Who Stole The Empress

Chapter 167. Collect

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It felt like time had stopped.

Was this the sight she saw on the threshold of death?

Asha slowly closed her eyes and opened them, feeling the white light blocking her eyes.

Surprisingly, the gap stopped opening.

The monsters that were sticking out their disgusting feet inside also stopped. Asha looked around her, heaving. It wasn’t just her feelings.

It was unbelievably, really, the world had stopped.

The fleeing nobles were frozen in place like ice sculptures, and the tears of those who cried no longer flowed and stuck to their cheeks.

“What is this……”

There were only six people who didn’t stop.

Tamon, Theoransha, and Hartz and Gillotti with superpowers lifted their heads and looked around.

Asha, who had gathered the holy relics and cried out to God, was still able to move like normal.

And the last one.

The one person who could be considered completely foreign in a way walked slowly in front of Asha.

[What do you want, my child?]

It was Hannah surrounded by brilliant light.

****

Hannah’s pupils had mysteriously changed to golden.

The power that could not be contained in the small body flowed out, and the child’s whole body gleamed with divine light.

Hannah walked lightly as if flying and stood in front of Asha.

[I knew we would meet again.]

A very friendly voice shook Asha.

It came out through a single mouth, but it wasn’t a single voice or the language of the ‘human’ she knew. (*Many voices spoke at once when ‘Hannah’ spoke.)

The strange thing was that the meaning was clearly communicated even though it was not her language.

Asha had already heard such a language in her dreams.

And even then, she felt this alienation and was in awe.

“I… I know you.”

[Yes, we’ve already met.]

Asha was obviously surprised, but she was able to calm her bewilderment quickly, because she had vaguely recognized Hannah’s identity.

Tamon, Theo, Hartz, and even Gillotti stared at Asha, holding their breath.

They too were feeling the immense power that came from Hannah’s body.

And the fact that her power was very similar to their own powers.

“……Are you God?”

Asha struggled to open her mouth.

‘She’ with Hannah’s face smiled at her.

[I am the one who came to your dreams. A heterogeneous existence that cannot stay in this world. And I’m one of those who left you that ‘power’.]

Was it God or was it not?

It was a very vague word. However, it was clear that it was the very existence Asha had been looking for.

[Tell me what you want, child. Who called me through hard work.]

Asha hesitated, then looked at the gap that opened and then stopped.

It was a gap of a size she had never seen before.

If that gap were to be completely torn, it would have been enough to cover the entire banquet hall.

How many monsters would come out from that gap? Hundreds? Thousands? No, it would be ten of thousands. Just imagining it gave her goosebumps.

No matter how many people with superpowers were gathered in this space right now, it was clear that they would not be able to handle it easily if that many monsters burst out all at once.

Asha inhaled her breath slowly.

This was not what she originally borrowed through holy relics.

‘The power of death disappears from this land.’

It was her desire to destroy that power of death, which the Tanatos royal family used privately, forever.

However,

Asha glanced at the cracked black gap.

After hesitation, she gathered her courage and asked ‘she’ who looked like Hannah.

“There is something I want to ask first. Do you grant only one wish?”

‘She’ laughed.

[You are a greedy child. Greed is a good thing. But I also have to say that it is not easy to show off your power here.]

It seemed like there was only one chance.

Asha turned her head and looked at Gillotti, who had changed so much that she could not guess his original face.

All sorts of blood and filth poured out of his eyes, ears, mouth and nose, and his face shrunk to nothingness.

As if all the moisture in his body had evaporated, the will to life was no longer found in his wrinkled eyes.

That was no longer Gillotti Tanatos.

Just a living invoice.

Even if he dies instantly, it’s just a living corpse.

It was more heartbreaking than she thought.

All she wished for was the downfall of Gillotti and Natasha.

However, if she tried to satisfy her own greed here first, tens of thousands of people would be injured or killed by the monsters poured out from the gap after this moment had passed.

And among them, there would be Tamon, whom she loved, and someone’s precious family and lover.

“My wish is…”

So, now was the time to let go of her personal greed.

Didn’t she also come here with the death of her family and the sacrifice of her friends?

She knew better than anyone else the pain of torn flesh and splitting soul.

“…the strange phenomenon called the gap no longer occurs. Thus, we are no longer victimized by the beasts pouring out from it.”

At Asha’s words, ‘she’ smiled quietly.

“I hope so.”

‘She’ looked at Asha with tender eyes for a moment, then slowly reached out and stroked her cheek.

