From the outside, it looked like we were fighting on equal footing, but Claudia and I both knew that I was stronger. I even had the occasional chance to check my surroundings. I noticed that the twenty-nine deities that came with Claudia were gathered together, chattering to each other about something. They were probably thinking of ways to get Claudia out of the battle alive, since I doubted they were planning on abandoning their commander just to save themselves.
âGah!â Even though we were still trading blows, only Claudia ever cried out in pain. I had to suppress the urge to kill her right then and there. The end was almost here. Besides, it didnât matter if they sent hundreds or thousands of their people at me just to get Claudia out. I was saving all of my Skills for that moment. It didnât take long for them to do exactly what I expected.
âIf youâre fast enough, move! Donât stop!â
Countless enemy soldiers and deities soon appeared between me and Claudia. A few of them quickly activated their Skills.
âExude! Blinding Fog!â
âMaterialize! Pitch-black Darkness!â
The enemy soldiers knew that I was immune to debilitating status effects, so they used environmental Skills to blind me. It was a pretty decent strategy, but I had too much experience under my belt to be tripped up by that. I didnât save all of my Skills just to squander away this chance. Before the environmental Skills could fully materialize, I was already high in the air above Claudia and the enemy soldiers, casting Scorching Rage.
Countless enemy soldiers screamed as they were killed or severely hurt by the powerful Skill, but unfortunately for them, I still had more for them.
âFissure! Titan Stomp!â I shouted as I slammed my spear into the ground.
The ground around Claudia slammed down, forming a crater in the shape of a footprint. The force of the attack drove Claudia to her knees, unable to avoid the splitting ground as Fissure barreled towards her.
âJudgeâs Gavel!â I charged at Claudia as I received two level-up messages, each accompanied by three Bortegaâs Blessing levels and countless golden ring messages.
==[You have obtained 140,000 golden rings.]==
==[You have obtained 170,000 golden rings.]==
==[You have obtained 97,000,000 golden rings for defeating a powerful enemy.]==
==[You have obtained 230,000 golden rings.]==
==[You have obtained 310,000 golden rings.]==
==[You have obtained 169,000,000 golden rings for defeating a powerful enemy.]==
The messages told me that I had also killed a few powerful enemies. They were obviously deities, but the amount of golden rings wasnât enough. Killing Claudia wouldnât yield just 100 million golden rings. Claudia was still alive!
I quickly Blinked to the crater formed by Titan Stomp, where Fissure was still laying waste to enemy soldiers. Then, I suddenly received another wave of level-up messages.
==[You have gained a level.]==
==[You have gained a level.]==
==[You have gained a level.]==
I had suddenly gained another three levels, but I didnât have time to pay attention to the Bortegaâs Blessing levels as another message appeared.
==[You have obtained 3,495,000,000 golden rings for defeating a powerful enemy.]==
ââŠâ I had just received 2.5 billion more golden rings than when I had killed Angel. That had to mean it came from Claudia!
I felt a bit of energy leave my body. I had killed Crootâs highest ranking deity without even needing to use Judgeâs Gavel! I honestly felt a little empty inside. As strong as my three AoE skills were, they didnât inflict as much damage as Judgeâs Gavel. Sure, Scorching Earth inflicted more damage based on my weaponâs Rank, but in the end, it meant that my regular attacks had done the most damage to her.
âI guess I was tricked, too.â From the way Claudia acted, I was tricked into thinking that she was a bit more resilient, when I could have killed her off a lot sooner. Still, I had killed her, so this battle was over.
I shifted my attention to the twenty-something deities standing off in the distance. I still had Judgeâs Gavel activated and I didnât want to waste it on a deva soldier. I also saw them all talking to one specific deity, who was probably Claudiaâs second.
âBlink 1.â I Blinked right into the middle of the crowd of deities and could clearly see their horrified expressions. They also knew by now that Claudia was dead. âDonât worry. Iâll send you all to her soon,â I informed them before attacking.
âGah!â The first deity was killed with one strike, which I had expected. He obviously wasnât a melee class.
==[You have gained a level.]==
==[You have gained 3 additional levels from Bortegaâs Blessing.]==
==[You have obtained 537,000,000 golden rings for defeating a powerful enemy.]==
Still, five hundred million golden rings was a lot for dying in one hit. The most I had gotten from killing a deity, besides Angel and Claudia, was two hundred million.
âAnd the rest of you should follow suit,â I said to the other deities, who were all staring at me with their mouths wide open in horror.
âShit! Claudia and Coby are both dead!â
âItâs all over! Run!â
When I drove my spear into another deity, the others finally snapped back to reality and turned tail as fast as they could. There were too many of them for me to chase them all, but I gave chase anyway, and killed whoever I could catch up to.
