Chapter 222
Chapter 222
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 222
Chapter Title: Holy Mountain Decisive Battle, My Name Is (1)
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0.
Huh……?
The long black-haired girl opened her eyes.
The girl, Do Ye-jin, was deep in the abyss. A sticky yet warm dark teal liquid……
Boom…… The world shook.
But no harm came to Do Ye-jin within that liquid.
The sound merely echoed in silence.
This was a fragment of her mother god's divinity. The will to protect the girl, materialized like a cradle.
Is this…… Arishel'rab's brain?
At that moment, the girl slung over Do Ye-jin's left shoulder trembled faintly.
This is……?
It's Ryu Hyeon-ji. No way she wouldn't know. Her precious friend, devoured by the snail god Shealzbel.
And that wasn't all.
Her right hand felt a heavy weight.
She looked down right away…… Huh?
An impossibly massive sword gleamed, silver light and black light crisscrossing.
[Holy Demonic Sword: Sharholin].
Which meant…… none of it had been a dream.
Arishel'rab. Edel Weiss.
Do Ye-jin felt the heat of tears streaming down her face. Her mother's voice echoed from somewhere.
- Now go, my Arishiel.
Got it…… Mom.
Do Ye-jin shook away her tears, pulled Ryu Hyeon-ji close, and gripped Sharholin's hilt.
And then.
As she prepared to escape Arishel'rab's brain, she whispered.
Mom, then…… really goodbye.
1.
“Evade, Shealzbel!”
Saito Nan cried out in urgency.
Shealzbel twisted to defend itself, but Saito Nan could only shake his head frantically.
“WIEEEEEEEENNNNG?”
“That's not a force you can block──────!”
In that single instant.
Arishel'rab's colossal form exploded.
The abyss liquid gathered in its maw got swept up in the blast, spraying out in all directions……
Sizzle──── Boom!
……melting the divine palace's floor and everything below it completely, carving out a massive crater that plunged into the underground depths.
……Whooooosh
Ooooooo
Ooooooo……
The collapse spanned hundreds of meters in radius…… the divine palace's ruins and earth sucked into the pit as they crumbled away.
“This is insane……”
“Did Do Ye-jin really……?”
Shin Tae-yeop and Heo Cheon-gyeom stared blankly at the apocalyptic vista from the cliff's edge.
“If we'd bullshitted even a little longer getting out…… we'd be dead……?”
Dead……?
He mumbled it in a daze.
The next moment, raw terror hit Shin Tae-yeop's head like vertigo. Heo Cheon-gyeom spoke up.
“No way that thick-skulled bitch……”
“……?”
“Self-destructed…… right? To save our asses.”
Self-destructed?
His mind went pitch black.
His legs buckled, and he collapsed to the ground without realizing.
“Hey, hey, Shin Tae-yeop……!”
Heo Cheon-gyeom staggered over, but Shin Tae-yeop had no energy to even look up.
- My name means [Dawn of All Worlds].
He'd never dreamed of a hopeful future. Never been optimistic about the war.
But.
But how the hell.
Out of the entire First Hunting Squad, the only survivors…… me and Heo Cheon-gyeom? Just us two?
“Damn……”
No tears came.
No hollow laugh escaped.
He'd probably never cry or laugh again.
“Hey, what're you spacing out for?”
A voice.
That voice he knew so well.
Hallucination……? Doubting his ears, he turned around.
“What? Your face is all fucked up. Sneak off to the beach or something?”
A black-haired girl, matted with blood.
She approached, shaking her head playfully like she couldn't help it.
“Ha~ Total lost cause. You've been embezzling the squad's food budget like this?”
She was one bizarre girl.
A greatsword bigger than her own body slung over one shoulder, and a petite girl tucked under the other arm.
“Look at her, can't even answer. Busted, huh? Right, Heo Cheon-gyeom?”
“You…… fuck…… how……”
“Stop standing there like an idiot and take Hyeon-ji. Older than me, but can't even play the oppa role.”
None of it mattered—that her body was coated in slime, or that her eyes glowed an eerie dark teal.
Because.
“You're alive……”
That was all that counted.
That was all he needed to know.
In a flash, Shin Tae-yeop shot to his feet and crushed Do Ye-jin in a full-force hug.
Wh-what the hell?!
Of course, there was no clichéd blushing from this zero-empathy beauty.
“……?”
Do Ye-jin read it as an attack and dodged in a blink.
“……?”
Shin Tae-yeop tried again for the hug, and she slithered away like a snake.
“!”
“!”
“?”
“?”
Heo Cheon-gyeom watched the weird reunion in silence. Then he let out a sigh.
“Hey, you dumbass bitch.”
“?”
“If you keep dodging Shin Tae-yeop, that poor bastard's life'll be so pathetic and miserable, what then?”
Hey, asshole.
I'd appreciate if you shut your trap. Before I devour every last kernel of corn.
“Sigh…… He'll be blanket-kicking till the day he dies—that's the scholarly consensus.”
“……”
“No, guaranteed hilarious story?”
Do Ye-jin tilted her head, face screaming she didn't get Heo Cheon-gyeom's mockery.
“What're you on about? He's just trying to get revenge for kicking his side earlier.”
Y-yeah!
That was my real plan!
Do Ye-jin wagged her finger smugly.
“Sigh…… You really underestimate me, Shin Tae-yeop. Attacks like that don't work on Do Ye-jin.”
Why the sudden dramatic flair……?
Then, without warning, tentacles erupted from the crater and latched onto Do Ye-jin's ankle in an instant.
“……?!”
Shealzbel……?
This bastard's still alive?
Shin Tae-yeop's body reacted on instinct to the danger.
“Do Ye-jin!”
