It started when the Bearer’s greatsword swung wide.

From left to right.

Something very simple.

And yet—

Kwa─────!!!

Just once.

A slash so overwhelmingly powerful it didn’t feel like something that could happen from a single, simple motion.

A cut so mighty it made your skin crawl.

As if a line had been drawn across the world, a solid streak appeared—

and the shockwave that followed after it sent everything it had cut fluttering away into nothingness.

But—

Kwachik—!

Yutia’s barrier was precarious, but it blocked that slash.

The time they bought from that.

“Hardening.”

The moment another mutter spilled from Alon’s mouth as he used Reverse Heavens—

the sins began to move, each in their own way.

“Fixation.”

And along with it, what came into view was—

the Bearer, descending through the air as it retrieved the greatsword it had just swung.

Even as the situation began to spin out of control, it came down leisurely, and Alon focused on that unhurried descent.

Because Alon knew instinctively.

The moment those feet that had been floating in the air touched the ground—

Alon wouldn’t be able to chase it.

So—

“Flower of the Spirit’s Change—”

Before it could land, Alon spat out the final phrase.

And at the very moment the Bearer’s foot was about to touch down—

Jjeojeok—!

A hemispherical membrane formed around the Bearer.

The Bearer recognized it and swung its sword again at once.

But—

Kwagagak—!

The Bearer’s attack couldn’t pass whatever that hemispherical something was.

“Hoo—”

Alon let out a long breath as he looked at the magic he’d spread.

The spell he’d cast was an interpretation of the second-tier magic “Shield” he had received from Heinkel this time.

Its effect was to completely sever the inside and outside of that hemisphere.

So long as you were inside the Shield, no magic could leak out to the outside.

So long as you were outside, there was no way to affect anything that existed inside.

Meaning, from the instant it was trapped inside that magic—

the Bearer could not exert any influence on the outside at all.

The problem was—

‘I can’t keep this going for long.’

—that Alon couldn’t maintain the magic itself for an extended time.

Alon frowned, cold sweat running down his face.

When Alon looked up at the sky, the number of stars that had been being created without pause until now was slowly decreasing.

In the mana that had always overflowed in Alon no matter what spell he used, gaps were appearing with every passing instant.

Even though mana was still being produced endlessly.

Each time the Bearer went wild, the mana that would fill up surged and vanished as if it were a lie, repeating over and over.

And the calculation errors from that were dealing damage to Alon.

In other words, Alon couldn’t keep the spell itself up for long—

and it also meant using new magic was impossible.

No matter how much Alon trapped the Bearer and made it possible to hit it with magic, if Alon couldn’t actually land a spell, it meant nothing.

And yet, even so.

There was only one reason Alon trapped the Bearer without hesitation.

“Sili.”

[Yes! I’ve been getting ready since you gave the signal—!]

Because there was someone else who could attack in Alon’s place.

Taking Sili’s energetic reply to Alon’s call as the signal—

in the dark abyss, bluish current burst out in every direction.

[Preparation is complete—!]

And far away, behind Sili, bluish lightning revealed itself as if it had been waiting, gathering around a gigantic pillar like a lightning rod.

That was—

an artifact Sili had made back when Sili built a shrine near Caliban, and now, in the present, a divine-power weapon that had devoured the faith of those in the Divine Land.

Divine Punishment.

Pajijijik—!!!

It spread as it devoured the abyss where the Milky Way had formed.

Piiii────────────!!!

And at the moment it gathered onto the needles of the lightning rod, making a bizarre sound—

“Now—!”

Alon shouted.

Instead of answering, Sili—

activated Divine Punishment.

■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■-!!!

Pure white light devoured the Milky Way of the abyss.

......

...·

...

‥

·

When the tinnitus gnawing at his hearing vanished

and the all-devouring light subsided, Alon thought—

‘The timing was perfect.’

His thought wasn’t wrong.

The timing had been perfect.

Catching the leisurely Bearer off guard and trapping it.

And then, driving Divine Punishment into it—

the Divine Punishment they had prepared for the absolute last resort.

Everything had been perfect.

If the Bearer hadn’t blocked it.

“......Ha.”

Alon let out a hollow laugh as he looked at the Bearer.

Ridiculously, the blow they’d unleashed by pulling in all divine power from outside hadn’t been able to deal it real damage.

Instead, what blocked that damage was—

Tuduk—tuduk—!

the sins it had created.

The moment Divine Punishment came crashing down, they didn’t hesitate, and they blocked the attack with their entire bodies in the Bearer’s place.

“.......”

