Chapter 165

Mercadius

It was something of a mixture of blood, Mana, and divine power.

- I can't... I can't die this wa2y!

He tore the open wound on the forehead even wider and released a mental wave closer to a scream.

I was the one he was after.

Leaving behind the fallen host that turned into a cold corpse, the entity charged toward my face only a few dozen centimeters away.

'It's trying to take my body!'

It failed to assume control by planting the seed in my body.

It also failed to shake down my head by using the power borne as a fragment of a god.

The last option left was for it to dig into my body itself.

That was its only way to make me the new host.

Boosh!

Thousands of red threads touched my skin and seeped inside.

Driiip!

Immediately after, the blood from the back of my hand began to pour more violently.

The tensile was rejecting it.

Furthermore, fresh blood flowed from my eyes, nose, and mouth at the same time.

'Damn it!'

My body trembled.

The divine power of a different god was causing chaos inside me.

'However, by only this much-!'

Although it was a pain that I had never experienced before, my soul, described by the magic god Igras-Sho as "unprecedentedly hard and tough," overcame it.

I didn't give in.

I held out with [The Successor's Eyes]

It struggled in an attempt to take control of the body, drive out the energy of other deities, and overtake my mind, but it was futile.

Whoooong!

Mercadius, who was crawling under my skin, soon delivered a baffling mental wave.

- W-what the hell is this?!

So far, by fighting with me, he witnessed divine power pour out as they were converted into four elements: magic, life, sword, and luck.

At that moment, however, in my body which Mercadius had penetrated, was a presence that it couldn't even have imagined.

It was something that I had stored in advance before committing to the battle.

A deep sea-like non-elemental divine power.

When it encountered the power, the entity shouted as if it were in a fit.

- This... doesn't make sense!

I moved the divine power and induced it to swarm the intruder.

I then drove Mercadius to the corner, denying its retreat.

Like crushing a bug with a rock, or as if to break a glass with water pressure, I gathered hefty sacred forces from all around and pressured it.

Mercadius's intentions were broken and collapsed.

It had become busy being chased around in my body.

It couldn't even attempt to brainwash me according to its primary objective.

- Something's wrong with this! How can a human...!

Abandoning the host and infiltrating into my body would have been quite a superb move for it.

However, Mercadius didn't expect that my body was a more dangerous prison and trap than the surrounding environment for its spirit.

The intellectual being composed of Mana and divine power screamed devastatingly.

It tried to run back out of my body, but I grabbed it and didn't let it go.

The non-elemental divine power had gnawed and crushed the divine power of the mind.

As it struggled disgracefully, the feeling of something foreign having entered my body began to decrease gradually.

As a result-

A cry of a different level compared to the previous ones resonated.

- Screeeeech!

It was a horrific scream that was much larger and deeper than the scream of the seeds that I had heard countless times.

It belonged to the one who lost the glory of a god as it was divided into pieces and forced to wander the worlds for eons.

With the last scream of death ringing, all kinds of mental waves finally came to an end.

"..."

Quietly observing my inner being, I was certain.

'It's done!'

I couldn't believe it.

After having reborn as Seo Jin-Wook and at the end of the year-long journey, finally...

'I killed it!'

I didn't know how to define the death of the mind, but that much was certain.

Mercadius had perished.

It only left behind a ragged mess.

'It's over.'

Even amid the thrill of joy, I slightly felt disappointed.

'It was indeed too much to capture.'

In fact, the Union had come up with an obviously improbable plan.

However, it couldn't be regarded as a complete failure.

The divine power that enabled it to exist as an incarnate had completely perished, but the red Mana that had been mixed with it still remained.

The frame that acted as the body of the intellectual being had been left behind like a corpse.

"!"

Ideas lit up with a strange sense of deja vu.

'Is there a need to leave it as it is, allowing it to decompose and dissipate in the air??'

My determination solidified.

'Yeah, just like what I did to Angelica back then...'

The red Mana was slowly fading.

Before that happened, I decided to make it completely mine.

[Mana Drain]!

The unique skill that had gone through the first evolution unfolded.

The attraction created at that time didn't start from my fingers.

A powerful vortex revolved around my Mana Core.

And it swirled like a typhoon and absorbed the remaining red Mana of Mercadius all over my body.

Then, a similar phenomenon to when I ate up other seeds occurred.

I witnessed a memory string bound with malicious intentions.

*

You could call it 'them' or 'him.'

The intellectual entity that shared memories with each other limitedly had a common goal.

They expressed their terrible hatred and evil that they bore toward the world in action.

All in order to bring their horrific imagination to life.

At some point, they started to be called Mercadius.

In the forgotten language, the name meant the following:

'Remains of Apocalypse.'

Even they didn't know why they hated the world so much.

Malice only grew bigger as he emerged from the void and began to wander around the material world.

The long duration honed their feelings to become even denser and more horrible.

Finally, they arrived at a decision.

- A body is needed to affect the material world!

It was easy to control and manipulate the mortals when bearing the fragments of a god.

However, they knew that they had to dominate more beings to sow destruction more efficiently.

In other words, breeding was necessary.

- Let's make one as an experiment—a similar being like us.

Through the memory of Mercadius, I realized for sure that 'Angelica' was their creation as well.

But the creation was a defective product.

It didn't have as much blind hatred toward the world as they did, and above all, it didn't have a reproductive ability.

With that ability, it could only hop between different creatures, brainwash them, and squander.

- Let's leave that trifle as it is for now until a necessity arises.

It served as a momentum that the parasitic entity, acting under Angelica's identity on Earth, wandered through dimensions on its own and harassed numerous species' fate.

