Ch.992Possibilities and Limitations

I closed my eyes as a human, and awakened the star within me to open them as a demigod.

It was a strange sensation.

As if my very existence was transforming into something completely different from before.

The blue-white star burning fiercely in my chest and the dawn-colored holy light enveloping me like translucent silk were changing every element that constituted me into something of a higher dimension.

Flesh and blood, muscle and bone, cells and soul—all of it.

Yet I was still myself.

Even in this moment when everything about me was changing, my heart remained unchanged from the moment I had found the star.

That’s why I smiled. A smile thoroughly soaked in liberation, relief, and joyful satisfaction.

– Wooooong!

The hilt of Durandal fits into my outstretched right hand.

The blue-silver blade made of true silver, Ausrine’s corpse, is instantly enveloped in golden radiance.

The surrounding space screams and tears apart merely from contact with the blade.

This wasn’t a blade of severance unleashed through the power of Karma. No, the Karma power that had accumulated within me had already transformed into something else.

What people, including myself, had called Karma was a blessing like fragments created by breaking Ausrine’s divinity.

In the fantasy of my unconscious, those were the sand-like fragments I had gathered to build stairs reaching the star.

And now.

The moment I succeeded Ausrine’s divinity and reached the status of a demigod, the Karma within me gathered to form a single star, as if returning to its original form.

A blue-white cross-shaped star.

This cross star burning white-hot in the center of my chest was the very power of Karma I had been accumulating all this time.

I probably shouldn’t call it Karma anymore. The essence of the power itself had sublimated to a higher realm, gaining characteristics completely different from the original Karma.

If I were to name it… perhaps “divine core”?

A vessel to contain divinity and a control device to manifest the divinity contained within.

This blue cross star, born from the sublimation of Karma power, was literally an organ like the heart of a demigod.

And this organ wasn’t even exerting its full power yet.

In other words, my sword tearing through space wasn’t something I was doing with my own power, but rather the manifestation of the severance ability inherent in Durandal.

Unlike before when Durandal hardly demonstrated its true capabilities, it now manifested its severance ability without delay as soon as I grasped it.

As if the five restrictions that had bound that ability had been cast aside as though they never existed.

– Sssss!

It wasn’t just Durandal.

From the surface of Frosting, which had remained intact despite the fierce battle, a snake made of ashes emerged, coiling around my left arm and undulating.

The vengeful spirit of the white snake that had dwelled inside Frosting, cursing me and everything else with the cold of the netherworld before being burned by runic flames.

It had finally awakened and was now coiling around my arm like a pet. With the netherworld’s cold completely withdrawn from me.

It was a clear sign of submission.

Durandal and Frosting. The two weapons that had accompanied me showed absolute submission and revealed their powers without reservation.

I understood why.

They say birds learn to fly without being taught? Apparently, that wasn’t limited to birds.

I could now intuitively understand. The power of the divinity of stars and dawn. The authority of a demigod of stars and how to use it.

Stars symbolize both the guidepost that illuminates the path forward and the ideal that one yearns for precisely because it cannot be reached.

The fundamental authority of the god of stars was to elevate the potential of all beings belonging to them to the extreme.

In my current state, I could at best awaken the potential of the weapons I possessed and elevate their performance to literally an ideal state…

– Wooooong!

But even with just that, Durandal cast off all restrictions and became a golden sword that cut through space without any conditions, while Frosting’s dwelling spirit emerged and submitted to me.

That must be the ideal state of these two weapons. It seemed like a useful authority in many ways.

And the other abilities—that is, the basic abilities as a demigod—I would have to test from now on.

I grasped the golden sword with both hands and smiled at Varnir Freyus, who was glaring at me with a completely dismayed expression.

“Why so serious? Why don’t you smile like before?”

As if proving that I was still myself, I taunted him in exactly the same manner as before while swinging the space-cutting sword diagonally.

“Smile.”

In the next moment, the severing slash tore through everything it touched and spread outward.

—-

– Krrrrrr!

The ground shook with a roaring sound as if an earthquake had struck.

The vacuum slash that spread like a wave cut the prison of trees in half, smashing countless giant trees to the ground.

It tore through both the power dwelling in those trees and the entire space where they were located.

The vacuum blade that had been weaker than a casually swung sword strike when approaching an opponent.

But now, I could imbue it with the power of severance, transforming it into a massive slash that cut through everything.

It wasn’t as wide-ranging as Sky Slash, but that made it more convenient to use.

“Kugh…!”

Varnir hurriedly threw himself aside to avoid the slash and ground his teeth with a groan.

“Well, you can’t block this, can you?”

I smiled faintly and raised my sword again.

He couldn’t block the vacuum slash of spatial severance I had launched and had to dodge it.

His authority of spatial fixation was limited to the green divine sword in his right hand. With that alone, he couldn’t block a vacuum slash imbued with the power of severance.

Blocking a sword with a sword is perfectly natural, but how could one block a wave with a sword?

Even if he tried to block the vacuum slash of spatial severance by swinging his green divine sword, he could only protect the area that the blade swept through.