The sight of those sins that had blocked the attack was miserable.

If the things in front of him were truly sins, they would’ve been erased by that one strike.

But—

Ttuduk—ttududuk—!

regretfully, the created sins calmly began regenerating damage that was practically near erasure.

As if nothing had happened from the start.

And then, as if nothing were wrong, the battle resumed.

The battle continued.

In other words, a pointless war of attrition was continuing.

The sins and those fighting them were simply exchanging attacks without end, and Alon and Yutia had driven attacks into the Bearer again and again.

The count was already five times.

But regretfully, during those five attacks, they had not inflicted any meaningful damage on the Bearer.

No—Alon was even starting to doubt whether it was possible to inflict meaningful damage on the Bearer at all.

Kwachik—!

“Teacher!”

“......!”

Blocking the Bearer’s attacks that stabbed in for his heart over and over, Alon clutched his spinning head.

He desperately turned things over in his mind, checking the situation.

The situation?

Even if you put it kindly, it wasn’t good.

If you put it badly, it was hopeless.

Those including Deus were successfully holding back the sins.

Yutia, too, was barely—truly barely—blocking the Bearer’s attacks.

So the situation was still running in parallel lines.

No, it only looked like it was.

“.......”

Alon quickly flicked his eyes around, looking at his surroundings.

Every single face of those fighting the sins looked exhausted.

In contrast, the sins still looked like they had no problems at all.

Meaning, the more time passed—

the more hopeless the situation would become.

Unlike those things that looked as if they had no stamina, this side was getting tired fast.

‘The moment even one person’s stamina runs dry on this battlefield, what’s guaranteed is—’

defeat—no, annihilation.

“Hoo—”

Alon breathed roughly, forcing his mind to keep turning.

Right now, Alon himself wasn’t normal either.

With Reverse Heavens already used more than five times, his head felt like it was burning hot.

And the awakening using Blackie had long since exceeded the number of times he was supposed to use it.

Even in that state, Alon prepared another attack—

but regretfully, his mind couldn’t come up with an ideal method.

Because across those five attempts, Alon had already tried every method he could.

But no matter how he attacked, in the end, his attack was blocked by the sins at the final moment.

In any situation, if heavy damage to the Bearer was expected, they wrapped around it and protected it.

Meaning, only by killing the sins could he deal damage to the Bearer—

but the sins it created did not die.

A situation with no answer.

But even if there was no answer, Alon couldn’t stop thinking.

Alon didn’t want to die.

......Alon didn’t want to lose anyone.

So.

The moment he kept hurling himself around and thinking like he’d gone mad—

“!”

Alon found the answer.

No, he couldn’t know whether it was truly the answer.

But one thing was certain.

“Yutia—”

“Yes, Teacher.”

Other than that, he couldn’t think of any other method.

“Can you block that bastard as much as you can?”

“I can.”

Leaving Yutia’s affirmative behind him, Alon planted his foot on the ground as he was—

“Array of Thunder.”

and used the Thunder God Form.

Pajik—!

Turning into bluish lightning and shooting up into the sky, Alon looked down at the ground in that split second.

The first thing he saw was—

the troops trapped in the black abyss around terrain that had risen up like thorns, unable to escape.

All of them holding fear that had spread like a plague.

Soldiers who could sense their end.

Looking at them—

“Manifest Faith.”

Alon drew out Kalannon’s divinity.

Pajijijik—!!!

With a spine-chilling sound, lightning exploded out in every direction and covered the world of the abyss. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

Along with it, his hand spread toward the sky.

And—

Pajijijijik—!

bluish lightning connected earth and sky and gathered into his left hand.

The Bearer turned its gaze to the sky and tried to move, but that movement was—

Woooong—!

blocked by dozens upon dozens of walls Yutia had created.

But—

Kwajijijik—!

regretfully, the dozens of defensive walls she’d made were shattered so quickly it was almost empty, each time the greatsword swung once.

The Bearer broke the barriers even faster than they could be formed.

And the moment it smashed the last wall, it tried to leap in—

“Not a chance—!”

Someone stepped in and blocked that movement.

It was Ryang-a, wearing a feral smile.

Kwaaaang—!!

Floating in the air, Ryang-a smashed a kick into the Bearer’s shoulder.

The impact made the ground rupture.

“Makal ian First Style—”

As the ruptured ground was bound all at once in purple threads and wrapped around the Bearer, black hands that had emerged from that enormous sphere stacked layer after layer as if to block the sphere.

Because of that natural, forced disengagement to keep it from leaping, the sins rushed in at once to help the Bearer.

