-Complete Annihilation, and a New World
Even amid horrific agony, Samir did not perish easily.
Even as he was devoured by countless demons and monsters he had summoned from the demon realm, even as black energy seeped into his veins and his body collapsed from within, Samir endured still.
Even as the earthquakes and merciless destruction he had wrought upon this land to claim it now occurred within him, even as bones crumbled, flesh tore, and blood surged backward, Samir did not give up on himself in the end.
'Stubborn bastard. To think he'd endure pain that would be better ended by death. What more could he want to do?'
From me, an endless white light stretched out. Filling the void entirely, it enveloped Samir and gradually eroded him.
And yet, as if having learned to tear his gaze away from the pain, if only for a moment, Samir asked me this question.
"You, who the hell are you? You're Odin. You're not Bruno. Then how can you produce that light? You're not even a holy mage?"
Only now had he taken note of the white light. Samir still had enough sanity left to associate the white light with Bruno.
But he refused to acknowledge that an Archmage surpassing a holy mage stood before him.
"I am an Archmage. Do you still not understand? The light comes from me."
"Don't make me laugh! That can't be! An Archmage surpassing me, a black mage, can never exist!"
"Now, perish."
"Uaaaaaaaaah!!!!!!!"
Samir's screams of agony grew louder still until they finally erupted into a roar of resentment vast enough to fill the void.
He gathered and mixed all the pain and torment he was currently experiencing, giving birth to a cloud of black energy.
That darkness was enough to obscure my light for a moment.
Pouring all his strength into denial and rage toward me, Samir gathered every last drop of mana remaining to him and attempted spatial magic.
He tried to overturn space, to shatter it, to compress it into a single point and annihilate it.
Even though he was in the same space as I, he fervently desired my death, as if he did not care if he perished alongside me.
But the black energy could never overcome the white light. The spells Samir unleashed perished before they could even properly form.
Black stains drew brief smudges in the void before vanishing.
"I can't... die... alone...."
Samir's face, grotesquely distorted down to every last cell, glared at me with wide, bulging eyes.
He was speaking through gritted teeth, struggling with every word.
What? Was Samir attempting a new spell?
The next moment, scenes whipped past before my eyes.
At first, I thought they were scenes from my own inner landscape that Samir was projecting through mental magic. So I tried to avoid them, refusing to be sucked in.
But in one of the fleeting scenes, I saw Gil and Ren. They were fighting Leviathan.
'A scene from reality?'
Only then did I realize that these were external scenes being shown through detection magic. Reality was seeping in through the detection lines I had connected.
No. It wasn't merely information conveyed by detection magic. Samir was reverse-engineering my detection magic to channel his own mana outward, thereby affecting external reality.
"Stop!"
I increased the density of the white light being directed at Samir even further. I had to completely seal him off so that nothing could escape.
But his magical skill, fueled by his final obsession, was no trivial matter. He was strangling my detection magic with all his might.
Even as I fought this battle of light and darkness, I couldn't help but have my gaze stolen by the scenes.
Ren and Gil were floating in the air across from Leviathan.
The tremendous power radiating from Ren felt almost tangible. It was truly incredible. An enormous magic was pouring down on Leviathan, enough to dent the surrounding space.
The field of mana Gil had created was supplying Ren with endless power.
'Yes, you're doing well.'
Next, Yu Jaeseon came into view.
Yu Jaeseon and the Administration Bureau mages were fighting with all their might against the Goat Demons that filled Gangnam-daero pitch-black.
Beyond them was Cheon Danbi. And the elves and dwarves too.
They extended their life force in every direction, driving out the black energy. The energy of purification gradually enveloped the area.
'This side is fine too.'
Next, the Hall Mages defending Yeouido. Under Han Dosu's command, they were faithfully fulfilling their roles. It was precarious, but they looked alright.
Next was the Gwanghwamun area. This side was grave. It was already a landscape of a calamitous city filled with black energy.
