Chapter 92
Chapter 92
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 92
Chapter Title: Awaken
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‘......A whole different dimension.’
Lee Hyuk-soo trembled faintly as he watched the clash between the two monsters.
The Guardian Warrior who had appeared was level 109.
A warrior in a realm so far beyond his own that even the numerical difference alone was staggering.
Just watching him sent chills racing through his body, and even meeting his gaze felt impossible—their very presence was worlds apart.
No matter how many foes Lee Hyuk-soo had faced in his life combined, they wouldn’t measure up to this single Guardian Warrior.
If the Guardian Warrior charged at him...
No, he wouldn’t even need to charge.
The sheer aura and pressure alone would crush him flat.
He’d suffocate under the overwhelming energy, his body bursting apart when he could no longer endure.
The one silver lining was that the warrior’s gaze was fixed solely on the Prophet.
Lee Hyuk-soo could barely manage to breathe at his side.
The Prophet wasn’t just enduring the Guardian Warrior’s stare.
......Right now, he was locked in a fierce battle.
‘......I can’t even track their movements.’
A heaven beyond heaven.
A distant sky Lee Hyuk-soo could never reach, no matter how much he trained his entire life.
In a world invisible to the naked eye, the two traded blows.
Sounds reached him sporadically at best, with no way to tell how many exchanges happened in between.
Boom! Thud! KABOOM!
The pillars upholding the palace crumbled one after another like falling dominoes.
The floor cratered deeply, dust billowed thickly, and before long, the palace interior had become a total wasteland.
Lee Hyuk-soo couldn’t move a muscle amid it all.
One wrong step, and he’d be swept up in their fight.
......But still.
‘Can you even call that a fight?’
It was more like a war.
Too vast in scale to dismiss as a one-on-one brawl.
It had long surpassed the level of mere living beings.
Lee Hyuk-soo was witnessing a battlefield of the gods.
This was the world beyond level 99.
The transcendent realm of selflessness experienced only by those who surpassed level 100.
‘No place for me here......’
Gulp!
Lee Hyuk-soo’s face tensed.
His mouth went dry.
His eyes could barely follow their afterimages.
This wasn’t a place for him.
There had never been a spot for him here from the start.
‘Now I get it. The Legendary Quest. Why they gave us the title of Legend Witness.’
It finally made sense.
Why everyone received the title of “One Who Has Witnessed a Legend.”
Simple.
Everyone who entered on the second night was just an audience member.
They couldn’t even be described as a single line in this legend’s tale.
Lee Hyuk-soo was merely granted the chance to view it up close.
A thorough bystander, nothing more.
There was only one thing he could do.
Stay put and watch until the story ended.
That was all Lee Hyuk-soo could manage.
‘That’s...... the Prophet’s power.’
Thump! Thump!
His heart pounded wildly.
He’d known the Prophet was an extraordinary being for some time.
But seeing him move and fight firsthand was a first.
He wasn’t pushed back at all against the Guardian Warrior.
If anything, he seemed to grow more dominant as time passed.
Especially the way he manipulated those particles—it was like watching dreamlike magic unfold.
‘Just what level is he?’
He’d had some suspicions.
That his level was so high it caused glitches, bugs even.
That thought solidified in this moment.
To handle a level 109 Guardian Warrior with such ease meant he’d reached an even higher level.
This display might not even be the Prophet’s full power.
Impossible to gauge.
How far up the ladder he truly stood.
‘I want to...... reach that too.’
Invisible to the eye, but Lee Hyuk-soo felt it through his senses.
Soon, he closed his eyes.
Only then did a single image begin to form in his mind.
How the battle was unfolding.
Who attacked, who defended, who held the advantage.
Even sketching that one frame felt like it would split his head open.
‘I won’t miss a thing.’
Instinctively, he knew.
Battles of this caliber wouldn’t come again anytime soon.
His mind couldn’t keep pace with the real-time action, but he crammed in as much as he could, etching it deep.
You had to understand to reach it.
Recognize another dimension existed to shatter the walls.
It wouldn’t be easy—might even be impossible—but Lee Hyuk-soo devoted every ounce of focus to tracking their fight.
Even if it killed him in the process, he’d have no regrets.
“You bastard......!”
Grind!
That was when it happened.
The Guardian Warrior gnashed his teeth.
No matter how fiercely he swung his greatsword, those black-red particles blocked him every time.
Like an automatic shield reacting on its own.
Judging that direct clashes wouldn’t land hits easily, he’d feinted several times to lure the particles, but they saw through it like ghosts, refusing to budge.
As if they saw right through his every move.
What grated even more was that human challenger’s demeanor.
“You’re not even going all out!”
He was toying with him.
Deceiving him outright.
Nibbling away bit by bit, like testing new powers.
Was this how it felt to be a lab rat?
It went beyond the level of simply absorbing Azos.
Stronger.
Faster, tougher.
The foe displayed a battle style so bizarre it defied reason.
