Chapter 198 – The Nucleus of Ardenia

“Destruction? What do you mean by that?”

―Since there’s still time, I’ll explain in detail.

Rian remained remarkably composed even as the Titan’s power was being siphoned in real-time.

―You already know this place is the Holy Land of Steel, so I’ll start by telling you why Tiamat’s heart is here.

“I cannot deny my curiosity about that, but how did Your Majesty come to know the reason?”

―I learned through the future shown by my Magic Palace and the North Pole Divine Realm.

If one could comprehensively utilize the North Pole Divine Realm, which manifests futures leading to the End, and the Magic Palace, which manifests paths of survival, foreseeing the future wasn’t particularly difficult.

―Anyway, that’s not the important part. The crucial fact is that the Holy Land of Steel is the very center of the Ardenia Continent. Therefore, if the balance here collapses, the Ardenia Continent will be destroyed.

“Ah, so…! But what does that fact have to do with why Tiamat’s heart is here?”

―It has everything to do with it. By any chance, do you know how this continent came to be?

“I do not know the details, but I am aware that the three Constellations who watch over our continent combined their powers to create it.”

―To be precise, it was the Apostles of the three Constellations who created the continent. That’s why this place is both the Holy Land of Steel and also the Holy Land of the Wheel and the North Pole.

Alter’s eyes emitted a blue light as he gazed into the void for a moment.

He was glimpsing the origin of Ardenia recorded in the Void Record through the Stigma of Void Edit.

Ziiing.

In the past, before the Ardenia Continent existed, only a vast ocean occupied this place.

In the middle of a massive ocean where the other three continents were not visible, the Apostles of the three Constellations, who had left their respective continents, met.

The Apostle of Steel originating from Arpelgia, ‘Deus Ex Machina’.

The Apostle of the Wheel originating from Arcadia, ‘Tiamat’.

The Apostle of the North Pole originating from Arthalia, ‘Shiva’.

In accordance with the agreement of the Constellations, the three Apostles gathered to create a new continent.

Tiamat made the myth, where her death would create a new world, the core of the continent’s creation.

Shiva made Tiamat an Undead so that myth could manifest.

Deus Ex Machina, substituting for the role of Marduk in Tiamat’s myth of reshaping the world anew, used Tiamat’s body, which had fallen into a suspended state, as material to Refine the continent.

In other words, the Ardenia Continent was merely Altered by Deus Ex Machina; its essence was Tiamat’s corpse.

To be precise, it was a half-dragon, half-corpse—half made a corpse by Shiva’s power and half maintaining life through Deus Ex Machina’s power, achieving a balance.

It had to maintain this ambiguous state because if it died completely, Tiamat’s very myth of sustaining the new continent would collapse.

After all, the protagonist of the Tiamat myth creating a new world was closer to Marduk than to Tiamat herself.

And the core maintaining that balance was right here, the Holy Land of the three Constellations where Tiamat’s heart resided.

“I see. So that’s why the place with Tiamat’s heart became the Holy Land of the three Constellations.”

Having examined the record up to that point, Alter nodded as if understanding the situation and continued his speculation.

“I also understand the reason why the continent would be destroyed if the balance collapses. But why has that balance been broken?”

―I’m not sure of the reason, but currently, the balance of the three Constellations is tilted towards the North Star Constellation.

Looking at Tiamat’s heart again while aware of the Holy Land’s existence, something new became visible.

Inside the rotten part of the Dragon Heart, a fluid emitting a faint blue light was flowing.

“I thought it was simply rotten blood, but it seems not.”

The result read through the Void Record’s record.

It revealed that ‘Harahara’, the extreme poison Shiva held in his throat, was not only putting Tiamat’s heart into a suspended state but attempting to completely corrupt it into a full corpse.

Harahara was an extreme poison containing the myth of destroying the world if released.

“That alone was a crisis of continental destruction.”

Of course, as long as the balance of the three Constellations was maintained, Tiamat’s heart managed by Deus Ex Machina could sufficiently handle Harahara, just like Shiva’s throat.

But Shiva’s power suddenly ran rampant and began to damage the heart and Deus Ex Machina.

If Rian’s Titan had not supplied power to Deus Ex Machina, Tiamat would have completely died from Harahara, and the continent would have been destroyed.

“But why did Shiva’s power suddenly run rampant?”

―That is probably because Shiva had a part of his Identity stolen.

Rian offered his guess to Alter, who was speculating on the reason for the broken balance.

During the previous Historical Alteration, the moment Hans ascended to True Godhood with the Identity of the Great Sovereign Heaven.

Shiva lost one of his Aspects.

