Chapter 247
Translator: Pai_
Originally, beings who had become powerful beyond a certain level and thus moved beyond the place of their birth could observe a closed world, but interfering with it was difficult.
To be precise, it was not impossible, but doing so required an immense price.
However, such transcendents sometimes influenced a closed world simply by passing through it, without doing anything.
Just as the vibrations of a passing elephant’s footsteps can shake an ant's nest, the spiritual magnitude was so enormous that its aftershocks spread in all directions.
The being currently approaching the Cradle World, the trace of the bird that devours the moon, was just like that.
Sensing the omen, Turan was the first to reach out to the afterlife.
He granted parole to souls, starting with those who had committed the smallest sins, all the way to those who had been paying for their crimes in hell.
Their spirit forms soon turned into essence and nestled within Turan, adding to his power.
Up to the limit that could be controlled with the presence he currently possessed.
After that, the remaining hell and paradise, with some souls left, were moved beyond the boundaries of the world, probably to the dimension corridor farthest from where the enemies would come.
It would be truly terrible if paradise were to be destroyed during a fierce battle.
Next, he cut off all dimensional gates connecting the Earth to other worlds through the Cradle.
Because the aftershocks created as the bird that devours the moon passed by might be transmitted to Earth, and although the possibility was small, beasts of a lower rank like Uruka could be sent down, riding the dimensional gates and transferred to Earth.
Of course, the current Earth, with its many newly emerged gifted individuals, would not be as powerless against transcendent creatures as it was in the past, but still, there was no need to provoke needless sacrifices.
He had already warned the Earthlings that it would happen in a few hours or days, so while it might be startling, they could more or less accept it.
If the Cradle World were to be defeated, there would be no need to worry about what came next anyway.
The essence obtained from dismantling the retrieved dimensional gates was to be distributed to other Ascendants.
Turan himself had already reached his limit by gathering essence from the souls in hell.
If the enemy brought subordinates, they could help block him from being distracted while dealing with them, and if he came alone, they might be able to assist in a joint attack.
Meanwhile, Meisa descended to the surface and summoned all the Ascendants of the Empire.
Solif, Osel, Luska, Haram.......
Even though they had been carrying out missions or enjoying their leisure in various parts of the world, they did not panic in the urgent situation, though they were tense.
It was thanks to the long-standing warnings given since ancient times.
That a powerful enemy, even they would find difficult to handle, would come from beyond that world.
To the gathered ones, Turan distributed the excess essence too great for him to control alone, and spoke in a low voice.
“If everyone moves just as we planned in advance, we’ll be able to stop it. I trust no one has forgotten their role.”
“Of course. Whew, maybe I should have practiced a bit more.”
Solif murmured as if regretting, staring beyond the empty void.
In his hand, a light flashed like starlight being forged.
At this point, if he were to train on a large scale like Turan or Meisa, he would not have the strength left to fight, so he was doing last-minute training on a smaller scale.
Of course, even though Solif had not isolated himself from the world completely like Turan or Meisa to devote himself to training, he had trained enough to wield his power decently.
Not only him, but also Haram, standing off in the distance demonstrating martial arts skills learned from Earth, Osel, kissing a photo of Rida, and Luska, using the excuse of teaching tips as a senior Ascendant to flirt with the one he had a crush on.
All of them had made their own efforts after being warned of the impending invasion by a powerful enemy who would be difficult to deal with.
There was no certainty that their efforts would be rewarded, but.......
“Are you scared?”
A sudden voice from behind.
As Meisa whispered close to his ear, Turan hesitated for a moment and then asked back.
“Do I look like it?”
“A little. There were times before when it felt similar, but I’ve never seen it like this.”
So it looked that way.
Turan couldn’t even recall the last time he had shown fear to someone.
As usual, he tried to conceal his emotions behind a blank expression, but soon, he revealed his honest feelings.
“How could I not be scared? If we lose, everything ends.”
“We can do this. We've been working for it. For almost a hundred years.”
“Is that so.”
At Meisa’s reassurance, Turan felt the pounding of his tense heart settle.
Could the same words feel so different depending on who said them?
–Besides, I’m here too!
