Record of a Thousand Lives

Chapter 198

Kang Yoon-Soo had become the god of the continent, but he was not like the omnipotent gods often spoken of in stories. A god was only an administrator, and even considering the limitations of that role, his powers were greatly weakened because the ‘One Who Should Not Exist’ had broken the balance of the continent.

A blindingly bright light surrounded Kang Yoon-Soo’s body, while the light the goddess was speaking from slowly dimmed. Sylphia said, in a weaker voice than before, “I will entrust that power to you for now. I am certain that you will be able to succeed, since you have regressed over and over again. Yes, it will be possible if it is you.”

“Thanks,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

Then, Sylphia disappeared. Her powers would return to her if either Kang Yoon-Soo or the Demon Lord died.

The angels were dumbfounded by what had just happened. The human they had looked down on and cursed mere moments before had suddenly become a god!

“W-What’s going on?”

“D-Did goddess-nim really just bestow her powers on a human? W-Why…?”

Kang Yoon-Soo slowly turned around and looked at the angels. The angels’ faces turned pale when they looked into his empty eyes, which were void of any emotion. The hierarchy between Kang Yoon-Soo and the angels had been flipped in an instant—except for one angel.

“Insignificant creature… No, insignificant god!” Yuriel exclaimed, flapping her wings with a beaming smile. She then ran toward Kang Yoon-Soo and hugged him tightly, exclaiming, “I knew you could do it!”

“Liar,” Kang Yoon-Soo said curtly.

“You’re right! I’m sorry! Now, teach them a lesson!” Yuriel cried while pointing at the angels.

The angels stiffened. Some of them stood politely as if to show obedience toward their new god, while others had tears welling up in their eyes and seemed to be at a loss for what to do.

One of the crying angels stepped forward and kneeled down before shouting loudly, “W-We greet the new god of the Sylphia Continent! P-Please forgive us for our rudeness earlier!”

The rest of the angels quickly got on their knees as well while shaking uncontrollably.

“W-We were wrong! We will not do that again!”

“We will listen to every single command you give us! We pledge our loyalty to you!”

Angels were designed to submit naturally to gods, and so they were bound to Kang Yoon-Soo unless and until he lost his authority as a god.

Kang Yoon-Soo slowly said, “I’m only borrowing this position and authority. Sylphia will return later on.”

One of the angels let out a sigh of relief before hurriedly covering her mouth, but Kang Yoon-Soo did not seem to mind it at all.

‘There’s nothing to gain by ending up in a bad relationship with the angels,’ Kang Yoon-Soo thought.

He considered bringing all the angels down to the continent to speed up his plans, but he suddenly remembered something Sylphia had previously said.

The goddess had mentioned that the angels were like her own flesh and blood, so it would consume a lot of her divine power just to let them descend to the continent. It was a shame, but the only angel he could summon to the continent was Yuriel.

“So, do you understand now? I’m very close with the new god so you have to treat me well! It’s forbidden to bully me now!” Yuriel exclaimed in a bossy manner while linking arms with Kang Yoon-Soo. The angels glared at her with envy-filled gazes.

Kang Yoon-Soo looked at her and said, “Things might get a lot worse for you overnight if you keep that up.”

“It’s alright! You’re my god now!” Yuriel replied, laughing loudly before hugging him tightly.

***

“Kang Yoon-Soo has disappeared,” Shaneth said.

“It’s not as if it’s only happened once or twice. Just let him be,” Henrick grumbled before letting out a yawn.

Shaneth had a worried expression as she continued, “What if he got kidnapped again? Or what if he lost his way?”

“Don’t be such a worrywart. Do you really think a guy who’s lived a thousand times would get lost?” Henrick replied before stretching his half-awake body.

There was a fog-covered lake a short distance from their camp, and Henrick decided to walk over to the lake and wash his face. However, he suddenly looked up and asked, “What are you doing there…?”

“I was taking my morning bath,” Iris replied while walking out of the lake and squeezing her wet hair. She looked like a doll as the morning sun shone on her wet body.

Henrick grimaced and threw his cloak at her before grumbling, “I always remember the crown princess whenever you do that.”

Iris shook her wet hair like a puppy before asking with a smile, “So Princess Kisifran enjoyed taking morning baths like me?”

“You have the same blessed figure and beauty she had, but she knew how to use her seductive charms to get what she wanted,” Henrick replied.

“Hmm… Then does Henrick like me or Kisifran better?” Iris asked.

“What kind of question is that?” Henrick grumbled, laughing in disbelief.

At that moment, however, a burst of eerie laughter echoed from the other end of the lake.

“Kihihihihi! Kihihihihi!”

“Look at those scrumptious humans! They came here in pairs, just right for us to eat!”

“How long has it been since we had a meal?”

Henrick grimaced and grumbled, “This sounds familiar…”

“They sound exactly like the ghosts we encountered at the Cayman River,” Iris added.

