The Crazy Battle God Has Returned - Chapter 366

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

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A Mad Swordsman Returns – Chapter 366

[The Destroyer of Saints.]

One who conquered countless stars and endlessly annihilated Gods.
At the end of that path, he was called “The Destroyer of Saints” with reverence, awe, and abhorrence.
The original master of the fragments and legacies that Han Yu-sung possessed.
The being before my eyes referred to himself in such a manner.

[A fragment left after being devoured by The Absolute Being. That is I.]

Yet there was something peculiar in what The Destroyer of Saints said.
As if he were saying he was not The Destroyer of Saints.

“What do you mean by that?”
[Exactly as I said. The Destroyer of Saints was defeated and absorbed by ‘The Absolute Being.’ Before engaging in battle with The Absolute Being, The Destroyer of Saints believed the likelihood of his defeat was great. Therefore…]

The Destroyer of Saints, who called himself a fragment, looked around.
A barren Wasteland. A solitary space where only desolate darkness remained.

[I decided to leave means of preparation for the future in a separate space. And I severed my consciousness to create a thought form to guard this place.]
“So that thought form is you?”

The Destroyer of Saints waved his hand instead of answering.
Then the scene I had witnessed moments before appeared once more.
Brilliant light engulfing the Universe. Grotesque mouths appeared countless times between that light, and soon completely surrounded The Destroyer of Saints.
And then.

Crunch, crack-crack-crack!

Countless mouths swallowed The Destroyer of Saints whole.
His existence was completely absorbed.

[I was defeated. The Absolute Being sought to absorb the defeated me to recover its wounds. If it absorbed all my power as well, its strength would become even more complete, and none could stand against it.]

But The Absolute Being could not do so.
To be precise, it succeeded in absorbing The Destroyer of Saints.

[War against The Absolute Being is merciless, and the likelihood of defeat far outweighs victory. I could not help but prepare for the possibility of defeat. Beyond preparing my consciousness in this place, I took other measures to prepare for the future.]
“What did you prepare?”
[Should I fall, I ensured that all the components comprising me would be divided and scattered throughout the entire Universe. In the form of ‘fragments’, that is.]

Han Yu-sung nodded calmly upon hearing this explanation.
He was not surprised. He had already suspected that the fragment dwelling within him belonged to The Destroyer of Saints—or rather, The Nameless One.
What truly astonished him came with what followed.

[The fragments scattered across the Universe would settle within those deemed suitable, or in worlds where no suitable vessel existed, they would embed themselves in the very land. And I arranged for them to wait for germination, ready to settle within any who proved worthy.]

The Destroyer of Saints’ defeat must have occurred in the distant past.
The fragment called ‘Divine Warrior’ likely settled on Earth long before Han Yu-sung was born. And it waited through the ages.
When Han Yu-sung appeared, it settled within his body.

‘So the Divine Warrior within me was a fragment of The Destroyer of Saints.’

The same applied to the other fragments.
The boundless fighting spirit he possessed, the greed to become stronger than anyone else, the perpetually burning rage—such things were all fragments born from the division of what once constituted The Destroyer of Saints.
A ‘fragment’ is the result of dividing what once formed The Destroyer of Saints.

“What exactly is this qualification? Fighting spirit?”
[First, one must possess an endless fighting spirit that yields to no one. Second, one must be capable of accepting my fragment. And finally, potential. This last criterion is too ambiguous to explain in concrete terms.]

It was a fragment that could only be obtained by satisfying three conditions.
Han Yu-sung was the first to fulfill all those conditions.
And thus, the fragment called ‘Divine Warrior’ settled within his body.

[However, there is one perplexing matter.]

The Destroyer of Saints furrowed his brow.

[Before I faced death, my fighting spirit had been broken. Therefore, the fragment’s size was small and its power negligible. It was not a fragment that should have possessed the potential to grow to this extent, and yet….]

