Chapter 22
Chapter 22
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 22
Chapter Title: The Fallen Sun (2)
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Imagine a cockroach the size of your middle finger crawling up your arm.
Countless legs brushing against your bare skin, its bodily fluids seeping into your flesh.
Even if you're half-asleep and barely rational, you'd still feel that grotesque, horrifying sensation and freak out, desperately trying to kill it.
Kwaaaang!!
Timing it perfectly with the moment Ra's massive fist paused from Seo Mi-na's attack, I leaped onto it. Ra seemed to feel the exact same way, roaring in frenzy as it thrashed to shake me off.
-Grraaaaaah!!!
This puny insect that should've been crushed flat beneath its fist was now climbing up its arm toward its head like a madman!
How utterly insolent and repulsive! How dare it! To climb atop the sun, arrogantly floating high in the heavens, looking down upon all creation!
The thoughts buried deep in Ra's subconscious began dominating its mindless body, and the enormous arm started flailing wildly.
Kwajik!
I drove my sword into its arm, clinging on like I was in the heart of a typhoon, enduring the shaking limb.
'Damn... you!'
You're supposed to have lost your reason, so why are you acting so cleverly!
I thought it'd just smack at the arm I was hanging from with its hand and call it a day!
But I couldn't afford to fall. Not if I wanted to clear this hidden stage, not if I wanted to escape here alive!
Gritting my teeth, I transformed Versa into a longsword as well, and began climbing this god-like, terrifying mountain of flesh.
Kwak! The Frostfire Sword pierced the god's skin, locking in firmly and giving me a sense of stability.
Kwak! The sturdy longsword that Versa had become blazed the trail ahead.
-Graaaaaah!!
Of course, when the insect it expected to fall off didn't drop pathetically but kept climbing its arm, Ra's rage finally exploded.
-………!!!
An inaudible fury erupted from Ra's mouth. But that was my chance.
Seizing the moment as it halted its arm's movement to roar, I scrambled up its limb.
-Grraaaaaah!
In an instant, I'd reached its shoulder area, and that's when I saw it. Ra staring at me with eyes burning darkly crimson.
The moment I beheld those jet-black, blazing eyes of the sun, I felt something grotesque for the first time in my life—something indescribable.
A filthy sensation that challenging it was a sin, an injustice, something I should apologize for. Thoughts forcibly injected into my mind, surging with the urge to stop this arrogant, rude behavior right now.
I nearly dropped both swords to the ground and fell to my knees...
"What the... hell! A mindless beast pulling off a mental attack?"
Something felt off. Ra definitely lacked reason. But I, facing it head-on, could tell. Those eyes held the gaze of a rational being.
Ra had changed ever since that dark crimson flame ignited.
'Never mind! Deal with the urgent stuff first!'
I abandoned the two swords that had fallen to the ground and kicked off Ra's shoulder without hesitation, launching myself upward.
-Grraaaaaah!
Did it finally realize what I wanted? Or was it still furious at a mere insect heading for its head?
Ra's gaze shifted momentarily upward toward its own head, locking onto the key embedded in the center of the half-shattered sun.
At the same time, Ra's face twisted grotesquely, as if someone had forcibly wrenched it.
And finally, words—not a roar—poured from its mouth.
-Grraaaaaah....... Dare...!!
Its first touching words, but given the situation, they were anything but kind.
"Damn! If we'd met on good terms and become friends, that would've been nice! Too bad! Just know I like you!"
-...Do not... mock... the sun...!
"Yeah, sorry about that. I'm right on the head of a great constellation, after all!!"
I squeezed every last drop from the powers fading within me and kicked off the shoulder.
"Got it."
Finally, I landed atop Ra's head.
Before my eyes loomed the sun that had plummeted from the high heavens, stripped of its light and power, now shattered.
-I cannot... allow it! Ra... must remain... imprisoned here... forever!
I flashed a sinister smile at Ra—or rather, whatever was puppeteering Ra's body, staring at me with that twisted face.
"Too late, you bastard."
Without hesitation, I hurled myself onto the shattered sun and finally stood before the key.
-Insolent... worm!!!
Judging it couldn't stop me from taking the key, the enraged entity sought another way.
And its gaze fell upon... the massive altar beneath Seo Mi-na's feet.
-...Kuhuhu.... Fine.... A heavy price... but no choice...!
Ra's enormous arms rose toward the sky, then slammed down toward the altar.
"Seo Mi-na, dodge!"
"What the hell!!!"
Kwaaaaang!!
The pyramid shuddered with a deafening roar, vibrations coursing through my entire body like an earthquake.
Kwajijik!
Where Ra's hand struck, fine cracks spiderwebbed across the seemingly indestructible altar.
Kwagwagwa!
Overwhelming power erupted, flowing into Ra!
Simultaneously, the shattered, lightless sun regained the crimson solar might, bathing me atop it in immense heat and agony.
"Urk! Hurry! Come out!"
I yanked the key free and leaped from the sun, landing back on Ra's body. The entity possessing it, clearly displeased, declared toward me.
