Chapter 58

Chapter 58. The Gap in Caliber (1)

It flows in.

Mm, no thanks.

It gazes.

Mm, don't wanna~.

Do you truly not want that man?

Hmm…
Who knows?

Now, the time is—

THUD!
An empty room.
Kang Seol-a slammed the desk.

"God, you're so annoying. You wouldn't even exist without me. Are you going to keep being this pathetic?"

Kang Seol-a, who had been in the standby room at the Paju military base, furrowed her brow and walked outside.

As a civil servant dedicated to Transcendent affairs, she should have been on the Patriot's carrier — but at Kang Mu-jin and the President's insistence, she had remained near the frontline.

The price of that was the terrible auditory hallucinations she endured.

'That insufferable voice.'

The reason, perhaps, she'd lived her whole life without a single relationship.

A voice she'd been hearing for years — maybe since the very moment she'd met Shin Si-woo.

'I can't remember exactly, but…'

It had gotten noticeably worse lately.

Seol-a turned her gaze away, wanting to forget the voice.

She looked at the distant North.

Where her father and Shin Si-woo were.

The frontline of the North-South war.

Whether to call it a war, she wasn't sure, but…

Kuguguguguung————.

The darkness enshrouding North Korea scattered, and between the gaps, intense flashes flickered.

Explosions vivid enough to see clearly from this distance.

Watching the screams and the black tide flowing toward her, she tied her hair back tightly.

"I am…"

Kang Seol-a had been extraordinary from birth.

As her beauty — surpassing even the half-elf Yuki — made evident.

But she wasn't simply blessed with looks alone.

Her way of thinking, her nerve — those qualities carried an unrivaled distinction.

"I just wanted to live a fun life."

She thought of a man.

Shin Si-woo — who'd started as a no-dating pact ally and become a true friend.

After-work drinks with him had been the most fun.

A colleague who'd joined the same year. A close dongsaeng.

The truth was…

Cross over.

No. Just a close friend.

That was where it had to stay.

I am your—

If she listened to the voice, she too would Awaken.

Even so, she refused.

She didn't know the exact reason, but she felt she must not listen to that voice.

"One more word and I'll just kill myself. If I die, you disappear too, right?"

She meant it.

And so the voice vanished.

Only then could Seol-a properly watch the front.

Kyeeeek——!!!

An enormous polluted beast approaching South Korea, silhouetted against the explosions' light.

Below it, a towering tidal wave.

Toward all of that, fierce thunder erupted.

Not from the north — from the military base right in front of her.

KWANG—!!! KWANG—! BANG!

The military's batteries, lined up in formation, spread a net of fire toward the polluted beasts.

For a reason she couldn't quite identify, Seol-a wanted a closer look at the battlefield.

She looked at her wrist.

A red bracelet.

'The demon.'

A gift Shin Si-woo had left behind.

The world called the demon terribly hideous.

But Seol-a thought it was a little cute.

'The ride's not bad either.'

She summoned the demon.

—Orders. Listen. Where?

An ear-splitting screech.

Even this was sort of cute.

Seol-a told the demon to take her to that high mountain.

Spat—!

"So Si-woo really did become a Transcendent."

One summon alone was this impressive.

She'd blinked and found herself atop the mountain.

A vantage point overlooking North Korea.

And…

"Whew."

In the far, far north — presumably where Pyongyang once stood.

An enormously vast and terrifying blade could be seen.

A greatsword so preposterously massive that its form was clearly visible even from Paju.

Suffused with the azure blue light of the heavens.

At the same time, an intensely powerful and pure energy radiated from it.

Truly, the aura of supreme yang.

"Not easy."

Seol-a shook her head.

Because of that, she didn't notice.

Saaaaaaa———.

That stillness had descended upon the entire area.

The Patriot's bombers crossing the sky had gone silent.

Even the polluted beasts surging forward had frozen in place.

The world had stopped.

————.

The reason the world had stopped was simple.

That azure blue greatsword held power that immense.