From the moment the fixed history of Alter and Rian ended and the Alteration began, that change was applied, breaking the balance centered on Tiamat’s heart.

‘Hmm, so that’s what it was.’

Lee Hanseong’s consciousness, which had been quietly observing while dwelling within the two Spirits to grasp the situation, began to move in earnest upon roughly confirming the state of affairs.

Rian seemed to intend to simply wait and watch until Deus Ex Machina restored Tiamat’s heart with the Titan’s power.

But Lee Hanseong thought differently.

‘There’s no problem moving a bit more proactively.’

Although a Spirit of the North Star Constellation, Rian, who had ascended to True Godhood with an Identity expanded to include the Steel and Wheel paths, had the qualification and power to do so.

Thanks to Unification with the Titan, Rian, now rivaling 9-Star level, had already digested the records of the three reversed Stigmas that Kim Yul had deployed.

They were: 《Magic Inspector》, the reversal of the Sorcery Emperor; 《North Pole Divine Realm》, the reversal of the Magic Palace; and 《Despair: Dispel》, the reversal of the Wish.

Here, the North Pole Divine Realm was already used for foreseeing the future, and Dispel, being magic nullification, was useless against Shiva’s Harahara, so he first deployed the Magic Inspector upon Alter.

―I appoint thee as my Magic Inspector.

Wooong.

The Authority of the Sorcery Emperor dwelled within Alter, creating a link between him and Rian.

Drawing power from the Steel path via the Titan and from the Wheel path via Alter, Rian drew upon the power of the North Pole path he possessed.

The output of the North Pole Divine Realm amplified, and a scene of the End rose in his mind.

―Ahh……!

One of the cosmic ends, the Big Freeze.

Within the scene of the End where thermal equilibrium is achieved and everything ends frozen cold forever.

The reversal of the fourth Stigma is established.

The reversal of Perfect Mana Control, 《Absolute Mana Freeze》.

Thud!

The ability, after perfectly controlling mana, to freeze mana itself so no one can move it, halts Tiamat’s heart.

Being a pure mana organ, the Dragon Heart was perfectly stilled due to the mana freeze.

The corruption progressing due to Harahara, and the life maintained by Deus Ex Machina, were all frozen in that state.

This could also be considered a suspended state, so Tiamat’s myth sustaining the continent was still functioning.

Of course, mana freeze couldn’t stop the flow of Divinity, so the frozen state wouldn’t last long.

But all dangerous elements would be dealt with before the freeze thawed.

―With this, the heart’s problem can be considered postponed. Next is thy turn, Deus Ex Machina.

Thanks to the mana freeze, Deus Ex Machina, now with spare computational power previously allocated to maintaining the heart, turned its head and stared directly at Rian.

Amidst the halted outflow of the Titan’s power, which was also mana being siphoned through the steel hose.

Kkireek— Chwarararak!

Clearly unable to use mana, Deus Ex Machina charged towards Rian’s Titan using only the pure movement of its mechanical body.

The Authority of [Machine] responded to the mana freeze by instantly disassembling and reassembling Deus Ex Machina’s body into a structure that could move without mana.

―Huh!

Though the speed wasn’t that fast due to the inability to use mana, it was dangerous if Deus Ex Machina and the Titan collided.

There was a possibility that the ownership of the Titan, being a machine, could be transferred or it could be transformed into an odd form through the [Machine] Authority.

No, it wasn’t just the Titan that was in danger.

If life itself is considered a type of machine, then Rian’s physical body could also become a target of the [Machine] Authority.

A countermeasure was needed.

Flash.

Following the path of survival shown by the Magic Palace, he immediately reversed Eternal Magic.

―《End (End)》!

It was a supreme magic that blocked the activation of Authorities.

Similar to the nullification type like Despair: Dispel, but useless against already activated Authorities, effective only against Authorities on the verge of activation.

Thump!

Thanks to this, even upon colliding with Deus Ex Machina, he could avoid falling victim to the [Machine] Authority.

Moreover, with this, he had awakened all five reversed Stigmas, so the digestion of the records from becoming a True God also entered its final stage.

Paaaat!

The boundary between the Titan and Rian’s physical body crumbled, Aion’s Identity melted in, and Rian was reborn as an 11-Star True God.

His Grade was lower than the Apostle Deus Ex Machina, but his Innate Authority [Eternity] was a high-level Authority comparable to Lee Hanseong’s [Infinity], so the chances of victory were sufficient.

Moreover, Deus Ex Machina was also in a wounded state from being affected by Harahara.

―Come!

* * *

While Rian was thus holding Deus Ex Machina at bay.

