Chapter 80
Chapter 80
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 80
Chapter Title: Part 27. Demise (終焉), The Ball Where Death Dances (8)
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The boss room was an absurdly vast space. The ceiling felt like the sky itself. The statue erected in the far distance resembled a pyramid rising from the desert.
It created a ridiculous sense of distance that bordered on the absurd. The surroundings were eerily silent. That silence amplified the grotesque aura emanating from the distance.
'Dream-Eating Sword.'
There, Noah raised his sword, pointing it at Yoo Ji-tae.
"Have we ever met before?"
"……."
"What a strange sensation. You feel unfamiliar to me, yet I seem familiar to you."
"……."
"Isn't that right? You knew my senses flow along the ground, so you climbed high to avoid my gaze. By evading my senses that way, you could easily seal the door."
There was no response from Yoo Ji-tae.
Noah's eyebrow twitched.
Once, within Invisibility, talk of X echoed everywhere. He's dangerous. We should abandon control of the Lair interior. How about shifting to localized, piecemeal operations like in the past? No, if a disaster-class steps in, we can catch him.
Even within Invisibility, opinions were split.
Almost 5:5.
X's movements were that precarious.
"How do you know so much about me? Judging by your face, you were still suckling at your mother's breast during the Great War……."
If X had felt even a bit more threatening, they would have shattered the organization into fragments to escape the target on their backs.
But X toed the line without crossing it—just threatening enough. Strong, yes. Stealthy, certainly. But had they suffered a blow severe enough to abandon their decades-long grand scheme? Had any branch been annihilated? No, not at all.
So Noah had hypothesized two possibilities about X.
First, he's definitely strong.
1. A bastard with disgustingly good luck.
If not that, then…….
2. A freak with an absurdly profound understanding of causality—cause and effect.
At first, he thought it was the former. The demonkin organization had very little exposed to the world.
No human could comprehend their operational framework, and structurally, a fully demonized executive couldn't be a traitor.
So he figured it was just luck.
But by now, a hollow laugh escaped him involuntarily.
"So I had a hypothesis, you see."
"……."
"About the ability you possess."
Noah had faced countless superhumans. And even more monsters. Born in the Otherworld, roughly 750 years. Then 50 more on Earth. The blessings, authorities, skills, magic, brands, and curses he'd seen, heard, and felt numbered in the tens of thousands.
Among them were extraordinary ones—like freely twisting space or eternally sustaining life.
Yet some were things that objectively didn't exist, things he thought could never exist.
"It's utterly ridiculous, and I know it……."
Noah let out a scoff of disbelief.
Yeah. Impossible.
No such thing could exist.
His life was history itself. Even in that history, it hadn't existed.
But if that were the case, all these inexplicable situations made perfect sense.
"…Can you see the future?"
Peering into the approaching future.
"……."
"Preparing a device to destroy the dungeon rift. Moving a heavyweight like BM on a personal whim. This wasn't planned in a day or two. How did you know it would happen? How did you prepare? And how……."
…did you become this strong?
Still no word from Yoo Ji-tae, so Noah mocked himself.
"Such an arrogant gaze. Daring to look down on the world before me……."
No reply from Yoo Ji-tae.
They'd already exchanged all words worth sharing in the previous regression. By the 7th cycle, verbal communication held no meaning for him.
So while the bastard monologued, he was simply recalling something.
A memory from the not-so-distant past.
Excruciatingly painful.
A moment when he'd had to abandon so much.
"……."
And now, those memories finally resurfaced vividly.
His blurred vision sharpened.
With slow movements, he rose, placed a hand on the nape of his neck, and turned his head. Then, with a languid gesture, he brought his thumb to his mouth. Crunch—biting down hard, the skin tore. Blood flowed visibly.
"Hah."
Noah, realizing something from Yoo Ji-tae's gesture, let out a chuckle.
At the same time, the air in the massive room grew oppressively heavy.
