Sung Shihyun clenched his teeth hard enough for a molar to crack. Then he slammed his fist on the Corrupted Throne, jumping to his feet.
His anger was enough to send his assimilated divinities roiling in response to his emotions. Crimson light, eerie emerald, and an otherworldly black hue wreathed his body as he grabbed White Fang and started stomping towards the entrance. "SEOL JIHUUUUU!"
Explosive Patience flinched and quickly floated after Sung Shihyun. "My lord, please don't- Kuh?!"
A flash of white steel.
In the next instance, Explosive Patience flew back, her divinity cleaved from her and leaving behind just the fading spirit of a noblewoman.
"...Why... my lord...?"
Sung Shihyun ignored her and grabbed her floating divinity, assimilating it.
And the moment he did, someone walked through the doors of the throne room.
A Korean young man, definitely younger than Sung Shihyun. As if not caring or even fearing wounds, he walked up in a three piece black suit from Earth, as well as black leather loafers.
Seol Jihu. That bastard who stole Sung Shihyun's entire reputation, skill set, and place in the world while he had been working on assimilating divinity to surpass being a human.
"Yo." Jihu raised a hand, his eyes glittering like a kaleidoscope and shining iridescent hues. But then he paused and looked at Explosive Patience's fading body. "...Did you seriously even try to get yourself a version of Flone? Like, that woman's a ghost that's trying to be alive, right? Man, you really ARE a bad copy of me."
*I'm doin' this tonight, you're probably gonna start a fight...*
At the same time as Jihu's words, fucking NSYNC played from the phone in his pocket.
*I know this can't be right, hey, baby, come on...*
"YOU FUCKING-!"
Sung Shihyun let out a strangled roar and stepped forward.
It was an inevitable outcome.
He had assimilated four divinities now. Two were even divinities from gods that could destroy entire worlds. So with that-
'What?'
The world was tilting. No, the room looked like it was spinning.
'That doesn't make sense...!'
Sung Shihyun put more power into his grip and took another step.
As he did, he saw Explosive Patience slowly solidify. The wound he dealt her was healing- No, the ghostly woman was becoming real. Alive.
At the same time, Jihu's voice echoed in the room. "Huh. A lot easier than it was with Flone. Is it because you don't matter that much in the long run, or because I'm that much stronger? Well, we DO need more babysitters soon, so..."
*JIHUUUUU!*
Sung Shihyun tried to scream and turn his body to swing at him.
But then he finally realized it.
"Oh. You're still alive, huh? Interesting how you can keep your head floating after your body fell to the floor to bleed out."
*It ain't no lie... I wanna see you out that door, Baby, bye bye bye~*
'No. No, no, no.'
It couldn't be.
He was strong. He was stronger. THE STRONGEST!
Sung Shihyun. He was SUNG SHIHYUN. The human who killed the Parasite Queen and stole her powers. The one who killed that eldritch outer god and devoured him. The one, the only one, who had fully assimilated divinity into his body.
So, what the fuck-!
"You may hate me but it ain't no lie... Bye, bye, bye~"
Jihu let out a mocking smile.
Sung Shihyun let out a silent scream.
And then a white sword... No. White Fang. HIS sword.
Jihu casually unsheathed it from his side and slashed.
Just once.
And in the next inst-
===
I watched as Sung Shihyun and all the divinity he had claimed was folded into a tiny little box before being shredded apart like confetti.
"Neat."
I'd done something similar way back when after I first unlocked
Cool to see it worked on divinity too.
"Guess even the gods can't escape the fact that space is as old as time, huh?"
What was a god gonna do if the space they existed in suddenly decided to collapse and fold in on itself, right? Unless they had authority over space... and SPACE itself, not spacetime.
They'd be screwed.
Case in point, the tiny red smear that once was Sung Shihyun and his abilities.
But anyway...
I looked at the refined noblewoman laying on the ground in front of me and slowly rising to her feet.
A burial shroud obscured her face, but I didn't need to look beyond it to tell she was a beauty on the same caliber as Flone.
Explosive Patience... At least, that should have been her name. But since Sung Shihyun had taken her divinity...
I guess it was just Patty?
Anyway, 'Patty' stared at me with trembling eyes and said, "...You saved me? Even though-"
"I'm going to cut you off right there." I placed my arms in an X and said, "I have 11, probably 12, women who love me in my life..."
Eun Yuri was iffy. I'd need to gather the council (my loves) together to discuss that later.
"...And I'm not adding any more. But I'll adopt you as a little sister or something if you want to be that grateful."
"...What?"
"You heard me."
Patty blinked. Then she laughed. She kept laughing, enough that her burial shroud was stained with tears. And then she slowly took it off, showing a bright smile. "...Fine. I suppose that's fair. And I'm tired of being 'owned' as well..."
"Great. Now." I took a look around. "Just to confirm... you don't have anything you care about here, right?"
"Of course not." Patty huffed. "I'd raze this place down to the ground if I could." She swallowed in disgust. "The things that man made me do..."
"Alright. Then hold on tight."
"Hold on- KYA?!?"
I scooped Patty up and then jumped into the air.
"I wasn't able to control it back then. And it would have been absolutely ridiculous to use before now. But since I've resolved everything properly and the world itself is on my side right now..."
It was something that came to my mind a bit earlier when I was thinking about overpowered characters. Something cool that I saw once before I entered this world as Jihu.
And something that I was reminded of considering how I solved the Impossible Mission in the Neutral Zone... as well as the 'Plan B' I'd worked on just in case to defeat the Parasite Queen.
Floating in the air, I held Patty close and said, "It'd be a waste to not use it. Might as well."
Since it was super flashy, it'd also be a good signal to everyone that things were over. And at the same time, a clear warning to anyone who had bright ideas about trying to continue exploiting Paradise even after the Parasite Queen and the big bads were defeated.
"I..."
Mana surged around me, all the ambient energy swirling and flooding into my body before sublimating into something else. Something purer and refined.
Patty clung onto me tight, her crimson eyes wide with shock, terror, and a bit of exhiliration. "Wh-What is this power?! What magic are you going to cast that requires this much energy?!"
"AM!"
Light, heat, ambient soundwaves, everything that could be considered energy, up to and including mana and remnant divinity in the area...
I drew all of that into my sword as I raised it above my head.
"N-NOT THAT I DOUBT YOU, SAVIOR! BUT WHAT IN THE GODS ARE YOU-!"
"Atomic."
I swung my sword down.
For one single second, sound, light, and everything around went still. As if the world itself was waiting with bated breath.
And then white light bloomed, devouring everything around me. Not the uncontrolled nuclear explosion that I had used in the Impossible Mission, but the pure essence of creation itself, unraveling everything around into raw existence, the primordial whole before 'names' divided it into 'this' and 'that.'
One second.
Two.
And on the third, the light vanished, leaving behind a field of azure flowers the same hue as Flone's eyes that spread out in every direction from where the Imperial Palace once stood.
I floated back down to the ground, landing on the blossoming azure sea of flowers. Then I set Patty down next to me and smiled. "Well then. I think this makes it pretty clear that the war is over, right?"
Patty stared at me.
I stared back.
Then, Patty blinked and said, "...Savior."
"Yes?"
"...You are a crazy son of a bitch."
I laughed. "Yeah. People say that a lot."