D.I.O - CH 311

*** Intruders ***

In the ancient past, a time so long ago that it was difficult to quantify, there were violent beings that no one could do anything about. These beings were more human than humans, more emotional than humans, and more violent than humans, yet these beings possessed godly power.

They were the Olympian gods.

To them, the laws of the universe and the duties of a god had no particular meaning. They were born with the power of a god and lived amongst other gods, so their outlook on life and the world were no different from those of ordinary humans.

Their numbers increased unrestrainedly, and they often interfered with the flow of fate without any hesitation. Before the Apocalypse, the Olympus Divine Realm boasted tremendous power, enough to rule over the entire universe, and there were dozens of beings whose [names] were engraved in the annals of the universe.

However, even though they had possessed tremendous power, no, because they possessed so much power… in the end, the Creator’s gavel fell.

And so, they perished.

With over ten high rank gods, hundreds of lesser divine gods, and innumerable deities below them, these Olympian gods, who terrified the entire universe, disappeared overnight.

Their presence and mark were forever engraved on the [universe], but these gods, who were supposed to be immortal, became Lost Gods; they lost their power and were thrown into the other side of the universe. This process was so brutally thorough that the number of surviving gods numbered less than five.

– Ah…

And at this moment.

– Amazing.

One of the Lost Gods, who had lost its power long ago and disappeared from the universe, opened its eyes.

“Wow, my goodness… I’ve heard a lot of wild rumors about Irregulars, but this seems a bit much.”

The girl sitting on the bridge of Tan’s nose looked at the burning man who was floating in front of Tan’s face. In front of Tan, who was as tall as a mountain range, the burning man was nothing more than a speck of dust, but, even so, he wasn’t an existence that could be ignored.

This was because of the power the burning man exuded.

The power of a tremendous storm.

[The Sun God.]

– It’s been a while since I saw you, Apocalypse. It would have been nice to converse with you … but it doesn’t seem like that’s possible.

Hearing the god’s low voice, even Tan couldn’t help but be in awe after feeling the god’s presence; the sensation he received made Tan want to curl up his large body into a ball.

[Oh, shit.]

However, before Tan could do so, the body of Apollo, a man exuding waves of heat, exploded.

Flash!

The sun rose in the gray world, and the light became a storm. The swirls of light started striking Tan’s body with terrifying force.

Ah!!

The gray clouds that had covered the sky evaporated and disappeared altogether. And that wasn’t all. Leviathan’s body, which had been standing like an immovable mountain range, flew to one side after an enormous explosion, an explosion so intense that it seemed as if the heavens and earth were collapsing. Just by standing in that space, one’s perception and senses became distorted. However, soon afterwards, Tan, in his Leviathan true body that was as large as a mountain range, stood up.

“Wow, look at the power. Crazy,” the girl commented.

[Isn’t this at Ten Class level? One would think a Demon King had descended.]

This level of power, which was created from simple physical force, was equal to the explosion of several dozen nuclear bombs, so, in actuality, humankind could reproduce such an output of power if it had to, but the body of Leviathan, which was born with a mighty divine status, couldn’t be touched or damaged from such lower-level energy explosions. Forget being struck by a nuclear bomb, even if Leviathan was sucked into a black hole, it would be able to escape without any damage, such was the existence of the Demon Dragon of the Apocalypse.

However, right now…

[You dare… you dare…]

Leviathan’s body was a mess. Its whole body was glowing red, like an iron that was just taken out of a hot furnace, and its huge back was bent as if it had been hit by a huge hammer. Unquenchable flames burned all over Tan’s body, and though those areas looked small relative to his big frame, the actual size of the flames covered an area that was comparable to most forest fires.

[You dare… take my Muspelheim and…!]

One didn’t have to enter the transcendent realm to use ultimate magic spells. There were shortcuts in the world, and if one turned the history of the universe upside down, one would find an infinitely large number of cases where talented beings demonstrated abilities beyond their level.

