Chapter 130 (1/2)
Audit Team of the Union (3)
The darkness whispered.
When I opened my eyes, nothing greeted me but pure darkness. In the shadows that passed thickly through my surroundings, I faced a landscape that felt oddly familiar.
‘In that place… is where the god must be!’
It was our second encounter with each other. Its shape was more apparent than the first time I saw it. Flesh bloomed in the dark. Seven thin, pale arms wavered like it was dancing along with the silent melody of the abyss. I knew the gaze I felt coming from its bare face covered with flesh wasn’t an illusion. Tenacious and curious eyes looked at the cut eighth arm and me alternately. I recognized the deity.
‘Igras-Sho.’
The darkness whispered.
We meet again.
The terrible toxicity flowing from the cut section of its body tightened all over my entirety. I held on to my consciousness with all my might against the suffocating scent of jasmine. Like last time, a foreign presence tried to penetrate my mind, but…
– … Th_e_Su_c_ce_ssor’_s_E_ye_s resists to [?????? (Rank: ?????)]. The resistance effect is not perfect because of the overwhelmin_g_p_ow_e_r…
Still, [The Successor’s Eyes] barely managed to keep it out of my head. The darkness giggled in fascination.
‘Although it’s just by a little bit, it has definitely become denser than the last time we met. I see your soul is still as strong as ever. How long must you have spent refining it? How many times did you honed and hammered yourself to become this hard? If you’re a mortal, even if you don’t remember, it should have been enough for you to go mad…’
The god murmured again somewhere near, yet it remained far away.
‘I see. Is that why you can receive my glance and hold on in my presence? That’s what makes you even more qualified. Now then, say it with those lips. What do you want from me?’
The divine being encouraged me to speak of my wish out loud. I desperately tried to recall my memory amid the pressure that made me feel like my existence itself was about to collapse. Still, amid the torrent of my reeling self, I remembered what I talked about with Adam.
‘I have to specify the content of the wish as detailed as possible!’
Contrary to what my reason told me, my instinct to get out of that situation right away gave me the strong urge to simply say my wish in the simplest form. To ‘save me from this situation,’ or ‘keep me safe from Albanos.’ But I knew I shouldn’t do that.
‘Into what form do you think it would materialize if you wish it to keep you safe? Interpreting it literally, it could turn you into a being so transcendent that even the Union could never lay their hands on you ever again, much less the members of Albanos.’
Adam’s words kept passing through my head.
‘But on the contrary, that would mean no Albanos can ever remain hostile against you… You can even force their species to go extinct in every universe. Whatever form of the two is implemented, the size of the wish is too vast. It will reach a point where it would be too dangerous!’
The grander the wish was, the more impossible it became to measure the strength of the recoil that would return when all three had been used. Hence, I desperately suppressed the instinct that was telling me to flee. Instead, I prayed to the god of magic, using my memory as a guide.
“The Albanos… I want all of the Albanos that exist at this very moment… to fear me…”
The words ‘this very moment’ were necessarily added because I was worried that it would touch even the spirits of Albanos that existed in the past, twisting the passages of time.
“… In such a way that they can never dare express their hostility towards me ever again!”
I barely got to finish my sentence.
“That is what I desire!”
Then I felt a terrible pain in my fingers. Beyond the distant heat, the deity replied.
‘Yes, I will help you.’
And it closed our conversation up with a phrase.
‘From this point on, you only have two left—my child.’
*
The three Albanos, who surrounded Seo Jin-Wook, were baffled by the strange and drastic change in the situation.
“What… is that?”
It was an unusual sight even for them.
Until just recently, they had completely suppressed Seo Jin-Wook and were on the verge of successfully kidnapping him. They weren’t sure since when the Albanos began to antagonize the successor. Looking back on their history, whenever they were intertwined with the beings suspected to be the successor, their territories were reduced. That was because the species they were using as slaves were liberated one by one.
As a result of the multiple repetitions of such incidents, the Albanos’ status shrunk and became shabby enough to reach the point where it was hard to find the glory of their past.
“He must… definitely be the successor!”
The descendants of Albanos succeeded in identifying the existence of the successor. After that, if they found the successor, the value that the successor had to pay back for the defeat and disgrace of their ancestors had been settled as if it was a given.
And in that generation, success was just around the corner. The Albanos had reached the closest they had ever been to capturing the successor, and they were never going to let him go after they had imprisoned him. At least that was the case until an unexpected event occurred.
Zoom!
Darkness was flowing and wobbling endlessly from Seo Jin-Wook’s body.
The Albanos that held the metal whip looked down at his empty hand. It had been there since Jin-Wook jumped, but it was no longer anywhere to be seen. The artifact that caused terrible pain by gripping Seo Jin-Wook’s ankle disappeared without a trace. There was neither a flash of light nor a flutter of air in the process.
He felt like he was possessed. No, it would have been better if he had actually become a ghost.
“No way!”
They looked at their colleague that acted as the leader among the three.
“Hurry up and give us instructions! What should we do now?” “How… How should I know?!”
And ‘it’ opened its eyes.
Beeeeep!
The warning alarm went off in unison from the artifacts that the Albanos members were equipped with. It was called by as a sacred force detector if described only through its pure function. It suddenly screamed like a roar when it didn’t even respond when Seo Jin-Wook moved his sacred item inside the restaurant and shed blood from his fingers.
“No!”
Albanos suffered several disastrous defeats and despair during their long history, which not only included disgraces where the successor was involved but also several disasters that occurred because of divine beings. It was due to them that their species was fully aware of how dangerous a deity was.
“R-run away!”
It was too late. The one that borrowed Seo Jin-Wook’s looks, but who wasn’t Seo Jin-Wook, spoke.
‘Even though you already heard the truth with your own ears and confirmed it with your own eyes, but you did not believe it because your idiocy has already poisoned your mind.’
Trembling, the three Albanos knelt down. They realized, due to despair, what would happen from that point on, causing them to instantly regret their actions. Seo Jin-Wook, who they tried to kidnap that day, was not only just a successor.
“P-please forgive us for our foolishness! We believe the truth now! We acknowledge that the one in front of us is a servant who carries your glorious will!”
As Seo Jin-Wook claimed, he was indeed a being that the god of magic chose. They had no choice but to believe in his words, for in front of them… a great being had revealed itself to declare its will! They shouted desperately and urgently, but it was useless. The darkness whispered.
‘Bugs.’
“Please!”
‘You still refused to believe it after hearing it and refused to acknowledge after seeing. In such a case, where is the use for thee?’
At that moment, the focus disappeared from the eyes of Albanos that grabbed Seo Jin-Wook’s ankle. He raised his pointed finger, then… Stab! Rip! The other two had no choice but to watch the scene, in sheer fear and hopelessness, where their fellow being’s own hands slowly tore off his ears and eyes. The Albanos collapsed and died in the very same ground where his green blood had scattered. The anger of the divine being did not stop there.
‘Bugs. ’
“Forgive… Please forgive us!”