Chapter 223: Story World
Chapter 223: Story World
The God of War would never shrink back.
Rather than cling to life, he would choose to die immediately at Caelum’s hands.
That was the pride and arrogance of a God of War.
Caelum granted him that wish.
He had risen to power in a very short span of time.
Only a few years had passed in the real world, but within game worlds, he had already lived through countless ages.
Seeing the God of War again stirred some emotion in him.
That battle felt like a memory from the distant past.
"You have grown stronger."
The God of War pulled the spear from his body and praised Caelum without expression.
"I can feel it. You are far more at ease than you were back then."
"You flatter me."
Caelum nodded.
Then the weapons within the Star of the Infinite erupted like a violent storm.
Countless magical weapons unleashed their attacks at once.
In a single instant, the God of War was blasted into ash.
The terrifying destructive force was confined within a limited area.
Earth remained intact.
This time, not even divine remains were left behind.
Van stood frozen after witnessing everything.
The DMB did not even dare breathe too loudly.
No one could quite believe what they had just seen.
"An SSS rank existence died just like that?"
Caelum had crushed him without giving him the slightest chance to resist.
The difference in strength was beyond imagination.
They could not even begin to guess how powerful Caelum truly was.
"What about the energy readings?"
"There is no reaction..."
Faced with Caelum’s attack, the DMB detection system seemed to have malfunctioned.
Derek and Guy had already expected something like this, so they were not overly shocked.
They exchanged a glance.
Only then did they remember something.
Guy asked uncertainly, "Does he not live in New Kirk?"
Derek understood what he meant and nodded.
"If I am not mistaken, he was probably the one who created the New Kirk barrier and stopped the Divine Wasteland World from invading reality."
In that case, Caelum was not merely SSS rank.
When the Divine Wasteland World invaded, the DMB had classified the disaster as beyond SSS rank.
If that was true, then Caelum should also be beyond SSS rank.
The thought was terrifying.
SSS rank was already an unreachable dream.
They could hardly believe Earth truly had a player beyond that level.
Fortunately, Caelum was content to drift through life.
Otherwise, he would have ruled the planet long ago.
"No... impossible!"
The God of War had died far too quickly and cleanly.
The wealthy man could not accept reality at all.
He shouted wildly.
"Impossible!"
"Absolutely impossible!"
"This cannot be real!"
"I am the god of the new world!"
"I am the chosen one!"
"I cannot lose!"
"This must be some illusion!"
"I refuse to believe any of this!"
The greater his confidence had been before, the more completely he collapsed now.
The contrast was too great.
Reality struck him with a blow he could not endure and shattered his mind.
He pointed at Caelum and roared.
"Release me from this illusion!"
Caelum glanced at him from the corner of his eye.
The wealthy man exploded into a cloud of blood.
Elsewhere in Travira, the black robed man stared in shock.
"So strong!"
Astrion beside him was on the verge of collapse.
His body trembled as he staggered backward, terror covering his face.
"It is... it is him!"
As expected, hiding had been the right decision.
The outcome Astrion feared most had still come to pass.
The moment Caelum appeared, Astrion nearly lost his soul from fright.
His fear peaked after the God of War died so miserably.
That sight brought back memories filled with despair.
"I am not playing anymore!"
Astrion was probably the most human of all gods.
Ever since dying once at Caelum’s hands, his emotions had become richer than those of most humans.
The black robed man stared at his cowardly behavior in confusion.
Was this really a god?
Whatever the man thought, Astrion had already turned around and tried to flee Travira.
However, the Secret War had not yet ended.
As a Servant, he remained bound by its contract and could not leave.
"Let me out!"
"I want to return to the Divine Wasteland World!"
At the edge of Travira, Astrion repeatedly struck the invisible barrier.
His courage had completely shattered.
Compared with the God of War’s prideful willingness to die in battle, the difference was enormous.
It was utterly disgraceful.
Caelum could hardly bear to watch.
He looked down over Travira.
This Secret War had already entered its final stage.
With Astrion reduced to this state, Caelum had no interest in amusing himself at his expense.
There was no fun in bullying someone who had lost all will to fight.
As for Van, Caelum had never considered him or the DMB opponents in the first place.
Calling them spectators was more accurate than calling them participants.
Even without Caelum entering the war, the God of War and Astrion stood on a level far beyond them.
At most, the DMB could play around with Tetesky and Fenrir.
They had no place in a battle of the highest level.
"Let us end it here."
The entertainment had been exhausted.
Caelum began cleaning up the battlefield.
The victor’s reward?
He did not need such a thing.
And from now on, no one else would receive it either.
With a thought, Caelum silently erased the extraordinary ritual that supported Travira.
Then he kicked Travira into another world.
From that day onward, there would never be another Secret War.
Travira vanished into thin air.
Van stood upon a barren stretch of land and looked around in bewilderment.
He could not understand what had happened.
"What is going on now?"
Astrion did not care what had happened.
As far as he was concerned, escaping was all that mattered.
Using the principles behind the extraordinary ritual of the Secret War, Caelum invoked the power of Infinite Concept Transcendence.
He easily broke through the barrier between worlds and entered another world at random.
The word world here did not refer to a single spacetime.
It referred to a concept based on a story.
Caelum had long possessed the ability to create infinite parallel universes.
However, he had never done so.
Earth’s world still maintained a single timeline.
If he created infinite parallel universes, then every universe would possess its own timeline.
Each timeline would also contain its own Endless Sea of Universes.
Yet under the concept of a single story, all of them would still be collectively regarded as one story world.
Even if its timelines and seas of universes continued expanding in the future, they would still belong to the same world.
That remained true even if the world contained countless different systems.
One could think of every story world as a book.
No matter how vast the setting of that book became, and no matter how many worlds it contained, all its settings and content would still belong to the same book.
That was what defined a story world.
By the same logic, another story world meant another book.
What Caelum was doing now could be described in simple terms.
He was jumping from one book into another.
The process was entirely random.
He could not freely choose his destination.
Before arriving in another story world, even he had no idea what kind of world it would be.
Only now did Caelum realize that the game system of Earth’s story world was, in essence, an enormous central network connecting countless story worlds.
Put simply, it was the management system of a library.