Black roots, shaped like aquatic plants, covered the streets, swaying to and fro.
'What is that?'
I had never seen it before. It seemed to be a creature that had just emerged from the demon realm.
I could see Thor and his team struggling. Black roots were tangled around Thor's hammer. He was struggling to cut them free.
Balder was entirely bound by that thing like a water ghost, writhing in struggle.
A sense of urgency came over me.
'No! I have to hurry...!'
In that instant, the detection lines thrashed like mad. The black energy of Samir riding upon them turned toward me like a starving wolf.
He had aimed for the gap. The gap in my heart.
The spatial magic Samir had crafted with his dying effort tried to sever the space where I stood from where he stood. He was trying to create a void within the void. He had attempted to copy my magic in that brief time.
"Odin! Die! Disappear!"
"Not a chance!"
Quickly invoking purification to neutralize Samir's spatial magic, I honed the white light into a blade and sent it flying toward him.
Samir's body split in half. His two divided halves wandered separate spaces.
But Samir's existence as a collective consciousness within the void did not perish. His body was reborn.
I sent another blade of white light at Samir. The blade of light contained the suffering of all ever-changing parallel worlds, and once again Samir's body was severed with a cleaving sound.
It was the pain of memory, the pain of possibility, the pain of extremes. It was an event of the mirror dimension, where all the evils Samir had committed returned to slice and cut him.
And so I sent the blades of light flying again and again.
"Uaaaaack!! Stop! Stop!!! I cannot... die like this!"
Samir's shriek shook the detection lines once more.
Scenes from two places began unfolding simultaneously in my vision.
The sight of Samir's limbs being severed.
The sight of Balder collapsed on the streets of Gwanghwamun.
The sight of Samir's torso splitting in half.
The sight of Thor's hammer raised high before striking the ground.
The sight of Samir's neck being severed with a slicing sound.
The sight of Heimdall's flames burning the black roots.
The sight of Samir's head shattering into countless pieces.
The sight of Heimdall shaking Balder's corpse and wailing.
The sight of Samir being sliced down to every single cell.
The sight of Thor clutching Balder's corpse and Heimdall together, screaming in grief.
'No...! To think Balder would die....'
I screamed silently. I screamed without tears. Without stopping, I continued sending blades of light at Samir.
That was the only thing I had to do. I had to pour all my rage onto Samir. I had to put an end to all of this.
Now there was not a trace of Samir's body left. And yet, I saw it.
The sight of Samir's heart splitting and the blood inside scattering.
Balder did not move.
Finally, I saw Samir's consciousness, his very existence being torn to shreds.
To think Balder would die. That gentle, bright soul perishing.
Grief shook my entire body. It felt as though a part of my own flesh had been cut away.
I swallowed my grief and surveyed Samir's traces. He could no longer scream or scheme.
Samir had perished. Samir was dead.
Even so, I did not let my guard down. Not just his body, not just his existence, but even his resentment had to disappear completely from this world.
I, who had paused for a moment, drew up all the mana within me. Slowly, I shaped mana waves into white light.
"Now go. Never return."
I uttered in a low voice and activated extreme spatial magic. Space divided into tens of thousands of pieces as it scattered blades of white light.
In that instant, Samir's resentment moved. It desperately tried to resist.
He struggled to pull up the black energy that had not yet completely perished from the dark depths of consciousness.
A single black dot. The final trace. A mass of resentment.
But it could not escape the extreme spatial magic.
I would never let it escape. Even if it hid inside atoms, I would find the deepest corner of the dimension tangled within and sever it.
I raised both arms high and then struck down as if lashing tens of thousands of spaces.
Blades of white light poured down like a waterfall, rippling through the void.
Swhaaaaaaa!!!
Blades of light entered every one of the countless divided spaces. Boundaries collapsed and dimensions writhed.
Finally, the black energy was completely annihilated.
Samir too, his consciousness and resentment, and the landscapes created by his evil mindscape all perished.
