Ch.112Rebirth Begins with Destruction (5)

In a space of pure white, various otherworldly beings were gathered, watching footage displayed on a screen.

In the footage, a massive Minotaur was hurling meteorites and dropping lightning bolts, exterminating humanity from the continent of Grancia.

“Hmm, a monster should rightfully try to exterminate humanity.”

“That one. Half demonic beast. But quite useful.”

The otherworldly beings watched Khan with interest, seemingly impressed by his capabilities. The footage showed Khan tearing a unicorn in half.

“So it ends here. Will the Host now descend to that being?”

“Or perhaps we should all go down together? It’s been a very long time since a demigod appeared. It wouldn’t be bad to all go down and congratulate him.”

“Whatever the case… Oh? Interesting…”

What silenced their chatter was the scene on the screen.

The Hero Lepin, who had lost all companions including the unicorn she had been riding, and who was now the last human, began to awaken.

“It’s been a long time since we’ve seen a Hero’s awakening. The game is over, but… let’s make our decision after watching this.”

“I agree.”

“I agree.”

As all the otherworldly beings nodded in agreement, the Host among them smiled slightly and nodded as well.

* * * * *

A pillar of gray light piercing the sky was allowing rays of sunlight to break through the storm clouds brought by the stingray and the dark clouds created by Khan’s lightning.

The ground illuminated by those sunlight rays was scarred in countless ways.

Areas swept by Khan’s lightning were stained black, and the lightning he had dropped when burning The One had created deep holes that resembled bottomless pits.

Add to that the ground overturned by shock waves created each time Khan swung his fist, and the craters formed by meteorites.

The land where Cain and Agni had fought had become a desolate wasteland no different from the Land of Death, and now only Khan and Lepin remained upon it.

Khan, standing ten meters tall, attacked when he saw the gray light, but momentarily paused his assault when confronted by the pillar of light that annihilated everything it touched.

He could damage that pillar of light if he attacked with his divinity as a destruction god, but he couldn’t afford to use that divinity which wouldn’t properly recover, so he waited for a moment.

Then Hero Lepin, without a single thread of clothing, walked out from the pillar of gray light.

“You alone… I will never forgive.”

The only item worn by her bare body, the pure white ring signifying her as Uldur’s Hero, became stained with the power of Chaos and turned gray.

Wooong—

Then the gray ring disappeared and transformed into a spear, which she pointed at Khan.

Seeing her, Khan created an axe using lightning and covered it with stone.

That stone wasn’t the ordinary stone scattered across the land that he usually used, but rather a stone from deep underground that even Khan had never seen before, though he paid it no mind.

The two beings now faced each other at the center of what was once Grancia Island and had now returned to a size large enough to be called a continent again.

Khan at ten meters tall, and Lepin standing just over 160 centimeters.

The gray spear held by Lepin and the pitch-black axe held by Khan.

Uldur’s Hero and the Destruction God of the Grancia continent.

These two beings, fundamentally incompatible, clashed once more.

KWAAAANG—!!!

The spear made of gray energy, the power of Chaos, collided with the axe wrapped in divinity and made of unidentified black stone.

The impact further devastated the land, with shock waves traveling far into the distance, creating a scene similar to a meteorite impact.

Khan and Lepin, who had shattered the earth with a single strike, stood firmly in place, but the reality was different.

Khan, born physically strong, possessed a body befitting his status as a demigod due to various attributes, but Lepin was not originally a hero.

Her body, merely infused with divine power, had been further enhanced with magical energy and divine power by Cardinal Baxter, and through awakening, the divine power and magical energy had fused to transform into the power of Chaos.

But her physical body, while beyond human limits, still couldn’t match Khan, who had transcended mortal limitations.

Earlier, when riding on Jerome, she had been able to withstand a single blow because they were in the air where Khan’s weight couldn’t fully impact and the shock was dispersed.

But now, on the ground, withstanding a full-power strike would be impossible even for a Hero, yet Lepin managed it.

She did so by exerting overwhelming regenerative abilities to withstand Khan’s strike.

Lepin’s arm lost all flesh when blocking the strike, but the power of Chaos regenerated it, allowing her to endure the blow.

Lepin’s arm had regenerated 29 times.

The pain would have driven an ordinary human mad, but the Hero’s mental strength was robust enough to endure such pain and continue to the next attack.

Shririririk—

If only it hadn’t been for Khan’s tail.

When Khan judged that his axe had been blocked, he succeeded in binding Lepin’s body with his long, thick tail wrapped in lightning.

Chiiiiik—!!

His tail began to burn upon contact with Lepin’s body covered in Chaos energy, but Khan managed to somewhat mitigate this by adding a bit of divinity to the black lightning, and unleashed a rain of violence.

