Chapter 320
Chapter 320
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 320
Chapter Title: A Fleeting Crack (2)
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Kariel wore a vicious expression unbecoming of an archangel. His eyes glinted with killing intent, as if he had suffered an unbearable insult.
“How could the leader of the archangels do such a thing! In human terms, how is that any different from mating with a dog! And you're telling me to forgive him? Could you?”
Uriel couldn't answer.
In a way, Kariel was like his twin. Twins born from the source knowledge of the first archangel, Ikael.
But their personalities were as different as the source concepts they were each granted. And above all, Kariel... truly loved Ikael.
Kariel reverted his halo to its starlight form. But looking already hurt, he turned away coldly.
“If you have no intention of helping, then leave. I will break through Miro's spacetime. I will annihilate all the arrogant, insolent humans who defy the will of God!”
*...So petty.*
Uriel watched his retreating back with pity.
The wings of light, the symbol of an archangel, were spread brilliantly, but in a way, he had a side that resembled a human.
Just like Ikael.
*I'm sorry, Ikael. But we—no, Kariel still needs you.*
Uriel placed a hand on Kariel's shoulder and said,
“Alright. I misspoke. I will join you in your endeavor. So, I just need to smash this... Cheonpok, or whatever it's called?”
Kariel reluctantly turned back, as if giving in. But he soon regained his bright expression and continued his explanation.
“Yes. But it won't be easy. Even for you, you'll have to use your greatest strength to have any chance of breaking it. I've created a substance far harder than the hardest material in this world.”
Nodding, Uriel walked past Kariel and approached the Cheonpok.
Up close, all he could see was a black wall. Looking at its molecular structure, it wasn't a substance created through heat and pressure. An explosion, perhaps. This certainly wouldn't be easy.
“You should remember, Kariel. Since long, long ago.”
Uriel changed his starlight form into a halo.
As information gathered in the four-meter-diameter halo, a club made of light materialized beside him. It was four meters long in total; the staff was only one meter, with triangular pyramid-shaped maces on either end making up the rest of its length. It was a heavenly artifact called the Nirvana Mace.
“Of all the things you've made, there's nothing I haven't been able to destroy.”
As Uriel took a horse stance and channeled his power, the Nirvana Mace began to spin rapidly, creating an afterimage resembling a wheel. When its rotational speed surpassed Mach, the air shrieked as if it were being ground by steel.
Nirvana Mace Destruction Art—Heavenly Treasure Wheel.
“Uooooooh!”
Archangel Uriel is the angel of destruction. He possesses a source concept that is the antithesis of Kariel, the angel of creation.
In the beginning, the world was born from the amplification of something. Subsequently, creation and destruction intertwined, and all things were forged.
Kariel ceaselessly creates, and Uriel destroys. This was the destiny of the two brothers born from Ikael, the archangel of amplification.
“Here I coooome!”
Uriel twisted his torso and swung his arm, and the Heavenly Treasure Wheel, now ten meters in diameter, moved along his forearm. Then, as he snapped his body forward and threw a punch, the powerful wheel of light shot out and struck the Cheonpok.
KUUUUUUUUUNG!
A great tremor filled the Grand World Chamber.
But the Cheonpok didn't even stir. The repelled Nirvana Mace merely flew to the far end of the Grand World Chamber before returning.
“Hah! Taha! Uooooh!”
Uriel repeatedly smashed the unceasingly spinning Heavenly Treasure Wheel against the Cheonpok.
Kariel, who knew its power better than anyone, winced with every strike.
*Tsk, tsk, so brutish...*
After a dozen or so attacks, Uriel didn't throw the returned Nirvana Mace again. No matter how many times he hit it, there was no sign of it breaking.
“Hmm, this one is certainly impressive.”
Kariel placated him with a wide smile.
“No need to overdo it. Even this much will have a tremendous impact on Miro's spacetime. It's a shame I can't see the terrified look on that woman's face myself.”
His words were meant to be encouraging, but they only served to fuel Uriel's stubborn pride.
Uriel swept his wings forward and retreated a great distance. After measuring the distance for a moment, he spoke.
“Stay clear. This time will be different.”
Kariel shrugged as if to say 'be my guest' and flew to the side of the Cheonpok.
“Huuuuuh.”
Uriel took a stance like a heavy infantryman about to charge and exhaled deeply.
The halo expanded to twenty meters in diameter as the information of destruction began to accumulate. Golden sparks erupted around the ring of light, and the Grand World Chamber began to tremble faintly.
Even Kariel didn't dare to make a joke this time, glancing worriedly around his laboratory.
“UOOOOOOOOOOH!”
Uriel charged toward the Cheonpok.
The Heavenly Treasure Wheel, now twenty-five meters in diameter, followed alongside him, accelerating its spin. The atmosphere in the Grand World Chamber was sucked toward the wheel's center, creating a fierce gale.
Ten meters from the Cheonpok, Uriel swung his upper body with all his might.
The Heavenly Treasure Wheel flew in an arc and crashed into the Cheonpok. The disc's afterimage vanished for an instant as the Nirvana Mace embedded itself clearly in the surface.
But the rotational inertia was fully contained within the mace. The massive Cheonpok shook violently, and white cracks began to spread across its black surface.
KWAAAAANG!
With a powerful roar, the Cheonpok shattered.
He had lost the bet again, but Kariel's face was filled with ecstasy. It was the destiny of their source concepts for Uriel to destroy what he had painstakingly created. Kariel had simply applied that destiny to a constructive purpose.
In any case, the important thing was that it was broken.
And according to his calculations, the force was sufficient to destroy Miro's spacetime.
***
Miro's Spacetime.
Miro had built her temple in a meaningless space where no end could be defined. It was an act of gathering a great void and wringing out a single meaning from it.
