To Hell With Being a Hero!

However, strictly speaking, that was all Wallie could do. Although he had achieved the desired goal of not letting the giant get in Chi-Woo’s way, the battle was at a standstill since the darkness giant regenerated and stood up again no matter how many times Wallie made it collapse. Frankly, it couldn’t be helped since while the mad moon fangs were powerful enough to kill a god, Wallie hadn’t awakened his divinity, which was a prerequisite for mad moon fangs to show its full power. Wallie was thus unable to tap into his full potential. Of course, even without fully awakening its power, the mad moon fang was powerful, but as time passed, this fight inevitably became more and more disadvantageous for Wallie.

While the darkness giant was the same as it had been at the very beginning, wounds began to accumulate on Wallie’s body over time. In fact, Wallie knew better than anyone that things would get difficult if nothing was changed. No, no, he needed to protect his friend and partner, but at this rate, he wouldn’t be able to do that. Then…!

“Groooowl…!” A deep growl full of murderous intent came from Wallie’s throat as he glared menacingly at the darkness giant.

* * *

The Abyss King stammered. The sight he witnessed at the center of the huge crater so completely betrayed his expectations that he was flabbergasted. He’d mobilized all the consciousness that existed inside him with that attack; he even compressed and condensed them thrice before shooting the end result out at once. He had been certain that Chi-Woo would be sprawled on the ground pathetically, but Chi-Woo was standing tall in the center of the crater with his feet firmly on the ground. Although white steam was coming up all over his body, his posture hadn’t been compromised at all.

–Even though I did this much…

It didn’t work? He didn’t even manage to burn Chi-Woo’s hair? What the hell was going on here? What was happening completely defied the Abyss King’s belief. Chi-Woo paid no heed to the Abyss King’s confusion and gently raised his head while lowering his club. The moment their eyes met, the Abyss King felt the unknown sense of anxiety that he had barely shaken off rear its ugly head again.

–Hehe. It was worth teaching you.

Philip murmured as he emerged as a spirit behind Chi-Woo’s back and smirked. The Abyss King’s attack was certainly formidable; it had gone through three stages of evolution, and the past Chi-Woo would’ve taken the attack head-on with all his potential and strength. Although there was no telling for sure how that would end, Chi-Woo wouldn’t have been completely unscathed. However, Chi-Woo smartly chose ‘resonance’, or to be more precise, he embraced the Abyss King’s attack as if he was deftly redirecting it.

The Abyss King seemed to have been too stunned to notice, but Philip clearly sensed it with his spiritual senses. There was a tremendous amount of energy swirling around Chi-Woo. The Abyss King’s energy was added to Chi-Woo’s, so Chi-Woo was emitting an even more terrifying amount of energy than before. Of course, the Abyss King’s attack was much stronger and fiercer than expected, so Chi-Woo hadn’t been able to take in all of it. Some of it had spilled out or hit him, but that much was trivial. Philip grinned.

—But I still find him irritating. You’ll have to give it back properly, okay?

The Abyss King also sensed the terrible, intangible energy flowing around Chi-Woo. Soon, the white light spread out around Chi-Woo and began to materialize into reality. When the violent fluctuation distorted even space—

Chi-Woo lightly kicked the ground. In an instant, he revealed himself to the Abyss King. Shaking the atmosphere violently, a club of light swung down diagonally.

The Abyss King wasn’t flustered, or to be more precise, he tried to stay calm. His control over and compression of the consciousness were still being maintained, so it would be different from before, but this thought…

“I’ll return it right back to you.”

—…?

Chi-Woo disappeared as soon as the Abyss King raised his head, and he saw the light shining from all directions. It was too late by the time he realized what was happening. Before his mind could register it, various streams of light that each had the power to kill even a demigod surrounded his entire body from head to toe and rushed toward the Abyss King.

—Ughuahegkuhack!

A piercing scream like a pig’s squeal burst out of the Abyss King’s mouth. Cut, stab, swing, pierce, hit, mince—was this how an animal in the slaughterhouse felt like? The Abyss King struggled to regain his senses as the club indiscriminately struck his head, shoulders, knees, and feet all over. He felt like a cloth flying in a swirling storm, and it was so powerful that his consciousnesses were gradually fading. It wasn’t an illusion as his body wasn’t able to bear it any longer and was actually being torn apart. Amidst the pain of his entire body and all his consciousnesses being dismantled, the Abyss King trembled with an unknown fear. He now understood why Bael had so desperately resisted during the great war.

—Ughhh…!

The Abyss King was frantically resisting like Bael at that time. However, he soon found to his shock that his body was not recovering; or to be more exact, it was recovering, but it was ripping and tearing apart as soon as it regenerated. Chi-Woo’s attacks were overwhelmingly faster and more powerful. At this rate, he might really be extinguished. No, this could not be his end. A possibility had finally opened up for him, and all there was left was for him to become the heavens. He couldn’t disappear in vain like this.

Since his mind had long become unsound, when his consciousness quickly faded, the Abyss King thoughtlessly reconnected a line that had been deliberately cut off—his connection with the Sernitas.

* * *

The Abyss King’s renewed connection was also unexpected for the Sernitas. There had been no contact between them, but the connection was suddenly rekindled. Moreover, the Sernitas had felt the Abyss King’s information change dramatically at some point in the past, but the connection was one-sidedly cut off before they could analyze it. The Sernitas were baffled by the sudden turn of events. They were one but many and many but one, and they didn’t have the concept of a main body. However, how did an independent individual cut off their connection to them on his own? Something like this would have never happened normally, and the Sernitas fell into deep thought.

