Chapter 523
Damn it.
Taesan arrived somewhere other than Earth.
The place he had moved to was the Labyrinth.
“Huh?”
Before long, the Magician appeared, bewilderment written across his face.
“The Earth quest isn’t over yet. What’s this? Why are you back already?”
“There’s something I want to ask.”
Taesan spoke.
“Who is the god in charge of the Discs?”
“Hm?”
The sudden question briefly flustered the Magician. He didn’t understand Taesan’s intent.
But only for a moment. The Magician answered right away.
“The God of Purification. Bright.”
“Purification, huh.”
“He isn’t a particularly strong god. Among the Transcenders who govern concepts, he’s one of the weakest. But when it comes to purifying the corrupt and broken, no one in this universe surpasses him.”
The corrupt and broken included Black as well.
“He’s one of our precious cards. Bright expended a great deal of power when confronting the Old Gods. And he still is. He’s taking care of massive pollution that could affect the entire universe.”
The Magician raised a finger. Its tip pointed at Taesan.
“Your world is one of them.”
Pollution that could threaten the entire universe.
Earth was among those worlds.
“An ordinary world can be purified with just one of Bright’s Sacred Relics. But the pollution in your world is too great. Even after using four Sacred Relics, it still takes a considerable amount of time.”
“Is that why we have to hold out?”
“It would be easier if Bright descended directly to Earth, but that’s far too dangerous. Most gods who govern such concepts died in past wars. We must protect him at all costs.”
The God of Purification. Bright.
The owner of the Sacred Relics.
Taesan fell into thought. This time, the Magician asked his own question.
“But why ask that? Isn’t it almost time for the cleanup to be finished?”
“There’s something that’s been bothering me.”
That intuition he couldn’t quite put into words.
Taesan asked again.
“Is Bright in a safe place?”
“He’s in the safest place in the universe.”
The Magician answered as if it were obvious.
“Even if the Ancient God himself descended, he wouldn’t be able to do anything to Bright. You don’t need to worry about that.”
“…I see.”
After a brief pause, Taesan nodded.
“I understand.”
“You seem troubled.”
The Magician narrowed his eyes.
“When you reach the level of a Transcender, ominous intuition tends to be surprisingly accurate. If you’re that concerned, I should check as well.”
“Please do.”
Taesan returned to Earth.
Nothing major had happened in his absence. The monsters were still manageable even without him, and there were no serious issues.
Time continued to pass.
And without incident, the final day arrived.
KIIIIING!
The pillar of light was finally about to completely cover the Rift in the sky. Monsters began to fall through the tiny remaining gap.
“Everyone, prepare!”
People tensed. The Ancient God’s final attack.
They were certain powerful monsters would appear.
And they weren’t wrong.
[Monster 1 has appeared.]
[Monster 4 has appeared.]
[Monster 6 has appeared.]
[Uwoooooooo!]
Several S-rank monsters revealed themselves, shaking the earth with their roars.
But that was all.
Nothing beyond S-rank monsters appeared. No Fragment, no Splinter—let alone an Apostle.
Most of the players were ready to fight for their lives, but those who knew of the existences beyond that were bewildered.
“Is that… all?”
KRAKOOM!
The battle didn’t last long. Lee Taeyeon and Diana could each defeat S-ranks on their own. Without Taesan even needing to step in, all the S-rank monsters were dealt with.
RRRRUMBLE!
And finally, the pillar of light covered the sky.
[Special Quest Complete.]
[You will return to the Labyrinth in two days.]
The quest was complete.
Joy spread across the people’s faces.
“Waaaaah!”
“We won!”
The Rift in the sky had been sealed.
They had won.
They had reclaimed Earth.
That was what everyone believed, and they rejoiced.
CRACK.
Cracks spread across the Discs.
Not just one.
All four Discs.
Cracks began to spread at a terrifying pace, accompanied by relentless cracking sounds.
“Wh-Wh-What?!”
The Guardians screamed and rushed toward the Discs.
