D.I.O

“What’s happening? Weren’t those Master-level users just average at best?”

During the battle, Miho supported the users by casting spells from afar, tilting her head as she looked at the 12 newly-arrived Masters. She recognized every one of these players except for one, and based on her recollection, they were all low-level Masters or weaker.

Of course, in the grand scheme of things, each one of these Masters was a genius. Masters were so rare that, excluding those who died, only about 350 existed out of the 4.5 billion DIO users. This meant that only 1 out of every 12 million people reached the Master level.

However, comparisons were always relative.

Not all Masters were the same just because they reached the Master realm. There were clear tier divisions between users at Level 10 to Level 19. Moreover, those who hit the wall known as the so-called [limit of one’s talent] couldn’t develop or grow any further.

In fact, several Masters weren’t present in this battle against Tan. Among the Masters, some didn’t have much power, and summoning them was essentially a waste of gem points. In other words, these unqualified Masters weren’t even given the option to take the mission since it would have been a waste of Gerult.

“Right. Only Uld is above Level 13. Everyone else is a low-level Master.”

Arc threw off her crumpled helmet and looked at the woman who stood at the forefront of the group.

That woman was Sanae Ayase.

With her fluent linguistic skills, as evident by her ability to speak fluently in seven different languages, and her physical attractiveness, Sanae became a top-class diplomat after she became a Master and met Arthur.

Originally, the Japanese government planned to use her to appease Arthur and bring him over to their side, but after Sanae witnessed how a Japanese right-wing group murdered Arthur’s mother, Sanae became Arthur’s subordinate and personal secretary. She stuck to Arthur’s side and helped him in all his endeavors. In fact, she was so dedicated and effective that many far-right Japanese forces labeled her as a national traitor.

“It is time.”

Ayase spoke as she unraveled her wings of light. As he heard Ayase- no, Uld, Arthur turned his head. Though Tan was right in front of Arthur, staring at him, the latter looked away as if Tan didn’t matter.

“… It’s okay, no… Hahaha. I was about to say some nonsense.”

Arthur steeled his will, which had been shaken for a moment, and stood steadfast and tall. Then, he looked past the shining Uld towards the other 11 Masters.

“I would’ve liked to give a final speech, but I don’t have time to do that before such a powerful enemy. Just remember this….”

Whoosh!

The light emitting from Arthur’s body grew brighter.

“I will be with you.”

“Humanity’s God, my God.”

“Ah…”

The 12 brilliantly shining Masters started gradually increasing their energy output with bewitched expressions. Tan’s eyebrows twitched after seeing such an unusual scene.

“What the hell is everyone waiting for?!” shouted one of the initial participants of the battle.

Bang!

Tan attacked, and soon, an explosion sounded out; however, it didn’t cause any injury. Without any warning, the other Masters had sprung into action, surrounded Tan, and blocked his strike.

“I don’t know what Arthur and his crew are planning to do, but make sure Tan is preoccupied!”

“… Damn it! I feel like I’ve been given some supporting role all of a sudden!”

“Well, to be honest, weren’t we all just in a supporting role from the start?!”

“Hahaha! I never thought a group of guardian knights would appear to protect their human god!” Tan exclaimed.

Tan gave a hearty laugh before releasing another attack. This time, he sent out a shockwave based on his enormous reservoir of magic power, but Cruze’s sniper shots, Aung Nina’s Divine Hundred Steps attack, and Jeros’ Thunder Spear spell crashed against the skill and reduced its power. Eventually, the weakened shockwave couldn’t pierce through Adol’s Tower Shield, as Adol had moved in front of Arthur to defend him.

“I am Jane Austen.”

“I will be with you.”

“It is an honor, Humanity’s God.”

The woman who approached Arthur and spoke smiled brightly. Then, her body let off a radiant glow, and soon, Arthur absorbed her.

“I am Elaine Sciolino.”

“I will be with you.”

The next person, another woman, also turned into a beam of light and was absorbed by Arthur.

“… What’s happening? What are you doing?”

