Ch.96Ep.96 The Enemy Was Close

“Over here, now!”

“Damn it! What the hell is going on here?!”

Arsia directed Elysse, who was running toward her with an urgent expression while carrying Radios on her back.

The development of the situation began with Namgung Ihyun’s contact.

Azathoth’s betrayal and the appearance of Chaos.

And the resulting life-threatening crisis for Radios.

Fortunately, Poseidon was able to open a path to the Underworld; otherwise, something truly terrible could have happened.

“His pulse is normal! Brain waves are steady, and I don’t sense any internal injuries!”

[Thanks to Serena. That guy sacrificed his soul to heal Radios.]

“Veichel is the bigger problem! Most of the power occupying her body has completely disappeared, and her internal organs are damaged.”

Brina gasped after examining Veichel’s condition.

She had been steadily accumulating the powers of numerous gods in her body through the Outer Devouring.

But when Chaos left her body with the power of Outer Devouring, she suffered severe internal injuries.

Her physical body had developed robustness proportional to her explosively increased magical power.

But just as a building collapses when the central pillar is removed,

When the Outer Devouring power that was her main source of strength disappeared, she was hovering between life and death.

“We need to heal her first! Leave Radios to Father and let’s focus on her!”

“Yes!”

As Arsia and Brina rushed to help Veichel recover,

And as Elysse was about to call for Kraud,

“Azathoth and Chaos… they were on the same side all along…”

Poseidon questioned the true intentions of the two gods who possessed the Ascended Order and had finally revealed their true colors.

Clearly, while Radios was Azathoth’s apostle, he didn’t act like Azathoth’s puppet.

Nevertheless, his actions themselves had benefited Azathoth.

So why would Azathoth abandon his apostle and team up with Chaos?

‘If Chaos were on Olympus’s side, it wouldn’t make sense. He appeared when the situation was almost over.’

Based on the circumstances, Chaos must have appeared when they defeated Hemera after she awakened her Ascended Order.

‘Then what is his true intention? Azathoth still has one fragment—’

As Poseidon’s thoughts turned to the fragment, he began to understand why Azathoth had abandoned Radios now.

“This is going to be… much more dangerous than expected…”

Chaos undoubtedly possessed the power from his prime.

After all, he had never been backstabbed by anyone and had hidden his existence of his own accord.

However, Azathoth had been split into four fragments containing his consciousness.

Radios possessed Replication and Infinity, and Chaos had absorbed all the Blood Iron through Outer Devouring.

Since they were on the same side, Azathoth currently possessed three fragments.

If the Divine Fragment: Intervention, which Yog-Sothoth possessed, were to fall into his hands…

‘We would have to face two beings with Ascended Order.’

One was already overwhelming, but two? And not just any two, but Azathoth, the origin of the Outer Universe, and Chaos, the origin of Olympus?

Impossible. If the situation deteriorated that far, there would be no means to stop them.

They had to prevent the fragment from falling into Azathoth’s hands somehow.

‘But how? There’s no way I can stop a being with Ascended Order.’

He didn’t even know the coordinates of the Outer Universe.

No matter how much Poseidon possessed a Divine Order, he was no match for beings with Ascended Order.

Moreover, he didn’t know the true intentions of the Outer Gods under Yog-Sothoth.

‘There must be some who oppose Yog-Sothoth’s regime.’

Anyone could see that Yog-Sothoth seemed impatient, like someone desperate to accomplish something.

Wasn’t it obvious from the countless worlds he had stained with blood?

There must be Outer Gods who wanted to overthrow Yog-Sothoth’s regime.

And if he had to pick one, only one name came to mind.

“The Witch of Dreams… if it’s her.”

If it was Idra, who lived her life solely for amusement, the famous Witch of Dreams,

She might cooperate in backstabbing the Creator and focus on resurrecting the Creator.

Simply because it would be interesting.

Poseidon glanced at Brina and Arsia, who were concentrating on the recovery.

They were beings with the potential to awaken their Divine Order.

‘I have two options: help them realize their potential, or cooperate with Yog-Sothoth.’

It would be natural to choose the option with higher probability, but he couldn’t tell which one that was.

How could he make a choice when one fragment was in danger of being stolen right now?

It would be difficult for just him and Kraud to help Yog-Sothoth.

If Idra’s personality was as he knew it, she would have already recruited Nyarlathotep.

