Chapter 263
Chapter 263
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 263
Chapter Title: The Finisher
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The Heavenly Demon, stripped of control over the body, couldn't accept the current situation.
No matter how much he'd let his guard down against Charpam, this was utterly ridiculous.
It wasn't just about seizing control.
Park Chan-woo's abilities alone couldn't land a single devastating blow on Taebaek.
To strengthen the body, he'd forcibly transferred even a tiny fragment of the Heavenly Demon's essence into Park Chan-woo's flesh.
This went far beyond mere possession.
Control like this couldn't simply be taken.
What's more, just moments ago, the Heavenly Demon had clearly drawn upon Dragon God Sepiro's power and wielded it.
But it had all been an illusion, a hallucination.
...How?
'Domination Magic.'
The realization hit in an instant.
Park Chan-woo, bearing the Heavenly Demon's essence, had unleashed the spell.
A Domination Magic woven through ultra-high hierarchies at that.
Yet it was a miracle of a spell that Park Chan-woo could never cast with his current skill.
The Heavenly Demon could naturally sense that this body could wield only a handful of spells, and none of them particularly advanced.
There was only one possibility.
'The magic engraved in Dragon God Sepiro's heart...!'
The moment the Heavenly Demon tapped into the heart's mana, the engraved magic activated alongside it.
As the Domination Magic surfaced, Park Chan-woo seized and swung it like a weapon.
And with the heart, he dominated the Heavenly Demon's essence too.
...Even thinking of the trick left him dumbfounded.
It was magic that had dominated Sepiro's heart, no less.
No one but the enchanter could touch it.
Did that mean... Park Chan-woo had personally used Domination Magic to claim Sepiro's heart?
On the heart, the core of the transcendent dragon?
Impossible.
But perhaps possible.
Park Chan-woo was an anomaly.
A massive glitch capable of even summoning him.
'Impossible now, but possible in the future.'
The order might have been reversed.
The future Park Chan-woo had dominated Sepiro's heart.
And that heart, along with its magic, had been inherited by his past self...
In short.
'He returned from the future.'
A regressor!
Barring that, it was nonsense.
An absurd notion.
Turning back time violated every rule.
Regression was a miracle no one—not even the Heavenly Demon—could achieve.
Not even all the miracles in the Abyss combined could match it.
If possible, only one being in the entire Abyss could make it happen.
'The Creator...'
The Creator who forged the Abyss might be capable.
But that was equally far-fetched.
He couldn't comprehend it.
The true nature of this human, Park Chan-woo.
And moreover.
"You dare call me the weakest?"
This frail glitch was labeling him—the Heavenly Demon—the weakest.
That single remark from Park Chan-woo scraped at his nerves.
He was the strongest.
Always had been.
He'd never once lost his place at the pinnacle.
The Heavenly Demon reached out.
He would reclaim control and hurl the bastard into the gutter.
Clank!
In that instant, iron chains burst from the Demon-Sealing God's Chalice, binding the Heavenly Demon's essence.
It signaled the end of his allotted time.
"...Release me."
He couldn't let himself be dragged away like this.
He hadn't landed that one blow yet.
He hadn't imprinted his supremacy on everyone.
He'd won every time until now.
"Don't get cocky just because you won once."
Just once, at the very end, he'd lost control in their struggle—only once.
And even that was due to the variable of Charpam and the heart's engraved Domination Magic.
Every other time, victory was his.
If dragged away now, it would end in Park Chan-woo's triumph.
Ninety-nine losses, and this one fluke victory turned into mockery.
What gall from such a weakling against the supreme.
"Let's go again. This time, without holding back..."
Shhh!
His words caught in his throat.
The chains had wrapped around his entire form.
Rage boiled within.
This emotion was entirely new.
The Demon-Sealing God's Chalice forcibly pulled the Heavenly Demon in.
And amid it all.
-Aren't you the strongest?
A heavy voice echoed.
From within the chalice.
From deeper, unfathomable depths.
Outside the chalice, the Heavenly Demon might reign supreme.
...But inside, things stronger than him lurked.
'The density of power is different.'
It was Park Chan-woo's first thought upon seizing the Heavenly Demon's essence in a flash and reclaiming bodily control.
The aura now swirling through him was on another level entirely.
An infinite mana unlike anything he'd felt before.
In that instant, he understood.
Wielding this power could destroy Taebaek and shatter the Heavenly Realm alongside it—but he would die too.
Sepiro's heart was his.
The 'Domination Magic' engraved there remained intact.
And not just that.
Even the Heavenly Demon's unique mana faintly lingered.
