Chapter 478
The Magician waited leisurely.
Taesan was no longer in the labyrinth.
After speaking with Haphran, he had disappeared somewhere with him.
Most likely, they had gone to Haphran’s dead world. What they were doing there, even the Magician couldn’t tell unless he went himself.
‘What will he achieve?’
It had been a long time since he last felt this sense of anticipation—of facing the unknown.
A day passed. Then two. Eventually, a week.
And then, Taesan reappeared in the labyrinth alongside Haphran.
He immediately descended once more.
The Magician quietly waited, and before long, Taesan appeared.
The Magician smiled.
The Taesan who returned was no longer the same as before.
The power within him was calm and settled. Every force inside him was perfectly controlled.
“How do you feel?”
“Not bad.”
Taesan looked at the Magician.
“You wanted me to realize it myself.”
“I don’t understand you,” the Magician said.
“Not just me—none of the other Transcendents do. Perhaps the Old Gods might know something, but they would never answer. In the end, you’ll walk your own path.”
A realm unlike anyone else’s—Taesan’s and Taesan’s alone.
“You had to understand yourself. That was the purpose of this quest. It seems you’ve achieved a decent result.”
“Maybe not to the level you hoped, but I’m satisfied enough.”
Taesan had realized that he had been twisted from the very beginning.
It was an understanding of his very foundation.
And at that moment, something inside him had changed.
The greatest shift was in his mastery and comprehension of [Black] and the boundary line.
Now, he could do what he never could before.
Taesan opened his inventory, and the Magician’s eyes widened.
“That’s…”
In Taesan’s hands were crystallized divine blood and the Drop of Blood of the World Breaker.
“They’ve been refined.”
The two materials maintained a perfectly stable state.
Taesan had no skill in blacksmithing, so there was only one explanation.
“Haphran must’ve worked himself to death, then?”
“He did more than enough.”
Though Taesan often treated Haphran as a tool, both materials were far beyond his level. By the time he finished refining them, he was half-dead.
But his eyes had shone brighter than ever.
He had touched something beyond his limits—and satisfied, he went to take a long overdue rest.
The Magician smiled.
“So? What are you planning to do with it? Make a piece of equipment? Use it for your bracers?”
Taesan shook his head.
He had no intention of using them so simply.
Crystallized divine blood and the blood of the World Breaker—
He had handled them before, but what to create with them had always been the problem.
They were far too high in grade for ordinary equipment.
He wanted to use them more effectively.
And now, he had found the way.
Taesan brought his hands together. The divine blood crystal and the World Breaker’s Drop of Blood met.
[You have activated Domain of Chaos.]
Taesan’s domain of chaos unfolded into reality. The laws of the world twisted and collapsed.
He struck his hands together.
The divine blood and the Drop of Blood shattered, beginning to merge.
A massive recoil burst out.
His entire body trembled violently.
Without the Domain of Chaos, that shock alone might have left him on the brink of death.
Grrraaaagh!
The Drop of Blood howled like a beast, trying to devour the divine blood.
The divine blood refused to yield—exploding with its own force to crush and erase the Drop of Blood.
Two completely opposing powers clashed, rejecting one another as their energy swelled.
Taesan suppressed the backlash.
The Magician watched with an intrigued expression.
The two materials were indeed powerful, but with Taesan’s current strength, he could keep them under control. Impressive, but not unthinkable.
“…Hmm?”
Then, as he watched, the Magician realized something.
What Taesan was doing was not what he had assumed.
Taesan opened his inventory again.
He pulled out numerous materials and placed them into his bracers.
The bracers opened as if waiting.
[You have activated Partial World Alteration.]
The laws of the world twisted.
The Domain of Chaos grew stronger.
Taesan continued to restrain the divine blood and the Drop of Blood, which fought to reject one another.
Kuuuung!
The tremendous backlash struck him.
Both materials roared—wild, raging to break free from every restraint like beasts yearning for freedom.
Such violent resistance would never occur if he were simply mixing them.
Then the Magician understood what Taesan was truly attempting.
“Harmony?”
Taesan wasn’t merely trying to blend the divine blood and the Drop of Blood.
He was trying to make them ‘coexist’—in perfect balance, like yin and yang.
The Magician’s eyes widened in disbelief.
“That’s impossible.”
Divinity and [Black] could never become one.
Either divinity would consume and erase [Black], or [Black] would corrupt and stain divinity.
Those were the only two outcomes.
They were, in essence, like fire and water.
