Overgeared (WN KR)

[It is good to see you in this state! Kuhat! Kuhahahat!]

The flames roared. They were synchronized with the emotions of the fire elemental king and expanded as the laughter of the fire elemental king intensified. The good news was that the water elemental king acted as a sprinkler, which avoided the situation of the surrounding bushes turning into ashes.

Grid stood between the mixed up fire and water and clearly grasped the propensity of the elemental kings.

‘They don’t have deceptive personalities that use empty words.’

In the last five days, Grid had carefully observed the elementals. They were rulers of a dimension. Even if he didn’t ask, they made alcohol out of water, a mat out of wind, and dining table and tableware out of earth. He had no choice but to be wary of those who showed him more favor than they needed to, even if it meant bending their pride. Enemies who hid their hostility under goodwill were simply dangerous.

However, he became certain at this moment. The elemental kings weren’t the type to hide their intentions. The attitude of the fire elemental king, who died of joy when it saw the light elemental king in Yura’s hands, proved it.

‘It really does hate the light elemental king.’

Now that he saw it, they were beings that were honest with their feelings. The favor directed toward him was also likely to be sincere. It should be noted that the call of the world tree wasn’t compulsory. The world tree said that the duration that the elemental kings remained on the surface depended on Grid’s qualifications. They could leave for the elemental world whenever they wanted to, but they didn’t leave. They stayed by Grid for the last five days. This meant that Grid had been approached with goodwill since he defeated the fire elemental king and proved his qualifications.

[I was wondering what you were doing. It turns out you were humiliating yourselves as a group?]

Flash!

The light elemental king shone brightly. A powerful light that made both eyes dazzled turned the area white. As Grid and the elves frowned for a moment, the light elemental king was already close to Grid. It had escaped from Yura’s grasp.

Grid alternated looking between the flustered Yura and the casual light elemental king. Then he placed his hand on the sheath of his sword. He was wary of the intentions of the light elemental king, who had been deliberately captured.

‘It is light. Is it possible to cut it?’

It would be much more difficult than slashing flames. The light elemental king spoke to Grid who was taking a deep breath.

[Overgeared God, I have been watching you.]

The light elemental king was different from the fire elemental king. It knew that Grid was a god.

‘Since it is contracted to Yura, has it been watching me from Yura’s point of view?’

Or had it been watching him from the perspective of Light Stone? Grid was becoming conscious of Light Stone when his expression became uneasy. It was because Light Stone was being absorbed by the light elemental king. Light Stone was gradually becoming cloudy. It seemed like it was about to disappear.

“......”

Light Stone felt Grid’s gaze and turned its head. The eyes and mouth made of light showed a contrast. The drawn half-moon face, which was probably made in a desire to communicate with Grid, resembled a smile.

“Light Stone...”

Grid urgently reached out, but he was too late.

[Why did you betray Mother? It is purely thanks to Mother’s favor that you have the present power.]

Light Stone completely scattered. It was decomposed into particle units and absorbed by the light elemental king.

[The advanced light elemental ‘Light Stone’ that is contracted with you is destroyed.]

[The skill ‘Sword of Light’ that was activated by ‘Light Stone’ is destroyed.]

Grid’s expression hardened like a stone. He witnessed the scene where Light Stone’s smile distorted like it was crying just before it disappeared.

[Y-Y-You evil bastard...!!]

The fire elemental king witnessed the destruction of an elemental and was furious.

[Ahh... A pitiful child.]

The water elemental king sighed.

The earth and wind elemental kings had no words. However, the earth and wind that started to shake represented their anger.

The light elemental king didn’t care. Its attitude was that there was no problem even if the other spirits maligned it.

Mother—the word that was used for Rebecca, the goddess of light, explained it. The source of its confidence was the pride in being ‘Rebecca’s descendant.’ It seemed to regard itself as special, unlike other elementals. This was reminiscent of the elitism of the yangbans.

[Try to make a plea. The answer will determine your disposal.]

Light from the light elemental king spread out sharply. Hundreds or thousands of blades appeared in an incandescent manner.

