LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 116
“Ilshin-ah!”
Hanarien, who had been carried down to the underground by Hazuki, saw the cult leader split in half by a thin, straight line.
For an ordinary person, they would have already been dead. But Hanarien did not ease her tension.
‘This isn’t the end.’
She tossed healing potions to the people lying around while keeping an eye on where Kim Ilshin was.
“I’ll go that way!”
“Be careful!”
Hazuki dashed towards Park Eun-ho and Pan Hae-yul, cutting through the dark matter that was pressing down on them.
With a single slash of Hazuki’s blade, the dark matter disconnected from its master, instantly vanishing and revealing the protective barrier beneath.
A protective barrier that looked precarious, about to shatter at any moment. Luckily, the two inside were safe.
Zzzzzzzz……
At that moment, a thick, red liquid began to ooze out from the leader’s body, which was splitting apart.
A long liquid that seemed to hold the body together like a thread.
At first glance, it looked like blood, but anyone could tell that it was something much worse.
“Ugh!”
Even Hanarien, standing far away, instinctively covered her nose at the terrible stench.
The cult leader’s voice echoed right after.
“W-What power do you have…?”
With a rough voice that sounded like he had chewed on metal, the leader struggled to speak.
Even in a state of being ripped in two, he seemed to be sustained by that liquid, which was supporting his vocal cords and muscles among other bodily organs.
Grrr. Slice.
Feeling as if he was cutting through water, Hazuki took another swing at the cult leader’s head and neck.
Once again, the leader did not die but just grimaced with his three mangled pieces of a mouth.
“How dare you, a mere human, stand in the way of the divine’s descent…!”
Scratch.
Ignoring the tiresome monologue, dozens of trajectories layered over each other.
Now appearing as a mass that vaguely resembled a human, the leader couldn’t stop spewing out words filled with hatred.
No, it seemed closer to the idea that he couldn’t stop.
The ability to maintain his form was fueled by a dark and deep obsession stemming from emotions like hatred and regret.
“……I cannot give my life to someone like you.”
As the mass of filth receded, his red eyes were fully revealed.
Those eyes, filled with a fanatical madness, glared at Kim Ilshin, holding a curse within.
At the same time, the grotesque veins on the surface of his eyes began to swell.
“My life is not for you! I will not die like this!”
Boom!
In an instant, he exploded with a burst of bright red liquid.
“Gwaaaahhhh!!”
A scream like a banshee’s shook the ground.
Cracks spread across the ceiling and floor, heralding the onset of destruction.
“Ugh…! Ilshin-ah!”
“Sis! Over here!”
The dark matter, going berserk due to the cult leader’s rampaging emotions.
Recognizing the danger it posed, Hanarien and Hazuki quickly attended to the patients, moving as far away from the leader as they could.
Originally, the nature of the dark matter was unpredictable. Without a defined form, it could change into anything.
It had always loathed humans, but the cult leader’s essence was also human.
Unable to comprehend calculations with that brain, he was limited and couldn’t realize his potential, but now it was different.
The dark matter began to expand like a swarm of rats, and anything that came into contact with it began to get destroyed.
Each tiny granule, invisible to the eye, held different properties.
It sliced, cut, broke, crumbled, ignited, froze, corroded, and melted.
“This is impossible….”
Everything it touched.
The scene seemed to wield the concept itself, disregarding the laws of the world, and Hazuki was horrified.
“I did not endure and suffer all this just for this end!”
Swoosh!
The dark matter, bursting forth from the cult leader, wrapped around the Myeongwol sword.
Swish!
Kim Ilshin severed the bindings with a swordlight strong enough to stave off destruction.
With no hesitation, he wielded the sword, directly confronting the cult leader’s power.
“Ah! Trials! This is also a trial! You test me for Your divine will!”
Without pause, the cult leader’s domain expanded. Along with it, Kim Ilshin began to project his mental realm onto reality.
Lines forming an imaginary trajectory spread out, covering the ground.
“Oh God! This humble servant has realized too late! I shall dedicate myself!”
The continuously flowing trajectories quickly stacked up to create a shape of a plane, and the next step was filling it.
Just capturing this moment was not enough.
Layering projections of the future he had predicted through divine visions on the world he grasped.
“I apologize! I foolishly dared to dream of a future alongside You! I have committed the sin of infusing human emotions into the vessel You bestowed!”
Next came the curves. Gently spreading red paint imbued with the essence of life on a white canvas.
Some were deep, some were light. Some maintained a middle ground.
It surrounded every tiny scratch, leaving not a single flaw ignored.
“Only if You grant a moment of mercy to Your faithful servant, I will certainly hold accountable the wrongdoings of those demons and bring punishment upon the mortal realm!”
Thus was created a space of white and red hues.
A single island touched by water and a willow tree strangely standing at its center.
A space that mixed the present and future was born from Kim Ilshin’s mind.
“My life! Is only for You—!”
And that current projection of the mind was completed with a single sword.
