In the flames of the Heavenly Dragon Thunder Fire.

“……You bastard.”

Longinus, engulfed in the white flames, glared fiercely at Seong Jihan, who was approaching.

He had been blocked by Enkidu’s appearance and the Spear of God’s Slaughter, and had suffered a surprise attack, but perhaps because of the difference in strength between him and Seong Jihan in the first place, the blood armor that had disappeared was gradually recovering.

‘I need to write the destruction Code quickly.’

Seong Jihan increased his speed further and approached Longinus.

And when the distance between the two was close enough.

Longinus’ armor had already mostly recovered its form.

And

“This time will be different!”

Whoosh……

Even in the flames, blood welled up from all directions, and a blood well was created.

Perhaps because he had thrown the spear and then been induced by Enkidu, Longinus was not throwing the javelin this time, but instead was gripping the spear tightly.

In that state, smoke quickly rose to the tip of the blood well.

[Target code, partial match]

[Destruction Code activated]

The code from a moment ago came again.

“Enkidu.”

However, Seong Jihan, who had anticipated this from the moment he saw the spear, summoned Enkidu to his side.

The chains intertwined and the giant steel giant took shape.

The spear that Longinus was holding moved its tip towards Enkidu on its own.

If he had not been gripping it tightly, the blood well would already have flown like that.

“Dammit…! Enkidu. You’re getting on my nerves!”

Longinus struggled to grip the moving spear and turned the tip back towards Seong Jihan.

Perhaps because it was firmly in his grasp, the blood well no longer wandered.

[The constellation attainment level has been lowered to 772.]

As he adjusted his formation, a message appeared to Seong Jihan as well.

‘It’s been 10 minutes.’

Now, Seong Jihan could become a constellation if he reached level 772.

In fact, this attainment level itself was still quite a bit away.

‘The mask is the problem.’

After about 10 minutes, the power of the void that was pouring in from the half mask was becoming increasingly burdensome.

There was no exact numerical value for when he would become subject to the will of the void, but Seong Jihan instinctively realized that if he continued to use this for more than 10 minutes here, he would be consumed by the void.

The half mask, which amplified his power, also had a strong backlash.

‘If the message appears one more time, I’ll have to take off the mask.’

Seong Jihan had set the effective time of the half mask to 15 minutes on his own.

In that case, he had almost no time left.

Seong Jihan charged towards the place where Longinus was holding the spear himself.

“You’re coming on your own feet…!?”

Longinus aimed the tip of the spear with a sharp smile, but.

[Warning! Player ‘Seong Jihan’ is a target of BattleNet’s centralized management.]

[Cease all hostile actions towards the constellation candidate.]

Termination. Termination…!

As the warning message from BattleNet appeared to both of them.

A white current flashed through the body of Longinus, the attacker, and his movements stopped for a moment.

‘It looks like BattleNet’s management has been activated after 10 minutes.’

“Ugh…!!”

Even amidst the white current, Longinus tried to move his body with superhuman strength.

“Didn’t you tell me to modify my karma?”

Whoosh!

Before that, Seong Jihan approached Longinus.

“Look.”

Whoosh!

Red flames bloomed at Seong Jihan’s fingertips.

On the surface, it didn’t seem much different from Fire, but…

It contained all of Seong Jihan’s abilities, including the power of the stat Red.

“This is what I’ve modified.”

As he moved his fingers.

Crackle!

On top of Longinus’ blood armor.

[Destroy]

The word was engraved.

Swoosh…

And then, the blood armor disappeared in an instant.

“This…”

Longinus felt the blood energy disappearing and tried to resist it somehow, but.

The Destruction Code had absolute power.

Swoosh…

The flesh that disappeared in an instant.

At first, the chest disappeared.

Then, the arms and legs holding the spear.

Furthermore,

“The spear…!!”

Longinus’ blood spear disappeared in an instant as if it had never existed.

All that was left for him was a single thing, his head.

Longinus looked at the place where his body had been with trembling eyes.

“……Is this what you mean by modifying my karma?”

“Yes.”

“It certainly seems to be effective. The blood energy, the basis for keeping me alive, is disappearing… It’s disappearing no matter what I do. So this is how it ends… Is it death?”

Longinus’ voice sounded more expectant than resentful.

Seong Jihan tilted his head slightly when he heard that.

“Did you want to die?”

“Yes. I didn’t know I would die this quickly, but… with the modified power of the Slaughter of Gods, even death has meaning.”

It was only natural for him, as a disciple of the Martial God, to annihilate Seong Jihan.

But if he were to be annihilated by losing to him, it would mean that he had fulfilled Longinus’ original desire, “death by his own hand.”

‘Now… it’s done.’

After seeing his blood spear disappear, Longinus gave up any thought of fighting Seong Jihan any further.

As a constellation, losing to Seong Jihan so quickly was a matter of pride, but now that he had found the death he had so longed for, he thought everything was pointless.

And

Whoosh…

As his neck and jaw began to disappear, Longinus let out a weak laugh.

“……I lost.”

With those words Longinus’ head disappeared completely.

* * *

[……He’s dead? Already? A constellation of his level was defeated by a constellation candidate?]

The Shadow Queen asked in disbelief as she watched her opponent disappear before her eyes.

Even though the opponent’s core attack had been blocked by the steel giant and his movements had been stopped by the BattleNet warning message, the outcome had still been decided too quickly.

Especially.

His opponent, Longinus, was not at the level of a mere rookie who had just become a constellation.

