Chapter 446

Ppuaaaaaaaang—!

The flash that had bleached the vacuum of space white gradually died down.

In the space beyond the hologram window, only pitch-black cosmic dust and the debris of the distorted dimension were rising like a haze.

The mothership Mary's 1st residential area suite.

Park Jihoon, who was tightly bound by the biological magic gel like a mummy, stared blankly at the overwhelming traces of destruction with his jaw dropped wide open.

"……Is it, is it over?"

The sound of him gulping down his saliva echoed unusually loudly.

The hologram chat window, which had been scrolling up in real-time until just a moment ago, was also engulfed in a bizarre silence, as if viewers all over the world were holding their breaths collectively.

In that suffocating silence, the skeleton maid Mary, floating in the empty air, was speechless for a long time.

Blue magic light flickered and flashed in her empty eye sockets. That silence, as if repeatedly calculating and re-verifying something, was enough to make a cold chill run down Park Jihoon's spine.

Before long.

[……Re-exploring the biological reaction and magic power wavelength of the target, Dragon Lord Arcaia, within a 100,000-kilometer radius ahead.]

[……Re-exploration complete.]

A minute crack brushed past the calm and mechanical voice.

[Target Dragon Lord Arcaia — Judged to have fled.]

"……What?"

[Combat situation ended. Disengaging safe mode.]

Syureureureuk—.

The deep blue biological gel that had been constricting Park Jihoon's entire body smoothly unraveled like a snake and seeped into the floor.

Freed from his restraints, Park Jihoon staggered and stood up from his spot.

And as soon as Mary's combat termination declaration fell, the frozen chat window literally triggered a nuclear explosion.

— We won! The Death Lord chased that monster away!

— Taking a direct hit from that 150km naval gun, there's no way even a single bone is left lolol

— Kyah! God Minwoo! God Capitalism! That is the ark's firepower! Our lives are safe!

— Honestly, I soiled my pants when the flash erupted just now. But seeing Jihoon hyung tied up in his room grabbing popcorn, it really makes me crave the ark ??

Texts of cheers and relief transmitted from all over the world plastered the hologram window without a gap.

Park Jihoon also clenched his two fists and shouted with bulging veins toward the camera drone.

"That's right! Did you see that, hyung-nims! This monster-like firepower!

That guy called the Dragon Lord is nothing much! Running away like that!"

Park Jihoon was literally elated.

The terrible fear and helplessness he felt in the past on Earth when the US military poured missiles toward High Priest Fersen's ark.

But now it was different.

He had observed this cosmic-scale raid from the perfect perspective of a third party, inside the safest suite behind that reliable and thick 150km super-alloy armor plating.

No matter if the enemy's scale was a disaster that crammed dozens of planets, as long as the driver of the bus he was riding was the Death Lord, there was nothing to fear.

While Park Jihoon and the viewers on Earth were going wild, intoxicated by the catharsis of victory.

＊ ＊ ＊

The face of Kim Minwoo, who was sitting in the captain's seat at the top of the mothership Mary, was stiffened coldly, the exact opposite of their cheers.

"Ha."

Taking his bloodshot hands off the main console, Kim Minwoo let out a hollow laugh.

Dozens of empty mana potion bottles were rolling around at his feet. The muscles all over his body were screaming, and a load that felt like it would snap his blood vessels was placed on him due to the divine power he had forcibly drawn and used.

Kim Minwoo's gaze headed toward the massive blood-red lump held in his right hand.

The spoil Arcaia had sneered and thrown to him right before leaving.

It was the heart of the 20,000-year-old Ancient Dragon, Linax.

[Condition achieved! You have acquired the Heart of an Ancient Dragon over 10,000 years old!]

[One prerequisite for unlocking the physical potential seal has been updated!]

The system's cheerful notification sound rang, but Kim Minwoo was not pleased in the slightest.

"……I lost."

Kim Minwoo muttered low, burying his body deep into the backrest of the chair.

