Read Novel Full Book 2 Chapter 636
Book 2 Chapter 636
Lightning fell randomly, without distinction.
Now, they could no longer recall the splendid afternoon from just a few minutes ago. Screams and laments echoed unceasingly throughout the streets.
Perus bit his lip as he took in the entire scene, the lightning falling from the sky, the rising smoke, the shattered streets.
“Is this the scene you wished for?”
He glared at the main culprit behind this disaster.
Residue, despite having caused this horrific destruction with his own hands, was gazing down at the city with an expression devoid of emotion.
“Did we commit such a grave mistake? Did we harm someone? Or did we build this city atop someone's corpse? We did not. For hundreds of millions, billions of years, we acted for the peace of the universe. Among us were even those who never had a single day of rest.”
“……”
“…Is it so wrong to desire a fleeting happiness? Isn’t it too meager a reward for all the effort we’ve made? Was that so unacceptable to you…….”
Perus spoke in a voice half-choked with sobs.
Then the thunder and lightning ceased for a moment. The dark clouds still hadn't cleared, but the constant uproar that had never ceased finally came to a halt.
Perus looked up at the sky. Not just him, but the Absolute beings who were still conscious were also looking at Residue standing in the sky.
Residue received all those gazes.
He had realized from the middle of it all that these beings had no will to fight. Perhaps they had glimpsed the Lightning God in him.
To completely lose the will to fight just because they saw the shadow of the Ruler, even without certainty. The residents of this city still looked pathetic. To the point that Symetra and her companions, who had declared they would hunt the Ruler, seemed admirable.
“I am not so tolerant.”
“What……?”
“I said don’t make that face. It makes me want to kill you all.”
“……”
“Foolish ones, stupid ones, you blind fools. Let this be a warning. Do not ever again pretend to be pitiful victims before me.”
The murderous intent in his voice was so dreadful that some Absolutes involuntarily stepped back.
Perus almost did as well.
But he could not be overwhelmed by fear like the other Absolutes. Perus had the position of a representative.
“Is it wrong to wish for peace?”
At that question, Residue almost killed Perus.
Surely he wasn’t asking out of ignorance... or so he thought, but upon a closer look, Perus really seemed to know nothing.
“I don’t know if you are the Lightning God or not. But no one, not even the Ruler, has the right to suddenly appear and shatter our peace.”
“Pursuing peace is also a matter of context. [Perus of Eighty Shades], have you erased all memory of your experience training new Absolutes? What have you been teaching in the Top Universe all this time? Have you forgotten the very background of your own origin?” Ɍ𝐚Νօ𐌱ÈⱾ
“I have not forgotten.”
“No. If you hadn’t forgotten, you wouldn’t be pulling this kind of farce. Listen carefully, you pieces of trash.”
Residue’s voice was low but resounded loudly.
“In general, only one Absolute is born per universe. Got that? In a universe with so many living beings, only one Absolute is born who can travel to other universes. Therefore, every Absolute is a representative of their home universe. Even if the universe they belonged to has disappeared or been completely destroyed, you must not forget it, and you cannot forget it.”
“……”
“Look at the state of the world now. Not only your home universes, but even worlds we had never observed, have all merged into one. That alone is an unprecedented catastrophe, and to make matters worse, Destruction is pouring down. The people of your home universes, the ones who belonged there, are trembling somewhere in this world even now.”
Clench. Residue gnashed his teeth.
“Who can protect them? They might survive by chance. Even in this world, there are still good people left.”
It felt strange.
Residue had the feeling that someone was speaking the words he should have spoken, borrowing his own mouth.
He felt no aversion, so he surrendered himself to the flow.
“But miracles and luck do not occur in succession. No one can protect them forever. Absolutes could have become guardians. And now was the very opportunity to do so.”
Residue looked up at the sky.
“The city that never sees sunset. This place.”
Those words were true.
However, even though the sun was still up, the Absolutes were now feeling a night they never thought they would see again.
That’s how dark clouds work. Even with the sun in the sky, they can bring night.
“The heart the giant tore from himself must have been the brightest, most fiercely burning sun. You all melted in the warmth of that sun. That’s how you forgot about the Outside. The sunlight didn’t just melt away your fatigue, it melted away the anxiety and guilt you ought to carry in this era as well.”
Now, the Absolutes no longer voiced anything.
“Was there ever a crisis like this in all the history of the universe? Was there ever a time when beings like the Absolutes were more desperately needed than now?”
They looked up at Residue, swallowing even their sobs.
“Before coming here, I saw a city. A place overrun with chaos, where hunger and screams echoed through the streets. There’s nothing as cruel as the hierarchy born from the weak. To survive in a place like that, what must one do? They had to reach into the stinking dealings of the back alleys, the kinds of trades one couldn’t join without giving up their dignity. To turn away meant struggling even to fill your stomach for one night.”
“……”
“But even in such a place, people lived on tenaciously, with dignity intact. Holding onto their pride.”
Residue now understood.
That day in Meltown, the emotions he felt when he saw the humans who faced Destruction.
The word "lovable" was meant for people like them.
“Right after that, I saw this place. A city filled with beings thousands, tens of thousands of times stronger than those weak ones. All of them well-fed, warm, and looking very happy.”