He lunged, grabbing her arm.
But.
A god's power wasn't something human strength could match.
“Hey, hey─────────────!”
That was why.
Heo Cheon-gyeom's desperate shout rang out.
“────────Do Ye-jin! Shin Tae-yeop!”
The next instant.
Shin Tae-yeop fell with Do Ye-jin.
Dragged into the endless crater's depths.
2.
“Ugh……!”
The boy and girl plummeted to depths that could pass for the earth's underbelly.
“Shin Tae-yeop! You okay?”
“Yeah…… weirdly……”
What is it…… Something felt off.
No impact from the fall. Or rather, some kind of cushioning on the ground had softened the blow?
But more than that, this stench.
What the hell was this foul reek, choking him?
Gotta check it out.
Magic circle deployment, calculations complete.
Flames sparked above Shin Tae-yeop's head, illuminating the pitch-black floor.
What in this world……
Nausea surged up instantly.
The cushions writhed and crawled…… each muttering garbled human speech.
“Uuuup theeeere……?”
“Mooommm……? Mooommm?”
“Hurr hurr…… hee hee heh……”
If a god had quit midway through making sea slugs, maybe it'd look like this.
These things were utterly grotesque.
Bug-like forms, missing some absolute essence.
Amid the squirming flesh piles.
Do Ye-jin staggered back in panic, eyes quivering as she scanned everywhere.
“This…… what the hell is this……”
Her mutter—to herself—got a shocking reply.
“Hmph. You know damn well. Why ask?”
The boy and girl whipped toward the voice.
“Humans…… no, the shed husks of what were once humans.”
Something stood there.
A boy……?
A pulsing white frost orb embedded in his chest, robed body clad in a snail shell like armor.
“Saito Nan……?!”
A pale sea slug dangled like a tail, but his long white hair and face were unchanged.
“What's with the shock?”
In a blur, Saito Nan charged Shin Tae-yeop at blinding speed.
“Dodge!”
Thanks to Do Ye-jin, he rolled aside, but the snails weren't so lucky.
Puhwaaaaa──────!
Shell claws equipped on Saito Nan's hands like beast talons shredded them into flying meat scraps.
“Shealzbel was my clone from the start.”
Saito Nan rose from the gore, his body somehow more grown than before.
“I merely merged the split divine power back into one.”
This fucker……?
Shin Tae-yeop's breath grew ragged, sweat beading on his brow. The main body could move this fast?
“Using Shealzbel's full abilities is child's play. Physical strength, defenses—all of it.”
Do Ye-jin bellowed in outrage right then.
“You…… how…… how could you do this! How! Why!”
“Hahaha…… Just a different shell, and these humans look like trash, don't they?”
Was the question that lame?
Saito Nan sneered as he crushed a crawling snail underfoot.
“What's that look? One piece of trash here gets you this pissed?”
“Trash? Trash?”
“Strangers to you. Why the rage?”
Do Ye-jin surged forward, greatsword leading at Saito Nan.
Claaaaang──────!
Shell claw met greatsword in a clash, sparks erupting wildly.
“What…… why the hell do this…… why!”
Do Ye-jin wailed the question, and Saito Nan chuckled back.
“Want the answer? Each scrap of their humanity opens the door to a new world.”
“What……?”
Confusion and fury tangled in Do Ye-jin's retort.
“You always beg for answers instead of thinking. Par for the course with an idiot like you.”
Saito Nan shoved Do Ye-jin back, then pointed his tail at himself.
“A hint. I used them as nourishment for this flesh and divinity.”
Sacrifices for growth……?
Cold sweat broke on Shin Tae-yeop's forehead. No way…… that can't be……
“Humans shrieking in terror, thrashing for mercy? Better show than expected.”
That one fact explained everything.
“Now they're just husks, stripped of humanity.”
Why he'd sacrificed Nowon-gu's hunters and civilians. How this thing, not even 200 days old, had grown this much.
“Like those traitor's subordinates you absorbed.”
In that instant, countless tentacles burst from Saito Nan's wing membranes, fanning out everywhere.
Puhwaaaaa─────!
Straight into the human-snails.
Sucking up nutrients?
The snails withered in agony in a heartbeat, while Saito Nan's frame bulked up further—now Shin Tae-yeop's height.
This…… this psycho.
Shin Tae-yeop bit his lip to stifle the vomit rising in his throat.
“You─────!”
That instant.
Do Ye-jin roared, leveling her dark-teal-and-white-flashing greatsword at Saito Nan.
“────Are you fucking kidding me! You turned all these people into this…… for that?!”
“Just that?”
He seemed primed to sneer it off like always…… but Saito Nan flared up passionately instead.
“You mongrel bitch have no idea what you're yapping about!”
He bellowed it while whipping his tail and charging Do Ye-jin.
“Know? Born a mongrel who got everything handed like a human?”
Do Ye-jin barely parried the ambush.
But overwhelmed by the force, she groaned and retreated again.
“A society of gods where favor and worship demand proven worth!”
Saito Nan's body twisted in agony then, and countless tentacle clusters erupted from his back.
What the…… hell?
No time to freak out.
The tentacles spread wide in the air, swarming Do Ye-jin from every angle.
“Do Ye-jin, dodge!”
Do Ye-jin backpedaled on reflex, unconsciously raising Sharholin.
That instant.
Charrling! Sharholin vomited a whirlwind of black-and-white sword pressure……
Puhwaaaaa…………!
……The incoming tentacles shredded into meat chunks midair under the blade gale.
Sharholin's power……?
Do Ye-jin stared at the dazzling, flashing blade, entranced for a moment.
“What is that. That sword…… Edel Weiss's, I take it?”