D.I.O - CH 321

Lancelot’s opportunity to rise to the transcendent realm was the result of great luck. Gaia’s Blessing had given him a moment of enlightenment that he would have never had otherwise.

And in that moment of fortuitous luck…

Crack! Crack!

Unluckily for him, the moment he stepped into the transcendent realm, there was a powerful enemy who interfered with his transcendence; this could only be described as a great misfortune, the worst luck one could have.

“Lancelot!”

With a pale face, Cruze caught Lancelot’s upper body. Red blood gushed out from his body, which had lost all its gear. This sort of phenomenon happened when one’s manifestation was forcibly canceled.

“You idiot! You shouldn’t have appeared with your main body in the frontline; you should have stayed in the backline…!”

“No, no. Even if I appeared on the battlefield through the DIO mission system, the result would have been the same.”

Lancelot, who chuckled dejectedly, frowned in pain. He felt a very strong and foreign energy eating away at his soul.

Crack!

“… This is…?”

Realizing what was going on, Cruze raised her head. Alexander stood back as if its business was over. M-4 explained.

[Transcendent Weapon, Alexander’s sword. Since this is also a version of Earth, you must know of the legend of Gordian Knot, right?]

In 333 B.C., after capturing Goldion, the capital of the Lydia Kingdom, which was under the rule of Persia, Alexander severed the Knot of Zeus, or otherwise known as the Gordian Knot. It was said that if anyone was able to cut the Gordian Knot, that person would become the conqueror of Asia. At that time, Alexander stated that fate wasn’t made by legend but through one’s sword.

Thus, the [special characteristic] of Alexander’s sword was that it could cut fate.

Hence, the effect was…

“Damn it.”

Like the soul of Hanma, a powerful martial artist, and Jeros, a great mage, before him, Lancelot’s soul began to scatter.

“Damn it…”

Lancelot laughed bitterly as he felt his consciousness gradually fading away.

“I thought…”

He didn’t consider himself a martial artist, but still, he had trained for a long time. Since he had essentially lived ten times longer than a normal human’s lifespan, practicing and training in one stab move, it wouldn’t have been strange for others to think that he was an accomplished martial artist at first glance.

However, his training wasn’t in martial arts.

It was…

Crack!

His soul slowly disappeared from the deadly scar left by Alexander’s sword strike. The divine status that would have allowed him to transcend his existence in the physical world, also disappeared.

Thud!

“Ack!”

With a heavy echo, Leaf rolled on the ground before jumping up to her feet. She still retained a sleek posture, but her disheveled dress and the blood running down her mouth illustrated that she was on the losing end of her fight.

“You machines over there are actually doing some work and starting to pull your own weight now, huh?”

Volcano, who had sent Leaf tumbling, appeared in front of the group. His body was wrapped in a roaring heat wave, which made him look like an incarnation of fire.

“Even though his flame actuation isn’t at Arthur’s photonization level…” Leaf commented.

Leaf, who collided with Volcano, glared at him while gritting her teeth. Volcano looked like he was an incarnation of flame itself, but it was just a self-defense technique. Volcano didn’t turn his entire body into flame, like how Arthur turned his whole body into light through photonization.

Volcano had changed his name to Volcano after acquiring his great skill [Volcanic Inhalation], so his current form was ordinary for him.

However, the problem was…

Volcano’s ‘ordinary’ combat form was a truly daunting defensive form.

“I can’t break through his natural defenses…!”

Moreover, Volcano’s form utilized the fire attribute and strong qi, so every time Leaf launched an attack, she sustained damage herself.

Thud!

Arc descended next to the party members. She held Merlin, who looked lifeless, in her left arm.

“Be careful. If you get hit by Sadness’ mental attack while fighting Volcano, even your defensive barriers won’t work.”

Arc always wore full body armor, including a helmet, so her party members never saw her face, but right now, her facial expression wasn’t hidden by anything. Even though she was in the best state relative to the other party members… her armor had been thoroughly smashed and rendered useless.

Tap.

And finally, Miho with a flushed face, joined the group.

“Ugh, what is up with that girl!? She’s able to cast enchantment spells on a Nine-tailed Fox?”

“Ho-ho-ho! Let’s play some more, kid.”

Happiness, a naked beauty, smiled as she chuckled and stuck out her slender, long legs. Seeing this scene, Youngmin’s face turned red.

“Hey!”

Youngmin hurriedly shook his head after hearing Miho’s outburst.

“Oh no, I wasn’t looking! I’m currently in a bit of an oversensitive state, so it can’t be helped!”

Although Youngmin was able to perfectly stabilize his Celestial Star’s killing intent state due to Gaia’s Blessing, his senses were still in a very heightened state. In truth, in such a state, he should have been slaughtering everything in his surroundings without a care in the world.

‘Damn. This seems like the perfect place for all of us to die. I can’t believe there isn’t a single being I can deal with easily.’

In Youngmin’s original world, there was only one proper transcendent, and even that one transcendent acted more like a bystander than anything.

But what about this place? Wasn’t this place crawling with transcendents?

‘This is tough.’

