The World after the Fall

The tremor that shook <Depth> spread across the trunk and into the roots of the Tree of Imagery. The world power was strong enough to make the entire Tree of Imagery tremble.

[It has begun.]

Sole-King Catastrophe spoke as he looked up into the darkness from the Palace of Dead Men. If he could, he wanted to travel across that sky to help, but he couldn’t. There was still an old seal in place that entrapped him and he was still recovering from the damage he had received from the battle between him and the Lords.

[Who is Jaehwan fighting? The Master of Rupture?]

[Probably so.]

[So, that one knows about what happened 210 thousand years ago too? Who told him that? Was it the monk you trained? Or the bookworm?]

[…Are you talking about Budda and Pierre?]

[I don’t care about their names.]

Ra-hamad did not answer and Catastrophe spoke annoyingly.

[You should’ve left them alone. Your effort to train them left them in this mess. Do you think anyone can kill Big Brother?]

[…Ouroboros.]

[Damn you and your Ouroboros.]

From the darkness, Myad could be seen through the vision that Jaehwan shared. Catastrophe spoke as he looked upon what was happening the vision.

[So that fool wanted to become the star himself.]

[…]

[Pity. I knew he was spreading words about Big Brother, but to think that he wanted to recreate what happened 210 thousand years ago…]

The events of the past, 210 thousand years ago. In silence, Ra-hamad and Catastrophe realized that they were thinking of the same day. The Three God War. It was the day when Daeus died, Geshtalt’s presence was ripped apart, and Catastrophe was sealed. A day when the plan of ‘A Lone World’ started to stop the war between Gods. A day of tragedy. Catastrophe spoke while reminiscing.

[Gods and humans alike, it’s all same when all three are gathered.]

Ra-hamad answered,

[Maybe it’s all same after all whether it’s today or 210 thousand years in the past.]

Thousands of Jaehwans began unleashing relentless attacks at Machina’s armor mercilessly. Machina did not budge however. It was one of the [Parts] of the Three Ancient Gods after all. The Part that was most durable in all of <Depth>. That was Machina.

Although it was that durable, it was still vulnerable against attacks that were aimed at its weak points, which were the joints. Jaehwan’s sword stabbed the joints between the pieces of armor and he unleashed world power into the Gigantes. It was amplified through the [Naked] Setting that worked best against Gigantes.

The Machina’s joints were then paralyzed and it fell onto its knees. Thousands of stabs then attacked against connection areas of the cockpit at that moment. Soon, the sound of metal being ripped apart was heard.

It was astonishing. The cockpit of Machina was cracking up. Myad’s disbelief could be seen between cracks of the cockpit.

Jaehwan did not hesitate. Machina could still recover from all the damage through the user’s world power. Considering the huge difference in power, it was Jaehwan who was going to lose if the fight dragged on. The time was now.

As thousands of blades were unleashed to distract Myad, Jaehwan pulled out his final weapon.

Darkness fell upon the sky of the 8th site. Eerie energy swept through the lands and the sound of Dead Men screaming erupted from all sides. Jaehwan’s left hand had the most powerful sword that existed in <Depth>.

[Void Sword]

The sword that cut spirits down. It was Sole-King Catastrophe’s Void Sword.

-HAHAHAHAHA! That is great!

But Myad didn’t seem to be that concerned even with the appearance of the Void Sword.

-Come get it!

The Void Sword was a weapon that worked best against beings. Whoever touched the sword was tainted with the sword’s Setting of [Time Contamination], thus starting the Dead Man process to make one become a Follower of Catastrophe. The greater the world power, the stronger the [Time Contamination]. For the Void Sword, Myad was the best prey there was.

Machina’s hand reached out to grab the Void Sword, but the sword avoided the grasp and was thrust into the cockpit. At the same time, Machina quickly moved out of the attack range. However, Jaehwan felt something that was slightly promising.

‘I got him.’

The sword had successfully stabbed Myad inside the cockpit. Even if it wasn’t a critical strike, it was enough. [Time Contamination] was going to destroy Myad’s mind rapidly and even if he did fight it off, it would destroy a huge chunk of his world power.

Machina froze, thus showing Jaehwan’s success. However, a question came into Jaehwan’s mind.

‘Why is he not using [Link Destroy]?’

Myad knew that Jaehwan had a pact with Catastrophe. If so, then he had the power to use [Link Destroy] to cut the link between Jaehwan and Catastrophe so that Jaehwan couldn’t use the Void Sword. Yet, Myad did not do this. There was no way Myad would’ve forgotten about it. And then, the unexpected happened.

Machina’s cockpit opened. Myad was sitting inside with dark veins popping out of his skin. He coughed black particles out from his mouth. Jaehwan knew Myad had been damaged far more than he had hoped. Myad opened his mouth, and the voice came, not through the amplification of Machina, but from himself.

“You really are one of a kind… collecting two of three Parts. There was only one being who could do that in the last millenium.”

He was probably referring to Mulack. Myad smiled with a dark face.

“I was right in not killing you back then. If it wasn’t for you, ‘A Lone World’ could have never been realized.”

Something definitely was wrong. Myad was on brink of losing and he seemed to be calm. It was then that a giant blade appeared from Machina’s hand. It was a sword that didn’t seem to have a handle. Jaehwan’s eyes shook. He looked down at the sword he was holding and looked back at the sword the Machina was holding. And then he confirmed it.

Void Sword. That was the Void Sword.

Karlton gasped in shock as he watched it all from afar.

“But how…!”

It wasn’t over. Inside the cockpit, Myad’s eye shined brightly in green as it spun. The symbol of a snake was storming within his eyes.

Ouroboros was inside Myad’s eyes.