Star Cleaving.
Though classified as a special combat technique, it was essentially Aslan’s unique skill, which could be described as the culmination of twelve years of Aslan’s existence.
Witnessing divinity and cleaving through everything divine and otherwise in one stroke.
It was a sword strike that consumed all possible zeal to unleash dozens of instances of a deity’s technique, matching its power with a decisive blow.
Such a lethal move was about to rain down on Aslan like an endless storm.
The countless arms of Supreme Divinity stretched out chaotically behind them.
The sword strikes refined by boiling divine power were tracing paths toward Aslan, burning away his omniscience as they approached.
Even before being unleashed, it was terrifyingly powerful.
The posture alone was enough to send shivers down one’s spine.
This was the very origin of Supreme Divinity Aslan cutting through all evil deities, including the Veil of Benevolence.
Facing this was merely one human.
Yet Aslan stood firm, assuming a stance.
The broken hilt of purity.
Gripping the unusually long handle tightly with both hands, he twisted his body.
The stance resembled Star Cleaving but was subtly different.
Firstly, he wasn’t holding the blade, and his body was twisted even more than when using Star Cleaving.
Moreover, the difference wasn’t just in posture.
It wasn’t Star Cleaving; it was an unnamed sword dance of the Supreme Divinity.
Purity, which itself was a law and a world.
Purity, crafted by the ancient deity compressing their divinity to its limits.
Because of this, purity carried the law of being unbreakable, something that had never broken until now. This was a sword dance capable of shattering such purity.
In short, it was a superior law to purity itself.
Aslan had reached the future Geladridion.
Confronting the failure of a world reduced to ruin, he realized the reason why there were no evil deities left in this world.
The entire traveling party was dead, save for Number 13.
Aslan too had perished.
Still, the plan at Kehil had succeeded.
All evil deities were dead because of it, leaving only the task of killing the remaining living evil deity.
An impossible feat for the two survivors, yet Aslan had undoubtedly accomplished it.
Through a principle surpassing purity.
A sword strike that melted frozen worlds, reversed entropy, and could slay a deity.
The first and last martial art of Supreme Divinity, achieving the impossible.
And now, Aslan held that purity which had achieved the impossible.
He also understood that purity was needed to bring down this failed future version of himself.
Aslan realized he had to recreate the final martial art of Supreme Divinity to overthrow his own failure.
It wasn’t a difficult task.
After all, Aslan was a veteran of combat.
Over twelve years, he had made the system and skills entirely his own.
Thus, it wasn’t an impossible feat.
The problem was not knowing what kind of attack this would be or how it would manifest.
There was no guarantee that this technique could kill two evil deities separated by a considerable physical distance.
So Aslan hesitated.
Once used, there would be no going back.
Purity would break, and there was no guarantee that another strike could follow.
Both targets had to be eliminated in this one strike.
Only one chance existed.
Swallowing his saliva, Aslan gripped his sword.
Beside him stood the captain.
Or rather, the captain was collapsing.
The last captain—thanks to the predator’s divinity, he defied several laws to exist, but without it, he couldn’t survive.
Death was imminent.
The captain was well aware of this fact.
Facing death, the captain calmly read Aslan’s thoughts via the communication function.
A moment passed, and the captain thought.
He thought rationally and logically.
Despite crumbling, losing 99% of his power due to the loss of divinity, he remained calm.
His conclusion was clear.
Preserving himself and prolonging his brief life was meaningless compared to aiding and ensuring Aslan’s success—the only viable option.
The captain had already let go of being Lee Hyun-woo.
While it would be a lie to say there was no regret, he didn’t dwell on it.
He was the commander-in-chief of the Human Union and the last captain of the colony ship ‘Noah’s Ark.’
He always moved for humanity’s victory.
“Unit 1-3!”
The captain shouted. The mechanical voice cracked as the collapse progressed.
Following the unexpected shout, the captain prioritized Aslan’s survival over his own, much like the main AI Predator of the spaceship did.
Because contributing to humanity’s victory mattered more.
Bang!
He sprinted.
As soon as he ran, his knee joints groaned and gave way, causing his legs to collapse.
Showering mechanical parts indicated his body was wearing out.
With the divine energy engine destroyed, his energy supply was cut off, making movement difficult.
On the spot, he burned his soul to keep moving.
Passing Aslan, he ran towards the abyss where regeneration was ending.
Surprised, Aslan kept his gaze fixed on Supreme Divinity, while Unit 13 unconsciously aimed her staff at the charging captain.
The abyss, sensing the captain approaching from behind, immediately swung his massive sword.
A greatsword so wide it seemed beyond human capability, emitting a sound like bursting wind as it accelerated.
Even though swung reflexively, the sword strike possessed considerable skill.
Kraaaaaaack!
The captain did not evade the sword strike.
Instead, he took it with his body.
Since he didn’t block, the sword strike pierced straight into the captain’s head, splitting it halfway.
But it stopped there. Clutching the embedded blade, the captain felt his flesh being devoured.
The nature of the abyss, the characteristic feature of its omnipotent material.
Even after being consumed, the captain’s essence remained potent due to Aslan’s inherent nature, allowing the abyss connection to activate only within the flesh of the man who was once Aslan.
That was what the captain targeted.
Clutching the blade embedded in his head firmly, he converted his soul into divinity.
The divinity neutralized the connection between the abyss and the abyss-consumed Aslan.
The loosened connection. Shadows falling from the ground.
As the connection with the abyss broke, the captain shouted.
“[Ho], la!”
Hearing this concise shout, Unit 13 raised her staff.