Three beings with Divine Order facing two beings with Ascended Order and two with Divine Order.

They naturally wouldn’t stand a chance.

Just then,

“Lord Poseidon! We need water! I’m sorry, but could you please…!”

“Yes, of course.”

The water he created was pure natural water without any impurities.

Since there was no better water for treating patients than Poseidon’s,

She filled a large jar with an enormous amount of water.

Watching this, Poseidon was able to make up his mind about what he should do.

It would be more beneficial to nurture what they didn’t have than to struggle not to lose what they already had.

‘I never thought I’d see the day when I’d be rooting for Yog-Sothoth.’

Please, even if just for one week.

Please hold on and don’t let Azathoth take the fragment.

After making this wish to the heavens,

Poseidon planned to train Arsia and Brina to awaken their Divine Order within a week.

What if they couldn’t awaken within that time?

Well, how should he put it?

He had a feeling they wouldn’t be able to save the world.

‘So wake up quickly. You occupy a large portion of our hope, Radios.’

Looking at Radios, who kept his eyes tightly shut despite having no problems,

Poseidon strengthened his resolve to succeed.

**********

BOOM!

The boundary where only one exists across past, present, and future.

There, Yog-Sothoth, who had absorbed all the powers of the Elder Gods except for Oryx and Yad-Tatagg, was glaring at Idra with cold eyes.

“As expected. You lot can’t be trusted.”

“Wow… did you climb to that position by devouring all those fellow gods?”

“Yes. It took too long to break all the concepts I knew and redefine them.”

As Yog-Sothoth said this with a fantastic smile,

Idra gritted her teeth, realizing she had missed one crucial fact.

‘This guy. I didn’t expect him to awaken the Ascended Order just by absorbing the Elder Gods’ power.’

Moreover, he had actively used the power of the Divine Fragment: Intervention to awaken his Ascended Order.

He used the fragment’s power of intervention to completely incorporate all the absorbed power into his body.

What does this mean?

It means he didn’t consider external threats at all and only looked after himself.

Although he couldn’t trust Idra and Nyarlathotep,

He had expected it would take quite some time to overcome the fear they held toward the being called Yog-Sothoth.

And that expectation was exactly right.

“Very well. Since you tried to betray me, I have no choice but to deal with you.”

RUMBLE.

As Yog-Sothoth casually emitted energy, the air pressure rose, making it gradually harder to breathe.

“Kack! Idra! This wasn’t part of the plan! Now that he’s awakened the Ascended Order…!”

“Shut up! They’ll be here soon! We just need to hold out until then!”

Thinking an attack would come soon, Idra used her Divine Order of Dreams to blind Yog-Sothoth’s eyes.

Nyarlathotep, unable to deviate from the path he had chosen,

Helped Idra by using his Divine Order of Chaos to completely seal Yog-Sothoth’s movements.

Oryx and Yad-Tatagg, who had already been persuaded, also helped them.

But he, who had been standing still and exposed to their attacks, smiled eerily as if nothing was wrong.

“To think I was afraid of attacks like these… how pathetic!”

CRASH!

When Yog-Sothoth clapped his hands, a massive shockwave engulfed Idra’s group.

“Kuhack!”

Idra let out a death cry and rolled on the ground, unable to resist with her Divine Order or anything else.

‘Damn it! To think he can use such power with just a clap after awakening the Ascended Order!’

At this point, she wondered if Azathoth’s backstabbing was also for amusement.

As someone who knew some of the truth, she had heard that Azathoth didn’t know he would really be backstabbed.

He saw signs but thought it would never happen.

When he actually saw it coming, he just let it happen.

‘Moreover, part of that power is what Father possesses…’

She didn’t know when Azathoth and Chaos would come to help.

If they didn’t come, that would be disastrous, but they had to come.

Azathoth needed to perfectly restore his power.

And for that, he desperately needed the power of the fragment.

“We buy time until Father arrives. No matter what happens, we can’t let Yog-Sothoth escape.”

At Idra’s words, Nyarlathotep, Oryx, and Yad-Tatagg steeled their resolve.

But Yog-Sothoth found them utterly insignificant.

“How boring. I think it’s time to end this.”

He reached his hand toward the sky, and a silver crescent blade, the Crescent Blade of Barzai, appeared in his hand.

“Die.”

SLASH!

And the slash he casually swung,

RUMBLE!

Gloriously tore apart all of space.