Chapter 558
RUMMMMMBLE……
The moment Leviathan declared defeat, the World’s End Domain began to vanish. They returned to the Labyrinth’s sports-field-sized chamber.
“Not bad.”
And Taesan was extremely satisfied.
He had confirmed everything he needed to confirm. And the results he confirmed were satisfying enough to make him genuinely pleased.
He had even succeeded in usurping a concept as vast as the universe’s World’s End. It might be meaningless power against the Old Gods, but if he mixed Boundary into it, that would be a different story.
Taesan was having fun.
As soon as the quest was cleared, the restrictions were lifted. Taesan pulled out all the equipment he had been holding and put it on. Bardray and Akasha immediately asked.
[Taesan. How did it go?]
[Did you win?]
“Yeah.”
Taesan nodded.
The two of them looked at Leviathan.
[……Ah.]
[Ugh.]
And Bardray and Akasha swallowed.
They felt an instinctive fear toward Leviathan.
The thought of winning against Leviathan, enduring it, or losing to it didn’t even occur to them.
They were just scared.
They didn’t want to come into contact with it. They wanted to get far away and slip out of its sight.
It was an instinctive terror, close to something every living being in the universe carried.
[Ta-Taesan. You beat that thing?]
“Yeah. It was nothing.”
[H-huh…….]
[Grrr…….]
As if it didn’t like that, Leviathan let out a low growl.
But it didn’t do anything beyond that. Like a dog, it crouched down and kept sneaking glances at Taesan’s face.
At that sight, Bardray was at least able to suppress the urge to run away on the spot. Bardray let out a hollow laugh.
[The Lizard of the End…… huh. How did you even beat that?]
“It was nothing to me.”
Taesan felt nothing about defeating Leviathan.
Leviathan was certainly powerful. With power and rank like that, Taesan would’ve had to stake his life.
But it was an absolute mismatch. Just like how the God of Death was strong enough to oppress Transcenders yet couldn’t affect Taesan at all—Leviathan was the same. Since it was an opponent he couldn’t lose to in the first place, there was no reason to feel happy about winning.
“Still, a win is a win.”
Taesan walked up to Leviathan.
“Hand it over.”
Taesan had cleared the 97th floor quest.
And the quest target had to give Taesan a reward for clearing it. Leviathan flinched, its body trembling.
Honestly, it had never considered it might lose.
It had believed, without the slightest doubt, that a being of the universe could never stand against it, the one who governed the World’s End. Even if Taesan stood on the Boundary, he thought Taesan’s roots were still of the universe, so his Authority would work.
But it didn’t.
Taesan had already stepped outside the universe’s laws.
‘……Old God.’
He was a separate kind of existence.
But he wasn’t an Old God. Leviathan had never seen a concept like Taesan before.
From the start, he had been an opponent Leviathan couldn’t defeat.
Still, a loss was a loss.
It had to give a reward befitting that loss. Leviathan desperately turned its mind over, then opened its mouth.
[What…… do you desire?]
“Your Authority.”
At that calm answer, Leviathan’s eyes shook violently.
“That’s what I want to say, but I can’t. Just give me some decent materials or equipment. Something loaded with Attack Power.”
[Attack Power…….]
Leviathan murmured with audible relief. After a brief pause to think, it made its decision.
[Gather. O World’s End.]
Those were draconic words.
An Authority formed of language itself.
At the same time, the World’s End condensed and took shape.
Whiiiiiiine.
And it manifested: a gray orb.
[You obtained the World’s End Aggregate.]
[World’s End Aggregate]
[The end of all things. Its aggregation. Within it lies the power to force an end upon everything in the universe.]
“Hoh.”
An aggregation of all World’s End.
The power contained within it was close to a complete concept.
It was power focused purely on destruction. If he handled it properly, he could forge a highly powerful piece of equipment.
[Manifest here. My tool.]
That wasn’t the end.
With Leviathan’s declaration, a sword appeared before it.
It was a longsword with a jagged, uneven gray blade.
He could feel the aura of the World’s End within it.
[You obtained a sword imbued with the World’s End.]
[Sword of the World’s End]
[Strength + 2000]
[Attack Power + 5000]
[A sword that calls the World’s End upon all things. Its Authority is focused solely on Attack Power.]
“……Hoh.”
Taesan let out a sound of admiration.
Attack Power 5000.
It was higher than any equipment he had. Bardray and Akasha’s Attack Power had risen a lot too, but they still hadn’t reached the 5000 line.
It was a value worthy of a reward from Leviathan, the one who called the universe’s World’s End.
“It’s been a while since I swapped gear.”
Recently, the rewards hadn’t been equipment overall, so he hadn’t changed anything. Attack Power was the most valuable stat to Taesan right now. It meant a lot.
“This is enough.”
[Then I…… will take my leave.]
Taesan nodded. Leviathan hurriedly opened space and fled.
[Whew. That was suffocating.]
[Haa.]
Only then did Bardray and Akasha let out the breaths they’d been holding. Just being in the same space as Leviathan felt like a blade pressed to the back of their necks.
Taesan rolled the World’s End Aggregate between his fingers.
A material item.
How could he make use of this?
As he pondered, a wrist guard surfaced in Taesan’s mind.
[World Alteration Wrist Guard.]
[A wrist guard forged with power infused by the Witch herself. Using specific conditions and a catalyst, it gained the power to alter the laws of the world around the equipment.]
[Attack Power + 800]
[Defense + 800]
[If you have learned the Green Witch’s magic, you can use [Partial World Alteration].]
