Chapter 435
Chapter 435
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 435
Chapter Title: Racial War (74)
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-Kraaaack!
Their god let out a scream of agony unlike anything they had ever heard.
His perfect body twisted grotesquely, and the absolute mana he had always boasted of betrayed its master, running rampant.
It felt as though every dragon's heart had stopped.
But more horrific than the physical defeat was the content of the conversation they had just heard.
'We knew.'
One of the oldest elders among the dragonkin closed his eyes quietly.
'Our god is arrogant and sees us merely as tools. Even the sacrifice of the proud dragonkin is nothing more than an obvious devotion to him.'
But there was a world of difference between vaguely suspecting it and hearing it straight from his mouth.
'Pitiful lizard.'
'Loyal dog.'
Arcana. The hero who had thrown himself into the fray for the honor of the dragonkin, singing hope even in the depths of despair.
Their god had called that noble sacrifice by such names.
It was not an insult to Arcana alone.
It was a denial of the entire history and pride of the dragonkin, from the roots.
"It's a lie!"
One clan's leader could not hold back and roared.
His eyes were bloodshot with rage.
"That's a fabricated past! That lowly human is intervening in the scenario to show illusions! It's nothing but a vile trick to insult our great god and shake our faith!"
"That's right! Blasphemy!"
The leader of the Truth Clan joined in agreement.
"Our god wouldn't fall for such petty schemes! That human must be manipulating everything!"
They denied reality.
Ignoring the clear truth before their eyes, they shouted only what they wanted to believe.
It was the only way to protect their shattered pride.
But not all dragons joined in their foolish cries.
They knew it too.
That the figure suffering on the screen right now was the most honest version of Sepiro they knew.
Their god did not love them.
Their pride was nothing but a trivial amusement to the god.
Their blind faith was crumbling silently.
A hollow emptiness, as if their hearts had been drained, enveloped all the dragons.
As if by prior agreement, the dragons' gazes shifted from the heavenly screen down toward the deepest part of the Dragon God Temple.
There lay their true god, the current Sepiro.
They wanted to cling to their wavering faith.
They wanted to grasp even the last thread of hope.
'Please. Please say it's not true.'
The earnest pleas of thousands of dragons turned into a silent prayer directed at the Dragon God Temple.
'The figure on the screen is just the immaturity of the past, before you became a complete god. You're different now. Please, don't be swayed by that lowly human's schemes—reassure us.'
They hoped.
Anything would do.
Just one word that this was all that human's scheme, that he would personally set right this chaos.
But the Dragon God Temple remained firmly shut, without even the slightest movement.
Time passed.
One second felt like an hour, like an eternity.
The silence filling the Dragon God Temple froze the hearts of thousands of dragons.
That silence was a more cruel answer than any rage or condemnation.
The most arrogant form of dismissal, one that didn't even deem them worth explaining to.
In that moment, the dragons realized.
Whether it was the Sepiro on the screen or the one sitting on the throne now, their essence was no different.
The sole pillar upholding their world had silently turned to dust and vanished.
In that emptiness, the dragons suddenly recalled two traitors.
Ataraxia and Darkhan.
Just a short while ago, the Dragon God Temple had seethed with fury toward them.
"Ataraxia! Darkhan! Shame of the dragonkin! To dare betray the great Dragon God and side with a lowly human!"
"The Clans of Despair and Sloth they lead are no longer our brethren. We must burn their lands and exterminate their bloodlines without mercy to show them the horrific price of betrayal!"
They had truly believed that.
They thought it was the only way to uphold the dragonkin's pride.
But now, no one could dare blindly condemn them.
They had no right to.
Now that the absolute ground of faith they stood on had collapsed, their rage had nowhere to go and scattered into hollow void.
On the contrary, they began to faintly understand.
Their choices.
Why they had turned their backs on the Dragon God and dared to side with a human.
An uncomfortable truth sprouted in their hearts: it might not have been mere defection or corruption.
The final nail was Arcana of Despair's end.
All dragons clearly saw it on the screen.
The sublime moment when their kin and hero, Arcana, sacrificed himself for the dragonkin's honor.
And the reactions of the two gods in that moment.
One mocked his sacrifice as the foolish act of a 'pitiful lizard' and demeaned his existence to a tool for his own amusement.
But the other called him the 'Dragon of Hope.'
He praised him as a hero who sang hope from the deepest despair and respected his will.
One was their god, Dragon God Sepiro.
The other was their enemy, the human Park Chan-woo.
How utterly different.
The enemy was trying to embrace them.
While their god regarded them like insects.
