Chapter 1849
[The 1st Great Demon, ‘Baal,’ has died.]
He was so persistent and strong that it made Grid sick. Grid would’ve respected him a bit if he had shown a different side in his final moments. Apart from being the enemy of humanity, it was possible that he might forever be remembered as a worthy rival.
‘He was a stubborn b.a.s.t.a.r.d until the end.’
Grid erased Baal from his mind. Rather, he engraved Chepardea into the back of his mind.
The bipedal toad—looking back, it felt like he had encountered a lot of things. He wasn’t extremely strong, but his ability to spray mucus was tricky. He was annoying in many ways. It was to the point where Grid cursed him for constantly appearing without dying.
However, he wasn’t a being who should be cursed at. A warrior who was loyal to the G.o.d of the Beginning, Yatan. After Yatan disappeared, he was cursed by Baal to lose his memory and toyed with. Nevertheless, he didn’t break down even in his final moments. He made Baal his companion on the road to the underworld.
This was all Grid knew about Chepardea. From Grid’s perspective, he had no way of properly knowing the story of Chepardea, who was only a pa.s.sing villain. The world would naturally forget him without remembering him. Therefore, Grid himself decided to remember Chepardea.
[The souls oppressed by Baal have started to be liberated.]
‘...Come to think of it, this is the underworld.’
The emotional Grid came to his senses. The sight of Baal’s severed and fallen body, scattered like mountain ranges in the wilderness, filled his vision. He was overwhelming even in death. He was so huge that the rate in which he turned to ash seemed slow.
There were countless gray pillars that rose from Baal’s corpse. All the pillars that started to disperse to various parts of h.e.l.l were the souls of the dead. Perhaps most souls would be reincarnated as inhabitants of the neutral zones and enjoy comfort. They would forget their sorrow and pain of their previous lives, live peacefully, die, and one day be reborn on the surface.
‘Is the neutral zone a s.p.a.ce created by Yatan himself...? It is amazing now that I think about it.’
The villages and cities in h.e.l.l where even Baal could do nothing but watch—the places where the stone statues of Yatan were built were always peaceful no matter what h.e.l.l was going through. No matter the external situation, absolute security was guaranteed.
Perhaps there was a name for it other than the neutral zone. However, the people of the present time had no way of knowing the name. They didn’t even need to know. In the future, the living wouldn’t be able to interact with h.e.l.l, and the dead wouldn’t be able to ascend to the surface.
The situation up to now where the surface and h.e.l.l invaded each other was abnormal. It was a deformity created by the distorted h.e.l.l.
[You are the first player to reach level 1,000.]
‘Come to think of it, why...?’
The experience Baal left behind increased his level by a huge 100 at once. Despite this, Grid questioned it and wasn’t pleased. It was because the distortion of h.e.l.l wasn’t resolved.
‘Ah.’
The ma.s.s of red flesh—the body of the h.e.l.l moon, still floating in the sky, was the source of the distortion. Yes, killing Baal wasn’t the end. There was still work to be done.
[A player who has reached level 1,000 can freely redistribute the points in the four major stats: strength, stamina, intelligence, and agility. However, there will be a cooldown of three hours every time you redistribute the stats.]
[As a perk for the first achievement, the cooldown for the stats redistribution is removed.]
[You have earned the t.i.tle ‘Guardian of the Balance’ as a reward for killing Baal.]
[You have earned the ‘Core That Has Existed Since the Beginning of Time’ as a reward for killing Baal.]
[Guardian of the Balance]
[A t.i.tle given to the one who has saved the fate of h.e.l.l, the surface, and all of humanity, which were being destroyed by the will of a great evil.
You are the only one who deserves to be the owner of this t.i.tle.
Your existence balances the world.
No law or will dares to oppress you.]
An Only One t.i.tle. The effect was tremendous.
[★ Ignore the unique effects of each dimension.
You won"t be affected by the unique effects of dimensional worlds.]
Simply put, it ignored Asgard’s penalty. It was proof that one existence, Grid, was greater than a world.
‘Seeing something like this... It is natural that Rebecca, the creator of the world itself, won’t be affected by the Overgeared World.’
Grid wasn’t in the least bit excited. He a.n.a.lyzed it calmly on the basis of the reality of strong authorities. He considered the worst case scenario and devised a way to respond. The experience of fighting the mighty enemy called Baal made him even more cautious.
However, Grid was also a human. He couldn’t always be composed.
[Core That Has Existed Since the Beginning of Time]
[Originally a possession of Yatan, it fell into Baal’s hands and contained infinite energy.
It can fulfill the user’s wish.
Yatan used its power to turn the power of ‘destruction’ into the power of ‘creation’ and created a shelter for the dead.
Baal distorted the shelter of the dead that Yatan created into h.e.l.l.
Number of available uses: 1 time.]
“......?”
An object that could alter even the power of a G.o.d of the Beginning—there seemed to be no exaggeration in the phrase that it fulfilled wishes.
Grid’s eyes shook.
The first thing that came to mind was Khan and his son. He wanted to return Khan back to being a human being. He wanted to resurrect Khan’s son, who had died young and made Khan sad. That was where it started.
Grid thought that he wanted to take away all the pain and regrets of his precious people.
He wanted to go back in time before Asmophel fell into the clutches of the Yatan Servants and protect the lives and families of the Red Knights, including Piaro and Asmophel. He wanted to give Braham, who was abandoned by his mother after becoming obsessed with overcoming the Curse of Sloth and harming his own kin, a chance to think again. He wanted to help Kasim, whose clan had been annihilated by the empire...
