Chapter 71
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 71
Chapter Title: The Absolute Abyss
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A blade of light cleaved the darkness.
The dragon of darkness, the Elite Sorcerer beneath it, and the very ground at their feet.
Engulfed in the rampage of light, they were first stripped of light and shadow, then annihilated.
A beat later, a deafening explosion erupted, tearing at the eardrums.
*I did it...*
I was certain of it as the convection from the blast shook the control room.
Then, my body’s sense of time stopped. No, not my body—the world’s time had frozen.
How did I know?
Because I could see the swirling, dust-filled storm before me, frozen in mid-gust.
*What in the world is...?*
I remember trying to lift my head, but only my eyes would move.
“Ha, honestly...”
Into this world where providence itself had ceased, a girl holding an umbrella walked in.
Her hair was silver, like Tarsiyo’s.
But unlike Tarsiyo’s, her hair held not moonlight, but starlight. It was an insidious light, at times appearing dark blue.
“What am I supposed to do if you go and kill the bitch who just signed a contract with a VVIP! Because of you, damn it, we're the ones catching all the fucking flak for it!”
A despair that bleached my mind white, born from a primal fear etched deep into my genes.
When had I felt this before?
The frenzy of breath, as if my lungs would burst.
Yes, that was it. The same sinister energy as the stars that had laughed in the sky on the night my mother died...
“Alright, I'll give you that.”
Within a mist like cosmic starlight, her body twisted and contorted grotesquely with a grating sound.
“You're the first, you know. The first human to kill an Elite contracted with an Absolute God so easily.”
A form so horrific I couldn't bear to keep my eyes open...
Countless writhing antennae, tentacles, and petals were formed from the faces of tens of millions of the dead.
This primal despair... it's the same... just like when I fought the Lizard Lord, Neigallas...
“In this amusement of killing and being killed, repeated hundreds of times already!”
As it spoke, a dark blue liquid dripped from the demon's mouth, melting the world itself.
That was my first encounter.
My first meeting with the beings who had reduced this world, the entire world of creation, to a game for the outer cosmos.
A darkness denser and deeper than the black of night, the darkness of the outer cosmos beyond the reach of human perception...
“Which is why this First Administrator, the great Shalyuan, has no choice but to intervene!”
Echoes of a Different World,
The True Face of a Religious Revolution (6)
*This is...*
It was despair.
The very incarnation of cosmic despair.
*This can't be possible.*
An Old King, appearing so suddenly?
Now, when I'm completely unprepared, when beings like Mirngadia and the Iron Cross aren't here?
*The Inhibitor...*
In the oppressively slow current of time, my finger moved toward the Inhibitor's pin.
-Bear this in mind. The moment you pull that pin again, the moment that transcendence ends, will be the moment of your death.
Just then, the Inhibitor vanished from my sight, and the chaotic scene of the control room began to spin violently.
I'd been struck by a tentacle.
As I tumbled across the ground, spewing blood, I could feel that more than half of my ribs were crushed.
“Hahahahaha! This is no fun at all! Is this all you've got? What are you doing, you bastard! Fight harder!”
I knew I had to swing my sword. I knew I had to pull the Inhibitor's pin.
But in this time that had slowed to a near standstill...
moving my body freely without the power of transcendence seemed next to impossible.
*If I can just pull it, just pull it...!*
How many blows had I taken?
My head began to feel light with vertigo, and my vision was already soaked in crimson.
A vine-like tentacle wrapped around my body, hoisting me high into the air and dragging me before those massive, horrifying eyeballs.
“Hehe, you bastard. Is this it? You're resisting my 'Time Dilation,' which is impressive for a human, but the story about you cutting down Neigallas seems like a total lie, doesn't it?”
“…”
“Who cares. Do you know the most painful way to die in this universe? My power, you see... it melts everything, concept and all. You die feeling your own body and soul dissolving away right up to the very end! It's incredibly painful!”
A viscous fluid oozed from the tentacle...
A blinding yellow light flashed before my eyes.
I thought I didn't even have the strength to make a sound, but I never imagined I could let out such a piercing scream.
“...Stop.”
A brilliant flash of light exploded.
The tentacle was severed, and I nearly slammed into the ground.
