Chapter 259
Chapter 259
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 259
Chapter Title: Descent of the Heavenly Demon
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Chronos wielded five evil spirits.
Each of those five harbored its own distinct "curse."
Contamination, decay, festering, weakening, and corruption.
When all the curses of the evil spirits combined with Chronos's authority, "Time Acceleration," the ultimate curse known as "Thanatos" would finally activate.
No being, not even an immortal one, could escape Thanatos.
That was because they lost their immortality in the process of corruption.
Thanatos was an absolute curse that could drag even gods to their doom.
'I've drawn it in...!'
Chronos flashed a triumphant smile.
With the activation condition of "drawing in" fulfilled, Taebaek's death was now a foregone conclusion.
That massive palm was none other than the energy Taebaek himself had emitted.
The black sun devoured the divine power, seizing Taebaek's life and soul.
Now, if he sliced that blood-red sun with his scythe, Taebaek would die.
He would vanish into dust at the end of infinite time acceleration.
Chronos raised his scythe.
'Just one chance.'
He had to sever both the soul and the魄 in a single strike.
The slightest mistake would invite a counterattack.
The time he could hold Taebaek's existence in check wasn't long either.
Taebaek surely hadn't anticipated this situation at all, which was why he'd barely managed to ensnare him.
His soul and魄 were unimaginably vast, after all.
If he failed to kill Taebaek with the curse here, the monster's soul would peer clearly into his contractor, Park Chan-woo.
A beast rivaling the Nine Lords... There was no place to flee from it within this Abyss.
Chronos assumed his stance.
And then.
Slash!
In one swift motion, he brought it down.
The blood-red sun split in two.
Soul and魄 were torn asunder.
The immortal flesh and soul, stripped of eternity and corrupted, would separate and perish.
But Chronos could only stare in horror moments later.
It's... sticking back together?
The severed soul and魄 merged once more, reversing the flow of bloodlight.
If it reverted to the black sun's form, all chances would be lost.
Thanatos's greatest weakness was that it was nearly impossible to land twice.
...This was a first.
Chronos had invoked Thanatos three times in the past, and all had succeeded.
Those three monstrosities had been the Abyss's mightiest "Lords."
Thanatos worked on anything with a soul and魄, not just living beings.
And anything that existed possessed both.
Even the pebbles by the roadside harbored soul and魄.
...It's flowing the curse back to me?
What astonished him even more came next.
The "black sun" was drawing in Chronos's own energy in reverse.
Proof that Taebaek had subdued the five evil spirits and was now turning Thanatos back on him.
Only then did it dawn on him.
Taebaek's true nature.
The fact that he was another "child of error," just like Chronos.
An abnormal, irregular existence that shouldn't exist in this world.
Now he understood why it was trying to suck him in reverse.
......It wanted to devour him.
To devour and "hatch."
He could see it.
Taebaek's form.
The one inside that massive "egg."
It hadn't awakened yet.
Chronos desperately struggled in a battle of wills with Taebaek, thoughts racing.
'That monster's real target is the contractor, Park Chan-woo.'
He understood why it targeted Park Chan-woo.
It was crystal clear now.
Taebaek wasn't a godslayer.
He was an "Error Predator."
A subspecies that devoured error-causers to grow stronger!
But Taebaek was inside a massive egg, evolving.
Not hatched yet.
Feeding on immortals and Taoists to complete his transformation into an even more powerful species.
No clue what monster would emerge.
One thing was certain: the moment it did, the Abyss's order would shatter.
'The instant the Immortal Domain broke, Taebaek instinctively sensed us. That we were beings of error.'
And realized that devouring them would complete him.
Especially Park Chan-woo.
Sending the Taoist to tempt him was all to devour Park Chan-woo.
Suddenly, a question arose.
'Did the Will of Magic send us here because of Taebaek?'
Did it hope we'd be devoured and awaken him?
Or did it want us to ascend to the Pantheon and restore the mountain's balance?
Or... to make us aware of Taebaek's hidden existence in the heavenly realm, unknown to all?
Rooooaaar!
The black sun trembled.
Chronos's soul and魄 shook as well.
Even unhatched, Taebaek displayed such overwhelming power.
