He rested as much as possible during the cooldown of Dimensional Shift.
He could have flown straight to the empire, but rather than that, it was to recover his mana and stamina in order to use Dimensional Shift to the outside world.
Compared to the infinite Night of Aberrations he had experienced at the end of the world, he was in a decent state, but hadn’t he been fighting without rest for quite a long time?
Though the realm of his body and soul had risen greatly through enlightenment, beginning with the Night of Aberrations, he had met Kreutzwald.
He evolved through Dimensional Shift and immediately returned to the continent for another round, so.
Rest had indeed been necessary.
Of course, the moment of rest was short, and now the time to truly go had come.
There was no need for lengthy farewells.
After all, he would return again.
Because he had sworn that he would never again be swept away by Kreutzwald and disappear like before.
“Transcendent Skill — ‘Dimensional Shift (次元轉移)’ activates.”
Space splits and a purple line appears.
The dimensional wall, which an ordinary person could not understand even if they gazed upon it, reveals itself.
His body slowly rises.
Wings spread wide.
And soon.
“‘Continent Asia’ — ‘Nation Republic of Korea’ — ‘City Seoul’”
“Dimensional Shift (次元轉移) begins.”
Hio’s figure disappears into that massive dimensional rift.
At the surreal spectacle that was hard to believe even seeing it before their eyes, not only Hamelot but even Claire momentarily lost themselves.
But it was only momentary.
“Haha….”
Before she knew it, Claire began to laugh.
How long had it been since she let out such a laugh?
Only now did it truly feel real.
That her hero had returned.
* * *
“Target ‘Hio Pavlenko’”
“‘Dimensional Shift (次元轉移)’ is complete.”
The shift was instantaneous.
When he came to his senses, chaos was visible beneath his feet.
A carnage of screams and despair.
The abyss covered the city, and beneath it, all manner of gruesome death surged.
There was no time to hesitate.
“Skill — ‘Heaven (天上)’ activates.”
Heaven, drawing up divine power and unfolding it to its maximum width.
The golden touch of a goddess enveloping the entire city.
Light driving back darkness.
At the sudden phenomenon, the noise dies down.
Heaven and the abyss clash, but this is an unreasonable battle from the start.
Repelling darkness is the natural right of light.
If they were equal, the darkness would naturally be covered by the light.
Unless there was a master of the abyss, the abyss could not stand against Heaven.
— Kueeeeeek!
Of course, it was quite a thick abyss, and though they were lesser entities, they were aberrations born from the abyss, so they resisted quite stubbornly.
“Skill — ‘Blue Flame (靑炎)’ activates.”
“Skill — ‘Thunder Emperor (雷帝)’ activates.”
What if the two powers that had been with him the longest revealed themselves at Hio’s sides?
If white lightning and blue flames joined the celestial domain, an ownerless abyss and mere aberrations had no means to endure.
Kwa-boom—!
Kwa-bang—!
Bolts of wrath fell like heavenly punishment upon every corner of the city.
The aberrations couldn’t even react before being struck by lightning, then convulsed by the warm divinity filling their entire bodies and faded away.
Fwack—
The blue flames raged through the city like a river.
Flowing into the deep recesses of every alley.
At Hio’s will, they brought warm heat to humans.
To aberrations, they brought hellfire and a quiet death, covering everything in blue.
Where they passed, red marigolds briefly bloomed then scattered in abundance.
Marigolds of grief, sorrow, and patience.
There was no need to deliberately contain patience, nor was it intended, but Hio’s power was naturally imbued with intent.
Just as a person’s life naturally permeates their speech and body, the fragrance of intent had been applied so naturally.
Thus, in less than a few minutes, the city was engulfed in complete silence.
No one was untouched by the spreading light of Heaven; no one had failed to hear the lightning’s heavenly punishment; no one had not seen the miraculous blue flames.
How could they doubt?
“Skill — ‘Blue Flame (靑炎)’ is deactivated.”
“Skill — ‘Thunder Emperor (雷帝)’ is deactivated.”
Recalling the lightning and drawing the flames back in.
Standing with his back to the majestic light of Heaven, right beneath the goddess’s outstretched hand.
How could anyone harbor different thoughts upon seeing that figure, surveying the ground with fully spread wings?
Fwaaa—
The abyss perishes.
The abyssal energy that had driven deep into hearts and marrow is cleanly washed away.
Even without anyone explaining, they could tell.
The warm light touching them was the touch of a god.
The death that had risen to their chins was receding.
If this is not called a miracle, what should be called a miracle?
How could this be possible if not by a god?
Even those who had lived their whole lives denying gods were helpless this time.
They could not endure without believing.
Because they could not endure this horrific tragedy, this reality, without believing.
“Skill — ‘Heaven (天上)’ is deactivated.”
The light of Heaven gradually fades.
People maintained their silence, simply gazing up at the sky.
Hoping he would leave at least a few words.
Hoping he would grant some revelation on how to act, how to live on from now on.
Contrary to such expectations.
“Ah….”
After glancing around the ground, he hides his traces with fierce wingbeats and vanishes.
Meanwhile, aside from those who simply thought him a god, there were also those who approached the truth more closely.
“Is that… the Supreme Heavenly Demon…?”
The representatives of that being Yun Seol-a and Nam Tae-min.
Of course, even they felt no different.
The more one knew, the more astonished and awed they were.
Yun Seol-a, in her own way.
From the very first moment she met him, past records that seemed erased by someone, the name Lee Hyeon-seung that no one knew.
The sight of him destroying a floating island in the sky, along with the current scene.
If these all connected, all thoughts inevitably converged to one.
Nam Tae-min was the same.
The Supreme Heavenly Demon, Hio Pavlenko, was definitely dead.
