Chapter 117
[Synchronization Rate 600%!]
[Warning. Excessively high synchronization with a summon causes ‘mental corruption’!]
As time passed and the battle continued, the synchronization rate climbed steeply.
Mana consumption decreased, but his mind began to ‘unify’ with the summoned being.
However, as a side effect, Park Chan-woo was experiencing severe ‘mental corruption.’
Mental corruption.
Literally, being tainted by the summon’s mind.
All summons called forth by a summoner were non-human, beings originating from the Abyss.
Born in—or having existed within—the Abyss, summons were bound to differ from humans in every way.
The problem was that to forcibly command a summon, a summoner had to delve to some extent into the realm of ‘mind’ and exert control.
—Become one.
Ajos faithfully followed the summoner’s command.
He released all control of himself and accepted Park Chan-woo’s mind.
Reaching into each other’s depths, they reproduced one another’s techniques even more perfectly.
Park Chan-woo’s swordsmanship.
His discipline as a warrior.
Even his noble and exalted spirit were inherited in full.
—The Lord’s technique surpasses mine.
Ajos was impressed.
He had originally been a warrior of Valhalla.
Though specialized in war and battle, though he had mastered the arts of killing, even among warriors his erudition in arms had been exceptional.
Yet Park Chan-woo’s swordsmanship was even more systematic.
A blade rigorously honed so the weak could defeat the strong.
He never gave up, filled in his shortcomings, and advanced relentlessly.
He had no unusual gifts or talents, but he overcame that with effort.
A single sword that had been endlessly struck, abraded, and sharpened down.
Thus—
—I will learn. The Lord’s technique, the Lord’s spirit.
Ajos was moved.
To hew a path and walk it oneself.
Not a simple shortcut, but a method tailored for survival.
Ajos wished to be even more inspired by his spirit, by his soul.
[Synchronization Rate 700%!]
They become one.
The minds of Park Chan-woo and Ajos tangled together as one before anyone realized.
Their minds soon reached into the realm of the soul.
The pattern of their Inherent Mana trembled finely and fused thicker.
Then, mana consumption vanished.
Because the summoner and the summon had become purely one.
Beyond the realm of summoning, they achieved utter oneness.
All thoughts, all will, and all actions became one.
[Synchronization Rate 800%!]
Going deeper still, they finally reached the abyss, the deepest layer.
—You would become one with me? Foolish.
Then ‘Charpham’ awakened.
That vast negative being that could awaken only by replacing the host opened its eyes.
Become one.
Synchronize.
There was no way Charpham wouldn’t understand what that meant.
This was not a degree of corruption a human could endure.
No matter that Park Chan-woo was the bearer of the Grail of the Demon-Sealing God, the mind and soul had their limits.
Ajos, having always been loyal, having been reborn through ‘magic,’ might feel no rejection.
But Charpham was different.
—I have already repaid my debt. Did I not kill Khan for you?
He had repaid the grace of being taken out of the Grail of the Demon-Sealing God.
Without him, Park Chan-woo would never have slain ‘Conqueror Khan.’
Of course, he had sensed it before, but to think he would be this foolish.
Becoming one and suffering ‘mental corruption’ was beyond Charpham’s control.
Even if Charpham yielded, the moment they connected deeply, Park Chan-woo would be corrupted by Charpham’s soul and become something else entirely.
—Cease.
Charpham rejected the fusion of minds.
The feeling of mixing with someone else was far from pleasant.
Moreover, if Park Chan-woo’s mind were corrupted, there was no telling what he would become.
Charpham was born at the boundary of dimensions.
He was the White Whale Charpham, the Great Calamity Beast.
He would likely become something halfway between Ajos—reborn as the shadow of a dimension—and Charpham—who wandered the boundary of dimensions.
In other words—
—You will become a demon, you.
What lay in between could only be the demons of the Abyss.
The dense shadow of the Abyss.
Ravenous beasts haunting the Abyss.
—Why won’t you give up? It’s just a single loss, is it not?
Charpham could not comprehend Park Chan-woo’s motive.
Even if he were defeated here in the Abyss, could that truly be called his defeat?
At worst, he would lose the ‘Champion’s’ seat.
He could simply become stronger and reclaim it later.
And yet Park Chan-woo would not yield.
He would not allow even a single defeat.
Why?
He would not die; it would not even be Park Chan-woo’s defeat.
He was merely moving by borrowing the body of a summon!
[Synchronization Rate 900%!]
—I told you to stop. Wretch!
It pushes in. Minds intermingle.
It was utterly unpleasant, uncomfortable, revolting, and infuriating.
Never before had there been a lunatic who dared to intrude upon Charpham’s mind.
Neither ‘that one’ who sealed him in the Grail of the Demon-Sealing God nor the Demon-Sealing God itself could intrude upon Charpham’s mind.
Yet via the medium of Ajos, this deranged creature was attempting to intrude.
Madness?
Surely he knew how catastrophic mental corruption was.
How could a so-called mage stake his mind and soul merely to avert a single loss?
At the same time, the White Whale Charpham understood.
As Park Chan-woo’s mind blended little by little, he came to know why.
—You will never back down again? You hate it that much? Defeat, and looking back?
It was simply indomitability.
Unbending, undefeated, stubbornly advancing.
Park Chan-woo’s mind was fixed on that alone.
As if he were trying to set right a life that had been busy running away through countless regrets.
He did not know.
To Charpham’s perception, Park Chan-woo’s life had no great turning points.
Even compared to other humans, he stood at the summit; he could have everything—so why was his regret so deep?
All or nothing.
Park Chan-woo’s mind and mode of action were extreme.
Abnormal.
