Chapter 2033

“T-This is my first time seeing so many mystical characters.”

Noe was disgusted. Sesame-sized mystical characters filled the outer walls of the huge temple. He watched the alien language twitching and spinning and didn’t know how to read it.

Grid was in a similar situation. Of course, he understood how the mystical characters worked. Characters with different meanings were assembled into words, sentences, and so on, to produce a certain effect. They were similar to Zik’s runes. Grid was familiar with those.

While he was manufacturing his clone, there had been a process of utilizing god’s language, which was the origin of runes. As Grid was creating the clone, the characters that often emerged in his mind were the characters of the god’s language.

However, the characters he saw while creating the clone and the runes that Zik used weren’t very diverse. At most, dozens of characters were used to form words and letters. Meanwhile, the number of characters used by the demon cultivators seemed to exceed hundreds.

‘Does this mean that the words that can be created are beyond the realm of modern imagination? Is this really necessary? Is it simply because the characters failed to develop efficiently?’

The demon cultivators had many different types of characters. Theirs were mainly composed of pointed characters resembling the cuneiform script of ancient Mesopotamia, but there were also a variety of hieroglyphs reminiscent of skeletal gates and hieroglyphs that might have been used in primitive times.

‘Ah… That’s possible since the demon cultivators are animals by nature.’

For example, weren’t the characters used by bird cultivators different from the characters used by fish cultivators? The demon cultivators had surely shared some of the characters as time passed. This seemed pretty inefficient, but it was a pretty plausible hypothesis. Grid remembered once again that the beings lurking within the temple weren’t humans.

‘Those who used to be beasts are now pretending to be humans.’

They even tried to harm people while pretending to be humans. They shouldn’t exist. Harming these cultivators was essentially killing animals, so Grid’s actions wouldn’t have a negative impact on the prenatal education of his unborn child.

Grid had been uncomfortable in many ways because of the prenatal education notifications that kept popping up, but he was now relieved. He had thought that he should be mindful of killing in front of the child in the womb, but he came to the conclusion that he didn’t have to worry.

Marie Rose spoke softly from where she had been observing the flow of the mystical characters. “Don’t worry about the child. I shall let them rest for a while.”

Grid looked at Marie Rose somewhat resentful. “…Is that possible?”

Why hadn’t she done that from the beginning?

Marie Rose tilted her head and asked, “Didn’t you like interacting with your child?”

“T-That’s not it…”

“Hehe, I was joking. I thought it was cute to see you flustered, so I watched you for a while.”

“…You are mischievous.”

“Really? Then punish me, just like that night.”

“……”

Grid was very embarrassed. His face was red from ear to ear, and he couldn’t look Marie Rose straight in the eyes.

Noe looked incredulous.

“I’ve never seen anyone mess with Grid, nyang…”

Noe was truly from hell. He fully understood the logic of the strong eating the weak and took advantage of it. Before he knew it, he was clinging to Marie Rose’s side instead of Grid.

“Marie Rose, if you need anything, just give me an order, ong.”

“Please serve my dear husband with all your heart until the end of your life.”

“Nyang…”

Noe didn’t get what he wanted and became sullen.

After flicking Noe in the forehead, whose back and ears were drooping, Grid consulted with Marie Rose.

“I don’t think it’s possible to get inside unless we do something about these characters. Is there a way to get rid of them?”

Brandishing the Falling Moon Sword was a bad idea. He didn’t want to waste an item with a cooldown when a battle was right around the corner. Using Annihilation energy was the next best thing.

Grid didn’t know precisely what effect the characters surrounding the temple had. He didn’t want to expose his special Annihilation energy for nothing. If Asura analyzed it, he might use it later. Grid was almost certain that Asura could do something like that since he had already witnessed Asura’s power.

The God of fighting created out of Baal’s commitment to transcend Yatan had enormous potential. Asura even learned Martial God Chiyou’s techniques. Baal would’ve felt very rewarded if he had still been alive to watch the growth of the masterpiece he worked so hard to create.

‘I’m glad that didn’t happen.’

He was glad he didn’t get to see Baal happy… Grid reminisced about that guy’s ending and felt relieved.

Marie Rose performed several blood spells and shook her head. She said, “There is nothing I can do to destroy this.”

The mystical characters wrapped around the mossy temple were emitting colorful lights, decomposing or absorbing her spells.

“It would be great if I could consume a large amount of fresh blood. This place is different from the surface. There is very little food.”

Marie Rose’s red eyes were fixated on Noe’s plump neck. Noe was briefly fascinated by her beautiful eyes, but he soon came to his senses. His fur stood on end.

“N-Noe isn’t a meal, nyang!”

As expected, he understood the law of the strong eating the weak. He immediately recognized a predator’s gaze.

Marie Rose clicked her tongue in regret and explained to Grid, “Hundreds of seals co-exist and complement each other’s shortcomings. Even if all the old dragons shot their Breath at them, it wouldn’t be enough to destroy them by force.”

“Doesn’t this mean it’s actually impossible to break it with force? Is there any other way?”

“We have no choice but to find and destroy the characters that work as a link between the seals and destroy them. It seems that the regeneration function won’t trigger if we destroy a series of characters that are from the same category.”

“If I destroy characters with different meanings along the way, will the characters I destroyed before be restored?”

“Yes.”

