Isis was on her knees and on the verge of dying. Both her arms were drooping, with blood dripping down her chin.
Her messy hair had traces of being torn around. And Asura was no longer disappointed.
“To think I felt haunted by this trash.”
However imperfect she was, Isis was nothing more than a worm to him. He couldn’t understand the fact that such a person inherited the power of one of the three Gods who ruled Vedas in the past. 1
It was clear that Shiva lost most of his memories in his last moments. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have given his strength to this unqualified person.
“Enough, die.”
Asura swung one of his weapons. He intended to cut off her head.
‘Do you plan to fall here?’
Isis saw Shiva with his hands behind his back in a world where time seemed to have stopped.
Was this a dream?
When she said nothing, Shiva went close to her and said,
‘You are my chosen warrior. The second generation’s God of War, the Trinity of Vedas, and the King of the Demigods You are not weak, so get up.’
‘But I cannot win over Asura.’
‘Asura is strong. That guy is a lot stronger than the former Asura, but it is fine, Asura has challenged me to numerous fights, but he has never surpassed me.’
‘That is because you are strong too…’
‘You think you are borrowing my power. And because it isn’t your own power, you think you cannot win against Asura. However, that is wrong.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘That strength is no longer mine. It is yours alone, so do not limit your growth. Break through the limit you have set and move beyond it. Then show me who you are as the God of War whom Asura’s body fears.’
Then Shiva gently pushed Isis on the back.
‘Show me, and then come back.’
Asura’s sword was aiming for her neck, and at that moment, Isis thought the movement felt so slow.
It was odd.
It was a speed that she couldn’t respond to until then, but now it seemed quite slow.
Isis was still weak, but she thought she could avoid it.
After slightly turning her body to the side, she stepped on the ground with heavy steps and stood up.
Swish!
There was a sharp crackling sound in her ears. Asura saw the weapon cut through the air and was shocked.
“Avoided it?”
Until just then, she was nothing more than a corpse, so he just swung it in a lazy manner, but he didn’t think she would dodge it.
And that wasn’t all.
‘I missed the move for just a second? Me?’
It had been Isis who seemed slow a second before and swift the next, but now Asura couldn’t even see her movements despite his excellent vision.
He glared at Isis, who stood a little far away. She still had her head down and her arms drooping.
He couldn’t feel anything from her. Isis was exhausted, and so was her strength. She was so weak that a push of a finger could make her collapse.
‘Is this a coincidence?’
He did hear about strange things happening before death, and when he thought Isis might be going through it, it seemed funny to him.
“Are you planning to use your last ditch effort? That is interesting in its own way.”
A strong curiosity arose in him when the boring opponent had an unexpected side. Born only to fight, Asura licked his tongue.
“It only became fun at the end. Come now. I will watch your last struggle.”
“Aggression…”
Then Isis slowly raised her head. Her eyes were bloody, and she couldn’t see what was in front of her.
But she could still feel where the opponent was.
“In this state, it would be difficult for you to hold your face up in front of Jamie.”
It was a position she expected but had to live up to. She still couldn’t recognize whether Shiva, who appeared in front of her now, was real or an illusion.
But what he said touched her.
“This is my strength.”
Although Shiva did hand it over, she always thought it wasn’t hers. So it felt like she had been put in shackles alone.
It was too late, but she was glad to have realized it now.
If she hadn’t, it would have been really irreversible.
Isis spoke in a weary voice,
“Let’s finish this quickly.”
“If you want to, I can kill you in one hit.”
Asura raised his six weapons and moved toward Isis. He was so fast that not even a trace remained. And in an instant, Asura reached out to Isis and stabbed her with his six weapons. Meanwhile, Isis just looked at the flying weapons with wide eyes.
Puak!
It was the sound of digging into her clothes, and Asura looked at Isis with a blank look. Blood trickled down her mouth.
“Interesting. At the last minute.”
“Asura, not even once…”
Isis said as she pulled out her fist from Asura’s chest.
“…have you crossed the God of War.”
“Tsk.”
Asura collapsed as he clicked his tongue. While looking at the fallen Asura, Isis lost consciousness and collapsed.
Jeok Jun-kyung wiped off the blood from his sword with a cloth.
“I don’t know if your reincarnated body isn’t that good, or your skills have gone rusty.”
Diomedes gasped and grabbed his stomach. The cut was pretty deep.
The blood that was falling from his hand didn’t stop. It was because of Jeok Jun-kyung’s ability.
‘Bleeding.’
It was simple, but the ability had the best impact against swordsmen.
Compared to other splendid powers, it may not seem that great, but since the owner of the ability was Jeok Jun-kyung, the story changes.
He was the strongest swordsman who brought the warriors of his time to their knees with just one sword, and was his own teacher.
