Chapter 218

As Minos pressed his palms together, the air inside the Holy Sanctuary sank heavily. An invisible pressure bore down on Taewoon, attempting to seal his movements.

[The Great Agent conveys His will; let all sinners of this land kneel.]

The Law of Heaven.

It was a mental Authority designed to break the opponent’s will and force submission. Had it been the Taewoon of the past, it would have been a power so formidable that he would have been pinned to the floor without even the ability to resist.

However, Taewoon merely scoffed as he pushed back against it.

“Is that all?”

Crimson Mist began to rise from Taewoon’s body.

Intimidation—an Authority handed down from The Red Man, now reborn completely as Taewoon’s own.

The aura of an overwhelming predator began to clash head-on with the power of the Law.

The domain of power twisted, and Minos’s Law shattered into pieces. Instead, the rebounding shock sent Minos staggering backward.

“Impossible… To crush an Authority bestowed by Him with sheer force?”

Minos’s pupils trembled. Aside from Kyurihi, he had never encountered an opponent possessing this much power.

A Hunter of this caliber was a rarity that could not be easily found even if one searched the entire world.

Minos could not help but gasp in horror at the fact that Taewoon had reached such a realm.

“You… who are you?”

Deep bewilderment colored Minos’s voice.

This was not a realm one could reach simply by training for ten or twenty years.

To obtain this level of power, one must surpass their limits countless times, accumulate achievements, establish myths, and achieve the evolution of their species.

Yet, Taewoon had turned that into reality in an extremely short amount of time.

To Minos, who knew nothing of the Theater of All Things, it was utterly incomprehensible.

Instead of answering, Taewoon readjusted his grip on Barata. The tip of the spear pointed directly at Minos’s heart.

“Whatever I am, it’s none of your concern.”

Along with Taewoon’s cold shout, an explosive Aura erupted from his entire body.

It was a level of intimidation that only a predator who had hunted numerous mythical beings and devoured their essence could possess.

At that, Minos’s eyebrows twitched.

‘…It is indeed a formidable power.’

Taewoon coldly gauged his opponent’s full strength.

Minos, the First Finger. He was certainly strong.

Accordingly, the Authority and Divinity he wielded possessed a very clear and powerful potency.

However.

‘He is no match for me now.’

The conclusion was reached. Taewoon had no intention of wasting any more time.

【Condition Fulfilled】

【Cinema Skill: The Red Man】

Taewoon’s shadow flickered strangely.

Behind Taewoon, the phantoms of the numerous Calamities he had defeated within the Theater began to rise like a haze.

【Reproducing the Memory of the Hunted!】

The first to appear was the Authority of The Nameless Head, which had once plunged the Tehesa region into terror.

Silent screams filled the Holy Sanctuary. Minos’s expression distorted. A horrific wave that struck the soul directly, rather than the ears, hammered against his mental barriers.

“Urgh, such a wicked energy…”

Minos hurriedly waved his hand to cast a golden Barrier, but Taewoon’s offensive did not stop there.

This time, the space itself began to be covered in black-and-white bubbles. It was the Authority of Chaos, which blended reality and unreality, once possessed by the Tormented Goat.

The bubbles clung to Minos’s Barrier, fiercely corroding its Divine Power.

Minos was aghast.

‘How can he wield Authorities of such different natures simultaneously…?’

It was a realm beyond common sense, and the powers were too heterogeneous and massive for a single being to handle.

Yet, Taewoon controlled all those powers perfectly, as if they were his own limbs.

It was a difference in grade, as well as a difference in the logic that Minos and Taewoon had accumulated.

While Minos had gained power by relying on a single god, Kyurihi, Taewoon was a being who had become a myth himself by hunting numerous gods and placing them beneath his feet.

‘He is… fundamentally a different kind of being…’

Minos shuddered.

The decades he had spent building his strength, the absolute Authority bestowed upon him by Kyurihi, were being thoroughly violated by the monster-like man before him.

In Minos’s estimation, Taewoon was already entering the realm of Transcendence that Kyurihi had once reached. No, perhaps it was something else entirely.

As Taewoon unleashed a Spear Strike, space shattered, and Minos’s shoulder exploded.

“Gah!”

The Defensive Shield was torn like a piece of paper, and Minos’s body rolled pathetically across the floor.

It was overwhelming. Minos, whom even the Hunters called the strongest in South Korea could not touch, was as helpless as a child before Taewoon.

Looking down at the fallen Minos, Taewoon shouted coldly.

“Is that all? You are woefully insufficient to be called Kyurihi’s agent.”

Those words tore Minos’s pride to shreds.

‘No. I cannot collapse here. For the sake of Her great work…’

Minos’s eyes gleamed with venom.

With trembling hands, Minos fumbled inside his clothes. He pulled something out.

A brilliantly shining, yet somehow ominous, golden gem.

‘The Tear of God.’

The most dangerous and powerful among the holy relics bestowed by Kyurihi. It was a forbidden self-destructive measure that directly summoned a portion of Kyurihi’s Authority at the cost of the user’s life force.