'If only I knew its origin...'
It must have been born from an error too.
If he knew the origin, he could bind it with curses again, but Chronos had no way to pinpoint where it spawned.
One certainty: it arose from an error even greater than his own.
Chronos himself was a spirit born from miracles clashing.
What greater miracle could surpass that? He had no idea.
And...
Park Chan-woo was the same.
He too was one of the "grand errors."
The fact that Taebaek, the "Error Predator," moved the instant he sensed it proved as much.
Yet even his contractor, Chronos, didn't know the root of Park Chan-woo's origin.
Shwoooo!
Es...cape, Contractor!
Chronos's existence was being consumed by the black sun.
Taebaek seized greater control.
The matchup was disastrously bad.
Both children of error, but Taebaek preyed on errors.
The ultimate predator.
It would apply to Park Chan-woo too.
As an Abyss error himself, he couldn't defeat Taebaek.
I'll create an opening. Warp out and flee in the meantime!
The moment Chronos was devoured, the surrounding magic would stabilize.
Head to Valhalla's lands then, and at least his life could be spared.
'Live.'
He was the benefactor who saved Arcana.
The human who found him and reignited his dormant will.
The great one to change this cursed Abyss, this world.
Thus.
Park Chan-woo had to live.
...Even if it meant Chronos's annihilation.
"......"
Park Chan-woo silently watched Chronos.
Watched the black sun and the "eye" within it gazing at him.
Chronos was his greatest asset.
The strongest card he could play right now.
With that card failing.
This hopeless situation, where escape was impossible, was undoubtedly his direst crisis.
Yet.
"Do you want me?"
Park Chan-woo stepped forward instead.
The eye of Taebaek in the black sun, staring at him.
It clearly desired him more than Chronos.
But he couldn't just hand himself over.
He might have thrown himself in before.
But this wasn't the kind of monster that could be resolved that way.
Thus.
Park Chan-woo looked up at the sky and spoke.
"...God of Offerings."
He called the name after so long.
Still no response.
Perhaps all those past events felt like a dream.
Maybe the God of Offerings never existed from the start.
Park Chan-woo pulled out the mirror.
The one left by the true master of the Cradle.
He'd never properly looked into it until now.
Questions lingered.
Why had the true Cradle master suddenly left this mirror?
He was a noble, supreme being.
Countless challengers reached for him but failed, leaving only afterimages.
Only he—only Park Chan-woo—had touched the true essence.
If the reward for climbing the tower was the "Box of Patience."
...Then this mirror was the prize for the first to reach the "true master of the Cradle."
And now, for the first time, Park Chan-woo gazed into the mirror's reflection of himself.
At the same time, he couldn't help but chuckle.
"As I thought."
He could see it.
His own dead body.
The body that had sacrificed everything to rewind time, meeting its end.
The true him was dead.
Then who was this body, this soul animating it?
"I'm the God of Offerings. Is that what you want me to say?"
He'd given everything.
Future and soul included.
Scraped it all together to turn back time.
The existence called Park Chan-woo should have ceased to be.
Yet.
Still.
Park Chan-woo had regressed.
...However.
His soul and body might not be Park Chan-woo's.
There was a chance they were the God of Offerings himself.
He'd always suspected it.
Maybe it was possible.
That's why he'd avoided truly facing the mirror until now.
Now he knew.
'I am you, and you are me.'
They were together.
Together from the start.
What was sacrificed for regression wasn't just his everything.
The God of Offerings had given everything too.
Thus, the God of Offerings slumbered within him.
Park Chan-woo recalled.
The message that appeared each time he offered a tribute.
More tributes to revive him.
In other words.
The dead Park Chan-woo in that mirror.
......Was the God of Offerings.
"I'll offer this mirror as tribute."
Not even "out of spec," but beyond classification.
A grade not even worth discussing.
But not in a cheap sense.
It meant utterly unrelated to any grading system.
An object completely antithetical to the Abyss's rules and standards.
In a word.
...An error.
Thus, it could invoke a miracle equivalent to an error once.
Park Chan-woo pointed at the black sun.
Speaking to Taebaek's eye gazing at him from within.
"Just one solid hit on that thing is enough."