Chapter 425
Chapter 425
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 425
Chapter Title: Meeting with Lightning
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Soo-hyuk was the first to check his hands and feet upon encountering Lightning.
He wiggled his fingers and clenched his fist. His limbs moved smoothly.
In this place, Rasilius's power didn't work. Which meant...
"This place is fake."
It was a world completely cut off from the outside, a fabricated one.
"Fake?"
"Did that sound harsh? What other word would fit?"
"Nah, the word doesn't matter."
Lightning sat on a chair made of clouds, tilting his chin up pityingly.
"What's important right now is that you're pathetic enough to die."
"If you hadn't dragged me here, I would've figured it out myself."
"True. Maybe you would've. Just like always up until now."
Lightning didn't dismiss Soo-hyuk's abilities. He believed that if they went all the way, Soo-hyuk would ultimately triumph over Rasilius.
But that alone wasn't satisfying enough.
"Still, it's not enough."
He still looked full of dissatisfaction.
"What's the problem?"
"You're still not using what you have properly. You've improved since before, but why aren't you using Lightning?"
Soo-hyuk hadn't used Lightning in this fight.
The same went for his battle with the Heavenly Demon. Even when pushing himself to the limit in a grueling fight demanding high fatigue and output, Soo-hyuk had excluded Lightning.
There was one reason.
"Because I can't control it properly."
Unlike Lightning or Thunderclap, Lightning was hard to handle.
He lacked the technique. But beyond that, there was the biggest difference from Lightning or Thunderclap.
"Because there's no heart for it."
Soo-hyuk nodded at Lightning's words.
Right.
Lightning and Thunderclap had hearts that controlled and amplified their power.
They meshed like gears, enabling proper use. Compared to the past when he relied solely on Lightning, Soo-hyuk felt far more stability now.
But using Lightning was different.
It felt unstable somewhere.
Like in the old days, as if the power might break him or devour him—an uneasy sensation.
"You avoid using it because you can't handle it yet? Already scared?"
"Why butt in all of a sudden just to nag?"
"I just watched your fight with that Heavenly Demon guy. It was so frustrating I wanted to intervene several times, but I held back."
Lightning seemed continuously displeased with how Soo-hyuk fought.
"Don't be scared. You're the one who'll kill yourself. If you just cower in fear, you'll never achieve perfection."
"......"
Soo-hyuk closed his eyes briefly at Lightning's advice.
It was sudden nagging, but not wrong. In fact, it hit right on the mark.
When had it started?
Answering that himself wasn't hard.
'Ever since I started properly handling Lightning and Thunderclap.'
Lightning, Thunderclap, and the two hearts.
Once he could harmonize these four, Soo-hyuk overcame his limits.
That was how he'd defeated the Heavenly Demon. Leaping decades ahead in such a short time wasn't just his talent alone.
Then what about Lightning?
He still lacked confidence in controlling it. Honestly, did he really need to force an unstable power?
Was that what was holding him back?
If so—
"......I have to use it."
Soo-hyuk knew it too.
Lightning, Thunderclap, and Lightning bolt.
They were all fragments derived from one. Ultimately, they started as a single massive force.
Whether coincidence or fate, hadn't he seen it through the Black Soul Ring?
How great a being the Lightning wielder was.
No.
Maybe that wasn't all.
"You've finally come to your senses."
Lightning smiled in satisfaction at Soo-hyuk's decision.
Soo-hyuk tilted his head at the smile on the pale face.
Lightning asked at his reaction.
"Why?"
"It's weird."
"What is?"
"At first, I thought you were the one who turned Thor into a monster."
Thor, cursed by Mjolnir embedded with a fragment of Thunderclap, had become a monster.
To avoid that fate, Soo-hyuk strove not to be consumed by his own power.
And that effort included wariness toward the Lightning before him.
"But you're different. You're not."
"Why do you think that?"
"Because you're not the guy I saw."
The Lightning he'd met through the Black Soul Ring.
And the Lightning now before him.
They were absolutely not the same being.
This wasn't mere guesswork or speculation. It was absolute certainty.
"Lightning, but not Lightning... What the hell are you?"
The corner of Lightning's mouth curved up.
A meaningful smile. With his expression fully visible yet inscrutable, it was impossible to read his thoughts.
"Why the smile?"
"Because you're sharp. You've figured out that much. Have you gotten closer?"
He kept saying cryptic things, but one thing was clear.
The Lightning before him was different from the one Soo-hyuk had seen. And also different from the entity that turned Thor into a monster.
"You have a lot of secrets. When will you tell me?"
"You have to figure it out yourself. Like now."
"Tough assignment."
"Can great power come easy? Everything has a price."
This, he couldn't argue with.
Soo-hyuk thought he knew how tremendous Lightning's power was. But lately, he realized his knowledge was just the tip of the iceberg.
This power's potential was infinite. He couldn't gauge how far it could go.
How far did it end?
