Chapter 121
Chapter 121
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 121
Chapter Title: Existence's Ascension
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Cherubim flew leisurely toward me, where I lay flattened against the ground by some unknown force.
It glided smoothly without even flapping its wings.
“How could lowly things like you possibly block my power?”
Cherubim slowly thrust the sword it held into my back.
The blade met only slight resistance before sinking into my body as easily as a knife into tofu.
“Oh ho… You’re enduring it well.”
I felt the agony of my organs and bones being sliced. Without the Resilient Mind skill, I would have already lost consciousness.
“But you can’t block it forever. Even your ability to perceive a higher-dimensional being like me is only because we allow it. It’s disgusting that insignificant, dime-a-dozen creatures from a lower dimension like you would dare oppose us.”
Cherubim slowly dragged the sword toward my side, slashing through my body. My spine snapped, and my guts were severed. But I absorbed the surrounding life force and regenerated.
“Huh… For a lower-dimensional lifeform, you’re certainly impressive.”
It was startled by my regenerative power.
“Let’s see how long you can last.”
It yanked the sword out and plunged it back into my back. Again. And again. And again.
With countless wounds piling up, my regeneration was starting to lag. I’d lost too much blood, and my body was growing weak.
“Now, let’s end this.”
It slowly brought the sword to my temple.
“Don’t be sad. You’ll become fertilizer for the new universe.”
The sword pierced the armor around my head and split my skull, even though it could have finished me in one blow. I could feel its filthy personality in how it was taking its time.
None of my attack methods worked on it. I couldn’t see any way to fight back.
My armor, not to mention my skull, shouldn’t have been pierced so easily.
It seemed Eres had trained me for a situation like this, but I felt like vomiting at my own dullness for not mastering it.
I could see Nayeong, Sangheon, Hongryong, and Akiko lying collapsed nearby.
I had to get up.
I couldn’t fall here.
If I died like this…
The moment the sword broke through my skull and touched my brain—
The world turned white.
An endless expanse of white space.
‘Is this death for real this time?’
As I looked around, a woman with blue hair appeared.
I couldn’t see her face and had no idea who she was, but she gave off a strangely comforting feeling.
“Who are you?”
The blue-haired woman silently waved her hand as if telling me to go back, and I was pushed out of the white space like I’d been ejected.
Her face was obscured by light, so I couldn’t see it clearly, but as I was flung away, it felt like she was cheering me on.
[You have acquired the skill: Existence's Ascension (EX).]
My mind returned, and my vision gradually cleared.
“Hm?!”
I could feel Cherubim’s sword no longer piercing into my head. Fortunately, it had only reached my brain after breaking through my skull.
The force that had been crushing my entire body vanished. No—it was still there, but it felt like nothing more than light pressure.
I grabbed the sword of light embedded in my head with my hand, pushed it out with raw strength, and pulled it free. Using it to brace against the ground, I stood up.
“Wha… How?! You, a lower-dimensional being, resisting my power?”
The status window was usually unhelpful and never explained new skills right away. But this time, I felt the difference immediately.
I could now perceive not just my own dimension, but higher-dimensional existences as well.
Just as an ant can’t defeat a lion, or a horse can’t fly, a lower-dimensional being opposing a higher one is impossible by nature. It was only natural that I’d been no match until now.
“I don’t fully get it… but one thing’s clear. Now I can hit you, right?”
I clenched my left fist tight.
Startled, Cherubim snatched the sword from my right hand.
As the sword was pulled free, it sliced my palm’s armor. But that was it. It didn’t cleave through me like tofu anymore.
I summoned swords from the backs of both my hands.
“Phew… Let’s trade some blows first.”
Time to pay it back.
“Ha! Strutting around just because you’ve dipped a toe into the same dimension?”
Its wings spread wide, and the surrounding angels’ energy was sucked into it. But it wasn’t just borrowing a little power—it absorbed them until they were completely desiccated.
“Disgusting.”
Still, it was a relief. It had absorbed every last angel, even those headed for my still-unconscious allies, so I had one less worry.
Cherubim, empowered by devouring its own kind, doubled the size of its sword of light.
Then it swung the blade, now as tall as itself, at me.
Splurt!
I spat poison mist right into Cherubim’s face as it charged.
“What… What?!”
It recoiled in shock, its balance thrown off.
I closed in and thrust both swords.
Cherubim shrank its massive sword to recover it, then enlarged it again to block both of mine with the flat of the blade.
“Hup!”
I sprayed another special cocktail of frost and blood right into its face. From experience, arrogant types like this were always sensitive to attacks like that.
“You insolent wretch!”
As expected, it recoiled in disgust and retreated. I followed up, swinging my swords.
I slashed relentlessly, chasing it down.
“You bastard!!!”
Cherubim twisted in midair like Eres did in our spars, moving in unpredictable directions and speeds to get behind me.
As it said, for someone like me who’d only just touched higher dimensions, that kind of attack was still too much.
