Chapter 391
Chapter 391
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 392
Chapter Title: Racial War (31)
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Ataraxia's colossal dragon form froze in an instant.
His eyes shook with complex emotions, as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing.
Even the Despair Dragon Tongue that had blanketed the battlefield faded for a moment.
"Ar…cana…… Lord?"
His voice was hoarse, stripped entirely of the dignity befitting an ancient dragon who had lived for thousands of years.
It was as if he were a young hatchling confronting primordial memories he had forgotten—or must forget.
Arcana's manifestation was no mere summoning of a familiar.
To Ataraxia, it was an encounter with his very origin, or the lost glory he once knew.
Deep within his soul, faint stirrings of long-forgotten loyalty and reverence began to rise.
—Why is your despair so hollow, Ataraxia?
Arcana's voice was low and dignified, yet laced with profound sorrow and disappointment.
His pitch-black eyes seemed to pierce straight to the root of Ataraxia's despair, twisted and corrupted by Dragon God Sepiro.
"Lord Sepiro is the true future of dragonkind! He alone can bring us glory…!"
Ataraxia instinctively tried to defend Sepiro, but his voice lost its strength under Arcana's gaze.
He looked like a child being scolded by a parent.
—You must not lose yourself. The Sepiro of now is no longer the Dragon God we knew.
Each of Arcana's words cracked the twisted convictions in Ataraxia's heart.
Amid the pure aura of despair emanating from the Arcana before him, his soul writhed violently.
"He is…! He alone is the one true Dragon God…!"
Ataraxia tried to roar, but his Dragon Tongue no longer carried its former destructive power.
Even the Brand of Despair flickered faintly.
Adora seized the opportunity.
"Ataraxia, remember your 'dream.' Is this truly what you desired?"
Her sharp cry burrowed even deeper into his confusion.
'Dream?'
A faint memory surfaced in Ataraxia's mind from long ago, from the days when he was still pure.
What had driven Ataraxia to reignite the 'Great War' in the first place?
True peace.
He believed reclaiming infinite glory and rising as the strongest race was the only path.
But meeting 'Park Chan-woo,' whom he saw as Sepiro's second vessel, he dreamed of another way.
He realized that the 'transformation' dragons yearned for resided within him.
—Your despair must not become a poison that devours others. It should be like the earth—embracing all, birthing new beginnings. Why do you mimic Sepiro's hollow destruction?
Arcana's voice carried grief that transcended mere reproach.
At those words, Ataraxia's blood-red eyes shook fiercely.
The Brand of Despair at his feet flickered unstably.
—My child. You must awaken. The Sepiro of now will not save us. He seeks only to save himself.
Arcana's voice resonated through his soul.
War is meaningless.
What remains after endless slaughter?
For eons, to end the Great War, Arcana had waited for Sepiro, cursed and captured by the Lord of Giant Evils.
But Sepiro never came for him.
He was saved, but not by Sepiro—by Park Chan-woo, who bore the makings of a new Dragon God.
Arcana's soul, once freed, had gradually awakened as it reborn as an Origin God.
And now, it fully awoke before Ataraxia.
—You know it too. Deep within you, 'hope' still flows. I know the faith that believes in him to the end still lingers.
"Graaaaaaaaah!"
Unable to endure, Ataraxia unleashed a roar verging on a scream.
A desperate wail of a lost soul, mingled with pain, rage, and profound sorrow.
'Bloodkin!'
Yes.
Arcana was his direct blood ancestor.
Forgotten memories of kinship, the pure pride and bonds of primordial dragonkind, writhed fiercely deep in his soul.
But the roar did not last long.
Ataraxia's eyes flickered an even deeper black.
As if another being had taken over—or flipped him inside out.
The blood-red mist pouring from his massive form turned in an instant to pitch-black darkness.
In the place of the Brand of Despair, a far more ominous and potent rune began to engrave itself.
It was imbued with Sepiro's authority, the power of the abyss.
"…Despair and despair again. I am Ataraxia, the dragon who sings only of despair."
Ataraxia unleashed an even more amplified Despair Dragon Tongue.
The hopeless countdown began.
The blood-red mist thickened further, completely swallowing vision, and within it, only Ataraxia's mad roars echoed endlessly.
His colossal dragon form had transformed into something hideous beyond description, a swirl of blood-red and pitch-black.
The Brand of Despair was gone, replaced by a deeper, darker abyssal rune writhing in its place.
"I shall dye all in despair!"
Ataraxia's voice no longer held any trace of its former dignity.
Only pure destructive instinct remained, seeking to devour everything around him.
With a single flap of his wings, the earth tore apart, and lava erupted like fountains.
