Chapter 406
Chapter 406
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 406
Chapter Title: Interracial War (45)
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What is a god in this Abyss?
Park Chan-woo pondered as he walked through the ruins of the Gods' Graveyard.
Truly divine beings who became targets for demons because of their sanctity?
They were incomplete existences bound by the chains of faith, losing their power and vanishing once their followers disappeared.
Their divinity was precarious, dependent on external conditions.
Or perhaps the demon gods who called themselves gods and dominated the Abyss?
Demon gods ruled through power and authority, but their essence was mere greed and destruction.
They dominated through fear alone and could never achieve true creation or salvation.
'There are no gods in this Abyss yet.'
The true god that Park Chan-woo envisioned was different from all of them.
A true god is an existence that does not depend on external conditions.
Whether there is faith or not, followers or not, it must be complete in its mere existence.
It establishes its own laws.
It creates its own world.
It decides everything through its own will.
A true god does not succumb to power.
It possesses overwhelming strength yet does not wield it recklessly.
It understands the essence of power and has the wisdom to use it where it is most valuable.
...And the most important thing.
A true god must know how to 'sacrifice'.
It must be willing to throw itself away for the world, for the beings it leads.
That is not weakness, but the greatest proof of strength.
Park Chan-woo looked back on his own path.
Repeated regressions, the despair of -99 level, and the final miracle guaranteed by annihilation.
All of it was the process of walking the path to the 'god' he envisioned.
In the realm of emptiness, repeating life and death billions of times, he realized.
A god is not simply a powerful being.
It is the process itself of awakening true 'dignity' and reaching the ultimate 'truth'.
The title of 'Archmage' he had so desperately longed for.
It did not mean merely one who wields powerful magic.
It literally meant one who dominates phenomena and reestablishes the world.
Through the Easter Eggs left by the Creator, he caught a glimpse of those clues.
They all spoke of the well-being of existence, fortune, miracles, and harmony.
Not destruction and domination, but coexistence and balance.
That might be the true form of this Abyss that the Creator desired, and the role of a 'god'.
At that moment, a hypothesis flashed through Park Chan-woo's mind.
'The Creator left traces of himself but hid his own presence.'
Perhaps the Creator...
...had sacrificed himself.
The absolute being who created this Abyss and shaped countless laws and existences.
Why did he leave only faint, uncertain traces in the form of Easter Eggs?
Why did he not rule directly and enforce his will?
Perhaps he too realized the imperfections and contradictions of the world he created.
To correct everything, he might have thrown away everything he had.
Scattering seeds of possibility called Easter Eggs into the world.
Hoping that someone would follow his footsteps, surpass him, and become a new god.
Completing the 'perfect world' in the true sense that he could not achieve.
It was an unimaginably vast and distant tale.
But Park Chan-woo felt that hypothesis was close to the truth.
Because, unbeknownst to himself, he was walking the path the Creator had taken.
"...Interesting."
Park Chan-woo murmured softly.
A faint smile played on his lips.
'Coexistence and balance. Ultimate peace.'
He savored the Creator's noble will for a moment.
A harmonious world, an ideal paradise where all coexist.
Beautiful words.
However, there was only one thing that made it possible.
'It comes from overwhelming power.'
Only power.
Peace is not obtained by begging.
Nor can it be maintained through understanding and persuasion alone.
In the vast jungle called the Abyss, peace was a luxury only the apex predator could enjoy.
Coexistence without power is mere subjugation, and balance is nothing but a sandcastle that can collapse at any moment.
To desire true coexistence and balance, one must enforce that order with absolute power that no one dares defy.
So that demon gods cannot indulge in greed.
So that gods do not remain trapped in their own chains.
So that all existences follow the established laws in their positions.
The only thing that could make that possible was power.
Overwhelming power that subjugates everything and dominates everything!
Park Chan-woo slowly came to a stop.
"Baal."
Kroooaaaargh-!
He summoned Baal, bringing it to 'descent'.
As the Eternal Train came to a halt at 'Forgotten God's Station', a tense atmosphere filled every car.
The bizarre event at the first station, 'Earth Station', where the human race had shown their audacity.
In other words, one being monopolizing all the tickets had planted great shock and wariness in every race.
"We must deal with those humans at this station."
Urkan, a warrior of the Dusk Race, growled.
Greed filled his eyes.
"There are many ways to trade for tickets. Threaten them with their lives as collateral, or..."
Before Urkan could finish, another Dusk Race warrior beside him chuckled and continued.
"Or just wipe them out and take them. With ten humans, catching even one guarantees a ticket. What easier prey is there?"
Most races shared similar thoughts.
Humans are weak.
They merely got lucky with a powerful backer to pass the first station; their essence hadn't changed.
At this station, they needed to crush their arrogant noses, seize the tickets, and send them back to the bottom ranks.
There was only one human they should avoid.
Just the one human who suddenly claimed to be the Dragon God.
As the train doors opened, warriors from each race poured out onto the ashen ground, rushing forward.
