I Never Run Out of Mana Chapter 182

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182. Wheatgrass, Just Who Are You……

Wheatgrass’s form was half transparent.

They looked similar to how a ghost would be portrayed in a TV series or a movie.

Wrinkles that would only form from many years of hardships and countless scars over their body laid bare without a single cloth covering it gave off a tough impression.

A bandana was fashioned around their head, and a short sword as thick as a wrist and pistol hung on each side of their baggy pants.

This god looked like a seafarer, but instead of looking like a regular fisherman, they looked like a pirate.

I could not sense any emotions from Wheatgrass, who was slowly coming towards me.

It wasn’t because of the wrinkles or the thick skin formed from weathering the coarse sea winds.

This god was definitely different from the others.

I could somewhat read the mood of both the God of Earth that had taken the form of a golem and Gera, who had her entire face covered by her robe.

However, it was different with this god.

Wheatgrass, who had met my eyes with their own and came slowly towards me, like a wind up doll, was devoid of any semblance of life.

“To be called a God of Life…..”

“……”

This god’s domain was life. It was also over resurrections as well.

All creations that perished went to the God of Death, and those that had met Gera were given new life by Wheatgrass.

I shouldn’t judge a person or a god only by their appearance, but it was true that the other gods I have met so far had their appearance match their domains.

However, this god did not in the slightest.

Instead of life, it would be more fitting to call this god a God of Death.

On top of that, out of the 6 gods, this god was the second strongest.

I couldn’t even begin to fathom what powers they carried.

“Nice to meet you?”

“……”

Their appearance made it hard for me to address them casually, but nevertheless, they were the same as the others.

They were a bystander that hid their cruelty.

I didn’t even have a smidgen of respect towards them.

I spoke to Wheatgrass, who had come right in front of me, but they did not reply.

All I could hear was the sound of their breathing, which sounded as if their throat was clogged with bile.

Consuming a King’s Marble, I casted Mana Shield.

After that, I covered my entire body with mana and magical energy.

With my movements that signaled the start of the battle, Wheatgrass grasped the short sword and old pistol in each of their hands.

Just from looking at how they reacted, it felt as though a hand to hand combat would break out at any given moment.

However, it didn’t take long to find out that my prediction was far off the mark.

“Hm?”

“……”

They swung their sword through thin air and shot at the sky with their gun.

I could only see it as a ritual one would do before battle.

A ritual to raise the morale of allies.

For someone standing alone, what they did didn’t fit the situation.

I felt as though what they did just now was pointless.

However…

“Ugh! What is this…”

“….”

Only a couple seconds after Wheatgrass used their sword and gun, the effect appeared.

There was hole the size of a fist in my shoulder, and a deep cut from my left chest to my lower right rib appeared.

The wound was severe enough that, if I was a regular human, it wouldn’t be odd for me to faint on the spot.

However, I only felt the signals of pain coming to my brain, and couldn’t see almost any bleeding from my wounds.

That was because my mana and magical energy was preventing it from doing so.

I was wearing armor, but before their attack, it was ripped apart like paper.

Due to the pain that I haven’t felt in a long time, I gritted my teeth.

“Is my King’s Marble only a decoration at this point!”

“…..”

“Is this why you told me not to become arrogant from trusting in the power of the marbles…. Karupedan…..”

“…..”

I had thought that the King’s Marbles would be the answer to both the offensive and defensive capabilities I needed.

However, I had come to the realization that I could not 100% rely on it other than with the fights to take down the Goddess of Light Lai Yanta and the God of Darkness Hai Yanta.

Almost as if mocking the meaning of invincibility, it was allowing me to still receive all the damage from these attacks.

Gera and Dehaka. Now Wheatgrass as well. I had thought that it was an absolute rule made by a god, but my enemies were attacking me by getting around that rule with ease.

Recovering from my wounds, I tried to think.

Just like before, I was once more in a situation where I’d have to solve another puzzle.

Was it because their attack was so quick that I wasn’t able to see it coming?

Then what about the marble? Was there something that was nullifying the effect of the King’s Marble?

All they had done was to swing their sword and use their gun while standing still.

However, that damage dealt by them was on my body, despite being far away from them.

‘As expected, is offense the best defense? I’ll back up another step. It’ll be the same attack again. I’m sure that Gera’s ability will activate. After that, I go on the offensive.’

While I was in the middle of thinking, their attacks continued.

Without emotions on their face, they were swinging their sword and shooting their gun with reckless abandon.

I could tell that the amount of times and the strength behind their attack were more than before.

Unlike the beginning of the fight, I swallowed the marble after I heard the noise and casted the shield to protect my body after as well.

Not only that, but I left my current position with as much speed as I could muster.

I was sure that there was a weakness in their power.

Even if they were a god, there was no way there wasn’t a blindspot.

It happened when I had made nearly enough distance for Wheatgrass to disappear from view.

“Ugh! You crazy pirate bastard!”

Sadly, the results were the same.

I may have not lost my life, but it wasn’t as if the pain went away or I didn’t feel it.

My body was being cut and punctured, so how could I not let out pained moans.

I was surprised that their inexperienced movements could cause such a huge injury on me.

Not only that, but this time, they had aimed accurately at my vitals.

I could see the 3 bullet wounds that had appeared on my left chest accurately.

Thanks to having an insane amount of stamina stat, and my mana and magical energy blockin the damage, it seemed that I was able to avoid lethal injuries.

It took only a few seconds for me to completely recover from my wounds.

The insanely quick recovery was only possible because of combining all of my power with Mega Cure.

When the pain began to fade and I was able to regain my rationality, something I hadn’t noticed before from the first attack caught my eye.

It was that the marble’s effect that caused my body to turn black like soot had disappeared.

It was obvious that my shields had been shattered from the damage received, but it was suspicious that the marble’s effect disappeared before its duration.

Never before have the marble’s effect disappeared while I was receiving the attacks of the other gods.

Of course, I wasn’t sure of the outcome if I had received Dehaka’s sealing attack with my body.

My questions didn’t end there.

I had inherited Gera’s ability wholesale.

This meant that if I had received the same attack twice, it should’ve been reflected.

Their attack still landed a direct hit on me.

Didn’t that meet the requirement of receiving the same attack again?

I was sure that I had received the attack with the same shield and same body.

It even made me wonder if Wheatgrass’s ability was to ignore all forms of defensive capabilities.

The one saving grace was that they weren’t dealing that much damage to me.

I was able to endure it with my healing skills.

The pain would repeat itself, but it was brief. If I was able to hold out for those few seconds and kept on pouring down my attacks?

It was the same as breaking the spear before my shield was penetrated.

“Backing up twice was enough, right? Now I charge. Haa!”

Casting all sorts of buffs on myself, I charged at Wheatgrass.

The colors of the swords in each of my hands were stark contrasts from each other.

I had used this before during my fight with Dehaka, but unlike the the Butcher’s Sword, I created a sword by combining mana and magical energy.

But this time, I had also combined it with the powers of light and darkness that I had obtained from the other gods.

The power the sword would release would be the exact same powers I’ve obtained from Lai Yanta and Hai Yanta.

I didn’t have the slightest doubt about that power that was difficult to even imagine.

King’s Marble may have lost its defensive capabilities, but the offensive buff should work fine as intended.

Two times the offensive capabilities. A 100% success rate with attacks.

It was enough to make me think that I might execute them with a single strike.

It didn’t take long before I stood right in front of Wheatgrass and swung my sword.

“Argh!!”

It wasn’t Wheatgrass who screamed, but rather I instead.

My sword aura had struck my target dead center.

However, the moment that my sword struck their form, the light and darkness that perfectly encased the sword disappeared, and it was the same with both the mana and magical energy that was woven in.

One fist swung at thin air, and the other hand struck them with a Butcher’s Sword that had lost all its power.

On top of that, all my buffs and shields have been dispelled, as well as the effect from the King’s Marble.

It was as if I was dreaming.

I even considered the possibility that I was under hypnosis.

Why was it that they were able to hit me with attacks defying common sense, but my powerful attack wasn’t reaching them.

And why did the empowerment put on my body and weapon become undone.

It was definitely a strange situation.

The right hand that had held the Butcher’s Sword was now filled with holes.

After my hand lost the strength to keep its grip on the sword, the sword had fallen and was stuck in the ground.

The pain assaulted me like the rising tide, but my anger was far greater than the pain I felt.

From the start of the fight, Wheatgrass hadn’t taken a single step.

They attacked while standing still, and had blocked my attacks with ease.

I could feel the massive difference of power deep in my bones.

“To think that I was only able to inflict that much damage…..”

“…..”

“I’ll get through it no matter what. No matter what I have to do, I shall stop you!”

However, it wasn’t as if I didn’t gain anything from my attack.

I was able to cut into Wheatgrass’s shoulder with just the strength of an Awakened and the Butcher’s Sword.

Despite the attack not dealing much damage due to my destroyed arm, they still had taken damage.

With this, I was able to learn that their defensive capability was weak.

However, even though I had learned that their defense was weak, it wouldn’t matter unless I successfully attacked them.

My attempts to attack them continued.

However, the results were the same.

I was able to leave shallow wounds, but I wasn’t able to deal a clean cut.

It seemed that I wouldn’t get anywhere with close quarter combat.

I was thinking of switching over to ranged magic when it happened.

‘I can’t deal any significant damage with close quarter combat. Then…..’

“Hey, why are you healing yourself when you took so little damage?”

“….”

In a split second, their form had recovered fully.

The wounds were only light ones, but still.

However, it seemed that they didn’t use healing spells to recover.

After all, their wounds had recovered without any scars, turning back into their original appearance before the injuries.

The God of Life. It was possible that they had amazing recovery abilities befitting their title of the god of resurrection.

However, why was I thinking otherwise?

It was possible that I had somewhat understood their tricks.

If that’s the case, I should confirm it right away.

“I know I’m a mage…. But for some odd reason, I like close quarter combat better. Let’s go once more!”

“……”

Materializing another sword in my hand once more, I charged at them.


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I Never Run Out of Mana Chapter 181

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181. Warning

With Karupedan’s power, I arrived at the entrance of the tunnel through time and space.

Opening the shabby worn door, the tunnel filled with light came into view.

At the end, I could see a bleary outline of Barub.

Despite how precious time was to me right now, I had chosen to go meet Barub.

It was obvious that Karupedan would become suspicious of my choice.

Ignoring her dissatisfied expression, I continued forward.

While I was doing that…

“How much does Barub know about what’s going on here?”

“Hm? That guide? It wouldn’t be wrong to say that Barub doesn’t know anything.”

“Doesn’t know anything?”

“Kehe. Barub is in the tunnel through time and space. It’s a completely separate dimension from Earth, the demonic realm, and the celestial plane, from the places you’ve tread.”

“……”

“The only task Barub was charged with was to serve as a guide. Think about it. Would a human, such as yourself, know about what’s going on with the demonic realm and the celestial plane? Until you became an Awakened, you had no idea about the existences of the other dimensions, right? It’s a different story now though.”

“That’s right.”

“Pfft. So what business do you have with the guide?”

“I needed someone to talk to while taking a quick break.”

“Eh?”

“While I was traveling, I came to realize that we get along pretty well. I’ll be back then.”

“Sure. Since it’s your time, do what you will.”

Despite being in a tunnel filled with light, it seemed Barub recognized the majesty of the celestial plane that was far greater than that of the tunnel, since Barub was facing me while staying still.

Behind me was the Unrivaled Goddess, Karupedan.

In front of me stood Barub, whose identity I questioned.

It made me question just what had occurred over the past few months for me to end up in a situation like this, despite having experienced it firsthand.

Walking forward with large strides, I neared Barub.

It didn’t take long before Barub noticed that I approached them and asked me a question.

“Why have you come here already, human.”

“Break time?”

“…..”

“I’ve killed all the gods. If I take out the Unrivaled Goddess, Karupedan, as well…… I will be able to use all the gods’ abilities and power at command.”

“It shouldn’t be the end though?”

“What would be?”

“That the fighting isn’t over yet.”

“On what grounds are you saying that? How do you know if my fighting is done or there are more left?”

“……”

It was just an act I put on to test Barub.

There was a fitting reason why I was suspicious of them.

Karupedan. Even the Unrivalged Goddess had lost her memories and hated the humans without reason.

