Heavenly Demon VS Randolph
Star Destroyer.
A red-skinned ogre. Clad in a tattered, ancient cloak and armor riddled with chips and gashes, he gripped a pair of greatswords in either hand — each blade as massive as his own towering frame.
He watched the mass of calamity crawling across the ground before him.
Sss. Ssssss.
The nauseating scrape of flesh dragging over earth. A stench thick enough to clog the nostrils. A monster among monsters that devoured everything it touched.
The Unborn Being.
You must not look at it. The moment you do, it will consume you.
But that warning applied only to those who did not know what the Unborn Being truly was.
"…A leftover scrap from a spilled Holy Grail. That's all it is."
The Holy Grail. Countless religious orders treated it as a sacred relic, a divine artifact. An object forged as the symbol of the god they worshipped and followed — that was a Holy Grail.
But what Star Destroyer spoke of now was no ordinary grail.
The place from which that thing had been born was the Holy Grail of the gods. The innermost depths of a grail shaped from the gathered souls of countless deities. A dregs-pit where every foul and repulsive thing had been collected and left to fester.
Yes. If he had to distill the sensation into a single word—
"Disgusting."
Truly, utterly disgusting.
Even for Star Destroyer, who had hunted the countless monsters of the Abyss, the Unborn Being was nothing he welcomed. Having something like that around made the Abyss feel like a garbage dump.
A mass of calamity that scurried through every corner of the Abyss like a sewer rat, devouring everything in its path — and still never satisfied.
That thing has no business being here.
Star Destroyer found it strange. Why, of all places, had it drifted all the way to God's Island?
It was not the sort of creature that listened to anyone or moved according to another's will. A species driven solely by the instinct to be born. It won by pure instinct and pressed endlessly forward. And yet, because it carried a powerful curse that ensured it could never actually be born, one could almost call it the most pitiful creature in this place—
"If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have given it a second glance. I suppose I should thank you for the show?"
Star Destroyer smirked and looked at the woman standing before him.
The Whale of the Celestial Axis.
A face cold beyond measure. Eyes drained of all emotion. No answer came. Even if she had answered, there was no chance he would have understood her. The only one who could communicate with the Whale of the Celestial Axis was Ruin itself.
Star Destroyer shrugged.
"You've changed, though. When you first set foot in the Abyss, you were still an innocent little whale."
"…"
"I remember it as clearly as yesterday. The day the Celestial Axis collapsed."
Star Destroyer cast his mind back to that time. When countless divine beings and the goddess Rhea had stopped Ruin through their own self-sacrifice, that whale had shattered the Celestial Axis, and every boundary vanished. At the same moment, things that should never have fallen from the heavens poured down, and the surface world became a living hell.
The dead rose again. Things that should not exist came into being. Things that had vanished eons ago revealed themselves once more.
…And so the Abyss was completed.
If the goddess Fina — twin sister of the goddess Rhea — had not barely managed to lift what remained of the continent, none of them would ever have looked up at the "stars" hanging in that sky, or at the land below.
"These days they channel the impurities falling from the Heavenly Realm into a few Towers and incinerate them… but what poured down back then was toxic miasma that had been accumulating since the beginning of time."
It was still so vivid. So vivid he felt he might go mad. No matter how much time passed, he could not forget. He wanted to forget, and yet it would not leave him.
What curse could be worse than this?
"So I wanted to ask you. Whale of the Celestial Axis — why did you do it?"
"…"
"And — why is that mass lurking around you?"
"…"
"Are you feeding it? The same way you fed it the Multiplier of the Storm?"
Star Destroyer recognized it at once. He knew exactly what that cursed mass — the Unborn Being — was currently digesting.
It was the Multiplier of the Storm. A participant on God's Island, and a ruler who dominated vast stretches of Abyssal territory. Even after being fed a being of that caliber, it was still not satisfied.
Ssss.
Ssssss.
It prowled the surroundings, fixing its hunger on him.
That mass didn't drift here on its own.
Ah. Only then could Star Destroyer be certain. That mass had not simply washed ashore. It had been brought here. By the Whale of the Celestial Axis. By the one called the Princess of the Abyss.
There were those in the Abyss who styled themselves kings, and a few who were called queens or princesses… but she alone was the real thing. That the Unborn Being followed her was not particularly strange.
"What are you trying to create? What are you trying to bring into being?"
But that mass carried a curse that ensured it could never be born. Feeding it anyway meant there was a clear purpose behind it.
What was it? What was she trying to birth?
She meant to devour every last soul on God's Island. And after going that far — what was she trying to bring forth?
Surely not… Ruin?
But the one who led Baal was already here. Dreadful Omen. The man presumed to be a new Ruin. Of course, that was only a presumption.
She refuses to accept it. Is that it?
Indeed. So she intended to make one herself. To resurrect it once more!
"I don't think I can let this play out according to your design, Whale of the Celestial Axis — pitiful Princess of the Abyss."
Shraaak!
He stretched out both arms and shook the blood from his blades. He had no intention of fighting a Starlight Duel.
The Whale of the Celestial Axis. The Unborn Being.
I'll cut them both down.
That was the only thought in his mind.
The island trembled. Somewhere, beings of catastrophic power were tearing each other apart.
Half a day of that. At last the uproar quieted, as though a verdict had been reached, and night arrived.
Night. A sky without a single point of light.
The Heavenly Demon began to move.
My internal energy, my physical abilities — everything has recovered.
Everything was normal. No — better than normal. He could feel that he had advanced a full step beyond where he had been.
