Deity Transformation? (1)
“Mok Saheon?”
At Jin Somyeong’s murmur, the Nascent Soul cultivators all jerked upright. They stared past the horizon, brows knitting tightly.
“Something feels a little off... but it does seem to be Mok Dou.”
The figure hurtling toward them at terrifying speed was, in the truest sense, half human and half insect.
His entire body—not just his upper half—was sheathed in a hard carapace, a sight so grotesque it made the skin crawl.
If not for the face still left somewhat intact, they might not have been able to tell whether it was Mok Saheon or a Chunggapjob at all.
“Just what happened to him...? I don’t know what sort of mess he went through, but I can’t imagine where the others are if he came back alone.”
“Wait. That thing on his shoulder—are those supposed to be arms?”
They were still staring in horror at Mok Saheon’s four insect-like arms when he, now close enough to make out clearly with the naked eye, pointed a finger in their direction.
In that instant, the air itself began to seethe. An ominous current rippled through the sky, and the black clouds above split apart.
Ten radiant pillars of light dropped straight down.
The magnificent sight, like divine punishment made manifest, sent the pupils of the Nascent Soul cultivators shrinking.
“...!”
No one present was foolish enough to let their guard down in such an absurd situation. They were all on edge already, and yet none of them managed to react.
The reason was simple.
The descending pillars of light were far too fast.
In a world that seemed to crawl to a stop, the only one who moved was Jin Somyeong. He drove off the ground and leapt into the air, slashing his sword toward the falling beam.
Clang—!
The blade shuddered so violently it seemed on the verge of snapping.
He let the sword that had been knocked askew spin gently in his grip, smoothly bleeding off the recoil—and then, all at once, he understood.
This is...
It was far too similar to the beams of light he had faced countless times through a thousand bouts against the wooden puppet.
The same technique, unleashed by an entirely different existence.
The moment he recognized that fact, the true nature of the pillars of light became clear.
So he just compressed raw spell power and fired it off?
Both the pillars now falling and the beams the wooden puppet had fired were not some especially elaborate technique. They were simply massive amounts of magical power compressed and launched like bullets.
No wonder. He had thought it was strange that such a highly versatile spell existed. At last, the mystery was solved.
Unbelievable.
The being suspected of having taken over Mok Saheon’s body had fired a total of ten pillars of light.
Each one held a terrifying concentration of power enough to make the soul quiver.
Crack—crack—crack!
Starting with the first beam he deflected, he managed to knock away five of them in total.
It was an excellent showing, considering he had blocked five before the others could even react, but that was his limit.
Leaving aside Condensing Light to Extinguish Dust and Blood Wings, which had to be used sparingly, he had already fought at full strength—and still he hadn’t been able to block them all.
While he was recovering the arm muscles numbed by the recoil, the remaining five pillars of light came crashing down toward the teleportation array.
BOOOOM!
The barrier guarding the array trembled violently once, then shattered like a pane of glass.
A barrier that had endured the spell bombardment of the Chunggapjob had not lasted even a moment against this. The destructive force packed into those beams was obvious at a glance.
Still, perhaps because the barrier had bought even that little time, the frozen Nascent Soul cultivators finally moved. Each of them poured magical power into their spiritual treasures and rose to meet the pillars.
Just as their multicolored spells surged upward and collided head-on with the beams of light—
“Gah!”
A ghastly scene unfolded.
Those struck only by the edge of a pillar were the lucky ones. They coughed up blood and rolled across the ground; that was all.
Those unlucky enough to block one head-on...
literally vanished.
Five Nascent Soul cultivators died to a single casual strike, thrown out as if to test the waters.
A power so overwhelming it made the body shudder.
“D-Deity Transformation?”
At the horrified whisper, the eyes of the survivors widened until they seemed ready to split.
“We need to get out now!”
The fear that had begun with one person spread in an instant.
“Mok Dou, pull yourself together! Why are you attacking us?!”
“He’s already been taken over! Can’t you see that?!”
The Nascent Soul cultivators shouted frantically, but their movements were brisk and disciplined. No one waited for orders; they moved as one.
