30 Years After Reincarnating, It Turns Out This World Was A Rofan?!-Chapter 296: A Knight’s Courage Knows No Recklessness (7)

...How?

The Great Evil Spirit, Inanna, felt something utterly unfamiliar.

Confusion.

A being of divinity, one who had existed for tens of thousands of years, should never have felt confusion.

And yet, at this moment—she was lost. No—she was utterly shaken.

What was so shocking?

Everything.

She wanted to scream.

This human before her—

He had no divine power.

No spiritual energy.

Not even magic or sorcery.

And yet—he had touched the incorporeal body of a god.

Impossible.

Yet—

— [A-Ahh! It hurts...! IT HURTS!!]

Pain.

A sensation so trivial that only weak, insignificant creatures like humans should experience it.

And yet, she felt it.

Rolling on the ground like a child throwing a tantrum, she shrieked from the agony.

Her lack of resistance to pain made her hyper-aware of every ounce of suffering.

She couldn’t endure it.

She screamed.

But no matter how much she cried out—

"You whine too much for a god."

WHAM!

— [Aaaagh!!]

The human struck her again.

And again.

And again.

...In ways she couldn’t comprehend.

He wasn’t even standing next to her.

He was three meters away.

Standing still.

And yet, she kept getting hit—

Her face. Her body. The pain rained down upon her, merciless and unrelenting.

She had no idea how it was happening.

And with the pain overwhelming her senses, she had no room to think.

She could only cry out like a child throwing a fit.

And yet—

— [KILL HIM!!]

Even as she writhed in agony, her hatred and contempt for the lowly human never faded.

SCREEEEEECH!

Inanna shrieked her fury, giving a command to her Heavenly Bull.

And it moved.

BOOOOM!

Just from shifting its weight, the earth quaked.

Everything in its path was ground into dust.

A mere touch from its body resulted in total annihilation.

It was no mere giant skeletal bull.

Its sheer destructive force made that very clear.

BOOM...

—"It neutralized Shattering Strike?"

Just like before, Ihan had attacked.

A mysterious strike—aimed at the Heavenly Bull.

Yet, it had done nothing.

The beast had simply absorbed the attack, crushing its force entirely.

A massive entity of pure weight and destruction.

It was, without question, a monstrosity.

And yet—

BOOM!

— [!!]

"But Gravity Strike works? Funny."

Unlike before, his second attack landed.

A detonation rippled across the bull’s back.

The damage wasn’t much—

Not enough to truly injure it.

But that wasn’t the point.

— [T-The Heavenly Bull... has a scratch...?!]

Just a scratch.

Not even a real wound.

But the fact that it had any damage at all—

It meant it could be hurt.

That undeniable truth turned Inanna’s face deathly pale.

— [W-What are you...?! How is this possible?!]

Ihan did not answer.

Instead—

— [ANSWER— AAAAAGH!!]

CRACK!

She had tried to demand an explanation.

But instead of words—

She received a blow.

Even stronger than before.

Her body was launched into the air.

Like a stone skipping across a lake, she bounced across the battlefield three times.

Slam. Slam. Slam.

Far more powerful than any of his previous attacks.

And Inanna—

— [Ghhhk! I-It hurts! It hurts...!!]

She writhed on the ground, sobbing in agony.

She could think of nothing else.

Only the pain.

Only the torment.

Only—

That damn human.

The human who, at this very moment—

Was beating a god into the dirt.

And that very human, standing over her now, merely muttered—

"At least you’re tough. Guess you really are a god."

His expression?

One of pure disgust.

***

To be absolutely clear—

Ihan had never underestimated an enemy in his life.

He had never let his guard down.

Because his life had been a constant struggle—like walking on the edge of a blade.

Caution wasn’t a choice; it was second nature.

Whenever he fought, he went all in.

From the very beginning, he attacked with full force, never hesitating to throw a punch or swing a sword to kill his opponent outright.

And right now, that very habit remained unchanged.

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

Which was why—

He was slightly shocked.

— I poured that much Will into my strikes... and it just flinched?

He had unleashed over thirty full-powered Shattering Strikes, each imbued with Will strong enough to crush a mountain—

Yet the Great Evil Spirit still stood.

Naturally, his expression hardened.

As expected—

Even rotting, it was still a Land God.

Its endurance was ridiculous.

— Wait... can I even call that endurance?

