[…….]
It was astonishing.
The other me, who had realized his potential as a human, was incredibly strong.
To be honest, it was admirable.
I couldn’t help but wonder how much effort and struggle he must have endured to gain that kind of power.
It must have been a time of endurance.
Having felt his blade, I understood just how much he had worked for this.
How could one defeat a god?
How could one overcome an opponent who was stronger than themselves?
All that effort, time, and years of struggle were weighing down on me, the one who had attained divinity.
To be frank, I thought, at this rate, I might lose.
Of course, his attacks didn’t work on me anymore.
But I didn’t believe that the years he’d spent training only amounted to this.
I watched him quietly.
A new fighting spirit was continually springing forth from him.
The power of that fighting spirit was so strong that the surrounding space warped and distorted.
Then, I would give it my all as well.
Every moment, every second.
I had to find a way to become stronger.
I swung my tail.
An attack imbued with tremendous mass was launched towards the Sword Hero.
“…….”
The hero raised his sword.
No longer would such foolish attacks work on him.
His sword twisted in an unusual manner.
In that instant, an infinite space overlapped between his sword and my tail.
It was an overwhelming overlap of space.
At least hundreds of thousands of dimensions stacked up, creating an enormous distance between me and him.
No matter how destructive my tail was, it was impossible to break through the hundreds of thousands of spaces in one go.
My tail seemed to hang in the air, frozen in time.
But the reality was different.
My tail broke through dozens and hundreds of spaces in an instant, moving faster than the speed of sound.
As it approached him,
Lee Ji-hoon recited his mantra once more.
Spatial Slash.
Third Form.
——Multiplicity.
Once again, he swung his sword at the numerous overlapping spaces.
What looked like an ordinary horizontal and vertical slash,
Yet, the moment that cross-shaped strike was aimed at the countless stacked spaces,
——Chachachacha-ching!
The interconnected spaces amplified the power of his strike.
It broke through one space.
That space accelerated his strike.
It broke through another space.
That space added mass to his strike.
Yet another space was crossed.
That space infused his strike with sharpness, malice, divinity, rage, hatred, longing, and desire.
Countless properties,
Countless spaces,
Intersected and overlapped, empowering his ordinary strike.
Thus, his blow transcended beyond the multitude of spaces, surpassing even light speed.
——Swaaa-sh!
A chilling sound echoed.
My tail, which should have been impervious to any attack, was cleanly sliced off in an instant.
It was an overwhelming slash.
If I hadn’t twisted my body at the last moment, I would have been cleaved in two.
His strike,
No longer bound by the mass of matter.
Whatever density and hardness it had,
His strike could slice through anything.
It was the first time my tail had been severed.
As a result, I was taken aback, but quickly composed myself for the next move.
The tip of my severed tail,
Instantly whisked away into nothingness.
——Fsssssh….
Ash-gray smoke dissipated.
Just when the Sword Hero tried to ignore it,
“……?!”
Suddenly, power drained from his legs.
——Kaaang!
With quick thinking,
Lee Ji-hoon plunged his sword into the ground to keep himself from collapsing, covering his mouth and nose with his sleeve, while furrowing his brow.
‘…Is it poison?’
No scent.
No sign of anything unusual.
No foreshadowing whatsoever.
It was truly a formless toxicity.
In that moment, the Sword Hero felt as if his very existence was melting away.
And that wasn’t wrong.
Jörmungandr’s poison, having already dominated the space around him, was mercilessly tearing through his nerves and dissolving him.
With poison like this,
Most gods would perish before even realizing their demise.
But Lee Ji-hoon was different.
“Just poison, huh…”
He mustered strength back into his legs.
Even as the broken nerves screamed and the melting muscles howled in protest, his divinity stubbornly held everything together.
Then, something miraculous happened.
His weakening body suddenly began detoxifying.
First,
The melting nerves ceased.
The poison, which had seeped into his bloodstream, began to dissolve,
And an immunity began to grow against the poison that had relentlessly gnawed at him.
The demon lord,
The magic possessed by the demon lord was much more horrific.
He still remembered.
The horrific memory of the instant the demon lord descended, melting entire planets.
He had fought against such a demon lord.
He had lived a lifetime to slay that very demon lord.
So,
“…Do you think I’ll fall?!!”
—Kaaang!!
The sword embedded in the ground sliced through the space entirely.
The ground, which supported the fabric of space, was utterly destroyed, contorted, and an endless slash descended upon me, Jörmungandr.
