Barbarian in a Failed Game

Chapter 331. God of Victory (2)

The Executor felt a cold shiver run down his spine at the confident stance of the man before him. The tide of this battle still leaned in his favor. He didn’t doubt that. However, the current situation introduced a significant variable to the Executor.

‘The holy power has vanished, and so has the primal force….’

Divine power and the primal force. The two largest components constituting her existence had disappeared. They weren’t omniscient but could certainly be called omnipotent powers!

“Trying to pass yourself off as a mage, huh? I can hear your wheels turning from here.”

『… You.』

“No need to overthink it.”

Khan swung his hand axe through the air as if checking his condition and said.

“It’s just that relying on scammy powers like holy power or primal force to get by has become impossible.”

The Executor already knew that without needing to be told. It wasn’t something he wanted to hear.

『Could it be… the power given to you by that fake? Did he bestow this bizarre power upon you to destroy me?』

“…Fake? Ah, that phony?”

Ha-ha-!

Khan let out a loud, mocking laugh.

“Do you think that phony has abilities like that? A being who can’t even manage a single disobedient tool and clings to a mortal? This is just my power.”

The Executor found it even harder to believe that answer. If that were the case, it would imply that the authority of a mere God was enough to strip away another God’s holy power and even obliterate the primal force.

Of course, the barbarian in front of her eyes was far too dangerous to be dismissed as a ‘mere God’.

『Alright. I understand.』

She cut off her complicated thoughts. She had been momentarily taken aback by the sudden situation, but the lack of holy power and primal force didn’t matter. After all, the foundation upon which her Godhood stood remained intact.

『This bizarre sanctuary’s power is certainly threatening. However… foolish. Within this space, losing holy power applies to you as well. In that case……』

You will be defeated.

The arrogant statement carried no hint of doubt. However, the presence that uttered those words had reached a level that proved it wasn’t mere arrogance. No longer confined within the realm of magic but a true mage.

『In the end, the limit of this sanctum is merely to strip away transcendence. Unless you degrade the power I have achieved as an entity, you stand no chance.』

The Executor assessed her current level.

The mana within her was as vast as an ocean, seemingly endless. The knowledge accumulated as an apostle of truth remained intact. This meant she was stronger than when she was called a mage.

She was certain. Even the mortal Karyan would not last long against her now.

‘What about that being from another dimension?’

It seemed impossible to even wield the ash-gray lightning. Even his body felt weaker than before he achieved divinity. In other words, weaker than Karyan at his peak. This made losing even more unlikely.

『Nothing changes.』

The Executor, gaining confidence, cast a spell.

Simultaneously, Khan launched himself forward. His movement was as swift and stealthy as a leopard.

A normal mage wouldn’t even sense their death before their head was cleaved by that hand axe.

But the Executor had numerous auxiliary spells to compensate for a mage’s lack of physical senses. The thin threads of mana spread out, fully compensating for her lacking perception.

If this were outside the sanctum, such auxiliary spells wouldn’t have helped against Khan at all…

『Got you.』

The threads of mana spread wide, mapping Khan’s path in her mind. All that was left was to establish the coordinates based on this mental map.

Woouung─! Boom!

Rocks burst from the ground of Hoarfrost Gorge, completely engulfing Khan. This was a move that required perfect prediction of Khan’s charge path.

Crack—!

However, it was far from enough to halt Khan’s charge. He tore through the rock prison in an instant and twisted his body mid-air.

The Executor swiftly formed a hand seal.

Ignition, dispersion, condensation.

A spell manifested through seals with opposing meanings, discharging like a cannonball.

The fireball, packed with mana exceeding the signature spell of the Tower Master, aimed to engulf Khan in the air. At that moment, Khan, with his whole body taut like a drawn bowstring, threw a punch.

Boom—!

The fireball exploded violently. Embers scattered in all directions, transforming into dozens of fireballs, each maintaining its fiery presence.

Boom, boom, boom!

Another series of explosions.