She didn’t ask if it was permissible or why he was doing this.
She simply grasped her staff and cast magic.
A massive amount of mana coalesced.
Then, the magic usable only by Unit 13 in Geladridion flashed from her staff.
Thus, the sky split open.
From the split sky emerged a star.
A long-tailed, flaming star.
The pinnacle magic of the Manifestation School.
Comet.
Kwa-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga!
A spell that colored the sky red upon its mere appearance.
The strongest Manifestation School magic tore through the sky where Unit 13 floated, descending diagonally toward the abyss.
And struck directly.
As the flame pushed the abyss back, the captain was also thrust away.
Flame and shock. Too powerful an attack for either the deity or the former deity to resist as they were hurled together.
Naturally, the captain, devoid of divinity, couldn’t endure.
Crash! Mechanical parts rained down like hail, shattering into pieces.
Within this chaos, the captain saw fleeting memories.
A life filled with loss, failure, and defeat.
Upon reflection, the ending wasn’t too bad.
He closed his eyes.
“I entrust it.”
As consciousness faded, his soul dissolved.
Kuuuuuuhhhhh!
Mechanical parts shattered by the comet ascended into the sky, and amidst the burning metal shards, the abyss was thrust away.
Its trajectory. The barely recovered abyss hovered beneath it.
Still, the impact of flight couldn’t be halted. Gradually, as the distance between the abyss and Supreme Divinity shortened, Aslan stiffened his stance.
Like stars aligning, the trajectories of the abyss and Supreme Divinity overlapped.
An unexpected three-way battle.
Nevertheless, the three versions of Aslan moved simultaneously.
Kwaaaaaa!
As flames fell, the abyss reclaimed its abyssal domain and expanded it.
Supreme Divinity used all its arms to execute Star Cleaving.
Aslan, gripping the broken hilt tightly, twisted his body further.
Then light settled on the broken blade.
A darkly gleaming light, reminiscent of the universe.
That light became the blade.
Growing from the broken part, it transformed into a sword shaft adorned with stars and galaxies.
When the broken purity clutched by Aslan embraced the universe and advanced.
At the point where the three Aslans collided, the sword dance of Supreme Divinity unfolded.
Supreme Divinity.
Not the Supreme Divinity swallowed by Aslan, but the true Supreme Divinity that reached the pinnacle of nothingness and vanished.
Supreme Divinity thought.
What is the ultimate nothingness?
He focused on the fact that nothingness manifests not in those born strong but in those who can be trained—relatively weaker beings.
The war and knowledge he absorbed followed the same pattern.
He wasn’t a deity exceptionally powerful among gods.
Born human, his powers were simple.
Yet he killed the void and chaos reigning as king of gods and became king himself.
Through these memories, Supreme Divinity grasped the essence of nothingness.
Nothingness is the power to overthrow the strong.
It exists for the inherently weak to topple those stronger than themselves.
The nothingness perfected by Supreme Divinity concentrated on this.
A form of nothingness where even the humblest being could fell the mightiest deity.
Aslan understood this the moment he swung.
The storm of Star Cleaving and the abyss spreading across Geladridion in various forms of nothingness.
Amidst this, the broken purity emitted light.
Hundreds of sword trajectories.
An absolute combination that could sever any divinity.
An invasion from another realm capable of consuming the world.
Among this chaos, Aslan’s blade alone moved darkly and proudly.
Weak and feeble, lacking in strength.
Appearing unable to withstand the overwhelming violence and divinity.
Yet, unmistakably, a transformation occurred centered around this feeble blade.
The cleaving Star Cleaving. The closest fragment split just before contact.
Overlaying the drawn sword path was the broken purity dyed in cosmic light.
This new sword path overlaid Star Cleaving.
Leaving a trace.
As Supreme Divinity and the abyss gazed at the proud sword path, despite the mark remaining, time rewound.
Aslan assumed a different stance.
And swung again.
This time, the incoming abyss assault split.
Time rewound again, and Aslan adjusted his stance once more.
Attacks that descended like stacked leaves toward Aslan gradually disappeared each time he swung.
All that remained in space was the serene sword path Aslan traced.
Traces overlaying traces, the cosmic light veiling the abyss.
Gradually filling the space as the traces accumulated.
Finally, Aslan’s sword came to a halt.
The space was filled with sword traces.
To the extent that neither the form of Supreme Divinity nor the abyss could be seen.
Aslan exhaled deeply.
Supreme Divinity didn’t name the technique.
As if leaving it as a farewell gift, he left it unnamed for someone else to christen.
There was no way to guess how or why the technique was created.
Yet, instinctively, the name surfaced in Aslan’s mind.
A combination of divine fatal blows capable of severing even the mightiest divinity.
“God Killing.”
As the light surrounding the broken purity dissipated, time flowed rapidly.
The sword traces that gripped space were individually severed by Aslan, leaving afterimages.
An unfathomable number of fatal strikes.
Each attack and defense, every divinity severed, threatening existence itself.
Each fatal strike possessed a power and principle surpassing Star Cleaving.
Yet, despite its immense power, there was no process.
Only the act of cutting existed.
No resistance was possible.
No defense could stand.
The technique was the ultimate counterattack, capable of halting even divinity and destruction.
It was a supreme martial art that could slay even the most formidable evil deity.
Absolute like the system and self-created by the Dark Ram.
For a moment, Aslan transcended evil deities.
When the silent sword dance ceased, and the purity in Aslan’s hand crumbled.
Supreme Divinity and the abyss shattered into fragments.
