Chapter 304
I realized that I was inside the mental world right before Doom Dejire attacked me. The messages that had flooded in suddenly now stopped, and I noticed what I could do at the same time. Thanks to Yeon-Hee, I had quite an understanding of the rules in this world. If Doom Dejire had taken complete control of my mental world, then what I could see wouldn’t be a mere fragment of my memory in the past. Instead, it could be a gallows strangling me like the way Yeon-Hee hanged Priya.
However, it couldn’t do that. It was definitely hiding somewhere here, which meant it also had constraints. It was either disguising itself as a corps commander or one of the many morons here. Or it might have been waiting to attack me in the swamp as a powerful purebred member of the Maruka Clan.
I was trying to hide that I was conscious of this fact. Therefore, I was going to release the poison in the house of prostitution just like I had planned earlier instead of making a fuss. I planned to find Doom Dejire by acting the same way as I did in the past.
Nonetheless, this world was slowly cracking apart. Doom Dejire must have concluded that it couldn’t kill me in this memory fragment. It would have been possible if I was still the E-class Money, but there was no way it could defeat Odin at Level 559. After all, I was someone who had concentrated all the unbelievably powerful resources into myself! Although I was in a created mental world, I was able to transform back into Odin at Level 559 as soon as I had grasped reality.
Whoosh!
Doom Dejire was flipping through my memory album quickly, and all of my memories flashed and disappeared within one second. There were scenes that I never wanted to see again. It was uncomfortable to see what I had done to survive and get stronger in the past. After my memories of the Final Stage in this era vanished, the scene of the entire world breaking down unfolded. Only one part of the memory appeared like a picture and then it quickly moved on to the next one. I became more certain about it.
However, Doom Dejire kept flipping the pages. The Revolucion uprising and the moment when I was almost killed by the First Virtue flashed by me. Following that, I was watching the scene that would flash at the moment of my death. Then, it was the last one, and it was clearly the end of the world in the past.
When I blinked, an old, frowning face appeared. It said while waving the pocket, “This is not enough. It is more expensive now.”
Whizzzz.
The sound of an electrical generator running filled the narrow cave. The electrical wires that were spread throughout the cave looked like they would break at any moment. I remembered that this was one of the hideouts used in the past.
While I stayed silent for a few seconds, he threw pictures on the table. My old mother was pictured in them, and she was relying on oxygen respirators in a dirty environment where things looked extremely unhygienic. There were several pieces of food that looked inedible and water in crushed water bottles next to the bed. He looked into the photo with me, then said with confidence. “Her condition is great, so show more sincerity and love toward your mom.”
He took his eyes off the picture and started to look around the cave. He was checking if there was anything else to rip from me, and soon he fixed on where the electricity generator was.
Up to that point, things were the same as they had occurred in my old memories. This guy was a survival broker who extorted items and mana stones like crazy, but he did his job. I was checking on my mother’s safety through this guy. Even then, I couldn’t take my eyes off the picture. I could guess why Doom Dejire had brought me back to this time out of all the other moments in my memories.
I tore up the picture in front of him because everything here was an illusion. It would have thought that this could confuse me.
“Are you saying that you can’t believe this proof until you check on her in person? Now? Feel free to check her out.”
At the time, my mother was in an area that was under the First Evil’s great influence. Since it was one of the few surviving regions in the world, the First Evil had appeared there many times. In fact, I had actually infiltrated the territory to get more information about the First Evil. That was when I had also checked on my mother’s safety.
Anyway, he intentionally raised his voice to call his party in from outside of the cave. They didn’t have a necromancer with them, but some could handle the power of death and some could spread a plague while walking crookedly due to their hump.
This world was interesting. There was no difference in their reactions, and it was as if I had actually returned to the past. They were certainly wary of me when they came in the same way they did in the past. They thought I might have hidden traps somewhere, and I knew their weaknesses. I stared at each one of them carefully. Of course, Doom Dejire wasn’t there. If it was hiding in the shape of these guys, I would have fatally wounded it as soon as I saw it.
