Returnee's S-Rank Management Guide

Chapter 157 : Traces of the Stars (2)

Traces of the Stars (2)

How much time had passed?

After crossing over from another world, he had drifted as a spirit for a long time, and it took well over ten years just to form a proper body.

He gathered the souls trapped in the temple and collected the corpses and souls of nearby humans.

If he included the time offered from over there, Benadic had spent decades gathering strength for this very moment.

Just this once.

He would sacrifice everything he had gathered so far to create a 'vessel', and then use the wish contained in the bracelet to reclaim the power of the gods.

「Foolish one.」

KUUUUNG!!

Before he could even finish speaking, Jung-woo's fist struck Benadic's face, staggering his body with the heavy impact.

The shock was palpable—he could really feel the force blow through his body.

'He damaged the vessel?'

This was a body modeled after a saint's flesh.

He was nearly immune to most shocks; it should have been impossible to actually hurt him.

'It can't be.'

KWAANG!!

Struck again, Benadic was sent tumbling by Jung-woo's punch and extended both hands toward the approaching Jung-woo.

It was a power like magic, fueled by the authority of wishes.

Divine art was unleashed to tear Jung-woo's body to shreds.

「A mere human who doesn't know what divine power is.」

The blade of light that had shredded Mikhail's body several times over struck Jung-woo.

This was a blade capable of slicing through the flesh of an S-rank Hunter with ease.

Benadic assumed that the blade would tear Jung-woo to pieces.

PASHUK!

But the blade of light touched Jung-woo's body and dissipated instantly into light, as if it had no effect at all.

「......!!」

It wasn't simply that Jung-woo's body was hard—it wasn't even that level.

It literally vanished the moment it touched him.

As if it had been swallowed by a more powerful authority.

"Are you curious?"

Jung-woo replied, almost mockingly, and repeatedly struck the fallen Benadic.

Thud, thud—the ground split with the concussive blows, yet Benadic said nothing.

Ordinary attacks, from the start, couldn't inflict fatal damage on him anyway.

The blows jarred his head, but that was all.

「I see.」

?

Benadic was not a fool.

There was generally only one reason divine art would be ineffective.

If the opponent could wield divine art stronger than his own.

However, this was an ordinary human incapable of using divine art.

There was only one possible conclusion.

「You must be one who carries the Goddess's authority in your body.」

If Jung-woo contained the Goddess's authority—the very foundation of divine art—then it was natural that divine art would have no effect.

'I suspected something strange since the first meeting.'

Power that could not possibly belong to a human with no detectable magic power.

If that power came from the Goddess's authority, it could be explained.

「Actually, this is a good thing.」

Slowly, Benadic took a step forward and raised both arms into the air.

At that, the ground trembled and earth and stone began floating upwards.

「If I kill you and extract the authority inside, there's no need to use the bracelet after all.」

The stones and earth spinning around Benadic formed an image reminiscent of Saturn's rings.

The moment their rotation reached its peak—

PAPAPAPANG!!

The spinning stones shot out in all directions at once.

The earth, like a shotgun blast, shredded trees and rocks, and the stones had enough force to blow entire hills away like missiles.

He had infused objects around him with divine art, exponentially increasing their destructive power.

'Annoying.'

Jung-woo dodged them, frowning.

Divine art is similar to magic.

But unlike magic, which requires complex calculations, divine art exacted a greater price and thus needed none of the computation.

As long as Benadic had souls remaining, he could use his ability as much as he wanted.

「Why dodge? Aren't you here to stop me?」

Destroying the vessel required using the Demon King's heart.

But that was only beneficial for the demons, so he had to restrain himself as much as possible.

"G-goodness."

Ahn Tae-seok and PD Do, watching the scene, shivered as they witnessed the fight unfolding before their eyes.

This was power that far surpassed the common sense of ordinary Hunters.

Especially, Benadic's power was so absolute, it bordered on omnipotence itself.

'It's as if anything he says just becomes reality.'

How could such a monster exist in this world?

His appearance was unbearably dreadful.

His body, stained black, looked as if mud had been forcibly shaped into human form.

From his body, golden patterns emitted light.

His most important feature—his face—lacked a nose and mouth, with only golden, flaming eyes where eyes belonged.

「I can't understand it. My birth should be a blessing even to you.」

Benadic's words, which might have sounded convincing at a glance, were mostly incoherent.

His mind was in no shape to form complete sentences.

Unlike his completed flesh, his soul was eroded and his mind was broken.

On top of that, he was wielding tremendous authority, so he could not be in a stable state.

「With my birth, this world gains an object of wishes. Unlike Estella, I will grant the wishes of many, and I can make this imperfect world whole.」

But it was not enough.

There were limits to using divine art as just a soul.

Life force was one thing, but more importantly, the limitations of authority were obvious.

Unlike the authority of wishes that could control even 'laws,' mere imitation through divine art was just similar to magic—the power ended with affecting surrounding objects.

Benadic wanted more than that.

"That authority isn't as omnipotent as you think."

Jung-woo said quietly, listening to Benadic's words.

"You can grant the wishes of others, but not your own."

It was possible to twist and fulfill others' wishes.

Jung-woo had seen it bring ruin to others many times.

As powerful as it was, twisting the wishes of others was mentally exhausting.

