Chapter 433
Chapter 433
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 433
Chapter Title: Racial War (72)
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Park Chan-woo's footsteps finally came to a halt.
The end of the golden path.
There were no jade thrones, no ornate decorations.
Just an endless void, and at its center, two beings standing alone.
One was all too familiar to Park Chan-woo, etched deep into his bones as an object of hatred.
'Dragon God Sepiro.'
He still wore that arrogant, languid expression.
Standing there with arms crossed, like an audience member awaiting the final act of an intriguing play.
Vast magical power swirled around him.
And the other one.
The moment he faced the other being, Park Chan-woo involuntarily swallowed hard.
'The Lord of the Void.'
The sovereign of all demons.
The great final lord, ruler of the void.
Betrayed by the other nine lords, brought to ruin by Sepiro.
But what was the real truth?
Why had they—why had Sepiro—gone to such lengths to hide the truth of this "Great War"?
History recorded him as the tragic figure betrayed by the other nine lords and destroyed by Sepiro.
But what was the real truth?
Why had they—why had Sepiro—gone to such lengths to hide the truth of this "Great War"?
Park Chan-woo had come this far to uncover fragments of that truth.
Yet the Lord of the Void before him was utterly unlike anything he had imagined.
No overwhelming presence emanated from him, no aura of authority.
No horns, no wings, nothing symbolizing a demon god.
Just a demon in worn, tattered gray robes—an utterly ordinary figure.
He even resembled one of those nameless lesser demons commonly found at the very bottom of the Abyss.
But that very ordinariness felt more alien and chilling than any intimidation.
And standing before him was Sepiro.
Deep within those golden eyes, which should have brimmed with arrogance, lurked a faint trace of "tension" that he couldn't quite hide.
It went beyond mere curiosity.
It was the wariness of an explorer facing the unknown, mingled with the taut vigilance of a top predator confronting an equal—or superior—rival.
Park Chan-woo realized it then.
He was witnessing the moment when history's deepest secret was being unveiled.
Within the vast "curtain" they had drawn, the two of them were sharing their final conversation alone.
"I cannot understand you, Lord of the Void."
Sepiro spoke first.
His voice lacked its usual lightness.
"Why tolerate the betrayal? You could have destroyed them all if you wished."
"Because that is the 'flow'—the 'current'."
"You're speaking just like Lilith."
The Transcender Lilith.
She too had always spoken of "flow" and "harmony".
That true essence could only be reached by surrendering to the current of magic, becoming one with it—not dominating it.
It was the way Sepiro despised most, deeming it foolish.
"Is that your answer to 'the end'? Simply accepting everything and letting it drift as it will? That's just an excuse for the weak. True power comes from defying the flow, dominating the laws, and bending all to one's will."
Arrogant confidence filled Sepiro's voice once more.
He had always believed himself right in his long debates with Lilith.
And now, he judged the Lord of the Void to be walking the same foolish path as her.
But the Lord of the Void's next words cracked that steadfast belief once again.
"You misunderstand Lilith—and me."
A faint trace of pity mingled with the Lord of the Void's serene will.
"The 'flow' Lilith spoke of and the 'flow' I speak of are like gazing upon the same river but seeing different waves."
His will painted two images in the void.
One was a clear, transparent river flowing gently under sunlight—the world of "harmony" Lilith had dreamed of.
The other was a massive, inexorable torrent devouring all in its path, cascading like a waterfall—the raging current of "fate".
"Lilith sought to dance with the river's waters. But I chose to become the river itself."
"......!"
"She found 'coexistence' within the flow. But at its end, I beheld 'nothingness'. The origin of all things, and the place to which all return. Defying that absolute flow of the void is as foolish as a mere river defying the sea's decree."
It was a discourse transcending Lilith's philosophy, delving into an even more primordial and vast providence.
He wasn't simply following the flow.
The Lord of the Void himself was the immense "flow of fate" that led the Abyss from beginning to end.
The demons' betrayal, this Great War, even his own demise.
In that grand current, they were mere splashes.
"...So you'll die with the flow?"
"I return to the origin."
The Lord of the Void's will remained composed.
"Born of the void, I naturally return to the void. All things return whence they came, Sepiro. You're no exception."
"Nonsense."
Sepiro could no longer hold back his shout.