Using its mobility, it dodged my frost and poison mist, circled to my blind spot, and swung.
Cherubim’s sword came for my head. Too late to dodge, I raised my arm to block.
Its sword pierced my armor and embedded in my arm. Sacrificing the angels had boosted its power—it severed more than half my arm, but not completely.
“What?!”
“Doesn’t cut clean anymore, huh?”
If that was the best its attacks could do now, this would be easy.
I aimed my right sword at its heart.
Cherubim yanked its sword from my arm and flew backward into the air. Seizing the moment as I retracted my thrust, it lunged again.
I didn’t dodge its sword—instead, I charged forward.
“What?!”
Its eyes widened as the blade pierced my abdomen, but I barreled through and drove both swords into its chest.
“Graaaargh!!!”
It flailed its arms to shove me away. As I was flung back, I detached the swords from my hands, leaving them buried in its body.
Cherubim grabbed the swords in its chest and yanked them out, hurling them to the ground.
“You pest… You won’t die easily!”
“Is that what you’re telling yourself?”
I summoned new swords from the backs of both hands.
Its sword glowed again and thrust at me. When I didn’t dodge again, it pulled back and swung horizontally instead.
I pressed my arms to my body to block, but its full-power strike sheared off half my upper and lower arm, embedding the sword. Undeterred, I plunged my own sword into Cherubim’s side.
“Grah!”
No matter how freely it zigzagged and attacked, it had completely neglected defense. My relentless counterstrikes kept burying swords in its body. It was turning into a porcupine, no time to pull them out.
It had absorbed endless angels, but no more were coming—the nearby ones were gone, so it couldn’t draw more power and was weakening. Meanwhile, I still had energy left, and plenty more to absorb.
The moment it tremblingly grabbed the sword in its abdomen to pull it out, I charged again.
I went in intending to block its horizontal swing with my arm.
Boom!
“Urk?!”
A massive purple mana orb exploded behind Cherubim.
It wouldn’t deal major damage, but it was enough to break its focus.
Seizing the opening, I rammed both swords into its ribs.
“Graaaargh!”
I left the swords in its body, circled behind, and grabbed its massive wings.
“Khahak! Let go! Let go!”
It thrashed, but as a higher-dimensional being, its attacks were strong, nothing more. Now on equal footing, my strength overwhelmingly surpassed its.
I kicked its back and yanked the wings.
Riiip!
Flesh tore from its shoulder blades, blood erupting. Its screams grew louder as the wings came free.
Splatter!
Both wings ripped from its back, blood spraying like a fountain.
Cherubim dropped to its knees. The wings must have been its power source—its body began losing its glow.
“Don’t die yet. While you’re at it, tell me this: What did you gain by attacking us? The Destruction God isn’t your god, is it?”
“Urk… Why should I answer that? When Father descends, you’re all finished.”
“I’m sick of hearing about that father of yours. He can’t come anyway, right? Seems like your wings were your power source, and you burned half of them sending me away.”
“......”
“Didn’t think you’d spill easily anyway.”
Nayeong and the others approached. Sangheon was still out, but fortunately, everyone was safe.
“Don’t push yourself.”
I placed a hand on Nayeong’s shoulder.
Having been wronged herself, Nayeong glared fiercely at Cherubim.
“Begone! Don’t you dare touch me, you filthy witch consorting with demons!”
Cherubim writhed like a worm. Each twitch drove my embedded swords deeper, blood gushing out.
Like kneading Angelus’s brain, Nayeong rummaged through Cherubim’s head.
I’d been worried, but whether because of its poor state or the loss of its wings, its mind crumbled more easily than expected.
Reason vanished from Cherubim’s eyes, its resistance ceasing completely.
“So, why attack Earth?”
“The Heavenly Realm… bought immunity from the Administrators. As their mercenaries, if we cleared out the obstacles, the Heavenly Realm would be spared the Destruction God’s attacks.”
“Administrators?”
The existence the Succubus Queen had mentioned. Even Eres didn’t know its identity.
“The ones who control the Destruction God. A monster that roams the universe without reason, devouring everything in sight—they control it. They decide which stars get eaten and which don’t.”
“If the Destruction God is that much of an outlier, why bother sending monsters ahead? Why not just devour everything?”
“The Destruction God can’t consume dimensions with the will to live. It only eats decaying ones, so the Administrators send troops to clean house first. But your resistance was too fierce, so we came.”
“Where are these Administrators?”
“They dwell at the boundaries of dimensions. A place no one can reach. Since we failed, they’ll send not disposable pawns or mercenaries, but their real army.”
“Let ’em come. I’ll kill them all.”
“You don’t know… what’s coming next…”
It collapsed to the ground, eyes open in death. I had more questions, but it had lost too much blood. Surviving this long after taking that much damage was the real miracle.
“Akiko! Where are you! Akiko! I’ve come to save you!”
Takahashi came running from afar.