It was a soft touch that felt warm.

[It would not have been.]

“…….! ”

Startled, Asha looked at her with swaying eyes.

‘She’ rubbed Asha’s cheek knowingly and whispered, kissing her on the forehead slowly.

[A sweet child. I knew you would make a wise choice. So pitiful, so lovely.]

Mumbling, ‘she’ backed away from Asha.

[… Fortunately, my will and your secret desire coincide.]

And ‘she’ looked back at the supernaturals who were looking at her with eyes full of vigilance.

[In order to close the gaps and what you call monsters, we have to retrieve the ‘fragments’ that we left behind.] (*God’s fragments= powers)

“What….?”

[They keep encroaching on your world to eat our fragments.]

At that moment, the half-conscious Gillotti raised his head and shouted.

“No! This power is mine, it’s mine! I’ll never give it up!”

Tamon, Theo, and Hartz looked at each other with complicated eyes.

Gillotti began to pull back. He fell to the floor several times as he ran away, half crawling with his weak arms, but he crawled without stopping.

Hannah walked behind Gillotti, slowly and in no hurry.

“Oh, don’t come! Do not come!”

[Don’t mistake the loan as yours.]

‘She’ reached out her hand towards Gillotti in a low and friendly voice.

Gillotti struggled to avoid her hand, but as Hannah’s hand got closer, Gillotti’s body froze and he could not move.

“Oh, no, my, my power. Mine, mine…!”

Gillotti could not let go of his greed.

Even though the power of death he admired and revered so much reached the tip of his neck, he struggled not to let go of the power he had borrowed from God for a while.

He trembled as he convulsed with his brittle white hair, wrinkled skin covered in blood, and his bare, dry, bony body.

Nevertheless, God’s hand rested on his forehead calmly, and in an instant ‘she’ took away his power.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

After losing his ability, Gillotti could not stand it any longer and collapsed.

Gillotti, who fell to the floor with his eyes wide open, was miserable.

[Don’t worry. He’s not dead yet.]

Hannah looked back at Asha and added with a smile.

Asha nodded her head, alternately looking at the fallen Gillotti and Hannah’s face with complicated eyes.

“Don’t you need our consent?”

Theoransha, who had been silent until now, asked with hesitation.

[Consent?]

Hannah slowly looked at Theo and Tamon, and then Hartz and the Fifth Might, who was listening to this conversation somewhere beyond the Hartz.

[Did you give consent to be born?]

“…”

[It’s the same when your life is over. Does death come with your consent?]

Theo clenched her fists, unable to answer.

[Don’t worry, child. Now the world will bloom more with your ‘power’ than with our power.]

Hannah stretched her hand towards Theo.

[So now give it back.]

God was truly arbitrary.

He gave them power they had never asked for before, and this time he retrieved it at will.

But that didn’t mean they could rebel against being taken away.

Life was like that.

If everything worked out of individual choice and will, everyone alive would have been king.

Theo shrugged her shoulders as if resigning.

Life after the loss of this ability will probably change a lot.

It would change not only her life, but the entire world she lived in.

Changing the world was as natural and huge as the changing seasons.

A wise person was not one who could not accept the changing world and struggled, but one who read and led the changing world faster than anyone else.

‘I’ll be busy again when I go back.’

Theo looked at the hand reaching out toward her, and closed her eyes as if in conformity.

“Haaaa!”

She felt a shard of her soul slipping away that had been filling her. She was so taken for granted that she didn’t even know it was there, but she felt empty only after it left.

Then Hannah looked at Hartz.

Hartz meekly knelt down on his knees and lowered his head to show his obedience.

A round light escaped from Hartz’s body and penetrated into Hannah’s hand.

Fortunately, no one felt pain as Gillotti did.

God borrowed a body reached out to somewhere in the air.

Then, surprisingly, a red light was drawn from afar and was sucked into Hannah’s hand in an instant.

It was the power of charm that the Princess of Lumosha, who could not come to this place, had. (*The Fifth Might was mentioned earlier was Princess of Lumosha, who was not present. Hannah (God) is taking away all the powers back.)

[Okay then, now only the child of life remains.]

Tamon nodded his head and took a step towards Hannah.

Although his life power was powerful, Tamon has no regrets about this power, unlike Gillotti and Theo.

Of course, it was a little disappointing that he would not be able to act like a baby to Asha on the pretext that he was injured in the future.

In front of God, Tamon suddenly raised his voice.

“Before I let it go, can I ask you one thing?”

***