As Adol stood before Arthur, protecting the latter with his Tower Shield, he spoke as he felt the humans behind him disappear one by one. Everyone who stood there just moments ago was definitely present and gave off tangible human auras, but Arthur was absorbing them and making them disappear. The longer this went on, the stronger Arthur’s energy became. Previously, the spiritual pressure Arthur exuded was already unmatched by any other Master. Now, however, Arthur gave off such immense spiritual pressure that Adol felt like he’d explode just from being exposed to it.

“You bastard! What sort of crazy thing…!”

Tan screamed as he was the only one present who understood exactly what Arthur was doing. Yet, Arthur didn’t pay any attention to him.

“I’m Shin Donghyun.”

“I will be with you.”

“I am Oda Kazumasa.”

“I will be with you.”

All these individuals’ bodies glowed before being subsequently sucked into Arthur’s body.

Recently, Arthur made a transaction with Merlin in exchange for 12 growth-type spiritual pathways. He’d given the core components of the Named Rank Legion forces that guarded the Dimension Terminal as well as the Spirit Record and dark cores, which allowed the Grotesque to infect humans.

And once Arthur made that exchange… He caused all sorts of incidents around the world with his overwhelming spiritual pressure. Unsurprisingly, his main objective was to gain divinity by being worshiped by the masses. Yet, at the same time, Arthur used the opportunity to search for individuals with sufficient spiritual power to become Masters but who were weak enough to succumb to his spiritual pressure and worship him unconditionally.

“I am John Carnell.”

“I am Jin Tsai.”

“I am Lilia.”

These were all individuals who had received a growth-type spiritual pathway from Arthur. However, Arthur didn’t hand over the same spiritual pathways Merlin provided; he had customized them. Since people from Earth lacked naturally occurring spiritual pathways, Arthur realized he could control the development of the spiritual pathways by imbuing them with his own qi energy.

And thus…

Arthur could [merge] with everyone who had accepted his reconfigured growth-type spiritual pathways.

“This is crazy! Once souls are mixed, they can never return to their original form! Even if your spiritual power rises temporarily, you’re just taking a shortcut to eventually ruining yourself!”

Tan pushed back all of the Masters’ attacks once more and shouted in frustration. He yelled because this wasn’t the result he wanted. An Irregular was a rare ‘resource’ difficult to find even after scouring the entire universe… Hence, losing such a valuable resource was a huge loss.

Tan’s line of thinking went this way because he believed that DIO would return to his grasp soon; he was certain that he’d eventually regain control. In fact, even while fighting fiercely, Tan was careful not to extinguish the Masters’ souls whenever he attacked. Similarly, although he intended to kill Arthur, Tan had no intention of damaging the user’s soul. After all, in due time, all the souls within DIO would be valuable resources under his possession.

“Hahaha. That guy is worried about my soul.”

“That’s because you’re so valuable that even your enemies would be reluctant to relinquish you. Arthur, no, since this is the last time, may I call you Seyoung?”

“As you please.”

In the end, Arthur absorbed all the Masters except one… Only Uld remained as she stood beside Arthur. Actually, she was special. While the other 11 Masters had lost half of their intelligence and reasoning ability after Arthur’s spiritual pressure bewitched them, Uld had volunteered for the customized spiritual pathway.

Of course, installing a spiritual pathway that contained Arthur’s qi energy wasn’t just so simple as deciding whether or not to accept it. The recipient had to be fully committed to sacrificing their physical being and existence, which was why Arthur drove most of his followers to become half-crazed fanatics.

Yet, although Uld had the spiritual pathway installed, she had decided to do so with a clear conscience. Arthur could see the truth, and he knew what that meant.

“If we had met under different circumstances, we might have had a slightly different relationship, no?”

“Perhaps.”

Uld laughed after hearing Arthur’s answer.

“Thank you.”

Then, Uld soon turned into light. Arthur looked at the beam and gritted his teeth.

“I will be with you.”

Whoosh.

Once all 12 Masters turned into light and became one with Arthur, an enormous light radiated from him. The light was so intense that everyone had to step back, including Tan.

“This is impossible… amplification through mixing multiple souls?”

