Chapter: 140. You Need to Take Responsibility for Your Own Work.
Was this the feeling when the monster was watching us fight?
With every little movement, yellow flowers bloomed in the sky.
Beautiful flowers, dyeing the violet palette a bright yellow.
Surely, from the monster’s perspective, it could see the splotchy flowers blooming beneath its feet.
Thinking that, I swung my tentacles with a flourish.
Perhaps because it was an unfamiliar arm, it swung off to the side more than I anticipated.
Pffbbt.
Thanks to the dry branches sprouting between the tentacles, I was able to avoid missing my bombardment.
Again, a yellow flower bloomed accompanied by a shockwave.
At least I was grateful for being a martial weapon.
If there were people riding that weapon, I wouldn’t be able to swing it around recklessly like this.
If I had thought carefully, I would have drawn a red accent over the yellow flowers.
Once more, a black pillar pierced the sky, knocking away the raining explosives.
This continued, not a single missile.
Not a single bomb.
Only pounding my body. I didn’t drop it on Nanjido.
Of course, there was a price.
[With that kind of power.]
[This is a power granted to kill.]
The will clinging to the power of the Otherworld that I’m using now whispers to me.
Though it doesn’t dominate my body like before, it attempts to seduce me.
Crouching my body in the dark slime, they whispered to me, who is controlling this gigantic form.
As a price for borrowing power, they inflicted their pain upon me.
Every swing to block the shells returned to me as fourteen deaths.
That was the price paid for consuming such significant power from the Otherworld.
“What does it matter? You lot.”
Your fourteen grudges are saving hundreds of thousands right now.
Isn’t that a good exchange rate? Don’t you think?
“While I’m doing something good, stop whining and just keep your mouth shut and watch.”
Gulp, gulp.
It’s been way too long since I felt anything in my mouth, so no sound came out.
“Don’t blame your past for the future.”
[Laughable sound.]
(Nonsense.)
[Not worth hearing. You’re a corrupted hero.]
(You yourself are the same.)
What’s it to me?
“I’m not that logical.”
I do what I want.
Make impulsive choices.
Leave the aftermath to my future self.
“That’s the kind of guy I am.”
I know.
At least I know that I’ve twisted.
But still.
“I can’t stand watching that in front of me.”
Thud.
Once again, I swung.
My neck got choked.
Another death.
Not violence against the body, but violence against the mind.
That strange Magical Girl said that as long as my will holds out, I won’t die, right?
Laughable.
This is far from immortality.
This is a curse.
A curse imposed on those who have stopped.
As long as the will dominates death, it is an inescapable curse.
A bondage imposed by me, who must survive in this world and protect others.
So.
For now, I will be grateful for that.
Because I can protect with this power.
“Ahhhh!”
Swinging my tentacles as I surpassed another death.
Justice.
The environment for humanity to survive.
More people. More.
Etched only that into my mind.
To endure the darkness reaching out to collapse me.
So that my will does not disappear.
To not be consumed by the black will.
I engrave my will into my soul.
Even stronger.
Resonating with it, something inside me began to pulse.
Is it over now?
The bombardment stopped in every place within my field of vision, but still, many powers of the Otherworld are gnawing at me.
Specifically, the size of one arm.
My right arm has already endured countless bombings and was smashed, and my left arm is now just a bone structure.
If it had gone longer, I would have had to absorb it with my body.
Thinking that, I shrank my gigantic body.
I need to return to my original body.
I don’t know how long it will take or if I have enough power.
Since I’ve succeeded once, I can do it again this time.
Thinking that, as I was about to disperse my powers.
The air sliced through.
A sound was heard.
A missile was flying towards me.
It finally appeared.
I was wondering why it hadn’t appeared yet.
After stuffing the initial bomb into the ground, dares to send a second wave.
Now to dive into nuclear?
It looks like an ICBM, but there’s no guarantee the warhead inside is nuclear…
Seeing five or six missiles flying for the second wave, it seems highly likely to be nuclear.
If I just block it, it would be a disaster.
I might survive, but everyone else would die.
Then.
I need to sort my thoughts and imbue my will into the power of the Otherworld.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
My foot that pulled out from the concrete bent deeply at the joints.
The left arm, which was left with only the bones, twisted to form a massive membrane.
Like a grasshopper’s legs.
With bat wings to swallow the explosions.
“Hey, nice cooperation…”
Is the power of the Otherworld even cooperating?
Looking back on my memories, I realized their voices had stopped being heard for a while.
The pain that felt like my head was going to explode persisted.
Now that I think about it, I didn’t notice, but maybe it’s a good thing, right?
Thinking that, I injected strength into my legs.
I don’t know if this will be enough to block it.
But I can’t give up before trying.
Thud thud thud, GRRRRR!
As I bent my knee joints to gather strength, the concrete ceiling which had been holding me up let out one last scream.
It collapsed at the moment of my leap.
Thank you for holding on.
I expressed my gratitude to a mere concrete mass with a twisted smile on what would be non-existent lips.
I’m about to collide with a nuclear warhead; is that a situation to worry about inanimate objects?
I turned my gaze towards the ICBM.