In The Destroyer of Saints’ eyes, the fragment within Han Yu-sung was visible.
A colossal fragment ablaze with fighting spirit. Separate from the growth it achieved by absorbing fragments from others, the fragment itself had been enormous from the beginning.
It should not have grown to such a size.
This reaction was, conversely, unexpected to Han Yu-sung.

‘Did The Destroyer of Saints not anticipate the regression?’

I had obtained the qualification of a Lord through the power of Devouring Ghosts, my unique ability, and by offering it up, I could return to the past.
Devouring Ghosts was a power that originated from a fragment of the Destroyer of Saints.
But now, the Destroyer of Saints had not even conceived of the possibility of regression.
It meant that even for him, regression was something unimaginable.

“….”

I gazed at the Destroyer of Saints and fell into thought for a moment.
After a brief pause, I explained to him the regression I had experienced.
What I had endured in my past life, and how I had regressed.
Upon hearing this account, the Destroyer of Saints widened his eyes in apparent shock.

[Regression? There’s no way such a thing could be possible….]
“Yet it originated from your fragment, and you have no inkling of it?”
[Had such a thing been possible, I would have regressed long ago myself. I would have accumulated more power and sought revenge against the Absolute Being.]

It meant that even the Destroyer of Saints found it impossible.
There was only one thing worth noting.

[Do you know what the qualification of a Lord truly is?]
“An item that makes a player into a Lord. All I know is that it’s given to those qualified to become a transcendent being.”
[You understand well. The qualification of a Lord contains the power of the Absolute Being. By accepting it, one becomes a transcendent being called a Lord.]

From this, one possibility was born.
The Destroyer of Saints’ finger pointed toward my heart.

[I suspect it may have occurred when the power originating from my fragment reacted with the power of the Absolute Being contained within the qualification of a Lord…. But I cannot be certain. It lies entirely beyond my expectations.]

That was the only possibility that came to mind.
The Destroyer of Saints set aside his questions about regression with that conjecture.
It was interesting, but that was not what mattered now.

[Have you never found the qualification of a Lord to be strange?]
“Strange? In what way?”

The Destroyer of Saints nodded slowly.

[It is the Absolute Being who grants the qualification of a Lord. It is given only to those who meet the standards that creature has set. If one uses an item granted by that creature, one can become a transcendent being; if one refuses it, one cannot….]
[Since when has a transcendent being been such an existence? Has becoming a transcendent being always been determined by someone else’s will?]

Han Yu-sung refused to accept the qualification of a Lord.
With that refusal, the path to transcendence was effectively closed. Once rejected, the qualification of a Lord would never be granted again.
He would continue to live as a Player.
Even possessing power equivalent to—no, surpassing—the transcendent beings themselves.

‘Only those who accept the gifts of the Absolute Being can become one.’

That was what the transcendent had become.
When had the transcendent ever been such a thing?

[I did not find this structure strange from the beginning. I accepted it as natural, and there was even a time when I wished to become a Lord. It was when I witnessed the Lords’ true nature that I recognized the strangeness.]

The way they clung to Coins with such repugnant desperation.
And where did those Coins, scraped together so shamefully, ultimately flow?
To the ‘Absolute Being.’

[The Lords appeared to me as nothing but slaves of the Absolute Being. I refused to become such a thing. So I struggled to break free from the structure the Absolute Being had created, and in that struggle, I spent eons.]

And at some point.
Though I cannot say how much time had passed.

[One who reaches the extreme of madness draws near to the Way.]
[Through those eons, I reached the extreme of madness and awakened to the Way, becoming able to wield ‘Primal Force.’ And at that pinnacle, as I realized all was illusion….]

A familiar aura emanated from the Destroyer of Saints.
An ashen aura that transcended all things—’Primordial Chaos.’

[I awakened to the existence of ‘Primordial Chaos.’ An aura where good and evil, chaos and order intertwine. The aura that existed in the primordial Universe before the Absolute Being.]
[It was then that I transcended humanity. I cast off the vessel of humanity, embraced the Universe within my body, and achieved transcendence. A ‘transcendent’ born solely through individual enlightenment.]

