Overgeared

Chapter 1804

It was after making Braham’s Staff. Grid had a close conversation with the apostles. In particular, he thought he knew very little about Zik and Mir.

Of course, he knew their painful past. For instance, Zik was betrayed while living as a servant of the gods and Mir was a doll made for the gods. What Grid was curious about wasn’t the background that everyone talked about.

“Before receiving the blessings of the gods... do you mean my normal human days?” Zik cocked his head as he stroked his smooth chin. He looked like he was pondering on something. There was little excitement on his face. “I think I was trying to survive day by day. I was like everyone else. I remembered that the era in which I lived was very lacking due to the lack of economic and cultural development. My family… let’s see. I don’t know if I had any siblings. I probably wasn’t married.”

Zik’s memory was very biased. Like a person born around the time when he decided to confront the gods, only his memories from that time were clear.

‘Is it a defense mechanism?’

Zik was a survivor of a destroyed world. In the first place, all his family members had died. Just remembering it must’ve been painful for Zik.

Zik shook his head as he vaguely read Grid’s thoughts and regrets. “You don’t have to pity me. The days of remembering and missing my precious people have already ended thousands of years ago. It has been too long.”

It had been so long that he couldn’t even remember his parents’ faces and names.

“But don’t you remember your colleagues?” Grid asked Zik after his explanation.

“That... maybe it is because of guilt.”

During the Seven Good People’s crushing defeat in the war against the gods, Zik didn’t participate in the war and was asleep. Putting aside the Curse of Sloth, Zik had clearly betrayed his companions.

“Of course, my participation in the war doesn’t mean we would’ve won the war against the gods.”

“......?”

Grid saw Zik’s bitter smile and suddenly doubted something.

“Come to think of it, it is strange. Why did the gods curse you with the Curse of Sloth?”

In the past, he thought they were wary because Zik was incredibly strong. However, now he knew. To be honest, Zik’s combat ability wasn’t a major threat to the celestial gods. It was even considering the fact that Zik’s runes performed the miracle of stealing the power of King Sobyeol, son of Hanul.

Didn’t Zik tell him? If he had been present, there would’ve been no chance that they would’ve won the war against the gods. Then why did they use a curse to prevent Zik from joining the war?

Grid thought of two possibilities. First, it was that Zik’s ‘Seven Malignant Saints skill’, which was still marked with a question mark, was powerful enough to transcend Grid’s imagination. Secondly, one of the gods was trying to protect Zik.

‘If I had to choose one of them, it would naturally be the latter.’

Grid couldn’t ask outright. Zik lived with the intention of getting revenge on the gods. Raising the possibility that some god actually protected him? He would be a psychopath without empathy. He knew it in his head so he tried not to ask, but...

“Which of the two do you think it is...?”

Still, Grid ended up asking. It was only then that the conversation would progress. Grid wanted to check Zik’s Seven Malignant Saints skill and whether or not he possessed a mental world.

“...If I had to choose between the two, it would be the latter.”

Zik’s expressionless face rapidly darkened. If the relationship between the two of them hadn’t been intertwined as god and apostle, there would most likely be a system message stating that favorability had dropped drastically.

“The unique ability that Rebecca granted me… it has a very different disposition from the God's Command of yours and the Quick Command handled by the Sword Saint of this era. It doesn’t contribute to combat power.”

“What type of function is it? Is it the same type as Zibal’s Providence?”

“It isn’t like that. Coincidentally, I can’t tell you the details, but it has to do with discerning eyes.”

“Discerning eyes...? Ah, so...”

Grid realized it. Zik had approached him with good feelings (?) from the beginning. He had promised to make Grid the emperor of Saharan.

‘Did he know from the beginning that I would one day be emperor?’

In retrospect, the empire’s founder, Saharan, was also chosen by Zik.

“Why can’t you tell me the details?”

“It is just in case. I will tell you one day, so trust me and wait.”

“Of course. By the way, is it also a secret if you have a mental world or not? I’ve never witnessed you using a mental world.”

Even Baal had a high opinion of Zik. It was natural. Wasn’t he the strongest in the previous world? Zik’s position was the same as Hayate’s. It was fair to say that there was virtually no possibility that such a person didn’t have a mental world. However, he had never revealed his mental world.

“I have it,” Zik replied to Grid, who asked cautiously as if wondering if there was a story behind it.

His expression was still dark. It wasn’t a secret, but he didn’t want to reveal it. However, Grid had to listen to it. No, he needed to go beyond just hearing about it. He had to experience it for himself.

“Can you invite me there? It is because of this.”

Grid showed the hesitant Zik the Fire Dragon’s Armor and Defying the Natural Order.

Zik’s eyes shook. Saharan’s Sword matched so well with ‘red energy’ that he hadn’t felt the need to covet Grid’s divine swords, but now he had a rare greed. The power of the battle gears made with intent was that great.

“It is to the extent where Braham abandoned Belial’s Staff.”

“......!”

Grid drove in the wedge.

Belial’s Staff—it was a weapon that Braham had used for over ten years. He threw it away?

Finally, Zik abandoned his hesitation and nodded. “It is embarrassing, but I understand. I hope God won’t be disappointed. I will accept the favor.”

Darkness came. The sad sobbing of a child permeated Grid’s ears.

‘A child?’

Grid was feeling perplexed by the darkness where he couldn’t see an inch ahead of him.

