Chapter 143
Chapter 143
I've Grown Tired of a Human Like You
“That’s quite a cold-hearted teacher.”
It wasn't difficult to guess. Considering this place was Gabriel Trian’s private estate, there had to be countless possible methods. For example, remote charging? If he was receiving massive amounts of electricity transmitted from a power plant underground, like pumping up hot spring water, it was easy enough to understand.
It wasn't much different from how Im Sol used Comet.
Of course, that was only a hypothesis—
“I’ll find out myself.”
The moment Ga-on stepped forward, the ground split apart like a dried rice paddy and collapsed inward. The aftershock seized the surrounding area and raced through the hollow spaces beneath. Koo-goong. A sound of something shifting out of alignment echoed from somewhere, and the earth shook violently for an instant.
“Hoo.”
As breath like steam escaped his mouth, the raging winds surrounding Ga-on flared brilliantly, generating vicious cutting gusts.
Koo-goong.
Another ominous rupture resounded, and the ground sank once more.
As if something existed beneath it.
It was around then that the battle hammer, which had been radiating crimson light, fell silent.
After confirming with his own eyes that the power plant had suffered catastrophic damage, an incident from several Sols ago surfaced in Gabriel’s mind.
“Were you the one who destroyed the mansion in District 50 as well?”
“Wasn’t not wanting to become low-class your thing?”
“Ha.”
It was the kind of answer that made his molars grind automatically.
But losing his temper was something only amateurs did.
It was already in the past, and Ga-on was a walking corpse. Even if the battle hammer’s output had fallen, it didn't change the fact that he had suffered fatal injuries.
What exactly was he trying to accomplish?
His transformed arms could barely even hold a sword—
“?!”
When Ga-on suddenly charged forward and thrust Polar Night, Gabriel’s eyes widened.
The arm he had judged to be half-melted remained completely intact.
“How—”
“Now that I think about it, you really are the pinnacle of vulgarity. There are a lot of things I want to know.”
It was deliberate mockery.
Perhaps because the words were so viciously cutting, it felt as though something snapped inside Gabriel’s head.
That was why strength surged into the hand gripping the battle hammer.
“Dessert is minced meat.”
“Meat again? You don’t serve fruit?”
Accelerating his perception and stretching the world's flow of time, Gabriel swung his battle hammer with dragon force erupting from a density that transcended common sense.
Yes.
With enough force to launch his approaching enemy beyond the horizon.
The Fission Waves scattering along its trajectory shattered everything within their reach.
The time it took for things to melt away varied greatly depending on their durability and volume, but the conclusion remained the same.
Everything advanced toward destruction.
The scenery returned to nothingness as though erased with a single stroke of an eraser.
There was no stage left for any actor to stand upon.
Forcing his way through that fleeting instant and escaping the affected zone, Ga-on regenerated the ear that had been half-erased.
Unlike ordinary acceleration, what Gabriel employed extended into the realm of perception itself.
Blink—Waoto-ryu Secret Technique Blink—
Had virtually no chance to function as a hidden dagger.
Before Ga-on could even get close, Gabriel would notice the anomaly and unleash Fission Waves.
Naturally, its compatibility with Arhat Second Form Muwi Nature was also abysmal.
Forcing close combat was more likely to backfire than help.
Hadn't that just happened moments ago?
“You look like a man with many worries.”
Gabriel sneered as the space around him reverted to its primordial state.
The power of the monomolecular blade was absolute, but it was by no means versatile.
The fact that its applications remained limited even after the technology had been perfected was proof enough.
Its countermeasure was also simple.
Avoid the length of the blade, and after that—
“It’s no different from an ordinary blade.”
Ga-on agreed.
If not for the fact that he was holding Polar Night.
Tak.
His desperate sprint began.
A speed so fast that even dozens of meters could be summarized with the words “in an instant.”
However, diving straight into Gabriel’s embrace while he continuously generated Fission Waves was no different from committing suicide.
Ga-on wasn't foolish enough to rely on luck in a frontal assault.
He only needed to create the impression that he would.
What mattered was ensuring that his true intention remained hidden until the very end.
Click—
After retracting the blade until only the hilt remained, Ga-on concealed Polar Night within his clothing and subtly aimed at Gabriel.
As though raising a firearm and taking aim.
The moment their horizontal axes aligned and the Fission Wave surged forth occurred almost simultaneously.
Receiving the light of destruction upon his shoulder, Ga-on stepped forward without hesitation.
At that instant, the jet-black blade concealed within the hilt shot outward.
A thrust worthy of being called a flash.
Crossing a distance of five meters in a single bound, Polar Night pierced the armor of Over Gear and devoured Gabriel’s flesh.
“Kgh.”
Facing a blade that threatened to split his upper and lower body apart, Gabriel used the battle hammer as a lever and forced it away.
A beat later, Polar Night withdrew, leaving behind a chilling cutting sound as if lamenting the missed opportunity.
Retracting the extended blade, Ga-on looked down at Gabriel, who had dropped to one knee and was coughing up blood.
This was the result of the gimmick Jin Geon had casually mentioned before.
Yes.
Polar Night was a sword capable of extending and contracting.
After all, there was no way a shape-memory alloy worth a fortune would be used merely to store a blade.
The sword’s true form allowed the blade’s length to change freely according to the speed of the swing.
Of course, reaching its maximum extension required monstrous strength, and the opening created while concentrating on the swing could not be avoided, making it a defective weapon by most standards.
But not for Ga-on.
He was a master of rotational principles.