As she had said, she was aware that she had created humans, but it was odd that she did not have any detailed memories of it.

I felt strongly that there was someone else behind all this.

“I did think that it was strange from the start. I was also curious as to the fishy smile you’ve shown.”

“What did you want to ask? I am but a guide through time and space.”

“Yep. I’m aware, since I’ve heard it countless times already. But rather than the side job you do, I’m curious as to what your main job is….. What is your real identity?”

“……”

“It’s true that I’m just throwing out a guess without any solid proof. But this isn’t like I’m a little bit suspicious. And my intuition isn’t that bad either.”

“…….”

“Will you carry out your right to remain silent? Did you not understand my question?”

“Are you asking my identity?”

“That’s right. The one behind the gods. The one who put Karupedan on the throne of an Unrivaled God. The one hiding, despite having that much power. For some odd reason, I keep thinking it is you.”

“Amusing.”

“You’re confirming that? Denying it?”

“I do not know what reason you have for you think that way. You’re just poking around, right?”

“Pfft. No. You’re the one my first question was intended for. It’s because I’m curious as to why you’re doing something like this.”

“It seems that it’s not a question, but certainty.”

“The gods were gods from the start. Those are your words while you were guiding me towards the celestial plane. Do you remember?”

“Yes, I remember.”

“But how can a mere guide know of the goings on of the celestial plane so well?”

“That’s…..”

“I asked Karupedan before coming here. About your existence, that is. It’s not like the Unrivalged Goddess in charge of all things would be incorrect about you, right? Do you have a talent that’s above your station? Or are you really……”

“…..”

“It’s whatever. You don’t need to drag out time. I didn’t come here to get a clear answer from you.”

“Is that so. No matter what I say, you wouldn’t trust it, so I shall save myself the futile effort.”

“Good. But you know, if….. If you really are the transcendent existence who created the Unrivaled God……”

“…..”

“Before I take Karupedan’s life, stop this madness.”

“What’s your reason for that request? If you kill her and obtain the power of a Unrivaled Goddess, wouldn’t that be beneficial for you?”

“You won’t answer but you want to hear the reason behind why? Are you saying the equivalent of being drunk, but you didn’t drive while under the influence?”

“…..”

“I didn’t sense it from the other gods. I only felt something from Gera and Karupedan. And when I heard Gera’s last words, it seems that the two of them were siblings before losing their memories. I wasn’t sure what hardships Gera went through….. There were big and small wounds on both her body and heart. And the way that she looked at Karupedan was filled with pity…. And Karupedan was……”

“Is that the reason why? The personal feelings of an existence known as humans….. Is that why a battle of this massive scale must stop? Something insignificant as that?”

“Do you also want to die?”

“What?”

“Ah….. That came out wrong. Did you also want to die. Like Karupedan.”

“I am satisfied with how I am and things are. It’s not what I wanted, but I am merely carrying out my delegated task and living through each day doing so.”

“Is that so? But this concept of emotions that you look down so much on. Maybe it’s because I’m human, but it seems that those residing in the celestial plane could use some, you know?”

“No. They are but a worthless hassle. You could say that it was a mistake from the gods.”

“Are there only crazy folks up here? Do you know how many people suffered and died because of these emotions that you folks look down on? Each of the dead children were the more important and treasure person to someone else. With not an exception, but all of them! Well, I already said my piece. If you really are what I think you are….. Let’s not overdo it, okay? Let’s end it here.”

“Then what will you do? What can you do? If what you think is true, then I would be a transcendent existence that could make even the Unrivalged Goddess look like a joke. Will you surpass me? Aren’t you aware that it’s impossible? So what are you going to do?”

“Dunno.”

“…..”

“I dunno the method and don’t have a plan either. I’ve received similar questions from all over the place before, you know? But looking at the results, I am still alive, and all those that have asked the question have perished. You’re finding such a insignificant human issue a warning like this amusing, right? But don’t take it as an empty threat. No one knows how things will go, right?”

“Kuhaha. Sure. You want to confirm it as soon as possible, right?”

“……”

“Since there are still three left, the road ahead will be long.”

“To be exact, two. The moment that it becomes three, it would mean that you have accepted my threats.”

“Kuhu. It seems that you’re busy. I shall guide you.”

“No. Go back to your main job. I shall find my own way out.”

“Then……”

****

“What? Is it over already?”

“Yep. I thought that we got through each other pretty well, but it seems that the truth was far from what I had thought all this time.”

“You don’t need anymore rest?”

“This is enough.”

“Kehe. Then shall we begin the next battle?”

“You said this would be the God of Life, Wheatgrass, right?”

“Right! You are probably aware of it already, but this god is the second strongest out of all that you’ve met so far.”

“Don’t put down my spirits from the start. Perhaps you don’t want to die?”

“Kuhat! Maybe?”

“It’s pointless to change your mind now. Hurry up and guide me.”

“You won’t even need to try finding them.”

“Guess they exist everywhere like before?”

“No. Wheatgrass should also know that the other gods have died. If you wait a little bit, they should come to you?”

“Is that so….”

Karupedan had clenched her fists and laid on the ground, kicking her feet.

Every time I saw her innocent expression, I couldn’t help but smile.

Of course, I caught myself by reminding myself what she had done.

Sitting next to her, I enjoyed a bit of rest.

This is the first time I’ve sat down since I’ve arrived in the celestial plane.

I was strong beyond physical exhaustion at this point, but the rest with the beautiful scenery of the celestial plane was quite enjoyable.

A beautiful melody was coming from somewhere I could not tell, and it was accompanied by a scenery that could only be made from the imaginations of humans.

If I forgot about my objective for coming here and just looked at the scenery, it was a great place to rest.

Just like that, about 10 minutes had passed? Karupedan spoke.

“They’re running later than I thought?”

“Before you were a goddess, what kind of existence do you think you were?”

“What? I thought you were silent, but it seems that you like to chatter?”

“It’s not like there isn’t anything to do while I’m waiting.”

“I haven’t thought about it seriously until now….. Looking at my appearance now, I guess I was a child back then? Or perhaps I wanted to live in my memories of being a child. Why do you ask all of a sudden?”

“Just because. What Gera had said came to mind.”

“Hey, forget about such sentimental words. It’s pointless.”

“You also don’t remember why you hate humans, right?”

“Yep. Almost as if someone had cut that part out, I don’t remember a thing.”

“Even though you’re a goddess, you’re not much.”

“Right? I think so too.”

I thought that she would point a finger to the sky and say some nonsense like destroying earth right now with a childish mischievous smile, but her answer was something that I did not expect.

Karupedan had a serious expression I hadn’t seen before, being lost in thought.

With my appearance and Gera’s demise, she was probably in disarray.

Her current expression wasn’t that of a Unrivaled Goddess, but that of a human.

Matching her appearance, she was like a child in her 10s.

“Just like with Gera, my memory should return to me right before I die, right?”

“No clue.”

“Despite being a human, you’re not much.”

“Pfft. I’m insignificant, remember? Like you gods keep telling me.”

“Kehe. That’s right. Will I be able to pass without regrets?”

“What? Instead of enjoying eternal life as a goddess, saying that you wanted to die and bringing your own demise?”

“That too…..”

“Gera?”

“Yep. Despite what I said, that was the first time I felt this way. I guess the best way to put it would be that I feel tight around here?”

“That feeling. I know it well.”

“Even though you’re just a human.”

“If you ever change your mind, just let me know. Despite being a crazy goddess, I have intentions to show you at least that much kindness.”

“How arrogant of you. Hm?”

While we were talking amongst ourselves…

My eyes looked in the same direction as where she was looking with raised eyebrows.

With my eyes still looking at the same place where she was looking, I asked Karupedan.

“That’s Wheatgrass?”

“Hehe. End of break time! Guess it’s time to get back into it. I’ll wish you the best of luck!”

“Guess time to use this head of mine. Nice to meetcha?”


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I Never Run Out of Mana Chapter 180

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180. 2⁄3rds Completed

I perfectly reflected Dehaka’s attack right back at him.

I knew that if he was hit by his own projectile, his ability would be sealed and he wouldn’t be able to use it again.

And my reflected attack did not merely return back the same amount of damage, but was infused with plenty of mana and magical energy, dealing incomparable damage.

The reflected projectile that directly struck the orbs floating around him let out a deafening noise as it exploded.

It was similar to when I had lost my skills.

With that, one of his abilities, the projectiles that sealed away powers, disappeared in a blink of an eye.

He had been done in by his own ability.

This meant that I would be able to attack him from both range or close quarters as I pleased.

Thankfully, the number of abilities that were sealed were but a few.

Other than Mana Shield, these abilities were created from my ability to manipulate mana and magical energy, and they were basic low tier skills to boot.

Confirming this new turn of events, I was about to materialize two swords to begin my close quarter combat once more.

Almost as if someone had sent me a telepathy, I felt that something was off.

It was almost as if I heard that the choice I was about to make was wrong.

I stood dazed and still for a bit. Putting away my swords, I made distance once more.

There was a chance that my hidden fear was making me hallucinate, but considering that Dehaka could be possessing other abilities, I decided to use magic from a range instead of engaging in melee.

“For a heated sauna, Sikhye with ice cubes are the best.” 1

“Hu huk! Ability gone! Ability sealing orbs……”

“Blizzard, Iceberg, Glacial Field. And even Frozen Orb! I’ll pour down all the attacks I have!”

“Hu uhu! Dehaka melts all! Dehaka is hot. Melt all.”

An attack that was made from compressing all of the powers I possessed.

On top of that, 3 skills were casted simultaneously, waiting for my command to shoot forward.

This was a display of skills far beyond that of what an Awakened could.

With the combination of the ethereal bright blue light of mana and the dark thick essence of magical energy, the Awakened skills I used had transformed into something completely unprecedented.

On top of that, the size and destructive force behind those skills had increased exponentially.

Just from looking, one could feel just how strong these skills were.

All the skills that I had casted were frost type attack skills.

Skill levels and their ranks no longer mattered anymore to me, but in terms of what skills humans could obtain, you could say that they were one of the strongest skills you could get.

The ranks of these skills were S to S+ ranks, and while they weren’t skills beyond ranking, the destructive force behind them wouldn’t lag behind any.

His giant form was made up of hot lava.

Almost as if trying to do his title of being the God of Earth justice, he must’ve made his body by pulling up magma from the ground.

Then it would only be right to answer in kind with skills that were the polar opposite of his element.

After using the skills, the first thing that caught my eye was the surrounding scenery.

The field that had been destroyed by the earthquake that Dehaka had caused was similar to where the Goddess of Death, Gera, had been, with red lava flowing out all over the place.

The lava that flowed out from his body only added onto that.

Now, however, Glacial Field covered well beyond the range of Dehaka’s destruction with chilly air.

Fierce winds accompanied by a wave of coldness changed the landscape.

Previously, this skill was used to slow down the movement of my opponents.

Now, however, it had such a powerful effect that it was enough to be considered an attack skill.

In the area that Glacial Field covered, you could see the lava slowly cool and harden. Just from seeing that, you could tell just how powerful this skill had become.

Almost as if flash freezing hot food, the area surrounding us was rapidly losing heat.

“Hu uu hu! Cold. Weakening. Human is strange!”

“It’s only at the stage of a refrigerator right now. You’ll be soon in the freezer. Just a bit longer and you’ll be frozen solid as if you had been hit by liquid nitrogen. I like winter more than summer, after all.”

“Hu uhh! Not die like this. Kill human! Human cannot win against gods!”

Giant meteors fell from the sky.

One might mistake them as many casts of Meteors, but it was actually the skill Blizzard.

Blizzard only rained down shards of ice.

But right now, these shards looked more like meteors.

Unlike Gera, this god did not just stand there and take the attacks.

Seeing my follow up attacks, he poured out far more lava from his body and pointed towards me.

Unfitting of his massive size, it was a very fast attack.

However.

“Hu uu? Huahh!”

While his attacks flew towards me, I formed dozens of Icebergs.

Similar to how a martial artist breaks wooden boards, the lava broke through the Icebergs one by one and flew towards me at great speeds.

However, due to the powerful Icebergs putting up a fierce resistance, the lava stopped dead at some point, hardening into cold stone.

Not letting this chance go, I cut his arm off with a single swing.

