D.I.O - CH 313

[Crying and Laughing.]

[Helplessly Spoiled.]

“Huh? What is that?”

‘Crying and Laughing’ meant laughing reluctantly when one was in a situation where all one could do was cry. ‘Helplessly Spoiled’ meant being strong headed to the point of not being able to do anything. However, Leaf couldn’t read these two Chinese idiomatic phrases. Even if she could read the Chinese characters, she wouldn’t have been able to figure out what they meant. How could she, who had devoted nearly her entire life to dancing and singing rather than studying since her middle school days, know such ancient Chinese idiomatic phrases?

Besides, the important thing wasn’t the contents or meaning of the old proverb.

Crack.

Leaf felt her bones twisting, and a huge force soon began to pump and course through her body. The process was so fast and abrupt that her body, which had an artificial spiritual pathway installed, screamed out in pain. However, that wasn’t the only problem.

‘W-what’s going on?! Why is this happening?’

Leaf was horrified when her own body began to move on its own. However, contrary to her chaotic state of mind, her body’s posture was extremely stable.

Swoop.

Regardless of her will, her body began to walk forward. She was walking towards Merlin, who was currently pulling on his bow.

Whoosh!!!

Merlin’s figure shimmered. Just the act of pulling his bow’s string back caused the surrounding area to shake from the reverberating aftershocks, as Merlin was concentrating an enormous amount of power onto his arrows.

However, even though he was wielding such tremendous power, or rather, because he was having to deal with such tremendous power, Merlin didn’t notice Leaf approaching him or feel her approaching presence. Even though he was the main reason why the mythical existence, Leviathan, was being driven to its death, Merlin was still a mere mortal who had not reached the transcendence realm.

‘What the hell is this…’

Leaf calmed herself down and desperately tried to resist the aura, a divine qi, within her. Weirdly, the divine qi seemed to be comforting her. However, no matter how friendly the divine qi felt, it had suddenly taken control of and manipulated her body as it pleased, so there was no way Leaf would be happy with such a controlling, foreign aura.

But even so, the power seemed to persuade her. Leaf kept hearing whispers that this was something she had to do and that it couldn’t be helped.

And then, information started pouring into her mind, which told her exactly what the divine qi, the aura that was swirling through her, was trying to do.

‘You’re going to make Merlin… Yongno… into an Immortal god?’

Leaf, who desperately tried to concentrate her will to resist the divine qi, fell into a state of confusion. She was convinced that the information she had just been given was unmistakably true.

When you’re just trying to make great content at bit.ly/3iBfjkV.

But that truth and her current feeling of confusion were two completely different matters.

‘What the… is this a good thing or a bad thing?’

Her will, which had been resisting the raging divine qi within her, was shaken. It was because the information she was given made her unable to be [certain]. The voice, which stated that Merlin would become an ‘Immortal’ with its help, didn’t sound so bad, so she couldn’t muster the will to resist the divine qi at all costs.

And, in fact, this was exactly what the Celesti wanted, but…

Flinch!

At that moment, a light beam attack shot down towards Merlin from the sky.

Leaf, who had been confused on whether to act or not, was thankful for the clear-cut opening.

“Ugh… whatever!!!!”

Truth, Dragon Cannon

Suddenly, a white light burst without a sound. The formidable divine qi neatly erased the attack that was headed for Merlin.

And that wasn’t all.

Boom!

A hole opened in the faraway sky, revealing a deep blue sky for an instant. And a gigantic [something], which had appeared and had launched the previous attack on Merlin, gave off a spark as it disappeared into a spatial rift.

“Leaf? What’s going on?”

Merlin, who was just about to use another Howling Spell, felt his hair stand on end; he had felt a tremendous aura passing by his head and into the sky. Luckily, the aura wasn’t aimed at him… but if it was, it would have dealt Merlin a powerful blow, something he couldn’t have done anything about.

However, what caught Merlin’s attention when he turned to Leaf wasn’t Leaf herself, who was bewildered by the unfolding scene, but a semi-translucent person on the other side of her.

“Man, nothing is easy.”

An Asian man in his mid-30s, whose face was unremarkable as it gave a general impression with no special features to speak of, sighed deeply. Merlin didn’t feel the man’s presence until he showed up and opened his mouth to speak.

Merlin made a blank expression for a moment; it was because Merlin was already acquainted with the man.

“… Kang Sang…”

Merlin met him as a child. Kang Sang was the only one who acknowledged Merlin’s talents, which were beyond any framework of traditional understanding and often went against the laws of modern physics.

That wasn’t all.

Although Merlin lost his memory and had forgotten what had happened to him as a test subject in the lab many years ago, Merlin recalled that Kang Sang was the one who saved him. If it wasn’t for Kang Sang, Merlin would have either died in the lab or escaped and become a vengeful monster.

Of course, the three pets, who were engrossed in the mythical battle, called him by his official name, not his real name.

“Oh my god! That’s Jiang Ziya!”

“I was expecting the Elohim to step in, but…”

Jiang Ziya, with his real name being Kang Sang, was the teacher of the ancient King Wen of Zhou, and a feudal lord during the Qi Dynasty. Jiang’s life read like a legendary tale.

He was famously known as the person who coined the term ‘Jiang’ to describe a person who leisurely lived life whilst fishing, but the reality was that he was an elder-level God who only served the great Laojun and no one else.

“Why…”

A sense of confusion flickered in Merlin’s eyes. This was because the sudden appearance and action that Jiang Ziya took was made without any context.