In that instant, the dragons realized.
What Ataraxia and Darkhan had sought was not power or authority.
They simply wanted to be 'acknowledged.'
They yearned for a true master who would recognize their existence and their noble will.
In Sepiro's world, dragons were mere numbered troops or decorations to embellish his dignity.
But in Park Chan-woo's world, dragons were respected as noble beings, each with their own stories.
A simple difference.
Ataraxia and Darkhan had not betrayed them.
They had merely flown off in search of a greater sky, a broader firmament that would understand the beat of their wings.
And the remaining dragons, too, began to look up little by little toward Park Chan-woo's sky.
They gazed at the golden path he had walked.
That path itself was Origin God Arcana's final will and hope incarnate.
The most sublime devotion: burning one's existence to light the path ahead for his lord.
Park Chan-woo had tried to take responsibility and save even the last of the one who sacrificed for him, but Sepiro had insulted that noble sacrifice.
One sought to honor the soul that perished for him and carry on its will; the other kicked at that soul, calling it pathetic.
Who truly deserved the title of god?
The answer was clear.
...
On the screen, the rampaging Sepiro's movements halted.
His body began to expand, as if sucking in all the mana of the Abyss.
The true manifestation of the Dragon God.
The descent of the incomparably massive Transcendent Dragon Sepiro.
Finally, Transcendent Dragon Sepiro opened his mouth.
The Dragon Word at the pinnacle of hierarchy.
All dragons gathered in the Dragon God Temple shuddered instinctively.
It was the language of creation and destruction that only the Dragon God could wield—one they could never comprehend or imitate.
And then, a single sentence of command descended.
An absolute death sentence toward Park Chan-woo and everything he sought to protect.
【O humans, vanish.】
There was no immediate change.
This place was the boundary between past and present.
The stage of a scenario recreating the Great War exactly.
At this time, humanity had not yet reached the Abyss, so the 'human' race itself did not exist in this world's causality.
There was no target to erase.
However, Sepiro's Dragon Word was never in vain.
A command would always find its target.
Shrrrr...
The divine aura of dawn enveloping Park Chan-woo's body—the golden energy that had made him the 'lord of humanity'—began to scatter like mist.
In this world where humanity did not exist, his divinity based on humanity's faith was designated as the first target for erasure.
'......'
Before Park Chan-woo's eyes, the worst memory he wanted to forget flashed by like a panorama.
Just before regression, the final moment of his final life.
The desperate scene where everything he sought to protect—his comrades, humanity—turned to dust from a single Dragon Word.
The helplessness of having to simply watch, unable even to scream.
The exact same sensation from that time tried to bind his soul once more.
But.
'......No.'
Park Chan-woo gritted his teeth.
'I'm not as powerless as I was then.'
He was no longer a mere mortal despairing alone under the weight of everything.
Behind him were comrades who believed in him, and at his feet was the race that followed him.
And in his hand was power forged from countless miracles and tales.
Even amid the pain of his divinity being erased, Park Chan-woo's mind began to turn colder than ever.
The Transcendent Dragon's Dragon Word.
How to block that command, which was law itself.
Swoosh.
Behind Park Chan-woo, his shadow rippled, and a massive form of the Reaper rose up.
The God of Shadows, Chronos.
Park Chan-woo's gaze turned to Chronos.
Chronos gazed at Park Chan-woo's faintly shining divinity.
For the first time, an emotion akin to pride colored his words.
Chronos raised the soul chalice.
The soul chalice was shining.
The gods dwelling in the mausoleum were illuminating the darkness.
Park Chan-woo repeated the words to himself.
'My own language. Something only I can do.'
What could it be?
There was one thing.
The very origin, the starting point of all this.
...
The Holy Grail of the Demon-Sealing God.
In that moment, the grail resonated faintly, sending a vibration.
Thumm-
It was far from a mere tremor.
A single earnest will pierced through his mind.
As if the forgotten gods had reclaimed their names and found peace, someone within the grail also yearned to have their name called, their existence affirmed.
Not Chalm or the Heavenly Demon.
An existence slumbering deeper, in the profound abyss below them.
One that had never once revealed itself until now, sharing origins with Park Chan-woo's negative level—the lord of one of the minus realms.
Park Chan-woo understood the meaning of that resonance.
Slowly, he uttered the name.
As if fumbling through primordial language, emphasizing each syllable with power.
"...First Dragon God."
All the noise of the world ceased.
"Dull father."
Park Chan-woo murmured the name of the First Dragon God, called the Dull Father.
"'Azathoth'."