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[Translator - Kiteretsu]
[Proofreader - Kyros]
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Chapter 246
Theia collided with Earth.
When Krugen was treated like a toy and abandoned by Theia’s god,
Krugen naturally thought he was going to die.
The collision of two planets.
Even with the Absolute Barrier maintained, it was uncertain whether it could withstand such an enormous shockwave.
With a body pieced together like this, what could he possibly do?
One thing.
—Live…….
—For the sake of the clan…….
From the fragments of his clan that clung to Krugen’s body, an unexpected surge of dark mana arose, supporting him.
Along with it, the Dark Star that had been built inside the solar power plant absorbed Krugen’s body.
—Krugen.
As he entered the interior of the Dark Star, the voice of the Theia Clan’s King was heard.
It was the final testament, squeezed out from the fragment of the King attached to Krugen’s face.
—Our Theia made the wrong choice of god.
“……That’s right.”
Theia’s god.
Although he was already an Absolute God ruling over one planet, he was not satisfied and endlessly pursued greater heights.
He ruled Theia.
But he desired to rule Earth, a planet even larger than this one.
Driven by such greed, he conceived the idea of crashing Theia, where countless of his own children and descendants lived, into Earth.
—He is a god that should never have existed. Fortunately, he…… was never truly a god to begin with.
And the King of the Theia Clan, who was praised as the wisest of all, devised a plan from the beginning to stop the god’s madness.
“Then……”
—Before Theia’s god could ascend, we must kill him.
“......”
—The Dark Star contains a mechanism prepared for this. Krugen.
The King’s voice gradually weakened. His body, shattered by the god, just being able to convey his will this far was a miracle in itself.
—I’m sorry for entrusting you with such a heavy burden……
“It’s fine, my King. I will surely revive our clan.”
—I’m counting on you……
After that, Krugen miraculously survived.
During the collision and merging of Earth and Theia, he overcame countless deadly crises.
By luck, when a fragment of Theia broke off, he managed to separate along with it.
‘Fortunately, sunlight reaches this satellite too.’
Then, by using all the knowledge he had as the former solar power plant director, Krugen began producing sunstones one by one, and steadily built up his strength.
In order to complete the King’s mechanism prepared inside the Dark Star.
‘……It’s completed.’
And after countless years had passed, Krugen was finally able to complete it.
The ultimate grand magic circle created by the King of Theia — the Time Reversal Magic Circle.
‘Travel back to the distant past... and kill Theia’s god before he becomes a god.’
The god who destroyed Theia to become stronger.
In truth, Krugen and the King of Theia were no different from the god’s descendants, with the god’s blood deeply rooted within them.
But for the sake of their clan and planet, they resolved to return to the past and kill the god.
Thus, the foundation laid by the King and completed by Krugen—who ruled over the Moon—was the Time Reversal Magic Circle.
‘……There’s still something missing.’
The original coordinates of the planet Theia, and the Divine Language used by Theia’s god.
These had to be accurately grasped.
Especially since they had no way of knowing exactly which era they would land in.
They needed a sure countermeasure against the Divine Language that bound the entire Theia Clan.
‘For that……’
Only then did Krugen turn his gaze toward Earth.
Earth, where Theia’s god had been defeated and sealed away.
It was time to draw out the god trapped within.
‘Everything was going smoothly.’
He tore off a massive fragment of the Moon and dropped it onto Earth, splitting it into the Heavenly Realm and the Demon Realm.
Proclaiming himself a Celestial God, he fought the Water God to seize control over Earth.
The god of Earth was powerful, but his perception beyond Earth was narrow.
The Celestial God lost every time, yet he revived each time by drawing energy from the Moon’s sunstones.
‘Eventually, the Water God transformed into the Dragon God to kill me.
And the Earth God’s seal gradually began to weaken……’
Everything was progressing according to the Celestial God's plan.
Except for one thing.
A slight nuisance remained.
‘Kaylen.’
At first, he was such a trivial being that he wasn’t even worth noticing.
His true body, Ernstine, had already become the Dragon God.
The fragment of what used to be human was left behind, turned into an undead by the Celestial God, to prepare for the battle against the Dragon God.
What made up Kaylen, after all, was just the Sixfold Sword Path carrying Ernstine’s memories.
Right.
Nothing but a sword.
‘What is a sword, after all?’
It is merely a weapon crafted by the lowly race known as humans from metal.
Humans went to ridiculous lengths trying to imbue it with mana.
But from the Celestial God's perspective, all of it was meaningless folly.
A sword was nothing more than a trivial means of a trivial race.
And yet—
“A mere sword managed to come this far……”
The Celestial Demon God raised his killing intent as he looked at Kaylen before him.
That one, whose true nature was no more than a sword, had come all the way into the Time Reversal Magic Circle to interfere.
He was truly an insufferable nuisance.
‘Now that he’s come this far, I must put an end to him.’
Perhaps because the sword that pierced through all things consumed an enormous amount of mana, Kaylen’s condition didn’t look very good either.
‘Inside this Time Reversal Magic Circle, I can definitely kill him.’
He considered ignoring Kaylen and simply activating the Time Reversal Magic Circle properly.
But the Celestial Demon God dismissed that idea.
If something went wrong and that nuisance got dragged along, it would be the worst possible outcome.
‘Now that this place has been discovered.’
To eliminate any variables,
even if he had to gather mana again, he would kill Kaylen here.
