like, but one thing was clear.

It was tired.

And at the same time, it was unhinged.

Shhh!

The man carried the broken sword.

Wiggle!

Its eyes, nose, and mouth took shape as if the veil that blurrily screened him was lifted.

I instinctively felt displeased and threatened when I saw it.

‘Damn it!’

I couldn’t help but curse.

‘Isn’t that my face?!’

There was another me in front of me.

It was a clone that bore terrible boredom and madness.

Swish!

The surprise attack came without warning.

‘No way, is this the ordeal?!’

I didn’t even have time to organize my thoughts.

The broken sword flooded in, drawing sharp trajectories.

I instinctively lifted the devil’s sword and blocked it.

Even before the halved blade reached me-

Clang!

A sharp clashing sound rang unexpectedly.

‘?!’

I couldn’t predict the weapon it was using, even with my senses.

Intangible and colorless energy enveloped its sword.

The blade, of which only half remained intact, seemed to stay afloat in the air. In reality, an invisible force from its blade collided with my sword.

Furthermore, I couldn’t see any Mana in its body.

There was no torrent spewing from the Core or explosive energy flowing through the blade.

I felt the illusion that I became blind for a moment.

Without saying a word, it charged again.

The man was speechless from the moment it first appeared. With a face that mimicked me, it only attacked to kill me while having all kinds of wicked emotions in its eyes.

There were no yelling or battle cries. Its violence was calm.

The sword path tore up and conquered the space like a fierce gale.

Cling! Cling-clang!

While ear-tearing sounds rang in quick succession, I found the problem.

So far, I predicted the next attack by looking into the Mana flow no matter who the enemies I faced were.

If the opponent was an Awakened or a monster, regardless of how they attacked, it was easy for me to expect and retaliate since there were indications.

But then-

‘I can’t predict its next attack with my unique skill!’

It didn’t work at that moment.

I had to respond based on the sword’s trajectory drawn by the opponent, body movement, and strategic prediction.

Since I got used to the privileges that [The Successor’s Eyes] offered, I was in a situation dire enough to make cold sweat flow down.

And while being attacked, I noticed one more thing.

‘It isn’t only my face that it mimicked!’

Of course, it was me who knew my physical abilities the best.

Even though I couldn’t sense any Mana at all, that being was reproducing the state I was in whenever I was immersed in close-ranged combat in my best condition.

It copied the maximum power and speed that I could exert, my agility and sophistication, and even my combat senses!

It’s like fighting a clone that copied my entirety.

‘The specifications are the same as mine, but the way it attacks is completely different. It’s using sword techniques I’m not aware of!’

It tenaciously aimed and poked at the vital points all over my body, delivering a rain-like attack.

Even though equal forces were colliding, I focused on defense than counterattacks.

Looking for the window to turn the situation around, I held on patiently.

‘Now!’

The moment the distance between the two of us closed up…

I couldn’t see the intangible sword that stretched above the broken blade, but I chased the trace of its air bursts caused by its quick movements.

Entering through the gap, I deeply inserted the sword into the man’s neck.

No, I was about to.

Instantly, the man’s sword drew a soft line.

Clang!

“?!”

A single swing contained a mountain-like weight.

I swallowed a scream and was thrown off!

“K-ugh!”

Perhaps as intended, the Sage of the Red Wilderness who had frozen in time stood in my flight’s direction.

I collided with his body in that manner.

Bang!

There was a sharp and firm sound that was hard to imagine that I clashed with a small body composed of only bones.

“Cough!”

I rolled on the floor. It was a big shock that would’ve bent hardened steel, but the Sage remained frozen.

The moment I managed to regain my sight-

Shhh-swish!

I avoided it by forcing my body to jump away, causing the transparent sword wave to hit the Sage.

There was still no scratch on his body after all the assaults.

The time zone between the two of us on the move and everything around us that had already stopped seemed to be completely isolated.

It had reached a point that no big impact could affect each other.

I clenched my teeth.

‘I’m sure the physical abilities are similar, but why do I keep getting pushed back?’

