The World After the Fall

Multiple explosions came from outside the window. It was a fitting sight for a man with the nickname of the Pioneer of the Impossible. Awakeners of Rupture were torn apart by Jaehwan's world power. There was the sight of a giant wave sweeping through the city. The power was disastrous.

He was the same type of Awakener, but what made him different? Maybe it was because the goal was different.

Awakening was the beginning of another way, not the end. The ones who tried to stay faltered while the ones who tried to advance got stronger. Awakening was the power that allowed them to do this.

'It's not infinite.'

Myad remembered his old memories as he watched Jaehwan sweeping through everything from the outside. He had fought many things for a long time. There was a day when he was like that. He had fought for humans, and later fought for 'being'. He did not know what it was, but he proudly claimed he fought for them.

-Let's do it! We can do this!

A lot of things happened then. Myad remembered countless Vicegerents who shared the same thought with him. A fight to regain their right against the Gods. But they never succeeded.

-Right? What is that? Does that make you stronger?

To Gods, spirits were just consumables to increase their world power. They didn't care about 'beings'. Beings were worthless. As Myad realized he couldn't change anything with his power, someone came to him.

-Are you the one who can see the star in the sky?

Budda and Pierre were Awakeners who had lived much longer than Myad. Myad couldn't forget the day he created Rupture along with them. Budda spoke then.

-It's good for 3 thousand years. But we can't go beyond 5 thousand or even 10. There's no coming back even if they're Humans or Gods. No one will try to climb up.

The ones who were the closest were the Ancient Three Gods, the first Awakeners, and ones who taught him about the Nightmare of the Beginning. They were the ones who taught him the secrets of the System and gave him dreams about the sky.

Through the smog of the explosions, he saw the shadow of his friend. 1st Captain Budda was fighting against Jaehwan. Budda screaming and unleashing his world power was like the figure of a devil rather the benevolent God that his Setting depicted.

As he watched, Myad realized the amount of time that had passed.

There were no longer the friends he remembered. The time was as such. Pierre who felt despair toward the wall that they never could climb left the Rupture and Budda who fought on the frontlines for countless years had his personality destroyed from all those deaths.

-Myad. You can still do it. We are too old, but you still can. You are the one with the strongest and healthiest spirit among all the Awakeners. That's why you are the Master of Rupture.

It was thousands of years ago when he heard this. The determination and the dream had all faded away. The only thing left was the desire and stubbornness. Despair over despair. Anger toward the dream that could never be accomplished.

Myad looked up to the sky.

It was cruel. A sky no one was allowed to climb. When was it that he gave up on that sky?

'Well, it's not important anymore.'

Myad smiled bitterly.

'If I can't take that sky, I'll create a new one.'

Myad brought his world power up and the entire sky of [Depth] turned red.

It was now a matter of time. A Lone World was about to start now.

Chunghuh frowned as he looked at Jaehwan cutting through all the Awakeners at the front.

"…I came out alone for a reason."

"Don't say that. Only I came. The rest are at the 7th site," Chunghuh said as he glanced at the ship that had struck against the wall of the 8th site. It was due to Chunghuh's bad driving.

"You and Karlton should've left too. That would've given them more time."

"Surha and Pierre are there. They can buy enough time."

Chunghuh then ran up to slash his sword. Awakeners were cut down into pieces. Chunghuh's world power was now over 1.5 million. Through the dead Awakeners, two men jumped down. One of the men had with a giant axe on his back and the other was a topless bald man.

"Long time no see, Chunghuh."

"Kashim? You've grown old."

Kashim frowned, "…How's Surha?"

"She's well."

It looked like a casual exchange, but it wasn't. Chunghuh realized what Kashim was thinking as he saw Kashim's glaring eyes.

"How did Imai go?"

"It was the end he wanted."

"Was it an honorable death?"

"Maybe it was in your shoes," Chunghuh answered. Hundreds of years ago, they were in very different shoes back then.

"I learned the sword from you once."

"Sword? You use an axe now."

"…Was it you who talked Surha out of it?"

"No. It's her decision."

"Rupture always pays back. You must know this if you were part of Rupture."

"Heh, how scary."

"You won't leave here alive."

"I see that you are so proud about your axe now then? How many times have you swung that thing?"

"Swung?"

Kashim recalled a long last memory then. Millions of slashes. It was when all the Captains of Rupture were alive. And they were not Captains yet.