Any part of his body outside that area would be exposed to the vacuum slash, so if he tried to block it with his sword, only the sword would remain while his body would be torn apart.

To block this, he would need to cover his entire body with a power that affects space, like the dragon that had attacked before.

Of course, if that had been possible for him, he wouldn’t have tried to dodge this slash in the first place.

I swung my sword again to launch another severing slash, and lightly kicked off the ground to charge toward him with a smile.

I was satisfied with the power of the light probing attack I had just tested.

“Come on! Say something else! That’s your specialty, isn’t it?”

The ground beneath my feet exploded as if annihilated, accelerating my body.

Even without using Defying Fate, I achieved an approach speed similar to when using it. My body, transformed into a demigod, had its capabilities extremely enhanced.

“This much…!”

Varnir thrust his divine sword into the prosthetic on his left hand and extended his left arm forward.

– Chwaaarrr!

Countless tree branches burst from the prosthetic replacing his arm, intertwining to form a massive shield.

A rectangular tower shield covering his entire body.

Perhaps because he had thrust the space-fixing sword into his prosthetic, his wooden shield was imbued with that authority.

– Thwaaaak!

Enough to perfectly block the slash imbued with the power of severance. He hid behind that shield and successfully defended against the vacuum blade.

So he won’t fall for the same technique twice.

It doesn’t matter.

I had already reached his vicinity.

“Blocking just one attack won’t change anything!”

I swung Durandal at him. He layered the tentacles on his back over his prosthetic shield to block my sword—

– Kwaaaang!

With an explosion, he was sent flying far away and crashed somewhere in the distance. Like a baseball struck by a cleanup hitter’s bat.

Fragments of the broken shield scattered like fibrous dust.

======[ Varnir Freyus ]======

“Kheok…!”

Varnir, who had been sent flying hundreds of meters, spat blood as he got to his feet.

Though he was spitting blood, it wasn’t a serious injury.

He was using the tentacles on his back to absorb the life force from the trees where he had crashed, repairing the damage to his body.

Of course, even if he could recover from injuries this way, it wasn’t a situation where he had any chance of winning.

If an attack that he had perfectly blocked still left this much damage on his body, taking a direct hit would likely result in instant death.

Every attack was a lethal threat. That’s what it meant to face a demigod with a mortal body.

Even if that opponent was still an incomplete, awkward demigod.

‘To achieve the status of a demigod by awakening divinity without completing the body to be its vessel. I never thought such a thing was possible…’

He focused his left field of vision, hidden by his hair, on Haschal Median Aishan-Gioro to perceive what kind of being she had become.

A demigod is normally a state reached by completing the body that will be the vessel for divinity, and then filling it with enough divinity to attain divine status.

However, the new demigod of stars before him had obtained the status of a demigod through the shortcut of forcibly awakening divinity despite her vessel not yet being complete.

It was impossible according to Varnir’s knowledge.

Normally, attempting to reach demigod status with an incomplete body would result in the vessel itself being unable to withstand the power of the awakened divinity and shattering.

Yet Haschal Median Aishan-Gioro stood in the air perfectly fine, with her dress of light resembling the dawn sky flowing around her.

What trick had she used to make this possible?

Varnir didn’t know, but this was thanks to Elpinel fusing a fragment of a god with her soul when she was still a soul without a body.

Haschal herself wasn’t even aware of it, but she had been with Ausrine since the moment she was born into this world.

For sixteen years since obtaining a body in this world.

Haschal’s body and soul had been gradually transforming under the influence of Ausrine’s divinity fused within her inner self throughout those sixteen years.

So that even with an incomplete body, she could adapt to the pressure of awakened divinity.

For Varnir, facing the result of this as an enemy, it was enough to make him sigh in despair.

‘Based on an incomplete vessel, she won’t match the power of a complete demigod. But…’

Incomplete or not, a demigod was still a demigod. Haschal, having awakened her divine nature, was visibly far stronger than before.

Moreover, she hadn’t simply become stronger. If that was all, Varnir wouldn’t have sighed like this.

The reason he couldn’t help but lament. That reason was…

“You’ve circumvented the restrictions of Heaven’s Wall in such an ingenious way…!”

His inner thoughts escaped as a monologue. Varnir gritted his teeth and glared at the incomplete demigod.

The trap that Elpinel had spent hundreds of years creating.

—-

Heaven’s Wall.

A vicious restriction created by Elpinel and the five ascended gods to oppose any being trying to surpass the limits they had set.

Of course, Heaven’s Wall had its limitations.

Perhaps because the wall itself was made of divinity, Heaven’s Wall could only restrict the strength of pure mortals. It couldn’t restrict divinity itself.

But that was enough.

As mentioned earlier, to properly handle the power of divinity, one must first have a body worthy of it.

Therefore, Heaven’s Wall could indirectly limit the use of divinity just by placing restrictions on the completion of the body.

With the exception of the only exception that had just been born.

‘A demigod-level enemy unaffected by the wall’s restrictions… this is a trap…!’

Varnir was certain.

The reason Elpinel and the ascended gods had created such a complex and bizarre half-baked demigod was to trap him and take revenge.

To settle a grudge from two thousand years ago.