Chapter 244: Fourth Return, Earth (11)

Shadows and light clashed.

They mixed together, emitting distorted colors in all directions.

"Q"

Taesan groaned.

A massive pressure engulfed his entire body. Everything began to distort. Kwoong!

Sensing danger, thousands of monsters charged at once. Each one was a B-grade monster.

Kyeeng.

A very faint wave spread from the mixed entity that Taesan could not control.

Quaddeudeuk!

The thousands of monsters charging twisted into pretzel shapes, crushed by a force too weak to become fragments.

Taesan fortified his body tightly with both spirit and strength.

But still, he couldn't withstand it.

Creaking noises began as the intensity wavered.

"Tch."

Taesan clicked his tongue, trying to balance the power.

He concentrated the power, achieving balance.

But it was rejected.

The power of the divine. Divinity.

The power that distorted the divine. Black.

These opposing forces mixed and distorted again.

Kwoong!

Cracks began to form in the space. Crumbled fragments fell.

The inner world was a domain created with the power of an S-grade monster capable of destroying worlds.

All that power was condensed into a tiny space.

It was akin to a world unto itself.

And that world was collapsing.

[Uh, this seems quite dangerous.]

It was to be expected.

Taesan had the divine power but couldn't fully control it.

He also had the black power but was equally unable to control it.

Both were powers he couldn't control, and he had mixed them together in one place. Even though they were entirely opposing forces, a reaction occurred.

There was no way Taesan could control it.

Kukuguguk.

The mixed divinity and shadow began to transform into something grayish.

[Huh?]

The ghost watched anxiously and hesitated.

The ghost had seen many powers before.

In its lifetime, it had gone deep enough to understand and analyze most of the powers it encountered, including their weaknesses, directions, and principles.

Without such capabilities, it wouldn't have reached the depths.

That's why the ghost could immediately recognize that the small light Taesan wielded was divinity.

It also easily realized that the overtly foreign power was that of the banished high gods.

But now, the gray power in Taesan's grip was unrecognizable.

No matter how much it was observed, analysis was impossible. It truly was a power beyond the realm of the unknown.

[What's this?]

While the ghost was flustered, Taesan was calmly assessing the situation.

'It's dangerous.'

Quaddeudeuk.

The space began to collapse.

He couldn't withstand the force emerging from the S-grade monster. It wasn't just a simple issue of strength.

An S-grade monster, something he had struggled to defeat even in his previous life, could not withstand the gray force.

'The repulsion and collision of opposing forces. And their forced combination.'

The power explosively surged from this instability.

The principles were largely understandable. The problem was that it was much bigger than Taesan had anticipated.

Kkigigigig!

Taesan gathered all his strength into the mixed entity.

He was able to control it just barely without it bursting at a very precarious point.

But that was all.

It was impossible to manipulate this power as Taesan intended.

It was literally an uncontrollable power.

[You have activated mental acceleration.]

He focused his mind even more.

How should he handle this power? He tried to put it into a ring, but the ring desperately resisted as if

it didn't want to break, as if it couldn't handle it.

The thoughts continued. All kinds of ideas flashed and disappeared repeatedly.

And all of them were deemed impossible.

Only a very weak power mixed in was the answer. If he had added even a little more, control would have been impossible and it would have exploded.

Control was impossible.

"Can't help it."

Taesan made a decision.

He gave up on control.

The ghost was horrified.

[You!]

The power he couldn't handle.

If so, just don't handle it.

Just let it explode as he wanted.

The precariously held gray power began to rampage, seeking freedom. Even monsters far away turned to dust and disappeared, cracking the entire space.

Simply giving up control and letting the power rampage was killing the monsters.

Booooom!

The space trembled.

A massive force on the other side imbued the monsters. The breaking space filled up again, and pitch-black darkness rushed in.

The dying monsters revived. They focused their power on Taesan.

The darkness that swallowed light charged at Taesan.