A gigantic something is flying towards me, breaking the sound barrier.
And I, too, am breaking the sound barrier and getting closer to it.
Anxiety creeps in.
No matter how much I’m enhanced, it’s been a while since I charged directly at a reinforced thermonuclear weapon.
Blocking it with a hammer.
Getting through with Unho, shielding and enduring too.
Not strengthening my body with mana or anything.
Just my body colliding.
And I have to absorb all the explosive energy.
Leaving aside Nanjido, it would extend the impact range to Seoul and Incheon.
After a brief moment lost in thought.
The ICBM came close enough I could see even the tightened nuts.
Zhang.
The grotesque wing attached to my left hand unfolded.
In a round shape, with lots of hooked bones like a bat’s wing.
It spread around my center to absorb all impacts, as the steel end approached me.
Let’s meet alive!
The missile collided.
Something yellow shot straight through the violet sky, flying directly at me.
The impact shook my body, but I didn’t feel the expected shock, explosions, or loss of sensation.
Rather, the ICBM began to distance itself from me.
As if the ICBM was retreating.
No, wait. I began to fall.
Losing propulsion, falling towards the ground.
Because of that yellow girl who intervened between me and the ICBM.
With the black girl on her back, flashing a bright smile at me, adorned with a black headband.
“Linshua!”
She, the Divine One, opened her mouth and moved beside the nuclear payload.
Red paint stretched out from Linshua’s hands.
Linshua’s special ability. Paint weaves.
Decorating the sky gorgeously, it formed a net.
Pzzzt.
A short bolt of lightning sparked from the hand that touched the ICBM’s surface.
“Detonation device neutralization complete!”
“Thank you! Divine Aunt!”
“No… call me Unni!”
The Divine One’s Cree-cree-creek.
The progress of the ICBM halted.
While it was desperately spewing flames, it couldn’t move forward, caught in Linshua’s red net.
Clag.
With the sensation of the power of the Otherworld rushing in.
[Art carries salvation.]
Linshua opened her eyes wide, her unnatural violet eyes opening wide, revealing her inner self.
The effect was clear…
It was the neutralization of all weapons around.
That thought seemed right.
Every piece of the ICBM scattered.
Really… it’s over.
Looking at the sight of silvery components scattered into the air, I finally relaxed.
The end of the long battle that began from underground Nanjido to the roof.
Because that was right in front of me now.
Perhaps to prevent a chain reaction from critical mass, the Divine One was hopping around stepping on parts here and there, but she wouldn’t make a mistake over there.
Thud.
Finishing a short leap.
Finally, my body landed on top of a Nanjido building.
And there came a moment of brief rest.
To prevent any possible additional issues, I briefly looked up at the sky.
Not long later, I could see a yellow line catching a black dot coming down.
It seems I can rest now.
With Lin and Nanjido here, they would clean up in my stead.
Then… should I close my eyes for a bit…
“You better not sleep, you crazy bastard!”
The Divine One’s kick landed perfectly on my torso.
Thanks to that, I felt like my nonexistent insides twisted.
“What’s this mess? You call yourself a king? Huh? A king?”
The Divine One, who had grabbed somewhere on my body, began to violently shake me like she was trying to thresh grain.
“Ah… it’s due to several incidents…”
“Speak in human language!”
Smack.
I got slapped.
“There were incidents, Divine Aunt.”
“Oh, you understand?”
Wow, our girl is amazing.
“Yes! I’m the dad!”
“What do you mean dad?”
“Don’t treat my daughter like that.”
“Then just speak in human language!”
The Divine One’s knee crashed into somewhere close to my solar plexus.
An overwhelming throwing kick, reclaiming her peak.
No, is it stronger than back then?
Maybe because the Divine One’s arms and legs have elongated, it seems to have increased the impact force…
“Ugh.”
Gahhhh!
Thanks to the Divine One’s knee strike, something black and slimy erupted from my mouth.
The dirty slime filled with the power of the Otherworld.
“Ew, gross…”
“That’s because you hit me, dad!”
“Gahhhh!”
“Dad says that too!”
No, I’ve never said that…
“Was that this mouth saying it?!”
The Divine One’s fist once again slammed into me.
An overwhelm-accelerated strike from a former S-Rank hero.
My resilient black body was completely squashed like dough.
Could it be I’m going to die from the Divine One…?
“Gaaahhh!”
Something keeps coming out of my mouth, but the Divine One doesn’t mind and turns her head toward Linshua.
“So, can this be fixed?”
• If I refine the power of the Otherworld a bit and change it, Dad should recover by himself!”
I didn’t even know that.
“Hmm… no, that’s not what I meant.”
The Divine One opened her mouth, not thinking about hitting me anymore, and finally let me go.
Though even so, my body was in a state of utter disarray, unable to move, squirming on the concrete floor.
“It seems like I completely lost my original shape. Can’t you reshape me?”
Gluck, glurk.
Well said, Divine One. If possible, I’d like you to restore my power.
I wouldn’t even wish to return to my past self, but that would be nice too.
“It’s hard! Because you’re you, Dad!”
Then should I settle for something like that…?
“I can’t do it!”
Then.
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