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Chapter 433: Star, Taurus (8)

Chiron, who regarded himself as an exceptional warrior and hunter, could feel his pride shattering on this chaotic battlefield. His prey was popular for never lifting a finger because she was a germaphobe. In combat, it made her hate physical combat and stay as part of a rear unit.

Although she had a colleague with her right now, Chiron thought there was nothing to worry about. After all, he was a natural-born hunter used to conducting hunts like this. It should have been very easy. However, the outcome was far more abysmal than he expected.

[The Celestial ‘Gemini’ is losing his vital force!]

Castor, still in his enormous form, was lying on the ground with a huge hole in his chest. Not even his desperation could get him back on his feet. All he could do right now was breathe shallowly and hold on for his dear life.

“Urrrghh...” Castor groaned.

Chiron managed to take down Castor, but that was all he accomplished. His hunt ultimately ended in failure—no, in a crushing defeat. Chiron and Castor were facing the biggest crisis in their lives.

However, Sadalmelik, the victor, didn’t look so good either.

[The Celestial ‘Aquarius,’ who had to go to great lengths to slow down her Myth combustion, is greatly shaken by the chaotic battlefield!]

“This shouldn’t be happening...” Sadalmelik’s lips trembled as she watched what was happening in the middle of the Star Palace. “No!”

The Star Palace had been ruined so much that it could no longer serve as a divine ground. The <Anti-Star> Alliance’s bombings had destroyed the palace, and the fog of [Gaia’s Curse] had killed the <Horoscope> Star Signs.

Sadalmelik could handle those kinds of problems. With an infinite number of Worldlines came an infinite number of <First Star’s Fragments>. For as long as she could endure and wait patiently, <Horoscope> would rise again. They had done it several times before against <Deus Ex Machina>’s suppression.

However, they shouldn’t have lost Arcadia in the first place. After all her efforts, Arcadia should never have fallen like this.

“Ahhhhhhh!” Sadalmelik screamed and pulled out her hair, but the milk had already spilled.

She originally planned to use Arcadia and <Horoscope> as stepping stones to become an Outer Celestial, then take a peek at the Great Universe’s secrets to even reach higher leagues. However, her grand plan was now nothing more than a mere fantasy that she could never turn into reality. Having already consumed all her emergency potions to deal with Chiron’s attacks, which were fiercer than she expected, her death was drawing near.

Now that things had turned out this way, Sadalmelik briefly considered eating Chiron and Castor to restore her crumbling Divine Class. However, she no longer had any potential sacrificial offerings for the Outer Celestial, and the source of her Faith had been destroyed. Everything had lost its meaning.

‘Twilight! Twilight!! Twilight!!! Because of you! No, because of you people...!’ Sadalmelik mentally screamed, recalling that Chang-Sun and Bel-Marduk were behind this catastrophe.

They were vicious natural disasters that she couldn’t control, and without knowing when they would arrive, people could never avoid them even if they wanted to. Even the births of those monsters were bizarre, going through samsara six hundred sixty-five times across infinite Worldlines before finally eating each other’s Wordlines away.

“Yeah, this is my fault. The problem has always been those Lee Chang-Suns... So...” Sadalmelik’s eyes lost focus. With her rationality gone, madness began to overwhelm her. “I have to call an even bigger monster to take them down.”

Determined, Sadalmelik looked elsewhere. Arcadia might have fallen, but she still had two beings who would make fine sacrificial offerings standing right in front of her. Chiron and Castor flinched when they met her eyes, feeling indescribable anxiety rising from deep in their hearts.

“Hehehe. Hehehehehe!” Sadalmelik laughed bizarrely as she finally started the summoning ritual she postponed for so long.

Paaaah...

* * *

―Let’s make a deal.

Right before Chang-Sun had gone to war against Bel-Marduk, Odin made him a proposal.

“A deal?”

―Yeah. You don’t want me to tag along forever, do you?

“Let’s hear it.”

Odin’s proposal was very simple. He would be set free if he found a body that he could hop on to in exchange for his full cooperation in this war. Chang-Sun wasn’t sure at first if it was safe to accept it, but after long contemplation, he concluded that it didn’t really matter.

