Chapter 471: Star, Identity Establishment (9)

Swoosh, swoosh―!

Rattle, rattle!

While sprinting, Chang-Sun glanced back as he heard the sounds of metal chains flying through the air.

[A ‘Wind Chain’ is coming for you!]

Tomte was reaching out for Chang-Sun, his bloodshot eyes filled with animosity. As a Celestial who controlled wind, he had decided to materialize wind into a chain and tie down Chang-Sun.

‘He’s troublesome,’

Chang-Sun thought sincerely. From beginning to end, Tomte had impeded him a lot.

‘His Divine Class seems higher. Is it because of the Celestial Cannibalism earlier?’

The problem was that Chang-Sun could not think lightly of Tomte’s wind chain now. He had noticed Tomte eating the heart of his follower, but it looked as if Tomte had consumed many more hearts afterward.

While Celestial Cannibalism was the fastest way to become stronger in a very short period, the one who performed it would also end up consuming a lot of unrefined divine power, which could result in severe side effects. However, Tomte did not seem to care about that one bit.

Clang, clang, clang!

Although the four slayer swords quickly flew around and parried away the wind chains, the wind chain divided into several strands and flew at Chang-Sun again. In the end, Chang-Sun was sent back after almost arriving at the hole.

Claaaang!

That was because Tomte’s wind chain broke through the four slayer swords’ defenses and was about to grab Chang-Sun’s ankle. In response, he deflected the chain by striking it as hard as he could with his [Twilight Spear].

However, the rebound was quite severe, so Chang-Sun was pushed back a great distance, landing on a boulder at the edge of the blazefall’s left side. It was the same for Tomte. After landing on each boulder, the two people glared at each other for a long time.

“You were born vermin, so you should live like vermin and die alone...! How dare you stand in my way? Do you have any idea what you’re doing right now?!” Tomte yelled.

Rumble!

Thunderclaps accompanied Tomte’s every furious word, shaking the entire blazefall. He continued, “I’ve waited for eternity! I’ve gone through boring samsara hundreds of times for this chance! And I’m finally about to seize it, so how dare you try to snatch that away from me?”

Tomte believed that Chang-Sun was unworthy of this chance, and that the Past Life Castle belonged to the past reincarnations and them only, so Chang-Sun had no right to covet it. His thoughts remained the same even on the brink of their soul’s union.

“So?” Chang-Sun replied with a cold smile, holding up his [Twilight Spear].

“What...?”

“So what?”

“You fucking bastard!” Tomte cursed.

“You also know that I’m the closest one to having our soul united, and you failed. And yet, you continued to struggle like this. Is it because of your lingering feelings, or are you just stupid?”

“I’ll rip that arrogant mouth of yours off first!”

Tomte was very uncomfortable with the word ‘failure’. He was always aware of it, but never wanted to admit it, so he did not want to fail anymore.

𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

Whoooosh―!

The storm around Tomte intensified, and the color of his chains, which were flying along the wind, grew more vivid. The chains also multiplied enough to block the blazefall from Chang-Sun’s view.

Rattle!

Tomte grabbed the chains in one hand and swung them hard toward the blazefall, not Chang-Sun.

Boooom!

As a result of the attack, which Chang-Sun had never expected, the blazefall splashed everywhere and created a fog of fire.

“Arghhhhh!”

“Urrrgh! Eyes! My eeeeyes!”

All the nearby past reincarnations were swept away, suffering from soul-burning pain. On the other hand, Chang-Sun quickly withdrew his lightning energy and covered himself with diamond qi.

Chang-Sun tracked Tomte using his [Gnostic Eye] because all his other senses were dulled due to the extreme heat. There was no knowing when Tomte was going to show up and attack again. However, Chang-Sun’s eyes soon widened, as he could not locate Tomte with his [Gnostic Eye].

‘...He’s gone?’

Chang-Sun took a look around, wondering if Tomte was trying to use his blind spots, or otherwise had any teleportation techniques he was unaware of.

Rattttle!

Suddenly hearing the sound of chains rattling above him, Chang-Sun quickly looked up. Beyond the thick fog of fire, the runes that made up Tomte quickly traveled upward; as Chang-Sun’s view was blocked, Tomte had tossed his chains into the sky’s hole to use them like pulleys.