Even a transcendent being would have been reduced to ash without a trace. But the Executor did not let her guard down. At that moment, with a chilling sound of piercing air, the right half of the Executor’s body exploded.

『……!』

She couldn’t even scream properly. She had never experienced the pain of having half her body blown away while still alive. Rather, had anyone ever managed to strike her in the first place?

They hadn’t.

Her rationality was paralyzed. She needed to continue the spell immediately…!

But her body didn’t move as she wished. The sound roared in the distance, anchoring her frayed sanity in the midst of pain.

『You crazy─!』

It was Khan.

Though his entire skin had been charred like coal, his ashen eyes blazed, glaring fiercely at the Executor. He looked like he could leap at her any moment and sink his teeth into her neck.

『Die──!』

For the first time, she cast a spell based purely on instinct rather than rational thought.

She hastily completed a gray spell aimed solely at halting the savage’s advance. It was an embarrassing display of desperation, projecting a shockwave with nothing more than an overwhelming amount of mana poured out haphazardly.

Boom……!

『…What?』

And, almost pathetically, Khan, hit by the shockwave, was sent flying and rolled across the ground. Tumbling repeatedly, his body, already at its limit from the earlier red spell, had its arms and legs twisted, and his neck snapped.

He was dead—there was no doubt about the instantaneous nature of his death. The Executor stood dumbfounded, feeling like the dire situation from moments ago was a lie.

Really? So pathetically like this? Her arrogance and pride couldn’t comprehend Khan’s death, and she hesitated with uncertainty.

She held her breath, and several minutes passed.

『Hah…. Hahaha─!』

The Executor burst into maniacal laughter.

Wasn’t this an apt ending for a mortal who dared to defy the will of the world?

Just because they lacked holy power and origin didn’t mean their status as a God of Magic was diminished.

She would reclaim the stolen origin from that otherworldly being. Then she would return outside, regain her divinity, and finish dealing with Karyan who had been cornered. That would be the end….

“Huh?”

A voice tinged with confusion escaped from the Executor’s mouth.

There was no helping it.

『How, how are you…?!』

“Why. Did you see a ghost?”

The infuriatingly mocking voice of the barbarian echoed in her head like a hallucination. He should be dead, shouldn’t he? What was with that unscathed appearance? No, wait. This situation was exactly like the first time she got caught in that barbarian’s authority—

“Is this really the time to zone out?”

Her mind snapped back into focus.

This time, too, the Executor cast a spell toward the explosively approaching barbarian. The ghostly pain that felt like a dream made her right side tingle, but instinct took over this time.

Rumble!

It was the same response as before. She predicted Khan’s path, and rocks burst from the ground. But the result was vastly different.

『…!』

The ground split open as Khan, charging as if he anticipated it, continued forward. The rising rocks shattered at the waist, and utilizing the momentum of his charge, Khan was instantly right in front of the Executor.

『Get lost!』

Fwoosh!

The shockwave enveloped Khan. It worked this time. While Khan staggered, the Executor invoked ancient sorcery.

『I’ll obliterate you down to your soul…!』

An ancient spell that completely severed a living human’s soul from its body. The progenitor of spells used during the ‘Living Corpse’ crisis that swept the Argon Kingdom had manifested once more.

Clang—!

However, the Executor’s soul spell was repelled effortlessly. Her startled gaze saw the apparition of a huge dragon. Its maw wide open, roaring, as if mocking her.

Infuriated, the Executor simultaneously cast another spell. While maintaining the soul spell to pierce through the mental barrier, she conjured the arm of a giant once more.

Boom—!!

Khan’s body, preoccupied with resisting the soul spell, was brutally crushed.

This time, she finished it before he could even approach. She disintegrated both his body and soul.

‘With this level…’

She had no idea how he was repeating time, but with no trace left, this should really be the end of it…

“That was a bit dangerous just now. Anyway, things keep showing up. To the point of annoyance.”