- It does not work by creating a similar being. That's not enough. We must multiply ourselves.

After a long trial and effort, they finally found a way to reproduce as an intellectual entity.

It was the birth of a skill called [Mercadius's Seed].

It began with a curse cast upon a mortal in the form of a seed.

After that, the seed absorbed the host's emotions and grew by consuming the feed-type seeds that the parents had placed around the host.

Ultimately, the mind of the host was completely consumed and became the new Mercadius.

According to the individual's memory that fought me, the Mercadius that attempted it for the first time leeched on the Awakened and then evolved the unique skill through the system.

Looking into the knowledge, I couldn't help but be appalled.

'This means... It's like the system had helped the reproduction of Mercadius!'

Just as [The Successor's Eyes] continued through rebirth and repetition, [Mercadius's Seed] continued through reproduction and brainwashing.

And as they increased their numbers, they consistently did their best to contribute for the worlds to fall just as the Red Gate's monsters desired.

After observing for a long time to determine to touch, who to kill, and what kind of choices to make to most efficiently lead the specific dimension to its apocalypse, they planted the seed and brainwashed them.

In the case of Earth, the target was Seo Jin-Wook of my past life.

Mercadius sought the effect of killing two birds with one stone.

They induced the world to fall through the one that showed the potential of being the most powerful Awakened in order to enable the newly born Mercadius to take over that body.

As I observed the memories, I was able to conclude.

'As expected, all this would have been impossible without the cooperation of the system from beginning to end.'

The member dimensions of the Union were unconditionally supportive of the system.

They didn't doubt that all races would be more prosperous if they did as the system told them to do so and followed as it guided them.

'They didn't realize it because of such a stereotype!'

According to the memory that I just saw, I couldn't blame them.

'What would be the point in helping those trying to destroy the worlds and leaving them be like that?'

The Main Quest to fight and eliminate the monsters at Red Gate corresponded to the goal of helping the mortals survive.

Monsters were explicit and direct threats.

However, why wasn't there a quest to find and exterminate the species hiding in the shadows while leading mortals to destruction?

Mercadius could be more dangerous than the monsters of the void if they were left alone to increase their numbers.

'Is it that they're turning blind to it in the end? They're covering something up.'

The system couldn't not have known the species named Mercadius.

The name was clearly written on the race information.

In addition to all those reasoning, and even considering the information I had, I knew...

'The system is polluted.'

That was the reason why I couldn't reveal to the Ministry Spirit that I was the successor.

I didn't know where it went wrong, but it was evident that it was related to Mercadius.

'For now, the Mercadius on Earth has been caught. I've also found out some of their secrets, but... It's not the end yet.'

Why was the System standing behind Mercadius and technically 'helping' them?

If that part weren't discovered, it would be the same even if I repeatedly reincarnated several times in the future.

The system would only remain as the provisional enemy of the successor.

And it should be considered impossible to eradicate Mercadius, as there were no ideas how many of them existed.

Looking at the memory of the individual I had absorbed, I ended up with one conclusion.

The system needed to be rectified.

*

The place where Mercadius sent me to was a third dimension, not Earth.

I could have been isolated, but I simply opened the [Door to Hope] and returned to Earth.

The Union and the Earth's government, which were panicking because they thought they had completely lost the traces of the two of us, burst into cheers when I came back alive and in good condition.

And they were shocked to see what I had handed to them.

The host that Mercadius indwelled.

When I told them that I had finished it completely, they went wild.

"B-By yourself?"

"Oh, my days. I can't believe it."

A few days later, when I visited the Union Headquarters again, I confessed everything I had seen in front of them.

"The god of mind?"

Capturing it alive, as we aimed in the beginning, had failed, but I succeeded in uncovering some of their secrets.

As my story progressed, the seven supreme commissioners reacted differently according to their species.

Some turned their skin color purple, bounced their fins frantically, or released bizarre ultrasounds.

Bachurka spoke with admiration.

"Oh, my days. Indeed, they were the ones that bore malice, leading whole worlds to eventual extinction. What's even scarier is that they had the power to materialize it!"

One of the commissioners replied as if to support those words.

"So, there was a reason why we couldn't find a record of Mercadius coming forward and destroying the world itself in the history we know. When it brainwashed and controlled the seed host, the system wouldn't have identified it as 'Mercadius.' They would have thought that the fall was just due to an internal problem."

It wouldn't have been until the world collapsed after that that the seeds would bloom, and the host would have become the main body and disappeared into another world in a leisurely manner.

While everyone's jaws were dropped, someone spoke up.

"I don't understand why the system isn't coming forward to eradicate Mercadius."

"There must be a reason. But it's too big a threat to take time guessing why. If the system doesn't come forward, the Union must come forward. That must be the action in line with the system's intentions."

"That's right. We have to order Mercadius labeled as wanted by all member dimensions right now. The one that hid on Earth is dead, but other individuals are still spread throughout the dimensions and are probably planning for an apocalypse."

"We need to increase the resources we put in right away. We need to promote it as an agenda as urgent as handling the Red Gates' monstrosities..."

The discussion went on like a rough current.

But at that moment...

"Wait a minute. Let's all calm down for a moment."

As expected, only one being raised an objection at that time.

He was the commissioner of the Adgon race.

I gave a bitter smile.

'At this point, he's letting everyone in the neighborhood know.'

He spoke.

"Since Mercadius hadn't been captured alive, we cannot rely solely on the testimony of that Awakened to make such a grave political decision."

I inwardly muttered when I saw that face.

'To dig the background behind how the system got twisted... I should get rid of that bastard first.'