Their goal was singular: the humans.
They scanned everywhere for traces of humans, but strangely, none were in sight.
"Hiding? You cowards!"
Urkan mocked and shouted.
But at that moment, all races' gazes converged on one spot.
The door to the car assigned to the humans.
From there, a single figure slowly emerged.
Defying all expectations, it was only Park Chan-woo.
As if strolling in his own garden, he calmly surveyed the ruins of the Gods' Graveyard.
Park Chan-woo's appearance threw all the races into confusion.
"Is that guy alone?"
"Where are the other humans?"
"He really came out alone...?"
Amid the flurry of questions and speculations, Park Chan-woo ignored their stares and whispered softly into the air.
"Baal."
At that instant, the world turned upside down.
Behind Park Chan-woo, space tore with a ripping sound, and something pitch-black poured out.
It was pure chaos, primal rage incarnate.
A ferocious beast with four eyes manifested in the air, soon taking solid form and descending upon the earth.
Kroooaaaargh-!
The ferocious god Baal.
One of the Creator's four beasts.
The ground sank under its overwhelming presence.
This was on another level from when it had been summoned at the Dragon God Battle.
Back then, Baal was like a wild beast freshly awakened from its seal.
Now, it displayed the true might of the primordial beast that had found its master.
This was because Baal fully acknowledged Park Chan-woo, who had attained divinity.
Baal was the Creator's beast.
Its instincts were imprinted to recognize a 'god' and submit.
With Park Chan-woo reaching the divine realm through his own power, Baal could now unleash its true strength.
Its pressure surpassed even the races called the strongest.
They realized.
What they sought to confront was not a single human.
They had to surpass that primordial beast to advance.
Thus, Park Chan-woo left Baal, with all its power unleashed, and vanished into the station.
'This is an opportunity instead.'
Urkan smiled.
For the Dusk Race warriors, this 'Forgotten God's Station' was blessed ground.
The thick ashen fog and shadows of the ruined temples.
It was the perfect stage to amplify their essence, 'darkness'.
"Hmph, thinking a mere beast can stop us."
Urkan sneered.
"While Baal blocks the entrance, we slip through the shadows and pierce that human's heart."
At his words, three elite warriors nodded.
They merged with the darkness, moving without sound or trace.
Following the deepest paths of shadow beyond Baal's divinity.
Finally, they found their target.
Park Chan-woo standing alone before the altar of a ruined temple.
As if waiting for something, he stood utterly still.
The four Dusk Race warriors appeared simultaneously from all sides, perfectly encircling him.
"No matter how great you are, you can't handle our Dusk Race elites alone."
Urkan declared, certain of victory.
At that moment, black mist spread around them.
The bodies of the four Dusk Race warriors began to swell.
Beings who could inflate their size based on their opponent.
The stronger the foe, the stronger the Dusk Race became.
But Park Chan-woo remained utterly calm amid their threat.
Instead, with a faint smile, he spoke.
"It's been a while."
At those words, the Dusk Race warriors momentarily froze.
As if he knew them.
And the next moment, Park Chan-woo slowly raised his hand and removed his helmet.
As the helmet vanished and his face fully revealed...
"...!"
"Y-You...?"
The four Dusk Race warriors who saw his face stiffened completely.
Time seemed to stop; they froze solid.
An unforgettable memory flashed through their minds like lightning.
God's Tower, 12th floor.
The dragon of despair, Ataraxia, they had faced.
And the being that made Ataraxia kneel.
The monster that erased the Illusion Lord in one blow!
...It was that face.
The human before whom even Ataraxia dared not lift its head.
Moreover, that human who obliterated the 'Illusion Lord' had ignored them afterward and headed to the 13th floor of God's Tower.
Why was that monster here...!
"Looks like you remember."
Park Chan-woo said softly.
His voice was still calm, but to the Dusk Race warriors, it sounded like the whisper of the reaper.
And perhaps because of that.
The shadows they had forcibly absorbed began to rampage, escaping their master's control.
"D-Darkness!"
"The shadows are going berserk!"
Urkan and the other warriors screamed.
The darkness enveloping their bodies writhed like living creatures, trying to devour their flesh.
For the Dusk Race, shadows were the source of their power.
The source that should obey them was disobeying and rampaging.
"Kaaack!"
Shadows extending from Urkan's body began biting into his arm.
The other warriors struggled in agony, battling their own shadows.
If this continued, they would all be consumed by their own power.
At that exact moment.
Snap!
Park Chan-woo flicked his finger.
Then, all the shadows that had been devouring them moved in unison.
...And prostrated before Park Chan-woo.
Like vassals bowing before their king.
"...!"
The Dusk Race warriors stared at Park Chan-woo in disbelief.
He had seized control of their power source, the shadows, with a single gesture.
At the same time.
"P-Please spare us! We failed to recognize your greatness!"
Urkan, who had led the warriors, prostrated himself before Park Chan-woo just like the rampaging shadows.