Only Taesan had ever been able to merge those opposites to create the boundary line.
The boundary line was something entirely new—containing traces of both yet belonging to neither.
But now, Taesan was trying to unite the divine blood and the Drop of Blood while keeping their identities intact.
He sought to achieve harmony without destroying the concepts of fire and water themselves.
That wasn’t something achievable by twisting or breaking laws.
He would have to create an entirely new one.
Taesan’s gaze was calm and steady.
He knew exactly what he was attempting.
He wasn’t crushing or overpowering their individuality.
He was allowing both to retain their essence and unite as one.
Until now, he had never believed such a thing was possible.
The boundary line could destroy, collapse, and corrupt laws.
It could exclude the world’s systems entirely.
But even that wasn’t unique to the boundary line.
[Black] energy of the Old Gods could also break and corrupt laws.
Using the boundary line merely made it more potent and efficient—but not fundamentally different.
‘The boundary line lies between worlds.’
It was power born from blending the laws of the world with those outside it—allowing both to coexist to form something new.
The potential had always been there.
The boundary line could sever the connection between an Old God and their avatar.
It could purify a corrupted goddess.
Both were impossible feats for either a Transcendent or an Old God alone.
The boundary line’s role wasn’t merely destruction or collapse.
That was only one part of its nature.
Its true role was transformation, intervention, and mediation.
Kugugugung!
The Domain of Chaos compressed even further.
The vast gray realm of the labyrinth was condensed into a sphere small enough to fit in Taesan’s hand.
The Magician’s eyes widened in shock.
The collapsing, chaotic domain was changing.
The laws weren’t breaking anymore—
They were ‘transforming.’
The divine blood and the Drop of Blood, which had been tearing at each other, gradually calmed.
Then, they began to harmonize.
Like a yin-yang symbol, they joined seamlessly—no resistance, no conflict—as though they had always been one.
“This is…”
The Magician’s voice trembled.
The powers of a Transcendent and an Old God could never merge.
They were destined to eternally reject one another.
That was one of the fundamental laws of the world.
Even the boundary line only broke laws—it could never change them.
But within that domain—
The law itself had changed.
The rule of rejection had transformed into a rule of harmony.
Taesan reached out toward the two now perfectly united materials.
[You have activated Fragmentation.]
Energy flowed out from within him—it was a part of his own essence.
That power infused itself into the fused materials.
Taesan compressed them together into one.
Kagagagak!
With a grinding sound, the unified mass took form—a smooth, polished sphere.
Kuuung!
The Domain of Chaos dissipated. His divinity and black energy were completely spent.
But he had achieved his goal.
Taesan looked down at his palm.
There lay a sphere of color beyond description.
[You have created ———.]
[———]
The system window showed nothing.
But Taesan knew exactly what it was.
No equipment in existence could be crafted from this material.
No substance or concept could merge with it.
To add anything to it would break its harmony.
There was only one vessel that could accept it.
Taesan clenched his fist and exerted strength.
Kaaaang!
The sphere shattered. The power within it flowed into him.
There was no resistance—he had used Fragmentation precisely for this purpose.
To embed a piece of himself into it, to make it his own.
The harmonized divine blood and the World Breaker’s blood seeped into his body.
Thump.
His heart beat once.
The perfectly balanced power spread through his veins and across his body.
In the end, his true foundational powers were divinity and black energy—not the boundary line.
The boundary line was simply their result.
So he had used his newfound understanding of the boundary line to harmonize both materials, amplify them, and merge them into his own flesh.
It was his goal—and his success.
Divine blood filled his body, while [Black] energy flowed through where divinity could not reach.
They supported and amplified each other without end.
The powers of both a Transcendent and an Old God now resided within him.
His body detached from the world’s laws, transforming into something wholly his own.
Taesan could feel it. His body was advancing into an entirely new domain.
He had once reached transcendence through divinity, elevating his body and essence to match.
But that alone had not been enough.
Divinity had only forced the weaker parts to rise to its level. His body and essence had been powerful—but unbalanced and distorted.
Now, his body surpassed that final wall, stepping into a realm of true greatness.
[Mastery of [Black] has increased by 11%.]
[Mastery of Divinity has increased by @#%!]
[Mastery of Immutable Self has increased by !#$#.]
[Mastery of Boundary Line has increased by -$##.]
[Special Activation Skill [Apostle Transformation: Chaos Stained in Black] has evolved into [Call of Chaos].]
[You have obtained [Vessel of ——].]