At that moment, Bije suddenly leapt out from his neck and shouted right in Turan’s face.
True to her age as a divine beast who had lived for over a hundred years, her voice held a sacred resonance, yet her eyes were utterly innocent and pure.
As Turan patted her head, he realized that all of his tension had melted away and let out a laugh.
For now,
Just a few hours.
By the time the others, having been tense for a while, were beginning to feel slightly worn down, the space beyond the dimensional corridor began to darken into pitch blackness.
“It’s coming.......”
The bird that devours the moon.
One of the four beasts born from the master of the Phantom Beast Realm was approaching from afar.
No, to be exact, it wasn’t something that could be seen.
That beast of apocalypse devoured all light around it merely by existing.
In the darkness of the void where even light could not exist, the sight of a form even darker approaching was truly surreal.
A wave of nausea surged from the dizziness that twisted not only vision but every other sense.
Behind it followed well over a hundred Uruka, which they had seen before, as well as various other beasts, some smaller, some larger.
Perhaps it had brought stronger subordinates than Uruka, like that lion-headed human seen in the past.
Moments later, when the enemy crossed the dimensional corridor and reached the boundary of the world, its size exceeded all expectations.
Just the length of its six wings stretching out sideways was dozens of kilometers.
Its grotesquely twisted body appeared much smaller than that, yet still measured in kilometers.
‘At this point, it’s more like a celestial body than a living creature.......’
Turan himself could forcibly grow to that size, but it wasn’t exactly efficient.
There was a limit to the size he felt was “appropriate” based on the control his spirit form could maintain.
The bird that devours the moon looked at Turan, and at the Ascendants of the Cradle lined up behind him, and spoke.
[Have you been... waiting for me?]
Its voice, like a sob, felt neutral, making it difficult to determine a gender.
Depending on how it was heard, it could be either male or female.
“That’s right. Any chance you’ll turn back quietly?”
[I couldn’t possibly do that.......]
As expected.
Unless it hadn’t come at all, there was no way a being of that magnitude would move without expecting to gain something.
That was why, even if Turan and the Ascendants left behind only the barest amount of essence for themselves and poured all the rest into reinforcing the world’s barrier to a sturdier state than before, it would be meaningless.
Since it had come this far, even if the result didn’t match the effort, it would tear away the Cradle’s wrapping and claim its prey somehow.
Fighting and driving it away was the only path to survival.
“Let’s go.”
At Turan’s signal, the battle to determine the fate of both worlds began.
***
The one to initiate combat was Turan, with a nuclear fusion explosion he had crafted himself.
Over the past several decades, even amid his busy schedule, he had studied physics and various natural laws whenever he could, and this was a new technique he had achieved.
Just like with magic, the more one understood the principles in detail, the less energy was required to produce a phenomenon, and the greater the power became.
Though this attack hadn’t even been executed at full power, the aftermath alone threatened to incinerate every living being within thousands of kilometers.
If there had been air at the boundary of this world, allowing heat conduction, then even allies like himself, stationed some distance away, would have had to expend energy to defend themselves.
However, despite the immense thermal energy contained within, the moment it came into contact with the bird that devours the moon, it vanished as if dipped into pitch-black ink.
‘Does it have resistance to light and heat? Or perhaps it absorbs them.’
Could it be related to the name “Bird That Devours the Moon”?
Judging by its appearance, he had assumed it would be either vulnerable or strong against light, and it seemed to be the latter.
While Turan contemplated the enemy's weakness, Meisa, Solif, and the other Ascendants each began to move, seeking their own opponents to engage.
Elephants with elongated legs, reindeer with grotesquely twisted forms, snakes covered in pitch-black scales...
While most of the Ascendants faced off against one of these, along with accompanying Uruka units, Meisa and Solif alone took on two or three each.
Seeing this, the bird that devours the moon muttered softly.
[Impressive.]
“What do you mean by that?”
[I heard this was still a young world, yet it has produced so many strong individuals. If more time had passed, perhaps you would have gained some fame.]
It wasn’t hard to sense the confidence behind those words, that now was the ideal time to suppress them.
In response, Turan clicked his tongue lightly and began preparing a second attack.
