Chapter 1993

Rumble...

The black mountain that had targeted Grid was still jutting out from the sea. The whole sea was dyed silver. All the fish in the nearby waters died, their corpses now floating with their bellies up.

Roaaaaar!

A vortex hundreds of meters deep formed where the mountain had sunk, rapidly sucking up the silver energy. Grid was overwhelmed by the vortex reeking of death.

'She is throwing mountains at me.'

Grid swung his sword lightly and the foam that disrupted his view was split into particles and scattered.

"Hmm? You are stronger than I thought. I wasn't sure, but you seem to have become a part of this world."

Light flashed in the eyes of the golden immortal.

"But that doesn't mean you are the creator of this world... Have you been slowly taking over it?"

She was referring to the relationship between Grid and the Overgeared World. More than that, she seemed to refer to the dimension of Satisfy itself.

Grid didn't reply. His opponent was a golden immortal. He had Hanul on his side. It was very nerve-racking to be caught between two big shots. He could get his throat slit in the blink of an eye, so he remained silent and tried to focus.

Hanul turned to speak to him.

[What was it called, Annihilation energy...? Your ferocious energy is trying to damage me... Is it too powerful to control?]

This was Hanul warning him not to forget that they were allies.

Grid was already on edge. He finally snapped. "Why did you let yourself get chased all the way to the west? You need to be in the east to be at full power, right?"

Grid also had to protect the East Continent. However, he'd let the dragons deal with that for now because the situation in the West Continent was much worse. There were nearly twice as many Full Moon Fortresses in the West Continent as there were in the East Continent.

However, Hanul had brought a powerful enemy, a golden immortal, to the West Continent. If the immortal had encountered an Overgeared member on the way, she would have swiftly killed them. Worst case scenario, the Tomb of the Gods could have been shot down. Even at this moment, his colleagues were fighting desperately all over the continent. They could've been caught in the chase between two Absolutes and died without even getting the chance to fight back.

[You are misunderstanding. I didn't mean to use the west as a battleground. I'm not strong enough here because of Reinhardt's influence. I'm just passing through this place. I ran into you by pure chance. That's what happened.]

"If you had run into anyone other than me, they would've been in danger."

[Don't misunderstand. I was moving at the speed of light. Who else could've seen me? I've crossed both continents more than a thousand times already. This is the first time you saw me.]

This meant there had been no possibility of anyone else getting involved in the fight. Hanul was telling the truth. He wasn't an ordinary being, and he had no reason for him to lie just to appease Grid. They just happened to meet coincidentally.

'...I should think positively.'

From what Grid saw, the woman with golden clothes and accessories was extremely powerful. He could understand, to some extent, why Hanul had been on the run. If such a monster had been allowed to run rampant in the East Continent, the East Continent would've already been devastated, even though the dragons were there for damage control.

Grid didn't know what Hanul had done, but he found it commendable that Hanul had managed to pull the aggro of such an intimidating monster and buy so much time.

Most of all, didn't he show up when he saw Grid? At the very least, he succeeded in setting up a fight that had the highest odds of winning.

Grid came to terms with the given situation.

'Putting aside my personal feelings, what Hanul did is pretty impressive.'

The golden immortal glared at them. Her thick makeup highlighted the sharpness of her eyes. "How dare you ignore me?" she threatened.

Just then, Grid heard another roar coming from the depths of the sea.

"......!"

Grid felt as if he was being sucked into a black hole. It was on a different level from the pull generated when Grid's clone had absorbed Du Baeryong's treasure.

Surprised, Grid instinctively used Shunpo. The black mountain appeared in the place where Grid had just stood.

'It's so fast even though it's so large...'

Before Grid could finish his train of thought, waves splashed in all directions because of the mountain dropping in the water. The waves rose so high, it looked as if the sky and the sea were merging. A large amount of seawater had just been sucked up from the depths of the ocean.

'Does the mountain absorb and release substances?'

Then there was a high chance that it could also absorb skills. Grid understood what the mountain's abilities were and turned to look at the golden immortal woman.

The woman, who had been so far away from him he couldn't even make out her face, now stood right in front of Grid. Because he had used Shunpo to get out of the way of the raging waves, he was now so close to the immortal woman, he could see the pores on her face.

He intended to subdue her before she could retrieve the mountain.

"Serve Dragon Pinnacle Wave Kill Link."

This was a six fusion sword dance that inflicted Fear that lasted at least 0.1 seconds onto the target, and it also dealt consistent damage. Serve Dragon Pinnacle Wave Kill Link completely incapacitated the enemy. This sword dance inflicted Fear, made the enemy airborne before they would inevitably collapse, and then it would also inflict Slow and Despair.

One could not resist this attack. Even before the target got hit, they would get Feared, rendering them defenseless. Once they got hit, they would be lifted in the air.

However, an immortal always had a protective shield on. The golden immortal's shield had five layers. This meant that she wouldn't be completely defenseless, even if she was under the effect of Fear. The woman was startled when she felt her body react against her will, but she didn't feel like she was in any danger.

Slash!