The attack that prevented me from focusing on such questions continued.

The man’s sword became sharper as time went by.

I felt like my head was burning white.

I swung the sword gradually closer to a trance.

I felt that the sense of time was strangely being twisted.

“…!”

in the man’s sword techniques and were fired at me.

The attacks were horrible and brutal, yet they were also sophisticated and diverse.

As I countered them one by one, my sword drew a sword path that wasn’t in my memories.

It’s a sword technique that I hadn’t seen, not only as Choi Seung-Hyun but also when I was reborn as Seo Jin-Wook.

I simply knew by intuition.

That’s the property of my reincarnations that I couldn’t remember at that moment.

It was the sealed memory built up in the subconscious mind through the continued cycle and repetition.

The slumbering mystery deep within my soul was waking up little by little.

It was the man’s sword that produced the stimulation.

The sense of time completely disappeared from the moment I knew that. The persistent murderous attacks turned more intense, but my defense evolved as well.

As if the remains submerged underwater rose one after the other to the surface, they were drawn in and were embodied as Seo Jin-Wook’s.

In that manner, it felt like hours… days… perhaps even years passed.

At the end of the inestimable stream of time-

I found an irreversible gap between the man’s sword path.

Swish!

Like a flash, my sword cut off space and brushed past the being’s shoulder.

Ch-wak!

The brief moment felt as long as eternity.

Blood splattered in the air.

Managing to twist its body, I failed to penetrate through its heart.

However, when the being saw its wound…

“…!”

It suddenly started laughing.

A manic shudder of laughter echoed in the room.

Then, the features created on its face, which resembled me, collapsed instantaneously.

The eyes, nose, and mouth flowed down the skin in a sliding and falling motion.

It stopped imitating me.

At that moment-

Paht!

The system message was updated.

– Quest Progress: (2/3)

It signified that I had overcome two of the three ordeals!

‘Have I completed another one by doing that?’

The procedure I expected to follow afterward was that the man would disappear, and I would be allowed to offer tribute to another altar.

But the time was still frozen.

Boom!

“K-argh!”

A sudden pressure pressed down all over my body.

Unable to withstand it, I fell to the floor.

‘Why… why now? No, why now?!’

If it had used such power from the beginning, it would have easily overpowered me.

That moment couldn’t be considered an ordeal.

It had such a powerful force that I couldn’t stand my ground against it.

The figure approached with distorted features embedded on its face.

Just as I first met it, its expressions were meaningless, but I somehow felt emotions.

It seemed to be very pleased and very satisfied right at that moment.

And it seemed delighted by the fact that my sword had brushed its shoulder.

“Damn it!”

I desperately tried to struggle, but I couldn’t move at all.

The being who came right in front of me tilted its broken sword.

Seeing where its glance landed on, I realized its intention.

‘Finger!’

The finger where Igras-Sho’s holy wound remains…

The man was trying to cut it off for some reason!

It raises its shoulders wide, and it struck it down!

At that moment-

T-lank!

The being’s broken sword stopped in the air.

Like the embers that sparked when metals clashed with each other, black flames were scattered in the air.

Someone stopped its offensive.

A third party had intervened.

Shlunk!

The strength suppressing me weakened, and I barely managed to raise myself and struggled to spread my distance from the man.

Then it came into my eyes.

The time-frozen scenery even for the other gods’ idols and altars except for the ‘god of the sword’…

One of them broke the solidified framework of time and was showing movement.

It was the idol of a seven-legged spider-like creature.

Darkness flowed out from the bottom of the cut leg.

And there came a voice.

[The beast of ‘Aden.’ How dare you to attempt to touch the child I’ve set aside?]

The presence that restrained the man conveyed its will through a mental wave filled with terrible rage.

‘Damn it. The situation is turning into a shit show!’

That place was definitely a temple operated by a simple system wherein after one had offered a tribute to an altar, a corresponding god would assign an ordeal.

But the current situation had a god who tried to subdue the challenger even though it overcame the ordeal…

Another god also revealed its power voluntarily, even if I hadn’t paid tribute to its altar yet!

