The World-Opening Blade

How could he ever forget those eyes — the ones that had looked down on him alongside that bastard in the Golden Mask.

To live, to flee, Master had been forced to choose humiliation.

I am Master. I will reign at the apex of this world.

His teeth ground together with a sharp crack.

He was no longer the weak, pathetic pig of the past. Master. Just as the name declared, he was the owner of all things — the one destined to stand above every living being.

Those who had mocked him? He had killed them all.

And this one would be no different.

"M-my body won't move!"

"Huh? Mine's moving on its own!"

A domain skill. And one that inflicted chaos, no less.

Darkness stretched long and deep. Anyone caught inside it lost control of their own flesh. Fitting for a member of the Death God Religion — thoroughly, unpleasantly sinister.

Then I'll simply destroy the domain itself.

Master raised his right hand. This "darkness" seized control from the ground up. The eyes carved into people's chests — those ominous eyes of dreadful omen — once all of them opened, complete domination and puppetry would begin.

The weak were snared in an instant. But for Transcendents, the story was different. Until every eye fully opened, they could still move their bodies to some degree.

In that case—

A fist shot forward, and space shattered like a pane of glass. The fissure widened, carving wounds into the domain of darkness itself.

A space-destruction art inherited by devouring a Star. The natural predator of every domain user alive.

"I-I can move!"

"No! The darkness is coming back—!"

The people around Master regained freedom of their bodies. But almost immediately, fresh darkness poured down like a flood over the domain he had just shattered.

The effect of my destruction should be permanent.

Master's brow furrowed. A domain skill he destroyed once never returned. And yet this darkness was stubbornly regenerating.

There was only one exception.

So it isn't a simple skill.

If it was not a mere skill but an Authority inherited by devouring a Star — just as he had done — then only a Star's Authority could cancel out another Star's Authority.

This domain of darkness itself had to be the Authority of the Star that bastard carried.

Ha.

What a monster. An Authority that dominated an entire radius of more than a kilometer? Did a Star that granted something like this even exist?

Excellent for dealing with large numbers, but…

Still, it was fine. He had figured it out.

Mobilizing the masses to take down that monster was off the table. Instead, he would move with a small elite force.

Two-Star. Or rather — four of the absolute strongest at Level 12 were right here. Powerhouses who had cleared the Level 12 domain at blistering speed.

Ground Collision.

Master dropped low and struck the earth. The ground cracked and spiderwebbed outward in every direction — straight to where the Level 12 powerhouses stood.

"Mm!"

The moment their bodies were free again, they locked onto the enemy ahead. Instinct had already taught them that this darkness had to be driven out as fast as possible.

"Blessing of the Heaven-Destroyer!"

The paladin with the warhammer roared the blessing. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠At once, black spots like storm clouds formed above the heads of Master and the other three.

"Parasitize! Brain-Destroying Bugs!"

From the sleeves of the man in long, full-covering robes, thousands of electricity-charged insects burst forth. They swarmed into the black spots, and in moments a small thundercloud was complete.

Thunder cracked and rolled. Lightning leapt endlessly from the cloud, striking the four of them without pause.

That combination was exactly how they had cleared the Level 12 domain in record time — faster even than the Black King's subordinates.

An infinite blessing that stacked buffs without end. It placed a crushing overload on the body, but for a short window it granted transcendent power. The two skills fused into a synergy that bordered on madness.

Thunder crashed.

In an instant every stat had risen by ten. Factor in equipment and the rest of their buffs, and their power amplified far beyond that. What monster could possibly withstand an assault like this?

Die, you Death God Religion freak.

Master unleashed his destruction art once more. The Toin Tribe warrior brought a raised foot crashing down. The lightning-swift bug user wrapped around the enemy. The paladin of the black spots swung straight for the bastard's skull.

And then—

"…Huh?"

"It went through—!"

Every attack passed clean through the enemy's body at the same moment. The strikes that had punched through collided with each other on the far side, birthing a violent shockwave of ruptured air. They barely managed to rein in their power and stagger back a few steps. Had they not, they would have annihilated one another.

An invincibility skill?

Master's face twisted. The paladin and the lightning man spoke almost at once.

"It's not invincibility."

"Mm. An evasion skill. And one with a forced duration once activated."

Sharp eyes, as expected. So sharp it made him wonder where people like this even came from.

"You cowardly bastard. How long do you plan to keep running?"

The Toin Tribe warrior, seething with rage, threw wild kicks at empty air.

The problem was Heaven-Destroying Thunder. It, too, was a forced buff. Dragging this out worked against them.

"Evasion skills of that type always have a weakness."

