Chapter 531

               

A massive scar was etched into his mind. The Usurper, flung far away, couldn’t rise.

“I like it.”

The fact that he could shatter the [Boundary Line] in this way meant that no concept in any universe, no Divine Power of an Ancient God, could stop it.

Of course, if one prepared for simple [Physical Force] accordingly, perhaps it could be mitigated.

But in normal circumstances, it was an absolute trump card that couldn’t be blocked.

Taesan nodded in satisfaction.

The massive [Physical Force] shook his mind. The aftereffects blew away the contamination covering his mind.

But that was all.

The contamination in his mind was slowly returning to its original place.

Beyond it, he could see the Usurper staggering to his feet.

He couldn’t get up properly.

As if he had taken considerable damage, he faltered and fell several times. But eventually, he rose and flew toward Taesan again.

“Well. Figures.”

Taesan calmly accepted the fact.

[Physical Force] was definitely powerful.

If it hit directly, it could inflict serious damage even on a Transcender or an Ancient God.

But the opponent before him was himself.

As the source of the contamination that had permeated his mind itself, his attacks were difficult to inflict significant damage. [Physical Force] was a power separate from [Divinity Boost], but in the end, it was still a power he possessed.

He had already used his trump card, [Physical Force]. The [Boundary Line] was meaningless.

In reality, his chances of winning were close to zero.

‘What should I do?’

But Taesan felt nothing special.

The Usurper raised his arm. The [Boundary Line] rose again, trying to swallow Taesan.

Thud.

Taesan kicked off the ground.

He began to move through his mind at high speed, dodging the Usurper’s attacks.

Why couldn’t he defeat the Usurper?

The reason was simple. It had already perfectly latched onto his mind.

It tainted every corner, contaminating everything that was returning to normal, and eventually making it its own.

It was a kind of cancer cell.

He should have excised it early, but he hadn’t noticed until it had tainted his entire mind. It had already intertwined with the roots, making it impossible to deal with now.

Taesan thought of a way.

How could he win against the Usurper?

While dodging attacks, he quickly found dozens of answers.

As a result, the answer that came out was that there was no answer.

There was no way to deal with the contamination that had mixed with the very foundation he had built. Moreover, even the [Boundary Line] was being usurped now.

So what should he do?

Taesan came to a conclusion.

“Should I just keep it simple?”

Taesan stopped moving, as if he had given up. The Usurper, presuming on this appearance, smiled to himself.

[You are me. You are mine.]

“Cut the crap.”

He couldn’t win like this.

So Taesan decided to keep it simple.

Taesan closed his eyes. The Usurper, who had been rushing in with glee, paused.

The Usurper’s face hardened for the first time.

His mind was drifting away.

The connection with Taesan was forcibly severed. Everything he had built was fading away meaninglessly.

[You bastard.]

Kugugugugung!

Calmly, but clearly, his mind was collapsing.

[Wh- Wait.]

[Master?]

Bardray and Akasha, who had been watching anxiously, were horrified.

Taesan was abandoning what he had built.

[Master? This is.]

“I’m not throwing everything away. I’m throwing away what the me of my past life built.”

How could the Usurper grow and strengthen inside him and contaminate his mind?

It was because Taesan had reached a great realm in his past life.

The Usurper, clinging to it, defiled that realm and clung on, slowly increasing its power. In the end, the reason the Usurper, who originally had no meaning, could become so strong was thanks to the realm he had reached in his past life.

So he was throwing it away.

Kugugugung…….

The sound of collapse echoed quietly.

A single, vast world was collapsing.

“It doesn’t feel good.”

He had spent a very long time in easy mode.

A time so long that it couldn’t be compared to his current life, a time that would literally melt his mind.

During that time, Taesan had built up and reached many things. Without realizing it, his realm had climbed to a high place.

Perhaps a distorted power that could have reached the realm of Transcendence.

[Divinity Boost.]

He was now cutting it off with his own hands.

He felt a great sense of loss. A huge hole was pierced in a part of his mind.

[Don’t be ridiculous.]

The Usurper spat out and rushed in. Kang Taesan smiled and drew his sword.

Kaaang!

He blocked the attack. He created distance and activated magic.

[Great Collapse] flew toward the Usurper.

Dodging the attacks, Taesan muttered.

“You seem impatient?”

The biggest reason the Usurper could cling to him was [Divinity Boost]. If he cut that off, no matter how much of a Usurper he was, it would be difficult for him to interfere with Taesan any further.

The [Boundary Line] that wrapped around the Usurper’s entire body was gradually losing its power. It began to stop like a machine that had lost power.

Kigigigigik!

Taesan swung his sword with a smile. With the sound of a collision, the Usurper was pushed back for the first time.

[Don’t be. Ridiculous.]

The Usurper’s voice was stiff.

[You cannot abandon it. It is your foundation.]

“Well. You’re not wrong. That’s generally the case.”

For Taesan, [Divinity Boost] was a kind of destination.

It was everything that he had built in his past life.

It was fair to say that it was equivalent to the concepts that the Transcenders themselves controlled.

There would be far more people who would rather face death or choose to forget themselves than abandon it. A concept was something that a Transcender had achieved over a lifetime—something more precious than life itself.

“So what?”

But Taesan felt nothing special.

[Divinity Boost] was what he had built in his past life. A high and powerful realm.

The power to usurp and plunder countless powers was the most powerful card that had made the current Taesan possible.

So what was the point?

“I’ve already thrown everything away and come here.”

When he returned to the past, he lost all the skills he had acquired.

