But was he nervous because of that?
No.
A smile left his mouth as his mind was put at ease. It was because he was certain that he would be able to kill it.
Although he had never consciously dwelled on it in his life, there was a pride lying deep inside his heart.
In the 1st iteration, he learned how to use a sword. In the 2nd iteration, he learned how to fight better and hunted a ridiculous number of monsters in the 3rd iteration. After the 4th iteration, he grew through his death and learned hundreds of different skills and after going beyond the 5th iteration, he sharpened his own weapon and achieved a unique authority that rendered the hundreds of skills he learned useless.
Even so, his greed was still there. He had to become stronger because that had been his way to freedom.
In the 6th iteration, he killed the existences that protected worlds and stood at the extreme limits in terms of physical prowess. Since the period of time he spent crazily seeking power was very long, this thought of his was his pride, yet at the same time was the single notion inside and the tool he could always believe in.
I am strong.
Everything within the scope of ‘existences’ is all in my control.
He was certain of it.
In the end, neither the Long Night nor that dirty Hostility could ever affect him. Because that had been his mindset from the start, there was no reason for him to be nervous in the slightest.
No matter who the enemy was, and no matter how they interfered with him, it was impossible for there to be anything in this world that he couldn’t physically destroy.
What could possibly dare defeat him?
Even though it was an arrogant and egoistic mindset, what about it?
That was the fundamental ideology in his mind, and because of that, he was relaxed throughout the fight against his foe. In his head, there was only pleasure that was so strong that it threatened to melt his brain.
The Elven Apocalypse Bringer fiercely retaliated. The ground was turned upside down as soldiers disappeared into the distance as if they were struck by a tidal wave. Each and every attack of the elf was in a cone shape, and destroyed more things as it got further away. Sometimes, thousands of humans were exterminated.
Each of those strikes were so ferocious that it befuddled even Yu Jitae. The elf was stronger than most sovereigns, and was also overwhelmingly stronger than the Demon Archduke.
Some of the successful attacks left a big mark on his body. His military uniform that had not a single drop of blood till now was ripped and the shirt inside was torn apart. As the fight lasted longer, more wounds were carved on his body.
The aura of eradication did not even let Yu Jitae recover properly. His skin was ripped out. Blood splattered from the wound going down all the way from his eye to his chin, and a punch to his chest tore through his muscles and crushed his bones.
But in the end, he still managed to grip onto the elf’s chin, and he then threw its body onto the vast wasteland beneath.
Gathering the immensely huge killing intent of his Shapeless Sword into one dot, he stabbed it into the guy’s head.
Branches stemmed out from the head of the elf. They covered the wound and pushed his Shapeless Sword out as mana that was as expansive as that of one whole dimension tried to regenerate its body in real time.
It was okay.
All he had to do was create more wounds the more it regenerated.
All he had to do was destroy faster than the recovery speed.
At one point, he was smashing the guy’s head with all his strength. The ground was jolting by dozens of metres with every thud.
No matter how tough, it still crumbled under his fist. And the tougher it was, the more it contributed to solidifying his position in his mind.
Arrogance reared its head just like when he had been killing sovereigns in the past. Life was like a desert – everything he met down the dry and dusty path of sand was his enemy.
He killed them. His enemies killed him if he couldn’t kill them, but life repeated itself until he could kill them in his next encounter.
That was his life.
Hostility? Black dragon Lugiathan?
It wasn’t even funny.
Do you think a mere dragon like you holding Hostility against me, would even be a threat as big as a rat’s tail?
It must have used its head in its own way, judging from how it tried to agitate the baby dragons using Bom.
That definitely was a staggering experience, but they were astonishingly stupid and blind, and Bom’s inorganic state must have been unexpected.
They were too sloppy.
In the end, this was what they had sent trying to stop him, but unfortunately for them, the elf’s head was crumbling down at the tip of his sword.
He felt amused. This toothless beast was desperately trying to fight back by biting his ankle, not knowing that there was a metal plate above it. And now, it was time to crush that insolent chin of the beast.
Breaking was his forte;
Saving someone, on the other hand, was not. He had never even considered learning that before because he had never wished to live in the first place. When the white bird died, he was inwardly quite bitter that he couldn’t save it but looking back, not being able to save it wasn’t that bad either.
If you can’t come back to me,
How about I follow after you?
What is that place like?
Are you happy in that world of freedom?
He asked, while shivering his body from curiosity. Naturally, he didn’t receive any reply and all he received in response was the gaze of the black cat who had lost itself in voyeurism.
It’s fine.
Everything is now fine.
Kwang–! Kwang–! Kwang–!
Because I am on my way to you.
Kwang–! Kwang–! Kwang–!
When we meet again, can you whisper your blessing into my ears?
Can you call my name, and tell me you were waiting for me?
Let’s be together in a world with no shackles.
Let’s live together forever.
