Chapter 302
Chapter 302
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 302
Chapter Title: Great Rift (2)
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All races and demons alike stared blankly at the message.
"The Great Rift that hasn't appeared in so long...!"
"What kind of 'error' could have caused this?"
The leaders of each race, or those who had transcended boundaries, tilted their heads in confusion.
A mere ordinary error wouldn't open a Great Rift.
An error severe enough to trigger one should have been something even they could detect.
Yet there had been no signs.
No omens at all.
It had opened abruptly, out of nowhere.
They began searching for the 'cause.'
"...'Night'?"
"It originated in the 'Night' domain!"
"The entire 'Night Domain' has turned into a Great Rift."
"What about the Ashen Blaze Demon King?"
"Completely annihilated."
"It wasn't the Great Rift that erased him."
"Why did the 'Lord's Spear'...?!"
It had all happened in the blink of an eye.
Grasping the full situation was bound to take time.
And once they had pieced it all together, the 'existences' were horrified.
By the sheer scale of the 'error' born from these events.
"This isn't a normal error!"
"How many errors overlapped here?"
"Ah... An error even the 'Lord's Spear' couldn't erase!"
The Lord's Spear.
It was a spear of absolute power that slew Outer Gods and eradicated errors.
The one and only weapon wieldable solely by the 'Lord of the Great Sin.'
It seemed he had hurled it to halt the 'error's spread.'
But it had failed, and the Great Rift had opened anyway.
In response, the Demon Gods hastily convened a 'Demon God Council.'
They were the demons who truly ruled the Abyss.
The 72 Demon Gods' role was to maintain the Abyss's stability—and to detect errors.
"What caused it?"
"...Estimated to be the 'Gospel of Pride.'"
"The Gospel of Pride caused a Great Rift?"
"Isn't he a vassal who serves the 'Lord of the Great Sin'?"
"Hold on—does that mean the Lord of the Great Sin sniped the Gospel and threw the spear?"
"......"
A heavy silence fell.
By their common sense, the situation was utterly incomprehensible.
The Gospel of Pride was no error.
No matter how strong he grew, he couldn't become an 'error.'
Yet he had.
And become the source of a Great Rift, no less.
His own master, the 'Lord of the Great Sin,' had struck him down.
And failed in the process.
Impossible.
For the Lord of the Great Sin's spear to fail at erasing an error.
"...There must have been another cause."
"Our role is to pinpoint the exact cause and report to the 'Nine Lords.'"
"What was in that place?"
"Another error? Is that it?!"
They needed to clarify the facts precisely.
Their conclusions would be relayed to the 'Great Nine Lords,' who would then prepare defenses against the Great Rift accordingly.
Typically, only the 'Great Nine Lords' could hunt the Outer Gods emerging from a Great Rift.
But depending on the rift's scale or the Outer Gods' power, the hunting method varied.
Failing to accurately gauge the Great Rift's size could spell disaster.
And if the 'Outer God hunt' failed...
The Abyss would face destruction.
The demons might lose their dominion over it.
Their rule over the Abyss stemmed solely from their ability to control Great Rifts.
If control slipped away, and the 'Twelve Clan Lords' intervened at the end...
'The Abyss's master would change.'
'Demons would fall beneath the Twelve Races.'
The lords of the Twelve Races.
In truth, they too could slay Outer Gods.
But with relations as hostile as they were, they had no reason to join the hunts.
They couldn't unite with enemies.
However, if the demons failed to contain a Great Rift and the twelve clan lords banded together... the demons would be powerless.
"How long until the Great Rift fully opens?"
"Thirty minutes at most."
"...Isn't the Ashen Blaze Demon King connected to the 'Lord of the Great Sin' too?"
"Correct."
"Why was the Gospel in the 'Night' domain?"
"The 'Lord of the Great Sin' would know."
"Every link points back to the 'Lord of the Great Sin.'"
"Are you saying the Lord of the Great Sin opened the Great Rift?"
"Don't spout nonsense!"
The Demon Gods loyal to the Lord of the Great Sin rebelled.
Demon Gods were divided into factions by their patron among the 'Nine Lords.'
Naturally, they couldn't tolerate accusations against their liege.
That was when...
Demon God Gremory spoke in a cold voice.
"The Lord's Spear pierced and destroyed 'Night,' and in that process, the Ashen Blaze Demon King was presumed annihilated. Then, the propulsion-less spear was swallowed by the Great Rift opened by the Gospel."
