Chapter 88: The Divine One’s Descent (2)
Never stop moving.
This battle will be decided in an instant.
Crackle. Crackle. Bzzzt. Boom.
The sound of electricity crackling now resonates like a song. It has a rhythm, colliding against the resistance of reality, taking on random highs and lows, creating a unique music.
But that tempo is simply beyond human capability.
Even if I exert all my power, the resistance of the laws of physics holds me back, making it impossible to reach such intense speed.
However, she in front of me makes it possible.
A slightly taller young girl.
A mass of lightning. In her murky yellow, it is a level she can achieve.
The Divine One’s Descent.
The power she achieved by combining all heroes, reaching the fastest speed.
Pain continues to erupt throughout my body. Knifehand. Stab. Punch. Kick.
Each one isn’t particularly dangerous.
However, if it keeps going on endlessly, it becomes overwhelming violence.
In such a situation, if the opponent is faster than me but each attack can be endured, the proper strategy would be to defend only against vital points and aim for a big blow.
But I didn’t follow that strategy.
Exposing my vital points, I swung the crowbar and reached out towards the premonition.
My hand slices through the air.
An attack comes.
I feel pain.
I thought I could grab it.
I clicked my tongue and repeatedly engaged in such meaningless actions. There are two reasons for this.
One. The damage from each hit isn’t that significant. At most, it leaves superficial cuts on my skin, sending electric shocks that cause brief paralysis.
Even though I could feel the cumulative damage gradually paralyzing my body, I could still endure it hundreds or thousands of times.
What’s important is the second reason.
“There’s no time!”
I need to stop her before she completely falls into corruption.
In truth, there isn’t any sharp method. It’s my first time witnessing a hero falling right in front of my eyes, and it’s also the first time trying to return a fallen hero to her original self.
But.
“Trust me on this.”
I only believed in that.
“It’s very Haram-like! I like how straightforward you are! Keep it up!”
With her encouragement ringing out in the air, I continued to reach out into the void.
Steadfastly without any tricks. Enduring all attacks with my body.
Only to reach her.
Crackle.
I aimed for her chin.
Immediately raising my head, I thrust it in.
My left hand.
A brief sting, a flash passing right by me.
Her hand aimed at my chin misses, and my knifehand grazes her chin.
It was half a miss but still the effective strike in this battle.
Under normal circumstances, the speed at which I retaliated would have been impossible. Perhaps it’s because the Thunder God misjudged the situation.
No matter how much of a vital point I attacked, I wouldn’t fall, so did the Divine One become hasty? This attack penetrated too deep.
I should be glad. But.
“Not like you at all, Thunder God.”
Wiping the blood off my hand, I opened my mouth.
“Weren’t you the type to gradually pile up damage? Why did you suddenly take a gamble?”
It was clearly dangerous just now. A swift strike striking my chin. If I had lost consciousness even for a moment, the Thunder God would have scorched all my nerves.
The blood that fell from my swung hand shone and disappeared into the sunlight.
Crackle.
Again. Close range. This time, from behind.
I swiftly moved my fingers to rotate the crowbar, piercing between my ribs.
A short sting felt once more.
It’s clear. For some reason, the Thunder God has abandoned her original style, aiming for my vital points. This time, it’s probably the back of my neck.
“This is the second time, Thunder God.”
So take the punches.
It hasn’t even been a few dozen seconds since the corruption began. Now would be the time.
“Stay quiet…!”
As I turned my head in surprise at the sudden voice, she appeared.
Her form was gradually being consumed by black from the yellow lightning.
With both hands covering her ears, she was crying out.
“Don’t… listen to me…!”
“Thunder God?”
Something feels off. I thought she was talking to me, but that response seems like she’s having a conversation with someone else.
“Such power isn’t needed!”
Crackle.
A massive discharge.
Evading the widely spreading electrical field,
I leaped back, continuing to keep my eyes on her.
After a brief silence,
the darkened lightning returned back to yellow. As if fighting for control.
