Chapter 191

Final Battle (2)

The Union had already sent a spy to the Adgons’ dimension for reconnaissance several times and seemed to have attempted to kidnap the revelator as well.

“Is that possible?”

If they couldn’t even use the dungeon Gate, the remaining means would have been the Leap Ticket.

“Didn’t you say there was a distortion field all over the planet?”

It had contradicted what she just said.

Then Bachurka explained the situation to me.

“Even distortion fields cannot affect what’s beyond the atmosphere.”

“Oh, could it be?”

“Yes, we’ve transmitted them to the outskirts of the planet, not inside of it.”

They apparently sought to send them outside and then dropping onto the planet.

However, the Adgons had also expected such a method, and no one had ever penetrated their anti-air defensive fortification.

“However, we thought that it would be possible for Mr. Seo Jin-Wook, hence the request for your help.”

The glances overflowing with anticipation and nervousness struck me. They, too, were desperate for the war. The situation had reached a point where regardless of the true purpose of Adgons, defeat was completely unacceptable.

I answered after a short thought.

“Alright, I’ll give it a try.”

Only then did an ambiance of relief spread.

Besides the realistic judgment that there was no one else who could do it apart from me, there was one more reason why I accepted it.

It was because I had a strong hunch.

If the revelator was at the height of the Adgon power, wouldn’t he have taken the role of contacting the “Administrator” of the System?

*

Paht!

The dark universe-

From the Adgon dimension’s outer space, as I stepped out of the [Door of Hope], I looked down at the planet below my feet.

It was an environment where there was no handful of oxygen, and no medium existed, and of course, life was not viable, but I was in a state of tranquility. My lungs and intestines didn’t inflate, and the fluid in my eyes didn’t evaporate.

I felt as if my soul, as well as my body, had evolved over several stages when the gods granted me their blessings.

‘Let’s head down.’

Across the silent space, I fell as if to glide.

Approaching the Adgons’ mother planet, I vividly saw the shield that protected it. I was surprised again by such a sight.

‘How much Mana Core are they even consuming?’

It wasn’t enough for them to wrap the entire planet with the distortion field. They even spread out a barrier in the scale of a whole world. An astronomical amount of Mana was certainly being spent, and the Core that served as the fuel must’ve been deployed like a flood.

After confirming it with my own eyes, I was convinced. It wasn’t an amount that could be obtained from dungeon exploration alone.

‘It’s not even a common barrier. I’ve never seen anything like this before.’

When crossing the dimension with the [Door of Hope], there was a step to enter the exact physical coordinates before going to the destination. That Imperial Heritage was an item equipped with more accurate and spying functions than any other satellite.

But when I tried it on their home territory, it didn’t work. The message embedded in the item told me that I couldn’t see through the planet I specified in that dimension.

It was strange.

It took time for even Mercadius on Earth to notice the [Door of Hope]. But their home was preventing espionage itself.

‘Here it is.’

However, no matter how great the barrier was, it couldn’t escape the fact that Mana formed it.

I looked at the colossal and powerful barrier that other Awakened beings might have experienced difficulties with through [The Successor’s Eyes]. And I discovered a structural weakness.

‘This vast barrier can’t be made up of only one layer of energy shroud.’

In other words, just like an armor connected with several iron plates, the barrier was also conjoined by multiple layers. What I was looking for was the joint, the part where solidity relatively weakened.

‘I’m penetrating through it!’

The atmosphere was still thin, disallowing sound from resonating.

The barrier covering the planet was torn following the texture of the Holy Sword I wielded. I shed a cunning flow of Mana to prevent anyone from noticing and avoid the Adgons flying towards me in fright.

I entered their central territory with ease.

‘The location of the palace where the revelator stays is…’

I flew along the coordinates embedded in my head while remaining in a state that bypassed the Adgon civilization’s visual observation and magic detection. The chaotic atmosphere, storm, and thunderstorms were no obstacles, either. Soon enough, the place that I had finally arrived through the last layer of clouds-

“…?!”

I froze when I saw the scene before me.

‘What’s that?’

It wasn’t much different in appearance from the “Palace of the Revelator” that the Adgon POW stated. I was surprised because I could see even the elements nobody else could.

‘What kind of Mana is-!’

In the eyes of ordinary beings without [The Successor’s Eyes], it was just a complex of high-rise buildings packed together. It might’ve seemed more like a fortress than a palace due to its rugged design and the weapons deployed across its perimeter.

But in my eyes, I saw the enormous amount of Mana condensed in the structure as well.

‘It’s blinding.’

Torrents of blue light boiled and condensed to their limit. The brilliance spread from the depths of the palace and illuminated the entire place. A bright wave was flowing, one that couldn’t be expressed in any color present in the material world.

There were pipes corresponding to the “distribution network,” extending to parts of the city around the palace, with Mana constantly coursing through them like water.

‘Is that place supplying Mana for the distortion field and barrier deployed around the entire planet? It means that this is both a spiritual leader’s residence and a power plant, right?’

Based on common sense alone, no dimension in the universe would make the command’s residence a power plant.

‘There must be a reason for them to do this.’

I entered the palace, drawing out my divine power, but no alarms went off.

What made things hard was that no blueprints had been secured in advance. The captured Adgon naturally didn’t carry such a thing.

I headed down, looking at every nook and cranny with Penetration. No matter how thoroughly protected the place was by the anti-magic barrier system, it was helpless against the intervention of the power of Igras-Sho. Adgon magic collapsed in front of the power that the master of all magic had granted.

