Hazen shouted as he gritted his teeth. The powered suit he was wearing vibrated quietly, and he was in front of Ellos in the next moment. He held up his fist.
âYou dare trick me!?â
âItâs too late, Hazen.â
Ellos laughed. His sword was already deep inside the crystal. The violet colored crystal pulsed red like a glass heart. At the same time, the surrounding mana began to detonate. Hazen punched Ellos and sent him flying, but as Ellos said, it was too late. There was no way to recover the crystal.
âKang Shin, youâll die too! Help me stop it!â
âDidnât you hear? Itâs too late.â
Amidst the thundering explosion of mana, I roused Peruta Circuit and retorted calmly. I looked behind me. Neither Licorice nor Lotte was there. Mm, they properly escaped when I whispered them to.
âHuâŠ!â
Ellos staggered up and looked at me. His body was also shining periodically. I was certain that he was perfectly connected to the crystal.
When Ellos got up completely, one of his arm exploded. At the same time, a part of the crystal also exploded with a thundering roar, dyeing the surroundings red. This was probably what it was like to witness a bomb go off up close.
âYour friends arenât here⊠Did you see through my plan that much, friend?â
âYep. Though, I didnât think youâd detonate the crystal. AlsoâŠâ
I held up my spear. The superdense mana around us shot towards the reddened crystal and exploded. It was a truly catastrophic amount of mana.
âYouâre no longer my friend.â
When Ellos died, the crystal would detonate completely. In other words, the entire space around us would explode. Perhaps, the entire Peruta Mountain Range would explode and even continue out to the rest of the continent. That was how overwhelming the amount of mana gathered here was. Kahar. As Peruta said, he was a god that destroyed everything, even the things he wanted to protect. Thinking about it now, Peruta hadnât mentioned him randomly. He had undoubtedly felt an ill omen and had advised me to be wary of him.
âDamn it, Kang Shin! Donât kill him now!â
Hazen seemed to have realized that Ellos was connected to the crystal. Regardless of what they were saying, I rolled my eyes, looking for the last thing I needed to obtain. This was the only thing I couldnât prepare for. I could only depend on my luck.
âWhat are you looking for? That craterâs the only place you can run, Shin.â
Ellos pointed to the sky and spoke. I followed his finger and looked up at the sky. Beyond the giant hole in the faraway ceiling was a night sky. It was so far that even Divine Speed couldnât help me escape. There were only few seconds left until the explosion.
âDa⊠Damn it! Etos! O God of Destruction!â
Hazen had a godâs true name, one belonging to a Destruction God. As I thought, he was incredible. Considering his power, I felt he rather suited the Destruction God.
Shivaâs power boiled inside me. It wanted to break out. Did it want to determine who was superior as a Destruction God? However, it seemed Hazenâs power wasnât enough. He probably wanted to destroy Ellosâ energy covering the crystal, but as they were both godsâ true names, that was difficult to do.
Mana exploded. It broke through the whirlpool surrounding my mana and injured me. Most of the crystal shattered and my explorer power was restored, but that wasnât enough. Even Hazen, who had used his godâs true name, was being injured. There was no way I could be safe without doing anything.
Still, I was smiling.
âThanks, Ellos. I found out thanks to you.â
âShinâŠ!?â
Ellos retorted in a flustered tone. In the next moment, I used Divine Speed. I approached him, and kicked him.
âSo Iâll let you find your own death.â
âKak!â
Ellos flew straight across the sky and smashed against the crystal. Red mana shot out from the crystal and grabbed Ellos. Before Ellos could say anything, he froze. The crystal had begun assimilating with Ellos.
âWhat are you doing!?â
âThatâll increase the destructive power.â
âAnd you still did itâŠ!? Wasnât he once your friend!?â
âFriend?â
I found it absurd.
âSomeone who used my life to get his revenge? Thatâs not a friend. He only used me as a chess piece.â
âYou⊠Didnât you say you trusted him!?ââ
âMe? How could I? I could see his scheme from miles away.â
I smirked and shook my head.
âBut I knew he wanted to kill you. No matter what sacrifice he had to make.â
To be honest, I wasnât confident I could win against Hazen. The magical tool suppressing explorersâ power was too strong. Hazen had also reigned supreme in almost two dimensional world wars. It was impossible to fight such a worldâs enemy without using the dungeonâs power.
âSo I also used him as a chess piece.â
âKang Shin, you⊠You!â
I didnât think Ellos could kill him, but I expected him to weaken the worldâs enemy. Ellos responded to my expectation outstandingly. In fact, he even went beyond my expectation. The mana gathered in the crystal wasnât just enough to kill Hazen, it was enough to ruin the entire continent. The only downside was that it might kill me too.
âHah! In the end, youâre also a Hero! Someone who stands on the peak of such dirty worlds canât possibly be clean!â
âShouldnât you worry about your subordinates than me?â
Almost in response to my words, mana once again exploded. This time, it was far bigger. Most of Hazenâs subordinates were swept away by the explosion. Hazen realized what happened and screamed in despair.