His arm that had turned from sticky goo into hardened stone, easily being cut apart in a single strike.

“HUAHAHCK! HURTS. HURTS!”

“Hurry up and give up your next appendage. I can already tell. You’re going to use the lava that has filled your body to the brim in order to regenerate your arm, right? Until your entire body that’s the size of a mountain shrinks into nothingness, that is.”

“Hu uh hu uh! Hu eet!”

As soon as I finished my words, he had fully recovered his arm.

Due to having faced all sorts of enemies, I could guess somewhat what they would do from how they appeared at this point.

Of course, I wasn’t able to predict their powers and abilities though.

It would take awhile until he would be completely obliterated.

I would have to freeze all of his giant body and smash him against the ground.

****

“Whew……”

With labored breathing, I cooled the smoldering red sword that had heated up from cutting him up by covering it with mana.

His corpse was piled up on the floor, almost making up a small island.

Like that, the God of Earth, Dehaka, was defeated after a battle that lasted over 2 hours.

It would be more accurate to call it a one sided attack more so than a battle though.

At the same time that Dehaka lost his life, I absorbed his ability.

The Goddess of Light, Lai Yanta. The God of Darkness, Hai Yanta. The Goddess of Death, Gera. And lastly, the God of Earth, Dehaka as well.

The gods that died at my hands were four.

Each had their own special abilities, and all of them had been absorbed by me, allowing me to use them as I wished.

I had no idea if I would be using these four abilities outside of the celestial plane.

However, it was absolutely true that I would need them for the coming battle against the remaining two gods that I had to face.

Out of the 6 gods, I had taken down 4, which was more than half.

I had made it 2/3rds of the way.

The only gods left were the God of Water and the God of Life.

Since they were higher ranking than the gods that I had faced so far, it would also make sense that they would be just as strong.

As expected, Karupedan appeared with a satisfied smile after having observed me from an unknown location.

“Kehehe. This battle was really exciting!”

“Whew…. I’m exhausted, so let me rest a bit before going onwards.”

“Right, right. I found Gera giving up her life to you to be strange, you know? But I found out the reason why! I think I understand now! It’s to gift me with joy like this. Right?”

“Tsk….. Think as you will. There are only two gods left, right?”

“Yep! Next is! You’ll be meeting with the God of Life, Wheatgrass.”

“The God of Life…. I expect that they possess some special ability too, right?”

“Hehe. That’s for you to find out! Until now, I’ve been quite amused as you figured that very same question with the other gods. I don’t want to tell you! You seem to deal with it a lot better than I expected though, hm? Did I put in that much effort when I made you humans?”

“……”

“I understand that I created humans with the most amount of effort out of all….. But I can’t remember what I was thinking when I did so…. All I remember is that I created them….. Isn’t that a bit strange? Hehe.”

“Hm…. That’s a separate story. So you won’t tell me in the end? I didn’t even have hopes for it, really. Instead, I’ll ask for the same thing as before.”

“Ah ha. The abilities that were sealed away? I already returned them back.”

“Hm?”

Almost as if knowing what I was going to ask for, this god had already undid the sealing of my skills from Dehaka’s ability.

Casting the abilities with both hands to confirm that it really was true, I continued speaking.

“Where do I need to go?”

“Are you planning to go already? Weren’t you going to rest up first before going? You know that, even in human time, a day hasn’t passed right?”

“Is that so….. But for some odd reason….. I don’t feel sleepy or hungry.”

“Kehe. That’s because this is the celestial plane.”

“……”

“And on top of that, you’re not human anymore, you know?”

“Huh?”

“Why are you so surprised? It’s obvious. When you kill a god, you inherit their abilities. And you have killed four of them already. All their abilities have gone to you.”

“……”

“But you still think of yourself as a human? Pff. Are you naive? Or just stupid?”

I blankly stared into emptiness at what Karupedan had said.

It was true what she said.

Until I came here, I was a human, or of the demonic race.

After I conquered the demonic realm and became the demon king, it was true that I was having a bit of an identity crisis.

But right now, I was even aiming for the seat of a god.

Well, it didn’t really matter what my identity was.

I only had power as a goal, worried for those around me, and needed a higher goal to aim for.

While I was lost in my thoughts, Karupedan continued to speak.

“So what will you do? Are you going to rest in the celestial plane before going? Or go right away…..”

“I don’t have time to rest. But even still, can you spare me some time to do so?”

“Of course. What do you need? What do you want to see? Just say the word. Since there wasn’t anything that has given me this much amusement until now, I can give you at least that much as a reward.”

“Barub…. I was to go visit the tunnel of time and space for a bit.”

“Huh? You’re going to that tunnel of time and space just to meet the guide? I’m shocked… How foolish are you, human. Look. There is nothing in the celestial plane that you could not do. You can eat what you want, take what you want, and do what you want. Whatever you fantasize about, it will no longer remain as just a fantasy.”

“I know. I do not look down on the powers of a god. But you know. Won’t I be able to enjoy them as much as I want after I kill you? Since all of your abilities would become mine.”

“That…. That’s right…..”

“Why? Are you suddenly scared of dying?”

“No! What nonsense are you saying? Tsk! I’ll send you to the tunnel of time and space.”

“Pff. Okay.”

-snap.

“Why are you here already, human.”

“Break time?”

“…….”


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I Never Run Out of Mana Chapter 179

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179. God of Earth, Dehaka

Dehaka’s cored shattered into pieces, just like that.

The moment that I penetrated his core, the compressed power exploded, causing his jade core to disperse into dust.

His body that was the size of a house had turned into finely powdered dust.

But that wasn’t the end.

It seemed that the title of the third strongest wasn’t just for show.

As if an earthquake was happening, the ground of the celestial plane shook severely.

However, the area at the edge of my vision wasn’t shaking in the slightest.

A strong earthquake was occuring only around me.

As if trying to prove that he was a God of Earth, he shook the ground around me with great force.

Almost as if being hit by a cannon barrage, the earth around me crumbled in shambles.

“Hu hu, don’t die. Don’t die. I!”

“Enough with the nonsense……”

I could hear Dehaka’s voice from thin air.

Just listen to his crude and dumb way of speech.

It made me think that he’s speaking a lot of bullshit.

Kicking the ground that was rupturing below me, I soared up into the air.

Casting many Icebergs on top of each other to use as a platform, I landed on it.

From up high, I observed the chaos down below.

It was similar to when I faced off against the Goddess of Light, Lai Yanta.

Despite being way up above the chaos down below, I felt my body heat up as if it was put in a burning kiln.

Even though I had swallowed a King’s Marble, it felt as though I could melt if I went down there.

It could be me just imagining it, or it could be my growth halfway between human and god that allowed me to sense that danger instead.

“Is that his real form?”

“Hu hu huh. Do not die! I am strong!”

“……”

Dehaka resurrected.

Not only did come back, but he came back looking much stronger than before.

You could say that he evolved alongside the massive earthquake from his previous sturdy regular stone golem form.

His current form oozed sticky lava like sweat.

On top of that, he had become large beyond comparison from before.

In the celestial plane, all the scenery looked small like rice grains, but this form was huge as though I was looking at him from up close.

I could mistake him for a mountain that rose out of the ground.

And unlike his form that was intimidating enough to fit the role of a gatekeeper for hell, magnificent wings had sprouted on his back.

The wings were similar to what one would imagine when they think of angels.

The upper half resembled the appearance of a stone golem before, but the lower half didn’t even exist.

Below his waist was fully connected to the ground.

His head was vastly small in comparison to his body. And near his body, an orb the size of a baseball was orbiting him.

As if the orb had been made from magical energy, it was emitting a dark purple light.

“Hu hu hu. Come here. Human. I kill!”

“I guess I know exactly why your head is so small. If you were me, would you come?”

“I am a god. You are a human. Humans can never beat a god.”

“The only thing that changed was your form. You think that you won’t die and endure if I keep hitting you in a frenzy?”

Unsummoning the numerous Icebergs at the same time, I fell towards him at great speeds.

My method of taking him down didn’t differ from before.

King’s Marble. Formless Sword Aura. With these two, it was enough.

If I cut and tear countless of times, then no matter how strong he had become, he would be reduced to rubble and scatter into oblivion.

“What! I definitely consumed a Marble…..”

“Hu hu hu. Die. Human will die.”

It happened the moment that I brought close both the empowered swords in each hand close to his body.

He stretched out his hand towards me and sent multiple of those orbs at me.

Flying towards me with a muddy sound, dozens of those projectiles struck me dead on.

Despite trusting the marble I consumed, I casted Mana Shield out of an uneasiness I felt.

Even though the shield blocked most attacks as if nothing, it was torn apart like paper before his attack.

Mana Shield should regenerate endlessly with my limitless mana.

However, for some unknown reason, the shield that had received his attack did not regenerate.

Despite not having a cooldown or a cast time, my Mana Shield wasn’t activating.

Was it because I was lacking mana? Not even funny.

There was no way that was the case. There was no reason for the Unrivaled God to suddenly take away the power that she had bestowed on me.

It seemed that it had something to do with the attack that he just cast at me.

Since he was a god, it seemed that he had a secret skill after all.

It took a long time for me to figure out Gera’s ability before.

Since she stood on the side of humans, she did not attack besides retaliating.

Until I found out the answer on my own, she waited in silence, receiving my attacks without complaint.

It was the same as giving me hints until it led to her defeat.

However, this wasn’t the case with him.

Even now, he was being anxious because he couldn’t kill me right now.

‘The purple orb. Do I just need to avoid those?’

More purple orbs kept being made.

I couldn’t help but think that being hit by those things sealed away abilities.

If I eat my King’s Marble and it hits my body while I’m in my invincible state?

It could seal away the power of the marble, removing my invincibility status.

This was just a theory, but the one thing that I was sure of was that I needed to do everything I could to avoid them.

After all, carelessness born from complacent thoughts could lead to an irreversible defeat.

I made as much distance I could between him and me.

The orbs were flying towards me from a point blank distance. It was akin to trying to avoid being shot with the gun already at your head.

Basically it was near impossible.

If I increased the time it took to reach me, then it would be much easier to avoid them.

I even removed the mana and magical energy condensed on my weapon.

It was because I realized that my chances of winning in a close quarter combat was nil.

From now on, I had to take him down using long ranged magic instead.

As expected, he continued to fire those purple orbs at me.

Thankfully, it was moving at a speed at which I could confirm with my eyes.

Avoiding those projectiles filled with killing intent, I casted Reflect Shield that I learned as an Awakened.

If even a single one struck me, it would mean that I would lose the invincibility status my body currently possessed.

My skills would continue to be sealed away one by one as the battle continued, and would pose a great risk towards me.

However, I could ask Karupedan to return them to me after I defeated this god.

Since he observed my battles with much amusement, I was positive that he would do so.

Do skills really matter right now. A much greater crisis was before me.

‘Iceberg…. Damn it. I don’t think I should?’

Thinking about it, I couldn’t block his attack with my skills either.

It was because any skills that made contact with his attack would be sealed away immediately as well.

Dodging. I had no choice but to avoid his attacks.

There was the option of using the ability that I had obtained from Gera to allow his attack on me once more so that I could return his attack back.

However, this ability only allowed me to return back attacks that I had received while in the same state.

This meant that I would be able to return back the attack if I was attacked again with my Mana Shield up, but since I was using Reflect Shield to defend myself, I wasn’t in the same state, and therefore didn’t meet the conditions to activate the ability.

And as I’ve witnessed already, his ability activated with even a single hit.

He was definitely a difficult opponent.

‘That attack completely seals away Awakened skills. Mana? Magical energy? What about them?’

“Kill. Return you back to a powerless weak human.”

“I’ll be the one to kill you. I’m going to kill you. I’m going to kill you and your empty head!”

Drawing out my mana in an instant, I created a Mana Spear and scored a direct hit on Dehaka’s projectiles.

Colliding at great speeds due to both the spear and projectiles charging at each other, a massive explosion that let out a deafening sound occurred.

The explosion was so strong that it shook the earth to its core.

It seemed that the force behind his projectiles wasn’t that great.

Of course, this was from only considering the destructive forces behind each of the attacks.

Then what about the abilities? Did one of the many methods of using magical energy become sealed?

“Damn it……”

“Hu hu hu. Remove the overflowing powers that do not fit the bowl. Return back to inconsequential existence.”

