Chapter 382
Chapter 382
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 382
Chapter Title: Racial War (21)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
From Lee Hyuk-soo's body erupted a light of pure, intense will that could no longer be called mere mana.
It was as if his very soul had manifested, countless particles of light swirling around him, gently enveloping his wounded form.
The blood flowing from his mangled hands and feet stopped, and warmth returned to his shattered bones.
The extreme exhaustion vanished like a lie, replaced by an indescribable sense of fullness surging through his entire body.
Wish.
The stage where magic protected and healed its user of its own accord.
A supreme hierarchy that moved according to the user's will, yet the number of beings who reached this realm across the entire Abyss was vanishingly small.
Even comprehending a single Wish required eons of time.
And yet, the countless Wishes enveloping Lee Hyuk-soo's body now were beyond numbering.
Only one human could produce such a phenomenon.
"……Park Chan-woo."
Aureum's low murmur cut through the wind, ringing clearly in everyone's ears.
The ripple caused by that single name was immense.
The eyes of several members of humanity's representative team, mired in despair, trembled faintly.
Han Min-oh, in particular, held his breath, unable to tear his gaze from Lee Hyuk-soo's back.
"……."
Lee Hyuk-soo said nothing.
His eyes had deepened into an abyss, filled not with human emotion but the cold detachment of a transcendent being.
He simply moved, as if by instinct—or as if following a long-planned sequence.
The innumerable halos of Wish light surrounding his body glowed even more intensely, perfectly obeying his will.
Slowly, Lee Hyuk-soo's right hand rose.
His hand no longer bled.
Even the sword of Baal, thought shattered beyond repair, had been restored.
And without hesitation, he extended three fingers.
It was a clear signal of something, but no one grasped its meaning immediately.
"What... is that...?"
Reaper Johnson muttered in confusion.
Adrianna and the other team members only exchanged bewildered glances, clueless.
Their weary minds had no room to decipher the bizarre gesture.
Why three fingers?
Sylvia's brow furrowed.
She instinctively sensed that the aura emanating from Lee Hyuk-soo was qualitatively different—like some other entity had seized control of his body—but she couldn't fathom the gesture's intent.
A mix of wariness and inexplicable unease welled up within her.
How dare a mere human play riddles against me? Or has desperation driven him mad!
It was then.
A cold, impartial system message floated in the air.
A merciless warning delivered simultaneously to all survivors.
3 minutes.
On this hellish island, the minimal safety period during which no one could attack each other was now down to just 3 minutes.
Despair once again cloaked the faces of the team members.
If they couldn't break the barrier—or even if they did— in 3 minutes, every predator on the island would swarm toward them, lured by the bounties on their heads.
They were utterly isolated, enemies on all sides.
About a minute passed like an eternity.
In the taut tension, as everyone held their breath, one of Lee Hyuk-soo's three extended fingers slowly—ever so slowly—folded down.
The motion carried an irresistible dignity, as if manipulating the flow of time itself.
Now, only two fingers remained.
In that instant, a chill ran through Sylvia's entire body.
She realized it.
The meaning of that gesture.
Lee Hyuk-soo—no, whatever had borrowed his body—was using the system's timer to countdown their doom.
As if an absolute being mockingly granting a final mercy to worthless mortals.
No way.
A ominous thought flashed through the minds of all the Windtrace warriors and Queen Sylvia herself.
Terror gripped their hearts like a vise.
Does that mean we have... only 2 minutes left?
This wasn't merely the island's safety time ending.
It was a silent, arrogantly presumptuous decree from the transcendent monster inhabiting that human body: the Windtrace tribe had exactly 2 minutes to live.
Cold sweat trickled down Sylvia's spine.
The barrier remained intact.
That entity still hadn't breached it.
Yet it acted as if everything was firmly under its control!
The Lost Star.
The swirling motions of the Wishes around him evoked the descent of the being from that prophecy.
But it couldn't be.
Sylvia shook her head fiercely.
She desperately denied the worst possibility rising in her mind.
It was human—an immature body still in the midst of growth.
An incomplete vessel with scarcely any traces of magic.
Such an imperfect container couldn't possibly hold the Archmage arts that disrupted the stars' courses, the legendary powers!
