Chapter 159
Raziel turned to the source of the explosive noises, his eyes closed.
“This is an unexpected variable. Lee Kang-San... what a foolish human. Is he so ignorant as not to realize which side to take?”
His eyes were closed, but he wasn’t blind. Rather, he could see much more than what others could. He could see what those wanted to hide the most, and wrote them into the Book of Raziel. The more he knew his target, the easier it was to see into them. Raziel was one of the angels whom people were most reluctant to meet.
“But the almighty God of Heaven will tend to that foolishness,” he said with a smile and endlessly infused the angel statue with Holy Force.
Just then, hundreds of individuals appeared before the group of angels, with Sarazza of Clan Affligo taking the lead.
“Open your eyes, yawn-grade angel! Are you still fucking sleeping?!” Sarazza shouted.
Raziel turned to Sarazza and said, “I believe I told you not to run your mouth so carelessly because it is the source of all evil.” He noticed the various races behind Sarazza and asked, “Why have you all returned? Do you have a problem with Orbis’s actions?”
“Of course, we do! Do you have any idea how much I lost?!”
“You think lining your own pockets is the only thing that matters?!”
“Do you take us for fools? We’ve also gone through as much as you have in the Mirror World!”
Sarazza had gathered individuals dissatisfied with Orbis to unify them and stand against the angels.
Raziel found their efforts pitiful, saying, “I can only wish you would realize the foolishness of your actions. You should be grateful that I let you be unscathed.”
“We’ll see about that! Haaah!” Sarazza shouted as he simultaneously activated the skills built into the Earth Barbuta and the Evening Star.
[Activating Item Skill: Heavy Strike.]
[Activating Item Skill: Earth’s Rage.]
The Evening Star struck the ground, bringing forth Earth’s Rage. The ground split in a straight line from the impact point and bulged, resembling the open mouth of a monster. The angels on the ground quickly flew up to the sky.
“Now’s our chance! Fire!”
“Time to hunt some pigeons!”
The individuals waiting for a chance behind Sarazza fired magic spells and threw weapons. The angels flapped frantically to dodge the attacks, exposing a straight path to the angel statue.
Sarazza shouted, “Now, human! Show me that pasty angel’s devastated face, as promised!”
A man on a horse that looked as if it could collapse at any moment raced along the straight path. He wore old armor and a helmet, wielding a lance.
[Activating Unique Skill: Borrowing Destiny.]
[Knight-errant of La Mancha]
[Activating Unique Skill: Symbol Embodiment.]
[Knight-errant’s Armaments.]
[Rocinante.]
[Activating Exclusive Skill: Windmill Charge.]
“Charge, and charge again! Break through all that is in my path!” Seong-Hwi shouted, his eyes filled with Don Quixote’s pure madness.
A white cross-shaped aura on the tip of the lance spun, its energy enveloping him and Rocinante.
“You are a fool, unfaithful one!” Raziel shouted as he flew straight at Seong-Hwi, flapping his nine pairs of wings.
Does he have a skill that temporarily enhances his powers to the level of a Spare Ranker? How unique, he thought.
He had no intention of letting the human reach the angel statue. That in itself was an irreverence to the God of Heaven. He reached for his white holy sword as he charged toward Seong-Hwi.
I’ll split him in two, skill and all!
Just then, he noticed a small entity with iridescent wings flying between him and the human.
A... fairy?
“Now, Merope!” Seong-Hwi shouted.
“Leave it to me, Sir Second Knight!”
[Activating Skill: Warp Gate.]
Merope opened a warp gate resembling a rainbow bridge before Seong-Hwi. He disappeared into the warp gate with Rocinante, and Raziel stopped in midair after losing his target.
“It can’t be...” Raziel muttered as he turned around.
No one was guarding the angel statue. The warp gate opened before the angel statue, and Raziel heard the sound of a horse’s hooves.
“NO!” he shouted.
“Haaa!” Seong-Hwi screamed, burying Raziel’s voice.
The Windmill Charge smashed into the angel statue. Although the sound of the Windmill Charge grinding against the Holy Force chains echoed, the barrier simply swayed and did not break.
“Ahaha! Moronic inferior race! Did you truly believe you could break that barrier?” Raziel said, laughing as if his panic had been a lie.
The barrier protecting the angel statue was Mishmeret Ravid, also known as Protecting Chains, a grand barrier that not even Spare Rankers could break. Simply making the angel statue that allowed for the advent of the God of Heaven took immense amounts of work. Protecting it with a powerful barrier was only natural.
“Your actions are blasphemous! I will tear out your limbs and spread each to the edges of the north, south, east, and—”
Seong-Hwi interjected leisurely, “It is as I have expected.”
