Chapter 99: Journey’s End (1)

The first impression I felt during the clash with Kairan, a preliminary apostle who was serving the God of Proof, was simple.

It was that he uses his power better for dog fights than I expected.

Shiiiiiing—!

From the fragments of the broken mirror held in Kairan’s hands, a pure white ray of light rampaged wildly.

During that process, the light rays bounced off the mirrors in the room, and then rushed toward me.

The beam of light was shot at me from a blind spot, but nevertheless, I immediately twisted my body to dodge it.

「 Activating the skill ‘Fire Dragon’s Eyes.’ 」 

Kairan took advantage of the room’s features that were made out of mirrors to attack from a blindspot.

To that, I activated Fire Dragon’s Eyes, avoiding and deflecting all rays, blocking Kairan’s attack.

And soon, I jumped off as though smashing the ground and swung my sword at Kairan’s neck at once.

However—

Next, as the little white wings on Kairan’s back moved, a gust of wind blew around him.

A fierce gust of wind slowed my movement, telling me it wouldn’t allow me to draw near him.

And Kairan used that moment to stop emitting rays from the blade and immediately use another skill.

I was well aware of the Sword Ki swinging like flames on a broken mirror blade.

It was the Sword Flame.

Claaaang!

Both of our swords clashed, and we were pushed back, but Kiaran immediately moved the blades of the broken mirrors in both his hands.

Unlike me, using a single sword, Kairan attacked many times with two blades held in both hands.

「Activating the skill ‘Chaotic Sword-fighting Play(C+).’ 」 

「Sword attack speed increases by 12%.」

「Number of stacks – 6/10」

Of course, I had some abilities that could increase my attack speed, but…

Essentially, Kairan had two swords in his hand, and I only had one.

Because of that, I was pushed back while receiving Kairan’s fierce attacks as though parrying them.

Soon after, Kairan fluttered his wings again and created a gust of wind, and another ray of light was emitted from the two broken mirrors.

It was then that I realized why Kairan said that pure martial arts could never defeat him.

A sure-win strategy.

The power that Kairan owned had no other way to describe it.

‘It’s a very consistent pattern, yet a fucked up one that I can’t really come up with a countermeasure.’

He bounces the ray to a blindspot, then attacks unexpectedly, and when the enemy blocks it and approaches, he creates a gust of wind with the small wings on his back and pushes the enemy away.

Even after pushing through that extreme offense, he overwhelms the opponent with high-level swordsmanship and creates a gust of wind when near.

Then, if he succeeds in pushing the opponent away with a gust of wind, he starts attacking again from the beginning.

It’s at a level where it can be called a sure-win combo that can never be breached.

In fact, Kairan still had a confident smile on his face, as though he was aware of that.

He was probably hoping for me to become tired and move slowly or end up with reckless actions.

If I just keep on blocking it, I’ll die of exhaustion, and even if I attempt to do new things, I’ll die if it’s not certain.

Priest Johann, who I encountered first, was already an absurd trial for the hard difficulty but…

Now, I wanted to ask if he was really an opponent that can appear even if this is a hard difficulty.

「 Administrator ‘Dark Demon’ is bewildered by the level of the preliminary apostle in battle.」

「 Administrator ‘Priest of Confession’ can’t help but be astonished and asks if he’s really a preliminary apostle.」

「 Administrator ‘Ruler of the Sky’ is starting to question the difficulty of this trial on the 11th floor.」

Quite a number of administrators were bewildered, as though they knew that the enemy I was dealing against was strong.

The situation was quite serious, seeing that even those who had never sent a proper message gave a reaction.

「 Administrator ‘Priest of the Seven Gods’ says, he has quite a lot of divine power for a preliminary apostle.」

「 Administrator ‘The Hero of the Collapsed World’ enjoys watching this dog fight while chewing on snacks.」

「 Administrator ‘Seeker of Divinity’ says that the skill of the preliminary apostle is quite suitable to be an apostle.」

However, the administrators who used to constantly send messages didn’t show much of a response.

「 Administrator ‘Iron-blooded Monarch’ is annoyed by the needlessly time-consuming preliminary apostle.」 

「 Administrator ‘White Crane Sword Saint’ shines her eyes while looking forward to your actions.」 

Even the administrators who contracted with me were no different.

I felt a little disappointed at that, but soon I erased those feelings and looked at Kairan.

He was a high-level swordsman who even used Sword Flame, and at the same time, the strength of his powers was formidable.

However, I confirmed that the wings on his back had no other ability than to create and release a gust of wind by amplifying the divine power.

In addition, the blade of the broken mirror in Kairan’s hands had no other function other than emitting rays.

‘These should be the only powers that Kairan can use.’

When I saw the administrators’ reaction, there were a lot of people who said this was a lot of power.

And that means even if he had more powers, it would be just one or two more.

I should be able to respond properly by analyzing the pattern a little more if it’s just that.

Therefore—

「 Activating the skill ‘Counter Shield.’ 」

It was time to put an end to this fight.

Kaboom…!!

With the Counter Shield summoned above the palm of my hand, I blocked the ray shot from the side.

“…!?”

At that, Kairan, flustered quickly fired a larger amount of rays, with both rays, but—

The value of this Counter Shield wasn’t limited to just blocking attacks.

「Charging complete.」 

「The skill ‘Counter Shield’ is in a state where you can reflect the accumulated damage.」 

After using quite a bit of mana in my body to block all of Kairan’s rays, my eyes lit up.

And—

「The skill ‘Counter Shield’ releases the accumulated damage at once. 」  

Soon, a single ray of light shot from the shield penetrated Kairan like lightning.

***

[Translator – Ramen ]

[Proofreader – DVN-L ]

***

Pshhh…!

