Get In Line (3)
Its features were blurred, making it feel strange to look at it.
Visual information was delivered to the brain, but it didn’t beco organized in my head, and I couldn’t grasp its gist.
It was a different kind than ntal domination or cognitive distortion. If that were the case, [The Successor’s Eyes] would’ve reacted.
The man slowly stood up.
I couldn’t describe what its face looked like, but one thing was clear.
It was tired.
And at the sa ti, it was unhinged.
Shhh!
The man carried the broken sword.
Wiggle!
Its eyes, nose, and mouth took shape as if the veil that blurrily screened him was lifted.
I instinctively felt displeased and threatened when I saw it.
‘Damn it!’
I couldn’t help but curse.
‘Isn’t that my face?!’
There was another in front of .
It was a clone that bore terrible boredom and madness.
Swish!
The surprise attack ca without warning.
‘No way, is this the ordeal?!’
I didn’t even have ti to organize my thoughts.
The broken sword flooded in, drawing sharp trajectories.
I instinctively lifted the devil’s sword and blocked it.
Even before the halved blade reached -
Clang!
A sharp clashing sound rang unexpectedly.
‘?!’
I couldn’t predict the weapon it was using, even with my senses.
Intangible and colorless energy enveloped its sword.
The blade, of which only half remained intact, seed to stay afloat in the air. In reality, an invisible force from its blade collided with my sword.
Furthermore, I couldn’t see any Mana in its body.
There was no torrent spewing from the Core or explosive energy flowing through the blade.
I felt the illusion that I beca blind for a mont.
Without saying a word, it charged again.
The man was speechless from the mont it first appeared. With a face that mimicked , it only attacked to kill while having all kinds of wicked emotions in its eyes.
There were no yelling or battle cries. Its violence was calm.
The sword path tore up and conquered the space like a fierce gale.
Cling! Cling-clang!
While ear-tearing sounds rang in quick succession, I found the problem.
So far, I predicted the next attack by looking into the Mana flow no matter who the enemies I faced were.
If the opponent was an Awakened or a monster, regardless of how they attacked, it was easy for to expect and retaliate since there were indications.
But then-
‘I can’t predict its next attack with my unique skill!’
It didn’t work at that mont.
I had to respond based on the sword’s trajectory drawn by the opponent, body movent, and strategic prediction.
Since I got used to the privileges that [The Successor’s Eyes] offered, I was in a situation dire enough to make cold sweat flow down.
And while being attacked, I noticed one more thing.
‘It isn’t only my face that it mimicked!’
Of course, it was who knew my physical abilities the best.
Even though I couldn’t sense any Mana at all, that being was reproducing the state I was in whenever I was imrsed in close-ranged combat in my best condition.
It copied the maximum power and speed that I could exert, my agility and sophistication, and even my combat senses!
It’s like fighting a clone that copied my entirety.
‘The specifications are the sa as mine, but the way it attacks is completely different. It’s using sword techniques I’m not aware of!’
It tenaciously aid and poked at the vital points all over my body, delivering a rain-like attack.
Even though equal forces were colliding, I focused on defense than counterattacks.
Looking for the window to turn the situation around, I held on patiently.
‘Now!’
The mont the distance between the two of us closed up…
I couldn’t see the intangible sword that stretched above the broken blade, but I chased the trace of its air bursts caused by its quick movents.
Entering through the gap, I deeply inserted the sword into the man’s neck.
No, I was about to.
Instantly, the man’s sword drew a soft line.
Clang!
“?!”
A single swing contained a mountain-like weight.
I swallowed a scream and was thrown off!
“K-ugh!”
Perhaps as intended, the Sage of the Red Wilderness who had frozen in ti stood in my flight’s direction.
I collided with his body in that manner.
Bang!
There was a sharp and firm sound that was hard to imagine that I clashed with a small body composed of only bones.
“Cough!”
I rolled on the floor. It was a big shock that would’ve bent hardened steel, but the Sage remained frozen.
The mont I managed to regain my sight-
Shhh-swish!
I avoided it by forcing my body to jump away, causing the transparent sword wave to hit the Sage.
There was still no scratch on his body after all the assaults.
