A pure-white horse cut across the pitch-black sea.
The light moved so quickly it became a single line, and at a glance, it even looked sacred.
Needless to say, it was the Phantom Steed, and Hio mounted upon it.
Common sense said that no matter how fast the Phantom Steed was, and no matter how abundant Hio’s mana might be, purifying every place in the world alone was impossible.
His divine power and stamina had clear limits, meaning he had no choice but to prioritize the major cities where the greatest crowds were gathered.
He had expected to be exposed to that many people, and for countless rumors to attach themselves to him, but……
「A faith begins to stir.」
「Authority - ‘???’ accepts divinity.」
「Authority - ‘???’ begins to understand the user.」
This was completely unexpected.
The Authority was reacting?
A faith was stirring?
What on earth was going to happen now?
“…Sigh. At times like this, I should at least listen to Purnell’s nonsense.”
It probably would not have helped much anyway, but when he kept listening to that nonsense, a decent idea would sometimes come to him.
They said even dog shit was nowhere to be found when you needed it for medicine.
“Let’s just hurry.”
He pushed the messages aside and fixed his gaze ahead once more.
Land was beginning to come into view in the distance.
The abyss spreading over the land, and the explosions.
He could faintly begin to sense the resignation, despair, and anger of the people.
“This place is… pretty serious.”
He had arrived late because he had made the rounds of the major cities near Korea first, but the situation seemed worse than he had expected.
He had thought it would be somewhat all right since Antiphus was here.
“Let’s go faster.”
Receiving Hio’s will, the Phantom Steed increased its speed even further.
In the place they flew toward like a beam of light, a massive scream was spreading high into the sky.
* * *
- Kweeeeeek!
For this 70th floor, they had estimated that the monsters were at least 1.5 times stronger than those on the previous 69th floor.
They could not measure the concentration of Abyss energy, but it too had become far denser than on the previous floor.
The hypothesis that the difficulty spiked sharply every ten floors had proven correct.
Well, even so, they had thought they would be able to stop the immediate attack.
Information about Abyss energy had been released, yes.
Deaths caused by it were slowly beginning to appear, yes.
But they had believed they could stop the immediate assault of the 70th-floor monsters.
After all, the one protecting this city was Antiphus Praman.
And even the first Awakened who followed him numbered in the dozens.
- Kweeek!
At first, things did go as expected.
The abyss spewed out through the Gate, and pig-headed monsters poured out one after another, but the Awakened surrounding the entrance were strong.
Their abilities were varied, and they had no small amount of experience.
Among them, the overwhelming one was, of course, Antiphus.
A monster who could do the work of dozens of Awakened all by himself.
There was nothing they could do about the Abyss energy spreading out.
Still, they thought they could at least stop the Abyss monsters that were the most urgent threat.
Everyone had thought so.
Until the real monster burst out.
- Kweeeeeek!
When the Abyss energy bloomed thickly enough to darken the surroundings, the thing that emerged was the creature presumed to be the floor’s boss monster.
And it just so happened to appear where Antiphus was.
A body twice as large as the other monsters.
Strength twice as great, and speed so fast it was unreasonable.
Antiphus judged quickly.
“Fall back!”
It was a decision possible because he had experience facing monsters whose strength, speed, and durability far exceeded imagination.
Creatures like this had to be avoided rather than met blade to blade, and dealt with from long range.
While maintaining a precarious line, close enough to be caught and yet not quite.
The encirclement would loosen a little, but it could not be helped.
“Daimon! Rachel! Prepare……”
But despairingly, the creature was not alone.
Something so small it could not be seen unless one looked closely was clinging to its shoulder.
At the time, however, no one, including Antiphus, realized its existence.
And that was the worst cause of the situation deteriorating to this point.
“……!”
The movements of every Awakened who had been about to retreat stopped dead.
It was not of their own will.
Those in the air stopped as they were, suspended in empty space.
Those who had been turning their bodies froze in that very posture.
As if time itself had been stopped, everyone froze like that.
It was truly a bizarre phenomenon.
The moment of hesitation lasted roughly five seconds.
But that much time was long enough for dozens of Awakened to be killed and then some.
Crunch—
The heads of the Awakened closest to the boss monster burst apart.
The creature’s swinging arm had smashed through a dozen Awakened in an instant.
- Kweeeeeek!
The aberration roared in victory, and the Awakened could not hide their confusion.
They did not even know by what power their bodies had been stopped.
The terror that the fountain of crimson blood might be them next.
It was enough to scatter their formation and crack their hearts.
Their bodies stopped abruptly, without any warning.
It did not happen often, but that only made it all the more terrifying.
They did not know when, or in what situation, they might stop.
If they froze for even an instant while attacking, defending, or retreating, they would be caught in the aberration’s two arms and ripped in half.
- Kweeek!
The formation collapsed all at once, and their elite forces died at an even faster rate.
“Don’t panic! Keep calm and widen the distance!”
Antiphus shouted until his throat felt as if it would burst, but even he did not know exactly what to do.
Then, for now, he would pour out skills.
Antiphus’s greatest strength was the countless skills that allowed him to respond to any situation.
The overwhelming power of skills that were high both in quality and quantity.
He was attempting to bring that ability to bear without restraint.
But.
“…Ha.”
If even the skill being fired, even the skill about to activate, stopped, then what exactly was he supposed to do?
- Kweeeeeek!
No answer could be seen.
Crunch—!
