Chapter 580
The Old Gods.
Mighty beings that shattered universes and stood as adversaries even to Transcenders.
Taesan showed no particular interest in them.
That attitude made the Old Gods feel insulted.
A wave of rage washed over Taesan.
The emotions of several Old Gods.
That alone should have been enough to shake the universe and twist concepts.
“Shoo.”
Taesan lightly waved his hand.
With that, those emotions were torn apart and shattered.
They vanished without leaving even a trace.
Thud.
Taesan took a step forward.
And the Old Gods retreated by that much.
Taesan sneered at them.
“If you don’t intend to fight, then get lost. I have no business with you.”
Taesan had now become an existence of a different class.
Part of it was because he had devoured Old Gods and obtained numerous Divine Powers, but more than that, something slightly more fundamental had changed.
In the truest sense, Taesan had reached a class above the Old Gods.
It was not simply a matter of being stronger or superior.
It was a difference in realm itself.
He stood above them by nature.
“You’re nothing to me anymore.”
A calm, yet ruthless truth.
Those words made the Old Gods feel deep humiliation.
But they could not charge at Taesan.
They could feel it too.
That Taesan had reached a higher place.
It was no longer a matter of having devoured numerous concepts or possessing immense Physical Force.
He simply stood above them.
Rumble…
The Old Gods retreated one by one.
Those who had never once retreated even during the war against the Transcenders turned their backs.
Like the weak, they distanced themselves from Taesan.
Taesan mocked them.
“Fools.”
Even though Taesan had reached a class above them, the Old Gods were still strong. If all of them combined their strength and charged at him, there was still a possibility they could threaten his life.
But the Old Gods could not do that.
Because they were cowards.
Their nature as immutable, undying beings was what had let them intervene in the universe without hesitation, but they could not recklessly pick a fight with Taesan, who was capable of killing them.
“Boring bastards.”
Taesan muttered.
He could have chased down the retreating Old Gods and devoured them all, but he had no intention of doing that now.
He had to focus on something bigger.
Taesan raised his gaze.
From the moment he stepped into the Domain of the Old Gods
until now,
he had been feeling a gaze fixed on him.
To call it a gaze was vague.
It was too vast and immense for that.
To perceive it—
“Expand.”
He gave the command.
“And open.”
His senses.
The Beast of Boundary obeyed.
The Beast of Boundary was the Domain of Boundary itself.
Its very existence.
From within Taesan, it expanded and amplified.
His senses sharpened, and his class rose to its elevated limit.
And at the end of that,
Taesan could finally see, in the truest sense, the owner of that gaze.
“…Disgustingly huge.”
After a moment of silence, Taesan spat out the words.
His face was filled with disbelief.
[Huh? What is?]
“You can’t feel it?”
[What’s there?]
“Then it’s better you don’t know.”
Bardray was currently Taesan’s sword.
Because of that, he resonated to some extent with Taesan’s power and class.
But even Bardray could not perceive what Taesan was seeing.
Akasha would likely be no different.
Something so immense that, under normal circumstances, not only could it not be felt, its very existence could not even be perceived.
The only being who could perceive that was Taesan.
‘Big.’
That was his first impression.
Big.
In the most literal sense.
The World Destroyer had already been colossal enough, but this surpassed even that.
It was hard to simply attach the word ‘big’ to it.
Humans do not look at the universe and say it is big.
When faced with something beyond the very concept of size, all one can do is feel overwhelmed.
That was how Taesan felt now.
And it was not just about size.
Its class was also on an entirely different orbit.
When a lower being encountered a high-class being like an ordinary Old God or a Transcender, they were overwhelmed. Simply looking at them made one feel death itself and freeze in terror, incapable of doing anything.
But this was not like that.
Even if an ordinary human could perceive it, they would probably feel nothing.
It would be like looking at a pebble by the roadside.
Its class was so excessively elevated that it had become a completely different concept.
It felt like a being from a three-dimensional world looking down at a two-dimensional one.
At the very least, it was something that could not be expressed through the concepts of this world.
“Pretty threatening too.”
And yet,
Taesan could clearly feel that existence.
What level it was on, what class it possessed, what it could do.
He understood it all.
‘So it really did exist.’
The Domain of the Old Gods was an extremely alien place.
All beings that existed here originated from the Old Gods.
Born solely through the will of the Old Gods, moving according to their will, and erasable whenever they wished.
A world that revolved around the Old Gods, a world that would die without them.
Then a question arose.
Beings in the universe were born naturally within the cycle.
Parents existed, but they were not strictly subordinates or dependents.
They were born, they grew, and a very few reached a lofty state.
Life was born and continued through the cycle without anyone’s intervention.
But this place could not function without the Old Gods.
The Minions originated from the Old Gods.
Then what had the Old Gods themselves originated from?
Had they not also originated from something?
Could there be an origin of all things?
That was the question Taesan had been holding onto since the moment he felt that gaze.
And now, he had the answer.