[You have entered Zik’s mental world, ‘Solitude and Pain.’]

A faint light spread and a notification window popped up. At the same time, his vision that had been engulfed by darkness was restored. Grid was able to examine the surrounding landscape. It was a huge and desolate wilderness. Black-red bloodstains were visible everywhere. There was a child crouching in the center of it. He had blond hair that was tousled and soaked in blood and sweat. The hair, which seemed to shine brilliantly when it rained, resembled Zik’s.

“...Zik?” Grid asked and the child looked up. As expected, it was a child with features that looked exactly like Zik. His expression was different. His cheeks puffed up to hold back his crying, but tears poured down like chicken poop.

The Zik that Grid knew never looked like this.

‘This isn’t Zik. It can’t be Zik.’

If this child was Zik, then it meant there were two Ziks. It included Zik, who entered in here with him from reality...

“...Huh?”

Grid was flustered when Zik, whom he thought would be by his side, was nowhere to be seen. He looked around but he couldn’t find Zik anywhere in the wilderness. The only ones who existed here were himself and the child in front of him.

‘What is this?’

They clearly entered together?

It was while Grid was panicking...

“Sniff... Yes, I am Zik. My God... God recognizes me.”

After wiping his runny nose and barely stopping his crying, the child bowed politely to Grid.

“......?”

Grid actually understood the situation. The canyon in Grid’s mental world, the smithy in Khan’s mental world, the hammer and anvil in Hexetia’s mental world, and the huge sword in Biban’s mental world. In addition, there was a study and a laboratory in Braham’s mental world. The mental world referred to the heart of the owner and represented something important when forming the heart. That was it. It didn’t change the form of the owner. However, Zik’s mental world was so bleak that Zik himself had changed.

The young Zik explained it, “Every time I step in here, I remember things I’ve forgotten. It is sad and scary. It hurts so much...”

Oblivion. It was as the Great Robber of the Red Night had told Raiders a while ago. Human beings could only live by forgetting unnecessary memories. But Zik was too smart to forget something. Therefore, he collected all the wisdom from the years he lived and what he eventually learned from Goddess Rebecca. He sealed it because he couldn’t forget it. It was in this mental world, disconnected from reality.

Perhaps Zik himself was unaware of it. This was why he simply said it was ‘embarrassing’ to open his mental world. If he knew that every time he opened the mental world, he would bring back a forgotten memory, then Zik would’ve been more afraid than embarrassed when opening the mental world.

“I hate Goddess Rebecca. I thought fighting for her meant fighting for humans, but this wasn’t the case. Those who acted on her will caused all types of disasters and all my descendants died. I couldn’t protect anyone. No, I killed everyone...”

“Zik...”

“I decided to go to heaven with my colleagues to get revenge, but I couldn’t even do that. I heard the Goddess’ lullaby and my eyes closed by themselves. Once I opened my eyes again, everyone was already dead. I should’ve died with them...”

The young Zik’s weary eyes started to show hatred and killing intent. It was killing intent toward himself, not toward Grid whom he was facing. He was poised to pierce himself and take his own life. But he didn’t do so. To be precise, he couldn’t do it. It was because of responsibility. What Zik wanted was an inevitable death.

“It is so painful I don’t want to live. Kill me. God, please kill me.”

All sorts of runes whirled around the young Zik as he tearfully pleaded again. The great magic power and divinity that had been taken from King Sobyeol soared together.

‘Can runes be that long?’

The power of the rune language rose expionentially every time a word and a sentence was formed. However, Zik mostly used runes as separate letters or words. It was extremely rare to achieve a sentence and even that was short. He was told that it was simply because it was difficult The longer the sentence, the harder it was to combine and the more mental power it consumed.

However, the young Zik did it easily. His ability to handle the runes was far superior to the adult Zik thanks to his complete memory.

‘It is incredibly strong.’

This was Zik’s full abilities. If Zik had ascended to heaven with the rest of the Seven Good People, they might not have won the war, but wouldn’t the gods have suffered several defeats and lost their dignity?

Grid’s thinking went up to here and he was convinced. The reason why the gods cursed Zik wasn’t to protect him, but simply out of fear.

“In any case.”

Grid reached for the young Zik. He punched the pitiful face distorted with sorrow and pain with all his might. There was no emotion in it. It was simply to calm down Zik, who was on the verge of running wild.

The spread of pain—Grid speculated that Zik’s mental world was a form that became stronger as the young Zik went berserk.

“Stop talking nonsense about wanting to die and let’s make a sword. Why should you die? I won’t kill you.”

There was no worry on Grid’s face as he summoned the Sanctuary of Metal. Just as Piaro created agricultural fields in the desert, Zik was a person who exercised miracles. Furthermore, he could write such long sentences in runes in his mental world, so it would be easy to find a way to accomplish the unity of the mental worlds.

[The ‘Sanctuary of Metal’ has assimilated Zik’s mental world, ‘Solitude and Pain’!]

As expected, Zik didn’t betray Grid’s expectations. He used runes to respond to the canyon towering in the barren wilderness.

“Things will never be easy. Stay focused until the end and help me,” Grid urged again.

This Intent Production would be an unfamiliar challenge for him as well. It was because he planned to extract the red energy from Saharan’s Sword and include it as part of the materials. He thought he could do it with the help of the young Zik.

“Sniff. Yes...”

Zik’s cheeks were puffy as he barely managed to answer.

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