Alter was quietly approaching Tiamat’s heart.

It was to normalize the balance of the heart, which was in a halted state due to the mana freeze.

Swoosh.

“Hmm.”

However, to meaningfully affect the heart where the influences of the three Constellations were intermingled, one needed to digest the records of a True God.

First, for Transcendence of Species, he accessed the Wheel’s Providence contained within Tiamat’s heart through the Stigma of Providence Proxy, triggering dragon blood.

He Transcended his species to the Elder Dragon, a Transcendent Species of the Wheel.

Paaaat!

Pushing forward with that momentum, he reversed the Stigma of Providence Proxy.

Manifesting an ability similar to the [Light of Truth] of the Tetragrammaton, becoming Providence itself beyond being its proxy.

Providence Assimilation (Providence Assimilation).”

Wooong—!

Through this, he assimilated with the Wheel’s Providence held by Tiamat.

For this moment, Alter was Tiamat, no different from the Apostle of the Wheel.

Thanks to this, the dragon blood matured further, and his species evolved into an 8-Star Ancient Dragon.

The Stigma originating from the Identity of Jörmungandr, Revolution: Jörmungandr, also achieved reversal.

“This is the Providence held by Tiamat…!”

《Wheel: Tiamat》.

Both Ouroboros and Jörmungandr shared mythological homogeneity with Tiamat, so part of Tiamat’s Identity assimilated through Providence Assimilation was digested in the form of a reversed Stigma.

The ability itself similarly signified the cycle and transformation of history.

But Jörmungandr represents the End.

And Tiamat is an existence connected to primordial Creation.

So it was not strange for the two Identities to oppose each other as positive and negative.

Paaaat!

And assimilating the Providence not as a temporary assimilation but by inserting it into the digestion through the Stigma’s reversal matured the dragon blood once more.

Thus, in a short time, Alter’s species evolved to a 9-Star Dragon Lord.

Of course, other Dragon Lords already existed by this time, but the ‘Lord’ attached to the species was a kind of qualification, so it wasn’t a problem.

“Still insufficient in Grade.”

Yet it was still insufficient to resolve Tiamat’s heart problem, so he reversed the Stigma of Transcendence Calamity Regression.

External Calamity Arrival

It was the ability to reverse changing the World Line to regress to the past, instead summoning the future from another World Line.

Quadddddddd—

Jörmungandr’s Illusory Form momentarily headed outside the world, bit onto something, and returned.

When that returning Illusory Form dwelled within Alter again, Alter was already in a state of having digested the records of a True God.

For he had summoned his future self who had resolved the heart’s problem.

The reversals of the other two Stigmas also already existed in his mind.

One was the reversal of Void Edit, 《Void Imprint (Void Imprint)》.

An ability to fix the records of the Void Record so they cannot be changed, similar to Mirinae’s History Fixation.

“With this, Ardenia no longer needs to rely on Tiamat’s myth.”

Tsu tsu tsu tsu tsu tsu!

All records of Ardenia, which were fated to disappear along with Tiamat’s myth because they existed based on it, were clearly imprinted onto the Void Record.

So that even if Tiamat’s myth disappeared, they could continue to exist.

“Therefore, Tiamat’s myth is now nothing but useless shackles.”

The last was the reversal of Establish Law Create Life, 《Dharma Destruction Life Ending》.

It was the myth of destroying Laws and ending fate.

Pas s s s s s s!

It Annihilated the extreme poison Harahara dwelling within Tiamat’s heart.

The fate of Ardenia’s destruction disappeared, and Tiamat’s heart, which was half-corpse, also Regenerated into a complete state.

Then, centered on the heart, blood and flesh spread out, forming Tiamat’s body.

It seemed a new body was being created because the body that formed the continent’s foundation had become separate from Tiamat.

But at that moment.

Pat!

[Who is it. The one who touched my Harahara.]

As if recognizing the Annihilation of Harahara, Shiva, the Apostle of the North Star Constellation, suddenly appeared inside the Holy Land of Steel.

[It is I, why.]

And almost simultaneously, Non also revealed himself within the Holy Land of Steel, countering Shiva’s challenge.

Pat pat.

Instantly completing Spirit Overlay by pulling the nearby Alter and Rian via Spatiotemporal Theft.

[You are… no, who exactly are you…?]

Thus, the form of the Stellar Body, having completed the overlay of all twelve Spirits, began to change into a form different from Non or the other Spirits.

[I am the God of Infinity, Lee Hanseong. The one who will become the master of the Heavenly Palace.]

It was the moment Lee Hanseong, not through Spirit Possession but with a substantial entity, Manifested within the history of the Otherworld.