Chapter 471: Star, Identity Establishment (9)

Chapter 471: Star, Identity Establishment (9)

Swoosh, swoosh―!

Rattle, rattle!

While sprinting, Chang-Sun glanced back as he heard the sounds of metal chains flying through the air.

[A ‘Wind Chain’ is coming for you!]

Tomte was reaching out for Chang-Sun, his bloodshot eyes filled with animosity. As a Celestial who controlled wind, he had decided to materialize wind into a chain and tie down Chang-Sun.

‘He’s troublesome,’ Chang-Sun thought sincerely. From beginning to end, Tomte had impeded him a lot. ‘His Divine Class seems higher. Is it because of the Celestial Cannibalism earlier?’

The problem was that Chang-Sun could not think lightly of Tomte’s wind chain now. He had noticed Tomte eating the heart of his follower, but it looked as if Tomte had consumed many more hearts afterward.

While Celestial Cannibalism was the fastest way to become stronger in a very short period, the one who performed it would also end up consuming a lot of unrefined divine power, which could result in severe side effects. However, Tomte did not seem to care about that one bit.

Clang, clang, clang!

Although the four slayer swords quickly flew around and parried away the wind chains, the wind chain divided into several strands and flew at Chang-Sun again. In the end, Chang-Sun was sent back after almost arriving at the hole.

Claaaang!

That was because Tomte’s wind chain broke through the four slayer swords’ defenses and was about to grab Chang-Sun’s ankle. In response, he deflected the chain by striking it as hard as he could with his [Twilight Spear].

However, the rebound was quite severe, so Chang-Sun was pushed back a great distance, landing on a boulder at the edge of the blazefall’s left side. It was the same for Tomte. After landing on each boulder, the two people glared at each other for a long time.

“You were born vermin, so you should live like vermin and die alone...! How dare you stand in my way? Do you have any idea what you’re doing right now?!” Tomte yelled.

Rumble!

Thunderclaps accompanied Tomte’s every furious word, shaking the entire blazefall. He continued, “I’ve waited for eternity! I’ve gone through boring samsara hundreds of times for this chance! And I’m finally about to seize it, so how dare you try to snatch that away from me?”

Tomte believed that Chang-Sun was unworthy of this chance, and that the Past Life Castle belonged to the past reincarnations and them only, so Chang-Sun had no right to covet it. His thoughts remained the same even on the brink of their soul’s union.

“So?” Chang-Sun replied with a cold smile, holding up his [Twilight Spear].

“What...?”

“So what?”

“You fucking bastard!” Tomte cursed.

“You also know that I’m the closest one to having our soul united, and you failed. And yet, you continued to struggle like this. Is it because of your lingering feelings, or are you just stupid?”

“I’ll rip that arrogant mouth of yours off first!”

Tomte was very uncomfortable with the word ‘failure’. He was always aware of it, but never wanted to admit it, so he did not want to fail anymore.

Whoooosh―!

The storm around Tomte intensified, and the color of his chains, which were flying along the wind, grew more vivid. The chains also multiplied enough to block the blazefall from Chang-Sun’s view.

Rattle!

Tomte grabbed the chains in one hand and swung them hard toward the blazefall, not Chang-Sun.

Boooom!

As a result of the attack, which Chang-Sun had never expected, the blazefall splashed everywhere and created a fog of fire.

“Arghhhhh!”

“Urrrgh! Eyes! My eeeeyes!”

All the nearby past reincarnations were swept away, suffering from soul-burning pain. On the other hand, Chang-Sun quickly withdrew his lightning energy and covered himself with diamond qi.

· Quest Failure Penalty: Mind Incarceration.

· Quest Reward: ‘Identity Search IV’.

‘An ocean of subconsciousness... Is this where Balor swam in?’ Chang-Sun thought, recalling Balor’s memory.

‘He submerged himself deep into our unconsciousness over and over... and met someone.’

After facing someone colossal, Balor had been helplessly killed before he could put up a fight, like a fly struck by a giant flyswatter. And the energy had been released from...