[At least if he’s a constellation, he should be at least level 3 to 4 of Exclusive…]

“What level is that?”

[He’s in the lower-middle ranks among constellations.]

The power he had shown was about the level that a constellation would need to have to be active to some extent.

But how could an opponent of that level disappear so quickly?

[What the… did you do?]

“I used my power well.”

[You’re good at using other people’s powers.]

Seong Jihan chuckled at those words.

What the Shadow Queen’s words were referring to was the Wandering Martial God.

‘Let’s get this off first.’

Whoosh!

Seong Jihan quickly took off the half mask.

As he did, the swirling void energy in his body quickly subsided.

‘If I had dragged it out any longer, I would have become subject to the will of the void.’

The effective time of the half mask, which he had measured at 15 minutes on his own.

As the time limit approached, the void moving around inside him was indeed not normal.

Thank goodness Longinus couldn’t stand the destruction Code for long and disappeared.

If it had taken a little longer, he might have been the one to lose.

Even so.

[Void stat increased to 5.]

‘The void has gone up.’

The aftereffects of using the void of the mask were still lingering in Seong Jihan’s body.

His void ability had increased by 5.

‘If I had known it would be this easy to raise my void ability, I shouldn’t have spent stat points on it before.’

Seong Jihan thought about that and checked the additional messages.

[You have achieved the special achievement, ‘Topple a Constellation (2).’ You have gained 10,000 constellation fame.]

This was the special achievement he had achieved when he blew up the ancient elf with Brahma before.

At that time, he had been given achievement points, but this time the reward had been replaced with constellation fame.

‘The message has appeared, so he’s definitely dead.’

Seong Jihan thought that and looked at the rewards below.

[Your level has increased by 30.]

[You have defeated a constellation as a constellation candidate and can ascend to Constellation. Would you like to inherit the characteristic level of the opposing constellation? The characteristic level of the opponent is Exclusive LV.4.]

‘Level up to 30 and inherit characteristics.’

The level up was great, but what really caught Seong Jihan’s attention was the characteristic inheritance.

A system message saying that if he became a constellation, he could inherit the characteristic level of his opponent.

“So, when a constellation dies, you can inherit the power of the one who died?”

[No. Inheritance? There’s no such thing.]

The Shadow Queen seemed to be unfamiliar with characteristic inheritance.

‘So, this is a function that only constellation candidates can use.’

This opportunity to inherit characteristics would only come during his candidacy.

Seong Jihan thought about it carefully.

‘Exclusive LV.4 is tempting, but there’s a risk in ascending to constellation right away.’

He had won the clash with the constellation Longinus this time, but the truth was that it was a lot of luck.

Seong Jihan, who was still far from constellation level, felt that no matter how many times he amplified his power, it wasn’t enough.

‘There were several ways to counter Longinus’ spear, but what if another disciple of the Martial God came…?’

If it had been Dongbang Sak instead of Longinus this time, Seong Jihan would have been defeated long ago.

That’s how big the gap in power still was.

So, it was better to stay a constellation candidate for a while longer than to be blinded by Exclusive LV.4 and inherit it.

When Seong Jihan made that decision and refused the inheritance.

[You have achieved the special achievement, ‘Refuse Inheritance.’ You have gained 10,000 constellation fame.]

It turned out that this was also included in the achievements, and he received 10,000 constellation fame.

‘An unexpected harvest.’

Seong Jihan smiled as he looked at the increasing fame points.

[The constellation attainment level has been lowered to 772.]

Before he knew it, 5 more minutes had passed and the level limit had dropped by 1.

‘Longinus is definitely dead, so let’s turn off the characteristic.’

The system message had announced the death of Longinus, who had even given him constellation fame.

Now there was no need to turn on the constellation characteristic in case of an emergency.

As Seong Jihan was finishing up the battle.

Whoosh…

“……?”

A faint flame suddenly flickered up from the place where Longinus had been annihilated.

It was a blue flame that had no connection to the time when Seong Jihan had fought Longinus.

It soon changed into various colors and gradually grew in size.

‘What is this?’

Longinus, who had been judged dead by the system.

There was no way he could have come back to life and lit the fire.

Seong Jihan tilted his head and tried to identify this strange flame.

But,

Whoosh.

The flame passed through the air without substance, even when Seong Jihan reached out to it.

As he frowned and looked ahead.

[You there. Aren’t you going back? The constellation must be dead by now.]

The Shadow Queen spoke to Seong Jihan in a calm voice.

[Hurry up and go see the players you’re going to sponsor. This time, we’ve been able to sponsor more people thanks to the roots being quite removed.]

‘Hey, don’t you see the blue flame?’

[Blue flame? What’s that?]

‘Hmm… .’*

The Shadow Queen, who had immediately noticed and informed him of Longinus’ attack in his arms.

Even she couldn’t see that flame?

As Seong Jihan frowned even more.

Whoosh…

Strange-shaped letters appeared on the blue flame.

[Execution ground, restore.]

‘Execution ground?’

And as soon as the letters disappeared.

Whoosh!

The flame died down, and a huge red rock was created, falling towards the ground below.

‘This is the middle of Gangnam down here.’

A rock of that size would cause a major disaster if it hit the city.

Seong Jihan quickly tried to control the space to stop the fall, but.

‘……My force isn’t working?!’

The rock, as if mocking Seong Jihan’s spatial control.

It fell straight to the ground.

“Tch…!!”

Seong Jihan clicked his tongue and quickly chased after the rock.