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Chapter 442

As if preparing for birth, the gigantic armored giant pulsed once.

This place was the grave and cradle of the Tyrant, Ruum.

Awakened from a long silence, the giant stood its ground like Mount Tai and slowly began to manifest Ruum’s unique authority.

As if like a newborn creature instinctively wandering in search of milk, pale shapes escaped from its body, scattering in all directions as they took form.

They were eggs.

At a glance they looked like nothing more than hallucinations, but once they grew, metamorphosed, and began to be reabsorbed by Ruum, they would grant immense power and an immortal vitality.

For now it possessed neither the power of immortality nor the strength to shave mountains away, but such facts were of no importance to Ruum.

Anything that interfered could simply be trampled.

The eggs it had just spread would absorb the surrounding energies, grow, and once they metamorphosed, the problem would be solved.

There was no being here that could threaten him.

The presence of the being that had driven him into the terror of death was barely detectable.

In other words, this place was safe.

Having reached that judgment, he quietly held his ground like a queen bee waiting for worker bees to return with honey.

But.

That was his mistake.

Crack… crack!!

The presences of the eggs he had scattered everywhere began to disappear one by one.

Ruum, who had been in a silent state, slowly lifted the head that had been as unmoving as a mountain at this unexpected development.

Reflected in his blood-red gaze was the sight of insignificant insects destroying the eggs that had been accumulating power, one after another.

Disguises were useless.

The enemy was precisely destroying only the core of the eggs.

—Guuuuuuuu….

Ruum’s anger, in a state where instinct was stronger than reason, was only natural.

Unable to tolerate trivial insects interfering with his meal, Ruum slowly pulled out the sword he had embedded in the ground and began to raise his enormous body in order to exterminate the insects.

Instead of being terrified and fleeing, those beings continued to search through the eggs and destroy them all even after seeing Ruum’s existence.

Enraged to the extreme, Ruum slowly raised his sword to tear those insects apart one by one.

It was a sword that appeared endlessly slow.

It carried overwhelming power and weight, but what use was that if it was so slow that it could not hit?

However, Ruum had absolutely no worries about that particular point.

Like a predator creeping carefully behind its prey, the preparation was slow.

But the attack was infinitely sharp.

Crack!!

The unimaginably massive sword instantly produced a sonic boom, tearing apart space and generating a tremendous storm.

The sword, swung at a speed so fast a person could not even react, was directed straight at the four humans who had been destroying the eggs and came crashing down.

The gigantic shockwave produced a tearing roar and clouds of dust.

But.

Ruum was certain that his attack had not landed.

Just before the sword struck, something that moved faster than his blade had blocked the attack.

In front of the four figures who had collapsed in fear, there stood a human holding a sword.

A trivial human.

Ruum moved again.

If one attack had been blocked, he simply needed to strike again.

And at the very moment he tightened his grip on the sword.

Something flying in with a cluster of pure white light struck the helmet of the gigantic Ruum with tremendous force.

KAAAAANG!!!!

With an enormous sound, Ruum’s massive body staggered and was forced back. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

“Sorry, but you’re not taking a single step from there.”

A voice that sounded as if it were provoking him rang out.

Even at this very moment, the eggs that were supposed to restore his power were being destroyed at a rapid pace.

No matter how ancient-god-class a being might be, it could not endlessly pour out eggs.

If all the eggs he had scattered were destroyed, then for the time being Ruum would not only lose his immortality but would be unable even to grow stronger.

Ruum was furious.

His opponent was clearly staring directly at his weakness.

But he quickly regained his composure.

This behavior was unexpected, but it was only temporary anyway.

It would be impossible to find and destroy all the eggs spread across such a vast area.

Among those countless eggs, it would be enough if even a single one survived and succeeded in metamorphosing.

That should have been the case…

Ruum felt something strange again.

He had definitely scattered the eggs widely.

Yet.

Why were all the eggs that had spread out clustered not far away?

