Chapter 199

“It’s time to end this.”

At Taewoon’s low murmur, the bubble human lowered its stance warily. However, Taewoon’s gaze was no longer directed at the bubble human.

Without hesitation, Taewoon began absorbing the two Artifacts in his possession, ‘Skerbe’s Eye’ and ‘Raging Sun,’ into the Magitek Core.

Had they been his permanent possessions, it would have been a madness he would never attempt, but weren’t these merely temporary powers that would vanish once this battle ended? To the current Taewoon, it didn’t matter in the slightest.

The bubble human showed signs of bewilderment, but the Core had already greedily devoured the two Artifacts.

The Magitek Core vomited a ghastly and ominous light.

Having absorbed two high-grade Artifacts reaching Level 8, the Core broke through its limits and began evolving into a new stage. This was certainly a situation the Tormented Goat had not predicted.

Strange patterns were engraved upon the surface of the Core, and from its center, steam of burning Magical Power began to rise.

Taewoon began to fuse the evolved Magitek Core with the Heartstone situated in his chest.

As the Core was implanted into his body, mysterious circuits of light surfaced across Taewoon’s entire frame, and a massive amount of Magical Power coiled around his body.

A torrent of violent and pure power, incomparable to anything before, began to dominate Taewoon.

‘With this… the preparations are complete.’

With a blue flash, Taewoon’s body vanished from sight.

In the next instant, the bubble human could only watch as its upper and lower body were separated, unable to even perceive what had struck it.

Taewoon’s strike, fused with the Magitek Core, had pierced through all of the creature’s defensive means and crushed its physical body.

Having lost the source of all its power, the bubble human’s form began to crumble bit by bit. And right now was the optimal moment Taewoon had been aiming for.

“Whew.”

Taewoon exhaled lightly and looked up. There was no time to hesitate. Before the bubble human vanished completely, he had to bring this to an end in this state.

Taewoon focused all his mental strength once more. The world he had glimpsed a moment ago, where the meaning of time and space had vanished.

He recalled the waves of information flowing leisurely within it, the progression of causality shaped like a giant river.

【Condition Fulfilled!】

【Cinema Skill: Absolute Perception】

The second activation.

Taewoon’s consciousness once again left his body and was shot up into a higher-dimensional realm.

This time, the goal was clear. To seize the reality of this very moment from within the muddy stream of ever-changing possibilities of the Tormented Goat standing before him.

Countless branching versions of the Goat appeared in Taewoon’s vision.

‘…Let’s see what you’ve got.’

Some Goats emitted starlight from their horns, while others became giant holes themselves, sucking everything in.

The forms were as infinite as the branches of possibility, but Taewoon did not feel confused; he began to focus his will straight ahead.

‘Found it.’

As if finding a single real thread among hundreds of millions of tangles, Taewoon’s gaze pierced through the one essence rooted in the current space-time.

At that moment, the eyes of Taewoon, who had returned to reality, emitted a chilling light.

“Same as before! Follow the trail of my power!”

Before Taewoon’s shout had even finished, Seoyoon was already moving.

Immediately after cutting down her own bubble human, she had been reading the flow of the battlefield without a single moment’s rest.

The Cult Leader’s sword in her hand howled, vomiting a light deeper than the night sky.

“…I won’t miss.”

The tip of Seoyoon’s sword aimed precisely at the essence of the Goat Taewoon had captured—that faint shadow.

The moment the black blade cleaved the air, the coordinates of the space where the Goat stood began to shake precariously.

Bewilderment seeped through the Goat’s will. That sliver of distraction was the exact moment Taewoon had been waiting for.

‘Now!’

Taewoon’s consciousness reconnected with the colossal entity existing in the deepest part beyond the distant passage.

The third Apostle Transformation.

After the desperate struggle with the Nameless Head, Taewoon, who had transcended human specifications, had become a being that surpassed the restrictions of the original Apostle Transformation.

A torrent of overlordly power, deeper and purer than before, flowed through the passage into Taewoon’s soul and body.

The Crimson Mist erupting from Taewoon’s body writhed like a living creature, eroding the laws of the surrounding space and twisting reality.

Just as the Goat’s fierce will was about to shake the space, eyes burning crimson began to clearly capture its essence.

The Authority of Observation possessed by The Red Man.

The moment Taewoon’s gaze landed, all of the Goat’s possibilities converged into a single point and were bound by steel-like shackles.

The movement to summon another possibility, the attempt to create a new bubble—all were rendered futile.

The creature finally became a single, fixed existence, exposing its heart before Taewoon.