"It'll be a light-related attribute, no question. The bugs are telling me so."

"Is that so? Then — light."

Radiance erupted from the paladin's entire body. Master had taken him for a dark paladin who wielded black spots — yet the man could command the opposing attribute of light as well.

The light-wreathed paladin raised his massive hammer to smash the enemy—

And their movements froze once more.

"…The domain wasn't broken?"

"This isn't a domain. It's a curse cast by that shadow-like bastard himself."

"Tch. So it isn't pure evasion after all."

"But we've figured out how it works. Eyes of Dreadful Omen — ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a curse of considerable level. You need a higher total of stats than him to endure it."

"Meaning his total stats are higher than mine? Higher than me with seven stacks of Heaven-Destroying Thunder?"

"It's weakened from binding several of us at once. A little more should do it."

What the hell were these people? Even in a situation like this, they were calmly chatting among themselves. The bug user especially — his ability to read and analyze skills was enough to draw genuine admiration.

"Then we'll need to push a little harder."

The paladin bit down on his tongue. Blood welled, evaporated, and soaked into the Heaven-Destroying Thunder.

Thunder crashed again and again.

"O Heaven-Destroyer! I offer you my holy blood!"

These lunatics had stacked Heaven-Destroying Thunder to twelve on their own. And perhaps because of that—

The Eyes of Dreadful Omen have stopped opening.

They were closing instead. Control of his body returned. Power circulated again.

I have to end this as fast as possible.

As if on cue, the enemy's body was steadily solidifying. The evasion skill's duration was running out.

Master yanked a potion from his coat and downed it in two hard gulps.

A trump card he had hoarded and hoarded again. Master's body swelled in an instant, transforming into a giant — meant to shatter the entire domain and pulverize that bastard in a single blow.

And then the duration fully expired.

"…You're more troublesome than I expected."

The enemy spoke for the first time — grinning, as if the whole situation amused him greatly.

What the hell were these people?

That paladin and the bug user left a particularly strong impression.

Hidden Trait holders. At least two each, minimum.

The paladin almost certainly possessed Void, the trait that let him wield opposing attributes. The bug user carried both Great Sage and some independent observation skill of his own. The way he calmly assessed the situation, read his opponent, and dismantled the curse was genuinely impressive.

Buff stacking on that scale has to be tearing them apart.

Buffs were never purely beneficial. Forced stacking buffs of that particular kind delivered overwhelming force in a short window — but the side effects always came due. And they had burned through it without hesitation just to resist the Eyes of Dreadful Omen, accepting permanent stat loss in the bargain.

Where did these people come from?

Faces he had never seen before. The Toin Tribe warrior was impressive enough in his own right, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠but he couldn't compare to those two. The paladin's skills, especially, were remarkably composite — so mixed that it was impossible to tell which order he even belonged to.

Authorities from completely different sects, all tangled together in one body. Is that even possible?

Every sect had its signature. Those black spots, for instance — the dark cloud-like marks the paladin had conjured — were a hallmark of the Balrog Cult's dark holy knights. And the explosion of light that followed? That spreading, blooming radiance was the signature of the Goddess Sect.

Two opposing, mutually hostile sect signatures existing in a single body. He had never heard of such a thing.

And that wasn't all. There was an additional blood-based buff on top of it.

Darkness and light weren't the whole story. Holy blood offered to the Heaven-Destroyer.

A name I've never heard.

Heaven-Destroyer. It existed nowhere in his memory — not even in Wilhelm's.

A paladin of some emerging faith who somehow carried the signatures of both the Balrog Cult and the Goddess Sect.

Interesting.

This was genuinely intriguing. Unraveling it looked like it would be fun. He had thought he had a handle on things by now, but the more he learned, the more new layers kept peeling open like an onion.

Darkness Bloom alone wouldn't carry him any ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠further. Of course, Darkness Bloom was still in its growth stage — no need to feel disappointed.

Time to face them properly.

Darkness Bloom receded. Having reclaimed human form, I raised Winter.

Attacks poured in from every direction at once. I had no intention of standing still either.

Wilhelm's third technique — one this body had never been able to manifest until now.

The blade that opens the world.

It surged through me.

The Eyes of Dreadful Omen are gone.

Master nodded inwardly. The evasion skill's duration had ended, and the transformation had unraveled as well. The darkness that had bound everyone — the eyes of dreadful omen — vanished as if they had never existed.

No matter how powerful an Authority is, it has its limits.

Nearly a hundred people. And four individuals who could be called the strongest without exaggeration. No skill or Authority in existence could pin feet like those down forever.