Khan’s sly remark did not elicit any reaction from the Executor. She merely activated a spell with bloodshot eyes. This time, it was an entirely new spell. Khan had already realized from three previous experiences that within this sanctuary, he did not die.

Instead, upon the brink of death, time would rewind. Although the exact conditions remained unknown, it was clear that already cast spells were rendered ineffective.

Typically, a normal mage would run out of spells after a short while. However, the Executor was an exception. The rumors that she had created and mastered ten thousand spells were all true. Therefore, she thought, “I’ll make sure if you truly can’t die.”

*

*

*

The Executor had lost count of how many great spells she had cast by now. She mechanically deployed spells and killed Khan over and over again. The repetitions surpassed the thousands, and as they continued, a question lingered in her mind.

“Why go to such lengths?” she wondered.

“Why do you continue to oppose me, despite suffering countless deaths?”

“…….”

“You, who understand better than anyone how twisted this world has become!”

A massive storm suddenly formed, sweeping in all directions with the Executor at its center. It was a large-scale destruction spell that permitted no evasion. Caught unprepared, Khan’s body was torn to shreds. However, even on the verge of death, he took a step forward.

Crack!

The blade of the hand axe stopped just short of his neck. The moment time rewound, the freezing spell she had prepared completely halted Khan’s time.

Snap!

She effortlessly extracted his soul from his head. Unlike before, Khan’s soul separated from his body with ease. The mental barrier that once protected his mind had long been shredded.

The core of the barrier, the Spirit of Resentment that maintained even mental waves, had become so weak that it could not even leak any mental waves.

Once more, time would rewind. The Executor prepared for yet another battle, but her expectation was off the mark.

Snap!

Even with his soul torn away, Khan’s body moved on its own and grabbed the Executor by the neck.

The Executor was too shocked to even react.

“…… Huff.”

She had returned to the beginning once again. However, unlike before, the Executor could not mechanically recite the spell.

『What in the world…』

The repetition of time applied equally to the Executor. But just like phantom pain, the agony lingered. In the countless repeated battles, her mind eroded, and her will gradually broke.

The Executor unknowingly caressed her own neck. It ached. Was a body, whose soul had been erased by death, moving on its own to continue fighting?

It was chilling.

Something that couldn’t be encapsulated even with the word ‘willpower’. Yes, it was madness.

The Executor was clearly aware that she was insane. The notion of directly destroying and then restoring the world couldn’t be considered normal. It was simply because she was the only one capable of achieving it that she acted.

However, that barbarian was more insane than the Executor.

『You have no reason to interfere with me─! The mage who summoned you and I are separate entities! It was I who generously offered you a new opportunity! So why─』

“Shut. Up!”

Bang─!

Before he could even balance himself properly, dozens of firebirds surged towards Khan, who leapt forward recklessly. They were the firebirds of Aelos, frequently utilized in a standardized spell by accomplished red mages.

In the endless repetition of battles, the abundant ancient magic and various spells were now exhausted, which was evidence of the depletion of all those once plentiful spells.

However, this much was enough to incinerate Khan’s body. Even a common spell transformed into a grand magic in the Executor’s hands.

Yet it was ineffective.

Swoosh!

Instead of drawing an axe, Khan tore apart the firebirds with his bare hands while advancing.

Dozens of different kinds of spells were cast. All of them were created by modern mages, and for Khan, who had faced countless mages, they were all too familiar.

He crushed them all.

He pulverized them with his fists, severed them with his axe, and used every part of his body, from his elbows to his knees. In the process, his melted fists oozed, and with a severed axe handle, he continued to hold on.

『You’re insane…! Such trials, no mortal’s mind could endure…!』

“What do you know.”

Khan responded, chewing out his words, as he walked slowly. As Khan advanced, the Executor retreated and cast another spell.

“I’ve always been this way.”

Boom…!

The Executor’s spell missed Khan. He simply walked ahead, avoiding Khan as if the spells scattered around him were evading him. However, the Executor could clearly see the trajectory.

