Chapter 496
[Story. Not bad. Once I crush you and reach beyond!]
Remidaos raised his arm. Divine power gathered at his fingertips, rippling with holy energy.
Kiiiiing—
The condensed divinity became a dot. The dot stretched into a line, and the line expanded into a surface.
That surface of divine power charged straight toward Taesan.
It filled the space, shattering everything in its path. Taesan swiftly leaped aside. A sharp, murderous sensation brushed past him.
Remidaos’s assault didn’t stop there. Drawing a curve with his arm, the divine energy followed the motion, chasing after Taesan.
“Tch.”
Taesan clicked his tongue and pushed harder with his legs. He activated his speed-related skills to escape the divinity pursuing him.
Kiiiiiing!
The divine power tore through the universe. Space itself ripped apart as the elements within its range were annihilated.
Kagagagak!
No matter how fast he moved, he couldn’t outpace a fingertip. The divinity grazed Taesan’s back, shaking his [Self] violently.
[You have activated Restricted Blink.]
Ttak.
Taesan leaped through space, escaping the attack completely. Remidaos let out an impressed murmur.
[Fast. Quite fast.]
Taesan smirked.
‘That’s an absurd way to use divinity.’
The way Remidaos manipulated divinity just now reminded him of the authority of the Immortal Wizard Wirad from Zervand’s Magic Tower. Points, lines, and planes—it was similar, yet far more powerful.
Had he been caught in that trajectory, even a devout faith god would have been obliterated. That power could erase an entire planet without leaving a speck of dust.
Taesan couldn’t handle divinity that way—not because of skill, but because he simply lacked the sheer amount of divine power.
And yet, despite using such immense divinity, Remidaos showed no sign of exhaustion.
It was like watching a game character with cheats enabled, casting spells without limit. Remidaos raised his arm once more.
[Then how about this.]
Kiiing—
Above Taesan, divine power gathered.
It condensed into golden pillars that rained down, numbering in the hundreds.
Taesan immediately analyzed their trajectories and darted through the smallest gaps between them.
Remidaos lifted his arm again, forming a massive divine spear and hurling it at Taesan. The edge of Taesan’s sword was dyed with the [Boundary Line].
The gray blade clashed with the colossal divinity.
Kugugugung!
Compared to Remidaos’s attack, the Boundary Line looked like a mere toothpick. Yet it did not yield—it pushed back.
Taesan strengthened his grip, and the condensed Boundary Line detonated.
Kwaaaaaang!
The divinity shattered, its fragments scattering into the void. The skies of the planets within Remidaos’s influence turned radiant gold.
It was a divine, awe-inspiring sight—something one might only witness once in eternity. Yet no one watching felt wonder. They simply bowed their heads in fear.
They no longer wished to see or hear. But the image of Remidaos was seared into their minds, impossible to erase.
Some wanted to end their own lives, unable to bear the terror—but none actually tried. Ironically, they feared Remidaos’s wrath even more.
To them, Remidaos was no longer a god.
He was something alien and distorted.
That emotion seeped into Remidaos. Unlike all the faith he had gathered before, this was something different—something new filling him from within.
Remidaos accepted it with pleasure.
[Hahahaha! Excellent!]
He swung his arm. A tremendous wave of divine power engulfed Taesan. Though Taesan moved, he couldn’t fully evade it.
Remidaos shouted, his tone feverish.
[You cannot defeat me! I am the strongest! Those who have not surpassed their tier can never reach me!]
“We’ll see about that.”
Taesan remained calm.
Remidaos was undeniably powerful. After all, he had received faith from countless planets for ages. His divine power was practically infinite.
He was a monster.
In terms of raw strength alone, even a Concept God would find him formidable.
‘But…’
His rank was still that of a Faith God.
He merely possessed immense divine power, nothing more.
[…Wait.]
Remidaos, lost in his own delusion, suddenly realized something.
Taesan had endured all his pressure without a single wound.
Only now did he notice it—the strange aura surrounding Taesan’s entire body.
His attacks couldn’t reach through it.
[That…]
“You’re a monster. It’s true—no one below a Concept God could defeat you.”
Gray light spread around Taesan.
“But the same goes for me.”
Taesan, though only a fragment of his true self and once a comrade of transcendents, had defeated an Old God before. It wasn’t a true or complete battle, but a victory nonetheless.
His opponent was undeniably strong.
But still, Remidaos was bound within the line. He hadn’t stepped beyond it.
And Taesan wielded a power that existed beyond that line.
“I’ve analyzed it all.”
He had seen how Remidaos handled his divinity. That was enough. Now, Taesan would go all out.
[You have activated Call of Chaos.]
Chaos cloaked Taesan’s body.
—
The unnatural gray hue made Remidaos instinctively retreat. His divinity wavered with confusion.
From that reaction, Taesan confirmed something.
“So you know about the Boundary Line—but not this.”
Remidaos didn’t understand the domain of Chaos that surrounded Taesan.
“I don’t know who told you about me, but it seems they only knew the old version of me.”
Taesan steadied his sword and kicked off the void, rushing at Remidaos in an instant.
Remidaos quickly recovered and retaliated, launching waves of condensed divinity toward him.
But Taesan didn’t dodge. He charged straight in. The divinity collided with the gray aura—
[What!]
