91
091 ― An Utterly Ridiculous Demand
It wasn't something he said simply to provoke Graktar. The words 'mine' naturally came out of Jin-woo's mouth.
The memories and abilities of his past life. Previously, even when he gained them, he didn't feel anything particular. It felt like watching fragments of someone unknown's life from outside the stage.
However, at some point, they began to gradually integrate.
'Did my past life deliberately arrange this?'
The change was gradual, neither jarring nor unnatural.
He didn't know exactly who his past life was, but it certainly wasn't an ordinary existence. Each ability was extraordinary, so it must have been a being worthy of being called a transcendent.
If such a being had forcefully made arrangements, it wouldn't have been strange for Kang Jin-woo's ego to have disappeared long ago.
However, there was no such violent sign at all, and the memories were fragmented to the point of being like particles, coming in little by little. So that Kang Jin-woo could naturally accept them as he grew.
"A human who's just a little strong sure talks well."
Graktar snorted through his nostrils and spat out rough words.
While Jin-woo's words weren't meant as provocation, to Graktar, they were nothing but provocation.
In his view, Jin-woo was nothing more than a thief who had caused a ruckus in the empty Temple of Sky and stolen divine artifacts.
Strong enough to cause a ruckus, but ultimately just a mere human.
"My axe won't be as lenient as the Temple of Sky!"
Graktar raised his axe. His height was more than twice Jin-woo's, and his build was even more than that.
With a build that blocked the sun in the sky, a long shadow was cast, and instead of the sun, the axe he held emitted blinding light.
Kwang―!
Jjeojeojeojeojeok!
The axe that fell like a guillotine struck where Jin-woo had been, and the ground cracked open.
Pulling his body back to dodge, Jin-woo saw the lingering traces of scattered light.
The light that had wrapped around Graktar's axe now covered his entire body, radiating fierce momentum.
'Is it Aura? Somehow it feels similar to the energy of the glass orb.'
It wasn't that the energy itself was similar. Compared to this guy's rigid and spirited Aura, the World Tree's glass orb gave off a more gentle energy that seemed to embrace everything.
What was similar was simply that the power originated from a similar world.
In other words, it was the power of the Spirit Realm.
"Kahahahahaha! Is dodging all you can do!"
Graktar wasn't just swinging his axe. From the black subspace he possessed, swords and blunt weapons, spears, and sometimes even shields would pop out to target Jin-woo.
The fact that he didn't use shields properly to block but grabbed them to strike like blunt weapons was impressive in many ways.
'He's quite different from the minions that fell to Earth.'
The momentum emanating from Graktar was completely different from the minions he had fought so far. Setting aside his strength, he was more direct.
'He's openly radiating an energy completely different from Graktar. Is this the energy of the God of War?'
It was one of two things. Either this guy was receiving a bit more attention from the Lord, or he had already half-conquered the 3rd floor, so the Lord's power was flowing down more directly.
Maybe it was both.
"Jin-woo!"
Rona seemed to feel that Graktar's momentum was unusual, too. She intervened to save Jin-woo and blocked Graktar's axe. But.
Chaeng―!
"Ah!"
Her sword shattered in one blow. Not just broken in the middle, but from the middle to the tip, half of the blade turned to powder and flew away.
Rona's palm, which had been gripping tightly to not lose her sword, tore open, and blood flowed. Even so, she didn't let go of her sword, and the leather of the handle was soaked with red blood.
'Even though Rona's sword was wrapped in Aura, it was this much.'
Aura isn't simply sharp energy formed by gathering Magi.
It's like the essence of martial arts, containing all the enlightenment of that swordsman or warrior. That it broke so easily meant there was that much of a difference in class.
However, unlike the difference felt in their Auras, the skill gap between the two didn't seem that large.
"Kahahaha!"
"Kuk!"
Graktar attacked Rona, and Rona somehow endured with her half-remaining sword, attempting to counterattack.
Just looking at how the Aura was split, it wouldn't be strange if Graktar won in less than three exchanges. But although Rona was pushed into a defensive position, she somehow managed to hold on.
This was because Graktar's Aura wasn't something containing his essence, but power borrowed from the Lord.
He didn't think it was cowardly. Fighting was originally about utilizing all available means.
Jin-woo also had such an existence.
[ The God of Moonlit Forest urges you not to lose. ]
A subtle light appeared on his sword. He suddenly remembered wielding a similar sword in the past. Not from his past life, but from this current life.
'The sword I borrowed from the God of Ice Valley was like that.'
When fighting Johan and the dragon soul that Johan commanded, he had wielded such a sword.
The difference was that back then he borrowed the sword itself, but now he was only borrowing the energy to overlay on his own sword.
Around that time, Rona's sword was completely shattered. Graktar's smile deepened as he aimed his axe. His target was Rona, who had lost her sword and whose stance was disrupted.
At that unavoidable moment, the axe with lethal power came down. Rona tried to pull out another sword from subspace, but the timing was too late, and even if she blocked it accurately, she couldn't block it. Her Aura couldn't withstand the Lord's power.
Jin-woo broke through between them and swung his sword.
Kwang―!
An unbelievably destructive sound was heard for what should have been metal clashing against metal.
Jin-woo's sword was blocking Graktar's axe. That scene was clearly captured in Rona's two eyes.