His armor, helmet, lance, and horse disappeared, and the air around him also changed to that of a calm and collected conqueror. He unsheathed a flashy sword decorated with gold, which appeared before Raziel had even realized it, from his waist. Raziel’s closed eyes looked into the secret hidden in the sword, and his expression crumpled.
“That’s... STOP!” he screamed.
“I will sever all rules!” Seong-Hwi shouted as he raised the sword high.
Raziel despaired, “NOOOOOOOOOOO!”
His panic was real this time.
***
Three days’ worth of time quickly passed in Seong-Hwi’s consciousness.
“Huuu...” he exhaled, collecting himself after spending three days viewing someone else’s life in first-person.
A proud and clear voice of a young man said, “I like you.”
Seong-Hwi opened his eyes and saw a blond young man with gold eyes in flashy golden armor and a blood-red cape, smiling at him. He naturally knew who the man was since he had been him until just a moment ago.
The man said, “Like yourself, I was made to shoulder a heavy destiny, and carried it out magnificently.”
“You were proclaimed king at the age of twenty and set out on a military expedition to Asia Minor when you were twenty-two, after all.” Seong-Hwi stared at the young man and continued, “Alexander III of Macedon.”
“Haha! Call me Magnus,” the young man laughed and continued, “You wish to shine brightly? So did I. Since I was little, my mother always told me that the blood of a god runs through my veins.”
He flapped his red cape and said, “My pride as the chosen one and my mystical sense of elitism made me a hero. Though my father disapproved of my fantasist attitude.” Alexander couldn’t stop smiling as he reflected on the past. “However, I was heroic enough to make my fantasies into reality.”
“I can’t believe you can say that kind of stuff yourself,” Seong-Hwi remarked.
“Didn’t you experience it yourself? It is all true.”
Seong-Hwi couldn’t deny it. If Alexander weren’t a hero, no one would be.
“Even Aristotle, son of Nicomachus, advised that I am too idealistic, but it cannot be helped. I can only exist in ideals.” Alexander smiled bitterly for a moment, then continued, “It is... true. My father did not love me, and my mother loved me enough to have my half-sister burned alive. At the time, I believed they were the trials of a hero. I only discovered my true self in conquest.”
Seong-Hwi understood Alexander’s words better than anyone since he had lived his life until just now.
He replied as if consoling Alexander, “And you succeeded in your conquest. The Macedonians wanted a hero who could defeat Persia, Magnus. You became a hero who will forever remain in history.”
Alexander shrugged. “Drop the consolation. I have no interest in what I have conquered. My interest lies only in what I have yet to conquer, such as love or friendship.” He remained silent for a moment and unfastened the flashy golden sword at his waist. “I have taken a liking to you because we are similar in many ways. I undid the unsolvable Gordian knot with this sword. A mere knot cannot judge my destiny, can it?”
“I understand. Destiny is not to be conformed to, but to be grasped,” Seong-Hwi replied.
“Hahaha! I knew we could understand each other! I wonder if this is what it would have felt like to have a friend I could have a true connection to?” Alexander handed Seong-Hwi his sword. “Take it. This sword can sever any rule.”
“Are you letting me borrow your destiny? What do you want from me in exchange?”
“From you? Haha! I am Alexander III, the King of Conquerors, who has already obtained everything I could ever want. I want nothing from you.”
Seong-Hwi silently grabbed the sword from Alexander.
Just then, Alexander smiled and said, “Oh, I suppose there is something.”
“What is it?”
“You, who understands me better than anyone. Could you call me your friend?”
Seong-Hwi stared intently at Alexander, who was smiling stiffly, and answered, “That’s easy, my friend.”
“Aha, ahaha! It’s not a bad feeling. Not bad at all.” Alexander nodded and continued, “Be the first to set foot on unconquered land, my friend. Since rules are meant to be made oneself, the future is likely the only treasure left to humanity. Keep doing as you have been.”
Seong-Hwi promised, “I will conquer it all, up to the deepest point of the nescius.”
“Hahaha! I will look forward to it. I will happily watch your expedition from here!”
Hence, Seong-Hwi borrowed his first six-card destiny since his return to the past.
***
True love never has a happy ending, because there is no ending to true love.
Alexander III of Macedon
***
[Activating Unique Skill: Borrowing Destiny.]
[Macedonia’s King of Conquerors]
[Activating Unique Skill: Symbol Embodiment.]
[Knot-severing Sword]
Seong-Hwi raised the flashy sword with gold decorations and glared at the chain barrier protecting the angel statue. He could feel the immense power of Holy Force. Since the Windmill Charge failed to break it, he had no other way of physically breaking it.
But this sword can! he shouted inwardly.
The Knot-severing Sword was physically no different from other swords, but it embodied a very special magical symbol that could sever all rules.
“I will sever all rules!” he shouted as he activated a skill.
“NOOOOOOOOOOO!” Raziel screamed.
[Activating Exclusive Skill: Rule Breaker.]