Following that, things began to progress differently from what had actually happened, but they were still being done in a similar manner. In the past, I had told him to take the electrical generator, but here he stepped out and said that he would take it first. The scene of him not only tearing off the generator, but also collecting all the equipment and electrical wires attached to it made me laugh. I wanted to see if Doom Dejire was here.
What would kill me here?
All it could do was create a conflict between me and the imaginary Eight Evils and the Eight Virtues. However, even if they had all reached the maximum level and gathered up, they couldn’t kill me. They had barely managed to handle Doom Caso’s incarnation together, so there was no way they would be able to kill me. In fact, there was nothing much Doom Dejire could do as I was now aware of the situation. All it could do was tie me up in these fragments of memory, but that wouldn’t affect the battlefield outside. Therefore, it was reasonable to stop thinking about what to do with me here and continue the real fight outside.
I came out of the cave.
[* Inventory]
[Skeletal Dragon that even the Living Worship has been taken out.]
***
Nothing stopped me. The flying monsters that tried jumping into my plane were burnt to ashes, and so did any psychopaths that appeared while I was flying all the way to New York. New York and Washington were the only two remaining survival zones across the North American continent. The undead were swarming in the rest of the land, and the barrier that confronted them smelled like a sewage purifier.
I could feel the signs of the First Evil when I reached the Eight Evils’ home. The first one who had soared into the sky was the Third Evil, and he was riding the same mount as me. The dark energy running inside the empty skeleton of the Third Evil’s skeletal dragon felt real.
“...Money?”
The Third Evil recognized me, and it was his turn to look confused. However, his face was mangled as if it was being played through an old tv with static. Since I had no memory of his confused expression, it was being reflected in the mental world. This was also a phenomenon that had happened as Doom Dejire had failed to take complete control of my mental world. Anyway, I couldn’t feel any hints of Doom Dejire from the Third Evil. Therefore, I ignored the illusion and jumped down toward his home base.
I had never penetrated into the house of the Eight Evils in the past. Although I had infiltrated into one of their individual headquarters, the place where all of them were gathered was a prohibited area. Therefore, the scenes I saw while going down to the first floor from the rooftop were a combination of many memories. The building was built on the basis of the headquarters I had been to before, but my power broke even that. Right before I reached the first floor I activated a skill.
[You have used Odin’s Thunderstorm.]
A thunderstorm came out of me and burned, blew away, and destroyed my surroundings into ash and powder! The feeling of crushing the Eight Evils’ home was awesome. I knew everything was a fantasy and fake, but I was thrilled at the scene that could have never happened before.
They finally appeared while the dust and small embers were flying around. The First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Evil. As the world was created based on my memories, they had all appeared. However, many of their faces were mangled like the Third Evil as I had actually never seen them. However, the First Evil was different. The way he looked at me with interest was the same as he did in the past. Then, I could find another being looking at me carefully in his eyes.
I said while scanning the destroyed buildings, “This is what I have been waiting for so long. Thank you. I’m serious.”
I smiled and continued, “Changing the place again won’t change this framework. You must think you have locked me up, but heh heh. You are simply locking yourself up. If you have any talent left, show me.”
The lightning bolts that would pierce not only him but also the other Evils like skewers flashed in unison inside the thunderstorm that was raging around.
Zing!
***
Doom Dejire ran away.
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[Warning: Adonis’ Sacred Helmet has been destroyed.]
The shattered fragments of my helmet were falling down past my eyes. The next scene was the sight I had seen just before I had fallen into the mental world. The torn and burned bodies of the Declans were lying all over the place. However, Doom Dejire’s incarnation was gone. This was why I had unfolded Odin’s Battlefield, so it was easy for me to find its incarnation.
“Are you going to run away again?” I asked tauntingly.
It was making a crack at the end of the warzone. It wasn’t as huge as Doom Caso’s incarnation. On the contrary, it was tiny like the spirits, so it looked like I could grasp with one hand. It definitely had modeled itself after the Lunea Clan similar to the way Doom Caso’s incarnation had appeared in the form of a Declan monster.
I threw myself at it and shouted, “Are you going to die like that? Stop hiding in a shell and reveal yourself!”