NOVEL NEXT WORLD Chapter 1041
<1041 – Master of Darkness (19)>
I can’t win.
I can’t even imagine that kind of picture.
In this moment, the Heavenly Sovereign truly felt their limits.
An existence from the <Outside> that mocks even the flow of time.
That Outsider’s Avatar, Oknodie.
Only now did they truly grasp that meaning.
It’s impossible from the start for an existence trapped in a hundred dimensions to defeat an existence beyond those dimensions.
Even if one battles across realms, the opponent can hit the Heavenly Sovereign as much as they want, but the Sovereign has no way to hit back.
That was the identity of Oknodie’s “other iteration”.
“I acknowledge my limits… but what about yours?”
A murky emotion surfaced in the eyes of the defeated Heavenly Sovereign.
They were still searching for possibilities.
“I can’t win, but can’t you win against me either?”
There was a basis for their confidence.
“My identity as the Avatar of the God of Death is practically the same as the God of Death’s identity. Do you think it’s possible to figure out the identity of ‘me’ who has lived long in this land?”
The Heavenly Sovereign can’t defeat Oknodie, but Oknodie also can’t defeat the Sovereign; it’s a stalemate!
The one future they wished for, there lay the possibility of a tie.
“It’s impossible to write down all the deeds accumulated over the life of the God of Death, even if you’re not human. Just as you wield <Arrogance>, this is the only <Arrogance> I can wield.”
“Really?”
“I declare this with the increase of the Arrogance function: all deaths recorded in the Book of Death are the deaths of that being, and rituals towards their resurrection. As long as every death you write and offer nourishes them, you will never be able to kill me, their Avatar of Death!”
There exists a function called Arrogance.
It raises final attack power even while exposing one’s plans or winning methods, as long as the opponent can’t win.
It’s this absolute confidence that allows for a superiority only permitted to those who know they can win!
This is why many villains lose, caught in the roots of sky-high arrogance.
But the Heavenly Sovereign had to cling to this arrogance.
To make up for today’s defeat.
For the miserable humiliation.
This was the only way to salvage even a little bit of dignity.
Otherwise, how could they disperse the misfortune of living peacefully in the Hwanggung amidst the chaos, only to suddenly be attacked by the evil Outsider’s Avatar, the Princess of the Weird, Oknodie, and have a millennium of schemes shattered?
Moreover, they had confidence.
They weren’t confident in winning, but confident in not losing.
According to his declaration, to kill the God of Death, all deaths recorded in the Book of Death must be noted.
How many lives have faced death since the birth of the God?
Even humans perish at a rate of five per second.
300 per minute.
18,000 per hour.
432,000 per day.
1,057,680,000 per year.
In a year, 1 billion 576 million people die.
“The God of Death has existed for three thousand years since their birth.”
473 billion.
A number you could hardly dream of catching up to.
And that’s not even the end.
Is life only human?
Animals, monsters, and spirits with souls exist in plenty.
If we aggregate all of them, at least 50 entities with souls die every second.
Under three thousand years, that number reaches a whopping 4 trillion 730 billion entities.
Combining human and non-human, it sums up to 5 trillion 203 billion entities.
All of their deaths must be recorded.
Even if the Outsider’s qualifications exceed those of the Heavenly Sovereign, assuming only 50% of that composition could lead to a death verdict, that number would still be 2 trillion 101.5 billion.
Even the average number of strokes required to write down each entity’s identity is about 100 strokes.
To record the identities of 2 trillion 101.5 billion would require a staggering 210 trillion 150 billion strokes.
“You, the Outsider’s Avatar, from the start, you were trapped in a contradiction that was already impossible to achieve. Even if you’ve exceeded ‘several iterations,’ if that isn’t the level of harvesting death that extinguishes all life on a planet, collecting that distant level of death is absolutely impossible!”
That’s why he dares to be arrogant.
No matter how proud an Avatar is, there are limits.
The overwhelming violence of numbers.
The accumulated deeds of life and death in the Middle Realm.
The cumulative merit of a planet, of a dimension.
This is the authority of the Netherworld, the strength of the Book of Death, and the might of the God of Death.
“O God of Death! You may have died defeated by the Outsider, but the merits of the Netherworld you have safeguarded shall protect you and your Avatar, me, in this battle.”
Before the Heavenly Sovereign’s stratagem, Oknodie sneered.
Laughing?
After hearing such a desperate number?
No.
Was he dazed?
He couldn’t hold back a hollow laugh.
