Chapter 110: Celestial Judgment

……..This was it.”

A golden hand illuminating the night sky.

So massive that it enveloped the entire island, and even from far away, it felt as if it was right in front of you.

This was something Daphne was familiar with.

“Back then… that sight was just as I thought….”

The sight she glimpsed right before losing consciousness in the Abyss—she had indeed seen it correctly.

The warmth she had felt at that time.

The comfort, as if her mind was being healed.

The fulfillment that filled her chest.

Of course, now, not being inside that radiance, she could not feel any of it.

Instead, an overwhelming power she had not sensed back then pressed down on her.

An island saturated with the energy of the Abyss.

She knew it, even without entering.

It was clear—the expedition team that went to the 51st floor had entered that island.

And yet, the hand of the goddess, which she had thought was nothing but gentle warmth, was now smashing the entire island to pieces.

‘What kind of power is that…?’

She couldn’t even guess, and found herself unconsciously clenching her fists.

This was the extent of the difference between them.

When she was told not to step forward, she honestly thought it was a bit much.

But it wasn’t excessive.

She was simply lacking.

To think she could form an expedition together—

How ridiculous a notion that had been.

How laughable it must have sounded to him.

So, telling her not to step forward had been his greatest consideration.

There had been no need to enter the island.

He could just destroy it.

The scale of their power, the way they wielded it, even the way they thought—it was all different.

“What on earth… is he seeing ahead?”

Jijoncheonma.

If she could, she’d want to step inside his head and see for herself.

‘With the power to casually destroy an entire island, just how far was he planning ahead?’

And then—

“…Me too.”

‘Could she ever reach that place?’

Daphne’s eyes, tightly clenched in determination, filled with the image of the falling island’s debris, and Hio watching it all.

Beside Daphne stood Yoon Seulah.

By chance, they had ended up accompanying each other with Hyunseung Lee between them, and by another coincidence, they were now watching this miraculous collapse of the Sky Island together.

“Ha.”

She let out a short sigh before she realized.

“First Awakened?”

She had faintly guessed that Hyunseung Lee might be the one leading the First Awakened.

“What a ridiculous thought.”

How absurd.

‘Who would know more about the First Awakened than Yoon Seulah herself?’

She was the only one who had seen the true power of Nam Tae-min, which had never been revealed.

And Daphne and Nam Tae-min—she knew both were among the top ranks of the First Awakened.

But… just look at this.

Even Daphne right beside her was wide-eyed in shock, clenching her fists.

‘How could she even begin to explain this power?’

“Is this really something a human can do…?”

The golden hand descending from the sky was both benevolent and holy.

And yet, it was powerful enough to smash the gigantic island and the monsters within it in a single blow.

‘What could that mean?’

‘Was it not the power of a god?’

A person who wielded the power of a god.

Suddenly, a truly absurd hypothesis flashed through her mind.

Could it be that Hyunseung Lee was…

“A god?”

The creator of the First Awakened, perhaps—something like that?

“Haha…”

She let out a hollow laugh, unable to believe even her own thoughts.

It didn’t make sense.

No matter what, to call him a god…

Just a few hours ago, she would never have even considered such a thought, something completely unlike her usual rational self.

But… the scene unfolding before her eyes now proved that such thoughts weren’t entirely nonsense.

And, no matter how much she had tried to find out about Hyunseung Lee, she had come up with nothing.

No records, no acquaintances.

Not a single piece of evidence to prove his identity.

If he really were a god, it would make sense.

“Ha… Seriously… No way…”

No matter what, surely calling him a god was too much of a leap.

It had to be.

Yet, as she thought this, Yoon Seulah’s eyes wavered with uncertainty about herself.

A darkened room.

The glow of the monitor was the only light shining on the man’s face and upper body.

He wasn’t sure how many hours it had been.

He had been holed up in his room all day, just watching videos.

He ran away because he was scared.

Fools with far too much fame for their actual skill.

But the situation had ended in a direction he never expected.

Know shame.

He was ashamed, so he hid himself away.

“I will watch you.”

Those words had been so frightening that he couldn’t bring himself to go outside.

So, he hid behind his monitor, watching the footage over and over.

Playing on the man’s screen was a video from that day.

A miracle that, even as he watched it, he still couldn’t believe.

Out of all the footage from that day, this was the best-edited version, already having surpassed several billion views.

Waves crashing in a dark sea. The sun set beyond the horizon.

The floating island between them was shrouded in an especially thick darkness.

A single beam of brilliant white light pierced through the night sky.

As it zoomed in, its form became clearer.

A dazzling white horse racing through the sky at incredible speed, a man mounted atop it.

At that point, the background music picked up pace, and the image of the man filled the screen as the zoom intensified.

Before he knew it, the man was standing before the island, silently watching.

Against the vast, dark island, the white horse and the man seemed so small—it looked like an impossible battle at a glance.

But as if to mock such thoughts, the man casually raised his staff.

[Doom— The swelling music shook the heart, and the camera angle shot upward.]

At that moment.

[Doom— Filling the screen was the image of a gigantic mage.]

The old wizard, gazing down at the island shrouded in darkness.

With a benevolent face, yet a resolute gaze, the mage tapped his staff as if marking a point in the air.

Pabababak— With a crackling sound, thousands of eyes materialized, completely surrounding the island.

As if determined to analyze every last detail of the island, the thousands of eyes bore down on it.

The camera briefly showed the entirety of the island, then focused back on the man.