The battlefield was so intense that the Celestial Star, who was famous for being unable to control his anger disorder, was evolving into an anger management being.

“Are you still watching!” Miho screamed toward Youngmin.

“Stop,” Arc stated.

This time, Arc blocked Volcano’s heat wave attack.

“It’s time for you trash to leave.”

“Who are you calling trash! You guys should be the one who should scram! This is Earth!”

Sadness and Leaf collided.

“I’m so excited…”

“Ugh! I hate this girl!”

At the same time, Miho collided with Happiness. The remaining party members had gathered to protect the fallen Merlin and Lancelot, but… the remaining members’ power was insufficient to contend against all the opponents, so when the fierce battle ensued once more, many of the party members were left defenseless.

“Let’s finish this.”

Shen, who activated Quintillion again, glared at the exposed party members with cold eyes. The elf swordsman, Chan, was also concentrating his internal energy into his sword.

However, Cruze kept looking at Lancelot, or Dongsoo, in her arms. Her aura power rose like a cloud and attached to his half-cut body to stop the bleeding, but the main issue was that Lancelot hadn’t suffered just a physical wound.

“I wasn’t deserving… I didn’t say what I always thought because I wasn’t deserving enough, but…”

Dongsoo’s face was pale. His eyes, which lacked vitality, were already in a state where he couldn’t properly see the face of Cruze in front of him.

“Don’t talk! Get your head on straight, you idiot! Concentrating your aura power on one point and crystallizing it will increase your soul defense…”

Cruze desperately explained the best course of action for Lancelot, but Lancelot didn’t seem to listen.

Instead, with the last remaining strength he had left, Lancelot spoke, “Y-you…”

Breathing hard and ragged, Lancelot continued, “You have no talent.”

“… What?”

Cruze’s expression turned dumbfounded at Lancelot’s words, which seemed to come out from left field. Shen, who had been taking a hostile stance towards Cruze, responded to Lancelot’s words.

“Talent? A guy as common as a stone on the side of the road is talking about talent?”

An Irregular’s talent was not something that even the gigantic forces that controlled the entire universe could easily see or understand. An Irregular was one in a quintillion, or 10 to the 18th power, an absurd unit of 18 zeros when expressed in numbers. Merlin’s Earth, which produced three such Irregulars, was abnormal; if one searched throughout the entire universe, the number of Irregulars, not counting Merlin and the others on Earth, wouldn’t exceed five. Moreover, most Irregulars died before they reached full maturity.

“Don’t be ridiculous! Don’t think that you’re special just because you almost reached the transcendent realm! It’s ridiculous for you to pretend that you know about something you don’t truly know about… you just got lucky and almost jumped over the final hurdle by chance!”

Although Shen had met many transcendent beings after joining Basara, which allowed him to travel across the universe, he had never lost confidence in himself. Even if he didn’t reach the transcendent realm… he always considered himself special. Even the great mages who reached the highest levels were startled whenever they talked to him, so what more needed to be said?

The final hurdle before transcendence. That was Shen’s only problem. If he could overcome that hurdle, that seemingly insurmountable wall… if he could just overcome that wall… he had no doubt that he’d become a far more special and far more powerful transcendent than any other transcendent.

“Actually you…”

But Dongsoo paid no attention to him. He maintained his gaze on Cruze.

“… you’re just a girl.”

“Am I… just a girl?”

“Yes, my dear little sister.”

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Dongsoo, who had fought with all his might and trained with a sort of obsession that bordered on madness, had a more accurate understanding of Cruze than she did of herself.

In his eyes, she was just an ordinary girl.

To him, she was just an ordinary high school girl.

‘No one could see it because of her overwhelming talent.’

If he was someone with mediocre talent and an extraordinary spirit…

She was someone with extraordinary talent and an ordinary spirit.

And… just like innate talent, innate temperament and spirit were not things that could easily be overcome.

“What are you saying all of a sudden?”

However, upon hearing his words, Cruze just gave a dejected laugh. What did it matter? The enemy was already right in front of her eyes, and they were all on the verge of death…

“Do what you love. Yeah…”

However, regardless of the situation, Dongsoo smiled as if he was having fun.

“You might like to be an engineer.”

He recalled the various parts and plastic models that filled his little sister’s room, Byun Miri’s room.

She always said she tinkered with things for fun, but he knew she liked machines and everything mechanical in nature. If DIO wasn’t so focused on combative tendencies, she might have found her true aptitude and career long ago.

“You should make technology that will surprise the entire universe…”

“Lancelot? Byun Dongsoo?”

Cruze hurriedly shook Lancelot’s body when she heard his voice gradually fading. However, it was to no avail. More than 90% of his soul, which was struck by Alexander’s sword during his transcendence process, had already been extinguished.

And his remaining soul was in a precarious state.

‘Ah… such a waste. I was so close.’

From the world…

‘I had almost realized something.’

… Lancelot’s existence was completely erased.

“…”

Cruse looked down at Dongsoo’s lifeless corpse with a blank expression. Through her spiritual power, she was able to perceive with painful certainty that Dongsoo’s soul had completely disappeared.

