Past Life Returner

The orc didn’t take my words as a threat. Rather, his gaze was calm, as if he had been waiting for me to say that. It was different from the look in his eyes when he fought with all his strength against the knights.

“If you attack me, then you will lose your way to Jayden’s kin, Demon King.”

When a great force burst, the traces left in the void would also evaporate. The orc was talking about that.

“You can’t fight with me, and you can’t offer your heart to me. You don’t really wish for Jayden’s death. You just want to gain something from his death. Are you hoping for my mutual destruction with Jayden? Has Gold’s breath reached you? I mean, Cassian.”

I wondered where Cassian was and exactly what he was doing at the moment. I poured out multiple questions and prodged him to answer, but the orc didn’t respond at all. Many calculations were whirling in his brain. He seemed to be hypothesizing about having a battle with me, and the biggest question arose from there.

How could you show your fighting spirit in front of me with that thought?

I admitted that he had completed the sacred swordsmanship and acquired it. Looking back at the scene he fought, it could only be described that the god of war had emerged inside him. However, that was it.

He was merely at the level of Sword Master here and an Awakened in the challenger section in our world. His swordsmanship was no use in front of me. No matter how much his technique transcended the majority of species here, it would simply break in front of the gesture of a superhuman.

That was why I had been questioning his fighting spirit. I wondered if he planned to reveal his strength if I attacked first by exploding with full swordsmanship from the start.

Then, the orc’s mouth opened. “I opened the way, Demon King. The choice is yours now. It will be open for six hours maximum. If you don’t make a decision during that time, then the path will close.”

I didn’t respond this time. The orc turned around, blatantly exposing his defenseless back when he went down. However, even though he was pretending not to, he couldn’t take his mind off me.

I waited until his presence completely disappeared beyond the sensory net before I started.

[Odin’s Absolute Battlefield has opened.]

[You have used the insignia ‘Time Reversal.’]

***

Ipo’s face appeared in front of me. He always expanded his nostrils before saying ‘the expedition is progressing smoothly’ as he got too excited. His nostril was about to widen and the inevitable phrase popped out.

“The expedition is progressing smoothly.”

Yes, people who defect should act like this guy. People with apostasy had to fully obey and enjoy his benefits within my orders. I was fed up with guys who just straddled one leg and rolled their eyes. People like them were like the Lu-neah bastard.

It was not an impulsive judgment. If I left the orc, then there was a high possibility that he would cause problems steadily within the Old One’s faction. I had used him enough.

My mind leaned towards the decision to extract Mana from him before killing him. To be honest, I couldn’t keep him alive. His swordsmanship was intimidating. If the Old One’s power was imbued on top of that, then it was unpredictable how it would explode. He appeared to be resisting the Old One’s power right now, but it was an issue that even he himself couldn’t be certain that he would remain unchanged or not.

“Re…report…”

I ignored Ipo and left the camp. Then, I headed to the place where the orc had guided me just before. It was not necessary to open the gate as it wasn’t far, and there was a risk of being caught by people who would gather around the gate even if I opened it.

As I neared my destination, there was nothing visible there to the naked eye. However, it was similar to the way the ancient altar had been concealed. It was invisible, but an intangible barrier was surrounding the area. The barrier was so secretive and powerful that I could only sense its existence when I was close and heightened my Sense to its maximum.

Did the Black do this?

If that Lunea bastard managed to lure me in there, then I would have been defenseless against the attack of those gathered inside. Two ancient dragons, and those who would awaken as dragons were swarming inside. They were waiting for the bastard to lure me in at any moment.

Of course, I had no intention of entering there first. I wouldn’t touch them until they dispersed themselves and headed towards Entegasto.

Srrr-

I hid my presence and waited for the barrier to vanish. After the orc had revealed himself outside, the barrier disappeared a few minutes later. The orc didn’t head toward the campsite. He was walking to the occupied area of a nearby Awakened group. That was probably the location he pinpointed as the campsite while tracking me.

The blood that had soaked his ax yesterday when I first spotted him turned out to be the blood of the Awakened.

Ta-tat!

I moved ahead to the crossroads where he had no choice but to pass. Even though it was quite bothersome, the best time to ambush him was when he was not aware of me. By the time he pinpointed the camp and got close to there, he would expect my presence. Therefore, now, when he was completely defenseless, was the best timing!

[You have used Devi’s Sword.]

I threw the blade.

[You have used Odin’s Ethereal Animal.]

I flapped my wings and hurled myself towards his back. He shouldn’t have come looking for me with such a half-hearted mindset.

Roar-!