By forming a False Rotation Axis within the hilt, he could overcome those weaknesses.
Since the mass allocated to the blade was limited, extending it made it thinner.
However, the essence of its power lay in severing molecular bonds.
As long as it made contact, victory was practically guaranteed.
Just like this—
“Farewell.”
Ga-on swung Polar Night indifferently, but Gabriel raised his battle hammer as though convulsing and blocked the strike before retreating.
Thinking it might be a final desperate struggle, Ga-on approached without lowering his guard. Yet Gabriel’s next action left him dumbfounded.
The man actually caught his own blood and drank it.
“Delicious. Self-sufficiency isn't so bad after all.”
Gabriel’s abdomen, which had been endlessly spewing blood like a broken faucet, stopped bleeding as if nothing had happened.
Even Over Gear had begun self-repair.
Though Gabriel resumed a combat-ready stance, Ga-on could not move recklessly. Partly because the move Gabriel had just displayed was bizarre, but more importantly—
The fragrance tickling his nose was striking at his sixth sense.
This was clearly an open area, yet an overwhelmingly intense fruity scent filled the surroundings to the point of making him dizzy.
The entire area hadn't suddenly transformed into an orchard, so the source had to be Gabriel.
The intensity of one's scent was directly proportional to the strength of one's talent.
That alone was proof that the gift he possessed was anything but ordinary.
What bothered Ga-on was that this phenomenon had occurred immediately after drinking blood.
A genetic pool wasn't something that could expand in an instant.
Yet Ga-on knew of an existence capable of overturning such common sense.
“Meta-human.”
“Phenomenal! I feel as though even I am becoming wiser.”
Gabriel deliberately stepped to the side and savored another pool of blood on the floor.
It was blood that Ga-on had shed.
“Hm, this is quite exquisite. Talent in martial arts so profound that its depths cannot be measured. And the perseverance to devote oneself toward achieving it. It's so magnificent that I almost regret having to oppose you.”
Taking a deep, sticky breath, Gabriel continued.
“I understand a little now.”
“...Now that I think about it, perhaps you weren't committing evil acts merely for amusement.”
It was only a fragment, but Ga-on felt he understood what sort of ability Gabriel possessed.
'Devouring.'
Most likely, it was an ability that strengthened his own talents by consuming others.
If so, many of Gabriel’s previously displayed traits became easy to understand.
“Was the Gathering the real smokescreen?”
He had founded the Gathering while developing his ability.
Knowing that violating taboos alone would eventually bring punishment, he sought people with whom to share the original sin.
His burden decreased while his influence grew.
A perfect two-birds-with-one-stone arrangement.
It was a scheme as malicious as it was ingenious.
In the past—in the 21st century—Gabriel’s ability would have been more poison than blessing.
He would have become a murderer before he could even attempt it more than a few times.
But the 24th century was an age of revolution.
He overcame the greatest obstacle through cultivation technology.
His position as a member of a megacorp also played a major role.
It gave him unlimited access to the genes of famous individuals.
Everything was the result of coincidences meshing together like gears—
A monster was born.
If the previous Sword Master, Nasuno Kenji, had hidden his ability within technique, Gabriel used technique to inflate his ability.
He was a prime example of where the future of Meta-humans lay.
“Spectacular! You have no idea how astonishing it is to find someone who understands my intentions.”
Just as he said.
Gabriel had explored his ability within the framework of the Gathering.
To reach the ultimate pinnacle without increasing the size of his genetic pool.
To display the possibilities possessed by humanity.
And it had already been one year.
Three hundred sixty-five Sols.
After nearly a thousand meals, a thousand talents now lived and breathed within him.
Some were weak. Some were mediocre.
But among them were talents so exceptional that they might never appear in this world again.
Of those, over three hundred directly influenced overall physical capability.
The strange sensation Ga-on had perceived originated precisely from that fact.
“You’re inhuman.”
“Humans are human precisely because they can distinguish between the human and the inhuman. And because I commit these acts while fully aware of that fact, it becomes the ultimate expression of love. If someone like me isn't human, then who is?”
Spreading both arms as if enraptured, Gabriel completely affirmed his own existence.
It was narcissism that surpassed even his ability.
A madness lurked within it that made anyone watching recoil in disgust.
“I've grown tired of a human like you.”
Ga-on swung Polar Night as though Gabriel wasn't even worth another thought.
The blade stretched like a rubber band and reached Gabriel’s neck in an instant.
The armor split apart, and just before an irreversible wound could be carved into his pale flesh, the battle hammer slipped between them.
In a different manner than before.
Skid marks formed on the ground.
Centrifugal force gathered along the shaft.
Crude and unrefined, yet it was a rotation that reproduced the strobe phenomenon.
Without question, it was part of the Arhat arts.
Relying solely on an innate—or rather, human-endowed—talent, Gabriel had crossed a gap of several centuries and smiled fearlessly.
He had stolen his opponent’s prized weapon without permission.
“Ah, so this is how it's done.”
However—
That itself was his fatal mistake.
“Ghk.”
He should have first considered the possibility that Ga-on would notice and exploit it.
Only after the accident had already occurred did Gabriel realize what had happened to him.
Clutching his throat with both hands, he looked as though he were trying to kill himself.
The sight drew a sneer from Ga-on.
“With your throat pierced, I guess you can't eat all that wonderful meat anymore.”
A disaster born from collecting talent while failing to accumulate experience.
Did Gabriel truly think Ga-on had never encountered a collection of talents comparable to himself?
No.
Every one of them had become a corpse.
All of them—
Within Ga-on’s grasp.