The Cayman River was where they had fished out and fought against the plesiosaur on the mysterious island, and the laughter they were hearing was identical to that of the ghosts there.

“Cayman River…?”

“Are they talking about those weak and stupid nine sisters…?”

“Aren’t those the fools exiled from our family because they only hunted boatmen? Kekeke!”

The water ghosts started to appear one by one as the fog covering the lake started to recede. They were larger than the ones at the Cayman River, and there were dozens of them.

Henrick could not hide his surprise as he asked, “You bathed in a lake filled with those things?”

“I’m certain that those water ghosts weren’t there when I bathed this morning…” Iris replied with a pout.

The water ghosts snickered while staring at the pair with their bloodshot eyes, and slowly dragged their rotting bodies across the lake to approach the two.

“I don’t think you have the luxury to chat like that…!”

“Your bodies will be shredded and torn apart so we can feast!”

The water ghosts stuck their long, hideous tongues out and drooled while looking at their prey.

Henrick could not be bothered to fight and began looking for the right time to escape, but suddenly, a pillar of light shot down from heaven.

Fwaaaaaa!

“Kyaaaah!”

“W-What is this?!”

A blinding light covered the lake, causing the water ghosts that were weak against light to disintegrate. The large lake split apart, revealing a young man standing in its center.

Henrick looked at the man and said, “You really do defy logic at times. Why did you suddenly fall from heaven?”

“I went to the heavenly realm,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

“Where the hell is that? And why did you go there?” Henrick asked.

“I became a god,” Kang Yoon-Soo nonchalantly replied.

“What bullshit are you spouting now…?” Henrick exclaimed in disbelief.

Meanwhile, Iris looked at Kang Yoon-Soo with sparkling eyes and asked, “Then can you make meat pie out of thin air?”

***

“What happened?” Shaneth asked.

“I find it hard to believe that you suddenly appeared and said you became a god… Even if it’s you…” Henrick muttered.

“How about apple pie? Can you make that?” Iris asked while drooling.

Kang Yoon-Soo stepped away from his companions, who were demanding a detailed explanation from him, as he needed time to set his thoughts in order. He took out the Infinite Chalice and started to sip from it while thinking, ‘Things turned out better than I expected.’

He had been able to obtain the power of a god, something he had never attained in his previous lives. He had obtained a class befitting his final life. However, the cost of obtaining it was too great a price to pay. Kang Yoon-Soo could no longer escape death.

‘The Seal of Destruction…’ Kang Yoon-Soo thought as he looked at the mark stamped on his right arm.

[You have been stamped by the Seal of Destruction.]

[A creature stamped by the Seal of Destruction can never erase the stamp no matter what they do.]

[Time Remaining Until Death: 43 days, 23 hours, 31 minutes, 17 seconds.]

Kang Yoon-Soo had a forty-four day deadline. He would die regardless of whether he was successfully able to kill the Demon Lord or not…

At least, that was what the goddess thought.

Kang Yoon-Soo took another sip from the chalice as he thought, ‘A god isn’t omnipotent.’

That was the first thing Sylphia had told him when they first met. She had said so because she wanted him to understand what a god was, but that was not what Kang Yoon-Soo had taken away from it. Instead, he had realized that even a goddess could be manipulated and used according to his needs.

The siblings who had founded the Church of Madness with him in the trial had told him to think about whether he should trust the White Shadow or the goddess. That was why he had decided not to trust the goddess.

‘There’s no need to trust the words of a fading goddess, after all,’ he thought.

Sylphia’s judgment had begun to fade alongside her powers. In fact, there was no way that the method Kang Yoon-Soo used to convince the goddess would have worked if she had been in her right mind.

It had indeed been insane of him to stamp himself with the Seal of Destruction, but it would have been impossible for him to convince Sylphia without such extreme measures. However, that meant he was bound to die as long as the stamp remained on his body, and there was no way for him to erase the stamped mark no matter what he did.

That was why Kang Yoon-Soo decided on a simple solution. He raised the Immortal Sword with his left hand before slicing his right arm off in one quick swing.

Sukeok!

Kang Yoon-Soo’s right arm was cleanly separated from his body. A terrible pain shot through his body from the bloody stump that was all that remained of his right arm. He barely managed to stop himself from screaming in pain.

In the end, even if he could not erase the mark, all he had to do was cut off the body part stamped by the Seal of Destruction.

‘I originally planned to reattach the arm using Henrick’s Body Crafting Kit…’ he thought.

However, things were different now.

He used the authority he had gained by turning into a god in his final life. “Authority of Creation.”

It was his first time using the ability, so he had no idea how to use it, but he envisioned what he wanted to create in his mind and focused on it. Then, an explosion of light enveloped the area where his right arm had previously been.

[Recreating one of your body parts will use a small amount of your divine power.]