However, it was futile.
A motionless strike void of any finesse was already bouncing off my scales.
[…Remarkable.]
To be honest,
I thought this time, the Sword Hero would die.
With that thought in mind, I unleashed the most dreadful, lethal poison I could muster into the space around us.
I even transformed every drop of blood he had ever shed into this terrible poison, compressing it endlessly, turning it into the most grotesque venom, living only to survive.
Yet, even that poison,
Lee Ji-hoon overcame it.
With merely his human body, no less.
It was admirable.
It was also awe-inspiring.
How long had it been since I felt such emotions?
I felt a rush.
It was astonishing that such a powerful human could even exist.
And at the same time,
A strong sense of competitiveness surged within me.
What on earth did the goddess see?
What did she see to evaluate that even he, Ji-hoon, couldn’t defeat the demon lord?
I was curious.
A curiosity blossomed about what expectations the goddess had placed on me.
I twisted my body.
It was an instinctual action.
But the outcome was different.
His scales resonated, vibrating at a wavelength, and the space interacted with it.
[Is this how it’s done?]
“……!!”
Jörmungandr’s figure vanished.
It wasn’t merely hiding—
In this dimension, I no longer existed.
I had concealed my immense form within another space.
“……As expected.”
Was he really mimicking how I vibrated the fabric of space to hide?
It was astonishing.
Questions overflowed about whether that was even possible.
Yet it was feasible.
Concealing that gigantic form was possible, but only if it were me.
As anticipated,
That being was me.
Chosen by the goddess.
Another me, blessed by the goddess, filled with all her hopes.
“……Why?”
Blood dripped.
Because I bit down so hard in frustration, blood flowed from my clenched jaw.
But,
The intense emotion…
“……Why did it have to be you?”
I had also been chosen.
I, too, had been selected by the goddess and defeated the demon king who threatened this world.
Yet why?
Why?
“……Why were you the one to be chosen?”
That existence, brimming with radiant potential,
Was it not supposed to be me?
Of course, I knew.
I understood that he was another me.
Walking another path, making another choice, and reaching another conclusion.
It was not anyone else but my ‘self’.
But still,
If that were true, if it should have been so,
Then if it was impossible for me to be ‘me’…
“Why didn’t you just leave me out of it?”
If so,
Then I wouldn’t have to endure this pain.
“…….”
I couldn’t protect it.
Not a single soul, not a single thing.
I couldn’t preserve it.
——Run away, Ji-hoon…!
——I believe in you. So, when you slay the demon king…
——I love you, I cherish you.
Memories surfaced.
“…….”
The timelines when he faced defeat.
Every moment spent with her.
All those instances came rushing back, then faded away.
——Gwaaaaak!
Blood flowed from my tightly clenched hand gripping the sword.
“Why, why, why……!!!”
Am I truly incapable of protecting anything?
Failures piled up.
The first time I failed was horrific.
For some reason, I returned to the distant past,
And I spent decades like an empty shell, completely dazed.
After that,
I waited, reborn, to meet her again.
I swung my sword.
I killed that loathsome demon king.
And so, I thought everything had come to an end.
I believed that I had protected this world.
That I had saved her.
But it wasn’t the case.
That wretched world always introduced new monsters time and time again.
And they would destroy everything I held dear, without a care.
It was countless times.
During all those countless opportunities, I had been unable to protect a single thing.
And thus, I rationalized my situation.
Protecting this world was beyond my capability.
I had to rationalize.
I had to justify myself to maintain my sanity.
But……
What are you?
How come in your eyes,
Despair goes unnoticed?
“…I must prove it.”
The years that have passed.
The time I have crossed.
Everything I have lost.
I must prove that it was all not in vain.
——I love you, Ji-hoon.
Joy blossoms within me.
“Aah….”
Yes, that’s how it was.
Nothing else was needed.
As long as I could protect her.
Even if it meant sacrificing myself, I was willing to do so.
In this very moment,
The Sword Hero crossed another wall.
He no longer looked at the present.
Instead, he saw either a far-off or a deeply close future.
Facing a new world, he swung his sword, carrying all those mysteries and delight.
Spatial Slash.
Fourth Form,
Fifth Form.
——Annihilation.
——Void.
The two forms of attack swung into the empty space.
——And then.
As the space returned to nothingness,
[……?!]
A giant snake, split in half, emerged before me.
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