Ilshin Sword Technique: Line Art in Real Time
Fwoosh!
The multitude of lines burst forth all at once, beginning to envelop the surroundings.
Bright colors dyed the engulfing darkness.
Each one contained the wave of the Moonlit Mirror.
The moment the colors engulfed the territory made of dark matter, brilliant white and red light erupted violently, filling the space.
Fizz…
Hanarien and Hazuki witnessed the complete annihilation of the dark matter.
“Guh….”
Kim Ilshin’s mental realm included even the cult leader.
His tenacious life dissipated into dust with the dark matter, soon vanishing without a trace.
Compared to the countless evils committed over incomprehensible aeons, this final end was but fleeting.
However, Kim Ilshin knew this wasn’t the end.
Buzz. Buzz.
From behind the crushed leader, intermittent sounds echoed.
The overflowing chalice, filled with vitality, was created to conduct the ceremony of descent.
The leader existed solely for the collection of vitality and smooth progression of the ceremony; all that was needed was the vitality itself.
“What is happening…?!”
“This is ominous…”
Clank. Clank.
Due to the recent death of the leader, all the vitality needed for the ceremony had been fulfilled.
The chalice began to race towards the completion of the ceremony that was almost at an end.
Rumble rumble rumble!!
The chalice, packed with tremendous vitality, trembled precariously.
Just looking at it filled one’s heart with an ominous aura that soared up through the broken ceiling.
A pillar made of thick blood connected to the universe above, leading its existence here.
“Ilshin-ah! Destroy it!”
Park Eun-ho screamed, grasping the precarious ceremony. This was the first time he had ever felt such fear and helplessness.
“Ilshin student! Hurry…!”
It was the same for Pan Hae-yul.
His desperate shout seemed almost pitiful.
Even the two who had not lost hope in this dire situation could not help but succumb to fear.
They instinctively knew they could not oppose such a being with that level of power.
However, Kim Ilshin did not take any action.
He merely watched the rampaging chalice, sword held down.
If he were to destroy the chalice now, the accumulated vitality would erupt all at once, resulting in a massive explosion.
But Park Eun-ho and Pan Hae-yul, unaware of this, only found Kim Ilshin’s inaction frustrating.
“Ilshin-ah!”
Hazuki stood in front of the panicking Park Eun-ho, who was trying to rise in a hurry.
“Wait. There’s a plan in place.”
Park Eun-ho couldn’t accept that.
In this situation, there had to be a way to stop the calamity aside from breaking the chalice.
But Park Eun-ho displayed superhuman patience, halting his movements.
His trust in Kim Ilshin overcame his immense fear.
“What exactly is this plan…?”
“It’s to summon the god.”
Before the two could react to Hazuki’s words.
Krrrroooom……
An echo resembling the entire planet trembling.
Its source was neither the chalice before them nor beneath the earth, but the sky.
A colossal being descended from the unseen sky above, heading towards the ground.
A pair of red eyes evoked the illusion of two moons rising.
The deep malice contained in them reflected upon humanity below.
“Is that… a god?”
“It has begun.”
The descent of the god commenced.
Creeeaaak!
Crack!
As the dimension collided furiously, the size of the great rift expanded, and monsters began pouring forth like raindrops.
The people on the ground, confronted with these monsters, were distracted by the occurrences in the sky.
Everyone knew.
If that descended completely to the ground, it would mean the end.
‘Now.’
Kim Ilshin raised his palm upward and utilized the divine power he had been saving.
[Current Divine Power: 119857]
Divine Power.
A thing only achieved by beings that shed the mortal coil and reached the pinnacle of infinity.
The “miracles” humans wished for from gods spring forth from this divine power.
An unsurpassed strength that could fulfill all desires.
Kim Ilshin used that divine power to halt the descent of the Arch-Demon.
[Current Divine Power: 114178]
[Current Divine Power: 102327]
[Current Divine Power: 98491]
[Current Divine Power: 91785]
The divine power was plummeting like crazy. Yet, Kim Ilshin felt no anxiety whatsoever.
The divine power he retained was a massive amount, one that could be gathered only by a pinnacle being that ruled over dimensions for thousands of years.
Thus, it was perfectly viable to stop the Arch-Demon that had nearly exhausted his divine power through dimensional travel.
[Current Divine Power: 89158]
As expected, upon using about 20,000 of his divine power, the tremors ceased, and the rifts’ expansion came to a halt.
While maintaining this state, Kim Ilshin pondered for a moment.
He could exhaust all his divine power to banish the Arch-Demon.
That route was called [Temporary Solution].
Since it meant sacrificing great power, it would result in banishing the Arch-Demon to another dimension without any damage.
However, fittingly for its name, it was ultimately a temporary solution.
One day, the Arch-Demon could return.
‘At least several decades, or at most several hundred or thousands of years.’
Here lay two choices. Either to push the responsibility to the future and evade or… face the Arch-Demon.
Kim Ilshin had long since made that choice.
There was no way he would choose to evade, a choice he would one day regret.