Was this a struggle not to fall into corruption?
Somehow, to fight as herself.
“Thanks for waiting.”
She resumed her stance again, as if nothing had happened, with a bright expression.
With long gashes on her abdomen and chin, sweat pouring down her face.
In response, I gripped the crowbar tightly and charged forward.
“Now, I won’t defend myself.”
Before she becomes something other than herself, everything must come to an end.
“You too, come at me with all your power, Divine One.”
“Now, that’s more like it!”
Now, it’s just a simple brawl.
Crackle, Boom.
Overwhelming power.
Overwhelming speed collided.
The clash of two beings at the peak of physical strength. The shockwave created blew everything away around us.
Above my head!
A crater formed, and swinging the crowbar overhead, I swung down.
Spit. Crack.
There was a brief sting, but my arm was also struck.
Damn it. I should have inflicted a wound here. The ground is really unstable.
The ground had been softer than expected. Because of that, I got suspended in the air and couldn’t regain my posture, becoming prey to the Divine One. My chin. My solar plexus. My eyes. My nape. My weight. My knees. My spine. The spaces between my ribs.
Every location that could be considered a vital point was struck.
Consciousness flickered, but as I declared, I abandoned all defense and swept the area with the crowbar.
For a moment, my consciousness would fade away, and the scenery would change.
The cliff disappeared, replaced instead by a beautiful rock at the beach.
Dust and enormous stones filled the sky, obscuring my vision.
The sandy beach vanished from my sight, and before I knew it, I was standing in a plain. Was I flung away?
As I opened and closed my eyes, it was already another place. How many times have I fainted?
It doesn’t matter.
I will never fall.
Crackle. There she was.
Her appearance, bloodied and broken, now in front of me.
Did the shockwave make her speed slow down? It seemed only a little slower, but that was enough.
At that moment, I also opened my eyes to reality and saw her coming into a position where I could swing the crowbar at her.
I observed the final form of her body and movements.
A brief flicker of her pupils.
A change in her center of gravity.
With all that information, I was sure she was coming to my right.
I swung the crowbar.
Crackle.
There was no sting.
“It’s a trap. Getting hit again, Haram.”
A voice came from behind me.
Crackle.
The electric mass shaped like her exploded. A trap I encountered during the battle. It amplified exponentially, crashing into my body, and the excessive current burned my nerves, paralyzing me.
Even amidst such pain, my consciousness didn’t cut off, and my senses remained active. How could that be?
My convulsing muscles forced my head up, and amidst the lifted view, I saw it.
A massive spear of lightning.
Returning to her true form, she held her ultimate move in her right hand.
The yellow and black lightning blended beautifully, shimmering with strange patterns.
Divine Spear.
Compressing all power into a small lightning bolt for a descending S-Rank technique.
It was a technique I should evade, but my entire body paralyzed, I had no way to avoid it.
Her right hand swung.
No sound came.
All there was was a momentary flash.
And endlessly continuing pain.
Torched nerves sent the final agony continuously to my brain, and the pain that was conveyed from the vanished nerves kept coming back again and again.
The continuous pain in my robust body.
Within that, I gritted my teeth and endured, pursuing her figure.
She began to fly towards me, intending to finish me off with what little strength she had left and using the Divine One’s Descent.
Undoubtedly. Everything will end.
I will lose, and she will broadcast my plans to the world.
Amidst the dazzling flash and the thunderous boom ringing in my ears.
A strange sound reverberated.
The sound of flesh connecting with flesh.
“How…?”
The sound of my right hand meeting her neck.
Yes. Originally, I would have lost.
If it was me from earlier.
“I no longer need nerves to move my body.”
Whether my flesh was burning, my nerves shattered, my brain blown apart, it held no relevance.
Because I exist here.
It was you, the Divine One, who fell into the trap.
“Let’s finish this.
A punch, slow but filled with all my power, raced toward her abdomen.
Black particles of lightning from her surged towards me, as if attracted to the stronger side.