Though no one witnessed his death directly, there was more than enough evidence.
If one failed to escape even after the Gate closed, there was no choice but death.
Then what was he seeing now?
Did this mean the Supreme Heavenly Demon had returned from death?
It had become this dire after years of worry and struggle.
Yet to the Supreme Heavenly Demon, it was a matter solvable in mere minutes.
In the end, only one thought arose.
“Is he really… trying to become a god?”
The name of the Supreme Heavenly Demon began to spread thus.
* * *
“It was expected, but it’s the worst, as I thought.”
There was no reply to his muttered words, spoken like a habit.
Because Purnell was not by his side, and Theor had likewise been unsummoned.
“…I need to wrap this up quickly and go find Purnell first.”
When Purnell first entered his body, he had agonized over having to be together even when going to the bathroom, but now he felt so empty it was lonely.
“Anyway, the urgent fire seems to be out for now….”
The immediate urgent fire had been put out for now.
The problem was that the urgent fire wasn’t limited to just one place in Seoul.
Excluding this 70th floor, the accumulated damage during the previous five failures was beyond imagination.
Major cities seemed to be maintaining some degree of combat strength, but it was obvious what a miserable state the other small and medium-sized cities must be in.
Moreover, even a major city would face another serious problem if a 70th-floor Abyss Gate appeared nearby like in Seoul.
From the 70th floor onward, the concentration of the abyss was different, and aberrations rather than abyss monsters appeared.
“Ehew….”
He had only one body, but the problems to solve stretched across the entire world.
“Well, what can you do? I need to move quickly.”
What good would complaining do?
During that time, he needed to move even a little faster and save at least one more person.
“Skill — ‘Summon Phantom Steed’ activates.”
“Trait — ‘Shadow Body (影體)’ activates.”
Hio mounted the Phantom Steed and flew at high speed toward the abyss that was spreading thickly at that very moment.
* * *
Wearing a mask and wrapping his entire body tightly in cloth was useless.
Even if he covered his nose and mouth and tried not to breathe, he had to take in air eventually if he didn’t want to die.
“Huuu-urk!”
At that moment, black energy mercilessly dug into his body.
“Urk! Uu-urk!”
He shoved his fingers down his throat and tried to force himself to vomit, but as if energy that had already entered would come back out.
Already, several people nearby were hovering between life and death.
Those infected by the abyss.
Three people who laughed like madmen seeing hallucinations, repeating laughing and crying, then lost consciousness with a boiling fever.
They were none other than his family.
— Kueek!
The terrible screams and bizarre noises coming from outside grew even closer.
The ground shook as if comparable to a great earthquake, and screams were heard from all directions.
It seemed the defensive line composed of military units and Awakened ones had collapsed.
The sounds of shells exploding and buildings collapsing.
The screams of people crushed under them.
The despair of those being devoured and torn apart by something.
“Ha….”
He felt like he would go mad.
Taking a single breath of the black energy spreading in every direction was revolting.
It was hard to even keep his senses with the noise and shaking building.
All he could do was resent and rage.
Those who knew the truth but concealed it.
Those who revealed it only at the brink of death.
He would have been more at ease if he hadn’t known at all.
If they were going to hide it, they should have hidden it to the end.
If they were going to reveal it, they should have presented a method before revealing it.
Did he have to die feeling even more terrible emotions and despair?
That was all the man could do.
That was all he could manage with death before him.
So he rose and headed toward the window.
Let’s just die quickly.
Rather than suffer for a few more hours, let’s just die.
Rather than being chewed up by monsters or crushed under a building and dying painfully, let’s end it himself.
With that thought, he moved his body and arrived at the window.
And what met the man’s eyes was:
Kwa-bang—!
A bolt of lightning striking down.
Golden divinity spreading upward.
— Kueeeek!
An aberration trembling and fading away.
Darkness retreating.
And some being watching over all of it from above.
“What the hell….”
Without realizing it, the man took out his phone and pressed the camera button.
Before he could even press it a few times, the existence above the sky hid its traces and vanished.
Along with the screams and noise of despair.
* * *
Having rushed about so frantically, his mana and divine power were nearly depleted.
He had thought that after gaining enlightenment and training at the end of the world, his mana wouldn’t run out easily, but that assumption was shattered immediately.
“Where is this…?”
He simply detected the abyss, flew there recklessly, invoked Heaven, cleared out abyss monsters and aberrations.
Repeatedly purified all possible energy then left that spot.
Having visited dozens of cities like that, he couldn’t gauge how much time had passed or where this was.
“China? Taiwan?”
Well, it’s roughly around there, isn’t it?
What mattered was that the world was still vast and there was much to be done.
It seemed it would take quite long, so he needed to distribute his stamina, mana, divine power, etc., well, and therefore immediate rest was absolutely necessary.
As soon as Hio roughly landed on the rooftop of a nameless building, he collapsed and laid spread-eagle.
For rest, wasn’t lying down comfortably the best?
He would have to rest for about 30 minutes then set out again.
He had to rest in the most comfortable posture possible, if only for that time.
“I should read the detailed effects of Dimensional Shift.”
He had been so busy that he hadn’t even read the proper description of the Transcendent Skill until now.
As the first Transcendent Skill standing above the highest-tier skills, he needed to know its detailed effects.
With that thought, he opened his status window.
Then messages poured down in a list.
“The tale of the ‘Supreme Heavenly Demon’ spreads rapidly.”
“The tale of the ‘Savior of Humanity’ spreads rapidly.”
“The tale of ‘God’ spreads rapidly.”
“Many feel divinity in the user’s actions.”
“Signs of faith have been detected.”
“Authority — ‘???’ stirs.”
Some great change was about to occur.