Each of them tore formation-related artifacts from their storage pouches to replace the shattered barrier, while scattering extreme-grade spirit stones to trigger the teleportation array.
By then, for reasons they didn’t understand, the Chunggapjob that had been trembling all over in confusion suddenly spread their wings and scattered at incredible speed.
Their movements were like a flock of sheep fleeing before a predator.
It would have been far better if they had attacked together with Mok Saheon, so why were they running?
The answer came quickly.
Mok Saheon, expressionless as he drove another pillar of light downward, turned his gaze toward the Chunggapjob.
The moment he stretched out a hand and grasped at empty air, the fleeing insects froze in place with a dull flash of light. They thrashed helplessly, like insects pinned in midair.
“Keeeeee!”
After the scream soaked in terror, a violent whirl began in Mok Saheon’s mouth, and the Chunggapjob were sucked in like smoke.
“...He ate them?”
It was a horrifying sight.
He was hostile to both races? Whose side was he even on?
His actions were so inconsistent that there was no way to tell whether he was human or Chunggapjob.
One thing, however, was certain: the situation was bad.
Each time he devoured a Chunggapjob, the aura he released multiplied at an exponential rate.
He had long since surpassed the Great Circle of the Nascent Soul stage and was advancing into some unfathomable realm.
Was he truly some legendary Deity Transformation expert?
Jin Somyeong narrowed his eyes. He was trying his best to remain calm and assess the enemy when—
“It’s ready!”
“Hurry!”
There was no need to keep urging them. The surviving Nascent Soul cultivators hastily activated the teleportation array.
WOOOM!
The instant radiant light burst up from the array, another pillar of light descended from the sky.
Hope filled every face.
Please—let the teleportation array activate before the beam lands.
—!
Right before the vertically plunging pillar touched down, in that hair’s-breadth instant...
Jin Somyeong, who had been silently watching the situation for reasons no one could understand, took a step back from the teleportation array.
“W-Why...?”
Before Du Geumbo could even finish in shock, the Nascent Soul cultivators were swallowed by the radiance surging from the array and disappeared.
As the noisy people vanished, silence settled over the place.
Thunk—Jin Somyeong lightly sprang forward, racing straight toward the pillar of light that was descending like heavenly punishment. As he did, a question rose in his mind.
Why didn’t I leave?
Even he couldn’t fully explain it. Why had he stayed behind instead of escaping Paeseongdojang?
Was it to buy the others time to flee? Of course not.
It was simply that...
there was a true powerhouse standing right in front of him, and his feet refused to move.
It was an utterly unreasonable decision. He was taking a risk just because he wanted to fight a strong opponent?
And yet—look.
Radiance surged along the edge of his blade.
The pure white light so intense it could blind a man just by looking at it rippled like waves along the sword’s body.
Ildogwangcheon.
Proof that his heart desired this.
Before he even realized that his entire body had become as light as a feather, he swung the sword on instinct.
From left to right.
As the blade cut a diagonal line and knocked back the pillar of light, he finally understood what had changed.
It’s light.
There was no recoil. The moment the sword wrapped in Ildogwangcheon met the beam, even that pillar of light, compressed from an enormous magical force, lost its strength.
The instant it touched the blade, it vanished without a sound, as though the entire scene had been erased along with it.
Without the recoil interfering with his movements, everything felt effortless. He could accelerate endlessly.
CRAAACK!
He unleashed lightning movement. Wrapped in lightning, he cut down every single descending pillar of light.
Half-dazed by the incomprehensible power of the pure white light that was Ildogwangcheon, he had barely time to catch his breath before the third assault began.
Huh.
The first volley had been ten pillars of light, but by the third, there were nearly forty.
The endless increase in their number left no room not to wonder.
How much magical power does he actually have?
Was he really a Deity Transformation expert? No, even if he was, it still didn’t make sense.
What was the normal reason to use spells in the first place?
To expend magical power as efficiently as possible. No matter how much power one possessed, if it was thrown around like an idiot, depletion was the natural result.
