CHAPTER 136
Yes.
I’m the only one who can see it. What does that mean?
Bloody Crown.
It means this is his handiwork.
Transcendents.
Only those with a Grade 1 Light or Dark Attribute can perceive their power.
That’s why Grade 1 Holy Mages and Dark Mages were such rare beings.
And now, Bloody Crown had arrived at the Holy Land.
Moreover, inside the Golden Garden.
“Lady Aigis, Bloody Crown has infiltrated the Golden Garden!”
“We’re heading there at once.”
Without a shred of doubt, Aigis broke into a run toward the Grand Cathedral.
As we kicked open the cathedral doors, we saw people collapsed on the floor everywhere.
All of them had empty eyes.
I couldn't feel them breathing.
They were all dead.
Aigis grimaced but didn’t stop running.
The cultists could be dealt with later.
The top priority right now was the Saintess, Lua.
We raced down the cathedral hallway, and just as the Golden Garden came into view.
There was something strange lying in front of it.
It resembled the shed skin of a snake.
And it didn't take long to realize that it had once been a person.
“Lady Aigis, that person…”
“That’s Bishop Plan.”
Aigis recognized him and drew a sharp breath.
Bishop Plan, the one who had guided me through the Golden Garden.
He was shed like a skin.
The reason was easy to guess.
“Bloody Crown, that son of a bitch.”
I cursed, grinding my teeth.
That bastard had killed Bishop Plan and used his skin to infiltrate.
The Bishop Plan I met at that time was not Bloody Crown.
Both Aigis and I could guarantee that much.
The look in Aigis’s eyes grew even more murderous.
Soon, the Golden Garden spread out before us.
However, the garden now glowed with a completely different light than before.
To the naked eye, it was a golden garden, but in my perception, everything was stained with a crimson light.
Now that I was closer, I understood.
This was a sense different from the five senses.
The primordial power of a Transcendent.
The power itself, from a realm far beyond human comprehension.
That’s why I, being a Grade 1 and thus closer to a Transcendent, could perceive it, while Aigis could not.
It really hit me just how insane those Black Dawn bastards were.
Are they seriously trying to create something like this?
There’s a limit to how crazy you can be.
“The pressure feels heavier than usual,” Aigis said, breathing heavily.
It was only natural, as the power of a Transcendent was now imbued here more strongly than before.
Normally, we would need permission to enter, but there was no time for that now.
We immediately broke through the Golden Garden and ran inside.
The deeper we went, the thicker the crimson light became.
It was as if the red light was swallowing the Golden Garden whole.
Aigis’s face grew darker.
She too was beginning to feel the full pressure of the power.
Myeongnyeong fluttered up from my chest.
It seemed unable to control its body properly due to the overwhelming torrent of power.
“Myeongnyeong, don’t go anywhere. Stay in my pocket.”
I gently held Myeongnyeong and tucked it safely back inside.
A sensation of gravity pressing down on my body.
We were clearly running, but our steps were gradually slowing.
From the middle of it, we couldn't tell what was happening. As Aigis and I poured more power into our legs and pushed forward.
Our path was completely blocked by thick, crimson thorn vines.
The vines, larger than a person, were tangled together, obstructing the way.
“I will break through.”
Aigis immediately drew her sword and imbued it with divine power.
The sword she swung instantly sliced through the thornbush.
A blood-like liquid trickled down from the severed vines.
It splattered and soaked our bodies, but we paid it no mind.
She swung her sword like a madwoman, cutting a path through the thorns.
I followed her, running deeper inside.
The surroundings began to grow dark.
No light penetrated the interior of the thornbush.
So, when I created light with holy magic, my face hardened.
The thornbush.
There were human faces growing on it.
To be precise, it was a grotesque sight where the shape of the thorns themselves formed human faces.
“Ah, shit.”
I immediately threw a punch, shattering a face.
The face crumpled, spewing a blood-like sap.
Bloody Crown, that bastard is still as good as ever at pissing people off.
The problem was that the number of such faces was increasing. The further we went, the denser the thornbush and the grotesque faces became.

