Chapter 499
[First… bring my head close to the World Tree's branch.]
As Seong Jihan approached the red World Tree, Gilgamesh spoke while looking at the widely spread branches.
"Alright. Ah, if you try anything funny, I'll crush you immediately."
[Am, am I crazy? How could I do that when I'm in your grasp…]
Stuttering briefly at Seong Jihan's warning,
Hiss…
As he approached the branch, he began to create red chains from the back of his skull.
Gilgamesh's chains, so small they looked like insect legs from afar,
Unlike Seong Jihan's Heavenly Tree Descending Spirit, settled comfortably on the branch and,
Ziiing…
Started absorbing the life force within.
[Hu, huhu… Why doesn't this work for you?]
The skull, seeing its success, looked at Seong Jihan with a smug smile.
And soon, flesh began to form on the skull,
Instantly transforming back into Gilgamesh's original head.
The World Tree's life force was certainly amazing.
As Seong Jihan was thinking this,
"As expected, you haven't properly mastered my ability…!"
Gilgamesh, already regenerated to his upper body, was sneering at Seong Jihan.
Always getting beaten, he was too happy to find one thing he was good at.
"Indeed. What's the difference?"
Seong Jihan tilted his head and tried using Heavenly Tree Descending Spirit, but,
Ting!
Unlike Gilgamesh, his chains were blocked by the World Tree's branches and bounced off.
"Hu, huhu. Did you think I'd tell you easily? First, promise you won't kill me for life. And, hmm… Right. I'll officially recognize you as my son, so call me father."
"Aren't you tired of that father talk?"
Gilgamesh, excited after coming back to life a bit, was running his mouth like before.
Seong Jihan frowned at this.
As expected, people don't change easily.
"Huhu… The void on your face looks like it might devour you any moment. Are you okay leaving it like that? If you just respect and treat me well, I could solve it for you."
Hiss…
As Gilgamesh continued talking, his entire body had already recovered.
To return to his original body in just a few minutes from a half-destroyed skull.
The World Tree was truly amazing.
'Is it a choice between using the Golden Wheel once or calling him father?'
Seeing him so proud like that, the former seems better.
Seong Jihan thought this, then changed his approach.
"I admit that my Heavenly Tree Descending Spirit doesn't match yours."
"Huhu, then…"
"But, would this not work on you?"
"…What?"
Swish swish swish!
Seong Jihan extended the chains that had bounced off towards Gilgamesh.
"Eek…!"
He tried to dodge Seong Jihan's Heavenly Tree Descending Spirit somehow, but,
He was no match at all for Seong Jihan, who had already defeated Dongbang Sak.
Crack!
As the chains quickly pierced Gilgamesh's body,
"Ugh, urgh…! Wa, wait! This isn't right…!"
"Why not? I don't want to call you father?"
Seong Jihan tilted his head and absorbed the World Tree's energy from him.
Then, unlike Gilgamesh who crumbled and returned to his original skull form,
[Void decreases by 50.]
[Eternity increases by 3.]
[The efficiency of the incomplete stat 'Eternity' increases.]
For Seong Jihan, along with these system messages,
Hiss…
The void on his face began to disappear.
'Indeed, the life force of this Red World Tree is unique.'
Life force that eliminates void.
And seeing that it increases the efficiency of Eternity, it's certainly something special.
"Wow, good performance."
[…..]
"Gilgamesh. From now on, you're… right, a transformer."
[…A transformer? What's that?]
"It's a device that converts 110V to 220V. Filter the life force for me."
[You bastard…! Do you think I'll help you willingly?!]
Gilgamesh, enraged after gaining and losing his body,
For now, he didn't seem willing to cooperate.
'Well, the void is somewhat better now, so should I put him in the inventory for now?'
Seong Jihan thought this and opened his mouth.
"Inventory."
[Wh, wait… Why the inventory…]
"Why? I need to put the item away."
[That item, you don't mean me…]
"Yeah."
[Wa, wait. Alright. I won't make you call me father…!]
Did he hate the inventory that much?
Then,
"Just go in for now."
He should discipline him by leaving him there once more.
Thinking this, Seong Jihan put Gilgamesh back into the inventory.
'Time flows faster here, so I should go home and come back.'
With this level of void, he could block it somewhat with Blue.
He needed to go out, unite Blue and Martial Soul, then come back to absorb more life force.
By then, Gilgamesh should have come to his senses in the inventory.
'I don't know why only his chains work, but…'
Gilgamesh's authority, which didn't seem much different from his own chains on the surface.
In fact, in terms of the power contained, Gilgamesh's was much weaker compared to Seong Jihan's.
But he didn't understand why Gilgamesh could absorb life force and he couldn't.
'Well, if I think about it more, I'll find an answer.'
Seong Jihan decided to ask next time he took him out, and left the sealing formation.
* * *
The Martial God's star, Tuseong.
There, a red eye connected to seven constellation relics was emitting a dense energy.
[Hmm… Dongbang Sak. You've created something quite tricky. Indeed, this is fitting for an entity outside the norm.]
The Martial Soul transformed into Devil's Intrusion.
The Red Administrator had boasted that he would solve its restrictions for the Martial God, but,
Things weren't going as easily as expected.
[You were so confident about solving it, but there's no progress at all. Will you keep it stopped at 1300?]
[Huhu… You have no other way to solve it besides me. Your urging is too harsh. If you want it solved quickly, why don't you support more constellation relics?]
Hearing this, the Martial God's eyes flashed sharply.
[You haven't even fully utilized the performance of the seven relics, why are you asking for one more?]
[That's because I'm not you. How could someone who isn't the owner fully draw out the relics' performance?]
[…I wonder.]
The Martial God looked at the red eye, the Red Administrator.