Zhrrr.
A strange sound echoed as a black glove formed on my left hand.
It wasn’t the original gauntlet but a thin glove that wrapped around my skin and climbed up from my hand to my elbow, resembling something from a dance.
Boom.
The impact was beyond that of a gauntlet.
Despite her being in the Divine One’s Descent state, which normally disregards physical damage, her waist bent, and the residual force spread backward, tearing through the rear area.
The long, extended upheaval of ground.
But that hardly mattered.
What was important was the black sphere.
My gaze was fixed on her mouth.
Gulp.
Could it be that my sincerity reached her?
A black sphere escaped from her mouth. Although it was covered in saliva, the fact that it had fallen out was fortunate.
“It seems a little smaller, but it should be fine.”
Thud.
I grabbed the Divine One’s neck as I landed on the ground, tossing her aside and stomping on her fallen abdomen as I spoke.
“Women… are rough to handle…”
“It’s the last question, Thunder God.”
As the victor, I began to declare judgment.
“Let’s quietly go together. I can’t communicate with the outside, but aside from that, I’ll make sure you lack nothing. You can talk as much as you want, and I’ll try to visit as often as possible. Monsters can be quite entertaining once you get to know them. You’ll be alright.”
Why was it that, as the victor, I felt as if I was begging?
I looked down at her, whose entire body was broken and dying.
Why was it, even after pulling out the black sphere, her body was gradually turning black?
I thought the pain would be extreme.
But contrary to my expectations, she grinned and opened her mouth.
“No way. I’ll struggle as much as I can. Even if I get captured, I’ll burn the monsters, and if there’s even a small gap, I’ll cut off parts of my body and escape, exposing this incident.”
Even in this situation, she fearlessly spoke to me, her insides crushed beneath my foot.
Her breath. Her will. Her movements resonate through my feet.
The sensation I once felt, skin touching skin.
Rising emotions. Hiding in the dark, I vomited out my feelings.
“You too. Whether to say I was wrong. We. I was wrong.”
Who said that?
No one spoke like that.
But I couldn’t bear it without spitting it out. Because she had shared the most emotions with me.
Perhaps, this might be the last time. The time that could stop my rampage.
My last story.
She reached out her hand towards me.
It was apparently an act of clear hostility, but I watched it unfold.
Her electrically charged hands touched my cheeks. Tingling lightning flowed across my face.
Why did it feel like that lightning was flowing down into my eyes?
“Do not stop, Haram. If you think you’re right, go all the way. That’s your strength. Who knows? Maybe you were right.”
She didn’t stop me. She pushed me. Told me to go all the way.
Her smile was blinding. Just like the time I saw her under the sunlight a while ago.
“Then, together…”
“Sorry, I can’t do that. I also don’t want to give in, but I can’t accompany you.”
I didn’t need to hear the rest. Knowing her, I could sense that she couldn’t bear my actions.
“Even now, I can hear the voice. Telling us to follow. I had vowed like that, but I couldn’t hold on for long.”
She dropped her palm from my cheek and smiled at me.
With both hands stretched towards the sky.
Was it insufficient to have pulled out the sphere?
Did everything end the moment she swallowed it? Or is it the voice she spoke of that’s the issue?
If I interrogated her now, I could uncover more truths. Surely, there are things at the end of the story, and the voices she speaks of.
But.
“So, end it for me.”
I can’t do that. I can’t defile her ending.
Does she not wish for an end either?
That’s why I—
“I’m sorry.”
And then.
“Maybe, I think I liked you.”
The words I had never uttered, the words I couldn’t say, finally came to light towards her.
I had been loved. I swung the crowbar towards the woman I loved.
The forceful, red lump of metal poured down upon her head.
I see her face.
Her face, smiling and looking at me until the very last moment.
This is my sin.
Choosing justice over a person is a crime.
“I’m sorry.”
Her voice.
Thud.
The sound of my head cracking overlaps.
This is my sin.
A single drop spilled from my eyes.
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