Khan read all the trajectories of the spells. He accurately predicted the impact points of yet-to-be-cast spells and moved to avoid them perfectly…!

“Even when I was dragged into this crappy world without knowing anything… Thrown among the monsters of Hoarfrost Gorge with nothing but my bare hands”, Khan muttered.

“Even when I crushed the skulls of mercenaries aiming for the back of my head, and split the crowns of spell casters who wanted to use me as an experimental subject.”

“Even when deranged transcendents came after me, I always—”

Khan never gave up and fought. Experience gained from games? A body obtained through stats? High-level skills that caused unrealistic miracles? Those were insignificant in front of all the powerful foes.

Khan didn’t survive because he was strong. Just as the divine name ‘Victory’ didn’t mean absolute victory.

“As long as I don’t give up, this sanctum will not fall.”

That was Khan’s authority as the God of Victory and the true power of the sanctum.

Crunch…

Most of Khan’s senses were already lost. The pain felt from the hand gripping the axe blade was the only sensation keeping him alive. Relying solely on that sensation, he ran.

『Don’t make me laugh─!』

The Executor’s desperate spell was now all too familiar. The arm of a giant and the form of a dragon made of flames appeared. An earthquake reversed the very terrain, and a storm of cold that could freeze even time itself surged forth.

Great spells, powerful enough to have claimed Khan’s life several times, manifested. The Executor wielded a near-omnipotent force despite lacking divinity and origin.

In contrast, all Khan had was a battered mind and a faintly functioning body. And a lone axe with just a blade.

‘… It’s enough.’

Khan had long since learned the patterns of the great spells. In the world seen through Karyan’s eyes, a white line wriggled and extended somewhere. He didn’t think about what lay at the end. He precariously followed the line, running.

He wasn’t even conscious of dodging the spells. He maintained his sanity solely relying on the pain from his hand digging into the axe. The Executor seemed to be shouting something, but he didn’t listen. It was bound to be nonsense anyway.

Thunk.

How long had he been running like that? Or perhaps, from the very beginning, he had merely stood there, awaiting his death.

Groping, he reached out his hand. Slowly, as if engraving the shape of the wall that had stopped his steps.

Thus, after carefully outlining the contours of the wall in his mind, Khan managed to lift the corners of his mouth.

“Heh…”

He grabbed it. What his hand clutched was not the wall. It was the Executor’s neck. Only then did the blurred sensations fully return. The terrible pain he had been struggling to ignore overwhelmed him, yet for some reason, he laughed.

“You know…?”

He applied more pressure to his grip.

“They say… that those who boast the loudest with their mouths… are the fastest to give up, you know…?”

“How much… How much time is left… for me… to… save the world…?”

Gasping as if even breathing was an effort, the Executor continued his words. Khan sneered at him.

“You are just… a bug that forgot its role and went berserk…”

Did he truly have the will to restore the world to its original state? Even if he had such intentions, could it really be of his own volition? How could someone who couldn’t even be sure of their own identity, according to the laws, harbor such grand plans?

“That… might… be… true.”

If the original will of the mage who created the Executor had remained so intensely imprinted, then perhaps, just a little, it might have been possible.

The Executor’s plan might indeed have saved the world. He wouldn’t deny that possibility. From the beginning, this had never been a fight between right and wrong.

“Just… that I was a bit stronger.”

Hearing these words, the Executor’s lips moved slightly. Was she attempting a final persuasion? Or was she about to spill words of resentment?

He couldn’t tell.

Crunch…

As he’d always done, he drove the axe blade he held in his grasp straight down. Khan, leaning on the body of the Executor who met his end with a seemingly indignant expression, mumbled.

“And I… don’t believe in what mages say.”

With those words as the last memory, he lost consciousness.

***

‘Did I die?’

Since when, he wondered.

When his eyes opened naturally, he found himsef engulfed in pitch-black darkness. Although he had never experienced death before, he occasionally imagined that the afterlife might look something like this…

“I didn’t.”

