Chapter 528
Taesan looked around. A world of dust that barely maintained its shape, where nothing could be felt.
“Is this your planet?”
“It was, once. It shone brilliantly, and it was filled with those who worshiped me. My apostles protected the planet from the outside, and my grace covered it. It was a place overflowing with happiness and joy, without a single soul who suffered.”
But that was a story from an unimaginably distant, long-ago past. Now, this place was completely dead.
“It’s bitter.”
Essential gave a bitter smile. Countless mortals who had worshiped him. Apostles he had personally baptized. All of them vanished without him realizing. How loudly had they screamed his name as they disappeared? Thinking of it made his heart ache.
But it was already over.
Essential’s face grew calm.
“There isn’t a single mortal who remembers me. It feels strange.”
“Are you sad?”
“I am sad. But, well, you can gather believers again. Apostles too. People naturally gather around the great. That part isn’t a problem.”
Essential grinned.
Essential was different from Levinenov or Akasha’s God. Essential was a god who governed the concept itself. To him, the faith of mortals was only a supplementary part.
If he wished, he could gather faith at any time and strengthen his Divinity.
There was no problem.
“Still, I didn’t expect you to come so soon. I told the Magician, but I thought it would take quite some time.”
“Is this the place?”
Essential had said that to see essence, he needed an altar and a sanctuary. But he didn’t know if it would be maintained, or if any mortals would remain.
This looked like the planet that contained that altar and sanctuary.
“It doesn’t look intact. Does it still remain?”
“It’s my sacred relic. As long as I don’t disappear, it won’t rust away under the flow of time. But… it has collapsed.”
Essential stamped his foot. Dust burst up, and the surroundings were revealed.
In Taesan’s sight, countless pillars and ornaments lay scattered across the ground.
“As you can see, it’s in this state. Won’t you help a little?”
“Do you need my help?”
“This is an altar and a sanctuary. It’s a structure for me. In other words, if I make it myself, the meaning of the altar and sanctuary becomes distorted.”
“That kind of issue exists?”
“Did someone else build it for me? Did I build it for myself? Or did I build it for those who worship me? Depending on each of those, many things you touch will change, so it’s good to be aware of it.”
“I see.”
In the end, it meant Taesan had to make the altar and sanctuary. Essential grinned.
“I’ll explain, so build it slowly. Ah. And you must build it directly using your body. If you use abilities, the meaning gets blurred.”
“That’s fairly annoying.”
“Concepts are born at the end of that annoyance.”
To learn his essence, he needed an altar and sanctuary anyway. Taesan lifted a pillar.
It wasn’t that difficult. Listening to Essential’s advice, he began building the altar and sanctuary little by little.
“You look like you have a lot on your mind.”
As the sanctuary gradually took shape, Essential asked Taesan.
“Have you thought a little more about yourself?”
“To some extent.”
Taesan lifted the pillar and swung it. A pillar larger than a mountain was lifted lightly and driven into the ground.
Taesan had grown strong and gained many experiences. He had even returned to Easy Mode, and though it wasn’t a complete state, he had fought and won against an Old god.
And through that process, he had learned many things about himself.
“There’s something inside me.”
What had been half suspicion was now certainty.
“And it’s probably an existence related to the Old gods.”
Taesan had felt a sense of alienness in Easy Mode. And familiarity as well. Easy Mode was a place created by the Old gods. There was no reason for him to feel familiarity.
When he brought down the Gatekeeper, something happened inside him. As if it were happy, it stole the Gatekeeper’s power. As if it had always belonged to him.
And Forced Attainment.
At the time, there was no Black inside him. He had scraped it down to the very bottom, and all that remained were fragments that couldn’t even form a shape.
Forced Attainment does not make the impossible happen. Normally, Black would not have flowed out. Taesan had expected that and planned to use another method immediately.
But Black flowed out.
More than he expected, and thicker.
It felt like he had dragged out something entirely different that had been inside him.
“So you want to know your essence because, in the end, you want to know that.”
“You’re not wrong.”
Taesan answered while continuing the construction. It began to take on a complete form.
Staring at Taesan, Essential opened his mouth.
“I saw what’s inside you.”
Taesan’s body paused slightly. Essential continued calmly.
“I’m sorry to say this, but I couldn’t resist my curiosity. Without you noticing, I tried to see your essence. I’m sorry.”
“…It’s fine.”
He considered protesting, but it was meaningless. He had half expected it. A being called God of Essence would never not be curious about his essence.
Essential would naturally learn it anyway, so Taesan didn’t mind.
“Still, thank you. Either way, I became curious after hearing you. Curious about you as an existence.”