It felt endless, making me wonder if the Golden Garden had always been this vast.
What in the world was happening here?
I still couldn't sense Lua or Bloody Crown's presence.
Aigis silently swung her sword.
She must be the one feeling the most urgency right now.
To her, the Holy Church was everything.
But right now, only calmness was reflected in her eyes.
She was deliberately calming her mind to its limit, focusing.
In times like these, one must become even more level-headed.
Aigis wasn't called the Divine Lord for nothing.
SLICE!
The moment Aigis cut through another vine, a space finally appeared beyond it.
As soon as she spotted the opening, her sword moved even faster.
She carved an opening in the vines large enough for a person to pass through and leaped inside.
Following Aigis in, I could feel the dense carpet of thorn vines underfoot.
A space created by the tight weaving of the entire crimson thornbush.
Within that space, red lanterns hung here and there.
And at the center of that space.
A man stood stock-still.
A man with long red hair and flowing white robes.
The crimson crown resting on his head gave off an incredibly alien feeling.
His head slowly turned toward us.
In that instant, Aigis and I froze.
A sense of wrongness and danger, felt from instinct.
It rang alarm bells violently inside our bodies.
Bloody Crown.
He looked back at us, tears of blood trickling down his face.
Then, his mouth slowly stretched into a grin.
An oppressive aura on a completely different level from the fake Bloody Crown swept over us.
It was palpably clear that this entire space belonged to him.
This monster.
The overwhelming feeling I got from Bloody Crown that day wasn't because I was weak.
Bloody Crown himself was a monster who had already reached a far-off realm.
“You arrived sooner than I expected. It seems you managed to see through my intentions.”
“Cut the crap. Where is Lua?”
While Aigis silently gripped her sword, I spoke up, and Bloody Crown revealed his fingertips from within his long sleeves.
Then, with his blood-red fingernails, he pointed to the ceiling.
Following his gesture, my gaze naturally lifted.
Soon, both my eyes and Aigis’s shot wide open.
On the ceiling.
The Saintess Lua was hanging, her arms pinned by thorn vines.
Her limp form suggested she had lost consciousness.
“BLOODY CROWN!”
For the first time, a deep rage erupted from Aigis.
The divine power roiling around her whipped into a storm more explosive than ever before.
Even seeing this, Bloody Crown remained utterly composed.
“I thought you were trying to trade Lua to Black Dawn. Was I wrong?”
Ignoring Aigis’s fury, I asked a question to squeeze out as much information as possible.
While doing so, I quietly and secretly began gathering divine power at my fingertips.
It was a training exercise I had been practicing with Aigis.
“Why would I make a deal with uncivilized beings who know nothing of the world’s principles?”
Bloody Crown moved across the thorn vines with a leisurely gait.
“The Artificial Transcendent. Saint. In your eyes, do you truly believe such a thing can be created?”
An Artificial Transcendent.
The power of the Transcendents present here was just a tiny fraction.
Just a sliver of power that humans could perceive.
And yet, I was being crushed by that power, finding it hard to breathe.
What would happen if a Transcendent exerted just a little more force here?
It goes without saying.
Our bodies would be crushed by the force and shattered into pieces.
“We both know, don’t we? Such a thing is impossible. It is an exceedingly foolish act.”
Could such a Transcendent be created?
Sorry to say, but I agreed with Bloody Crown.
This was not a realm that could be created.
Grade 1 Light Attribute.
Grade 1 Dark Attribute.
Opposing attributes, but because we were both Grade 1, we could feel the power of the Transcendents more keenly.
Thus, the Artificial Transcendent project was in a realm that was simply nonsensical.
“Our world is exceedingly small. In their eyes, we are like grains of glass. Beings that would shatter with the slightest mistake. Isn’t it pitiful to see the glass, not knowing this fact, rampage as if it were the world itself, just because it reflects the world?”
“Then why the hell are you doing all this? You should be acting like a good little glass bead and crawling under a dresser to hide.”
Bloody Crown covered his mouth with his long sleeve, hiding a laugh.
“There is one thing I have always wished for. The hole in the sky is too small, and we live in a world too small to feel Him.”

The bastard was lost in his own world, spouting incomprehensible nonsense.

“Do you know? The reason why the ‘Transfers’ began to occur.”
But his next words made my body stiffen.
I had treated everything this bastard said as nonsense.
But this time, I couldn't just let it go.
“What do you know about the Transfers?”
Transfer.
Transferees.
The countless Transferees dragged to this 1st World, Astrape.
They still live in this world without knowing the reason for their transfer.
And now this bastard was talking as if he knew the reason.
“A small hole in the sky.”
Bloody Crown pointed up at the sky above.
“It is a hole They drilled to see our little world.”
Bloody Crown referred to the vast sky as merely a small hole.
“Countless bugs and microorganisms live within the walls. When you drill a hole like that, it’s only natural for some bugs and microorganisms to get sucked in.”
What the hell did this bastard just say?
So, the reason for the Transfers is that the Transcendents were drilling a hole in the sky and we got caught up in it?
“What kind of crazy bullshit is that? If they drilled a hole, it should have been a one-time Transfer. Why are so many people being transferred, for fuck’s sake?”
“Truly an ignorant thing to say. Do you think Their time and our time are the same? The hole is still being drilled.”
My jaw dropped.
So, the Transfer phenomenon, which has been going on for nearly a hundred years now, is just the process of a Transcendent drilling a single peephole?

All the hell that Transferees have gone through, being forcibly transferred to this world.
Was all just for a Transcendent to drill a hole.
The fact made my head spin.
“The Transfers won’t stop until the hole is complete. Which means bugs will keep crawling into our world.”
Bloody Crown clasped his hands behind his back and shook his head as if in pity.
“You see, I detest bugs. I simply cannot stand by and watch as bugs eat away at our beautiful world.”
An extreme hatred for Transferees emanated from Bloody Crown.
“So, I prepared. If bugs crawl in through one hole, wouldn’t it be fine to drill another hole to chase the bugs out?”
Hearing his story, my eyes slowly widened.
So right now.
Is this bastard saying he’s going to cause another Transfer?
“What kind of insane bullshit is that? Do you think Transferring is that easy? How are you going to send only the Transferees away? There’s no guarantee they’ll even return to Earth in the first place!”
It’s a hole he’s drilling on a whim.
Even if all the Transferees were sent through it, there was no certainty they would return to Earth.
But Bloody Crown tilted his head as if to ask what I was talking about.
“When you’re getting rid of bugs, is there any reason to consider where the bugs are being chased to?”
Ah, right.
What kind of conversation was I trying to have with this guy?
Fwoosh!
I raised my finger to the sky.
Myeongnyeong was wrapped around it.
A bullet of charged divine power was fired with the flap of Myeongnyeong’s wings.
A flash of light enveloped the surroundings.
The bullet of divine power shot upwards and severed the thorn vines wrapped around Lua’s wrists.
In that gap.
Aigis thrust her sword forward and launched herself like a cannonball.
KRA-AAAAANG!
Aigis’s sword clashed with the thorn vines that shot up from beneath Bloody Crown’s feet.
In the meantime, I enhanced my physical strength, ran, caught Lua, and rolled on the ground to land.
“Lady Aigis!”
Lua was secured.
“Let’s make sure we kill that son of a bitch!”

In that case, all that’s left is…
“Aigis, Commander of the Holy Paladins, will carry out the order without fail.”
Bloody Crown.
We will kill this crazed fanatic.