Chapter 72

Chapter 72. Reunion (2)

Mysteries.

The secret behind humanity's survival.

The iridescent metal said to grant wishes—Mysteries had several methods of use.

"I beseech thee, I beseech thee! I beseech Jesus! Bring us rain!!!"

The first was the prayer-type.

The most primitive method of Mystery usage.

Luck-dependent and prone to fizzling, with no control over the outcome's direction.

Success rates improved somewhat if one recognized and prayed to a powerful deity backed by strong faith—which was why survivors from third-world or collapsed nations were almost universally Christian or Catholic.

"This circuit will incorporate a function that repels Corrosion......"

The second was the inscription-type.

Special functions were granted by carving patterns directly into the Mystery metal.

Crafting-class Awakened who'd undergone trials gained the technique for "inscription-type Mystery processing."

Mercifully, this technique could be passed down.

Meaning even ordinary people could learn to replicate it to a reasonable degree.

[Youth Dream Career Rankings]

1. WorldTuber

2. Mystery Technician

3. Awakened

4. Patriot

Proudly occupying the number-two spot among dream careers, the Mystery Technician was essentially the modern-day equivalent of a semiconductor developer.

"If we efficiently process the metal itself and engrave internal circuits......"

The third was the engineering-type.

The most advanced processing method currently in existence, representing the pinnacle of modern technology.

It was produced through the collaboration of Awakened who could shape Mysteries' physical form and technicians who could inscribe circuits into the processed metal.

This was where the true realm of the "wish-granting metal" began.

Pollution Collectors that floated through the sky absorbing Amazon-sourced atmospheric pollution.

Ocean Restorers that returned blackened patches of sea to Earth's original environment.

These fell under engineering-type Mysteries.

The Omnipotent Metal.

And it possessed infinite scalability.

The Lie Detector installed beside the Gwanghwamun Square guillotine, the international transit Portals utilizing the Spirit Realm, and so on.

If you defined a concrete purpose and processed the metal accordingly, wishes truly came true.

And within this field, there was one area considered the absolute pinnacle—.

Energy.

Converting the raw power contained within Mysteries into energy.

This yielded the greatest efficiency.

Mystery-energy technology was the Republic of Korea's specialty.

Electrical energy in particular.

[Patriot Energy Special Act.]

With one hundred percent of citizens driving electric vehicles and all energy derived from electricity, the Korean government was the undisputed world leader in Mystery-to-electricity conversion technology.

Countries like America still used oil and nuclear power, leaving them unable to keep pace with Korea in this regard.

Beyond all these, there was one more method of Mystery usage.......

"Equivalent exchange."

The only people who could use this method were those who possessed Territory, like me.

The underground bunker beneath Gwanghwamun Square.

The Church at America's Grand Canyon.

Presumably, the Fallen British Empire's Buckingham Palace served a similar function.

It was estimated that at least one such Territory existed in every nation worldwide.

'I'm going to transform Pyongyang into my own land.'

Exactly.

Right now, I intended to use Mysteries to reshape my territory.

FLASH!

[Mystery reserves: 1,000 kg]

The moment I thought about territory, a system message naturally appeared before my eyes.

A vague picture of how to use it began forming in my mind.

'An amount of Mystery proportional to what I want to reshape is consumed, and the territory changes.'

There was no need to deliberate over what to change.

Hadn't a quest already been assigned?

What I needed to create was practically predetermined.

1. Growth of the World Tree.

2. The Imperial Citadel of the Ruzbella Empire.

The World Tree's growth could be sufficiently handled by letting it absorb North Korea's contamination.

The World Tree was a deranged tree that consumed everything as nourishment without being picky.

The part I needed to focus on was item two—the Citadel of the Ruzbella Empire.

"Can I actually manifest it?"

The 5th Sword, Iris Ruzbella.

Her homeland was the Ruzbella Empire.

Even after Iris witnessed the end of the world and vanished, the empire had existed in every playthrough.

It was universally acknowledged as one of the largest factions in Raise a Sword.

[The bleak palace where this maiden once lived......]

Iris spoke in a voice soaked with lingering regret.

The gravity of her tone was such that even the other swords chose silence.

I listened quietly as well.

[This maiden always mourned the loss of the Imperial Citadel.]

She had killed everything in the world and reached her happy ending, yet one wish had gone unfulfilled.

"Sword, it is truly a shame that We and you cannot sit upon the throne and savor this spectacle together."

Gazing upon a world in the throes of perfect destruction, Iris had said those words.

Iris, who'd been stripped of her imperial rank and abandoned as a child simply for being born under the Death Star.

In her final moment, she'd wanted to don the emperor's crown in that bleak palace and ascend the throne alongside her sword.

'The Imperial Citadel of the Ruzbella Empire, which had crumbled under the Outer God's tendrils.'

The memories of those days welled up in me too, leaving a tightness in my chest.

Even if I could go back to the past, restoring the Imperial Citadel would have been a pipe dream.

But.......

"Now you can make that dream come true on Earth."

The dreams my swords couldn't fulfill would now be realized on Earth.