I tried using Mana Spear again, but it wasn’t possible.

It was the same feeling as forgetting a popular song that you would hum to yourself on a daily basis.

No matter how hard you tried, you couldn’t remember. It was a frustrating situation like that.

With this, I had confirmed that even mana becomes sealed away by his attacks.

There were only two options left.

Magical energy. And an attack that infused both mana and magical energy.

“Hu hu. Continue to make new things. Remove them all.”

“Tsk…..”

It was the same with using magical energy.

I was pretty much at the end of my rope.

I was even resentful towards Gera, who had said that I would need her ability to defeat the gods I would be facing after her.

If he even negated my attack that was infused with both mana and magical energy, then that was the end of the road for me.

Almost as if enjoying the situation, he continued to fire projectiles at me from the same spot.

It seemed as though he was waiting for me to become powerless after he had stolen all of my power.

He was trying to turn me into a powerless weak form that was akin to what the gods thought humans were like.

I felt a deep rage for a brief moment before being interrupted.

His attack continued again.

“Huh?”

“……..”

The shockwave of sound from the explosion this time was different from before.

Unlike the massive explosion that was caused from mana and magical energy colliding with his projectiles separately, when the attack that infused both collided with his projectile, attacks from both sides had become completely negated, similar to how Meteor and Iceberg cancelled each other out.

Only now did I feel strongly that things were going in my favor.

I wasn’t the only one feeling this change.

Losing his unique idiotic laugh, Dehaka was tilting his head to the side.

I immediately checked if I could cast my infused attack again.

“Hu? Didn’t lose ability. Strange. Wasn’t able to steal human’s power.”

“The tables have turned, you boneheaded piece of shit!”

As if stuck in disbelief, he stood absolutely still for awhile.

‘No. You should not think about this. You won’t come to any conclusions with that stupid head of yours, right? Hurry up and attack. Launch your projectiles again! If it meets my infused attack one more time….. I shall return it with an attack stronger by a thousand fold, ten thousand fold stronger.’

I felt happy as though I had found rope at the edge of a cliff.

Finally, I was able to create a condition where I would be able to receive his attack, allowing me to create an identical state.

After a brief moment of hesitation, he moved his body to attack again.

Then.

Like an idiot, he sent out his projectiles once more.

He had already forgotten that his own Bind had taken a hold of him recently.

Despite witnessing Gera’s ability firsthand, he had made the same mistake.

“Stupid shithead. Now it’s done. The tides have turned!”

“Hu uh? Lost ability. No. This cannot be.”


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I Never Run Out of Mana Chapter 178

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178. Going Smoothly

Karupedan’s face was flushed red, and her expression told me that this was just the start.

I had already defeated half the gods I needed to defeat, and all I had to do was defeat three more to finish my deal with Karupedan.

I didn’t think of the aftermath following the defeat of the gods.

If even the power of Karupedan was inherited by me, allowing me to become a peerless existence, then would I be also subjected to the immortal life that she is living right now?

I didn’t have a choice to go against the Unrivaled God in this situation, but I also couldn’t help but feel worried.

As I was being guided by this god and walking alongside her, there was something that didn’t sit right with me.

My body was affected by the inability to heal effect from Gera’s retaliation.

I tried using Status Negation to return myself back to a state before the attack, but even that was impossible.

I had used all of my available power, but even still, it was impossible.

I was reminded once more just how the power of the Piece of Space and Time was absolute.

I think I understand now why Karupedan didn’t just want to give away this power to anyone.

After all, no matter what attack was used, it would leave a wound and debuff that would never fade for an eternity.

I called for Karupedan, who was walking ahead of me.

“Hey.”

“Hm?”

“The wound that I received from Gera. Why don’t you heal this for me?”

“Eh? Weren’t you just trying to lecture a god just a moment ago, but now you’re asking for help? Don’t you have any pride?”

“It wouldn’t be a fair fight otherwise, would it? After all, I am facing against multiple opponents. Even though you don’t want a predictable one sided ending, wouldn’t this benefit you as well?”

“Hm….. That’s the power you wield right now. Do you finally understand just how powerful the power you obtained is?”

“Hm. Somewhat? But I became sure of one thing.”

“Hm?”

“Instead of leaving shallow wounds on my enemies, I rather kill them off cleanly.”

“Wow! How brutal of you. So cruel.”

“No. You won’t be able to call it cruel at the end. Rather than living the rest of their lives in untreatable death like pain, my opponents would thank me for granting them a clean death.”

“…..”

“Now. How will you do it? Hurry up and return me back to my original state. You also want to be entertained, right? With the fights I’ll be partaking against the remaining gods, that is.”

“Well, yeah. Then……”

-snap.

With a snap of her fingers, the debuff that prevented healing disappeared.

Since it wasn’t that deep of a wound, it didn’t feel as good as a rotten teeth being pulled out, but I did feel a sense of relief.

If the healing negation was left as it was, it would’ve been quite the headache.

Right now, I was currently afflicted by the debuff. No matter who’d attacked me next, I wouldn’t be able to heal myself.

Even if the attacks that followed didn’t have the powers of the Piece of Space and Time behind it.

This meant that fundamentally, recovery of any kind was impossible.

The damage I received would only rack up, resulting in a pitiful death.

“Who is my next opponent?”

“Dehaka.”

“What does this god rule over?”

“Oh…. You sound like you know your way around the celestial plane, you know?”

“It hasn’t been a day yet, but with this much, you could say that I know somewhat.”

“Hehe. Light and darkness. And death. What do you think is left?”

“Life and earth. Something like that?”

“Oh oh! Dehaka is the God of Earth. The last god that you missed is the God of Water.”

“So excluding you, this would mean that Dehaka would be roughly in the 3rd place in terms of power?”

“You really have become a denizen of the celestial plane.”

“But you know, just when are you planning to get there that you’re traveling this slow? You could just snap your fingers and get there, but it seems like you’re just wasting time!”

“Then shall we stop now?”

“What? You mean to end it here?”

“Pfft. What! I already told you. Dehaka is the god of the earth. Even now, I can call him right away. Even on the ground that you currently stand on, he exists.”

“……”

“What? What’s with the sudden scary face?”

“You think that I’m satisfied living my life here, but that’s a big mistake. Why did you tell me now…. Whew….. Enough. Dehakan or whatever that god’s name is, hurry up and call him.”

“Hehe. Then……”

****

Karupedan instantly hid her presence.

She didn’t teleport me to another place nor guide me to the exact location where the God of Earth, Dehaka, resided.

Unlike before, she had left me in this empty vast plain and disappeared.

“What is she trying to do…..”

Looking around, it happened the moment that I took a step forward.

“Is this…. Bind?”

Due to a hand rising out of the ground, both my legs were bound.

Despite having an immortal body, it wasn’t easy to get free from a bind with so much force behind it.

Of course, I wasn’t using all of my strength right now.

I wondered if the Bind spell I used was made based on this.

With my feet caught by Bind, I stood still.

It wasn’t as if I was taking any damage or in a situation to take any significant damage, so I stood still and waited for Dehaka’s appearance.

As I had hoped for, Dehaka appeared.

“Who is this? A stone golem?”

“Huhu. Human can’t move.”

“What. Why are you talking like that?”

“Huhu. Turn you to dust at this rate. Turn to dust and become a part of the earth. The power of earth is great.”

“Are you talking about this?”

Tearing open the ground and climbing out, a giant stone golem appeared.

Dehaka’s appearance looked familiar, as if I’ve seen it somewhere before.

He was massive in size, and he seemed sturdy to the point that not a dent could be made to his body.

It was true that the Bind that the God of Earth made was powerful.

However, if I focused all of my mana to my feet and released them all at once?

There was no way that he could hold me with such a weak Bind.

Kicking it in one go, I turned the Bind to dust.

“Huh? Stone fist broke.”

“You were trying to hold me down with a cheap trick like this? I can’t believe it.”

“Huhu. Mistake. Catch again. Catch human and crush.”

“Oho? Really. Are you planning to use the same attack? Are you pretending not to know, or do you really not know? At this point, it almost feels like you’re putting up an act.”

-crack!

“Bingo.”

“Huh?”

“Guess you don’t know the ability that Gera possess? Ah. Is it because your head is made of stone as well? Dumb shit. Stay flat against the ground.”

“Hu! Kill.”

He had casted Bind again. However, rather than my feet being bound, it was Dehaka who was bound instead.

Gera’s ability had activated.

It was an ability that reflected any attack that I had received previously before.

Not only was I returning Dehaka’s attack, it was a counterattack that included my mana, magical energy, and the power of the Piece of Space and Time.

It really was returning the favor severalfold.

With his feet tied down in place, Dehaka couldn’t move at all.

It was enough to make me wonder if he really was the 3rd most powerful god.

The way he spoke and his actions, along with thoughtless attacks…

I didn’t know what his combat capabilities were, but it was evident that he was severely lacking in the intelligence department.

I didn’t take long looking at how pathetic he was. Walking closer, I lifted up my sword.

“Huhu. Human cannot kill Dehaka.”

“Is that so? Do you think that I broke free of your Bind from pure luck alone?”

“Not die. Huhu. I am not a hurdle a human can get over.”

“I’ve heard enough of that from the light and dark god to have it become stuck in my head.”

“How did you come to agree with the complete annihilation of humankind with a skull like that? Did you just follow along after seeing everyone else do it? Being foolish is a crime. Remember that well.”

My Formless Sword Aura’s reckless attacks began.

I was moving at a speed that was nearly impossible for the naked eye to track.

On top of that, other than the Butcher’s Sword, I was holding another sword with my other hand.

It didn’t make any sense.

The Butcher’s Sword was a two handed sword.

Of course, you could wield a two handed sword with one hand if you trained enough. However, you still couldn’t use the stats and power of the other sword in the other hand.

It was only but a decoration that filled an empty slot.

However, the sword in my left hand right now told a different story.

A form of a sword covered in blue flame. It was made from mana and magical energy.

It wasn’t as if there was a set stat for the sword, but the power behind it was enormous.

With my limitless mana, I condensed it the maximum, and I had even empowered the body that swung the sword, so what more do I need to explain.

And since this new weapon wasn’t classified as a sword, even though I was holding a sword in each hand, it was serving its purpose just fine.

In all honesty, you could say that the Butcher’s Sword has lost its value.

It was a sword that only absorbed the stats of the Awakened humans.

I haven’t had a need to use it for quite some time.

The reason why I carried it around with me after I obtained such massive power was simple.

I just had to infuse the sword with the same power that I used to create the sword in my left hand.

I had already far surpassed the realm of the humans.

It was amazing enough that I took control over the demonic realm and learned how to use magical energy, but now I had even obtained powers of gods.

I had become an existence that could do the things which most wouldn’t even be able to consider.

It was enough to make me scared of myself.

The continued Formless Sword Aura eventually went into overdrive.

I swallowed a marble as red smoke rose around my body.

Overdrive and the marble both lasted 1 minute.

This was a course of action I took after considering that I could lax on the defense in order to focus on only attacking, raising my offensive capability to its maximum at the same time.

The God of Earth, Dehaka, could not even put up any resistance and was cut apart.

Due to chipping away at his body countless times, the area around was covered in thick dust.

His body that was as big as a house shrunk slowly in size, and after the Overdrive, had shrunk quite a lot.

Other than casting Bind at the start, all that he did was to get beat up one sidedly.

With how much he was chipped apart, there wasn’t much of his body left.

It didn’t take long for a stone that could be considered his core appeared.

With a half transparent jade color, it seemed far sturdier than the ordinary.

Holding both my swords with one hand, I struck down that core.

Contrary to looking too tough to penetrate, the swords went through cleanly through his core.

Holding tightly onto the swords, I released all the condense power on the swords at once.

With that as a finisher, I thought that another god had been annihilated.

However.

-crackle.

“I guess he’s third place for a reason? How annoying.”


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I Never Run Out of Mana Chapter 177

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177. Compromised Happiness

Two towers that didn’t match the field of lava were formed.

The one created only from mana was transparent and glowed blue, while the one with added magical energy was far more thick and solid.

The towers that rose up stood still without movement.

These towers only acted on my will.

This meant that both the start and end of the attacks would be dependent on my will.