The Knot-severing Sword shone with a golden light, with the skill Rule Breaker enveloping it. The sword severed the chain barrier, Mishmeret Ravid, protecting the angel statue. Fragments of Holy Force flew everywhere.
Seong-Hwi charged at the angel statue with ten pairs of wings as he clenched his fist and shouted, “What an ugly-ass statue!”
His fist shattered the angel statue. Black blood flowed from the broken angel statue’s eyes, and the pillar of light connected to the sky was cut off.
[Canceling Divinus Iter.]
[Canceling naphal.]
Sarazza, who was killing the angels, Kirasosa, who was battling a bald human who appeared out of nowhere, and Lilicia, who was observing Seong-Hwi with great interest, all witnessed the scene.
“Ahaha! The son of a bitch did it!” Sarazza shouted.
“That human is insane... He destroyed an angel statue, one of the God of Heaven, no less?” Kirasosa mumbled.
“Hoho, I suppose the ignorant are courageous,” Lilicia remarked.
Among the admiration, lament, and curiosity, one person was more furious than anyone.
“AHHHHH! O ALMIGHTY GOD OF HEAVEN!” Raziel pulled on his hair as he stared at the shattered angel statue in disbelief.
“Gahaha! This is even better than a devastated face!” Sarazza mocked.
However, Raziel could not hear Sarazza's cackles or mockery. The God of Orbis, albeit a statue, had crumbled into pieces and was scattered on the ground. All angels surrounded Seong-Hwi with enraged expressions.
“GLORY TO!”
“THE ALMIGHTY GOD OF HEAVEN!”
“JUDGMENT TO!”
“THE HERETICS!”
Raziel’s halo flashed intensely, and his nine pairs of wings sprouted toward the sky.
“You have committed an unforgivable sin! You and your race will pay the price for this blasphemy!”
He flipped through the Book of Raziel and activated a skill to capture the blasphemous human alive.
[Activating Race Skill: Orbis Repulsio.]
A circular, white ring flew toward Seong-Hwi.
I know that skill! Seong-Hwi thought.
He had used it to pull the Bachtasha-rank Chaos away from Lilar. However, the mana and Holy Force it contained were on another level. He could tell it would be game over if he were caught by that skill.
“Very well. I was curious about how much this sword can sever anyway!” Seong-Hwi shouted as he clenched the Knot-severing Sword.
The Wings of Evolution shone. All of his mana condensed in his sword, and he was about to convert his Destiny Force into Demon Force, the opposite of Holy Force. However, an arrow flew at Orbis Repulsio, destroyed the skill, and got stuck on the ground.
[Activating Item Skill: Nature’s Victory.]
Blue plants grew from where the arrow was planted, creating a wall separating Raziel and Seong-Hwi.
“Didn’t you say... Sefirot would maintain neutrality? Or have you already changed your mind, Lilicia?!” Raziel shouted as he turned to the one who got in his way.
A female elf smiled in satisfaction as she fiddled with the Divinity of Scilla and said, “Hoho, my apologies. I’ve decided to take that human.”
“What?”
“I need something from him.”
Raziel was left surprised by Lilicia, but Seong-Hwi was just as surprised.
I was about to run toward the Golden Iron Palace, but what’s with this elf? Seong-Hwi wondered.
An unexpected variable occurred. The female elf, who had simply watched the battle as if having no interest in it, had suddenly stepped up.
I was going to lure Raziel to the Golden Iron Palace, where the World Rankers are fighting, and wait for my chance to escape while he has his hands full... And she needs something from me? I don’t recall clashing against any elves in this life.
As Seong-Hwi scrolled through his memories, Lilicia softly walked toward him and smiled as her turquoise hair and eyes shone. Just then, Seong-Hwi recalled the female elf at the end of his recent memories.
“Uhhh... Oh, could you be...”
There had been three elves eating cabbage salad at the pub he had entered with Kang-San. One of the elves had argued with the dwarf pub owner that the cabbages weren’t organic. Her voice was similar to the female elf before him.
“Do you remember me, human gentleman? I asked if you could share some of your dressing, but you refused so coldly. I believe you said... You would think about it if I paid you a billion Coins,” the elf said.
“Oh... That was...”
“I, Lilicia, was deeply hurt by your comment. Why don’t we chat in a dreary alley somewhere?” Lilicia said with a bright smile.
Seong-Hwi seriously wondered whether the female elf was insane.
Raziel, watching the scene, furiously screamed, “WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING?! IS THIS THE WILL OF SEFIROT?!”
Lilicia covered her mouth with her hand and elegantly giggled, “Hoho, who knows? Perhaps, but you should get the details from my beloved unnie, whom I respect the most. It appears she has arrived.”
“What?”
Just then, a colossal tree, large enough to shroud the entire city, sprouted from the direction of the Golden Iron Palace.