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Chapter 296: Star, the Source (5)

[Space Control, the old Quirinale clan’s lost Authority, has been awakened.]

[The door to R’lyeh is opening!]

Woosh!

As time passed, Chanaz leaked out more and more <Starlight>, which was then sucked into a mineshaft behind her to create a huge portal. On the portal’s surface, various images of dream fragments—the destroyed planes laying dormant in R’lyeh—repeatedly appeared and disappeared.

The portal already contained all the [Seven Cryptical Books of Hsan] energy that Munseong and the White Tiger Clan members collected. In other words, the portal was a collection of energy made by ripping Chanaz’s sisters apart, and she would soon be a part of the collection too.

‘… Mother,’ Chanaz murmured in her mind.

The horrible pain prevented Chanaz from pulling herself together. Nevertheless, although she was gradually losing consciousness, she still desperately called out for someone—Ithaca, her mother, whom she had to part ways with very long ago.

Ithaca was by no means a good mother to Chanaz and her sisters. In the first place, she artificially created them because she couldn’t control her overwhelming power as the <First Star’s Fragment>. She tried her best to take care of them in her own way, but she was often in deep sleep since she was always ill. Having trouble feeling affection or attachment to Ithaca, many of her clones left her. Only a few stayed by her side, and one of them was Chanaz.

She remembered the day when she had said her goodbyes to Ithaca.

“Chanaz, my daughter. When I leave someday… and you fall in danger… remember.”

Ithaca’s eyes were surely on Chanaz, yet she seemed to be looking far beyond. Chanaz didn’t know what exactly Ithaca was watching, but it had to be a far future that she couldn’t even begin to fathom.

“I’ll always be by your side, but I’ll probably become even more ill in the future. It won’t be easy to help you, so when the time comes…”

Ithaca was leaving a prophecy for her daughters and clones.

“Look for your father.”

‘Father…!’

Chanaz didn’t understand what Ithaca meant, considering she and her sisters didn’t have a father. Ithaca called them her daughters, but they were just her clones.

Nevertheless, Chanaz repeated the word ‘father’ several times in her mind as if it were the only magic spell that would let her escape from this crisis—as if it were her only lifeline.

[The ‘■■ne Twilight’ is unleashing his Divine Dignity!]

Chanaz’s vision was getting blurry. Nevertheless, albeit with difficulty, she managed to read one message. Several other messages were popping up before her, but that message caught her attention the most, perhaps because the sun seemed to be setting behind the message.

Up until a moment ago, the smog kept the sky dark gray, but it was now a beautiful scarlet, seemingly having cleared up enough to reveal the deep sunset. Chanaz wasn’t aware of it, but it was actually an illusion that resulted from Chang-Sun spreading his Jigwi’s wings open in the center of the sky after going through a Spiritual Particle Phase Shift.

Having absorbed the [Brilliant Vermillion Light], Chang-Sun’s wings now glowed red, creating storms and lightning of the same color. No word could better describe it than ‘twilight.’

With his back against the twilight, Chang-Sun slowly approached Chanaz.

If she said the word in times of danger, someone would come and save her. That was what her mother told her, which now flashed across her mind.

「Fa…ther…?」 Chanaz said with a very small voice.

“... Father?” Chang-Sun was a bit surprised, but after a moment, he quietly chuckled. It was similar to what he said while saving Dria. Chang-Sun held out his hand and grabbed Chanz’s. “Yes.”

[The decryption is still under progress!]

[Warning! Someone is trying to interrupt the process! If they succeed, it can cause an error in the decryption process!]

[Warning! Decryption failure can be highly dangerous!]

…

“That’s right. I’m your father. So…” Chang-Sun pulled Chanaz into his arms, ignoring all the warning messages. There was some resistance, but Chang-Sun didn’t care. He would destroy everything in his way.

Boom!

All the chains restraining Chanaz shattered. The [Sixth Cryptical Book of Hsan] lost its power and broke into pieces.

[The decryption process has been forcefully stopped!]

[The ‘Sixth Cryptical Book of Hsan’ has been destroyed.]

…

“You no longer have to worry.” Chang-Sun held Chanaz, who was in a fragile state, so tightly it was as if he would never let go of her. “I’ll protect you.”

At that moment, Chang-Sun decided not to lose anything and repeat the same mistake he made with Ithaca.

* * *

[Storms are raging!]

[Fiery lightning bolts are pouring down from the sky!]

…

[The blessing of death overwhelms the battlefield!]

Kieeeeeeeh!

Creepy ghost wails echoed from every direction.

“Arrgggh! Wh-what is happening?!”

“Th-the mine is falling—!”

“M-my arm! My arm!”

