The Divine Twilight's Return

Chapter 368: Star, the Children of the Emperor’s Seat (3)

[The middle volume of ‘Prelati’s Spellbook’ has opened!]

Rustle.

Chang-Sun could hear pages quickly turning.

[The first chapter, ‘Turbas Effĭcere,’ has been applied, starting Anomalization!]

Pzzzzzz―!

Kieeeeeeeeeh!

As <Darkness> undulated around Chang-Sun, the ghosts killed by ‘Divine Twilight’ ominously wailed.

「I’ve already seen that several times, but I really can’t get used to it.」

Kali clicked her tongue as she watched Chang-Sun. As the goddess of destruction, she and Chang-Sun had similarities, but they pursued very different values. Choosing to walk with death for the smooth cycle of life and death, she had the quality of a Creator Celestial, which he didn’t have at all. It was all about destruction and doom for him, melting everything into twilight.

“When I see him like that, he doesn’t look like the hyung I know,” Baek Gyeo-Ul worriedly said.

Gyeo-Ul borrowed Chang-Sun’s power, so he would sometimes feel scared and worried that Chang-Sun would get devoured—no, that the shadow would end up hurting Chang-Sun someday.

Kali reassuringly tapped Gyeo-Ul’s shoulder. 「You don’t have to worry that much. He’s stricter with himself than anyone else.」

Gyeo-Ul nodded in response. Soon, the darkness enveloping Chang-Sun transformed into something completely different, becoming an Anomaly.

[The second chapter, ‘Forámen Septéni,’ has been applied, expediting the Anomalization!]

The <Darkness> spreading out from Chang-Sun like fog soon amassed and turned into seven streams. Some of them circled around and linked with him like planet rings, while the others floated up in the air and took the form of a Cataclysm Celestial’s upper body.

The lines between Chang-Sun, <Darkness>, and the Cataclysm Celestial’s upper body blurring was already an Anomaly in itself. The Anomaly with Chang-Sun‘s consciousness looked at the Anomaly swimming toward them.

Although the Incendiary BuriaI Island was a low-class Anomaly, it was as big as an Outer Celestial and had an enormous amount of divine power, exuding enough pressure to be considered one of the Seven Wonders. Chang-Sun certainly wasn’t on part with it, but he had a characteristic that it didn’t have.

He was a <Supreme Light’s Face>.

[Revealing a side of supreme sacred light!]

A part of the Cataclysm Celestial’s upper body, which was emitting pitch-black light, distorted and turned into a gentle face. Half of the face was like an asura’s, and the other half resembled a benevolent Buddha. When the transformation was complete, Chang-Sun felt an indescribable level of pressure.

Thud―!

“Hup…!” Chang-Sun held out, gritting his teeth.

‘I was already expecting this…. but it’s still hard to endure.’

An Anomaly was a peculiar being born by deviating from physics and the laws of nature.

Chang-Sun borrowed the power of <Darkness> as a subordinate of <Dull Darkness> and used his ability as a <Supreme Light’s Face> at the same time, naturally putting great pressure on his soul. If things were to go wrong and he failed to withstand the weight of supreme sacred light, his soul could get crushed or explode. An explosion fueled by a soul at the level of a Ruling Celestial? Chang-Sun had to endure the pressure. By opening the second chapter of the Four Steps to the Abyss, he solidified his body and soul and then drew up his supreme sacred light.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump…!

The process was naturally hard. It reacted against his entire soul, which he had to repeatedly restore.

[The Authority ‘Avatar's Descent’ has been activated!]

Thud―!

Chang-Sun stomped on the ground to solidify his footing.

[Avatar's Descent]

The Signature of the Celestial ‘Sagittarius.’ It allows one to manipulate all physical laws and phenomena in a forcefully secured area. The more its user understands about space, the higher their level of dominance over the area.

· Type: Authority.

· Effect: Domain Secure. Space Dominance. Phenomena Control.

‘Sagittarius’ created this Authority after taking a peek at <Deus Ex Machina>’s ability. Chang-Sun didn’t know how Heoju got his hands on it, but perhaps <Purple Star Astrology> helped him or he simply coincidentally picked up something that ‘Sagittarius’ accidentally dropped. It wasn’t important, though. All that mattered right now was that Chang-Sun would get to use [Avatar’s Descent] to put his <Darkness> and supreme sacred light under his control.

Using [Space Dominance] and [Phenomena Control], he could finally stop the collision between the two Divinities. As the origins of all creation, the two Divinities’ powers would supersede the Effects of [Avatar’s Descent]. Fortunately, his goal was just to find a balance.

‘So a complete merge is impossible.’ Chang-Sun smiled bitterly, feeling the numbing pain in his fingertips. He never thought that he would fail to control the Divinities even with the power of omnipotence. ‘It looks like I can at least make them harmonize if I find the right balance…’

Finding that was naturally impossible right now, so Chang-Sun focused on maintaining the precarious balance between his <Darkness> and supreme sacred light and releasing all the excess energy instead.

As his [Gnostic Eye] started becoming blurry, the part above the space whale’s head suddenly came to his attention.

“Explode.”

With Chang-Sun’s first [Wordwielding] command, the energy released from the two Divinities teleported above the space whale, looking like a yin-yang symbol. Unable to blend with each other, the <Darkness> and supreme divine light instantly grew tens of thousands bigger… and then exploded.

Rumble―!

No sound was made. The light from the explosion brightened up the dark universe, followed by extreme radiant heat and a storm strong enough to wipe away everything.

