The collapsed ground swallowed the sea of green which used to be the forest. The giant trees, that reached all the way to the sky, tilted precariously.
A long time ago when Grid visited this place with Zik and Zibal, the scenery at the entrance of the Hwan Kingdom had overwhelmed him. It now looked completely devastated. Judging from the scale of the damage, it was almost certain that the Hwan Kingdom wouldn’t escape unscathed from this fight. This had to be the case. Why else had Hanul rushed over here then?
However, Hanul appeared unbothered. He sneered at Grid without giving off the slightest hint of agitation.
[The pressure you are giving off is unusual. Do you think this is an opportunity for you to kill us?]
Just then, Chiyou’s eyes returned to normal. He stopped emitting a white light and his pupils were back to their original state. Those pitch-black eyes of his contained desire and joy.
Noe had been poking his head out of Grid’s arms to examine the situation. “D-Don’t tell me, this guy... Did he pretend to be insane to lure Master here?” he asked thoughtfully.
It was a reasonable doubt, but Grid firmly shook his head.
“There is no way that those who live on pride would act like fools.”
Grid could operate as virtually two different people thanks to the Consciousness Separation skill. The skill divided his consciousness into two. It was still at level 1, but it was very useful. Because of it, Grid could a.s.sess the clone’s situation in real time. He had witnessed every moment of Hanul and Chiyou’s fight and he knew that Chiyou had not put on an act.
Of course, doing so mentally exhausted him. Switching back and forth between the two consciousnesses required a great deal of concentration. Had there not been a function that granted autonomy to his clone, Grid wouldn’t have been able to fully utilize the Consciousness Separation skill.
In any case, Grid was aware that Hanul wasn’t in good shape.
[Are you serious...? You are here to settle things with us by yourself? So ridiculous. Can you really handle both of us?]
Hanul was bluffing, pretending he was fine with this turn of events. Grid wasn’t deceived by his acting skills.
“What do you mean by the two of you? I don’t think Chiyou will team up with you so we can fight two versus one.”
Grid had long defined Chiyou as a lunatic. Therefore, he didn’t respect Chiyou. Chiyou teaming up with Hanul to kill Grid? No way.
Ironically, the one whom the madman valued the most was Grid. He didn’t want Grid to die. Because of this, it was Grid, not Hanul, who had the numerical advantage.
Grid wasn’t actually isolated behind enemy lines. Together with his clone, he had surrounded the enemy. This had been his plan from the very beginning.
“Thanks to the immortal earlier, the Hwan Kingdom has suffered quite a lot of damage... Did I miscalculate when I decided this was the best moment to try and hurt you?”
More and more mirrors appeared, surrounding Hanul. Before he knew it, there were hundreds of them, and would soon become thousands. This was easy to pull off because the spell required ice magic. They weren’t that durable, that was their weakness, but they reflected light. This clearly restricted Hanul’s actions.
Hanul stared at Grid silently. The light withdrew and he revealed his true appearance.
He looked like King Sobyeol after King Sobyeol grew older and larger in size. Hanul’s white hair was tightly combed into a bun and there were deep wrinkles all over his face. However, the wrinkles didn’t make him look ugly. They made his eyes look wiser, and the lines around his mouth made him look mightier. He was standing with his back straight, and had a thick waist, a broad chest, and wide shoulders.
Hanul’s appearance resembled the one described in the myths. He gave off the impression of a ruler. Anyone could see that he had been born to rule and deserved to be wors.h.i.+ped as a G.o.d.
[Everything you do is insidious and insignificant. It doesn’t befit your status as the Only One G.o.d. This is the limit of lowly existences such as yours.]
Unlike Grid, who was genuinely impressed with Hanul’s appearance, Hanul didn’t respect Grid. He expressed great disgust.
Grid tilted his head. “Are you talking about yourself...?”
Hanul had existed since the beginning of time. He had been a G.o.d from the moment he was born. However, he opposed Rebecca and lost. Thanks to Chiyou’s help, he managed to hide in the remote east and was wors.h.i.+ped after cowardly deceiving the people with false myths.
Grid had robbed or killed all the yangbans who were supposed to replace the angels. Hanul had tried all sorts of dirty schemes one after another, but all of his plans failed. If anything, Hanul was the one who had lived an insidious and insignificant life. Hanul knew that better than anyone else.
Grid seemed to have hit the nail on the head. Hanul got fl.u.s.tered and shouted, [You are truly a lowly and disgusting b.a.s.t.a.r.d!!]
A powerful wave stretched out around Hanul. It wasn’t light, but Hanul’s pure power. He had created a shockwave just by shouting. The power of his loud voice shattered hundreds of mirrors.
It was impossible to measure how strong a G.o.d of the beginning was. This was the prestige of a being whose stats were at least in the tens of thousands. Noe was overwhelmed by the intense pressure of the successive shockwaves and screamed before hiding in the pet inventory.
Grid’s black hair barely fluttered. He was unmoving as he stared at Hanul in the sky. He was making an effort not to miss any of his enemy’s movements.
Hanul’s name meant ‘heaven.’ His unique authority was to give wide-area quests to players or NPCs. Hanul clearly had a heavenly role. He was the G.o.d that all beings living in the world should look up to. However, when they looked up, they saw the sky which Rebecca had created. Hanul had rejected his role and rebelled against Rebecca.