The Destroyer of Saints spoke as if it were nothing.
Yet that process must have been unfathomably long, an endless succession of ordeals that would have broken most.
Han Yu-sung, who understood the power of Primordial Chaos, could think no other way.

[The moment I became transcendent, the Absolute Being also awakened to my existence. From that point, a prolonged war began, and through it, I came to understand what the Absolute Being’s system was truly for.]

The system of ‘Star Lords’ and ‘Trials’ that the Absolute Being had created.
What was it trying to obtain through this system?
The Destroyer of Saints waved a hand dismissively.

Shiiiiiiiek….

The landscape surrounding me shifted once more.
What came into view this time was a Planet of unknown origin. Desolate and barren, much like Earth had been when Han Yu-sung first returned.
Countless Lords were seen departing the Planet. Just as they had done on Earth in my past life, they had extracted everything of value.
All that remained on the Planet were its inhabitants, stripped of everything.

‘It crumbles.’

Soon after, the Planet began to collapse.
The desolate, barren world shattered into countless fragments, scattering into the void.
Han Yu-sung’s eyes widened.
But it was not because I witnessed the Planet’s destruction. It was for an entirely different reason.

‘As the Planet collapses, an immense power….’

I felt an enormous force seeping outward.
That force condensed into a single point, then vanished without a trace.
As if it had never existed from the beginning.
With that, the visible landscape disappeared.

“….”

Han Yu-sung fell silent, having witnessed an unexpected sight.
The Destroyer of Saints regarded me wordlessly.
As if waiting for me to provide an answer.

“…To obtain power.”
[Correct. The Absolute Being spreads the Trial of God across countless worlds. It is calamity, it is disaster. In the process of enduring it, ‘energy’ is generated—sustenance for that being. It greedily absorbs it all.]

Whether the Trial is overcome matters not.
Whether those who face it perish in failure matters not.
Either way, energy for the Absolute Being to absorb is generated.
Then, why does it absorb energy?
And simultaneously.

‘Why has the Absolute Being shown no significant action until now?’

It likely wasn’t always this way.
The Absolute Being waged war against The Destroyer of Saints—didn’t he? It meant he possessed the capacity to act when a worthy adversary appeared.
But now, neither The Wanderer nor Han Yu-sung commanded his attention.
He issued no particular orders to the Gods either.

‘Is it because he doesn’t consider them a threatening enemy?’

Could such a thought even occur after facing The Absolute Being as an adversary?
If not that, then another possibility existed.
A sudden thought crystallized in my mind.

“He hasn’t yet recovered from the wounds sustained in his battle with The Destroyer of Saints. He needs energy to heal those wounds.”

The battle between The Absolute Being and The Destroyer of Saints remained vivid in memory.
If he hadn’t yet healed from the wounds inflicted in that clash, and was now thirsting for energy to do so—
It made perfect sense.
The Destroyer of Saints nodded at my conclusion.

[The ‘Trial of God’ was created after my battle with him. In that process, he expended far too much power and suffered wounds that cannot be easily healed. He needs energy to restore himself. And….]

An ambiguous smile played at The Destroyer of Saints’ lips.

[He’ll need tremendous power to absorb the Destroyer of Saints he devoured. Not to boast, but I was tenacious enough that I cannot be easily assimilated.]

Healing, and absorption.
These were the reasons The Absolute Being created the Trial of God and destroyed countless worlds.
Yet even this explanation left an unanswered question.

‘Then what about before?’

Before the Trial of God even existed.
Before he waged war against The Destroyer of Saints—why had The Absolute Being created the system including the Star Lords?
And.

[Prove that you can become the sole ‘existence’.]

A message that appears when the Trial of God begins.
Why had that message been shown to the players and the Lords?
The Destroyer of Saints offered no answer to that question.
Instead.

[If you become a Transcendent, you will come to understand that answer.]

He presented a method to Han Yu-sung.

[And you will also come to know the reason for the ‘displeasure’ I felt.]

A method more alluring than anything else to him at this moment.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

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