Chapter 271
Chapter 271
Chapter 271
Final Battle (2)
A long diagonal line was carved into Berus' body.
'It hit!'
Of course, this single strike alone couldn't do anything decisive to Berus, but what mattered was that he had landed the first effective hit on the bastard.
"How dare you!"
As expected, it wasn't a fatal blow. Berus, his face twisted like a malevolent demon, swung his hand toward Rudian.
"Be torn to pieces!"
Massive claw-shaped blades grew from Berus' hand and slashed straight through Rudian.
"...Guh!"
As expected of Berus, even a casual strike instantly pierced through the barrier and severed Rudian's arm.
"Rudian!"
As Rudian, having lost his left arm instantly, was sent flying far away, Evangeline, who had been waiting in the rear, approached him.
"To lose an arm from a light strike and yet... dare to speak of victory!"
The moment Berus burst with rage and approached Rudian.
"Of course I never intended to handle you alone."
"Utopia."
With Evangeline's quiet words, Rudian's severed arm was instantly regenerated.
"......!"
Though Evangeline had lost the black world and even her link with spirits was severed, she had inherited the power of the Machine God Deus and could now use that ability.
"Troublesome bastard...!"
Berus' target immediately shifted from Rudian to Evangeline, but...
Somehow, Evangeline, who had been right in front of him, vanished without him even noticing.
"Now, baton touch."
And in the place where Evangeline had been, Elvin appeared before Berus with his bow drawn.
"What?"
"So the ability of transportation could be used in this way."
THWANG!
As soon as Elvin finished speaking and released his bowstring, a massive shockwave struck Berus' abdomen directly.
KUGUUGUNG!
"Quite... prepared, aren't you!"
Berus, who had been pushed far back, gritted his teeth and unleashed a radiance of light.
FLASH!
An ominous aura was clearly flowing.
The light that should have been pure white was mixed with ash and violet, presenting a scene like witnessing the end times.
"This is my power that finished off the avatar of destruction in the previous era."
The concentrated three-colored light began transforming into a spear-shaped inverse cross.
Divine Killing Aura. Ormazd
Berus' unique technique that he hadn't used since ascending to the position of chief god.
Since it hadn't been seen even in the Creator God's temple, that spear was certainly a power that placed a great burden even on Berus.
'That's dangerous.'
-I sense the power to erase causality! Be careful, Master!
"Pay the price for making me use this power!"
As a circular ring formed, the spear of light called Ormazd was shot toward Rudian.
'I can block it with the Reduction Technique!'
Rudian stared directly at the massive spearpoint flying toward him, his eyes widening.
'But my power is insufficient!'
The mandala of Shambhala bloomed, but it was a power that felt insufficient even with that.
"Why try to handle it alone?"
At that moment, Gray, who had been pounding the light spirit, joined shoulders with a blunt tone.
And the other four quickly joined as well, lending their strength to Rudian.
"I'll neutralize the surrounding power."
Luciella, who had the strongest power among them, spoke.
"Then shall I play the role of strengthening the barrier?"
"I'll time the counterattack, so follow well."
Each taking on their role, they surrounded Rudian.
Since they had all been granted the power of the Machine God Deus and the Reduction Technique, they weren't at a level to be swept away helplessly like last time.
The power of comrades who had each taken on their roles began creating synergy in formation.
'I can see it.'
As the divine power surged to its limit, Rudian realized that his vision had briefly ascended to another dimension.
He could see tiny superstrings twisted in spirals throughout the world.
And the Ormazd that Berus had launched was cutting through those strings scattered everywhere as it approached.
'Only one chance.'
Great techniques come with corresponding gaps.
Even if Berus had transcended the laws, he couldn't escape such basic principles.
"Go!"
Everyone shouted toward Rudian with one heart and mind.
CRACK!
The moment spear and shield collided at one point.
Rudian's form naturally broke away from the formation.
"......!"
Seeing Rudian abandon defense and approach, Berus let out a mocking laugh.
"So you chose mutual destruction, abandoning your comrades? Pathetic!"
"No, I trust my comrades. That they won't fall to an attack like yours."
"Your confidence is excessive."
Before anyone knew it, Rudian held the Heavenly Demon Divine Sword, the demon God sword, in his right hand.
"Let's end this with this, you damn persistent bastard!"
"That's my line!"
SWOOSH!
As a clear blade loomed before Berus' eyes.
Berus also concentrated power in his opposite hand and shouted.
"Thinking you can only use Ormazd once is a grave mistake!"
Simultaneously with those words, a three-colored spear appeared.
Without hesitation, Berus grasped that spear and swung it toward Rudian.
Thus... the demon sword and the god of light's spear collided head-on.
"Heh, hehehe... I seem to be, slightly, more advantageous."
"......"
"You know what? You and I are alike."
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
Berus' spearpoint was gradually advancing toward Rudian's nape.
"Both you and I are skilled at achieving our goals by borrowing others' power rather than our own. I too used those three appropriately to reach the position of chief god."
Only at the end did Berus' true feelings flow out.
Rudian also smiled back and replied.
"But... in the end, what determines the final outcome is one's own power."
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
Ultimately, what decided victory and defeat at the very end was one's own capability.
Rudian and Berus realized this truth painfully and put all their strength into both arms.
Berus wore a vile smile as he provoked Rudian.
"Your comrades are dying, unable to block my spear. You'll lose everything again!"
...GRIND!
It was a cheap provocation, but also quite effective in the current situation.
Berus' spearpoint reached almost point-blank range of Rudian's neck as his concentration immediately wavered.
