Chapter 114

“Activate Divine Weapon. Excalibur.”

Boom!

Lightning struck. It flew horizontally, so it would be more accurate to say that it was shot out, rather than that it fell. The scene reflected the meaning of the sword’s name; [Intense Lightning]. The large lightning strike headed straight towards Sungmuk. It was unavoidable, and as for the power of the strike…

Sss…

Where Sungmuk had stood, there remained only black smoke. The result was instantaneous death. The sight of Sungmuk, who had taken the lives of countless users, falling from a single attack shocked the users.

“Even Sungmuk, who can use the Body Strengthening Self Defense Technique, couldn’t withstand that single blow…”

“How much magic power did that attack contain… w-wait… nine million Tetra?!”

“Wait, what sort of magic power inner circuitry allows nearly a billion Tetra to be used in one instance?! Even if you imbued an object with magic power for a whole month, you would still only be able to store about ten thousand Tentra before your inner circuitry burned up, right?!”

Disregarding the exasperated users, Arthur stomped on the ground and shot out like a bullet. His target was Mahashah, who was reaching for the Guardian Stone in the middle of the crumbling Guardian Tower.

“Oho. Such a gifted child. I would have liked to have a conversation with you if this were normal times, but I’m a bit busy today.”

Mahashah sent out one of the Fantasy Stones, which had been revolving around her to prevent any users from getting near her. The Fantasy Stone’s speed was far beyond the speed of sound… but at the same time, Ascalon shot forward like an arrow.

“Fly, Dragon Piercing!”

Boom!

Ascalon and the Fantasy Stone collided, sending out a tremendous shockwave across the city square. Arthur zipped through the air with his divine weapon, Excalibur, in hand. Arthur couldn’t use Excalibur’s ultimate attack skill, Intense Lighting, because he had just used it. Even still, Excalibur was an excellent blade.

“Cut through, Hundred Thunder.”

The Bursting Sword Light’s Second Step, Hundred Thunder, burst out. The attack consisted of a hundred strikes that occurred almost instantaneously. Unlike the first step, Thousand Light, which was in the form of a flat plane, this second attack was in the form of lines; hundreds of lines of light that flew out and collided against Mahashah’s barrier.

Boom!

It was a powerful attack. Cruze’s full force bullet had only been able to go through two of the seven rainbow barriers, but Arthur’s attack went through four. Only the seventh and final remaining barrier, the violet-colored barrier, remained. However, the seventh barrier’s stability was as precarious as a candle in the wind. Arthur shot forward thunderously from mid-air and shouted,

“Operate Master Skill. I call upon you! Answer! Dragon…”

“Oh, I won’t let you.”

Mahashah used her index finger to press against the bridge of Arthur’s nose. Arthur couldn’t understand what had happened. He saw Mahashah still standing in the distance… but another Mahashah had somehow appeared right in front of him.

Once Mahashah placed her thumb, which had been accumulating her power, on her index finger…

Bam!

Arthur’s body flew back tens of meters with a roar, as if he were shot out of a cannon. Mahashah’s counterattack was exceptionally effective because she had timed it perfectly, right as Arthur had launched his full force attack. Arthur’s nasal bone was crushed, and his innards were turned to mush, which immediately placed Arthur into a dying condition. Though he could have recovered using the magic-powered items and potions he had brought with him, the blow he sustained was too widespread to recover everything at once. It was going to be impossible for Arthur to recover before Mahashah touched the Guardian Stone.

“Finally, no one to disrupt me.”

Of course, even at this moment, there were thousands of users who were rushing to stop her, but no one could surpass the Fantasy Stones that were hovering and revolving around Mahashah. Just as Mahashah was about to touch the Guardian Stone… a burning-armor knight appeared.

Whoosh!!!

The knight’s sudden appearance was followed by a tremendous, sweltering heat. Mahashah and the gathered users all saw this… but neither her nor the users knew if this figure was a user or an NPC.

“W-what is that?”

“Ugh… so hot!”

At a glance, one could make out the knight’s silver-colored armor. His entire body was covered with this full-plated armor. Moreover, the plate armor’s material was…

“Whoa, is that all Mithril?”

“I’ve seen that armor at the weaponry… dang, that guy bought the entire set? Does that guy have money to burn?!”

Not caring about the user’s exasperated cries, the knight with burning armor strode forward in front of Mahashah and blocked her path. The gathered users tried to identify the user ID that was floating above his head, but they couldn’t make it out because of the flames that covered his entire body.

“You… this magic power…” Mahashah spoke as she looked at the figure and narrowed her eyes.

However, the knight with the burning armor didn’t offer a response. Instead, he placed both of his fists against each other.

“Go.”

He spoke in a low voice. Soon, he became a blazing flame that soon turned into a sun.

/Burning Prominence of Apollon!/

His gathered magic power slammed squarely against Mahashah’s chest. Mahashah was a great mage, skillful enough to disperse an opponent’s magic power and reinstate it back to nature regardless of how great their power was. Unfortunately for her, however, this situation proved uniquely challenging. She had already strained herself to reduce the numbers of the first group of guards who attacked her, and the four Fantasy Stones, which were her main weapons, were preoccupied with holding back the tens of thousands of users approaching her from all sides. In addition, the magic system contained in the flames emitted by the burning-armor knight wasn’t something she could scoff at.

