Chapter 517
Chapter 517
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 517
Chapter Title: Collision (3)
A single man cloaked in an eerie aura slowly advanced his footsteps.
At a glance, he seemed utterly ordinary. Look again, and an overwhelming pressure that choked the breath emanated from him. Try to focus properly, and he even felt hazy—
> an utterly unfathomable existence.
‘The Reverse Heaven Leader...’
Just one man revealing himself was enough to reverse the chaotic battlefield's atmosphere in an instant.
> No, he was no longer something that could be called ‘human.’
‘Heavy.’
The sheer weight of his presence naturally crushed the surroundings.
> It wasn’t deliberate qi projection—just the pure pressure from his existence influencing the world itself.
>
Like a god descended to earth commanding submission from all creation.
>
The souls confronting this great being instinctively humbled themselves, holding their breath to avoid offending the absolute sovereign.
‘Don’t make me laugh.’
Defying it, flames blazed fiercely in the empty sockets of Hans, who gripped his staff tightly.
> Harley, still heaving ragged breaths from the previous fight, ground his saw-like teeth together.
‘I’ve grown strong. Strong enough that if I set my mind to it, I could seize any world. You think I’d submit to you now?’
This wasn’t the first time facing the Reverse Heaven Leader.
> They had clashed multiple times before—fleeing when outmatched by his power, or striking when he let his guard down to inflict heavy damage and drive him off.
>
Yet...
‘...He’s changed too, just like me.’
Was it because Hans had awakened divinity that he sensed it? Or had something shifted in the Reverse Heaven Leader during his long seclusion? He couldn’t tell.
> But one thing was clear: it wasn’t good for them.
>
His intuition, now touching the realm of providence, had been screaming warnings relentlessly.
“You’ve arrived, Leader.”
“Black Knight, you look exhausted.”
“I have no excuses. To show such disgrace against just two opponents...”
“They’re hardly ‘just two.’ No matter how you slice it, the fact remains they toppled the Doctor.”
Whether sensing their wariness or not,
the Reverse Heaven Leader approached the Black Knight and halted, casually beginning a conversation.
> As if the enemies right before him meant nothing at all.
“That aside. Were you planning to remove your armor?”
“...I judged that further delays would disrupt the grand plan.”
“You knew that without the Doctor’s aid, removing the armor would make it irreversible.”
“A risk worth taking. And it resolves itself once we recover the Doctor.”
“Fair enough.”
But Hans knew better.
> He might seem utterly indifferent to them at a glance, but the Reverse Heaven Leader was watching the two avatars more closely than anyone.
>
He could even feel the threads of causality enveloping the world coiling around them, trying to bind them tight.
‘Hoo, should I just withdraw like this? Or...’
He’d already considered the possibility of the Leader appearing.
> No matter how reclusive, silence until his top executives fell would be unlikely.
>
Naturally, he’d prepared contingency plans.
‘I can’t waste this chance. Stick to the plan.’
A test probe, so to speak.
> Engage, and if an opening appeared, unleash Entity Assembly. If not, save the trump card for next time.
>
Firm in his original plan, he acted immediately.
[Kehahaha! It’s been a while. Finally showing yourself, Reverse Heaven Leader.]
Still hovering midair, silently observing, Hans’s low voice echoed out.
In response, savage auras began rising from the Transcendents of the Reverse Heaven Society, who had quietly retreated.
> They clearly disliked anyone speaking so casually to their leader.
>
Of course, Hans paid their reactions no mind.
“Indeed, it’s been a while, Hwaengot Mask. I never imagined you’d grow this fast. And here you are, facing me without fleeing.”
[Pfft—that’s all thanks to you. Thanks to the divinity you handed over, I skipped quite a few steps.]
“......”
A brief exchange laced with barbs.
> At Hans’s provocation referencing the Outerica incident, the Leader’s eye twitched.
Still adapting to that dimension, he’d clashed fiercely with waiting enemies, ultimately driven out after losing part of his divinity—a deeply humiliating memory.
> How much effort had it taken to recover those losses?
>
And now, to be mocked for it...
“...Heh, I see. Those memories must’ve inflated your ego. Overflowing with confidence, aren’t we?”
The Leader’s lip curled mockingly.
> The next instant—
A chill—
Just a casual glimpse of emotion,
> and a razor-sharp eeriness swept the entire area.
>
Even skinless Hans felt goosebumps ripple across his form.
[Kekeke—too bad. These lungs of mine don’t exist.]
Trusting his ace, he ignored the instinctive chill and continued nonchalantly,
> as if determined to grate on the Leader’s nerves.
>
Harley joined in seamlessly, as if waiting for his cue.
“Kahahaha! Come to think of it, those wings back then were a real delicacy! Chewy and tasty, like chicken wings. How about I rip off the other one now?”
Harley smacked his lips openly, Hans arrogantly overlooked the ground from above, and the familiar undeads eyed the rear warily.
> The Leader gazed at former Reverse Heaven members like Cheonma and Seogwan with transparent eyes, nodding slowly.
“Right, no need for more words. We’ve come too far for talk.”
He slowly raised one hand toward them.
