Chapter 519
Chapter 519
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 519
Chapter Title: New World Plan (1)
A world torn and shattered in places, slowly crumbling away.
'What the hell happened here?'
Standing in one corner of that secondary dimensional space, the Black Knight slowly scanned his surroundings with a quiet sigh.
Just moments ago, his body had been burning hot from the intense battle, but it had long since cooled. The magic sword gripped in his hand still radiated sharp killing intent, thirsting for blood. Yet now that its target was gone, it could only spew meaningless desires aimlessly.
-Tch! I thought we'd finally get to loosen up properly after so long, and this is what happens? Can't even wrap it up right and it ends all half-assed like this!
'Shut up.'
-Kekeke— Hey, Hero! Why don't you say something? Weren't you all confident that once the Sovereign arrived, the bastard couldn't escape? So what the hell is this? You let him slip away again!
'......'
-Look at you now, huh? Didn't gain a damn thing and just danced to their tune. All talk of world salvation and New World Plans, shiny words for getting played. Kahahat!
The demonic sword Barbnel unleashed a barrage of mocking barbs, as if deliberately trying to get under his skin. It had agreed back then, but now blamed others—a typical tantrum from the wicked blade that acted on whims. Ignoring the noisy racket echoing in his mind, the Black Knight silently recalled recent events.
'The world's laws became fluid, and the causal flow the Sovereign had fixed was released in an instant. No incomplete divinity could perform such a miracle.'
Having reached quasi-divine status himself, he could grasp the situation well enough. In his view, there was only one possible cause.
'Intervention from the System. Likely the activation of a privilege earned through achievements.'
He possessed privileges too, so he knew their mechanisms. A special boon borrowing the power of the Akasha System—the Providence encompassing all dimensions and the chains binding Earth. Only something like that could nullify the Sovereign's painstaking causal seal.
'Still, I didn't expect them to have a privilege letting them escape this place. Pure coincidence?'
Privileges varied wildly based on achievements. For foes opposing the Sovereign right now to have exactly that one felt profoundly significant.
'Sovereign...'
The Black Knight cautiously turned to look where the Reverse Heaven Sovereign stood.
A human-god staring blankly into empty space at the center of the asura field. Knowing the immense sacrifices and efforts he'd made for his plan's completion made even approaching him feel risky now. Not only had they lost a key adversary they'd expected to capture, but retrieving an early collaborator seemed impossible too.
Yet contrary to his worries...
'Hahoe Mask... and Lion Mask with Masquerade.'
The furiously raging Sovereign quickly composed himself, calmly analyzing events.
'Still, no matter how I think about it, something's off.'
More precisely, the odd incongruity he'd sensed from those two just before they vanished.
He'd accumulated divinity enough to become a god, and free from Doctor's constraints in this sub-space, he could wield most of his power. Thus, he'd glimpsed the veiled adversaries—
'Why were those two's causal lines so intimately entangled? Not even twins would share that. It was like they shared a soul...'
—drawing a step closer to truths he'd never grasped.
Truthfully, incomprehensible aspects of these chief adversaries abounded. Not one, but a group; not just Earthlings but otherworlders; despite all measures, their identities remained elusive like phantoms.
'The moment they broke the seal and fled was the same. It wasn't moving elsewhere through space. More like they vanished completely from the world.'
Of course, privileges or unknown abilities could explain it. This world was more chaotic than any timeline he'd repeated, so nothing absurd would surprise him now.
'Still, I should remember it.'
Suddenly, the Hahoe Mask's parting words resurfaced. Staring with the lifeless glare of a ghost radiating only ghostly energy and malice. Etched sharply in memory for it.
'Next time, they'll kill me for sure.'
The Sovereign's lips twisted in a thin sneer.
'No, I will.'
He'd analyze thoroughly, ensuring no such fruitless miss next time. Despite the unexpected privilege variable, now knowing their existence, he'd prepare accounting for it too.
...Even if new variables arose then.
"Sovereign. This place is reaching its limit. We should leave."
The Black Knight, waiting quietly beside him, spoke up. With the space at its breaking point from the cataclysmic fight, other transcendents had already fled, leaving only them.
"Indeed. You did well today, Black Knight."
"I have no face. If I'd arrived sooner, Doctor wouldn't have been taken."
"Unavoidable. But we have chances to make up for it. Doctor's merely sealed, not fully dead."
"Understood. Given their movements, we'll clash again soon. I'll secure him then."
"We need to raise their threat level. I'll warn Tsaritsa separately."
As they conversed...
