Three Ends
Three Ends
The 3rd Iteration's Three Ends did not kill a Tower Master.
At the time, the 3rd Iteration was caught between the Three Great Families and found himself in a rather awkward predicament.
It wasn't a situation where an execution order had been placed on him and he was being hunted down, but it was certainly a nuisance being wedged between such powers.
So he took a leave of absence.
There was still time before the Tower Master would invade, and he lacked the proficiency to wield three unique abilities simultaneously.
With training in mind, he visited the African Demon Realm.
There, he began grinding proficiency by wrestling with a high-rank monster.
And then he died.
There were many reasons.
He wrestled with a 3rd-Rank Alpha, and was surrounded by a monster horde.
To make matters worse, because he had sneaked in secretly, he had to face them alone without any support.
Those were the indirect reasons.
The direct cause was the three unique abilities he manifested simultaneously, recklessly, which repelled one another.
A repulsive force occurred, and he failed to control it, resulting in his death.
Used improperly, 'Three Ends' will kill you.
As is typical with the early iterations, it carries immense risk and burden.
'I have to detonate it at close range.'
I knew the risks.
Still, I did not back down.
'Three Ends... there's no time to practice. Same for Taesan. I have to get close and detonate it on the first attempt.'
I could guess the minimum yield.
Detonate it at close range, and I could definitely kill it.
The maximum? I had no idea. I only knew that I could kill it.
So, I would close in to ensure the kill.
- Saaa!
The poison dragon, recovering from the damage, let out a roar.
An immense amount of mana was released. Half of it wrapped around the poison dragon like armor, and the other half turned into a poisonous mire that churned and oozed between its scales.
A charge followed. The poison dragon's massive bulk closed the distance in an instant.
Its maw gaped open. A volley of shots, like rapid-fire artillery, erupted from its gullet.
They were light attacks, closer to suppressive fire, but to Lee Ha-yul, even those were instant-death techniques far beyond fatal wounds.
Fear gripped me, but I did not retreat.
I spread my wings. They stretched out against the night sky, shimmering with five colors.
The spirits residing within the Sky Wing Feather moved according to my will.
It was a kind of spiritualization, using the Sky Wing Feather as a medium.
Handling spirits had always been remarkably easy for me, but in this pseudo-spiritualized state, it was even smoother and faster.
I flapped my wings.
The lightning and fire spirits moved.
Flames radiated out, thrusting against my back. Lightning sparked across the wings. My body accelerated another degree.
The harsh winds did not batter me. The wind spirit opened a path ahead, while a gale surged behind me, thrusting against my back and fanning the flames' momentum.
The volley of shots closed in.
I could observe every single trajectory. As long as my speed could keep up, I could dodge them all.
I didn't intercept them head-on like before.
I simply flapped my wings, weaving through the gaps between the attacks.
The strikes grazed my surroundings by a hair's breadth.
Out of hundreds of attacks, not a single one hit.
Crack! My body screamed in protest. Patches of skin all over my body suddenly blackened with necrosis.
I had dodged every attack. I had also purged the venom with every means at my disposal. Yet, trace amounts had accumulated, and it was slowly beginning to exceed the threshold.
'...'
Terror welled up.
But still, I did not back down.
I came here to stop the Twin-headed Poison Dragon from being resurrected as an undead later on.
I had ransacked the branch of the Death God Cult that planned to raise the Twin-headed Poison Dragon through a necromantic ritual.
In the process, the assumption that the Twin-headed Poison Dragon would rise at this time had practically vanished.
Because, by all known common sense, that was impossible.
The sacrifices would be insufficient.
If they were sufficient, there would have been no reason to abandon a branch that risked leaving even a single trace.
They wouldn't have managed to collect the Twin-headed Poison Dragon's byproducts.
I had investigated beforehand. There were already people scurrying about in the shadows, desperately trying to acquire the Twin-headed Poison Dragon's byproducts.
An immediate necromantic ritual was impossible. No matter what efforts they made, they couldn't raise the Twin-headed Poison Dragon right now.
Having grasped that, I came to further delay the timing.
The Twin-headed Poison Dragon rose as an incomplete undead.
Countless lesser undead rose as well, and under their influence, the dungeon went into an outbreak.
This was different from Sipnaha.
