novelraw Chapter 113 : The Death of the False God
Chapter 113 : The Death of the False God
Chapter 113: The Death of the False God
After the nuclear explosion, the place where Asahara Shoko had originally stood was now left with nothing but a bottomless, gigantic crater.
Several kilometers of surrounding land had been vitrified by the extreme heat, resembling a shattered black mirror.
Yet at the center of that mirror-like surface, a faint cluster of white light still flickered stubbornly, like a candle in the wind.
“Cough… cough cough…”
Asahara Shoko staggered as he stood up from the ground. He laboriously raised his head and looked around.
“My divine kingdom…”
As far as the eye could see, there were only ruins.
Scorched earth, rubble, broken walls and shattered remnants.
There was only deathly silence, and radioactive dust drifting down from the sky, as if the apocalypse had descended.
Although he had survived, the vast ocean-like power of faith he once possessed had been depleted by more than ninety percent under the impact of the nuclear blast.
Moreover, all of his believers—tens of millions of fanatical followers—had, for the most part, been reduced to ashes in the explosion.
His divine kingdom, his very foundation of faith, had been completely destroyed in the physical sense by humanity’s most powerful weapon.
The connection of his faith was severed, and his once ocean-vast divine power had now dried up until only a single drop remained.
“No… no!!!”
Asahara Shoko let out a piercing wail.
He collapsed to his knees on the charred land, his hands clutching the ashes on the ground with a death grip.
“My divine kingdom… my people…”
“My power… my immortality…”
“Gone… it’s all gone…”
He looked at this devastated “divine kingdom” before him, his eyes filled with despair and unwillingness.
He had once been a god.
He had once possessed supreme, unrivaled power.
He had once believed he could rule everything.
But now, he was nothing more than a barely surviving mortal.
A false god cast down from the altar by mortal weapons.
“Mortals… you despicable mortals…”
He let out a beast-like growl, his eyes brimming with bone-deep hatred.
“I won’t let you off!”
“I will definitely take revenge!”
“I’m still alive, I can still preach, I will still gain more believers!”
“Wait until I—”
At that moment.
A ghostlike figure appeared silently behind Asahara Shoko.
All of his skin had already ulcerated, exposing stark white bones.
His body had been eroded by nuclear radiation until it was completely unrecognizable.
He was 【Ninja】 Hattori Heizo.
Relying on his transcendent abilities and his familiarity with the terrain, he had found an extremely well-hidden underground shelter during the nuclear blast.
Thus he had successfully survived the explosion, but his life had also reached its end.
Yet he could not die yet. He still had an obsession that had to be fulfilled: killing the mastermind behind all of this—Asahara Shoko.
Driven by that obsession to kill Asahara Shoko, Hattori Heizo dragged his shattered body like a malicious ghost crawling out of hell, step by step, toward Asahara Shoko.
“Heretic…”
Asahara Shoko sensed the disturbance behind him. He spun around abruptly, madness and killing intent flashing in his eyes.
“It’s you?!”
“I’ll kill you!”
Asahara Shoko raised his withered, twig-like arm, trying to launch an attack.
But his body swayed unsteadily, struggling even to stand firm.
“Asahara Shoko…”
Hattori Heizo’s voice was hoarse, like a broken bellows.
“You already… have no believers left. You have no power now.”
He suddenly accelerated, his body turning into a streaking afterimage as he charged at Asahara Shoko.
“Die!”
Asahara Shoko roared, exhausting the last of his strength as a dim beam of light shot from his fingertips.
However.
Hattori Heizo was faster.
He dodged the beam, and the short blade in his hand struck out like a venomous snake.
Puchi!
The blade pierced precisely into Asahara Shoko’s neck, straight to the vital point.
Asahara Shoko’s body trembled violently.
His eyes widened as he stared at Hattori Heizo in disbelief.
“No… I am a god… I cannot die…”
Asahara Shoko still struggled, extending his charred hand, trying to grasp at that nonexistent strand of faith in the void.
But there was nothing there, only emptiness.
“You… you…”
A massive amount of blood gushed from the wound in Asahara Shoko’s neck, and then his body slowly went limp.
The light in Asahara Shoko’s eyes rapidly dissipated. This once-invincible “Living God,” this ambitious man who had sought to rule the world,
collapsed onto the scorched earth like a dead dog.
【Player 【Ninja】 killed player 【Preacher】】
【Current remaining players: 4】
……
Hattori Heizo withdrew the short blade, his body swaying.
He knelt beside Asahara Shoko’s corpse, gasping for breath.
His lungs felt as if they were burning, every breath carrying frothy blood.
He felt the rapidly draining life force within his body, along with the irresistible exhaustion.
“Won…”
A relieved smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.
He had completed his mission.
This false god who had brought calamity upon the world was finally dead.
He wanted to turn back and look toward the direction of the embassy.
But at the instant he turned his head.
“Bang!”
A crisp gunshot rang out abruptly, shattering the deathly silence of the ruins.
Hattori Heizo’s body stiffened violently.
A bloody hole appeared between his brows.
He lifted his head blankly, looking toward the direction the bullet had come from, as his body slowly fell backward.
And before he died, he saw, in the direction from which the bullet had been fired.
A man wearing a floral shirt, with dyed blond hair and a teasing smile on his face, walking out slowly with a cigarette in his mouth.
【Gambler】 Sakamoto Ryuji.
“Oh my my.”
Sakamoto Ryuji blew on the muzzle of his gun, a carefree smile on his face.
He tossed a coin in his hand.
“What a pity. I came too late and didn’t get to kill Asahara Shoko.”
“Now this is troublesome. I’ll have to kill one more person.”
“Thud”
Hattori Heizo’s body fell onto the cold ground, his pupils rapidly dilating.
Using the very last of his strength, he stretched out his hand, trying to grasp something.
But in the end, his arm dropped limply to the ground.
【Player 【Gambler】 killed player 【Ninja】】
【Current remaining players: 3】
……
At the moment before the nuclear explosion arrived, Sakamoto Ryuji’s coin had guided him to the safest underground vault in all of Neon Nation.
Thus, even with nuclear carpet bombing, that place was impregnable. His luck—or rather, his transcendent ability—had once again saved him, finding him the only path to survival.
“So this is the end of a god?”
Sakamoto Ryuji walked to Asahara Shoko’s corpse and kicked the charred head with his foot.
“So ugly.”
“God?”
He kicked Asahara Shoko’s corpse aside.
“Just a piece of trash.”
Then, Sakamoto Ryuji walked over to Hattori Heizo’s corpse.
He kicked Hattori Heizo’s body.
“Tsk, how miserable.”
“Mr. Ninja.”
Sakamoto Ryuji squatted down, pried the broken blade out of Hattori Heizo’s hand, and toyed with it casually.
“But still, you died where you should have.”
Sakamoto Ryuji’s gaze turned icy.
“I’ll take your share for you.”
“When I win this game, I’ll make sure to properly pay my respects to you.”
Then he stood up and calculated, saying, “Now, I have four heads in my hands.”
“【Mad King】, 【Sword Saint】, 【Onmyoji】, and this 【Ninja】.”
“Kill two more people, and I’ll win.”
“But it seems that aside from me, there are only two people left.”
“In the end, I still have to kill everyone.”
Sakamoto Ryuji’s gaze turned toward the distance.
There, lay the direction of the Dragon Nation Embassy.
That carefree smile once again hung on his face.
“Chen Mo, Tsuchimikado Rin.”
“Take a guess—will my luck let me defeat you?”