These towers were going to pour down attacks on Gera, but it wouldn’t be a problem.

After all, her ability would return the attack back to the tower, not me.

Making some distance between the towers and I, I commanded the attack.

The core of the tower, located near the upper half of the tower, had a massive density of mana and magical energy compressed.

It seemed stronger on another level than what I had seen before in a fight against myself.

The towers attacked without end.

However, it didn’t even take a few seconds for Gera’s ability to activate.

Thankfully, it was the moment that my theory came true.

The attacks that were headed for Gera all changed targets to the towers and began to destroy them.

A tower made from mana with an attack made from compressed mana.

It was a fight between spear and shield, but it seemed that the spear won by far.

The core that unbeknowingly torn away at itself was slowly losing that brilliance in its glow.

However, the situation of not being able to deal damage to Gera remained.

If none of the attacks I used worked, then this would end up as a tie.

I, who failed to defeat Gera, would not be able to defeat the remaining gods.

That would cause the Unrivaled God, Karupedan, to enrage, and it seemed obvious that the rage of this god would not only consume me, but Earth as well.

Thus, it would be my defeat.

However, there really wasn’t a way for me to find out, and I didn’t have any other ideas.

The only answer I had was to try things out for now.

From the first skill I learned, Ice Orb, to the most recent ones I’ve learned, like Blizzard and In Storm.

I decided to use all my attack skills in order.

Only one cast for each of them.

Any additional casts would return back to me like poison.

****

“Whew….. I think I’m going to go crazy.”

“……”

Only 5 skills remained.

I even summoned Devil Avatar and King Suwoo to launch an all out assault, but it didn’t even leave a scratch on her body.

Even the Full Heal that healed summoned creatures couldn’t take effect due to the debuff that prevented me from healing, and instead laid on the floor pathetically.

Chained Explosion, Blizzard, In Storm, Iceberg, and Formless Sword Aura.

If I didn’t get through her with these 5 remaining skills, then it was the same as my defeat.

I continued attacking all this time, but Gera’s shield? Or whatever mechanism behind her defense, I did not find out.

With a desperate plea, I cast Chain Explosion.

A total of four explosions. Each explosion had different amounts of power behind it, and my Mana Shield shook violently.

Since the area of effect wasn’t large, I got as close to Gera as possible before detonating my body.

My mouth that had only spoken cheers now only let out sighs of disappointment.

“Damn it…. Just what kind of a shield is this!”

The attacks that followed resulted in the same.

Despite using every attack that I could pour out, I wasn’t able to defeat the undefeatable Gera.

To obtain twice the attack power, I had used King’s Marbles.

Looking at the many leftover marbles, it seemed all was in vain.

With a dejected heart, I looked at Gera.

“Even till the end, you remain in the same position.”

“……”

A vast amount of time had passed, but Gera remained in the same pose, continuing to let out red steam the entire time.

I moved close to her.

You might be thinking that I might be trying to land a punch on her out of frustration, but that wasn’t the case.

Rather, I was going to admit my defeat to Gera, who didn’t attack at all and gave me a chance instead, and it might be strange, but it was to show my thanks.

Until now, Gera gave plenty of opportunities to humans.

It must be that I failed to turn that opportunity into success.

Her robe had turned ragged from all the attacks that I had poured on her.

Between the shredded bits of her robe, her thin frail body showed.

“To think that I am defeated by myself, of all things. This is enough. I’ve lost.”

“……”

“What more are you expecting?”

“……”

“….. Have you not given up yet? Even now, you refuse to give up on humans? Huh? But there are no other options left. There isn’t a way for me to defeat you. Unfortunately, it seems that I’m unable to meet your expectations due to a lack of potential.”

“…….”

“Thank you. This is the most I can do for you.”

When I first saw her, I felt bothered by her form.

Just what did she go through for her form to turn this wretched.

Regular healing skills didn’t work on other life forms besides the Awakened.

However, since I obtained the proficiency to wield all powers, that rule was nothing to me at all.

I was able to use heals on any life forms that still clung on to life.

Putting a hand on Gera’s shoulder, I casted Mega Cure.

I did worry that since the target was a god, it wouldn’t work, but thankfully her form slowly began to recover.

When her body that was similar to dry firewood had recovered somewhat, Karupedan suddenly appeared before us.

“What? Are you here to make fun of my pride from when I boasted before?”

“What are you doing.”

Karupedan had an expression full of rage, unlike anything she had shown me before.

It seemed that she was extremely upset at something.

Not at me, but it seemed that she was mad at Gera.

“…….”

“Gera! What are you doing!”

“What do you mean? The loser to this bet is me.”

“Stop right now…..”

“What are you saying?”

“Why are you always covering for humans?”

“Karupedan.”

“…….”

“Aren’t you hungry?”

“What?”

It didn’t take long for her form to completely recover.

Removing the robe that covered her head, Gera looked at Karupedan with maturity.

Her jet black curly hair ran down all the way down to her back.

With freckles all over her face, her face looked young, somewhat similar to my age.

Showing a perfect even set of teeth with a smile, she continued to speak.

“If it’s bread….. I could buy you much better and tastier food as much as you want…… I’m sorry.”

“Gera. What are you saying! Just answer me. Why to the humans…..”

“I’m sorry that I wasn’t able to protect you. I should’ve shown you a better world. I’m sorry. Please forgive me for only planting the seeds of resentment towards the world.”

“……”

“It’s not too late for you to stop your hatred of humans. You’re not that kind of a child.”

“You’re a fool who gave over your life to a human.”

“There’s no need for you to return the pain we’ve went through.”

“Us? Ha! Since you’re nearing your death, you’ve reobtained your past memories? So. Has anything changed? Reobtaining memories of the past that you were so curious about and meeting such a pathetic death again. Is this what you wanted?”

“Karupedan……”

“Shut your mouth. Do not address a peerless god’s name so casually. I feel goosebumps from disgust just from feeble minded weaklings calling me like yourself.”

“If there is another life after our deaths for us….. If we are allowed that privilege. Will you be my sibling again?”

“Idiot.”

Just like that, Gera spoke her last words and turned into smoke, disappearing from the world.

I couldn’t make heads or tails of this situation.

I merely had cast heal on her.

After being completely healed into the most beautiful form in the world, she had faded from the world like that.

Was this the only way to kill Gera?

Since they were gods who could not kill themselves, it seems that was the only logical conclusion.

“As expected, for her to not move at all…..”

“Hehe. I thought she would be a difficult opponent. I guess you got lucky?”

Karupedan quickly had come back to her usual playful expression.

She was acting as if she hadn’t even heard what Gera said.

Almost like how she didn’t show any care that Hai Yanta and Lai Yanta had perished, she seemed only eager to the next fight.

The reason why Gera had merely retaliated and not attacked wasn’t because she didn’t have any ways of attacking.

I had considered the possibility, but to think that I was right on the mark.

With what Karupedan had said and how Gera had completely perished, I could tell.

Gera’s defeat was planned.

As she had said at the start, she had given me an endless amount of opportunities.

It was to allow me to find the solution on my own.

My heart should be filled with joy on how I had taken another step forward on closing the gap between the Unrivaled God and I, but instead, my heart was heavy with a sense of dissatisfaction.

The look in Gera’s eyes in her last moments. Her last words. Even the childlike expression she had towards Karupedan.

It was so pitiful that I couldn’t find a shred of happiness to express.

I didn’t know if Karupedan knew that or not, but she continued regardless.

“With this, you’re halfway there, I guess?”

“Aren’t you curious?”

“Hm? About what?”

“Gera’s last words. Aren’t you curious about the hidden meaning behind those words is what I mean.”

“Is that important? The past. Of course I’m curious. Of how I became a god. I am curious as to how I lived that I ended up on the seat of a god.”

“……”

“But…… What I want right now is to be completely obliterated from existence. I’m not going to cry tears from such pathetic emotions!”

“Won’t you regret it?”

“What do you mean?”

“That you have only shown her the most shameful display at her last moments. Do you have the confidence to not regret it?”

“Kuhaha! What? Such a pathetic emotional will from her causing me regret? Don’t make me laugh. I’m a god. A god who rules over all to boot. Someone like that regretting? Isn’t that too much even for a joke?”

“Humans are but an insignificant life form that you have created. Being one of those humans, should I tell you my opinion?”

“Kehe! Well, it’ll be amusing. Let’s hear it.”

“I think you’ve wasted countless years of your life with how you lived.”

“What?”

“Despite not living for a long time, I can see. I can tell how she thinks of you.”

“Don’t act so full of yourself. I’ll hear out those words after you’ve killed all the gods. Do you understand?”

“As you will.”

“Not a single person is on my side. Both humans and gods alike!”

Karupedan frowned and showed her displeasure.

However, what she had said just now had a very big flaw.

I didn’t know why, but I could feel it.

Just a moment ago. I speak of how literally the only one on the side of the Unrivaled God had just been obliterated, considering that even her last words had Karupedan in mind moreso than herself.

“Then let’s head for the end.”

“Hehe.”

“Who is next?”

“……”


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I Never Run Out of Mana Chapter 176

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176. Gera’s Ability

A middle aged drunkard kicked the door and came in.

He was so drunk that he didn’t seem aware of how hard he kicked the door open.

Waving a loaf of bread in his hand, he spoke.

“Oho. Karupedan is here too? You’ve grown up a lot since I’ve last seen you.”

“……”

“What reason have you come….”

“What reason! I’m here to claim payment for the very same bread that child is eating.”

“Karupedan, you’re done eating, right? Can you go to your room for a bit?”

“Yep.”

“Heh heh! Sure. Hurry up and grow up lots. Only then can you also…..”

“Sir. Over there……”

“Sure, sure.”

With the appearance of this man, Gera’s expression soured.

It didn’t seem as if this was the first time for Karupedan, who put the small amount of leftovers in her mouth and walked towards her room.

It was merely a piece of bread.

It wasn’t enough for one to eat their fill, and it wasn’t anything tasty with flavor.

It was just a fist sized plain bread.

Even if they were orphans, this food could be purchased with not even a half a day’s work.

However, for these siblings, who were denied all help, it had become something they could only obtain by paying a steep price.

Gera stopped the man from speaking of foul subjects and guided him to her bed.

Karupedan, who had been playing in the mountains all day, fell asleep near instantly in her room.

After all, she was too young to understand what was going on.

She must’ve thought that Gera-unni had obtained the bread through work.

She must’ve thought that it was her share of the bread that’s left for her on the table as usual.

There was no way that she would’ve known that no one gives work or money to the children of traitors.

Because of that, she didn’t learn the weight behind the bread that she ate for years.

Karupedan’s rage and desperation began not when she had become an orphan, but when she became old enough to understand what Gera was going through.

****

Gera’s robe fluttered as if a strong gust of wind was blowing over it.

Both of her hands were raised towards me, and a red mist rose from them.

I had already swallowed a King’s Marble, and also had many more filling my mouth from cheek to cheek, so I didn’t feel that threatened.

‘Feel free to attack as much as you want. You won’t be able to touch a hair on me.’

I didn’t have anything against Gera, but this was an opponent that I had to defeat in order to progress.

To achieve the new goal I had, I needed to defeat her.

Ignoring the pose she took to attack, I casted a Meteor infused with mana and magical energy.

As expected, I felt that the strength behind this attack was something difficult to handle as of yet.

After all, at the same time as I cast the spell and thought so, the Meteor had already struck my enemy.

Despite being a God of Death, it seemed that she couldn’t stop this attack.

Similar to bullets ripping through a piece of paper, Gera’s robe was ripped apart. Her body that had been completely hidden now was in plain view.

Her skin was pale without any complexion, and she was thin enough to be mistaken for a mummy.

It was enough for me to mistake her hand and feet as roots of a tree.

If how the gods appeared was the same appearance of their forgotten memories…..

She must’ve gone through an unbelievable amount of pain.

However, the problem wasn’t her form.

It didn’t matter if she took on the form of a tree or flower.

Gera knew that she could not avoid my attacks.

She also knew of the abilities of the Awakened, since she was the one to have given them out in the first place.

Instead of avoiding my attack, she had chosen to attack, keeping both of her hands that were letting off steam up.

She kept her hands up even until my attack struck her.

However, strangely, I didn’t see any effects from her attack.

Her hands just kept on letting off steam.

