Chapter 74
Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Thunder King
Heaven and earth were turned upside down. Easy words to say, but for those experiencing it, it was anything but easy.
“Wha—!?”
“Grab onto anything, quick!”
The rangers plummeted through the sky. It was a strange way to put it, but that’s exactly what happened.
The sky became the ground, and the ground became the sky. Depending on the will of the one who caused it, but in this case, even the direction of gravity had reversed.
Gravity refers to the mutual attraction between objects with mass, but under the Sword God’s blade, such common sense held no meaning.
[Tch…!]
Lione gripped her sword tightly with her numb hand. The reflected strike, infused with Enoch’s technique and the Sword God’s power, had been quite a shock even for her.
But since it wasn’t fatally damaging, she immediately swung her sword down with all her might.
『All Things Return to Order』
It’s easier to restore the inverted heaven and earth to their original state than to flip them in the first place.
By inserting her own sword into the force seeking to return to normal, she dismantled the clone’s technique.
As heaven and earth shook once more, Tsukiyo kicked off the air and shot forward.
“Stay back, butler!”
Demonic energy clung to her nails. To a demigod who wielded intent like limbs, Tsukiyo’s level of illusion was meaningless. In this situation, her best option was close-quarters combat.
Enoch, hanging from an upside-down tree, silently watched the scene.
Even after heaven and earth righted themselves and settled on the ground, even as Lione joined in and the fight between the clone and the two Grandmasters continued.
‘Converge.’
The reason Tsukiyo advised focusing on one thing was simple. Just as lighter bodies rise higher more easily, realms work the same way.
But was that strictly necessary? Simply ascending normally wasn’t enough. Look at it now. There he was, lagging behind, unable to even provide any real help.
[…Tiring.]
His body felt heavy. Like a weight dragging at his heart, constantly pulling him down.
[…We can’t help it right now, Dad.]
[……]
He didn’t like this powerless situation. But that didn’t change anything.
The sense of omnipotence he’d felt after forming the third circle during his spar with Tsukiyo had been shattered long ago.
[Converge.]
He murmured blankly while observing the battle before him.
At a glance, it was a plain fight, almost deceptively so. After one initial stance, the clone was facing off against two Grandmasters with nothing but simple swordsmanship.
In contrast, what about himself? His lightning storm was flashy beyond compare, but the moment he tried to insert himself, it became nothing more than clownish antics.
His anger at Lione being wounded, his helplessness toward himself, the rising killing intent—none of it meant anything in this situation.
[Converge.]
Demigod. He didn’t even aspire to that level.
What exactly was the Grandmaster realm he hadn’t yet reached? He was confident he’d caught up in raw power to some extent, so why couldn’t he ascend to it?
He knew the essential condition for becoming a Grandmaster: opening the Middle Dantian.
But he had already opened his Middle Dantian. Not recently, but when he was very young.
Yet he couldn’t call himself a Grandmaster. Naturally, since he hadn’t reached it.
[Converge.]
The Grandmaster realm was also called the Harmony Realm. It meant achieving harmony with nature, allowing one to wield external qi like limbs.
But did it have to be harmony? Why yield one step to nature?
He had no desire to harmonize with nature. He wanted to crush it, trample it, snap its neck, and force it to submit beneath him.
[Converge.]
So how should he do it?
Well, wasn’t it simple?
Just do as he pleased.
That was the principle he’d learned from Lione, the path his heart led him to.
[Converge.]
To one point. Heavily, to a single point.
Above the five-colored circles spread behind his back, he floated a single star. It was a star of gravity, modeled after Adolf’s.
Nothing suited the image of converging to a single point like gravity.
Gwooooong────────!!
[Converge.]
Slowly, very slowly.
The space around Enoch began to converge to a single point.
*
“…My god.”
The ranger captain, who had retreated far away after heaven and earth flipped, couldn’t close his mouth at the sight unfolding in the distance.
Converge, converge. The space around the murmuring human boy warped bit by bit. The captain instinctively knew.
‘A new superhuman will be born today.’
An absurd growth rate. He had watched the spars. The boy had easily defeated the rangers—though he seemed to hold back—and even put up a fierce fight against Lady Tsukiyo.