KWAAANG—!! KWANG—!!! KWAGAGAGANG—!!!!

He slammed her into the ground with his tail, and while keeping her bound, began punching.

The earth shattered and screamed, and when it couldn’t withstand the blow, the ground completely split and they fell deep underground, but Khan paid no mind and raised his tattered tail to slam her against the wall before delivering another punch.

Kugugung…

The shock wave from this traveled all the way to Elvenheim, a region far from the central area where Khan was.

“Mother, are you sure you’re alright? Don’t we need to intervene?”

Lassis, a High Elf known as the daughter of the World Tree and the oldest living High Elf, addressed the World Tree, but as always, the World Tree merely said everything was fine.

“No, at that level they could easily contend with the gods of the mythical era, and you say it’s fine?”

The World Tree dismissed Lassis’s concerns by saying once more that everything was fine.

“Well… As you say, there’s been no damage on our side… Ah, whatever. If that Khan comes over here causing trouble, I’m stepping in. You won’t stop me from doing that, right?”

The World Tree answered by slightly shaking its enormous body.

Meanwhile, Khan, who had sent shock waves all the way to distant Elvenheim, had fallen with Lepin to the upper mantle where magma flowed.

Here, black minerals similar to those covering the outside of the axe Khan had been holding in mid-air were floating in the magma, their colors changing very slightly as they caught the light of the lava.

And Lepin, though her body had been pulverized by Khan’s punches, managed to revive through the power of Chaos, perhaps having inherited the demonic trait possessed by Cain. She released more of the Chaos surrounding her body outward, severing Khan’s tail.

Khan cut off the upper part of his tail that had been severed by Chaos to begin regeneration, then grasped the axe he had been levitating and swung it at Lepin.

BUAAAANG—!!!

The air pressure generated by that powerful force caused the magma to churn and the black minerals to escape outward. Lepin, instead of retreating, rushed forward toward Khan and thrust her spear.

PAJIJIK—

As the axe missed and Khan moved forward to check Lepin, she climbed up Khan’s thigh and thrust her spear toward his heart.

Despite the lightning-fast movement that prevented Khan from properly defending, he never lost track of Lepin’s movements for even a moment.

PUEOK—!!

A stone pillar imbued with divinity shot out, piercing Lepin’s body, and her spear extended to just in front of Khan’s heart but could advance no further.

“HAAAA—!!!”

JIIIING—

But Lepin’s spear was energy itself, made of Chaos.

When she released the power contained in the spear forward, the spear disappeared and successfully pierced Khan’s chest where his heart was located.

“I’ve won, monster…”

Muuuu…

Khan, undaunted despite his pierced heart, swung his fist toward Lepin.

KWAAANG—!!!!

“KUUUT…!!”

Khan’s fist swung toward Lepin, who had let her guard down thinking the heart was gone.

Having released all the Chaos surrounding her body, Lepin was virtually defenseless, and her body exploded.

Lepin, left with only her head floating about, regenerated her body using the divine power remaining in her and clung to the wall, using spells made of magical energy and divine power to persistently target Khan’s wounded area.

JIIIING—

Light and darkness poured toward Khan’s chest, but he blocked them with his uninjured arm wrapped in lightning and attacked Lepin who was clinging to the wall.

The power of Earth detached Lepin from the wall, and the power of Thunder became a whip that wrapped around Lepin’s body.

Having exhausted all her Chaos power, Lepin hurriedly tried to combine her residual divine power and magical energy, but…

With her body burning from the lightning, she couldn’t properly proceed, and pulled by the whip, she was moved in front of Khan in the blink of an eye.

MUUUU—!!!

PAJIJIJIJK—!!

Khan’s lightning-wrapped fist delivered an uppercut to Lepin, and she shot up from the upper mantle, through the crust, and back to the surface.

Left alone, Khan first completely cut out the wounded area and then concentrated his power to attempt regeneration.

Khan succeeded in regenerating what would have been a fatal wound for an ordinary creature—the loss of a heart—thanks to his status as a demigod, and used the power of Earth to also rise to the surface.

Khan spotted a tiny dot slowly falling from the sky—Lepin, who had been sent flying high into the air by his punch and seemed to have lost consciousness.

Seeing this, Khan picked up the axe he had created and took a throwing stance.

The black mineral had now reacted to Khan’s black lightning and divinity, gradually changing to match Khan’s color.

The black axe with a slightly reddish tint now gathered what little divinity remained at its blade and flew toward the falling Lepin.

MUUUUU—!!!

The ground Khan stepped on to add force to his throw shattered, revealing the underground again, but thanks to the spot where Khan stood floating, the axe flew at an extremely fast speed…

Lepin, who had regained consciousness, succeeded in combining her remaining divine power and magical energy, drawing out her last remaining strength to throw a javelin.

