NOVEL WEB Chapter 376
Chapter 377. A Future Without Me (5)
In the Land of Death, where even a Transcendent Being struggles to endure, a benevolent nun appeared.
Though it was clear that this was a disguised monster and attacking it would be the logical choice, Keter did not move a muscle.
He didn’t blink, didn’t breathe. He even stopped thinking and simply stared at the nun.
His body and soul were screaming a strong warning: if he made even the slightest mistake, he would die.
The nun seemed harmless. Yet, the mere act of her lips parting made Keter feel as though his heart would burst from extreme tension.
“You are a being who should not exist in this world.”
“…Huh!”
Before her words even finished, Keter clutched his throat in agony. His face turned pale in an instant, as if someone was strangling him.
But there was nothing strangling Keter’s throat. Nor was Keter strangling himself.
It was her will. The mere words of “You should not exist in this world” were leading Keter to death.
Keter pointed his right hand at the nun. Hundreds of arrows, Tusk, with extreme penetrating power, were fired.
Yet, the Tusk arrows simply passed through the nun’s body.
Was the nun just an illusion?
“You cannot kill death.”
But as the nun approached, she gently stroked Keter’s cheek.
Keter felt dizzy from the lukewarm body temperature he felt on his cheek. He was certain that if he let his guard down even a little, his soul would be annihilated.
The nun looked at Keter, who was stubbornly enduring, and spoke as if pitying him.
“Death is natural. Do not reject it.”
She spoke softly, as if persuading a mischievous child, but black blood began to flow from Keter’s nose.
Just by telling someone to die, she could kill a living being.
She was none other than the ruler of the 6th layer, Thanatos—
Death itself.
Keter had already realized she was Thanatos. The problem was, knowing didn’t change anything.
Joyray had clearly said that Thanatos was a being who couldn’t be found and had to be sought out. Yet, for some reason, she had come to Keter directly and was trying to kill him the moment they met.
Keter couldn’t understand why Thanatos was trying to kill him, but her words angered him.
“Not wanting to die is also natural!”
Thud!
Keter’s palm pushed Thanatos’ chest. Unlike the arrows that had passed through her, this time, she was physically pushed back.
Though she only took a few steps back, Thanatos looked utterly surprised.
“Impressive adaptability. You’ve accepted that you cannot kill me.”
Since Thanatos is death itself, any act of intending to “kill” her becomes entirely invalid. So, by completely removing the thought of “killing,” one can physically touch her.
“Huff, huff.”
Keter gasped for breath. The sensation of being strangled hadn’t completely disappeared, but it had lessened slightly.
It felt like breathing through a needle’s eye and carrying a heavy iron weight on his body, but Keter stared straight at Thanatos.
“Thanatos. Give me the Mirror of Truth.”
According to Joyray’s information, Thanatos should have obediently handed over the Mirror of Truth to Keter.
But Thanatos shook her head slightly.
“I cannot give it to you.”
“…Why?”
“Because you could become the most terrifying existence in this dimension.”
“What a convincing reason.”
“You intend to resist. But listen to me. There is a reason you must die.”
Thanatos didn’t seem to have any intention of fighting. But the mere act of trying to have a conversation was accelerating death.
This was not a warm reception room. This was the Land of Death, where even Transcendent Beings perish. It was not a place for casual conversation.
Yet, refusing to converse wasn’t an option either. Without knowing where the exit was, where could he go?
Moreover, Thanatos had appeared in an instant. This entire area was like the palm of her hand. Trying to escape and postpone the conversation was foolish.
And Thanatos had driven countless “adventurers” who came to the 6th layer to “suicide.”
Even Transcendent Beings with god-like mental strength would take their own lives upon hearing her whispers.
From her lips, Keter’s true nature was revealed.
“Keter. How much do you know about yourself? Do you know that your body contains the information of all living beings? From single-celled organisms invisible to the naked eye, to the genes of the largest giants in this world. You wear the guise of a human, but you are not human.”
Keter thought he was just unlucky. After all, abandoned orphans in the Lawless City of Ruquer were not uncommon.
Ruquer was a place where death was more common than air, and in such a place, Keter had clung to survival with tenacity.
Through this, he realized something.
‘Am I… a bit special?’
Out of 100 children abandoned by their parents and raised as orphans, 90 would not survive their childhood. They would die of starvation, beatings, illness, or simply be killed for amusement.
Did the 10 surviving children live because they were geniuses or strong?
No. Among the 90 who died, there were smarter children, and even blessed children born with supernatural abilities.
The surviving children all had sponsors. Someone who helped them survive.
