Chapter 234

Chapter 234
## Chapter: 234

## Chapter Title: I Want to Kill You. (2)

Kuwaaaaaang!

With a violent sweep of the Sunken Emperor’s arm, the very foundation of the earth fractured, and massive cyclones began to howl upward from the depths.

These vortices possessed an irresistible pull, dragging down and obliterating everything they snared.

It was a catastrophic display of strength, one that commanded the terrifying respect usually reserved for a deity.

The Heavenly Demon watched this display, a spark of recognition finally lighting his eyes as he nodded.

“Ah, so you are the one they call the Sunken Emperor?”

Kurung!

The Heavenly Demon slammed his foot against the ground.

The impact tore the land asunder, sending tremors racing through the entirety of the island.

Bwooooong—

In an instant, the gravity around the Heavenly Demon seemed to invert.

Grit, sand, and jagged stone fragments were hoisted into the air, pulverized into microscopic dust by the sheer pressure of his internal energy. This debris was then forcibly condensed into ten shimmering circles, vibrating with the volatile power of a flooding gorge.

This was a force capable of erasing even the divine from existence.

These were the Steel Rings.

“It seems we share the same inclination. Wouldn’t you agree?”

Distant explorations or the refined clashing of celestial lights held no charm for them.

Only the raw, crimson reality of a struggle where one must slaughter or be slaughtered could truly validate their souls.

Therefore, the choice was simple: execution.

Right here, they would attempt to end one another.

‘This is exhilarating.’

A predatory smirk stretched across the Heavenly Demon’s face.

Every soul gathered upon this “Island of Gods” was a freak of nature.

They were sovereigns who had ruled over various pits of the abyss as undisputed lords.

These nightmare entities, who had cultivated their malice and might over eons, were now emerging from the shadows.

All to claim the title of the solitary king.

To become the absolute master of the void!

‘That one, in particular, has quite the reputation.’

The Sunken Emperor.

This wasn’t the withered husk he had encountered previously; this was the genuine article.

Very few among the kings of the abyss possessed the audacity to style themselves as emperors.

Furthermore, the “Sunken Emperor” was a singular existence in more ways than one.

‘The master of Gross.’

The beast the Sunken Emperor commanded as his mount.

That creature had once reigned as the terror of three separate abyssal territories—Gross.

Legend held that it would submit to no master, yet the Sunken Emperor had broken it.

Even the Heavenly Demon had failed in that endeavor.

For that reason alone, he felt an irresistible urge to trade blows with him.

“Perish.”

In that same breath.

Shing—

Swaaaaaak!

The ten Steel Rings whistled through the air, launched like guided meteors toward the Sunken Emperor.

“······!!!”

Kwang! Kwang! Kwa-rung!

A relentless barrage of detonations thundered through the air.

Each time a Steel Ring reached its destination and erupted, the world buckled as if the apocalypse had arrived.

The Sunken Emperor met the assault by manifesting “Crack Domains” to intercept the strikes.

It was a confrontation so intense it froze the blood of anyone watching.

‘He isn’t even considering the Night Phantoms?’

Isabella stood frozen, stunned by the sudden, reckless escalation of the fight.

Once a conflict of this magnitude ignited, every Night Phantom on the island would be drawn to their coordinates.

The remaining three Night Phantoms were likely already converging on their position.

No, it wasn’t limited to just them.

A disturbance of this scale would act as a beacon for every living thing on the island.

‘······ Everyone is going to swarm this place.’

Her thoughts sharpened into a jagged edge of realization.

The Night Phantoms and every other contestant would soon be here.

If she remained idle, she would be swept away by the coming tide.

If the “Unborn Existence” decided to intervene now, it would be an absolute catastrophe.

Isabella shifted her focus.

While the Heavenly Demon and the Sunken Emperor were locked in their lethal dance, a narrow window of opportunity had opened.

‘The Master of the Grave!’

She had the chance to corner the Master of the Grave in a solitary duel.

However, the Master of the Grave had already begun his retreat.

The moment the first blow landed, he had slunk away from the epicenter of the chaos.

He had successfully put a significant distance between them.

She faced a flickering moment of indecision.

Isabella finally made her resolve.

‘······ I will stand my ground here.’

She might be able to hunt him down if she gave chase, but she couldn’t risk leaving the mouth of the cavern unprotected just to settle a score with him.

Her mission was to safeguard Randolph.

That was her sole purpose for being here—to ensure Randolph’s safety above all else.