Grid was surprisingly composed. He suppressed the anger of losing Light Stone deep in his heart and analyzed the situation.

‘Why did it show up at this point?’

Light was different from fire. It was hard to exert influence over it with physical force. The light elemental king being captured by Yura... no, it was right to say that it was the light elemental king’s will rather than Yura’s will. In fact, the light elemental king easily left Yura’s hands.

Grid’s quickly spinning brain soon gave him an answer. ‘It has analyzed me.’

It was possible for the light elemental king to observe Grid using Yura and Light Stone. It was an easy position to see and understand Grid’s capabilities. Perhaps after careful analysis, it decided the odds and appeared in front of Grid?

In other words.

‘It means it isn’t an easy opponent.’

If the light elemental king grasped all of Grid’s abilities and was still convinced of its victory...

Naturally, the situation was unfavorable for Grid. It wasn’t good to fight recklessly like when he competed with the fire elemental king.

The light elemental king glimpsed the tension in Grid’s expression and was excited.

[You’ve noticed the situation, but there is no need to feel despair. You have a chance to overcome the crisis. Now, Overgeared God. Tell me why you betrayed Mother. Confess in detail the greedy sin you have committed and ask for forgiveness. Do you know? My loving mother will give you a new opportunity.]

Confession of sin and forgiveness. The scheme of the light elemental king was obvious.

Grid’s act of informing the world about the reality of the gods—in other words, it intended to manipulate and imply that all the actions that undermined Rebecca’s prestige and destroyed the Rebecca Church were false and driven by greed. From the time when Grid admitted that what he had done was a ‘sin’ and all the truths he revealed were false and asked for forgiveness, the reputation of the fallen gods would be restored again.

[Be careful. The energy of the light elemental king is different from before.]

The wind elemental king whispered. It warned that the light elemental king, the strongest of the elemental kings, had become stronger.

[The light elemental king has communicated with Asgard. It has the intention to dedicate the elemental world to the gods. It is highly likely that a god is watching behind it.]

Grid realized the reason why the elemental kings showed favor to Grid. Perhaps it was because they wanted to be saved from Asgard.

‘There is no way the elemental kings don’t know the reality of the gods.’

The gods of Asgard didn’t have the best of intentions toward humanity. It was hard to think they would be particularly respectful of elementals. Furthermore, the gods of the beginning periodically destroyed and recreated the world. The elemental kings might outwardly respect the gods, but they couldn’t help being afraid. It was because destruction against their will wasn’t sweet.

‘They want to rely on me as well.’

Grid’s scope of thinking as he noticed this grew even bigger. It was the aftermath of expanding to include the elemental world in his perception of the ‘world.’

‘It is a chance to have a clear friendship with the elemental kings.’

Grid knew the power of the elementals. The hundreds of elementals signed with the Overgeared members and the artificial elementals from Trauka’s lair didn’t show a steady performance. What if they could communicate directly with the elementals and cooperate with each other? For example, if they were able to provide opportunities to contact with elementals even for ordinary people, not the Overgeared Guild, the power of humanity would be greatly strengthened.

‘It is beneficial to have more people to rely on.’

Grid’s gaze gradually changed as he judged this.

Killing intent, which had been suppressed, rose in his dark eyes and projected toward the elemental king.

[Foolish... are you going to give up on the opportunity that will never happen again?]

The light elemental king noticed Grid’s determination and persuaded him again.

[Choose carefully. If you confess your sins honestly and ask for forgiveness, Mother will look at you. It is a chance to go to Asgard. A chance to become a true god and reign forever!]

“Is that your wish?”

[What?]

“You feel like you have obtained a chance to go to Asgard in exchange for persuading me. It is funny that you call Rebecca your mother when you must prove your qualifications to stay by the gods.”

[What are you talking about? Creatures with mouths usually have a lot of useless words.]

“Maybe Rebecca is laughing right now? She must be thinking, ‘When did I have such a child?’”