You are clearly an existence of this world.
Yet you handle power from the Beyond, merge it, and can create distorted concepts.
To Essential, Taesan was an inexplicable existence. That was why he couldn’t hold back and tried to peer into him.
“But something inside you drove me out.”
Taesan’s eyebrow twitched.
“Your inner self was twisted. Broken and wrong. And something was inside it. That thing, regardless of your will, drove out and denied me when I tried to read your inner self.”
Rumble.
The altar and sanctuary took on more and more shape.
“Whatever is inside you, at least it has nothing to do with your will. If you had noticed, you could have driven me out immediately when I tried to read your essence. Because that is ultimately your essence. Others can’t just see it. But the one who drove me out was not you.”
It was something else within Taesan.
“Do you know what that means?”
“…I don’t.”
“It means what’s inside you is something with a rank high enough to drive me out.”
Taesan looked at Essential. The gaze that pierced essence was directed at him.
God of Essence. Essential.
The only one who could stop him from reading the inner self was the person himself. Anything else was impossible.
For it to be possible, the opponent would have to be an existence equal to the God of Essence, or higher.
Rumble.
The final piece was fitted into place.
“It’s complete.”
Essential rose from his seat.
“Then let’s begin.”
Essential entered the sanctuary. In the middle floated a mirror the size of a person, suspended in the air.
“I am the God of Essence. I govern the very concept called the essence of the universe. Even if you’re a Transcender, if you show me your essence yourself, I can see everything.”
That was the concept given to Essential. An authority that a Transcender permitted to rule the concept of essence could naturally wield.
“But you are impossible.”
A fingertip pointed at Taesan.
“You can’t be read in that way. Because there is something alien inside you. It denies my intervention. Since it is sleeping inside you, I can’t forcefully resolve it either.”
“…Then?”
“That’s why the altar and sanctuary are needed.”
Essential clapped his hands. The altar that had slept for a long time began to operate according to its owner’s will.
Kiiiiiiing!
“I can’t resolve your essence for you. I only provide the place and the possibility. What is inside you, and what relationship it has with you—you must figure it out yourself.”
Tap.
A finger snapped. The altar and sanctuary resonated, amplifying Essential’s authority.
“What I will do to you now is the same trial I used to give my apostles. You must vomit out your own mental image and shatter the trembling of your heart by yourself. Of course, for you, that kind of trembling won’t exist.”
For an existence that had reached transcendence, there was no trembling about oneself. If such a thing existed, it would be nearly impossible to reach transcendence at all, even if the realm was reached through faith.
“What you must shatter is your mental image.”
Taesan’s eyes sank. Essential clenched his fist.
“Place the mirror behind you, loosen your entire body, and don’t resist.”
The authority gathered in his fist covered Taesan.
At the same time, Taesan’s essence was revealed to the world.
Rumble.
It was enormous. A gigantic mental image, too vast for a single world to contain, burst forth. And it was sucked into the mirror.
“Ugh—”
o •
Essential’s face hardened. It was bigger and darker than he expected. Essential quickly swept his hand. In an instant, the inside of the mirror expanded hundreds of times.
Dense, dense—something that didn’t look like it belonged to this world was drawn into the mirror.
Taesan felt a very strange sensation. It felt like something of his was being pulled out.
And at that moment—
[Stop.]
A voice rang out. This time, Taesan could hear it clearly.
Somewhere languid, yet greedy. And also as if exhausted. The voice of an old, seasoned man.
Krrrk.
Black exploded. It lashed out in all directions, trying to exclude. Trying to trample and shatter the inner self being vomited out.
“Ha ha ha ha!”
And Essential greeted it with manic laughter.
“So you came out! You unknown thing! You got me last time, but not now!”
Essential raised both fists and swung them down.
Rumbleeeee!
It was an authority over essence itself. Resonating with the sanctuary, it trampled and subdued the resisting distortion.
“Stay buried!”
Essential brought both hands together and smashed down. He completely crushed the resistance and shoved it into the mirror.
“Whew!”
With a refreshed face, Essential dusted off his hands.
“That was clean. It’s been bothering me since last time.”
“…It feels strange.”
It felt like his insides had been hollowed out. Something that had filled him was gone.
“Your entire mental image is inside that mirror. If you wish, you can retrieve it anytime. As long as there’s no interfering existence.”
Taesan looked at the mirror.
Inside was filled with grayness. Essential jerked his chin.
“Go in. And confirm with your own eyes. What is inside you. And what you are made of.”
Taesan stepped forward. The mirror swallowed Taesan’s body.