The white mist of a breath exhaled.
A leg sinking deep into the ground with every step.
Snow was everywhere.
A mountain of immense height was entirely blanketed in white.
Apart from the fierce winds and fluttering snowflakes, everything was silent and indifferent to change. This was a mountain considered sacred in Fioria, the kingdom of ice and snow.
It was a rugged peak of a height unreachable by human feet.
A place where blizzards raged all year round and thick mist made it difficult to even open one’s eyes, let alone find a direction, making it look like the domain of an angry god.
One human was climbing to the summit of such a mountain.
Even though it was a place where nature forbade presence, the person moved at a steady pace as if such things were of no concern.
A flushed face peeked out from thick fur clothing to survey the surroundings.
It was Airlights, who had been reported missing.
“It should be near here…”
Moving her feet and leaving marks in the soft snow, Airlights stopped and pulled a book from her pocket.
[The Seventh Record]
The title on the cover gave no hint as to what it recorded.
The expression on Airlights’ face as she opened it was incredibly solemn.
Based on the clues Hio had left at the Magician’s House, she had moved to the Randebur region.
Beginning with the first record she found there, she had reached the current Seventh Record.
This was the place she had arrived at by following it.
[‘…I could not accept it. That our god would perish. That Venus, the Goddess of Beauty and Love, would no longer exist. How could such a thing be possible? What future would there be in a world without love?’]
The record, consisting of seven volumes in total, was the diary of a priest whose rank was unknown.
It was a record of his despair and frustration.
Airlights roughly flipped to the end of the book and read the lines.
[But since acceptance is not my authority, and I have no power over faith, I have no choice but to believe and believe again. O Venus! Please save us with love. Please repay us with love!]
To begin with, Airlights was an atheist.
She did not believe in gods.
The only things she believed in were herself and Hio.
But a world without Hio was a life without meaning.
Just as the priest in the records said, it was a grey world where love did not exist.
‘So what did it matter?’
‘What could she not do?’
She tried believing in a god she didn’t trust and reached this place following baseless records.
There were quite a few harsh trials and difficulties along the way, but they weren’t particularly taxing.
They were not at a level that could cause even a small ripple in Airlights’ quiet anger.
If she was told to throw away her life, she would do so gladly.
Even if she were told to live with a curse for the rest of her life, she could do so with a smile.
If she had to become a god, she would do so even if it took thousands of years.
As long as she could save Hio.
[I prayed for three days without drinking a single drop of water. Even this suffering would be too trivial compared to the pain my god would suffer. Desperately wishing for my god to sleep at least a little peacefully, I stayed up for two nights crying and fell into a deep sleep beneath the statue of Venus.]
The difference between the nameless priest in the records and Airlights would be this.
The priest prayed with tears, hoping his god would sleep in peace, but Airlights was different.
She did not pray for the one and only being she believed in.
She simply acted.
‘I hope my only god appears again.’
‘I hope I can see that relaxed smile as always.’
Her life from now on was a journey for that purpose.
[It was a world of widespread crimson. Was it a dream? No. It was the Celestial. It was the call of Venus. I listened to Venus’s words with joy that day and saw her off with sadness. And so, when I opened my eyes again, I found myself standing in front of the broken statue.]
She had already read the contents of the book several times.
She could understand the content, at least roughly.
Turning to the next page, Airlights moved her feet again.
[O successor.]
Without her realizing it, the fierce blizzard that had been raging had stopped.
[You who were born from a blessing, but were not loved and did not know love, yet already harbored immense love.]
She was nearing the summit of the mountain.
There were only a few pages left.
[A pitiful one who was wounded by love, sought to know love, and was saved by love. Thus, the one who eventually reaches my record. A seeker who will once again spread the ecstatic crimson, that beautiful color, to the world.]
The falling snow stopped abruptly.
Even the wind held its breath, and silence enveloped the area.
Meanwhile, the sentences in the book, which were mere letters, became a heavy resonance and were engraved in the air.
