Chapter 187

Training Fight (5)

Genograche spoke.

– What… Dual swords?

It was as if he was surprised but understood.

– Aden’s capacity is indeed great. It’s reached a point wherein the divine power flowing from there is tingling even at this distance. Those are definitely better weapons than the sculpted sword you’ve been carrying around.

I didn’t wait for his words to end.

Shhhh!

Another sword floated right in front of my forehead.

The moment I thought I needed another sword, it was summoned.

No delivery service in the world could be faster than that.

I had two hands, and I couldn’t hold the other one with my mouth, so I let it float in the air with telekinesis.

– Hey, wait. Could it be?

I kept experimenting without stopping.

Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish…

Soon enough, I had filled the space around me with swords, and the Union’s warriors were staring blankly at the scene, their jaws having dropped unknowingly.

It was after Genograche had fled far away, like a person in terror trying to avoid a fireball.

“Further experiments would be meaningless.”

All the swords so far had the same specification.

However, one shameful aspect about it was that…

“I don’t think I can handle it.”

One of the Union’s warriors spoke up. He had accompanied me right in front of the black hole, but he then gave up and stepped back.

His hands, as he held the sword’s handle after my suggestion, were scorched.

He was considered one of the best Awakened beings in all aspects, which meant he could endure the pain and wounds while wielding it, but the problem laid elsewhere.

He stated that even if he infused it with Mana, the new Holy Sword didn’t respond. In his hands, it was just like a normal weapon, not an artifact.

Even if he tried to handle it in a contactless manner as I was currently doing, it was too much.

“Perhaps there is a condition that only Aden’s believers or those who have the appropriate qualifications could wield it.”

For the time being, as I had all the qualifications, it seemed that I could freely use it no matter how many I summoned.

“Well, then.”

I decided to conclude my leisurely attitude at that point.

“First of all, let’s go clean up the battlefield.”

*

Through a hole made through the base covering the black hole, we all moved out again.

The battle was still ongoing, but victory was leaning towards the Union.

“They’re fleeing.”

Boom! Boo-boo-boom!

“Formation! Reinforce formation!”

“They’re running away! Don’t let them go!”

Among the Awakened, many used sword-energy-format skills, and they must have realized at once that something changed the moment I dedicated the god’s sword to its rightful owner.

The change didn’t appear in a manner where everyone’s power was strengthened at once.

Those who had become the most dramatically stronger were the ones that had modified themselves to the deepest level instead of using swordsmanship skills as they came in the cards.

In other words, the more they had put their will into swordsmanship, the more they felt that their abilities had been significantly upgraded.

That sudden shift in the atmosphere seemed to have made the Adgons aware that the black hole they were desperately protecting had been breached, and what they hid there had been returned to the original owner.

Since there was no more meaning in resistance, they had begun desperately fleeing away.

“Shall we experiment?”

Since the Union forces couldn’t destroy all the spaceships around the base, some of the Adgons were running for the remaining vessels with all their might.

Of course, I didn’t intend to let them leave.

Whoong!

As I focused my mind, the swords densely surrounded me. I pushed my will into it.

Boosh!

The sword energy’s form was evidently different from before.

It had started blazing like a white-yellow flame.

“Go!”

Hundreds of blades ripped through the air, leaving behind a golden trail.

Boosh!

Burning through the air, they poured down into the earth, almost as if armageddon itself had dawned upon the realm.

While the storm of swords subtly avoided my allies, they located the Adgons and struck them down mercilessly.

I didn’t have to detailedly take care of the whole process and prevent any damage to my allies.

Once I put my will in them, they followed those I had identified as enemies as if the objects themselves had eyes.

“N-no!”

“Aaargh!”

Upon hitting their targets, the swords set off a brilliant flame, devouring their prey’s bodies.

At first, it seemed like it was incinerating them, but it was just an illusion.

It was no fire. It was sword energy.

Condensed to the utmost limit, it collapsed into what it had trapped within, leaving not even a speck of dust.

All those who fled so desperately, and those who wielded their weapons in a struggle to attack while being overpowered by the Union, were erased by the flames I made.

Within 10 minutes of my return from the black hole, the battle had been put to an end.

– Commissioner Bachurka, do you read me?

When we had settled the situation in the dimension that we assaulted, the Union also reported news from other realms one by one.

I thought our side had been sorted out pretty quickly, but perhaps because of the time spent in the black hole, our battle ended at the same time as other dimensions.

If to combine the results…

“It’s three wins, one draw, and one loss in five games.”

Bachurka spoke over the hologram.

– I don’t know which god’s fragment is hidden in the planet where we lost. The Adgons’ reaction towards that place is exceptionally skeptical. Even though they had won the battle, they still gathered many reinforcements from their mother dimension afterward. Their number is enough to go through a major war.

Their willingness to protect that planet to the end, even if other planets were given up, was apparent.

What the hell could be there?

– I’d like to move our victorious troops there right away, but it’s hard to determine if we’ll win or lose based on the level of the warriors we’ve currently mobilized.

“You mean to say they’ve moved that many, that quick?”

– Yes. If the past battles were a blitz where only elite warriors were mobilized, the next battle would be an all-out war.

The final warzone was likely to be the planet we hadn’t recaptured.

And I had something to do before they prepared for the upcoming battle.

One fight had just ended, but there was no time to relax.

“They won’t leave the seized planets be. The Adgons will prepare for a counterattack. I’ll enter the other black hole before the Adgons send their troops to recover.”

Unlike the place where I was dispatched, the Unions only stepped in to eradicate Adgons and control the areas in other dimensions. Nobody dared step into those black holes.

I had to step up.