Chang-Sun still found it impossible to read what was going on in Odin’s head, but he now knew that Odin’s ultimate goal was far from Worldline domination or rebuilding his force. Odin endlessly pursued new knowledge and constantly looked for ways to elevate his Spiritual Class with only two goals in mind: to obtain complete freedom and become an Emperor.

The chance of Odin getting in Chang-Sun’s way was low. If he accepted the deal, it was more than possible for them to become allies. Above all...

‘I can’t carry these time bombs forever,’ Chang-Sun thought.

His six hundred sixty-five past reincarnations always tried to take over his body whenever they had a chance, which was exactly how the Balor incident started in the first place. Among his past reincarnations, Odin was the most dangerous one, and this place happened to be full of guinea pigs that Odin could change into. After all, they all had the same soul and body.

Hence, Chang-Sun and Odin formed a Mana Pledge to bring each other no harm and carry out some simple duties.

“You haven’t told your subordinate about our deal.”

“I didn’t have the time. Besides, it had to be kept a secret,” Chang-Sun answered, referring to the confusion that would spread if their other reincarnations found out about their deal.

Odin chuckled. “Is it that outrageous?”

Chang-Sun frowned and shook his head. “I would be lying if I said it weren’t.”

―A b-b-body?

―Odin has resurrected! There’s a way for us to resurrect!

―Let me out!

―Let me out!

―I pledge to become your loyal ally if you give me a new body!

His past reincarnations’ noisy chattering in his subconscious realm bewildered Chang-Sun. This was why he made this move as quietly as possible and refused to let even his subordinates know about it. These past reincarnations were different from Odin. Many of them were untrustworthy, and it was unclear if most of them would succeed in maintaining their existence in the outside world.

They were memories, outer spirits made up of the remaining karma of Chang-Sun’s past lives. Without an inner spirit of their own, their existences would be unstable even if they transferred to new bodies, so they would try to kill him again in any way they could.

Odin was also an outer spirit, but he could make up for the lack of his inner spirit with his mastery of magic. He had even already balanced his existence by absorbing the other Lee Chang-Suns’ bodies and souls, even though he still seemed to be adjusting the balance.

However, Chang-Sun soon noticed one quiet reincarnation in his subconscious.

‘Perkwunos.’

Just like Odin, Perkwunos had an unfathomable depth. He was also Chang-Sun’s origin.

“Why is your friend staying put?” Chang-Sun asked.

“Perkwunos?”

When Chang-Sun nodded, Odin shrugged. “I don’t know. I asked him if he would go out with me, but he chose to stay.”

Perkwunos watched Chang-Sun and Odin for a moment. He then uncrossed his arms and went under the subconscious realm. In some ways, it was more difficult to read what was going on in his mind than Odin’s.

―Me!

―Please let me—!

[You have forcibly shut down your subconscious realm!]

[Muting your subconscious realm.]

Aside from Perkwunos and Odin, Chang-Sun saw no other past reincarnation worth staying alert for. After quelling their complaints by force, he tightened his grip on [Gungnir].

Woosh!

Chang-Sun’s [Gnostic Eye] met Odin’s, reflecting each other.

“You were just a greenhorn when I first met you, but you’ve grown up to be a fine man,” Odin said.

“You’re still old.”

“You’re still rude.”

Chang-Sun scoffed. “You can’t do anything about it. We share the same soul.”

“You have a point.” Odin chuckled, then turned in the opposite direction, where Michael and Satan were furiously running toward them despite suffering from [Gaia’s Curse]. “Since we have made a promise, I’ll at least help you out this much.”

Zinnnnng!

With a wave of his hand, magic circles formed on each of Odin’s fingertips. They then rose and spun. Composed of only runes, they didn’t have even one geometrical diagram or symbol.

“Sweep them away,” Odin commanded.

Rummmmble!

Kieeeeeh―!