An amount so vast he might never reach it in a lifetime of training.
More astonishing still: this vastness was a mere drop in the ocean compared to the whole.
Park Chan-woo looked around.
Silence had fallen over the world.
All the Daoists and immortals stood frozen, like a paused video, utterly still.
Yet uniform 'fear' flickered in their eyes.
Not just them.
Chiu, Hanmir, even the shadow spirit Chronos.
All trembled in terror, unable to move an inch.
Thud!
Park Chan-woo took a step forward.
Not a single Daoist or immortal dared block him.
They still believed him to be the Heavenly Demon.
A calamity, a disaster had come—they could only prostrate and pray he passed.
Park Chan-woo advanced through their midst, parting like the Red Sea.
And reached the 'egg' precisely.
This colossal egg was Taebaek.
"Are you afraid of me?"
Taebaek radiated the same terror.
For the first time, it felt fear of annihilation, of 'death' from a being that could erase it.
He could end it now.
But this power encompassed all his potential and existence.
Using it meant death.
...He couldn't choose death just to destroy one Taebaek.
He still had much to do.
That's why.
"You should sleep deeper. The moment you wake, I'll come for you."
Park Chan-woo threatened Taebaek.
Better if it never woke.
Even if it did, this ingrained 'fear' would haunt it forever.
He turned slowly.
Composed.
Maintaining the bearing of the strong, he retraced his steps.
No one dared move until he opened a warp and departed for the land of Valhalla.
Even after he took all his comrades and left.
The world seemed frozen for a long while.
Not a rustle, not a sound.
Because of the aftershock from the being that had overwhelmed them.
No—their bodies were drained, unable to move.
The immortals' minds were linked as one.
That collective mind had halted, like brain death.
But soon, they snapped their eyes open.
Their colossal core.
Trembled violently!
...Taebaek was shaking.
Only after the Heavenly Demon vanished could it finally tremble.
Such was its fear.
This was unprecedented.
A being driven solely to grow had awakened to fear for the first time.
"I must grow stronger."
Taebaek declared.
Deeply embedding itself in the immortals' minds.
"I must raise my growth limits. Even if I hatch now, I can't defeat that monster—the Heavenly Demon."
An absolute command implanted.
A being designed to surpass demon gods and even the Nine Lords now feared the Heavenly Demon.
Then.
Vmmm!
The Heavenly Realm's sky tore open forcibly, birthing a golden warp.
Had the Heavenly Demon returned?
But no—everyone realized it was a mistake.
The immortals were aghast.
"...!"
"Sepiro?"
"How did the Dragon God reach this place?"
It was none other than Dragon God Sepiro who had come to the Heavenly Realm.
Yet the Heavenly Realm connected to the Pantheon of All Gods—a hidden realm.
Only immortals could find and open the gate.
Even Sepiro should be no exception.
Sepiro gazed down at the immortals from the sky.
In a flash.
"Gah!"
"He... infiltrated our core mind network...?"
"Cough!"
The immortals vomited blood.
Daoists collapsed one by one.
With a single glance, Sepiro connected to their 'core mind network.'
He read all their thoughts at once.
Then tilted his head.
"The one who stole my heart... was this Heavenly Demon guy?"
Sepiro had tracked his heart's trace to the Heavenly Realm.
From the immortals' minds and thoughts, he found the name 'Heavenly Demon.'
The problem: nothing else could be sensed or seen.
A merciless terror.
Fear incarnate veiled everything but the name Heavenly Demon.
Sepiro stroked his chin.
The thief who took his heart had overwhelmed them and vanished.
'The mana residue around here is definitely mine.'
He'd even used the heart's mana.
A madman.
Thanks to that, Sepiro found him—but far more deranged than expected.
Daring to covet and wield a Dragon God's mana.
And that spawned another issue.
'I can't reclaim the heart myself.'
Handling its mana even briefly meant the heart recognized him as its master, if only for a moment.
In other words.
If they met directly, a true 'cataclysmic error' was likely.
The heart would return to its real master, Sepiro—but the 'great rift' opening right after worried him.
A great rift mediated by his own heart.
Curious what might emerge, but he had no desire to check.
Sepiro shrugged, then gazed at 'Taebaek' with a faint smile.
"...Quite intriguing."
Like finding an amusing new toy.
Whoosh!
Park Chan-woo restored everything to its original state.
He resealed all mana and the heart.
The Heavenly Demon's aura vanished completely.
Like a deflated balloon, everything felt dull and boring.
Having wielded power from a distant future, he couldn't be content with his current state.
But he hadn't gained nothing.