Thanks to Hypnosis-chan’s Sacrifice, the Seal is Broken.
One of the two final locks within Yujin’s soul had been released.
The second restriction after regression.
The mystery of the first tiline.
Why…
Why didn’t he ever have children with his wives?
A mory that he had been compelled to keep secret until now began unraveling Yujin’s mind.
[“Disciple...? But I’m already thirty-five… This is seriously dangerous…”]
‘Now that I think about it, back then, Master was worried about having children at an older age…’
And at last, a mory from the first tiline resurfaced.
In that recollection, Aika had been deeply anxious.
Unlike in the second tiline, where they t earlier, she had only t Yujin at the age of thirty-three in the first tiline. By the ti Yujin graduated from the Academy, she was already thirty-five.
For Aika, whose dream was to have many children, this was a source of constant distress.
She had gone to ridiculous lengths, even poking holes in condoms and wearing cat ears while acting all cutesy during intimate monts. She’d abandoned her usual dignity all for this reason.
[“Master! I had a dream! If you get just a little stronger here, you won’t have to worry about that anymore!”]
‘In the first tiline, I knew. About transcendent beings. I’d heard about them from the Saintess.’
The only reason Yujin hadn’t been overpowered by Aika’s advances back then was that he managed to convince her.
He had a dream where a horned young girl explained it to him:
Aika’s strength had already surpassed what a status window could asure. If she pushed herself just a little further… she could beco a transcendent being.
And once that happened, there would be no more worries about childbirth.
She could have as many children as she wanted—enough to form a soccer team.
That was how Yujin had persuaded her.
Ding!
[The advanced skill ‘Divine Power’ has been activated.]
[‘Complete Hypnosis’ is forcibly triggered.]
[“Ah, okay…!! I’ll do my best!”]
And Aika… was successfully convinced.
Though Yujin didn’t realize it at the ti, his efforts were guided by the then-unfallen Saintess. He truly believed that just a little more effort on his part would be enough.
…Little did he know that they would bear no fruit until he turned forty-seven.
[Hic. My power keeps growing, but it feels like I’m just one step away…!]
‘I felt so guilty about it. And I was sorry to Shia and Alice too.’
This was one of the reasons Yujin from the first tiline had been harshly criticized worldwide.
Despite being the world’s number one Awakened and marrying Shia and Alice along with Aika, he had no children. Public opinion wasn’t kind about it.
Especially for Aika, who endured each day feeling like another “Seol Hayeon,” constantly teased for her age and fertility concerns.
Of course, Aika never blad Yujin.
Even Shia and Alice had expressed their understanding, agreeing it would be cruel to have children before Aika.
Yet, Yujin had always felt guilty.
He knew how much they all wanted children, the fruits of their love.
He knew the criticism they faced as a result of his hesitation, which affected not only him but his wives as well.
‘Why did I do that…?’
-Pause.
‘…Wait. Was this also the Saintess’s doing?’
But Yujin in the second tiline was different.
Unlike before, he now understood.
He realized that his “Complete Hypnosis” stemd from the Saintess’s divine authority.
And if it was the Saintess, guiding their actions would have been a trivial matter.
In other words, the reason they hadn’t had children in the first tiline…
Was because the Saintess had interfered through hypnosis.
This revelation struck Yujin like a bolt of lightning.
‘She didn’t want us to have kids because she was planning to regress us….’
“……!!!”
‘No, that can’t be the only reason! There has to be more, especially since this mory resurfaced right now!!!’
And then another realization.
Look at the current situation.
They were in the middle of the final boss battle. His Master was at risk of losing her arm again.
Why did this mory co back at this exact mont?
It had to be for a reason—one ant to turn the tide of this battle.
Yujin instantly recognized it as part of the Saintess’s design.
‘And this isn’t about ….’
[“Master——!!! The reason we couldn’t have kids, it was all because of her!]
The mories that had resurfaced in Yujin’s mind were quickly conveyed to Aika.
