The Primordial Human
The Druid of the Golden Rule who had created Eleven Star Heaven.
······ What absolute conceptual power do you possess?
Was it the power of time, like Eleven Star Heaven?
Or an entirely different concept altogether.
Whatever it might be, if it held power enough to threaten Truth itself—
The Forgotten God finally acknowledged it.
That this being was—
······ The soul she had waited for across countless ages. A soul more coveted than any other that existed in this place.
Perhaps more than anything else that existed in this world.
So much so that those two detestable goddesses weren't even visible.
She wanted to take him.
She wanted to possess him.
The Forgotten God's eyes began to shine with a transparent light.
For a moment, I thought I'd misheard.
Husband?
······ It was a truly out-of-nowhere proposal.
A request to become her husband—or her lover.
Even the gaze that had been glaring as if ready to devour me had changed. It was shining to a burdensome degree.
The form of address had also shifted from "child" to "you."
I could only stand bewildered by the sudden change. It seemed the existence of Eleven Star Heaven—standing outside of Truth—had transformed the Forgotten God's attitude.
The ranks of the supreme and pure.
Was she saying she would make me a god of the highest order?
I answered immediately, without a moment's hesitation.
"I refuse."
We were in the middle of a life-or-death confrontation. She was an opponent to struggle against—not a journey to find a better half.
Moreover, as I'd felt even when first meeting a Forgotten God, the Forgotten Gods were all twisted in some way. It was unexpected that this wasn't a proposal to become an apostle, but choosing wrong could leave me with a ring through my nose.
This went beyond mere inferiority complex.
But the two goddesses that I knew—and that Wilhelm knew—never made a habit of betrayal. If anything, they would sacrifice themselves rather than turn on anyone.
At first I'd been curious why she hated the goddesses so much······.
She's an evil god.
Now that the Forgotten God's true nature was clear, there was no more reason to wonder. Though she had been forgotten, before being forgotten this being had clearly been an evil god. Only evil gods cursed their opponents and offered them as sacrifices to strengthen the power of darkness.
Moreover, the evil gods I knew were the most twisted of beings. I knew better than anyone that if one were deceived by a moment's temptation and reached for that power, one would only fall into a deeper abyss.
"I refuse."
And so I refused. I left not even the slightest room for negotiation. With a wall this ironclad, she should have thoroughly understood my will.
"I refuse."
That was the moment.
Sssssssssss.
Thick black smoke began pouring wildly from the Forgotten God. Then her two eyes turned completely pitch-black, and from her back rose two enormous black wings.
Above her head rose a black and crimson sun—a black sun with blood-red spots floating wildly across its surface.
She had blackened.
······ And yet the form of that sun was strangely familiar.
Angra Mainyu?
Among the Four Great Evil Gods, the symbol of Angra Mainyu was precisely that black and crimson sun. Could she be an evil god who had some connection to Angra Mainyu?
Then the fully transformed Forgotten God spoke toward me.
A voice from which coldness flowed. Incomparably more gloomy and dark than before. There was no comparison.
This must be the true form of the Forgotten God.
Grrrrrrrrrr—!
Goooooooooo—.
Moreover, it wasn't only the Forgotten God who had changed. Then the beasts belonging to the Forgotten God began to merge into one.
The thirteen Souls finally became one and were at last complete.
The Supreme Soul.
In its most powerful form.
"Wh-what is that form?"
"That's not······ a beast?"
Everyone watching was horrified. I was the same. Because the completed form was far too unexpected.
Rather, it was familiar. A form that everyone knew, that everyone recognized.
That form was clearly······.
······ a human.
White King (Extinction King Mork) has won!
Hudson let out a sigh.
In truth, the result had been as good as decided from the start. He had been defeated by an overwhelming margin before he could even try anything.
But the sense of loss was less than expected.
Because I saw the potential.
He had poured everything he had into it. And so he had produced a result, and seen the potential. As the Monster Soul evolved into an Angeling, Hudson himself had evolved as well.
"You have talent."
It was then. The White King, who had been standing on the opposite side, suddenly opened his mouth. For a moment Hudson wondered who the words were directed at, but then realized they were meant for him and blinked.
Then the White King spoke again.
"You have talent, human."
"What talent do I have······?"
"You are better suited to raising someone else than yourself. Angeling is a symbol of evolution that even among our White Tiger Clan, only a very few have succeeded in evolving."
"······."
Hudson looked once more at the Monster Soul he possessed. For a moment, he couldn't understand. But an Angeling was far removed from a simple monster. Outwardly it was nothing more than a winged slime, yet it was a being that had existed since ancient times as something akin to a symbol.
A symbol of evolution recognized even by the White Tiger Clan!
"Depending on your capability, it can become an enormous monster. Raise it well."
"··· Better than Extinction King Mork?"
"What?"
At Hudson's reply, the White King momentarily flustered and asked back. But Hudson's expression was extremely serious. The power of Extinction King Mork he had just experienced truly deserved the phrase "earth-shaking." It was more extraordinary than any Monster Soul competing here. In some ways, it left a deeper impression than even the Forgotten God or the beings Park Hyunmyung had evolved.
If it could only become stronger than that······.
