The Divine Twilight's Return

Chapter 459: Star, Niflheim (4)

Loki’s presence alone already exuded outstanding majesty. More importantly, he had just smacked Ubbo-Sathla, who had been tormenting Chang-Sun and Bel-Marduk, right in the face!

Craaaaaack―!

Loki pulverized Ubbo-Sathla’s monsters and covered the spatial gap at the same time, his enormous arms repeatedly getting destroyed and regenerating.

You. Mere. Mortal.

The Outer Celestials of Nyx often called beings of Eros mortals to degrade them. Eros’ Celestials had given themselves fancy names like transcendent beings and immortals, but from the Outer Celestials’ perspective, they were no more than beings trapped in their Worldlines, unable to escape <Extinction>.

Ubbo-Sathla thought of Loki as a big fish in a small pond, bound to the restrictions of Worldlines. However, that fish had just landed a decent hit on Ubbo-Sathla. Considering even Tiamat, who dreamed of becoming a Celestial King, was defeated by Ubbo-Sathla, Loki had just achieved an incredible feat.

‘He’s a Nine Heaven, alright,’ Chang-Sun thought.

Although Chang-Sun had heard from Thanatos that Loki was powerful, he hadn’t expected Loki to be this strong. Considering the situation, Loki certainly held the advantage against Ubbo-Sathla. The spatial gap hadn’t completely opened up yet, so Ubbo-Sathla could only use a very small amount of their power from <Nihil>. In contrast, Chang-Sun could use his omnipotence over the ‘Iron Forest’ to strengthen Loki. Nevertheless, that didn’t make stopping Ubbo-Sathla’s tentacles on his own any less marvelous.

『Do what you have to do, but be quick about it! I won’t last long!』 Loki roared, acknowledging his limits.

Chang-Sun and Bel-Marduk immediately sprang into action.

“Marduk,” Chang-Sun said.

“What?”

“Buy me some time.”

Bel-Marduk looked at Chang-Sun in annoyance, silently asking how much longer he should help him since he had been fighting the monsters and tentacles on his own. However, he soon realized that Chang-Sun was serious.

“Fuck! I won’t be able to last long either. I’m almost out of divine power.”

“All I need is a moment.”

Bel-Marduk wasn’t sure what Chang-Sun was trying to do, but he had likely found an answer using his omnipotence and omniscience.

“Alright. Let’s do this.”

Smiling coldly, Bel-Marduk spread his arms out, seemingly about to be crucified.

[The Celestial ‘Taurus’ has activated the Authority ‘Asarualim[1]!]

Devouring Worldlines and <Myths>making numerous accomplishments had given Bel-Marduk over fifty Authorities. Among them was Asarualim, a title and power given to those with mystical knowledge. It was created in praise of his wisdom and mastery of magic and supernatural phenomena.

Swoosh, woosh, swish...!

Blue light circled Bel-Marduk’s right hand, forming a heavily compressed whirlpool. Water, the source of his power, sustained life but also had the power to kill, making it the best conduit for harnessing magical power.

[The Celestial ‘Taurus’ has activated the Authority ‘Namtillaku[2]’!]

Namtillaku, a mystic and powerful monarch. Bel-Marduk, the Celestial and ruler of the vast land ‘Babylonia,’ showed dignity as strong and fearsome as lightning.

Pzzz, pzzz, pzzzzz!

Golden sparks flew up from Bel-Marduk’s left hand, threatening to explode at any moment.

[The Celestial ‘Taurus’ has activated the Authority ‘Asaruludu’![3]!]

Bel-Marduk put his hands together, combining the blue water current and golden lightning energy to form a sword thousands of meters long. Bel-Marduk didn’t use Asaruludu, which meant ‘the bearer of the flaming sword,’ often due to the long preparation it required, but it was his favorite ability. It was also the power that got him a seat among the Nine Heavens.

Rummmble!

Woosh, woosh, woosh―

Bel-Marduk held up the heavy-looking sword high in the air, then swung it horizontally.

Slllaaash!

The range of his attack was already so wide that it looked as if it could split the sky apart as well, yet a slight change in the strike’s angle could astronomically expand it further.

Powerful explosions burst out all over the battlefield.

Rumble, rumble, rummmble―!

Booooooom, booooom!

As the brilliant explosions from Bel-Marduk’s attack killed the monsters and tentacles that Loki had failed to stop, Chang-Sun reached out for the spatial gap to <Nihil> and shut his eyes. He then used his omniscience and omnipotence, the laws of nature of the ‘Iron Forest,’ once more.

[Reactivating omniscience and omnipotence as the <Jotunheim> ruler!]

Creaak, creaaak―!

Creeeak!

Similar to how the parts of a machine were connected, every Dungeon had a hidden area side where its laws of nature would engage with one another in the form of gears.

Chang-Sun couldn’t help but chuckle dryly when he saw the hidden area side of the ‘Iron Forest.’

‘What a mess.’

It couldn’t get any worse than this. Most of its gears were missing, and those that were still miraculously intact were old or rundown.

