Chapter 291
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 291
Chapter Title: Form of Death (3)
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The God of Death flicked the staff gripped in his hand, tracing a line from top to bottom. Darkness came crashing down.
An indescribable darkness filled the sky to the brim, without so much as a single ray of light.
Jun realized its true nature in an instant.
It was the product of countless Hands of Death clumped together—hands that could annihilate life force with a mere touch.
'It’s incomparable to that time.'
This assault was on an entirely different scale from when the entity had first appeared in the north.
Even then, Jun had barely managed to block it at the cost of his life. Could Bern possibly hold off something hundreds of times greater?
'He can.'
He trusted his comrade, as always.
It wasn’t blind faith. He had run the calculations and seen the possibilities, which was why they were here.
[Light of Life]
A brilliant golden holy power materialized above the party members’ heads.
Of course, it was but a tiny candle flame before that overwhelming darkness. Yet no one considered it small.
For in this moment, it was the one and only light defying death.
[Hymnal of Light]
[Block of Light]
[Pierce of Light]
[Point In of Light]
Golden light enveloped the party in rapid succession. And the one who received the greatest share of that power was, without doubt, Bern.
“……”
Bern glanced briefly at Eleanor, her eyes gleaming with golden light.
The girl he had personally taken by the hand from the orphanage in their childhood.
To her, he had committed a sin too grave to be forgiven with a mere apology.
Yet Eleanor had pardoned them with just a single outburst of anger, like divine mercy.
And not content with that, she was now pouring everything she had into protecting him and the others.
“If I can’t block this, I’d be a failure as a holy knight… and as a man.”
Strength naturally flowed into the hands gripping his battle hammer and tower shield.
This holy power from Eleanor felt warmer than the divine energy that had filled most of his life.
“Hoo…”
He channeled holy power throughout his body into the shield.
In response, it erupted from the shield like a massive city wall, meeting the death closing in right before them.
Kugugugu…
True to death’s nature, it pressed down on Bern’s shield in utter silence.
In an instant, his body screamed in overload from countless places.
As the holy power was squeezed, his entire form writhed in agony alongside it.
“Light as a feather!”
Yet Bern’s expression showed not the slightest tremor.
After all, his sins weighed far heavier than this. Compared to that, he could endure this much without issue.
But the human body couldn’t overcome everything through will alone.
Reality proved it, and right now, Bern needed power beyond that.
‘It’s been a long time.’
It had been ages since he reached level 7.
The reason for his stalled growth wasn’t his body’s limits or a lack of enlightenment.
He had simply lost his way, mired in guilt.
But not anymore.
Over those long years, his mind had risen a step ahead of his body—not just to bear the weight of his sins, but to conquer it.
Now, his body followed, advancing to a higher realm.
Wooduk!
His blackened microcosm began reconstructing, infused with brilliant golden light.
A regenerative power that defied death.
The power of Aricloto, the God of Healing, warmly filled Bern’s body, proving his existence.
‘How foolish I was.’
Even if the god’s voice didn’t reach him, even if He slumbered deeply.
This power, under the god’s watchful gaze, dwelled within his body.
Yet because the voice was silent, because of the long sleep, he had denied it all—begging for just one glance back.
His faith had been lacking; unable to trust the god, he couldn’t even trust himself.
That was wrong.
He should have trusted himself first, embraced himself, so his faith in the god could stand firm.
Kwaduduk!
Pain so intense it dazed the mind assaulted him.
Muscle fibers tore apart in bursts, blood vessels burst, spraying blood from his pores.
Yet the holy power continued healing his body.
Regenerating, tearing, recovering, destroying.
Normally, his mind would have collapsed regardless of will, but instead, Bern felt an indescribable fullness.
With each destruction and restoration, holy power seeped into every cell, and in this moment, he was reborn anew.
The Day of True Emergence.
Like the rising sun, his body grew ever stronger, transcending human limits to withstand even the grasp of death.
“……”
When Bern finally looked to the sky, he snorted through his blood-clogged nose and said,
“For a god, that punch packs no weight.”
“……”
Yet the God of Death still gazed down at the party with aloof eyes.
Blocking a divine strike with a mortal body was undoubtedly impressive.
He had bridged the gulf in an instant through the backlash of growth.
The human potential had surely been pushed to its limits.
But only this once.
“You’re dying.”
Bern had overcome his limits in a flash, stepping into level 8.
But most of the surging power from that growth had been expended blocking that single strike.
He couldn’t do it twice.