Numerous offerings, enormous goods, or special materials… evil warlocks could offer sacrifices to output powerful spells beyond their ability levels, a scene that wasn’t considered uncommon. Moreover, there had been many times in the history of emperors and kings of empires consuming astronomical amounts of manpower and goods to realize great magic on a grand scale.

The method Merlin was using now was such a case, outputting a spell beyond his abilities through the use of a special material. In other words, Merlin had used up Muspelheim to launch such a powerful attack.

[Hahaha!! Hot damn, you’re sure a crazy one. Consuming a Transcendent Weapon to output one magic spell!]

While floating next to the penguin, the girl spoke out. The penguin nodded its head while fluttering its palm-sized wings. As Planet Gods, the girl and the penguin possessed the power of omniscience, and the two also knew of Merlin’s true identity even before he attacked.

“Certainly, such an act is crazy and unimaginable. To deal with Tan, who isn’t trying to destroy the Earth, but just trying to dominate it, he used up an entire Transcendent Weapon, a priceless item that one wouldn’t be able to obtain even if one sold off five or six planets.”

A nuclear bomb was a powerful weapon. Needless to say, even if only one nuclear bomb was used, the tides of war would change.

But what if a nuclear bomb with the power to blow up a city cost $9,000,000,000 US dollars? Was there any country that would seriously consider using a nuclear bomb?

However, Merlin made that exact illogical choice. It was a crazy imbalanced exchange wherein the output value wasn’t anywhere as high as the input value.

“If this happens, no matter how important a piece of ‘property’ Tan sees him as, Tan will never forgive him. Wow, this is going to be bloody.”

[Ah, I’m curious about what’s ahead, but my foreseeing ability is being blocked by that damn Demon Dragon.]

The Planet Gods laughed and joked around. They had no intention of interfering with the battle. This battle, in their eyes, was nothing more than a private war between two parties. For them, it didn’t matter who owned DIO; they just needed to maintain the rules. Although these Planet Gods were called the mothers of civilization, they were not very caring figures.

“So, roughly, what do you think will happen?”

[What do you mean what will happen? Of course, in the end, Tan will prevail. That human’s last attack was extremely powerful… and it may have made the difference if Tan was still in his human form, but it’s impossible to kill Tan now since he’s brought out his true body.]

“But can that really be called a victory for Tan?”

[Well, you have a point.]

Search bit.ly/3iBfjkV for the original.

Tan’s main body, Leviathan, which Tan hadn’t revealed for thousands of years, had the same durability as the body of a Demon Lord, even with the level down penalty in place. Leviathan was a completely different concept from Tan’s human form manifestation, which the users could have possibly defeated.

However, if this was the case, why didn’t Tan invade Earth in Leviathan from the beginning?

“It’ll be a battle in which both sides will lose in the end. Perhaps Tan’s downfall begins today.”

[It’s a pity that a Demon Dragon existence will soon become an existence that’s only talked about in the annals of history.]

As the two conversed, they looked up at Leviathan, who had quickly risen up like a thunderbolt. From such a movement, the Earth’s crust became distorted, and a major earthquake occurred. Tan’s mountain range-like back was instantly flattened as he straightened his back.

[Merlin!!! Arthur!!! You damn bugs!!!]

The entire space rumbled after Tan’s angry roar. The roar was so powerful that even the Masters couldn’t stand the pressure and collapsed or crouched down onto the ground. The shout was proof of how angry the Demon Dragon of the Apocalypse was, which had existed since the beginning of time.

‘Come to think of it, what was Arthur thinking? Why did he embed Ascalon, the dragon slaying sword, into Tan’s heart and not his head?’

If Arthur had embedded Ascalon into Tan’s head, not into his heart, Tan’s human form manifestation would have died, as it wouldn’t have been able to endure such a strike. Of course, if Tan’s human form manifestation was killed, Tan would have eventually recovered within 3 years at the shortest and 10 years at the longest, but still, wouldn’t Arthur have at least been able to put out an urgent fire?

However, Arthur embedded Ascalon into Tan’s dragon heart. And because of that…

[… What?]