Kagagak!

But it all shattered against the gray.

It was as if an earthquake occurred; everything crumbled.

A power that made even divine intervention meaningless.

Taesan injected even more power into the gray entity.

The sacred and the shadow mixed together.

Taesan gripped it.

Recoiling as if in resistance, it felt as though merely holding it contaminated the soul.

But he could wield it.

[Your Endurance has been activated. Damage leading to death has been nullified. For 1 second, all damage is zero.]

Taesan gripped the gray and swung it.

The condensed grayish burst exploded.

"Eek!"

Kagagak!

Kim Hwiyeon barely managed to take down a monster. She gasped for breath.

Her stamina was nearly depleted. Enough people had died that it seemed reasonable to consider the battle lost.

But Kim Hwiyeon did not give up.

"Fight!"

She raised her weapon.

"We can win this!"

"Oh, ooooooh!"

Her words rallied the people, and they got up.

At that moment, a small, insect-like monster charged at Kim Hwiyeon.

"Ah."

Kim Hwiyeon tried to react, but her exhausted body could not move properly.

It was when Kim Hwiyeon sensed her impending death.

Kagak!

An axe struck down the monster. The monster flailed under the weight of the axe, but it did not budge.

A pale-faced man who had saved Kim Hwiyeon asked,

"Are you okay?"

"...Lee Juhyeok. Thank you."

Kim Hwiyeon expressed her gratitude and stood up. Lee Juhyeok watched as she charged back at the monsters.

'...Is this the difference?'

Having been utterly rejected by Taesan, he quietly observed Kim Hwiyeon, trying to understand what made her different from him.

And he learned a lot.

He had pursued power, wanting to be a leader.

The lives of others or their sentiments were not important to him.

And he thought this was natural for a leader. He believed that only those who do not care about others and lead alone can be leaders.

But Kim Hwiyeon was different.

She moved forward with others.

And always, with a steady expression, she boldly proclaimed.

She must have known that the situation was desperate. Yet, she stood up, believing they could win.

She had always been like that. Even in the labyrinth, she faced people with a bright expression.

He was different. To him, others were merely tools for power. What they thought or hoped for was not his concern.

Perhaps that attitude had subtly shown through—that he did not care about them, that he would not be heartbroken if they died.

Could they always be trusted and relied upon? Were they unreliable in danger?

That was the immediate difference. A closer look would reveal even more.

That's why people chose Kim Hwiyeon over him.

Lee Juhyeok smirked wryly.

He still believed in his way. He thought a leader should act boldly.

But now, he no longer thought to deny Kim Hwiyeon.

He stepped forward. Not as a leader, but as a Hard Mode player following Kim Hwiyeon's words.

The battle continued.

The situation remained desperate. Despite their earnest efforts under Kim Hwiyeon, the number of monsters did not decrease. Only the people were falling.

Kim Hwiyeon bit her lip.

It was the moment the word 'annihilation' flashed through her mind.

Chajeok.

"What?"

The monsters' movements suddenly stopped.

Behind them, a huge monster that had swallowed Taesan was splitting open.

Kwoooong!

Minerva, who had been driving the giants with the wind, felt it too. Her face hardened as she sent a giant flying with the wind.

"Huh?"

[What is this power?]

Barkaza also gasped quietly.

Minerva looked at the S-grade monster.

"...What is that?"

Her gaze conveyed her confusion.

The power that exists within the gods, the power the labyrinth could possess, was not the divine power.

Nor was it the power of the high gods that exists beyond the order of the divine.

It was something in-between.

Ash-gray energy flowed from the gaps between monsters and exploded.

[Your Soul Ascension has been activated. [???]'s proficiency has increased by 4%.] [Your Soul Ascension has been activated. The proficiency of the special Continuous Activation Skill [Twisted Soul Tuning] has increased by 3%.] [Your Soul Ascension has been activated. You have acquired the special activation skill [Inner World].] [The proficiency of Transcendence [Black] has increased by 1%.] [You have acquired [Boundary].] [As you are out of the labyrinth, you could not acquire the skill.]