Lee Ha-yul felt a sense of responsibility for this incident.
So I didn't back down. Having partially provided the cause for this disaster, I was too ashamed to run away just to save my own skin.
The poison dragon opened its jaws.
Crack! The corners of its mouth tore, and its maw gaped open obscenely wide.
A precursor of mana. The fine hairs all over my body stood on end.
From that widened maw, mana several times more powerful than before gushed out.
'Space.'
I created a barrier of space right in front of its snout. Crack! A shock slammed into my head. Overusing the authority felt like it was going to turn my brain into mush.
The overflowing poisonous mire was blocked by the barrier and splashed back onto the poison dragon's face.
- Saaaaa!
The poison dragon immediately moved its body. A spatial barrier was a fixed defense. As the position of its head changed, the poisonous mire cascaded down once more.
I closed the distance further during that brief opening.
A wave of mana... of miasma surged towards me.
Lee Ha-yul stretched out his left arm.
I recklessly poured mana into the prosthetic arm. Fwoosh! The golden brand on its surface deepened.
'Authority manifestation, Protection.'
An authority is a power borrowed from an external source.
The representative authorities are those of the Towers, but top-grade artifacts also possess abilities of a considerable tier.
Upon connecting, I received some information. I couldn't decipher everything, but I could manifest the basic usage immediately.
The Proof of Protection manifested. Mana gathered at my shoulder joint, condensing like a suit of armor.
Simultaneously, a golden barrier formed around Lee Ha-yul. I flapped my wings in succession. My body accelerated.
'Closer, even closer.'
I closed in with acrobatic flight, the barrier preceding me. I used every defensive measure at my disposal to protect my body from the miasma.
The golden barrier gradually melted away. Dozens of layers of defensive magic were torn apart. The thick aura I had coiled around myself deteriorated and scattered.
I was poisoned.
My skin necrotized.
Dead blood began to seep from the seven orifices of my head. Gritting my teeth, I flew toward the poison dragon's head.
'...I'm there.'
I had entered the optimal range.
My consciousness grew hazy.
I opened my eyes. Parts of my unpleasant gray pupils were stained a dark, murky green.
I could see a thick fog obscuring my vision. In one corner of my sight, the Status Window was updating.
And, far beyond it, I saw darkness. The same darkness I had seen once before, in Sipnaha.
Gritting my teeth, I drew up my mana. My core trembled as if about to shatter, spewing out mana.
'Homogenization, Calamity Flame.'
A portion of my mana's properties changed.
Calamity Flame erupted from my right arm. My emotions heightened. Instead of letting that fiery energy spread throughout my body, I forced it into my right hand.
'Homogenization, Azure Sea.'
While Calamity Flame was already manifested, I manifested Azure Sea.
Grruuuung! Calamity Flame and Azure Sea clashed within my body. My frame alternated between searing heat and freezing cold. My heightened mood sank, then surged again.
My body creaked. My internal organs were crushed. My consciousness grew even hazier.
A repulsive reaction.
Just like how a unicorn and bicorn clash, or how light and darkness consume each other.
Calamity Flame and Azure Sea collided, causing a repulsive reaction. If that repulsive force was excessive, my body could collapse entirely.
It wasn't a purely bad thing. If you could properly harness the power generated by that repulsive reaction, you could draw out an output normally impossible to achieve.
But there wasn't only repulsion; there was also a synergistic effect.
Calamity Flame evaporates Azure Sea, and Azure Sea extinguishes Calamity Flame.
Conversely.
Calamity Flame can melt the solidly frozen Azure Sea, and Azure Sea can calm the Calamity Flame that would even turn itself into kindling.
It was the same with Taesan.
They influence each other. In the process, there's a repulsive action where they push each other away, and a synergistic action where they help each other.
The 3rd Iteration's Three Ends is the art of utilizing both that repulsion and synergy.
'Homo, genization...'
I drew up my mana once more. I had meticulously observed how Lee Ji-yeon's Taesan manifested. I would imitate it.
'Taesan.'
My mana changed into a property best described as earth energy. Though I wasn't standing on the ground, my senses shifted as if I had become much closer to the earth.
'Huh...?'
My perception changed.
Lee Ha-yul opened his mouth.
