Chapter 393
Chapter 393
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 393
Chapter Title: Racial War (32)
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Dragon God Temple.
Sepiro watched the battlefield with a satisfied smile.
His gaze was fixed on the devastated scene of the 'Earth Sector' and Ataraxia rampaging at its center, destroying everything in sight.
The ancient specter known as Arcana had briefly appeared to shake Ataraxia, but in the end, it knelt before the power of his abyss.
The brand etched into Ataraxia's soul was stronger than any memory or bloodline information.
Ataraxia had been reborn as the perfect tool of despair, made solely for him.
"Quite useful."
Right after emerging from the Great Rift.
His magic had become incomparably solid.
It was truly complete—a flawless advancement.
He had reached the ultimate pinnacle.
He was confident he had attained the final stage of mana, 'Apocalypse'.
As proof.
'I've split into fourteen hearts.'
The two stolen hearts had been replaced with the cores of 'Outer Gods' absorbed from the Great Rift.
By repeatedly turning himself into an Outer God and transcending, he had finally reached an even higher realm.
That magic of his had been bestowed upon Ataraxia.
It was similar to the method he had used to 'postpone' the death he endured while surviving in the Great Rift.
In his hand, he held a holy grail.
It resembled the Demon-Sealing God's grail, yet was somehow different.
It was the 'Grail of the End'.
A relic salvaged from the far end of the Great Rift, containing both primordial chaos and infinite possibilities.
Sepiro had refined it with his ultimate magic, making it his own.
The Grail of the End possessed the power to twist and recreate existence itself.
Through this grail, Sepiro had shaped Ataraxia's soul to his will, dyeing his despair into an even deeper and darker abyss.
He had trapped Ataraxia's life within it, freeing him from 'death'.
'A grail that turns the imprisoned being into an Outer God.'
Sepiro gazed down at the 'Grail of the End' in his hand with a faint smile.
Through the Outer God cores he absorbed in the Great Rift and the power of this grail, he had endlessly deconstructed and rebuilt himself, repeating 'Outer God transformation' and 'transcendence'.
The fourteen split hearts were the product of that process—a medal proving his existence had reached a realm incomparable to before.
Each heart functioned like an independent entity while unified under one will, granting him near-immortal vitality and an unimaginable total amount of mana.
And this grail would play a pivotal role in leading new 'materials' he encountered down the same path or using them as sacrifices to further expand his power.
It held the dangerously potent force to twist the essence of life, forcibly elevate the rank of existence, and raise even ordinary beings to the level of Outer Gods.
Ataraxia was his first test subject and the most successful result.
'Archmage. Everything connected to you possessed the perfect conditions for becoming an Outer God.'
The smile on Sepiro's lips took on a deeper, more grotesque sheen than before.
Park Chan-woo. His very existence was a massive 'error'.
The bastard had a bizarre ability to spread and infect errors, causing everything related to him to exist steeped in glitches.
He was like a bug in the system.
Those he touched, the powers he created, every change he wrought disrupted the existing order and generated unpredictable variables.
Lee Hyuk-soo, Adora, Han Shin... and countless nameless others.
They had all been infected by Park Chan-woo's 'error', growing grotesquely or defying the currents of fate.
'By rights, they all deserve annihilation.'
But now, Sepiro saw new possibilities within those 'errors'.
Their twisted power and unpredictable variables were the finest materials for forging the most powerful and alluring Outer Gods through the Grail of the End.
Just as the most potent poisons could become miracle cures if handled right, Park Chan-woo and his remnants could be the final pieces Sepiro needed to ascend to ultimate existence.
That was why Sepiro sought to seize everything under Park Chan-woo's influence.
To imprison them in the Grail of the End and elevate them to Outer Gods.
'Outer Gods are perfect weapons and truths in themselves.'
Arrogance like the universe itself dwelled in Sepiro's golden eyes.
Existing gods, dragonkin, demons—they were all shackled by too many impurities.
But Outer Gods were different.
Pure power, pure laws, pure destruction or creation.
That was the ultimate realm Sepiro pursued.
And Park Chan-woo along with the 'errors' he infected, chaotic and incomplete as they were, could be refined through the Grail of the End into raw gems capable of becoming purer and more powerful Outer Gods than any other.
Their anomalous power and unpredictable potential would serve as the driving force to shatter the old order and establish a new 'truth'.
Sepiro had misunderstood all this time.
The Great Rift.
The Outer Gods emerging from it!
He had thought of them as weapons sent from beyond the Great Rift.
'Seeds of all possibilities. Outer Gods are beings crossing over to sprout seeds in the Abyss.'
Not to destroy the Abyss.
But to till the soil, shatter the old and diseased to use as fertilizer, and sprout new shoots.
Destruction was not the end—it was the first step toward true creation.
A faint smile, like a shiver of thrill, rose to Sepiro's lips.
How narrowly had his vision been confined all this time.
He had seen the beings beyond the Great Rift and the will of that abyss merely as harbingers of chaos and apocalypse.