“Hahahahaha! The most important part in the end is who seizes the opportunity. Idiot. This is why he’ll lose in the end.” Tomte smiled coldly, imagining Chang-Sun standing in the fog like a fool. Passing the finishing line was the most important thing right now, so Chang-Sun had to be an idiot to fall for this deception.

However, the fog faded slightly for a moment, and Tomte saw Chang-Sun sneering at him. He muttered, “...Hmm? There’s nothing he can do over there.”

Suddenly, he looked up, feeling a premonition. Right at that moment, he saw sunset-colored lightning energy amassing right in front of the hole in the sky and taking the form of a Giant.

Since Chang-Sun was well aware of Tomte’s nasty temperament, he had scattered his lightning energy in advance and set the energy in place to come together in front of the hole upon his signal. While lightning energy tended to spread, it was possible to bring it together using positive and negative charges.

“When did he...!”

Before Tomte could finish speaking, the upper body of a Cataclysm Celestial manifested and fiercely swung its spear, which soon turned into an enormous ax, down onto Tomte’s head. Gritting his teeth, Tomte threw several open-palm strikes at it with his full power.

Rattle, rattle!

Tomte quickly wrapped some of his wind chains around the Cataclysm Celestial’s arms and weapon to lessen its damage. At the same time, the wind chains also wrapped around the upper body of its neck so he could kill it. The moment the Cataclysm Celestial’s ax and Tomte’s open-palm strikes clashed with each other...

Craaaack―!

Booooom!

Rummmmble―!

With an enormous explosion, half of the Cataclysm Celestial was blown away, but Tomte was not safe from the impact either, causing him to be catapulted away.

“Urgggh! N-No...!” Tomte groaned.

Chang-Sun used the opportunity to enter the hole.

“Lee Chang-Suuuuuun!”

As Tomte screamed, Chang-Sun threw himself into the hole without so much as a backward glance.

[You have successfully completed the Scenario Quest (Identity Search Ⅱ)!]

* * *

The moment he entered the hole, Chang-Sun felt light-headed because of the rapids rushing over him, which were incomparably stronger than the fire deluge outside. In addition, Chang-Sun could not even breathe naturally, as his links to the necessary natural laws in breathing faded or were severed.

A Celestial was someone who inscribed their very existence into the laws of nature, so the constant resonance with their Worldline’s natural laws was essential. However, that resonance was blocked now, which meant this ocean of darkness was an independent realm from the outside world.

‘I’ll lose my whole ego if I make a mistake here...!’

Chang-Sun gnashed his teeth as he forced himself to open his eyes.

Of course, everything in front of him was pitch black. Although Chang-Sun was unsure whether it was because of the rapids, he could not even feel his limbs, as if he did not exist at all. Just then, however, a faint message window popped up in front of him.

[The next Scenario Quest (Identity Search Ⅲ) has been created!]

[Identity Search Ⅲ]

· Type: Scenario.

· Description: You have successfully outrun your other past reincarnations and passed your first reincarnation’s trial. You have not only proven that you are a lot more exceptional than your other past reincarnations, but also drawn closer to your soul’s origin.

Your third trial, ‘Crossing’, is going to begin now. Any sentient being with a soul is bound to have an even more vast subconscious realm of their own beneath their consciousness. Just as every existence has a shadow, and their shadow grows bigger in accordance with their size, it would be no exaggeration to call a Celestial’s subconscious realm an ocean.

This ocean of subconsciousness is the main element that makes up a soul, the place where dreams come true, a side of the Soul Stream, and an aspect of samsara. It is also a crosswalk to reach the Archetype, where collective unconsciousness lies.

Cross this ocean and open up the door to the Archetype.

· Time limit: Until you open the door.

· Quest Failure Penalty: Mind Incarceration.

· Quest Reward: ‘Identity Search Ⅳ’.

‘An ocean of subconsciousness... Is this where Balor swam in?’

Chang-Sun thought, recalling Balor’s memory.

‘He submerged himself deep into our unconsciousness over and over... and met someone.’

