The Eternal Night Devours All

I reached a hand to my waist.

What sprang from the Pocket of Desire was an old censer.

“Why are you taking out that ominous thing?”

“To fill up some stats.”

The Wildfire Hearth.

A half-baked holy relic handed out by the gathering of evil-aligned constellations known as [Trickster].

An item I obtained while wiping out the drug cartel.

“If not now, then when?”

Without hesitation I spread the Pocket of Desire wide open.

Items poured down beneath the Wildfire Hearth like rain.

Green flames roared upward, reducing objects worth hundreds of millions to powder in seconds.

Nearly ten billion won turned to ash in the blink of an eye.

Damn it.

It hurt, but if I wanted to make a decisive gamble there was no other choice.

Cold Blood reacted instantly to the mental interference. I had already known the Wildfire Hearth was no ordinary relic. It was something the evil constellations had bestowed to sow chaos. In my previous life, countless disasters had erupted because of it. There was a reason I had risked everything to seize it.

I excluded the constellations’ will and poured only the pure ‘power’ melted within the hearth into my Polar Night stat.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

“A disappointing return for the investment.”

“Two minutes is enough.”

The means I had prepared weren’t limited to just this.

More than half a day had passed since the battle inside the subspace began. Demonic Power’s cooldown had reset as well.

A body fused with the darkness of night.

“Goddess.”

She wasn’t even a demon, yet she spoke like one?

Nyx, now perfectly synchronized with my Polar Night. The omnipotence I had felt before spread through every inch of my body.

The goddess who rules the night.

Nyx’s ‘rank’ far surpassed anything I could comprehend.

Before my regression, my combat strength had been enough to fight an S-rank constellation head-on, yet even that fell short of the true power of the goddess of night—one step above even the God-King.

『You still had tricks left after all?』

My lips moved against my will. Even my voice had shifted into a neutral, androgynous tone.

『Honor? Don’t make me laugh. When did you stop spewing vulgar nonsense? And now you act all dignified!』

Stormbringer sliced through the air.

A colossal wave of energy surged like a storm—wind mana fused with an aura blade, a destructive tide.

Nyx lifted her right hand with elegant grace.

The power of Polar Night erupted at the goddess’s will, matching the magical storm Stormbringer had created.

If Rene Davis’s attack was a storm, Nyx’s Polar Night resembled a tidal wave that swallowed everything in its path.

Pure power that reflected will alone, without any rearrangement process.

『Keke, the result will decide who is truly foolish.』

The darkness of night collided with the aura-blade storm.

Chaaaaaaa!

Rene’s finely shredded mana tore into the power of Polar Night.

『What can that pathetic darkness possibly do?』

Nyx let out a short sigh and flicked her finger.

Even as it was endlessly sliced and shredded, the power of Polar Night advanced relentlessly, devouring Rene’s magical energy.

『Then how about this!』

Condensed mana gathered across the giant’s body.

[Fire Pillar & Fire Vortex]

[Fusion Qigong]

[Crimson Ray x 32]

A ray-type attack that instantly wove emission into instant-cast skills. Yet even the beams that dyed the entire field of vision red could not disperse the darkness of night.

Polar Night embraced everything.

Strengthened by Demonic Power converting every stat and further amplified by the Wildfire Hearth, my Polar Night had already surpassed the total magical power Rene possessed.

He had been caught in his own trap.

『I’m losing in raw output!?』

『Don’t make me laugh. I am the shield of France, and the tree of Harab Serapel. There is no way I would lose to a mere ordinary player!』

Despite Rene Davis’s words, the darkness advanced steadily, closing in on him.

He frantically unleashed every skill he could forge with Fusion Qigong, but it was useless.

He could not halt the advance of Polar Night’s power.

『If I had known it would come to this, I should have avoided a slugfest and preserved my body to force an output battle…!』

Rene’s twitching mouth suddenly froze.

“Now you understand?”

『You calculated everything up to this point?!』

“From beginning to end.”

That’s right.

The details might differ, but I knew exactly what kind of place the subspace created by the Klyphoth Tree was. I knew Rene Davis’s combat style perfectly.

“You were always in the palm of my hand.”

『Yu Jinhooooo!』

Rene’s resentful roar was swallowed whole by the tidal wave of Polar Night.