As if, as though someone had known this situation in advance and prepared thoroughly to block his recovery.

Originally they should have spread like dandelion seeds so widely that no one could stop them even if they tried.

But the current situation… felt as though he were trapped inside a narrow prison.

A prison….

Could it be that preparations had been made to annihilate him immediately after he had been defeated?

Were those humans—who had known nothing but fleeing in terror—now coming out so boldly because of that?

When his thoughts reached that point, extreme fury filled Ruum’s instincts.

—GUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!

Ruum’s sword accelerated in an instant.

KJJEEONG!!! JJENG!! KJJEEONG!

The sword of the gigantic armored giant, Ruum, repeatedly accelerated and slowed.

At the moment of attack, it struck with a speed as if leaping beyond time itself, and at all other times it moved extremely slowly.

Ruum knew well.

Though he had once been called an Ancient God, he knew in what circumstances he became weak.

If other Ancient Gods were armed with powerful authorities and overwhelming power, Ruum was somewhat different.

Unlike the others, Ruum’s only advantages were the power of immortality and overwhelming close-combat specifications, so in the current situation where he had not yet obtained that power, he was in a state so weak that it was embarrassing even to call him an Ancient God.

Therefore he had to protect the eggs no matter what.

Just a moment would be enough.

If he could protect even a single one.

Ruum had to somehow escape from this place and tear apart the obstructing pests so that the pale eggs could metamorphose.

But the damned beings did not permit it.

Whenever Ruum tried to move beyond a certain range to protect the eggs, they blocked his path and interfered with his actions.

Their objective was so transparent and clear that his fury surged even more.

Rather than defeating him in battle, it seemed they simply intended to wear Ruum down and kill him.

For Ruum, there was no choice but to continue resisting desperately.

However, that did not change the situation.

Instead, the situation quickly reached the worst possible outcome.

Astonishingly, every egg he had scattered was destroyed.

At this point, until he could create new eggs, he would not only lack immortality but be unable even to grow stronger.

Eggs that had once been released could not immediately be created again.

To repeat the same act again would require a certain amount of time.

He was left alone as he had been in the beginning.

In truth, that form was not weak.

But.

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The obstructing beings before his eyes were not opponents he could casually trample to death with the level of power he possessed in his initial form.

—Are you mocking me!!!

From the beast that had been left with only instinct, reason slowly began to return.

Ironically, because he had become so enraged that he lost his reason, his reason now became clearer.

The gaze that had been purely red began to change rapidly in the crisis of death.

His red eyes were strongly dyed purple, and different things began to appear in the way he saw the world.

—Luci… fer.

Soon Ruum glared at Luna and Lispa with hateful emotions and let out a roar.

Lucifer was not visible.

But from the two who were restraining him, he could clearly feel the aura of that cursed being.

A very long time ago.

Before he had been sealed in this place.

Back when he boasted vast immortal power and terrifying strength capable of shaving mountains away, endlessly elevating his prestige as an Ancient God.

The Ancient God Ruum had encountered one being before his eyes.

A small and fragile angel with many wings.

The vanguard of the Main God.

The servant of the Main God.

To Ruum of that time, it was nothing more than a being that could be called that.

In order to devour even greater power, Ruum eventually began to reach out and meddle even with the boundary that led to Heaven.

And there he fought with Lucifer, who was little more than a servant of the Main God.

The long battle that never tired continued.

Every time a sword filled with overwhelming power swung once, the land changed, the air twisted, and the world burned.

Lucifer’s attacks were certainly threatening.

His body collapsed several times at the hands of that archangel who silently advanced with attacks, but at that time Ruum had already become so distant from death that he was called the King of Immortality.

No matter how his vital points were pierced, how his body was destroyed and killed, he would revive miraculously.

That was Ruum.

But that was his arrogance.

Even though he was an Ancient God, a fragment of the beginning, the archangel who appeared small and fragile possessed power far beyond his expectations.