Despite my bold declaration, Iris seemed worried about something.

After hemming and hawing for a long while, she asked.

[Would it truly be permissible to place a citadel bearing this maiden's name in the Sword Master's territory?]

Was it because I was the Sword Master?

Or was it the influence of the Sword Master's Dominion?

Somehow, the swords seemed to respect and defer to me more as time went on.

Almost excessively so.

"Iris, my territory will keep expanding. And I intend to share that land with all of you."

Living alongside my swords in a peaceful Earth.

Wasn't that the very definition of utopia?

Iris's Imperial Citadel, Muratan's Forge, Yuria's Holy Empress Palace, Reinhardt's Infinite-Sealed-Starvation-Pellet Training Hall.

I would manifest all of them.

The same went for the two swords that hadn't yet awakened.

In any case, it all started with—.

'The Imperial Citadel of the Ruzbella Empire.'

I stirred my will and declared that I would reshape my territory.

Then.......

FLASH!

[Required Mystery: 100,000 kg]

An absurd demand appeared.

But I was unfazed.

Would I, the Sword Master, be daunted by this?

Wasn't this exactly the sort of situation where I had plenty of people to turn to?

'The Patriot......'

First, I recalled the Patriot's advice.

Before entering the Tower, he'd imparted several things to me.

"Junior, first you've gotta pray—pray really fucking hard. I started by tempering all my Mystery with the prayer method, praying to King Sejong the Great and Grandfather Dangun to protect Korea."

In the Patriot's case, he'd imbued his Mystery with his wishes by praying for Korea's protection.

"Then the entire government stepped in and ultra-refined the Mystery."

At the national level, all Mystery was efficiently processed and brought as close as possible to the Patriot's desired specifications.

Needless to say, this had taken years.

"If you ultra-ultra-ultra-ultra-refine the Mystery before doing equivalent exchange, the exchange rate drops like crazy!"

Finally, he'd reshaped Gwanghwamun Square through the law of equivalent exchange.

Efficient? Sure, I could see that.

But I didn't want to spend years on this.

'I need to get as strong as possible before the Great Wall disappears.'

The Imperial Citadel of the Ruzbella Empire.

"Citadel" was putting it lightly—it was essentially an enormous city.

It had mage towers, knight training grounds, and every resource from another world imaginable.

Just building the citadel alone would provide the physical capacity to raise an army of a hundred thousand.

'There is one person who knows a better way, though......'

I thought of the being who'd used the most Mystery on Earth.

Jesus, who'd converted the entire Grand Canyon into a Church and built countless mini-churches to turn all of America into clean territory.

They say people who've spent money know how to spend it well.

The same had to be true for Mystery.

"A—men."

I prayed.

And Jesus answered my prayer.

HUMMM——.

The air split open in the shape of a cross.

From within emerged the dark-skinned Jesus wearing his pink Crown of Thorns.

"Oh, brother."

He smiled brightly at me.

Then he spotted the sprout behind me and shuddered.

"Wh-why did you plant that horrible tree?"

It seemed even Jesus knew how abominable the World Tree was.

***

"Brother...... do you truly believe you can control that tree? It is nothing more than a remnant of Satan!"

The World Tree, purified and proudly sporting fresh green.

To anyone's eyes, it was a harmless little sprout.

But—.

"Even that green is surely Satan's handiwork, meant to beguile humanity!"

Jesus saw right through the World Tree.

He spoke:

"My follower and brother, Shin Si-woo. I, Jesus Christ, shall deliver a warning."

His gaze changed.

The buoyant timbre of Jesus sank into gravity.

The one true god of humanity went so far as to warn me personally as he laid bare the World Tree's nature.

"That satanic tree was born from hundreds of millions of deaths."

Jesus perceived the World Tree's essence.

Despite knowing nothing of my trial, he'd concretely identified exactly what kind of being the World Tree was.

"Moreover, the world in which that satanic tree existed met destruction countless times."

An indescribable, enormous power surged before my eyes.

This was the first time I'd seen the Authority of humanity's one true god, EX-rank Jesus, manifest with such intensity.

Even when he'd first come to me parting the seas, Jesus hadn't displayed power like this.

Yet before the World Tree, he unleashed a staggering force.

BOOOM————!!!

The world sank.

As if only Jesus and I existed.

Radiating an overwhelming presence, Jesus spoke to me.

"I, Jesus Christ, have beheld it."

He was gazing at me with tears streaming down his face.

Jesus's eyes, piercing through me and the World Tree, read the past, read the present, and comprehended everything.

"My brother Shin Si-woo endured a world that was destroyed over and over. How arduous it must have been."

Jesus had glimpsed my trial—the world of my swords and me.

Within it, he'd confirmed what the World Tree had been.

"Of all the endless playthroughs my brother endured, only the worlds he succeeded in remain intact."

Across that boundless trial of mine.

"That satanic tree was a wall blocking my brother's path, a catastrophe, a wicked being that plunged the world into ruin."

He looked ready to declare a holy war and slay the World Tree on the spot.

His intensity grew even more ferocious.

Even so, I was in a position where I needed to raise the World Tree.