This is an illusion, a trick to deceive me, she repeated to herself.
But despite her denials, the dance of Wishes unfolding around Lee Hyuk-soo's body increasingly took on the form of the 'Lost Star'.
Order amid chaos, creation amid destruction.
Contradictory forces harmonized perfectly under his will, forming a massive, lethal current.
Finally, his second finger folded down.
Only one finger remained, rigidly pointing skyward.
Like the hand of a doomsday clock.
The final minute.
The system message echoed coldly, like a death sentence from an executioner.
"Urk!"
A low groan escaped Sylvia's lips.
Her body stiffened in terror.
Her proud wind barrier still stood, but it no longer felt like a safe shield.
Instead, it seemed like a prison trapping her in inescapable death.
Shuuung! Shuuuung!
At the tip of Lee Hyuk-soo's last remaining finger, the countless Wishes enveloping him began condensing like a storm.
All the light sucked into a single point, from which swirled mana of pure destruction beyond imagination.
The surrounding space warped under its overwhelming pressure; the air inside the barrier heated up, sending shivers of suffocation through them.
It was as if a miniature sun was gestating atop his finger, ready to radiate light to purify the world.
That colossal mana ignored the barrier entirely, targeting only Sylvia with pinpoint precision.
That motion of the Wish... that momentum... no way...!
What flashed through Sylvia's mind was no mere fear.
It was a fragment of the most sacred and terrifying prophecy etched into the hearts of the Windtrace tribe since ancient times.
-In the darkest despair, the Lost Star shall appear, gathering scattered light to bring a new dawn.
The final verse of that prophecy.
And the being they had awaited—or tried to ignore.
The Lost Star, Park Chan-woo!
Sylvia's blue eyes widened, veins bulging.
Her blood ran cold, as if flowing backward.
She clearly remembered that they had awaited the heir to Transcender Lil's legacy—the one named 'Park Chan-woo' in the prophecy—and that they had a duty to aid him in welcoming the 'new dawn'.
But Sylvia had twisted the prophecy to suit her desires, justifying her betrayal.
In her mind, the ominous warnings whispered by corrupt elders of the Windtrace tribe long ago revived like demonic murmurs—the prophecy's dark side.
The prophecy never holds just one meaning. Yes, the elders warned us.
Sylvia bit her trembling lips.
Terror numbed her reason, clouding her judgment.
The star appearing in the darkest despair... may not be a light of salvation! It could be a tempting light leading to deeper darkness, the light of apocalypse that devours all to bend it to its will! The Lost Star is an apostle of chaos disguised as peace!
That was her interpretation of the 'Lost Star'.
The Lost Star was a seed of chaos, and the dawn it brought was merely the harbinger of catastrophe, destroying all order to impose its tyranny.
Park Chan-woo was the destroyer of order, chaos incarnate.
Gathering scattered light to bring a new dawn...
Madness gleamed in Sylvia's eyes—a desperate self-delusion born of survival instinct.
It means stripping all beings of hope and possibility to forge its own arrogant world! The most dangerous existence, denying the glorious order our Windtrace tribe would build!
She felt extreme hostility and terror toward that entity.
It was far from the being they were meant to protect.
Rather, it was the calamity that must be eliminated first from the entire Abyss.
She began fiercely rationalizing to herself that allying with the Dragonkin to sacrifice humans had been a preemptive, wise measure to avert this disaster.
"That... that entity is no true savior!"
Sylvia screamed, almost a shriek.
The terrified Windtrace warriors flinched at her cry.
"Look into his eyes! They're filled not with mercy, but the will to destroy! The gaze of an arrogant dictator seeking to seize everything and open a new era! A tyrant who would shatter all and force knees to the ground! The prophecy warned us! That 'Lost Star' is the true despair we must fight!"
Despite her mad outburst, the light at Lee Hyuk-soo's fingertip did not fade.
If anything, it blazed more fiercely, as if mocking all her denials, her struggles, and even the wind barrier she had erected.
"A thief who stole Transcender Lil's legacy...! How dare you!"
The final second stretched into eternity amid utter silence.
Lee Hyuk-soo's last finger tilted downward—ever so slightly, but resolutely.
It was the launch signal.
The beginning of inevitable judgment.