<h4>Chapter 1612</h4>


    Light was everywhere. The darkness must be purified. Nevertheless, there was darkness because the light had gone away for a while and the reason why the light went away was ack of faith.


    ''Pagan bastards.''


    The wave of light formed by the 18 divine weapons—it was a magnificent and holy sight. It was enough of an opportunity to awaken true faith. However, their eyes were blinded and they turned away from the light. The reaction of the frowning humans was captured in Zeratul’s vision and senses. Exactly 87,598 people. No matter where they hid, he could see it clearly. He clearly read what type of expression they were making.


    Zeratul was furious. He was a god derived from beings who worshiped and long for martial arts. Therefore, he was the only god who didn’t have much to do with Goddess Reba. However, wasn’t it Goddess Reba who created the world in the first ce?


    Zeratul worshiped Reba. He couldn’t stand by while those who had been made out of Reba’s kindness rejected the light. Turning away because the light was dazzling? It was sphemy. High treason.


    The wave of light that was cut in half by Grid swirled. It spread everywhere in response to Zeratul’s will. The holy weapons guided the light. The 18 holy weapons targeted and shot at humans, causing a chain bombardment of light. As always, it was Grid who protected the people.


    He used Request to Stand With Me and activated the rain of battle gear, blocking and twisting the trajectory of the 18 holy weapons. Thousands of weapons struck and blew away the holy weapons, while thousands of armors and shields isted the light, reducing the bombardment range. Eventually, the particles of light that caused an explosion hit the people, but the electric barrier created by Noe almost surrounded the entire city to protect them.


    “My master’s ves will be guarded by this Noe!”


    Thanks to the help of 4th Seat, Betty, Noe was able to use the power of the thunder stone more efficiently. He was full of confidence. He actually achieved the result of protecting people and ran wildly with excitement. He used the darkness in the hearts of the terrified people to forcibly raise demonic energy and transformed into an adult. He pounced at Zeratul with a wide open mouth.


    He was someone who could jump and y with the crazy hatchling in the tower for a while. He wasn’t afraid because his opponent was a god. Noe meant to devour Zeratul whole. He wanted to transfer Zeratul’s abilities to Grid, but he had too much courage.


    “Yip!”


    The daring Noe didn’t even reach Zeratul. The colorless divinity surrounding Zeratul was acting as a self-defense force. Unlike ordinary gods, he didn’t have a holy side. This was why the demonic creature, Noe, was brave enough to pounce. Even so, the divinity was very powerful. It might be invisible to the eye and unreadable by the senses, but it clearly caused the phenomenon.


    “I-I don’t want to, keong...!”


    Noe, who couldn’t get near Zeratul and became bloody, screamed and squirmed. He read Grid’s willingness to reverse his summoning. Noe had a hunch. This god was strong. He had enough qualifications to destroy the dignity of Grid that Noe had seen before.


    Noe didn’t want to run away. He clearly knew that the reason why Grid didn’t summon Randy and the Overgeared Skeletons was because it was meaningless, but he still didn’t listen to Grid. He refused the reverse summoning. He was afraid when he imagined Grid fighting alone and dying. He knew how deadly death or defeat was for a god.


    They had to fight together. After he became stronger with the help of Grandma Betty, he swore in front of her that he would protect Grid from now on. She had stroked his head and said she was proud. No, she clearly told him that he was special among the memphis...


    “A mere trifle.”


    He btedly heard the voice. It was after Noe refused the reverse summoning and his head was caught by something. The voice was heard only after his vision became dark.


    Noe was finally aware of his condition. He realized he had been captured by Zeratul. He thought this was better.


    His mouth twitched as he felt the pain of his skin being torn to shreds and his bones being crushed due to Zeratul’s strong self-defense. He was pleased that the other person had narrowed the distance that he couldn’t narrow himself.


    “...Nya nya nya nya nyang!”


