Chapter 428
Chapter 428
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 428
Chapter Title: Racial War (67)
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The moment Park Chan-woo stepped onto the platform, the world twisted.
The train and platform dissolved like a mirage, replaced by an endless battlefield stretching out before them.
Kwarrr rumble!
Enormous rocks and blazing debris rained down from the sky without end.
The ground shook with earth-shattering explosions, echoes of screams filling the air.
Tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of troops clashed in chaos.
Dragon breaths tore through the heavens, and giant footsteps ripped the earth apart.
The most horrific 'Great War' in Abyss history, known only from ancient records, was now vividly unfolding before their eyes.
The warriors of other races felt both shock and a strange familiarity at the sight.
With the system messages, the Dragonkin were summoned under the Dragonkin banner, and the Giants to their legions.
They were already full participants in this war.
But.
Ding!
Choose.
A faction. Whose side to stand on, whom to kill.
His choice would become the path for all humanity.
His gaze turned to the heart of the battlefield, where tens of thousands of troops collided.
There, a familiar presence stood.
A massive black dragon.
It was not the 'Primal Arcana' he had crafted himself.
It was a living, breathing 'Arcana of Despair' of flesh and bone.
The noble being who had sacrificed everything to halt the Great War.
Alone, he battled both the Void Legion and the Sepiro Alliance.
Leading his kin, he desperately resisted to end this mad war.
Park Chan-woo hesitated no longer.
"I will belong to no faction."
To observe the war most objectively.
Of course, he had to stand with those trying to stop it.
But no race seemed inclined to end the war.
They were frenzied to claim as much Abyss territory as possible.
All but one.
Only the Arcana of Despair was different.
He fought not for victory in the war, but for its end.
The system's warning flashed red, but Park Chan-woo paid it no mind.
He reached out into the void.
"Arcana."
At his call, space tore open, revealing a massive dragon.
Primal Arcana.
The being reborn alongside Park Chan-woo.
Without hesitation, Park Chan-woo mounted Primal Arcana's back.
"I want to follow your story."
Kwaaaaah!
Primal Arcana roared and soared into the sky.
The mana winds from its wings sent massive ripples through both factions' armies.
All eyes turned to the colossal dragon cleaving the heavens and the small human atop it.
Ignoring every attack, Primal Arcana charged toward one destination.
Finally, the most intense center of the war.
Before the solitary dragon, the 'original' Arcana, who stood against the world alone.
He saw Park Chan-woo as one of the last survivors of the Despair kin.
"Foolish one! Why have you come here?!"
Arcana's voice echoed directly in Park Chan-woo's mind.
Anger and deep sorrow for his kin laced his tone.
"Flee at once. At least you must survive! There's no need for a young one like you to be sacrificed in this accursed war!"
Arcana was desperate.
He was prepared to lose everything.
His life, honor, even his clan's future.
He would bear it all to end this insane war.
"Our clan's will—I shall carry it all on my shoulders! So go, and usher in a new era."
Park Chan-woo simply listened.
So that's how it felt.
To be left alone.
To protect everyone in a hopeless situation.
Park Chan-woo acted.
To ensure he wouldn't be left alone.
"I will never leave you alone. Dragon of Hope, Arcana."
At those words, Arcana's movements froze for a moment.
"...What did you say?"
Disbelief colored his voice.
"Foolish one! Does this situation look hopeful to you now?! I am the Dragon of Despair, Arcana! This war is nothing but utter despair!"
Arcana roared.
Born in despair, fighting in despair, destined to die in despair.
'Hope' for one like him?
A word he'd never heard.
"Do you truly think it's right to sing of hope in this situation?"
Arcana cried out in anguish.
With the whole world dyed in blood and despair, anyone daring to speak of hope seemed utterly foolish.
But Park Chan-woo did not waver.
Instead, he met Arcana's red eyes squarely and answered quietly.
"If even one person hopes, it is no longer despair."
