Ascension Through Skills-Chapter 488: 91st Floor. Ouroboros (9)
The skill Absolute Resistance—earned after landing a decisive blow against the Labyrinth Wizard.
It forcibly elevated the user’s rank to match or surpass that of a stronger opponent.
As the rank climbed, the barriers that had once been insurmountable were shattered, and tightly locked doors were violently shaken.
Thoom.
The door trembled.
Cracks began to spider across its surface with a grating noise.
Through the widening gaps, Taesan glimpsed the space beyond—a realm of transcendent heights. The domain of Old Gods and the supreme Transcendents who ruled the world.
Taesan’s essence pressed against the threshold, trying to force its way through.
In that moment, the strain of the artificially elevated rank rippled through his consciousness.
If just knocking on the entrance caused such pressure, it wasn’t hard to imagine the burden of fully stepping into that realm.
That was where Essence of Self came into play.
The power Essentia had granted him had a simple yet profound effect. It allowed Taesan to perceive his essence, observe himself, and temporarily expand his capacity to bear the extraordinary.
Taesan focused his mind.
Thoom!
The cracks on the door deepened, threatening to break it apart. The door trembled, teetering on the edge of collapse, but it remained intact, as though declaring that this realm was not yet his to enter.
But Taesan wasn’t paying attention to the door anymore.
His gaze was fixated elsewhere—on the blackened world before him. A world so chaotically tangled and distorted that its essence was impossible to discern.
It was his inner world.
Taesan had tried countless times to read and understand his own psyche, only to fail each time. Even as its owner, he could not grasp the nature of his own mind.
But now—
With his granted power, he could delve deeper than ever before.
Taesan dove into the depths of his inner world, piercing through the twisted and broken landscape.
At the deepest point, he saw it.
Something lay within him.
“Is that it?”
The entity Amelia and Haphran had spoken of—the hidden presence within him—revealed itself in his mind’s eye.
It was a form indistinguishable as human or beast, its essence obscured by an unidentifiable power. Its true nature eluded him.
But one thing was clear.
It was watching him.
The gaze directed at Taesan carried an emotion he couldn’t fully decipher—whether hostility or goodwill, he couldn’t tell.
Their eyes met, the tension between them palpable. Then, after a brief moment, the unknown entity moved, as if stepping aside. It withdrew from Taesan, vanishing into the depths.
Boom!
The door shattered.
The once-immovable barrier crumbled, granting Taesan access to the transcendent realm beyond. His rank soared instantly, reaching a level that brushed against the supreme.
Everything happened in the blink of an eye.
Realizing something was amiss, the Worthless One abandoned its attempt to dominate the space and shifted its focus entirely on Taesan, trying to consume him within its being.
Previously, even with the Boundary Line, Taesan would have had to fight for his life to counter this assault.
But now—
Taesan raised his sword, and the Boundary Line intensified.
This Boundary Line was unlike any he had wielded before.
Its gray hue deepened, resembling the void itself.
When Taesan swung his sword, the Worthless One met his strike.
CRACK!
A powerful backlash erupted as the Worthless One recoiled.
The Boundary Line persisted, clinging to the Worthless One and threatening to engulf it in its gray void.
The Worthless One lashed out, swinging its arm.
Boom!
A massive force erupted, scattering the gray energy outward and shaking the dome violently.
“Ha.”
Taesan chuckled.
He had now reached the threshold of the transcendent realm.
Though it was a temporary state achieved through unorthodox means, the fact remained that he had arrived.
An immense power, unlike anything he had experienced before, surged within him.
“Let’s try this again.”
Taesan dashed forward, his movements now far faster than before. The Worthless One drew upon its aura, enveloping the world in its formless power.
BOOM!
Taesan’s Boundary Line expanded, enveloping his sword as it grew to an enormous size.
CRASH!
Energy burst and scattered in a violent clash. Taesan swung his sword.
[You have activated Great Collapse (Chaos).]
The Great Collapse manifested once more, racing forward. Unlike before, it no longer disintegrated against the Worthless One’s formless power. Instead, it collided with equal force, sapping the Worthless One’s strength.
Taesan bared his teeth in a fierce grin, channeling even more power.
Outside the dome, Essentia observed the battle and let out an impressed exclamation.
“Ho.”
His eyes sparkled with unconcealed admiration.
“I didn’t expect the power I granted him to reach this level.”
Essentia could tell—Taesan had used his skills and abilities to elevate his rank to match that of the Worthless One.
Moreover, he was stabilizing this elevated state using the authority Essentia had given him.
But something was strange.
While Essentia’s authority allowed for stability through self-reflection, it had its limits. It was never meant to sustain such a high rank so seamlessly.
“Still twisted, I see.”
And that distortion—
Essentia had a rough idea of its origin. He laughed, his expression alight with interest.
“So, even something like you has appeared. The world has indeed changed.”
His gaze bore into Taesan with an almost predatory fascination.
“Show me what you truly are, twisted existence.”
***
[You have activated Mental Acceleration.]
[You have activated Acceleration.]
[You have activated Heavy Strike.]
BOOM!
Taesan swung his sword with immense force.
The formless energy was torn apart and pushed back.
But as much as it was scattered, it continuously flowed out again from the Worthless One.
"Endless," Taesan muttered with a click of his tongue.
In his current state, he was equal to the Worthless One. He wasn’t losing in a direct confrontation. In fact, the Boundary Line’s innate advantage made him slightly superior.
He had planned to clear the formless energy and approach the core, but no matter how much he dispelled, more replaced it. The flow was relentless, stronger than what was being destroyed.