Remidaos shouted. His divine power, upon clashing with Chaos, couldn’t penetrate—it simply vanished.
The gray surrounding Taesan wasn’t just the Boundary Line. It was the compressed domain of Chaos, restricted to his body—power beyond the line itself.
No matter how dense or pure the divinity, breaking through that was nearly impossible.
Taesan reached Remidaos in a flash. The god raised his arm.
Kuuuuung!
A divine barrier formed, separating them. Taesan poured strength into his blade.
Kwaaaaaang!
The barrier shattered. Remidaos, caught off guard, failed to react in time. Taesan’s sword clashed against his divine shield.
Kagagagak!
The divine armor distorted under the grinding pressure.
Remidaos clenched his teeth and unleashed all his divinity, shaking the very fabric of space. For a moment, the [Call of Chaos] around Taesan was peeled away.
Kaaaang!
Taesan was pushed back. Remidaos seized the moment to widen the distance.
[What in the world…?]
Remidaos gritted his teeth.
Their blades had crossed for only a heartbeat, yet his inexhaustible divinity had clearly diminished.
He was shocked—and Taesan, for a different reason, was surprised as well.
‘Even after colliding head-on with [Call of Chaos], it only decreased slightly…’
[Call of Chaos] was a power beyond that realm. Ordinary divinity should’ve been erased on contact. Yet Remidaos’s divinity endured.
It meant his divine power was so immense that even Chaos couldn’t erase it instantly.
‘This will take a while.’
Taesan dashed forward again.
[Die.]
A low growl accompanied an explosion of divinity. It was enough to envelop the universe itself.
Compared to that vastness, Taesan’s Chaos was like a firefly.
Divinity blanketed the cosmos and collided with Chaos.
Kugugugung!
But it still couldn’t pierce through. Though it trembled and warped, Taesan held firm.
Simple power couldn’t break through [Call of Chaos]. It disrupted concepts themselves—only an equal or higher conceptual force could overcome it.
Yet Remidaos was still a Faith God.
No matter how vast his divinity, his rank did not change.
Kwagagang!
Taesan advanced, channeling both gray magic and Black Magic. The world trembled.
Remidaos summoned divinity to counter, but the difference in rank made him falter.
Kwadudeuk.
Taesan landed another strike.
His divinity diminished further. Roaring in fury, Remidaos’s rage shook the cosmos.
[How dare you! How dare you! How dare you!]
Taesan smiled. The angrier he became, the better. Rage clouded reason.
But Remidaos wasn’t a fool.
He was one who had gathered faith from ten planets and ascended through sheer will. A fool could never reach such a place.
Even as he raged, his mind was working.
‘He’s using power beyond me… but not perfectly.’
If Taesan had mastered it completely, Remidaos would already be dead.
‘So his power lies beyond the line—but he himself doesn’t.’
He didn’t know how that was possible, but it made sense.
‘It’s the wielder that’s incomplete.’
Taesan’s rank wasn’t that of a full Faith God.
Then—
Remidaos manifested more divinity. It looked similar to before, yet entirely different.
The total mass and density of his divinity rose to the limit, gathering above his head. Taesan halted mid-rush, sensing it.
This was beyond anything before—a concentration that surpassed all limits. A divine brilliance as bright as the sun.
Kuuung!
It flew straight toward Taesan.
Instead of enduring, Taesan chose to evade. Seeing that, Remidaos grinned and clenched his fist.
Kwaaaaang!
The divinity exploded, engulfing Taesan.
The compressed divine power shook the universe, swallowing him whole. The [Call of Chaos] tried to withstand it but was stripped away. Cracks spread rapidly through his [Self].
The accumulated damage from blocking so much divine power reached its limit.
Jjjjjjeok!
[Self] shattered, and the aftershock struck Taesan directly.
[Your First Absolute Attack Nullification has activated.]
The attack vanished. Taesan immediately leaped out of the explosion’s radius.
‘He’s figured it out.’
Taesan’s [Boundary Line] and [Call of Chaos] were powers beyond this realm.
But Taesan himself was not yet even a true Faith God, much less a Concept God. Handling those forces consumed him greatly.
Until now, Remidaos had swung his divinity wildly. Without focus, he couldn’t pierce Chaos.
But if he concentrated it like that, he could.
In terms of rank, they might be equals—but even within the same rank, there were differences. Remidaos was a complete Faith God. Taesan was not.
The cost for Remidaos was far greater, but his divine reserves could endure it. It was a strategy only he could use.
[You will fall before me!]
“Not likely.”
Once again, power collided. Gray and gold clashed, shaking the universe.
And everyone on every planet watched.
“Ah…”
Remidaos had shut off all perception of the outside world to focus on Taesan.
The oppressive fury that had dominated their minds began to fade slightly.
Now, they could finally see him—the man fighting the god.
Taesan’s power was beyond their understanding, an alien gray that evoked instinctive fear.
And yet, he was standing against Remidaos.
He was fighting the being who had shattered their minds.
“Aah…”
People closed their eyes and clasped their hands.
Taesan was not the god they had once worshipped.
But that didn’t matter.
He was trying to defeat Remidaos. That alone was enough.
Their faith, once devoted to Remidaos, began to flow toward Taesan instead—
Faith not for a god named Remidaos, but for a man named Taesan.