"I'll end it... like this!"
When Berus was about to push Rudian with all his might.
"As expected, the Demon God was right."
"...What?"
SWISH!
Ormazd's spearpoint smoothly swept past Rudian's neck.
No wound existed.
It hadn't touched him to begin with.
"......!"
The most basic technique of martial arts.
Deflection.
"In the previous creation, the Demon God evaluated you like this. That you resembled a classical hero."
An existence who stood at the forefront to defeat enemies. Certainly, the past Berus that the Demon God had seen was such an existence.
"But he said you changed as time passed. You began obsessing over more powerful authority and strength rather than self-training."
The spearpoint naturally lost direction and began deviating from its original target point.
For this final move, Rudian had suffered ceaselessly under the Demon God for two years.
"How long has it been since you faced an enemy head-on like this? Ten thousand years? A hundred thousand years?"
No, it would have been much longer than even a million years.
-Berus has one weakness.
The words the Demon God had said when teaching Rudian.
-If you can somehow break through that mighty authority and face him head-on... a swordsman of your level could easily take his neck.
Usually, most would be unable to break through that authority and would be knocked away like flies hitting a power grid, but if you could somehow get in front of Berus just once...!
"It's over."
Reduction Technique. Single Slash.
The small line that the Heavenly Demon Divine Sword had drawn before.
The strike Rudian unleashed followed that line once more, this time landing a definite fatal blow.
"...Kraaaah!"
Finally, Berus began letting out a horrific scream.
As his divinity shattered, tremendous chaotic power began running wild through the cracks in his split body.
"Ugh!"
From the explosion centered on Berus, Rudian, having exhausted all his strength, was helplessly blown away.
-This... won't... end... it...!
TSSSSSS!
Berus, who had been screaming in agony, began abandoning his human flesh and transforming into the outer existence that had previously been called the 'Crawling Chaos.'
"Rudian, it's dangerous!"
Maria, sensing crisis from Berus' rampage, flew straight to Rudian and caught his body.
"...Maria, are you alright?"
At Rudian's words, Maria nodded faintly.
"Yeah, I managed to block it somehow."
"...That's a relief."
"But the problem now doesn't seem to be that."
Maria and Rudian's gazes turned toward Berus at the front.
'It was definitely a fatal blow.'
Though it was a single strike, it had been a blow that could sever the flow of divinity and put an end to life.
But...
-I... will... remake... the world.
Berus, having lost his facial features and returned to being a chaotic monster, began pouring out merciless power while vomiting his resentment and instincts.
-Cough!
But that act was nothing more than futile struggling.
Maria spoke with a pale expression.
"It definitely hit! But..."
The current Berus was like a person bleeding from seven orifices and dying.
But the problem was that he was dying while spraying the poison flowing from his wounds in all directions.
"At this rate... the world's flow will be twisted beyond control."
It was questionable whether life could be born again in such an environment, and even if possible, incomprehensible monsters that destroyed the common sense of ordinary intelligent life forms could be born.
However, for some reason, Rudian's expression as he watched that scene was unexpectedly calm.
"Yeah, up to here. Somehow it proceeded as planned."
"...As planned?"
-Yes, that's right.
Just before Berus' rampage began in earnest, Adi's eyeball suddenly popped up in front of Rudian.
"Adi."
-Master.
Rudian and Adi looked at each other wordlessly for a brief moment.
"Thank you... for all this time."
-It was my honor to serve you, Master.
"W-wait, what are you two talking about...?"
GUUUUU!
Maria couldn't finish those words.
In an instant, tremendous exhaustion washed over her, and the fragment of the Machine God Deus that had dwelt in her body slipped out with a 'whoosh.'
"......!"
The same phenomenon occurred with the other comrades.
The gray-tinted fragments of Deus circled around the rampaging Berus and began absorbing Berus' power!
"What is that...?"
The tremendous creative power formed by absorbing Berus' power.
Rudian and his companions trembled as they recognized the essence of that power.
"The world is being remade."
Such words emerged, as power beyond what an individual could handle exploded forth.
-Code Arcadia. Release.
-Code Eden. Release.
-Code Deus ex machina. Release.
-Final restoration program approved.
Adi's voice could be heard mechanically from afar.
"So it comes to this after all."
Rudian bitterly tilted his head.
If the Demon God's mission was an arrangement to train those who went astray like Berus.
The Machine God Deus' role was to restore the world destroyed by acts of defying heaven and refusing circulation.
Therefore, both existences had not been revealed in the original history that was the novel .
"Big Bang..."
The Machine God Deus, which had been a massive mechanical device, began reversing this world's history to the past while embracing Berus' body.
Elvin muttered blankly as he watched that scene.
"The world is rotating."
Counterclockwise, and at infinite speed at that.
'Probably in the rewound past, Adi and Berus won't exist.'
WHOOOOSH!
Primordial light colored the world, and destroyed order was restored.
As order was properly established, the world's causality that had been twisted by Berus began functioning again.
For just a brief moment, Rudian felt the primordial order, that is, the Creator God's existence.
'What's the point now...'
Rudian sighed and shook his head.
And just before that light exploded like the Big Bang.
-Master.
Very faintly, Adi's voice rang in Rudian's ear.
Was it an illusion?
From afar, Adi's round eyeball seemed to be smiling.
-Please be happy.
At those words, Rudian also smiled back and shed tears.
"Yeah, if there's an afterlife, let's meet again."
WHOOOOOOSH!
Thus, creative power spread from the center of the world to the entire world.
And the world regained its original form.