I looked down upon the void. It was empty. Only white light filled it.
'It's over. Samir has been completely annihilated. It's really over.'
At that moment, cheers suddenly flooded my ears like a tsunami.
It was the sound of external reality crossing over through the detection lines.
I turned my gaze outward. Scenes from many places entered my vision at once.
Leviathan had disappeared. The Goat Demons had disappeared. The black energy had vanished without a trace.
When the spatial magic that formed and concealed the Magic Tower disappeared, everything within collapsed and crumbled down.
The mages in the streets were cheering. Han Dosu and the Hall Mages, Yu Jaeseon and the Administration Bureau mages cheered wildly.
Gil and Ren, Cheon Danbi and the elves and dwarves, and even Thor and Heimdall cheered with tears streaming down.
Everyone rejoiced at having repelled the calamity.
The people's cheers shook the void. They shook me.
'Now I must leave this place. I must go to my people.'
I emerged from the void, sealing it forever. Though nothing remained, even that void had to be completely annihilated.
When I came out, bright sunlight illuminated the streets. It was dazzling.
The scenery immediately before my eyes was like a wasteland. Collapsed buildings, destroyed roads, cars tangled haphazardly, and corpses strewn about here and there.
Yet, surprisingly, a new world was already opening in the cracks of that devastation.
Sprouts were budding and grass was growing over the ruined streets.
'Is this... because of the white light I radiated?'
The space of the void had been created in a dimension beyond these streets, but the white light I had radiated had extended past the limits of space.
The green grew rapidly. Grass and trees poked their heads out between the ruins unexpectedly. Lush vitality surged all around.
Watching quietly, my chest swelled with pride. My infinite magical ability was unfolding into green, heralding a new world.
Only now did victory feel real.
Just then, a dragon shining with golden light flew from the distant sky.
"Archmage! It's over! It's all over!"
Gil shouted from midair.
Ren lightly landed on the ground, immediately transformed into her true form, and approached me.
"Archmage!"
"We won! We won!"
The two became one mass as they rushed at me. But it wasn't just those two.
"Odin! You finished Samir off for good, right? You did well. You really worked hard. Thank you. Thank you so much!"
Cheon Danbi, who had run up from behind before I knew it, shouted as she hugged me tight.
I stretched out my arms and embraced them all. I didn't do this alone. I did it together with these people.
"My people... I'm glad you're safe. Thank you so much for surviving."
I felt truly, deeply grateful.
"You too, Archmage."
"It's really a relief."
"You all really worked hard. But what's with all this green? Did Odin do this? Is a sacred forest going to grow here too?"
"Indeed. Thanks to our Archmage, Seoul has gained one more sacred forest."
"The demons won't be able to come near now. Don't even think about appearing again!"
Hand in hand, we looked around in every direction.
We saw a great tree newly growing where the Magic Tower had stood, and groves of grass sprouting through the cracks in the split roads. My heart fluttered naturally at the dazzling green.
It was joy. Everything that had oppressed me was gone.
I was sincerely happy that I had ended one world and opened a new one.
"Waaaah! It's the hero Odin!"
"Odin is victorious!"
"He finished off the black mages!"
"The calamity is gone! Odin won!"
Gradually, cheers surged from all around like the sound of waves.
People were gathering. Mages, humans, elves and dwarves, zombies poured endlessly into the streets, cheering and cheering again.
Perhaps a hero was no longer needed now, but I resolved to fulfill the remaining role I had.
Using kinetic magic to levitate, I looked down at the surging crowd and spoke.
"We have won! We have repelled all the black mages and the calamity. Everyone, please rejoice in your victory to your heart's content!"
Once again, thunderous cheers poured forth.
As green sprouted unexpectedly among the cheering people, they burst into laughter.
It was uncontrollable laughter of joy. It was the joy signaling the beginning of a new world.
Now, from here, a new beginning once more. Another life begins.
- The End -