Light of the Demigod (3)
Whooosh…
Beneath a sky shrouded in dark clouds, a biting wind cuts through the air, mingling with flurries of snow as it seeps into clothing.
The vast expanse of countless mountain peaks stretches out, nearly obscuring the horizon.
The desolate land, traversed for days in a skeletal carriage, appears only as a faint gray line at the edge of the horizon.
“How…”
The Blood Spirit, taking in the vast landscape, turned its head slowly and spoke in a trembling voice.
“How can a mere human…”
“Possess such a vast domain?”
“It’s not just the size. It’s the variety of…”
“You mean the variety of mental landscapes? A single mind can’t hold multiple personas unless it’s split.”
The Blood Spirit trembled, falling silent. This was a familiar refrain.
It felt like the author was just copying and pasting dialogue instead of creating something new.
Dalen, amused by the fleeting thought, smirked and twirled his sword.
Whoosh—
With that simple motion, the magical winds twisted, and the air let out a faint wail.
Dalen paused before responding.
“Who knows.”
How could he possess such a vast domain and encompass so many mental landscapes at once?
It was a mystery even Dalen himself hadn’t unraveled.
In the early days, when he had just arrived in this world and his knowledge was limited to what he knew from games, the concept of a domain was an unknown force, barely visible beyond the monitor.
But now, having transcended the barriers of this world and met countless recluses and transcendents hidden across the continent, he understood.
No transcendent’s domain was like his own.
“Let me be clear, I’m no genius. Even with the best body, I wandered for months not knowing how to use it.”
Even the most talented sorcerers, hailed as geniuses from a young age, often despaired before the wall of transcendence.
Those who naturally surpassed that wall early on, beings beyond human, could organize their domain’s landscape within a single context.
It was only natural.
To surpass the wall, one must overcome the past and fully embrace the present.
To avoid going mad from glimpses of the future, one must firmly set the direction of their mental landscape and move forward.
Charina, who defended the vast northern territories, and the seer Aliat, who read the future from the depths of the Golden Palace for a thousand years, both did so.
Even the great mage Deltarion, who reached the pinnacle of lightning magic and defeated the evil god Sume in the heart of the apocalypse, had a domain organized under a single mental landscape for that reason.
Even the transcendents of the sixth rank, known as demigods, were the same.
So how could someone like him, not a once-in-a-century genius but merely a soul of a thirty-something man, hold so many landscapes alone?
“Perhaps these domains aren’t just my own mental landscapes.”
“That’s nonsense!”
The avatar of the evil god roared. It spoke.
“How can you accept someone else’s mind as your own? To incorporate a landscape you didn’t create into your domain is impossible.”
Dalen shrugged silently. It was indeed nonsense.
It couldn’t be explained by mere in-game purchases or a few thousand won DLCs.
Just as the successor DLC, which retrieved traces of characters over hundreds of playthroughs, was explained as the souls of countless world lines slumbering in the Well of Reversal in this world.
Even with all those mental landscapes absorbed, there were still hidden parts of his domain he hadn’t discovered.
Despite spending thousands of hours beyond the monitor, there were still countless mysteries in this world.
Rumble…
At the center of dozens of mountain peaks.
The pillar of light that descended on the highest peak was one such mystery.
“It first appeared when I awakened the full release of my domain.”
When he first awakened the full release of his domain while sweeping away the ratmen in the Revivach Forest.
The snow-capped mountains and domain landscapes were familiar to Dalen, but the pillar of light that suddenly struck the mountain peak was not.
The only thing he could guess was that the light resembled the one that filled the screen when starting the game.
In any case, it was clear that both the body he inhabited upon falling into this continent and the world of mental landscapes held secrets he didn’t yet know.
“It’s not something to think about right now.”
Exploring and delving into one’s own power is certainly important.
But all training and research only hold meaning after defeating the enemy before you.
In other words, all the training and battles up to now were preparation for this one fight.
Crunch.
He stepped forward, his foot sinking into the snow up to his ankle.
He raised the holy sword he had twirled above his head and threw it high into the sky.
Swoosh—
As the holy sword disappeared into the clouds, the gray sky and earth in the distance began to writhe, pushing their power to the limit.
Whooosh…
The blizzard of the snow-capped mountains, reading its master’s will, intensified to the point where nothing could be seen.
Swish—
Amidst the white-covered landscape, Dalen’s body vanished from its spot.
“Return to the Abyss”
A gray shadow flickered. Dalen’s form appeared, slicing through the air amidst the blizzard.
“Twenty-Four Linked Steps”
Immediately, identical forms of Dalen poured out from all directions, forming a massive encirclement around the Blood Spirit.
“Master!”