The image of Lightning from the Black Soul Ring resurfaced.
His own figure overlapped it.
Would the day come when he too wielded thunder and lightning freely?
If so, what grueling trial would the tower present then?
As thoughts swirled, Lightning's form began to blur.
"That's all I'll say. Don't act pathetic, and don't be scared."
The world Lightning created faded away. As it receded, Lightning's final words echoed.
"The more you fear and hesitate, the further that power will slip from you."
Katzzztztzt-!
As if compensating for the time it had stopped, lightning gathered in the clouds all at once.
No longer was Rasilius the only one who could move in this halted world.
Rasilius, approaching, couldn't hide his surprise, his eyes widening.
"How?"
It wasn't just a slight overcoming.
In an instant, the spear that absorbed the clouds' electricity and grew massive was several times Soo-hyuk's body size.
The clouds flashed, and the spear pulsed with intense light as if about to explode.
Tzztztzt-.
Soo-hyuk's arm burned away. Charred black beyond scorching, it looked agonizingly painful.
Grit-.
Soo-hyuk gritted his teeth.
If his focus slipped even slightly, the spear in his hand might explode. Then his arm burning wouldn't be the issue.
'When all three combine, the power doubles.'
Even handling Lightning and Thunderclap together wasn't easy. Like drawing completely different shapes with two hands—far from simple.
Adding Lightning was on another level.
It felt like a third arm sprouted from nowhere, handling three tasks at once.
Stability naturally suffered. Especially since, unlike Lightning or Thunderclap, Lightning had no heart to aid control.
Of course.
The combined might of the three was beyond words.
Fatigue climbed rapidly. He didn't need the constant alerts—his body felt wrecked enough.
The more his body broke, the greater the resistance grew.
Selfish Sacrifice and the multiple hearts activated rapidly in tandem. The two hearts pounded as if about to burst.
And not just that.
Such a barrage of messages was a first for Soo-hyuk. It meant he was pouring out full power.
Thwack-!
Feeling the technique wouldn't affect Soo-hyuk, Rasilius abandoned it and charged.
The halted world resumed motion. Soo-hyuk, preparations complete, assumed a javelin stance.
Rasilius twisted his body, deeming it too late to close in.
He judged he couldn't block it, so he had to dodge the spear first.
For a normal spear, that judgment would have been spot on.
But.
"......Eat this."
This wasn't something you could dodge just by trying.
Toward Rasilius moving at high speed, Soo-hyuk hurled the spear with all his might.
----!!
The spear flew silently.
The instant it was thrown, it pierced Rasilius's body.
An unreasonable spear impossible to dodge or block.
Piiiiiiing-.
Instead of a deafening thunder ripping the sky, it erased all surrounding sounds.
Confirming the hit, Soo-hyuk grinned and plummeted below. He no longer had the strength to stand atop Lightning.
Falling like a plummet, Soo-hyuk looked up at the sky.
The struck spear exploded, slashing a sharp golden line through the sky's center.
Piiiiiiing-.
The blood-red blazing sky turned golden.
There was no sound. Without that vivid golden line in the sky, no one would have thought it was Soo-hyuk's power.
The world's sounds vanished. Even words right beside you were hard to hear.
Tinnitus ringing in his ears filled the world, and as it faded...
"-It's chaos out there."
Ye-ryeong could finally hear Si-woo's words.
"What the hell are they doing? It was hard to move earlier."
Rasilius's technique affected even distant places.
Not as much as Soo-hyuk up close, but Si-woo and Ye-ryeong found movement uncomfortable too.
Yet now, he created that line slashing through the sky.
"Looks like he's doing well, though."
"He's not the type we need to worry about, right?"
"True."
"I should've teased him more when we reunited, but he grew up too fast."
Though far away, the two were certain of Soo-hyuk's victory.
It was as if Soo-hyuk fighting there was saying: I've won, so you guys step it up too.
Tidik-.
A frozen leaf fell downward.
Centered on Si-woo and Ye-ryeong, the surroundings had become a white flower garden.
The flower garden Lilianne created by sacrificing her demon subordinates. It lived and moved as she willed, like a massive monster.
Crack-!
Shattering the ice, the garden's flowers moved again. As leaves unfurled to spew poison, Ye-ryeong's flying dagger stirred.
Shwaaaaa-.
The flower split, green blood spraying. The blood-melted ground smoked black.
Si-woo said with utter exasperation.
"How long are you gonna hold back?"
"Gotta give that one a chance too."
Whoosh-.
Unlike the frozen flowers here, a bit farther off, flowers burned.
The living garden targeted Hailez from all directions. Petals flew like blades, poison rained from above.
Blocking it all, Hailez finished preparing a spell.
"......It's coming."
Whoooosh-.
Ye-ryeong looked up at the sky.
The hallmark of great mages, a grand magic only true masters could unleash.
Meteor tore through the atmosphere, plummeting toward the flower garden.