"You've realized it. Or maybe you knew already. But your foresight seems half-baked."
"……."
"Pity. I'm not an existence you can overcome with clumsy glimpses."
A tone of absolute arrogance, like a god.
Noah held his sword parallel to his body.
Then, mana erupted from the floor, swirling around him.
Artifacts beyond a certain level undergo sealing to contain their destructive power.
The seal on the 'Dream-Eating Sword' began to unravel here.
Rumble…….
The boss room's sub-space—far larger and sturdier than others—shook: the ground, walls, ceiling, every empty void affected by the activation.
Soon, the long greatsword split lengthwise at intervals, the torn metal gaping open above and below. They had become eyes. Crimson eyes scanned the surroundings wildly.
The authority of the Abyss's Third Sovereign, Ny-ar-la, erupted from Noah's body. In an instant, the entire vast room was shrouded in monochrome.
"You die here."
Unlike his fight with BM.
It was as if a monochrome world had been overlaid with a color filter—then stripped away.
The only things retaining color were Noah and his sword.
"This is a world permitted solely to me by the Sovereign—."
As Noah spoke, the eyes on the 'Dream-Eating Sword' glowed red.
Soon. The world inverted.
—Room 156. Demonic energy detected.
"Got it. All units, converge on Room 156!"
—Yes, sir!
Minamoto grumbled as he switched off the radio.
"Finally…… those demonkin bastards who deserve to be devoured."
Without reinforcements from the chain of command, the original plan derailed.
Minamoto received new orders from Yoo Ji-tae.
"What? Block the swarming demonkin? You want me to play decoy?"
Izel Halifa, Noah, Wei Lian, and more…… heavyweights were converging. Minamoto, who harbored intense hatred for demonkin, was dissatisfied with Yoo Ji-tae's orders.
"Might as well send two or three of our special forces that way."
But Yoo Ji-tae shook his head.
"They won't stand a chance."
"…What? You mocking our special forces now?"
"Sacrifice your men if you want. Your call."
"Ridiculous. The superhumans of Royal Speed Special Forces go through rigorous trials…… damn it……."
Under Yoo Ji-tae's gaze, Minamoto trailed off, gripped by an inexplicable unease.
Like a child caught lying before an adult.
In the end, Minamoto had no choice but to stand in Room 156.
"Incoming!"
The special forces drew their swords in tension.
Soon, demonkin with glowing red eyes burst from the rift.
They charged at Minamoto's group like madmen.
Exactly five minutes later. Minamoto understood Yoo Ji-tae's words.
'What the hell……!'
The half-maddened demonkin were inhumanly strong—beyond comprehension.
"Everyone, stay sharp—!!"
Minamoto roared until his throat tore.
Noah lives in 'dreams.'
He devours superhumans' dreams for sustenance, stockpiling power and extending his life. The reason he's the only human to live 800 years.
Sometimes, he immerses them in dreams. Then, those conquered at the subconscious level move in reality according to Noah's will.
By this principle, during the Great War, African superhumans suffered mass hallucinations and mental breakdowns. Local rankers around Cameroon were all puppets in his grasp, dismantling their own nation.
A world dyed entirely gray.
Room 180. 'The Noble Lady's Chamber' had vanished without trace.
There, Yoo Ji-tae floated in the air, while Noah hovered higher, looking down.
Noah had been in 'Shell Shedding' from the start.
This was Noah's dream.
And in his dream, Noah was god.
Ironically, since Noah lived in dreams, to kill the real Noah, one must first kill the Noah in the dream.
"Now your eyes are level."
A gray, opaque world without depth or perspective.
Noah's words boomed like thunder in Yoo Ji-tae's ears.
"No sweet dreams for you."
Immediately after. The world transformed.
A darkening sky. Clouds tinged with sunset hues. Yoo Ji-tae stood in some forest.
"……."
The regressor kicked off the ground and soared. Target: Noah in the air. As he willed Noah torn apart, thin killing intent layered and took form.
