Chapter 208: The True God Slayer
-Ding! Hwa-an-geum-jeong is resisting Metis's power.
At the same moment as this announcement, his comrades blocking her vanished like smoke.
***
Meanwhile, Metis stood in front of Evara, who had retreated far away.
Unlike her appearance on Earth, her mouth was ripped into a long grin, giving off a chilling aura.
Her face was stretched out in a grin like the Joker in Batman, and just looking at it was stressful.
***
As soon as the urge to tear her face apart swept through her, Seo-woon pulled back.
"Hoo." Seo-woon took a deep breath and calmed the rising killing intent and excitement within her.
***
-Beep! You resisted Metis's power.
The sound rang out again, and Metis's appearance changed to that of an ordinary man.
***
"Hoo. Not bad. But the true power of my abilities will be revealed now."
Seo-woon's eyebrows furrowed at Metis's words.
***
Even a moment of inattention would cause a man to fall victim to his power, his mind reeling and unable to distinguish reality from illusion.
The smaller the distortion, the easier it would be to resist it, since it was based on reality.
***
Unless Hwaganggeumjeong was imbued with immense energy and mental strength, it was difficult to realize one had fallen victim to his power.
"This power is more troublesome than I thought."
***
Seo-woon, who had inherited the same power from her, knew this well.
Metis's power was more effective when it distorted small details of reality to deceive the opponent than when it displayed fantasies.
***
Her ability to subtly distort reality during battle was especially threatening.
"Ding!" With your current level of power, you can't trap your opponent in any desired distortion. I tried using my power against him, but as expected, it had no effect.
***
"Kva-kva-kva!" The moment Seo-woon gritted his teeth, the enemy's silhouette vanished, and a tremendous force struck from his left.
This force overturned the already ruined garden and spread randomly.
***
Seo-woon deployed defensive energy to block the unexpected force, but a sharp pain ripped through his back.
Because he'd expended a tremendous amount of energy on Hwa-an-geum-jeong, his reaction was inevitably delayed, causing the enemy's attack to hit.
***
"Damn it. This isn't human flesh."
Seo-woon looked at his fingertips, which had turned into sharp blades, and then turned to the smirking Metis.
***
"How...?" He couldn't understand how fast they were.
No matter how powerful they were, they weren't true gods.
They were beings with physical forms.
***
As long as they had a physical form, even if they were gods, their movements should be visible.
Or at least felt.
***
But he couldn't sense the creature's movements at all.
It was as if it had leaped through space, leaving no trace.
***
"You look troubled."
Bang! As soon as the creature finished speaking, Seo-woon felt a sharp pain in the back of his head.
***
"What's this...?" This creature's attack confirmed it.
I felt a pain in the back of my head before the creature in front of me disappeared.
But I still couldn't understand.
***
"Is this a power?"
But I knew that couldn't be true.
The creature's power, Using Hwaganggeumjeong, he was using it to the fullest to resist and maintain his sense of reality.
***
He poured all his strength into the fight, never letting his guard down, just like he had at the beginning.
-Kwaak! Once again, the creature's attack hit Seo-woon's sides.
***
"You are truly very resilient."
Even a dragon could barely withstand such an attack, yet Seo-woon only staggered without falling.
***
Metis watched in admiration.
Seo-woon's eyes narrowed at the creature's exaggerated expression.
***
The creature smiled as if amused by the sudden change of atmosphere, as if it had made a decision.
-Bang! Klang!
The moment Seo-woon was struck on his left temple, he extended his hand.
***
His head shook and he lost his balance, but the storm energy gathered in his hands did not dissipate.
Even if he couldn't block his enemy's attacks, he would at least counter.
***
As they continued to exchange attacks, the man stepped in front of Seo-woon again, and the smile faded from his face.
"…" The man, who had been boasting after every successful attack, finally fell silent, and Seo-woon relaxed a bit.
***
"Things aren't going your way, are they?"
The more Seo-woon prodded him, the more the enemy's attacks began to rain down from all directions.
***
-Kva kva kva kva kva!
However, as soon as he felt the blow, Seo-woon relentlessly counterattacked in the direction of the attack had come from.
