Chapter 31

Chapter 31. Exposed

There was no answer.

The man in black armor remained silent.

But Choi Taemin was certain.

That was NONAME.

The one who had locked down first place in the Hall of Fame by an overwhelming margin.

The arrogant bastard who had deliberately hidden his name.

'A Holy Sword wielder.'

It all made sense now.

How such a score had been possible.

A Holy Sword was a crystallization of sacred energy.

An ordinary Avatar couldn't even touch one.

They'd burn or be rejected the moment they tried.

And yet this man wielded a Holy Sword with total freedom.

'He must have been fed a massive amount of Nectar.'

He'd forcibly replicated his true body's Divinity.

Coated the Avatar in sacred energy so thick that the Holy Sword was fooled.

A sheer money play.

Being this serious about the Game told him everything about the true body's caliber.

A Lesser god at best—mid-tier if you were being generous.

Unable to earn respect in reality, so he was desperate to play king in this fake world.

"Pathetic."

Choi Taemin sneered.

He was different.

He was a high-ranking god.

If the gap between Lesser and mid-tier was heaven and earth, then the gap between mid-tier and high-ranking was the cosmos itself.

Comparison was an insult.

But he couldn't afford to be careless.

The man's presence was no joke.

In his current state, an easy victory wasn't guaranteed.

Gulp.

He pulled another bottle of Nectar from his coat.

Drained it in a single swallow.

WHOOSH!

His blood vessels dilated.

His heart hammered as though it would burst.

Divinity surged to its ceiling.

Sparks erupted from every pore across his body.

SHHK!

In that instant, the Holy Sword flew at him again.

A sword aura hurtling in a trail of light.

But Choi Taemin didn't dodge.

No—he didn't need to.

BOOM!

A flick of his hand.

An explosion.

The sword aura shattered to pieces in midair.

The Holy Sword's trajectory was deflected.

The combat instincts of a high-ranking god.

Experience forged across eons of warfare hadn't rusted, even trapped inside the shell of an Avatar.

"Is that all you've got?"

A taunt.

The man said nothing.

Instead, he closed the distance.

In an instant.

A black afterimage rushed to point-blank range.

The man swept his left hand through the air.

HUMMMM!

Space warped.

A gray storm erupted.

A savage Disaster—biting cold laced with blades that carved flesh.

'The Gale of Annihilation.'

Instinct screamed a warning.

Dangerous.

Even a graze from that would be fatal.

The instincts of a high-ranking god shrieked.

WHOOSH!

Choi Taemin launched himself clear.

By a hair's breadth.

The storm raked across the spot where he'd been standing.

The rubble of a collapsed building was reduced to powder and erased.

A chill ran down his spine.

If he'd taken that head-on?

His Avatar would have been obliterated without a trace.

"A god of typhoons?"

Choi Taemin muttered.

The Natural Lineage.

And within it, the wind attribute—the trickiest of them all.

On top of that, the cold.

This wasn't a simple typhoon.

It was a compound Authority.

Impressive, even.

And the elemental matchup was unfavorable.

Fire was weak against wind, and vulnerable to cold.

But.

"If it doesn't hit, it doesn't matter."

Choi Taemin grinned.

The range was narrow.

The power was staggering, but the attack radius was limited.

There were plenty of openings to dodge.

"I am the master of flame."

He was a god of the Natural Lineage and the Material Lineage simultaneously.

Fire.

And explosion.

A supreme predator standing at the pinnacle of all flame.

No mere typhoon could dare encroach on his domain.

CRASH—!

He sheathed his entire body in fire.

A flame armor.

A declaration that he'd fight at close range if need be.

The man charged again, Holy Sword in hand.

Fast.

But readable.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

With every step, he detonated explosions beneath his feet.

Using the thrust to change direction.

The Holy Sword carved through empty air.

The man's attack missed, and his flames scorched the black armor.

"Slow!"

Choi Taemin shouted.

He threw a punch.

An explosive wave of heat slammed into the man's faceplate.

The black helm shuddered.

He'd seized the momentum.

All he had to do was keep pushing.

Blue flame.

The pinnacle of fire.

No metal on Earth could withstand this temperature.

He needed no weapon.