âKuaaaaa! Kasinaaaaaaa! Someone like you, someone like you!!â
No matter what happened, no matter what anyone said, I didnât care. I looked up at the sky. From the giant hole to the holes in the surface of walls leading down to the floor I was standing on. I looked at the spiral helix radiating out.
How long did his vestige stay here? It was engraved so clearly and had withstood countless years. I could only admire his divinity.
âHuâŠâ
âPeruta.â I murmured to myself.
He was amazing. It was a power and vestige befitting a god. I was somewhat doubtful, but it really was here. If it wasnât for Ellos, I wouldnât have noticed until this entire space was destroyed.
âOverlord, Trishula.â
I quietly recited two powers and held up my spear. Peruta Circuitâs extreme spin made it difficult for me to carry myself, but I endured it. I could do it. I should be able to.
âNo, it canât end like this! Our hope! I swear I will notââ
Finally, the crystal exploded along with the entire surrounding space. Ellos was the first one to explode, and Hazen, who was resisting with the Destruction Godâs power, couldnât withstand the current of mana and transformed into a stream of blood. A worldâs enemy, who successfully conquered a world and bared the ambition to devour the dungeon, died in vain.
However, I didnât have the time to pay attention to anything else.
âLetâs do this, PerutaâŠ!â
In the middle of the overwhelming blood-red mana, I accelerated Peruta Circuit. I tuned my breathing and whirlpool to the helix Peruta drew. I didnât need to two whirlpools to cover my body and spear. I only need one whirlpool centered around the Peruta Circuit in my body. Just one was enough.
âHuoooooop!â
An enormous amount of mana rushed into my body. It attacked Ellos and Hazen whimsically, but as soon as I pulled it towards me, it happily shot towards me as if it found the master it had been waiting for. At the same time, Peruta Circuit continued to vibrate, absorbing and spinning everything.
The mana filling up the surrounding space perfectly suited me. Still, there was just too much. A current of mana I had never wielded before creaked to escape my control. As it reeled to destroy me, I desperately straightened my breathing. If I missed this moment, there was nothing else I could do.
To top it off, another type of mana rushed towards me. It was the storm caused by the shattered blood-red crystal that swallowed Hazen and Ellos. Tens of thousands of crystals, imbued with the giant crystalâs power and Kaharâs power, didnât follow my command and swept towards me like a wild beast.
My armor became tattered, my hair was cut, and blood spurted out from my body. My vitality fell to a miserable level, and it felt like my soul was being yanked out. Still, the spin continued. I had long forgotten about any pain. This was also a type of mana. I should be capable of controlling it. Mana followed an even larger mana!
I couldnât even tell where I was. Volcano? Would it still look like one? I didnât know. I didnât even care what condition my body was in. I only focused on one thing. This giant whirlpool I had to create.
âI can⊠do itâŠ!â
At that moment, a piece of the blood-red crystal was sucked into the whirlpool surrounding my body and began to spin. Next, more and more crystals became incapable of withstanding the current of mana and was absorbed by my whirlpool.
The mana, which detonated the entire space, didnât spread and continued to be collected. The whirlpool roiling around me slowly compressed itself. In the process, the tens of thousands of scattered crystals were beginning to become one again.
I breathed. A terrifying amount of mana had come inside me and was accelerating Peruta Circuitâs spin. The surrounding space crumbled and the hole connecting the sky to the ground became larger. The whirlpool Peruta drew was completely gone. However, I was now displaying that whirlpool with my own body.
Perutaâs mana covering this place, no, this whole continent, was rushing towards me and forming a whirlpool. Almost as if it had been waiting for this moment.
I body floated up automatically. I was in the center of the whirlpool. Now, nothing could injure me. Mana circulated around me calmly, and the pieces of the blood-red crystal compressed themselves as they fused together. At that moment, I realized.
That I had become one with Peruta Circuit.
âAh, aaaaah!â
Unable to withstand the sense of ecstasy, I shouted. The mana filling up my body was beginning to change me from the inside. The bracelet Lin gave me, Radiance, then scattered. It didnât disappear. Everything forming the bracelet had melted down and was flowing into me along with mana.
The current sensation was incomparable to when I first equipped Radiance. An overwhelming mana shattered my body and reforged it from the very beginning. I disappeared entirely, leaving only Peruta Circuit behind, then reappeared around Peruta Circuit from head to toe. It was a body formed from only Peruta Circuitâs mana, one that other trivial mana couldnât dare to approach.
Still, it wasnât enough. Peruta Circuit, in the end, belonged to Peruta. I needed something that belonged to me. Only then would I take a âstepâ forward. I could only realize this now that I had gotten this strong. No one needed to tell me, I was enlightened naturally.
With my hair being reconstituted, the current of mana began to subside.
âHuuâŠâ
I slowly opened my eyes. Neither the superdense mana nor the blood-red crystal was here. I was floating in empty air. Volcano? It had long since disappeared. Only magma was boiling from the deep depths.
âDear Husband!â
A voice rang out from far away. Lotte and Licorice was flying up towards me. I smiled and waved my hands.
âAre you two safe?â
âDear Husband!â
Licorice called me yearningly. They looked fine on the outside, but were they hurt!? I rushed towards them anxiously but stopped in place when I heard Licoriceâs shouting.