Silent, peaceful...
Time flowed on, irreversible, mercilessly digesting and devouring everything within the Dimensional Esophagus.
Too much time had already passed. Batch after batch of refugees in the Piercing Gate Gathering Place had been digested by the Dimensional Esophagus, yet none could overturn the unique Ninefold Mountain rules that every arrival at the Piercing Gate Gathering Place automatically obeyed.
No refugee had ever crossed the eight guarding mountain peaks and reached the first peak atop the Ninefold Mountains to witness the Annihilation Wizard King's true face. The Annihilation Wizard King was no longer merely a title; he was the symbol of the Piercing Gate's pinnacle power, the creator of the rules governing the masters of the Ninefold Peaks.
"You pass by here once every day. It has been five thousand years already, and you still have no intention of trying?"
Medusa's low, aged voice came from behind him. She was the sole privileged being in the Piercing Gate Gathering Place, the Annihilation Wizard King's only friend.
Standing before Medusa was a blue-purple-skinned humanoid holding a longsword, dressed in tattered hemp garments.
His eyes were wrapped in a strip of black satin, as though he had already gone blind. Yet his vision was broader than when he had possessed eyes. He had shattered the shackles of his arrogance, the belief that none could stand against him; reverence for mountains beyond mountains drove him onward.
For that reason, he had voluntarily come to the Dimensional Esophagus, revered as a legend of terror, in pursuit of the ultimate sword path, to forge the legend of a Sword God.
A pitch-black, ancient sword rested on his back. More accurately, it could no longer be called a longsword. It was simply an incomparably crude black rod, over two meters long and as tall as the