Chapter 210: The Distorter

Graham stood motionless, silently glaring at Kim Jinsung.

But despite his outward calmness, he was inwardly frantic.

‘I pressed the emergency button, but…’

He channeled Mana into his watch, his heart pounding with anxiety.

Graham and other high-ranking Paladins wore special watches that could activate an emergency alarm anywhere, anytime, just by channeling Mana into them.

There was a reason why they wore these cheap, Paladin-exclusive watches instead of expensive, fancy ones.

‘…But there’s no response.’

He had been channeling Mana into the watch for a while, but there was no sound from inside the Paladin headquarters. The loud, piercing alarm should have been blaring by now.

‘It’s one of two things. Either the watch is broken, or Kim Jinsung has already taken complete control of this room.’

But the chances of the sturdy, Paladin-exclusive watch malfunctioning were practically zero.

The latter was more likely. Especially considering that he had already altered the dimension of the room. It was highly probable that Kim Jinsung had completely isolated the room from the outside world.

It was common knowledge that communication from other dimensions was blocked when the dimension shifted.

‘This puts me in the same situation as Finlay.’

He had ended up in a one-on-one situation.

He couldn’t help but smile wryly.

All his efforts to capture Ukobachi, including Kim Jinsung, had been rendered useless by the presence of a spy.

He felt a sense of futility.

‘…But there’s one difference.’

His eyes glowed with his unique Mana color, white.

He was activating his Mana at full power.

‘I’m not Finlay. I’m Graham!’

White Mana erupted from his body,

causing the air in the room to change drastically.

“……!”

Kim Jinsung’s eyes widened slightly.

He felt the air in the office, which had been completely transformed into his own dimension, shifting again.

It was because of the white Mana emanating from Graham’s body.

‘Is that the power of dimensions?’

He thought, watching Graham’s white Mana engulfing more than half of the office.

To push back a shifted dimensional space, you needed an even stronger dimensional power.

And Graham possessed the power to transform the dimension into his own.

‘If my power level was even slightly lower, this room would have already been transformed into Graham’s dimension.’

Graham was thinking the same thing.

“…Impressive.”

He finally spoke, praising Kim Jinsung.

“No one has been able to withstand my ‘Dimensional Shift’ in recent years…”

His gaze shifted towards the black Mana near the wall, which was resisting the expansion of his white Mana.

Because of that persistent black Mana, his first plan to completely transform the office into his home ground had failed.

“But I’ve still managed to transform more than half of this room into my dimension.”

As he spoke,

a portion of the white Mana surrounding him suddenly shot towards Kim Jinsung.

Like a laser beam.

Kim Jinsung reacted instantly, dodging the attack by twisting his body.

He then deliberately moved his left hand towards the laser.

‘Let’s see how strong it is.’

▶ Activated the skill ‘Indestructible Body’.

As soon as he activated Indestructible Body, the laser grazed his left hand.

He felt a sharp pain and looked at his hand,

“……!”

And saw his index finger flying through the air, severed.

It had been severed just by a graze.

Considering his current defense stats with Indestructible Body activated, it was as if the attack had completely ignored his defense.

‘It’s the same feeling I got when I first encountered Void.’

He remembered how his defenses had been effortlessly pierced by Void in the past and realized that

Graham’s white Mana possessed the same otherworldly power as Void.

‘I have to dodge it at all costs.’

As he was thinking, his severed index finger had already regenerated.

“…Your regeneration ability is truly remarkable, as rumored.”

Graham said, witnessing the scene.

“But it doesn’t matter. The power of dimensions is strong enough to obliterate a person in an instant.”

As soon as he finished speaking, he fired countless white lasers.

They moved at the speed of light, but

‘They’re slow.’

Kim Jinsung thought to himself and started dodging all the attacks with swift movements.

His evasion speed, enhanced by the ‘Flash’ trait, was literally the speed of light.

He was too fast for the dimensional lasers, which were only ‘as fast as’ light.

The problem was that Graham already knew this.

“Is that Henrique’s ability?”

He asked, continuing to fire lasers.

“Henrique’s movements were just as fast as yours.”

“You’re using such a pathetic attack even though you know?”

Kim Jinsung taunted him, asking nonchalantly.

He knew that his identity, abilities, and everything else had been revealed to the New Continent.

“I was expecting something amazing from the one who can freely manipulate dimensional powers, but this is disappointing.”

“Of course this isn’t all I can do!”