‘I thought I’d caught up a bit.’
In his previous life, he wasn’t so far behind Jeok Jun-kyung.
It was because Diomedes was superior to Jeok Jun-kyung in terms of talent, but he couldn’t catch up because he died.
The problem was that right now, Jeok Jun-kyung was stronger than before.
“You got something from Ra?”
“Did I get something? As if.”
Jeok Jun-Kyung smiled as he began to move his sword in the air.
“I cannot do that. You learned the sword from me, and you ask me such a question?”
“…right.”
Jeok Jun-kyung was someone who was obsessed with strength more than anyone else. Even during the Resistance, he was the only man who didn’t get pushed back by Diablo and constantly trained to go shoulder-to-shoulder with him.
However, he was extremely against the idea of receiving help from others.
He was the type of person who believed he had to work hard on his own to become stronger. So there was no way he’d accept Ra’s help.
“Dio, old colleague. Come to me now.”
Dio frowned at these sudden words.
“You changed, what happened to your mind?”
“You do not understand the truth of the world. If you stay here, you will live your life being deceived.”
“I don’t know what nonsense you heard from Ra, but since you came back to life, you seem to have forgotten everything about the past, huh?”
“Many of my comrades died in the fight against the 12 Gods. I don’t know about you, but I woke up after sleeping for tens of thousands of years. Do you know what that means?”
When Diomedes didn’t respond, he said with a bitter look,
“To me, that day feels like yesterday.”
Diomedes’s eyes shook a little.
“My comrades died just yesterday. You died in front of me, Jane died. Diablo was missing.”
“Then why?! Why did you have to go under that bastard when you can recall such memories!”
He couldn’t understand it.
If his mind was still in the days of the past, shouldn’t he hate Ra?
Right after waking up, it was clear that he had been brainwashed by Ra. But now it didn’t seem like it, then…
Jeok Jun-Kyung shook his head at his angry voice.
“I was thinking about killing him too. How can I hold back when the enemy is right in front of me? But the thing is, Dio.”
After staying quiet for a second, he opened his mouth as if he was saying a secret.
“Would you believe it if we were to fight for the enemy?”
“For the enemy? Are you talking about the 12 Gods who are our enemies?”
“I’m sure it is difficult to understand. It was the same for me. But that is the truth.”
“As I thought, you were brainwashed by Ra.”
“It would have been better if that happened. At least that means everything I know is a lie too. Too bad it isn’t.”
“What are you even saying? If you have something to say, say it directly!”
“Simply put, this world is fake.”
“Then are you saying there is a first world?”
He had already heard about it from Jamie.
The world they were in now was the second world, and the first one was under Ra’s control. They were shocked, but it wasn’t a reason to side with the Gods.
But Jeok Jun-kyung shook his head.
“No.”
“Then what do you mean by fake?”
“The whole world. The first and second are both fake.”
“…?”
“Your parents, friends, allies, the enemies, and even you. All of those are fake.”
“What nonsense is this? Why is everything fake?”
“Because Gaia did it. It happened a long time ago, at the time when the world was born. Gaia sacrificed two beings, who were trying to create a world with her to create a pillar, and she created a world that could fulfill her own ideals. A world that is like a toy that she can build and destroy like a sand castle whenever she wants. Do you get what I’m saying?”
To be honest, he didn’t understand it.
Diomedes wasn’t smart, and he couldn’t fully understand this kind of cosmic story.
And with a face as if he already knew that, Jeok Jun-kyung said,
“To put it simply, we are just empty bodies. Like dolls with a bit of free will.”
When he first heard about it, he didn’t believe it.
However, Ra constantly came up with reasons to convince him, and they were all undeniable.
It was shocking, as if the sky collapsed. It was hard to believe that he had been protecting a lie.
“All of this is Gaia’s play. If she wants it, the world will go back to the beginning and start anew. So the Sun God is stopping that. He will take away the control from Gaia and infuse the reality into this world of lies. So come over here.”
Hearing that, Diomedes looked shocked.
“You moron.”
“What?”
“How is all of this fake?”
“This is all created by Gaia…”
“The food you taste, the scent you smell. The calluses on your palm from sword training, the emotions like laughing and talking nonsense. The sadness at the death of our comrades. You call all of that fake?”
Diomedes shouted at the top of his throat.
“You have really gone insane, you bastard!”
Kwang!!
A huge explosion rose.
“Diablo, Jane, Maymil, you and me. Does this mean everything we have done together is all fake?!”
Jeok Jun-kyung frowned as he felt his skin cut.
Diomedes changed. He became more powerful than before.
“I will rip out your rotten brain and fix it.”
“Think about whether the pain you will feel from now on is also fake.”
Unable to find an agreement, the two clashed again.