To the viewers on Earth and Park Jihoon, it must have seemed like a thrilling scene where the Dragon Lord evaporated without a trace from a single massive flash.

But Kim Minwoo was different.

Right before the planet-destroying cannon scored a direct hit.

Kim Minwoo had clearly seen that arrogant back of the guy snorting and twisting space to leisurely escape the battlefield.

Even Arcaia's final sneer that was stuck in his ears could be heard vividly, letter by letter.

The skeleton maid Mary, floating next to the captain's seat, carefully blinked her blue eye glints.

[……For now, I have processed the official external announcement as repelling a fleeing enemy. Considering the ark's public sentiment and the viewers' morale…… I judged this to be the best course of action.]

Her last syllables slightly faded away.

It was obvious that she was reading the room, which was uncharacteristic of her.

Kim Minwoo let out a pik laugh.

"I know."

He raised his fatigue-steeped hand and gently stroked the top of Mary's smooth skull.

"I'm not in a bad mood. You did well. There's no need to be intimidated, Mary."

[……Yes.]

The blue magic light inside the empty eye sockets bent slightly.

Although there was nothing to call an expression anywhere on the skeletal face, in Kim Minwoo's eyes, it clearly looked like a smile.

"But thinking about it differently……."

Kim Minwoo stroked his chin.

The Outer God's rage-filled command that poured over Arcaia's head right before he left the battlefield.

Arcaia blocked his ears, got annoyed, and blatantly ignored that command.

"He's the subordinate of an Outer God, yet he can completely ignore that Outer God's command?"

That was only possible if the status and power the guy possessed were to a degree that even an Outer God couldn't look down on.

'In other words, if I attain the specs capable of hunting Arcaia……'

It meant that hunting the main body of the Outer God, the ultimate goal, would also be manageable.

Bringing up a hologram window in the empty air, Kim Minwoo calmly began to organize his current inventory and skill status.

The most urgent first immediate task was collecting the legacies of the Death Lord.

The massive arrangement of the Death Lord, which stated that finding all the legacies and fusing them into one would reorganize the new order.

Out of a total of ten, Kim Minwoo held four.

The Crown of the Supreme Sovereign of Death, obtained by slaughtering the high-ranking Grand Dukes in the Demon Realm.

The Stigma of Death, completed by following the treasure map of the Demon Realm ranking battle to the end.

The Heart of the Supreme Sovereign of Death, received as a reward upon ascending as a god in District 1 of the Heavenly Realm.

And the most recent spoil, the Belt of the Supreme Sovereign of Death, ripped away after capturing Baal alive and beating him to a pulp.

All of them were Mythical-rank.

"Among the remaining six, the locations of two are definitely pinned down."

It was information obtained by forcibly opening Baal's mouth.

One was the Middle Realm dimension where the passage to the Demon Realm was completely cut off.

It was said to be buried somewhere in the old stronghold of the Death Lord sunken there.

The other was the territory of the Outer God where even light doesn't reach.

It was said to be sleeping at the bottom of the deepest abyssal Sea of Destruction nearby.

He couldn't even guess the whereabouts of the remaining four yet, but he absolutely had to clean out the two locations whose coordinates were set.

The second immediate task was unlocking the physical potential seal.

Minus 999.

It was the part where Kim Minwoo had felt the limit most bone-deeply so far.

The shackle that must be smashed to fully draw out the power of a Higher God.

The unlocking condition was a total of six materials, and currently three were fulfilled.

The Horn of a Demon Lord within the top 10 rankings.

This was an item finished long ago as he was infinitely extracting it from Baal tied up in the basement.

The Feather of a Highest-Ranking Angel was an item that Existence Number 1 had personally handed him as a reward worth a whopping 12 million points when he exited the Ascension Ritual.

Lastly, the Heart of an Ancient Dragon over 10,000 years old.

It was the piping hot reward just ripped from Linax's corpse that Arcaia had thrown over just now.

"Three remaining. The Flame of the Sun, the Crystal of Chaos, and the Pearl of the Abyss."