 

_______________________________

—Ep. 20. The Gap in Caliber.

Inside that building where the Kim dynasty had lived lay the Dark God's source.

[The Vessel that Contains Blood and Death.]

The object that defined the being called Necribas, provided the driving force for his power, and made him truly exist in this world.

That was why it was called the source.

'I didn't expect the main body to pop out just like that…'

If the vessel broke, the being would vanish.

That was why the Dark God had descended upon Earth in his main body.

He'd surely paid a price — yet he'd taken that risk to appear before me.

A parasite that gained power by exploiting others.

He guarded his own hide with filthy diligence.

Was there already a reason for the main body to step in?

A question arose, but…

'Whatever the reason, this makes things easier.'

I manifested Reinhardt's Heart Sword.

True to the cultivation fanatic, it had no grandiose name — but if I had to assign one, [Sever] would do.

Severing what one wished to sever, with a heart of absolute sincerity.

That was the beginning and the entirety.

"Cough——."

The crimson monster, bearing fathomless power — a Dark God brought low by a single strike.

The reason it was called Sever: it was a technique that hacked the target into a thousand pieces with extreme-yang sword energy.

The Dark God, trapped within the colossal blue sword-energy, was being sliced and minced even as it regenerated — over and over.

Even so, being something that housed a god, it thrashed and snarled.

"Before, you were……."

It seemed to be referring to when I'd seen the Descended form at Mt. Fuji — but for reference, Reinhardt's level was no different from then.

He was already a completed sword.

But I had changed.

'I can continue growing stronger in the Transcended state.'

To be precise, the more I caught up to my swords' experience and achievements, the broader the scope of power I could manifest.

In [Raise a Sword], Reinhardt had used my sword to kill an Outer God that filled the cosmos.

Every sword's enlightenment dwelled within me, and yet…

I still couldn't even accept that concept.

'The range of perception is different.'

In a fleeting instant, thought accelerated.

I savored the full extent of my Transcendent power.

The Dark God's dying body.

Beyond it, the only intact building in North Korea.

And…

'People.'

Survivors existed inside the building.

I could also clearly sense the hideous aura keeping them imprisoned.

That would be the Dark God's vessel, situated in the building's basement.

⦗This is truly suspicious.⦘

Reinhardt said.

I agreed.

Normally, beings like this only showed themselves at the very last moment before their true source was attacked — so I couldn't fathom why it had come to greet me so early.

It had even paid a price to bring its main body down.

Whatever the reason, something more important than itself lay inside.

Seuk——.

Two seconds had passed since Transcending.

Necribas was still trapped in the colossal blue sword-energy.

I didn't want to waste my per-second Transcendence carelessly.

I aimed the sword.

Destination: the building before me.

Surrounded by five-colored Mystery—

[The Laboratory]

Toward the building the World had named.

[Single Slash, Horizontal Cut.]

The 33 Forms.

[Single Slash, Downstroke.]

I simply swung.

Mystery or otherwise — nothing could resist my Transcended sword.

The blade quietly demolished the building.

Carving a path all the way down to the deep underground.

"Not yet——."

Even suffering under supreme-yang energy, Necribas tried to stop me.

I focused on that single word.

'Not yet?'

Was it waiting for something?

I swung faster, more swiftly.

The building vanished.

Inside, a corridor sheathed in Mystery was revealed.

I cleared the corridor in an instant.

Ignoring the iron cages lining both sides.

'A prison.'

Vast underground cells packed on either side of the corridor — countless people sitting blank-eyed, their selves lost.

I ignored them and pushed deeper into the darkness.

As I'd taught my swords: you must not let these things steal your time.

The moment you let them slip away, they return as an even greater catastrophe — that was the nature of beings steeped in evil and the demonic.

'Something is strange.'

North Korea was land consumed by darkness, severed from the world.

In [Raise a Sword] terms, a severed world — a collapsed domain.

And yet this building bore the name [The Laboratory].

