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Chapter 544: Celestial King, the Father and Son Reunion (7)

Rrrumble―!

With an explosion, Odin’s hand was parried away.

Swooshhhhh―!

Chang-Sun thrust the sharp-edged [Dawn Spear] toward Odin’s chest, but Odin turned his torso to avoid the attack. At the same time, Odin’s cape fluttered, revealing a new spear that had been hidden within it.

‘[Gungnir]?’ Chang-Sun was reminded of the original form of the [Dawn Spear], because they looked too similar.

Rrrumblee―!

A Rád?us bolt and a flaming lightning bolt crashed into each other, and the impact catapulted Chang-Sun and Odin away.

His face darkening, Chang-Sun regained his balance. ‘No, it’s not [Gungnir]. It’s been upgraded a lot more than [Gungnir]...’

The moment Chang-Sun focused on his [Foretelling Eye], he could see the true nature of Odin’s spear.

―Sa...

―Save me...

―No, kill... Kill me...

―Please...

It looked like [Gungnir], but it was closer to a demonic relic made by shoving countless Celestials’ souls together. Fire rose among the grudge-filled ghosts, and Chang-Sun recognized it from his faint memory.

“You burned up the <Myths> of the <Myrkheim> King and his subjects,” Chang-Sun said.

<Myrkheim> was the <Society> that had offered [Gungnir] to Odin, but they had vanished with the fall of <Asgard>. And yet, there they were now, trapped inside the new [Gungnir] after they had been set on fire to create the spear.

“Isn’t it their honor to have an opportunity to prove their loyalty by sacrificing their lives for their king?” Odin chuckled, his voice tinged with madness.

Odin sounded completely genuine. It made Chang-Sun realize that Odin was a lunatic, far from the calm, rational man he had seen until now. On the other hand, he also had the impression that Odin was finally revealing his true colors.

By freely expressing his thirst for knowledge and obsession with acquiring freedom, Odin had entered a state of ecstasy, which he symbolized[1]. The moment one’s reason and instincts aligned, one would feel elated in their very soul, becoming able to demonstrate an incredible level of concentration.

Paaah―!

Numerous runes that contained powerful gnosis appeared and danced around Odin. The ghosts clung onto those letters one after another, and the runes shone more brightly.

When Odin raised his index finger, the runes simultaneously exploded and various disasters occurred, truly demonstrating why he was a Celestial of wizardry. It was as if dozens—no, hundreds of Odins were unleashing the energy in <Nihil>, like a tsunami that was ready to crush Chang-Sun.

Kiehhhhhh―!

In response, Chang-Sun spread his wings wider than ever, tightening his grip on the [Dawn Spear]. Compared to Odin, Chang-Sun seemed to move very quietly and slowly, but his counterattack was the farthest thing from those two qualities.

As countless storms and a rain of lightning bolts struck down in <Nihil>, a scarlet light placidly spread like sunset, encapsulating the precise moment between day and night. Red usually symbolized fervor, but Chang-Sun’s sunset resembled sunlight in spring.

His sunset had one primary characteristic, which was ‘reversal’.

Flash―!

As expected, the ongoing disasters vanished as if they had never happened, and Chang-Sun appeared at Odin’s side, fiercely swinging his spear.

It looked as if Odin had already expected Chang-Sun’s move; as he thrust his new [Gungnir] with his right hand, he used his left hand to create new runes. If his magic spells were canceled, all he had to do was activate them again. In fact, Odin could repeat them over and over.

Rrrumble―!

An endless battle began.

***

Flash―!

Thud―!

Flash―!

Thud―!

<Nihil> was continuously engulfed by chaos and silence in turn due to the battle between Odin and Chang-Sun: Odin tried to send out his ghosts using any means he could, while Chang-Sun stopped him and took his attacks down.

Numerous pools of light flashed into existence and disappeared in <Nihil>. At some point, however, the light pools began to last longer; that meant Odin’s magic spells were persisting. Even if Chang-Sun dispelled them, somehow the magic left residual effects in the air.

‘The residual effects are getting stronger after each activation of Odin’s magic, engraving his <Myths> in <Nihil>.’ Chang-Sun realized what Odin was aiming for.

<Nihil> normally negated any kind of laws and principles, but Odin was building his own divine ground in this place as much as possible by continuously leaving his traces. If that happened, Odin would be able to manifest the attribute of Eros in his vicinity, even though it would be very weak. The divine ground could also be used to build a prison for Chang-Sun.

“Your eye... It’s truly bothersome. You and I can tell each other’s moves too well.” Odin chuckled dryly and suddenly held out his left hand. “But it’s still too late.”

The moment Odin clenched his left fist, the area around Chang-Sun undulated violently.

Paaah―!

The runes Odin had planted all over <Nihil> shone and created pillars of light. Instantly, they connected with each other and created a cube-shaped prison, trapping Chang-Sun.

