The World After the Fall

Master of Gorgon.

The Legend of the Way within the Waves

Pathfinder of the Impossible

Jaehwan's nicknames had changed multiple times within the month he arrived in [Chaos].

"I heard you only use [Stab]! Let's have a fight!"

Heintz did not like Jaehwan's nicknames. He had lived in [Chaos] for two hundred years but all he earned was weakness and a nickname 'the Righteous', that was just mocking him for being nosy.

'I've been lived here for two hundred years and I'm still nameless, but you who have only been here a month is WHAT?'

He swung his spear into hundreds of directions at Jaehwan.

High-Grade Skill – Eight Fangs of Valkan.

Top-grade or high-grade skills had similar names, such as the Seven Swords of Akaram, or the Eight Fangs of Valkan. These were all created by [Nightmare] Apprentices or [High Artisan] ranks, who then named the skills, but their power was more than just amusing. With the power of Dead Man, Heintz was now able to unleash the power of a top-grade skill instead of his regular high-grade skill.

However, it didn't hurt Jaehwan at all.

"S-so you know how to fight! But I've got much more than that!"

Heintz began to attack frantically. He released powerful attacks enough to be considered a 9th stage Adapter, but Jaehwan dodged them easily. It was hundreds of attacks with the power he got from throwing away everything in his life.

And yet...

'Why can't I get to him?'

His attacks did not even get close. As he attacked further, Heintz felt his entire body overwhelmed with pleasure. He was losing his mind. It was the side effect of wielding the power of Dead Man. As he used more and more of its power, it was turning him into a Dead Man.

His attacks blinded everyone's sight as it covered all possible space. It was an attack that no one could dodge.

However, someone spoke up.

"Let's stop now."

The spear stopped. Jaehwan was still watching him silently.

"But how…"

Heintz, although he thought it was impossible, knew the reason why he lost his mind was to compensate for his fear. Then, he realized.

"Ugh…"

Half of his body was gone. Pain struck him as Heintz concentrated his Spirit Power on the missing half. Tentacles began to form to recreate the missing half.

"Ugh…"

Regenerating half of a body was hard, even for the strongest Half Dead Man.

'It was a [Stab]…'

Jaehwan was looking at him curiously.

"Heintz, we should fight together."

Bant, the second strongest Half Dead Man, made a suggestion.

"Everyone! Attack!"

All of them attacked Jaehwan.

All of the citizens of Manticore were already turning into Dead Men. There were millions of them and they were sure that Jaehwan could not survive the millions of Dead Men attacking him. In fact, there were already many Dead Men coming out of the streets to attack him.

"[Chaos] is full of idiots."

Jaehwan swung his sword, destroying tens of tentacles coming at him.

"All of you think that you tried."

His second swing destroyed hundreds of tentacles.

"But none of you say you are trying."

The number of Dead Men coming in was now too great, it was like a wave, an endless wave that would never stop. Jaehwan changed his stance. He thrust his sword forward. It wasn't a normal or strong stab. It was the extreme of all stabs, powerful enough to even distort space.

The world shook at the energy, and the ground trembled.

Heintz looked on in shock.

'I-impossible.'

The sudden giant ray of light destroyed hundreds of Half Dead Men, turning them into dust. They couldn't even scream.

[Way of the Wave]

The man stabbed again and again, against a never-ending wave. And it became a Way.

Heintz ran, just like all the other Dead Men. When the light overwhelmed him, he felt his life disappearing. At that moment, he was in a different world.

The world that Jaehwan saw.

'Is this his unique world?'

There were countless corpses and a giant eye in the sky. When Heintz looked at the eye, the eye looked back. The giant eye watched over everything in the world.

The Truth of the World.

Heintz realized what that eye symbolized, what that man was fighting for. Heintz was shocked, and found hope.

If I didn't give up.

If I was still the Righteous.

Would I be on the same path, following this man's dream?

Those were his last thoughts in his dying moment.

"Just a bit longer…"

And then, the world faded.

"…You monster. You just destroyed Manticore's thousands of years of history."

Chunghuh spoke as he watched the attack penetrating into the inner keep in the distance.

"I should call it a [World Stab] now."

"Cut the nonsense and let's move."

"It's not nonsense! How did you do that just now?"

Chunghuh clearly saw that the place where the stab touched distorted into his unique world. Chunghuh never saw anyone, not even from the 4th or 5th step Awakeners from [Rupture] use such skills.

"I just did it with all my might."

The world was destroyed just because of that? Chunghuh frowned, but Jaehwan was not lying. At least it was his most powerful attack. However, Jaehwan wasn't satisfied.

'It is powerful….'

Jaehwan had stabbed continuously even after he got out of the Tower. But after a while, he realized more stabs didn't mean anything to him now.

'More stabs won't make me grow.'

His thoughts became concrete as he heard information about Awakening from Chunghuh, and by helping Cayman onto the path of being Awakened.

'There should be a next step.'

Chunghuh had mentioned that there were people who had advanced from the 3rd step, but he didn't know how. Jaehwan tried hard to find a clue on how to get there while they trained, but he just couldn't get it.

"At least it will be easy. I think the Golden Sky leader got hit by that attack too. I don't feel any power that equals a Lesser General…. Are you okay?"

Jaehwan shook his head. "It's okay. I can do it a few more times."

Jaehwan spoke as he walked forward. Then, they stopped as a voice came from the front.

"Oh, I guess I'm too late."

A woman appeared through a distorted portal. She had pink hair with horns, and a black tank top.

"…What a sight. What did you do to scare those Half Dead Men?"

Chunghuh became pale.

Dimensional Interference.

There were a lot of skills that allowed one to disappear or jump into space, but distorting space itself was not even in the list of Top-Grade Skills. This was only considering the skills of 'Top-Grade'. There were skills that were more powerful than that.

Special-Grade Skill – Warp

Chunghuh knew the only race who knew how to use this skill. He had seen it multiple times, 900 years ago.