Chapter 97: Kang Geomma Origin (1)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 97: Kang Geomma Origin (1)
Chae Lina, who had been staring blankly out the window, suddenly stood up. In an instant, she became the sole center of attention in the classroom. Regardless, Chae Lina pressed her forehead right against the windowpane.
“It has begun.”
A faint blush rose to Chae Lina’s cheeks. Her breath fogged up against the cold glass.
“You can do it.”
You can overcome this.
Ignoring the stares piercing her back, Chae Lina gazed at the waning morning light. Today, the bluish hue resting on the horizon was far deeper than usual.
Episode: Kang Geomma Origin
Ruuuuumble.
The air trembled.
Yggdrasil, the World Tree that had seemed to run out of vitality, scattered its leaves in fluttered bursts—as though it sought to claim the entire island of Avallon in a golden wave.
Terminal lucidity.
Just as the sun shines brightest right before it sets, Yggdrasil showed itself off in its final moment. Everyone tilted their heads back so far their necks ached at the grand ecstasy unfolding before them, suddenly setting aside the gravity of the situation, friend and foe alike.
“Ah...”
Then suddenly, Abel felt a terrible sense of déjà vu.
Ten years ago.
It had been similar when she had come to Avallon Island for a field trip during her cadet days. Only then regaining her senses, Abel snapped her head around—toward Kang Geomma.
Gooooh.
A chilly current rose. Even in broad daylight, her arms tingled as if she had stepped into a haunted house. The source of this atmospheric current was Kang Geomma...
“G-Geomma.”
He was different from usual.
His once-black hair was bleached pure white. Abel snapped alert. It had been nearly ten years since she had been with Kang Geomma. There was no way she couldn't know what that appearance signified.
Just as Abel was about to reach out her arm—
“Don’t!”
Rachel hastily snatched her hand.
“Let go of me.”
Even though Abel gritted her teeth, Rachel showed no sign of letting go.
“Abel, if you go over there...”
Though not a blessing, Rachel’s innate ability materialized a person’s secrets into mist.
Geomma...
Gulp.
Geomma always walked around wrapped in black smoke. He was a man whose default state was unspeakable secrets. And that smoke had grown thicker as Kang Geomma aged.
While appearing to be the happiest person in the world on the surface, the stake driven deep within Kang Geomma burrowed ever deeper into his interior.
Now, it was different.
There was no smoke wafting around Kang Geomma. Because he himself had transformed into a jet-black being.
From Rachel’s perspective, Kang Geomma was a pitch-black figure with nothing but piercing glints in his eyes. Time and space bent curvaceously along his outline. This was not an aura any human could emit. Even a demigod would find it impossible.
...A god.
Or a disaster.
Before she could even finish her thought, the surroundings shuddered. The muddy ground began to surge and heave like the skin of a giant.
Ruuuuumble!
Shadows fell. A black sphere covered the sun. An unseasonal solar eclipse instantly plunged the island into night.
The Black Sun, surrounded by a halo of reddish burning light, looked down upon the villains.
“F-Fuck...!”
The villain executives threw fits of terror. One of them shifted a stiff gaze toward Saki.
“You, the one closest to the Immortal Archer! Grab her, quick!”
They intended to take Saki hostage. Facing the Heavenly Sword in a direct battle was hopeless. Forget twelve, even if a thousand rushed him in a swarm, it would be complete annihilation.
“Hurry!”
The edge of his voice was quite desperate. However, the anomaly had not ended.
KABOOM!
Thunderous blasts erupted across a vast area.
Then, they struck down—right onto the guy approaching Saki.
BOOOOM!
“AAAAGHHH!”
Lightning bolts fell one after another.
Rumble! Rumble! BOOM!
Exquisitely missing allies, it tenaciously targeted only the villains. It looked like the end of creatures that had incurred the wrath of God.
Yet, the villains showed no sign of dying. No matter how tenacious a villain’s life force was, it was a ruthless offensive that should have killed them by all rights.
“...Could it be?”
Valerion muttered. Flapping his wings, he was enduring the wind generated by Kang Geomma.
“Is he... cutting away death?”
It was exactly as he said.
[Activating Divine Blessing of Borrowed Power]
[Activating Divine Blessing of Borrowed Power]
[Activating Divine Blessing of Borrowed Power]
[Activating Divine Blessing of Borrowed Power]
[Activating Divine Blessing of Borrowed Power]
Blessing of Borrowed Power.
Originally a blessing that turned the timeline back an inch into the past. Kang Geomma had unleashed that power to its absolute limit.
Divinity had lodged itself into a blessing inherently broken enough to interfere with the timeline. It felt as if one could hear the invisible clock of the universe breaking down.
It can’t go on like this.
Kang Geomma, having lost his mind, was destroying the world. Forgetting his humanity, he faithfully fulfilled his true duty. Though known to only a select few, he was a Demon God.
Atmospheric pressure grew heavier and heavier. It felt like sinking deep into the seabed. If even Valerion, the Dragon Lord, felt this way, it was a miracle ordinary humans hadn't passed out.
“Lord Heavenly Sword! Stop...!”
Valerion tried to intervene.
It was already too late. Kang Geomma charged at the villains with sashimi knives in hand. He swung his blades as he ran. In the aftermath of his wild slashes, the golden torrent cast by the World Tree surged backward.
CRACK!
A sound like tearing hide echoed. It wasn't clean. He was deliberately roughing up their bodies.
The bursting sound was the signal flare. With Murasame, he severed one guy’s head in a single stroke, and with his EX-rank Sashimi, he struck down the guy at his side.
VI—
─── VIL/LAIN
AIN
Kang Geomma kicked away the charred corpses of the villains severed in different directions. As a guy who screamed loudly turned his back to flee, Kang Geomma plunged a blade into the back of his head until it protruded right out of his mouth.
