Chapter 351: The Anointed (1)
Chapter 351: The Anointed (1)
The alarm in my head blares frantically, screaming that the being before me—this creature so similar to myself—is my true Adversary.
And yet, I don't feel any hostility from her yet.
Clutching a burning Pry Bar, this girl who looks exactly like me does nothing but stare.
Because she is entirely draped in black, she resembles Yumil at a glance. However, the aura she exudes is worlds apart.
If Yumil is a tomboy dressed in a black gown, this being feels like a corpse wrapped in a tattered shroud, walking slowly but relentlessly.
She carries the air of someone who knows everything there is to know about the world and has found it utterly hollow.
A sense of negative detachment.
A walking corpse.
Sensing that negation, I began to measure my enemy’s strength.
An enemy of the story, possessing immense power.
That was all.
I couldn't feel any strange flow of energy. Nothing radiated outward, nor was there any gathering of force that suggested the manifestation of magic, psychic powers, or any unique special ability.
My enemy simply absorbed the Black Oil that composed this world, step by step.
Accompanied by the squelching sound of viscous oil, she drew closer, slowly and steadily.
It was strange.
Even though I was standing in the oil, I couldn't step on it as if it were solid ground; yet, this enemy interacted with the oil as if it were part of reality.
Questions surged within me.
What kind of attacks does she use? How does she fight?
And what was that Otherworld Erosion from before?
‘The collective shall walk alone.’
Interpret it, Lee Ha-ram.
If I can't figure out the nature of that Otherworld Erosion, I have no chance of winning. I need to know how that sentence is interpreted and what consequences it brings.
Before The Enemy lunges. Think.
Even as I thought, I held my stance, prepared for her to strike.
Beads of thick sweat began to form on my brow.
I felt something... vast.
There was nothing special. The world wasn't exerting any influence. Though I was attempting an interpretation, I couldn't feel the effects of the Otherworld Erosion yet.
It certainly wasn't a mental attack. I wasn't speaking aloud, but the mental defense algorithms in my brain showed no abnormalities.
Nevertheless, my intuition screamed that this enemy was the strongest being I had ever encountered.
Excluding the Existence of The End, whose power was immeasurable from the start, she was the most powerful entity I knew.
Whether that was objectively true, I didn't know. It was possible I was simply feeling fear and overestimating her in this situation.
But at the very least, she wore an aura sufficient to justify such an overestimation.
And so, while I remained in a defensive stance instead of launching a preemptive strike as I usually would, a voice rang out.
"No questions?"
The girl's voice echoed clearly throughout the world, piercing through the sound of the endlessly flowing oil.
"..."
I gave no answer.
"I'm sure you have plenty to ask. Are you staying quiet because you think it's some kind of trap?"
"..."
Exactly.
The moment I answered that question, I might satisfy the conditions for some special ability to trigger. That was why I kept my mouth shut.
The Enemy stared back at me.
She stopped walking, crossing her arms while still holding the Pry Bar in her right hand.
"I understand. You've been through a lot. You've heard countless lies from those who hide the truth. But I'm different from them."
Her voice grew louder.
"The Root that gave birth to me... that thing is trash too. To think it was once the god of a world, yet it tried to invade and devour another world just to satisfy its own desires. I wonder if it even knows whose hand it borrowed."
"..."
"It's only natural that Gaji, the Avatar of a god, would rebel. Originally, they were beings meant to bring happiness to the world. But then they came to some unknown world and tried to bear fruit..."
"..."
"And so, The Child of a god from another world was born by devouring its mother's body, and now it curses the mother who blessed its birth as trash."
"..."
"Thus, amidst a cursed blessing, the fruit was born as a seeker to lead the world to the truth. This is the story of your Adversary. Congratulations. Your Original Sin will now vanish."
"..."
For some reason, this reminded me of a certain cross-based religion.
Since I had basic knowledge of it for infiltration purposes, I understood the gist of the narrative.
And thanks to that, I knew one thing for sure.
I'm not a believer, but comparing that religion to this thing felt like a sacrilege.
Unlike that religion, which speaks of love, tolerance, and devotion, the being before me radiated only the exact opposite.
Hatred and discrimination.
And the stench of greed.
So, I continued to remain silent.
"Ah, I see. You're still not going to open your mouth? Then just listen. You have ears to hear and a brain to understand."
She continued her monologue.
"I am the one born to deliver the truth. The one born to fulfill the overflowing desires—the Original Sin that comes with being born a living creature. I am the one who was meant to descend at the end of the distant world to save everyone. The Messiah."
"..."
I didn't respond, but I listened intently. Somewhere in that information might be the clue to defeating her.
"The one who will come someday. The fruit that can never open. Because all desires eventually clash. Fulfilling every desire leads to a contradiction. You can't make everyone number one, just as you can't fulfill the wish for someone to die and someone else's wish for them to live at the same time."
She continued to sing of her birth and her existence.
Then, she laughed.
It was a sound like a scream.
"So, let's think in reverse. To bring down the Messiah, The Root found an answer within its own contradictory logic."