How could that be?
Harvesting such astronomical deaths was difficult; there’s no reason to waste it just to target the extermination of the God of Death and their minions.
What could possibly be gained from that?
A title?
Perhaps something grand would be earned.
But would there possibly be such a potent enemy for such a great Outsider’s Avatar?
Even if there were, one only needs to traverse the world lines.
For her, the value of battling using the Book of Death is merely to make the Heavenly Sovereign realize their limits, to make them despair, and to siphon the energy steeped in that deep despair.
It’s just a form of amusement.
It must be so.
It had to be.
“Hehe. You know what? I did it.”
“What do you mean…?”
“Extermination?”
Winking and playfully flipping her previous shy misdeed, Oknodie formed a V with her left hand.
My heart chilled.
I didn’t even want to think.
Yet knowledge naturally pieced itself together in my head.
As if someone was not allowing him to deny reality.
As if someone had infiltrated his head with a ‘terminal’ and laboriously pulled up the puzzle pieces of memories he had tried to forget, to erase, to turn away from.
Click.
As the puzzle piece found its place, the thought circuits of the Heavenly Sovereign began to function normally again.
And he understood.
The meaning of Oknodie’s words.
– Even if you exceed ‘several iterations,’ it’s absolutely impossible to harvest a level of death that extinguishes all living beings on a planet without reaching that level!
It was an answer.
An answer to his arrogance, an answer to his conviction.
The Dark Princess.
The Princess of the Weird.
The Evil Dragon.
The Outsider’s Avatar.
Traversing world lines, they have harvested a level of death that extinguishes all living beings on a planet.
“How many times…?”
In disbelief, and unwilling to acknowledge it, the words slipped out.
Even as I spoke, I regretted it.
The moment I heard the answer, my mind was on the verge of collapse.
Yet time flowed mercilessly.
I didn’t want to hear Oknodie’s response.
My petty resistance tried to erect walls against the air like paper.
The attempt to deny reality split open like a sharp blade, and the sound crashed against my ears.
“Maybe a lot? Like… around a thousand times?”
That was enough.
She had the power to write down all of the God of Death’s identities and all the deaths of the Book of Death and still have more to spare.
What about the motivation?
Surely, there couldn’t be a reason for doing such a thing.
There couldn’t be any reason to be had.
Could such expectations have crept in?
Had I unconsciously cried out?
Oknodie answered, a bit shyly.
“This cycle is special. There were many Papas, my friends had fun, and there were tons of new events. So, I like it here. If I see the True Ending, I’ll choose to stay here!”
That’s why they decided on the burial of the God of Death.
They were prepared to go beyond slaying the god class and even be ready to kill the merits.
Records of all the forms of death written in the Book of Death that shouldn’t happen normally.
“But hey. Just saying, it’s not like I even needed to write it down this time, really?”
I didn’t want to hear it.
Stop toying with me, us, anymore.
With tears of blood, while dispersing demons and weird creatures wildly, a sharp needle-sized hole was punctured into the layered defenses the Heavenly Sovereign had erected.
“The Book of Death, you know, shares ‘the same records’ from the moment of copying. So, anyone holding the Book of Death can kill the God of Death equivalent to the amount of death recorded anytime!”
The cruel truth and gimmick were revealed, something even the Avatar of the God of Death couldn’t know.
Although the identity of the God of Death isn’t entirely that, it’s more than enough to achieve 50%.
Nevertheless, what was Oknodie doing by not stopping recording?
“I aimed for 100% and tried really hard, but it was getting annoying. My wrist started hurting. So, I’m satisfied with just jotting down the major secrets to fill 90%!”
The truth was harsh.
Even at the start of the duel, they could have killed both the God of Death and the Heavenly Sovereign, yet Oknodie kept writing something.
The reason was to raise the achievement reward grade through a higher percentage of kills.
━━━
Due to a severe mental shock, the status abnormality <Dizziness> affecting you is lifted.
━━━
The mockery didn’t end there.
The reason the Heavenly Sovereign failed to realize this obvious fact was because they had become arrogant enough to not think of taking the Book of Death, distorted through <Dizziness> into an arrogant direction, leading them away.
The God’s Avatar wouldn’t lose.
The total merits of the God of Death could never catch up.
“This is the end!”
As Oknodie brought the pen she raised down, marking the point, the sky split in half, and a
The defeat of the Heavenly Sovereign.
The demise of the God of Death’s merits.
The achievement of a great feat.
And the blessings of the system that worship this.