I Want to Kill You (2)
KRAAAAAAAAAASH!
The Sunken Emperor swept his hand, and the ground split open as a vortex surged upward. The whirlpool swallowed and sank everything it touched — a terrifying power rivaling the majesty of a god itself.
Only then did the Heavenly Demon nod, as if finally understanding.
"Ahh. So you're the one they call the Sunken Emperor, or whatever it was?"
BOOM!
The Heavenly Demon stamped his foot. The earth split clean in half, and the entire island shuddered. A low hum rose as everything around him lifted into the air. Grains of sand and heaps of stone were crushed finer and finer by his internal energy, then compressed into perfect spheres — ten rings brimming with force.
Power enough to evaporate even a god. The Force Rings.
"Looks like we're all thinking the same thing, aren't we?"
Expedition duels and collisions of starlight had no place among them. Only a blood-soaked battle of mutual slaughter could explain the reason for their existence. So they would kill. Here, they would kill each other.
Interesting.
The Heavenly Demon smiled darkly. Every soul gathered on God's Island was a monster — beings who ruled multiple domains of the Abyss as kings. Catastrophic monsters who had cultivated their power across uncountable ages were emerging, one by one.
To become a true king. To become the true master of the Abyss!
That one in particular is rather famous.
The Sunken Emperor. Not the old man he had met before — this was the real one. Abyssal kings who dared call themselves emperor were rare. And the Sunken Emperor was singular in more ways than one.
The one who tamed Gross.
The horse the Sunken Emperor rode — that horse was Gross, a king who had once ruled three domains of the Abyss. A steed famous for obeying no one and following no master… until the Sunken Emperor broke it. Even the Heavenly Demon himself had failed.
He had always wanted to cross blades with this one.
"Die."
At the same instant—
SHIIING—
SWOOOOOSH!
Ten Force Rings hurtled toward the Sunken Emperor.
"……!!!"
BOOM! BOOM! KRA-KOOM!
They detonated without pause. Each exploding Force Ring shook the world as if a cataclysm were about to tear it apart. The Sunken Emperor answered in kind, weaving a Rift Domain of his own.
A battle that sent shivers through anyone who merely watched.
He doesn't care about the Night Spirits at all?
Isabella stood dumbfounded by the sudden clash. The moment combat broke out, every Night Spirit would know the location. The other three spirits would already be racing this way. No — not only the Night Spirits. A battle of this scale would alert everyone on the island.
……They're all going to gather here.
Her mind snapped sharp. Every Night Spirit and every participant, all in one place. If she stood around gawking, there was no telling what might happen. If the Unborn Being appeared, the result would be catastrophic.
Isabella turned her gaze. This single moment — while the Heavenly Demon and the Sunken Emperor locked horns — was her only chance.
Owner of the Tomb!
Right now she could face the Owner of the Tomb one-on-one. But the golem had already taken a step back. The instant the battle began, it had withdrawn from the combat zone — and in doing so, put distance between itself and her as well.
A heartbeat of deliberation. Isabella made her choice.
……I hold this place.
She could catch it if she tried. But she would not abandon the cave for the sake of one Owner of the Tomb. She would protect Randolph. She had crossed into this place for that purpose alone.
"What is that? Worms that devour mana? What an amusing insect technique!"
The Heavenly Demon was exhilarated. In an instant he had grasped the principle behind the Sunken Emperor's power — worms so small the human eye could never hope to see them.
"Ha! So it wasn't sinking things at all — it was gnawing them away!"
Those worms ate mana. The whirlwinds and black domains the Sunken Emperor conjured were simply spaces packed full of the creatures. There were so many that distinguishing them had been nearly impossible. They even seemed to offset the Force Rings to a degree.
Amusing — but disappointing. In the end, it was nothing more than sorcery. Petty occult arts could never withstand the Cheonma Shingong. The Cheonma Shingong was a technique that explosively amplified internal energy and crushed everything with sheer volume. No matter how many worms there were, there was a limit to how much energy they could devour. His own internal energy, by contrast, approached the infinite.
GOOOOOOOO—!
Once more the air around the Heavenly Demon boiled. Everything that rose was absorbed into him — the power to suck the internal energy from all creation and make it his own. A force that only those who had stepped beyond the realm of martial arts could touch.
The Life-Death Realm.
The Life-Death Realm was a state of Demon Transcendence reachable only by those who had mastered the Cheonma Shingong. Worms could do nothing against a domain like that.
Twenty Force Rings took shape around the Heavenly Demon.
"Let's see how much you can devour."
A pure contest of spear and shield. And the Heavenly Demon was certain he would pierce that shield.
Heaven and earth shook. The ground trembled; the sky seethed with rage. Every soul on the island was watching the battle.
"Not bad."
The Multiplier of the Storm, who had been erasing starlight—
"A duel between beings from the deeper Abyss. A rare sight, isn't it?"
The Star Destroyer—
"……."
The Whale of the Celestial Axis, who had been about to shatter the island—
"Plotting something here, are you?"
……And Raiga as well.
