Chapter 75: Advent of the G.o.d of War (6)
"My name? Ahh, hoho. Yeah, I supposed you can say that. It"s an honor to meet you again."
She bowed respectfully to me while gracefully brushing her three-layers-thick hair.
"Please call me Hawa."
Her calm introduction froze the mood on the bridge deck and I took a quick peek around the room.
"What the h.e.l.l, am I the only one who can"t keep up with the mood?"
I didn"t know what was going on. Unlike when I saw the low-rank transcendent, Hyun-il, or the intermediate-rank transcendent, Cheong Won, I couldn"t sense anything when I looked at the Legion girl. She didn"t exude any enormous power, nor did she feel vague and mysterious. It felt like I was just looking at an ordinary person.
So, I looked at her t.i.tle, but I couldn"t understand what her t.i.tle meant.
Legion
The Second Child, Eve
"Second Coming? What kind of t.i.tle is this?"
I already knew what a Legion was, but I had no idea what "Second Coming" meant in this case. This wasn"t something crucial enough to be a t.i.tle.
"Should I try using Cla.s.sification?"
I concentrated my mind for the sake of learning more about her. However, just then, her t.i.tle wavered.
Oh my.
It"s embarra.s.sing if you look at me like that.
"What…?"
I groaned. My hair stood on end and my head went blank for a moment. What the h.e.l.l was this... Even, Cheong Won, an Intermediate-rank G.o.d, couldn"t see through my ability to see t.i.tles. However, she didn"t just perceive the kind of ability I had, she went beyond that and could wilfully show me whatever text she wanted.
"Captain-nim, the name Hawa is…"
"I know, so just keep quiet, Deputy."
"Roger that, I"m sorry."
Unlike how she was usually, Natalie answered in a slightly nervous tone and bowed to Hyun-il before stepping back. Then, Hyun-il looked at Hawa in a polite manner and said...
"Nice to meet you, Hawa. The fact that you brought our crew members back, can I take it that we"re not in a hostile relationship?"
"Haha, that"s of course. I"m here to stay on this ship for a while, so we can"t possibly be in a hostile relationship."
"That means..."
"Of course, I"m just a guest. I"m not an enemy, nor am I an ally, I"m just here to stay for a while. No, on second thought, it"s okay to a.s.sume that I"m a potential enemy occupying some s.p.a.ce. When the time comes, I just have to act according to the situation."
It felt pretty unreal to see a member of the demi-humans speaking in such a carefree manner when they were basically the enemy of the Union. But the more baffling part was that Hyun-il was nodding in response to her words.
"We"ll prepare a place for you to stay."
"Ahh, if it"s possible, can I stay with that person?"
Her nonchalant gesture sent everyone on the bridge deck to turn their eyes on me. A cold sweat ran down my back.
"Me... me?"
"Yes. If I recall correctly, your name is… Kwan Dae-ha-nim, right?"
"That"s correct, but I already have dorm mates whom I"m staying with. My accommodation is too small for both of us to stay in."
I tried to express my refusal to stay with her in my own way, but Hyun-il stepped forward first.
"I"ll get you a new room. The nicest and best room on this ship."
"Captain-nim?"
I looked around as I was at a loss for words , but Hyun-il didn"t even lift an eyebrow.
"Thank you, Major General Chun Hyun-il."
"…I don"t remember introducing myself."
"Hoho, how shameless. You already know that"s not needed, right?"
"Well…"
At the sight of Hyun-il nodding, I realized that everyone on the bridge deck was guessing who that Legion girl was.
At that moment, I knew her real ident.i.ty.
"Hawa, Eve, The Second Coming."
In actual fact, I should have noticed it long ago. There were plenty of clues.
-Don"t be used like a fool! We can solve everything for you if you just say it!
Yes. She was the character that made an appearance in that memory. Of course, she had a completely different appearance. However, she wasn"t a human in the first place, so something like an outward appearance had no meaning to her.
"Wait. If you want to stay here, there"s something you need to promise me in return."
Because of that, I took a shot. Hawa turned to look at me.
"Something I have to promise you? And what"s that?"
"Don"t even harm a single hair on me and everyone around me, Hawa."
I spoke with all my might clearly, and Hawa smiled brightly when she heard those words.
Whaaam!
Boooom!
Baaaang!
"Ackkkk!!"
"Keeeeuuuuk!"
Along with the sound of the explosions, the surrounding devices were shattered to pieces, and screams could be heard from everywhere.
"…Oh my G.o.d."