âCoby⊠he killed Coby, too!â
âThe other deities are running away!â
âFuck! Fuck them for leaving us and saving themselves! Iâm running for it too!â
âMe too. If Claudiaâs dead, Iâm not risking my life any longer!â
âIt was over when Severed Time didnât work. We lost!â
âHey! Wait for me! I donât want to die here either!â
The enemy soldiers scrambled over one another to run away from the battlefield. It was absolute chaos; all that was left to do was to clean up.
It seemed the Empireâs officers were thinking the same thing.
âCommander Lee has killed the enemy commander!â
âDonât let a single fleeing enemy soldier escape! Chase them to the end!â
âThe enemy is broken! Attack! Kill them all!â
Outside of the Empireâs base of operations at Section 3âŠ
Dunia was locked in a fierce battle against Lagus Aman. As he fought against Lagus, he was surprised at how strong Lagus was for a deva. Dunia may have been imprisoned by Claudia for several years, unable to spend that time growing stronger, but he could still say confidently that he was one of Crootâs strongest devas.
But Lagus was a lot stronger than Dunia had expected. In fact, Dunia was actually getting pushed back. Right about then, a message appeared before Dunia that did not bode well at all.
==[All of your stolen time has been returned.]==
âHuh?â The time that had been stolen from him was suddenly returned to him. That could only mean one thing: Claudia had let go of the time she had stolen from him, something he knew she would never willingly do.
So, Dunia wanted to know why Claudia had done that and what was happening at the battle in the middle of the Judgeâs Continent. What he wanted to know, he learned quicklyâŠ
ââŠâ Croot had completely and utterly lost the battle because Claudia was dead. Crootâs strongest deity, the woman who could control Time, was dead. So was Coby, Claudiaâs right hand man, and ten other deities!
âUhâŠâ Dunia just stood there in shock, even as Lagus stabbed cleanly through his gut. Dunia had been 100% sure that Claudia was going to win. As strong as Lee Jiwon was, Dunia had believed that Claudia was stronger.
âWe⊠Croot⊠might just lose the warâŠâ Dunia looked over at the battle that was taking place around him. They were evenly matched, but Dunia couldnât pay attention to the battle for long. This battle was useless with Claudiaâs death. The Empireâs main force was going to return soon to clean up the traitor guilds.
Dunia quickly turned away from Lagus and slipped away. The one thing Dunia was second to none at was running away.
As strong as Lagus was, he couldnât keep track of Dunia when Dunia vanished from sight. With Dunia gone, the tide of the battle turned completely in favor of Lagusâs army. Lagus was, after all, the Demon Lord who once seeded fear into the hearts of deities.
Crootâs strongest deities and devas all shared a similar experience; they had all had time stolen away by Claudia. As a result, they could never usurp her rule over Croot. They didnât want to be imprisoned in time like Dunia.
One of them was Adora the Monster, who had ruled Croot before Claudia. That same Adora was keeping close tabs on the battle between Earth and Croot, even though he was sure Claudia would win. He was also suddenly greeted with an unexpected message.
==[All of your stolen time has been returned.]==
Adoraâs time had been helplessly stolen from him when he was trapped inside Claudiaâs Severed Time. Claudia had then blackmailed Adora with that stolen time and taken away his throne, and Adora had no choice but to give it up.
When Adora learned that his time had been returned to him, he froze in place, thinking something had gone wrong. He would have stayed like that, if it werenât for Navana, who had also had his time stolen from him.
âIt⊠would seem Claudia was killed by Lee Jiwon, along with Coby and ten other deities!â
ââŠ.â Adora almost scoffed at what Navana had said. There was no way that could happen. But when Adora realized that Navana was telling the truth, he felt conflicted. He was glad that the woman who had stolen his time and his throne was finally dead, but the man who had killed Claudia was also his enemy!
âBring me a recording of Lee Jiwonâs and Claudiaâs fight, along with Claudiaâs surviving deities.â
Eighteen of Claudiaâs deities had survived the battle. If Claudia was still alive, he wouldnât be able to order them around, but now that she was dead. Adora needed to know what they knew about Lee Jiwon, and just how exactly Claudia had lost.
âHaa⊠did we just lose the war?â Adora had first thought of the Judgeâs Continent as Crootâs playground. He had so many strong deities by his side, and there were over two billion Croot devas on the Continent.
But Angle and Claudia were both dead. Skyla had lost so many soldiers that she was pretty much rendered useless. Croot was on the verge of defeat. Adora didnât know what to think.
âLee Jiwon⊠just what in the hell are you?â The source of all of Crootâs problems was Lee Jiwon. As Adora tried to figure out Lee Jiwonâs existence, he got up from his seat and went outside.
He was the only one still standing in Lee Jiwonâs way.
âHahahaha! So why am I laughing like this?â Adora continued to laugh for a while. In the end, he was finally free of his shackles, and he just needed to kill Lee Jiwon. He knew he could. He was always powerful, after allâŠ