Chapter 340
Chapter 340
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 340
Chapter Title: Racial War
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The moment three colossal, alien forces finally clashed violently at a single point high above Valhalla.
Kwaaaaaaaaang!
It went beyond mere spatial distortion.
A deafening roar echoed as if the dimension itself screamed and tore apart.
The shockwave spread faster than light, shaking the entire Abyss.
Those watching the spectacle from afar reacted with horror or shivers of dread in their own ways.
They had dismissed it as a mere squabble among evil gods.
But in the end, it was the proliferation of infinite 'chaos'.
As all the powers mingled together, the entire Abyss seemed to tremble.
Even...
The heated betting pool opened by the Creators cooled in an instant.
The playful excitement vanished, leaving only bewilderment.
It was a resonance far beyond their predictions.
What even was a god, to begin with?
The demons revered only the Demon Kings, Demon Gods, and the Great Nine Lords.
All other divine beings were treated as lesser gods and hunted mercilessly.
Some among them would mutate into 'evil gods'.
Once they lost their divine sanctity and even their sense of self, they would be corroded by the Abyss's mana, ultimately transforming into evil gods.
And such evil gods were to be exterminated by the Demon Kings or Demon Gods.
For evil gods fed on despair and grew endlessly stronger, causing errors in the system.
At the initial clash, it hadn't been like this.
Yet the evil gods were evolving at an astonishing rate.
As if aiding each other's growth, the more they collided, the more terrifying evil they spawned.
Not even all the Creators, nor the beings of the Twelve Races, knew the reason.
They had no inkling that all three evil gods had been influenced by 'Park Chan-woo'.
Nor that, upon colliding, their errors had begun amplifying each other.
The amplification was happening far too quickly.
The waves of mana entangled and twisted, veering off in entirely new directions.
And the fruit of that uncontrollable energy finally bore an unforeseen result.
Kwaaaaaaaa—!
At the epicenter in the empty sky where the three evil gods' powers clashed most fiercely.
From the inside out, a massive rift began to form.
This great rift differed from the usual ones.
Typically, a great rift formed when outer gods forced open a door.
A 'gate' made of countless hands would appear and open, from which outer gods would emerge.
However...
The 'great rift' opening now...
Was not a gate made of hands.
It was a majestic 'gate' formed by layers upon layers of enormous, blindingly radiant white feathers, as if prepared for the descent of a heavenly being.
The gate opened silently.
Yet it exuded a sacred, alien majesty that overwhelmed everything around it, slowly parting to either side.
Beyond the gaps in the feather gate lay a cold, serene, and beautiful world of light.
Something was emerging from that realm of light.
And from beyond the gate of feathers, 'it' revealed itself.
A being with hundreds of pairs of wings of light, made of the same material as the gate but incomparably more radiant and colossal.
A halo orbiting its head gleamed coldly, as if bearing the motion of the stars, and its majestic form was sculpted in perfect golden proportions—an Archangel.
Its size was literally cosmic.
The surrounding nebulae and galaxies looked like mere ornaments around it, and its sheer presence seemed to cower the auras of the three evil gods encircling Valhalla.
The Archangel's essence was far removed from sanctity or mercy.
An absolute expressionlessness devoid of any emotion.
It was as if some vast law or intricate mechanism had manifested with its own will, not a living being.
All causality and laws of the Abyss felt like a child's plaything before it.
Not life, not death, not chaos, not order—a completely incomprehensible higher-dimensional something.
However, one thing was certain.
This 'Archangel' was an outer god.
A total annihilator intent only on destroying the Abyss.
That was when it happened.
In an instant no one could have foreseen, a colossal sword flew in from the deepest—or highest—reaches of the Abyss.
It was beyond description as merely 'large'.
The blade itself resembled a small world, infused with destructive energy capable of cleaving the universe.
It didn't fly through space; it slashed space itself, 'existing' toward its target.
A low, absolute declaration from one of the Great Nine Lords resounded across the entire Abyss.
Its identity was unclear, but the voice carried unmistakable hostility toward outer gods and the cold composure of a hunter.
Sgwang-!
Without even the sound of slicing through worlds, it flew at the speed of light and severed the Archangel outer god's neck clean off.
The head of the colossal being that had dominated everything moments ago detached from its body with absurd ease, floating into the void.
As the observers sighed in relief and marveled...
Pokgl. Pokglpokglpokgl...
A horrific sight unfolded.
The cross-section of the Archangel's severed neck.
Instead of blood, something small and white began bubbling up like foam.
The bubbles soon mutated into 'little angels'.
Imperfect and grotesque forms without proper eyes, noses, or mouths.
Like cells dividing and multiplying, these immature little angels began generating infinitely from the severed neck, bubbling out in endless streams.
One became two, two became four, and in moments, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands... They multiplied exponentially, swarming the sky like a plague of locusts.
The Nine Lords' strike hadn't killed the outer god—it had instead triggered its reproduction in the most gruesome way.
From the severed head and the headless body alike, little angels proliferated endlessly.
