Chapter 188 (1/2)

Training Fight (6)

The light and heat burned everything, and the deadly and invisible neutrinos exterminated the creatures, penetrating all around like a blind bullet.

The starfish-shaped monster attached to the bottom of the sea writhed amid the flames.

I kicked myself off the ground and flew up. The blazing white hell continued to produce heat, but it didn’t affect me. Below, I saw bizarre creatures disappearing in ashes along with the boiling sea.

After penetrating the space instantly and standing on top of a starfish monster, I summoned a sword.

I then delivered a direct blow.

Shwoooo!

Boo-boo-boo-boom!

The trace left by the god of the mind, the red monster, exploded in pieces.

“It worked!”

I deactivated the light element magic effect that I summoned, allowing the boiling seawater to find tranquility and begin to calm down. The red “Primordial Sea” quickly flocked to the area where the floor was exposed due to the heat filling the space.

Traces of the devastated collapsed monster soon sunk into huge amounts of water.

In terms of the time it took, it was much faster than during the encounter with the god of war.

I waited for the change I was expecting to follow.

“!”

The foreign energy of a god that filled the surroundings disappeared as the snow melted in the spring sun.

Afterward, Rom’s pure influence tingled and filled up intensely and thickly.

‘Now it’s time for a dedication.’

Although the strong energy of a star collapsing had caused some damage, the sea never completely evaporated. There was still more liquid in front of me than what I vaporized and caused to disappear.

The object to be dedicated to it was the sea itself.

I prayed. That time again, there was no need for a grand rite. I pointed my hand to the waving sea and spoke, briefly, with desire.

‘Great being of life. I dedicate the waters to you.’

A reaction came right back.

Booosh!

It was such an instantaneous transformation that it left an afterimage in my eyes.

The fluids that stretched all the way to the horizon had been turned into earth.

The water surface laid out so wide that it would have covered most of any common planet had disappeared without a trace.

The voice of a god who was very satisfied followed, coming from far away. Unlike how it used to embroider the air with sentences using blood-like fluids, it sent its voice directly in my head.

– I express my gratitude and respect to you, mortal.

A jubilant echo.

A vision unfolded in my head.

I was looking at a place filled with red aurora. It wasn’t a landscape of the ordinary material world. It was the mental world created by the divine being.

Standing in the middle of it and waiting for me was a creature with a head similar to a mountain goat, its body covered with scales all over. Eight humps were intertwined together in a bizarre form on its physique.

‘Rom!’

What I thought was an aurora was closer to a liquid. The Primordial Sea that I dedicated, the red waters. The god of life was submerged in it. The dry outer skin was moistened and tightly revived.

– You have returned my offspring.

Then a huge explanation that was hard to be transcribed into words permeated my mind.

Rom was a god who controlled the patterns of existence, from birth to growth to aging and death. Life, in other words, was a cycle.

However, when it was defeated and exiled in a war against the inhabitants of the void, it lost the power to create and sustain the cycle. The fundamental power of life it gifted to the mortal was lost by the deity that served as the very source of it.

– Now, I shall start the cycle again.

After saying so, Rom’s body began to collapse into small pieces.

It was breaking down from the tip of its body into specks of dust-like organic matter, but its mind was shedding a much-satisfied light.

‘Does that mean… it’s going to die?’

However, even after Rom returned to dust in the red sea, the divine power I felt and the deity of life didn’t disappear. Instead, it became stronger than before.

The reason was revealed through the subsequent events.

– I will be born again.

Life began to bloom in the sea.

Those things that began as small dust coalesced in a form similar to Rom just before death, with more intense vitality instilled within. Soon, countless descendants of Rom were born in the Primordial Sea. They swam leisurely and chattered among themselves.

Only then did I realize the true meaning of what Rom had lost and the deity’s true identity.

“You are…”

I voiced out my thoughts.

“The deity called Rom was not an entity, but a colony.”

Numerous of Rom’s offsprings were alike, yet different from the predecessors that had died and disappeared just then. They increased in numbers while inheriting divinity and memory. The expression of spreading rather than dividing was appropriate.

– That is so, mortal.

They answered with countless strands of mental waves. Those slightly differed in meaning from each other yet harmonized to create meaning.

The message, which was delivered with intense divine power, refreshingly filled my mind without confusion.

By turning over the grain, I could see how the world would change in the future. The consequence of Rom’s completion would be different from the instances of Igras-Sho and Aden. If the two gods’ revival only affected certain groups, such as wizards, warriors, and priests, Rom’s recovery would bring about a change for everyone alive.

As if to affirm my thoughts, the divine colony spoke to me once more with many voices, with a unified will.

– Mortal, the power that leads your evolution will become stronger from now on. The diversity of species will be expanded, and the vitality of the individual will be more intense. As a result, the speed at which life spreads will also accelerate.

That didn’t mean that death would disappear. The jurisdiction of Rom also included the extinction of life.

However, it meant the color that each life bore within had become more vivid. And within them would dwell stronger vitality.

– I offer you a reward.

Paht!

As soon as it finished speaking, something engraved in my soul reacted. It was the thing that I received when I first met Rom in the Tower of Choice, regardless of my will.

[Orb of Immortality (Rank: ???)]

-Item Description: It is a spiritual artifact that deviates from the constraints of the material world. If it’s coupled with the user’s soul, forced separation can cause severe damage to the astral body.

– The more the user reaps another life with its own hands, the more energy one charges inside the Orb. After charging it 100%, the user will be able to activate the item at any time.

– From the moment the item is activated, the user is freed from the circle of death.

– Beware that if the user dies while the item is not activated, this Orb will disappear naturally.