“……”
“The weak fight every moment, while the Absolutes sit back and rest. Is this the right scene? At the very least, it makes me sick. This isn’t even avoidance of responsibility. It’s the forgetting of it. Is the end you all hope for just to hang yourselves as a group the moment Destruction strikes, after indulging in a roleplay in a place like this?”
It was an eyesore. Perhaps that was the most fitting expression.
Residue spoke with a sneer.
“I will not allow such a disgrace. As one who once stood above all of you.”
Rumble...
Once again, thunder roared.
“……”
And Perus,
Could not offer a single rebuttal.
He himself was the most shocked by that fact.
Righteous cause or justification.
He had thrown all that away when Sin City was founded. He had vowed that the rest of his life would be unrelated to such things.
He had lived as an Absolute for hundreds of millions of years. That was no different from an unending sacrifice, so he had felt justified. Let people mock it as a sense of entitlement. Those who haven’t experienced it couldn’t possibly understand.
Everyone here in Sin City was the same. The longer they had lived as Absolutes, the more universes they had saved, the easier it was for them to melt into this city.
Conversely, those with short experience as Absolutes could not align with them.
So he hadn’t minded.
Criticism from those who had never experienced it, who knew nothing, it never truly reached his ears.
‘But……’
That man is Lukas Trowman.
He had been uncertain due to the changed atmosphere and speech, but he realized it just now through those words. That man is indeed Lukas.
He had saved more universes in the shortest time. He had never bowed to any Ruler. Not even for a single day had he rested.
Such a man was condemning this city.
This was different from everything until now. Perus was overcome with deep shame.
Perus could not restrain himself. Half driven by impulse, he shot up into the sky. In an instant, he summoned his Soul Weapon and swung it toward Residue.
The attack was blocked. The lightning surrounding Residue's body wrapped around the mace like a whip.
“Uaaaah─!”
Perus let out a long roar.
Residue thought the roar resembled the one Gamzard had let out before he fell, and brought his hand down on Perus’s shoulder. It was a rough motion, like hammering with a fist, but the power was undeniable. Perus was slammed into the ground at twice the speed he had risen into the air.
In the meantime, Residue looked carefully into the face of each Absolute surrounding him and then spoke.
“Nitalda isn’t here.”
The representative of the most freest faction in the Council of Absolutes was not here.
“She didn’t run away, surely, and she didn't disagree with your opinions either… or did she."
“…She.”
From the sunken ground, Perus crawled out.
“She went to call reinforcements.”
“Reinforcements?”
“Your identity no longer matters. Whether you’re Lukas Trowman, the Thunderous Lightning God, or some other being. One thing is certain. Your presence shatters the peace we barely managed to obtain.”
“……”
“I know. I do. I know it’s not right. It's true that we’re forgetting our responsibilities. But aren’t many people living that way? Avoiding what they don’t want to face, putting off what they don’t want to do.”
“You are.”
“Absolutes, right? So we shouldn’t do that. Goddamn it. Do you think we don’t already know that!”
Perus slammed his fist into the ground. Crack, fissures spread instantly across the surface.
“We know, and still, we've come to desperately want it anyway! Rest, paradise……! Yeah. It’s a lowly desire. A childish craving for compensation. If we exposed this mindset to others, we’d be met with contempt or ridicule. That’s why Sin City is a city for us alone. Only Absolutes can accept the escape of Absolutes.”
“……”
“It seems you truly detest the existence of this city, founded upon such thoughts. However, there was one.”
“What was?”
“A being who agreed with our judgment……!”
At that moment, Residue sensed an ominous premonition that could not be ignored.
A familiar sensation, yet one he never wanted to become familiar with.
The feeling of an imminent, life-threatening crisis.
“That being told us our choice was the wisest. He believed he could eliminate every threat on his own anyway. Isn’t it ironic? The Ruler, who stands atop the Absolutes, someone completely opposed to us, was the one who agreed with our opinion?”
Residue felt he knew who Perus was referring to as that being.
Before he could open his mouth, a sickening squelch was heard. The sound of flesh being crushed. Before he could even determine where the sound came from, searing pain erupted from his chest.
“……”
A large hole had been pierced through his chest. A moment later, blood surged up his throat.
Drip.
This was on an entirely different level from a strike by some random nobody.
Recovery or regeneration wasn't easy, and his consciousness was rapidly fading. It was proof that this attack had dealt critical damage not just to the external force surrounding Residue, but to his very essence.
This isn’t good.
Because Residue was not a Transcendent Being, damage to his body was exceedingly fatal.
“So. You found your lost sword……?”
Residue murmured with a crooked smile.
Yes.
Lately, things had been going too well for this body. In that dazed thought, he briefly forgot the pain and let out a dry laugh.
Residue looked toward the edge of the city.
Perhaps toward something even farther beyond.
He couldn’t even begin to guess how far away the sniper had been, but he had experienced this power once before.
…It wasn't only Residue who had been keeping an eye on the beings of the [Top Universe].
Naturally, the Half King’s forces had likely taken this overwhelming power into account as well. If even they decided to fight against Destruction, things would become even more troublesome.
Just before losing consciousness, Residue saw the being who had shot him.
Clad in red armor and wearing a cape, the figure looked more like a hunter than a knight.
“Ah, as I thought……”
This body,
Really hates the Four Knights.
*****
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