Chapter 0
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 0
Chapter Title: Prologue | The Tower That Does Not Fall
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The tower splits in two and collapses.
From the 88th floor all the way down to the 1st.
Two shadows plummet from the top of the tower and crash into the ground.
The impact sends tens of thousands of paving stones floating into the air,
leaving behind a massive crater as though the earth itself had been struck by a meteor.
The final dungeon, Babel.
After all the demons and Hunters fought a fierce battle to the death, only two beings remained.
The dungeon that was devouring the world, Babel.
And the final dimensional invader residing at its summit.
The Demon King of Genesis Destruction, Bel Marduk.
Even with one of his horns broken, he wore a triumphant grin.
“Kukuku. Last Hunter, I have won. The power known only to humans in this world, these Avatars, is quite impressive, but once we conquer this world, it will become our power.”
While the Demon King sneered in triumph, Ju Gonghyeok stood opposite him as humanity's final Hunter.
Michael, Odin, Azure Dragon, Zeus, Maitreya Buddha......
In a world where every awakened Hunter possessed their own incarnation, their own Avatar.
Ju Gonghyeok was the strongest Hunter, commanding twelve God-tier Avatars.
Demons and Hunters alike revered him as the Tyrant of the Twelve Divine Thrones.
And yet, the sight of him standing before the Demon King was pitiful.
The dazzling legendary sword Durandal was broken, and one of his arms had been burned completely black.
Covered from head to toe in blood, he coughed up bloody phlegm roughly.
“Ha... damn it... So this is where I get stopped.”
“Yes. Human. You came to me. You fought. And you fell to your knees. This is nothing less than the undisputed defeat of all humanity......”
“The tenth time I regressed, I split your head open all by myself, so this time I killed all those Hunter bastards in advance. Didn't matter worth a damn.”
“...What?”
“The biggest reason I lost was that I missed the Divine Spear Longinus at the Rock Cathedral on the 65th floor. My burst damage was too low.
“If I'd at least obtained the Avatar ‘Asura King’ on the 39th floor or ‘Uranus’ on the 14th, I could've made up for it with the right combination.”
Ju Gonghyeok tossed away Durandal and took a cigarette from his inventory, placing it between his lips.
He brought his still-blackened right arm toward it, and the cigarette caught fire.
“Because I was playing solo, I used messianic Avatars like ‘Maitreya Buddha’ and ‘Michael,’ but in the end, that led to insufficient damage output.
“Even the dungeon-type Avatar ‘Uno,’ which I had put my faith in, was erased by your ability.”
“How do you know about Longinus and those others? You clearly never passed through any place related to them, nor did you receive any missions or quests involving them.”
“How do I know? Because they're Avatars I've picked up about six times before, and I've used each of them three or four times.”
“Before? What nonsense are you talking about?”
Ignoring the question, Ju Gonghyeok drew deeply on his cigarette until it was nearly finished.
With a flick of his finger, the cigarette butt flew in an arc toward the forehead of Bel Marduk, the Demon King.
The moment Marduk knocked it away with a frown.
A massive magic circle hidden beneath the floor began to emit a blue light.
As Marduk stared in shock, dozens of pitch-black chains shot up from the ground, binding the Demon King's body. Then the sky opened, and white lightning came crashing down.
Lightning raged through the ruins of the dungeon, striking again and again.
How many times did it strike?
At last, the blinding thunderbolts that could have robbed even a trained Hunter of his sight came to an end.
When the surrounding ruins had been reduced to ash,
the ashes at the center cracked apart, revealing the Demon King rising to his feet.
His remaining horn was crumbling away.
“The cigarette was the sacrifice needed to complete the magic circle.”
“Zeus's lightning and Gleipnir's chains.
“That cigarette was like incense burning on an altar. Even if I went through all the trouble of preparing something like this, I still couldn't kill you because I didn't have enough damage output at the end. So it was all meaningless.
“I figured I'd use it anyway since it'd be a waste to let all that preparation go to waste. Thought I'd give you one last kick in the teeth.”
For the first time, the Demon King felt an unknown fear toward the Hunter.
The Demon King's abilities had been reduced by more than eighty percent due to the battles so far and the magic circle from moments ago.
If Ju Gonghyeok had possessed even a few more effective means of attacking him, he might have died.
“Who are you?”
He took another cigarette from his inventory and lit it.
Slowly, he drew the smoke deep into his lungs, filling his chest. As the smoke gently seeped from his lungs throughout his body, he slowly exhaled.
Smoke burdened with exhaustion crept out from his throat and lungs.
“The guy who's cut your throat six times.”
After smoking the second cigarette, Gonghyeok felt his hands and feet going numb and his consciousness beginning to fade.
That was only natural. He had smoked a cigarette made from poisonous herbs while having all his resistances disabled.
A suicide cigarette he had created so that he could conveniently ‘reset’ himself in case of emergency.
As the poison clouded his vision, Gonghyeok muttered a single sentence.
“The twelfth one failed. What a damn pain. On the thirteenth, I'll crush your skull without making a mistake.”
Farewell, Demon King.
With the Demon King's bewildered face etched into his eyes, Ju Gonghyeok, the Hunter who had regressed twelve times, took his own life before the Demon King.
As his consciousness drifted into darkness and he felt himself floating away into the distance, a familiar resonance reached his ears.
Return.
Return.
Return.
‘You're so damn noisy.’
The world will be destroyed again.
Humanity will be destroyed again.
Bring back the answer that will prevent destruction.
‘An answer that prevents destruction, my ass.’
Over the course of thirteen lives, Ju Gonghyeok defeated the Demon King six times.
The world had undoubtedly been saved six times.
But......
A war broke out between the New Humanity, the ‘Hunters,’ and the Old Humanity, the ‘Humans.’
Because of that, humanity was destroyed.
There was a ‘Hunter’ who sought to create Heaven by merging the minds of humanity.
Because of that, humanity was destroyed.
There was a ‘Hunter’ who suffered from the horrific trauma of slaughter and survival and was confined to a psychiatric hospital.
Because of her, humanity was destroyed.
There was a Hunter who unleashed the full power of his Avatar in order to escape assassins.
Because of him, humanity was destroyed.
The boy who had fallen into Babel at the age of eight was abandoned by everyone in the world he returned to.
Because of that, humanity was destroyed.
There was an elderly Hunter couple who fought desperately to protect their infant grandson.
Because of them, humanity was destroyed.
The Hunters who cleared Babel and returned to their original world.
They destroyed the world six times.
‘You want me to kill them again?’
Every demon and Demon King who brought about the destruction of the world.
Every Hunter and companion who brought about the destruction of the world.
‘I'm sick of it. I'm so damn sick of it!’
Fine. This is the last time.
I'll kill every last one of them—the Demon Kings and the Hunters alike.
And if this damn regression still doesn't end...
Then I'll give it a try.