The space around him warped with rage-infused magic.
"I will not return. I will exist eternally and dominate all. Not submit powerlessly to fate like you, but forge fate itself with my hands. Death is merely one of the many laws I must conquer."
It was Sepiro's conviction, the path he had walked.
He feared death, and thus sought to conquer it.
But to the Lord of the Void, death was no object of conquest.
"Pitiful dragon. You still fear death."
A faint pity tinged the Lord of the Void's will.
"Death is not the end. It is merely change by another name. Like how a seed must return to soil for new sprouts to emerge, or an old star must fade for a new one to be born. Why do you reject such natural order?"
"...It seems, then, that you."
Sepiro sighed and continued.
"Must perish here."
Further conversation was pointless.
The Lord of the Void's very existence—his philosophy—unceasingly threatened the self-deception Sepiro had so painstakingly built.
He could not tolerate a being unafraid of death.
The only way to quell his fear was to shatter the mirror reflecting it.
Yet the Lord of the Void did not waver before his killing intent.
Instead, he pierced the fear hidden deep in Sepiro's eyes and delivered his final words.
"Do you feel it, Sepiro? Your own death approaching."
Sepiro's expression hardened.
"You hasten my end, yet what you truly fear is your own. You know it. Your era is waning. Your arrogant dominion cannot last forever."
The Lord of the Void's ordinary form began to disperse into the surrounding void, like ink spreading in water.
He was yielding himself to fate's current.
"Even if I die here today, an adversary will surely be born. Just as you, Sepiro, ultimately appeared before me."
It was prophecy.
Ineffable providence.
"The deeper the darkness, the brighter the light. The stronger your rule, the more inevitably a new 'anomaly' will arise to topple you. That is the law of the universe, an unyielding truth."
And then.
The Lord of the Void turned his head.
Not toward Sepiro, but to the one being beyond the curtain, holding his breath and watching everything.
He looked at Park Chan-woo.
His deep, void-like eyes met Park Chan-woo's soul directly for the first time.
There was no judgment, no evaluation in that gaze.
Only serene acknowledgment of the sole witness to his final words.
Sepiro frowned, unable to grasp the meaning of that look, but the Lord of the Void paid it no mind.
His final will flowed quietly toward Park Chan-woo alone.
"What you call 'anomalies',"
His voice was so faint, yet in Park Chan-woo's world, it rang clearer than any sound.
"is akin to the world's desperate struggle to heal itself."
"......!"
"Breaking rigid laws, toppling decayed order, restarting stagnant flows. That is the essence of life, proof that the world lives. You fear it and call it 'anomaly', but perhaps the 'anomaly' is the truest 'answer'."
His will was like handing Park Chan-woo the key to a new era.
Affirmation that his path had not been wrong.
That it aligned most perfectly with the world's providence.
At the same time, those words stabbed like daggers into Sepiro—and all the demon lords watching this scene.
The demons had dubbed themselves "anomaly hunters", "guardians of order".
Under the pretext of preventing chaos like the Great Rift and maintaining the Abyss's stability, they justified their rule.
But the Lord of the Void's words denied their very purpose.
What they hunted as "anomalies" were the world's desperate struggles to survive.
They were not guardians of order, but apostles of death, merely pruning new possibilities to prolong a rotting, decaying world.
Sepiro knew the weight of those words better than anyone.
He fell silent for a moment, then posed his final question.
Stripped of all arrogance, it came from pure curiosity as a seeker.
"......Beyond the Great Rift, what lies?"
At that question, a faint "smile"—the first and last—flickered across the fading Lord of the Void's ordinary face.
He gave no answer.
He simply left that smile behind and returned to perfect nothingness, without a trace.
But that silence and smile conveyed more clearly to Sepiro than any words.
'You are not yet worthy to know.'
That was the Lord of the Void's reply.
Directed at Sepiro.
This was the full truth of the "Great War" as known to history.
The demons had betrayed their sovereign, unworthy even to speak of ruling the Abyss.
Sepiro feared death and could not even kill the Lord of the Void himself.
The Lord of the Void had simply vanished of his own accord.
Therefore.
"Heavenly Punishment."
Kwaaaaaaaa!
Park Chan-woo unleashed Heavenly Punishment upon the solitary remaining Dragon God Sepiro.