As his mind awakened, his senses slowly returned. The holy power that had been extinguished by the force of the sanctuary began to refill his, and his body, which had reached the brink of death, started to regenerate.

‘It looks like it will take some time for the gods of light and death to awaken.’

Since it didn’t seem like he immediately needed their help, he decided to walk for the time being. However, no matter how long he walked, there were no signs of anything appearing.

“What is this…?”

Considering he hadn’t died, he should have regained his consciousness on the red earth where the void monster was sealed, right?

Even trying to extend his consciousness far to investigate was blocked by something unexplained, making it impossible. Only pure curiosity remained about this unidentified space. He grasped the rough understanding that it was endless but—

“Let’s break it for now—”

When the body suffers, the mind gets to work. He made a decision, tinged with modern-day rationality, that if he punched holes in the dimension a few times, maybe something would come out.

“Ugh, as always, your fighting style is so crude. That’s just like you.”

“Crude, you say? Hearing that from a medieval person—not a medieval but an ancient one at that.”

He turned his head towards the voice that sighed, as if in disbelief.

“Mortalia.”

The ghostly figure before his wasn’t the Mortalia whose head had just been split open.

The woman he saw was the version of Mortalia who had once succumbed to the void and escaped the timeline, the one with whom he had shared drinks in the memories of chaos.

“Congratulations. Although I believed in you, I’m genuinely amazed you pulled it off.”

“Clap, clap, clap.”

A sincere admiration was evident in her applause.

I didn’t particularly react to her. There were more pressing questions on my mind.

“So? What now? If there’s nothing more, I’d rather depart soon.”

“If you’re worried about the Arch Demon, don’t be. The conclusion is near.”

As if to prove her point, Mortalia displayed a translucent hologram in front of me.

Within it, Aries and Leo, bathed in pure light, and Elena, eyes closed, performing miracles, were visible.

Ron, along with ancient dragons Akkadnil and Natrix, was performing acrobatic flights, and on the ground, I could see Ludmilla and Jan relentlessly casting grand spells toward the sky.

And – Maya thrusting Reletalrasa towards the black sun caught my eye. Countless other comrades and people were risking their lives to push back the Arch Demon.

‘We will win.’

Even without a divine sense, one could tell. The Arch Demon’s power had considerably weakened since its initial descent. The weakening chaos that enveloped the Great Demonic Realm might have something to do with it.

“Right? And I’m not here just because I have free time. I’m busy covering for the Executor who’s gone rogue… oof!”

Mortalia, with an exaggerated gesture, reached into her garment and gave a mischievous smile. Despite her playful demeanor, the writhing tentacles that made up her hair were only creepy.

I refrained from mentioning it aloud. It was a societal skill honed while surviving many hardships, and my focus had shifted to the object Mortalia pulled out from her garments.

“Here, the essence of origin extracted from the Executor. If left alone, it’ll disperse on its own, but for now, it’s quite usable.”

“What. Can I make a wish?”

My teasing words unexpectedly received a positive response.

“How did you know? While it’s not omnipotent, you can achieve something quite impressive. For instance, you could easily wish to return to the dimension you originally lived in.”

“…”

A return to Earth.

The goal I’d yearned for since falling into this Midland was now within reach. If I seized the orb from Mortalia’s hand right now and made my wish…

“What’s wrong? You look hesitant.”

I wasn’t sure what expression I had. Was I smiling? Probably not frowning… No, I certainly wasn’t smiling. With lips tightly pressed together, I grasped the orb that Mortalia handed over.

I felt it. The absurd amount of essence contained in this orb. And I knew what could be achieved using this orb.

“Go ahead, make your wish. It’s your trophy, after all.”

I ignored Mortalia’s playful urging. My thoughts were too tangled to determine my next move.

“… Damn it.”

But that hesitation itself was the answer. Though I had tried to dismiss it, I now had to acknowledge it.

“The method of use surfaced in your mind, right?”

I didn’t respond this time either. I had already decided what I would do with this orb.

“I…”