The Presence of Absence (4)
Imir's face twisted.
More chilling than the weight he felt was the way the pressure kept compounding without end.
'What is this now?'
Just as Imir's knees were about to buckle from the relentless rise in pressure—
Kuuuung!
The ground first caved in about three meters.
"Hmm."
Gaold's expression as he glared down at the Imir buried in the earth was, contrary to expectation, grave.
'It held?'
Only Gaold knew what a mere three-meter-deep pit actually meant.
"What is that?"
Shirone and the others looked around.
If the atmospheric pressure was high enough to buckle Imir's knees, the city ought to have been blown away.
"What's going on?"
Just as Tess murmured that, a fierce tearing voice came from the far sky.
"You idiot!" Minerva streaked down on a jet and dove toward the ground.
She reached Gaold the moment she arrived and grabbed him by the collar, hauling him forward.
"Are you crazy? You don't get to demand sacrifices from the star! If the planet gets torn apart—!"
When Amanta, Freed, and Shing arrived behind with Taeseong, Minerva turned toward them.
"Hah. Hah."
As expected, Taeseong was breathing hard; her pupils were half-rolled back.
'Gaia's power.' The shock Gaold had just delivered to the planet had all been absorbed by her—the embodiment of a star.
Miro, realizing the situation, glanced over at where Imir lay with fresh alarm.
'Even so, the ground is crushed…'
It meant Taeseong was far from normal.
Shirone approached her.
"Are you all right?"
Having recovered from the shock, Taeseong managed a smile.
"Don't worry. A star won't be extinguished by an impact this size. It's fine."
Shirone knew that, but he also knew the pain Taeseong was enduring was more than just shock.
Taeseong looked around and asked, "Where is Rian…?"
Shirone couldn't answer, and sensing the mood, she changed the subject.
"Listen carefully. The reason I came here is to seal Imir."
It was a welcome statement, but it didn't feel remotely practical.
'Seal Imir?'
This was a creature whose raw strength even Shirone's Hand of God couldn't perfectly subdue.
Taeseong extended her hand. "Shirone, give me the key to the Hexa planet."
It was the planet Shirone had been given by Taeseong when he became one of the Five Great Stars of the Unified Cosmos Administration.
Shirone drew a pendant from his chest; Taeseong took it and said, "From now I will invoke the Law of the Five-Star."
In the numbering of the Laws, five symbolizes 'external force,' and all kinds of summoning and sealing fall under it.
What Taeseong was attempting now was, literally, a Five-Star method using stars and planets.
"These star-like things just keep gathering."
Imir, listening to the conversation from the pit, clenched his fist and his body rose into the air.
They watched, cold with dread, as he overcame gravity with sheer muscle.
Landing, Imir asked Taeseong, "You mean to seal me?"
"Yes. Unfortunately, your existence is meaningless to the universe. If you had not acted, perhaps we could have left you be, but since you've made a move, there is no choice but this method."
Imir slowly rose to his knees.
"Oh?"
The next moment he slammed his foot into the ground with a thud, and a tremendous shock struck Taeseong's incarnation.
"Ugh!"
"Taeseong!"
The Five Great Stars hurried to support her as Imir glared down at the place he'd stomped.
"Hmm, that's fairly solid."
Where he'd struck with the intent to collapse the area, only the imprint of a sole remained.
"I'll grant you some credit. But do you really think that will stop me?"
Imir was the one even the Beopsal Law could not find a way to annihilate.
"I can do it."
Taeseong hooked the five pendants on her fingers and brought her hands together like a prayer.
"Hold Imir in place for a moment." The gathered were some of the strongest beings the world had ever seen, yet no one answered.
Until now, Imir had only been stopped when he himself chose not to move.
"A fun game. I'll play. But I should have some purpose as well, shouldn't I?"
Imir crouched and said, "The moment I kill you, the game ends."
"Block him!"
Shirone's group moved as one.
Hand of God, Ilwol Gwangryun, and now Shing's Law "Penetration" struck Imir.
Freed charged.
'Taeseong is preventing planetary destruction.'
Seeing her in pain truly hurt them.
"…Is that so?"
The swordman's fighting spirit pulled a grin across his face.
"Yahhh!"
Steel magic inscribed itself on his blade.
'I'll cut off at least an arm.'
He swung, using the schema to its limit, and the afterimage left a giant iron ring.
Imir, though not at the level of ruinous realms, had been steeped in the Law of Restraint.
The thrill of the strike shot through Freed's mind.
'Got him good.'
That was how he thought.
Until the steel-etched blade shattered with a bang.
"Tingles."
What Freed saw then—
'Ahhh.'
Not Imir's fist, but the image of his smiling son inside a tunnel of light.
Before the smile could form, Imir's fist burst Freed's face apart.
Freed— A headless corpse still stood as Amanta hurled the World Wheel with terrifying force.
Kiiiiing!
Even trapped in Gaold's Vacuum Press, Imir twisted his waist and gripped the wheel.
"Huh?"
With cracking sounds, the fingers of Imir caught in the spokes were snapped off one by one.