Her voice sounded like a scream plunging into an endless abyss. It was so distorted it should have been mere noise, but my brain recognized it as speech.
"If all desires cannot be fulfilled, then all desires must vanish. Thus, all desires shall be fulfilled."
"..."
That's insane. It's like saying if everyone dies, no one has to worry about death anymore.
"I, who exist alone, have no desires. So why do those who live so busily need them?"
Yet, as if she found even that thought delightful, the piercing screams continued to pour into my brain.
"At this point, the stupid Root's logic began to leap. It believed it had no desires because it existed alone. It thought that without relationships with others, desire could never arise."
"..."
Her words unraveled the complexity, but they were closer to a nightmare.
"Of course, that's nonsense. The Root believed it had no desires, but the very act of wanting a Messiah is a desire. It was wrong from the very beginning."
Cackle, cackle.
A scream-like laughter echoed through the oily world.
"And so, The Root, harboring a broken desire, began to fester. Severing all connections was originally a means to the end of manifesting the Messiah, but at some point, the means became The End."
She smiled.
"The Messiah The Root envisioned... was completed as the one who would sever all connections, born the moment all desires were erased. Isn't it tragic?"
She took a step forward, as if the story was nearing its end.
"A Messiah who will destroy the world. I, who should have been born with everyone's blessing, was born in an isolation devoid of a single blessing. And now, I intend to follow the will of my maddened mother."
Squelch.
The oil splashed. The sound echoed.
"I consume the connection with others. Yes. In your terms... I eat openness. Originally, I didn't have this power, but it's a vestigial trait that emerged when the foolish, heavy, and corrupt Root made its deal."
Squelch.
She drew closer. Her voice grew louder.
"I know there's no necessity to do this. But let's think of it the other way. There's no reason not to do it either, right? Even though the corrupt Root that fashioned me is a mad entity, it did create me. Shouldn't I do at least this much for it?"
Squelch.
Her voice and her body twisted. The burning Pry Bar was held behind her back.
"No, I've already executed it. Through the power of Otherworld Erosion, Sentient Beings can no longer perceive others. You will now walk through the eternal night alone."
Squelch. Whoosh.
The Black Oil touched by the burning Pry Bar began to ignite. Her flames spread, casting a red light across the lightless world.
"This world is perfect. No fear of death, no hunger, no complex society. You will all continue your lives within this place forever."
Whoosh.
The fire spread.
The haphazardly burning flames were suddenly brought under control, racing through the world like a long tail biting itself.
"In an eternal coldness devoid of stimulation, you will do nothing but think. And eventually, you will realize the truth: that an eternal dream where everything you think of comes true—a dream of perfect happiness—is the only true salvation from Original Sin."
As her words ended, the flaming tails racing through the world connected, forming a circular Magic Circle that surrounded me and the Self-proclaimed Messiah.
"With this, the world without Original Sin is complete. This truth hasn't reached the isolated exterior yet, but that's only a matter of time. The oil will gradually spread and cover the world, and eventually, everyone in your world will be cleansed of Original Sin."
Holding the Pry Bar in her right hand, she bowed her head to me.
It was like a polite greeting.
"Now, that's the end of my explanation. If The Root is the mother who bore me, then you are the most abundant seed that became my foundation. The one who holds the majority of desires."
She raised her head and took a stance.
A stance identical to mine.
"My Inverse Phase, standing on the opposite side of the Messiah who will wash away Original Sin."
The talkative enemy glared at me.
I, too, took my stance.
"As long as the Inverse Phase exists, I am not the true Messiah. For my actions will be negated by my Inverse Phase."
I understood what she was saying.
This being simply wanted to fulfill the purpose for which she was born. And in doing so, I was her greatest enemy.
"I didn't expect my Inverse Phase to be like this. No power, nothing special to boast of. All you have are more connections than anyone else in the world, and the strength to strike down."
What a scathing evaluation.
Well, I suppose if you could choose your birth, you'd want to be born from someone with cooler powers. Since she looks like a corpse, someone like The Necromancer Lee Ha-ram inside me would have been a better fit.
With that thought, I spoke for the first time.
"So, are you unhappy? That the salvation of the world is decided by a simple contest of strength."
She was my opposite. No special abilities, only immense physical power. There was the Otherworld Erosion, but that was just the foundation of this world. It didn't have any other special effects.
An Otherworld Erosion that merely separated people from one another.
And so, we were about to settle this.
"No, actually, this might be better. I'm unhappy with my appearance and the power I hold, but I'm satisfied with this situation itself."
She spoke.
"The most primal relationship with another. A struggle of pure physical force that existed before communication. Deciding the end of relationships through that... is quite interesting in its own way."
The Messiah who stands as my Inverse Phase is quite the deep thinker.
Then again, judging by the way she talks, it seems her thoughts and way of reasoning didn't come from me.
But her strength is definitely similar to mine.
Therefore.
"Then, let's go."
I crouched low.
To charge.
"Come."
She also crouched low.
To clash.
Without any battle of wits.
A pure contest of strength.
Satisfied that this would decide The End.
Boom.
We leaped toward each other.