His voice was soft, yet it held the power to silence the battlefield's din.
"The greatest and most noble dragon is not one who sings of despair at someone's command."
Park Chan-woo's gaze pierced Arcana's heart.
"It is a dragon like you, who sings of hope by your own choice."
"Like me...?"
Confusion entered Arcana's voice for the first time.
He was the Dragon of Despair.
He fought to stop the war, yes—but it was a desperate struggle to avert greater despair, far from hope.
"Yes."
Park Chan-woo stated firmly.
"Right now, you alone speak of an 'end' in this hell. When all are blinded by destruction and conquest, only you fight to end this war. What is that if not hope?"
Arcana fell silent, at a loss for words.
No one had ever interpreted his actions that way.
"I came here to follow your noble will. Your despair is my despair, and the hope you seek is my hope."
Park Chan-woo dismounted Primal Arcana and knelt on one knee in the air.
"Please, allow this lowly one to become your sword."
"...That path leads only to death."
"It would be the greatest honor."
"I..."
Arcana trailed off.
He gazed alternately at the unwaveringly loyal being before him and the horrific reality surrounding them.
Everywhere his eyes fell, despairing scenes unfolded.
The charred corpses of his kin who had trusted and followed him to their deaths.
p>Countless deaths, mere consumables without meaning or honor.
Arcana's red eyes trembled with deep anguish.
"I no longer know what is right... or wrong."
His voice brimmed with the weariness and doubt of eons.
"Why does Dragon God Sepiro give us no answers? Why doesn't he stop this mad war? Why... why must we drag even the young dragons, barely learning the world, into this hellish battlefield?!"
His cry was rage, lament, and a question without answer.
"What meaning is there in victory... Can a triumph shouted over these ashes, over our clan's corpses, truly be glory?"
He turned his head, looking back at Park Chan-woo.
The majesty of the dragon who once ruled the world was gone.
Only the air of a lost child remained.
"Can I... still hold on to hope?"
At that question, Park Chan-woo quietly raised his head.
A faint smile touched his lips.
"Of course."
His voice was small, but it cut through Arcana's despair like a beam of light.
"Hope lies not in the situation, but in the choice."
Park Chan-woo stood.
"If you choose despair, this world will be eternal despair. But the moment you choose hope, all these ashes become fertilizer for a new beginning."
It was no mere comfort.
It was 'truth'.
The principle Park Chan-woo had realized after countless deaths and regressions.
"Choose."
Clearly, intently.
He asked, staring at Arcana.
"Will you become the dragon who sings of hope? Or will you choose despair?"
"...I."
Arcana looked into the distance.
Toward the demons called the Great Ten Lords.
"I want to sing of hope."
"Then."
Park Chan-woo's smile deepened.
"I shall stand with you. Greatest of dragons."
You are not alone.
Everyone has been waiting for you.
So no longer be solitary.
-......
Primal Arcana silently watched Park Chan-woo and Arcana.
This was the goal of this stage, as presented by the system.
All races believed this 'hidden truth' was the secret weapon or absolute power that would lead their kind to victory.
So they fought like mad.
Crushing foes, seizing more territory, piling up more corpses—and at the end, a glorious 'truth' that only they could claim awaited.
The Twelve Races and Upper League warriors assimilated perfectly into this mad war, as if it had always been so.
In their eyes, only the enemy before them and the singular goal of victory remained.
Before long, the anomalous presence of Park Chan-woo had faded from their sight.
In the midst of that chaos.
Seizing the moment when all eyes turned elsewhere.
Park Chan-woo and Arcana began moving quietly together.
Their destination was not the war's center.
Rather, the deepest, darkest place where it all began.
"Arcana of Despair. You've boldly entered my domain."
A colossal demon murmured.
In response, Arcana cried out.
"Master of Colossal Evil! I earnestly beg you—end this war!"
They had arrived before the great demon known as one of the mighty lords: the Master of Colossal Evil.