I knew that dragging on this fight will cause Gera to suffer more.

I thought that the least I could do for her was to finish her off in a single hit, so I can at least reduce the amount of pain she would feel.

After all, it was a situation where I was 100% sure of my victory.

Looking at Gera, I suppressed the frustration I felt and casted Meteor again.

Nine orbs appeared in the sky, then all came crashing down at once.

However.

“Urgh! What is this…..”

I felt that my life was threatened without reason and swallowed a King’s Marble.

A minute hadn’t passed yet, but my body had moved reflexively to try to survive.

On top of that, I cast Mana Shield, which was something that I hadn’t done in awhile due to using the marbles recently.

The entire area was covered in flames.

I was standing amongst the intense flames that had enough power to turn anything into ash.

That’s right. Instead of striking down Gera, the Meteor struck me instead.

Was it because my control over my power was lacking?

No. That wasn’t the case.

Until now, no matter how critical the situation was, I didn’t fail to cast my spells properly.

Despite using powers somewhat beyond my control, I believed that this didn’t occur because of me.

Thankfully, I didn’t receive 100% of the damage.

It was quite a shock, but the damage I received was light. I could easily recover with some healing spells.

I could taste salty blood in mouth.

At the same time, I felt uneasy.

I wasn’t sure what injured my invulnerable body. I also was concerned about how my attack came back towards me.

I believed that the answers to these questions laid with Gera.

I asked her, who stayed still with her hands still raised.

“I guess this is what you meant? The power that I’ll need to face the gods I’ll be facing after you.”

“……”

Gera didn’t answer.

A confirming silence.

To better understand the current situation, I stopped my attack.

If this is Gera’s true power, then any further attacks were rash.

It wasn’t just my attack being reflected back at me, but rather the target of the attack I used being changed to me, so it was that much more dangerous.

Also, when I was talking to her, I saw her form and couldn’t hide my surprise once more.

Only her robe was torn away, while the rest of her body didn’t have a single wound.

Was there an exception to the power of the Piece of Time and Space?

Was it possible for her to break the rules the Unrivaled God set.

‘Was it an illusion or some kind of hypnosis? However, I had my Titan Boots. These boots should block all status effects. I don’t like it, but recovery comes first. The plan to take down Gera follows after.’

Staring at Gera, I casted Mega Cure.

[Target cannot be treated.]

[Target cannot be treated.]

“Damn it….. What is this bullshit!”

Gera didn’t take any damage. Compared to that, not only did I take a small amount of damage, but the effect from the Piece of Time and Space that denied healing was applied on me.

It was hard to believe this situation.

I felt as though I’ve fallen into a perfectly orchestrated trap.

Gera remained still even now, and didn’t attack me at all.

It seemed that she wanted me to continue attacking until I would collapse from exhaustion.

Calming myself down from the encroaching suffocating anxiety, I reorganized my thoughts.

The biggest issue was the attack that came at me.

However, trying to understand this part was a contradiction in its own.

I could only assume that this was Gera’s ability.

I didn’t know if she was controlling me or the attack projectiles.

If it was the first, then I couldn’t guarantee victory.

However, if she really was controlling me, then I would be still casting spells on myself.

If it was the latter? I would have a chance if I tweak my attack pattern even a little bit.

Second issue was that Gera did not take any damage.

She had received my skill with a 100% attack success rate directly.

She didn’t dodge or defend at all, and I had confirmed landing my spell directly on her with my own two eyes.

However, instead of receiving any damage, only a bit of her robe was torn.

It didn’t make any sense.

Was it because fire type attacks like Meteor didn’t work on her?

This theory also didn’t make sense.

The Piece of Time and Space allowed me to completely ignore resistances of my enemy.

Taking that into account, what type of attack I sent out didn’t matter.

The inside of my head had gotten complicated enough to give me a headache.

Continuing to ponder, I had arrived at a point where I could not even believe in her existence.

No matter how I looked at it, I couldn’t come up with an answer.

Was there a secret to the area surrounding us, similar to how it was for Hai Yanta and Lai Yanta?

Was it possible that the Gera was facing was just an illusion?

I had to find a clue.

I carefully cast Frost Orb.

It was a pure Frost Orb that wasn’t mixed with mana or magical energy.

It was because I had come to the realization that my attacks could return back to me.

“……”

The Frost Orb flew towards exactly where I had aimed for.

She was able to reflect Meteor, but not Frost Orb?

I tried to think of the difference between the two skills.

First, I knew that the type didn’t matter, so I put that out of the equation.

The skill’s level. It could also be that one was transcended, while the other wasn’t.

Also, Meteor Call was an area of effect spell, but Frost Orb was a single target spell.

“Ah, whatever!”

Risking the damage being returned to me, I cast Meteor.

I couldn’t find a clear answer, and there really wasn’t any other method.

However, the result was quite satisfying.

The attack that I had thought would strike me smashed into the pool of lava instead, where no one was.

This made me remember a monster back in the level 34 dungeon.

An elongated circle shaped monster that looked similar to a mirror hung up on a wall of a room.

That monster perfectly reflected the attack I casted.

This situation was very similar to how that creature reflected both the skill’s amount and type down to the dot.

It was only a theory, but it was also true that it had weight to it.

It seemed that Gera had the ability to completely reflect the attack that she received towards the attacker.

The unsolved mystery was on how she didn’t receive any damage doing so.

It wouldn’t be too late to figure out that part after I proved this theory.

‘I don’t know what type of shield she’s using, but I will penetrate it eventually. I cannot use the same attack two times in a row. I have to do only one at a time.’

Before attacking, I looked through my skill list.

The amount of skills that filled the list made me wonder just when I learned so many of them.

If my calculations were correct, each skill could be divided into four levels of power.

The power of a regular Awakened. Empowered by mana. Covered in magical energy. And finally, both infused with mana and magical energy.

And even excluding the attack skills on the list, I could conjure up at least 200 different methods of attacks with my mastery over mana and magical energy.

Gera didn’t attack anyways.

Instead, she merely waited for me to.

Near her, I began to conjure Mana Towers.

One only from mana, and another mixed in with mana and magical energy.

“It would be great if I made the right guess…..”

“……”


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I Never Run Out of Mana Chapter 175

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175. Meeting with the God of Death, Gera (2)

“Kehehe. Do you see that area that’s burning bright red? That’s where Gera, the God of Death, lives.”

“Right.”

The place that Karupedan pointed with their finger looked like a place one would imagine if they thought of hell.

The floor was bubbling with lava, and pillars of flames rose up out of the ground all over the place.

However, I didn’t hear any painful screams.

Well, the stereotypical images of what we imagine heaven and hell to be like were made from our own minds, so there should be differences between that and the reality.

It didn’t seem that the wicked were punished and good deeds were rewarded.

To me, who was walking over there without much concern, Karupedan asked.

“Hm? Did you not hear from Barub? And what Lai Yanta spoke of before……”

“I heard.”

“Huh? But you’re still going to kill Gera?”

“……”

“I thought that this fight would be the most interesting one, but it doesn’t seem so?”

All the gods had agreed to destroy Earth.

The only person to stand against that was Gera.

However, it must’ve been too much to stand against everyone alone.

Instead, Gera had empowered the humans with special abilities.

What we were blessed with were the powers of the Awakened.

Not only that, but Gera had made skillbooks, artifacts, weapons, armor, and other items that assisted in the growth of the Awakened.

As if amused by what Gera created, Karupedan had created additional items far beyond the powers of what Gera could create.

What both of them created helped humanity.

However, the reasoning differed for each of them.

Gera had created them to save humanity.

Karupedan did so to watch humans struggle as they died.

The only god to have assisted the humans, Gera.

Karupedan must’ve thought that I couldn’t kill Gera.

Without the interference of the Unrivaled God, I would be far too lacking to defeat Gera myself.

After all, since Gera had given me this power, this same god could take it away.

However, the host to this game was the Unrivaled God, Karupedan.

That’s why it would be impossible for Gera to steal back the powers gifted to us, even if it’s to survive.

Of course, this was only taking into account of our combat capabilities.

What Karupedan was truly aiming for was humanity’s nature.

You could say that this was similar to how they had created an illusion of my mother during the previous test.

After observing me all this time, I didn’t understand why they still thought so.

To think that someone as pathetic as this held the title of  Unrivaled God ruling over all domains.

It was enough to make me smirk from how absurd it was.

Not even looking at them, I spoke to Karupedan.

“Haven’t I already proven myself in the test to obtain the power of the Piece of Time and Space? I won’t be shaken by petty emotions. To be precise, I do my best to make sure that I don’t.”

“Without the help of Gera, humans would’ve been butchered already. Kehe. You’re planning to repay that goodwill with murder?”

“I think you still don’t understand what humans really are like. It’s pretty common between humans to pay favor with acts that would turn them into sword enemies. Anyone can do it, and it can happen to anyone. It’s nothing big.”

“Hehe….. This is more amusing than I thought? This is far outside of my expectations. I’m pleased!”

“So why didn’t you make us better?”

“…….”

“Also, how would you know for sure? Gera could’ve given us power just to watch us suffer like you did. How could we know for sure that Gera wanted to really help us. And if this God of Death was going to help us in the first place, Gera should’ve done a better job. Don’t you think so?”

“Hehe. Sure. You should confirm it yourself. Gera won’t be an easy opponent.”

“As long as I have King’s Marbles, I can face anyone.”

“Hm…. Is that so? I’ll see you in a bit. After you prove what you just said, that is.”

“What are you saying……”

“Heh. Then go on ahead.”

*****

“It’s hot enough to suffocate here.”

Matching the scenery, an intense heat followed.

Well, this place was the equivalent to the inside of an active volcano.

For a place that a god who has blessed us humans lived, this place seemed far more barren than the places that the Goddess of Light and God of Darkness lived at.

Perhaps due to this god residing over death, this place felt as though it should be hosting the most wicked and cruel god instead.

It was then.

“You’ve arrived?”

“……..”

“You’ve heard from Karupedan already, right? I am Gera.”

“Uh? Yes……”

Draped in a black robe, Gera appeared.

The black rope covered this god’s entire body.

One could easily mistake this as just moving cloth.

This god’s voice was nothing like any of the other gods’ voices.

Even with gods that did not have a gender, I could at least differentiate their voices between masculine and feminine, but it was impossible with Gera.

The sound of a machine? Inbetween? There was no way to describe it.

Their voice was something that wasn’t in either category.

Not only that, but this god was speaking respectfully towards me.

For a god who ruled over all domains to respectfully address a human of all species was a concept that was hard to grasp.

At their mannerism towards me, I also naturally found myself addressing them with respect as well.

“I was waiting for you.”

“……”

“In your travels here, I can see that both your body and heart has weathered vast amounts of injuries from both large and small winds.”

“Um……”

“I am aware already. You must be here because of Karupedan’s greed. Hai Yanta. Lai Yanta. You’ve met the two of them already, right?”

“Yes, that’s right. Did the two of them come for you? Since you hold domain over death, I guess that’s obvious.”

“No. They did not come to me.”

“……”

“I wonder if Karupedan’s curiosity has been sated somewhat. The two of them seemed to have completely been obliterated from existence. After all, even though I hold domain over death, I wasn’t able to see them.”

“Is that so. Then you must be aware of why I’ve come here, right?”

“Yes, that is the case.”

“I’ve heard. You’ve given help to the humans. The power of the Awakened, artifacts, and the such…..”

“Help…. I’ve only given a chance. I gave humans a chance to rise up on their own two feet. A chance to prove that they can face and withstand the ridicule and trickery of the gods.”

“I wonder. Do you think that we’re doing well as you had hoped?”

“Of course. Plenty. Humans have shown me potential far beyond what I had hoped for. They’ve done so until now, and I have no doubts that they’ll continue to do so in the future.”

“……”

“Your expression doesn’t seem well. I guess it’s been hard to accept? That you have to continue killing in order to progress.”

“Hm…. I was happy that I had obtained a new goal.”

“As expected. After all, conquering the demonic realm threat had accomplished your goal.”

“Yes. Until I met you, that was the case. I even saw loneliness and emptiness in that crazy god who is probably watching us from somewhere even now.”

“They are a lifeform that has to live eternally, for who knows how long.”

“Is it because you two are blood related? Despite not being able to see a peep of your face and the rest, I can feel the same feeling from you.”