‘This must be why they went <Extinct>.’

Non-functioning worlds with dilapidated laws of nature like the ‘Iron Forest’ often faced <Extinction>. Chang-Sun had to fix these gears now. As his eyes shone, he extracted supreme sacred light from his divine power and infused it into the gears.

Paah―

The white supreme sacred light enveloped the old, chipped gears and seemingly brought them back in time, making them shine again. At the same time, pools of light amassed where the missing gears were and replaced them with new ones. When Mechanical belts linked them all together, they began to turn once more, bringing the machine back to life. Reactivating it proved quite easy since spring had already been brought back to this world.

Supreme. Sacred. Light.

Watching Chang-Sun through the gaps between Loki’s fingers, the Outer Celestial’s annoyance turned into fury.

You. Light. Face?

As a part of Nyx, Ubbo-Sathla naturally found the power of Eros irritating. Although <Dull Darkness>, whom they served, had already reconciled with <Supreme Light>, they still held grudges against <Supreme Light> and everything that had to do with Eros.

Realizing that the one who had been bothering them all this time was a <Supreme Light’s Face>, Ubbo-Sathla could no longer let Chang-Sun go. However, their fury quickly turned into shock.

Creeeeeak, clink!

The moment Chang-Sun rotated one of the gears to the opposite side, the spatial gap of <Nihil>, which had been eating away the Dungeon’s sky, stopped expanding.

Rummmble―!

Not long after, it began to close. It was very slow at first, but it accelerated to great speeds.

You. Control. <Darkness>?

Ubbo-Sathla’s eye turned bloodshot. They had just witnessed an event unprecedented even for them, an Outer Celestial who had lived an eternity.

<Nihil> was a pathway that allowed Outer Celestials to come into contact with Eros, and <Darkness> was a constituent of <Nihil>. Since <Darkness> was also <Dull Darkness>’ power, Outer Celestials could use it to activate their Authorities. However, they couldn’t influence it because it was the root of their existence.

For beings of Eros, coming into contact with <Darkness> alone already risked having their souls bewitched or overcome with madness, yet Chang-Sun was using it right now.

How. Can. Mere. Mortal. No. Light. Face.

Moreover, the power that Chang-Sun previously used was the trace that <Supreme Light> had left to operate this universe. Considering it was the polar opposite of <Darkness>, Ubbo-Sathla believed that controlling both was impossible.

As if to prove her wrong, however, Chang-Sun had done just that. Using supreme sacred light, he put all laws of nature of the ‘Iron Forest’ under his control and recalibrated the system of <Nihil> to gain dominance. Only he could hack the System in such a way. After all, what made it possible was all the future that he had seen.

Some of them showed him in levels he had to live several thousands of years to reach. He had essentially seen the paths he would take some day with a telescope and took the shortcuts.

Faust. What. Hell. Did. He. Do.

Using any means necessary, Ubbo-Sathla tried to force the spatial gap of <Nihil> open again, but Chang-Sun’s omnipotence stopped the Outer Celestial’s resistance.

Thud...!

The thunderous sound of a very heavy metal gate being forcibly shut reverberated as the spatial gap was closed, revealing the blue sky. They could no longer detect Ubbo-Sathla’s energy.

[Omniscience and omnipotence have been deactivated!]

Chang-Sun fell to the ground, no longer able to use his power. Although he had taken a shortcut, he had pushed himself past his Divine Class’ limits far too much.

“You’re a handful.” Bel-Marduk flew toward Chang-Sun and snatched him before he hit the ground.

Chang-Sun drooped in Bel-Marduk’s arms, unconscious, making Bel-Marduk laugh dumbfoundedly. Although they had agreed to temporarily join forces, they had been at each other’s throats for a long time prior to their agreement. He wasn’t sure if it was wise for Chang-Sun to show weakness right now.

Fortunately for Chang-Sun, Bel-Marduk had no intention to harm him right now. Despite everything they had gone through, they were in this mess together now. He wouldn’t gain anything from hurting him.

Hence, Bel-Marduk looked up at Loki instead, finding him gazing down at Chang-Sun and exuding menacing Divine Class.

“He’s a mess right now. We’ll have to continue the talk elsewhere.”

Loki stared at Chang-Sun for a bit longer, then turned in the opposite direction. 『Okay. Follow me.』

* * *

Chang-Sun grasped onto his aching head as he forced his eyes open. The last thing he could remember was kicking Ubbo-Sathla back to <Nihil>.

‘Where... am I?’

Considering he was lying down on a bed, Bel-Marduk and Loki had likely brought him to this place. Thinking he should figure out where he was first, he turned his head.

Woof!

‘... Woof?’

Chang-Sun looked down, finding a baby Siberian Husky panting and wagging his tail. The dog seemed delighted to meet him.

Woof, woof!

1. One of Bel-Marduk’s other names in Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. ☜

2. One of Bel-Marduk’s other names. ☜

3. One of Bel-Marduk’s other names. ☜