[218] 6. Trouble in Heaven (5)
Canis gulped for air. His head wasn't just dizzy — it felt as if his brain were melting.
But he couldn't afford relief. He had to fight for Arin until the last moment.
"Baalb, you're a sorry sight."
Baalb's body twitched at Kariel's voice.
"I apologize, Lord Kariel."
Canis's face went blank. He had shattered every bone in that body — how could it still be alive?
No. It wasn't merely alive.
Each organ was mutating into grotesque forms.
Armored insect legs burst out; tentacles like those of a mollusk unfurled.
"Thank you for permitting my demonic awakening."
As Baalb's bulk swelled to mountain size, everyone craned their necks.
It was a gigantic creature made of a hodgepodge of lifeforms.
"Hodgepodge" was the only word that fit.
If you threw octopus, cockroaches, flies, maggots, and snakes into a cauldron, boiled them, and dried the mess, that thing would be the result.
"Kikikiki! It's been two thousand years since I last awakened."
"Is this... the end?"
Canis's hope popped like a bubble. The Object had only been... Mara's toy.
By the time he realized he'd staked his life on an impossible gamble, it was already too late.
@
"Rian, Rian..."
Peope's eyes brimmed with tears as she looked at Rian. Even as everything unraveled, he was still fighting.
No — he was holding them back.
After the first clash, when he'd coughed up blood, Rian had locked himself mentally onto Imir while embracing him.
Better to break than to bend.
The price of choosing that dangerous path was a body with physical power comparable to a schema.
Imir realized the lock would never release unless he shattered Rian's body, so he kept throwing fists.
Each time Rian's body rocked from the blows, his greatsword wavered.
"Ugh! Not yet...!"
Faced with this, even Imir had a strange thought.
His muscles felt as hard as iron — not strength a mere creature could muster. And his insides had been mangled; he shouldn't have been able to generate power.
'Among humans, those who can do this are exceedingly rare.'
In countless battles you sometimes meet such people. Without exception, they were the civilization's greatest warriors.
To rank ordinary humans who can't even handle the Giant's brew alongside them would be an insult.
"Keuke! Come on, let's see how far this goes!"
At point-blank range, Imir launched an uppercut.
The instant the muscles in Rian's abdomen tore, Rian's eyes flew wide. His lifted body landed with knees buckling, but he clung to Imir and endured.
Then Rian released his mental lock and shoved Imir's shoulder away.
When the clinch that seemed unbreakable finally ended, Imir looked puzzled.
But did that matter? He was the strongest.
No matter the creature, when they faced the Giant King, this was what happened.
"Finally gave up? For a human you lasted. I'll end this mercifully, without pain."
Imir planted his foot and thrust his fist with everything behind it. The close-range power to shred muscle meant that if he hit with his weight, Rian's body wouldn't hold.
But Rian didn't flinch. He smiled at Imir, his gaze fixed past the giant's shoulder.
"You're here, Shirone."
@
Shirone covered a kilometer in thirty seconds.
As he neared the Great World Battle he saw the giant swinging and Rian nearly beaten to a pulp.
"Riaaan!"
Imir flinched. Still, the fist laden with raw force continued toward Rian's belly.
Shirone cast Shining Chain. A chain dozens of meters long snaked around Imir's body.
"Huh?"
Before Imir could react, he was dragged at incredible speed.
"Kruuu!"
Even while airborne, Imir pumped strength into breaking the chain.
The giant's force surged into Shirone's mind. But Shirone had no intention of answering such a brutish challenge head-on.
He moved the chain and flung the giant.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
The chain-wrapped Imir traced a parabolic arc and was slammed down again and again. The final impact made the ground ring.
Imir lay sprawled and motionless.
Humiliation.
That his body had been mocked by a mere human mage inflamed him.
"You think being thrown into the ground will break me? I'll snap this chain now! Feel how strong my body is!"
Imir flexed; the chain tightened. Shirone's brow furrowed. But mages didn't simply match brute force — they turned it.
"How about this?"
Shirone swung his arm; the chain slackened and Imir flew out past the outside of Shirone's legs.
Imir hung in the air, staring dumbfounded.
"You..."
He was about to say something when gravity took him and his body dropped below the legs.
7. 천국 (1)
Falling, Imir watched the receding legs. Only when the scenery blurred into clouds did his hollow mood lift.
"Those mages, really..."
He didn't mind being thrown to the ground. Better to test durability against the earth waiting below than to linger as a "part."
That was his thought.
But when the boy appeared, the battlefield's scent returned — that briny, sharp tang unique to war.
Nothing was over yet. The hottest place in Heaven was still the Great World Battle.
"I can't miss that."
He had to get to the Great World Battle.
Leaping would weaken his 'part' strength further, but the battlefield's blood smell called to him; he had no hesitation.