    Noe’s Scratch and Discharge skills were deployed immediately! It urred without a dy of 0.1 seconds and resumed without a cooldown time of even 0.1 seconds. This was the majesty of the strongest demonic creature in hell. The willpower of a memphis, which even the great demons found hard to raise, was so great that the concept of casting and cooldown time wasn’t applied.


    It was meaningless. Noe’s attack didn’t even scratch Zeratul’s strong self-defense. Zeratul’s perception was far ahead of the speed at which Noe wielded his ws and generated electricity.


    A vein bulged on the back of Zeratul’s hand that was holding Noe’s head. Noe had transformed into an adult and his head grewrger in line with the growth of his body, but the concept of volume and mass was pointless before the celestial gods. Zeratul’s hands were several times smaller than Noe’s head, but he clearly gripped Noe’s head. Then he made it burst. No, he was thinking of making it burst.


    “......!”


    Zeratul took a step back. The hand that had been ced on the head of the demonic creature from hell was immediately removed and held the air. It was a gripping technique as if holding a sword. The colorless divinity stretched out in a straight line and took the form of a sword. It was held in Zeratul’s hand.


    There were still clear fingerprints on Noe’s wide forehead. The ck fur, that was caught and crushed by Zeratul, clung to the skin. There was no movement even though it was free from the pressure. This meant that the flow of time that Zeratul was moving at was overwhelmingly fast.


    Before Noe’s pressed fur could stand back up again, Zeratul held the intangible sword that he had made and swung it down strongly. A powerful sword energy prated the earth. A deep wound reminiscent of the Abyss urred and the ground shook from the inside.


    The ground couldn’t withstand the shock and spit into thousands or tens of thousands of cracks before finally beginning to sink. It had the momentum to devour everything in the city. If Garion, god of the earth, hadn’t immediatelye forward and restored thend, the city named Vex would’ve disappeared from the map at this moment.


    ‘This guy?’


    Zeratul took a step back and saw the scene of the earth, which had copsed and immediately recovered. The gesture of leisurely walking in the sky was elegant. However, Zeratul’s expression was contrary to his gesture. He was ovee with emotions like all the human beings he had just disparaged.


    He had no choice but to be so.


    The transparent sword that was approaching at this moment—Grid’s sword had a somewhat dull de, but it took advantage of its strange form. He didn’t simply subdue the resistance of the atmosphere, but made it obey him. The flow of the atmosphere followed the direction the sword was pointing. It elerated as if pushed from behind. It approached Zeratul very quickly. He had to take two steps to avoid it.


    Zeratul’s intangible sword turned red with shame and extended its range. The colorlessness divinity surrounded it more strongly. He heard the voice of the earth god Garion begging for something.


    Zeratul ignored it. He intended to cut the approaching Grid with one blow. It was so that this time, it could never be avoided. Even if it was blocked, Grid would be destroyed entirely along with the sword. He thought it didn’t matter if the world was smashed by this.


    In any case. he had already lost a lot of his divinity in the aftermath of descending to the surface. He could only break a part of the world, not all of it, with his strike. Additionally, what was the big deal if thend on which humans lived became much narrower than it was now?


    —Noe’s fur still hadn’t stood up. The world that Noe saw was still dark.


    ‘Martial God Zeratul covered my eyes and grabbed my head.’


    Noe’s thoughts stopped there. No, it was flowing. It was just that Zeratul’s time, which divided the moment into countless moments, was exceptionally fast. The world was the same as usual. Time passed normally and there was no problem with the speed of thought of Noe and ordinary people. In the center of that ordinary world—


    Zeratul walked through that extraordinary time alone and swung his sword again. A shapeless sword that was merely huge shattered the atmosphere. It was the willpower of the martial god to rebuke the attitude of the atmosphere that responded to Grid’s sword trajectory and made it fast.


    ......!


    The earth let out a soundless scream. It couldn’t withstand the high pressure and shattered. It soon turned to dust and rose into the sky. The world would be covered with yellow dust for the next few days.


