[Ha, you dare to use my own power against me?]
Gilgamesh's voice echoed from the golden tower, but.
"You think I would?"
Clank. Clank.
The chains began to fully entwine and merge with Gilgamesh's.
[You bastard…]
The composure in Gilgamesh's voice began to disappear.
[How are you wielding my power better than me…]
"Who knows. I still can't use Heavenly Tree Descending Spirit well either."
Seong Jihan rarely had occasion to use Heavenly Tree Descending Spirit.
Even when he did use it, it was to extract life force from the eternity within his body.
So his understanding of this power was not that deep.
However.
"But it seems you know even less than me."
[What did you say…]
"Your chains have already been completely consumed by me."
Whirl!
Gilgamesh's chains, which had been sucked into Myriad Ghost Sealing Gods, became Seong Jihan's possession.
They began to take control of the Tower of Babel in reverse.
'This guy really has nothing special.'
Gilgamesh, who was an easy opponent despite his position as the last Martial God's disciple.
Of course, the easiest victory was still over the already dealt with Longinus, but.
He not only fell far short of Dongbang Sak or Ashoka,
The prophet Pythia seemed even more troublesome to deal with.
As the first human and recipient of numerous powers, why was this guy so easy?
'He must be satisfied with his own powers and didn't train at all.'
As the king of humans, the currently bestowed power of domination would have been sufficient to reign.
How much training could he have done separately?
Through the chains he had perfectly made his own, Seong Jihan erased the domination code from the Tower of Babel.
Then.
The light in the golden tower weakened.
Shh…
The materialized upper part of the tower lost its form again.
"No, Gilgamesh. What are you doing? Don't tell me… you're betraying us again?"
When the top of the tower disappeared in an instant, less than a minute after Seong Jihan used Heavenly Tree Descending Spirit,
Pythia glared at the Tower of Babel.
No matter how she looked at it, she couldn't understand how Gilgamesh was being pushed back so easily with his own power.
[Be-betrayal, no! I desperately tried to hold on too…!]
"Desperately? Isn't it your power? But how can it be taken over in an instant?"
[That's what I want to know more!]
"You don't want to regain your youth, do you? Ha. Then just live as a baldie."
Gilgamesh appealed his grievances, but Pythia didn't believe his words.
She had also put in a lot of effort to send the Tower of Babel to Earth and materialize it.
So she never imagined that this tower would be so easily taken over by Seong Jihan.
Surely, with Gilgamesh cooperating from the inside, it turned out like this.
– Why are they fighting each other??
– They were originally enemies lol
– But why did they come when they're getting beaten so easily by Seong Jihan?
– How can a mere Level 8 Constellation compare? He even defeated the Dragon Lord hehe
As Seong Jihan took out the chains in reverse and took control of the tower,
And the two Constellations began to fight each other, people were inwardly relieved.
They thought if they were unlucky, the Tower of Babel would rise in the middle of Seoul and all the people of Seoul would fall under Gilgamesh's control.
But Seong Jihan's quick response completely blocked that attempt.
– But then will the people of Seoul be controlled by Seong Jihan?
– Ooh… that's not bad?
– Ikr just control us lol
– But given Seong Jihan's personality, I don't think he'd become a ruler even if asked to…
– Yeah, he rarely makes public appearances.
While Seong Jihan took control of the Tower of Babel possessing the power of domination, people weren't worried at all.
If he was someone to reign over humanity in the first place, he would have done so long ago.
Rather, there were many chats saying Seong Jihan, who brought victory to humanity and extended their lifespan through race evolution, should just be the ruler.
And.
"Now, everyone come to your senses. Keep your backs turned until the Tower of Babel disappears. Don't even look towards Seolleung."
Seong Jihan, who took control of the Tower of Babel, commanded the people to turn their backs using the domination code.
"…Uh."
"Wow… damn. Was I being controlled?"
"Crazy, the Tower of Babel…"
"Let's stay turned around until it's over quickly."
"But we can watch the BattleTube, right…?"
Then, the people who had been controlled came to their senses and turned their gazes away from the Tower of Babel.
As the hostage situation failed in an instant,
Bam!
"Ah, this traitor, really…!"
[No, I'm not!]
Pythia kicked the Tower of Babel.
"Ah, is that so? Then our Constellation Gilgamesh is an idiot who lost his power to a kid not even in his thirties?"
[Th-that… that guy is an Irregular, isn't he!]
"Yes, Seong Jihan is a unique case. But does it make sense for you to lose your power that you've used for years in an instant?"
[It's because you and Martial God took away my strength!]
"You call that an excuse…!"
Pythia seemed genuinely furious.
Seong Jihan watched their argument for a moment.
'I should deal with Pythia first.'
He pointed the tip of his spear at her.
Bzzt!
Then, red lightning spewed from the spear.
"Euk…!"
Pythia hurriedly avoided it, but when lightning grazed her arm,
Fwoosh…!
Her body was instantly engulfed in flames.
A firepower that would turn a human into ashes.
However.
'There's no way she'll die from this.'
Seong Jihan quickly approached her.
'I have to finish her here.'
Pythia was definitely more troublesome than Gilgamesh.
She had to be killed on the spot no matter what.
Murderous intent swirled in Seong Jihan's eyes, and his spear tip mercilessly spewed flames.
Then, even though her body was set ablaze countless times,
"Seriously… why are you so intense?"
Pythia, while burning, was still flashing her divine eye.
And somehow avoiding fatal attacks.