“The Domain. It is the Domain itself.”
Taesan muttered.
The will of a world that existed on several planets.
The serpent that governed the cycle of all things, Ouroboros.
The master of the concept of death itself, the God of Death, Dersha.
In the universe, there were concepts that had existed since creation itself, or wills that were worlds in their own right.
That immense being Taesan now felt was one of those as well.
The difference was that it was, in the truest sense, the aggregate of everything.
This place where the Old Gods resided.
That Domain itself.
It was that being.
If the universe itself possessed a self, it would likely be on the same level as that.
No matter how many Old Gods he killed, it would be meaningless unless he dealt with that.
If that being wished it, it could simply create the Old Gods again.
“What do you want?”
For what purpose had it created the beings called the Old Gods?
What thoughts did it hold as it looked upon this world?
He could not know that far.
All he could feel from the gaze directed at him was curiosity.
And amusement.
“Well. Doesn’t matter, I guess.”
Whatever that being desired, whatever thoughts it held, that was none of Taesan’s concern.
He raised his sword.
At that motion, laughter rang out.
As if it found Taesan’s hostility amusing.
“I don’t know what you are… but there is only one thing I have to do.”
Muttering softly, Taesan unleashed everything he had.
The concepts of the Old Gods and Transcenders he had devoured.
They themselves expanded outward.
Crackle!
Numerous concepts began to devour and stain the Domain of the Old Gods.
They began turning it into Taesan’s possession.
And at that, as if it found it utterly absurd, the Thing from Beyond laughed.
At the same time, the will of the Domain moved.
The concepts Taesan had unfolded were shattered in an instant like straw.
In an instant, they crumpled and twisted like scrap metal.
Taesan raised his class even higher.
Divine Powers mixed and fused, trying to devour and crush the will of the Domain.
Little by little, he began to expand the size of his own Domain.
Giggle.
And laughter rang out.
As if the game were over, the Domain devoured Taesan.
In an instant, the concepts were crushed.
Everything Taesan had manifested was trampled and shattered.
In an instant, Taesan was exposed to the Domain with his bare body.
A heavy pressure bore down on him.
A sensation as if a giant hand were crushing him.
‘Disgustingly strong.’
No.
It could not be described merely as strong.
Because it was an existence that transcended that concept itself.
It crushed every concept as though they belonged to a lower class.
Laughter echoed out.
As if to say, ‘Is that all?’
As if it found this somewhat entertaining.
An emotion like that of a child playing with a toy.
As though it had seen enough, it tried to crush Taesan.
His very existence was about to be buried and erased within the Domain.
And at that moment—
“Come out.”
The Beast of Boundary, which had been quietly dormant until now, erupted forth.
Roar!
Boundary and the Domain of the Old Gods collided.
With a massive shockwave, the Domain of the Old Gods that had been trying to devour Taesan was pushed back.
Crackle!
Against the Domain of the Old Gods, the Beast of Boundary asserted its own Domain.
Screeeech!
It did not yield.
The Domain could no longer reach Taesan.
The Thing from Beyond wavered.
An emotional shockwave spread through the entire Domain.
It was clearly agitated.
“Did you think you were omnipotent?”
Taesan mocked that Domain.
“Though not perfectly, I too have reached a Domain similar to yours.”
The opponent was the Domain of the Old Gods itself.
It was an existence like the universe.
The complete ruler of a Domain.
Something that stood in a lofty place, able to create countless concepts.
But the same was true for Taesan.
The Beast of Boundary that he possessed.
It was a Domain that stood between the universe and the Domain of the Old Gods.
Like the Thing from Beyond, he too ruled over a Domain itself.
It was fair to say they stood on equal footing.
“Well… even saying that, winning is still difficult.”
Taesan muttered.
Even if they could be considered equals, it remained undeniable that the opponent was stronger than Taesan.
From the beginning, since it could even influence the Old Gods, victory was nearly impossible.
Even if it were possible, it would take an absurdly long time.
To erase that being, he would have to devour the entire Domain.
It might take as long as the lifespan of a universe, from its creation to its destruction.
If he did that, Taesan would in the truest sense obtain omnipotence.
But Taesan had no such intention.
To become the Absolute Being left alone at the end of all things.
He had no wish for that.
What he desired was not strength.
“Shall we end this?”
Divine Power activated.
It affected the Domain.
The Beast of Boundary made a grinding sound as it pushed outward.
It had always been hungry.
It had never been able to reveal its true self, only fragments.
Considering the nature of Boundary, it should have been able to overwhelm even the Old Gods, yet it had never once displayed such a form.
The reason was simple.
Because the Domain called Boundary was far too mighty and immense for an individual like Taesan to dominate.
It was a limit that had been impossible to resolve.
He had never once handled Boundary at its full power.
Now.
That full power emerged.
The complete Beast of Boundary revealed its form to the world.
“I wish.”
Taesan calmly declared his wish.
“The final act.”
[You activated Transcendence [Broken Wish].]