After being pushed back and back, before they knew it, they were in the middle of the city.
Kwaaaaang—!
While Antiphus and the Rankers who followed him were being toyed with by the boss monster, the city was being destroyed by the other monsters.
When he came to his senses and looked around, artillery fire was already ringing out everywhere, and between it all, screams echoed miserably.
Buildings were burning, and the ground shook without pause as if an earthquake had struck.
In the meantime, the Abyss energy was spreading thickly in every direction, gradually erasing their sight.
It was the end.
Kwaaaaang—!
It was, without a doubt, the sight and scene of annihilation.
The first ten thousand Rankers ever born would not be born again.
The first Awakened lost here could never be replenished.
Not ever again.
Starting from here, every other major city would collapse.
“…Is this the end?”
The aberrations rampaged.
People screamed as they fled, and the aberrations chased them down, killed them, and devoured them greedily.
Blood spurted into the air and fell like rain.
- Kweeeeeek!
The aberration twice as large as the other monsters approached with heavy thuds.
The grotesque little creature clinging to its shoulder, the one that stopped time, was still there too.
A few Rankers who had been with Antiphus from the beginning still remained, but they too merely looked back and forth between Antiphus and the boss monster.
Because they had no solution.
Because there was nothing they could do before that ability which stopped all power.
Of course, Antiphus was no different.
“It’s because of me.”
When people could see no hope at all, they gave up.
After giving up, they resented. They searched for an object of resentment.
Most people turned that resentment outward, but some people searched for the cause within themselves.
“Should it not have been me? Was it greed?”
And such people, more often than not, had their hearts collapse.
「A change in the user has been detected.」
「Trait - ‘Ruler’ penalty activates.」
「Skill - ‘Ice Sea (氷海)’ has fallen in grade to ‘Mid-Rank.’」
He pushed the messages that appeared aside.
He did not even think of pulling together his crumbling heart.
What meaning would there be in it?
“Would it have been different if the Supreme Heavenly Demon were alive? Would he have been different?”
A sudden curiosity rose within him.
Everything was over now, but would it have been different if it were him?
Where had he fallen short? What had he lacked?
Judging by the current situation, even the Supreme Heavenly Demon would have had no solution.
What was anyone supposed to do against a monster beyond common sense that could even stop top-rank skills?
Even so, he was curious.
What it would have been like if he had been alive.
- Kweeeeeek!
The boss monster kicked off the ground and shot forward.
The Rankers and Antiphus naturally tried to respond with skills, but their bodies stopped at exactly the right moment.
Skills stopped. In a space that had been frozen, only the aberration moved.
Now, it truly was the end.
That was what he thought.
“…Antiphus?”
When a familiar voice reached his ears.
And then.
“That’s quite a useful aberration.”
When the body of the charging aberration stopped dead in midair.
* * *
“Now this makes sense.”
Hio slowly descended while riding the Phantom Steed.
Beneath his feet, the gigantic aberration was frozen in midair.
Of course, that thing was probably fairly strong too, but aberrations of that level had been common enough to trip over at the End of the World.
The real one was not that creature, but the small aberration hanging from its shoulder.
That was the true aberration capable of manipulating the abyss.
The instant he realized that, he used Reverse Junction to stop it in place.
“That’s quite a useful aberration.”
Not bad.
At this level, even at the End of the World, it would belong to the category of those fairly skilled at handling the abyss.
Of course, judging by the fact that it was parasitizing another aberration, its physical abilities were likely insignificant.
In that case, this was easy.
At their level, they could not defend against Hio’s Reverse Junction when he used it in earnest.
「Skill - ‘Wind Blade’ activates.」
A blade of wind appeared.
The green giant holding it slashed diagonally down at the aberration’s neck.
「Skill - ‘Wind Blade’ activates.」
Another giant that appeared behind it completely blew away the aberration’s shoulder.
What scattered in the path the wind had cut through were red marigolds.
That was the end.
Stopping the aberration and using two Wind Blades imbued with intent was enough.
「Skill - ‘Heavenly Realm (天上)’ activates.」
Having dealt with the one that seemed the most dangerous, he soared into the sky once more and spread the Heavenly Realm.
The abyss began to vanish.
「Skill - ‘Thunder Emperor (雷帝)’ activates.」
Heavenly punishment struck down.
「Skill - ‘Blue Flame (靑炎)’ activates.」
Flames took control.
With that, the city was purified.
It happened in an instant.
The overwhelming splendor left them no time to come to their senses; they could only be bewitched by it.
It must have felt as if they had been pulled up from the pit of hell to above the heavens in only a few minutes.
That was why everyone bent their necks back and looked up at him.
And at that moment.
As Hio, high in the sky, scattered the Heavenly Realm and basked in its warmth, new messages came to him.
“What… is this?”
「All conditions for unlocking the Authority have been met.」
「Authority - ‘???’ perfectly understands the user.」
「The Authority blooms.」
「Authority - ‘Patience of Splendor’ has been acquired.」
「Divine Authority is engraved.」
「Divine rank has been acquired.」
「The rank of the soul and the stats of the body rise dramatically.」
「Divinity Points have been acquired.」
「The Divinity Point Shop has been unlocked.」
「Divinity Points can be acquired in varying amounts depending on the degree of faith in ‘Hio Pavlenko’ or the ‘Supreme Heavenly Demon.’」
「The New Heavenly Demon Cult (天摩新敎) rises in the Republic of Korea.」