Chapter 197 : Void Space
Chapter 197: Void Space
Nearly a month had passed since I last visited the Academy, and it looked completely different from before.
Countless tents had been set up around the enormous Gate, functioning as a temporary base.
There were advanced-looking devices that seemed like something straight out of a movie.
A government official guided me toward the Gate.
“Here, take this key card. I heard the general details from the Commander.”
“The Commander?”
“I mean Ms. Cheon Ga-eun.”
At those words, I nodded casually.
Was she affiliated with the government?
Thinking about it, it had always been strange.
How could someone that powerful have remained unknown until now?
She had never even appeared once in the game.
But if she worked for the government, then it made sense.
Very little was known about that side of things.
Moreover, while Hero ranks were determined by the Hero Association, the government inevitably had influence once it came to Top-ranking Heroes.
Each and every one of them was powerful enough to bring down an entire nation.
Yet Cheon Ga-eun had appeared as though she had suddenly dropped out of the sky.
There had been plenty of people who raised all kinds of conspiracy theories about her because of that.
“You’re less surprised than I expected.”
“The girl beside me looks pretty surprised, though.”
I turned toward Helena beside me.
I hadn’t come to the Gate alone today.
“A bug’s going to fly into your mouth, idiot.”
“Wait, you’re not surprised by this?”
“If anything, it makes sense now.”
“You’re definitely a T, aren’t you?”
“No idea. I’ve never taken the test.”
“You can’t even keep up with trends…….”
Helena looked at me with thoroughly unimpressed eyes.
“So why did you call me here? And only me, too. Senior Da-hee will feel left out if she finds out.”
“Big Sis Da-hee already knows.”
“Wait, you call Senior Da-hee ‘Big Sis’ now?”
“Ah.”
Damn it.
I had gotten so used to the way I addressed her that I slipped up.
The corners of Helena’s lips curled ominously.
The mischievous look on her face irritated me.
I raised the edge of my hand and chopped Helena on the top of her head.
“The reason you got called here is because of what you did wrong last time.”
“What I did wrong?”
“Yeah. Don’t tell me you forgot how you tried to expose someone else’s feelings without permission during the trip.”
Helena’s eyes darted around.
“It’s not like I particularly wanted to…… President made me…….”
Watching my expression, Helena lowered her head.
“I’m sorry about that.”
“As long as you know.”
“So what exactly do I have to do?”
“Mana shuttle.”
Helena tilted her head, unable to understand what I meant.
“It takes an enormous amount of Mana to open the Gate.”
“Ah.”
It wasn’t that I lacked Mana back when I used Demonic Authorities, but Mana did not exist within Void Space.
In other words, once I entered, I would have no way to replenish my Mana beyond what I already possessed.
That was why I had called Helena.
I couldn’t afford to waste my own Mana, and the others probably didn’t possess enough to open the Gate.
So I called Helena, whose Mana reserves were comparable to mine.
Her Mana capacity was so enormous that Park Siwoo or Dan Chun-woo couldn’t even compare.
And that wasn’t all.
By absorbing or utilizing the unrefined Mana existing in nature, she could expend Mana at a rate approaching infinity.
In short, there was no one better suited than Helena for opening the Gate.
After walking for quite a while, we finally drew close to it.
A stupid sound escaped Helena’s mouth.
“Wow. I was too busy during the war to notice, but this thing is seriously huge.”
The Gate surpassed the size of most massive skyscrapers.
With only a little exaggeration, it looked as though it might actually reach the sky.
The area around the Gate was packed with unfamiliar devices.
“Then shall we start?”
I reached toward the Gate gleaming with golden light.
Helena stood beside me.
“What you have to do is simple. Just pour Mana straight into the Gate. I’ll handle all the complicated stuff.”
“This is safe, right?”
“Probably?”
Honestly, I couldn’t guarantee it.
What I intended to do wasn’t simply open the Gate.
I was trying to pierce a hole into the passage created by it.
“Haa. How did someone like you ever save the world?”
“I didn’t save it alone.”
I took out the Artifact I had received from the Smiths before coming here.
It was shaped like a large compass.
“Ready?”
“Yes.”
“Then inject Mana.”
Helena nodded and closed her eyes.
Her seemingly bottomless Mana began flowing out.
In an instant, the surrounding space filled with her presence.
The government administrators nearby began gasping for breath.
They couldn’t adjust to the densely concentrated Mana she emitted.
Before long, light began shining from her half-opened eyes.
Kugugugu...
An enormous amount of Mana poured into the Gate.
Its density was so great that even Mana that had not yet manifested became visible to the naked eye.
Soon, a faint light began filling the Gate.
“Oh, it’s working.”
“Really? Is the Gate opening?”
“No, not yet. To open it, that faint light needs to fill the entire Gate.”
“Wait, what did you just say?!”
Helena stared at me in shock.
Looking closely, sweat had already gathered across her forehead.
Even a simple task became exhausting if you had to keep doing it endlessly.
“Think of it as karma.”
“You scammer!”
Helena cursed at me, but she didn’t stop pouring Mana into the Gate.
