Pain was to be remembered. Once imprinted, it couldn’t be easily shaken off.
“...It doesn’t hurt at all.” Jishuka smiled slightly as she sat in the capsule for a long time and rubbed her fingers. The pain in her fingers that overlapped every time she continuously fired—this was the worst penalty an archer had to endure. They had to feel the pain of their flesh being crushed, their muscles being ruptured, and their bones cracking throughout the battle. It might not be comparable to actual pain, but it still hurt.
Above all, it was very difficult psychologically. The longer the battle, the more times the bowstring was pulled. She knew that this pain would stay in her memories and torture her all night after she returned to reality and she sometimes wanted to run away.
Of course, she didn’t really escape. She didn’t take a step back. She didn’t complain of pain to her colleagues or show it. Even so, Grid knew her pain. After she returned from the hell expedition, he presented her with a new thimble. It was a durable thimble. It wrapped around her fingers and contained Grid’s warm consideration.
‘...You have always been paying attention to me.’
He trusted her. He thought she would be able to do well with this rough thimble.
“Good, let’s have strength.”
Jishuka enjoyed the moment for a while before standing up vigorously. On the hologram in front of the capsule, Grid’s activity was being shown. It was very cool to see him break through the crisis in some way. It was an expected performance. Just as Grid believed in JIshuka, she believed in Grid.
‘Relax and fight at ease.’
She would protect the Behen Archipelago to the end—she made this resolution as she ate the banana milk flavored calorie bar and spicy chicken flavored nuts. It was an effort to adapt to Korean tastes, although it was a distorted palate. In any case, she supplemented herself with nutrients and lay down in the capsule again.
***
The 8th Great Demon, Barbatos, presided over death. If the target was within his ‘field of view,’ he could shoot them regardless of the distance and terrain. Thus, he was called the god of death.
He was the object of actual faith. His ability to execute others beyond time and space was sufficient to make him an object of awe and worship. Unlike Sitri, who swallowed the ghosts of hell and lost his ego in exchange for gaining a power comparable to a god, Barbatos was becoming a real demon god with the worship of other demons.
...This was until Leraje became active. It was hundreds of years ago. Leraje returned with the undefeated myth from the Behen Archipelago and emerged as a new idol. Otherwise, Barbatos would have succeeded in building divinity by monopolizing the worship of demons.
In Empress Basara’s bedroom, inside the imperial palace...
‘What...’ Barbatos, who was using a place no one could’ve predicted as a sniping point, was shaken. It was because Grid kept avoiding and blocking his sniping. Grid did it while fighting Baal. He was doing the impossible.
‘Is Baal doing it half-heartedly?’
It was natural to wonder about such a thing. Barbatos was close to Baal’s faction, but he didn’t trust Baal. Baal knew clearly that he was aiming for Grid’s divinity and made it difficult on purpose. He cursed and said that there wouldn’t be another son of a bitch like this in the world. Then, suddenly—
‘...No?’ He confirmed that Baal’s face had a distorted smile.
Chill.
For the first time, a chill went down Barbatos’ spinal cord that caused him to shake.
***
The upper part of the silver threads shook greatly and sent a signal. Baal had rubbed against the silver threads in the process of charging. Thanks to this, Grid identified the location Baal was coming from even before his transcendent senses were activated. He predicted the next attack by assigning Baal’s fist techniques and personality to the trajectory he emerged from.
It was the moment when his speed and level of thinking entered the realm of a perfect genius.
“...Hahat?!” Baal burst out into uncontrollable laughter as he was hit back after his attack was blocked. His expression crumpled like a piece of paper. It wasn’t an expression of emotion. It was just that his damaged nerves changed his facial muscles.
Grid’s sword accelerated. To be exact, it seemed to be accelerating. It was due to expansion. The sword that was surrounded by mana, blood, and fighting energy rapidly increased in size and cut at Baal’s shoulder while blocking Barbatos’ sniping.