'Done!'
The world's balance.
If Imir's existence soared above the universe's mean, at minimum his torso should have been torn off.
"Argh!"
With three fingers broken, Imir clenched the wheel harder.
At the instant the World Wheel shattered with a thud, Amanta had a sudden thought.
'Perhaps the world already… is tilted too far for balance to tolerate.'
"Taha!"
Amanta's body was shredded by Imir's shockwave, and all they could do was watch.
"Haha."
Arius laughed hollowly.
'If someone is strong enough to be unable to sense the universe… they simply ought not to exist.'
Shirone's eyes narrowed sharply.
'Anke Ra.'
How contradictory—that an entity meant to protect the world's stability had spawned such an absurd monster.
'The unification of ten billion Gaia people.'
That most of the user's authority was concentrated in a single being was a cosmic monopoly on power.
'At this rate, everyone will die.'
The reason damage had been limited so far was that those fighting all knew their place.
'We have no choice but to take a gamble.'
Ataraxia—Physical domain.
As the mind transcended and amplified, the stats of Hand of God drew a massive upward curve.
"Ugh!"
Imir's movements slowed.
But Shirone's Ultima system alone had reached its limit here.
"Hurry! We can't maintain even the Physical domain long!"
Miro shouted.
"Gaold! Press!" Air Press went up immediately, and the giant's body was buried deep in the ground again.
"Now! Attack!"
When all firepower focused on Imir, the force approached G3-class by teleport-mage standards.
"You bastards!"
Bursting out through what looked like a glass Thousand-Hand Guanyin palm, Imir lunged at Taeseong.
"I'll kill you!"
There were no more means to stop him, and the huge fist flew toward Taeseong's face.
"We've won!"
Thud!
Shock swept through Shirone's group who had thought it over.
"H-how?"
Imir's fist trembled in midair, unable to reach Taeseong.
Tears slid down Tess's cheek.
"Rian!"
A human silhouette flickered before Taeseong, and biological tissue began to cohere and attach.
"Is that his last desperate flail?"
Imir, cold toward a foe already broken, amplified his power.
"Huh?"
His arm could not extend.
"Argh!"
Despite the endlessly rising force, Rian's mind rose to the same level.
'Divine Transcendence.'
If you intend it, you simply do it.
'Don't imagine.'
The moment you think about what you can and cannot do, the world of thought closes.
'In a state where the form called "I" is perfectly erased… the body's ultimate state.
'Once reached, that's enough!' Divine Transcendence.
As the bandwidth of idea expanded, signals shot out at incomparable speed.
Rian's body returned in an instant, and he twisted while holding Imir's clenched fist.
"Ugh!"
The time his arm was twisted lasted a breath, but it marked the first time Imir yielded to force.
'Now.'
Taeseong's eyes flashed as she spread her arms.
"The Law of the Five-Star."
The five pendants turned to light and clamped like shackles on Imir's hands, ankles, and neck.
"Teleport."
Planets from distant space pulled at Imir's body and his limbs gaped wide.
"Kraaaah!"
Veins bulging in his neck, Imir strained and his limbs began moving toward the center of his body.
"Damn it!"
But ultimately he couldn't withstand the weight of the planets shackled to his hands, feet, and neck, and his body flung open again.
'This won't do.'
If he stubbornly resisted like this, his face and limbs would be torn off.
"It won't take long."
Squeezing out his last strength, Imir trembled and looked down at Taeseong.
"Wait."
The moment the words finished, Imir's body turned to light and vanished together with the five stars.
Minerva asked, "What happened? Is he dead?"
"No, regrettably—"
Taeseong, having sensed something, unfolded a grave vision before them.
"Look directly. This is Imir's state."
Miro's face went pale.
"My God…"
Far out in the vast center of space, Imir floated fixed at a Five-Star point, held in a posture like a statue.
Tess asked, "Are those sparkles supposed to be stars?"
"Stars? No."
Shirone pressed his lips together. "Those are galaxies."
Dozens of galaxies spanned the distance from Imir's face to his feet.
"Yes. Using the star key distorts space and teleports to planets. I thought this could sever Imir's limbs, maybe even his neck—
"They covered the distortion of space with sheer size."
"Yes. It's the result of funneling every ounce of his power into gigantification. Naturally, his strength converges toward zero. He should be stable for the time being."
Miro agreed. "Even to send a single finger signal you'd have to cross the universe."
In the vision, Imir shrugged his shoulders.
Kukuku.
There was no sound in space, but the look in his turned eyes was enough to make one's skin crawl.
'Those eyes are bigger than a galaxy?'
Imir moved his lips.
"Don't rejoice too much. My power is weaker, but the Five-Star planets are now smaller than my cells."
You could hear it from the shape of his mouth.
"They will be somewhere. The moment my power concentrates there, the seal breaks and you are doomed."
Imir's eyes bulged.
"UAAAAH! UAAAAH!"
A shout of force, sent through his whole body, rippled outward and spread between galaxy and galaxy.
To be continued in the next volume.