Ranker Who Lives Twice
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chapter-767-30041322
"…How?" Michael looked down at the long blade that pierced his chest with a look of disbelief.
Of course, at Michael's power level, he would not die right away even if his heart was pierced or even if his head was cut off. The most important thing for an existence at his level was divine power, one's legends, and divinity, as these were the elements that sustained divine beings. Moreover, Michael had a lot of divine power, so he would easily be able to recover from the physical wounds he had sustained so far, and considering that he also possessed a Soulstone, this piercing was materially unsubstantial.
However, Michael felt a sense of tension and looming danger. The blade had not simply penetrated his body but also his spirit. The spirit was the underlying framework that bound his legends to the existence known as Michael.
Scythe had made this possible. Kronos' existence had already surpassed his previous power level when he was the king of gods. Because of this, Michael was forced to look with disbelief at Scythe. He then raised his head to look at Jeong-woo, who was firmly holding onto Scythe with an indifferent expression on his face.
Clearly, until recently, Jeong-woo had been struggling against Hou Yi. Jeong-woo faced a crisis wherein he had to fully focus his concentration on contending against Hou Yi. So at what point did Jeong-woo come towards Michael?'But you were clearly…!'
Hou Yi had stepped back, and Jeong-woo had shot out a Wave of Light strike in, presumably, Hou Yi's direction. However, contrary to what Michael expected, the Wave of Light was not directed towards Hou Yi but towards Michael. Michael hastily tried to block the strike, but he could not avoid Scythe, which had approached him from his blind spot, from digging into his chest.
"You know what I hate the most in the world? People who stab you in the back. I suffered a lot from that when I was younger." Jeong-woo snorted as he stared back at Michael's wide-eyed gaze. He knew that Michael was looking for an opportunity to attack him from behind while he was preoccupied with Hou Yi.
Michael was planning to stab Jeong-woo in the back, literally. Michael was waiting for the two of them to lose their strength or waiting for one to show a gap. However, since neither Jeong-woo nor Hou Yi wanted such a result to occur, they had silently agreed to finish off Michael before continuing their battle. As soon as the opportunity presented itself, Jeong-woo drove Scythe into Michael's spirit.
[Scythe's Curse is being transplanted onto the target!]
['Death: Freezing' is processing.]
['Death: Execution' is processing.]['Death: Starvation' is processing.]
…
Although Yeon-woo was a being who embodied the concept of death, before his appearance, Kronos was widely known as the strongest being among the gods of death and the demons. Thus, it was not that difficult to transplant the concepts of death into Michael.
『She was an evil mother to me, but I guess she also left something helpful for me.』 Kronos received inspiration for the death concept transplanting method from 'Gaia's Curse'. Thus, through being cursed, Kronos had learned the mechanisms of transplanting concepts. In a small way, he had received help from Gaia. Soon…
[The sun of 'Day (Eros)' begins to absorb the light it had bestowed upon the opponent!]
[The target's divinity is being denied!]
"Oh, no…!" Michael realized what Jeong-woo was doing and tried to shake him off.
Crack! Crack! Cracks soon appeared and spread all over Michael's body. The divinity bestowed on Malach was for the maintenance of Day and for Day's opposition to Night.
However, as Jeong-woo became the leader of Day and received recognition from the elder gods, the qualification to retrieve the divinity bestowed upon those of the Day also fell under Jeong-woo's authority.
Knowing this, Michael had planned to kill off Jeong-woo first if he could. If someone else held the right to your life, who would like that? Michael thought that, fortunately for him, he was in possession of a Soulstone, so he felt that he would be able to protect his divinity as long as he did not get too seriously injured.
However, since Michael's legends began to be destroyed by Scythe, there was no way to protect his divinity. Michael's divinity was quickly sucked into Jeong-woo through Scythe. Michael opened his mouth to say something, but the cracks had reached his face and soon covered his entire face.
Crack! Whoosh! As Michael broke into tiny pieces, he was sucked into Jeong-woo. Although Michael wanted to say something, it was already too late.
Due to the sudden intake of divinity, Jeong-woo's light distribution shone even more splendidly. After the divinity retrieval process was over, Jeong-woo narrowed his eyes. At that moment… Whoosh! A gust of strong wind blew and swept through the place Michael had just been.