First of all, something definitely happened to the Abyss. They wondered if they should resume external activities to find out more about this phenomenon, or stay like this and focus on their original goal. After exchanging opinions among themselves, more were in favor of the former. This was because they had made an extremely strong move and gone as far as locking themselves up to deal with Chi-Woo, but they hadn’t made any significant progress.

They realized that the current information they had obtained from the great war was insufficient. Thus, they needed to find a new way by combining existing and new information. Still, none of the methods could guarantee even a 50% winning rate. The conclusion they then reached was that the information they currently had was not enough. So even if they had to take risks, they needed to go look for new information. Their opinions were slowly tilting toward this idea, and if things went on like this, they would need to clash with the Cassiubian League forces, who were keeping watch on the Sernitas.

The Sernitas were really on the verge of starting a military campaign after accepting that opinion. However, a strong survival instinct was suddenly transmitted to them from the outside, and the broken connection was restored. The Sernitas hurriedly analyzed the situation and were a bit dumbfounded by what the Abyss King had done on his own. Even in their perspective, the Abyss King had gone too far, to the extent that it was hard for them to understand why he made such a risky and dangerous move.

The Sernitas were taken aback, but as a collection of countless consciousnesses, they immediately analyzed the situation and soon reached a conclusion. The dire situation that the Abyss King faced was like rain in drought to the Sernitas, who were severely lacking in information. This was a valuable opportunity to get Chi-Woo’s information when their understanding of him was almost nonexistent. Of course, their optimism was restrained as they had been beaten hard by Chi-Woo before.

The Abyss King had made a lot of attempts and made some outrageous moves, but still, the power difference between him and Chi-Woo was evident. There was only one thing for the Sernitas to do here. They’d help the Abyss King as requested and get as much information as they could by making him live as long as possible. As a result…

* * *

—Heughhh…!

The Abyss King felt an unprecedented power spring up inside him at the same time an enormous number of new consciousnesses were connected to him. Chi-Woo also felt the change in the Abyss King. He had attacked with the intention of ending the Abyss King with this final blow, but the Abyss King suddenly began to regenerate at a terrifying speed after being ripped apart. The torn pieces began to interweave and merge before being restored to their original form.

—It suddenly…feels like there are a lot of spectators.

As Philip said, Chi-Woo suddenly sensed countless gazes staring at this place. It was obvious who those gazes belonged to. The Sernitas, who had been quiet all this time, must have finally intervened when the Abyss King seemed close to dying.

—Acck!…! Ackkack…!

The Abyss King seemed to have difficulty even speaking properly. He looked extremely unstable as his body constantly shook while he made choking noises, as if he was really going to blow up like this. Then the Abyss King actually exploded. His body suddenly swelled up to an exponential size and—

—Ackkkkkkkkkkk!

Like a massive fountain, it burst and shot out darkness, and in an instant, their surroundings darkened. If Chi-Woo’s vision was considered dim before, it felt like the whole world was now drenched in darkness. The fog, wasteland, crater, and even the Abyss King disappeared in the darkness. Chi-Woo found himself in a place so dark that it was in stark contrast with La Bella’s white space.

Chi-Woo tried to locate the Abyss King when he suddenly looked down and realized that the blood flowing through his body was reacting to the surrounding environment and starting to boil. It was the first time his divine blood was responding so much that he was a bit taken aback. Additionally, he was hearing an incomprehensible whisper. It sounded as if there were hundreds and even thousands were murmuring at once, and it rang from all sides and disrupted his hearing. The consciousnesses spewed outside flew around like crazy and spat out vengeful curses.

Only then did Chi-Woo realize why his divine blood had reacted so strongly and that there was no need for him to look for the Abyss King. Each and every consciousness that plunged the Astral World in blackness made up the Abyss King, and it seemed as if the Astral World itself had assimilated with him. Chi-Woo, who had been standing tall, suddenly flinched and withdrew. Something invisible and hidden in the darkness landed on where he had just been standing. He didn’t know what it was, but could sense the powerful venom coming from it. Since Chi-Woo didn’t even budge at the outpouring curses, one consciousness seemed to have sprayed poison at him.

The entire world was filled with a malice that wished and desired Chi-Woo’s death. Over time, their methods got more intense and violent. Chi-Woo was able to stand normally because he had raised his ability, Divine Blood, to rank A, but any other hero would’ve turned into a handful of blood in less than a second; that was how evil and full of malice this space was.

—Well…I don’t think it’s a good idea to stay here for long.

Philip looked around the dark space and quietly muttered, and Chi-Woo strongly agreed because he felt like his body was going to melt because of his gradually heating divine blood.

—Then…?

Philip punched the air and asked.

“No.” However, Chi-Woo shook his head. It was only a very small amount, but it was true that he could use that power inside him in a more stable way than before. Still, he didn’t want to use it yet. Should he say that it would feel like he was using it as a crutch if he tapped into it when facing a danger of this magnitude? But above all, it was time for his training inside the Image Representation space to pay off.

“Though the user information said I should be extremely careful with it since frequent use could deteriorate my personality…” Since the situation called for it, there was no getting around it. In order to deal with a corrupt and fallen world, he needed power of equal magnitude, and with his class being Saint, he had the power to change the world. Chi-Woo tightened his grip on the ghost-busting club and tilted his head. Soon after, with the activation of Chi-Woo’s class ability [Stigmata S], light bloomed in the darkness.