The penguin’s fluttering two wings came to a halt once a rush of intense foreknowledge came to him. The surroundings had come to a complete halt; everything was as still as a picture.

The girl floating next to the penguin groaned, as if she had experienced the same foreknowledge and felt the same sensation as the penguin.

“What is that?”

However, the Planet Gods weren’t the most shocked amongst all the beings in the area. Tan, who was enraged and had raised his magic power to strike a blow, felt an emotion close to surging fear when he laid his eyes on Merlin.

Merlin pulled back on his bow once more.

“Howling Spell.”

There was a [new arrow] notched on his bow.

“Apollon.”

Bang!

Distorting the space, a red ray of light passed through the air. Tan struggled and spasmed when he saw such an unprecedented force flying towards his head once again. Tan planted his feet firmly on the ground and moved his head to avoid the red ray of light.

Rumble!

When Tan’s head, which was huge, moved like a whip to avoid the oncoming ray of light, a storm raged in its wake. Arc, who seemed unperturbed, protected the Magic Tower and the surrounding Masters from the storm that swept away all the surrounding buildings before rising into the sky.

“Hurricane.”

An unbelievably large amount of power gathered in Arc’s hands, and soon, the power took the form of a whirlpool, wrapping around the Magic Tower and the Masters to protect them from the storm. Arc’s spell was unbelievably powerful for something that didn’t have a pre-chant, but Tan couldn’t afford to divide his attention to such trivial details.

Bam!

The red ray of light barely passed Tan’s head before disappearing into the distant sky. Considering that Merlin’s arrows moved at about half the speed of light, Tan’s evasion ability was unbelievably good.

However, before Tan had a chance to catch his breath, the red ray of light that had disappeared behind him appeared right in front of his eyes.

Boom!

[Ack!]

When the arrow, which had apparently disappeared, appeared right in front of him and struck him, Tan screamed and tumbled back over several tens of kilometers. He was pushed back so much that he smashed up against the Taebaek Mountains and destroyed nearly three quarters of the mountain range. Moreover, one of his legs and his head fell into the East Sea.

“The arrow circled the Earth once.”

[No, wait, the fact that the arrow circled around the Earth isn’t what’s important right now, right? Before that, how was he able to shoot out two such shots?!]

Those who had the power of omniscience understood. Merlin’s great magic, which brought back the Lost God Apollon, who was a supernatural being close to a Ten Class, into the material world, was a miracle that could only be possible if Merlin used up a considerable resource. In Merlin’s case, that considerable resource was Muspelheim. Such an act would have made the gods sick, as they would have considered this exchange too wasteful.

However, the incongruence was that Merlin should have only been able to bring out the miracle once, since he had ‘wasted’ his Transcendent Weapon.

“Could it be that he somehow increased the energy efficiency in a way that we don’t know of?”

[Nonsense. There’s no way something like that could be possible, and even if it were, there’s no way our omniscience wouldn’t have picked up on it!]

The penguin shook its head after hearing the girl’s question. However, the girl continued.

“But you saw what just happened… he issued the same attack twice, no? There’s no way some crazy being would have provided another fire-type Transcendent Weapon to him during this heated battle, right?”

[That’s true, but in a magic system of that scale, it would have to be a Flame Dragon to achieve twice the level of efficiency, right? That kid, who hasn’t even transcended yet, can do such a thing? That doesn’t make sense.]

The two Planet Gods were perplexed and confused. The foreknowledge that they were receiving from their omniscience seemed incongruent.

Whoosh!

Along with a rush of magic power, a red ruby appeared on Merlin’s shoulder.

“… What?”

[Nonsense. This doesn’t make any sense.]

Even the Planet Gods, who were considered omnipotent forces that roamed the vast cosmos as Untouchables, and who no one dared to go up against due to their overwhelming power, were lost for words. The Demon Dragon of the Apocalypse, Tan, who had existed since the beginning of time, also made a confused expression as if he had seen something incomprehensible.

However, without caring about any of this…

“Howling Spell.”

A [new] arrow was notched on Merlin’s bow.

“Apollon.”