But a floating machine, Kaduel, had appeared at some point, its light generating gravity beneath Kaisen to prevent such a disaster.
*She cut that thing? How...?*
Soon, the answer to this miracle appeared, dragging her body forward.
The radiance of the True Holy Sword Sharrilion enveloped its master's body.
Was that light guaranteeing its master’s freedom of movement from the power that had stopped the world?
Tarsiyo.
Tarsiyo Yere Sharrilion.
A descendant of The Ones Who Came.
But Tarsiyo looked like she was dying.
The monster was the one who had been cut...
Yet strangely, it was Tarsiyo who was shedding blood like rain from the gaps in her armor.
“Hmph, now that I think about it, you were acting outside the laws of causality too... I bet that bizarre behavior is his influence, right?”
As if she wasn't worth its attention, it casually swung a bundle of tentacles, but a white beam of light ran rampant before them.
For an instant, a light of courage embroidered the world in white. The sound of the First Administrator, Shalyuan, screaming could be heard.
Tarsiyo was the one who had successfully attacked, but once again, it was Tarsiyo whose knees buckled, Tarsiyo who coughed up clots of blood.
“Kaduel... take Kaisen and get out of here...!”
What... what is that fool saying in her state...
Kaduel seemed to hesitate.
But the authority given to it by Tarsiyo was absolute, leaving no room for disobedience.
*No, pull it for me. Pull this pin instead.*
I showed Kaduel my left hand.
The red restraint of power wrapped around my wrist, the Inhibitor, the key to breaking that restraint.
[Following orders.]
However, Kaduel wrapped Kaisen's body in chains of light and began moving toward the exit.
“Are you fucking kidding me, you bitch? You think I'd let you go!”
Dragging her feet, Tarsiyo blocked the First Administrator's path, and another flash of light exploded from her hand.
A power that could even target divinity.
As the First Administrator screamed, the backlash from forcibly using such immense power struck Tarsiyo again.
“Just as I thought. So that's what it was. You were using some kind of trick to wield a power you can't even handle, huh?”
Tarsiyo's legs twisted, her posture breaking.
A single tentacle she failed to destroy exploited the opening.
She was thrown aside, scattering fragments of armor and flesh across the ground.
“Kaduel! Look at this! It's pathetic, isn't it? Serving a bitch who's dozens of times weaker than you all were back when you had bodies, huh?”
As the First Administrator cackled and reached out its tentacles toward Kaduel again.
Amidst the pain and ridicule.
Another torrent of light surged forth, annihilating the tentacles and making the Administrator scream.
“My name is Tarsiyo...! A name given to me by my mother with the wish that I protect all bonds in this land...! Don't you dare... lay a single finger on Kaisen...!”
Gasping for breath.
Spitting out clots of blood.
Tarsiyo used the True Holy Sword as a staff to pull herself up.
“That's right, Maxentia! Ahahahahaha! Useless, with no talent for combat, just like your mother! You should've stayed hidden in the back like her, so why'd you have to come out to the front!”
Once, twice, how many times did she endure the Administrator's attacks?
“S-swallow it, Sharrilion... Ugh, uh, ughhhhhhhhh... Aaaaaaaaaaaah...!”
While trying to make Sharrilion swallow the rampage of power unleashed by the Administrator at full force, Tarsiyo's strength finally reached its limit.
Sharrilion clattered to the floor.
Entangled in tentacles formed from the bodies of wailing souls, Tarsiyo was captured by the Administrator.
“This won't do. If things have changed this much, it's better to just scrap this worldline. Even if you're gone, there's a replacement over there. The Elites will take care of the rest. In fact, the story might get even more interesting.”
The Administrator opened its maw, and the gates of a stinking hell swung open.
Something was about to happen.
Something that must never happen, something irreversible, was about to occur.
*Now.*
I'm confident I can make it, just barely in time.
If I can just pull this pin.
If I can achieve that final transcendence, I can cut that thing down, just like I did with Neigallas.
*So please...*
As if mocking my plea, the Administrator's hundreds of eyes, fixed on me, curved into crescents.
And Tarsiyo.
At the very moment it was about to slowly, deliberately, and surely shove her into its maw.