‘It is easy.’
This was Grid’s impression. This was the aftermath of the senses and intuition that was regarded as the exclusive property of geniuses. The information delivered by the silver threads of the 30 God Hands orbiting at intervals of five meters opened up a new horizon for Grid.
The senses that told him the form of attack and also the direction it flew in. It was different from his transcendent senses and Keen Insight. His transcendent senses only informed him that a threat was coming. It raised his reflexes without reading it in detail until the ‘form’ of the threat approaching was clear. Keen Insight had the prerequisite of ‘look at it with your eyes.’
These abilities were bound to be great, but they were just less convenient when compared with the ‘senses that always dominate a radius of 5 meters.’
The horizontally tilted sword dropped down and rose up. There was a sound like thunder when it slashed. Then strangely, it stopped in the middle of the rotation. It disappeared without notice. This was because the sword dance was used at unexpected timings by actively utilizing the body that ignored a certain amount of physical laws.
The swordsmanship was neither deeply devised nor systematic. It only responded to the information delivered by his senses in real time. Thus, it was even trickier. Grid’s sword dance, which had its own regularity, turned into something mysterious as it moved gracefully and fell suddenly.
‘He is a truly interesting guy.’ Baal grabbed his restless left hand and stepped back. It was only after several minutes of attacking and defending that he saw through and escaped Grid’s artificial sensory field. ‘He is stronger than the tower members.’
Baal’s face was displaying an expression of admiration that didn’t suit him. He marveled at how Grid had become a different being in just a few minutes. At the time when he gained Zik’s body, Baal checked that it was on the level of a ‘high level tower association member.’ Still, the upper dantian was comparable to his main body and he was able to control the hell moon. He decided he would enjoy it as much as he could while in the human world.
Surprisingly, the situation changed rapidly. Rather than enjoying it for a while, his fate would be decided right now.
‘There is no comparable target.’
This was the conclusion Baal came to after comparing Grid’s talent to the geniuses of previous generations. Baal had seen the birth and destruction of countless worlds. Along the way, he had witnessed and experienced more geniuses than the stars, but he thought Grid was the best. It was natural. If Madra had lived for decades more, then he might’ve been qualified to be a dragon slayer or a god killer, but the man in front of him was younger than when Madra died.
‘Has the last world finally come? Really?’
Grid struck Barbatos’ bullet that came again and urged Baal, “It is pointless to buy time. Come on, use your power.”
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There was no intention to provoke Baal. Grid was just enjoying this moment. It was thrilling to have complete control over the flow of battle and to break his limits. There was no burden.
The act of paying attention to his senses consumed a lot of concentration, but Grid’s senses were artificial. It was implemented with items, thus it consumed less concentration. It was much faster than when he solely relied on his transcendent senses. In fact, the stamina consumption dropped dramatically. Compared to the first moment when he fought Baal, the subsequent seven minute fight consumed less stamina.
“I don’t have a power.” Red magic power appeared in Baal’s smiling eyes. Then the demonic energy, which had been wrapped around his skin like armor, rose in a haze. It was reminiscent of the past Grid’s Blackening. It was a change in order to make something. Zik’s body was demonized. The arm, which seemed to be falling off, was quickly restored.
“This is the limit.”
Currently, Baal was only a fragment of a particular ego. It was impossible for him to use Baal’s power or to summon hell. It was a matter of authority that was in a completely different realm from controlling the hell moon. Baal did the best he could with his present self. He thought that was enough.
“It won’t disappoint you.”
Did the east wind blow? The demonic energy overflowing from Baal’s body shook. The wavelength was huge. A huge explosion occurred on the other side of the direction in which the demonic energy shook. Seven training grounds that fostered powerful soldiers in the empire had disappeared without a trace.
Grid, who was in that path, also disappeared.