‘Hsan.’ Chang-Sun’s eyes gleamed coldly. ‘It was Hsan.’

Hsan was supposed to exist outside Eros, so Chang-Sun did not know how he was connected to Hsan. He also had no idea how this ocean of subconsciousness worked. Even with omniscience, there were too many secrets to souls, so it would not actually be strange if Hsan was living in Chang-Sun’s ocean of subconsciousness, or if Hsan was connected to the ocean in some way. The issue was...

‘Aren’t I heading to meet Perkwunos?’

Chang-Sun began to wonder if the person whom he had believed to be Hsan was actually Perkwunos. It was not far-fetched to think that Perkwunos had taken Balor out for fear of some secrets being exposed. However, if Hsan was really the one who had killed Balor and Chang-Sun was truly on his way to meet Perkwunos, how were Hsan and Perkwunos related?

‘I’ll find out once I cross this place.’

The thoughts in Chang-Sun’s head were chaotic, but he felt that he was going to find out everything once he crossed the ocean. Putting aside his other thoughts, he took a look around in search of the door; however, maintaining his identity was already challenging in and of itself in a place where he could feel nothing. Searching for something was much harder, so Chang-Sun pondered what different approaches he could take. Just then...

‘No, why am I limiting myself to me?’ Chang-Sun wondered.

Before he was Lee Chang-Sun, he had been ‘Divine Twilight’, Balor, the two guards, Tanis Loberial, and the other past reincarnations. In other words, he had too many identities and could not be defined by only one identity.

While Bel-Marduk had separated his past reincarnations to recover his complete self, Chang-Sun was aiming to harmonize with his past reincarnations. That had to mean that this ocean of subconsciousness was part of his soul and himself. Perhaps the true goal of Perkwunos’ trial was conquering and controlling this place.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...!

With that thought, Chang-Sun closed his eyes to sense the subconscious ocean.

‘Supposing that the reason why I can’t feel anything else is that my senses have been dulled by the ocean, I’ll be able to feel something in this ocean at least.’

Chang-Sun concentrated on secluding himself from the subconscious ocean, as if he alone existed in this place. After successfully separating himself, he slowly expanded the vessel named Lee Chang-Sun and put the subconscious ocean inside it.

Chang-Sun could now feel ocean waves and his dormant senses. By connecting his findings like a spiderweb... Chang-Sun focused on containing the subconscious ocean. Fortunately, it looked as if he did not have to worry about losing his identity because he expanded his vessel. After using omnipotence and omniscience, the durability of Chang-Sun’s Divine Class was much sturdier than before, so it seemed that it was possible to expand his vessel infinitely. It was the state of Entau?erung[1].

[You have obtained an insight!]

[You have understood some of your soul’s secrets, obtaining gnosis.]

[Your Divine Class has increased!]

[Your Divine Class has increased!]

...

After who knew how many hours passed while Chang-Sun embraced oceans of subconsciousness... he slowly opened his eyes. ‘My ocean is very big.’

He had to have embraced a large part of his subconscious ocean, which was already large enough to encompass those of several other people, but his ocean extended without end. However, he could tell that it was time to meet the person who had been watching him ever since he first entered the ocean.

“Unveil,” Chang-Sun commanded using [Wordwielding]...

The dark ocean of subconsciousness shook, then parted to either side like a curtain opening up. It was faint, but something beyond the ocean was revealed. Someone enormous was smiling faintly in Chang-Sun’s direction.

『I was going to leave after watching for a moment... I didn’t expect to be detected first. But it feels better than I expected.』

It was impossible for Chang-Sun to accurately assess the person’s Divine Class, but it belonged to a top-class Outer Celestial at least. Chang-Sun could feel his mind being befuddled by the person’s every word, so he used [Wordwielding] to continue the conversation. He said, “You’re Hsan.”

In response, he heard the person’s quiet laughter.

『That is right.』

1. This term is literally translated as ‘externalization’ or ‘alienation’ in English. By externalizing a being or one’s nature inside oneself, the person defines it as something foreign or conflicting with oneself. The term was coined by Hegel. ☜