In that instant, the surrounding mana started to flash and flicker – it was the prelude of an explosion. A power that had the potential to eradicate this entire place started to flicker at an irregular speed.
It was fine. Yu Jitae was already driving the elf underground into the depths. He simply had to go a few more kilometres and bury it there.
Following his plan, Yu Jitae thrusted the guy deep into the ground as the unprecedented amount of mana gathered into one single place. The ground beneath was still being cracked like soft cream.
Going deeper and deeper, he buried it deeper inside. The flickering light started to grow explosively, threatening to scorch the deep underground.
Even then, he did not stop shoving his enemy down.
And in the next instant,
——!!
Light enveloped his world.
.
.
.
The war came to an end.
And he was not dead.
When the lengthy darkness retreated from the sky, the fissure hanging in the heaven began to close.
At last, the sun finally started to rise.
““Wahhhhh!””
““Wahhhhhhhhh!””
““We wonnnnnn—_!!!””
A shout that exploded out of someone’s mouth started spreading out like an infection as others followed suit with thunderous roars.
“We won. We wonn!!”
“Ahh, oh god!”
“It’s over! Finally! It’s fucking over!”
The soldiers each prayed to their gods.
Some thought about their families that would be waiting for their return at home. Some were crying with the corpses of their comrades in their arms, and others were crawling out from the mountains of dead monsters. Regardless of what was going inside their head, they all felt liberated.
Yu Jitae was the same. He thought everything was over.
However, the black cat suddenly started walking up to him, and the needless notification of the cat immediately made his mind do a 180-degree-turn.
<The Authority, [Key (EX)] alerts you that the [Last Fragment] of the Long Night has not come to this place.>
It was something he did not want to know about.
<The Authority, [Key (EX)] alerts you that the trajectory of the [Last Fragment] is heading to the [Dimensional Cruise].>
His head that had been excited and fluffy from the sense of liberation felt like it was being bombarded.
“You. Do you realise what you are saying?”
Bending his back, he grabbed onto the nape of the black cat. The cat stayed still while simply blinking its golden eyes.
He released the grip as the cat settled back down on the ground.
A situation that was completely outside his expectation made him freeze.
The Last Fragment was heading to the Dimensional Cruise? How in the world was that possible?
Sending the baby dragons back home was conceptually different from simply making them board a ship and going back with it. It was planned and perfected by making use of the power of [Origin Fragment] that originated from a dragon’s transcendent authority.
So how was it that [Hostility] could still aim for the Dimensional Cruise?
Is there still something I’m missing?
<The Authority, [Key (EX)] does not lie.>
Confusion budded inside after feeling the cat’s gaze. Key was telling him that it was a very dangerous situation, and that he had to hurry!
His mind turned distant.
He couldn’t understand how his life was still being entangled by uncertainties even at this point. What kind of wretched power was it that was at work, that it could obsessively continue spouting out things that were beyond his expectation?
The path that was supposed to be nearing the end started distancing away again for no reason.
Even though the baby dragons were now a lot stronger than they were when they left for the Amusement, Hostility was beyond their capability.
It wasn’t certain whether Hostility could fully reach the baby dragons though. Key’s opinion was the same – it was saying the Last Fragment was heading towards the cruise ship.
It didn’t ‘reach’ the ship yet, and that in turn meant that it was also possible for Hostility to miss the ship.
Key did not refute his line of thought.
But what if the kids were to be exposed to [Hostility] by any chance?
They…
“…”
No.
That’s not it.
Let’s think.
The Long Night had been going on for 20 days and by now, the baby dragons should have fully left the Earth’s dimension.
They should have entered the outer dimensions already.
The ‘outer dimension’ was a unique place. It was similar to an open sea, and it was impossible for anyone to avoid being lost without the specific coordinates. That should be the same even for Hostility.
The uncertainty that had been constantly harassing him started persuading his mind this time. The fact that they could be exposed to Hostility, also meant that they might not be exposed to Hostility.
They were currently in the outer dimension so wouldn’t it be highly likely for them to avoid coming into contact with Hostility? His feelings that he had regained from daily life were very sly. It made him come up with a positive hypothesis, and convinced him to believe it.
In fact, it didn’t matter even if they were to be exposed to Hostility. Whatever the case, the baby dragons were now considered as having escaped the Providence of Earth. And this meant…
It was when he was continuing his trail of thought.
Growl!
The black cat growled in protest while revealing its fangs, asking him why he wasn’t doing anything.
<The Authority, [Key (EX)] states there is a relatively high chance that the [Dimensional Cruise] would be at risk.>
By mentioning the likelihood, the cat added weight to its claim that the baby dragons were in danger.
Since when did the cat even care about that?
The baby dragons;
They were now outside Earth’s Providence.
<The Authority, [Key (EX)] states there is a relatively high chance that the [Dimensional Cruise] would be at risk!>
After pondering about what he should say in response to that statement, he summarised the thoughts that should be going inside his mind into one sentence.
“So what.”