“First, let’s get on the same level.”
He lightly clenched his fist and twisted it aside.
> A gesture that seemed utterly casual.
>
But its effect was anything but.
Craaaack—
As if tearing a piece from a painting by hand,
> everything in the direction of his hand vanished at once.
>
Even the secondary dimensional space the Doctor had meticulously crafted was no exception.
“Impressive evasion skills, I’ll give you that. Truly well-deserved reputation.”
The Leader tilted his head with a smirk.
> To the side of the frontal area now grotesquely ripped open, revealing only void,
>
he regarded the Great Foes who had instinctively dodged via intuition.
“Let’s see how long you can keep dodging.”
His lip curled again as he raised his hand once more.
> The next instant—
The world began shredding apart at seemingly meaningless gestures.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Was this the scene of a world’s end?
> Within the collapsing secondary space, Hans and Harley gritted their teeth, relying solely on instinct to move.
‘Unleashing attacks like this with no delay or warning? Even if, this is too much!’
No time to rest.
> At first, they dodged by reading his gestures, but after narrowly escaping a space rip unrelated to the trajectory during a brief lapse, they abandoned that.
>
The gestures they thought triggered the ability were mere decoys—traps. In truth, they meant nothing.
‘Should’ve gathered the undead faster. After all the effort to collect them...’
The delayed response to the first strike.
> That single blow vaporized twenty percent of the forces he’d deployed outside.
>
Complete annihilation—no revival or recycling possible.
If not for the quick-reacting ones who escaped the radius fast, or the rare few that endured the space’s collapse, losses would’ve been worse.
> He’d minimized further damage by swiftly retrieving the rest post-attack, but considering these were Hans’s elite forces, even that fraction was a devastating blow.
‘I’ll make you pay dearly!’
Of course, he hadn’t just scurried like a rat.
> He’d chosen to engage precisely to gauge the Leader’s current level and how much ground he’d gained.
‘No matter how I look at it, full battle here is impossible. In that case...’
The best move was to probe and expose as many of his abilities as possible for the final showdown later.
[Heratos.]
Right after dodging another assault,
> the space before Hans’s extended left hand split, and something massive emerged.
>
A dragon skull large enough to swallow humans without notice—house-sized.
[Grrrrr——!]
With its body still in another space, just its maw protruding, Dragon Heratos’s eyes blazed.
> Then it unleashed the death breath already overcompressed within, glowing fiercely even before summoning.
—————!
Surpassing even ultimate magic, a pillar of destruction shot straight ahead. Unable to withstand the backlash, the dragon skull crumbled and reverse-summoned.
> Shaped like breath but merely a barrel—Hans was the true source.
>
Possible by sharing the Immortal King’s Heart instead of a dragon heart: an instant-cast strike.
The black pillar, infused with abyssal and death divinity, ignored spatial severing and struck its target precisely on launch.
> Instant death for even divine beings if struck—the ultimate death itself.
>
Yet this sacrificial blow from one dragon failed to land.
“Not bad. Looks dangerous—shall I pause it?”
The moment the black pillar reached the Leader,
> it froze midair, as if captured in a photo.
>
Taxidermied in infinite time.
>
Then its tip abruptly bent, shooting harmlessly into empty space.
‘Again? Interfering with energy at that intensity... Because of attribute superiority?’
No matter how mighty the death spear, it meant nothing without connecting.
> He’d been blocked like this multiple times.
Even a committed strike frozen in spacetime foiled his plan to cull more Reverse Heaven forces mid-fight.
> The Leader countered them while leisurely protecting his allies.
Screee—!
The hopeless loop seemed endless, but
it wasn’t entirely fruitless.
“Uracha—! Take a hit already!”
“Tch.”
A fierce shout and space-piercing roar.
> The Leader folded space to evade the approaching giant’s strike, clicking his tongue in annoyance.
>
For some reason, his spacetime authority barely affected Harley.
“Unbelievable. Resistance to divinity and spacetime? What kind of monster are you?”
He chuckled dryly, repelling the pure-energy assault with raw force, murmuring low.
> Harley, who’d ripped off a wing in past clashes and built time resistance battling the Executioner.
>
Through accumulated time and evolutions, he now outshone even Hans this moment.
“Catch him and give to the Doctor—he’d love that.”
Of course, nowhere near enough against a divine being.
“Getting tedious. Where’s the Doctor’s consciousness...? You won’t spill easily, I suppose.”
The Leader’s leisurely air shifted abruptly.
> Evidently, he’d been probing too.
‘Time to pull back?’
Despite heavy losses, gains weren’t small.
> From priority targets before the Leader, to unexpectedly effective counters—plenty of intel.
“You won’t escape like last time.”
Perhaps sensing their withdrawal timing,
> the approaching Leader tossed out the line.
“I’ve frozen all causality linking this secondary space. Your very existence here is fixed to this world. No method will let you leave.”
Harley scowled at the confident claim.
> Testing hasty unsummoning failed—just as stated, the avatars wouldn’t budge.
‘Wait, this...’
Summon release, reliable lifeline in any pinch, now blocked.
> Cold sweat trickled down his spine in that instant.