“Keu... ugh.”
A guy whose face was sliced collapsed. Kang Geomma carved straight through his throat with Murasame. The cut surface was jagged, as if torn apart by a beast. Drenched in the bloody slaughter of his enemies, Kang Geomma did not wipe his face. He simply warp-stepped again to slaughter the villains.
Gush!
Blood poured out. He angled his sashimi knife and struck. He cleaved bone. Kicking aside or swatting away chunks of flesh with his arm, he kept running. The villains trembled in fear, struggled wildly, and fell into convulsions. Circling around them, he whittled away at their formation.
There was occasional resistance.
It was all entirely useless.
Just as one villain tried to snap his fingers, dots glinted in the clouds. The next moment, a flock of Daixo Sashimi Knives pecked away at him. The guy attempting to cast magic was ground down to the particle level.
“M-Monster...!”
The Rabbit Mask Villain quickly turned to run. Immediately, she tripped and fell flat like a frog. A fully grown adult suddenly tripped over nothing. Looking down at her feet, the road surface was rough and bumpy—as if the island itself was exercising so intensely that its veins bulged.
For some reason, her gaze naturally shifted to Yggdrasil. Her mouth gaped open.
“I-It shrank...”
Yggdrasil’s trunk had thinned noticeably. Why? What was happening? Mommy, I'm scared...
Thud.
The villain’s gaze was slammed into the dirt. Kang Geomma stepped heavily on the side of her face. With the Black Sun behind him, Kang Geomma was no longer something that could be called human. He was a monster. A demon. A calamity. A disaster.
“S-Save me...”
As Kang Geomma’s shoulders blurred, a line of blood carved across her mask. Contents poured profusely from her popped-open skull. After finishing her off with a downward heel stomp, Kang Geomma turned into lightning and charged at the next villain. KABOOM! Concentric shockwaves erupted in the air like exploding bombs, and wherever his feet touched down, the ground caved in deeply. The pockmarked ground narrowed the villains' room to maneuver, leaving them to become specters of no return right where they stood. The bloody waterspout swirling in the center seemed poised to reach the Black Sun itself.
Yet, something was strange.
No matter how many he killed, the screams never ceased. How were they still alive within this pushing tsunami of death?
[Activating Divine Blessing of Borrowed Power]
[Activating Divine Power of the Underworld King]
[Activating Divine Blessing of the Sword God]
Kang Geomma slashed without rest. Crushing them with lightning, dropping flying swords upon them, refusing to shy away from hand-to-hand combat on his own feet.
[Sliced through death. Target revived.]
[Sliced through death. Target revived.]
[Sliced through death. Target revived.]
Every time he cut them down, Kang Geomma brought the villains back to life. Before long, the cries of the villains changed. From “Save me!” to...
“P-Please... just kill me...!”
“Please! We... we... ghk!”
Watching blankly, Valerion exchanged glances with Metatron. They nodded to each other.
“We must step in.”
“Agreed.”
If they waited any longer, this worldline would suffer an overload.
The extension of destruction would stretch beyond Avallon Island to the entire world. Look at Yggdrasil. The tree called the World Tree was rotting alive.
“Father.”
Schwing.
Leon von Reinhardt stood between Metatron and Valerion, unsheathing Balmung.
“I will help as well.”
“He is your friend.”
Surprisingly, Metatron did not refuse. They needed every pair of hands they could get, and his son’s armament, Balmung, was a treasure sword that truly shone in situations like this.
Metatron asked his son once more.
“Even so, can you point your blade at him?”
“Because he’s my friend. And when Geomma saved me back then, he saved me with ‘physical therapy.’ Once he comes to his senses, he’ll understand.”
“Mm.”
After pondering briefly, Metatron nodded.
“I leave it to you.”
“I’m coming too.”
Spear blade cutting through the air with a hiss, Rachel walked over with heavy steps. Metatron thought to himself: An impressive human.
To withstand the Heavenly Sword’s pressure through pure sheer force of will alone...
The currents touching Rachel’s skin split along the grain of the air.
“Because I feel like I can almost see it.”
“...See what?”
Rachel, who had a stiff expression, brightened up. She spoke with her usual shadowless expression.
“Geomma-kun’s weakness.”
“......”
“Ehey. Let’s not discriminate.”
There was no time to delay.
No time to deliberate variables.
BOOOOOOOM!
Thunderous roars grew even louder. Lightning stretched its roots across the sky. Spatial tears slowly opened up. Through the cracks, a crimson dimension seemed to faintly raise its head.
Without taking a breath, Metatron replied.
“Very well.”
He then cast his gaze beside Rachel. He had expected her to be hesitating, but Abel placed her hand on the hilt of her sword with cold eyes.
Ching.
Nothung.
The legendary master sword of Nibelung, never retreating before battle.
“I will say just one thing.”
Abel elaborated, her golden eyes gleaming.
“We are likely about to face the strongest enemy we have ever met, or ever will meet. What's more, our goal is subdual. Blood may be shed...”
Her front teeth bit into her pretty lips.
“Even if that happens... please do not resent Geomma. I am not saying this just because he is my husband. He is fighting right now—not against the villains, but against himself.”
Bow.
Her head dropped forward. Bowed deeply at a right angle, Abel begged everyone with all her heart.
“Please... save Geomma and Ryozo.”
“Don’t make something so obvious sound like a favor, Abel. You’re making me feel awkward.”
Abel lifted her head.
Weapon spoke, biting down on his recorder.
“Everyone, I’ll handle the buffs and Saki’s recovery, so go save them.”
At his confident smile, everyone let out a faint chuckle. Maintaining that smile amidst despair, the hero, the angel, and the demon stepped forward.
“Let’s go.”
To rescue the Demon King.