“W-Wait!”
CRACKCRACKCRACK!
They desperately tried to stop the collapse, but it was pointless.
The cracks kept spreading.
And as the Discs began to break apart, the barrier of light confining the sky started to shake.
The people who had been cheering finally realized something was wrong.
“Huh?”
“What is it?”
“T-Taesan-nim!”
A Guardian ran to Taesan, face drained of color.
“Something’s wrong!”
Taesan approached the Discs.
CRACKCRACKCRACK!
The cracks had already spread across the entire surface.
Taesan grabbed the Disc and invoked Divinity. Golden light covered it.
CRACKCRACKCRACK!
But it wasn’t restored.
Taesan frowned.
What he poured into it was Divinity—the most basic power possessed by Transcenders. Even if it was a Sacred Relic belonging to another Transcender, it should have been restorable through Divinity.
But it didn’t work.
The Discs were slowly dying, like machines that had lost their power source.
“Has the link with the Transcender been severed?”
“N-No! That can’t be! These are Sacred Relics directly connected… Unless something happened to the Transcender himself…”
The Guardian’s face turned deathly white as he spoke.
There was only one meaning.
Something had happened to the owner of the Sacred Relics.
“N-No way… Bright-nim…”
“Tsk.”
Taesan clicked his tongue.
But he didn’t panic. Somewhere in his heart, he had expected this. He had been half-waiting for it.
‘So this is how it comes.’
CRACKCRACKCRACK!
The golden barrier surrounding the Rift collapsed.
With the balance broken, the Rift reopened.
“Huh?”
The people froze in confusion.
In an instant, the air changed.
It felt like a part of the world had been thrown to the other side. They instinctively shrank back, as if the atmosphere that had surrounded Earth had suddenly vanished.
Gurgle.
Something Black—like mud—began to pour from the Rift.
People could feel it instinctively.
The moment they touched that mud, they would no longer be able to exist as themselves.
A filthy thing that defiled and tainted everything.
A twisted substance that would pollute Earth itself, leaving no living being able to survive.
“Everyone, get away!”
Diana shouted, face pale.
They hurriedly tried to evacuate Greenland, but the Rift was too large. For Easy and Normal Mode players, escape was impossible.
Taesan gathered the Boundary Line.
Now that the balance was broken and the Rift had been breached, there was no reason to conserve it anymore. Gray ash condensed intensely.
He was about to detonate it and blow away the falling Black mud.
“Oh dear.”
A hand emerged as space tore open.
The Magician appeared, face twisted, and flicked his finger toward the sky.
KIIIIIIIIING!
A massive, intangible barrier manifested overhead.
Taesan could feel it.
That was the Labyrinth’s system.
The owner of the Labyrinth had forcibly dragged the system outside.
The Magician clenched his fist. As the barrier compressed, the Black mud was gathered into a single mass.
Then the Magician clapped his hands.
Space opened, and the barrier moved beyond it. All the falling Black mud vanished.
“Magician.”
“This is embarrassing.”
The Magician let out a hollow laugh, his face filled with sheer absurdity.
“You were right, Taesan. Something’s happened.”
“What happened?”
“It’s simple.”
The Magician shook his hand irritably.
“Bright is dead.”
The God of Purification.
The Transcender who had purified the Old God’s pollution that defiled the universe—an existence that had endured since the ancient wars.
He was dead.
Taesan frowned.
“Suddenly?”
The Magician had said Bright was in the safest place in the universe.
Even if the Ancient God himself descended, he wouldn’t be able to do anything to him.
And yet, Bright had died.
Moreover, Transcenders didn’t die easily. Look at the Goddess of Ainzlahr. Even after Levinenov lost her planet and was tainted by the Ancient God, she hadn’t disappeared.
Taesan had expected, at most, that the Sacred Relics would lose their power.
He didn’t expect death.
“Did several Old Gods descend?”
“I’d rather it be that.”
The Magician shook his head.
“I knew he accepted the concept he governed in a twisted way, but I never thought he’d choose that side. Has he truly gone insane?”