The world became visible.

Taesan muttered calmly.

"It's done."

[You. What are you?]

The ghost asked, unable to comprehend.

[Which head thought to combine those two? If things went wrong, you could have been torn limb from limb, you know?]

"It turned out fine, right?"

[...You.]

"Don't be like that. It was all calculated."

Taesan couldn't penetrate the interior of the S-grade monster as he was right now.

That meant he had to draw out something beyond the power he currently possessed.

That was precisely the sacred and the black.

He anticipated that mixing the two would cause a reaction. The collision of two opposing, massive forces was expected.

The important thing was whether he could control it or not.

If he couldn't control it, what should he do?

Dealing with an uncontrollable, powerful force, Taesan also had to risk his life.

"It was for that endurance."

A skill that nullified damage leading to death, just once.

There were no boundaries to this skill. Even the most formidable force, no matter how great, could be nullified once.

In his previous life, he had even withstood an apostle's attack.

That's why Taesan stopped trying to control it and unleashed the gray power.

[...Did you really think all this through?]

"I don't gamble without a chance of winning."

[This crazy guy.]

The ghost exclaimed with a pale face.

Taesan looked around.

"It seems all the monsters have vanished."

[Since the monster that was their master is dead, they naturally vanished.]

Taesan looked down at his hand. The gray power was dissipating like mist.

The S-grade monster had an inherent flaw.

All its power was focused on trapping Taesan, and it was so unstable that even a minor disturbance could have caused it to burst like a balloon.

In such a situation, it couldn't withstand the internal explosion of power and vanished.

But even so, to eliminate it in one strike was more power than he had anticipated.

"Oh, ohhhh!"

People who realized the situation belatedly cheered.

"Taesan! Taesan!"

"We believed in you!"

They sat down, shedding tears of relief. Kim Hwiyeon came running with a bright face.

"Mr. Taesan! You did it!"

"Somehow. How's the situation?"

"It's not very good."

Taesan glanced at the people.

Their numbers were noticeably fewer than before Taesan had confronted the monster. At least more than half had been lost.

"But... still, we haven't perished. We survived."

Despite the significant losses, there was no one left who was weak enough to be broken by that now. They celebrated their survival, praising Taesan.

"Master."

Minerva and Barkaza arrived belatedly.

Confusion was evident on Minerva's face.

"What was that gray light just now?"

"It was a mix of divine and high god powers."

"Divine and... high god powers?"

Minerva's eyes widened.

"Why do you, the master, possess the power of the high gods?"

"If I start explaining that, it'll turn into a long story. Just think of it as my own power for the sake of simplicity."

"...I don't understand at all. But mixed? What does that mean?"

Minerva was a spirit king.

She possessed vast knowledge about the world.

This included information on transcendents, immortals, and even the high divine.

However, the gray light power that had just emerged was something she did not possess.

It indicated that it was a power unknown even to the guardians of the world.

"I don't know exactly either."

Taesan shook his head. He had anticipated the creation of power due to the reaction.

But he was unsure about the nature of the power itself.

"But some beings are aware of it."

[Quest complete.] [With conditions met, descent is permitted.]

Space tore open. Those who had been shouting Taesan's name paused for a moment. Kim Hwiyeon, standing next to them, turned pale and staggered back.

"Oh."

Minerva's face blanched.

A colossal being emerged from the torn space.

[It's been a very long time since I've made an appearance before so many mortals.]

A man with black hair appeared, his voice lazy and unhurried.

"Ah..."

People instinctively bowed their heads.

They felt nothing from the man.

To be precise, they were not even at a level to perceive him.

Yet, they understood. The man who had appeared was a being beyond their comprehension.

[The god of despair, Aphrodia, has appeared.]