[You who crave love with a noble body that is already dead, with a pitiful soul that is already dead.]
The sky sparkled black.
A dazzling light erupted from the book in her hand.
A pale pink radiance poured endlessly from Airlights’ hand and from the book.
This was the diary of a nameless priest.
The record of his despair.
At the same time it was a struggle of frustration.
[O Airlights.]
It was a book of prophecy.
Rumble—
Soon, the entire mountain began to shake violently.
[These are the final words of Venus.]
The light emitting from the book was now so bright that the letters could no longer be discerned, but it was fine.
Because the same letters were being engraved in the air.
Rumble, boom—
The summit of the mountain vibrated terrifyingly.
The accumulated snow collapsed and scattered, and the ground cracked.
Amidst the massive vibration that felt like it would collapse.
What slowly revealed itself from beneath the summit of the mountain was a single structure.
A massive, pure white temple.
[If you wish to obtain love.]
The record turned into light and was sucked into the temple.
A moment later, a pale pink radiance burst out from deep within the temple.
What was felt from it was a massive amount of divinity.
[Die once more.]
She took a step.
The Holy Power felt in that single step.
A force that tightened around her whole body.
“Ugh…”
***
At the second step, she felt pain so intense she almost lost consciousness.
She saw hallucinations of her body being torn to pieces, but it wasn’t real.
Even amidst the immense pain, she gritted her teeth and took a third step.
It felt as if her soul and body were being separated.
Her already dead soul and the body that had died more than a thousand years ago were shaken.
Hio’s dark magic, which held them together, was being weakened by the divinity.
Her steps stopped for a moment.
She had to walk at least several hundred more steps to get inside the temple.
“Heh.”
Despite this, a smile spread across Airlights’ face.
It was for Hio.
It was only natural that there should be a trial of this magnitude.
Had she not said that for him, she could truly endure a lifelong curse and the pains of hell with a smile?
[Be born anew.]
So, she took the fourth step.
Footprints were engraved on the pure white snow.
Suddenly, fire caught onto Airlights’ body.
A hot crimson fire that melted all the snow in the area and even sent up a thick haze.
The flame of divinity.
Artifacts or clothing that protected her body were burned away in an instant.
[O descendant of Venus.]
The fifth step taken again in such pain.
***
The collapsing Gate.
The Abyssal Depths bursting forth as if exploding.
Screeeech!
Abyss monsters pouring out.
Strange entities swarming like a tidal wave.
[Skill – ‘Superlative Psychokinesis – Heavy’ has been activated.]
He tried to block a part of it, but it was like pouring water into a bottomless pit.
It was like trying to block a river with one hand.
Boom!
The long wall surrounding the city.
Seoul’s last line of defense, prepared several years ago for a time like this.
Thud!
It collapsed all too easily.
The shields of defensive-type Awakened were destroyed by a single tremor of the ground, and the high walls were broken.
All sorts of attacks from the Awakened burst out in desperation, but they were not enough to stop the incoming tidal wave of strange entities.
Crash!
The final line of defense finally crumbled.
[Skill – ‘Superlative Psychokinetic Binding’ has been activated.]
[Skill – ‘Superlative Psychokinesis – Destruction’ has been activated.]
He held onto the collapsing structure and swept away the monsters in front of him, but a much larger wave pushed in.
There was nothing more that could be done.
No, in fact, there had been no way since much earlier.
Ever since the day Jijoncheonma, Hio Pavlenko, died, hope had practically vanished.
He had only realized it more keenly now.
Boom!
Sirbert stared blankly at the explosion.
This was truly unrealistic.
Even though they had protected it with all their might, it eventually ended up like this.
Even if he blocked this raid with all his strength, there was practically no future after that.
The truth he had tried so hard to hide was revealed by someone’s disclosure, and the fact that everyone in the world was living a life that was essentially terminal was widely known.
The system would collapse and people would fall into extreme chaos.
Still, there was nothing he could do.
Because it was the truth.
All ordinary people, except for the Awakened, would die because they could not withstand the energy.