From lowly vagrants to the powerful Grand Dukes of Ruquer.
In any case, children could never survive in Ruquer without someone’s care. This had nothing to do with genius or innate abilities.
Keter was the one who broke this rule of Ruquer. Keter did not choose a sponsor. He did not submit to anyone. Everyone thought Keter would die.
But strangely, Keter survived well. The people of Ruquer, who killed for fun, oddly left Keter alone.
However, they didn’t touch him, but if Keter provoked them first, they wouldn’t hold back.
Here, Keter’s memory became distorted.
‘I was beaten to the brink of death, but I survived through sheer willpower.’
But this was Keter’s misconception. Keter wasn’t beaten to the brink of death. He simply died. He was beaten, stabbed, and slashed until he died.
But after some time, Keter would come back to life. At that time, Keter thought:
‘I guess I’m pretty tough, huh?’
Keter, who returned from death, grew stronger. This was due to the effect of the training method known to all in Ruquer: survival of the fittest.
Keter, who returned from countless deaths, grew stronger. He became more intelligent.
But that didn’t mean he could avoid death. Ruquer was a place where the strong were as numerous as grains of sand. No matter how strong Keter became, there were always those stronger than him.
From then on, everyone felt it. Keter was special.
Of course, even if he couldn’t die, it didn’t mean he didn’t feel pain. Keter, who fought even when there was no need to, was a madman.
But eventually, Keter also reached a point of realization. He realized that he was different from others. Not in terms of perseverance, but in the very bloodline itself.
Yet, Keter didn’t dwell deeply on his bloodline.
“What does the bloodline of the parents who abandoned me matter?”
Keter lived by instinct. Fun was his sole purpose in life.
Keter’s life began to change when he learned of Sephira.
The fall of Sephira.
The revenge of Sephira.
And the regression.
The journey to save the House of Sephira, his family……
Keter couldn’t help but feel the secret of his bloodline once again. Especially during the time when numerous fathers appeared.
It wasn’t some rural farmer claiming to be his father, but powerful figures or Transcendent Beings from across the world. Anyone would feel strange if they didn’t notice something was off.
And now—
From Thanatos’ lips flowed the truth about Keter, the truth he had so desperately wanted to know.
“You are everything and one, one and everything. Clearly, some god created you with a purpose. And that purpose is certainly not for the peace of this world.”
“How impressive. So, I’m like the ultimate weapon.”
“Don’t misunderstand. You have no choice. Because you are a tool. There is someone who will use you. He is undoubtedly trying to disrupt the balance of life and death in this world. That’s why you must die.”
Keter smirked. Upon hearing those words, he thought of Akra.
His mother, Akra, who gave birth to him.
Her giving birth to him was not the result of love. It was to use him as a tool… to create a being containing the genes of all living beings, the smartest and strongest in this world.
It would be a lie to say it wasn’t bitter.
But it wasn’t just bitterness he felt.
“I could use this to blackmail the Emperor.”
“…Even after understanding, you still intend to live.”
Thanatos could tell. Whether the other wanted to die or live.
Keter wanted to live. He had no intention of dying, not even a fingernail’s worth.
The will of death that had been tormenting Keter had also disappeared. Keter, filled with the will to live, now seemed even more vibrant with life force.
“It’s been a long time.”
Thanatos muttered as she reached out her hand. From her shadow, a sword slowly rose.
A sword entirely black, from blade to hilt.
A perfect, flawless black that even absorbed light.
“Originally, I do not directly interfere with the life and death of others. But this time, I will interfere. For the order of life and death in this world.”
“You’re making killing sound so complicated.”
Thanatos could kill a living being with just her will. But this was only possible if the other accepted death.
Keter, who rejected death, had to be killed directly.
With the sword in hand, she looked incredibly clumsy. Her stance was sloppy, as if she knew nothing of swordsmanship.
But Keter was tense. Her clumsiness seemed to highlight her strength.
‘I have to fight an opponent I can’t kill.’
Keter’s victory condition was to escape the 6th layer and descend to the 7th layer.
But he didn’t know where the entrance to the 7th layer was. There might be special conditions, like in the 4th and 5th layers.
Figuring that out in the Land of Death was already a struggle, and now he had to fight the ruler of the 6th layer.
“This is ridiculously hard!”
Swearing came naturally, but it wasn’t a complaint.
Rather, he even felt a sense of competitiveness.
Crackle, crackle!
At that moment, the sky cracked as if glass was shattering.
Thanatos looked up at the sky and calmly said, “The contract with Ruquer has finally ended.”