Boom! Without even a moment to enjoy the lingering and uplifting feeling of devouring, Jeong-woo swung the Scythe wildly to repel the strong wind. In his left hand, Jeong-woo held the Virtue Stone, the Soulstone (Temperance). When Michael disappeared, Jeong-woo had grabbed the Soulstone that had fallen.
"…Damn it! Did I fail?" Meanwhile, the strong wind took the form of a human. Looking at the Soulstone (Temperance) in Jeong-woo's hand, Hou Yi made a frustrated expression. Due to the effects of Jeong-woo's Ruling Steps, Hou Yi's ability to move was greatly limited. Hou Yi had aimed to obtain the Soulstone in order to overcome this barrier.
Whoosh! However, Jeong-woo was not about to let Hou Yi obtain any advantages. On the contrary, Jeong-woo was quickly pushing the Soulstone (Temperance) into his mouth.
[You have swallowed the Virtue Stone, Soulstone – Temperantia (Temperance)!]
[There is a resonance between the sun of 'Day (Eros)' and the Virtue Stone, Soulstone (Temperance)!]
The problem for Hou Yi was that the Soulstone's quality matched perfectly with Jeong-woo.
Having united with Kronos, having devoured Michael, and having obtained the Soulstone (Temperance), Jeong-woo's power had expanded exponentially. The amount of power that was rushing into Jeong-woo was massive. It would have been an overwhelming amount for any other divine being, but Jeong-woo was able to absorb the incoming powers without much difficulty.
Whoosh. Boom! Jeong-woo gathered his divine power onto the tip of Scythe and lifted it up. When he swung Scythe down, a single flash of light seemed to connect the ground and the sky. And in the path of the strike stood Hou Yi, with his ankles caught by Ruling Steps. Hou Yi's left arm was subsequently cut off and flew into the air. He lost an arm, which was a lifeline for an archer.
As if he had no intention of stopping with just a single limb, Jeong-woo increased the intensity of Rukling Steps and struck down on Hou Yi's head with Scythe.
***
"For now, all you have to do is collect all the Soulstones." Sun Wukong waited quietly for Yeon-woo to clear his mind, and when he felt that Yeon-woo had settled down to some extent, Sun Wukong slowly spoke those words out.
It was not something that Yeon-woo had thought of, so he asked for clarification. "The Soulstones… You're referring to Luciel's soul fragments?"
"Right. You have some with you already, right?"
Yeon-woo nodded. Out of the fourteen Soulstones, he already possessed the Soulstones of Superbia (Arrogance), Gula (Gluttony), and Luxuria (Lust). Atop of those three, Yeon-woo also possessed the Stone of Castitas (Purity), which did not fit with his personal qualities.
Among the gods and demons, Yeon-woo possessed the most Soulstones. However, even though he probably possessed the most Soulstones, Yeon-woo did not know very much about Luciel.
Luciel was originally the keeper of light, but he became greedy for the First Light (the fire of the beginning) and made himself the public enemy of the heavenly world. Thus, when he was ultimately defeated, Luciel's soul shattered into many pieces, leaving behind fourteen fragments. Most of that information was picked up from here and there from other gods and demons.
Yeon-woo was never really interested in Luciel. But since Sun Wukong was specifically mentioning Luciel, it was clear that there was something special regarding Luciel.
"Luciel was originally the keeper of light. Do you know what that means?"
"I know that he was the existence responsible for protecting the First Light."
"Then, do you know what the First Light is?"
"The origin for the creation of the universe."
"And who created the universe?"
"Heavenly…?"
"Right. The remnant that the Heavenly Demon left in this world is the First Light. Also…" One corner of Sun Wukong's lips curled up. "It's also referred to as…"
"…?"
"Li's Fragment."
"…!" Yeon-woo gulped.
"It's exactly what Yvlke and my older brother, the Bull Demon King, are looking for right now." Sun Wukong continued his explanation. "It'll take too long for me to explain everything in detail regarding Li's Fragment, so I'll skip the introduction and get to the main storyline. To begin with, the Soulstones are pieces of Li's Fragment before becoming the soul fragments of Luciel."
