Editor Group: Liber Reverie

It was a white s.p.a.ce with no one.

Clementine, who was looking at his soul, was slowly falling apart. He sat down.

'It's been long.'

Clementine smiled, recalling Noah who left him to hurry and go outside.

It had been truly long.

First life.

He didn't know whether it was luck or skill, but he had somehow obtained Nurmaha's Ring.

'No. It was definitely skill.'

Clementine laughed.

He didn't want to say this out of his own mouth, but he was really great.

They had gathered humans and broke through the seven-colored zone.

He got good comrades, raised an army, and established an empire to conquer the land one by one.

The first zone took about 10 years to conquer, and then it was 5 years for the second and 3 for the third.

The Fourth Zone didn't even take a year.

They were overflowing with experience and numbers. The bonds and relations.h.i.+ps they formed allowed their skills to reach their maximum potential, and there were the Artifacts.

They didn't just ascend a zone.

They literally conquered and devoured everything before going up.

They had to obtain all the Neropa relics that had been scattered starting from the World Tree from the Seven-Colored Zones.

With their army of men as strong as they were, even when the Abyss opened, they weren't afraid.

He had travelled to the Abyss with Noah's Ark and fought relentlessly, which he got from the last zone.

With Eres and Keldian by his side, and Taehee and Kangtae fighting ceaselessly in front of each other, they were working toward the survival of mankind.

It was amazing up to there until they found that Noah's legacy was only prepared for their species.

The face of Clementine, who he could recall at that time, was distorted.

It was a memory that was buried deep below.

Those who had fallen out of his control during the fighting coveted the power that had been dormant inside the ark.

Even with Eres saying that we should not touch this power until Keldian's research was completed was effective.

Unfortunately, the number of humans they saved was too great, and the power they held in their hands were too great for a few to control.

Clementine, who tried to control the ma.s.ses failed, and the people willingly chose to abuse their newly acquired power to escape the terrifying Abyss.

No, it didn't end with that much.

Enthusiastic with the newly acquired power, they turned their blades to each other to try and monopolize the power.

Afterward, reality struck them.

In overwhelming numbers, all of their comrades were hunted and killed one by one.

Obviously, they could have fought back somehow with the abilities they possessed.

But, Eres, Kangtae, and even Keldian couldn't.

They were unable to turn their blades toward their comrades who they fought together for more than three decades.

This was how they died.

Eres died in their hands.

Keldian tried to use Noah's power to somehow turn the tide of the war but was swept away by the surging forces.

Kangtae, unable to fight, ran out of Noah into the Abyss before dying bitterly while fighting with various species alone.

Clementine himself had no choice but to watch this all in order to counter Noah—the existence that was struggling madly to occupy its own body at the time.

It was then that he had returned with the Blue Sunlight Jade.

Taking advantage of Noah's carelessness to occupy his body, he planted a fragment of his soul into Taehee's body just like how she did to Sangjin and managed to return to the past to avoid making the same mistake twice and despair.

He realized that he was able to return to this time with the Blue Sunlight Jade that was bound to the Nurmaha's Ring.

The reason why he was able to use the Blue Sunlight Jade despite not being qualified in the first place was because he acquired Nurmaha's Ring, which contained fragments of Noah's Soul.

The moment one obtained Nurmaha's Ring, one couldn't escape this fate.

The Fragments of the Soul erode users from the moment they equip the ring.

It was all the power of Noah's Ring that allowed him to use the 10th Numbering Skill in the first place and display such ridiculous power.

He couldn't tell anyone. After all, his fate was set.

They were ascending up… to only have their bodies taken away by Noah.

No one could stop Noah when he woke up.

Who could block such a monster that smashed through the early Transcendent walls and reach 7-Stars?

Clementine, who realized this fact, contemplated heavily for a long time, reminiscing countless times of the scene where the Neropas tried to take their bodies away before his eventual return, and the humans who betrayed each other at critical moments, driving all of them to death.

All of these people were picked up by Noah.

This was why Clementine had decided.

He chose a more radical option.

With great anger at the man who killed them all, if he survived anyway, Noah would retrieve all the authority over the remaining ark and replace all the remaining humans with Neropas or repeat the history prior by allowing humans to accept Neropa's patterns.

He couldn't let this happen.

This was why Clementine made a simple plan.

With the knowledge from the future and the power that Noah had given to him, he would finish everything from his own position.

With the trustworthy Taehee at the forefront, he would kill all of the useless people.