The signs of the collapse that Amon had warned about were beginning to show. The situation was already bad enough, and now there was a time limit.
“Mandala.”
Keter used Mandala first. Since he had already used it once, there was no reason to hold back.
Time slowed to an extreme. Thanatos appeared to be frozen.
In this moment, Keter was given countless choices, but none of them involved running away.
‘Even if I can’t kill her, sealing her is possible.’
Thanks to King Kwonseong, Keter knew that sealing a divine being wasn’t impossible.
Of course, he didn’t know the sealing method, but he thought he could roughly imitate it.
After all, Keter was a descendant of King Kwonseong, the Yaksha clan.
The Yaksha clan had been sealing and managing gods since ancient times.
As Keter desperately sought the method to seal a god, it naturally came to his mind.
‘First, I need to drain her power.’
It’s said that a god’s power is infinite, but that’s not true. It’s just so vast that it seems infinite.
This was the Land of Death. It wasn’t a place to fight cautiously, so Keter unleashed his techniques without restraint.
Celestial Infinity Technique, 5th Form: Kaleidoscope – Nayuta.
Panels with functions of acceleration, refraction, and movement scattered everywhere. If Henghesha (恒河沙) covered a village with hundreds of kaleidoscopes, Asamkhya (阿僧祇) covered a city with tens of thousands.
And the higher level, Nayuta, covered an entire country with tens of millions.
Keter, who had only reached Asamkhya in his past life, now unleashed Nayuta in this life, breaking his previous limits.
On top of this, Keter created the arrows that had ended Eslow.
Celestial Infinity Technique, 2nd Form: Milky Way – Goodnight.
A single arrow that made the entire world feel a vibration. That immense power was now multiplied by five.
Five arrows in total were nocked on Keter’s bow.
This was a reckless attack. Explosions don’t discriminate between friend and foe.
The distance between Keter and Thanatos was only five steps. If the explosion of Goodnight occurred this close, Keter wouldn’t survive either.
But if Keter feared death and sacrifice, he wouldn’t have come this far. There was no hesitation in Keter’s action as he released the bowstring.
Goodnight wasn’t shot directly at Thanatos. It was shot towards the kaleidoscope panels surrounding the space.
Acceleration through the panels. And overlapping acceleration through refraction. Keter intended to blow away the entire space itself.
Thanatos’ reaction to this was dull. Like an innocent person unaware of what was to come. Or perhaps, indifferent.
She simply stood there, holding her sword, doing nothing.
The composure Keter had shown against countless enemies was now being shown to him by Thanatos.
Keter’s cold sweat flowed freely. Seeing his own composure reflected in his opponent, he could empathize.
‘This sucks.’
He had used not one, but five of the arrows that had killed the Transcendent Being Eslow, and even amplified them with the kaleidoscope.
‘I can’t even imagine what this will accomplish.’
It wasn’t that Keter didn’t trust his own techniques. But Thanatos’ very presence was eroding Keter’s belief.
Then, Thanatos raised her sword.
“How noisy.”
The sword slowly descended.
It was too dull to cut anything, but Keter’s heart sank.
Sending all the Goodnight arrows accelerated through the panels towards Thanatos, Keter pushed the power of the Five Elements Divine Tool, Toban, to its limit to protect his body.
Swoooosh.
His vision turned white. And a ringing sound filled his ears.
Keter suddenly felt his left arm was missing. Slowly turning his head, he saw that his left arm was gone. As if it had never been there, naturally.
Moreover, it wasn’t just his left arm that was gone.
“Kyaaaa…….”
Amaranth, who had been hiding far away, screamed and turned to ash in the blink of an eye.
Keter could feel it. The Amaranth that had been embedded in his left arm had vanished.
Along with this, glass-like powder fell from the sky.
This was the dust from the shattered kaleidoscope panels. The five Goodnight arrows had disappeared without a trace.
Before him stood only Thanatos, looking slightly disappointed.
“Another soul fragment saved you.”
Thanatos raised her sword again.
Keter’s pupils trembled. Thanatos. She was a true god. Human techniques were useless against her.
Only one option came to Keter’s mind. The secret arrow he had saved for Queen Lilian, the God-Slaying Arrow, Misteltein*.
Convinced that using it was the only answer, Keter was about to draw Misteltein when—
Thud.
The nun’s head and torso separated.
No blood spilled. The fallen head looked up at the one who had cut it and muttered, “Do you know what you just cut?”
Walt answered shortly, “A woman.”
Then, he approached Keter, slapped his back, and said, “Temporary alliance. Find the exit.”