Crunch—
Yoo Ji-tae pierced Noah's head.
But the impaled Noah vanished the next instant, reappearing at the prior distance.
The stabbed Noah left no trace or form.
"Couldn't foresee my immortality?"
Noah clasped his hands.
Tens of thousands of flying beasts from beyond the mountains blackened the sky.
They closed in instantly, beaks serrated like awls, talons honed like blades.
Yoo Ji-tae hastily widened the distance, slashing the birds with killing intent.
The elongated Formless Sword (SS) felled dozens per swing. Legs severed here, heads there, plummeting in droves.
"Impressive. Truly impressive!"
Spotting a gap in the flow, Yoo Ji-tae leaped space toward Noah's head.
Having grasped Noah's initial spatial jump principle and direction, this Formless Sword (SS) extended like thorns, blanketing hundreds of meters of sky. An assault even Noah struggled to comprehend.
But Noah gritted his teeth, shifted space, and clasped hands roughly.
"Where?!"
Crack—!
This time, the world's up and down inverted.
"……."
He still faced forward, but space's orientation had flipped. Suddenly, Yoo Ji-tae viewed the world upside down.
Not just that. Left-right senses swapped. Forward-backward too.
"Dizzying, isn't it? A world where up-down, forward-back, left-right, and perspective are reversed."
Of course, he'd experienced it before.
Yoo Ji-tae willed the Formless Sword retracted behind him. It approached from the front instead.
"……."
He paused, closing his eyes.
It felt like shit.
Omnipotence.
Third time facing it, yet adaptation didn't come easy. He was human before transcendent. A being who lived framing the world in his mold.
The frame shattering was profoundly disorienting as a human.
Since this was Noah's real dream world, everything was truth. Scales Eye (SS) couldn't be used.
And more.
Noah's words hid a lie.
The world hadn't just flipped up-down, forward-back, left-right, perspective. At his clasp, 'self' and 'other' swapped too.
I became the world.
The world became me.
This blatantly disrupted Yoo Ji-tae's 'Sensory Receptors' and 'Intuition' for worldly flow. He sensed only himself now.
Like blindness.
"Pissing me off……."
The world muttered.
He needed time to adapt.
Noah wouldn't wait. Tens of thousands of Blade Beaks swarmed from all directions at his gesture.
Countermeasures existed. Only his interpretive senses were inverted—not the world.
Yoo Ji-tae reshaped Formless Sword into a sphere, advancing. Distance receded behind as a thorned orb shielded him from the Blade Beaks.
Impacted monstrosities shattered and fell.
He thought.
Omnipotent or not, limits exist.
Like a machine needing 'imagination' fuel. Changing the dream world takes time.
But Noah's next imagination unfolded before Yoo Ji-tae adapted.
The voice resounded through Yoo Ji-tae's body. Noah's words hurled via the world.
Soon, the sky beneath his feet rumbled.
Rumble…….
A massive rectangular form displaced space from the sky.
Size of stacked high-rises. Blunt earthen tip. Form like enormous thorns.
Crimson lightning crackled around the colossal thorn.
It targeted the 'world,' receding backward.
In other words, hurtling toward Yoo Ji-tae.
Rooooar—
Air displaced.
An Otherworld artifact.
Totem guarding the 'Lightning Spirit King's' temple. Shouldn't exist here. Unless reimagined in Noah's dream.
Yoo Ji-tae gazed at the rising Pyran's Divine Thorn.
Sensory adaptation progressed bit by bit.
Time to move seriously.
"……."
In the 6th cycle, Yoo Ji-tae realized his power exceeded human control.
A momentary lapse unleashed uncontainable killing intent. It rampaged: buildings crumbled, mountains eroded, thousands died.
So near the 6th cycle's end, realizing his error, he sealed part of his power to live in the world.
By embedding artifacts in his body.
Feeling the massive thorn distancing from him.
Yoo Ji-tae closed his eyes.
The world's heart pulsed intensely.