***
As expected, after unleashing a series of attacks, the enemy reappeared in its original position.
Seeing the creature's frozen expression, Seo-woon began to feel uneasy.
***
"Why?"
Just as he was wondering, Seo-woon's eyes widened.
***
"No way!"
-Kva kva kva kva! Kva! Kva!
Despite being subjected to the creature's attacks, Seo-woon didn't counterattack like before.
***
Seeing this, the creature's attacks intensified, as if growing impatient.
When the creature that had struck Seo-woon's entire body like a storm returned to its original position, Seo-woon, who had been pushed back and was swaying, swung his left hand in the air.
***
-Crack! -Ting!
Seo-woon completely resisted Metis's power.
Bypassing her distortion, her power level increased greatly.
***
"Damn!" The shattered and ruined garden reappeared.
It felt slightly different from the space that had been there just a moment ago.
***
"How did you know?"
Frowning, Metis asked Seo-woon, blood pouring from the corner of her mouth.
"..." But Seo-woon had no intention of answering her question.
***
When her body stopped being pushed back, Seo-woon launched an attack at her.
For the first time, she moved her body and dodged Seo-woon's attack.
Now she could finally sense the man's presence.
***
-Bang! The man's attacks were still powerful.
However, Seo-woon gradually began to parry the man's attacks, which she could now feel.
***
There was no reason she couldn't dodge the man's attacks, because they weren't coming blindly, but rather directed at her on purpose.
***
-Splat! As soon as she got used to the creature's attacks, Seo-woon launched a counterattack.
The counterattack severed the creature's left ear, and she backed away, screaming.
***
"How much longer are you going to keep this up?!"
Evara, still reeling from the shock of being attacked by a human, glared at Seo-woon angrily and charged forward.
***
2v1. A 2v1 situation against a god was definitely difficult to handle.
If he didn't have golden bones and golden blood, even 100 health wouldn't be enough.
***
Seo-woon, still incapable of combining earth and energy to deflect attacks, especially since they were attacking with different energies, couldn't dodge them all.
***
"Let's see who's more resilient!"
Seo-woon gritted his teeth and, thinking this, launched a counterattack.
***
He had survived many hardships.
While grappling with Cloyd, he never gave up, fighting fiercely against powerful opponents.
***
Counterattack.
The stronger the opponent's attack, the more important it was to remain calm and counterattack.
***
As they faithfully adhered to this fundamental principle, the two gods began to panic.
The fact that Seo-woon's appearance showed no signs of damage, no matter how hard they hit, began to grapple with the two gods.
***
"This is impossible!"
Metis, whose right ear had been severed, cried out.
***
At first, when they distorted Seo-woon's body and began beating him, they were surprised, but they hadn't expected him to be so strong.
***
Even solid rocks and thick trees, if repeatedly struck and cut against, would eventually break and fall.
This was precisely Seo-woon's physical strength.
***
He was like a large rock or a thick tree.
He was so solid that it was hard to believe he was human, but he wasn't invincible.
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But now, for some reason, he began to feel that no matter what he did, he couldn't kill him.
Doubts about his own strength began to grow, and they grew rapidly.
***
As these seeds of doubt grew, so did the feeling of fear.
That he was a human that even a god couldn't defeat.
***
That he was struggling for existence with that human.
He even began to think he could be defeated by that human.
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As these feelings grew, Seo-woon's attacks became more intense.
Evara, who had been in shock before Metis, was already gripped by fear.
***
She unleashed her attacks, praying for Seo-woon's death.
His hand finally reached Evara's neck.
***
The tip of Seo-woon's hand, filled with storm power, pierced her neck, and a single tear fell from Evara's eyes as she stared at Seo-woon with a bewildered expression.
***
"No, no..." With those last words, the storm energy in her body dissipated, and Evara's existence vanished.
It was the first time in world history that a god had died at the hands of a human.
***
The moment Evara died, Metis turned away.
She was in disbelief, but witnessing a god's death up close filled her with a fear she had never felt before, turning her mind upside down.
***
It was an act born from the realization that if she wanted to live, she had to flee.
-Bang! Before she could even take a few steps back, a gigantic palm appeared in the air and attacked her like a fly.