Simultaneously, the bubble human collapsed at Taewoon’s feet and completely vanished, using the last of its strength.

An alteration of existence occurred, and everything Taewoon had lost began to return to its original place one by one.

In his right hand, he gripped Keshatus with its familiar weight; in his left, Barata, emitting a resonating sound.

Behind his back, Mitra’s Wings spread a halo along with divine light, and the Wax Mask on his face began to vomit its characteristic red light.

“…….”

A chilling silence lingered at the corners of Taewoon’s mouth.

There were no more variables, no more hidden tricks. The creature was exposing its most vulnerable part plainly before Taewoon.

“Let’s end this.”

With Taewoon’s low declaration, Seoyoon’s sword cleaved the space once more.

And toward the center of that rift, Taewoon prepared a final strike containing everything he had.

In the center of his chest where the heart should be, Ashtvan’s Heartstone began to pulsate violently, resonating with The Red Man’s Magical Power.

【Condition Fulfilled!】

【Cinema Skill: Extreme Soul Eight Annihilations】

A supreme realm that normally could only be glimpsed after suffering a fatal wound that blurred the line between life and death.

However, now that he had lost his heart—the symbol of mortality—and replaced it with something else, such restrictions no longer existed for Taewoon.

It meant he could freely draw out that ultimate strike by crossing the boundary of life and death through his will alone.

The spear that left Taewoon’s hand no longer followed a physical trajectory.

It was a torrent of mental imagery, the manifestation of will.

The Spear Shadow, which split into eight branches before merging into one, accurately pierced the core of the fixed Goat’s existence.

A howl that sounded as if the world were being torn apart.

The form of the Tormented Goat began to crumble like a sandcastle, and the being that held countless possibilities collapsed helplessly before a single, fixed death.

Everything of the Goat vanished into a handful of dust, leaving only a heavy silence within the basin.

The fierce battle of Taewoon’s party was thus meeting a new end once again.

“Whew…”

The Bishops of the Apocalypse Society fighting nearby sank to the ground as they watched the bubble humans collapse one by one.

Their gazes all turned toward the center of the basin, toward Taewoon, who was slowly withdrawing the Crimson Mist.

Awe, fear, and a primal faith toward an incomprehensible being.

Leaving their gazes behind, Taewoon silently pulled Keshatus and Barata from the ground.

“…….”

The battle was over. It was a perfect victory won against an overwhelmingly formidable foe.

However, Taewoon’s expression was not bright in the least. Rather, he was swept up in a storm of chaos more violent than the struggle just now.

Those two instants when he used ‘Absolute Perception.’

The river of time and causality he had glimpsed in the higher-dimensional realm. Within it, Taewoon had seen them.

Numerous fragments of memories related to himself, yet something that didn’t quite fit.

‘What on earth… is going on?’

Taewoon was confused.

If the sight he had seen was correct, he could only think that something was seriously wrong.

A sense of dissonance, as if several pages of a script had been torn out entirely. That was what was currently cluttering Taewoon’s mind.

‘Right… thinking about it now, it is strange. Why haven’t I noticed this discrepancy until now?’

Compared to when he first entered this Theater, the current Taewoon had achieved tremendous growth.

Just a moment ago, hadn’t he analyzed and utilized Level 8-rank Artifacts and Cinema Skills he had never seen before on the spot to hunt a powerful being like the Tormented Goat?

But that was exactly the problem.

“…….”

When exactly did Taewoon become this strong, and so quickly?

The repeated hunts he performed as a Holy Follower of the Apocalypse Society? That was merely the result, not the fundamental reason.

Now that he noticed, he had obtained excessive power as if he had skipped a whole portion of the growth process. It had been like this until now, but after hunting the ‘Nameless Head,’ his growth had deviated far from a common-sense trajectory.

‘I’m… missing something.’

The current Taewoon had already surpassed the wall of a Level 8-rank Hunter and was moving toward the realm beyond.

No matter how he thought about it, the situation didn’t add up. It was a leap in growth that could not be explained solely by the time and experience he had undergone since entering this Theater.

‘Furthermore, the dissonance of memories I felt when activating Absolute Perception.’

They were so vivid that he couldn’t dismiss them as simple illusions or fragments of possibility.

It felt as if there were things he had experienced personally but had forgotten.

‘This is…’

Growth that didn’t add up, Seoyoon who had lost her memories, and the sight glimpsed through ‘Absolute Perception.’

The given puzzle pieces floated in his head and soon formed a single conclusion.

With trembling hands, Taewoon summoned the Nameless Mask into the air.