With an earsplitting ghost wail, large arrows of light shot out of a powerful storm. Made out of maximally compressed lightning energy, they exuded extreme heat and blinding brilliance. They were as big as siege weapons and, even in the face of two of the Nine Heavens, looked quite powerful.

Paah, paah, paah―!

“Twilight!!!” Bel-Marduk charged toward Odin and Twilight as the arrows flew toward Michael and Satan, causing the ground to shake.

Thud, thud, thud!

Bel-Marduk was severely infected with [Gaia’s Curse], putting him in a precarious condition. Nevertheless, with each step he took, the entire Star Palace wobbled so hard it looked as if it would crumble down at any moment.

“Ah, right.” Chang-Sun fixed the grip on [Gungnir]. “I still had you to deal with.”

The time had come to begin the finale of his revenge. All the tribulations and trials he had gone through quickly flashed in his mind. He had lost Ithaca, been put through a Divine Trial, and resurrected. Finally, he was back here.

Chang-Sun had gone through so much. Each day had been so hard that he wasn’t even sure if he could do it again. Now, all he wanted was to put an end to this sickeningly long feud.

“You’ve ruined it! You’ve ■■ everything!” Bel-Marduk screamed at the top of his lungs. “■■■ld ■■ve ■ ■■ ■■ ■......! ■e! ■■......! Ever■ ■■ ■■!”

Chang-Sun ruined something? What did he ruin? Bel-Marduk’s ambition? His desire?

“■■! ■■!”

Bel-Marduk was so broken that Chang-Sun couldn’t even understand what he was saying anymore. He had lost his rationality long ago. Was all this resentment really just coming from losing the Nereid Stone and <Horoscope>?

“I lost everything because of you,” Chang-Sun replied, finding Bel-Marduk’s behavior preposterous. “You said you and I are the same, didn’t you? Then you should go through the same experience too.”

Chang-Sun swung down [Gungnir] as hard as he could and started a Duskfall explosion as Bel-Marduk charged toward him like a mad bull. His <Darkness> and supreme sacred light chaotically merged around the tip of his spear, then sent a beam of sunset-colored light straight toward Bel-Marduk.

As Bel-Marduk’s golden light ray collided with the beam, a soundless explosion and a pool of light swept past them.

Soon, Bel-Marduk’s <Myths> particles began to scatter... among which Chang-Sun noticed something.

‘This is...?’

―I love you, Ithaca, and... I’m sorry.

Chang-Sun was holding Ithaca tightly in his arms.

‘No, it’s not...’

Ithaca looked pale and unable to maintain her existence. She seemed to be dying from [Gaia’s Curse].

‘... It’s not me,’ Chang-Sun thought, instinctively realizing that this was Bel-Marduk’s memory that he hid deep in his <Myths>.

There were other memories too.

―If I can at least stop a different Ithaca from meeting the same fate...

Bel-Marduk had become a <Star> to travel from Worldline to Worldline.

―Why... Why is it always the same...?

He tried everything he could, but the outcome was always the same.

―Gaia... Yes, Gaia is the problem... If so...

In the end, he decided to walk down a path of corruption...

―Experiments. Yes, I should do experiments. There are infinite Worldlines, me, and Ithaca. If I experiment on them...

... and madness.

―If I keep trying...

Bel-Marduk couldn’t care less if all that awaited him at the end of it was destruction.

It was like a daydream. After witnessing a secret that Bel-Marduk didn’t want anyone to know, Chang-Sun faced him.

“You’ve ruined it!” Bel-Marduk growled, his eyes bloodshot.

“You!” Chang-Sun shouted.

Thud!

As he did, immense pressure suddenly fell upon the area. Even he had never—no, he had experienced this level of pressure before. He instinctively looked up, realizing this pressure felt similar to when he met Mephistopheles in his true form.

[The Celestial ‘Abyss-Chasing Great Devil’ yells at you to get out of there right no—!]

Pzzzzz!

Mephistopheles tried to quickly send a message, but the message window disintegrated before he could finish it. Beyond the window, a huge hole appeared, and dozens of enormous dark tentacles came down from it, bringing despair itself.