Surprisingly, the wall of the room made of broken mirrors couldn’t bounce off the ray I had shot.

The wall of broken mirrors melted in the rays of light, and the glass shards melted by the heat.

I didn’t know if it was because it bounced only the power that Kairan used, or because the ray I shot was powerful, but now one thing was certain.

“Keheugh… Wh-What the hell is this….”

Kairan was incapacitated.

“N-No way… Th-There’s no trace that you’ve learned any magic, but how…”

There was a fairly large hole around his small body’s heart.

I wondered how he could speak so normally when his heart must’ve blown away.

But apart from that question, I answered dying Kairan’s question straightly.

“That’s because everyone at least has a card up on their sleeve.”

Of course, Kairan didn’t accept what I said and moved his lips.

“Why does a man crazy about swords know how to handle such bullshit magic like this…”

“It’s like how you’ve reached the state of Sword Flame and yet know how to fire a ray of light.”

Kairan’s eyes widened at that.

“D-Don’t tell me, you also have the power of god…”

“No, It’s nothing like that.”

I really didn’t have the power to fire rays randomly like Kairan.

If I did, then I would’ve killed Kairan by now without analyzing the pattern.

However, perhaps it didn’t sound good enough for Kairan. He soon squinted his eyes and said as if he was tired of me.

“Asshole.”

“…”

When I looked at him in stunned silence at his words, Kairan soon spoke condescendingly.

“According to the law of proof, you’ve completed the proof of the body…”

As if conducting a completion ceremony of some sort, Kairan continued his words firmly, even if he was dying.

“You didn’t run away from the fight nor lose. I approve of your proof.”

Kairan spoke up to that point and then changed his attitude and looked at me, and gestured with his head.

“So, get, the fuck off… First of all, what kind of proof does a monster like you need to prove anyway.”

Before I could even reply something to those words, Kairan’s breathing stopped.

“…”

And at the same time, dark smoke rose from Kairan’s body and approached me.

「 You have absorbed the soul of the priest ‘Kairan’. 」

「 Proficiency increased by 13% 」 

It was then—

「The judgment of power extraction begins by absorbing a soul stronger than the user.」

The new Necromancy ability that I had forgotten was activated, and the judgment of power extraction began.

「Judgment complete.」 

I didn’t know what the basis for the judgment was, but the judgment was successful.

「 It has been confirmed that a power exists in the soul of priest ‘Kairan’.」

「 Extracting power from the soul.」

And…

「 The power ‘Divine Power (C+)’ is being engraved on the soul of user Han Sungyeun.」

At the same time, I felt a new aura in my heart, and I frowned.

“Divine power?”

For some reason, it left a bad taste because an unexpected aura entered me.

Should I say that it felt like I accidentally swallowed a candy while holding it in my mouth?

I didn’t know how to use the aura that suddenly settled in my heart, and even when I tried to move, I couldn’t move it.

I stood there for a moment and tried to activate the divine power, but I soon gave up on the activation.

It could be that I didn’t have talent or such, but essentially, it felt like there was a separate way to use this aura.

“It’s completely different from utilizing mana.”

Originally, I thought of mana as something driven by the strong will of the user.

In fact, even before entering the tower in the past, I moved my mana that way.

And at that time, of course, I didn’t know if I was handling it properly because I had such a small amount of mana that I doubted whether it really existed.

I could confirm it by using it in a state where my current mana had grown significantly.

Mana was the energy that responded sensitively to the user’s will.

That’s why it’s more difficult to handle, and it’s tricky to deal with because you have to clear your will out, but it can be dealt with.

However, no matter how much I tried to use the divine power, it was immovable, as if it wouldn’t move unless the proper procedure was followed.

“…”

While on it, the administrators noticed that I got divine power and sent a message.

「 Administrator ‘Priest of the Seven Gods’ is bewildered by the divine power felt from your body.」

「 Administrator ‘Seeker of Divinity’ is intrigued by the divine power that was generated even though you’re not serving a god.」

「 Administrator ‘Priest of Confession’ is terrified after seeing the divine power suddenly generated in your heart.」

But everyone’s reaction was a bit strange.

I frowned at their reactions such as “bewildered” or “terrified.”

Perhaps they didn’t know that I extracted divine power using my innate ability?

‘Does that mean that even the administrators don’t have the ability to detect that far…?’

But other than that, administrators were freaking out about other facts too.

「 Administrator ‘White Crane Sword Saint’ wonders why divine power has entered your middle dantian.」 

「 Administrator ‘Iron-blooded Monarch’ is perplexed as she realizes that there’s no trace of god in the divine power that dwells in your heart.」 

They were all confused by the fact that I generated divine power even though I don’t believe in a god.

Is it so strange that I don’t believe in god, yet I have divine powers?

I thought about it for a while, but it was impossible to properly discern about this with my current knowledge.

‘I guess I can’t help it.’

In conclusion, there was nothing I could do, so I moved on.

「 Permanently increasing your stats using the soul of Priest ‘Kairan’. 」 

「 Strength increased by 4. 」

「 Agility increased by 3. 」

「 Stamina increased by 3. 」

「 Mana increased by 4. 」

「 Tenacity increased by 5. 」 

At the same time, I also absorbed the soul of Kairan right away so it wouldn’t be consumed by the passive shield.

Then, after leaving the room of the broken mirror, I entered the hallway towards the fifth gate.

As I walked down the hallway, the cracks in the mirror gradually disappeared, making the mirror completely intact.

I wondered if there was any connection with the fact that the cracks on the mirror disappeared just as the proof of the body ended.

Of course, as soon as I reached the end of the hallway, I erased that thought and soon opened the door.

And…

“You passed.”

The fifth hurdle announced my pass as soon as I arrived.

——