"Huuuuup!"
Imir inhaled and inflated himself.
Cut off from oxygen, his skin hardened like porcelain. Blood drained from his face; life fled his pupils.
His lips parted and his pulse stopped.
Imir died just like that.
Boom! The front of the corpse burst and an identical Imir popped out.
Driven by strong thrust, Imir leaped dozens of meters and dug his fingers into a pillar supporting Jebul.
"Phew. It bugs me every time."
For someone who lived for strength, any weakening was intolerable. Being reborn from part to part required death; it was extremely unpleasant.
He endured all that humiliation for one reason: to see the fight's end with his own eyes.
Hanging from the pillar, Imir pressed his soles against it and slouched. Pulling his arms in to push off, the giant body rose against gravity.
@
- Life Elixir progress: 80 percent.
Shirone glanced back at the Great World Battle. As he approached the entrance, Peope poured the preserved memories into him.
He looked down at the bloodied Rian.
"You alright? Sorry I'm late."
"No. You're not late. Go in and save the women."
Rian was a wreck. To get home he needed at least time to recover his stamina.
"Shirone!"
Amy cried out. The emotions she'd been holding in burst, tears forming at her eyes. She'd thought she'd been holding steady, but sorrow had been building unnoticed.
"There isn't time! Once the information is transmitted it's over!"
Shirone understood what she meant. His anger trembled so much his fingertips shook.
All this time he'd never thought Amy needed his permission for anything.
But now, in this crisis, he realized at last:
No one may treat Amy carelessly without his consent.
From Shirone's shadow Canis rose.
"What happened? Any way out? Is Ikael freeing the women?"
"Ikael won't come."
"So it was for nothing?"
"Maybe. But from now on, I'll handle it."
Shirone strode toward Baalb. His glare, however, was aimed beyond it — at Kariel.
"If you free the women now, I'll just leave."
"Even if I did, what would change? Destruction is inevitable. The Final War will come, and all humans can do is await death."
"No. You can't destroy us."
"What delusions. Heaven's power is great. If Ra had not existed, your world would not exist."
"Maybe that's true. But Ra is not a god."
It wasn't stubbornness or sophistry; Shirone truly believed it. Miro thought so too.
—Shirone, gods aren't inherently magnificent. They're merely the designers of the world.
When Miro first said that, Shirone hadn't understood — he'd assumed an unlocker who used scale magic was being arrogant and dismissive. But having uncovered Heaven's secret, he saw differently.
Miro knew: a being that thinks itself great cannot be a god.
A god is only one thing: the one who designed the world.
"Humans aren't as foolish as you think. A being we can see, touch, and analyze cannot be a god! We will fight! If the Final War happens, Heaven will be the one destroyed!"
Kariel's face tightened. Hearing such blasphemy was probably a rarity for him.
"This settles it. Humans deserve to die. Baalb, annihilate them."
"It will be my greatest pleasure, Lord Kariel."
Baalb's massive bulk began to writhe. As the colossus moved, nameless organs flailed uselessly.
"Canis! Stand back!"
Photons rose around Shirone. The tense vibration of light bristled as if ready to snap.
As Baalb charged Shirone, a dozen photon cannons fired.
Paf paf paf paf paf!
To everyone's surprise, Baalb's body was shoved back. A tearing scream followed.
The photon cannons hammered the colossus without mercy.
Insect legs snapped, mollusk tentacles lost their spring as if chewed by molars.
Baalb's body rolled over completely. Even as it was pummeled, it was driven toward Kariel.
Only then did Shirone stop his magic. It had been an outburst of all his pent-up rage.
Still, he felt no fatigue. Despite the single strike's increased power, he felt no exhaustion.
Canis watched, hollow. Could a human raise the potency of magic a whole tier in just a few hours?
On the battlefield, risking your life to discover something new wasn't unheard of.
But Shirone hadn't gone through a mental awakening. Every stat that made him who he was had simply risen across the board.
'This can't be. He can't be this far beyond us.'
Only a few months earlier, when Canis had fought Shirone, the gap hadn't been so severe. After being defeated by light magic, Canis had trained harder than anyone to catch up.
Yet Shirone had pulled much farther ahead.
Why didn't he despair? What, exactly, was the source of his power?
Kariel spoke to the fallen Baalb.
"Stop joking around, Baalb."
His expression didn't waver. Shirone's magic was impressive for a human; by citizen standards it might place him in the top forty percent.
But that alone couldn't defeat a Mara.
By the Law, even ten Shirones couldn't match Mara's force.
"I apologize, Lord Kariel. It seems the Great World Battle may be somewhat damaged."
"Granted."
When Kariel consented, the ground began to tremble. The countless organs making up Baalb thrashed en masse toward the ceiling.
"Kikikiki! Awakening my dear test subjects — you shall become a nightmare."