'Her divine eye is more problematic than the ice sword.'
The ice swords Pythia used were completely unable to withstand Seong Jihan's fire.
But the divine eye that read the future was quite troublesome.
He couldn't scatter flames in all directions to leave no room for escape, as Seolleung was right in the middle of Seoul.
'She's nimble.'
Seong Jihan frowned as he watched Pythia slip away like a loach.
"You really won't die."
"Ha, you think I'll die? No matter how much I dodge, the flames completely burn my whole body."
"But you're enduring well for that."
"If it weren't for Martial God's favor, I would have turned to ashes long ago. To think a Constellation candidate is pushing a Level 8 Constellation this hard, really…!"
Fwoosh!
Even while burning countless times, Pythia, who seemed to die but didn't, suddenly stopped moving.
Flash!
After her divine eye flashed once, as if she saw something in the future,
Shh…
Instead of avoiding Seong Jihan's red energy, she created ice swords.
'Not dodging and deciding to fight?'
Was there a trap?
While being cautious, Seong Jihan didn't miss the opportunity.
His spear thrust out quickly.
Pythia's ice swords initially seemed to gather in front to block it, but.
Poof!
Instead, the swords pierced Pythia's body.
– ??
– Why did she stab herself?
– W-who knows…
Pythia's body was uniformly pierced by the ice swords.
And the tip of the phoenix spear followed, penetrating her.
Pythia, pierced by both the ice swords and the flaming spear,
"My lord… please…"
Called out to Martial God once, then hung her head.
Then, the ice energy intensified in an instant.
It even suppressed the phoenix spear's flames for a moment.
Freezing even Seong Jihan's right arm.
A gambit staking her own life by the Level 8 Constellation.
However.
'…It's impressive to restrain the phoenix spear's flames, but it's meaningless once I draw out the fire again.'
Although Seong Jihan's right hand was frozen,
There was still room in his Stats.
He only needed to ignite the fire once more to easily break free from this restraint.
The time Pythia bought was a mere 4-5 seconds at most.
'She wouldn't sacrifice her body just for this…'
Did she use the flashing divine eye from earlier to see a future where she had to be stabbed?
As Seong Jihan tried to quickly melt his arm,
[Pythia. I won't forget your hard work.]
From the sky, the voice of the wandering Martial God was heard.
* * *
Above the Tower of Babel.
The crack in space that had been shining golden light had somehow widened.
And was now emitting a dark light.
And.
As soon as Martial God finished speaking.
– Uh… that in the sky…
– Isn't that Seong Jihan's technique?
From the darkness, a vortex swirled once.
And dozens of black hands began to stretch out.
'Those, are they Martial God's hands…?'
Not missing the chance while Seong Jihan's arm was frozen and momentarily immobilized.
Martial God's hands trying to quickly grab him.
Was this the future Pythia saw?
'However, I can deal with this much.'
Shh.
Seong Jihan moved his unharmed left hand.
Then, the tip of the Dark Sword Eclipse trembled.
Fundamental Divine Arts,
Heavenly Dragon Thunder Fire:
One Sword Breaks the Sky
A single sword strike instantly tore the sky.
And Martial God's hands began to be lacerated in several places.
– Ah, last time he completely removed the hands; are there too many hands this time?
– He used Taiji back then to remove them but why isn't he using that technique now…
– Ah, maybe because this is in the middle of Seolleung, They sure picked an annoying location.
Unlike last time, Martial God's hands did not disappear.
However, the movement of the fiercely outstretched hands paused for a moment.
'If I bought this much time, I can pull out my right hand.'
Fwoosh…!
Seong Jihan focused his energy on his right hand.
Then, the spear and hand simultaneously burst into flames.
Squirm.
At the intense fire energy, the sealed eyeball on the back of his hand squirmed.
But.
'Looks like it's still too early for the seal to be released.'
The red hand was still maintaining the seal.
'With this, did it deviate from the future Pythia saw?'
Her plan with the divine eye was probably to freeze herself to immobilize Seong Jihan for a bit.
And use that gap for Martial God's hands to try to kidnap him.
Their attempt ended up being thwarted much more easily than expected.
Of course, although the hands in the sky were lacerated by One Sword Breaks the Sky.
Dozens of Martial God's hands stretched out.
'If I use the phoenix spear too, I can sufficiently repel that much.'
Now that his body was free, Martial God's hands weren't that threatening.
He needed to quickly burn all of that and erase even the spatial gap.
To do that.
'I'll have to use Total Annihilation.'
Rather than directly slashing by consolidating the power of Taiji Sword into Eclipse,
It seemed better to shoot Total Annihilation towards that space.
Fwoosh…!
As Seong Jihan's right hand burned,
Intense energy soared from the phoenix spear.
The Red Administrator's power, Total Annihilation.
With that strength, no matter how many of Martial God's hands there were, he could sufficiently eliminate them.
Of course, with the Administrator's hand sealed now.
Whether he could properly manifest Total Annihilation was the problem.
'Total Annihilation… I feel like I can somehow do it even without the hand's help?'
Seong Jihan was manifesting the Administrator's power more easily than expected.
Perhaps because the Stats he obtained from the Dragon Lord were so abundant.
Manifesting Total Annihilation seemed even easier than when the hand was awake.
'I'll have to use it often in the future.'
As Seong Jihan made that resolution and tried to shoot out Total Annihilation,
Flash!
From the back of his right hand.
[Main Body.]
The closed eyeball opened its eyes.