“To think that you can read into it that far. It seems that you’ve far surpassed the limits of humans. It’s not because of the new abilities you’ve obtained, but because you can sympathize with those in a similar situation as yourself, right? Now, what will you do?”

“…….”

“It seems that I’ve asked a pointless question. Seems as though you’ve already made your decision ahead of time.”

“That’s right. I did boast it to Karupedan, but it seems that standing before you, I cannot say a word of it.”

“Will you defeat me and progress forward?”

“Yes. I have decided to. And I have to.”

“The order in which Karupedan introduces the gods. What do you think it means?”
“…..”

“It seems that you’ve caught on from my question.”

“Is it the strength of the gods? That won’t be an issue. Even if strong opponents keep appearing before me, I won’t lose.”

“I suppose that you’ve put your faith in the King’s Marbles.”

“That’s right. It’s an artifact with an absolute rule from the Unrivaled God. I can’t help but put my faith in it.”

“There will be 3 more gods after me. You won’t be able to surpass them with your current pride.”

“What do you mean…..”

“I am not an existence that gives help to humans. I merely give them the chance. The answer, you must find on your own. However, I can tell you that after defeating me, the ability you gain may serve as the chance I’ve mentioned.”

“Is that so….. I don’t harbor any ill intent towards you…. But you are aware, right? Karupedan, god who shares your blood, has offered me this insane deal.”

“Of course. I am aware. I always thought that a day like this would come.”

“Then……”

At the same time as me swallowing the King’s Marbles, Gera’s attack began.

****

“Karupedan! What have you been doing here all this time?”

“Hehe. Gera-unni. 1 Look at this. I brought them from the mountain in the backyard.”

“What if you lost your way! You. You’re going to get scolded when we get back home!”

“Hehe. If you take a bite of this, you probably won’t. It’s really tasty. I brought it back for you, unni.”

“Let’s get back home quickly. Night will fall soon.”

“Yep!”

Holding each other’s hands tightly, the two sisters headed for the worn down home that radiated a dim flickering light.

While still in the Larkenta’s holy land territory, this was a house secluded far off from the rest.

The small child appeared to be somewhere between the age of 6 to 7, and her sister, who seemed a bit bigger, appeared to be only 10 years old.

The interior of the home they opened the door was far more shabby than the exterior.

Other than the small candle they lit for lighting, there was no warmth to be found.

A frigid home without parents, family, or anyone to greet them.

The basket on the kitchen table that should’ve been filled with bread was empty, and only chipped and cracked tableware was present.

It was a situation where one should be worried about today’s meal.

Yet the two of them had bright smiles on their faces, seemingly without reason.

Karupedan, who had searched all over the mountain for fruits and had now put them on the table, had climbed up onto the chair and was tapping the floor impatiently.

Briefly enjoying the scene with satisfaction, Gera quietly opened the cupboard and took out a fist sized bread to hand it to her.

“Here. Eat up.”

“Hehe. What about you, unni?”

“Unni got tired of waiting and ate some ahead of time.”

“That’s not fair! We should’ve eaten together!”

“Hmph! Why did you come so late then? If you’re late again like today, I’m going to eat all of it next time.”

“Hehe!”

“You were hungry, right? Is it good?”

“Yep!”

It was expected that a war that waged on for dozens of years produced orphans.

Those children would stay with their neighbors, or if lucky, go to the castle and do odd jobs to barely keep afloat.

These two were also orphans from the war, and despite not sharing blood, due to being in the same situation, they relied on each other more so than how actual siblings would.

But why? Why were the two of them living alone without anyone caring for them?

The reason why these children didn’t receive any help from around them was simple.

It was because they were the children of traitors.

Their parents committed crimes, and after a very long period of torture, were pitifully executed.

In Larkenta, no child below the age of 15 were killed.

No matter what crimes they committed, or even if they are the children of criminals.

This was a rule that had been followed for a very long time, and it hadn’t been broken once.

As Karupedan was eating her bread with a smile, the rotting door opened with enough force to break.


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I Never Run Out of Mana Chapter 174

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 174. Meeting with the God of Death, Gera

After I defeated the God of Darkness, Hai Yanta, the Unrivaled God Karupedan appeared.

They must have been observing this fight from somewhere.

They had an angry look in their eyes and a scowl on their face.

It must be because of the King’s Marbles.

They must know that by bringing a mountain-load marbles with me, I could defeat anyone excluding themselves.

I bluntly asked the speechless Karupedan.

“Why are you staring at me like that?”

“Uu……. Obvious victories are no fun.”

“I’m just doing as you decided, right? I’m perfectly following those rules you’ve set.”

“Kehe. I guess so. Shall we go meet another god?”

“Huh? Well, sure. Do as you will……”

I thought that they had just looked over this a lot easier than I thought they would have.

It was strange.

If they changed the rules to which we’ve agreed upon now, it was true that it’d be a huge problem for me.

Karupedan continued to walk forward slowly.

Usually, they would’ve teleported my snapping their fingers.

From the beginning, it was incredibly difficult to even guess at what they were thinking.

“But you know.”

“Hm?”

“The God of Darkness, Hai Yanta, died.”

“Yep!”

“To cut to the chase, will Earth’s nights disappear?”

“Hey. What do you take me for. Have you forgotten that I am an Unrivaled God?”

“Ah……”

“All those you will be killing going forward, I can do all their jobs in their stead, so don’t worry. Their duties were carried out by such trivial powers. There’s no way I couldn’t do them, is there?”

“…….”

“Kehe. Right. I will eventually die by your hands too, right?”

“You speak of it so easily that it’s hard to comprehend for me.”

“You wouldn’t know. A life where you welcome and look forward to death. What would a human know, when they only live a hundred years?”

“I guess so. So what will happen once you die?”

“You can do it instead.”

“Huh?”

“Didn’t I mention this before? If you kill a god, all their abilities are transferred onto you. Even the powers I have, you will inherit.”

“Are you telling me to feel the same pain you’ve felt until now?”

“Kehe. Dunno, not sure what will happen. You’ve heard already from Barub, right? As expected, he speaks too easily.”

“……”

“It’s as Barub said. I was a god from the start. I don’t remember anything before that. Even though I’m an Unrivaled God who holds the reins of the celestial plane. Isn’t that funny? Despite not even remembering my past, I control all dimensions.”

“……..”

“However, it’s different for you, right? You’re slowly building up your strength to rise to the up. There’s no guarantee that you’ll go through the same process. Not only that, but you’ll keep your memories of the past.”

“I asked a pointless question. After all, none of your mean spirited pranks will end until I kill you.”

“Kuhut. True, true.”

“But why are we walking towards the next destination? We can go there easily, can’t we?”

“No real reason. Just because. I guess I want to enjoy what time remains? Look around. Isn’t it beautiful and wonderful?”

“Whew…. Sure. Who’s next?”

“Lai Yanta. The God of Light. Light and darkness. If only one of them disappear, then the other becomes pointless. There needs to be light in order for darkness to stand out, and there needs to be darkness for light to be beautiful.”

“Hard to believe that the one saying this ordered me to kill them.”

“Heh. Is that so?”

I followed them for a long while.

In Earth’s time, it seemed that we had been walking for over 3 hours.

Karupedan was walking far ahead of me, and looking at their back, I felt a sense of loneliness.

Is it because I’ve come to grasp their past and future somewhat? I knew that they had a part in the portals that appeared on Earth, but I couldn’t help but feel pity.

Soon, the god stopped in their tracks.

It seemed that we had arrived at our destination.

They directed me towards where I needed to go by raising their chin, then promptly hid their form.

There, I could see a cube shaped tunnel.

Similar to an entrance of an evacuation bunker, a door on each side made a small doorway.

Walking over there at once, I opened the door and went down.

A light so intense that I nearly couldn’t open my eyes lit up the entire area.

Almost as if starting at the sun, I felt pain in my eyes.

No matter how much I had physically grown, it seemed that I couldn’t do much against the light emitted from a god.

Without a choice, I had to close my eyes and rely on Eye of Insight as I moved forward.

Going down the last step, it happened as I arrived on the smooth floor that seemed polished.

“What…. Are you? Are you the one who killed Hai Yanta?”

“……”

I could hear a clean and pure voice, as if jade marble was rolling around.

The source of the voice was a woman dressed in fancy clothing and accessories.

A peerless beauty. There was no other way to describe her beauty.

With clothing fitting of a heroine from fairy tales and slender tall height, you could say that she was the definition of what a beauty was.

However, no matter how she looked, it didn’t change the fact that she had a part in making the portals on Earth.

Fluttering her dress, Lai Yanta came closer and spoke.

“Well, I want to thank you. He had a form that was too unsightly for a god. He wasn’t beautiful at all. Isn’t that so?”

“Lai Yanta?”

“That’s right. I am the Goddess of Light, Lai Yanta. How do I look? How does my beauty that cannot be compared to his?”

“It seems everyone here is insane. Comparing this place to Earth, Earth is a really nice place to live. A fellow god like you has died. And on top of that, nothing like this had occurred before. Even still, you blabber on like a poisonous snake?”

“I figured something like this would eventually happen. To every god in the celestial plane. I didn’t expect peace to last forever.”

“……”

“The one to have you kill the gods must be Karupedan, right? On top of that, you must’ve obtained a massive amount of power from them. That’s why you were able to kill Hai Yanta.”

“Nope. The only help I got from them was being guided to this place. As you are aware, they’re quite out of their mind.”

“I guess so. If any help was given, it must be from Gera. A sympathetic God of Death. Isn’t that quite the irony? This place is quite amusing.”

“Since you know of my goal, I won’t drag this on.”

“Oh. You’re planning to kill me? Even though I’m this beautiful?”

“Are you saying that while considering the age difference between the two of us? You’re way too old. Not beautiful at all.”

“Look at how you talk….. You really aren’t beautiful at all, aren’t you human?”

“Even so, you’ll be ash when you die, just like the rest. Nothing more, nothing less.”

“Hm…. Do you really think so?”

“Yep. I guarantee it. You cannot beat me. It’s the same with all the other gods.”

“Hoho.”

“AH!”

With a deafening roar, Lai Yanta emitted a light intense enough to call it the light of the century.

Not only could I not open my eyes at all, but it was almost too bright for me to see her form using my Eye of Insight.

It seemed that the powerful light that was penetrating even through my closed eyes was making me lose my sight.

Urgently swallowing a King’s Marble, I tried to block the light with my hands.

“I’m not sure how it was with Hai Yanta, but it’ll be different with me.”

“……”

I could feel my body burning up in an instant.

At the wave of her hand, the light became solid projectiles and flew towards me, causing a massive explosion.

To think that I’d be able to feel hot despite consuming a King’s Marble.

Not only that, but to think that even during my invincible state, I couldn’t stop the light from blocking out my sight.

I didn’t take any serious damage, but I couldn’t hide my surprise at how much it was affecting me.

Was this the reason why Karupedan didn’t say much regarding the use of the marbles?

I felt slightly more afraid of the powers that the gods I’ll be meeting in the future wielded.

Covering my eyes with one hand, I raised the other. Then.

“What? You unsightly fool!”

“I don’t like seeing that beautiful face pathetically crumple. Seems I’ll have to turn off the light?”

“Kuuu!”

The area around me and Lai Yanta was suddenly covered in darkness.

That’s right. I had used the power that I had obtained from Hai Yanta.

Lai Yanta and Hai Yanta.

Their powers were incredible and were equal to each other, but with my mana and magical energy empowering it, the darkness was enough to overpower the light.

The light that lit up the area began to shrink, and the light that she emitted also began to dim.

The darkness was slowly eating away at Lai Yanta’s light.

Quite frightened, she tried to break through the darkness that was closing in her like a cage.

If she was able to get through the encasement of darkness I put around her, she would be able to use the light left around the area and put up a desperate struggle.

However, she didn’t have enough strength to do so.

This was the first time this goddess was facing against an overwhelming force.

Without being able to put up almost any resistance, she slowly lost her light.

“Kuaaa. This isn’t beautiful. No……”

“Why didn’t the two of you get along better? To be fair, in my arsenal of magical spells, do you know I have these spells called Meteor and Iceberg? How these two skills interact with each other is exactly how your relation is to each other, I guess.”