Rumble—
The gears on the floor turned.
From between the gaps, hands of darkness stretched out in all directions.
Their only target: Kaylen.
Those hands lunged at him with ferocious force.
“This worthless trick.”
Kaylen sneered.
The Celestial Demon God, perhaps because he was busy orchestrating so many different plans,
showed little finesse when it came to the use of mana in actual battle.
Even though he wielded massive dark magic and holy light magic,
his methods of using them were crude.
Six Sword Path
Six Swords — Eclipse
The Six Swords gathered, becoming a black sword that devoured the Moon’s dark magic.
Kaylen, holding a single sword, charged straight toward the Celestial Demon God.
Countless hands sprang up from the gears on the ground.
‘All of it will just become my mana anyway.’
They were pulled into Kaylen’s Eclipse and failed to inflict any effective blow upon him.
Thus, nothing remained to block Kaylen’s advance.
“Guh......!”
Sizzle—!
The black sword slit the Celestial Demon God’s throat.
A hollow death for someone who had boasted that he would break the sword.
‘Leave not even a trace.’
Yet Kaylen’s sword did not rest.
How many times had the Celestial Demon God feigned death only to revive again?
Each time Kaylen’s sword struck, the Celestial Demon God’s body cracked like a spiderweb and shattered into pieces.
A merciless sword strike that allowed no regeneration.
When the sword slashed him seven times,
the Celestial Demon God’s body vanished from that spot.
Not a trace of his mana could be felt anywhere.
‘Is it over……?’
Just as Kaylen briefly thought so—
Tick. Tick.
The second hand of the clock floating in the sky moved.
Clang!
One of the clocks suddenly exploded and dropped to the ground with a thud.
"You are truly an incomprehensible existence."
At the same time, the Celestial Demon God revealed himself, standing at the spot where Kaylen had been, as if he had never died.
"Unable to even create a body of your own, yet your sword alone surpasses the gods’ understanding.
Your black sword and my dark magic. Though my magic is vastly superior… how is it that you consume it?"
"I clearly killed you. How are you regenerating...?"
"You think you killed me? Huhu. This entire world is no different from myself. No matter how strong your sword is, it cannot defy the world itself."
Kaylen once again looked around.
A world filled with floating numbers and clocks covering the sky.
Strange, but the space itself wasn’t all that vast.
If he used the Six Sword Path, it was a size he could easily destroy.
"Then I'll just erase this world entirely."
Six Sword Path
Second Sword — Scorching Heavens
The Eclipse was released.
This time, the Six Swords carried fire.
Though he said he would destroy the entire space, what bothered him most were the clocks in the sky.
Kaylen aimed the Scorching Heavens at them.
Fwoooosh!
A massive surge of pure white flames roared, as if it would burn the entire sky.
The Celestial Demon God, watching the flames aiming for the clocks, uttered lightly, "Return."
Immediately, the flames spreading in all directions were extinguished and gathered back into Kaylen’s sword.
The scene looked as though the activation of Scorching Heavens had been played in reverse.
Kaylen furrowed his brow.
‘What is this…?’
Before the flames could even fully blaze upon the sword, as he returned to the moment he first attempted to use Scorching Heavens, Kaylen cautiously inferred what had just happened.
‘Don’t tell me. He's manipulating time...’
If the flow of time during the expansion of Scorching Heavens was reversed, it would certainly look like the scene he just witnessed.
The Celestial Demon God. In this space, could he control time?
Was that how he had revived so flawlessly earlier?
‘…Still, there seem to be limitations.’
If he could truly manipulate time at will,
he would never have allowed Kaylen to approach him in the first place.
Kaylen carefully speculated.
‘It doesn’t seem like he can affect my body.’
If he could, the Celestial Demon God’s neck wouldn’t have been severed earlier.
Assuming that the Celestial Demon God’s "Return" did not affect Kaylen himself.
'What about the sword?'
The Second Sword, Scorching Heavens, was a type of ranged attack that extended fire mana outward.
The result created by swordsmanship could be rewound by turning back time to return it to its original state.
But could "Return" also affect the sword Kaylen was directly holding?
He decided to test it immediately.
Six Sword Path
Fourth Sword — Giant Sword
Four golden swords gathered together.
Immediately, mana surged, creating a massive steel sword.
The Giant Sword that had once split a royal castle.
It did not leave Kaylen’s hand.
It was a massive sword, capable of reaching up to the sky.
"Return."
At the Celestial Demon God’s short command, the steel sword soaring into the sky quickly shrank down.
'Even the Giant Sword...'
At the same time,
Bang! Bang!
Several clocks exploded in the sky.
A new domain of mana enveloped Kaylen’s entire body.
"O sword that has reached the domain of the gods. There is not much time left now."
The second hands of the clocks fell from above.
The numbers that had been floating around Kaylen began to gather toward him.
"I will analyze you, rewind your time, and return you to the insignificant state you once were."
Unable to win in a direct confrontation with the Six Sword Path, it seemed the Celestial Demon God intended to regress Kaylen to a time when his existence was still weak.
'If that happens… it will be my defeat.'
Kaylen sensed instinctively that he had very little time left to act.
'I must use my final resort.'
Click. Click.
Kaylen’s skin peeled away.
From the body that had taken human form, metal was revealed.
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[Translator - Kiteretsu]
[Proofreader - Kyros]
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