“…Choose that side?”
“Taesan. I believed your words. A Transcender’s intuition is usually correct. Since the Boundary Line was already strong, I reinforced it even further, preparing for any possible situation.”
A Boundary Line that even the Ancient God himself couldn’t reach Bright through.
The Magician’s face contorted.
“But you see… all those Boundary Lines were aimed at the Old Gods.”
He hadn’t been wary of anything else. The Magician sneered.
“Amazing. Even across the long history of the universe, there hasn’t been a Transcender of that level betraying this side. If his goal was to leave his name in history, then he succeeded brilliantly.”
“Who is it?”
“It’s a Transcender you know well, too.”
A Transcender Taesan knew.
One being flashed through his mind.
The Magician looked up at the sky.
“But it seems now isn’t the time to talk about that.”
The Rift in the sky was open.
And the being that had been restrained there was slowly beginning to reveal itself to the world through that opening.
“Unfortunately, we can’t intervene this time. It’s not that the other side used its power—it’s that the balance was distorted, and it’s crawling out through the gap.”
The Magician flicked his finger.
“Still, I can do this much.”
“Uh-oh?”
The people who stood frozen, unsure what to do, were teleported to the other side of the continent. The Magician’s Divine Power.
Then the Magician pressed a hand to the ground and lifted it.
KIIIIIIIIING!
An intangible barrier enveloped Greenland.
“Whatever happens inside here, it won’t affect Earth.”
“Thanks.”
“I hate asking you to clean up my mess, but… please.”
Taesan nodded. The Magician vanished.
Taesan looked up.
The thing that had been slowly revealing itself finally dropped down.
KWOooooooong!
The earth shook.
It was like a shadow.
Something material, yet not material, landed on the ground.
KUUUUUUUNG!
The earth was polluted. The ground couldn’t withstand it and corroded, twisting as it lost its original form.
If the Magician hadn’t erected a barrier, a part of the planet would have collapsed from the impact alone.
It was a being with that much power.
Taesan stared at his opponent.
Its shape was humanoid.
Its size was the same as Taesan’s. No larger than an ordinary human.
And the moment Taesan judged its level, he was certain.
‘Ancient God.’
Not a Fragment. Not a Splinter.
An Ancient God.
“This is just great.”
Of course, it didn’t look like a proper Ancient God.
It felt closer to the lowest of the Old Gods—barely clinging to the bottom rung.
So weak it was almost embarrassing to even call it an Ancient God.
But even so, an Ancient God was an Ancient God.
It was an opponent Taesan, as he was now, could never defeat.
[……Is this really going to work?]
[Master. That’s…]
Bardray and Akasha could feel it instinctively.
That this was a fundamentally different existence.
That if it truly set its mind to it, it could shake the universe on its own.
‘But.’
Taesan’s gaze sank.
The Ancient God before him wasn’t in a normal state.
Zzzzzzz.
Its shadow-made body—material yet not material—flickered unstably.
Bright’s death had disturbed the balance, creating a hole that allowed this thing to descend.
But it was too great an existence to pass through such a narrow opening.
So it had descended in an unstable state—infinitely inferior to its true self.
Only then did Taesan understand why the Ancient God had been trying to consume the Boundary Line.
To expand the Rift so the Gatekeeper’s true self could descend.
“So the Gatekeeper was going to descend from the start.”
If Taesan had kept consuming the Boundary Line and expanding the Rift as intended, an Ancient God far closer to its true self would have descended.
And Taesan would have died.
But it hadn’t happened.
Taesan had used only a speck of the Boundary Line.
At this level—even against an Ancient God—there was a chance.
More than anything, he still had a trump card he hadn’t used.
[The Gatekeeper of the Rift has appeared.]
[Special Quest Start.]
[?!$$%=€$#]
Even degraded, an Ancient God was still an Ancient God.
An opponent of a level he had never faced before.
Putting his life on the line, Taesan tightened his grip on his sword.