Chapter 425 (1/2)

That was a rather playful reply.

But Brahma took it seriously and nodded while staring into Su-hyeun’s eyes, “You’re not lying.”

“God” was the noble existence that all Predators wished to become, but in reality, the two camps were diametrically opposed.

The qualification of godhood was indeed that—the qualification to become a god—and the authority symbolizing an individual’s power, but actually becoming a god was another matter altogether.

Obviously, one needed to possess the qualifications, but one also needed a physical body capable of wielding all those qualifications, as well as a mind that was tough enough to withstand such a physique.

Brahma stared straight into Su-hyeun’s eyes.

There it was, one of the abilities that symbolized the gods—Insight, the eyes of the gods that could see through everything.

Brahma had seen eyes like Su-hyeun’s in the past. “A god like you existed? I’ve never heard of such a thing. How bizarre.”

It seemed that Brahma was unable to even imagine the simple fact that Su-hyeun ascended to full godhood despite being a human.

However, something like that was understandable. Countless unknown, unfamous, gods existed throughout the universe, but even then, there weren’t all that many who, despite being born as a mere mortal, reached full godhood on their own strength.

“It doesn’t really matter, now does it?” Su-hyeun asked back.

“Is that so? Indeed, that’s true. Regardless of what, the only certain thing here is that Goddess Kali will direct her rage at me if I fail to kill you in this place.”

Giii-iiing—

A sharp and purple-hued spike suddenly materialized over Brahma’s hand. It was no ordinary spike, however. A massive quantity of energy, much greater than any contained in a weapon Su-hyeun had seen so far, was compressed inside that thing.

With that much energy, it could even slice through adamantium depending on who wielded it.

“Are you that scared of her?”

“That’s right. She’s far scarier than the likes of you.”

“Well, I’m really looking forward to meeting her now.”

Piiit—

Brahma’s figure suddenly vanished from the spot. Su-hyeun couldn’t even see how the Predator had moved even with his eyes, but that wasn’t so surprising, really.

He thought, “Was that some kind of teleportation ability?”

Brahma had literally vanished from the spot, after all.

A blink of an eye later, Su-hyeun tilted his body out of the way.

Swiiiish—

Sliiiice—!

A thin line was carved out in the ground. This line extended on and on—clouds up in the skies were split apart, and a purple line manifested itself to seemingly connect the split sky and the ground.

“Was that like ‘erasing’?”

That wasn’t a simple blade strike. Rather than slicing something apart, it looked far closer to erasing whatever was found in its long path, instead.

It was most likely this Predator’s “authority.”

“Is it an attack-focused combat style that utilizes its quick speed and killing power? I’ve already confirmed its defensive capability earlier, and it looks like this guy’s specialty is that teleportation ability.”

Slice, chop, sliiiiice—

Piiit, pii-piiit—

Su-hyeun continued to move this way and that as if he was on a dance floor. Meanwhile, Brahma’s blade strikes grew faster and faster.

“The range of its strikes are really long but narrow enough to fit a palm’s width. As for the attack pattern…”

Whoosh, swiiiish—

Su-hyeun’s eyes rapidly darted around, and soon, he spotted Brahma appearing again to wield that purple-colored spike in its hand.

Whoosh—!

Su-hyeun reached out to the Predator, and then…

Grab—

Keok!

Brahma, appearing in that position right then, suddenly had its throat firmly gripped by Su-hyeun’s hand.

KA-BOOM—!

Crack, split—

Su-hyeun powerfully slammed the Predator’s head on the ground.

Keo-hurk!

Its whole body violently shuddered. That horrifying impact forced all strength to seep out from its body. As expected, this Predator might have been fast, and its killing power, extraordinary, but in return, its defensive capability was well below par.

Fu-wuuu—

Su-hyeun exhaled at length for a very brief moment.

He saw something earlier. Although the moment didn’t even last 0.1 seconds, Su-hyeun still got to clearly see it.

“I saw the future that would happen a little bit later.”

Indeed, Insight wasn’t some simple ability meant to read the target’s mind. No, it was a power that allowed its wielder to see what they wanted to see. That was the true power of Insight.

“Now that got a bit annoying just to catch a mosquito…”

Cruuuunch—

Kkeuh…

Su-hyeun used his free hand to break Brahma’s thigh bone. At the same time, the divine Flame traveled through his fingertips to enter the Predator’s leg and scorched the gap between the broken bone bits.

With this, the Predator should find it too difficult to get up and start rampaging again.

“Alright, then, I hope that you can now more or less figure out what your current situation is.”

“What…do you want…?”

“For now, stop the trial within the Altars under your control.”

“But that means I—”

“If you don’t want to, just die here, then. If you start running right away, maybe you can escape from Kali’s grasp, but if not, well, you’ll definitely die by me.”

Brahma’s expression distorted as if it was conflicted by Su-hyeun’s offer.

It seemed that Kali was indeed a terrifying existence, seeing that this Predator was actually debating what to choose between the figurative blade thrust in its throat and Kali who should be somewhere far away, beyond one’s visual range.

“If you don’t want to, I’ll just end you right here. That will probably end the trial automatically, anyway.”

“A—are you going to let me live if I do as you say?”

It seemed that this Predator’s obsession over its survival was rather strong, which was great since that would simplify this discussion.

“Of course. Except on the condition of you leaving this planet for good.”

“That will be obvious. If I agree to your demands, I will then have no choice but to escape from her reach, too. However, you must promise me. Swear it on your honor as a god.”

“My honor, you say?” Su-hyeun nodded nonchalantly, “Something like that? Why not?”

Brahma sighed in relief at that reply. It used one of its hands to barely prop itself up. “I need a little bit of time. It’s not an easy task to undo the system cast on every location, you see.”

“Sure, whatever,” Su-hyeun withdrew his attention for a little while.

Brahma cautiously gauged Su-hyeun’s alertness several times after that. However, the latter was sitting down with his back turned toward the Predator.

“Should I sneak attack him? No, it’ll be useless,” it surmised.

Su-hyeun dodged all of Brahma’s attacks, even though the latter was practically invisible all the time. Things shouldn’t be any different now, too.

“How much longer?” Su-hyeun abruptly asked, his back still turned.

Brahma immediately answered with a flinch, “It’ll be over soon.”

“Is that so?” Su-hyeun raised his head and looked up, “That means they’ll be here soon, too.”

“What?!” Brahma shot up from the spot.

But right at that moment…

Shu-rururuk—