Having confirmed that light and heat were ineffective, the next attempt would be with water, cold, and poison.
With a single flap of a golden eagle's wings, an overwhelming torrent of water, enough to fill the sea in an instant, poured down and then froze solid, wrapping itself around the creature in the form of an ice serpent.
Within that attack was also a deadly poison, imbued with a concept that hindered all life activity, even more potent than what had been used to kill the lion-headed humanoid before.
However, even while rendered unable to flap its six wings, the Bird That Devours the Moon stood still, allowing every attack to strike it.
As if to say, “This is nothing to me.”
[Is that all? If this is the extent of the world’s master, I must say I’m a little disappointed...]
Its voice carried a sense of deflation, almost let down.
In response, Turan immediately moved on to the third attack, one he had prepared during his training with Meisa.
The ice that had wrapped around the Bird That Devours the Moon rapidly transitioned from solid to liquid, and then from liquid to gas, expanding explosively.
When that pressure was controlled to prevent it from bursting outward, it was forced inward, essentially triggering an explosion.
A steam explosion driven by pure physical force, without any light or heat, erupted and detonated against the body of the Bird That Devours the Moon.
The sound was so deafening that even the others fighting far away paused and turned their heads.
‘Did it land?’
As the shockwave of the explosion began to fade, Turan was finally able to see the core of the enemy, previously hidden within darkness.
The true form of the Bird That Devours the Moon was a conglomerate of countless bird species.
Sparrows, pigeons, magpies, crows, hawks...
All sorts of birds were grotesquely crammed together, forming a creature so hideous it could barely be called a bird.
Perhaps due to the recent steam explosion, around ten percent of its body had collapsed, spilling pitch-black blood. Yet surprisingly, this wound quickly reversed itself, as if time was rewinding.
The creature, once again wrapped in total darkness, snapped its massive beak with a clack and laughed.
[That was actually a bit fun. Had I not received help from my older brother, I might’ve suffered for quite a while.]
For the first time, the voice that had remained languid since the beginning now held a faint excitement and interest.
Along with that, Turan’s vision went completely black.
‘This is...’
Had he lost his eyes? Or was it some other trick?
As Turan stood blankly, robbed of his sight, the Bird That Devours the Moon launched its first attack.
With the flap of six wings, it lunged at near-teleportation speed, slashing down with its claws.
The strength and speed befitting its massive size, combined with the stature of a transcendent being, gave the attack enough power to destroy even stars.
But even in his blinded state, Turan sensed it and swiftly fluttered his wings to evade the strike.
In response, the Bird That Devours the Moon, for the first time, spoke with a tone of surprise.
[How?]
Turan had avoided the enemy's attack thanks to a sense unique to those who manipulated essence.
Perceiving things not through the five senses, but through information.
Normally, the amount of information he had to read was so immense that it was exhausting, so he left only a few essential sensory channels open. However, if he wished, he could fully replace his eyesight altogether.
Thanks to this ability, he was able to understand exactly what kind of trick the Bird That Devours the Moon had used.
‘It has devoured all the light in this space. The principle seems similar to that light-absorbing magic artifact I used before.’
The difference was that, unlike that artifact which was merely of mid-grade quality, this was an act of divine power, an ability wielded by a godlike being.
Turan expanded his perception to briefly check the situation of the other Ascendants.
They, too, had lost all light in this space, but fortunately, it seemed they were managing to fight in their own ways using similar methods.
‘Good, as long as I win, that should be enough.......’
The problem was that it wasn’t as easy as it sounded.
Confirming the enemy’s position purely through informational perception, with his vision taken away, made the overwhelming difference in their power all the more tangible.
Even though he had spent over a century rebuilding a world and gathering nearly all the strength born from it, the enemy’s scale still completely overshadowed him.
Not that it was particularly surprising, when one thought about it.
Transcendents from the open worlds like the Phantom Beast Realm were ancient monsters that had existed for hundreds of thousands, even millions of years.
Considering that they had accumulated power over unfathomable eons, collecting souls through contracts or invasions across hundreds or thousands of worlds, the very fact that Turan could stand against one after merely a hundred years was something to be proud of.
[You seem able to see even without eyes? My wingbeats shouldn’t make any sound.]