“Dang…”

Youngmin clicked his tongue and stood in front of Cruze and Dongsoo. The two enemies in front of him, Shen and Chan, were formidable opponents. Even though Youngmin had fully awakened his Celestial Star and its Celestial Killer instinct, it was impossible to predict whether he would be able to defeat them.

“Dongsoo…”

Not caring that she was in a precarious situation, Cruze looked down at Dongsoo’s corpse with a blank expression. Dongsoo’s eyes were closed, and he had an unfamiliar but strangely comfortable expression on his face.

“Hmpf. I’m glad that idiot, who doesn’t know what he’s talking about, finally died.”

Hearing Shen’s malicious comment, Cruze lifted her head. Seeing her dazed expression, Shen responded with some more twisted commentary.

“He was just lucky. He reached transcendence without either extensive knowledge or experience.”

Shen couldn’t accept it. He couldn’t accept that a normal being, who wasn’t born with a great lineage or talent, could reach such a lofty state.

‘It’s all because he received Hero’s Fate. The result is no different from other high-level gods who created transcendent beings!’

Shen convinced himself of this view and suppressed a certain emotion that was arising from within him. And the face of Cruze, who was dazed at such a scene, began to distort.

“You.”

She gently placed Dongsoo’s body onto the ground.

“You.”

And then, she raised herself up.

“What, you little girl? Are you angry?”

“You!!!”

Whoosh!

Her aura power, which had been near empty, started to flare up and burn as it exploded outward. The fearsome aura power inside her was converted into data and began to design all sorts of cutting-edge weaponry.

Truly extreme growth!

However, seeing this, Shen’s expression became cold.

“Don’t act childish, you little bastard child!!”

His completed ability created by gathering various magic spells, Quintillion, was activated.

Whoosh!!!

His great library of spells, Quintillion, shot out dozens of hundreds of spells. The power and effect of each spell was small, but the intertwined spells combined and amplified each other to create a powerful effect.

Bang!

Cruze’s aura power, which produced weaponry through data, was shattered and scattered. Quintillion was easily destroyed by Lancelot’s stabbing blows, but that only happened because Lancelot’s power was directly opposed to Quintillion; without such a diametrically opposed force, Quintillion was nearly unstoppable.

“Don’t look down on me! Did you think that your anger would make a difference!? Do you think a great realization will come from the sadness of losing a loved one?”

It was something that Shen himself had hoped for dozens of times and even tried to take advantage of in the past.

But at each turn, it was all for naught. It wasn’t possible to reach transcendence through such impulses of emotion. When the lover he loved passed… when his family members passed… even though he ultimately abandoned his nation and tribe, he still couldn’t jump over that final hurdle.

“There is nothing you like and nothing you want to do! Even if you grind your teeth desperately to achieve something, in the end, that’ll just bring you common results!”

At Shen’s words, Cruze’s eyes fluttered.

What he said was true.

She had no goals she wanted to achieve, especially at the cost of her life. Neither did she ever find anything that she truly liked.

Dongsoo was right.

She wasn’t talented.

She possessed an unreasonable [cheat code] as an Irregular, but because of it, she wasn’t able to complete herself. She wasn’t able to realize her potential.

This was because a user who played a game on cheat-mode couldn’t truly develop one’s skills.

“It’s a vicious strength that you can’t throw away later on when you decide you don’t want it.”

All of Cruze’s aura powered weaponry, everything she had brought out through her data system, were completely destroyed. Although she achieved dramatic growth for a brief moment… she had just reached the pinnacle of her development. However, Shen had remained at that pinnacle for a much longer time. If the battle was prolonged, there was no chance Cruze could beat Shen.

Zeng!

“Ack!”

Youngmin gnashed his teeth. He had his hands tied dealing with the elf swordsman, Chan. In terms of sword skill alone, Youngmin was half a degree higher, but the difference in their internal energy levels was so great that he suffered losses every time they collided.

‘This is dangerous…’

The situation was getting more and more dire. Moreover, it seemed that Shen was planning on launching his final move. The moment Shen’s magic power was being amplified…

“Hahaha. Oh my…”

It was a familiar voice for Cruze and Youngmin.

“It’s so funny that, in these last moments, just when you’re about to give up…”

It was a voice that shouldn’t have existed anymore.

“W-what?!”

“No, why… how!?”

Hearing the astonishment in the enemies’ voices, Dongsoo looked down. He saw his physical body, which had just died.

He looked to the side.

There, he saw Cruze staring back at him with a blank expression.

“Dongsoo… oppa?”

“Yes, Ms. Byun Miri.”

Whirl.

When he stretched out his hand, a long spear, shining silver, appeared in the empty air. It was one side of his Absolute Attribute, a side called Creation.

[Unintelligible. Impossible. Error.]

[It can’t be. How can this be…]

All the transcendents, including M-4, who had been watching the situation with a relaxed attitude until now, looked at Lancelot with astonishment.

And, in the midst of that chaos and everyone’s astonishment…

“At last…”

Dongsoo laughed.

“… I understand.”