His fist was both a Divine Armament and a Calamity.

"Melt!"

Choi Taemin threw another punch.

Space distorted.

Heat incinerated the air.

He was certain the man's blade couldn't endure it.

No matter how holy, every sword had its limits.

Half-baked sacred energy couldn't block this blue flame.

CRASH!

A deafening impact.

But Choi Taemin's eyes went wide.

It was blocked.

The man had caught the fist on the flat of his blade.

No—he hadn't merely caught it.

The edge parted the flames and bit in.

SLICE.

A deep gash opened on his fist.

Deep enough to see bone.

"......Ugh!"

Choi Taemin pulled back.

The shock outweighed the pain.

The wound wasn't healing.

He was an Avatar saturated with Divinity.

His regeneration surpassed a troll's.

And yet the bleeding wouldn't stop.

The wound was searing white, actively rejecting regeneration.

'It's noble.'

This was no mere holy relic.

The sacred energy pouring from that blade.

Not something a Lesser or mid-tier god could possibly possess.

'What the hell is he?'

Questions piled up.

But there was no time to think.

The man pressed in.

The sword danced.

It wasn't simple swinging.

The footwork was precise, and the strikes were clean.

There were no openings.

'A warrior?'

His sword technique rivaled that of a blade demon who had trained for decades.

The form was well-established.

Even when Choi Taemin detonated flames to block his vision, the man read the subtle signs and thrust in with precision.

He was being pushed.

He had to admit it.

In raw firepower, he was superior.

But the man's armaments and technique were overwhelming him.

At this rate, he'd lose.

His Avatar's head would come off.

'Should I end it here?'

The Game was just a game.

He could discard the Avatar and return to his true body.

Create a new Avatar and come back down.

But.

'No.'

Venom flared in Choi Taemin's eyes.

His pride wouldn't allow it.

A high-ranking god—fleeing in defeat from some unidentified wretch?

He'd be mocked for eternity.

Above all, it infuriated him.

That his flames had been stopped by some miserable sword.

"Fine. You want to do this? Let's do it."

He made the decision.

He'd sacrifice this body.

It was expendable anyway.

He'd squeeze out every last drop and take this man down with him.

'Burn the heart.'

Choi Taemin chanted.

It was taboo.

Using the heart—the Avatar's very life force—as fuel.

Triggering a berserk state predicated on self-destruction.

RUMBLE!

Light seeped from his chest.

His heart pounded savagely.

Blood boiled and evaporated.

In its place, high-purity Nectar filled the void.

Choi Taemin's humanity was erased.

He was no longer in human form.

WHOOSH!

His entire body became flame.

An incarnation.

The closest form to the essence of the fire god.

The flames he now emitted had surpassed blue—they were nearly white.

Purifying flame.

An absolute heat that burned away all impurity.

"Kahahaha! I'll burn everything!"

Choi Taemin—no, the incarnation—roared.

He extended his hand.

White flame crashed forward like a tidal wave.

There was no dodging it.

No blocking it either.

Even a Holy Sword would melt before this heat.

The tide of battle had reversed.

NONAME faltered.

The black armor was glowing red-hot.

Overwhelming.

This was the reserve power of a high-ranking god.

This was the price paid in Nectar.

"Turn to ash!"

Victory was certain.

He'd burn the man's Avatar and incinerate his very soul along with it.

That was what he thought, in that instant.

HUMMMM!

An alien energy rose from the man's hand.

The Holy Sword Abriel.

The blade that had shone white was now stained dark red.

A murky, viscous aura.

'Hellfire?'

Choi Taemin's mind went blank.

He doubted his eyes.

Just moments ago, the man had been using wind.

Conjuring a typhoon, unleashing cold.

He'd been certain the man was a wind-attribute, Natural Lineage god.

And now, fire?

Hellfire laced with the aura of earth, at that?

"That's impossible."

They were polar opposites.

Wind and fire couldn't coexist.

For one being to wield two opposing Authorities simultaneously—and at that level of mastery—was next to impossible.

"Multiple Disasters......?"

While he reeled in shock.

The man swung his blade.

Heavenly Demon Swordsmanship infused with Hellfire.