Tan made a bewildered expression. Meanwhile, Arc had watched the unfolding scene from afar, and she muttered under her breath as she replaced the armor that had been damaged by Tan’s previous attack.

“Arthur is right.”

“Huh… What are you talking about?”

“Certainly, Tan was careless.”

Tan tried to understand everything using the boundaries of his frame of reference and worldview. In most cases, his logic and expectations would be proven correct. Tan had lived for a long time, and he was also a great mage who understood the truth of the world.

“Yet, you can’t measure an Irregular with a standard measuring stick. He looked down on all lesser beings because he’s a bit stronger, but that made him miscalculate the present situation.”

Merlin created an amplification technique that even countless transcendents before him had never discovered. Moreover, Merlin made Pathway to Hell, which was something that only the Nether World possessed, and, above all, he made the Editor Blade.

This abnormal perspective and thought process wasn’t a matter of realm. It was a kind of realization that arose from the special [Insight] that an Irregular possessed, and Merlin was an extremely exceptional Irregular at that.

In this manner, Arthur had acted beyond the logical scope and framework from which Tan viewed the world. To fight Tan, a transcendent far more powerful than he, Arthur had researched various approaches. Then, fueled by vengeance, Arthur worked within the environment at his disposal and devised a truly novel, outside-the-box idea.

Ting!

In Arthur’s hand, Ascalon let out a cry. It cried because Arthur’s newfound spiritual power, which had its already-massive quantity amplified, was flowing into it.

No, to be precise, the spiritual power wasn’t flowing into Ascalon. Adol was closest to Arthur, and he realized what was going on and groaned.

“What is this… Body and Sword Union?”

The term indicated a tier or realm. Body and Sword Union didn’t refer to a specific skill like Sudden Body Movement. Instead, it was a realm where one’s sword skill reached its peak, allowing the swordsman to wield their sword as if it were an extension of their body. Body and Sword Union was also used to describe the state in which one’s sword and soul became one.

“You… What are you doing….”

And in this case, the realm was beyond the phenomenon that Body and Sword Union usually denoted. Arthur became [one] with his sword; however, there was nothing metaphorical or symbolic about this union - it was a true union.

Tan couldn’t tell the difference between Arthur and Ascalon; in other words, he couldn’t tell the sword apart from the talented human being. At this moment, Arthur’s soul was one with Ascalon… Arthur had become a being no different from a sword spirit.

“It’s simple. Since I can’t reach a level where I can swiftly kill you….”

Laughing, Arthur lifted Ascalon and aimed it at Tan. Though Arthur had essentially abandoned his human identity, his physical body remained, so there was no issue with him utilizing the abilities and skills his former body possessed.

“… I decided to create a weapon that could kill you.”

Flash!

Light exploded outward. It kept getting bigger and brighter. As he sensed an ominous feeling stimulate his spiritual being and warn him of impending trouble, Tan shouted.

“Don’t mess around! Do you really think you can beat me with that silly weapon?”

“You still don’t understand what I’m saying. I’m not planning on using this to fight you. I just…”

Arthur slightly lowered his stance.

“… just…”

Soon, Arthur stabbed forth with Ascalon.

“… I’m just planning on killing you.”

Flash!

It was a simple move, and, as if cutting pudding, the attack cut through Tan’s defensive barrier with ease. Tan looked at Ascalon in amazement.

‘How?’

However, Tan couldn’t afford to contemplate Arthur’s sword attack any longer. Fortunately for him, he recognized what was happening, and even in that fleeting moment, Tan vividly saw the trajectory of the stab.

‘Should I block it? Should I evade?’

It was a lightning-quick attack, but as a great mage, Tan could devise a new defensive technique to block it. Furthermore, Tan could also avoid the attack entirely by crossing space.

Arthur’s attack had already broken through his defensive barrier, but Tan noticed that Ascalon had no more remaining energy. Thus, Tan could choose to block or dodge. He simply had to make a choice, or at least, that’s what he thought….

“What?”

At that critical moment, Tan unconsciously opened his mouth and groaned. Tan couldn’t choose any of the options he presumed he had at his disposal.

And on Tan’s chest…

Pluck.

… the dragon-slaying sword embedded itself.