episode_0354

Eve raised her sword.

“Hoooo…”

Taking a deep breath, she gathered aether into her eyes. Countless ancient beings were reflected in her vision.

From one end of the universe to the other, they were packed densely. Tentacles, worms, grotesquely twisted beasts and natural objects. There were even things without form, appearing like Nyx’s black fog.

Their names didn’t matter to Eve.

‘There aren’t any worthwhile beings, anyway.’

Worthwhile beings. Even facing the great ancient ones, unless they were High Priest level, they weren’t worth Eve’s attention. She decided to suppress as much as possible her desire for a more life-threatening battle… a ‘venture.’

Taat-

She dashed forward. Each time her foot struck the void, the area froze, providing Eve with a foothold.

Chichichi—

“Haaaaap—!”

Eve’s ethereal sword severed a tentacle’s head. She twisted her body to avoid even spilling the strength she’d put into that strike. After circling the sword’s trajectory around her body once, she dashed again.

“Hoooo…”

Icy white frost filled the air around her. Her breath froze, scattering like snowflakes.

A blizzard raged around Eve. Each snowflake held a razor-sharp sword energy.

She walked slowly without swinging her sword further. The approaching ancient beings froze solid before they could reach Eve, turning into ice shards before immediately disintegrating into dust.

“There… are still many.”

She was exterminating the enemies very efficiently, but their numbers barely decreased. She looked to the front again. She didn’t even feel like she’d made a dent.

This level is manageable. But the important thing is…

“…I don’t have much time.”

Eve gathered aether and violently released it in all directions, with the power to freeze everything in this world.

Even if that includes time itself.

. . .

『What is this?』

『Who are you?』

『Who dares to trespass on my domain?』

『Intrude on the passage of time?』

Yog-Sothoth was deployed to the battlefield without even time to mourn the death of his children.

He opened the gate, summoning his children, but only corpses appeared. The state of the corpses showed it wasn’t an evenly matched battle. They were crushed by overwhelming power.

Clearly the work of humans who ran wild inside the passage of time. Unless they were ‘the one who opens the path,’ they’d usually get lost in the dimensional gap, so how did they find the right direction?

The power over time was truly dangerous. Of course, it wasn’t about freely wandering through time, merely stopping it for a moment, but there was no knowing how far that human would go.

The moment that sword touched Yog-Sothoth’s life, it could quite literally be a ‘matter of time.’

Thus, as the collective consciousness was intricately tangled, Nari’s offensive began.

“Can’t get distracted.”

Nari now knew everything that had happened.

Yog-Sothoth had sent a soul fragment into the black gate. That fragment ‘returned’ with his wives, subtly helping them indirectly realize that illusory world.

The fragment didn’t disappear but returned to the main body. Carrying those memories preciously.

The cause and effect of a lifetime, the accumulated aether is never insignificant. She regained her composure, having momentarily lost it to the power.

‘Looking again it’s even more f*cking awful!’

She frowned, looking down at the black sword in her right hand. This is my true nature? The very fact it made her want to deny it was proof.

It couldn’t be detached, couldn’t be avoided, eventually had to be faced, a demigod that she had to suppress and forever coexist with.

‘Fine… let’s go together. I need your power now.’

The infinite power of conquest and destruction. Nari firmly gripped her right hand and extended it forward.

『No, no, no!』

Paeak Swordsmanship, Style 1, Heat.

“Yes.”

The pitch-black slash began to tear apart Yog-Sothoth’s gate. The same went for the numerous corpses of ancient beings inside.

A power solely for destruction. Ironically, it was the power of the demon god that endangered the demon god’s existence.

He who gazes into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into him, those who fight monsters should be careful not to become monsters… and so on.

Nari scoffed.

The abyss? Monsters? Pretty is enough.

“Die already. I’m craving yukgaejang.”

『With something like this?』

『Don’t think we’ll fall!』

『We are eternal beings!』

『We exist anywhere, anytime!』

No matter how much she destroyed it, they kept appearing. Yog-Sothoth’s words weren’t boasting. He was truly an eternally living being.

His existence lies beyond this dimension. No matter how far she reached, her hand couldn’t touch him, like how a drawing on a canvas can’t harm a person.

Thus, Yog-Sothoth only felt a little resentment watching Nari rampaging within that canvas that is the universe.