The Despair Dragon Tongue transcended mere waves, morphing into countless spells of despair that swept the battlefield.
"Damn it……!"
Lee Hyuk-soo barely gripped Baal's sword and staggered to his feet.
His body was drenched in blood, his armor shredded beyond recognition.
Though Arcana's summoning had triggered Park Chan-woo's 'Wish,' it wasn't enough to quell Ataraxia's rampage.
On the contrary, Ataraxia's despair blazed even fiercer, as if to swallow even the light of the Wish.
"Arcana!"
Adora's scream echoed faintly through the mist.
Where her gaze turned, Arcana lay with one wing brutally torn away.
Ataraxia had ripped off Arcana's wing.
'What do I do?'
Lee Hyuk-soo was overwhelmed by despair.
With even Arcana fallen, there seemed no way to stop the rampaging Ataraxia.
The Evil Spirit King had already scattered without form, and Yoo Jin-seo, Aurum, and the other comrades' fates were unknown.
Only Adora and he clung to life in this hopeless battlefield.
Ten minutes left.
Despair. Helplessness seeping into his bones.
'If only I could find the ticket.'
But the ticket was nowhere to be seen.
He had no idea where it was hidden.
Yet Lee Hyuk-soo's eyes began to shine again, like an unextinguished ember.
The image of his master, Park Chan-woo, flashed in his mind.
The man who never gave up amid countless deaths and despair.
Who always turned the impossible into possible.
'I can do it. I can do it, Lee Hyuk-soo!'
Thump! Thump!
His heart pounded fiercely, the 'Forgotten Gremlin's Heart' pulsing.
From his fingertips, the 'Blood Wolf's Claw' exuded sharp energy.
And that wasn't all.
He had obtained far more tribal relics from the Archipelago of Chaos.
Still, it wasn't enough.
He knew what was missing.
Lee Hyuk-soo's gaze turned to Ataraxia.
'A dragon tribal relic.'
To fully manifest Park Chan-woo and turn this desperate situation, he needed to seize a 'dragon tribal relic' from Ataraxia.
Even if it meant staking his life on a near-impossible challenge.
"Adora!"
Lee Hyuk-soo cried out, blood pouring from his mouth.
His voice was cracked, but unyielding will burned within.
"…Speak."
"Use 'Death's Authority' on me."
"……What are you saying?"
Adora's voice carried shock and disbelief.
It was a plea to kill him.
"No time. Hurry!"
There was no time for gentle explanations.
Ataraxia claimed to have transcended death.
Then he too must face death head-on.
Above all.
Lee Hyuk-soo could see it.
The mana waves.
The tribal relic!
The dragon origin within Ataraxia.
Of course, it was tantamount to suicide.
But there was no hesitation in Lee Hyuk-soo's eyes.
He was already prepared to cast everything aside.
If his death could hasten Park Chan-woo's manifestation, he would gladly become the offering.
Adora swallowed hard.
Lee Hyuk-soo's mad proposal.
But the conviction in his eyes.
Perhaps, just perhaps, this was the only way.
She trusted Park Chan-woo.
And she trusted Lee Hyuk-soo, whom he had chosen.
Time urged their resolve.
"…Understood."
Adora asked no more.
She gripped the Throne of Flesh Staff tighter.
At its tip, a purer, more refined essence of death began to gather—unlike before.
Not mere destruction, but the authority of death that shook the essence of existence.
And soon.
A sphere of death, condensed like a black sun, detached from Adora's staff and approached Lee Hyuk-soo's heart—slowly, yet with inexorable fate.
Lee Hyuk-soo spread his arms to welcome that death.
Pain came with it, and a bizarre sensation as if his existence grew infinitely light.
The mythic awakening light that had burned his flesh merged with Adora's death authority within his soul, exploding.
In that instant, the 'dragon origin' in Ataraxia that Lee Hyuk-soo saw became vividly clear.
It took the form of a iridescent gem, as if compressing the entire history of dragonkind.
Lee Hyuk-soo drew his final breath.
His existence had already half-stepped into the realm of death, yet his mind was clearer and sharper than ever.
They say a flame burns brightest just before extinguishing.
It was true.
The energy bursting from Lee Hyuk-soo's body shimmered with an enigmatic hue, like the dawn sky where life and death coexisted.
'This is… my end.'
As he exhaled his last breath, he would die.
Pouring out all his vitality and mana, Lee Hyuk-soo shot toward Ataraxia's heart at a speed transcending time.
Squish!
'…Got it.'
The moment he pierced the heart.
Lee Hyuk-soo exhaled his final breath,
and died.