“Groooowl!”

In the eyes of the being called the beast of ‘Aden,’ a ghastly fire fluttered, and it burst out a harsh cry.

The being I fought was the sacred beast of ‘Aden,’ the god of the sword.

Meanwhile, the magic god’s beast was a black tentacle monster, and the creature controlled by the god of life was a huge heart-like creature.

Comparable to them, the beast that conveyed the will of the god of the sword was a doppelganger that mimicked the opponent it encountered.

The black fog turned even thicker.

And the mental waves that I had already experienced before filled every corner of the room intensely.

[I see. The ‘sword’ can’t even communicate his will directly to this place right now. At best, all it can do is send a beast under his command and make a fuss… that is very shabby. We all fell into exile and were ruined, but among them, you wore out the fastest to the point that it is pitiful.]

I recalled the fact that the power of the orders that served the god of the sword was very weak compared to that of the magic god. It was also hard to come across a priest or a believer of the sword god.

The darkness whispered a strange echo mixed with malice and sympathy.

[Maybe… The next ‘spirit’ could be the ‘sword.’]

“Crrrrrowl!”

The man… No, the sacred beast cried with boiling anger.

However, in that situation where a god intervened directly, it was natural that the sacred beast’s power alone couldn’t stand against it.

It was gradually stepping back, pushed away by the darkness toward the altar that it was summoned from.

The darkness snickered by the sight of it.

[You, boy, who will be mine someday, you have not yet offered me a tribute here, but you will eventually sacrifice everything to me… There will be no meaning to hand you an ordeal.]

At that moment…

Paht!

– Quest Progress: (3/3)

The system message was updated again.

The three ordeals required by the quest to upgrade my unique skill had been accomplished unexpectedly.

But I wasn’t pleased.

Aden’s sacred beast still hadn’t disappeared as if it hadn’t given up, and it was growling, baring its fangs at me.

[But…]

Igras-Sho also didn’t reap the darkness that densely filled the place.

The deity sent out a mental wave mixed with displeasure.

[My boy, what’s that dirty blood smeared on your soul right now?]

“!”

I could easily notice what it was referring to.

The Orb of Immortality.

The item it put on my soul when I found the altar of the god of life, “Rom.”

It’s a terrible shackle that would make me become a slave of Rom forever the moment I wished for immortality after charging the energy the Orb required.

[Yes, it is ‘life.’ It buried something dirty in your soul. I’ll wipe it out for you. I’ll erase it clean.]

The darkness approached me. Then, a very brief silence flowed.

[… No, rather than doing this, I would-]

It said as if it had made up its mind.

[Yes, we do not know if another deity might covet you in the future. I shouldn’t leave it like this.]

Igras-Sho revealed a devious emotion.

[Boy, why don’t you rather tell me both of your wishes in here?]

“?!”

[I can’t wait any longer.]

I frantically resisted while trying to keep it together.

“I do not wish for anything now!”

I knew for sure from my experience that even if one was a deity, they couldn’t completely control me to do something that I didn’t want to.

Even a god couldn’t control my mind.

They couldn’t violate my free will.

That had to be the case.

[Then personally…]

The god whispered.

[I’ll have to give you a reason to wish for something right now.]

Damn it. That was why nobody should dare get involved with a god!

The darkness crept around me.

Amid that terror…

[What?!]

Igras-Sho expressed bafflement, and I noticed the change that occurred.

Another altar escaped the prison of frozen time.

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

The idol was familiar to me, as well.

There were eight abscesses under the head of a scaly mountain goat.

A thick haze of blood spouted out from it.

The red cloud covered me, pushing the darkness approaching me away.

And a part of them gathered to make a text.

– Back off, ‘Magic.’

“Rom,” the god of life, began to intervene as well.

As I looked at the scene with sickened eyes, I remembered what the dragon said.

‘The gods are… Yes, they’re beings like old people with dementia!’

I couldn’t sympathize more with the metaphor Euclid used to describe the great beings.

Considering what the beings called ‘gods’ were doing, in the end….

It wasn’t any different from the way the mortals thought!