D.I.O

The new phrases were “Crying and Laughing” and “Helplessly Spoiled”.

“Huh? What is that?”

‘Crying and Laughing’ meant laughing reluctantly when a person was in a situation where all they could do was cry. ‘Helplessly Spoiled’ meant being strong-headed to the point of not being able to do anything.

However, Leaf couldn’t read these two Chinese idioms. Even if she could read the Chinese characters, she wouldn’t have been able to figure out what they meant. How could she, who had devoted nearly her entire life to dancing and singing rather than studying since her middle school days, know ancient Chinese idioms like these?

Besides, the important thing wasn’t the meaning of these old proverbs.

Crack.

Leaf felt her bones twist, and a huge force soon began to pump into and course through her body. The process was so fast and abrupt that her body, which had an artificial spiritual pathway installed, screamed out in pain. That wasn’t the only problem though.

‘W-What’s going on?! Why is this happening?’

Leaf was horrified when her own body began to move on its own. However, contrary to her chaotic state of mind, her body’s posture was extremely stable.

Swoop.

Regardless of her will, Leaf’s body began to walk forward toward Merlin, who was currently pulling on his bow.

Whoosh!!!

Merlin’s figure shimmered. While he concentrated an enormous amount of power into his arrows, the act of pulling his bow’s string back caused the surrounding area to shake from the aftershocks.

Even though he was wielding such tremendous power—or rather, because he was having to deal with such tremendous power, Merlin didn’t notice Leaf approach him. Merlin was the main reason why the mythical existence, Leviathan, was being driven to its death, but he was still a mere mortal who had not reached the transcendence realm.

‘What the hell is this…’ Leaf calmed herself down and desperately tried to resist the aura, a divine qi, inside her.

Weirdly, the divine qi seemed to be comforting her. Nevertheless, no matter how friendly the divine qi seemed, it had suddenly taken control of and manipulated her body as it pleased, so there was no way Leaf would be happy with such a controlling foreign aura.

Even so, the divine qi seemed to be persuading her. Leaf kept hearing whispers telling her that this was something she had to do and that it couldn’t be helped.

Then information started pouring into her mind and told her exactly what the divine qi, the aura that was swirling through her, was trying to do.

‘You’re going to make Merlin… Yongno… into an Immortal god?’

Leaf, who was desperately trying to concentrate her will on resisting the divine qi, fell into a state of confusion. She was convinced that the information she had just been given was unmistakably true.

Yet, that truth and her current feeling of confusion were two completely different matters.

‘What the… Is this a good thing or a bad thing?’

Her will, which had been resisting the raging divine qi within her, was shaken. The information she received made her unable to be [certain]. The voice, which stated that Merlin would become an ‘Immortal’ with its help, didn’t sound malicious, so she couldn’t muster the will to resist the divine qi at all costs.

In fact, this was exactly what the Celesti wanted, but…

Flinch!

At that moment, a light beam attack shot down toward Merlin from the sky.

Leaf, who had been confused about whether she should take action, was thankful for the clear-cut opening.

“Ugh… Whatever!!!!”

Truth, Dragon Cannon. Suddenly, a white light burst without a sound. The formidable divine qi neatly erased the attack that was headed for Merlin.

That wasn’t all.

Boom!

A hole opened in the distant skies, revealing a deep blue sky for an instant. Then a gigantic something, which had appeared and launched the previous attack on Merlin, gave off a spark as it disappeared into a spatial rift.

“Leaf? What’s going on?” Merlin, who was just about to use another Howling Spell, felt his hair stand on end.

He had felt a tremendous aura passing by his head and into the sky. Luckily, the aura wasn’t aimed at him… but if it had been, it would have dealt Merlin a powerful blow—something he couldn’t have done anything about.

However, when Merlin turned to look at Leaf, what caught his attention wasn’t Leaf, who was bewildered by the unfolding scene, but the semi-translucent person beside her.

“Man, nothing is easy.” An Asian man in his mid-thirties, who had an unremarkable face with no distinct features, sighed deeply.

Merlin hadn’t felt the man’s presence at all until he showed up and spoke.

For a brief moment, Merlin had a blank expression. This was because he was already acquainted with the man.

“… Kang Sang…”

Merlin had met him as a child. Kang Sang had been the only one who acknowledged Merlin’s talents, which were beyond any framework of traditional understanding and often went against the laws of modern physics.

That wasn’t all. Although Merlin had lost his memory and forgotten what had happened to him as a test subject in a lab many years ago, Merlin recalled that Kang Sang had been the one who saved him. If it hadn’t been for Kang Sang, Merlin would have either died in the lab or escaped and become a vengeful monster.

Of course, the three pets, who were engrossed in the mythical battle, called Kang Sang by his official name instead of his real name.

“Oh, my god! That’s Jiang Ziya!”

“I was expecting the Elohim to step in, but…”

Jiang Ziya, whose real name was Kang Sang, was the teacher of King Wen, the king of Zhou during ancient times. He had also been a feudal lord during the Qi Dynasty. Jiang’s life read like a legendary tale.

He was famously known as the person who coined the term ‘Jiang’ to describe a person who leisurely lived life whilst fishing, but the reality was that he was an elder-level God who only served the great Laojun and no one else.

“Why…” A sense of confusion flickered in Merlin’s eyes.

This was because there was no context behind Jiang Ziya’s sudden appearance and the action he’d made.