"Haha! The potential is there. Even we don't fully understand Angeling. There must certainly be realms that even the White Tiger Clan has never reached."
The White King shrugged his shoulders and laughed heartily. Angeling was a symbol of evolution, but almost no White Tiger Clan members had succeeded in creating one. What was certain was that Angeling possessed infinite potential.
Having been recognized by the White King, light entered Hudson's two eyes.
Regardless, the White King looked toward the distant Druid of the Golden Rule and the Forgotten God. The form created just now when all the beasts had merged—the moment that form was created, a chill had run through him of its own accord.
Primordial Human······.
He couldn't even guess how strong it was. It was simply ominous. He had never before seen a human so ominous.
What was certain was that it made his hands itch. He wanted so badly to fight it himself.
And that wasn't all. The contests here had been more thrilling than expected. At first there hadn't seemed to be anyone worth fighting, but the opponents kept evolving. The Druid of the Golden Rule, and the Forgotten God.
And one more. There was an unexpected individual who exceeded expectations.
Andrew.
The human who had helped the elves in the Primeval Forest alongside him. Though he had fallen, Andrew's power had been quite impressive even to the White King. And yet he had created an even more peculiar entity.
Before long, a guidance message floated before his eyes.
The fifth round of matches begins.
The remaining one will face Devil Under Knight(Rank 90, HP 5,000,000).
— Matchups —
Forgotten God (Primordial Human)vsAndrew (Heart of Darkness)
Druid of the Golden Rule (Eleven Star Heaven)vsWhite King (Extinction King Mork)
Fabula (Mad God's Hound)vsDevil Under Knight
Finally!
The White King wore a deep smile. The match he had endlessly awaited with that fellow had finally been arranged!
He would defeat that fellow, defeat even the Forgotten God, and stand at the pinnacle himself. And thus prove that he was the strongest.
"You have inherited the blood of kings."
"You shall become the king of the White Tiger Clan and lead the North!"
······ Even now, it seemed he could hear the voices. The voices of the dead. The grudges of those who had mercilessly whipped him.
Why all of a sudden······.
The White King shook his head once. Childhood memories that had suddenly surfaced—memories he never wanted to recall again.
"Do not look back."
"Do not run away."
"Steadfastly, run looking only forward!"
Even so, the voices continued to reach him. From a time when the White King had been far younger than now—stories from when he had only just been born, not long after.
······ Now there was no one in the North who defied the White King, but back then, the White King had been nothing more than easy prey. Burdened with too much at a young age, he had been desperate to escape, and so timid that he always checked for places to hide first.
Perhaps that was why. From childhood, his instincts regarding threats to himself had been so sharp they could be called foresight. He already knew victory and defeat before fighting. And so he only stepped into places where he would win. He didn't need to risk the danger of defeat.
An invincible, undefeated sovereign. Thus he had reigned as the absolute ruler of the North and governed Kramdel.
The only one who ever handed me defeat was Wilhelm.
It was the first time. A fellow who reeked so strongly. When he saw him from afar, the White King knew immediately—that he must absolutely never fight that fellow head-on. But he had also been confident he wouldn't be caught if he didn't insist on a frontal confrontation.
The problem was that Wilhelm had taken the entire region of Kramdel, including the Four Lords, as hostages. For the first time, the White King stood in a place where defeat was certain. He was the king of the North. He could not reign as king without those he ruled.
And he was defeated.
That defeat became the foundation of my growth.
But the bitter pain was brief. In the end, the White King was able to grow thanks to it. He awakened the true abilities of the White Tiger Clan. As if by fate—by making the choice as a king, he awakened the abilities of a king.
Wilhelm. I'd like to face that fellow again.
If he met Wilhelm again, he wanted to fight him once more. Now he had the resolve not to run, and the confidence.
"Druid of the Golden Rule. You have a strange scent about you."
Sniff sniff.
After taking a whiff, the White King smiled slightly. Right now he smelled the scent of victory—a powerful sense of victory. But within it, there was one strange scent hidden.
"What scent are you talking about?"
The Druid of the Golden Rule expressed his doubt. Of course, he wasn't talking about an ordinary fragrance. It was about the scent of the being itself that lay deeper.
The White King nodded.
"An extremely familiar scent. Ojuryeok······ Why does the scent of that crow come from you?"
It had been that way from the start. From the moment he set foot in the place where the World Tree of Honor stood, the crow's scent had been overwhelming. A scent others could not smell—only the awakened White King could smell that fellow's scent wafting from all directions.
And when he realized that the one carrying that scent was the Druid of the Golden Rule, for a moment he couldn't understand. It was only natural. The Druid of the Golden Rule was not a crow. He couldn't feel any of that pitch-black crow's stench or endlessly dark mana at all.
Rather, the opposite. A sacred and yet more sacred being.
And yet why did the scent of Ojuryeok come from the Druid of the Golden Rule?
He wanted so badly to ask outright.
Are you Ojuryeok?
"······ I don't really know about that either."
The Druid of the Golden Rule shrugged his shoulders.
Well··· could that crow Ojuryeok dare transform into the Druid of the Golden Rule? He knew the ominousness of Ojuryeok from experiencing it firsthand.