But now he understood.
They were 'harbingers' and 'seeds' sent to end the old era and usher in a new one.
Seeds crossing over, brimming with infinite possibilities, to be sown in the field called the Abyss!
And he, Sepiro, was the sole 'cultivator' capable of tilling that field, selecting seeds, and growing the fruits he desired.
The Grail of the End was his ultimate tool—the very secret to breeding and sprouting seeds into his desired forms.
Ataraxia was the grail's first fruit.
The seed of despair he had sown, grown splendidly with the power of the abyss as fertilizer.
"Not yet. Despair more, Ataraxia."
Ataraxia was in the midst of being forged into an Outer God.
The material was excellent, but the conditions for sprouting seemed insufficient.
He had not yet reached true despair—the state of abandoning all and becoming the abyss itself.
Perhaps the specter of the past called Arcana, or twisted memories of the Archmage, were holding him back.
'Not fully purified yet.'
Sepiro clicked his tongue in dissatisfaction.
But it was fine.
'Kill them all. Your ties, your fate. Drown it all in despair. Then you will be reborn as an Outer God, the ultimate seed.'
Sepiro's will was cold and resolute.
And now, in the 'Earth Sector', his command was being faithfully carried out.
Ataraxia destroyed everything, literally.
Lee Hyuk-soo breathed his last.
Foolishly, had he believed that if Adora cast the curse of 'death', he could surpass Ataraxia?
Arcana too had plummeted pathetically with broken wings and ceased moving.
That noble soul was tainted by the pure despair Ataraxia spewed, losing its light.
The Death Witch Adora, who resisted to the end.
Her King of Evil Spirits had long dissipated, and she herself, having exhausted all her mana, collapsed into the mist of despair and lay utterly still.
Everything was over.
The humans' final resistance, the remnants of ancient dragons, the power of death.
All had crumbled powerlessly before the extreme despair wrought by Ataraxia.
The 'Earth Sector' had become a land of death, where not even corpses remained—only pure auras of despair and destruction lingered.
And at its center stood Ataraxia.
His massive draconic form had transformed into a shape incomparably more grotesque and powerful than before.
His dragon scales gleamed pitch-black like crystals of the abyss, and the patterns etched upon them writhed like living things, devouring all surrounding despair.
His very existence was like a colossal black hole, swallowing all light and hope.
"Krroooooooooh...!"
A primordial being's utterance, an incomprehensible language of the abyss.
The prelude announcing the birth of a new Outer God.
His soul had burned away all past and ties in despair, finally turning into pure darkness.
'The conditions for sprouting have been met.'
Finally, a satisfied smile graced the lips of Sepiro, who watched from the Dragon God Temple.
His first creation.
His very own Outer God, forged through the Grail of the End.
Witnessing the moment of its birth sent a subtle but unmistakable shiver through Sepiro's entire body.
An excitement bordering on awe.
Pure admiration for the overwhelming power and beauty emanating from the being he had created.
His fourteen hearts pulsed in unison, sending electric thrills through his body.
The 'Grail of the End' in his hand resonated violently, accelerating Ataraxia's metamorphosis even further.
The dark crimson chaos within the grail flowed into Ataraxia, aiding his final transformation.
"Beautiful, Ataraxia."
Sepiro murmured in rapture.
"I appoint you my first truth and apostle."
It would be complete soon.
The first controllable Outer God, shaped by his own hands.
Its power would surely surpass any god or demon king of the past.
Sepiro foresaw the coming future.
With Ataraxia at the forefront, countless Outer Gods created from all erroneous existences as materials.
The Great Nine Lords.
And turning the Twelve Sovereigns and other transcendent beings into Outer Gods as well.
He could already anticipate the sight of the universe dyed in his 'truth'.
Sepiro's golden eyes gleamed with chilling brightness.
The thrill grew ever larger, transforming into a massive euphoria that shook his very existence.
But.
"...Hm?"
At the final moment, Sepiro couldn't help furrowing his brow.
Suddenly.
A colossal divinity was heading toward the 'Earth Sector'.
Enveloped in radiant golden mana.
Pure golden divine power, blindingly bright, rose like a heat haze, and with every step it took, the shattered fragments of space reassembled themselves, paving its path.
Its very existence seemed a independent mini-universe, like a new law unto itself.
Vitality of life, will of creation overflowed from it.
Sepiro's brow deeply creased.
A door was opening, and something was approaching.
Crossing the rift, about to step onto the stage of the 'Racial War'.
In response, his fourteen hearts throbbed in discord.
Even the Grail of the End trembled uneasily in his grasp.
And when that 'divinity' finally revealed itself.
Seeing the radiant divine figure, Sepiro's eyes trembled faintly.
That being was undoubtedly the source of the 'error' he so despised yet coveted most.
"You... how...!"
...The Archmage.
'Park Chan-woo'.
And in the form of a complete 'god', far beyond the mere 'material' he had imagined.