Just as South Korea's [Gwanghwamun Square] or the Grand Canyon's [Church] — the world had officially recognized its designation.

'A named building in a collapsed location—'

What, exactly, was [Mystery]?

Amid my Transcended perception, brimming with questions, I destroyed everything underground.

And arrived.

Thwack———!

An enormous vessel.

Tinted dark crimson.

Wide and thin.

Sreureuk—.

"You are… what, exactly?"

From within the blood, the Dark God Necribas rose.

Its main body was being annihilated by my sword-energy, so this was the true 'source.'

Its essence, its root, its everything.

"Why does seeing that sword of yours make my fingertips tremble?"

The source asked me.

"Why does approaching you fill me with the dread of facing a natural enemy?"

It said.

"How dare something make me tremble with fear?"

The questioning voice shook.

No answer was necessary.

From my perspective, this thing was—

'Villain No. 1.'

The wall that blocked my swords in the early stages.

But through repeated worlds, the wall had crumbled.

A mere first villain that all my swords had overcome — one they could dispatch with a casual flick.

I swung the sword and shattered the vessel that defined it.

Jjeong————.

A clear crack formed across the vessel's surface.

Along that line, azure blue light flickered.

Those lines multiplied into dozens, hundreds, thousands.

At this rate, the source would break, and every death and despair collected in the vessel would vanish.

But…

"——I shall offer myself."

Something I had never once witnessed.

A Dark God, offering itself to someone of its own volition…

⦗A Dark God offering itself up — what on earth—.⦘

A phenomenon shocking enough to stagger even my Transcended sword.

In all my time playing [Raise a Sword], I had never once seen a Dark God willingly sacrifice itself to another.

Those supremely selfish beings — why?

I shall accept the offering.

Kuung——.

The world sank.

In response to Necribas's offering, someone descended upon this place.

An intensity vivid even to my Transcended self.

That's right.

An immensely powerful being.

———The Eye———

It was an eye.

Simply an eye — and all the more terrifying for it.

High-tier Demon God — the Eye.

A being that required maintaining the swords for 'minutes' to fight.

But…

'It's incomplete.'

Just as my swords could only manifest a single finger even in the [Tower].

This being was clearly under restrictions as well.

Like catastrophes unable to escape their Gates, [the Eye] was merely observing Earth from within its own dimension.

So it simply accepted offerings and 'gazed' at me.

I shall kill that one, as contracted.

That gaze said so.

A powerful force that conveyed intent through sight alone.

An eye declaring it would kill me.

When the time comes—

It clearly hadn't descended to Earth.

Saying it would wait while collecting offerings was proof of that.

A 'let's settle this later.'

'An incomplete [Eye].'

I was going to push myself.

The moment I properly looked at that eye, I might lose my mind.

Even holding a Transcended sword, my 'perception' hadn't caught up yet.

Even so, I would push.

'I absolutely never leave things for next time.'

So.

[The Eye]

I gazed into the abyss.

I stared directly at the vast, ominous eye watching this place from another dimension.

The cost, perhaps.

———.

The instant I perceived something I should not have seen, my mind went blank.

Even holding a Transcended sword.

My incomplete body left my head foggy.

But…

Even so, I moved.

My swords had faced such eyes head-on and fought.

I would do the same.

[The Eye]

Deep darkness stared at me.

They say if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes back?

I stared steadily into that eye.

⦗Sword Master, let us save this for next—.⦘

Reinhardt was suggesting we wait, but no.

Absolutely not.

'I can do this.'

I was the master of the sword that had nurtured the deepest abyss.

That had killed everything in the world.

So — I would show the real thing.

I would at least speak her name.

"Iris. Ruzbella."

I spoke her name.

After that, I don't know.

But…

——Haha!

A bright laugh rang out.

Iris always laughed.

That laugh was the kind that came when she was truly furious.

The enormous gaze watching me wavered.

This much I remembered clearly.

"How insolent, to the one who is this maiden's Master."

She wore a vicious smile and said.

"We did not grant permission for you to look upon him."