Hurriedly, he laid out his suspicions:
The reason they hadn’t had children before regression was to make Aika a transcendent being.
The reason she had ascended so quickly in the second tiline.
The reason she possessed physical abilities that overwheld other Awakened.
It was because the most gifted individual had spent fifteen years training relentlessly in the first tiline.
And lastly…
The reason she had to be this way.
The reason this mory ca back to him only now.
[“So, Master, if anyone can strike that thing down, it’s you!!!”
‘I don’t know how exactly, but I’m sure of it!’
Yujin’s thoughts were transmitted directly to Aika.
Faster than telepathy, faster than sound—the resonance of their souls ensured instant understanding.
Her freezing soul quivered faintly in response.
-Thump.
‘This voice… Is that my disciple…?’
She couldn’t fully comprehend it.
Unlike Yujin, who had sped up his thoughts through soul manipulation, Aika was overwheld by pain and unable to think clearly.
To her, the torrent of information felt like a fast-forwarded recording.
Her modest brain capacity struggled to process the flood of details. She barely understood any of it.
-Thump, thump.
"The reason I couldn’t have kids with my disciple for fifteen years… was because of her?"
But why?
Despite the whirlwind of information flooding her mind, one thing stood out clearly.
The first statent.
The reason she couldn’t have children for fifteen years… was because of her.
And that realization…
—Ignited a fla within her freezing soul.
-Flash!
"Y-you…!!!"
Sothing surged inside her soul.
Sothing dormant, veiled in grayscale, now reacted violently to its master’s revelation.
Standing at the threshold of transcendence, after over a decade of grueling effort, driven by an insatiable thirst…
The result of her relentless dedication…
A faint glimr of starlight.
A light that had lost its brilliance due to forgotten suffering now reignited, shining brighter than ever.
It was the power the constellations called Divinity.
-Pause.
"How does a re fledgling Awakened possess Divinity…?"
The foreign god from the farthest reaches of the cosmos, the evil deity that had destroyed countless dinsions—the final boss—even she was stunned by what she saw.
The power of Divinity.
A force that only transcendent beings—those who had surpassed mortal limits after eons of training—could attain.
It wasn’t sothing one could accumulate in re days.
Yet that sa power, that faint starlight, was now emanating from Aika, who just monts ago had been frozen in helpless despair.
Just like the light radiating from… Seo Yujin.
Even the final boss, who had seen countless impossibilities, could not hide her astonishnt.
This was nothing short of a miracle.
"……."
"It’s fine. At best, it’s just a few drops. Nowhere near enough to quench my thirst. She’s still just a fledgling."
Of course, the starlight was faint.
If Yujin’s Divinity shone like the sun, Aika’s light was barely the glow of a firefly.
For the final boss, overwhelming her would be child’s play.
The Divinity Aika had gathered was from her ti as a proto-transcendent, accumulated over years of effort. But to a true transcendent, those years were no more than fleeting monts.
Moreover, much of her progress had been lost due to regression and other disruptions.
In other words, it was a trivial amount of Divinity, sothing even a cautious final boss wouldn’t bother taking seriously.
…At least, that’s how it should have been.
"As long as I block her surprise attack…."
-Leap!
"……!!!!?"
Aika surged forward, her sword wrapped in faint yet brilliant starlight.
Her instincts as a swordswoman who had reached transcendence guided her movents.
…This should have been impossible.
The final boss, who had been relentlessly attacking Yujin with aningless tentacle strikes, would never have ignored another source of Divinity.
If she had known Aika possessed Divinity?
Even with the gap in their strength, she wouldn’t have let her guard down.
She wouldn’t have allowed Aika the chance to strike.
No matter how faint her starlight was, in the face of such overwhelming malice, she would have been mocked, toyed with, and eventually crushed.
"Defend with tentacles…"
-Twitch.
"…No. It’s too late. That tiny spark distracted her, creating an opening."