This was one of the reasons Rebecca’s ideal world was destroyed. He came up with a plan that was far different than his original role.
What was the reason? Did he l.u.s.t for power? Did he want more than the power of light? Did he want to take away Rebecca’s authority?
Grid didn’t know what Hanul’s intentions were. He could only a.s.sume why Hanul had decided to become aggressive toward Rebecca.
“You know the truth of this world as well.”
This world was just a game. Since Yatan, another G.o.d of the beginning, and even Judar had known the truth of the world, there was no way Hanul didn’t know as well.
[Don’t make that face.]
Hanul read the emotions in Grid’s eyes and did as he pleased. He turned into light and shot forward. He stabbed Grid in the chest with his light. The attack landed before Grid could even register it. Red blood spilled from his chest wound. Despite his high defense, he couldn’t fully withstand the attack power of a G.o.d of the beginning.
[......?]
Before he knew it, Hanul was standing behind Grid. He was about to link another attack but suddenly stopped. His eyes widened as blood also shot up from his shoulders. It was real blood, not divinity.
[Annihilation.]
Chiyou was fascinated by the shocking sight of a G.o.d of the beginning bleeding like a human.
[You are so annoying.]
Hanul figured out why he had been cut. The fragments of broken ice covered the sky like snowflakes and kept reflecting the light. As a result, the power of light dispersed all around. This allowed Grid to narrowly keep up with Hanul’s speed.
[Do your best.]
Hanul’s target changed. He attacked Grid’s clone, who kept creating new ice mirrors.
Flas.h.!.+
No matter what form Hanul’s attack took, it was always a beam of light. As if this was incredibly easy for him to do, he shattered the Multiple Weakening Barriers that Grid had placed around the clone and struck the clone.
The clone remained stuck in place because of the huge shock and could no longer sp.a.w.n any mirrors. Hanul shattered all the surrounding mirrors with a burst of energy and turned into light again.
[You have been hit by a serious blow!]
Grid was bleeding again. He now lost twice as much compared to the first time he got hit because Hanul had struck him right in the heart. Grid had no chance to react in time. He was too focused on counterattacking.
[......]
Meanwhile, Hanul was as unmoving as a stone statue. He silently rubbed the blood flowing down from his throat. If Grid’s sword had dug just a little bit deeper, he would’ve been decapitated.
Surprisingly, Grid was responding to the speed of light. He couldn’t dodge or block Hanul’s attack before counterattacking, but he managed to counterattack after Hanul hit him.
Nevertheless, this was intimidating. The Annihilation energy was proof of him slaying a chief G.o.d and a dragon. The destructive purple energy annihilated every target, no matter what it was. Light was no exception.
“......”
[......]
Grid and Hanul no longer talked. Grid exposed himself to attacks that he couldn’t block or avoid. Hanul had to risk his life to kill his enemies. Both Absolutes were walking on thin ice. They had to focus on the fight and only on the fight. They couldn’t afford to relax at all.
This was especially true for Grid. He had invested all his stat points into Agility to somehow respond to the speed of light, but this meant his defense and attack power had been greatly lowered.
However, thanks to the power of the Defying the Natural Order and Twilight swords, he posed a great threat to Hanul. However, if his attack power lowered even more, even his items wouldn’t be able to make up for it.
This meant it wasn’t possible for him to use the White Tiger’s Posture.
‘I’m nervous.’
It felt like death was looming over him. Every pa.s.sing second, he got the feeling that he was going to die for real this time. He had not felt this way ever since he was isolated in Trauka’s lair. His heart was pounding, and his breathing was ragged. His eyes stung.
‘...Interesting.’
Ever since becoming a G.o.d, Grid had not enjoyed Satisfy as a pure game. He had so many responsibilities that he had to treat his life as if it belonged to someone else.
However, he now had no choice but to fight for his life. Thus, he realized that Satisfy was still just a game.
Chiyou’s eyes widened and he burst out laughing. [Hahaha!]
[What’s up with this crazy weirdo...?]
Hanul scowled, maddened with rage after seeing the smile on Grid’s face.
Flas.h.!.+
Light reflected in Grid’s red, bloodshot eyes. There were two beams of light. One was the one fired by Hanul, and the other one was created by Grid’s sword. This was the ultimate skill of Peak Sword, which Grid borrowed through the power of Link.
Grid swiftly slashed through the light.
[You have been hit by a serious blow!]
This time, Grid got hit in both his heart and neck. He eventually collapsed.
Flop!
Hanul also fell to his knees. He brought one hand to his neck, which looked like it was going to fall. He hadn’t expected Grid to cut down his light so miserably. There were a lot of thoughts going through his head, and he didn’t know how to feel about this.
Nevertheless, he didn’t intend to die in a place like this. In fact, he still had the advantage. He slowly stood up.
Meanwhile, Grid had three large holes in his chest. He tried getting up, but he kept collapsing because he was losing too much blood.
[Experience what it feels like to be weak. It feels like h.e.l.l. You will lose a lot if you die here.]
Hanul raised his finger and pointed at Grid. He was on the verge of firing another beam of light.
Just then, a magic spear fell from the skies and crushed Hanul’s hand, changing the trajectory of the beam. The clone, now able to move again, intervened.
“This is why I told you that I had the advantage.”
[Chiyou...!]
It wasn’t until the last moment that Hanul desperately pleaded for help from his longtime ally. Unfortunately, there was no response.