## Chapter 1283 – An Extremely Ominous Existence

ㅡWhooooooosh!!

An alien flash bursts forth in the middle of the red sky, painted with the colors of the setting sun.

I knew it the moment I saw it.

It was a sign of a gate being created.

An ominous blend of purplish-blue and rotting pinkish hues replaced a section of the sky. And within it, tiny, pure white stars twinkled. It was a scene that felt like a nightmare brought to life.

The heretics know how to use gate magic.
Even gates capable of long-distance travel.

“I knew it, you son of a bitch.”

I had expected it.

With Ludenkor’s death, that massive, powerful shard of darkness was exposed before me. If I were the Lich, I would try to retrieve it no matter what.

Even if it meant taking a slight loss.

Of course. It wouldn’t be easy to create a monster with that kind of power. For the Lich, Ludenkor was an important asset that couldn’t be lost.

The gate was enormous.

Judging by the situation, it was clear that the Lich bastard was taking a significant loss. It had to be. Otherwise, he would have come to attack together when the barrier was still intact. He must have been confident that Ludenkor would kill me, according to his expectations. But what a pity. I’m a Heavenly Demon who transcends imagination.

ㅡFlash.

I immediately spread my hand.

And deploy the Annihilation Orb.

“Heavenly Demon Annihilation Orb.”

ㅡCrackle…!!

White flames form a sphere, singing a song of destruction.

My remaining power is less than 10%.

The majority of my power was used up by the Dimensional Severance. What will come out of that gate? Whatever it is, it will be extremely difficult for me to face it in my current state. But as I just guessed, it will be difficult for him too.

If so.

I can deal with it well enough.

If it doesn’t work out, I can just postpone the match until later. Run like hell. And when my strength recovers, I can fight again. This Kim Kat is a man who can do that for the sake of victory. That’s the formula for victory created by the mathematician Kim Kat!

“First, I’ll aim for the gate.”

ㅡWhoosh.

I launch the Annihilation Orb, which had been burning above my palm. ㅡWhoosh! The Annihilation Orb, leaving a trail of burning white, flies straight into the gate.

The Heavenly Demon Annihilation Orb entered the gate.

Trash belongs in the trash can.
Annihilation Orbs belong in gates.

“I’ve always wanted to try that.”

What would happen if you threw something like that into a gate? Would it explode inside? Would it be delivered as is? Or would the sudden expansion of energy cancel the gate? If it’s canceled, what about the guy coming through?

While pondering such questions, I fix my eyes on the gate.

ㅡCrackle…!
ㅡWoooooooom!!

The gate distorts. The colors, like a scene from a nightmare, twist wildly, emitting bizarre sounds. As expected. It’s my Heavenly Demon Annihilation Orb. Of course, it’s capable of doing this much.

“It’s having an effect.”

But I don’t know how much of an effect it will have.

There’s no way the guy deploying such powerful gate magic wouldn’t have defenses in place.

ㅡWhoosh!
ㅡWhooooooosh!

I deploy Annihilation Orbs in both hands once more and throw them into the gate. ㅡFlash! I immediately retract my hand and grab the shard of darkness that is being `sucked` into the gate.

And at that moment.

“…!”

ㅡZap!!!

“Holy shit!”

A fierce current flows through my hand…! A burning pain is felt from there! The power contained within the shard of darkness was beyond my imagination!

“You little punk!!!!!!!”

I thought about grabbing this and running.

ㅡSwoosh!!

But in that instant, a dark tentacle stretched out from the shard of darkness, wrapping around my arm and trying to devour me! What the hell! This bastard dares to try to invade my body!!!

ㅡThump!

At the same time, my vision blurs and my body sways…!

“Damn it!!!”

I can’t grab it!

I can’t grab it! I immediately unleashed a Heavenly Demon Shattering Palm, tearing off the shard that was trying to invade me! ㅡBoom! It came off more easily than I thought. Anyway, that bastard…! It was trying to get inside me just now!!

It’s because my power is depleted!

In my current state, I can’t even grab it! ㅡWoooooom! At the same time, the gate in the sky begins to recover. I throw another Annihilation Orb to stop it, but it seems this gate can be restored.

ㅡRustle.

The floating shard of darkness tries to be sucked back into the gate. Is this it! Am I going to have the shard of darkness stolen by the Lich bastard like this…!

“That can’t happen!!!”

If I can’t take it, I can just destroy it!!

“Vigaaaaaaaaaaaal!!!!!”

As I shout loudly, Vigaal, which had been embedded, ㅡFlash! is automatically sucked into my grasp. Gripping the hilt, I feel an extreme sense of omnipotence and deploy Dimensional Sword Energy. I can’t create Sword Qi right now, but!!!

“This is enough!!!”

ㅡWhooooooosh!!

I swing the sword as is. The ultimate swordsmanship and the ultimate power intertwine, creating a typhoon. The trajectory of the launched blade cuts through space.

Even so.

ㅡClang!!!

The blade is deflected.
It was impossible to cut the shard of darkness.

“I can’t cut it!”

This is not good. The gate continues to recover, I have no power left, and the shard of darkness is trying to fly into the sky. I can’t grab it, and I can’t destroy it.

And at that moment.

「ㅡWoooooooom!!」

An even more intense flash erupts.

The sky completely opens.

“…”

It’s a huge gate.

Just how important is that shard of darkness to you, you Lich bastard.

I recheck the remaining amount of my power. And I judge calmly. Throwing a Heavenly Demon Annihilation Orb into a gate that has grown this large won’t have much of an effect. Rather, it would be a waste of my power. It’s precarious. If my power drops any further, I won’t be able to deal with emergencies.

Should I.

Give up?

“Heavenly Demon Energy.”

I squeeze out a portion of my remaining power to suppress the shard of darkness that is trying to fly away.