“I have to be capable of at least this much.”
Responding casually to the probing question meant to extract information, Turan attempted the same attack as before.
He had already confirmed that physical attacks devoid of light and heat could be effective.
But as if unwilling to fall for the same move twice, the Bird That Devours the Moon moved gracefully, evading the ice dragon Turan had created and counterattacking once more.
Turan tried to dodge quickly as he had before, but as if predicting his motion, the enemy struck a step ahead, tearing through his wing joint.
“Ugh.......”
It had only grazed him in passing, yet the difference in their size, dozens of times apart, made even that a grievous wound.
As Turan consumed essence to mend his injury, he frowned upon realizing the wound did not heal easily.
The creature’s claws carried not poison, nor any typical corruption, but a concept imbued with “hindering the recovery of wounds.”
It was clearly a form of authority on an entirely different level from the powers of the Cradle World.
‘Then there’s no helping it.’
Turan’s countermeasure was simple.
He would remove the damaged area that refused to heal and regenerate it anew.
If the form of the golden eagle were his true body, that would be impossible, but since it was a construct shaped from essence, it was a technique he could employ.
Seeing this, the Bird That Devours the Moon once again let out a sound of admiration.
[You don’t undo the curse, you disassemble it and revert it to a state of nonexistence? Truly fascinating...... Both this world and the power of your kind are things I’ve never seen before. I can hardly imagine how pleased Mother would be if I presented this to her.]
Still speaking in the same tone that regarded them as mere prey, Turan smirked crookedly and launched another counterattack.
This time, it was the same railgun bombardment he had used in the past to annihilate the Uruka horde.
The only difference was the sheer amount of power contained within.
Unlike back then, when the attack had been used to clean up lesser enemies, the projectiles he created now were each larger than a building.
As vast amounts of essence deactivated around him, explosions and magnetic surges erupted in all directions, firing thousands of iron shells.
[Ugh......!]
For the first time, he heard a pained groan from his opponent.
Even in a state where he could only read information, Turan sensed the darkness wrapping around the enemy’s body had dissipated considerably, and blood was pouring from it like a waterfall.
But before long, he also sensed all those wounds reversing, healing as if time itself were rewinding.
‘Damn it.’
He wasn’t really in a position to complain, but it was truly an absurd level of regenerative ability.
If he launched another attack like the one before with the remaining power, would that recovery eventually reach its limit?
If so, that would be ideal, but if not, it would only lead to the worst-case scenario where he alone exhausted his power and became incapacitated...
That thought only lasted a moment. Turan quickly flapped his wings as he sensed an enormous force swirling around the enemy’s body.
Fortunately, the enemy's attack barely missed him and vanished beyond the void.
Then, following immediately, came another claw strike, flying in and slamming down.
Combined now with long-range attack capabilities, which it had not used earlier, and physical combat, along with its overwhelming speed, Turan no longer had the luxury to even consider launching another attack.
Just blocking and dodging were already a struggle.
After several evasions and defensive maneuvers, in the process of regenerating wounds from hits, by dissolving and recreating parts of his body, Turan’s essence was being consumed at an alarming rate.
In contrast, the enemy still appeared to have plenty of stamina to spare.
It was a battle of attrition that wasn’t playing in Turan’s favor.
‘This is dangerous.’
How should he overcome this situation?
After a brief moment of thought, Turan realized he had no choice but to use a method he had been holding off on due to reluctance, and he let out a small sigh.
The first action he took was to relinquish control over the majority of the essence he possessed.
They were powers he had already used once and would require time before they could be reactivated.
Perhaps sensing this, the Bird That Devours the Moon, who had been attacking relentlessly, paused for a moment.
Likely because it didn’t fully understand how Turan’s power functioned and was wary of an unexpected tactic.
Thanks to that, Turan gained just enough time to carry out his second move.
As he inhaled, an amount of essence equal to what he had just relinquished, but still unused and thus fully intact, came under his control.
As the power that had formed the world’s barrier was completely drawn into him, the once-deep-blue sky turned dark.
For the first time, the humans of the Cradle World witnessed the boundary of the world surrounding them, and the apocalyptic bird that threatened it.
*****
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