◈ Episode 550. Karma (1)

The momentum doesn’t break.

“That asshole, he’s insane.”

Leonie muttered in disbelief.

“How can he dare to attack……?”

Lee Hoyeol.

He had gone beyond being of a different rank and had entered the realm of strangeness, a realm that even they themselves could not touch. Leonie was thinking to herself.
Maybe……. He might have reached a level that even the Arcana Continent Biography system couldn’t fathom.

In that sense.

The difference in power between Hoyeol and Guyver?

You couldn’t hit a rock with an egg.

It was an objective judgment.

“Retreat, retreat!”

Even the forces that had followed Guyver were running for cover. Paladins from the Church of the God of War, apparently, and even members of the Bohemian Guild.

Dagdak.

That’s right.

There was only Guyver now.

Guyver mounted his horse and rode alone toward the line.

……Sreuk.

The end was so obvious.

The Holy War Alliance had loosened their grip.

Nam Taemin spoke up.

“I don’t think we need to go any further.”

Leonie nodded wordlessly.

The muscle mass was right.

Guyver, no matter how you look at it.

That asshole wouldn’t be able to reach Hoyeol.

But.

‘Why would you do that even if you knew?’

I had no idea.

The Bohemian were the top guild in the European Union before and after the Cataclysm.

They’re fellow European guilds, after all.

Leonie, the Berserker’s Guildmaster, had frequent contact with the Bohemian.

Guyver is a man who knows a man.

‘Except for the level being needlessly high.’

Guyver was one of the average players.

He was an ordinary human soldier, a man who put himself and his guild above all else, with no regard for the greater good.

‘Why else would you run to the death?’

Commander-in-Chief.

Hoyeol is like the sun now.

He’s untouchable.

If you try to reach him, he might disappear without a trace.

Even if you give in and say you didn’t realize it until now.

In this moment, when you look at the Muon, you can tell.

“A……?”

“Aaah…….”

“Ooooooo…….”

A giant gate.

The paladins of Muon who crossed the red line.

They were so dazed they could barely speak.

I’m sure they’re all watching.

“You really want to die, don’t you……?”

Instead of slowing down, the pace picked up.

‘Shit.’

Gritting her teeth, Leonie turned away from the sight.

Whatever the reason, the player had sense.

Watching the end was neither pleasant nor pleasant.

“…….”

Grrtt.

A moment of silent grinding of teeth.

“All units, prepare to advance.”

“……?”

For some reason, Nam Taemin opened his mouth.

‘Advance? Suddenly?’

It wasn’t just the Great Alliance.

Suddenly, a horn sounded from the side of the Holy War Alliance.

It too signaled the advance of the entire army.

“What’s going on?”

Nothing.

There’s no reason to overreact like this, is there?

As I said, the battle was a foregone conclusion.

Goddess revelations gone, saint turned witch, paladins and priests neutralized, Muon neutralized. Only one player, Guyver, was willing to enter the fray.

But.

“!”

Leonie’s senses, which had seen countless battlefields, were telling her.

……Sreung.

Like an automatic reflex, Leonie raised her twin swords from her waist.

It was the moment she turned completely around.

Nam Taemin turned his thick shoulders.

“Guyver, you sure do have something.”

“There is something, what the fuck……?!!”

I didn’t want to admit it.

Nam Taemin was right again. A frowning gleam penetrates my eyes. It blurred my speech. It was light. An intense light was emanating from behind Guyver.

The sound that began to fill their ears.

Doo-doo-doo-doo-doo.

It was the sound of hooves.

The glow gradually took shape.

Legs sprout, a human form emerges.

It was a cavalry soldier.

It was not the return of the paladins of the Church or the guilds of the Bohemian who had ridden out earlier.

They were themselves.

Not like the forces of Guyver, who paled in comparison to the Holy War Alliance.

And even as I watched.

Their numbers were growing exponentially.

Nam Cheolmin’s briefing is heard.

-“At least ten thousand……. No, they’re growing in real time!”

The knowledge of the Arcana continent’s biography told him.

“Guyver doesn’t have that ability.”

It’s not a skill.

Even if it was buffed in an emergency update.

It’s impossible for a single player to use a skill like that.

Then the answer came.

The players’ vision flickers.

[The army of the Pantheon enters the fray].

That means.

“The gods are back……?”

It meant that someone had lost.

*

ttugttugttug.

“Still not enough, halfpenny.”

The God of War.

He flicked the tip of his spear, and blood splattered across the Pantheon.

The four-hundred-eyed gaze turns to the nine chilled corpses.

Limbs torn off.

Torsos impaled.

The scenes were devastating.

“Really, you can’t be so foolish as to be this foolish. You’ve been doing so well, why did you change your ways? I understand, you were born with half a fortune. But why did you continue to act like a fool even after the opening of the Pantheon?”

jeobeog.

The God of War approaches the fallen Shadow God. His overly grandiose skeleton is more giant than human. The Shadow God’s gaze sweeps over the nine former Shadow Mercenaries on the ground.

‘Well, this is not what I expected.’

He barely manages to open his mouth.

“You’re still a monster.”

The God of War doesn’t exactly deny it.

“You’re not exactly wrong. It took a while.”

His eyes, devoid of any emotion, swept across the Pantheon.

The vastness of the Pantheon took an eternity to scan.

The blood of only nine people would not be enough to color it.

“Anyway, we were close to killing them all.”

Indeed.

The Pantheon is stained with blood.

An abruptly cut off revelation from the gods.

All because of the carnage caused by the God of War.