[You have used 43 Divine Power.]

[Recreate ‘Kang Yoon-Soo’s right arm’.]

[Remaining Divine Power: 5,270]

Kang Yoon-Soo’s missing right arm slowly began growing back from the severed stump. New bone, muscle, and flesh stretched out and soon turned into a whole arm. Afterward, he opened and closed his right hand a few times before swinging his sword with it. His right arm moved as he wished, as if it had never been cut off in the first place.

Then, he checked the most important thing. The mark on his right arm had disappeared, which meant that his time limit was gone.

‘That settles that,’ Kang Yoon-Soo thought.

He had been able to outsmart his way out of the death sentence he had inflicted on himself, but he felt that it was still too early to feel relieved. Things were going far too well compared to what he had expected.

***

The Captain of the First Order of the Imperial Knights, Helkin, was someone who had never experienced sleep from the day he was born. His blessed physique kept him from feeling tired, so he had never felt the need to sleep. That was why he felt completely alert even though he had stayed up until the break of dawn.

Deep in a secret cave, droplets of water fell from stalactites on the ceiling.

Helkin looked at a sword that was embedded in the cave floor and thought, ‘The Spirit Sword of the Reorkan Empire…’

The sword was a renowned weapon that had been passed down in the empire for generations, and it was the only sword of its kind that existed on the continent. The only person permitted to grasp the hilt of the sword was Helkin and Helkin alone, and he had never tasted defeat while using the weapon.

‘The time to use this sword has come,’ Helkin thought.

The empress had suddenly issued a mobilization order. Helkin always made sure to bring the sword along with him whenever he set out on a conquest, but he had never had the chance to draw the blade, having never met anyone worthy of it.

Helkin rubbed his wrinkled fingers along the smooth surface of the sword. He could hear it crying out to him, in a voice only he could hear. The sound of the sword’s ego was reminiscent of the roar of a wild beast, but also of the gentle cry of a baby.

‘This sword can never be destroyed and there’s nothing it can’t cut,’ Helkin thought.

However, the sword was nameless, and unlike other items, none of its abilities were visible.

‘The sword’s true powers are still sealed,’ Helkin thought, assuming that there was only one way to unseal the sword’s true powers. As he rubbed a small hole in the sword’s pommel, however, he suddenly called out, “How did you enter this place?”

Helkin had managed to sense the presence of another person, even though not a single footstep could be heard.

The royal alchemist, Rumier, appeared from the darkness and said, “I will be traveling along with you knight captains this time.”

“I can never tell what’s on your mind, Rumier,” Helkin replied. He was not fond of the alchemist standing before him. In truth, however, no one in the palace had been fond of the secretive and sinister alchemist in the first place.

The old knight sat in front of his sword and asked, “Do you want this sword?”

“Nobody else aside from you can use that sword, Helkin,” Rumier said indifferently before extending his hand toward the sword. It seemed as if he would grab its hilt, but he placed a red jewel into the hole in the pommel instead.

Helkin grimaced and was about to say something, but a bright light suddenly exploded outward from the sword.

Fwaaaa!

It was a brilliant radiance that Helkin had never seen on any of the occasions when he had used the sword in the past. The sword shone brightly for a while before the light dissipated and it returned to normal, but unlike before, a bright luster remained on its edges.

Helkin furrowed his brow and asked, “What the hell did you just do?”

Rumier turned around and replied, “You will soon meet a worthy foe to use this sword against, Helkin.” Then, he walked away and disappeared.

Helkin was more interested in the sword rather than the alchemist’s sudden disappearance, as the sword’s missing description had finally appeared when the jewel was socketed into its pommel.

The sword’s stats and name, which no one had ever seen before, were finally revealed.

[God Breaker]

Attack Power: Unavailable

A forbidden weapon crafted to fight against a god. The sword that has been waiting for its master for centuries has finally revealed its true strength.

It is the natural enemy of a god!

Only one knight deemed worthy by the sword may wield it.

+The sword cannot cut any ordinary substances.

+The sword can only cut a god.

+The sword can kill a god.

+The sword can grant you its blessing to empower you when you are fighting against a god.

Helkin was filled with doubt rather than surprise. He muttered inwardly, ‘Rumier… How did that guy…’

A rare blood jewel was required to draw out the sword’s real powers. Helkin had been planning on going after it after he retired as a knight captain. The jewel was something that only the King of All Things, Sirian, possessed!

However, Rumier had brought that very same jewel and placed it into the sword with his own hands. It was very suspicious indeed.

‘I can’t understand what’s going on, and what did he mean when he said I would meet a worthy opponent to use the sword on?’ Helkin wondered.

He had various suspicions in his mind, but he could not deny that he was greatly attracted to the unsealed sword.

Helkin placed his calloused hand on the legendary sword’s hilt and drew the God Breaker.