His family, whom Sirbert had been willing to risk his life to protect, had also finally been infected with Abyss energy and were dying in real-time.
So his will disappeared.
The two arms he had raised to maintain his Telekinesis lost their strength and went limp.
He was just standing there, blankly, in the middle of the battlefield.
Boom!
Explosions and screams were rampant.
Buildings collapsed and flames soared.
Even though damage was accumulating by the second, Sirbert did not think about moving.
“Nam Taemin!”
Someone flew toward Sirbert at high speed.
Then she slapped him across the cheek.
His head turned slightly with a smack.
Even though it was a fairly hard hit, it didn’t seem to have much of an impact on Sirbert, who was evaluated as the top among the First Awakened.
His neatly combed-back hair was disheveled, and his unfocused pupils turned toward the person who had appeared out of nowhere and slapped him.
“…Yoon Seulah.”
“You crazy bastard! Get a grip!”
Yoon Seulah grabbed Nam Tae-min by the collar.
“What are you going to do if you give up!”
She was a combat-type Awakened, so she was able to hold and shake Nam Tae-min’s body.
Looking at how she ran to him as soon as the Telekinesis was released, her mind still seemed sane.
“If you controlled the information and caused this, you should take responsibility until the end!”
There was not a single wrong word in every sentence.
It was true that he had controlled the information, and it was true that he had to take responsibility for it.
It was obvious that excuses like it being the best method wouldn’t work.
Because it was just a loser’s excuse.
However.
“It’s too late…”
‘Responsibility?’
He could take it as much as she wanted.
‘But what was the point now?’
“Everyone is going to die.”
“Who’s dying! Fight until the end!”
“There’s no way. Neither Antipus nor Daphne, no one will be able to stop this Great Catastrophe. Even if we stop it, what then? What about the spread of the Abyssal Depths, and how will we stop the collapse of the next floor? Maybe it’s better to just be destroyed here.”
Boom!
The ground tremors created by the strange entities became even more intense.
The Great Catastrophe was heading toward the center of Seoul after crossing the outskirts.
They had done their best to stop the destruction and fought countless times.
He could be confident that he had moved in and out of truly dangerous battlefields as if they were his daily meals.
However, there was only one thing he deeply regretted.
“That day… we shouldn’t have run away from that hell.”
The screams that rang out while they were trapped in the Abyssal Depths.
The hell of the 58th Floor where they died one by one, hidden in the darkness.
“If only we hadn’t run away… If only that guy were alive…”
‘Wouldn’t things be very different?’
‘He had regretted it bitterly since that day and had never run away or stepped back, but was it already too late?’
The predetermined end was destruction.
Boom!
The ground tremors reached nearby.
The Abyssal Depths, spreading thicker than ever, completely covered the sky over Seoul, and the screams of chaos also reached their peak.
In the midst of this, Yoon Seulah’s gaze swept over Nam Tae-min in front of her.
The collar she was holding.
Crumpled clothes.
Unfocused pupils.
Disheveled hair.
A look as if he had completely lost his will.
However, she had to listen to the end of the story.
She had to use that small clue to somehow bring back his will.
“If it’s that guy you’re talking about, could it be the one from before…”
And at that moment.
From behind Nam Tae-min.
From much higher up than him, a brilliant surge.
Voom—
A purple line.
A purple radiance piercing through the Abyssal Depths and reaching the end of the sky.
The deep shadow that had cast over Yoon Seulah’s face was driven away, and a brilliant purple took its place.
Nam Taemin’s head, after seeing it, also turned slowly.
The empty pupils, because they were meaningless, were soon filled with astonishment.
Crackle—
Space folded one by one.
It split apart.
The sky opened, the earth throbbed, and the strange entities wailed in fear.
A being revealing its form at the center.
With the purple radiance at his back.
Leaving the split space behind.
A person looking down at the ground with massive jet-black wings on both sides.
‘No, was he truly a person?’
That appearance was as if he were there to save humanity.
“Jijon… Cheonma…?”
The advent of a god.