He would not open his eyes to the smas.h.i.+ng of Noah's ark, but rather kill and destroy all of the foolish beings that betrayed them and coveted power, and he would kill himself after destroying Noah's ark at the end.

He threw away the naive hope of the fact that having more diverse knowledge would allow him to fully control them since Clementine's first life was so perfect.

He didn't believe in personal compa.s.sion or solidarity.

He only believed in the laws and rules that G.o.d had created.

If only they were gone, the elite members who worked under Taehee would be completely controlled and there would be no attempt of possible treason, and Taehee would be able to get through the Abyss with Eres as well.

Then Eres and his companions, whom he cherished and loved, would not suffer. His plans would have definitely been maintained… if it weren't for the discovery of a new possibility.

------------------------------------

Hansoo watched silently at the soul that was growing and wiggling in his body.

It was a fragment of his soul that remained intact in the midst of all of his soul burning.

'So Nurmaha's Ring didn't disappear after all.'

It wasn't that it disappeared, but that it had been eaten and cleared away.

The moment he crossed the wall of Transcendence, his soul should have been fully burnt and traversed to the afterlife.

Yet, he remained due to a mixture of his own soul and Noah's.

Thanks to him, he was able to survive despite using the Soul Explosion Seed that should have surely killed him.

He didn't know what had resumed his soul, but the contract that was tied to his memories was completely broken due to his soul regeneration.

It was because this was the old soul that had remained before signing a contract with those demons.

Ruuuuuuuumble!

Hansoo, who savored the force that erupted all over his body, slowly walked toward Clementine.

"Let's take it easy."

"What kind of d.a.m.ned occurrence is this?"

Noah sighed as he looked at Hansoo approaching.

They were the same 7-Star.

However, their skills were not the same.

Though he was Transcendent as well, he was the type that had slowly and steadily raised toward this status and state throughout the long years.

He, who had always oppressed his opponents with his overwhelming civilization, thought that their power and intelligence was greater than others, and he continued to maintain this ideology while traveling and studying around the world.

While he studied and researched as he traveled around the world, although his soul had naturally become stronger and disciplined, he rarely had to fight in the forefront.

In reality, there was no need for him to fight at all.

Transcendence was more powerful than ordinary creatures in the first place so there was no need to lower one's self to learn their techniques and skills.

However, the guy in front of him was on the same level as him.

If one were on the same level, all that remained were their abilities and skills.

The one who stood before him was literally a monster that fought relentlessly in the future and had raised his level through the acc.u.mulation of battles.

Noah, who took a long breath, looked at Clementine located within him.

'You've schemed this plot for a very long time. You crazy b.a.s.t.a.r.d.'

The plan to remove all beings that posed a threat to a person was insane, but it was not impossible to understand.

However, for him to raise an existence to kill a man that would conquer and eat his own body…

The memories of Clementine, which had been wrapped up and stored until now, were now flowing into Noah's head as if it was to tease him.

'Does he know about how many chances he had to kill Hansoo?'

Clementine could have killed Hansoo several times if he had made up his mind.

It wasn't that difficult.

It was simple.

A tiger would be scary when it grew up, but it wasn't harmless when it was still a baby.

As a Transcendent, all he needed to do was wait by the elevator and kill him as soon as he got off the elevator.

Kang Hansoo, he was the wild card that was raised by him.

If Kang Hansoo succeeded, it would be perfect, and even if he were to fail, he could have just proceeded with his original plan.

Deducing this plan, Noah had a despondent look.

'So I was being completely played in his hands.'

Noah breathed out before regaining his stance.

It wasn't over yet.

Their objective was victory.

But, now it changed from domination to survival.

'We… can't be driven to extinction here.'

Clenching his teeth, Noah looked at Hansoo.

"Let us go."

"Why would I?"

Ruuuuuuuumble!

Hansoo, who was crus.h.i.+ng the ground with each step, shrugged his shoulders.

Why did he have to spare them?

If he caught him now, then he could kill him for sure.

However, if he were to let them go and allow them to rebuild their civilization somewhere else...

Although the Abyss was so vast and wide that there was no reason for them to fight, if they have any aspirations of revenge, then it would become very annoying.

Noah clenched his teeth and opened his mouth.

"If you don't… you will all die."

The last resort remained.

The ark itself.

The moment he rushed toward him, the ark would become a huge bomb that would kill most of the people in the ark as well as all the humans that were approaching outside.

If that were to happen, he would be the only one who was in front of him to survive the blast.

"Hoo."

Hansoo whistled.