Yura’s mouth dropped open as she watched the situation. It was because she glimpsed Huroi’s shadow from Grid’s manner of talking. In fact, Grid was getting Huroi’s advice in real time. He explained the situation in the whispers and asked for help reciting some lines.

He didn’t like the light elemental king. The meanness that came out only after predicting the chance of winning, the childishness that flattered Asgard, and the wickedness that swallowed Light Stone—in particular, he couldn’t forgive the last reason.

Killing the light elemental king might cause a loss to Yura, but Grid wanted to kill the light elemental king and get rid of it. It was complete enmity and killing intent, emotions that were different from what he temporarily held when facing the fire elemental king.

Meanwhile, the light elemental king had the same feelings toward Grid.

Light—it was clear that it was from Goddess Rebecca. Even so, it was never qualified for Asgard. It felt like it was treated like the common light that could be seen everywhere, all over the world. It always had doubts that it wasn’t special and was like the other elemental kings. It just tried to turn away from this. It was afraid to face it head on.

Yet at this moment, it was confronted by Grid. The anxiety and inferiority that had been suppressed exploded.

[It is better for you to die here. What does it mean to live when you have already betrayed the god’s favor once. Even if you ask for forgiveness, you will surely repeat the betrayal one day.]

“I feel sorry for Goddess Rebecca. She must be looking back through tens of thousands of years of memories to remember the day she gave birth to you and she must be distressed because she can’t remember. She might think she has dementia, so she will feel ashamed.”

[You!]

If it was a war of words with Grid who borrowed Huroi’s mouth, the other party could only experience a loss.

The light elemental king refused further conversation. It immediately turned into a flash of light and shot toward Grid. Then it paid the price. The moment it pierced through Grid, it was gripped in terrible darkness and its presence became pale. The identities of those who pressured him with darkness were the great magician Braham, and Zik of the seven evils.

“It is you who will die,” Grid spat out a mouthful of blood and spoke coolly.

People didn’t know this, but Grid wasn’t obsessed with one against one wins. If he was obsessed with a fair confrontation, he wouldn’t have grown his forces to this point in the first place.

“You will die here today.”

Light—the cards that Grid brought out against the light elemental king, which was naturally disadvantageous to him, were very appropriate. For Braham who dealt with magic of all attributes, light was just a concept that could be covered by darkness. Meanwhile, Zik had gone against the gods and had always sought to break through the ultimate destruction of light.

The light elemental king intuitively realized that it had fallen into a disadvantage. It immediately opened a portal to the elemental world. However, the other elemental kings closed the portal.

[King of light, we reject your return.]

[You guys are crazy...! Don’t you know that antagonizing me is like betraying Asgard!]

[Haven’t we been betraying Asgard in the meantime? If we had served Asgard, we wouldn’t have maintained a relationship with the daoist immortals.]

[You...!]

The light elemental king rapidly swelled up. It pushed out the magic of Braham and the darkness lacing Zik’s runes to reveal the entire forest. It became a world where contrast had disappeared, but the white world wasn’t as beautiful as expected.

“It is the dilemma of mutual destruction.”

Braham approached Grid and said, “Let’s lift your ban.”

“Huh?”

Ban? What type of ban did he have?

Braham gave a hint to the confused Grid, “The man called Damian asserted that the divinity of the Overgeared God is physical strength. I thought about it and found that it makes sense.”

“......?”

“If I have to discuss the attributes of physical strength, it is nothingness.”

“...Ah?” Grid recalled the fact that Braham’s magic attached to his sword dances exerted all types of attribute effects.

Then Braham placed his hand on Grid’s forehead. Dozens of different types of magic exited from Grid, shattered like glass pieces and scattered. A suppressed evolution occurred.

[’Grid’s Sword Dance’ has been promoted to ‘Overgeared God’s Sword Dance.’]

[Six sword dances can be fused into one. Currently it can only be done once.]

[From now on, the number of times a six fusion sword dance can be created will increase every time deity rises by 20.]

Grid didn’t have divine power even if he became a god. The perfect answer came to him, who had always questioned it. Damian’s assertion that the divinity of the Overgeared God was physical strength was correct.