My stats returned to normal. Nyx immediately released the assimilation.

“Ugh, no matter how many times I feel this sensation, it is unpleasant.”

“Thank you. It’s all thanks to you, Goddess.”

“Without Yeo’s help you always insist on carrying the burden alone.”

Nyx clicked her tongue.

If I told her I had factored her full power into my calculations from the start, she would probably throw a fit.

I swallowed my laughter and looked down at Rene’s corpse. His eyes were wide open. It seemed he was quite resentful at having been toyed with in the palm of my hand the entire fight. Still, dragging the situation this far hadn’t been easy for me either, so at least close your eyes.

The Fusion Qigong became complete after devouring Rene Davis’s essence. The number of skills it could store had tripled, and the cooldown had been reduced to twenty-four hours. It was now even possible to mix released skills.

Eclipse had a similar effect, but its versatility couldn’t compare to true fusion. If we were only talking about amplification, Eclipse might have the edge.

“One gain, one loss, I suppose.”

“There’s no need to weigh the pros and cons.”

Fusion Qigong was the greatest contributor to Rene Davis reaching Monarch rank. To think I now held it in my hands.

I pressed down the swelling emotion in my chest.

Before my regression I had been unable to devour his corpse because I hadn’t received the baptism. The fact that Rene had received the baptism and been judged as a ‘monster’ was also a change caused by my return.

But what I gained from defeating him wasn’t limited to the essence.

The sun and the moon. Though the societies the two constellations belonged to were different, their origins were similar, so their options were nearly identical.

“No stat increase, yet they’re Transcendent grade. A little strange.”

“When I wear both, I gain complete immunity to debuffs.”

That alone made the Transcendent rank worth it. On top of that, skill synergy effects increased by twenty percent. If I wore both, that became forty percent. Since one was a ring and the other a necklace, the equipment slots didn’t overlap.

So Rene Davis had been using Transcendent artifacts after all.

“Now they’re all mine.”

I grinned, brushed off the dust, and equipped them immediately. I rarely coveted artifacts since I didn’t use weapons or armor, but this was an exception. I had obtained Fusion Qigong as well. Even without that, the synergy option paired perfectly with Devour.

I searched for any other useful items, but everything had been shattered during the battle, so there was no further harvest.

“Are you sure you can afford to be so relaxed?”

Nyx pointed upward. The sky was covered in massive cracks like shattered glass. With the destruction of the [Eiffel Tower] that had been the master of this space, collapse had begun.

“If I leave it alone, it will return to normal.”

I crossed my arms and waited for the subspace to crumble.

Kwaaaaaang!

A powerful ringing assaulted my ears along with a blinding light.

How long had it been?

My flickering vision returned and the painful ringing in my ears vanished.

“We’re back.”

The top of a tree burned black. The same place where I had faced Rene. Below us, a fierce battle still raged.

“It feels like we were gone quite a while, yet this place still hasn’t been cleaned up.”

“Time flows differently inside the subspace.”

“Oh, so even time was isolated.”

“No more than an hour should have passed outside.”

While I was casually chatting with Nyx, the followers riding the Klyphoth Tree spotted me.

“Is that not Yu Jinho?!”

“What happened to Lord Rene?!”

“The tree’s blessing is disappearing!”

“Don’t tell me… Lord Rene has been defeated?”

“Nonsense! There is no way he would lose to a mere player!”

The Klyphoth followers and Arme Rouge players who refused to accept Rene’s defeat. Yet contrary to their words, the Klyphoth Tree was rapidly losing its vitality.

“Master! I knew you could do it!”

“Hmph. As expected of my master.”

“Mister Yu. I thought my neck would fall off from waiting.”

I looked over my companions. There were quite a few moderate to severe injuries, but miraculously no one had died. Ellen and the martial artists—who had handled both tanking and damage—were in such terrible shape that it wouldn’t have been strange if they collapsed at any moment.

“Let’s quickly clean ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠up the rest.”

“Yeo shall join you.”

“Rest a little. The homunculus body is pretty damaged.”

Nyx had already done more than enough.

I took a long breath and shook off the lingering fatigue in my body.

“I’ll send you lot to your boss as well.”

When a tiger dies it leaves its pelt.

When traitors to humanity die, they leave behind their essences.

Now, then.

What kind of essences will ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠you give me?