Time stopped.
I, a mere mortal, could hear the sound of the second hand shattering—a rule that transcended even the cosmic order of time.
And into that frozen time.
An absolute abyss that surpassed even the Old Kings... and a radiance just as absolute as that abyss, appeared.
*What...*
I couldn't believe it.
That such a powerful light and abyss could coexist in a single body.
But the one more horrified by this being's appearance seemed to be the Administrator, who could barely support its own body.
“Th-this is... 'Time Stop'... This power is the Absolute Abyss...?”
Like a fly caught in a spider's web, able only to struggle, the Administrator could do nothing but stammer.
“Brother Yotos's power... No way... Shit, shit, shit... How are you wielding it...?”
A sword formed in the hand of the amalgamation of light and abyss as it walked straight toward the Administrator.
A holy and magnificent light.
If the light of creation that forged this world were condensed into the form of a blade, would it look like that?
“The worldline's memory... No, wait, what, you, how dare you betray me, betray us...?!”
Not even the Changmyeonggeom forged by Mirngadia possessed such a light, one that could wash over consciousness itself in warm whiteness.
“Th-that's... N-no, no, no, Brother, Brother Yotos, help me, th-this, cra, cra────?!”
That light of creation.
The very phase of creation itself.
Showering a cool light, it sharply pierced the Administrator's core.
“────────Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
The light of the blade grew even stronger, then exploded with a brilliance so intense I couldn't keep my eyes open.
I couldn't believe it.
Its presence vanished as if it were a lie.
That thing was surely a god, just like Neigallas. Was it banished to another dimension?
No, that's not it.
It was completely annihilated.
Is this possible? Could it be done so easily?
“This is the God-Slaying Sword, Yurvelmung. A sword forged by the Creator God, Yurvel, from his own divinity, capable of cleaving the outer cosmos.”
The being of light and abyss answered, as if reading my thoughts.
“I just used this power to sever Shalyuan's divinity. Its very existence has been erased. It's all thanks to the two of you drawing its attention.”
He gently laid Tarsiyo, who had been falling, upon the ground.
Even Kaduel, which had been free from the Administrator's Time Stop, was now unnaturally frozen, like a broken machine.
“Who in the world are you...”
“There's no time for a long explanation. With this, I've used up both of my chances to interfere with this worldline.”
The Abyss... In that absolute terror, I felt a sense of alienation and rejection.
And at the same time, the Light.
In an absolute peace that surpassed even Setsunen and Tarsiyo, I felt a sense of awe. How could such a contradictory being exist?
“Mark my words. This is the last chance for the world of creation. A chance to end the Abyss completely.”
The being of light and abyss walked straight toward me.
One step, then another.
Had I been able to move, I probably would have stumbled backward with each step it took, but I didn't have the strength.
“The Master of the Abyss, Yotiatos, will surely appear at this world's final moment. Until then, you must be completed as a 'vessel'.”
Looking now, I saw that the sword in its hand, Yurvelmung, was shaped like a tachi.
Its blade was far longer than Aradamanthel's, and upon closer inspection, I could see that, strangely, fine cracks spread across the entire sword like a spiderweb.
Is the sword broken?
If so, why hasn't it been repaired?
“When that time comes, you must use this sword to cut him down—Yotos Yolle Yotiatos. Failure is not an option.”
But as the sword passed by, not only the Supreme Holy Swords but even the True Holy Sword Sharrilion began to glow, bowing in reverence.
As I stared blankly at the sight.
The tip of the sword was aimed at Kaisen's chest, and in the next moment, it lunged forward, precisely piercing the core of his soul.
“You probably don't understand what I'm saying right now. But you will, in time. The full meaning of my words.”
I'm going to die here, like this...?
No.
Like a sword being sheathed, the sword of creation entered the confines of Kaisen's soul.
“Now, I leave it all to you.”
And in a sensation of my entire body—no, my soul—being consumed by sacred flames, it began to fuse into one.
Within that sensation of fusion, everything turned white and blurry.
Just before my consciousness faded completely, I heard a self-deprecating mumble that could only have been a hallucination.
“...Sharrilion, to be able to meet you like this at the end of my wretched life... has been the greatest honor...”