From the seven orifices, and even more as his skin split, murky, dark blood oozed out. His mana circuits ruptured. His senses gradually faded.
I wasn't surprised by that.
Lee Ha-yul felt vitality from the earth. Even while dying from the poison, he felt the earth that pulsed with vital energy.
The undead creature spewing poisonous mire nearby had none of that. Vital energy did not dwell in the dead... in that which was not alive.
As for himself... he felt a vital energy so lacking it could be compared to that poison dragon.
'...'
Lee Ha-yul didn't stop manipulating his mana.
He crammed the energies of Calamity Flame, Azure Sea, and Taesan into the tips of his right hand.
- Crunch!
His right arm twisted. As if a trapped beast were thrashing inside a snare, his right arm contorted and bulged grotesquely.
The energies clashed.
Calamity Flame pushed out Azure Sea. Azure Sea pushed out Taesan, and Taesan pushed out Calamity Flame.
And then,
Azure Sea calmed the Calamity Flame, and the Calamity Flame received the vitality of Taesan and blazed brighter. Taesan received the water energy of Azure Sea and sprouted life.
They repelled each other and enhanced each other. The energies amplified without end.
At the tip of his right hand, the three energies intermingled and coalesced into a single mass. Its size was barely that of a fingernail.
Yet from that tiny mass of energy, the poison dragon sensed an unprecedented danger to its life and its eyes flew wide open.
Before the poison dragon could react, Lee Ha-yul, straining with all his might, released the suppressed energy forward.
Three Ends (三終).
The energy, which had been repeatedly pushing and pulling, crumpled in on itself and was unleashed.
The chaotic swirl of colors dyed black and swallowed the surrounding area.
The poison dragon's colossal body was devoured by the black sphere.
The sphere continued to expand, knowing no bounds.
There was no explosion.
The energy, which expanded in the blink of an eye and engulfed the area, savagely sucked in everything around it.
Piles of dirt, rocks, air, clouds, poisonous mire... everything was drawn in without discrimination.
If you got caught up in that, not even a fragment of a corpse would be found.
Lee Ha-yul's body swayed powerlessly. He was swept up by the violent current.
His wings flapped wildly on their own, resisting the torrent.
The spirits beat their wings desperately to protect their master.
But only for a moment.
One by one, the spirits were pushed out from the Sky Wing Feather. As their master's consciousness faded, the spiritualization was unraveling.
'Ma, manifest... Space...'
Right before being caught up in it,
Lee Ha-yul barely managed to manifest Spatial Leap. A vortex of space appeared in the air and swallowed Lee Ha-yul's form.
The coordinates distorted.
.
.
.
Above the surface of the mist-shrouded lake, a sudden rift tore open.
Crack- From within the dark space that split open to the sides, Lee Ha-yul's form spilled out.
- Splash
The limp Lee Ha-yul plunged into the lake.
A rough ripple spread. The lake's surface, where yellow leaves bobbed gently, sloshed.
A moment later, the surface quickly regained its tranquility.
- Blub blub...
Instead, bubbles rose up. Lee Ha-yul, sinking into the lake, did not float back up but submerged to the bottom.
The Lake of Mana.
The lake water here held a purity of mana rarely found elsewhere.
That lake water seeped into every wound on Lee Ha-yul's body. His blood and the lake water circulated, exchanging places and replenishing him.
Gurgle... The lake's water level gradually lowered.
His hair dyed white.
* * *
[Savior Correction System: Pioneering Progress]
[Quest ｢Twin-headed Poison Dragon｣ accomplished]
[Quest ｢Demon-Realmification of China｣ partially accomplished]
[Massive points acquired]
...
[Savior Correction System: Salvation Progress]
[Confirmed the results of salvation performed with goodwill]
[Massive points acquired]
...
[｢Curse of Beauty's Misfortune｣ activates]
[Consumed vitality is restoring the physical body]
[...Excessive physical loss]
[Immediate restoration impossible]
[Physical body is shrinking]
...
[The Tower Master of Growth weeps bitterly as he manifests Authority ｢Growth｣]
[The Savior's physical body is growing]
[Massive points are being consumed]
...
[The Tower Master of Harmonization manifests Authority ｢Harmonization｣ in alarm]
[Harmonizing the Savior's physical body with the Authority of Growth]
[Massive points are being consumed]