For the sake of my swords.

"I'm going to get stronger, so don't worry."

I calmly talked Jesus down.

What was the reason I stood here now as a Transcendent?

"The World Tree is something I've already overcome. And the same goes for my trial."

Jesus looked back and forth between me and the World Tree with a complicated expression.

Then slowly nodded.

"Brother, beings known as World Trees are already appearing across the Earth in the form of trials or other manifestations."

His speculation was that they might be remnants of a World Tree born from hundreds of millions of deaths.

If so, that wasn't necessarily a bad thing from my perspective.

"My swords are very fond of the World Tree. If one appears in America, please let me know."

"It seems I was worrying too much over someone who will one day stand where I stand...... perhaps even higher."

Jesus nodded with a bright smile.

Then he spread his arms wide and approached me.

The embrace of Jesus, who lovingly held all of humanity.

SQUEEZE!

My brow creased slightly at Jesus's uncomfortably close embrace.

"Brother, I'm sure you're in a similar position, but I am someone who cannot take a lover. Accepting this much of an embrace seems like the least a member of my flock could do."

Just like the Holy Empress Yuria.

Jesus apparently bore something akin to the Oath of the Chaste.

I wasn't sure about the specifics, but.

'What a shame......'

A somewhat awkward feeling came over me.

I shifted the mood by telling Jesus the reason I'd prayed.

"I need help reshaping my territory."

After hearing the details, Jesus tilted his head.

"Brother, haven't you already accomplished a great deal of reshaping through your swords?"

Jesus solved my problem with remarkable ease and simplicity.

"The Inviolable Fortress itself is already something not of this Earth."

He offered concrete examples and specific advice on how to reduce the time investment and lower the equivalent exchange rate.

When building his Church, Jesus had aggressively leveraged "mergers and acquisitions" to boost the efficiency of his reshaping.

In other words, he'd absorbed every church and cathedral that existed within America, thereby lowering the Mystery exchange rate.

"Brother, if you use things based on similar concepts as intermediaries, the exchange rate for reshaping drops."

I could similarly use the Inviolable Fortress to reduce my exchange rate.

If I used Muratan to mass-produce things from the swords' world and offered them as collateral, the Mystery consumption would drop dramatically.

Following Jesus's advice, I revised my reshaping conditions.

'I'll overlay the Imperial Citadel of the Ruzbella Empire on top of the Inviolable Fortress.'

And then.......

FLASH!

[Required Mystery: 5,000 kg]

The demand of a hundred thousand had dropped to five thousand.

An absurdly massive reduction.

'I currently have 1,000 kg of Mystery.'

There were ways to procure the remaining four thousand.

Requesting it from the government was one, but—.

'The Saintess of Fate, Im Ji-a.'

The Mystery bracelet I'd had from before.

I'd invested it in Im Ji-a.

Under the guise of betting capital.

She was a gambling savant who could multiply that Mystery hundreds of times over.

And if push came to shove, couldn't I rig things to guarantee her wins?

'The Mystery itself is obtainable.'

Even so, five thousand kilograms was an overwhelming quantity.

And that was for just one citadel.

Then how many churches had Jesus offered up?

"Back when the Patriot was enthusiastically running his anti-American campaign, he once tried to demolish every church in Korea."

At the time, America had bought them at bargain prices.

Korea was small in size but had more churches than America, so it had been an enormous help.......

"I never imagined that Patriot's Korea would become our ally. This is all thanks to you, brother."

"We're all just trying to survive together, aren't we?"

I smiled and returned his gratitude.

The Korea-US-Japan alliance, and beyond that, a global coalition.

This was all for the sake of humanity's survival.

"Humanity, yes, humanity......"

Jesus looked skyward with a complicated expression.

"Brother, there is something you should know in advance."

The shape of a cross rose over his pupils.

A gaze as vivid as though piercing through something.

HUMMM———.

An even more intense energy than before washed over me.

It was so powerful it reminded me of the moment my swords had cooperated to destroy the Fragment of Impurity—the nameless greatsword.

A power that could only be called "absolute," transcending even Transcendence.

It lasted only an instant, but that level of Authority had unmistakably manifested.

And the result?

SWISH—.

The sky parted.

Atmospheric pollution, clouds.

Flying monsters, Gates floating overhead—all of it.

Above the sky, the Dimensional Wall blanketing the Earth trembled.

Beyond it, the vast expanse of space unfolded, and past the cosmos, stars twinkled and the Milky Way flowed.

Jesus's eyes were showing me all of it simultaneously.

As I glimpsed that overwhelming perception, swimming through a staggering ocean of information, I grasped why Jesus was showing me this sight.

'That man......'

There was a man.

A man drifting alone through space.

In my childhood, he'd been the talk of the world.

But after Awakening, he'd gone on a mad crusade to send humanity into space—only to be banished by Jesus.

"Elon. He's coming back."

Jesus said.

The deranged businessman, Awakened, and Transcendent.

The man who'd conducted horrific experiments within America and been caught by Jesus, sentenced to exile.

That Elon Mask was coming back.

"It is America's choice, to prepare for war with China."