Had one ever considered why the Soulstone was so powerful? Holding just one Soulstone amplified one's power severalfold. Even a mere mortal could rival and threaten the existence of a divine being with a Soulstone in his or her possession.
The Heavenly Demon had asked this before. In fact, it was also a question that Yeon-woo had always harbored at the back of his mind but could never resolve.
Sun Wukong further explained that there was a great possibility buried in Li's Fragment. "The origins of the Heavenly Demon are buried in Li's Fragment, so of course it's a great item. Luciel always kept it next to him, so he eventually became blinded by greed and wreaked havoc on the world."
When the gods and demons first found Li's Fragment, they knew that if one person came into possession of it, there would be dire consequences and huge disasters. Thus, the societies made an agreement amongst each other to prevent this. They agreed that no one should possess Li's Fragment. If there was an existence that broke the agreement, all the other societies agreed to work together to bring that existence down.
And Malach, who always advocated for the absolute good, was tasked with the safekeeping of LI's Fragment. At that time, Luciel was chosen as the keeper of light. Back then, Luciel was Metatron's right-hand man because Luciel exhibited outstanding talent and character, so much so that many felt he would become the next in command to Metatron.
"At that time, all the other societies judged that Luciel could be entrusted with Li's Fragment. It was because the power and moral fiber he portrayed was greater than even Metatron's." Sun Wukong let out a laugh. "However, a very strong force that can magically seduce and possess a strong-willed and strong-minded being. Thus, Luciel touched Li's Fragment."
"…"
"What you must do is simple. Gather all the Soulstones in one place and pick out the pieces that contain Li's Fragment. With that alone, you'll be able to traverse a much wider area and open more possibilities."
"Can you tell me how exactly it widens and what possibilities may show up?"
Sun Wukong frowned. "Am I supposed to spoon feed you? Do I have to explain everything word by word? I'll give you a hint. Exuviae."
"Ah." Yeon-woo seemed to realize what Sun Wukong was getting at.
Sun Wukong was a face of the Heavenly Demon. If he possessed Li's Fragment, Sun Wukong would inevitably cause a big change. Even Luciel had become strong enough to threaten the heavenly world, so what would a face of a Heavenly Demon be able to accomplish?
Furthermore, Yeon-woo possessed the Monkey King's exuviae, which can be said to be a part of Sun Wukong. If Yeon-woo could possess Li's Fragment, he would be able to gain some positive effect. This also meant that Yeon-woo would have the possibility of becoming 'like the Heavenly Demon'.
"Yvlke is a madman who has the same face as me but also acts as the ego of the Black King, right? If he's able to do that, why can't you?" Sun Wukong chuckled as if he found something funny. "And the fragments attract each other. Even if Yvlke and the Bull Demon King find the fragments, it will be easier for you to find their location and intercept them later."
However, Yeon-woo knew that Sun Wukong's objectives did not stop there. Yvlke stated that he would create a world that would never collapse, a safe haven or 'Pian', with Li's Fragment. This meant that the power of Li's Fragment was that great. Thus, if Yeon-woo could get his hands on Li's Fragment, he would be able to open further possibilities. Yeon-woo could open a world where the 'dream' did not collapse, a world where he would be able to exist.
The approach Sun Wukong offered to help Yeon-woo survive was Li's Fragment. Yeon-woo thought so. And as soon as he collected his thoughts, Yeon-woo immediately moved. He raised his head towards the sky and closed his eyes. "…"
This world was the 'dream' of the Black King. It was the same as being under the Consciousness of Yeon-woo, who was the Alternate Ego of the Black King. Thus, Yeon-woo quietly focused his Consciousness and projected his will to scan and assess the entire 'dream'. He did this to search and find the Soulstones that were scattered and hidden throughout the 'dream'. It was clear that the Tower's collapse had scattered the Soulstones all over the place.
[Searching for Soulstones.]
[Searching.]
[Searching.]
After searching for a while…
[You have found the Sin Stone – Acedia (Sloth).]
The moment the message popped up in his mind, Yeon-woo immediately performed Shukuchi.
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