Hence, I was allowed to advance without being seen by anyone. I didn’t know which place the revelator was staying in, but I had to confirm my suspicions since I had come that far.

‘This tremendous Mana is all erupting from underground.’

That was where the most powerful barriers were concentrated, and the flow’s source that was supplying Mana on a planetary scale was also most likely stationed there.

‘I should start my investigation below the palace.’

After arriving underground, I was yet again surprised by another object.

It was a vast void that couldn’t be built without magic. The structure held out without collapsing even though not a single pillar was present in the vast space.

And in the middle, there was a light source emitting a bloody hue.

‘Red Gate!’

The channel that led the residents of the void, the butchers that brutally murdered the mortals, into the material world.

‘Why is that here?’

It’s not just the location that was strange. The Red Gate was designed to disappear naturally after the monster of the void popped out. Yet the one in front of me stayed open like a normal dungeon Gate or a fixed passageway.

And looking at it, I felt like my cornea was going to burn due to its brightness. However, it wasn’t because of the red light of the Red Gate.

An explosive torrent of Mana…

The enormous flow I saw from the exterior of the palace was originating from that Gate.

‘Are they being supplied an enormous amount of Mana by the Red Gate? And they’re using it for war?’

The sight deviated from my complete common sense.

While I was baffled by what I was witnessing, the door I had sneaked into opened again, and a group of Adgons entered the vast underground square. They didn’t find me since I maintained perfect concealment. Awakened beings surrounded the old Adgon in the center as if they were protecting him.

The attire and the artifacts all over the body of the escorted person caught my attention.

I crosschecked it in my head, matching the information I obtained in advance.

‘He’s the “Revelator.”‘

Contrary to expectations, he wasn’t a great high-level Awakened.

They stood in front of the Red Gate with a calm mien. That was enough to tell me that its existence wasn’t out of the ordinary for them.

‘It doesn’t seem that the Gate has just opened recently. How long has it been in that state?’

The Revelator began to speak as he looked at the red glow.

“The audience is going to take quite a while this time. Come back to meet me tomorrow.”

The Adgon’s guards bowed deeply, expressing obedience. They then left the man alone and went outside as ordered.

After they all disappeared, the Revelator threw a heavy gaze into the Red Gate.

And then-

‘!’

‘Is he crazy?’

I almost couldn’t stop myself from blurting out those words.

The Revelator was moving toward the Red Gate- To a place full of monsters that hated mortals.

He took a step into the red wave and got sucked into it. The bloody-hued flash swallowed up his entire body.

I was once again left alone in the underground square.

‘What should I do?’

The contemplation didn’t last long.

‘An audience?’

Who would the pinnacle of the Adgon political System look up to?

Couldn’t it be the god-like entity that they worshipped?

Furthermore, as soon as the Revelator disappeared into the red Gate, the four gods connected to me began to convey their will as if they were pushing my back.

They wanted me to follow him, almost as if they had something that they wanted in there.

Feeling sacred power protecting my body, I also stepped inside the red door with a heavy echo.

*

When I first heard the word “void,” what I expected was an empty space.

No, it couldn’t be empty since it had to contain exiled gods and numerous monsters waiting to invade the material world.

However, what I saw when I actually came into it was nothing like what I expected.

‘What a mess!’

It was chaos.

I felt like I was in the stomach of a giant monster. A whirlpool of concepts and existence. Was that what the world before the material world, the mythical era, would have been like?

‘!’

The deity inside me denied such an idea.

That wasn’t it.

When the gods were complete, the mythical era was a dimension where materials and concepts weren’t separated, but it wasn’t such a cruel world filled with malice either.

I went along the path with movements that couldn’t be distinguished if I was swimming for flying. There was a clearly continuing track in the place where everything had collapsed.

The Revelator was moving along the straight line penetrating the space without noticing that I was tracking him from behind.

The path alone kept order amid the chaos.

I recognized the identity of it.

‘It’s like a virtual dimension.’

The closest thing I had ever experienced to it was…

‘Ah.’

… The dark space where the Awakened beings were summoned when they cleared the dungeon and chose additional rewards or faced the Ministry Spirit. It wasn’t an entirely whole dimension, but it’s an area that’s completely separated from the external dimension. It was similar to that place.

‘That’s why they don’t get eaten or mixed up in the void and instead can maintain their form. It’s due to the nature of the separation from the outside world.’

That allowed the Revelator to move in a certain direction without being swept away by the void.

Meanwhile, as I went deeper, I felt the darkness that composed the dimension grow stronger as well. The flow of Mana, which was being transmitted to the Adgon, also intensified.

Once again, something unexpected happened while I tried to figure out what the hell would be at the end of the path.

The characteristics of the void, where ideas and materials weren’t completely separated, affected everything around it. According to the dragons’ expression that Euclid told me at the Tower of Choice, it showed off its presence ‘with emotions flowing like mud and logic gaining mass.’

As I got closer to the destination, I saw a clear memory of the entity that was waiting there, rolling everywhere.

Despite isolating it in a virtual dimension, it seemed that it had been there for so long that it had been partially fused into the void.

Thanks to him, I witnessed a memory that wasn’t mine.

It belonged to a Spirit created long ago to manage the System.

‘I can’t understand this!’

My eyes opened wide. At that moment, my hypothesis that I doubted came true.

‘Why did the previous generation’s successors lock up the “Administrator” in here? In the dimension of exiled gods and monsters, no less!’

As if to answer my query, a memory began to unravel like a thread and seeped into my mind.