Ascension Through Skills

Chapter 494: 92nd Floor. Faith (5)

Karak let out a roar.

With a face full of rage, he charged at Taesan. His fist was filled with Karak’s full power.

“Is this a power of physical force?”

And Taesan, facing the Immortal’s full strength, casually extended his finger.

The swung fist met Taesan’s finger. A massive wave of energy swept across the area. The onlookers were instantly terrified, and screams erupted.

“Ah...”

But Taesan didn’t even budge.

Karak’s fist was blocked by Taesan’s finger, unable to advance any further. Despair filled Karak’s face.

Taesan simply flicked his finger.

Karak’s body flew backward as if struck by a cannonball.

“Ooooooh!”

“Remidaos-sama!”

The dwarves, who had been slowly raising their heads, erupted in awe at the sight. Their faith in Taesan grew stronger before the overwhelming display of power.

“Get up.”

“Ughhhhh!”

Karak, gritting his teeth, struggled to rise. His determination and will to fight, even against a formidable opponent, seemed unshaken. Taesan smiled, clearly satisfied with Karak’s resolve.

Taesan stomped his foot.

In an instant, he moved behind Karak and swung his sword.

Karak hurriedly raised his fist to defend, but even while defending, it shattered. Karak was sent crashing to the ground helplessly.

The crowd gasped even louder.

Taesan closed the distance again.

“Yaaaah!”

Karak hastily tried to protect himself, but Taesan grabbed his arm and threw him.

Taesan was a transcendent.

The Immortal was nothing to him. If he wished, he could have easily suppressed him with just a command.

But Taesan continued to give Karak openings with light pressure, and with every move, the dwarves’ faith in Taesan deepened.

Karak, his face contorted in rage, shouted:

“What are you doing?! Stop playing with me and kill me! Don’t mock me!”

“No.”

Taesan responded lightly. Karak screamed as he lunged at Taesan.

Boom!

The battle continued. Naturally, it was Taesan’s one-sided victory. Karak’s desperate resistance was like a child’s, stomped out without meaning.

The people watched with dazed eyes.

And after several minutes...

When Taesan judged it was time, he gathered strength in his legs.

He charged toward Karak. Karak instinctively tried to defend himself, but the gray light contained in Taesan’s sword pierced Karak’s chest.

“Guuuurgh!”

“Good work.”

“I... I can’t...!”

Boom!

The gray light exploded.

Karak died without even being able to leave his last words.

“If you treated the inhabitants of this world like toys for your faith, you should’ve been prepared to die the same way.”

Taesan spoke calmly. The divine energy increase did not activate. The difference in power was simply too vast for that to be necessary.

But Bardray and Akasha were different.

[Hm.] [This is...] The Immortal’s power seeped into Bardray and Akasha. The intense power made them both let out small groans of discomfort.

The people who had followed Taesan watched the scene with wide eyes. They slowly realized that the Immortal who had been ruling them had died.

“Ooooooh!”

Their faith exploded.

What had once been shaky faith was now fully directed toward Taesan. Taesan’s standing reached new, towering heights.

[Your mastery of divine energy has increased by 3%.]

At this moment, Taesan had become the god of this planet.

Now that he had gathered the divine energy, he spoke:

“I will leave you now.”

“Aaahhh!”

“Remidaos-sama! Please don’t leave us!”

Taesan sent the worthless energy flying toward the Immortals.

It was small, barely the size of a bug, and felt utterly insignificant. The Immortals didn’t think much of it and tried to use their powers to erase the energy.

But the moment they made contact with it, they realized something was wrong.

“Ssssss!”

“W-wait!”

They panicked as they tried to shake off the worthless energy. But the energy clung to them, rendering their powers meaningless.

Fear spread across their faces.

All the strength and stature they had built up had no meaning. It all vanished and was erased. It turned into something utterly worthless.

They struggled, trying to shake it off, but were unable to. The worthless energy slowly consumed them, stripping them of everything.

“D-don’t...”

They felt a terror worse than death.

After struggling for some time, they realized there was no escape and begged Taesan.

“P-please, I beg you... please...”

“I won’t kill you just yet. You still have a purpose.”

Taesan retrieved the worthless energy.

It seemed that the Immortals ruling this planet had come here to try to stop him.

“It’s meaningless, though.”

The Immortals lay on the ground, twitching.

“Why... why Remidaos-sama...”

“The transcendent isn’t moving, it seems?”

“I’ve informed him... but he’s silent... Why... why...”

The Immortal mumbled in a daze.

“I don’t know.”

Taesan shook his head.

‘Why is it so quiet?’

The transcendent who had received the faith of this planet, Remidaos.

He was surely watching Taesan.

Taesan knew that Remidaos was watching as he stole the faith and killed his minions.

But Remidaos had not made a move.

Taesan’s original plan had been to steal the faith before Remidaos noticed, and then, when Remidaos moved to stop him, to reveal his true nature in front of the people, shaking their faith.

But Remidaos hadn’t made any move. While Taesan had managed to steal an enormous amount of faith, it was eerily quiet. As if the only purpose of Taesan’s actions was to steal the faith.

Complete Reconnaissance provides all information, but there are definite limits. Information beyond a certain level could not be obtained.

So, Taesan still couldn’t understand what Remidaos was after.

‘I don’t know.’

But if he wasn’t going to stop him, Taesan had no reason to refuse. He would take all the faith he could. Taesan captured the Immortals.

Taesan traveled through the planets.

With the captured Immortals, he told the people that he was Remidaos, and he had come to punish them.

The people believed Taesan was Remidaos and worshiped him.

After quite some time, Taesan had received the faith of all the planets.

“Hah.”

He breathed deeply. The immense stature and elevated faith now resided within him. His divinity was stabilizing perfectly. Bardray and Akasha, too, had gained immense power.

Among them, Akasha’s change stood out. Akasha was still letting out small groans, as if something was blocking her.

“Anything come to mind?”

[Something... Something is blocking me. Just a little more, just a little more...]

Akasha still seemed lacking. Taesan was no different. It seemed that they couldn’t reach the true transcendent level just yet. Something was standing in the way.

‘Is it too short of a time?’

Because the faith had been gathered too quickly, they hadn’t yet reached the complete transcendent level.

But aside from that, there were no difficulties. The process of gathering faith had been so smooth, it was almost boring.

The reason for this was obvious.

Taesan looked at the white star beyond the universe.

He had stolen the faith that had been built up by someone else.

Yet, the original recipient of that faith hadn’t moved.

While all the faith of the planets had been stolen, Remidaos had remained completely still. It was like an abandoned house—or rather, it was as though the owner had left the door wide open for the thief. There was no reason to worry.

‘What does he want?’

Anyway, Taesan had already gathered all the faith he could. Now, he would go and check for himself. To achieve the goal of the quest, he would confront the one who had originally received the faith.

Taesan reached out his hand into the air. Space split open, and Taesan leapt across dimensions.