“―! ―――!” Minerva seemed to be shouting.

The heat instantly melted down the Taeum’s barriers as the storm shook the battleship profusely, completely muffling Minerva.

『Taeum! Pause other functions and focus on protecting the ship!』Minerva yelled using her divine voice, belatedly realizing her mistake.

The Taeum quickly responded.

『Following the vice captain’s order. The barrier and ship are 97.1% and 25.9% damaged respectively. Focusing on protecting the control room—!』

A sonic boom muffled the control system AI. Nevertheless, on Chang-Sun’s behalf, Minerva put all attention on protecting the Taeum , which was currently like a wrecked ship—no, a canoe or a driftwood amid a raging ocean. The radiant heat could melt it or the storm destroy it at any moment.

‘I didn’t expect his new technique to be this strong!’ Minerva exclaimed.

Thinking that the Taeum could withstand any explosions no matter how big they were was a mistake.

‘Lady Tiamat and I thought that Twilight would have a limit even if he used his full power… but this is beyond our expectations.’

The new technique that Chang-Sun used with his full power was beyond anyone’s imagination. It could probably destroy most <Societies>, and Chang-Sun wasn’t even done yet. More explosions would soon occur, intensifying the storm, and Minerva had to find a way to survive before that. Fortunately, one of her Divine Ranks was [Civilization], which meant she had some expertise in understanding machines.

『Entering a state of emergency. Following the vice captain’s order…』

Rumble…!

As Minerva and the Taeum desperately struggled to survive…

“Hahaha! It’s an explosion! An explosion! I definitely made the right choice following my sister! There is nothing more interesting than an overpowered protagonist! Destroy everything! Hahahaha!” Mars burst into manic laughter, having so much fun.

[The Celestial ‘A Blacksmith in a Volcano’ is very sad about the fact that he is not at the site!]

[The Celestial ‘Madness Infuser’ sheds tears upon discovering true art!]

Vulcanus and Bacchus, who couldn’t join them, felt very disappointed even though the people on the ship were having trouble just keeping themselves upright.

‘Those nutjobs…’ Minerva was so dumbstruck by her immature siblings that she uncharacteristically cussed.

Having no time to pay attention to them, she chose to ignore them.

“Shiiiiitttt! Why in the world am I hereeeee?!” Taotie yelled at the top of his lungs.

“Maybe they were bored?”

“Shut up, you idiot! Arrrghhhh! I’m too old for this!” Taotie screamed.

Taotie and Gwak Bok groaned as they rolled around the ship.

Woooosh―!

The pool of light slowly died out, revealing the Incendiary Burial Whale. After the bombing, one of the Seven Wonders turned… into an eyesore. The bombing had caved half of its head in, causing all sorts of ghosts to drip from it like blood. Big scorched marks were all over it as well, sizzling enough to make it seem as if they would soon explode as well. Ghosts with contorted faces popped up from the wounds and tried to heal the whale, but it seemed it would take a long time to completely restore it.

Hooowwwwll!

Furious, The Incendiary Burial Whale fiercely swung its tail. Having never experienced pain in the past eternity, it seemed to think that the only way to vent its anger was to crush the person who hurt it. However, Chang-Sun was just getting started.

“Explode again.”

With Chang-Sun’s second [Wordwielding] command, runes wedged themselves all over the Incendiary Burial Whale, creating a chain of explosions as powerful as the ones before. Its nape, remaining eye, spine, ribs, heart, intestines, near and the inside of its mouth, the center of its abdomen… the explosions inside and outside the whale connected with each other, causing even more explosions.

Unable to approach the Taeum anymore, the Incendiary Burial Whale writhed in pain as it was slaughtered.

Want. To. Kill.

Want. To. Die.

Hurts. Hurts. Die.

The Incendiary Burial Whale emitted raw information and energy that conveyed how much pain it was in.

“Huff… huff… huff…!” Chang-Sun supported himself by holding on to a wall. Having depleted his abundant divine power, his legs wobbled, and he was out of breath.

Drip.

Drip.

Sweat dripped down Chang-Sun’s cheeks and fell to the floor.

‘I definitely overworked myself.’ Chang-Sun smiled bitterly. He created as many explosions as his divine power allowed him to, which seemed to have taxed him to much. ‘I was able to do all sorts of experiments and gather a lot of data, though.’

Chang-Sun smiled in contentment. Acquiring a new weapon was always pleasant.

―You’re definitely out of your mind. Does knowing matter to you that much?

“You’re the last person who can criticize me for it.” Chang-Sun scoffed.

―This is madness…

Odin was either laughing or dumbfounded.

Paying Odin no attention, Chang-Sun thought, ‘Once I open up the third chapter of [Prelati’s Spellbook] and get [Blood Lightning]... I’ll be able to control it on some level.’

Chang-Sun wasn’t sure if that would be the case, but since his Divine Class would also be higher by that time, he believed that it would work out somehow.

‘I think this is enough. I better wrap things up.’

The space whale looked like more explosions would soon engulf it because its remaining parts were sizzling. Almost half of it had been destroyed, revealing its insides. An elaborate city—the <Troop>’s hideout—was in the innermost region. Hiding in its stomach, they were exposed when its surface was blown away.

“There they are,” Chang-Sun mumbled, opening up the gate to the Changgwi Cave above the hideout of the <Troop>.

[The Society <Muspelheim> has initiated their invasion!]

From the huge spatial gap that opened up in the sky, Chang-Sun’s Fire Giants and Draconic Knight Order simultaneously descended and started their conquest.