“……”

Grid was speechless. There were hundreds of millions of characters he couldn’t even read. Moreover, the characters had different formats. Picking out only the characters that had the same meaning and destroying them one after another? This was impossible. Even if he succeeded, he might destroy characters he didn’t want to.

‘Where is the entrance? If I find the entrance, the title I earned from entering Jormungandr’s residence might be useful…’

Grid explored the temple a bit more before making up his mind.

‘I’m going to have to use the Falling Moon Sword.’

Now that he knew that the mystical characters could regenerate, using Annihilation energy was too unreliable. If the Annihilation energy blew up most of the mystical characters, some of them would still survive. He would just meaninglessly expose his power.

The cold moonlight appeared at Grid’s fingertips with a sharp, piercing sound. This sword could cut down even the moon. The Falling Moon Sword shone brighter than before, as if it could one day replace the moon in the sky.

‘There are hundreds of seals.’

Grid performed the Pinnacle sword dance. His presence suddenly increased and soared. He left his mark on this huge place as if he was the only one here.

‘I am going to blow up the temple.’

No, he would cut down even the Full Moon Fortress inside the temple.

For the peace of the world where people precious to him lived… Everything would be destroyed…

[This is still a terrible killing intent.]

Just as Grid was on the verge of swinging the Falling Moon Sword, a creepy thought was engraved around him. It was like a thunderbolt.

Surprised, Grid took back the Falling Moon Sword and expanded his senses. The enemy was unexpectedly close to him. The mystical characters that wrapped around the mossy temple split apart on both sides and created an entrance.

[I’ve been thinking this since the first time I met you, but your temperament is suitable for an evil god.]

Coincidentally, the door was right in front of Grid.

[If it wasn’t for the unnecessary responsibilities that you have, you would be running amok right now.]

Asura emerged from the entrance and was close enough to breathe in the same air as Grid. He was a lot bigger than he used to be. He craned his neck to look down at Grid.

[Wouldn’t that be better for you?]

“You sure know how to bark.”

Grid didn’t respect Asura. Not only did Grid not consider Asura a god, he didn’t want to associate with Asura at all. This wasn’t just because of his personal feelings. His bad relationship with Asura ran deep.

Who was the first adversary Asura had met after he was born in hell? That person had been Grid. The reason behind Asura’s response to heaven’s call and his ascension to Asgard was Grid. After that, Grid had encountered Asura every time he got involved with Asgard. It had also been Asura who had accompanied Judar when invading Trauka’s lair. Grid had mostly figured out what the other person had been through and how strong he had become.

Thus, Grid was vigilant. He estimated that Asura was stronger than the Asgardian gods, Chiyou’s skills and the dragon’s Breath and clearly predicted the power of Asura, who would’ve mastered the techniques and mystical arts of the demon cultivators.

Meanwhile, Asura just talked nonsense. It was very annoying. This attitude showed Asura was at ease.

‘How strong has he become?’

If Grid could get a clear idea of his enemy’s abilities, he could fight them a hundred times and win every time.

Grid swapped from the Falling Moon Sword to Defying the Natural Order and used a single sword dance to check Asura’s abilities. The dance moves that connected with every stride unfolded in a dazzling manner. The super-fast gleam of the sword repeatedly overlapped to form a sphere that trapped Asura. This was a domain created by hundreds of sword trajectories. Simply put, there was no way out.

Inside it—

[Are you still doing things like slashing?]

Asura released purple mist from his mouth as he chattered lazily.

“……!”

Marie Rose took a step back. She looked surprised. She realized that the purple mist was composed of components such as magic power and spells, divinity and powers, spiritual energy and mystical arts…

This was a completely new concept of techniques. The mist touched Grid, and blood leaked out of his pores.

[You have been affected by the Destruction of Living Organisms negative status effect.]

[Resistance has failed.]

[You will receive 137,000 damage per second.]

‘Shit.’

Grid could resist almost any negative status effect. It had been ages since most of the physical abnormalities that could incapacitate even Transcendents had ceased to constrain him. However, he wasn’t immune to the purple mist that destroyed the very structure of a living creature itself. Perhaps the only thing that could resist this was the clone, who wasn’t a living thing in the first place.

[Those who are useless must die.]

Asura snorted. The purple mist around him started wriggling. Behind it, thousands of shadows loomed in all shapes and sizes. It seemed that Asura was using Treasures.

Grid noticed that there were probably very few demon cultivators living in the temple.

“Did you kill all the demon cultivators to take their Treasures? Thanks to you, the construction of the Full Moon Fortress must’ve been in vain, right?”

[The ones we actually need have been spared, so don’t get your hopes up.]

Asura lightly snapped his long fingers. Gusts of wind blew from all directions. Hundreds of treasures appeared through the purple mist and attacked Grid.

Grid didn’t miss the moment when the mist dissipated. He took advantage of the field of view he could see through and escaped using Shunpo. He grabbed Marie Rose and Noe and rushed straight to the entrance of the temple, which was surrounded by moss and mystical characters. Thanks to Asura showing up, he now knew exactly where it was.

[A strong seal has been detected.]

[The title No Permission Required is working.]

The entrance to the temple obediently welcomed Grid’s group.

[He ran away?]

Asura was surprised by the unexpected development and chased after them, but… The colorful mystical characters rejected him.

[Mumud… You still use shallow tricks.]

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