“Kuugh! Please stop it…. Please….. The light! The light is……”

“Please get rid of it. Please. The portals and monsters. Let us live. I’m sure you’ve heard many prayers like these. Isn’t that so?”

“Kuhgh! Please……”

“Think of it as punishment for your crimes. This punishment is too light compared to what your small little head cruelly conjured up.”

“Kuuu…..”

I was able to defeat the Goddess of Light, Lai Yanta, without doing much.

All I did was use the power I obtained from Hai Yanta.

I could’ve destroyed her by a bombardment of attacks, but you could say that I chose a quicker and easier method.

This also was a chance for me to test out my new power.

Completely encased in darkness, her body turned cold and rigid, unlike the beautiful form that she had sought after.

Her beautiful form was nowhere to be seen, and it was as if I was looking at a twisted crop dried out from a drought.

At my will, the darkness dissipated, and the bright line that lit up the area had already disappeared.

From where she fell, her soul rose up like smoke and came towards me.

It was the same as when I had defeated the god of darkness.

It was the process of her power being inherited by me.

Her soul that finished leaving her body was instantly absorbed by me.

“Ah….. It’s a disgusting feeling as expected.”

“Kehe.”

“Is it amusing?”

I didn’t know when they had arrived, but Karupedan was standing right next to me.

“Nope. It’s so boring that it’s nearly unfun.”

“Then why didn’t you stop it? I’m sure that you can change the rules if you wanted to? You could even get rid of the King’s Marbles as if they never existed in the first place.”

“Then I’d have to change too much. If you didn’t have these marbles….. Then you wouldn’t be alive, and who would I be killed off by? Hehe. Moron.”

“…….”

“Kehe. Will you keep going like this?”

“Yep. There’s no point in dragging this out, right?”

“Hm…. Then let’s go. The next is Gera. The God of Death, that is.”

“Gera…..”

“Kehe. Something amusing about what I said?”

“I’m sure that you know it all already, since you’ve been sneaking peeks, right? Don’t ask me something you already know.”

“Hehe. Yes, yes. This Unrivaled God dared to upset a human. Sorry.”

“……”

“Let’s go!”

-snap!


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I Never Run Out of Mana Chapter 173

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173. Be Careful of What You Say

Hai Yanta had the form of a white haired old man.

It looked as though he had difficulty even staying upright.

His hands continued to shake, and his body was drooping without any vitality behind it.

Even still, his mouth kept blabbering on.

“Kuhu. You humans think that you are above the rest. Well there are parts that I do acknowledge. You all have a decently high intelligence, are able to adapt to the environment, and made quite the progress.”

“……”

“However, do you know what the gods of the celestial plane that hold reign over your lives think while seeing all of you?”

“If it was me, I’d be proud. Isn’t that why you created us? To see us obtain enlightenment and stand up on our own two feet to progress forward…. But seeing how you speak about us, it seems that you think the complete opposite.”

“Kuhhuhhuh. Truly revolting. A mere human being makes jokes with a god? Predicts what the gods think and mocks it? This is why you humans must be completely obliterated from this dimension! Not knowing their place, thinking they’re the best, and dare challenging the gods with their recklessness and stupidity is precisely why!”

“You’re speaking nonsense, hm? You made us with such great effort, yet now you’re spouting bullshit? Telling us to die?”

“I can’t help but sarcastically laugh. I saw that you freed yourself from the monsters? I had hoped that you all would be slowly drowned to death by them.”

“I had thought it possible, but it were you gods that were behind it?”

“Planned? Not at all. We merely let it happen. All we did was to follow the playful whims of the Unrivaled God Karupedan. It was they who made the demonic race, who were created to be much stronger than you, and was also the one to connect the dimensions.”

“……”

“Ah! You call those living amongst you as the Awakened, right? Those who imitate the powers of gods that is.”

“You know well. Me, the one who’ll be killing you, is also one of the Awakened.”

“Foolish boy. Be thankful of Karupedan’s blood relative, Gera. Gera was the only one to show sympathy towards the humans and given you all power. Of course, Karupedan knew of what Gera was thinking. Of course, there was no way that the peerless god wouldn’t be aware. However, they pretended otherwise. It must have been very amusing for them. To see humans struggle and flail about trying to survive….. Kuhuhu. And on top of that, they had created skills and equipment for these Awakened, then spread them out for the taking, so how amusing must have been from them to spectate this show.”

“Guess I have to take off Gera from the death note.”

“You’ll be meeting Gera soon. Gera’s domain is over death. It will be a fate that will find you soon.”

“Is there anything else you all are to blame for? Poverty, disease, war, or anything like that. Are any of these your fault to blame.”

“Kuhahat! Don’t be so full of yourself…. Poverty? Disease? War? All of them are things that humans brought upon themselves. All of your greed had brought them upon you! That’s the true nature of humans, and that’s the class that they are. Now do you understand your situation? Human!”

“On trying to insult you, I ended up being insulted instead…. Well, let’s put the facts together.”

“…..”

“The Unrivaled God Karupedan and all the gods of the celestial plane look down upon the humans, with the exception of the God of Death, Gera, right?”

“Kuhat. Disgusting human. You show arrogance until the end……”

“I’ll take that as a yes. Next. Despite taking only a snap of a finger from Karupedan to wipe out all of humanity, I, a human being is still alive. What’s the reason? Is it because they can’t due to their blood relation with  Gera?”

“What? Pfft! As expected, you aren’t even worth facing. Of course, they could cleanly wipe you out. However, wouldn’t the pain that you humans suffer be too short then. As I have said, to watch all of you slowly die while suffering. That is the method which we truly want you all to perish by.”

“Enough. Did the peerless existence tell any of you other gods how to act before talking?”

“What?”

“I asked if any of you had received warnings before.”

“I am a god. Who would dare to command us…..”

“Listen well. No matter if you’re a god, human, or monster, it’s not okay to just blabber without thought, alright? For something you can be hit once as punishment can turn into something that deserves being smacked dozens of times. There’s a saying, seeing is believing. I’ll show you what it means soon, so enjoy it, okay?”

“Kuu…. Arrogant fool….. I shall begin the annihilation of humans starting with you. I shall send warriors of the celestial plane stronger far beyond comparison with the likes of the monsters from the demonic realm to the human realm! Every day, their lives will be a living hell. All that you share blood with and those that are acquainted with you!”

“You win the prize. Instead of being hit dozens of times, you’ll need to be hit hundreds of times.”

“Kuhuh!”

The moment that I had finished talking, I stabbed my sword into the pitch black darkness.

For some reason, his brows furrowed and he let out a painful moan.

Was it to prepare for some kind of attack? No. It was because I had thought that instead of killing Hai Yanta with my sword or skills, I should kill him with my fists.

Hearing him blabber on, an anger I did not carry before had boiled up.

My shaky determination and goal had become clear thanks to him.

I shall kill this god.

Their complacency was far beyond anything that I had felt in the human realm.

To experience it in simple terms, it was that a parent had given birth to a child.

Instead of giving the helpless child that couldn’t do anything on their own love care and love, they had wanted nothing more than the child to perish.

Not only that, they had borrowed external power to harass them.

“Your responsibility isn’t over after giving birth. You at least have a duty to follow. You don’t understand, do you? It’s been fun for you all this time, right? Great God of Darkness, Hai Yanta. Let’s get this started.”

“It’s amusing to see you only running your mouth.”

“It won’t be over easily. Until your life ends, I will bring you to the edge. I shall teach you that you cannot get used to pain. I want to teach you at least a fraction of what suffering humans had to go through.”

Above me floated a sack made from mana, similar to a speech bubble.

I shoved my hand in and pulled out a fistful of marbles.

Shoving them into my mouth, I charged at Hai Yanta with my body that had changed to the color of charred black.

Using my Eye of Insight, I saw each of my fists giving off intense sparks.

I had condensed mana and magical energy to empower my body.

The result was similar to an explosion, as if two materials that shouldn’t come into contact with each other had.

As if still amused by me, he stood still with a thin wrinkled smile and some supplies on his back.

I landed the punch on Hai Yanta’s face.

I could feel the deep impact my fist had.

Following that, as if a cannon had gone off, a shockwave of sound and quaking force rang out through the area.

I had definitely landed a critical blow.

As expected, his face was blown apart.

The path that my fist had traveled had left nothing in its wake.

I even thought that I need him to not die this easily.

“Kuhhuhuck!”

Letting out a short scream, his body melted to the floor like a melting snowman.

However, due to the King’s Marbles empowering my Eye of Insight, there was no way for him to escape my eyes.

All he did was to hide his body into the darkness in a hurry.

Using the darkness around him, he was recovering his face that had been blown apart.

He was in the middle of recovering from such a critical wound.

“Wait. Recovery?”

Wasn’t that strange?

One of the powers from the Piece of Time and Space I had obtained was the power to prevent recovery altogether.

But here he was, recovering as if that power didn’t exist.

Was it because he was a god?

That wasn’t probably it. That was near impossible.

This Piece of Time and Space was a power made and given to me by the Unrivaled God, Karupedan.

No one could break the rules that the peerless god created.

Even if the opponent was a god…..

After all, the world functioned only to the whims of Karupedan.

Following that train of logic, my conclusion was simple.

This body that I was seeing was merely a part of the whole.

To be precise, all of the darkness in my view must make up Hai Yanta.

The form of an old man he took was merely a part of his entire existence.

I now understood why he had let out a painful moan when I had stabbed my sword into the darkness.

“Oho. So it seems that this darkness itself is your body and your strength?”

“Kuhak! Karupedan! That crazy bitch had given you, a human, peerless power!”

“Feeling pain for first time? How is it? Can you withstand it?”

“Kuu……”

“Knowing your true form, I’m relieved, you know? This means that you won’t die until all the darkness in this area clears. This means that I’m able to kill you in the same way that you tried to kill humans, in a slow painful death.”

“You think that I’ll just sit here and take it! Ahhh!”

“It’ll be like that. It’ll be a one sided fight, where you’ll be the only one taking it.”

With a yell from him, spears made from darkness appeared all around and charged towards me.

However, it was impossible to pierce the body of an immortal.

All the attacks that reached me shattered powerlessly, scattering to the floor.

It was such a pathetic attack that it was almost unreasonable.

It could only be so. After all, the King’s Marbles was another rule the the Unrivaled God had created.

When I had confirmed the existence of a pure white Gate and headed to the celestial plane to face off with that god, do you know why I accepted their offer?

It was because they had said with their own mouth that I could use all the power at my disposal.

This included all of the powers of an Awakened, the Demon King’s, and even the artifacts that I could obtain.

That god must’ve not realized just how much of a disaster those words would bring.

At this rate, I would not only be able to defeat the God of Darkness, Hai Yanta, but all the other gods with ease.

“Let’s get this started properly. Kuraa!”

I kneeled in the darkness.

There wasn’t a need for me to chase after his form to attack.

My mentality was to hit and hit them again.

I gathered more mana and magical energy to my fists than my previous attack.

Following that, both my arms slammed into the ground, letting out a thundering noise.

“KUUAAAAAA!”

On the point at which my sights focused on, I continued my attack with reckless abandon.

I could see an end to the darkness that had went on endlessly.

Almost as if getting rid of a plug in a filled swimming pool, all the darkness seemed to get sucked down the point at which I was attacking.

“KUHUCK! KUHHUH!”

After regaining my composure and looking around me, I could see the beautiful scenery of the celestial plane.

I couldn’t hear the pained screams any longer, but only heard his labored breathing.

Half of the marbles in my mouth had been used up.

It must be that I had swallowed them unconsciously.

The only darkness left of Hai Yanta was the form of an old man.

Going over to him and grabbing him by his head, I spoke.

“Two, four, eight. I think roughly 10 minutes had passed?”

“Huhuh…. Huhuh…..”

“Thanks to gods like you, humans had to suffer like this for 41 years.”

“Kuhuh….. I… I am….. the darkness’….. Kuhhuh…..”

“I hope that you realize, even if you do later.”

Hai Yanta’s form was crumbled and blew apart all over.

The God of Darkness had been completely obliterated.

At the same time, I had obtained another power that I could use.

I wondered how much I could grow stronger.

It seemed that I really would arrive at a point where I would be stronger than the gods.

“If this is how things will go, even I am afraid of myself…… Even still, I’ll keep going until the end.”


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