‘This is...’ Chang-Sun’s face darkened after he tried to draw up his divine power to dismantle the prison. The circulation of his divine power stopped even before he could do anything, and he could not even use his other abilities.

[The ‘Quirinale Power’ cannot be used in the area for an unknown reason!]

At that moment, Chang-Sun realized that this prison was more than Odin’s divine ground. Although he was unsure how in the world Odin had done it, the prison included the composition formula of Divine Steel, which was the only material that could restrict Celestials. In other words, Chang-Sun was trapped inside a Divine Steel prison.

With a half-smirk, Odin rotated his fist and said, “Die now.”.

Zinggggg―!

The light prison immediately started to shrink down. Chang-Sun would soon be crushed to death, so he used various measures; however, they all turned out to be futile. Even with the [Dawn Spear], he could not do anything about the light prison. Odin’s smirk deepened as he watched Chang-Sun struggle, feeling confident about his victory. By the time the light prison became smaller than Chang-Sun...

...a strong explosion erupted, leaving Chang-Sun nowhere to be seen. However, Odin’s smirk faded, and his face darkened instead. Even though he could see that he had trapped and killed Chang-Sun, Odin still did not feel like one and only being.

Whooooosh!

Right at that moment, a colossal Giant emerged from the cloud of smoke behind Odin.

Rumbleeee―!

The Giant fiercely swung its ax, which was heavily infused with Rád?us, down on Odin’s head to cleave him in half.

Swish!

Odin vanished like a shadow.

Flash!

Another fiend appeared behind the Giant and made its head explode, but the fiend was also ripped apart by an explosion that burst out from its chest. The fiend and Giant continued to kill and be killed, making it impossible to determine the victor of the fight.

Wooshhhh―!

After some time, two people walked out from a cloud of smoke as it drifted apart to either side. Of course, they were Chang-Sun and Odin.

As they stared at each other with grim expressions, Odin clicked his tongue. “Tsk. This is never going to end. ”

Similar to how Odin had found out how to close the gap between their levels and fight against Chang-Sun using his [Foretelling Eye], Chang-Sun had learned more about Odin using his own [Foretelling Eye] and used that knowledge to make his counterattacks.

Odin had believed that the light prison he created just now was the only way to defeat Chang-Sun, but the composition formula had been compromised by Chang-Sun’s [Foretelling Eye], allowing him to escape. In the end, their fight was left at a stalemate.

Their souls, ways of thinking, magic, Skills, and Authorities... Chang-Sun and Odin used the same kinds of abilities and were identical except for their fundamental self-identities. No matter how hard they fought, it was like a person’s left and right arms fighting each other.

‘I need to find another way.’ Chang-Sun concluded that the fight against Odin would otherwise persist endlessly.

That was too dangerous, because Ithaca and all Chang-Sun’s subordinates were also here right now. Chang-Sun had to defeat Odin in this battle of leaders as soon as possible to earn a victory without his side sustaining great damage, but he had no advantage over Odin now. To end this stalemate, he needed to come up with a counterattack that Odin would be unable to expect, but what could that be?

‘The golden key...’ Chang-Sun muttered.

[Peter’s Key], Chang-Sun’s pendant, crossed his mind first. Odin wished to have the key because he wanted to undo the last restriction on his Divine Class using it after acquiring the [Omniscient Eyes]. If so, a question arose.

―Is it possible to undo a Divine Class using [Peter’s Key]?

It had been thought impossible to escape from Divine Steel restriction devices, but [Peter’s Key] made it possible. After Peter traveled from Worldline to Worldline, the level of [Peter’s Key] had reached far greater heights than when Yog-Sothoth first gave it to Peter. On top of that, Peter himself was in the vicinity, so Chang-Sun thought that the key had to be a lot stronger right now.

Chang-Sun did not have anything to back up his belief, so it was possible that he merely held false hope. Nevertheless, he could instinctively feel that it was possible, so he immediately ripped [Peter’s Key] off his necklace.

“What are you doing?” Odin asked in surprise, readying his runes to stop Chang-Sun in the event that the latter was trying to break [Peter’s Key] to screw him over.

Without answering Odin, Chang-Sun inserted [Peter’s Key] into his own temple.

Click―!

Before Odin could even yell ‘what in the world are you doing’, Chang-Sun rotated [Peter’s Key], which was halfway inside his head.

Paah―!

At that moment, the scarlet light that Chang-Sun had been exuding became more vivid.

Pzzz, pzzzzz!

Unrefined Rád?us sparks flew up everywhere. His soul had been manifesting his Spiritual Body, but it trembled, causing his Spiritual Body to fragment and recover repeatedly. <Myth> fragments displayed his <Myths> all around him.

As everything that made up ‘Universal Dawn’ was undone, Chang-Sun’s consciousness was sucked into somewhere...

1. What Odin goes through in many stories about him is considered an ‘ecstatic trance’, which goes beyond a regular state of ecstasy or a trance. ☜