And yet Mok Saheon was compressing his magical power into its raw form and raining it down like artillery, all without the barrage slowing in the slightest.
Even counting the power expended in just those three attacks, he had long since surpassed Great Circle Nascent Soul levels.
His magical power can’t be infinite.
If Jin Somyeong’s own magical power was a puddle formed by rainwater, then the opponent’s was a lake so vast it could be seen from the sky.
Still, this was a problem.
He was bombarding the one and only escape route—the teleportation array—so Jin Somyeong couldn’t dodge and had to block every attack one by one.
“...”
Watching the number of pillars swell to well over a hundred, he let out a short breath. With that single exhale, he burned away the tangled thoughts crowding his head.
He simply gave up on all of it.
Crash!
Ignoring the raining pillars of light, he charged straight through them.
He stopped paying attention to the escape route and decided to focus only on killing his opponent.
There’ll be another way out.
He would think about it after the killing was done.
If he had to, he could comb through the entire desert and find a teleportation array that still worked.
BOOOOM!
A pillar of light grazed his shoulder and exploded. He left the teleportation array behind, already ruined beyond repair, and closed the distance.
Gripping his sword as sword aura and Ildogwangcheon fused together and burst forth in brilliant radiance,
he gathered every shred of his focus and brought it down in a single slash.
Just before the blurred afterimage of the blade could split open Mok Saheon’s chest, Mok Saheon raised an arm as though to block it. Yet for an existence carrying such overwhelming power it was almost laughably slow to react.
The way his hand lifted, then faltered, was unnatural no matter how one looked at it.
Is Mok Saheon fighting for control of his own body?
He didn’t know the details, but he wasn’t about to waste an opportunity this good.
In the instant the enemy could only twitch his fingertips and fail to respond properly—
Schk!
Jin Somyeong swung the sword wrapped in a storm of light and cleaved through the forearm as well.
Though a fierce recoil buzzed through his wrist as he cut through bone, he still severed it.
It had been easier than expected. There was no time to feel pleased.
BOOM!
The severed arm swelled abruptly and exploded.
Thick smoke rose high enough to blot out his vision, then twisted in an instant like a braid and transformed into a spear, thrusting straight for his solar plexus.
Fsssh—!
The spear had closed to within arm’s reach before he could even think, and he answered on instinct.
The moment he swung with all his strength to strike it aside—
KRRRKKK!
Sparks flew with a harsh grinding scream.
His eyes widened. Since it had been formed from an exploding arm, the spear carried far more force than he had expected.
He took half a step back and twisted his waist and wrist.
Tiiing—!
He forcibly deflected the spear as it tried to shove past his sword and pierce his heart, sliding it off at an angle.
There was no time to breathe in relief.
The spear that had skimmed past his shoulder by a hair twitched as though alive, then became a rope.
...!
Watching it sharply change course and try to coil around his upper body, he immediately accelerated with lightning movement at full power.
Then he stirred the wind with Wind-Scouring Divine Scripture, shoved the rope back, and struck the air with his left palm.
He pushed against emptiness as though firing a blast palm, generating recoil. As he was flung backward to open the distance, he brought down the sword imbued with Ildogwangcheon on the rope.
The rope split cleanly and fell to the ground, but his vigilance lasted only a moment.
It’s already regenerated.
In the brief instant he had looked away, Mok Saheon had returned to normal. The severed arm had already grown back.
Had cutting off the arm been meaningless?
No. It had effect.
The opponent, half human and half insect, required the sacrifice of insects in order to regenerate.
As the severed arm was restored, the insects scattered in the sky died and dropped one by one, and many of the insect eggs piled thickly on the ground disappeared as well.
It was as if the whole ground had sunk lower. The entire secret realm felt cleaner.
As the grains of sand that had once formed a desert turned to powder and drifted away, the ceilings of buildings buried deep underground were revealed.
Kill him again and again,
and if he exhausted every egg spread across the ground, then eventually Jin Somyeong would win.
Or he could land a single hit with Condensing Light to Extinguish Dust, which carried the property of suppressing regeneration, and kill him in one blow.