As time passed, the light filling it grew stronger.
After several hours, the light filling the Gate finally became complete.
Helena was drenched in sweat and utterly exhausted.
I patted her shoulder.
“Good work.”
With this, the preparations to open the Gate were complete.
I slowly approached it.
The Gate radiated brilliant light.
Inhale, exhale.
Maybe it was pointless nervousness.
My heart was beating fast.
I could meet the Heavenly Demon again.
I reached toward the golden Gate.
Following the memories left behind by the End, I began adjusting the Mana filling it.
The Gate, a crossroads between countless dimensions, began to move.
Grrrrrr…….
Brilliant light poured through the gap as the Gate slowly began opening.
“It opened! It really opened!”
“Whew…… That was exhausting. Now the real work begins.”
I began drawing up my Mana.
The truly difficult part started now.
The Gate had been opened, but to enter Void Space, I had to pierce a hole into the passage beyond it.
I spoke to Helena in case something unexpected happened.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen from here on. Get as far back as possible.”
Helena nodded and made everyone nearby retreat.
It had been a long time since I properly drew out my full strength.
The blazing Infernal Flame enveloped my body.
Asura Descent (修羅降神) Origin (原).
Feeling an endless sense of omnipotence, I slowly assumed the stance most familiar to me.
I straightened my hand and pulled my arm back.
Then I focused precisely on the point I intended to strike and concentrated Mana into my hand.
The color of the Infernal Flame began to change.
From red to orange, from yellow to white.
Then finally to blue.
Even so, the people around me probably couldn’t feel the heat.
I heard Helena mutter.
“You said you got weaker.”
I let nothing leak out.
Not Mana.
Not strength.
Not heat.
I concentrated all of my power into one hand.
Then I struck toward the inside of the Gate with a single fist.
There was no explosion.
No deafening roar.
No spectacular flames.
The light emitted by the Gate merely dimmed ever so slightly.
A tiny black spot appeared within the Gate’s brilliant radiance.
It was a hole formed between dimensional passages.
My single punch had pierced space itself.
After calming my energy, I activated the Artifact Master Gu Ryun and his disciples had made.
The compass-like object emitted Mana that extended toward the black space.
Its needle began spinning rapidly.
As though trying to determine the direction of the Heavenly Demon.
After spinning for quite some time, the compass suddenly stopped.
The Artifact pointed directly beyond the black spot.
“Found you.”
Clenching my fist, I walked toward the Gate.
Then Helena’s voice reached me.
“You’re coming back, right?”
“Of course.”
And with that, I pushed my body into the black fissure that had formed within the Gate.
The flow of time and space inside Void Space was unbearably unstable.
Because of that, she couldn’t tell where she was or how much time had passed.
Even so, one thing was certain.
She was still alive.
And despite its name, Void Space was not a place where absolutely nothing existed.
She was inside some kind of space.
The place looked like an old building.
Yellowed wallpaper and fluorescent lights.
It resembled the interior of some building, yet there were no doors or windows leading outside.
No human presence could be sensed anywhere.
She had been quite surprised when she first arrived.
She had thrown herself into endless darkness believing death was inevitable.
Yet when she opened her eyes, she found herself inside this strange building.
Even more bizarrely, the space seemed as though it had been constructed from a Formation.
No Mana could be sensed.
No presence could be sensed.
She couldn’t even leave.
Even the Heavenly Demon’s overwhelming power did not work within this space.
Even when she struck the walls with her full strength, they did not break.
As though they were impossible to destroy.
For now, she used the Mana remaining within her to tend to the wounds inflicted by Pandemonium.
Although the space was alien, she could still use the Mana remaining in her Dantian without issue.
After treating her body, she began seriously searching for a way out.
The first thing she did was try to understand the space around her.
She wandered aimlessly through the unknown place.
There were all kinds of things inside this space.
There were strangely shaped stone statues, swords and other weapons, and even the scenery of the building itself would change.
It was as though fragments from several dimensions had been taken and stitched together piece by piece.
‘This is no time for this.’
She felt herself growing increasingly impatient.
It wasn’t because she feared she might never escape.
Rather, she was worried about her disciple and Wol-ah because of Pandemonium.
That useless disciple who couldn’t do anything without her.
He had escaped safely, but those bastards would never give up on her disciple.
A hollow laugh escaped her.
“So this is what helplessness feels like.”
Throughout the Heavenly Demon’s life, it had seemed as though nothing was impossible.
Born on some miserable roadside, she had risen as a woman to stand at the pinnacle of an entire world.
Everyone who stood in her way had died, and countless people existed who would take their own lives at a single word from her.
It wasn’t as though she had particularly wanted subordinates.
The stronger she became and the more famous her name grew, the more followers naturally gathered around her.
She was the Solitary Supreme.
She had nothing precious.
No one she loved.
That was why she had been complete and without weakness.
But then, something precious appeared in her life.
She was no longer complete.
Nor was she without weakness.
She had grown weaker.
But she could no longer return to the time when she had been complete.
And even so, she did not want to return to that time.