“...Ah.” Grid came to his senses. He realized that there were few people around him who hadn’t been unhappy and he couldn’t undo their past. Everything would become twisted the moment he changed one thing.
For example, Kasim’s success in defending his clan meant he was able to fend off the invasion of the empire. At the same time, it meant that Piaro and the Red Knights, who had always been the vanguard of the empire, would suffer a defeat.
By altering Braham’s past, Braham could play a role that was completely antagonistic to Grid since he didn’t experience a human life.
‘In the first place, it is all over.’
They overcame the pain and got back on their feet. It was wrong for him to bring up their past. Additionally, not everything would be possible, even if this core granted his wishes. No matter whether he was an Absolute, the emperor, or the Guardian of the Balance, there were clear limits to a player’s authority. Grid had experienced it several times.
‘...Apart from all of that, it is only available for one use.’
Since it could only be used once, could it really grant any wish?
Grid suddenly had this thought and decided to stop paying attention to it. He thought there must be a separate use for this. It was close to conviction. It was based on the experience he had acc.u.mulated so far.
“……”
Then there were traces of magic power behind him. He could tell who it was without looking in person. Since the distance from the place where he felt the presence couldn’t be measured, it meant the s.p.a.ce was distorted.
A warp gate had been opened.
[You have suffered, Only One G.o.d Grid.]
It was a memorable voice.
The 2nd Great Demon, Amoract—Grid thought it was just right.
‘All in on agility.’
He didn’t have to type any commands. The system immediately read Grid’s will and responded.
He stabbed his sword without hesitation at Amoract, who was constantly talking.
The Great Demon of Conflict—she was an unreliable existence from the beginning. He was going to kill her no matter what sweet proposals she made or what cooperation she offered. It was better to cut off the roots in advance.
‘All in on strength.’
Grid’s will became more concise and intuitive. His stats literally changed in real time and Amoract couldn’t react at all.
[The 2nd Great Demon, ‘Amoract,’ has died.]
[Your level has risen by 17.]
‘...Stop rising up.’
This d.a.m.n thing. He had been telling people around him that the limit for players would be level 999, but he reached level 1,000. Then it kept going up? It was a bit embarra.s.sing...
At this point, maybe Morpheus was deliberately modifying the system to be the opposite of his predictions? Grid still didn’t trust the S.A Group, who were suspicious, and distributed his stat points back to agility.
It was for high speed travel. The red flesh that Yura and Mir were currently containing was the target. There was no time for him to look at the loot. He couldn’t wait for Pagma’s soul, which hadn’t appeared yet.
‘There were so many souls that Baal had absorbed.’
Gray pillars rose from Baal’s corpse and embroidered the sky like stars. There were endless limits. He had to free Pagma’s soul in order to complete the cla.s.s quest, but it seemed delayed since there were so many souls to be freed first.
‘It doesn’t mean much to finish my cla.s.s quest now, but...’
For the current Grid, Pagma"s Successor was just one of his origins. Even so, Grid wanted to obtain the rewards. It was important to finish everything.
Grid was about to use Shunpo, only to stop. It was because he detected the movement of new magic power in the sky. It was quite a powerful magic power.
‘Asura?’
The vigilant Grid paused. Then the ident.i.ty of the figure who popped out of the fully open warp gate was soon revealed.
It was Katz. Nevertheless, he didn’t let down his guard. It was due to the girl that came right after Katz. To be precise, it was the soul in the form of a girl.
Beriache—she was one of the Three Evils of the Beginning, like Baal and Amoract, and she was the mother of the direct descendants, including Braham and Marie Rose. The moment she appeared, all the blood that had seeped into the ground started floating into the air. It felt like tens of thousands of red jewels were adorning the landscape.
It was beautiful.
“......!”
Grid’s eyes examined the situation for a moment before they widened. It was because the moment the blood that floated into the air and formed small droplets started to seep into Beriache, the presence of the dead Baal and Amoract were felt. He felt it from Beriache. It was a frightening phenomenon.
‘The power of 10,000 beings...!’
There were many types of strong existences. Among them, there was a type that became uncontrollably strong when ‘certain conditions were met’ and Beriache was that type. The ability to take the power of targets whose blood was sucked as her own. It was known that Baal even asked Amoract for cooperation because he couldn’t do anything alone against Beriache, who had acc.u.mulated power.
Yes, Grid was familiar with it. But seeing it in person was a completely different feeling.
Embracing the power of Baal and Amoract, who were already dead...
It was also only through the blood they shed as they died.
“”You don’t have to be vigilant. I don’t plan to go against you.””
It was a manner of speaking that didn’t match her outward appearance.
“Then why did you acc.u.mulate so much power?” Grid directly asked Beriache, who was more like Marie Rose’s daughter than her mother.
“”It is always good to have power. I have already experienced one failed life, so I think it is natural for me to always have a vigilant mindset. Rather...””
Beriache’s gaze s.h.i.+fted to Grid’s lower half. It was his groin area, to be precise. Beriache stared at Grid, who naturally closed his legs, before smiling.
“”I had wondered why you smelled like me. It is no wonder... your tastes are unique. I can see why Marie Rose hasn’t been able to conceive.””
There were small explosions everywhere. It was the sound of the G.o.d Hands destroying the cameras of the broadcasting stations.