With that certainty, the God of Death raised his staff once more—
“Good work.”
The mage, who had been gathering mana from the rear, spoke calmly.
Unholy crimson lightning crackled fiercely around his body.
Whatever energy coursed through him sparked thunderclaps and crimson bolts that filled the air.
[Polarity Point]
The attribute he had newly comprehended while holed up alone in Melen Castle for days.
Unlike others, it aggressively spun around Jun’s circles.
Not stopping there, Polarity Point burst forth with thunder, shooting skyward beyond the circles.
A magic pattern centered on Polarity Point sucked in Jun’s mana and the attribute’s essence in an instant, manifesting a spell into this world.
[Heaven-Defying Thunder]
Heaven-rending crimson bolt erupts
Mortal defiance surged toward the cosmos, defying the heavens themselves, only to clash against something with a vicious crackle.
“……!”
The God of Death had felt some admiration for Bern’s defense, but now he brimmed with shock and fury.
He instantly grasped what Jun was attempting.
“You bastard!!”
“I told you—did you think there’d be no way to shatter this fake sky you created?”
Even now, a pillar of crimson thunder erupted from Jun’s fingertips.
And his target was singular.
This damned, fabricated sky.
Shatter this barrier born of countless humans’ despair and terror.
Whoooong!
Once more, hands infused with death’s energy strained to block the sky.
A desperate flail to interrupt the strike midway.
“Indeed, too hasty.”
Eleanor’s holy power then blazed in defiance.
But this time, it didn’t merely hold.
Chijijik.
Crimson lightning flickered amid the golden holy power.
“……!”
Eleanor’s hand had grasped Jun’s wrist—the very hand spewing red thunder even now.
And through that hand, the necklace at her throat began absorbing the Polarity Point attribute.
The magic stone from slaying the wyvern leader.
Processed by Shylock as payment for the artifact, it now housed Polarity Point within ‘End of Lament’.
Their energies intertwined in harmony.
Aricloto’s life-giving holy power, meant for healing, now carried destructive force, isolating the invading energy from this world.
A miracle no one could believe came from two mere level 7s.
But who could call those two ordinary level 7s?
“……You dare!”
The enraged God of Death roared at Eleanor.
Jjeojeok!
As if refusing to yield, he unleashed even fiercer energy.
Ignoring his body’s durability.
Duke Melen’s flesh, vessel of his mind, cracked like parched clay with an ominous sound.
Was it the risk he bore?
The combined thunderous holy power from Jun and Eleanor began to give ground.
As inescapable death sought to snuff out the destructively shining life force—
Aiden and Maya moved.
Geugeuk.
Aiden’s arm trembled uncontrollably.
He poured insights from his Dullahan battle into a single strike.
Projecting his domain outward, if only briefly.
A normal sword would have shattered under that power, but the Twilight Sword was different.
Trembling yet enduring his energy fully, it thrust forth like a charging elephant across the plains.
Kwaduk!
Compared to the death energy occupying half the sky, Aiden’s aura was a mere handful.
But it boldly claimed his ‘domain,’ carving massive fissures into the hands of death.
Then Maya’s spectral strike slipped from Akandus’s fangs, following Aiden’s slash.
[Spirit Slash]
The power of ancestral spirits rejecting death.
It sliced through the hands rushing to mend the cracks.
A fleeting opening created.
Jun and Eleanor pushed back the death energy once more, and Jun’s [Heaven-Defying Thunder] exploded upward as if finally unleashed.
Kwagagagak!!
Heaven-Defying Thunder struck the false world’s sky again.
“Noooom—!”
Before the furious God of Death could act, cracks spiderwebbed across the sky.
The rift from Dimensional Reversal yawned absurdly wide.
Jjanggrang.
The sound of glass shattering… no, the world breaking.
And beyond it.
The true sky, studded with night stars.
Merdein’s real sky, longed for by countless souls their whole lives.
“Kaa…”
The God of Death’s forming flesh crumbled.
Shattering like pottery, bereft of body.
Yet he refused to yield to the end.
“Not yet…! I haven’t lost! I haven’t failed! I will claim my world!”
Now stripped of Duke Melen’s form, reverted to pure essence, the God of Death.
He drew on the barrier’s sustaining energy, engulfing the White Whale Mercenary Corps.
Fabricated yet undeniably real death of this world… crashed upon the party.
The full essence of the God of Death’s power.
They couldn’t evade this sudden outburst.
All but one.
Jun alone narrowed his eyes, as if he had foreseen this.