[Multiplication], [Addition], [Copy]. [Designated Skill Reset], [Last Chance], which he had not yet acquired.

Skills that even he was not sure he would be able to acquire again. In fact, there were quite a few skills that he had half given up on acquiring now.

But Taesan wasn’t so sad about it.

Because in the end, it was just a card.

[Divinity Boost] was the same. [Divinity Boost] was just one of the cards he had.

Everything he had was possible because he was Kang Taesan.

In the end, what was important was Kang Taesan. Himself. Other powers could never be the main thing.

He was whole as himself.

The important thing was himself.

That was his unwavering belief.

Kugugugugung!

His mind was collapsing.

The greatest thing he had built was fading away without any meaning.

[The Soul Skill [Divinity Boost] has disappeared.]

His mind felt empty. It felt like his foundation had been hollowed out.

He felt a sense of futility and helplessness that couldn’t be suppressed even in a high realm.

“This is amazing.”

Not everyone could experience the feeling of abandoning themselves.

Kugugugugung…….

His mind turned into a vast plain. The Usurper stared at Taesan with a stiff face.

[……You.]

“How do you feel?”

Taesan said leisurely.

The power he felt from the Usurper had plummeted endlessly. No matter how much he dragged out the [Boundary Line], the limit was now clear.

The Usurper was furious.

[To think that you would dare to pluck the luscious fruit.]

“It’s mine. Not yours.”

[So what are you going to do about it?]

The Usurper roughly spread his hand. Blackness rippled and gathered.

[Nothing will change.]

“Not right now.”

The problem was that the same was true for Taesan.

In the end, he had destroyed the greatest thing he had built with his own hands. The current him was also in a state of endless weakness.

And the contamination was not completely resolved.

He had only cut off the main part, and his mind was still tainted by the Usurper. Nothing had changed except that both of them had become infinitely weaker.

So Taesan was thinking of filling it anew.

“[Divinity Boost] is the realm that the me of my past life reached.”

What should have been the realm of Transcendence was distorted and twisted by the Usurper, becoming something new.

In the first place, it was not entirely his.

“So.”

He would fill his mind again with his true self.

Abandoning what his past self had built, and filling his mind again with the high realm that his current self had created, achieved, and reached.

With something the Usurper could not interfere with—something that was entirely his own.

“It should have been like this from the start.”

Taesan muttered softly.

Something was in his hand. It was impossible to know its form, but anyone could tell.

That was Kang Taesan. Himself.

[You have activated Self.]

What Essential had given him was finally activated.

Only the existence of Kang Taesan, untainted by the Usurper, began to cover his mind.

[You!]

The Usurper shouted.

A huge blackness—an ashen color—rose.

But it was meaningless. The [Divinity Boost] that was the foundation had already collapsed. All that remained was debris.

Th!}Th!}Ga!}Gak!

He spat out himself.

The mind that had been defiled by the Usurper—the mind that was Taesan’s, but he had no control over—was covered by Taesan himself.

And he added what he had to it.

[You have activated Fragment of Evil.]

The collection of all the evil that had existed since the beginning of time, all the evil that remained in the world, swirled in his mind.

Following Taesan’s complete control, it covered his mind.

[You have activated the Splinter of Shining Darkness.]

And he added Baal’s domain. Space itself distorted and followed Taesan’s control.

Kugugugugung!

The Usurper hurriedly tried to intervene. He tried to taint it with the presence and status of an Ancient God.

But it was impossible.

[This is.]

He was Kang Taesan.

[Divinity Boost] was Taesan’s destination. Since it had been twisted and broken by him, everything about Taesan could not help but be influenced by him.

He was Kang Taesan, and Kang Taesan was him.

But not anymore.

The Usurper could no longer interfere with the existence of Kang Taesan itself.

The contamination he had defiled was covered by Kang Taesan, and he began to lose his influence.

[You are! Mine! I am you!]

“You are not me.”

Taesan denied briefly.

He was him. Even if the Usurper had intervened and contaminated him along the way, he was whole on his own.

He reflected the me of his current life, not his past life.

His body, mind, and spirit were in sync.

He was not reaching a new realm.

He was finally setting foot in the realm that his current self, not his past self, had reached—a realm that had been blocked by the wall of [Divinity Boost].

[You have activated Forced Attainment.]

He covered his mind with everything he had, without exception.

Kagagagagagak!

As it spewed out from Taesan’s heart, the experiences and emotions of his current life flashed by.

It was a huge collection. A condensation that would cause the mind of an ordinary person to collapse just by tasting a Fragment.

An amount and density that even a Transcender would find difficult to handle.

To feel experiences and emotions that surpassed the realm of Transcendence—it was a kind of mental attack.

But Taesan felt no burden.

The distorted form that had collapsed was restored and created in a new form.

The mind itself was newly constructed.

The appearance was clearly distorted and broken, but Taesan’s aura was unmistakably present.

And Taesan reached it.

To his own place.

[The Vessel has disappeared.]

[The Special Activation Skill [Call of Chaos] has evolved. The Special Always-On Skill [Chaos] has been acquired.]

[The Soul Skill [Divinity Boost] has been restored.]

[The Soul Skill [Divinity Boost] has evolved. Transcendence [Spiritual Rank Usurpation] has been acquired.]

[[Black] has disappeared.]

[[Divinity] has disappeared.]

[[Boundary Line] has disappeared.]

[Transcendence [Boundary] has been acquired.]

[Transcendence [Physical Force] has been acquired.]

[[Master of Boundaries] has been acquired.]

[[Seeker] has been acquired.]