A gray flash flew toward Khan, and the black-red axe, spinning round and round, struck Lepin’s body hard.

PEOGEOK—

Lepin, having used all her strength, burst upon contact with the divine-imbued axe blade about ten meters in size, meeting her final death. The Chaos Spear she had thrown disappeared right in front of Khan’s face due to its caster’s death.

BUUNG—

Khan grabbed the axe, which was spinning and about to pierce through the atmosphere, pulling it back with lightning and gripping it firmly in his fist, then looked down at the axe.

Red blood on the black-red axe blade.

MUOOOOO—!!!!

As soon as Khan saw this, he let out a victory roar that blew away all the debris on the ground.

KWAJIK—

But his immersion in victory was brief.

The sky tore open, and the celestial gate that had been destroyed by Khan reappeared after three years.

At this sudden appearance, Khan once again gripped his axe and looked at the celestial gate.

GGGGGGEUK—!!

The shattered gate that couldn’t properly open began to forcibly open.

KWAAANG—!!!

Eventually, the gate shattered, and the celestial scenery filled Khan’s four eyes.

Completely devastated, unlike three years ago when it had emitted brilliant light, the space now contained not a single point of light. As Khan was about to throw his axe again to sever the connection between heaven and earth…

KWAJIK—

There was a giant being holding onto the celestial gate and coming out.

That being was holding a trident, and the trident was so large it appeared about ten times the size of Khan’s current body.

MUOOO—!!!

Khan shouted for it not to come out and threw his axe, but the trident blocked Khan’s axe, preventing the celestial gate from being destroyed.

The one who blocked the attack was a black giant whose size matched that of the trident.

Having now pulled out his entire upper body, he looked down at Khan with red eyes.

[You… Because of you…!!! If I had known this would happen, I would never have selected my world as a playground for other gods…!!! Breaking the celestial gate to cut off the connection with the earth, then killing all the slaves who worship me…!!]

The being who emerged from the celestial gate was Uldur. Three years ago, when the celestial gate was destroyed by Khan, he could no longer deliver oracles to his followers and could only sadly look down at the earth.

But now that Khan had been released from his seal and immediately killed all his followers, completely destroying everything human that had been his support base, and even killed the last human, the Hero…

Facing the prospect of being forgotten and eliminated just as he had eliminated other gods and made them slowly fade into oblivion, he attempted to forcibly descend to the earthly realm, accepting all sacrifices.

[But it’s alright…!! If I absorb the faith directed at you, and the faith in the World Tree over there, I will once again be reborn as a complete god—!!!]

Now with his upper body completely emerged, Uldur faced Khan, who showed no fear and instead burned with fighting spirit.

KWAJIJIK—

As Khan called back his axe that had been flung far away and prepared for battle with Uldur, the sky shattered once more, revealing something red.

[What…!? An outside god invading my playground, what on earth—!!]

From the crack in the sky, something huge like a red moon appeared, casting its shadow on the ground, and tentacles shot out from this red moon, wrapping tightly around Uldur’s body.

[I am…!! Uldur, the god of Grancia—!!! To be devoured by such a thing…!!! I am not…!!]

[You’re noisy.]

Just one phrase.

With that single phrase, the tentacles that emerged from the red moon squeezed Uldur’s body even tighter, binding his upper body.

And Khan, upon hearing that phrase, froze and couldn’t do anything.

This feeling was similar to… when he had met Lassis, who was called the child of the World Tree.

Or like the feeling he had when he saw the squirrel corpse emanating from the Forest of Demonic Beasts up close.

The pressure emanating from an overwhelmingly powerful being.

[You… You are…!!]

This seemed to be the case for Uldur as well, as he couldn’t properly resist while wrapped in tentacles.

EUJIJIK—!

And the god who was Uldur was completely shattered by the tentacles, scattering divine blood on the ground.

[Not very tasty. But that’s inevitable with a lesser god…]

And the voice flowing from the red moon. Upon hearing that voice, Khan felt as if he was losing his mind.

“Mumueoeoe… (Bow to the Red Moon…)”

Khan unknowingly knelt on both knees and respectfully offered both hands, taking the posture of a worshiper offering tribute.

This was similar to how The One’s followers had gone mad from Khan’s roar and become followers of the destruction god.

“Oh my, the Moon Goddess must not reveal herself any further! Khan is still too fragile to accept your existence!”

[Hmph, I know.]

And Khan heard a voice that he had hated yet wanted more than any other, and the one called the Moon Goddess concealed her appearance in the same way as when the space had shattered.

“Ahem—! Congratulations, Khan! You are the last survivor of the Play of the Gods! We will fulfill the wish you desire, and you need only make your wish! What will you wish for!?”

The scene that Khan had been envisioning for the past three years unfolded before his eyes.