Among these, the Pearl of the Abyss had a keyword that perfectly overlapped with the abyssal Sea of Destruction where the legacy was sleeping.

"The route is perfect."

The last thing to check was his most powerful weapon. The four Legion Commanders.

The more the Legion Commanders chewed up the souls of higher existences, the more they inherited their authority and their status skyrocketed explosively.

2nd Legion Commander Merhen had eaten the soul of the fallen angel Raphaela and obtained the absolute magic power restraint [Heavenly Word: Magic Sealing].

Then she swallowed the Witch of the White Night Elise whole, obtaining the area-of-effect debuff field [Ice Domain], and was currently on standby with full capacity.

4th Legion Commander Olivia had successively swallowed the assassin Formless Sword Wraith of the higher ranking battle and the 7th-ranked Grand Duke of the Demon Realm, Paimon.

With cunning spiritual power overlaid, her assassination trajectory had become stealthy close to perfection.

3rd Legion Commander Vulcan had burned and devoured the 4th-ranked Demon Realm Amon along with the sky.

During the Grand Duke subjugation battle, he was sulking for a long time saying he couldn't eat because of his contractor status, but Kim Minwoo had personally appeased him, promising to catch and feed him the largest and tastiest soul of the Seven Venerables whole in District 1 of the Heavenly Realm.

1st Legion Commander Cedric had early on preyed upon the souls of the Hwangrin Duke Drakan and the Iron-Blooded King Carnos, and evolved into a perfect tanker and assault force.

"For these guys to catch up with the future inflation, they'll need a limit breakthrough that exceeds their existing capacity. I have to steadily supply and feed them more vicious souls."

The combat power check and future route calculation were finished taking less than a minute.

Kim Minwoo stood up from the chair and gave a long stretch.

"Mary. Scatter 1 million points as a special bounty to the 1st residential area of the mothership. Tell them to have a company dinner celebrating the victory."

[Command received. Distributing bonus points in bulk to the accounts of all passengers.]

"And lower the ship's altitude. Let's go see the witches' faces."

＊ ＊ ＊

Ureureureureung—!

The sky of the Eastern Witch Coven, where all the clouds in the atmosphere were torn away by the aftermath of the terrible explosion in space.

Above it, the massive 150km mothership Mary slowly descended, revealing its majesty.

The witches knelt simultaneously and looked up at the sky.

Their pupils were filled with a sparkling light of awe and worship hundreds of times thicker than before.

The purple flash that had gleamed in that distant space.

Although they avoided a direct hit due to the long distance, the witches' outstanding sensory perception instinctively felt how that ruinous cannon had bleached space itself white.

'An absolute power that can never be reached even if we dedicate tens of thousands of years to magicology……!'

Paaaat—!

Riding the hologram beam, Kim Minwoo alighted gently in the middle of the Coven's square.

As soon as Kim Minwoo's feet touched the ground, the Grand Witch Ananke, wearing her scorched monocle, quietly set down her broom and approached.

"What happened to the Dragon Lord? Did you completely push him out of space?"

"I didn't chase him away. That guy got tired of playing and crawled out on his own two feet. But thanks to that, I know for sure now."

Taking out the heart of the 10,000-year-old Ancient Dragon he just obtained from his subspace, Kim Minwoo tossed it into the empty air, caught it, and said.

"That in order to slice off the neck of that arrogant little brat, I have to expand this damn vessel first."

Ananke gulped down dry saliva looking at the overwhelming magic power wavelength of the Ancient Dragon spewing from the heart.

"……So where are you planning to go next? As soon as our Coven finishes recovery, we will support you with all our might."

Stowing the heart away in his inventory, Kim Minwoo grinned.

The place to go was already set.

"The abyssal Sea of Destruction. I'm going to the bottom of it."

At the bottom of that Sea of Destruction, a whopping two jackpots were sleeping.

The Pearl of the Abyss, one of the final keys to unlock the physical potential seal. And one piece of the legacy of the Death Lord that will write the new order.