A dark-red slash cleaved through the white flame.

SLICE.

There was no sensation.

The pain arrived a beat later.

Something dropped from his field of vision.

A wrist, engulfed in flame.

"Grgh......!"

Choi Taemin clenched his teeth.

The severed cross-section was charring.

It wouldn't regenerate.

No—the very will to regenerate was being devoured by the Hellfire.

'Hellfire?'

There was no doubt.

That was no ordinary flame.

An Authority existing above fire itself—closer to a Calamity than a Disaster.

The destructive blaze wielded only by mad gods who had lost their reason.

And yet this man was wielding it.

With exquisite precision.

'He layered it onto the Holy Sword?'

An act of madness.

A Holy Sword was noble.

Hellfire was corrupt.

The two forces couldn't mix, like oil and water.

Forcing them together should have shattered the weapon or killed the wielder.

But his blade was intact.

If anything, the two forces had struck an eerie equilibrium, amplifying the destructive power.

'Perfect control.'

That degree of fine-tuned calibration was beyond what most high-ranking gods would even attempt.

There was no need for it, and a single misstep could damage one's Divinity.

And yet a mere Avatar had pulled it off.

He'd thought this man was just some lunatic obsessed with the Game.

"Are you a Mad God?"

He had to be a Mad God.

The standing rule was that the occasional Mad God who surfaced was to be sealed away.

There was no answer.

But.

'I'm being pushed.'

He had to admit it.

If it were his true body's Divinity, he could have crushed those flames easily.

But right now he was an Avatar.

No matter how much Nectar he'd poured in, the vessel's limits were clear.

The white flame was being pushed back by the dark-red Hellfire, guttering out.

Defeat.

The word flashed through his mind.

But venom hardened in Choi Taemin's eyes.

A high-ranking god's pride would not permit defeat.

Even if he lost, he wouldn't die alone.

That was the last dignity the fire god possessed.

"Fine."

Choi Taemin smiled.

He raised his remaining hand.

He compressed the flame.

Not an outward release.

An internal collapse.

'Detonation.'

I am a god of the Natural and Material Lineages both.

I command fire, and I govern explosion.

I will make this body the primer.

A detonation that obliterates everything within a radius of several kilometers.

Hellfire or whatever—at this distance, you won't walk away unscathed either.

RUMBLE!

Choi Taemin's body swelled like a balloon.

Light seeped through.

The critical point was breached.

It could no longer be stopped.

I die, and you die with me.

"Let's go together!"

A scream of madness.

The instant the detonation's flash was about to ignite.

Tap.

Something touched his chest.

It was the man.

He hadn't run.

He'd plunged into the inferno and pressed his right palm against the heart.

"......?"

What was he doing?

Trying to stop it?

Too late.

The pin had already been pulled.

Not even a god could halt this detonation.

Foolish.

Walking into your own grave.

That was what he thought.

But in the next instant.

HUMMMM!

Golden glyphs spun on the man's palm.

And a phenomenon beyond comprehension occurred.

"Wha......?"

It didn't detonate.

The energy that should have erupted reversed course.

The Authority of explosion, which should have blasted outward, was being siphoned into the man's palm.

"Wh-what is......!"

Panic set in.

It wasn't just the explosion.

His true body's Divinity was being drained as well.

"GRAAAAAGH!"

He screamed.

Like a drink with a straw plunged in, his soul was being ripped out from the root.

He couldn't stop it.

He couldn't resist.

An overwhelming power of Predation was chewing and swallowing Choi Taemin.

Devouring the high-ranking fire god whole.

Only at the end did he understand.

"The god hunter......!!!"

This man was the 'god hunter' who had shaken the Tower.

***

It didn't just attack the Avatar.

It reached the true body's Divinity itself.

It was devouring an Authority.

He had no idea how, but the fire god couldn't just sit and take it.

He immediately accessed the System.

'Logout.'

No response.

He entered the force-quit command.

But the System was dead.

The connection to his true body wouldn't sever.

It was as though invisible chains were strangling his soul.

'So that's why.'

A chill ran down his spine.

Kartal, Caligo, and the Lesser gods who had been annihilated in quick succession.

Now he understood why they'd vanished without so much as a scream.