ㅡSwoosh.

Without touching it. Suppressing its movement purely with my energy. It’s possible if I try. I applied the mysteries of the Heavenly Demon Overlord Steps like this. For now, this will allow me to temporarily hold back the shard of darkness that is trying to fly away.

But… the fact that such a large gate has opened means.

“There’s a possibility that some really big bastard is going to come out.”

ㅡFlash.

And.

ㅡRumble rumble rumble rumble rumble!

“These predictions are never wrong.”

A giant.

An extremely large… specifically, a bit larger than the forearm of a Colossus. Such an absurdly large bony hand falls out from inside the gate. ㅡRumble rumble rumble! It seemed that the mere act of reaching out was shattering the void.

It was like a meteor falling.

Damn.

That’s a really damn big hand.
It falls from the gate.

“Is that the Lich?”

Or an transcendent undead weapon created by the Lich? It doesn’t matter. I saw one of the enemy’s entities. It ignited a fire in my chest. My heart soars. But to win. I must endure for now.

ㅡGritting.

“…!”

My whole body trembles. I want to throw myself towards that place…! Look at that blue bony hand! That transcendentally gigantic skeleton of a giant is waving its hand! ㅡCrackle! Not only that…! Each and every one of those bones was imbued with evil magic!

It’s not lacking as my opponent!

ㅡFlash!

I shook my head violently.
Now is not the time to rush in.

Above all, that giant skull hand didn’t appear to finish me off!!! Right now!! It appeared to retrieve that shard of darkness!!!

ㅡWhooooooosh!!

The hand gropes through the air, reaching towards this side. It’s to retrieve the shard of darkness. I step and deploy power to change my position so that it can’t be taken away. It’s so inconvenient because I can’t touch it directly!

ㅡPwhooooooooosh!!

At that moment.

“There are two damn hands!!!”

A second hand falls from a short distance away! What it’s aiming for must also be that shard of darkness…! Is that Adam Smith’s damn big hand? What does it even mean to masturbate with that hand!

Not only that!

ㅡKyaooooooo!
ㅡKrrrrrrrr!
ㅡScreeeeeech!!

A large number of ghouls pour out from inside the gate.

In addition, knights clad in black armor also fall out mixed in with them. Mass-produced undead. Is it to confuse me? Hundreds of undead land on the ground. God damn it, those bastards came completely prepared!

“Alright!”

It won’t even take a few seconds to slaughter them all anyway!

Just as I was about to kill them all!

ㅡFlash!

The undead ignore me and start running in all directions at once.

“…These bastards.”

There is only one purpose. To run in all directions from now on and invade every town and city they come across. With that number, it wouldn’t be a problem for several cities to be destroyed.

They’re forcing me.

To go and stop them.

“There should be a village nearby.”

I calculate the distance based on their speed. This place is in the middle of a mountain range. Even if ghouls and death knights run, it will take time to reach a city. If I fly, I can catch up in an instant. And that gate. It won’t be able to maintain it for long.

Calculation complete.

I just need to protect the shard of darkness until then.

“You all killed them.”

There are no inhabited villages nearby. Protect the shard of darkness, confirm that the gate has disappeared, and then wipe out the undead! I can do it! Thinking that!!!

ㅡFlash!!!

I unleash my power intensely and pull the shard.

「ㅡKwaaaaaaaang!!!」

At the same time, a large hand covers the ground! An explosion occurs, and for some reason, all the trees around are frozen. Was the hand blue because it was enchanted with ice attributes?

“No way!”

An Ice Giant!!

Did the Lich retrieve it and create this?!

Just like I encountered the ancient beings, the Lich also obtained them!

ㅡPat pat pat pat!

The mountain range freezes. But I couldn’t escape as I wanted. It seemed that the shard of darkness was slowly learning how to resist my power.

“Listen to me, you bastard!!!”

The shard of darkness pushes back against my power and tries to fly towards that bony hand! I can’t grab this damn thing, and I can’t do anything! This is really fucked up!

I can’t let the shard be taken away!

The hero Ludenkor may have been special, but if the Lich bastard retrieves this shard, he’ll be able to create another bastard like him!

ㅡFlash!

I somehow knock away the shard of darkness with Vigaal, and by running and jumping like crazy, I was able to avoid that giant hand. The gate…! When will the gate disappear!

Just when I thought that the gate would disappear if I just stalled for time like that.

ㅡSwoosh.

The gate that opened in the sky.

Something `different` began to emerge from there.

That was. Yes.

The owner of the hand.

A transcendentally gigantic skull.

「ㅡ…」

It poked its head out and looked at me.

It’s a bluish skull. The mouth was damn big, and the empty eyes were filled with darkness. Should I break that? Unfortunately, I can’t right now. It would have been possible if I could have used Dimensional Severance one more time, but I can’t use it now.

ㅡCrack.

The skull opened its mouth.

ㅡWoooooooom!

A black magic circle is created in front of it. Instinctively, I could feel it. I can’t withstand that in my current state.

ㅡBoom!

The moment I kicked off the ground and pulled my body away.

「ㅡTooooooooom!!!」

A breath of darkness was fired.

I endure the aftershock while floating in the air.

“Oh shit.”

It’s truly transcendent destructive power.
The space that was hit flew away as if it had been erased.

“Damn strong.”

Lich, you bastard… were you preparing even this? But why didn’t you wage war against the world? Did you need more preparation? Or did you have other things left to do?

It’s frustrating as hell.

I’m about to have the shard of darkness stolen right in front of my eyes. The shard of darkness was in the space where the skull had fired its breath. That means it was exposed to that power.

ㅡFlash!

The shard of darkness gains even more powerful power from that and rises.

ㅡWhooooooosh!!

The radiance of darkness that is emitted is truly evil.