Of course, the Celesti World had intervened for Merlin or humankind many times before, which was a fact that Merlin was also well aware of. When Leviathan, Tan, staged a coup against the Empress of Magic, Jenica, and gained control over DIO, Merlin had been able to counterattack and take over DIO due to the Dream Celestial Dagger, Manbo’s treasured item. Manbo had handed over his treasured item to Merlin because the Celesti had ordered him to do so.

If it hadn’t been for the help of the Celesti World, Merlin would have continued to be just another DIO user, and he wouldn’t have been able to produce the same results as he had come to produce. If Leviathan were to have remained in control of DIO as the main [operator], the things Merlin would be able to do inside DIO would be extremely limited.

‘Also…’ Merlin looked at Leaf, who stood nervously beside him.

He didn’t know exactly what her real identity was, but he sensed a tremendous aura from her. Although she was relatively weak, the enormous force that dwelled within her granted her power equal to that of a near transcendent. Even though she still possessed her will, she was in a state closer to an avatar—a vessel through which a higher being descended.

Naturally, bestowing such power onto someone wasn’t an easy feat even for the Celesti.

‘However…’

This was what perplexed Merlin.

“Why now?”

Based on Merlin’s senses, Jiang Ziya was powerful and noble.

Jiang Ziya, who no longer hid in the shadows, possessed great authority and power. Even though he faced a level-reduction penalty from the Planet God, he was still at the level of a divine transcendent with intermediate god powers!

His power was on par with that of a fully awakened Leviathan, so if Jiang Ziya had intervened earlier, the crisis would have ended a long time ago.

“Why now… is not the right question. Besides, more than anything…” Jiang Ziya said. Then he let out a deep sigh and continued, “I can’t do anything anyway.”

“Huh? What do you mean…”

Whoosh!

The moment Merlin was about to ask a question, a circular sphere made up of countless letters appeared mid-air. Jiang Ziya gave a bitter smile as he saw the surrounding Masters become alert due to the sphere’s sudden appearance.

“Those damn vultures are here.”

Right when he finished speaking, the circular sphere disappeared, and five shadows descended from it and landed on the ground.

Simultaneously…

Ping!

It all happened in a moment. Merlin couldn’t even react properly until a slim man slashed at him across the space. This was because the man moved frighteningly quickly. He had perfected a form of absolute martial arts and reached maximum speed.

Bam!

“Ack!”

“Eh?!”

Merlin heard two shouts soon after. The slim man, who had shot out like an arrow toward Merlin, bounced back at a speed faster than when he rushed in. The reason was that Leaf had suddenly placed herself in front of Merlin with a defensive stance.

“Ugh, what are you? Are you Elohim?” the man growled while aiming his sword toward Merlin and Leaf.

A dwarf girl and draconic being, who were standing next to the slim man, shook their heads in unison.

“Man, you’re such an idiot. Shouldn’t you have at least read the battle report before jumping in?” the dwarf girl commented.

“Who was the one who said elves were calm and thoughtful beings?” the draconic being added.

For some reason, the beings who had just appeared seemed rather carefree as if they couldn’t see Jiang Ziya standing next to Merlin. That was only for a moment though. All of their expressions hardened when a tremendous flashing light emanated from behind them.

[Argh!! You!!!] Leviathan screamed out.

- Hahaha! Come on, Apocalypse! Let’s play some more!

The ground shook and rumbled. Leviathan rose up convulsively and tried to move toward the direction of the newly appeared beings, but Apollo kicked him away.

“Wow, just wow. To have summoned Apollo of all beings.”

Feeling the tremendous power and aura emanating from Apollo, the newly appeared beings momentarily forgot about Merlin as they watched the battle between Leviathan and Apollo.

“A jokes aside… At this point, it’s beyond great… It's kind of scary.”

“Crazy how someone was able to successfully summon a being like that. I heard all Olympian gods are crazy.”

“Leviathan is taking a beating. What a crazy scene…”

The newly appeared beings let out sighs as they voiced their astonishment at the bizarre scene.

These newly appeared beings were of an eclectic range of species. Only two out of the five beings were human-like in appearance. The other three were of species that were unfamiliar even to Merlin, who had a relatively large amount of knowledge regarding the species that existed throughout the universe.

“Ancient human, dragon, and even a flying fish species…”

The five beings exuded a considerable aura of power. They weren’t full transcendents… but they were at the pseudo-transcendent level.

Merlin had never seen such beings before.

‘Those beings are at the same power level as Arthur…?’

In other words, the newly appeared beings were pseudo-transcendents. They may also be described in a more negative way as fake transcendents.

However, since there were five of them, their collective power couldn’t be ignored. Depending on how well they worked with each other, their collective force might actually be enough to take down a skilled transcendent.

“Yongno…”

“Are you okay, Merlin?”

Miho and Arc, who had been unable to approach due to Jiang Ziya releasing a divine qi shot earlier, appeared in front of Merlin now.

“Things are getting more dangerous and troublesome. I didn’t expect those good-for-nothings would appear…” Ellie, who was sitting on Arc’s right shoulder, spoke in a slightly nervous tone of voice.

Sitting on Arc’s left shoulder, Quiet Heaven made a serious expression before stating, “The civilization level must have risen. No, since their power level has been capped at the pseudo-transcendent stage… it must be that the civilization level is on the verge of going up.”

“You know them?” Arc asked.

“I know them all too well, that’s the problem,” Quiet Heaven growled as it saw the five beings approaching them. “Basara…”