"…Your fake Awakening method is no longer viable. Everyone uses [Sea of Blood, Mountain of Corpses] now."

Kashim then charged out. His muscles exploded as he charged in. He was now clenching his giant axe, the [Blood Wolf]. Dark red world power was unleashed from it.

The power made the ground crack up. The speed and power were very powerful indeed, it was an attack that none other than a Lord could take.

Jaehwan said, "Old man. Move…"

"Leave him with me."

Chunghuh disappeared in the next moment. The speed was equal with Kashims. Jaehwan then became curious. How did Chunghuh become this strong in the past few years? And how strong had he become?

A few attacks were exchanged with the shorter clashing sounds. The exchanges were now being made endlessly. Kashim seemed to be shocked by Chunghuh's world power that was not pushed back. Even if he was the weaker of the Captains, that was only between Captains.

He was still much stronger than ordinary Awakeners.

A man who had trained forever because he had no potential — that was Kashim.

Kashim unleashed his attack with his world power at full force. Chunghuh grimaced as he responded to the attack.

Another explosion came about. There were now giant holes in the ground due to the powerful clash between world powers. It was a close fight. Kashim spoke in shock from the smoke that was left from the explosion.

"…I can't believe this. You didn't even have a solid unique world when you left."

"That was back then."

"Did you earn a unique world? In a new Awakening way?"

"Yeah."

"But how…"

The debris died down and Chunghuh appeared with blue world power surrounding him. There were twelve swords floating around him.

"That's…!"

"Heh, did you notice now?"

"Sovereignty of Swords!"

It was a skill that Kashim knew very well. It was known that people from Moorim, World 12764, had high fighting prowess even without help from the System. The Sovereignty of Swords was the skill that most highly-skilled swordsmen used. The Lord of Steel Huhyou was the one who used the skill to become a Lord. Kashim even fought him before.

"…Chunghuh, did you return to become an Adapter?"

"Why would I?"

"But how… wait. Is it not a skill?"

Kashim became confused. Sovereignty of Swords was not being used as a skill? Of course, it was possible to use the skill without using the 'skill' from the System, but it was still a mere sword trick. If it was that powerful, there was no way Cultivators could've gone to Moorim.

"Are you really seeing it? Do you think this is just the Sovereignty of Swords?"

Kashim narrowed his eyes. All twelve swords with beautiful embroidery were readying themselves with different sword techniques.

'Different sword techniques?'

He then caught the glimpse of the unique world surrounding Chunghuh. Kashim gasped.

"No way…"

Chunghuh's swords then began unleashing different sword attacks. It was amazing to see twelve swords each moving on their own will with complicated attack paths.

Was it because he was mesmerized? Kashim didn't notice one of the swords charging at him. It was a strike with powerful world power.

Kashim moaned as he was barely was able to block the world power. It was as if a giant lion had charged into him. He had heard about this sword skill when he studied various materials to increase his power.

'The Emperor's Sword?'

It was the sword that many Moorim people used, but it was the one with the heaviest strikes of all. Kashim learned that people who used this had all died a long time ago. But so how did Chunghuh recover it?

'No, it's as if he created something entirely new…'

He couldn't continue his thoughts because second attack was coming. It was as if a flower was being unleashed in his eyes. He felt he even smelled the scent of a flower.

'This!'

Twenty-four Plums Sword

Kashim couldn't stand still. He then heard Chunghuh's voice.

"I got my hands on these books when I was looking up [Parts] of the Ancient Gods. It seems like there had been a lot of people from my world in the past Depth Expedition teams."

"I see, so your world is…!!"

All the sword skills from Moorim were unleashed upon Kashim, and Kashim had no way to retaliate. He had to concentrate on deflecting the attacks. After a while, he saw the shadow of the unique world behind Chunghuh. He should have realized it.

The unique world usually started from what the person could do best. Chunghuh's world was the world created by the dead people from Moorim.

Unique world – Moorim.

It was an amazing world and it was impossible to believe that it was created by one person. If given time, it could overcome the unique world of Rupture.

How much time did he put into opening the world? Kashim was astonished as he increased his world power.

'I shouldn't underestimate him.'

His axe exploded in red.

As Kashim and Chunghuh fought head-on, Jaehwan looked straight at the man in front of him. He knew who this topless man was. It was probably Budda.

"Shall we start then?

Budda smiled as he gathered his hands.

[Thousand Hands]