This was until Grid swung his sword at her and slashed through her shields one after another.

[What is that purple energy?]

Did she require time to perfect the language of this world? The woman's intent was engraved all around them.

Just in time, Grid's sword dance had slashed through her fifth shield. Not even 0.1 seconds had passed. Before the Fear effect ended, the woman would be completely defenseless...

"......!"

Grid had been swinging his sword while thinking of the best way to deal with this enemy. He suddenly stopped. A small, black stone suddenly appeared in the path of his sword. It was a triangular stone that seemed to have been deliberately carved in this shape.

Grid noticed that it looked exactly like the dark mountain he had just seen. He hurriedly tried to change the trajectory of his sword, but it was too late.

The triangular stone and the sword collided. The contact resulted in an alarming sound. Grid broke his wrist, and his limp hand now folded backward.

The dark triangular rock was the black mountain. Grid had assumed this but, unfortunately, he didn't have time to react. The rock was just like any other cultivator's Treasure. The golden immortal's black mountain could change its size and move according to its master's will. She had been able to secretly call it to her side at a moment of desperation.

Grid's six fusion sword dance got canceled in the middle of him casting it, and Grid could not use one of his hands for a moment.

Yes, it was only for a moment. Grid's body had evolved over time and he was no longer hampered by the concept of wounds. His broken bones healed almost immediately and he could once again use his hand normally.

However, this fleeting lapse had serious consequences.

The mountain enlarged rapidly and hit Grid because he didn't use Shunpo in time.

[You have been inflicted by the Fear negative status effect.]

This was the predetermined CC of Serve Dragon Pinnacle Wave Kill Link. Now it was Grid's turn to be under this CC's effect. As Grid had suspected, the golden immortal's mountain had the ability to even absorb skills.

Grid hurriedly used Multiple Weakening Barriers. Ten layers of indigo protection flashed around him.

The golden immortal snorted.

[For an immortal, a protective shield isn't much different from clothing. I wear it all the time, but I didn't really expect to benefit from it.]

A chill went down Grid's spine. Even the demon cultivators had mastered the art of disabling shields. Surely immortals knew how to deal with shields too.

Would a shield do much against a golden immortal?

An electrical current seemed to surge between the ten layers of the indigo shield before causing a series of explosions. Just as expected.

Grid suddenly remembered Braham's warning. Braham had pointed out that the Multiple Weakening Barriers surely had weaknesses. He had been right.

Multiple Weakening Barriers had a total of ten layers, so there was inevitably a gap between any two protective layers. These gaps were the weak points of the shield.

Every time an explosion occurred in these gaps, the shields adjacent to it got impacted. This made them collapse faster from within.

The moment the Multiple Weakening Barriers finally shattered, Grid got hurled in the air. Because the mountain had recreated Serve Dragon Pinnacle Wave Kill Link, Grid was now airborne. He couldn't act and his weak points got exposed. He got hit by five follow-up hits in a row that ignored his defense. He eventually collapsed, unable to fight back.

He felt his body become heavier rapidly. Those who had fought against him had always experienced this feeling of helplessness.

Grid couldn't help but laugh at how overpowered Serve Dragon Pinnacle Wave Kill Link was. He gradually turned serious when he saw that the mountain released sharp energies resembling sword energies—thirty in total, to be precise. This was the highlight of Serve Dragon Pinnacle Wave Kill Link. It was a deadly attack that dealt 6,000% physical attack damage to the target up to thirty times.

Grid had to be careful not to get hit by a single attack from that. Every time he'd get his, he would be disarmed and get affected by Bleeding and other awful negative status effects.

"Noe!"

Noe, who had been struggling with his aching stomach, finally opened his eyes. Noe cared too deeply for his master to ignore him when he was in trouble.

"Nyaaaang!"

Noe shouted, trying to withstand the pain. His body went through several changes until he took the form of a giant wolf. The horns on his forehead let out a flurry of lightning bolts.

Noe's lightning was undoubtedly powerful. However, it couldn't be compared to Grid's six fusion sword dance that the mountain had reproduced.

Noe was feeling rather helpless when he suddenly got overwhelmed by a strange sensation. He felt as if his senses were connected to hundreds of thousands of different things that were floating in the air. Noe looked up and saw the Innate Treasures he had vomited earlier.

He screamed as hard as he could. "Uwaaa!"

He sent out the hundreds of treasures floating in the air as if he'd shot out arrows and targeted the thirty sword energies that rushed at Grid.

Each time they collided with a sword energy, the Treasures would get badly damaged or even explode. Each time, Noe coughed up blood.

Still, he didn't hesitate for one second and he didn't back down. He would control them until the end.

The golden immortal woman frowned.

[What is that spirit creature?]

The woman felt a slight sense of unease. She used additional mystical arts to enhance the mountain.

She was too late.

"You've worked hard."

Thanks to the time that Noe bought for him, Grid had already freed himself from the various negative status effects. No matter how great the six fusion sword dance was, it couldn't hold down a god for too long.

He swung lightly and the Falling Moon Sword sliced all the thirty sword energies in half. It even sliced the dark mountain.