Chapter 789: Another Domain

The original rank I possessed was that of a demigod.

Like distant descendants of gods or heroes who had obtained a fragment of their power by chance.

An existence that possessed the possibility of becoming a god, but was still infinitely closer to a human.

[Quasi-Divine War Chef Lv.70]

But now.

The situation had changed slightly.

[Congratulations!]

[You have officially become an ‘existence comparable to a god’.]

Officially.

I had become an existence slightly closer to a transcendent than to a human.

FWAAAAASH......!

=.......=

And along with that.

The light pouring from my body became even more brilliant.

Before I knew it, the golden light that had been trying to infiltrate the fortress had been completely pushed back.

The giant of radiance that had taken physical form had retreated outside the fortress and was staring at me from afar.

“Bimana.”

With my eyes closed, I opened my mouth while feeling the new possibility dwelling within my body.

“The cooking is finished. You worked hard, so you can return to normal operation now.”

Bimana was still falling.

Because I had shut down even the functions resisting the fall, there was now truly less than 100 meters left before it reached the ground.

Now that the cooking was finished, I tried to reactivate those functions.

[Fortress...... bzzzt...... function...... bzzzt...... unavailable.......]

“......Hmm.”

The fortress had already been destroyed too severely.

It had reached a state where not only its mobility system, but even its system messages could no longer function properly.

“Well, you did work very hard.”

If I had not been protected by Bimana’s walls, even with Morzan’s protection, I would have been defeated by that golden giant.

No, before that.

If I had not mobilized both the dining hall inside Bimana and the entire fortress’s circuits.

It would have been impossible to complete the dish at the level I wanted in the first place.

In many ways, this fortress had played a major role this time.

So.

“Well, you can rest for a little while.”

TAP.

While riding [Assistant Chef], I flew up into the air.

With even its final passenger gone, Bimana remained alone as it fell toward the ground.

At this rate, it would collide with the ground.

That enormous fortress would enter an eternal rest.

......However.

“But.”

Naturally.

“Your leave is only temporary.”

Just because I was letting it rest did not mean I intended to let it rest forever.

[Force-Feeding]

[Sturdy Combat Ration Infused with the Care of a Demigod Chef]

“I haven’t even been discharged yet, so where do you think you’re going, getting discharged before me?”

Rustle.......

When I scattered the food.

Pieces of meat melted into the half-destroyed fortress.

A fortress this enormous.

And one that was nearly an inanimate object at that.

No matter how powerful [Force-Feeding] was, applying the effects of cooking to a fortress this large was difficult.

If something like that had been possible, I would have done it long ago.

However.

[The rank of a quasi-divine being arbitrarily interprets the laws of the world.]

Not now.

The fortress that had ‘eaten’ my cooking became sturdier because of it.

“And.......”

When it came to military service, leave was naturally pleasant for the person taking it.

But for the others who had to fill the resulting manpower gap, it meant more work.

Therefore.......

“Let’s do just one more job before you go on leave.”

Right up until the moment before leaving.

Making someone do one more thing was fairly common.

=I am reaching the point where I cannot help but be impressed.=

Bimana had drawn infinitely close to the ground.

And.

There was an existence looking up at Bimana.

=The Alliance intended to protect you and this world. However...... we believed it would take an extremely long time before the path of fate you had embarked upon reached a certain point, and before this world could stand on its own.=

A man radiating beautiful golden energy.

I looked at the man and poured mana into my hand.

=Not anymore.=

My newly reborn body accepted that mana with unbelievable smoothness.

An amount of mana so enormous that even I found it hard to believe responded to my will.

[Elemental Cooking - Wind]

Bimana, which had been falling toward the ground.

A massive wind blew from beside it.

=You are greater than we thought.......=

The fortress that had been falling toward the ground like an enormous meteor.

Its direction shifted slightly under the force of the massive wind.

=......And far more dangerous than we thought.=

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It crashed down where the man stood.

***

The enormous fortress.

The fortress was nearly the size of Yeouido.

A fortress of that scale had entered free fall from the sky.

Its power was, in the most literal sense, comparable to a colossal satellite.

The surrounding area.......

No, an impact great enough to alter the terrain of the entire country would sweep across the ground.

“......That is!”

However.

“Remain calm!”

With the collision right before their eyes.

The Legion members firmly held their positions.

“Unless we receive an order to retreat, maintain the formation!!!”

The reason was simple.

“That wind just now and this collision were created by the Legion Commander!”

Lieutenant General Kim Hyeon-seok.

The commander, honed enough to live up to the reputation of their Legion Commander, shouted as he watched the real Legion Commander commit an act that seemed utterly impossible to follow.

“The Legion Commander’s power will not harm us!”

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

And so.

The enormous fortress changed the direction of its fall and crashed into the ground.

CRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.......

A catastrophic explosion.

An indescribable amount of physical force swept across the surrounding area.

The ground overturned, and even the clouds in the sky were pushed far away by the impact.

FWAAAAASH!!!

‘Those gray-winged angels.’

‘The demon’s minions.’

The power created by that enormous mass was overwhelming.

Because of the explosion, the enemies that had been fighting the Legion members.

The gray-winged angels.

‘They vanished.......’

‘Without a single one remaining.......’

Disappeared without leaving even one behind.

And those gray angels were not the only ones on this battlefield.

Under normal circumstances, that explosive force should have poured toward the Legion members without mercy as well.

However.

FWAAAAASH.......

That enormous explosion.

At the very moment it surged toward the Legion.

A brilliant gray-white light poured from the bodies of the Legion members.

The physical force that touched that light.......

[The rank of a quasi-divine being arbitrarily distorts the laws of the world.]

POP.......