The endless bombardment threw the mining field into chaos and reduced it to ruins. The mine shafts that the miners used to carry out piles of [Black Gold] all collapsed, and the black cell mass that was trying to grow bigger was shredded to pieces. Many of the Players got swept away in the heat storms or buried alive in the mine shafts. At the same time, the Sentry Battalion humanoids trampled the relatively unscathed to the ground.

All attempts to retaliate failed. As soon as the message about Chang-Sun’s descent showed up, storms blocked their vision and destroyed their balance. The lightning bolts that broke through the storms nullified the Players’ Skills and struck the Players to death. Ghost wails that sounded like sneers also echoed from every direction, preventing the Players from maintaining their composure.

“W-we’ll die! We’ll die—!”

“S-save me!”

“Please!”

“Arggghhh! No! Noooo!”

“I don’t want to die!”

[Fear is rampant!]

[Anxiety is spreading!]

…

[Screams of despair fill the air!]

/p>

[Painful cries echo!]

…

[Negative emotions overwhelm the battlefield!]

[The blessing of death has been added to your newly acquired Divinity!]

…

[Your Class has increased.]

[Death attribute has been added to your <Darkness>.]

[You have successfully opened a section of the Purgatory Plane.]

[The characteristics of Sanjiva[1] has been applied to the battlefield with your Divinity!]

The battlefield turned into literal hell. It specifically resembled Sa?jīva, where the Purgatory Plane jailers beat the sinners with metal clubs and cut their skin with knives.

“Who in the world are you?!” Crimson Bromwell ran across the hellish battlefield.

From afar, Crimson could see Chang-Sun hugging Chanaz tightly. Despite having no idea who Chang-Sun really was, Crimson’s head was filled with thoughts about how to stop him.

Swoosh―!

If the decryption process failed, it would no longer be possible for them to create a complete portal, thereby also ruining Crimson’s life-long dream of becoming a Celestial. Crimson had to stop that from happening using any means necessary!

Paah…!

Crimson naturally wasn’t charging toward Chang-Sun without any plan. Considering Chang-Sun could create this much chaos, his power had to surely be remarkable, so Crimson would fight with all he had from the very start.

‘I wasn’t planning on going this far…’ Crimson pulled out tightly sealed flasks filled with black mercury. ‘... but now isn’t the time to be picky!’

Clang, clang―!

Every time Crimson dropped a flask on the ground, it shattered and volatilized mercury, causing steam to rise around Crimson. Part of the black mercury permeated through his skin, turning it black. When he breathed it in, it enhanced his nerves.

Solidification was Crimson the Black Alchemist’s ultimate technique. It helped him get the title of Gold Overlord. He used an ingredient called Demon Tree, which could be used to impregnate someone with a low-ranking demon. However, mixing a maximum concentration of it with mercury created a unique artifact called [Black Mercury].

Mercury’s characteristics made it easy to turn [Black Mercury] into an alloy, so it was often used to reinforce items. It was easy to absorb [Black Mercury] as well. Cells solidified when merged with it, making one’s skin and muscles sturdier and their senses sharper.

The problem was mercury’s toxicity. Some of its known side effects were dreadful pain and irreversible nervous system damage. That was why Crimson refrained from using it. However, he couldn’t afford to hold back now. Hence, he used up all his emergency reserve of [Black Mercury], making him look as if black metal armor covered him from head to toe.

‘Even if I get mercury poisoning right now, it won’t be a problem for as long as I become a Celestial!’ Crimson thought.

Celestials were basically a type of spirit. In other words, becoming a Celestial meant being freed from their useless physical body. For as long as Crimson could make his dream come true, he would have nothing to worry about.

[The Celestial ‘Scheming-Proficient Strategist’ yells at his apostle, questioning what his apostle thinks he’s doing!]

“What…?” Crimson’s eyes widened in surprise.

Staying true to his divine name, Crimson’s Guardian kept his composure like a true strategist no matter what happened, but he just frantically yelled now. To make matters worse, through the Channeling, Crimson unexpectedly detected… fear from his Guardian.

A strategist’s worst fear wasn’t a grand army or a great general. It was natural catastrophes, awestriking phenomena that humans were helpless against no matter how brilliant their strategist was. Right now, Crimson’s Guardian behaved as if he just ran into a natural disaster!

Slash!

Crimson’s train of thought stopped. As he charged toward Chang-Sun, a light flashed before him, and his decapitated head flew up into the air. Chang-Sun treated his Solidification technique as if it was nothing.

As his head spun, the last thing Crimson saw was the message about his Guardian screaming.

[The Celestial ‘Scheming-Proficient Strategist’ yells, unable to understand how Twilight could show up here!]

Crimson’s last thought before he lost consciousness was about his blood splattering in the air looking like deep twilight.

Thump…!

1. Part of the Buddhist hell named Naraka.