She had almost died just now, barely surviving by a paper-thin margin. Even in such an urgent situation, Rona couldn't take her eyes off Jin-woo's sword.
"You bastard……."
Graktar glared with bulging eyes and growled.
His expression seemed to think, 'How dare you block my axe?'
"I'll crush you to death like this!"
His forearm swelled even more, and he pressed down with the axe as it was. He intended to crush with pure force.
Even Jin-woo couldn't be stronger than Graktar in terms of pure physical strength. The sword was gradually pushed back, and the axe blade came close enough to touch his forehead.
If Graktar put just a little more force into it like this, it seemed like his skull would be split in half from the top.
Graktar raised the corners of his mouth, anticipating victory. However, Jin-woo wasn't looking at his face.
No, from the beginning, Jin-woo was looking at only one thing. The pitch-black flames rising from inside the guy. His greatest power was received from the Erosion Lord.
The axe couldn't break the sword and slid along the blade. As much force as had been contained in it, the shaking when the balance collapsed was also severe.
Conversely, Jin-woo's sword accelerated even more as it grazed the axe and cut Graktar. The place that the sword aimed for and headed toward was only one thing, the black soul, but it didn't end with just quietly cutting the flames.
It sliced through the forearm bulging with muscles, cut through the pectorals that were stronger than armor, and split the bones and heart in two. The black flames were also split in half most cleanly.
"This…… Is……."
Graktar fell backward without being able to leave even a single word as his last words. Kwoong! As his build and weight were considerable, the sound of his collapse was also loud.
Only that sound echoed in this silence. Not only Rona but also the Orcs and Forest Elves couldn't say anything.
They all doubted their eyes, and especially Rona's surprise was indescribable. Having directly crossed swords, she had fully felt Graktar's strength.
To cut down such a being so easily, with just a brief exchange of blows…….
'It's not over yet.'
On the other hand, Jin-woo didn't lower his guard even though the battle was over.
He had cut Graktar's flames. But there were still flames remaining.
The blood that guy had spilled moved bizarrely like insects or snakes. Spreading through the air, it embroidered all directions and drew a formation of blood.
And the air split open.
'……There's never a day that goes by easily.'
He was reminded of when the God of Sky descended upon Grisella. It was a situation that matched that time completely.
***
The dimension split, and a storm of heat leaked out.
To say it merely leaked out was understating it, as the momentum was tremendous, sweeping away all the Orcs who had been nearby.
The robust Orcs rolled and were flung around, unable to maintain their balance, while Moonlit Forest also couldn't remain unharmed from the aftermath of the heat.
"Wh, what is this?"
At the sight she was seeing for the first time, Rona raised her sword again beside Jin-woo.
She, too, was full of wariness, but within that was also full of questions about not understanding what was happening.
Jin-woo had no proper way to explain either. What principle this was, what purpose it served, what would pop out from inside there—he didn't know either.
If there was something to speculate.
"It seems the God of War has collected quite a lot of divine artifacts."
It appeared that the God of War's dream of gathering all divine artifacts and directly descending to the Lower Realm had come quite close.
The crack in the air looked unstable, so a complete descent still seemed impossible.
For descent, all divine artifacts were needed, and one of them—no, 1.5 of them—was in Jin-woo's possession, so it couldn't be completed.
Conversely, because there were 1.5 divine artifacts worth here, the guy was forcing an unstable descent.
"Something's coming out!"
As Rona said, the crack opened and something came out.
It was an arm.
A giant's arm of deep brown color. The muscles covering it were inadequately described as sculptural, being like rugged rocky mountains, and the widely spread palm seemed like it would cover the sky.
The unstable crack didn't open any further, and nothing greater than the arm came out.
Whether this should be called fortunate or what.
"R, run away for now!"
Rona shouted. There was no need to listen. Before the 'r' in 'run' even came out, Jin-woo had already started running, taking her with him.
The Orcs were no exception. When the very god they had been carrying on their backs and revering appeared, they fled in terror—a most irreverent sight.
'To think he'd appear directly!'
Even Jin-woo hadn't thought it would be to this extent.
Considering the case of Grisella and the God of Sky, he had expected at most that the god would patch together Graktar's dead body and descend there.
Kwoong―!
Kwagwagwagwagwang!
The arm pressed against the ground and swept widely. With a giant arm like a rocky mountain moving like that, it was a disaster in itself.
Countless Orcs who couldn't escape in time were crushed to pulp and died like insects.
Meanwhile, Jin-woo and Rona were joining up with the Forest Elves, also trying to flee. The Elves were already busy preparing to run away, carrying unconscious or injured comrades who couldn't move.
Then the arm lifted and came down with its palm spread wide against the ground.
But no sound was heard, and the ground didn't break. The arm passed through the ground like a ghost and went deep inside.
"Wh, what?"
"What is it trying to do!?"
The Elves, who had been in a panic state since the arm's appearance, were letting out sounds close to screams.
Meanwhile, the arm that had reached deep underground eventually pulled out a sword.
A sword from deep underground, as if extracted from a star. Like the giant arm, it too was enormous.
Thinking of how he had blocked Graktar with the power borrowed from the God of Moonlit Forest, Jin-woo asked.
'……Can't you lend me the power to block that?'
[ The God of Moonlit Forest shouts. ]
[ Run away! ]
It seemed to be an utterly ridiculous demand.