A tremendous roar echoed across the parched, barren land. A wildly swirling white storm battered the enormous barrier that had unfolded in an instant, mixed with shrill cries.
The refugees who had just fled stood dumbfounded.
Who was that...
Who could block a natural disaster with mortal flesh and blood!?
They were shocked and dazed when an aged, deep voice sounded beside them. "It seems that your time has not yet come."
Following the voice, they saw an old man in a tattered black cloak and hood, leaning on a wooden cane. No one knew when he had appeared beside them.
"Y-You are?" someone stammered.
In a situation like this, even an idiot would know that this man was with the person blocking the disaster.
Neither of them was ordinary.
"Who this old man is does not matter." Ziusudra raised his bearded face beneath the hood and glanced at them. "What matters is that you should be grateful to the one who has allowed your fates to continue—"
His raised cane pointed upward.
The crowd looked at Rovi again.
His robe billowed as he spread his hands, enduring immense pressure.
After his period of research, Rovi had become far more adept at drawing upon the power of the Key of Heaven.
So merely blocking it did not require the King's Treasure Gilgamesh had given him.
The power of the unfolded Key of Heaven alone turned the space before him into a door. Once he shut it tightly, it naturally became a massive barrier.
Honestly, if he only wanted to restrain the Bull of Heaven, it would not have been difficult for Rovi.
After all, the Bull of Heaven had not fully manifested yet.
The Key of Heaven's power could completely confine it within a certain area.
But—
Rovi did not want to do that now.
This was a rare opportunity. He did not want to let it pass, and that alone would not be enough to vent the frustration in his heart.
For someone yearning for death, acting wantonly was only natural.
Thunderous booms rang in his ears as the surging storm grew even more violent.
Yet Rovi merely held up one hand to maintain the barrier.
Then he stretched out his other hand and pointed toward the sky—
Ripples spread, forming in an instant.
The King's Treasure appeared. Dozens of gates opened, and countless blades emerged from within.
They plunged straight down from above!
Streams of light scattered as innumerable chains trailed from their ends, winding, crossing, and in the blink of an eye driving into the violent storm.
As though piercing flesh, they fixed it firmly in place!
Tightening—
The Bull of Heaven had yet to fully manifest, but it had descended in its true form. The storm already carried a portion of its essence.
It cried out.
The storm bound by the Lock of Heaven gradually took on the shape of a bull outlined in clouds.
Its enormous horns thrust toward the sky, while its hooves constantly stamped upon the earth.
Its eyes locked directly onto Rovi!
The people below were already terrified. Seeing this, they were too frightened to know what to say.
"Wait... golden light, chains... Could that be Officer Rovi, the one who subdued the Monster Forest in the west some time ago!?"
"Officer Rovi? That lord rumored to be the King's friend? The great figure who destroyed an entire nation in a single night?"
"It can't be... could it really be that lord?"
Someone recognized Rovi.
Ziusudra remained standing to one side with his cane, saying nothing.
It was only natural that they recognized Rovi.
Rovi had never been insignificant, and after the previous "destruction of a nation" incident, his reputation had spread to the point where no one could possibly have not heard of him.
Yet what the old man concealed beneath his black robe was thinking at that moment was...
"Does Rovi intend to grievously wound the Bull of Heaven by surpassing his own limits?"
He raised his eyes, and a faint blue gleam flashed through them beneath his hood.
The old man, who had survived since the last world-destroying flood, had sharp eyes. He could see the power surging within Rovi's body, violent and turbulent.
It did not resemble the signs of a normal release at all.
Rovi, even if he exhausted himself to death—
Would still completely erase the Bull of Heaven's influence!
Resolutely... even at the cost of his own life.
"Those who seek life die; those who seek death live."
"Such a courageous man... no wonder he could become the savior of disaster."
Ziusudra understood.
But he did not know of the pleasure and excitement in Rovi's heart.
The pleasure came from venting his frustration.
The excitement came from the fact that this was the most suitable place to die.
By surpassing his limits,
And exhausting his strength?
By surpassing his limits, he would force the Bull of Heaven... to kill his most vulnerable self after he had run out of strength!
Only an existence like the Bull of Heaven could let him do this—let him push himself to the absolute limit while making it seem perfectly natural!
His robe snapped in the wind, his garments billowing.
"Hah hahaha... beast, are you afraid?"
He laughed.
For the sake of death, he was brazen and wild.
There truly was fear in the Bull of Heaven's cry. It was indeed afraid.
Afraid of Rovi's next mad action.
It had not fully manifested, and the process could not be interrupted, but that did not mean it could not be injured.
If the impact became great enough,
The Bull of Heaven would still feel pain and be wounded.
It might even—die!
Though it possessed little intelligence, the enormous "cloud bull" instinctively tried to turn and flee.
But it could not move.
The Lock of Heaven had nailed it in place.
Divine beasts possessed divinity as well, and the Bull of Heaven did not yet have enough manifested power to break free from divine restraints.
So, in that instant,
Rovi raised the hand supporting the barrier.
Ignoring the toll within his body, he used the Key of Heaven's power beyond his limits.
He turned the earth beneath his feet into an enormous "door."
He gathered all the dust upon that "door"—the concept of "drought"—into his palm.
The people on the ground raised their heads and discovered a trace of moisture in the air.
People trudging across the desolate land found springs welling up before them.
Those who had collapsed on the dry ground found sweet rain falling from the sky, a torrential downpour pouring over them.
Shoots sprouted from the earth, and riverbeds were once again covered and flooded with moisture.
They too saw the figure in the sky, blocking the disaster with his own strength.
Who was that man?
No one knew.
But they would remember that, at this moment, someone had used his flesh and blood to stop a natural disaster.
And Rovi believed even more—
That thousands of years later, people would still remember him because of this.
Remember that there had once been a man who gathered the boundless earth into a single grain and shifted the stars.
That was enough.
Boom!
The swelling power suddenly burst forth like floodwaters breaking through a dam, uncontrollably pouring out. Endless light and brilliance swallowed the world.
The Bull of Heaven let out an incomparably miserable cry. In the face of extreme danger, its desperate bellow made it advance rather than retreat... raising its enormous cloudlike horns as it charged forward!
A flash of light.
Scattered streams of light poured down like flames. From afar, they bloomed like a hundred flowers.
The Bull of Heaven vanished.
The "storm" that had only just gathered was directly scattered.
Only a wisp of cloud remained.
The last thing to fall to the ground
Was a standing figure.
His robe still fluttered. Though he had not fallen, his eyes were tightly shut, and he seemed to have lost all breath.
"Lord Rovi... what happened to him?" someone on the ground muttered.
"He—died."
Rovi was dead.
He had died without hesitation, with unwavering resolve.
That death—
Was brilliant, yet warm as the sun.
The crowd was stunned. They had never expected such an ending.
Only Ziusudra remained calm,
Because he knew...
"He died like fireworks."
"And would be reborn with the rising sun."
"Rovi... why are you here?" A clear voice rang beside him.
Rovi opened his eyes helplessly.
Before him...
Within the Throne built from chaos, a golden-haired girl gazed at him with magnificent crimson eyes.
She could not help blinking, slightly delighted. "You... came to see me?"
"Rovi?"
Rovi: "..."
Before you continue