The pace of alternating between the two scenes sped up, the music building along with it.

When it reached its climax—

All sound abruptly cut out.

And on screen was the man’s smiling face.

-“Celestial,” he intoned.

Shouting incomprehensible words, he thrust his staff high into the sky.

What happened next was a miracle.

Even watching it as a video, there was nothing to call it but miraculous—a breathtaking spectacle.

From the sky, golden radiance descended, washing away the darkness.

Yes, “washing away” was the perfect expression.

The island’s tainted darkness retreated, and the land began to crack, letting out a heavy wail.

Soon, the gigantic mass collapsed and started to fall.

Only then was the island’s interior revealed.

It was packed with grotesque monsters of bizarre shapes.

Monsters of forms never before seen, collapsing as if their very souls had been drained, sinking into the depths along with the falling island.

The video ended with the back of the man on the white horse, silently watching the plummeting island.

“…Jijoncheonma…”

The man knew the identity of the man in the video.

There was no way any of the First Awakened wouldn’t recognize him—and this man was among their number.

“I—I really had no choice.”

He’d always acted with a light heart.

Every time he entered the world of Ventair Online.

At first, the Logout Ticket (72 hours) was a burden, but once he’d gained a certain level of fame, it didn’t bother him much.

Every logout brought him a huge haul of points.

The whole world praised and worshipped him.

So, really, he had no choice.

‘Who could have imagined it?’

Other Awakened just as strong as himself—or even stronger—those legendary figures, the ones everyone knew by name, falling one after another, completely helpless.

Even witnessing heads bursting and people dying, the first thing he thought of was, naturally, to log out.

‘What else could he do?’

He couldn’t die there.

What if, like at the beginning of the raid, logging out didn’t work?

So, without a moment’s hesitation, he logged out, and fortunately, the Logout Ticket (72 hours) worked as intended.

What he felt at that moment… was relief.

And the raid ended in failure.

He felt deeply responsible.

He knew well enough what consequences would follow failure.

He hadn’t intended to keep hiding forever.

There would be a new Abyss Gate, the Awakened would gather again, and he would just have to do his best then.

Whatever happened in that other world, he had to protect at least the real world here.

Really… he had planned to step up.

But before he could even act, it was over.

Jijoncheonma—the ranker among rankers.

He had stepped in and resolved everything in an instant.

When he heard about that, he felt a huge weight lift from his chest.

But then he heard Jijoncheonma’s last words, belatedly revealed.

[Know shame.]

And he hid away immediately.

He didn’t know why.

Maybe he really did feel shame, just as Jijoncheonma had said.

He didn’t know, but… suddenly, he just felt afraid.

[Fools with far too much fame for their actual skill.]

He realized he couldn’t do any more than this.

From here on, only someone like Jijoncheonma could carry on.

To stop the end of the world.

The weight, so heavy that he could never even comprehend it before, was only now beginning to make sense.

So the man gazed endlessly at the only shining thing in his dark room—the monitor screen.

Jijoncheonma, radiating brilliance there.

He engraved that effortless image in his eyes and his heart.

The comments below numbered in the millions.

People from every nation praising him in their own languages.

They trembled before his might.

Yet, not a shred of jealousy stirred within him.

He knew—he could never reach such heights.

Instead of envy, all he felt was admiration.

The man slowly closed his eyes as he gazed at the screen.

What was he supposed to do now?

From here on, it was no longer a realm his power could reach.

Only monsters like Jijoncheonma could survive the path ahead.

‘Should he keep moving forward?’

‘Or stop here?’

It felt as if waves were crashing in his heart.

Such turmoil was occurring within most of the so-called First Awakened or heroes.

The Abyss’s weakness is divine power.

Come to think of it, the hints had always been there.

Even in the game, divine power was effective, even purifying tainted land or people.

The only problem was that there were extremely few priests who could wield divine power.

In the world of Ventair, the first nation to fall to the Abyss’s invasion was the Holy Kingdom of Hibernia—a rather intuitive piece of evidence.

Yes, there were various reasons—absence of a leader, lack of tradition, sudden death of the pope and cardinals.

But the most fundamental reason was that the Abyss Monsters invaded the Holy Nation first.

You might think it was just a coincidence, but thinking back, was it really?

Instinctively, the monsters tried to eliminate their greatest threat first.

This was confirmed even further after meeting Aerial, the Emerald Dragon overtaken by the Abyss.

A soul already almost entirely assimilated by the Abyssal Curse.

In such a state, what would happen if one used ‘Celestial,’ a spell akin to high-level holy magic?

There was no need to experiment—it was already clear, since this was the skill Hio had acquired.

The total annihilation of anything related to the Abyss.

Not purification, but erasure.

That was why he hadn’t used Celestial on the dragon, and had to slowly purify it with Purification instead.

To summarize, the Abyss’s weakness is divine power.

And Hio’s top-tier defensive skill, ‘Celestial,’ required divine power.

Fortunately, he was nearly at 500 magic stat, which could be raised through the Fame Points Shop.

Once he’d maxed out magic with Fame Points, he’d have to raise divine power next.

「All Abyss Gates have been eradicated.」

「Returning.」

Anyway, that’s not what’s important right now.

Arilleia.

Surely Arilleia and the Empire, likely invaded by the Abyss, are safe…

With that desperate hope, Hio opened his eyes.

And as he opened them, the scene that appeared was—

“What the… damn.”

It was chaos.