    The earth god Garion didn’t want such a situation. He recalled his mission and grasped his divinity. He was pained as he recognized the ‘time of the martial god’ and reached his limit, but he still managed to connect the hundreds of thousands of pieces of earth together.


    Just then, Noe’s fur stood up slightly. Zeratul btedly grasped the situation.


    ‘Is the dragon crazy?’


    It was only when Grid narrowed the distance again, dodging and blocking the first blow, that Zeratul angrily admitted it. If he had skills like this, then he must’ve umted achievements in the past...


    Zeratul was convinced and acknowledged Grid’s achievements that he had denied so far. It was different now that even his second attack failed.


    Zeratul’s ferocious eyes fixed on Grid’s gauntlets and gaiters. Funnily enough, the armor seemed to reproduce a dragon’s outer shell. In fact, it was expected to have an excellent performance since it was a product made from dragon scales. However, he hadn’t expected it would be this much.


    Enduring the sword energy he created with the intention to destroy the world?


    Zeratul felt a sense of strangeness, especially from the cirction of mana flowing through the gauntlet. The mana circted at a high speed like the mana of a living dragon. The reason why it could be cycled without a dragon’s heart was due to the dragon’s favor. It was clear that the dragon’s favor was imbued in the gray scales that made up the gauntlets, which were sometimes tinged with red.


    At the very least, it meant that Grid’s arms would exert a durability and power simr to that of a dragon. No, it was more than that because itbined Grid’s physical power and divinity. He just checked it.


    “What a crazy dragon...!”


    Are you willing to sacrifice yourself to cooperate with Grid? Why? Why is this guy loved by so many beings?


    In the midst of the unresolved questions and unprovoked jealousy, Zeratul felt a sense of crisis. It was a situation where he was moving through the time of martial god even with the penalties from descending to the surface. His perception, body, and awareness soon reached their limits.


    On the other hand, Grid’s expression was calm as he gradually got closer. The sound of bells ringing in the distance proved it. This person hadn’t even started yet.


    Zeratul’s judgment was correct. Grid was only nowpleting the six fusion sword dance. In the aftermath of Zeratul’s attempted second swing at the sky, Grid’s corbone was smashed, there were deep cuts on his neck and chest, and his waist was half cut. His two hands holding the sword were fine.


    Grid’s willpower to fight after opening up all the power of the rune and stacking his buff skills wasn’t dampened in the slightest. A body that moved slowly even though Shunpo had been triggered several times—in a world where everything slowed down due to the extended time, Grid was thinking about Hayate’s advice.


    Overwhelming power.


    ‘I can’t give him time to recover.’


    A small attack was meaningless even if it hit dozens or hundreds of times. The thing he needed to pursue was the deadly blow. Then—


    “Drop Dragon Pinnacle Linked Kill Wave.”


    There was only this.


    [The effect of ‘Conditional Sword Saint’ has been activated.]


    [The effect of ‘Ultimate Martial Art’ has urred.]


    “Keok!”


    A gust of wind blew. Tens of thousands of people stood on the crumbling ground and stared up at the sky. Noe also had a bewildered expression. The orange divinity, which seemed like it could be extinguished immediately, was falling like a meteor.


    It was Grid. The blood he spilled turned the sky red.


    “M-Master...!”


    “Your Majesty! Your Maaaajesty!”


    The opponent was too strong. This was the martial god. How could it be a w even if their god was defeated? Noe and the people ran with all their might. They threw their bodies to cover the falling Grid.


    Just then, an orange light spread through the serene sky. The feast of the sword dance that was sometimes red, gray, and sometimes transparent, raged. It looked like the frenzy of a dragon with long horns and sharp teeth. It was Grid’s traces. It was the traces of the Overgeared God, who stood alone against the martial god in a time that ordinary people didn’t recognize.


    [Overgeared God ‘Grid’ has defeated Martial God ‘Zeratul’ who has descended to the surface.]


    The world message that emerged one stepte informed them of the exact result.