The Old Gods were immutable. Their power was never truly depleted.
And now, Taesan understood the full meaning of that truth.
‘This won’t work.’
The true potential of the Boundary Line lay in its ability to distort and interfere with laws, but it required delicate control. In his current elevated state, such precision was impossible.
Even if it were feasible, he had no knowledge of how to distort the power of an Old God. A direct clash of strength was his only option.
‘A prolonged fight isn’t viable.’
His elevated state, barely supported by an unknown force, was beginning to crumble. The energy holding him aloft was reaching its limits.
It was time to change tactics.
While the Old God’s power was inexhaustible, this fragment seemed limited in how much it could release at once. If so, he would overwhelm it with a force beyond that threshold.
[You have activated Fall of All Things.]
[You have activated Purification of the Impure.]
[You have activated Rule of Law.]
KIIIIIIII!
A tremendous power engulfed the battlefield. The Worthless One’s body warped, its flow of energy momentarily stuttering.
Taesan seized the opportunity. In his current state, he could infuse the Boundary Line into every ounce of his power.
[You have activated Call of Destruction (Chaos).]
A force steeped in ash-gray destruction surged forth, ravenously seeking to consume the Old God.
BOOM!
The energies collided violently. Taesan stretched his hand toward the void.
[You have activated World’s Sword (Chaos).]
The World’s Sword, imbued with gray chaos, materialized, and Taesan swung it with unrelenting force.
The massive blade scraped against the dome, tearing toward the Worthless One.
The Worthless One gathered its energy, meeting the onslaught with its own.
BOOM!
[You have activated Great Collapse (Chaos).]
This 𝓬ontent is taken from freeweɓnovel.cѳm.
[You have activated Baal’s Designated Spatial Collapse.]
Taesan engaged the fragment of the Old God in a pure contest of strength—and he wasn’t losing.
CRACK!
The formless energy dominating the space began to falter. Slowly, Taesan crushed the influence of the Worthless One, diminishing its reach.
When the battle reached its peak, Taesan unleashed everything.
[You have activated Memorize.]
He poured out every ounce of strength he had stored, striking the space with enough force to create an opening.
Without hesitation, Taesan surged forward, enveloped by the Boundary Line, charging directly at the Worthless One.
[You have activated Conversion.]
[You have activated Blade of Resolve.]
[You have activated Addition.]
[You have activated Absolute Verdict.]
[You have activated Acceleration.]
[You have activated Skill Acceleration.]
With every ounce of power infused into his sword, he dashed toward his enemy, closing the gap before the Worthless One could react.
The Worthless One’s body began to collapse, its immense condensed energy now paradoxically acquiring form and value due to its sheer density.
This was the ultimate weapon of the Worthless One—a force capable of consuming the world itself, using its very existence as a catalyst.
Even Taesan’s Boundary Line might not hold against such overwhelming power in a direct clash.
But Taesan had no intention of engaging it head-on.
He charged straight into the chaos, not dodging, not retreating.
As the Worthless One’s energy enveloped him, Taesan’s authority activated.
“Stop.”
With this command, the world froze.
This was the power of time manipulation, wielded by a servant of the time-walking monster.
Even an Old God’s power could be countered by such a force.
Though Taesan’s Self-Consistency protected him from temporal interference, the confirmation that time manipulation could work against an Old God’s authority had already been made.
CRACK!
For a fleeting moment, the Worthless One’s movements halted. It shattered the temporal interference almost instantly, but the moment was enough.
Taesan thrust his Boundary-infused sword forward.
The Worthless One scrambled to defend itself, but Taesan didn’t relent. He poured more power into the Boundary Line, detonating it with violent intensity.
BOOM!
The defense was forcefully shattered.
The sword pierced toward the core.
CRACK!
The blade met the core, and cracks spread rapidly across its surface. The core, the very essence of the Worthless One, was formidable. But infused with the Boundary Line, Taesan’s attack proved capable of breaking through in a single blow.
A massive explosion erupted.
The once worthless now became paradoxically valuable, scattering energy in all directions.
[You have activated Domain of Chaos.]
[You have activated Replicate.]
[You have activated Ring of Twisted Regret.]
[You have activated Replicate.]
Even the fragment’s final outburst was consumed.
With the Domain of Chaos, Taesan used Replicate to quadruple its volume in an instant, unleashing a force beyond his control.
But he didn’t try to suppress it.
[You have activated Negation of Possibilities.]
The Domain of Chaos ran wild, yet all potential harm to Taesan was erased and negated.
The Worthless One’s remaining resistance crumbled completely.
Taesan reached out and grasped the shattered core.
CRACK!
The core disintegrated in his grip, its power dissipating entirely.
The entity that had twisted Ouroboros for countless millennia was erased from existence. The dome that had surrounded them collapsed, its structure dissolving into nothingness.
As the scattered energy began to fade, Taesan forcibly seized it.
“Give it to me.”
CRACK!
The fragment of the Old God—its power—was absorbed into Taesan, transforming seamlessly into his own.
[You have defeated the Fragment of the Worthless One.]
[Your proficiency in Distorted Spiritual Tuning has increased by 5%.]
[Your proficiency in Blackened Energy has increased by 4%.]
[Your proficiency in Boundary Line has increased by @#!!!%.]
[Your proficiency in Will of All Things has increased by 3%.]
[Your proficiency in Domain of Chaos has increased by ^%^%.]
[Your Spiritual Elevation has been triggered. You have stolen the Transcendence [Worthlessness].]