At first,
When the red eye popped out as Dongbang Sak's Nine Palaces Eight Trigrams Formation shattered, it barely had any power,
But after the Martial God supported it with the constellation relics, it had rapidly recovered its power.
If it was like this with seven, if he supported more…
'The owner of this place might change.'
Even now, in terms of power alone, the Red Administrator was extremely weak.
If the Martial God manifested in his main body and just stomped on it, that eyeball would burst helplessly.
But,
That's why the Martial God raised his guard even more.
'Even with that much, he modified the Devil's Intrusion.'
To the Martial God, the Red Administrator's power seemed pathetic.
But with just that power, he was modifying Dongbang Sak's Devil's Intrusion.
For the Martial God, who knew well how much of a monster Dongbang Sak was, the Red Administrator who could modify this seemed like a similar monster.
And the monster he had put a leash on last time eventually betrayed him.
'This time, I absolutely won't let that happen.'
Already betrayed twice by Ashoka and Dongbang Sak.
Learning from those experiences, he shouldn't fall for the Red Administrator's tricks.
Thinking this, the Martial God was more interested in,
Firmly suppressing the Red Administrator than lifting the restrictions of Devil's Intrusion.
Seeing the Martial God's cautious demeanor, the Red Administrator,
Flash…!
Emitted a red light from his eyeball.
[Tsk, you're still so wary of me. I told you I just need to kill the Blue Administrator.]
[You seem quite obsessed with the Blue Administrator.]
[Blue's authority is inherently opposite to mine from birth. It's the biggest threat to the Hell system I built.]
[Wasn't the Hell already destroyed?]
[Creating a system is difficult, but restoring one that's been made is easy. If we just remove Blue, the Hell will expand smoothly.]
The Red Administrator, obsessed with the Hell system he created,
Realizing that the administrator ability 'Blue' was opposite to this, he was trying to eliminate the Blue Administrator by any means.
[So you should quickly prepare to invade Earth and spread the word about it.]
If you're really going to attack, you should surprise them rather than announce it widely.
Openly revealing this is indeed…
[Are you trying to lure him here?]
[Yes. The Blue Administrator will surely come to stop the attack on Tuseong… That's when we'll join forces to subdue him.]
[By 'we', it seems like it'll mostly be my power being used.]
[Huhu… I'll be of help too. Just like I'm solving your Devil's Intrusion now.]
The Red Administrator showed strong enthusiasm to kill the Blue Administrator, his opposite.
But the Martial God,
[…I'll think about it.]
Didn't show as much will as the Red Administrator.
'Whenever I got involved with the Blue Administrator, I only ended up at a loss…'
Both with Ashoka and Dongbang Sak.
Whenever he tried to subdue Seong Jihan, things always went wrong.
This time too, wouldn't Tuseong just end up being raided if he lured them here unnecessarily?
Moreover,
'…Dongbang Sak left that sword.'
The Taiji Sword stuck in the World Tree.
It clearly possessed extraordinary power at a glance.
If Seong Jihan came wielding that and attacked Tuseong, this star would just be devastated.
The Red Administrator had his own reasons for needing to eliminate Seong Jihan,
But the Martial God thought differently.
'Now that Martial Soul is bound by Devil's Intrusion, I can't gain power even if I obtain the Red World Tree.'
The Red World Tree, which was the reason he had dispatched Dongbang Sak.
Now that it was useless to him, he wondered if there was any reason to fight the Blue Administrator.
Of course, by cooperating with the Red Administrator to overcome Devil's Intrusion,
And regaining his power through this, he could have the strength to contend with the Blue Administrator, but,
'…Fighting in my own base only harms me. Rather,'
Red and Blue.
Couldn't he pit the two Administrators against each other and stay out of it himself?
As the Martial God, who had only suffered losses from conflicts with Seong Jihan, was thinking this,
[…..]
The Red Administrator was quietly observing the Martial God.
His opponent had become passive due to a few failures.
'He's already lost his will… Good.'
The Red Administrator was rather pleased with his counterpart's attitude.
* * *
Meanwhile,
Seong Jihan, returning home through the front door window as usual,
"Ah… Un, Uncle. You're back?!"
Seeing Yoon Seah sitting in the living room startled by his appearance, he twitched his eyebrow.
"Why are you so surprised?"
"Ah. That's…"
"Is it because of the Void Apostle?"
At Seong Jihan's question, Yoon Seah hung her head low.
"Yes…"
"If you're going to look so guilty, why did you do it?"
"I thought you were being consumed by the void… I wanted to help somehow…"
Seong Jihan let out a small sigh.
Well, in truth, he could understand her feelings,
But still, it was hasty.
"So, they say it can't be canceled?"
As Yoon Seah couldn't answer,
Whoosh…!
The starfish, Messenger, appeared beside her.
[Blue Administrator. Yoon Seah is already half-confirmed as the owner of the Arena. This cannot be canceled.]
"If it's half-confirmed, there's still a possibility, right?"
[No, it's just a figure of speech… She'll become the Arena's owner as soon as the training period ends.]
"How is it already decided when she hasn't done anything? No matter how great her potential…"
As Seong Jihan was about to say something to the Messenger,
Hiss…
The void swirling on his face was suddenly sucked into Yoon Seah.
It was on a completely different level from when Yoon Seah had absorbed it before.
"…Huh, the effect is good?"
Those words came out of Seong Jihan's mouth involuntarily.
[As expected, even the Blue Administrator acknowledges it. Yoon Seah possesses the talent to become the Arena's owner.]
"Just because she has talent doesn't mean she has to do it."
[Things have come to this, why don't you accept it?]
"Forget it. Tell them to reverse it. And,"
Seong Jihan said this, then added one more thing.
"It seems the Red Administrator has been resurrected in Tuseong. Inform the Black Administrator about that too, Messenger."