Isis was on her knees and on the verge of dying. Both her arms were drooping, with blood dripping down her chin.
Her messy hair had traces of being torn around. And Asura was no longer disappointed.
“To think I felt haunted by this trash.”
However imperfect she was, Isis was nothing more than a worm to him. He couldn’t understand the fact that such a person inherited the power of one of the three Gods who ruled Vedas in the past. 1
It was clear that Shiva lost most of his memories in his last moments. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have given his strength to this unqualified person.
“Enough, die.”
Asura swung one of his weapons. He intended to cut off her head.
‘Do you plan to fall here?’
Isis saw Shiva with his hands behind his back in a world where time seemed to have stopped.
Was this a dream?
When she said nothing, Shiva went close to her and said,
‘You are my chosen warrior. The second generation’s God of War, the Trinity of Vedas, and the King of the Demigods You are not weak, so get up.’
‘But I cannot win over Asura.’
‘Asura is strong. That guy is a lot stronger than the former Asura, but it is fine, Asura has challenged me to numerous fights, but he has never surpassed me.’
‘That is because you are strong too…’
‘You think you are borrowing my power. And because it isn’t your own power, you think you cannot win against Asura. However, that is wrong.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘That strength is no longer mine. It is yours alone, so do not limit your growth. Break through the limit you have set and move beyond it. Then show me who you are as the God of War whom Asura’s body fears.’
Then Shiva gently pushed Isis on the back.
‘Show me, and then come back.’
Asura’s sword was aiming for her neck, and at that moment, Isis thought the movement felt so slow.
It was odd.
It was a speed that she couldn’t respond to until then, but now it seemed quite slow.
Isis was still weak, but she thought she could avoid it.
After slightly turning her body to the side, she stepped on the ground with heavy steps and stood up.
Swish!
There was a sharp crackling sound in her ears. Asura saw the weapon cut through the air and was shocked.
“Avoided it?”
Until just then, she was nothing more than a corpse, so he just swung it in a lazy manner, but he didn’t think she would dodge it.
And that wasn’t all.
‘I missed the move for just a second? Me?’
It had been Isis who seemed slow a second before and swift the next, but now Asura couldn’t even see her movements despite his excellent vision.
He glared at Isis, who stood a little far away. She still had her head down and her arms drooping.
He couldn’t feel anything from her. Isis was exhausted, and so was her strength. She was so weak that a push of a finger could make her collapse.
‘Is this a coincidence?’
He did hear about strange things happening before death, and when he thought Isis might be going through it, it seemed funny to him.
“Are you planning to use your last ditch effort? That is interesting in its own way.”
A strong curiosity arose in him when the boring opponent had an unexpected side. Born only to fight, Asura licked his tongue.
“It only became fun at the end. Come now. I will watch your last struggle.”
“Aggression…”
Then Isis slowly raised her head. Her eyes were bloody, and she couldn’t see what was in front of her.
But she could still feel where the opponent was.
“In this state, it would be difficult for you to hold your face up in front of Jamie.”
It was a position she expected but had to live up to. She still couldn’t recognize whether Shiva, who appeared in front of her now, was real or an illusion.
But what he said touched her.
“This is my strength.”
Although Shiva did hand it over, she always thought it wasn’t hers. So it felt like she had been put in shackles alone.
It was too late, but she was glad to have realized it now.
If she hadn’t, it would have been really irreversible.
Isis spoke in a weary voice,
“Let’s finish this quickly.”
“If you want to, I can kill you in one hit.”
Asura raised his six weapons and moved toward Isis. He was so fast that not even a trace remained. And in an instant, Asura reached out to Isis and stabbed her with his six weapons. Meanwhile, Isis just looked at the flying weapons with wide eyes.
Puak!
It was the sound of digging into her clothes, and Asura looked at Isis with a blank look. Blood trickled down her mouth.
“Interesting. At the last minute.”
“Asura, not even once…”
Isis said as she pulled out her fist from Asura’s chest.
“…have you crossed the God of War.”
“Tsk.”
Asura collapsed as he clicked his tongue. While looking at the fallen Asura, Isis lost consciousness and collapsed.
Jeok Jun-kyung wiped off the blood from his sword with a cloth.
“I don’t know if your reincarnated body isn’t that good, or your skills have gone rusty.”
Diomedes gasped and grabbed his stomach. The cut was pretty deep.
The blood that was falling from his hand didn’t stop. It was because of Jeok Jun-kyung’s ability.
‘Bleeding.’
It was simple, but the ability had the best impact against swordsmen.
Compared to other splendid powers, it may not seem that great, but since the owner of the ability was Jeok Jun-kyung, the story changes.
He was the strongest swordsman who brought the warriors of his time to their knees with just one sword, and was his own teacher.