But at this mont…
Nothing stood in Aika’s way.
The tentacles were all focused on attacking Hypnosis-chan at the front.
The boss had left no cards behind to guard against a dying prey.
This single mont was a miracle.
A culmination of inevitabilities stacked atop one another.
An opening that should never have existed.
And into that opening, starlight pierced through.
"The reason I couldn’t have kids until I was forty-seven… was because of you!!!"
"…? How is that my fault…?"
"Dieeeeeee!!!!!"
-Slash.
It was an undeniably miraculous mont… ruined by the sheer absurdity of the dialogue.
Even the final boss, for a brief mont, experienced brain freeze from the audacity of it all.
To think, a non-transcendent being could gather Divinity out of sheer willpower to have children and awaken it through forty-seven years of pent-up frustration. It was absurd.
Yet, regardless of how it seed…
The katana infused with radiant starlight ca down in a blinding arc.
The final boss…
Was split in two.
-Shatter… Thud.
"……."
A mont of silence.
All eyes turned to Aika and the being before her.
The monstrous creature, which had unleashed countless tentacles without pause, the strongest entity in Awakened history…
The final boss lay defeated, split from head to toe.
"Huh? Did I… do it…?"
"……!! Master!!!"
"Waaaaaahhhhh!!!!!"
Delayed cheers filled the cavern.
Yujin, overwheld with pride for his Master.
The others, relieved that the nightmare was finally over.
"Waaaaahhh!!!"
"I don’t really get it, but now I can finally have kids with my disciple!!"
For Aika, her happiness was fueled by the thought that she could now, at last, bear the fruits of love with Yujin.
All those hopeful emotions overflowed, rging into a wave of elation.
"It’s really over now…."
The EX-Class Gate that once threatened humanity’s extinction…
Was finally closed, thanks to Aika’s hard carry.
【———This is exactly why I didn’t want to fight.】
"……Hik!!!!?"
Just as it seed the curtains had closed on their ordeal,
a voice reverberated through their very souls.
It was a chilling sound, like nails dragged across a chalkboard, crawling into their ears and settling in their bones.
Instinctively, everyone’s gaze was drawn downward.
"……!!!"
‘The Gate is collapsing!?’
At that mont, all nine of them realized the horrifying truth.
The floor of the boss room, which they had been standing on, was disintegrating beneath their feet.
And below it was… the sky.
A sky that glead ominously with an unnatural red hue.
And below that…
Seoul.
"We haven’t even recovered the Core yet… why is this happening…?"
-Whoosh.
"……Eh?"
Before anyone could grasp the aning of what was happening,
Aika froze in place.
Her expression went rigid as she felt sothing brush against her ankle.
‘No way….’
-Flinch.
‘Monsters!? But they weren’t supposed to enter the boss room!!?’
The thing gripping her ankle was a monster.
It was one of the countless creatures that had been unable to step foot near the boss room before.
But now, with the Gate collapsing and the boundaries of space and dinsions breaking down,
the crumbling floor had allowed them to swarm in.
"……!!!! Master!!!"
"Discipleeeee!!!"
Yujin stretched out his hand.
Aika imdiately extended her arm in turn.
The two transcendent beings reacted with lightning speed,
their movents synchronized like clockwork.
But the floor crumbled faster than they could act.
-KRUMMMBBBBLLLE!!!
"HIIIIIIIIK!!!!?"
Aika’s body plumted into the abyss.
But it wasn’t just Aika.
Yujin, along with all nine mbers of the raid party…
And…
【Go forth, my minions.】
[Kyaaaaarwuuuuu!!!!!]
"……!!!!?"
‘Even the monsters!?’
More than ten thousand monsters—
An overwhelming tide of creatures—
descended from above.
And their destination was clear: the city of Seoul, looming ominously below.
-Gulp.
‘If this keeps up, Seoul will be trampled!!’
It was the beginning of Phase 2.
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