When I came to my senses, before I knew it, me aside, all the crew members were down. It was the same even for Major General Chun Hyun-il who reached the realm of transcendence and possessed impeccable fighting prowess. No, on the contrary, it seemed like he was greatly affected and both his arms were broken and in a mess. Celestia stood in front of me to block whatever that was coming our way, and she coughed and threw up blood as if she was. .h.i.t by something.
"Let me be clear."
After causing such devastation, Hawa strode and walked towards me.
She then whispered into my ear, "If you try to order me one more time... I"ll blow up every single organization you belong to."
An image was delivered to my mind along with her voice. Korea, where I lived, and Earth included… Even the Leonhardt Empire which ruled over countless planets which I had not even seen properly… I saw an image of everything being destroyed and shattered to pieces. And I intuitively realized that she was an existence that was actually capable of doing it.
Crack crack!
At that time, Hyun-il, who was stuck on one side, walked out of the crushed wall and healed both his broken arms. It was only a short time, but his arms that were in tatters were recovering quickly.
"Relax a little bit. He probably said it out of concern for us."
"Hoho. I certainly got too worked up."
As if the chilly atmosphere just before was a lie, Hawa took a step back and with a "Skriekkk-!" sound, the s.p.a.ce was split apart. The dark s.p.a.ce within the rift was not properly visible. Just then, small girls of about one meter in height began to gush out from the rift.
"Clean~ Clean~ We"re cleaning up~♪"
"Cure~ Cure~ We"re going to cure you~♬"
"Lalala~ We"re going to repair, repair~♪♬"
Cute girls dressed as maids were singing and began to clean up the messed up surroundings at a frightening pace. The surrounding environment changed dramatically whenever their cute little hands moved, and the injured people were treated in an instant. Even the smashed walls were restored back to their original state in a jiffy. The objects and chairs strewn on the ground went back to their original places.
"…Thank you. Though it feels like you just gave me some disease and then handed me the remedy after." [1]
"I"m just taking care of what I"ve done. Well, even so, I"m still sorry, so let me tell you one thing as an apology."
Shiing! Shiiing! Shiiing!
The battlefield information was updated along with her hand gestures. There were dozens of Gigas and fighter jets that were closing in on Great Sky.
"The enemy has already come this close."
"...!!"
"What, what is this? What"s going on?"
"Deactivate Stealth and strengthen the barrier first!!"
"Call back all the maintenance machines that went outside!"
The crew members, who were quietly listening to our conversation, were startled and began to manipulate the control panel. Just like them, Hyun-il returned to the Captain"s seat and activated the Iron Heart before he turned to look at Natalie.
"What the h.e.l.l is going on? Weren"t they far away?"
"It appears that the captain opened the Warp Gate and transported the Gigas and fighter jets over. It"s just that it wasn"t detected at all... It might be a Transcendence Skill."
"Ha... That"s ridiculous. Chancellor doesn"t have that kind of Transcendence Skill. Did the Captain perhaps change? No, in the worst case scenario, there could be two transcendents."
Hyun-il mumbled quietly perhaps because he personally knew the Captain of Rising Storm. Unfortunately, I didn"t have the time to think about it in detail.
Boom!
I could feel the vibration as we were attacked. Hawa found out their existence, and just before the attack, the barrier on Albatross was strengthened as per her advice. But it was all for naught. Seated in the captain"s seat with his Aura activated, Hyun-il frowned.
"I have no idea what just happened. How did they notice this place?"
Boom! Kaboom! Krooooom!
Hyun-il murmured because he couldn"t understand the situation, and in the midst of all that, the attacks were still ongoing.
"This won"t do."
I got up from my seat. Though I could control Albatross again, using Jump wouldn"t make any difference in this situation. Unless we made sufficient preparation and safety was addressed, there would be a limit to the distance I can move with Jump; a short-range Warp would be the limit. To a certain extent, I could get away from here and run away, but…
"Ultimately, it would just waste my physical strength and concentration, and it can only buy us some time."
There was a limit even if I ran away on a whim as I would be running away at a speed that lagged far behind Rising Storm. We were in the middle of the Universe where no variables would surface, so they would quickly discover where I was and catch up to me.
"...You"re going to ride on a Gigas in the end? Without going through surgery?"
"I have no choice. I can"t afford to do that when the situation has turned out like this."
I let out a sigh before Celestia who unknowingly came after me. To be honest, I was reluctant because my body wasn"t in peak condition. However, I had no choice because I didn"t want to die.
"By the way."
I looked back slightly. I could see Hawa watching me leaving the bridge deck.
"Don"t recklessly provoke me."
"What do you mean provoke? Anyways, is it alright? Letting the Legion on board when they"re the arch-enemy of the Union. It"ll uselessly become weirdly complicated."