Of course, the Celesti World had intervened for Merlin or humanity many times before, which was a fact that Merlin was also well aware of. When Leviathan, Tan, staged a coup against the Empress of Magic, Jenica, and gained control over DIO, Merlin was able to counterattack and take over DIO due to the Dream Celestial Dagger, Manbo’s treasured item. Manbo had handed over his treasured item to Merlin because the Celesti ordered Manbo to do so.

If it wasn’t for the help of the Celesti World, Merlin would have continued to be just another DIO user, and he wouldn’t have been able to produce the same results as he had come to produce. As long as Leviathan was in control of DIO as the main [operator], what Merlin could do inside DIO would have been extremely limited.

‘Also.’

Merlin looked at Leaf, who stood nervously beside him. He didn’t know exactly what her real identity was, but he sensed a tremendous aura from her. Although she was relatively weak, the enormous force that dwelled within her granted her power equal to that of a near transcendent. Even though she still possessed her will, she was in a state closer to an avatar, a vessel through which a higher being descended. Natural, even for the Celesti, bestowing such power onto someone wasn’t an easy feat.

‘However…’

This was what perplexed Merlin.

“Why now?”

Based on his senses, the power of Jiang Ziya was powerful and noble.

Jiang Ziya, who no longer hid himself in the shadows, possessed great authority and power. Even though Jiang Ziya faced a level down penalty from the Planet God, he was still at the level of a divine transcendent with intermediate god powers!

That power was on par with a fully awakened Leviathan, so if Jiang Ziya had intervened earlier, the crisis would have ended a long time ago.

“Why now… is not the right question. Besides, more than anything…”

After giving a deep sigh, Jiang Ziya continued.

“I can’t do anything anyway.”

“Huh? What do you mean…”

Whoosh!

The moment Merlin was about to ask a question, a circular sphere made up of countless letters appeared mid-air. Jiang Ziya gave a bitter smile as he saw the surrounding Masters go on alert due to the sphere’s sudden appearance.

“Those damn vultures are here.”

Right when he finished speaking, the circular sphere disappeared, and five shadows descended from it onto the ground.

And at the same time…

Ping!

It all happened in a moment. Merlin couldn’t even react properly until a slim man slashed at him across the space. It was because the man moved frighteningly quickly; the man had perfected a form of absolute martial arts and had reached the extreme of quickness.

Bam!

“Ack!”

“Eh?!”

Merlin soon heard two shouts. The man, who had shot out like an arrow towards him, bounced back at a speed faster than he had rushed in. Leaf had suddenly placed herself in front of Merlin and had taken a defensive stance.

“Ugh, what are you? Are you Elohim?”

The man growled while aiming his sword towards Merlin and Leaf; a dwarf girl and draconic being, who were standing next to him, shook their heads in unison.

“Man, you’re such an idiot. Shouldn’t you have at least read the battle report before jumping in?” The dwarf girl commented.

“Who was the one who said elves were calm and thoughtful beings?” The draconic being added on.

For some reason, the newly appeared beings seemed carefree, as if they couldn’t see Jiang Ziya standing next to Merlin, but that was only for a moment. All of their faces hardened as a flashing, tremendous light emanated from behind them.

[Argh!! You!!!] Leviathan screamed out.

– Hahaha! Come on, Apocalypse! Let’s play some more!

The ground shook and rumbled. Leviathan convulsively rose up and tried to move towards the direction of the newly appeared beings, but Apollo had kicked him away.

“Wow, just wow. To have summoned Apollo of all beings.”

Feeling the tremendous power and aura emanating from Apollo, the newly revealed beings momentarily forgot about Merlin as they watched the battle between Leviathan and Apollo.

“All kidding aside, at this point, it’s beyond great… It’s kind of scary.”

“Crazy how someone was able to successfully summon a being like that. I heard all Olympian gods are crazy.”

“Leviathan is taking a beating. What a crazy scene…”

The newly appeared beings let out sighs as they voiced their astonishment at the bizarre scene.

The species types of these newly appeared beings were eclectic. Of the five, only two were human-like in appearance. The other three were from an unfamiliar species, even for Merlin, who had a relatively large amount of knowledge regarding the species that existed throughout the universe.

“Ancient human, dragon, and even a flying fish type of species…”

The aura of power the five exuded was considerable. They weren’t full transcendents… but they were at the pseudo transcendent level.

Merlin had never seen such beings before.

‘Those beings are at the same power level as Arthur?’

In other words, the newly appeared beings were pseudo transcendents. In a more negative way, one may describe them as fake transcendents.

However, since there were five of them, their collective power couldn’t be ignored. Depending on how well they worked with each other, their collective force may actually be enough to take down a skilled transcendent.

“Yongno…”

“Are you okay, Merlin?”

Miho and Arc, who had been unable to approach due to Jiang Ziya releasing a divine qi shot earlier, appeared in front of Merlin.

“Things are getting more dangerous and troublesome. I never would have thought those good for nothings would appear…”

Ellie, who was sitting on Arc’s right shoulder, spoke in a slightly nervous tone of voice. Quiet Heaven, who was sitting on Arc’s left shoulder, also made a serious expression.

“The civilization level must have risen. No, since their power level has been capped at the pseudo transcendent stage… it must be that the civilization level is on the verge of going up.”

“You know them?”

“I know them all too well, that’s the problem.”

Quiet Heaven growled at the sight of the five beings approaching them.

“Basara…”