The God of War frowned.

“You’re still as stubborn as ever, aren’t you? If you’d had a little sense, you could have entered the Pantheon long ago. Why, even beast cubs as bad as you have entered the Pantheon.”

“……You’re the only one who would call Gods a beast.”

“To hell with Gods. What a bunch of nonsense.”

It’s like talking to a long-lost friend.

But the good cheer was short-lived.

For the God of War had a cause.

The God of War asked.

“Don’t you wonder why I did this?”

I wondered, but I didn’t have the strength to ask.

But maybe I was too focused on killing and dying.

Maybe I missed the conversation.

I don’t answer, and he continues.

“Because it’s all over anyway.”

“……?”

“This world, that world, and the other worlds.”

This world, the God Realm.

That world, the Arcana Continent.

And the other worlds…….

Does he mean the Demon World or the Adventurer’s World?

The God of War stamped his giant foot.

kkuug.

“kugh.”

He stomps down on the Shadow God’s head, and its wounded body falls to the ground. The Shadow God’s face was burning, but he didn’t even look up as he spoke.

“Because it is the ‘real truth’.”

……The real truth?

The Shadow God flinched.

The God of War shrugged.

“You don’t get it right away because you’re a half-god? Well, good. It’s been a long time since I’ve set foot in the Pantheon, so I’ll have mercy on you and teach you.”

Seug.

The color returns to his face as he relaxes his legs.

“The real truth. It’s…….”

For the first time, the numbness in his gaze faded.

“It’s the end of the world.”

Anomaly.

The power is unleashed when two completely different things become one.

However, the concept of completely different is different from the usual concept.

‘……It has to be so different that the world is different.’

The Shadow God was dazed, his mind racing.

The real truth.

The end of the anomaly.

This world, that world, another world…….

The words began to make sense.

“You can’t be…….”

“Yes, every single one of them.”

The God of War.

“Two completely different worlds colliding and transforming into one whole world, and furthermore, one whole world mingling with another to become yet another whole world, and so on and so forth.”

He looks more ecstatic than he’s ever looked.

“That is the real truth.”

The Shadow God muttered.

“You’re crazy.”

“You may rejoice, halfpenny.”

“……what?”

“You just answered the same question as the gods.”

The glint vanished from his pupils like a lie.

The Shadow God’s instincts warned him.

This one harbors too many dangerous ideas.

So.

‘……We need to dig up more information.’

For his sake.

“To be one is the real truth? According to you, there is only one at the end of each rebirth. Your words mean that all must die for the sake of the one.”

“I understand.”

The spear points to the Pantheon.

“So you have killed everyone but me, and at this very moment, you are moving my forces to take the life of the man you see over there, the man who will claim both worlds?”

The man who would claim both worlds.

The Shadow God could sense it.

He, Hoyeol.

The God of War spoke first.

“You need not describe his greatness, I am familiar with it. Didn’t he knock on the gate of the Pantheon not long ago, in mere mortal body?”

They don’t call him the Pantheon for nothing.

He had tens of thousands of strategies and tactics in his mind. He didn’t take pride in knowing his opponent’s power, which was the first step in establishing power and tactics.

“This is a man who has even swallowed up the kings of the demon world who have already swallowed dozens of worlds. In order to win against such a being, it goes without saying that adventure is needed here too. Which is why I killed them all.”

seug.

The God of War raises his left hand, not the one that holds his spear.

In his grasp is a [Winged Comb Horn].

The Shadow God recognized it.

“Holy Relic…….”

A holy relic.

Something that not even the all-powerful gods dare to touch.

An object that was said to be more powerful than even the gods.

“You recognize even half a penny.”

The God of War raised the corner of his mouth.

“It is the Horn of Omnipotence, capable of commanding the soldiers of the Pantheon. To be more precise, wherever light exists, the soldiers of the Pantheon can fall and rise again infinitely, fighting until the enemy is destroyed.”

Still, the God of War was not complacent.

“It will not be easy to destroy. But I do not believe that a single artifact will be enough to defeat him, for he is as great as the Arcana continent tells us, and I have given my servant another.”

Excalibur, the Heavenly Sword.

The Shadow God did not wonder what effect Excalibur had. A horn, surely a holy relic of even greater power than that.

That wasn’t the point.

After another draw, he said.

“……Karma.”

The Shadow God’s eyes returned to focus.

“How much karma have you earned by killing Gods?”

“A wise question, halfpenny.”

” …… Answer me.”

The God of War shrugged.

“You have not yet forgotten the characteristic of relics that obey karma, and you must have earned it diligently on the Arcana continent, to the point where you are smirking confidently at me.”

But I’m afraid not.

“You think the karma for killing a god is light. I’ll tell you if you want. The karma I’ve accumulated is roughly a thousand, and yes, a halfpenny’s worth of killing you will bring it to exactly one thousand.”

Thud.

He stamped his foot once more.

The Shadow God’s body and mind.

To trample him to the ground.

Then.

“……Yes. Then it’s done.”

His attitude was wrong.

It was a reaction that contradicted the countless strategies and tactics in his head.

The God of War gritted his teeth.

“Tell me what you’re doing.”

“What is it?”

“Tell me.”

seug.

The Shadow God lifted his head.

He was smiling wryly.

“That’s what you should have been planning.”

“……What?”

“You made a mistake, God of War.”

A mistake, me, in front of the enemy?

More unbelievable words followed.

“You overlooked the weight of His karma, His karma and His burden.”

“……What?”

“That is your defeat.”

.

[Karma: 4,173].