The wrist guard the Green Witch had given him. It had the trait of strengthening itself by consuming material items.
The World’s End Aggregate was too immense for the wrist guard to accept, but if Taesan controlled it, it would be possible.
He wrapped the wrist guard and the World’s End Aggregate in gray, lacing it with Boundary.
The wrist guard tried to reject it as if it felt burdened, but the gray firmly controlled both sides.
KUUUUUNG!
And the World’s End Aggregate began to seep into the wrist guard. That enormous might and concept slowly began converting into the numerical value called Attack Power.
KAGA-GAGA-GAK!
And at last, all World’s End settled within the wrist guard.
[World Alteration Wrist Guard.]
[A wrist guard forged with power infused by the Witch herself. Using specific conditions and a catalyst, it gained the power to alter the laws of the world around the equipment.]
[Attack Power + 4800]
[Defense + 800]
[If you have learned the Green Witch’s magic, you can use [Partial World Alteration].]
[You can temporarily invoke [World’s End].]
“Not bad.”
His Attack Power had risen by a full 4000. With this wrist guard alone, it wasn’t far off from the Attack Power Lee Taeyeon had possessed in his previous life.
Now that he could summon a domain, [Partial World Alteration] had effectively become meaningless, but the added clause—that he could invoke [World’s End]—was new.
It wasn’t a bad change.
By simple calculation, his Attack Power had risen by around 7,200. For Taesan, who had Multiplication and Physical Force Conversion, it was more than enough.
And now, he had Cycle.
He couldn’t treat it as just 7,200 Attack Power.
Having finished confirming everything, Taesan went down the stairs.
98th floor.
The end of the Labyrinth was truly drawing near.
He went down the stairs and reached the room, but there was nothing there.
“Must be busy.”
It seemed he had no breathing room because he was holding back the Old Gods. Taesan planned to wait leisurely while doing what he needed to do.
He happened to have something to do. Taesan called the beast of the Boundary. With a low growl, the wavering form rubbed itself against him.
He had been able to dye Cycle into Boundary.
Then could the reverse be possible as well?
If he granted the concept of Cycle to the Boundary domain, could he call forth something new?
The possibility was there. The problem was that the beast of the Boundary rejected Cycle.
So he would slowly reduce the rejection and make it accept Cycle.
[You activated Cycle.]
Cycle touched the beast. The beast flinched, its body trembling.
Slowly, but surely, he made it adapt.
It wouldn’t happen right away. Taesan stayed relaxed and let the two come into contact little by little. The beast of the Boundary slowly began to grow accustomed to Cycle.
After about a week had passed like that—
The Magician appeared.
“Sorry to keep you waiting. Looks like you finished faster than I expected.”
The Magician spoke calmly as he appeared. Black remnants still clung to his body.
“You worked hard.”
“Quite a bit.”
With a tired face, the Magician rubbed at the corner of his eyes.
“I’m going to give you the 98th floor quest. You can guess what it is, right?”
Taesan nodded. There was only one possibility. The Magician opened his mouth.
“The quest I’m giving you is simple. Kill the Old God invading the universe.”
[98th Floor Quest Start.]
[Kill the Old God that defiles the universe.]
[Reward: ???.]
[Secret Reward: ???.]
*
*
Kill an Old God.
Not a fragment, not a part, not a piece.
A quest to kill a complete Old God.
Taesan’s expression didn’t change. He’d expected a quest like this would come someday.
It was just happening now.
‘An Old God, huh.’
“What’s the situation?”
“I should start from there. Like you know, the barrier broke. The beings beyond began to defile the universe. And the Old Gods, which you could call their core, scattered.”
“Scattered?”
“Yeah. The Old Gods scattered across the universe and are defiling parts of it. The Transcenders are stopping them.”
“So they’re all split up.”
“Old Gods don’t really get stronger by joining forces. If anything, their Authorities get in each other’s way.”
The Old Gods were all separated.
With that information filed away, Taesan asked.
“Have you confirmed all the Old Gods’ locations?”
“They’re working hard to defile the universe, so it’d be impossible not to. We’ve confirmed all of them except for just one.”
“One?”
“The Usurper.”
At that, Taesan’s face tightened into a frown.
“……Is it hiding itself?”
“That’s the most likely. The Transcenders’ eyes and ears are spread across the entire universe. If it uses even the tiniest bit of power, we should be able to pinpoint it immediately…… but we still haven’t confirmed it. It has to be somewhere in this universe.”
“Have you found Essence’s location?”
“No.”
The Magician shook his head.
“Like you said, it should be somewhere in this universe…… but I can’t see it. For an existence at that level of concept, hiding itself shouldn’t be easy. Really. I have no idea how it pulled it off.”
The Usurper and Essence. Both were hidden.
“Well. It’s not something to worry about right now. If they show themselves, we’ll know immediately. What matters is the situation.”
The Magician clapped once, shifting the topic.
“We’re definitely weaker than we were in the last war.”
Countless Transcenders were annihilated in the past war.
In contrast, the Old Gods were undying beings. With a tiny handful of exceptions, they still remained.
There was no choice but to be pushed back.
“But…… it’s not as bad as you’d think. It looks like they took a fair bit of damage while breaking the barrier. Of course, given time, they’ll recover completely, but not immediately. If we push a little, we can keep the balance.”
“I’m that role.”
Taesan asked in a calm voice.
“Which Old God do I need to handle?”
“The Master of the Abyss. The warden of the bottomless hole.”
The Magician answered.
“The Bottomless Abyss. Kill that Old God for me.”