They couldn't flee.

The moment this horrifying predator sank its teeth in, the very connection that linked them became poison, dragging the true body down with it.

But.

'I'm different.'

Venom filled Choi Taemin's eyes.

He was a high-ranking god.

His caliber was leagues beyond some Lesser god.

In the magnitude of his Divinity and the mastery to wield it—there was no comparison.

If he couldn't sever the connection, he'd simply cut himself free.

"Grgh......!"

He made the decision.

He would sever the portion of Divinity linked to his Avatar.

Like a lizard shedding its tail, he'd destroy a part of his own soul to protect his true body.

His caliber would drop.

He might fall to mid-tier.

But that was better than annihilation.

As long as he survived, he could plot his return.

'Break!'

He gathered his will and struck down on the tether of his soul.

SNAP.

He should have felt something sever.

But.

"......?!"

It wouldn't work.

It didn't break.

No—he couldn't break it.

Something was holding on.

The man's right palm.

The golden rune spinning there was forcibly latching onto even the severed tail of Divinity he'd tried to cut loose, dragging it back in.

'Th-this is...... attraction?'

Not absorption.

An absolute pull.

Before a force that drew everything in like a black hole, even a high-ranking god's resistance was meaningless.

"Let go! Let go of me, I said!"

He thrashed.

But the man didn't move an inch.

If anything, the Hellfire pouring from his left hand pressed down even harder.

'Wait.'

Only then did he see it.

The man's bizarre fighting style.

The left hand pours out Authority. The right hand devours Authority.

An infinite loop.

Destruction and regeneration, occurring within a single body.

And.

......It felt familiar somehow.

This absurd spectacle—it wasn't unfamiliar.

'Hellfire...... and the Holy Sword.'

Choi Taemin's gaze lingered on the white blade floating beside the man.

Abriel.

The rumor that a noble Archangel had willingly become a sword.

A topic that had set the Garden of the Gods ablaze not long ago flickered through his mind.

—An incredible Seed has appeared, they say.
—Killed the Mad God Tulkachya and leveled the entire Sanctuary?
—I hear Heimdal himself is sheltering him.

Typhoon.

Hellfire.

And a Holy Sword.

Every piece of the puzzle fell into place.

This man was not an Avatar.

He was not a puppet crafted by some god.

This man was 'him.'

The monster defying all common sense, clawing his way up the Tower.

"You......"

Choi Taemin's lips trembled.

He'd figured it out.

The identity of this insane hunter.

The name came rushing back.

"Rag......!"

The instant that name left his lips.

Inside the man's helm, a pair of blue eyes flashed.

......Yes. That was him.

A Seed who had only just begun climbing the Tower of God was the god hunter!

A shudder ran through him.

It defied understanding.

How could a god manifest on the mortal plane?

The Tower of God hadn't even appeared yet.

It was a violation of the rules.

No—it was the attitude of someone who didn't give a damn about rules.

'A Mad God.'

A Mad God, without question.

One who operated outside the Tower's rules.

A heretic who had willingly cast off the qualifications and dignity of godhood.

And a thing like that was climbing the Tower.

'I have to tell them.'

Choi Taemin was seized with dread.

This was dangerous.

Not simply because the man was strong.

This thing would contaminate the Tower.

It would collapse the order and destroy the system.

Everyone was being deceived.

Heimdal, too—there was no doubt he didn't know this creature's true nature.

"Grgh......!"

He tried to open his mouth and shout.

But no sound came.

He couldn't break free.

His soul was being drained faster than he'd thought.

In his final moment, Choi Taemin looked at the man's right hand.

Only at the very edge of annihilation could he finally see it.

What lay beyond those golden rune glyphs.

'......It's alive.'

That was no mere pattern.

It was a living creature.

A predator with its maw yawning wide, ready to devour him.

A grotesque presence that could chew and swallow even Divinity itself.

If he had to define what that thing was.

'The End.'

The strongest, the worst of all Disasters.

The end of the world.

With that thought, Choi Taemin's vision went black.

CRASH—!

A colossal pillar of fire was sucked into the man's palm.

The high-ranking fire god.

That vast being was annihilated completely, without leaving so much as a scream.