Whipping the black particles like lashes, using them as shields, shifting forms endlessly.
All while barely paying attention to the Guardian Warrior himself.
How could that not enrage him?
No one had ever dared show such an attitude in his presence!
‘That’s not his full power?’
Even Lee Hyuk-soo, overhearing, couldn’t help but gasp.
This mighty Guardian Warrior was grinding his teeth in frustration.
Complaining that the Prophet wasn’t even at full strength.
If the Prophet went all out, Lee Hyuk-soo couldn’t even imagine what would happen.
“Now I see.”
At the same time.
Ignoring the Guardian Warrior’s words, Park Chan-woo nodded.
This power he’d abruptly gained.
He’d assimilated and donned the rampaging Azos.
The particles cloaking him were proof.
Now he understood how to wield it.
‘It’s not limited to just swinging them around.’
But that wasn’t all.
Simply flailing them wouldn’t reveal deeper truths.
He needed to peer closer to grasp what this phenomenon truly meant.
What were these particles?
They moved automatically without thought, linking stronger when focused.
So he swung them, struck with them.
Not enough.
Lick!
......He stuck out his tongue and drew one into his mouth.
Insane.
Taking in an unverified energy source and swallowing it.
Not to mention its ominous appearance.
A suicidal act that could kill him on the spot, yet Park Chan-woo didn’t hesitate.
Instead, he rolled the particle around his mouth like fine wine.
Gulp!
Swallowed it in one go.
‘Hmm.’
Soon, he felt the particle rebound.
Slipping naturally out of his body.
What did that mean?
After repeating the process several times, he finally realized.
‘These particles are all mana. The origin mana Azos possessed.’
Innate mana, the primal energy inherent from birth—“unique mana.”
Some called unique mana the “soul.”
These were Azos itself, in essence.
Normally, unique mana was invisible.
Imperceptible.
Not something that protruded and whipped around like this.
Yet here it was, visible, manipulable, shape-shifting.
“Ahh.”
Park Chan-woo shuddered as realization dawned.
Unique mana, and at the same time...
‘It’s magic.’
Magic in its raw form.
But incomplete magic.
The unique mana cloaking his body now was mere “points.”
Connect them into “lines,” weave into “surfaces,” and only then would true magic form.
After that, he could finally unleash the magic known as “Azos.”
The key to birthing entirely new magic!
His heart raced with urgency.
‘I have to refine it into complete magic before time runs out.’
Twenty minutes left.
Could he finish it in time?
‘Creating magic.’
Not even the dragonkin masters of magic could do it easily—and even they’d struggle.
Dragon God Sepiro had created countless spells, but he wasn’t Dragon God Sepiro.
Much less elevating a mana in this form—Azos itself—into magic. Even Sepiro likely never had.
‘Azos’s unique mana. But it’s not normal. It’s been altered by something.’
That’s why it took so long to recognize.
Twisted and corrupted.
It was Azos’s unique mana, yes, but far from the standard conception.
He pondered the cause of this change.
‘Beyond the Zero Realm. The Negative World.’
Nothing else fit.
Azos, forced to experience negative levels by the Death God of the Covenant, had glimpsed what no one should see there.
Something that shook and remade its soul entirely.
The Demon-Sealing God.
But if the God of Offerings was there too...
......Then other things were as well.
For instance.
‘Including Dragon God Sepiro’s human form, other sealed entities......’
Were they in the negative realm?
The offerings used for regression?
Or everything he’d sacrificed?
Park Chan-woo had found the Demon-Sealing God—and the God of Offerings—in the holy grail, but that entity had existed since ancient times.
Far back in the distant past, so surely other masters had come before.
Their offerings would overflow as well.
Perhaps Azos had witnessed those.
‘Something from there latched onto Azos.’
No other explanation for the change.
Something had driven Azos berserk.
Attached itself, wielding immense influence...
“Don’t get distracted, human!”
The Guardian Warrior’s entire body glowed red-hot.
He couldn’t forgive it.
The bastard was ignoring him right to his face.
His mind wandered elsewhere, not even registering the Guardian Warrior.
What an insolent wretch.
“Let’s see if you can ignore this.”
Shwooooo!
The Guardian Warrior unleashed all his mana.
Mana-formed afterimages of the Guardian Warrior began appearing—one, two...
Soon, ten afterimages solidified like clones.
His ultimate secret art: “Purgatory.”
In an instant, the ten clones surrounded Park Chan-woo.
Mana consumption was extreme, but once trapped inside, death was guaranteed.
The clones were identical to the original.
Each moved independently, charging solely toward the target’s demise.
No way those puny particles could block death from eleven directions.
The Guardian Warrior’s strongest technique.
Ten clones.
One true body.
Unless they pinpointed and killed him, victory was impossible.
‘My win, you fool.’
The Guardian Warrior was certain of triumph.
He’d slaughter the arrogant fool.
And so.
The moment every clone and the Guardian Warrior lunged at once.
“......Awaken, Azos.”