The ti zone between the two of us on the move and everything around us that had already stopped seed to be completely isolated.
It had reached a point that no big impact could affect each other.
I clenched my teeth.
‘I’m sure the physical abilities are similar, but why do I keep getting pushed back?’
The attack that prevented from focusing on such questions continued.
The man’s sword beca sharper as ti went by.
I felt like my head was burning white.
I swung the sword gradually closer to a trance.
I felt that the sense of ti was strangely being twisted.
“…!”
in the man’s sword techniques and were fired at .
The attacks were horrible and brutal, yet they were also sophisticated and diverse.
As I countered them one by one, my sword drew a sword path that wasn’t in my mories.
It’s a sword technique that I hadn’t seen, not only as Choi Seung-Hyun but also when I was reborn as Seo Jin-Wook.
I simply knew by intuition.
That’s the property of my reincarnations that I couldn’t rember at that mont.
It was the sealed mory built up in the subconscious mind through the continued cycle and repetition.
The slumbering mystery deep within my soul was waking up little by little.
It was the man’s sword that produced the stimulation.
The sense of ti completely disappeared from the mont I knew that. The persistent murderous attacks turned more intense, but my defense evolved as well.
As if the remains subrged underwater rose one after the other to the surface, they were drawn in and were embodied as Seo Jin-Wook’s.
In that manner, it felt like hours… days… perhaps even years passed.
At the end of the inestimable stream of ti-
I found an irreversible gap between the man’s sword path.
Swish!
Like a flash, my sword cut off space and brushed past the being’s shoulder.
Ch-wak!
The brief mont felt as long as eternity.
Blood splattered in the air.
Managing to twist its body, I failed to penetrate through its heart.
However, when the being saw its wound…
“…!”
It suddenly started laughing.
A manic shudder of laughter echoed in the room.
Then, the features created on its face, which resembled , collapsed instantaneously.
The eyes, nose, and mouth flowed down the skin in a sliding and falling motion.
It stopped imitating .
At that mont-
Paht!
The system ssage was updated.
– Quest Progress: (2/3)
It signified that I had overco two of the three ordeals!
‘Have I completed another one by doing that?’
The procedure I expected to follow afterward was that the man would disappear, and I would be allowed to offer tribute to another altar.
But the ti was still frozen.
Boom!
“K-argh!”
A sudden pressure pressed down all over my body.
Unable to withstand it, I fell to the floor.
‘Why… why now? No, why now?!’
If it had used such power from the beginning, it would have easily overpowered .
That mont couldn’t be considered an ordeal.
It had such a powerful force that I couldn’t stand my ground against it.
The figure approached with distorted features embedded on its face.
Just as I first t it, its expressions were aningless, but I sohow felt emotions.
It seed to be very pleased and very satisfied right at that mont.
And it seed delighted by the fact that my sword had brushed its shoulder.
“Damn it!”
I desperately tried to struggle, but I couldn’t move at all.
The being who ca right in front of tilted its broken sword.
Seeing where its glance landed on, I realized its intention.
‘Finger!’
The finger where Igras-Sho’s holy wound remains…
The man was trying to cut it off for so reason!
It raises its shoulders wide, and it struck it down!
At that mont-
T-lank!
The being’s broken sword stopped in the air.
Like the embers that sparked when tals clashed with each other, black flas were scattered in the air.
Soone stopped its offensive.
A third party had intervened.
Shlunk!
The strength suppressing weakened, and I barely managed to raise myself and struggled to spread my distance from the man.
Then it ca into my eyes.
The ti-frozen scenery even for the other gods’ idols and altars except for the ‘god of the sword’…
One of them broke the solidified frawork of ti and was showing movent.
It was the idol of a seven-legged spider-like creature.
Darkness flowed out from the bottom of the cut leg.
And there ca a voice.
[The beast of ‘Aden.’ How dare you to attempt to touch the child I’ve set aside?]
The presence that restrained the man conveyed its will through a ntal wave filled with terrible rage.
‘Damn it. The situation is turning into a shit show!’
That place was definitely a temple operated by a simple system wherein after one had offered a tribute to an altar, a corresponding god would assign an ordeal.