Each of them had already taken the measure of the others. Yet none stepped forward. This was the Heavenly Demon and the Sunken Emperor's time alone. By unspoken agreement they kept silent and watched the duel unfold.
Unbelievable.
Raiga truly could not believe the behavior of these monsters. Abyssal beasts valuing honor and courtesy? A single strike right now could eliminate a rival in one blow. Every Abyssal monster he had ever encountered had been the same — ready to devour the moment a gap appeared, showing no mercy even to their own kind. He had assumed the monsters here would be no different.
They're different.
These ones were different. God's Island itself was different — a kind of Abyss Raiga had never experienced before. But the truly astonishing fact was something else entirely.
Every last one of them holds a Fragment of Ruin.
Every participant was a Fragment bearer! Raiga himself carried a Fragment — to kill a monster, one had to become a monster. It seemed possession of a Fragment of Ruin was the condition for entering this game.
Does that mean the goat is a Fragment bearer too?
That raised one question. The goat known as the Dreadful Omen — an officer of the Death God Religion, the very goat Raiga had brought into the Abyss — did it also hold a Fragment? The goat possessed the power to block all Observation, which was why he had never been able to read it. If the goat carried a Fragment as well…
Then the goat is a target for elimination too.
Any monster bearing a Fragment had to die. That was the oath sworn at the tomb of the Palga. It did not matter who the opponent was.
Raiga furrowed his brow. Facing every Fragment-bearing monster at once was impossible even for him. Still, this was not a bad opportunity. Taking the measure of their strength in advance was worthwhile.
Where did the Unborn Being and the goat go?
Neither was in sight. A duel that shook the entire island — there was no way they would simply skip watching it. Either they had been transferred to a prison and could not see, or…
What is that Night Spirit guarding?
……The Night Spirit standing watch before the cave. Was there something inside that cave?
KRAAAAAAAAAASH!
"GRRRRRRR!"
Suddenly the Heavenly Demon let out a monstrous roar. The duel between him and the Sunken Emperor was a battle of gods in all but name. Yet as time passed, the Heavenly Demon's aura wavered unstably, and he steadily lost his reason. Bit by bit, the Sunken Emperor was sinking him. The internal energy that had seemed as boundless as the ocean was slowly ebbing away.
"If I only had the Cheonmado, these damned worms would—!"
The Heavenly Demon was not whole. His most precious possession — the Cheonmado — was not in his hand. He had stepped onto the battlefield without his weapon. He was an absolute master unbound by any particular armament, but the Cheonmado was no mere weapon. It was his hands and his feet.
The Sunken Emperor, however, was far from unscathed either.
CRACK!
His armor and helm shattered, revealing the form within. They had finally given way under the relentless impacts. Completely nullifying the Force Rings' assault had been impossible.
And then — a young man's face flickered into view. Jet-black hair. Eyes of pure darkness. With a hollow gaze and a face white as snow, utterly bloodless, he looked down on the Heavenly Demon without a shred of emotion.
That can't be.
……And Raiga knew that face.
His brow knotted. His pupils shook; the color drained from his face. Even a man of his caliber could not control the emotion that rose in him.
……He must have seen wrong. Yes. He had to have seen wrong. Otherwise it made no sense at all. There was no reason a familiar face should exist here in the Abyss.
But no matter how many times he looked, the Sunken Emperor's face was one he knew.
In the end, Raiga could only open his mouth in sheer horror.
"……Your Majesty…… the Emperor?"
A vessel.
A container for holding something. Fill it with too much, and it overflows. Make it too small, and it can hold only so much. The space within the body that holds mana is no different. For players especially, the System fixed the size of that vessel.
The limit set by level.
Higher level meant a higher ceiling. My own vessel was already larger than most other players'. But that alone was not enough. To fully wield the mana amplified by the Cheonma Shingong — to truly master the Cheonma Shingong — I needed an overwhelmingly vast vessel. An infinite vessel that could hold the entire world.
So how does one create an infinite vessel?
The answer is already inside me.
I can do anything. I can become anything. And — the infinite vessel was already within me. It had been prepared. I had seen it once before, hadn't I?
The Gate of Truth.
That colossal eye and mouth. They were the Gate of Truth itself — the Heavenly Realm. And they were the infinite vessel. Moreover, I could find the Gate of Truth whenever I wished. I could see it. I had already been given the gift that made it possible.
Now I understood. Why it had been given to me.
The Eye of Truth.
The evolved name of the Hidden Trait Great Sage — the Eye of Truth. With the Eye of Truth, I sought the Gate of Truth.
A single door appeared before me, standing alone.
Open the door.
I turned the handle and opened it. Beyond lay an infinite vessel, vast as the open sea.
—Congratulations. At last you have found your 'Gate.'
In the realm of infinity, the Mouth spoke — as if I had arrived sooner than expected. Yet the congratulations were sincere.
And at the same moment—
All ranks converge and become one.
The Hidden Traits Iron-Blood Monarch's Heart and Eternal Randolph are merging.
The two Hidden Traits transcend into Eternal Monarch Randolph.