Graham shouted.

At that moment, the laser that was about to hit Kim Jinsung suddenly transformed into a sphere.

The sphere expanded rapidly, and

Kim Jinsung instinctively realized,

‘It’s going to explode!’

**Boooom!**

The realization and the explosion happened almost simultaneously.

But that split-second difference saved his life.

“Phew…! That was close.”

He pretended to sigh in relief, exaggerating his movements.

But more than two-thirds of his head was gone, blown away by the explosion.

“Anyone else would be dead by now.”

He continued, while Graham stared at him silently.

“…Was that a clone?”

He asked in a low voice.

Seeing him alive and well despite his head being blown off, anyone would suspect that it was a clone, not his real body.

“Unfortunately, no.”

“…?”

Graham’s eyebrows twitched.

Anyone who didn’t know about the ‘Living Zombie’ trait, which Kim Jinsung had acquired by killing Karen, would react the same way.

But Kim Jinsung didn’t bother explaining. And he didn’t have time to explain either.

**Boooom!**

Another explosion erupted right next to him.

Graham had launched another ‘Dimensional Explosion’ attack.

But Kim Jinsung was prepared this time.

“I won’t fall for the same trick twice.”

After the explosion subsided, his voice came from the wall behind Graham.

He materialized from the wall, grinning.

“Do you know what ability this is? Guess.”

“Finlay’s?”

“Correct.”

He had transformed his body into iron dust at the moment of the explosion and absorbed himself into the surrounding walls.

Most of the iron dust had been obliterated by the explosion, but it didn’t matter. He could survive even if only a small portion was absorbed.

His current body was the metal walls of the office.

“Here’s a gift for you.”

He extended his palms, and

Graham’s eyes widened as he saw a black sphere and a white sphere forming in his hands.

‘Incrucio!’

He had seen it in the footage recovered from Juan’s armor after the Newbie Showdown incident.

His current posture was exactly the same as the one before the ‘Incrucio’ attack, where he had combined Demonic Energy and Heavenly Energy and detonated them.

“You’re not the only one who can use explosion attacks.”

As soon as he finished speaking, he launched the two spheres towards Graham.

The spheres collided right in front of Graham, and

**Boooom!**

A powerful explosion erupted, engulfing the office.

It was far more powerful than the ‘Dimensional Explosion’ Graham had created earlier.

But surprisingly, the aftereffects of the explosion vanished quickly, much faster than the ‘Dimensional Explosion’.

“……!”

Kim Jinsung’s eyes widened as he saw the scene after the explosion subsided.

A giant black hole.

A black hole, large enough to cover more than half of the office, had formed right in front of Graham.

“Dimensional Black Hole.”

Graham, seemingly unharmed, spoke from behind the black hole.

“It sucks everything into another dimension. It even absorbed the Incrucio explosion and transported it to another dimension.”

“!!”

“Did you think I wouldn’t prepare for your Incrucio attack after two weeks?”

He smirked, taunting Kim Jinsung, but Kim Jinsung was too focused on the black hole to hear him.

‘I forgot. He can freely open any dimension.’

Seeing the black hole, he remembered Graham’s true ability.

‘Distorter’.

He could distort countless dimensions and use them for both offense and defense.

That was Graham’s nickname.

‘I never imagined he could create a black hole that sucks my attacks into another dimension.’

He was genuinely impressed.

He was the leader of all Paladins and one of the top ten strongest Rankers in the New Continent for a reason.

“This is the real beginning, Kim Jinsung.”

As Graham spoke,

the dimensions on both sides behind him started to split open.

“I’ll show you the true power of the ‘Distorter’.”

The rifts grew larger.

The problem was that the Mana colors emanating from the two rifts were completely different.

“Have you ever wondered why I sent all the other Paladin executives outside, even if it meant I had to stay here alone?”

He grinned wickedly at Kim Jinsung.

“Because I can receive military support from the ‘Contaminators’ in other dimensions!”

As soon as he shouted, beings of various shapes and sizes started emerging from the rifts.

Some of them were familiar to Kim Jinsung.

‘The Ard and Mantodea tribes…’

The Ard tribe, who resembled hyenas, and the Mantodea tribe, who looked like praying mantises.

They were all ‘Contaminators’ he had encountered in the demon world dungeon where the Colosseum finals had been held.

‘I never thought I’d see them in reality.’

He saw even more beings of various shapes and sizes emerging from the rifts.

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