On this island, I will achieve Great Completion.
His mastery of Cheonma Shingong had climbed another level. As expected, this island was a place where he could fulfill his purpose. An abundance of energy beyond measure, and powerful adversaries even more intense. On top of that, the Cheonmado itself was lending him its strength.
"Refreshing."
A string of thoroughly unpleasant events had followed one after another, but once he framed them as steps along the path toward completion, they no longer seemed so bad. Confrontations with the strong were something he had always hungered for, after all.
But the one who survived to the end would be him. Just as it always had been.
I had a hell of a time dealing with those damned insects…
The bugs the Sunken Emperor had planted inside his body had refused to die easily. Only by boiling and burning his internal energy to its absolute limit had he finally scorched them away. In the process, he had nearly died several times. His energy had tangled and knotted until he nearly became a cripple more than once.
And because of that, I advanced.
But enlightenment had come with it. Surpass, or die. Faced with those two outcomes, he had surpassed. In the boundless world of martial arts — vast as the ocean, endless as the cosmos — he had set his own mark.
He had clearly set eyes on the road to Great Completion.
The Sunken Emperor. Dreadful Omen.
So from now on, things would be different. Two targets. Those two, at the very least, he would kill with his own hands.
The island had shaken since early morning, but he had not sensed either of their auras. So he had set the matter aside. Once he dealt with those two, cleaning up the rest would be more than enough.
How long had he scoured the island like a rat-catcher, hunting for a familiar presence?
…Found him.
At last he had located one of his targets. But the moment he discovered him, he could not move. Because that target was standing alongside a Night Spirit.
Night was the hour of the spirits. If he forced a confrontation now, he could not win. The only outcome would be losing something precious once more and being transferred back to the prison.
So he watched.
What are they doing?
Dreadful Omen. And the Night Spirit. What were the two of them doing together?
Beneath a massive boulder, they were gazing at something that glittered.
Starlight.
That was Starlight. And not ordinary Starlight — a radiant, crimson-scarlet Starlight.
But no matter how he looked at it, the arrangement was strange. Why were a Night Spirit and the Omen standing together beside a piece of Starlight?
…Did the Night Spirit guide him to the Starlight?
What in the world was this Night Spirit? Guarding him was not enough — it was leading him to Starlight as well?
If the two of them stayed together, that was a problem in its own right. Morning was the time when Starlight Duels could be fought. But a Starlight Duel could not kill an opponent. And what the Heavenly Demon wanted was the man's death. So he had to deal with him personally at night — yet with a spirit glued to his side, there was simply no way.
I'll have to erase that spirit first.
If he didn't rush, methods were not entirely lacking. He had already learned how to extinguish a Night Spirit the hard way — after being transferred to the prison twice.
"Stop skulking like a rat and come out, Heavenly Demon."
That was when it happened. The voice of Dreadful Omen.
Shlk.
The Heavenly Demon revealed himself before the Omen.
"You noticed me well enough."
"…When you're broadcasting killing intent that openly, it'd be harder not to."
True enough. From a distance, the Heavenly Demon had been radiating murderous intent. Keeping his distance from the spirit, he had deliberately stirred the man's combative instincts. He had been curious what reaction it would provoke.
The Heavenly Demon goaded him.
"How about it? Shall we try killing each other? If you're afraid, you're welcome to beg the spirit for help."
At that, the Omen — who had just picked up the Starlight — smiled.
"A provocation of the lowest possible grade. And yet… I like it. I'm in an exceptionally good mood right now."
He accepted the challenge.
But the Heavenly Demon could not help feeling puzzled. Not only had the man accepted far too easily — something else was off.
…Something about him has changed.
He could not put his finger on what, but something was different. They had faced each other only twice, and yet something had clearly shifted. More unsettling. More indistinct. A strange sensation, as though he had become an entirely different being…
The Cheonmado isn't reacting either.
Moreover, the Cheonmado had gone silent. As if it were genuinely afraid. His achievements had risen; he now carried a far more powerful aura — he had thought that would be enough. So what, exactly, about this man had the Cheonmado so terrified?
Still. It doesn't matter.
Even without the Cheonmado's aid, he was strong. Having drawn one step closer to Great Completion, there was no way a true rival could exist.
In that instant—
KRAAANG!
The Omen stamped his foot. The ground shuddered, and energy roared. A crushing pressure clamped down on the Heavenly Demon's entire body. Overwhelming force, carved into a single step.
The Heavenly Demon scowled.
"Heavenly Demon… Dominion Step…?"
For a moment, his thoughts stopped cold. He could not comprehend how the man had used that technique.
Heavenly Demon Dominion Step. The Heavenly Demon's footwork could be used by the Heavenly Demon alone. And if someone could use the Heavenly Demon's footwork—
"You…!"
But it was impossible. When they first met, there had been no such sign. Not afterward, either. And yet, at some point—
No. How?
"Have you… learned Cheonma Shingong?"
Had this man mastered Cheonma Shingong — the art permitted to him alone?
The Omen sneered.
"Didn't the Cheonmado tell you?"
"The Cheonmado…?"
"Ah. It must have decided I was the greater talent for bringing Cheonma Shingong to Great Completion — greater than you."
"…You're talking madness."
Mad. Thoroughly, completely mad. The idea that the Cheonmado had taught this man Cheonma Shingong. In all his life, he had never heard anything more insane.
The Heavenly Demon's expression hardened.
"You. You won't be dying cleanly."
It seemed he would have to tear this man apart.