“What manner of trick is this? Parasites that consume energy? You employ a fascinating brand of insect mastery!”

The Heavenly Demon laughed, his voice filled with a twisted delight.

He had instantly deciphered the fundamental mechanics behind the Sunken Emperor’s technique.

They were organisms too small for the naked eye to detect.

“Ha! It wasn’t a matter of sinking—it was a matter of being eaten!”

Those microscopic beasts were feasting on mana!

The spiraling storms and the dark voids controlled by the Sunken Emperor were teeming with them.

They were so numerous they blended into the very fabric of his attacks.

Even the impact of the Steel Rings was being partially neutralized by the hunger of those swarms.

It was amusing, yet ultimately a letdown.

In the end, it was merely a sophisticated form of magic.

No trivial sorcery could hope to withstand the might of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art.

The Heavenly Demon Divine Art was a discipline designed to amplify internal energy to such explosive levels that it simply overwhelmed everything in its path.

No matter the size of the swarm, there was a limit to how much energy they could process.

His own reserves, by contrast, were practically boundless.

Gooooooo—

The atmosphere surrounding the Heavenly Demon began to boil once more.

Every scrap of energy that rose from the earth was drawn into his orbit and consumed.

It was the ability to siphon the essence of all surrounding things and forge it into his own power.

This was a threshold of power that only those who had moved beyond the limits of conventional martial prowess could attain.

‘The Life-Death Realm.’

The Life-Death Realm was a state of transcendence granted only to those who had reached the pinnacle of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art.

No swarm of insects could hope to contain such a force.

Twenty Steel Rings manifested around the Heavenly Demon now.

“Let us see exactly how much your pets can stomach.”

It was a classic collision of the ultimate spear against the ultimate shield.

But the Heavenly Demon harbored no doubt that he would shatter that defense.

The world was tearing itself apart.

The earth buckled and the heavens screamed in agony.

Every entity scattered across the island turned their eyes toward the site of the clash.

“Reasonably impressive.”

Even the “Amplifier of Storms,” the one who could snuff out the light of the stars,

“A duel between the titans of the lower abyss. A truly magnificent display.”

The “Star-Smasher,”

“······.”

Even the “Whale of Tianzhu,” whose arrival was meant to turn the island to rubble,

“So, you’ve been weaving your schemes here, have you?”

······ And Raiga as well.

They were all acutely aware of one another’s presence.

Yet, none of them made a move.

This moment belonged exclusively to the Heavenly Demon and the Sunken Emperor.

They watched in a tense, unspoken truce.

‘Unthinkable.’

Raiga watched the spectacle, genuinely perplexed by the conduct of these monsters.

Since when did the horrors of the abyss care for concepts like honor or a fair fight?

Striking at those two while they were preoccupied would be the most efficient way to remove two massive obstacles at once.

Every abyssal predator Raiga had ever known lived by that logic.

They would tear out a throat the moment an opening appeared, showing zero compassion even to their own kind.

He had expected the monsters on this island to behave with the same savage pragmatism.

‘They are fundamentally different.’

These entities were cut from a different cloth.

This “Island of Gods” operated on a different set of rules entirely.

This was a corner of the abyss that Raiga had never navigated before.

However, the true shock lay elsewhere.

‘They all possess Fragments of Destruction.’

Every single participant in this theater was a bearer of a Destruction Fragment!

Raiga held a “fragment” of his own.

To hunt monsters, he had been forced to transform into one himself.

It seemed the price of admission for this twisted game was the possession of a Destruction Fragment.

‘Does that mean the goat carries one as well?’

That thought brought a nagging question to the surface.

The goat that was whispered about as a harbinger of doom.

The high-ranking member of the Reaper Church he had dragged into this void—was it also a fragment bearer?

The goat possessed the ability to nullify all forms of “scrutiny.”

That was why he hadn’t been able to confirm it.

If the goat also held a fragment······.

‘The goat must be destroyed.’

Any creature possessing a fragment had to be put down.

That was the solemn vow he had made at Palga’s final resting place.

It didn’t matter who the target was.

Raiga’s brow furrowed.

Attempting to take on all these fragment-bearing horrors simultaneously was a suicidal thought, even for someone of his caliber.

However, this was a rare chance to observe.

Measuring their capabilities before the final confrontation was a strategic necessity.

‘The Unborn Existence and that goat—where have they gone?’

He couldn’t find a trace of either of them.