-Go ahead... thrash about as you wish...! If a mere insect like you can escape from beneath the great sun!!
Power restored through that crack in the altar? The words from Ra's mouth no longer sounded clumsy.
'Still got a shot.'
This confirmed it. I had to insert the key into that altar. Do that, and Ra would reclaim all its power, expelling whatever possessed it.
I scooped up the two weapons dropped off to the side and racked my brain.
'The problem is, it'll desperately block whatever Seo Mi-na and I try.'
I need a way! If I want to live, no matter what!
Reading the murderous intent in Ra's eyes, I slid off the shoulder, racing down the long, massive arm toward the ground.
-...Where!!
Shuuuung!
As the giant hand swooped to crush me, I kicked off the arm and hurled myself into open air.
Monggul?!
Versa, now reformed as shoes, activated the Cloud Step item's effect. Clouds formed beneath my feet, safely depositing me on the ground.
-Grrr! Insolent... worm...!!
But my luck ran out. The massive buffs coiling through me vanished in an instant, and a torrent of blood surged from my throat.
"Cough! Cough! Kek!"
"You okay?! If it's too much, hand over the key—I'll figure something out!"
Seo Mi-na rushed over, her face paling at the black blood flooding from my mouth.
'Wait a sec?'
A thought flashed through my mind.
"Get over here!"
I pulled her into an embrace and activated Kang Cheol-woo's keepsake stealth cloak and Lee Ji-hyeong's stealth ring simultaneously.
Presence vanished, existence faded, even scents erased.
-Kuhahaha...... You dare... hide from the sun's light!!
I know. Stealth won't fool it. It'll probably sense where we are.
But it won't know this. I wiped the blood from my mouth roughly and pulled an item from my inventory.
《→Duplication Potion》
A potion that creates a 10-minute disposable duplicate item. It can't replicate abilities or rank perfectly, but that's fine. All I need is a decoy to fool this damn bastard.
Jjeuruk!
Spraying the potion on the key duplicated it. I handed one to Seo Mi-na, urging her.
"Split up and head for the altar at the same time. If it gets dangerous, pull back immediately. Can you... do it?"
"Of course. I don't plan on dying here."
The moment she spoke, the massive fist plummeted precisely toward our stealthed position.
"Now—split!!"
We synced perfectly—no more words needed.
I tossed her the cloak and dove left; still stealthed, she dove right. The ring activated too.
Seo Mi-na and I bolted full speed toward the altar.
But the ring's stealth wore off halfway.
'Damn, no Magic Power stat!'
Lee Ji-hyeong and Seo Mi-na were prodigies awakened with Magic Power from birth; they could sustain item stealth with their own mana even after depletion.
Not me. Unless I had a unique ability like Kang Cheol-woo's that extended stealth duration.
-Foolish... Judgment of the sun!!
The moment its gaze fully locked on me!
"It's over!"
Seo Mi-na, stealth dropped, had closed in near the altar and drew her key.
-No... impossible!!!
Panicking, the entity channeled all power from the altar's crack into its right fist and thrust at her.
Hwaruruk! Shuuuk!
Solar power so terrifying it chilled the soul enveloped the fist, hurtling toward Seo Mi-na's annihilation at incomparable speed.
"Eek!"
Seo Mi-na flung the key toward the altar in horror, hurling herself backward without hesitation—like a last-ditch effort to insert it!
-No!!
It hastily retracted the attacking fist to snatch the airborne key. But the key, flying true toward the altar slot, faltered at the end and clattered nearby.
At that hollow yet triumphant sight, it froze, body trembling as it stood tall.
Then laughter exploded.
-Ha... hahaha!... This is why... lowly worms are...
Confident in victory? Or finally calming from shock?
It scooped up the fallen key, laughing deafeningly—blood trickling from its ears—as it mocked us.
-In the end... vermin like you... cannot defeat the sun!
That relief, contempt, and complacency handed it defeat.
Tat!
I arrived unstopped beneath the altar and leaped atop it, landing before the slot.
-Kuhuhu! Too late...!
It sneered venomously at me.
"Yeah? You sure? That you won?"
I threw back an equally sinister smile, laced with subtle disdain, and drew the key from my bosom.
-...What... is that?
"What else? This is the real one."
-Damn... you!!!
Too late! Before the giant fist could move, I jammed the key into the altar.
Chil-keok!
The seal unlocked.
-No...!!! What have you... done!!!
As the key turned, with its scream, the altar, pyramid—even Tutorial-7 Zone concealing this hidden stage—began to quake.
Like a dam bursting, the source and true master awakened.
Kwagagaga!!!
Untouchable power surged from the altar, sucked straight into Ra's body.
-Kwaaaaaaaaak!!!!
The entity couldn't even escape possession in time, forced to absorb the colossal energy, writhing in torment.
-Damn... you! Curses...!! Insect... I will... remember you!!! When we meet in the Abyss... I will tear your limbs and leave you neither dead nor alive!!!!
That was its last. After cursing me, it vanished. In its place rose not dark, murky flames, but pure, clear ones.