"If she didn't possess that power, she wouldn't have been imprisoned for a thousand years."

「That's because Estella was a fool.」

Benadic no longer referred to Estella as the Goddess of wishes.

「Everyone praises her nobility, but if she hadn't had that nobility, she wouldn't have needed to live foolishly in darkness for a thousand years.」

In a flash, Benadic quickly closed the distance, his golden-wreathed hand lashing out at Jung-woo.

If authority did not work, then he would simply use physical force to strike—whatever it took.

「Had she abandoned just a bit of that nobility, humans would have escaped from the demons much sooner.」

But he was different.

If he gained that authority, he would create a world solely for humans.

With great authority, he could realize the wishes of many and create an ideal world.

KWAKWANG!!

A thunderous sound rang out as Jung-woo and Benadic's fists collided.

Each blow, fired relentlessly at one another's faces and bodies, shattered the ground and snapped trees.

'What is this?'

Benadic was startled by Jung-woo's unyielding strength, matching his own blow for blow.

'What is this strength?'

So far, he had suffered almost no physical damage from divine art.

On top of that, with a powerful body and attacks enhanced with divine art, he had struck Jung-woo several times.

Yet nothing worked.

Not just authority—physical strength was ineffective as well.

Was this man a saint as well?

No, that was not the case.

Then, could an ordinary human possess this kind of power?

'Impossible.'

If that were true, then what had everything he had done up to now been for?

If he couldn't even defeat one human, what was the point of creating the vessel?

CRACK!

Benadic and Jung-woo grasped each other's hands, wrestling with their strength.

Neither gave way, the flames in Benadic's eyes burning even brighter.

「Be crushed under the weight of wishes!」

Benadic pressed down on Jung-woo with the immense power of wishes contained in countless lives and souls, like gravity.

The weight of wishes.

No matter how strong a human was, no one could withstand such immense desires from so many people—they should be crushed.

No one person could withstand this power.

"Ha."

Jung-woo let out a short, mocking laugh.

"The weight of wishes, huh."

Muttering, he flung away Benadic's hands and kicked his empty abdomen.

KWAANG!!

Smashing through several trees, Benadic became embedded in a rock wall and looked at the unharmed Jung-woo in utter disbelief.

Who was this person?

No—was he even human?

"You just called Estella noble, right?"

Jung-woo, feeling Benadic's gaze, walked toward him.

"Yes, that's how she would have seemed to you."

That was true. She herself denied it, but in the end, that's how things turned out.

However, that was not always the case.

Her actions and their ultimate conclusion ended nobly, but her life had never been so pure.

"If only I had realized that a bit earlier, it would have been nice."

「What?」

Benadic could not understand Jung-woo's mutterings.

It sounded as if he had seen Estella up close.

「You... what is your name?」

A human who could understand the language of another world and who knew about Estella.

And a man who possessed strength beyond comprehension.

As far as Benadic knew, there could only be one such person.

"Park Jung-woo."

The human who, alongside the Saintess, brought down the demons.

The one who led numerous heroes and brought an era to its end.

「Impossible.」

Everything made sense now.

But understanding it did not make the situation any more acceptable.

「Impossible.」

Why now, of all times?

Why did he appear now, just on the verge of completion?

「Impossible!」

KWAANG!!

Benadic's body rose into the air, and blue lightning began to flash from storm clouds spinning above him.

'He doesn't have the strength to kill me. He must not.'

Even if he had killed the Demon King, saints were on a different level.

No matter how godlike Park Jung-woo was, as long as he was human, he could never kill a saint.

It had to be that way.

「I'll sink you along with this island.」

It didn't matter if he didn't get the bracelet.

Even if he lost most of the divine art he had gathered, and wandered as a spirit for a long time, it didn't matter.

The body was complete, so wandering the world in search of new relics of the Saintess would be better.

No—even without the power of wishes, it was possible to mimic a god with just divine art.

But for that, this man had to die here.

He was the one who had killed the Demon King, after all.

「O, wish!」

The storm surrounding the island intensified, with lightning striking in all directions.

And at the center of the clouds, a massive sphere of light began to form.

Like a miniature sun, the chunk of divine art Benadic had gathered was drawing together.

'With this power—'

Even Park Jung-woo could not possibly withstand this.

That's how it had to be.

"Hey."

At that moment, Jung-woo, who had been quietly watching Benadic, spoke.

"Thank you."

The sudden words of gratitude made Benadic scowl.

Thank you? Why say that now? While he wondered and looked around—

ZZZT.

Somewhere, he heard a spark.

He didn't know what the sound was or where it came from.

It was a small, crackling sound—like a spark of lightning.

'Huh?'

Benadic realized suddenly that his field of vision had changed.

He should have been looking down at Jung-woo, but his body was buried in a small hill on the island.

KWAANG!!!

A huge explosion roared, and blue lightning spread in all directions.

The ground scorched, and the delayed sound pounded Benadic's ears.

「You...」

Rising from where he was buried, Benadic looked at the figure in front of him.

A human wrapped in blue currents, gazing down upon him.

Benadic could not possibly fail to recognize the vast authority radiating from that body.

The Saintess.

The representative of this era's values revealed herself before him.

-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=

Real Saintess vs Fake Saint.

【ദ്ദി(⩌ᴗ⩌)】