With a battle this massive shaking the island, there was no way they wouldn’t notice.

Unless they were trapped somewhere, or perhaps······.

‘What exactly is that Night Phantom protecting?’

······ His eyes drifted to the Night Phantom standing sentinel at the cave.

Was there something of value hidden within those shadows?

Kwaaaaaang!

“Krurrrr!”

Suddenly, a primal, predatory roar erupted from the Heavenly Demon.

The exchange between the Heavenly Demon and the Sunken Emperor was nothing short of a divine war.

But as the minutes ticked by, the Heavenly Demon’s presence began to flicker erratically, and his grip on sanity seemed to be slipping.

He was being slowly pulled down, submerged by the unrelenting pressure of the Sunken Emperor.

His internal energy, which had seemed like an ocean, was beginning to recede.

“If I only held the ‘Heavenly Demon Blade’ in my hand, these vermin would have been······!”

The Heavenly Demon was fighting at a disadvantage.

His most vital tool, the Heavenly Demon Blade, was absent.

It was as if he had stepped into a furnace without armor.

While he was an absolute titan who didn’t strictly need a weapon to kill, the Heavenly Demon Blade was more than an object.

It was an extension of his very being.

Yet, the Sunken Emperor was far from unscathed.

Jjeok!

Fine lines began to spiderweb across his ornate armor and helmet, revealing glimpses of what lay beneath.

He was reaching the limit of the kinetic energy he could absorb.

Completely negating the impact of the Steel Rings was proving to be a physical impossibility.

Then, through the cracks, the face of a young man became visible.

He had hair as dark as the void and eyes like polished obsidian.

With a vacant, haunting expression and a face as pale as death, he looked down at the Heavenly Demon with chilling indifference.

‘It can’t be.’

······ Raiga recognized that face.

In a heartbeat, Raiga’s composure shattered.

His eyes widened in disbelief, and the color drained from his face.

Even his legendary iron discipline couldn’t mask the shock.

··· His eyes had to be playing tricks on him.

Yes, it was a hallucination, surely.

The alternative was simply impossible to process.

There was no reason for a face from his past to be present in the deepest reaches of the abyss.

But no matter how many times he blinked, the face of the “Sunken Emperor” remained hauntingly familiar.

Finally, Raiga could only manage a strangled whisper of shock.

“······ Your Majesty········· My Lord?”

A vessel.

It is a container designed to hold a specific volume.

If you attempt to pour too much into it, the contents will simply spill over.

A meager vessel can only hold a meager amount.

The capacity of a human body to contain mana follows the same logic.

This is especially true for players, whose internal capacities are strictly regulated by the system.

‘The constraints of the level.’

A higher level translates to a larger capacity.

My own vessel was significantly more expansive than that of the average player.

But it was still insufficient.

It wasn’t enough to fully harness the mana amplified by the Heavenly Demon Divine Art.

To truly reach the zenith of that art, I required a vessel of overwhelming proportions.

I needed something infinite, something capable of containing the entirety of existence.

So, how does one forge such an endless container?

‘The solution is already part of me.’

I have the potential to achieve anything, to transform into anything.

Furthermore—that infinite vessel was already resting deep within my soul.

It had been prepared and was merely waiting for me to claim it.

I had caught a glimpse of it once before.

‘The Door of Truth.’

That colossal eye and that singular mouth.

They represented the Door of Truth, and the concept of “Heavenly.”

They were the infinite vessel.

And if I focused my will, I knew I could locate that door.

I could see it.

Because it was a gift that had been bestowed upon me a long time ago.

Now, the reason for that gift was clear.

‘The Eye of Truth.’

The final form of my hidden attribute, Great Sage: Eye of Truth.

Utilizing the Eye of Truth, I searched for the Door of Truth.

Before long, a solitary door manifested clearly in my mind’s eye.

‘Open it.’

I grasped the handle and forced it open.

Beyond the threshold lay an endless expanse, a vessel as vast and deep as a cosmic sea.

-I offer my congratulations. You have finally discovered your “entryway.”

The “mouth” spoke from within that infinite void.

It sounded almost surprised by the speed of my realization.

But the sentiment was genuine.

And in that exact moment.

【All separate planes of existence harmonize and merge into a single entity.】

【The hidden attributes “Heart of the Eternal Sovereign” and “Eternal Randolph” are fusing.】

【The two attributes have evolved into the transcendent state: “Eternal Sovereign Randolph.”】

······.

【The process of “Molting” has reached completion.】