But—

“Clang-clang-”

“Second Style—”

Golden sword slashes and invisible sword slashes blocked the sins charging in even at the cost of their own bodies being erased.

Kwaddeudeuk—!

And golden crowns stacked in dozens of layers surged in.

The moment that suffocating chain ended—

Kwaaang—!

as if that chain meant nothing, the Bearer instantly shattered every restraint and leaped into the sky—

“!”

and in an instant, it appeared beneath Alon.

Absurdly fast.

“No—!”

“Teacher—!!”

Ryang-a and Seollang belatedly widened their eyes and cried out toward the sky.

And on the faces of the soldiers who had been sensing their end, all holding fear that spread like a plague—

the soldiers who had briefly held hope with that blue lightning—

sighs and resignation flowed.

At the same time, as if it were the Bearer’s final move—

“Block it—!”

“Brother—!!”

as though mocking the screams coming from below, it raised the greatsword high and aimed for Alon’s heart—

Kwaduk—!

—and couldn’t drive it in.

Because of the Flower of the Spirit’s Change, made in a tiny size near Alon’s heart.

In that short moment, Alon’s indifferent gaze and the Bearer’s emptiness  intertwined.

And then.

Lightning fell.

─────────────────-!!!!

Bluish current burst out in every direction as it slammed down into the Bearer.

In the Milky Way of the dark abyss, a blue sun rose.

And everyone’s gaze turned to Alon, who was calling down lightning, and the Bearer pinned down by the spear.

Resignation turned into doubt.

Pajik—!

Doubt turned into belief.

Pajijijik—!

Belief turned into praise.

────────-!!!

Praise turned into hope.

It changed.

But—

Alon, the one who had driven the spear down, could feel it instinctively.

‘This isn’t enough.’

Alon looked down at the Bearer.

Despite being hit, its greatsword was still moving somehow, reaching Alon’s heart, passing through the spot where the Flower of the Spirit’s Change had already vanished.

Even if the greatsword didn’t reach him in Alon’s timeline—

with this attack alone, he couldn’t deal with the Bearer.

So he had to do something.

Right now.

A single move that could finish it.

In that short, split-second moment, countless thoughts flashed through Alon’s head.

But at this point, there was nothing more Alon could do.

He had poured every last bit of divine power into that strike, so he couldn’t use it anymore.

If he used Reverse Heavens, he could definitely deal with the Bearer—

but if he used Reverse Heavens again, his body was in such a terrible state he would reach certain death.

So as he thought desperately—

‘Do you know the most important virtue when you become a god?’

‘All of a sudden?’

‘Want me to tell you?’

‘What is it?’

‘It’s imprinting.’

‘......Imprinting?’

‘How you’re recognized as what kind of existence. That’s what it is.’

At Elivan’s voice flashing through him like a lantern slide, Alon suddenly gained insight.

Because of Elivan’s words, prepared as if Elivan had known this situation would come.

The method only Alon could use.

Alon didn’t dwell on ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) the questions.

And the execution was fast.

“Reverse, Hea—”

Alon’s head heated up again.

Bloody tears ran from his eyes, and the thoughts that had been continuing began to break up, and his vision repeatedly darkened and brightened.

Alon realized it.

The moment he took even one step forward from here, he would have no choice but to cross a river he could never come back from.

But even knowing that—

Grrk—!

Alon stepped forward.

Alon’s starlight began filling the dark Milky Way.

Mana spewing out from calculation errors burst from Alon’s body.

In that fleeting moment, Penia’s words flashed past like a lantern slide.

‘Mm—if we take it this far, then the technology we wanted to implement at the very beginning has been implemented perfectly...... but I’ll say the same thing again this time: you can’t use it.’

‘......Because the mana consumption is too high?’

‘Yes. I think even Reverse Heavens won’t be able to keep up with all the mana. If the Marquis can’t control a certain portion of mana beyond a certain level, the moment you use it, you’ll die.’

‘That much?’

‘Right? Because this spell is a spell that takes the interpreted spells and weaves them into an operating formula and implements them all at once.’

From the armored gauntlet Alon was wearing, something black like mist seeped out.

‘......But why did you pick this as the ignition phrase, of all things?’

The stars that had been maintained until just a moment ago began transforming all at once.

‘Mm, because it’s on the first page.’

‘For that reason?’

‘Yes. It’s cool. So let’s make the ignition phrase this—’

As Alon’s right hand formed hand seals—

“Let there be light.”

In the Milky Way like the abyss—

a sun was born.

Hundreds of suns.

And then, awe bloomed.