Chapter 186
Slrk. Slrk.
The sticky fluid dripping from the tentacle mixed with blood and splattered across the ground.
Hissss.
The earth melted beneath it.
At the same time...
The body of the one-eyed Constellation impaled by the tentacle began melting as well.
The sight was beyond gruesome.
His upper and lower body stretched apart like slime...
Then snapped.
Plop.
His lower half fell to the ground.
Within moments...
It dissolved into a shapeless mass and disappeared.
"U-Ugh..."
"Urghhh...."
Starting from his face...
The Constellation's upper body began collapsing too.
The tentacle wriggled with satisfaction, as though it had eaten its fill.
Then...
It spat something out.
A bead-like object landed in Mihyeon's palm.
Suhyeok and the surrounding Constellations all flinched.
Especially Odin and Thor of Asgard.
Neither could take their eyes off it.
...Is that a bead made from extracted Rank?
I knew she'd absorbed Loki's Rank...
But I didn't know she'd extracted it like that.
Mihyeon stared at the bead with emotionless eyes.
Then immediately absorbed it.
For an instant...
Suhyeok felt the amount of Rank inside her increase.
Ding!
[Target is partially eligible for Trait Plunder.]
A message appeared in the air.
Did absorbing the Constellations' Rank make even part of her eligible for Plunder?
Then...
"...!!"
Suhyeok was so shocked that he momentarily failed to control his expression.
The number of Traits she possessed...
Was absurd.
It couldn't even be compared to before.
This was abnormal even for the power of an Outer God.
Traits weren't something that could normally be acquired so easily.
And for those who possessed the Rank of a Constellation...
The Rank of their Traits was naturally higher as well.
That was why most Constellations only possessed two or three Traits.
But Mihyeon...
Had far more than that.
And Suhyeok remembered seeing every one of them before.
They belonged to the unaffiliated Constellations he'd seen at the Banquet Hall.
Even the one-eyed Constellation's Trait...
Force Collision (S)...
Was among them.
But the Trait that caught Suhyeok's attention most was...
Why is Divine Artifact Enhancement here──
He froze.
...Then could the reason none of the unaffiliated Constellations appeared here...
And the reason Buddha is missing...
All be because of Mihyeon?
Suhyeok focused Rank into his eyes.
He examined the countless Ranks tangled together inside her body.
It was no longer only Loki's Rank.
Something far more chaotic...
A mass of mixed and fused Ranks...
Filled her entire body.
"H-How..."
"How can something like that be possible?"
Thor stared in disbelief.
"Melting the body of a Constellation that easily..."
"A-And even Thrym..."
"Praised as the greatest of the Jotunn..."
"To be killed like that...."
His eyes trembled violently.
Thor glanced toward his father.
Odin seemed calm at first glance.
But his grip around his staff had tightened considerably.
And Thrym's death wasn't the only reason Odin was shaken.
"...That isn't the same power the Outer Gods possessed in the past."
His voice was grave.
"It's an ominous, repulsive power that devours everything..."
"Yet it has evolved far beyond what it once was."
Odin's single eye narrowed.
"Even this eye cannot see through to the true body beyond it...."
"Truly..."
"What a sinister and ill-fated power."
As Suhyeok had seen within the Primordial God's memories...
The Constellations who had fought the Outer Gods in the past all seemed to agree with Odin.
Then...
A message appeared before everyone.
[36 seconds remain until the end.]
Suhyeok frowned.
The countdown hadn't stopped.
The mission condition had clearly been to eliminate one Constellation.
The one-eyed Constellation was already gone.
The mission should've ended.
So why was the timer still counting down?
...Don't tell me.
It was only Suhyeok's theory...
But the mission said to eliminate one Constellation within the time limit.
If satisfying that minimum condition was enough...
Then perhaps they were free to kill as many Constellations as they wanted before time ran out.
It sounded absurd.
But knowing Ruzian...
It was entirely possible.
Suhyeok remembered his eyes from before.
They had been filled with revenge and hatred.
Just like Suhyeok himself before the regression.
It was probably related to how Ruzian had become a Highest-Level Administrator.
Aside from those like Leon, who had originally been Lower Administrators...
The other high-ranking Administrators had all once been Players from destroyed worlds.
Still...
This is bad.
That countdown will only make the chaos worse.
Especially now that she's appeared.
Suhyeok looked at Mihyeon's eyes.
Like before...
They were empty.
No emotion.
No memories.
But this time...
Something was different.
Before...
There had still been a faint sense of self.
A trace of doubt about her own identity.
Now...
She looked no different from a machine obeying orders.
Slrk. Slrk.
At that moment...
The tentacles writhing through the air suddenly grew larger.
They expanded until they covered the entire sky and cast a shadow over the clearing.
Blade-like teeth protruded grotesquely from their surfaces.
SHRAAAAAK!
The tentacles filling the air launched forward like missiles.
They didn't distinguish between factions.
They attacked every Constellation standing on either side.
Bababababak!
"Urgh!"
"Block them!"
"Cover your bodies in Rank!"
"If one even grazes you, it's over...!"
Every Constellation defended in their own way.
But against the downpour of tentacles...
They could barely hold their ground.
There was no room to counterattack.
Even Odin...
Jesus...
And Zeus...
Couldn't retaliate properly.
The same was true for Suhyeok.
The tentacles assaulted him without leaving even enough space to plant his feet.
Some curved.
Others shot straight forward.
Some bent three separate times in midair just to continue pursuing him.
Then...
Ding!
[Trait Plunder Conditions for multiple targets have changed.]
[Trait Plunder Conditions overlap.]
[Only 1 Trait may be Plundered from among targets whose conditions are fulfilled.]
[Condition: Prevent even a single Constellation from dying to those tentacles within 30 seconds.]
Every Constellation's Plunder Condition had changed at once.
Which meant...
If Suhyeok could protect everyone from the tentacles for just thirty seconds...
He could take one Trait from Jesus...