Soon, from the severed Archangel's face, its mouth moved.
The weapons of the Great Nine Lords—weapons forged solely for hunting outer gods—were now useless against them.
This meant the Abyss's ultimate defense had been neutralized.
The very reason demons could claim lordship over the Abyss was gone.
Pokglpokglpokglpokglpokgl...
Endless small, white clay-doll-like angels without faces continued bubbling out infinitely.
One to two, two to four, four to eight... Their numbers surged past billions, trillions, forming a white calamity horde that blanketed the heavens.
It wasn't mere division.
Each little angel existed as an independent fragment of an outer god, albeit feeble.
They voraciously absorbed surrounding mana, chaos, and even the fear and despair of other beings, gradually taking shape.
"Ah, finally, the judgment of the gods has begun."
The Cradle's master gazed upon the scene with something akin to awe.
He seemed convinced that this was the being come to save the persecuted gods—or to end this absurd Abyss.
His once-wise eyes had faded to gray, devoid of their former wisdom.
He moved willingly toward his savior.
But the cosmic Archangel outer god's face merely regarded the approaching Cradle master with utter indifference.
And in the next instant, it casually opened its mouth like swallowing a bug.
Kwaduk!
With a chilling crunch, the outer god devoured the Cradle master's torso whole.
There was no resistance, no meaningful reaction.
The God of Chaos, who had just proclaimed the Abyss's end and a new beginning, was reduced to a mere snack before this superior being—half-eaten and discarded.
With its spine severed, only the head and fragments of the Cradle master's body remained, slumping limply.
The screams and terror of the countless divinities mingled within it erupted in a final spasm, but even that faded swiftly into the outer god's apathy.
The Archangel outer god, showing not the slightest interest in its swallowed prey, slowly unfurled its hundreds of pairs of wings and surveyed its surroundings once more.
At that moment...
Drip.
Everything stopped.
Time itself hadn't frozen.
But in the consciousness of every being, time slowed to a crawl or halted entirely.
The witches shrieking toward the sky, the five race leaders pouring power into the barrier, the observing Creators, even the black evil god and the little angels blanketing the sky—all froze like actors paused mid-performance in a grand play.
Amid it all, one thing moved.
The enormous feather gate that had opened far beyond the Abyss.
That majestic, alien great rift... was slowly beginning to close.
As if invisible colossal hands pushed it shut, the gate formed of billions of glowing feathers contracted gradually.
Only one being could cause this phenomenon.
The outer god murmured softly.
Only the Rift King 'Sanctuary' could seal a great rift.
Yet Sanctuary hadn't existed moments ago.
No reaction had come when the rift opened.
Even so...
Sanctuary's will pierced through space-time, acting directly on the great rift above Valhalla.
The Rift King's command.
A authority that defied even the Abyss's laws was sealing the rift.
Swaaaaaaaa!
Simultaneously, as the gate closed, a powerful suction force like a black hole began drawing in the horde of little angels blanketing Valhalla's skies.
The endlessly multiplying little angels were pulled in helplessly first.
The Archangel was no exception.
In its final moment, the outer god cast a cold, hollow gaze toward the Abyss—and whatever being might lie at the center of this upheaval.
Kwaaaaaang!
At last, the feather gate shut completely.
In the sky where the gate had vanished, only faint traces of alien light lingered briefly before fading into the Abyss's primal darkness.
The white calamity horde that had blanketed the heavens, the Archangel outer god radiating cosmic pressure—all were gone.
Time, which had halted, began to flow again.
Silence fell.
The survivors stared blankly at the sky, scarcely able to discern if what had just transpired was even real.
Yet some recognized the voice that had closed the gate.
"...Cygnus."
The divine beast, Cygnus.
Cygnus, who had entered the rift alongside Park Chan-woo, had become the Rift King.
But Cygnus did not reveal itself.
The war came to a halt, and the Black Witch retreated to the realm of night.
Continued clashes would provoke the demons.
Having opened a great rift—and witnessed even the 'Great Nine Lords'' weapons prove ineffective—
Further fighting would only lead to the witches' self-destruction, so she withdrew willingly.
And time passed.
"......Why."
Adora murmured softly.
Though all crises seemed resolved, an odd chill lingered.
"Why hasn't he returned?"
Because Park Chan-woo had vanished.
He hadn't returned from the rift.
The rifts and great rift gate opened in the Dragon God Temple remained shut as well.
Sepiro, Park Chan-woo—both seemed to have disappeared.
And so...
"......It's begun."
Lee Hyuk-soo muttered.
A colossal arena unfolded above Earth's skies.
And from there...
"The time of fate has come, as the stars realign!"
"I hereby declare the opening of the final great war, the 'Racial War', where all races stake their destinies to prove the value of their existence!"
"Humanity! If you wish your era to continue, select your ten strongest heroes to bear your race's fate and send them to the arena at once!"
🎁 Note: Your humanity's destiny will be decided by your ranking in the great war!
The Racial War had begun.