That alone was enough to call him a once-in-a-millennium genius. And now the boy in the distance was taking another step forward.
“…Aren’t you ashamed?”
At the captain’s words, the surrounding rangers bowed their heads. They too couldn’t hide their despair in this situation.
“That young child is chasing so desperately after those lords, and here we are, just watching from afar.”
“…We have no words, even ten mouths wouldn’t be enough.”
“Yeah, me neither.”
That said, charging in under the guise of helping would just be foolish interference.
“Just etch it into your hearts. Don’t grow complacent with our long lives—move a little more busily.”
He clenched his fist. So tightly that blood flowed, turning his knuckles pale.
“…Well, for now, let’s pray. That this young superhuman’s wings don’t break here.”
*
Wounds accumulated on Lione and Tsukiyo’s bodies.
They weren’t being overwhelmingly pushed by the clone, but they couldn’t close the slight gap, and it gradually widened.
But in this moment, impatience was cast aside. They simply used this anger, helplessness, and these indescribably shitty emotions as fuel.
[Converge.]
Blindly pursuing a single goal. And conveniently, there were three textbooks right in front of him. To observe those textbooks a little better, he needed to prepare his mind.
[It’s fine.]
He’d grown since then. He had to endure.
Discarding his own advantages just because he faced stronger opponents would be idiotic.
Keeeeng────────
The circle in his left eye began to rotate slowly. Of course, he put in some safety measures. Not to look too deeply. Peering into the abyss and shoving his head in was about the dumbest thing one could do.
[Ugh…!]
The moment lines etched themselves onto the world, nausea surged. In that space where incomprehensibly profound principles unfolded like breathing, certain lines stood out especially.
[Calm. Calm?]
Was that the Sword God’s idea of calm emotion? Surprise was fleeting; he continued observing.
What was lacking, what overflowed. He ignored it all and accepted everything for now.
Excess would spill over anyway. No need to account for the backlash yet.
Step-
He advanced, laden with insight. His target: that battlefield. He had to tip the subtly tilting balance.
[Enoch!]
“Butler! Now’s not…! Urk!”
The clone’s sword. He didn’t know the principles that formed it.
But he’d seen it, so he could insert a bit of foreign matter.
『Spear』
Magic took form. All that was needed was one thrust. At that level, a spear was no different from an extension of the hand.
Puhwaaaak──────────!!
Lightning exploded spectacularly along the spear’s trajectory. The clone handled it simply.
Swaek-
One swing scattered the attack.
Fine. It was just an experiment anyway.
Lione blocked the clone’s follow-up swing. In that gap, Tsukiyo aimed for an opening, but the clone took a step forward and dealt with it easily.
[Converge.]
If he converged everything he used into a single point, what would it become?
Unknowable, so he intuitively shaped it. He seized the space that had been slowly converging around him.
『Black Point』
What the world called a black hole. He clenched the result in his hand and punched.
──────────────!!!!
Before the shattering space, the clone swung its sword as before.
Swaek-
The full-power strike scattered futilely.
Having taken it all in, blood poured from Enoch’s left eye like a waterfall.
[Converge.]
This time, he stirred spirit power and demonic qi. Foreign matter intruded into the mana circulating through his body, converging it to a single point.
Yes, like that.
Hadn’t the three circles become one massive sphere? A sphere was just a point with volume, self-evident.
Middle Dantian. Nature. Harmony. Domination. One step further: truth. The blessings of the Heavenly Slaughter Star and heaven’s mandate.
The world within me, and I within the world. Things meaningful to me and those without meaning.
Build fences to divide, embrace what’s inside, reject what’s outside.
[That too is convergence.]
It didn’t need to be perfect. No need to follow the path those three ahead had taken.
Enoch, now enlightened, dissolved into lightning, dyeing the sky purple.
I reject harmony and reign above it.
I reject all the world and embrace only what I desire.
Thus, cradling one world in my heart, I advance.
He sets aside the divine seat he’d ignorantly claimed, sitting briefly on the throne he passes through.
[Heed me.]
From the purple-dyed sky, thick bolts of lightning rained down like a storm.
More dazzlingly, more intensely than anything.
[I am Enoch Estor.]
Declaring his presence here.
[Thunder King.]
The master of all lightning had opened its eyes.