It was unnatural.

He could hit it, but actually damaging it?

That was an entirely different problem.

At this rate—

— I need sword force. I need pure, overwhelming mass behind my strikes.

SCREEEEEECH!

BOOM!

And the giant skeletal bull?

That thing would require just as much force.

— [AAAAAAARRRGH!!]

The skeletal bull reacted to the Great Evil Spirit’s rage, its rampage turning more violent.

With every reckless movement, its destructive force pulverized everything in its path.

If it kept rampaging,

Then this entire region—

Would be reduced to desert.

And soon—

RUMBLE—!!

The bull’s destruction no longer affected just the battlefield.

The entire underground cavern trembled.

And beyond.

The impact was starting to spread outward.

Ihan immediately realized what that meant.

"This bony bastard...!"

BOOM!

Without hesitation, he charged.

If that power escaped, the consequences would be catastrophic.

Shadow Step.

His body ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ vanished—

Then collided directly with the bull at full force.

— [FOOLISH HUMAN! DO YOU THINK YOU CAN CHALLENGE THE MYSTIC ART OF ANNIHILATION HEAD-ON?! YOU WILL BE OBLITERATED!!]

CRACK!

— [...?]

SCREEEEEECH!?

The Heavenly Bull—

stopped moving.

Not because it wanted to.

But because—

CRUNCH.

"RAAAAAAAAAH!!"

The human had grabbed it.

Where?

Its massive bones.

Too large to hold properly,

So his fingers had dug into them.

Forcefully.

The bull—

The colossal, fortress-sized, unstoppable, world-crushing Heavenly Bull—

Was stuck.

It could not move.

It could not break free.

The impossible had happened.

A human had stopped a god’s beast.

Had there ever been a hero—

In any legend—

Who had done this?

But even more terrifying—

RUMBLE.

— [SCREEEEEECH!?]

The bull was being lifted.

Slowly.

No.

Steadily.

WHOOOOOOM!!

The sheer force radiating from Ihan’s body—

The indomitable will of someone who had reached Golden Body.

A power that refused to break.

A force that even the Mystic Art of Annihilation could not consume.

But this—

This was only a small part of his true ability.

Because the real weapon here—

Was not just his body.

Not just his endurance.

But the raw, overwhelming energy surging through him—

A force that no one else in this world had ever reached.

HUUUUUUUUM—!

A strength that defied all sense, all logic.

A strength that no one could replicate.

A strength that only he—

A man who had crafted his own martial arts from scratch—

Could achieve.

If one had to name this power—

— [Instructor, I saw your status window earlier. You got a new Trait, right?]

— I told you, the world isn’t a game, you idiot.

— Yeah, but I saw it...

— Tch. So? What was it?

— Heh. Knew you were curious.

— Shut up and tell me.

— Ahem. It was...

— [Power to Tear Mountains, Spirit to Cover the World—Lv.8.]

A force that could rip a mountain from the earth.

This—

This was the realm Ihan had reached.

WHOOOOOSH!!

The bull—

The Heavenly Bull—

Was lifted.

Completely.

CRUNCH!

— [SCREEEEEECH!!]

It thrashed desperately, trying to escape—

But it was trapped.

Why?

Because the force Ihan was radiating wrapped around it—

Like an unbreakable net.

And then—

WHOOOOSH! WHOOOOOOOSH—!!

The bull—

Spun.

It began to rotate—

Faster.

Faster.

The centrifugal force increased, pressing down on itself.

A Giant Swing.

But not just any Giant Swing.

This wasn’t some ordinary human technique.

It was a human throwing a monster the size of a city.

And the aftermath—

WHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIRRRR!!

— [GRRRRRRRRRRAAAH!!]

— [KIIIIIIIIIIEK!!]

— [GURGRGRGRGR—!!]

Even the monsters surrounding the battlefield—

Got sucked in.

They could not escape.

They were dragged into the monstrous whirlpool of destruction—

And were crushed.

Bodies twisted.

Flesh ripped apart.

And then—

"HAAAAAAAARGH!!"

With a final roar—

Ihan threw the Heavenly Bull.

And in the next moment—

BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!

The Heavenly Bull—

Slammed into the ceiling.

And the entire cavern—

Shook.

A human.

A mere human.

Had taken the Great Evil Spirit’s greatest weapon—

And buried it into the heavens.