Bizarre and out of joint.
So much so that even the White Whale Charpham clicked his tongue.
—Madman.
Perhaps that was why.
Because he saw someone as abnormal as himself.
Grin!
—……I like you a little.
Charpham smiled.
The one who could not accept his difference, who sealed Charpham in the Grail of the Demon-Sealing God.
To preempt the danger of a dimension-devouring Great Calamity Beast, he imprisoned him forever.
So long had he been confined that most memories had faded, but ‘that one’ he could not forget.
The one who despised, persecuted, and hated him for the sole reason that he was a Great Calamity Beast.
But what was this creature?
Park Chan-woo. This one did not care about Charpham.
He simply did not factor him in.
His goal was one and only one.
Victory!
Had there ever been such a creature who became the master of the Grail?
…He could assert there had not.
—Very well. Rampage as you please. Whether your mind is corrupted or your soul falls, I shall not care either!
All the more, he liked him.
Because he was thoroughly mad.
Charpham widened his mental domain.
He opened the door and accepted Park Chan-woo.
In that instant—
[Synchronization Rate 1,000%!]
[A miraculous synchronization rate has been achieved.]
[You acquire the unique dimensional magic of the Dimensional Interloper, White Whale Charpham: ‘Dimensional Grand Glacier’.]
[Park Chan-woo’s mind has been corrupted by the summon!]
—
A kindred being.
Like himself, one who had fallen and become Half-Human, Half-Demon.
“Tas…ty.”
His mouth watered.
He knew it instinctively.
Though endlessly terrifying, if he ate that thing, he would evolve.
He would become stronger.
Balzac was excited.
Since becoming Half-Human, Half-Demon, he had been plagued by boundless hunger.
No matter how many Incarnations he ate, his belly never filled.
But now, at last, he felt he would not be hungry.
[The match between Half-Human, Half-Demon Balzac and Champion Nameless Man begins!]
The match began.
The last, final bout.
Nameless Man had shown overwhelming victories against more than 150 adversaries.
However, Balzac had grown stronger each time those sacrifices died.
Not mere brainwashing, but devouring the very deaths of the Incarnations.
This fight, his victory—
Sliiice!
“Hm……?”
His skin split.
In an instant, in the time of a blink.
Something sharp had brushed past him.
Balzac’s neck was half severed.
Then—
[Curse ‘Chain Damage’ activates.]
[Magic ‘Immediate Healing’ activates.]
His curse—a power tantamount to an authority—Chain Damage took effect.
And ‘Immediate Healing’ activated, swiftly closing the wound.
An attack that failed to sever the windpipe was nothing but a shackle.
“Die…”
Balzac was certain of victory.
The foe’s blade had not touched his life.
Conversely, his curse had touched the foe.
Sliiice!
Nameless Man—
No, a long gash opened across Park Chan-woo’s neck and his skin began to split.
The body linked to Ajos’s shadow suffered identical damage.
However—
Sssrk!
[‘Super Regeneration (Passive, Rare)’ activates.]
In the blink of an eye, the wound closed and vanished.
At 1,000% synchronization, what they shared was not only technique.
Park Chan-woo’s magic was manifesting as well.
‘A healing magic like mine?’
Balzac tilted his head.
No healing magic could surpass Immediate Healing.
Yet the breadth and speed of that restoration!
Snap—!
Balzac was flustered.
It wasn’t that he couldn’t see.
It wasn’t that he couldn’t cope at all.
But it was far too fast.
He could not respond.
Balzac’s skin was sliced, muscle laid bare, bone severed.
[Curse ‘Chain Damage’ activates.]
[Magic ‘Immediate Healing’ activates.]
[Curse ‘Chain Damage’ activates.]
[Magic ‘Immediate Healing’ activates.]
[Curse ‘Chain Damage’ activates.]
[Magic ‘Immediate Healing’ activates.]
An endless loop.
However, healing had a limit.
Scars remained from the treatment.
It never closed perfectly without a trace.
That was why Balzac’s whole body was covered in marks.
But—
‘That one’s magic isn’t healing. It’s regeneration!’
The foe’s magic was not healing.
Park Chan-woo’s magic was ‘Super Regeneration (Passive, Rare).’
Literally regenerating to restore cleanly.
A concept one tier above healing.
‘I’m collapsing. The speed of healing can’t keep up.’
Balzac’s body sounded an alarm.
Countless ‘lives’ he had devoured were flickering out.
It seemed he could not take the foe down by conventional means.
[By offering the lives of 100, you invoke the great-curse domain magic ‘Life Distortion’!]
Haaaaaaa!
From Balzac’s entire body, the life and souls of many Incarnations drained away.
In the shape of skulls, a ‘domain magic’ unfolded around him in an instant.
Sssk!
Ssssssk!
Countless hands rising from the entire domain seized Park Chan-woo’s ankles.
“Got… you.”
The rat-quick movements halted.
At last, he’d caught him.
A domain magic underwritten by a hundred deaths.
Within this domain, no existence could move without his permission.
Now, he finally felt he could feast on him.
Flaaap!
Balzac’s cloak flared.
At once, countless ‘tentacles’ lunged for their prey.
But—
Craack!
Craack!
The tentacles that neared Park Chan-woo—
As if by prearranged signal, began to freeze.
And not only that.
“What……?”
It was being covered.
His domain.
The grand-curse shrouding the domain—
Was being replaced by another domain magic.
A domain paid for with a hundred Incarnations—how?
Craaack!
The domain itself began to freeze.
And then—
[The White Whale’s unique domain ‘Dimensional Grand Glacier’ unfolds.]
Charpham’s domain— the world of the White Whale—was revealed.