‘Even if I must sacrifice this life, I will take this bastard down with me…’

Minos screamed and crushed the gem in his grip.

The moment the gem turned to powder, the entire Holy Sanctuary was engulfed in a golden light so intense it was impossible to keep one’s eyes open.

The earth screamed, and the ceiling collapsed. A giant figure of light rose behind Minos.

It looked like a giant with a thousand arms, and each arm condensed enough Divine Power to blow away an entire city.

With Minos’s cry, the giant of light slammed down a thousand palms simultaneously.

There was nowhere to run. Every inch of the Holy Sanctuary was filled with the light of destruction. A pressure that felt as if the heavens were falling crashed down upon Taewoon.

But Taewoon did not retreat.

Instead, a faint smile played on his lips.

“…Right, it should at least be that much.”

Instead of fleeing, Taewoon took a step forward.

Two massive Divinities began to resonate within Taewoon’s chest. One was the Overlord Path power of The Red Man, and the other was the brilliant radiance of the Dawn Sun God.

【Condition Met】

▶【Cinema Skill: Dawn’s Daybreak】

A brilliant reddish-golden light erupted from Taewoon’s body. It was the light of dawn rising and cutting through the darkness, different from Minos’s light.

Mitra’s Wings, floating behind Taewoon, spread wide, covering the entire Holy Sanctuary.

Simultaneously, the Crimson Mist swirled, enveloping Taewoon’s body. Though he maintained a human form, the aura emanating from within was already that of a god.

An absolute power that blurred the boundary between human and god.

Taewoon gripped his spear and thrust it toward the falling giant of light.

“Vanish.”

The world turned white.

A massive explosion of light swept through the interior of the Holy Sanctuary. All sound vanished, leaving a world where only light existed.

The battle was decided in an instant. Taewoon’s dawn greedily devoured, decomposed, and annihilated Kyurihi’s light.

‘In the end… it was merely borrowed.’

After a moment, the light receded and the thick dust settled.

The revealed scene was gruesome. Half of the Holy Sanctuary had been blown away, and a massive crater that seemed to reach deep underground had formed on the floor.

And at the center of it stood Taewoon.

“…….”

He looked perfectly fine, without a single singe on his clothes, and the eyes revealed beneath his Mask were cold and sunken, devoid even of the joy of victory.

On the other hand, Minos lay on the ground in a wretched state.

Because he had paid with his life force, his body had withered and shriveled, and the bones of his entire body were broken and bent in grotesque shapes.

“Cough, hack…”

Minos spat out clumps of blood and looked up at Taewoon with eyes of disbelief.

What he had seen was an overwhelming sight that made him question, even for a moment, the certain victory of his master, Kyurihi.

“That… that power… just what…”

Minos’s voice trembled. It was a voice mixed with fear, awe, and despair.

Yet, despite this, Minos denied it. Squeezing out his last bit of strength, he left a final voice like a death rattle.

“You… will fail…”

Minos’s head dropped lifelessly. It was the moment the First Finger who had threatened South Korea, the second-in-command of the Gwangseong Church, reached the end of his life.

Taewoon looked down at Minos’s lifeless corpse with cold eyes.

There was no joy of victory. There was only a numbness, the feeling of having simply done what needed to be done.

Taewoon turned his head and gazed toward the deepest part of the Holy Sanctuary.

There stood a massive door that had not yet opened. And from beyond that door, a familiar and immense aura was calling to Taewoon.

‘Kyurihi.’

Taewoon slowly moved his feet.

The power Minos possessed was certainly at a level sufficient to be called a Transcendent.

However, while facing the other Fingers and fighting the final battle with Minos, Taewoon had discovered one clear commonality.

They were all nothing more than consumables and imitations of Kyurihi.

The realms they had achieved all bore the heavy influence of Kyurihi, which served as shackles preventing them from ever reaching an independent realm like Taewoon’s.

‘…Pitiful wretches.’

The end of those who cannot walk their own path and live relying on another’s Divinity. For those who worshipped a single Hunter as a god and committed atrocities, such an ending was perhaps inevitable.

However, the fact that such a thing was possible was also evidence that Kyurihi was a true Transcendent who had achieved a distant realm.

Saint Kyurihi—he could no longer even grasp the depth contained within those words.

‘Just… how much power has she obtained?’

In truth, he had been thinking it implicitly for some time, but perhaps Saint Kyurihi was not an enemy who could be dealt with through a direct confrontation alone.

It meant that through the clash of power against power, Authority against Authority, Taewoon might never be able to seize the victory.

‘In the worst-case scenario… as expected…’

Taewoon’s hand unconsciously brushed against his chest. There, a Last Resort that had not yet been used lay dormant.

The final gamble he had only been thinking about. Perhaps he would have to commit to it.

“…….”

Taewoon took a deep breath. The air of the Holy Sanctuary was cold and heavy, but Taewoon’s heart was pounding hotly.

And soon, he stepped toward the final battle.

The Hunter who started from the very bottom and rose to the highest peak of South Korea.

Behind such a man, the light of dawn, sweeping away the night to announce the morning, was rising brilliantly.