Calmly facing him, the archangel who shaved away his lives one by one eventually began to press him skillfully as if he had grasped the trick.

Only then did he realize that he had touched the wrong opponent.

That thing is far more dangerous than most Ancient Gods!

Realizing that, Ruum abandoned the battle and had to flee in disgrace.

But.

The archangel did not let him go.

The moment he turned his body, a tremendous power pierced him.

As he turned back, Ruum saw the archangel floating in the sky and realized that that dreadful thing was smiling.

From the beginning.

He had been playing with him.

He had been completely toying with him, a being called a god.

His remaining life was almost gone.

The damage was so severe that even with his strengthened power he could not endure it.

But.

At that time Ruum had left one contingency inside himself.

And so Ruum made a gamble.

If things continued like this, he would inevitably face annihilation.

In that case, he would burn all his remaining life as a sacrifice and plan for the future.

Thinking that, he secretly hid his remaining life, condensed it, and concealed it within his existence.

Someday, whenever the very faint power remaining within him awakened again.

He would return.

That memory clung to him.

Having once experienced annihilation, the fact that complete death was approaching this time without any insurance filled Ruum with unbearable terror.

Thud… thud-thud….

The gigantic armored giant, seized by the fear that he might truly die this time, unconsciously stepped back.

Stepped back?

He—the King of Terror, the being called immortal—had retreated in fear of a few insignificant insects?

Staring blankly at them, Ruum’s reason gradually began to be consumed by anger.

Ruum, whose pride as an Ancient God had been horribly wounded, roared.

—GRAAAAAAAAH!!!!

At the ear-splitting roar, the insignificant humans were seen covering their ears in pain.

Meanwhile, the three who were preventing him from attacking others looked at Ruum’s abnormal state with puzzled expressions.

“Leon. Is it already finished?”

“No. It’s a bit different? This is the first time I’ve seen a case like this.”

Leon was also bewildered by the fact that the Ruum he had met in the Labyrinth was so different from the current Ruum.

Meanwhile Ruum himself was equally confused.

A being that merely seemed to have inherited Lucifer’s power, and a human ha….

A human?

Ruum’s body, its purple gaze gleaming, froze.

His eyes focused entirely on Leon Cascadia.

What.

Is that.

What exactly is that mass of authority wearing the mask of a human?

Originally, beings called Ancient Gods were entities formed when large and small fragments that had fallen from the Creator Main God manifested into form.

Ruum was also that kind of existence.

A fallen fragment that had broken off from the Main God.

Because Ruum was that kind of being, he could see something deeper than others.

That is… a human.

No.

It was something wearing the mask of a human.

The first thing he saw were two cores of authority.

Death.

And life.

And then, based on those two cores of authority, an unknown and incomprehensible authority.

To put it plainly, that was…

An authority possessing a soul and self?

Its very foundation was different.

It was not a soul that possessed authority.

The creature reflected in Ruum’s sight was the opposite.

Authority had obtained a soul and was wearing the disguise of a living being, pretending to be a living creature.

Neither Ruum nor Leon knew that as the Hall within Leon activated, a fragment of a hidden truth had been revealed.

—You… are not human.

“What are you talking about. I’m human.”

—Ridiculous. A mass of authority possessing a soul dares to deceive me!

“You’re talking nonsense. What the hell.”

BOOM!!!

Ruum’s enormous divine body, which had hesitated, shook violently once.

—You are not human. Furthermore, that soul of yours is also false. It is nothing more than an imitation. How can mere authority, which should have neither ego nor will, imitate a living being?

“What nonsense are you spouting. I existed as a human and lived as a human. And now you’re saying this crap.”

—You may deceive everyone else, but you cannot deceive my eyes. Grotesque being. To think that a chaos born from the merging of the authorities of life and death believes its origin is the same as that of humans.

“Damn it, that stings. Since when does an ancient tin can get to call someone grotesque.”

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