***

Of course, he couldn’t dodge Devi’s Sword as it was an ambush that I had deliberately launched, not anyone else. His head fell off from his body. Even when I caught his body with two of my tails, blood was gushing out like a fountain from the cut surface.

The body that had lost its head was engulfed in flames. The skin melted and muscles evaporated immediately, leaving only the skeleton. It was the bone structure of an orc. That, too, turned into ashes and disappeared in the direction where the flames were rising.

There was nothing left. Only an empty sensation was conveyed through the tails that had wrapped his body. It really was like that. No heart of the Great, nor any majestic skeleton remained. His severed head was also burnt by the sparks spewed from the wings and tails.

I couldn’t shake the thought that maybe he was just a regular orc that fought extraordinarily well.

Then something happened. He was not the type to end like this. I couldn’t see it like the ghosts that Joshua had summoned, but there was a sensation that appeared with screams at the place where I killed him.

It was him. More precisely, it was his soul that had come out of his flesh. From the moment I recognized it, I could vividly imagine its shape. It was no different from the orc’s body.

[You have used Odin’s Wrath.]

Bolts of lightning sprung from both of my hands. Like what I had done to the bastard, I exerted pressure so that the orc’s soul couldn’t escape elsewhere by gripping his head. I intended to blow it all up.

- Ugh…

The bastard started to cry. His head, the space I held in the air, constantly flickered with lightning streaks.

I ordered, “Surrender your heart, and do not resist. Then, you will find peace.”

***

When his struggle suddenly intensified, a new phenomenon began. It appeared to be the size of a speck, but it quickly grew to the size of a fist. It was the heart of the Great. It appeared to be floating in the empty air where there was nothing visible to the naked eye.

I thought my warning had worked. It was formed below where I was grasping the orc’s head, on the left side of the chest. But then I tried to retrieve it with my tail.

- Argh!

The scream that burst from the front shook my entire mind.

[The Great Green has used ‘Descent of the Main Body.’]

Beyond the clear message, my hands holding his head were spreading apart. A green radiance surged into view as it started to fill my vision. I tried to snag the heart with my tails, but was repeatedly blocked.

The dangerous green power was quickly nearing completion. I hurried. It was time to put some distance between us and focus on a blow that could stop him.

[*Storage box]

[Zeus’s Thunder Spear has been removed.]

Bolts of lightning concentrated in my palms, then climbed up the spear shaft. When the bolts were focused at one point on the spear tip, I stretched the spear towards the empty air where only green light could be seen.

I sensed that the attack had hit because I immediately felt a recoil strong enough to numb my wrist. The orc’s screams grew louder.

[Forerunner has been activated.]

[The Sensitive has been activated.]

At the end of the Overlord section, when Agility and Sense reached the extreme, I drew out all possible attacks. I had no intention to give him a gap to counterattack!

Rumble-

The ground caved in from the spot where I had been standing on two feet. The mountain began to crumble, but I could endure such an imbalance with wings.

With each hit, various lights exploded, and those lights ricocheted off the surroundings, filling the area with deafening noise. Moreover, I could see the mountains crumbling far beyond where the green light was projected.

I thought that the expedition team wouldn’t be able to escape this disaster, but that was not a problem to think about right now. The orc’s skeleton was being formed, wrapped around in green power.

The clumps of color that were greatly lumped together soon became fine. The rays of hue were extending from the heart of the Great, forming like blood vessels.

In a blink of an eye, I was being pushed back with each hit. At one point, the front was filled with green energy veins. Countless divided and tangled things writhed as if they were alive, expanding and contracting.

[The Main Body of the Great Green is nearing completion.]

[Warning: The Great Green is protected by the Power ‘???’]

[Warning: Do not waste your power and wait for the right time.]

Without any reaction from the domains of Explorer and Night Eye, only messages popped out. This meant these were the messages sent by Doom Kaos, and he was watching me right now. Of course. He would have been attentive since the moment I turned back time. He was no different from the Old One!

The process of flesh filling over the orc’s skeleton was very fast. It happened in a moment.

Sheeeek-

A strong wind pressure was formed from the top to bottom, so intense that he could not relax. The mass that had been filling his view also sprang up at that time.

When I turned my gaze in that direction, I met two giant eyes looking down at me from higher in the sky. Green energy was smeared between the scales covering his face.

- Na Seon-Hu…

My real name started to echo in my head. I clenched my teeth unconsciously, not because there was some power in that sound.

- Na Seon-Hu…

It was a being of a different class. One of the origins of this incident. That guy… I was facing something I could call the Old One for the first time.