Chains emerged from dozens of portals connected to subspace, handing relic weapons to the Dalens.
“This petty trick…!”
As the Blood Spirit’s fingers swept through the air, red symbols appeared, painting the void.
“Closed Sky of the Snowy Mountain”
“Great Pillar of Flame”
The dark clouds covering the sky bared their fangs.
Boom!
They pressed down.
Starting from the dark clouds, pillars of flame pierced the sky, crushing the Blood Spirit’s nascent spell.
Wherever the fiery demon descended, the snow piled up to the ankles turned into steam, obscuring vision, and the heat twisted the air, distorting the landscape.
A veritable hell of fire descended upon the snowy field.
In the midst of it, the Blood Spirit swung its hands once more.
The energy forming its crimson body extended, transforming into two massive blood-red greatswords in its hands.
It shouted.
“Come at me—!”
There was no reason to refuse.
The warrior’s form cut across the snowfield, weaving through the gaps of flame and heat.
Twenty-three identical clones and one original, indistinguishable from the outside, charged simultaneously, each wielding a different relic weapon.
The moment twenty-four curves, breaking the sound barrier, converged into a single red point.
Clang!
The red sword deflected the green spear. Lightning erupted from the descending mace. Twisting to dodge, he thrust his sword in counterattack. A shield blocked and deflected the dagger’s stab.
Half a step to the side. One step diagonally forward. Twenty-five pairs of footsteps tangled chaotically, converging on a single point, then scattering like a swarm of butterflies to secure space for spells.
With each breath, hundreds of exchanges crossed, every movement drawing sigils and magic circles in the air without a wasted gesture.
Boom!
Amidst the relentless barrage of spells and incantations, only the explosive sound of displaced air echoed frivolously.
The space, unable to withstand the pressure, became akin to a vacuum, and limbs, freed from even minimal resistance, moved faster, reaching beyond their limits.
The shockwaves not only blew away all the snow covering the area but also cracked the ground beneath like a spiderweb.
In the exchange of transcendent attacks, the Blood Spirit stood firm, enduring every assault alone.
“What a monstrous…”
Even Arvor, who opened subspace portals to hand over new weapons whenever relics were damaged, was appalled.
It wasn’t just about facing dozens of clumsy clones.
These were duplicates manifested by pushing the power of Dailber’s domain, “The Gray Sky at the End,” to its limits.
They were beings, in essence, not much different from the original, created by bending the power to manipulate space with the body to the extreme.
Their physical abilities, like strength and agility, as well as their judgment and spellcasting skills, were nearly identical to the original.
Moreover, Dalen’s level had long surpassed Dailber’s in life. Even after tripling the power of the domain, which was limited to eight.
“Impressive! But if this is all you have, you shouldn’t think of challenging the sentence of the end!”
Facing a single enemy, unable to inflict any significant damage.
Clang!
One and twenty-four intertwined. Power clashed with power, blades met and rebounded.
The entire battlefield seemed to warp, the intense heat of the descending flames flickering and distorting in the chaos.
“It’s not just sensing and dodging attacks.”
Even amidst the thousands of strategic calculations swirling in his mind, Dalen pushed himself further, striving to decipher the patterns of the blood spirit.
“Prediction? Foresight? It’s more like setting the outcome in advance and making everything fit.”
The spear tips aimed at the blind spots of his senses, the sword strikes designed to be impossible to counter—he parried, deflected, and evaded them all as if he had foreseen every move.
It was as if the outcome of blocking and countering was predetermined, and he was merely crafting the process to reach that end. This was beyond mere skill or strategy; it was a power that grasped and wielded causality itself, even if only in a localized sense.
“This is the realm of the divine.”
The seventh rank, the divine realm. Not the false gods of the Empire’s pantheon, but the true, omnipotent state reached by the dark gods ruling the five great hells.
Even though he couldn’t fully wield the powers of this rank in his current form, he could still manifest remnants of it in this way. If Arvor, who had witnessed all the battles so far, was this shocked, it was indeed a dire situation.
“But when has it ever been any different?”
Crushing the fear of death rising within him, he directed his will toward the sky, now shrouded in dark crimson clouds.
“Closed Sky of the Snowy Mountain”
“Thunderous Deluge”
CRACK—!
Hundreds of lightning bolts rained down like a storm.
“Domain Resonance”
“The Ashen Sky of the End”
“Dual Heavens”
The earth, now tinged with gray, responded to the sky’s roar, pushing the limits of its power.
“Azure Thunder: Resonance”
“Azure Grasp, White Transformation”
In that moment, when the blue lightning storm tore through the spaces between the pillars of fire, erasing even the slightest shadow from both sky and earth, a clear wound appeared for the first time on the blood spirit’s crimson-formed body.