The precarious world finally began collapsing.
Guuuung— Kuguang!
Abyssal darkness flooded through rifts, devouring the world; cracked spaces shattered, melting into nothingness.
A dire crisis where even most transcendents would perish if caught. Yet the Sovereign and Black Knight conversed calmly, strolling unperturbed.
"What of the New World Project while Doctor's absent?"
"Proceed as planned. He'd already finished the complex parts. We'll tweak as needed."
"Good. More work's unwelcome, but Oracle can handle cleanup."
Standing before a rift leading out in a corner of the rapidly vanishing space, the Sovereign glanced back. Most labs had vanished into collapsed voids; only their immediate area barely held.
'......'
The final scene of a perishing world.
Gazing solemnly, he turned and stepped forward.
No time for useless sentiment. The coming future demanded relentless advance. As always, ignoring all but what he could grasp, trampling the rest.
Kugugung—!
With the space's death knell, the mad scientist's secret lab vanished.
As if following its vanished master from the world.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ "Phew, that really gave me a scare this time."
Lounging in the massage chair, I let out a deep sigh and shook my head.
It resolved somehow, but it was truly dangerous. Without Liberator, I'd have been done for right there—food or fodder. High chance it'd end in my defeat.
The fully unrestrained Reverse Heaven Sovereign's power defied description as mere overwhelming.
'Guess you need divinity to counter divinity.'
I'd prepared variously for it, but against someone with immeasurable prep time, it felt insignificant. Smacking my lips in regret, I soon chuckled and shrugged.
"Can't complain even if called greedy, considering gains versus time invested."
My avatars and I had grown explosively. As if the world's will itself pushed our backs.
'...Maybe not just imagination.'
What if Liberator hadn't activated in that desperate crisis? If Hans—my greatest asset—and Harley with vast potential fell into his hands.
It wouldn't just be losing forces.
'This time, my main body's location and info might've been fully exposed.'
Avatar and I aren't separate. Capture's like handcuffs on my wrist—severance via annihilation might've been preferable. That Liberator appeared as if anticipating this... coincidence?
"...He called them 'Adversaries.'"
Sipping hot coffee at my chair, Akashic Records knowledge resurfaced.
The regressor Reverse Heaven Sovereign, repeating timelines endlessly. Each regression twisting causality and shaking Providence, countless Adversaries blocking him fatefully.
Reverse Heaven wasn't arbitrarily formed. Born from his ascetic-like repetitions, gathering those who'd opposed him—a history of the Sovereign himself, now-vanished past incarnate.
"If my info leaked fully... next timeline, he'd drag me into Reverse Heaven right after awakening?"
Assuming another regression. Or stage a terror like my parents' incident for "rescue" and debt.
'Pointless speculation now. Key is I'm this cycle's chief Adversary.'
Adversaries receive karma's subtle aid against Providence-defiers. From awakening Avatar to past feats, all influenced somewhat.
A bit irked at seeming will-intrusion, but like Luck's Goddess ever-present—not so bad. Though blind faith unwise, given other Adversaries' fates.
"Whew, whatever. I'll just do what I must, come what may."
This perilous journey yielded immense gains. Harley evolved battling Black Knight directly, growing stronger; stolen martial principles became fortunes for my martial avatars. But above all, toppling core executive Doctor and looting his lab's treasures and data?
With Doctor's hand in most Reverse Heaven plans, analyzing this intel revealed their past paths and future intents.
'Time to tidy up. Now to dig in properly?'
Perfectly timed—Hesperon, handling database analysis, unearthed key info from Doctor's pilfered master AI. Reverse Heaven's long-mentioned final goal, Sovereign's Earth-end contingency.
The New World Plan.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ "Heh heh, finally sorted it out. Should've lived tidier. Such a hassle."
The stocky dwarf thumped his thick fists on his shoulders. Not true soreness—his skill- and stat-enhanced body was a weapon itself, despite lacking combat prowess.
"Still, this is incredible. When did they even start building it? Sourcing materials for that size alone must've been hell."
Murmuring in awe, Howard gazed admiringly at his trophy filling a Dragon Lair warehouse.
A massive metal construct.
"Anyway, I'll put it to good use! Better than rotting in storage—suits you too, right? Heh heh het!"
Chuckling heartily while patting a spherical orb beside him, he turned back forward. Urgent tasks done, now to leisurely admire 'that'.
"How best to refit it?"
There stood a colossal creation of rare metals exuding immense pressure just by existing—
A giant transforming mecha robot, proudly displaying its majestic form.