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"Guh!" A scream escaped the god's mouth.
Seo-woon, who had finally mastered Jang Do-cheon's secret technique, slowly approached the sprawled Metis.
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"No, no!" Metis, lost in her mind and consumed by fear, She couldn't sense the god's presence at all.
The only thing that could be seen was the image of a human struggling to survive.
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-Snap! Seo-woon's hand plunged into the panic-stricken man's chest.
Metis's eyes widened, filled with the strange sensation of feeling herself, who had existed since the beginning of the world alongside the gods, disintegrate into nothingness.
***
The moment she accepted death, Seo-woon's appearance began to seem different to her.
Her seemingly normal body began to transform into that of a rag doll.
***
One of her legs was twisted in an odd direction and couldn't stand properly on the ground, and her left arm was broken in several places like a stick.
Her face was already covered in blood, and blood was flowing nonstop from a deep hole in her side.
***
Not only that, her entire body was frozen white, as if cold had already frozen her to the limit.
Seeing that even the slightest movement could cause her body to disintegrate, Metis realized she had fallen into a warp.
***
"...Since when... How far had the warp progressed?"
At the moment of death, Metis felt no anger or resentment.
Instead, she asked the question to clear the doubt in her mind.
***
Seo-woon obediently answered her last question.
"The damage that couldn't be hidden started to accumulate when Evara started attacking. At first, I only started distorting my normal appearance to deceive Evara, but you fell for it too."
***
Half-distracted, Metis nodded and waited for Seo-woon to continue.
"Just like you did to me, I distorted the seeds of doubt in your heart. I thought you would resist, but you never noticed."
***
"How could you deceive me, when I am the god of distortion…" With those words, Metis vanished completely.
***
-Ding! You deceived the god with Metis's power.
Power reached its highest level…
***
As soon as Metis disappeared, Seo-woon slumped forward without even hearing the notification.
When the loud noise and violent waves echoing through the massive palace stopped, Seo-woon and his team carefully returned to the palace.
***
They found Seo-woon lying in the ruined garden.
"Brother!!" Ki-chan was the first to rush toward Seo-woon, followed in surprise by Juriell and Liling-wei Gwang-gun.
***
Just then, Rail, having received word of Seo-woon's arrival, rushed to her as well.
Rail, who had abandoned his training to come to the royal palace to see Seo-woon, was shocked by the people evacuating the palace and the waves that seemed to tear the world apart.
***
After hearing the situation from his comrades, he could only hope that Seo-woon would defeat the gods and return safely.
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"He's still alive!" Hearing Ki-chan's words, Rail mustered all his mana and cast a healing spell.
He was unconscious and unable to use the healing scroll, so Rail's healing spell was his only hope.
***
About 20 minutes later, the palace mage and his disciples hurried there on Senruk's orders and, along with Rail, cast healing spells on Seo-woon.
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After taking healing spells for more than two hours, Seo-woon's body began to return to normal.
His crooked legs and broken arms returned to their original forms, and the deep, bleeding hole in his side closed.
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Looking at Seo-woon, who had returned to his original state, the palace magician and his three disciples collapsed to the ground in exhaustion.
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"What happened to your body... It took a tremendous amount of mana to heal it."
The old magician told Senruk, and Ki-chan answered on his behalf.
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"He's no ordinary person."
Seo-woon's body had steel bones and steel blood.
Injuring him was difficult, but once injured, healing him was no easy task.
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"Not yet... The cold hasn't completely left his body."
The moment Ki-chan said this after placing his hand on Seo-woon's neck to check his pulse, the group's expressions darkened.
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At that moment, Seo-woon slowly opened his eyes.
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"Are you conscious?" Seo-woon smiled when he saw Juriell's teary face.
He stood up and walked away from the others.
***
"Aaaah!" White flames rose from his body, and steam-like smoke rose upwards.
The coldness that had accumulated in his body as white flames was being expelled as it turned into steam.
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"Hoo." Seo-woon took a deep breath and looked at his arms and legs, and Senruk approached him.
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"You… killed a god?"
"If you call those impostors gods… then yes. I killed them."
***
At Seo-woon's response, the tired palace mage muttered barely audibly.
"God Slayer…"