Was drastically reduced in an instant.

FWAAASH.......

It merely.

Produced a wind strong enough to ruffle the Legion members’ hair.

“......What.”

And.

The Legion members, feeling that wind, opened their mouths blankly and spoke.

“What was that just now.......”

“......I don’t know either, you idiot.”

It had not simply been canceled out by some enormous force.

That overwhelming power had clearly been surging toward them.

But...... how should they put it.

‘That power simply vanished in an instant.’

It had not been canceled by the repulsion of another force, nor had it weakened by spreading across a great distance.

It had simply...... disappeared.

The instant it touched the light pouring from their bodies...... as though the explosion had never existed in the first place.

Yes.

[The moment physical force caused by the fortress’s collision touches the light of the Legion, it disappears.]

As though such an absurd law existed.

The force vanished in an instant.

No one knew the exact reason why such a thing was possible.

The only thing they knew was.

‘Legion Commander.......’

‘Sergeant Shin did something.’

That the man floating in the sky.

The man radiating a light stronger than anyone else’s was the cause.

And.......

“All forces!!!”

That man.

Sergeant Shin Youngjun hovered in the air and looked down upon the ground with an imposing expression as he shouted.

“Prepare for battle!”

“......!!”

At that command.

Every Legion member drew their weapons without hesitation.

“Maintain the current formation! Follow Chapter One of the Legion’s Full-Force Anti-Personnel Combat Regulations!”

The gray-winged monsters had already been annihilated without a single one remaining.

With all those monsters gone.

The Legion Commander still ordered them to fight.

So the target of that order was obvious.

RUMMMMMBLE.......

The fortress that had crashed into the ground and caused an enormous explosion.

Part of that explosion had annihilated the gray-winged angels.

Part of it had vanished the moment it touched the light emitted by the Legion.

And part of it.......

“Combat objective, complete suppression or annihilation of the enemy!”

The golden light that burst from the center of the explosion.

The instant the force touched that light.

Just as it had when touching the Legion’s light, all of that physical force had been nullified.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

The fortress’s wreckage was blasted aside.

And from beneath it, brilliant golden light erupted explosively.

“Target, one entity!”

The Legion Commander pointed his sword at that light.......

No.

“Entity name, Avaritia!”

He pointed at the man standing in the center of the light and shouted.

“Commence battle!!!”

***

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

=You truly are.......=

The existence emerged after brushing aside the enormous fortress’s wreckage as though clearing pieces of Styrofoam that had fallen on his head.

=Dangerous.=

[Brilliant Golden Lord - Avaritia]

As I ordered the attack against him, I thought.

‘As expected, even Bimana’s collision had no effect.’

After enduring this destruction, the firepower possessed by the Legion had developed to an unimaginable degree.

That was only natural, considering the Legion had developed from the Republic of Korea Army, which had never fallen behind any nation when it came to firepower.

The firepower the Legion’s artillery could now unleash had reached a level comparable to a small nuclear weapon.

However.

‘Even that would probably be nothing compared to the force of Bimana’s collision.’

And yet.

That bastard remained completely unharmed inside the impact.

What that fact indicated was clear.

‘This is not a question of physical force being stronger or weaker.’

The maximum degree of violence that could be physically exerted had already been demonstrated by Bimana’s fall.

However.

Just as the Legion members and I had been free from that explosion.

The fact that he had also suffered no damage from it meant.......

‘He twisted the laws!’

I had forced the law [The moment physical force caused by the fortress’s collision touches the light of the Legion, it disappears.] upon this world.

And that bastard had forced the law [The moment physical force caused by the fortress’s collision touches the golden light, it disappears.] upon it.

No matter how powerful the physical force was.

If the physical laws that existed above it were twisted, then it became meaningless.

=However...... you are far too arrogant.=

FWAAAAASH.......

The power to twist laws, which had even rendered Bimana’s collision ‘something that had never happened.’

His golden light swelled greatly.

The enormous light took the same form I had seen inside that fortress.......

No.

[Golden Lord - Avaritia]

[Creator and supreme god of Avaritia, the Eternal Golden World.]

[One of the Seven Lords of the Divine Realm Alliance, an alliance formed from countless worlds.]

[Avaritia, a great divinity considered among the most powerful in the entire universe.]

It transformed into something even larger.......

A colossal godlike figure likely closer to the form of his true body.

[At the moment of his birth, the concepts of ‘perfection, glory, gold, and brilliance’ appeared in the universe.]

[As a descendant of light and one of the oldest divinities in the entire universe, the power of his true body is known to overwhelm even multiple transcendent beings.]

[He has descended into a body overwhelmingly weaker than his true form!]

[His abilities are greatly reduced.]

[However, exercise caution.]

[The rank possessed by his soul contains no falsehood, and he remains an existence that has reached the domain of a god.]

A world ruled by otherworldly light.

Wearing the yellow clouds floating in the sky like a crown.

He looked down arrogantly upon the ground.

I could sense it instinctively.

=You have yet to experience a battle between ‘us.’=

The battle that would begin from this point onward.......

Would be different from every battle before it.

=Do you truly believe that you, who have only just reached the ‘edge,’ can fight this lord?=

That bastard was a transcendent who had arrived from beyond.

An existence that had created and guided an entire world, and could freely alter its laws.

There was no possibility that pouring bullets into a being like that would leave even the slightest scratch.

“......A battle reaching into the domain of transcendence.”

That was why its nature could not help but change.

What would unfold from this point onward was.

=......Which side is better at.=

“Controlling the laws of this world.”

The light of the Legion pouring from us.

And the golden light pouring from that bastard.

It would become a battle between two lights seeking to place the laws of the world under their control.