But the current situation had a god who tried to subdue the challenger even though it overca the ordeal…
Another god also revealed its power voluntarily, even if I hadn’t paid tribute to its altar yet!
“Groooowl!”
In the eyes of the being called the beast of ‘Aden,’ a ghastly fire fluttered, and it burst out a harsh cry.
The being I fought was the sacred beast of ‘Aden,’ the god of the sword.
anwhile, the magic god’s beast was a black tentacle monster, and the creature controlled by the god of life was a huge heart-like creature.
Comparable to them, the beast that conveyed the will of the god of the sword was a doppelganger that mimicked the opponent it encountered.
The black fog turned even thicker.
And the ntal waves that I had already experienced before filled every corner of the room intensely.
[I see. The ‘sword’ can’t even communicate his will directly to this place right now. At best, all it can do is send a beast under his command and make a fuss… that is very shabby. We all fell into exile and were ruined, but among them, you wore out the fastest to the point that it is pitiful.]
I recalled the fact that the power of the orders that served the god of the sword was very weak compared to that of the magic god. It was also hard to co across a priest or a believer of the sword god.
The darkness whispered a strange echo mixed with malice and sympathy.
[Maybe… The next ‘spirit’ could be the ‘sword.’]
“Crrrrrowl!”
The man… No, the sacred beast cried with boiling anger.
However, in that situation where a god intervened directly, it was natural that the sacred beast’s power alone couldn’t stand against it.
It was gradually stepping back, pushed away by the darkness toward the altar that it was summoned from.
The darkness snickered by the sight of it.
[You, boy, who will be mine soday, you have not yet offered a tribute here, but you will eventually sacrifice everything to … There will be no aning to hand you an ordeal.]
At that mont…
Paht!
– Quest Progress: (3/3)
The system ssage was updated again.
The three ordeals required by the quest to upgrade my unique skill had been accomplished unexpectedly.
But I wasn’t pleased.
Aden’s sacred beast still hadn’t disappeared as if it hadn’t given up, and it was growling, baring its fangs at .
[But…]
Igras-Sho also didn’t reap the darkness that densely filled the place.
The deity sent out a ntal wave mixed with displeasure.
[My boy, what’s that dirty blood sared on your soul right now?]
“!”
I could easily notice what it was referring to.
The Orb of Immortality.
The item it put on my soul when I found the altar of the god of life, “Rom.”
It’s a terrible shackle that would make beco a slave of Rom forever the mont I wished for immortality after charging the energy the Orb required.
[Yes, it is ‘life.’ It buried sothing dirty in your soul. I’ll wipe it out for you. I’ll erase it clean.]
The darkness approached . Then, a very brief silence flowed.
[… No, rather than doing this, I would-]
It said as if it had made up its mind.
[Yes, we do not know if another deity might covet you in the future. I shouldn’t leave it like this.]
Igras-Sho revealed a devious emotion.
[Boy, why don’t you rather tell both of your wishes in here?]
“?!”
[I can’t wait any longer.]
I frantically resisted while trying to keep it together.
“I do not wish for anything now!”
I knew for sure from my experience that even if one was a deity, they couldn’t completely control to do sothing that I didn’t want to.
Even a god couldn’t control my mind.
They couldn’t violate my free will.
That had to be the case.
[Then personally…]
The god whispered.
[I’ll have to give you a reason to wish for sothing right now.]
Damn it. That was why nobody should dare get involved with a god!
The darkness crept around .
Amid that terror…
[What?!]
Igras-Sho expressed bafflent, and I noticed the change that occurred.
Another altar escaped the prison of frozen ti.
Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
The idol was familiar to , as well.
There were eight abscesses under the head of a scaly mountain goat.
A thick haze of blood spouted out from it.
The red cloud covered , pushing the darkness approaching away.
And a part of them gathered to make a text.
– Back off, ‘Magic.’
“Rom,” the god of life, began to intervene as well.
As I looked at the scene with sickened eyes, I rembered what the dragon said.
‘The gods are… Yes, they’re beings like old people with dentia!’
I couldn’t sympathize more with the taphor Euclid used to describe the great beings.
Considering what the beings called ‘gods’ were doing, in the end….
It wasn’t any different from the way the mortals thought!
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