Boom!

With a deafening noise, Mahashah’s body shot up into the sky. Of course, sending her into the air was not a permanent solution. As a great mage, Mahashah was able to fly indefinitely in the air; hence, she could stay high up in the air, fly across the sky, and carpet bomb the users with her ultimate spells. If she did this, no matter how many users there were, they wouldn’t be able to resist, and would be rendered completely helpless.

However, the Guardian Tower was already destroyed, and the world of DIO was in the process of shutting down. The burning-armor knight’s main objective was to get her far away from the Guardian Stone, not to defeat her.

Crack!

Another crack formed in the sky. Like cracks that formed on a frozen lake, more and more clear cracks appeared in the sky, branching across the entire skyline. The entire scene looked so foreign and unbelievable that many users felt as if they were witnessing the end of the world.

“Hmm… I was too late. Well, it’s not like I have some sort of vendetta against you all, so I’ll stop here. If the developers get angry and start to intervene, it’ll become difficult for me as well.”

Mahashah looked at Merlin with a sad expression, as if she wanted to say something. At that moment, some text appeared in front of every user’s eyes.

/The Guardian Tower has been destroyed./

/The server will be forcefully shut down./

Then, the world became dark.

***

Knock. Knock.

“Come in.”

The door opened. A tall, slim, black-haired beauty walked through the door. Surrounded by a halo-like effect with a confident expression on her face,, she was bound to turn heads wherever she went, but the man in the room did not even look her way. With hair so red that it seemed it could be set ablaze any moment, the man was comfortably seated in a soft-looking chair.

“It’s been a while, teacher.”

“Yes, it has. About fifteen-hundred years, no?”

Hearing his casual reply, she narrowed her eyes.

“… It hasn’t been that long. It’s only been a little over ten years.”

“Is that right? I’ve been in a place where the flow of time is incredibly condensed, so I must have lost track of time.”

Continuing to speak nonchalantly, he opened his eyes. His eyes were as clear as a newborn baby’s, shining softly, but they were also filled with unimaginable knowledge and wisdom. If one lacked the willpower, one would lose their sense of consciousness just by looking into his eyes.

“Where did you go off to without a word?”

“Hmm, I wonder.”

The way he was speaking, it seemed he was on the verge of falling asleep at any moment. Though he was looking at the woman, his sight seemed set on something much further away.

“Teacher… no… Cain. Are you alright?”

“Of course.”

Soon, Cain’s eyes gained focus. Then, he suddenly asked,

“Jenica, do you know what exists beyond this world?”

“I don’t really like philosophical questions.”

“It’s not a philosophical question. I’m asking the question verbatim. In other words… do you know what exists outside the universe?”

“Nothing, of course.”

She responded without a shred of doubt in her voice. This was her reality, a conclusion she had reached after realizing the truth of the universe and this world. To her knowledge, nothing but empty space, nothingness, existed outside of the universe.

In the beginning, the world was nothing. Nothing existed. It wasn’t an empty space; there was truly nothing. From this space appeared [The Singular Person], the creation god who created this vast, sprawling world when it threw its soul into the nothingness.

“But what if there is something beyond this universe?”

“What are you talking about…”

She scoffed at his illogical words, but Cain continued speaking.

“Four-hundred years ago, the representatives of our Six Worlds came to an agreement and eliminated Asura, who ruled over this world. This is what we desired and wanted, but it was also what [The Singular Person] wanted. From the start, without its approval, we would have never been able to go against Asura, who possessed absolute authority. Of course, we came to the decision of our own free will… but I always sensed the presence of [The Singular Person] everywhere.”

Cain was talking about the creator, a being who created the world but had never expressed its will since. There was no way to approach this being, nor was it detectable, but it was certain that the transcendental being’s will existed.

However, hearing Cain’s words, Jenica frowned.

“What are you trying to say?”

An astronomical amount of time had passed since the world was created, but the creator had never expressed its will directly since. Despite this, of course, there were countless believers in the world who worshipped and followed the god of creation. There were even some transcendent beings among the worshippers. However, their belief was just like the belief in gods that humans had on Earth: unfounded, believing blindly without knowing god’s true desires or meaning. Indeed, such unfounded faith and belief in a god that no one – even the god one believes in – had asked for would inevitably distort one’s perception of reality and cause one to lose any sense of direction or purpose.

“Soon… a drastic change will happen. The fallout from that change will be immense, but it must happen. Just like in the past, when Asura was eliminated.”

Cain spoke in a low, calm voice. His serious demeanor was completely different from the happy and upbeat attitude he had his entire life. Jenica soon asked,

“What will change?”

“Unfortunately, I can’t tell you. It’s not that I don’t trust you; it’s because it’ll become set in stone in this world once I speak it.”

Of course, any words uttered by Cain, the god of magic, were not the kind of things that could be identified and collected, even if one had the highest security clearance to the Akashic system. He was a top-level god who could perfectly hide his existence. Jenica concluded that if even Cain could not outwardly verbalize something, lest his words be heard, then there must be some being with transcendental powers who was opposing her teacher.

“… Cain, who dares to be your enemy?”

“You’re very intelligent, my disciple.”

Cain smiled brightly. However, like all mortals who lived their lives in the face of fate, Jenica couldn’t help but feel a sense of nervousness about the future.