That is, if the painting on the canvas wasn’t an ordinary human.

Yog-Sothoth felt true fear for the first time.

Nari on the canvas turned her head and looked directly at him. Was it merely a painting? No. If that were the case, he wouldn’t have felt this terror.

She was looking directly beyond the dimension. Her gaze directly pierced Yog-Sothoth, who was outside the universe.

“You said you exist anywhere, anytime?”

Kuduk- Kwaadduk-

“Then I…”

Tsujiik- Jjiik-

“Can find you and kill you anytime, anywhere.”

Chwaaaaaak—!

Nari appeared, tearing apart the canvas. Having emerged from the linear axis of time, she now understood time as a plane and space, freely moving.

Unlike Nyx, who was only mimicking Yog-Sothoth. She had opened a perfect time passage with her own power.

“My first attempt was during the Tenebris incident.”

That was the moment she had affirmed not only the present, but also herself in every possibility of the past and future. Even if she regretted her failures and mistakes, she swore to never deny them.

And then she felt it. Her past self dreaming of the future, her future self looking back at the past. Countless images of Nari stretched endlessly, forming a gigantic path.

“But this is my first time directly moving through it.”

Countless black gates. Nari stood before every single one of them. In the past, in the future, in nonexistent pasts and futures.

Yog-Sothoth stopped struggling. All the black gates filling the universe closed by themselves.

『The one we need to guard against was you…』

『We failed…』

『It’s over…』

『Kill her quickly!』

Countless Naris raised the Paeak Sword in their right hand.

『But it’s not only us who will die…』

『Your allies will greet him…』

『The creeping chaos…』

『This sword was wielded by the most vicious being in the universe…』

And she grinned.

“Oh really? That’s unfortunate.”

All Naris killed all Yog-Sothoths simultaneously. All the black gates vanished at once.

. . .

“Hoooo… Hoo-!”

Eve breathed heavily. Parts of her arms and legs were frozen white. At least, that’s how it appeared. In reality, her very soul was frozen.

It was a sort of overkill. Ice magic instantly strips away heat, causing rapid freezing. She poured out frost while also taking away her own heat, so Eve’s body, which was essentially a faucet, was inevitably affected.

Normally, she could use fire magic to melt the frost accumulated on her body. But, she couldn’t do that now.

Kaga-ga-ga-ga-ga-gak—

Shattering the frozen time, bursting from the abyss, nullifying the reality of her having frozen to death in a glacier, endlessly multiplying with boundless vitality, a formless existence.

“Huu-uup…!!”

To hold it back, she couldn’t stop the time freeze. The moment the frozen time broke and resumed its flow, she would have to freeze it again without fail.

Tsu-tsu-tsu-tsut-!

She had killed it hundreds of times already. But it didn’t die. It was dead and undead simultaneously.

Even stopping time created no openings. Even time became something that wasn’t stopped.

‘I understand the principle… If something threatens its existence, it just makes it undone…’

She never imagined such an otherworldly being existed. Or, rather was it even supposed to possibly exist? Its energy wasn’t that great compared to Yog-Sothoth. But a hundred, a thousand times more dangerous.

A creature designed solely for survival. Something beyond the category of creatures. Accordingly, she could only think of it as the strongest.

‘On the other side too… there’s a pretty dangerous one…’

This side can’t be breached. She had to hold it off somehow.

Eve gritted her teeth until her frozen lips bled. Desperate determination was needed.

Then, Eve’s body began to thaw.

“Need help?”

Eve smiled faintly without turning her head.

“Yes… I think I’m going to die.”

“You’re exaggerating.”

“I really do need help. But…”

She raised her arm, which was starting to melt, and pointed to somewhere in the dark universe.

“Go over there first. I’ll manage here…”

“I’ve already gone there.”

“What…?”

Eve finally turned to look at Nari. The brilliantly white Nari smiled normally.

“A… clone…?”

“Something like that.”

The words ‘I’ve already gone there,’ meant she’d sent a clone. But Nari before Eve… possessed power too complete to have made a clone.

100% pure organic Nari, the perfect original. It didn’t seem like she’d been split into two or more clones.

Before her understanding caught up, love and trust rapidly surpassed reason.

If Nari said she did, then she did.

“Then… shall we do it together again?”

“Gladly.”

Eve took Nari’s hand. A snow-white gate appeared before them.