After facing someone colossal, Balor had been helplessly killed before he could put up a fight, like a fly struck by a giant flyswatter. And the energy had been released from...

‘Hsan.’

Chang-Sun’s eyes gleamed coldly.

‘It was Hsan.’

Hsan was supposed to exist outside Eros, so Chang-Sun did not know how he was connected to Hsan. He also had no idea how this ocean of subconsciousness worked. Even with omniscience, there were too many secrets to souls, so it would not actually be strange if Hsan was living in Chang-Sun’s ocean of subconsciousness, or if Hsan was connected to the ocean in some way. The issue was...

‘Aren’t I heading to meet Perkwunos?’

Chang-Sun began to wonder if the person whom he had believed to be Hsan was actually Perkwunos. It was not far-fetched to think that Perkwunos had taken Balor out for fear of some secrets being exposed. However, if Hsan was really the one who had killed Balor and Chang-Sun was truly on his way to meet Perkwunos, how were Hsan and Perkwunos related?

‘I’ll find out once I cross this place.’

The thoughts in Chang-Sun’s head were chaotic, but he felt that he was going to find out everything once he crossed the ocean. Putting aside his other thoughts, he took a look around in search of the door; however, maintaining his identity was already challenging in and of itself in a place where he could feel nothing. Searching for something was much harder, so Chang-Sun pondered what different approaches he could take. Just then...

‘No, why am I limiting myself to me?’

Chang-Sun wondered.

Before he was Lee Chang-Sun, he had been ‘Divine Twilight’, Balor, the two guards, Tanis Loberial, and the other past reincarnations. In other words, he had too many identities and could not be defined by only one identity.

While Bel-Marduk had separated his past reincarnations to recover his complete self, Chang-Sun was aiming to harmonize with his past reincarnations. That had to mean that this ocean of subconsciousness was part of his soul and himself. Perhaps the true goal of Perkwunos’ trial was conquering and controlling this place.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...!

With that thought, Chang-Sun closed his eyes to sense the subconscious ocean.

‘Supposing that the reason why I can’t feel anything else is that my senses have been dulled by the ocean, I’ll be able to feel something in this ocean at least.’

Chang-Sun concentrated on secluding himself from the subconscious ocean, as if he alone existed in this place. After successfully separating himself, he slowly expanded the vessel named Lee Chang-Sun and put the subconscious ocean inside it.

Chang-Sun could now feel ocean waves and his dormant senses. By connecting his findings like a spiderweb... Chang-Sun focused on containing the subconscious ocean. Fortunately, it looked as if he did not have to worry about losing his identity because he expanded his vessel. After using omnipotence and omniscience, the durability of Chang-Sun’s Divine Class was much sturdier than before, so it seemed that it was possible to expand his vessel infinitely. It was the state of Entau?erung[1].

[You have obtained an insight!]

[You have understood some of your soul’s secrets, obtaining gnosis.]

[Your Divine Class has increased!]

[Your Divine Class has increased!]

...

After who knew how many hours passed while Chang-Sun embraced oceans of subconsciousness... he slowly opened his eyes.

‘My ocean is very big.’

He had to have embraced a large part of his subconscious ocean, which was already large enough to encompass those of several other people, but his ocean extended without end. However, he could tell that it was time to meet the person who had been watching him ever since he first entered the ocean.

“Unveil,”

Chang-Sun commanded using [Wordwielding]...

The dark ocean of subconsciousness shook, then parted to either side like a curtain opening up. It was faint, but something beyond the ocean was revealed. Someone enormous was smiling faintly in Chang-Sun’s direction.

『I was going to leave after watching for a moment... I didn’t expect to be detected first. But it feels better than I expected.』

It was impossible for Chang-Sun to accurately assess the person’s Divine Class, but it belonged to a top-class Outer Celestial at least. Chang-Sun could feel his mind being befuddled by the person’s every word, so he used [Wordwielding] to continue the conversation. He said,

“You’re Hsan.”

In response, he heard the person’s quiet laughter.

『That is right.』

1. This term is literally translated as ‘externalization’ or ‘alienation’ in English. By externalizing a being or one’s nature inside oneself, the person defines it as something foreign or conflicting with oneself. The term was coined by Hegel. ☜