“Uh...” From the time that Grid appeared to now—the Overgeared members, who were helping the soldiers retreat according to Lauel’s order, stiffened like stone statues. An explosion occurred in the distance and they couldn’t hear Grid’s theme song. They couldn’t even see Grid. Perhaps...
Before the speculation could be completed...
——!
A light flashed where Baal stood and Grid’s theme song played again. Baal’s appearance became blurred and it turned into a black line. It intertwined with an orange line above it. Every time the two lines collided, a late thunderous sound was heard.
“Grid!”
From the side of the imperial palace, magic was shot along with Braham’s cry that was filled with a rare passion. A huge tsunami swallowed the sky that was dyed several colors. The moment the line became a dot and the volume increased, the tsunami disappeared.
This was Baal’s mistake. As he was blocking the tsunami, meteorites fell from the sky. The tsunami, which was huge enough to swallow the sky, was just a distraction to divert his gaze.
“This...!” Vantner’s face turned pale. Perhaps it was too much to summon 10 meteorites, but Braham’s body on the terrace faltered. At this time, an explosion occurred in the palace and caused Braham to fall to the ground. Kyle chased after him while engulfed in electric currents.
He felt desperate that all eight demons in the procession chasing after him had the modifier ‘Barbatos’s subordinates.’ The series of explosions inside the palace caused part of the imperial palace to collapse. In these circumstances, Mercedes and Asmophel seemed to be engaged in a fierce battle with Barbatos.
“Dammit!” Vantner was running before he knew it. It was his job to retreat safely with the remaining soldiers, but he turned a blind eye to the mission for the first time. He thought that if he left like this, he would regret it for the rest of his life.
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“Hey! Let’s go together!”
“We are together!”
“Y-You guys...”
Vantner turned to look at the source of the voices behind him and was thrilled. It wasn’t just the Overgeared members. The allied forces were also following after him. He was risking his allies, but Vantner felt good. He was swept away by the hot friendship and lost his sense of reason.
Just then, he heard a creepy noise that didn’t fit. He looked over in surprise and saw the ice meteorites. Braham had used the last of his physical strength to reset the cooldown of Meteor. The launched Meteor fell as a mass of ice.
“This is Zik’s power. It is like Rebecca’s own strength.”
Dozens of runes that formed characters wrapped around Baal. This was followed by a desperate sight. The ice meteorites started to shatter. It was all except for one meteorite.
“......!”
Baal’s eyes widened as his face was crushed by a meteorite that fell as if it was frozen. Out of the 10 meteorites, it was one that was particularly small and made of metal. This was Grid’s willpower.
“Ohhhhh!”
Grid chased after Baal, who lost his balance and fell. The Falling Moon Sword, Linked Kill Flower Pinnacle Drop, 500,000 Army Annihilation Sword, and Divinity to reuse Transcended Linked Kill Wave Pinnacle struck Baal indiscriminately. In the process, Grid’s limbs twisted bizarrely and his wrist holding the sword broke, but Grid didn’t let go of the sword in his hand.
He gritted his teeth and stuck to it even when half his face and his chest were torn by Baal’s fierce counterattack. He awakened his fading consciousness using the flashes from the rays of light. He called the God Hands to support his wrists, waist, and shoulders.
“It is the left!”
“The shoulder is just a little bit more...!”
Using Noe and Randy as his eyes, the sword route was connected.
“...Sob sob!Kuhahahak!”Baal’s cry might be a scream or a laugh. He stopped the moment he crashed into the ground.
“......”
It was a lie-like result and no one could believe the situation. They were nervously vigilant toward Baal, who was lying down silently.
In the silence, Grid moved. The two swords that were in a state of unity due to the chain of Divinity were dismantled and returned to his inventory. He covered his ragged upper body and shaking legs with a cloak and his crushed face with a God Hand. He couldn’t show people a weak figure. It was the responsibility he should bear. It was a hero’s posture.
[The ego fragment of the 1st Great Demon, Baal, has disappeared.]