Because the temple existed, she existed, and based on that existence, she erected a great barrier between Heaven and humanity.
In the vast temple, Miro existed in solitude.
Seated in the lotus position, deep in meditation, her biological clock had stopped long ago. In a new time and a new space, she had inherited the destiny of endlessly maintaining the dimensional wall.
*What are you plotting, Kariel?*
There had been attempts to bypass her spacetime before, but recently, the approach had become more blatant. She felt as if she were being cornered.
When Heaven attacked, Miro defended. Until now, there had been no problem. But now, she had an ominous feeling they were aiming for something.
*What on earth are they thinking?*
A powerful impact struck Miro's spacetime. Electromagnetic waves were generated, hardening the barrier of spacetime. Miro's eyes snapped open.
A second and third impact followed.
As Miro's spacetime shook, shockwaves of the same intensity slammed into her mind.
*They're striking spacetime directly. A new technology?*
Even with humanity's advancements, they still couldn't catch up to Heaven's technology. Heaven would have found a way to break through the dimensional barrier with a mechanical system, not magic.
Hastily kneeling, Miro formed a complex hand seal. She then crossed her hands in the shape of a cross—her left hand with index finger and thumb touching, and her right hand with the middle and ring fingers pressed down by the thumb.
As she reinforced the dimension with Scale Magic, the wall of spacetime began to thicken.
*This power... is it Uriel?*
Miro's face contorted. A cold sweat broke out, and her crossed arms began to tremble uncontrollably.
How much time had passed? Suddenly, the impacts stopped.
Gasping for breath, she collapsed to the floor. Even with the reinforced dimensional wall, it seemed she wouldn't be able to hold on like this. She needed a new method.
“Kyah!”
As the Heavenly Treasure Wheel struck the Cheonpok, an unprecedented shockwave slammed into Miro's spacetime.
Miro was thrown dozens of meters, as if she had been struck directly.
Even as she slid across the floor, she gritted her teeth and endured. Her eyes trembled with confusion.
This blow had cracked Miro's spacetime.
*At this rate, they'll break through. No, they already have.*
Miro decided to use her last resort.
Sitting in the lotus position, she floated a fist above her palm and gently closed her eyes. There was no time to think. If a void remained in the dimension for just ten more seconds, Heaven's army would invade before she had a chance to defend.
*I will enter Samadhi.*
Once in Samadhi, one cannot escape on their own. It is a state of single-minded concentration where no thoughts can arise.
As the sole master of this spacetime, she had to remain constantly awake, but now it was time to fall into a deep sleep.
She focused on her focus. And from that focus, she focused again. Repeating this process endlessly, her ego faded until, finally, no thoughts arose at all. All that remained was the inertia of descending into the abyss.
The price she paid yielded immense mental energy. The dimensional wall thickened indefinitely, and the crack vanished. This time, not even Uriel would be able to break it.
The trembling of the temple subsided, but Miro remained as still as a stone, not moving an inch.
Lost in infinite concentration, she had forgotten her own existence. And unless someone came to awaken her, she would remain in that state for eternity.
***
“What happened?”
At the top of the central control system, Kariel and Uriel were analyzing the results of their experiment. Kariel stared at the screen with an intrigued expression.
A crack had formed in Miro's spacetime. But it was repaired so quickly that Heaven had no time to act. It showed just how swift Miro's response was.
What was more incredible was that as Miro's spacetime repaired itself, it became incomparably stronger than before. The durability figures displayed on the screen were enough to make even the archangel Kariel understand the meaning of a shudder.
“It's still getting stronger. What in the world did she do? Are these numbers truly something a single human can produce?”
Uriel simplified the complex results.
“Did we fail?”
Kariel gave a bitter smile.
“Still, we achieved our initial goal. For about three seconds, by the standards of the mortal realm. If she had been just three seconds slower, we would have destroyed it completely.”
“I see.”
Uriel didn't feel it was a pity. In fact, he wasn't sure. He might have even felt a sense of relief.
“The Cheonpok technology itself can be considered a success. We just underestimated Miro. She's certainly worthy of being the Nephilim representative of the mortals. How on earth did she reinforce it? Now, an ordinary Cheonpok won't even scratch it.”
“Humans are strange. They seem endlessly weak, yet they can also become endlessly strong. Gafin was like that. Miro is a formidable human as well. Perhaps that's why Ra prevented any approach.”
“Hmph. Still, she's only human.”
Kariel did not acknowledge humans.
They were not clearly defined. They were chaos itself. That was why Ra controlled their lifespans in the name of eternal life.
“What will you do now? The strategy to destroy the dimensional wall has failed. It will be even harder to break through from now on.”
Kariel wasn't worried.
“We just need to find another way. What's more important is that Miro's spacetime was cracked. Interesting things are going to happen from now on. This will be a good experiment.”
Kariel pointed at the monitor. The process of the Cheonpok experiment was displayed as a three-dimensional image.
Reference lines were drawn on a specific point of a large sphere, and durability figures appeared as numbers. When the Heavenly Treasure Wheel's impact hit, a crack could be seen forming.
Neither Heaven's army nor any living creature could pass through a crack of this size. But that was limited to the category of 'living creatures.'
On the outskirts of Heaven lived all sorts of strange beings that could not be defined by human standards. And at that very moment, something was detected squeezing through the crack and entering the mortal realm.
“What in the world is that...?”
Kariel couldn't answer.
It wasn't that his knowledge was lacking. It was because the something that had gone to the mortal realm existed in an 'unknown state.'
***
After the magic academy's graduation ceremony ended, Shirone returned home in a carriage sent by the Ogent family.
Thinking back on his way home, he realized a year had already passed since he'd enrolled. It was a short time, if you could call it that, but so many things had happened.