‘I thought I’d caught up a bit.’
In his previous life, he wasn’t so far behind Jeok Jun-kyung.
It was because Diomedes was superior to Jeok Jun-kyung in terms of talent, but he couldn’t catch up because he died.
The problem was that right now, Jeok Jun-kyung was stronger than before.
“You got something from Ra?”
“Did I get something? As if.”
Jeok Jun-Kyung smiled as he began to move his sword in the air.
“I cannot do that. You learned the sword from me, and you ask me such a question?”
“…right.”
Jeok Jun-kyung was someone who was obsessed with strength more than anyone else. Even during the Resistance, he was the only man who didn’t get pushed back by Diablo and constantly trained to go shoulder-to-shoulder with him.
However, he was extremely against the idea of receiving help from others.
He was the type of person who believed he had to work hard on his own to become stronger. So there was no way he’d accept Ra’s help.
“Dio, old colleague. Come to me now.”
Dio frowned at these sudden words.
“You changed, what happened to your mind?”
“You do not understand the truth of the world. If you stay here, you will live your life being deceived.”
“I don’t know what nonsense you heard from Ra, but since you came back to life, you seem to have forgotten everything about the past, huh?”
“Many of my comrades died in the fight against the 12 Gods. I don’t know about you, but I woke up after sleeping for tens of thousands of years. Do you know what that means?”
When Diomedes didn’t respond, he said with a bitter look,
“To me, that day feels like yesterday.”
Diomedes’s eyes shook a little.
“My comrades died just yesterday. You died in front of me, Jane died. Diablo was missing.”
“Then why?! Why did you have to go under that bastard when you can recall such memories!”
He couldn’t understand it.
If his mind was still in the days of the past, shouldn’t he hate Ra?
Right after waking up, it was clear that he had been brainwashed by Ra. But now it didn’t seem like it, then…
Jeok Jun-Kyung shook his head at his angry voice.
“I was thinking about killing him too. How can I hold back when the enemy is right in front of me? But the thing is, Dio.”
After staying quiet for a second, he opened his mouth as if he was saying a secret.
“Would you believe it if we were to fight for the enemy?”
“For the enemy? Are you talking about the 12 Gods who are our enemies?”
“I’m sure it is difficult to understand. It was the same for me. But that is the truth.”
“As I thought, you were brainwashed by Ra.”
“It would have been better if that happened. At least that means everything I know is a lie too. Too bad it isn’t.”
“What are you even saying? If you have something to say, say it directly!”
“Simply put, this world is fake.”
“Then are you saying there is a first world?”
He had already heard about it from Jamie.
The world they were in now was the second world, and the first one was under Ra’s control. They were shocked, but it wasn’t a reason to side with the Gods.
But Jeok Jun-kyung shook his head.
“No.”
“Then what do you mean by fake?”
“The whole world. The first and second are both fake.”
“…?”
“Your parents, friends, allies, the enemies, and even you. All of those are fake.”
“What nonsense is this? Why is everything fake?”
“Because Gaia did it. It happened a long time ago, at the time when the world was born. Gaia sacrificed two beings, who were trying to create a world with her to create a pillar, and she created a world that could fulfill her own ideals. A world that is like a toy that she can build and destroy like a sand castle whenever she wants. Do you get what I’m saying?”
To be honest, he didn’t understand it.
Diomedes wasn’t smart, and he couldn’t fully understand this kind of cosmic story.
And with a face as if he already knew that, Jeok Jun-kyung said,
“To put it simply, we are just empty bodies. Like dolls with a bit of free will.”
When he first heard about it, he didn’t believe it.
However, Ra constantly came up with reasons to convince him, and they were all undeniable.
It was shocking, as if the sky collapsed. It was hard to believe that he had been protecting a lie.
“All of this is Gaia’s play. If she wants it, the world will go back to the beginning and start anew. So the Sun God is stopping that. He will take away the control from Gaia and infuse the reality into this world of lies. So come over here.”
Hearing that, Diomedes looked shocked.
“You moron.”
“What?”
“How is all of this fake?”
“This is all created by Gaia…”
“The food you taste, the scent you smell. The calluses on your palm from sword training, the emotions like laughing and talking nonsense. The sadness at the death of our comrades. You call all of that fake?”
Diomedes shouted at the top of his throat.
“You have really gone insane, you bastard!”
Kwang!!
A huge explosion rose.
“Diablo, Jane, Maymil, you and me. Does this mean everything we have done together is all fake?!”
Jeok Jun-kyung frowned as he felt his skin cut.
Diomedes changed. He became more powerful than before.
“I will rip out your rotten brain and fix it.”
“Think about whether the pain you will feel from now on is also fake.”
Unable to find an agreement, the two clashed again.