Celestia shook her head at my concern.
"Probably… it"ll be alright. Because that girl was an Untouchable prior to being a Legion."
"Untouchable?"
"Yes, it"s the ultimate being that"s much stronger than n.o.blesse, and they shouldn"t be messed with or provoked. In other words…"
Celestia continued in a firm voice.
"She"s a G.o.d."
"…"
I"ve heard terms such as low-rank and intermediate-rank G.o.ds often. But in the end, a low-rank G.o.d was only a General in the Great Universe Era, and an intermediate-rank G.o.d was only at the level of an Emperor, so frankly, even if Hawa was a G.o.d, there was no need to worship her.
But Celestia was saying something totally different.
"It doesn"t matter because she"s a G.o.d?"
"That"s right. Even if she was fundamentally a Legion... An Untouchable is still an Untouchable. If they didn"t cause any troubles directly, no one would recklessly provoke them because they are free from all rules and laws, and they could act however they wished. If we mess with them carelessly, we wouldn"t possibly be able to handle the disaster that might occur."
In other words, that was why Hyun-il said he would provide her an accommodation, and didn"t impose any restrictions on her movements. I looked at Hawa who was still staring at me (I was extremely pressured). After she found her name, she became strangely bright and mature. However, her outer appearance remained unchanged, and she still looked like the Legion girl I saw previously.
"…Will this war end easily if she helps?"
It was needless to say. Just like how Cheong Won, a being who possessed an Intermediate-rank Status of G.o.d, could easily overpower Morne… That girl, who was presumably at a higher realm than Cheong Won, could easily subdue Morne.
That wasn"t all there was to it.
Cheong Won was tied down by all kinds of restrictions due to his mission. Unlike him, Hawa was vividly free from those sorts of things. Even if she didn"t want to help much, wouldn"t it be possible for her to slightly move us away with just a little whim? If she could do that, this problem would be solved.
"That won"t do. Dae-ha, get your head straight."
Before I could even say anything concrete, Celestia spoke with a straight face.
"You must never try to use the Untouchables. It might be possible if they were a low-level Untouchable, but at the very least, we can"t use her. Even if it is possible only under limited circ.u.mstances, completed Untouchables are all-knowing monsters. No wisdom or expediency can deceive them, and the cost of provoking them is unbearably disastrous. This is something that has been proven throughout history."
"Then we have to ignore them like they don"t exist?"
"We don"t have a choice."
Celestia elaborated with a bitter smile, "That"s what Untouchables are."
*
But in fact, it was the same for Hawa, she was also restless.
What are you doing right now, Hawa? You want to stay with him?
Hawa was sitting around leisurely; the angry voice was ringing in her head. The voice belonged to someone who used to be her lover, her brother, and her second most important being in the world, but now that existence became her ruler.
It"s too late.
What do you mean it"s too late?
That"s right. It"s too late.
Hawa laughed bitterly. As she slightly lifted her hand, her hands could be seen shaking.
That person"s awakening has begun. The moment he ordered me... My heart skipped a beat. I resisted it in a fit, but I couldn"t even lay a single finger on him.
Causing some damage to the surroundings was the limit. She was determined to kill one or two people among them, especially in the case of the impertinent b.i.t.c.h who dared to blatantly protect him, but all she could do was slightly injure Celestia. Furthermore, after such an attack, a feeling of guilt and sorrow surged like wildfire in her heart and she was forced to treat the people she harmed and repair the things that were shattered to pieces; it was as if she was trying to erase the actions she had done.
You… Don"t tell me, that means...
That"s right. Of course. I threatened him to prevent him from doing so, but… If he really made up his mind and ordered firmly, we might really obey him.
Don"t...be… ridiculous!
The man vented his anger again. He was gradually breaking apart after his Father ceased to exist. Despite being a machine, he was a sentimental man, but he was too unstable in his current situation.
"If he were to go overboard..."
If that happened, there would be a great catastrophe. No one would be able to stop him. The whole universe will suffer due to his existence.
And if that happened, the beings above, in other words, the G.o.ds from the G.o.d Realm would definitely make a move and eliminate him.
Just as they did to his Father...
d.a.m.n it. Just a little earlier! If we discovered him just a little earlier! If we did, we would"ve been able to kill him somehow!
Adam…
Hawa finally called out his name.
There"s no reason to blindly treat him with hostility. He"s Father"s...
Shut up.
Adam"s roaring voice sent her into silence.
"It"s too late."
Hawa laughed bitterly. That"s right. It was too late.
Adam was slowly losing his mind.
1. It"s a Korean idiom which means to do harm to someone and then pretend to help them.