After sending Genograche back to Earth since he couldn’t enter the black hole, I moved to another planet where a fierce battle was held.

*

“Mr. Seo Jin-Wook, the Awakened!”

“Here he is! Mr. Seo Jin-Wook is here!”

When I arrived at the first of the remaining planets, the Union forces, who had just finished fighting, welcomed me even though they were exhausted.

They heard that the fragment of the god of war had already been retaken, and they must’ve felt the change themselves too.

“Here, this way!”

Following the guidance of the field commander, I flew once again toward the black hole.

‘…What is this?’

I wasn’t met with a dark cave, like the instance with Igras-Sho, or a blank space like Aden’s cage.

I could consider it much more unexpected than the rest.

Swoosh!

Slap! Swoosh!

I stood on the wide stretch of a beach whose end I couldn’t see.

The color of the surroundings was very different from what I saw on Earth.

The sandy seaside I was stepping on was filled with black sand that was so fine it looked like ashes or soil, and the waves that repeatedly invaded and retreated while licking the wet ground were leaving red bubbles.

The sea, which extended to the horizon, was dyed a deep crimson.

It was almost as if someone’s lost blood.

Weeing!

I sensed a spreading reaction in the back of my hand.

‘This time, it’s “Rom.”‘

The energy left by the god of life was coursing through my body.

It was rushing me.

‘Was it said that what the god of life lost were “offsprings”?’

When Igras-Sho fought a war of nerves, he mocked the god of life and said the following.

– Yes, the magic of now has lost its completeness. However, it’s better than ‘life,’ which has lost its offsprings and lost its ability to reproduce. At least the chances are available for me!

Swoosh!

Slap!

As I was looking at the sea surface pushing up to my feet, I heard the whisper of the god from afar.

It wasn’t precise language, but I could vaguely understand what it was urging me to do.

‘I didn’t give my soul, and I didn’t pray just now. I can’t believe it can still directly talk to me.’

Then the blunt meaning answered me.

Two of the gods had already recovered their missing fragments. As a result, the influence of exiled gods on the material world by resonating with each other had increased.

Then Rom, the god of life, told me the identity of what I was witnessing.

If we turned that ocean into a concept that the Terrans knew…

‘Primordial Sea.’

The origin of life.

It was the sea that became the source of all living things.

Gurgle!

There was also a sign of the god of mind’s involvement there. It was the Grotesquely twisted divine power.

As if it had noticed the intruder, the land swept away by the waves swelled up unpleasantly. The red foam soon became flesh and bones and grew into a monster.

In an instant, the coastline was filled with creatures.

None of them was normal in appearance. They seemed to be a mixture of races with conditions that could be called life in the universe. The mere sight of them made me feel nauseous.

I swung the sword at them, rushing in.

Swoosh!

Swish!

The bombardment fell wherever my will desired.

That time, however, it wasn’t the rain of sword energy. It was made out of swords itself.

Countless blades appeared from one end of the invisible coastline to the other, creating a storm. A thunderous sound clapped as the monsters were crushed into blood clumps. The golden flame that followed them burned away at their targets.

After massacring my opponents for a bit of time, I came to a realization.

‘This isn’t going to end.’

There were far more enemies, and they were faster in proliferating than the fragments of Aden.

Furthermore, the deity was whispering through the seal of the back of my hand that what I was doing wasn’t the right way.

‘Then?’

The god directed my gaze toward the red sea.

‘In there?’

Rom put meaning into my mind.

That the Primordial Sea was his lost “offspring.”

Something was hidden under its waters, perhaps part of the arrangement left by the god of the mind, that was said to have contaminated the entirety of it.

It’s constantly conceiving lives that weren’t normal. By the looks of it, they all seemed like incomplete life forms.

And the god requested for me to get rid of what was lurking at the bottom of the sea, return its descendants to normal, then guide them back to it.

‘It’s in that ocean? But I can’t jump inside just because…!’

In that situation, once the wave rose, the remaining handful of gurgling bubbles grew into a monster.

What would it be like in the water if it were like that outside the water?

The moment I dipped my body into it, I was as good as entering the enemy’s mouth.

‘I mean, I can’t dry out the sea….’

The moment I mumbled inwardly at the thought of failure…

‘?’

‘Wait a minute.’

An idea flashed through my head.

‘Can’t I dry the ocean? Why not?’

A plan quickly materialized in my head.

Of course, I shouldn’t evaporate the whole thing. Instead, what if I only induced the position that the god informed me about to reveal its floor?

‘Let’s do it!’

I continued to use the power of Aden to slaughter the monsters.

Monsters that managed to stand up and walk along the coastline repeatedly broke down into molecules before taking a few steps.

At the same time, I borrowed the power of another god.

‘God of magic!’

When I conjured even more divine power, a white star bloomed on the sea.

It was merely a small flash at first, but it gradually became larger, soon distorting the space.

The heat it was emitting was so terrible that no one existing in the realm, living or nonliving, could handle it.

[Supernova (Rank: EX)]!

The light element spell returned to the world by the god that regained her leg exploded.

Boosh!

The red sea started to boil.

The liquid jumped wild and melted into a blur, and then even the steam burned.

The sea surface was pushed flat as if a giant had pressed it with a round foot, and eventually, the floor was revealed.

Screeeeech!

Clinging on closely to the ground was a monster created by the cohesion of divine power.

The tentacle-shaped creature, which was polluting the seawater by spraying the holy water of a fallen, was full of traces left by the god of the mind.

The red sea that was protecting the body evaporated, and the hellish heat and radiation struck it from right on top of it.

The monster struggled nonstop.

Screech!

With a shriek of death-

Boosh!

It burst into flames.