"Gremory. You're saying the Great Rift 'devoured' the Lord's Spear?"
"Is that even possible?"
"Jumping to conclusions is dangerous."
It was a thought the Demon Gods had considered but hadn't voiced.
No Great Rift had ever devoured a Lord's weapon before.
But if such a rift existed...
"...We must prepare for the worst. This Great Rift could be the largest in history—bigger than all previous ones combined."
The worst-case scenario.
"'Historic scale'...?"
"Meaning an Outer God beyond comparison to any before?"
"Gremory, can you take responsibility for that claim?"
"Come to think of it, you're the one who forced Aheta into bankruptcy, right, Gremory?"
"Yeah. And then the Ashen Blaze Demon King took over 'Night.'"
"'Night' has been chaotic these past few months. You must know something, Gremory."
Gremory was also known as the 'Iron-Blooded Empress.'
She rarely intervened, but whenever she did, she left massive marks on the Abyss.
Even the Demon Gods found her forcing Aheta's bankruptcy surprising.
If Gremory had acted, there must have been good reason.
She undoubtedly held clues to this situation.
Gremory responded.
"What the Great Rift devoured wasn't just the Lord's Spear. It sucked in 'all errors' at the Gospel's location."
"Not everything—just the surroundings?"
"...Seems that way. We only looked at the periphery."
They had assumed the Great Rift's emergence had devoured the entire 'Fourth Night.'
So they had only checked around the emergence point.
But other areas were intact.
Human participants and demons remained unharmed.
Only things around the Great Rift had vanished.
"Wait, Gremory. You said 'all errors'?"
"Yes. There were an unnaturally high number of errors around the Great Rift."
"...Don't tell me it's a 'contagious error'?"
"Nothing else explains it."
Gremory's point was valid.
And the worst possible.
In other words...
"That 'contagious error' infected even the Gospel and the 'Lord's Spear'?"
"Is that what you're claiming?"
"Gremory! Don't make claims you can't back up!"
"You trying to die?"
Objections flew, but Gremory shook her head.
"The spear might have been thrown already infected."
"What...?"
A reversal.
A thought no one had dared entertain.
Gremory emphasized it forcefully.
"If the 'Lord of the Great Sin' was already infected with the error, and threw the spear to destroy its source... then everything falls into place."
Park Chan-woo was locked in battle with the demons in his 'Absolute One' state.
But when the Gospel unleashed the 'Authority of Pride'...
He felt a 'distortion' in something.
As if time itself had frozen.
All the demons recoiled in shock, trying to flee.
He didn't know why.
One thing was clear: Baal's howl grew exceptionally loud.
It almost seemed like a warning of danger.
Or perhaps...
'Is it delighted?'
On the contrary, it felt like this situation itself brought joy.
Park Chan-woo steadied his mind.
In the past, he might have lost himself to the power.
But he didn't want to repeat situations where he lost control.
'...Stop.'
At the same time, realization dawned.
He had experienced this exact situation before, several times in the past.
Something inside him moving without his intent.
He realized that the 'absolute death' existing within him to kill him had begun to stir.
Yet the death wouldn't halt.
It clashed with his will, unleashing fierce shockwaves.
Then, as the Gospel self-destructed...
"...!!!"
An irresistible force sucked him into the Great Rift.
The Great Rift.
Just before it fully opened, it had yawned wide and devoured everything around it.
Simultaneously, he understood.
If this continued, he would become material for the Great Rift.
It would consume him—the error incarnate—and spawn an even mightier Outer God.
Or perhaps...
'I myself will become the Great Rift.'
Even 'death' could do nothing in this state.
The death reaper who craved his absolute demise could only watch.
His all-or-nothing gamble had failed.
Worse, it might doom the Abyss's Earth.
That was when it happened.
A voice echoed in his mind.
The space where Park Chan-woo had been was now utterly transformed.
This wasn't inside the Great Rift.
'Rift.'
The inside of the Rift.
The buffer zone mediating between the Abyss and the Great Rift.
The place that prevented the Great Rift from invading the Abyss.
And vice versa, keeping the Abyss from touching the Great Rift.
The being addressing Park Chan-woo was...
The Rift King, Sanctuary.
A father figure to Cygnus.
The impending 'successor trial' was to choose Sanctuary's heir.
For Sanctuary's power was waning.
Just before the Great Rift opened fully, Sanctuary had pulled Park Chan-woo in with his own power.
Sanctuary knew.
That Park Chan-woo had become Cygnus's guardian.
But his next words were utterly unexpected.