Chapter 442
Chapter 442
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 442
Chapter Title: Racial War (81)
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Zero was still lost in a dream.
But unlike the others, he wasn't enduring trials or confronting his past.
He was simply observing.
Every miracle Park Chan-woo had wrought, and every outcome those miracles produced—he analyzed them relentlessly, deploying every logic circuit at his disposal, breaking them down again and again.
There was one reason for this.
During the Great War of old, as Dragon God Sepiro disintegrated before the chaos of Azathoth that Park Chan-woo had summoned, Zero had realized something.
'Prime Dragon God, the Foolish Father.'
Of course, he knew who that was.
He had confirmed the being's existence in the primordial records, accessible only to successors of the Dragon God.
But it had only been knowledge, nothing more.
A single passage in a dusty history tome. A page from an incomprehensible myth.
Nothing greater, nothing less.
Yet now, he had witnessed the miracle firsthand.
The absolute laws of Transcendent Dragon Sepiro shattering powerlessly before that name.
In Zero's mind, hundreds of millions of hypotheses rose and fell, collapsed and reassembled in endless cycles.
'A being that could rightfully be called the origin and source of all dragons.'
All dragonkin traced their lineage back to him.
The Dragon Tongue, the very foundation of draconic power, should naturally derive from his authority as well.
So why did his authority erase the Dragon Tongue wielded by his own descendants?
It was a perfect contradiction—like a father rejecting his son's language, or roots denying the stem that grew from them.
This was a phenomenon that logic could not permit.
Which meant the premise itself was flawed.
Zero reconsidered.
Perhaps the current "Dragon Tongue" was not its true form at all.
Azathoth's authority embodied nothingness and chaos.
Pure possibility, devoid of form.
But later dragons had imposed order upon the Dragon Tongue, reshaping it into their own structured language.
It was akin to setting aside the original sword and forging replicas into entirely different blades.
And at the center of it all stood Park Chan-woo.
Park Chan-woo had summoned the dragons' very archetype.
He had become the key himself.
If Park Chan-woo was the key, then what door had it unlocked?
'The Holy Grail of the Demon-Sealing God.'
And its gatekeeper...
'God of Offerings.'
What, exactly, was its true nature?
The presence of primordial chaos Azathoth within the Holy Grail implied that the Grail itself had existed since the dawn of the Abyss.
Thus, the Grail's will—the God of Offerings—must be a primordial entity of the same ancient rank.
Yet in Zero's vast memories, no record mentioned a "God of Offerings."
Like Azathoth, it had been deliberately scrubbed from history.
Zero formed a hypothesis.
Perhaps the Holy Grail of the Demon-Sealing God was no prison at all.
What if it was a vast "ark," safeguarding beings who had been forgotten, defeated, swept away by the tides of time—entities destined to fade into oblivion?
'...Minus levels.'
Zero recalled it.
Having regressed alongside Park Chan-woo, he knew that moment etched deepest into his memories.
The instant everything ended... and everything began anew.
Park Chan-woo had offered his all as sacrifice, and in exchange, time rewound.
His level dropped to -99.
Zero had always interpreted it as his very existence turning negative from the total sacrifice.
But what if that wasn't the case?
'The beings within the Holy Grail of the Demon-Sealing God. They too are in a minus state.'
Charfam, the Heavenly Demon, and now Azathoth, who had just revealed its presence.
They were powerful, yet somehow incomplete.
As if excluded from the laws of this world—negative existences.
And moreover...
'They did not regress.'
They had simply been stored away in the Grail's ark after their eras ended.
So why?
'No matter how I slice it, only Park Chan-woo regressed.'
What made Park Chan-woo so special?
Why was he the only one granted this miracle that shook the Abyss to its core, rewinding the flow of time?
The image of the Void's Master surfaced in Zero's mind.
As Sepiro's archrival, perhaps the Void's Master had chosen Park Chan-woo and bestowed the power of regression.
'No. Even that doesn't explain regression.'
Zero discarded the hypothesis at once.
Twisting the axis of space-time was impossible from the start.
Not even the mighty Nine Lords could arbitrarily shatter the causality of this colossal world forged by the Creator.
It was a direct affront to the Abyss system itself—a taboo of taboos, one that could unravel the world.
No matter how formidable the Void's Master, it couldn't wield such authority.
Then what, exactly...
What had granted this mortal the chance to rewind the eons?
'Perhaps...'
The most illogical—yet the only viable—hypothesis flashed through Zero's circuits.
'Park Chan-woo might be a being untouched by this space-time axis.'
Every law had its exceptions.
If that human was inherently a special existence, unbound by the Abyss's causality...
Zero's gaze shifted to the space where he stood: the "Lucid Dream."
This was Park Chan-woo's absolute domain of magic, the heart of his dream.
The answer lay here.
Delving into the roots of this glitch-ridden realm might reveal the human's true essence.
The dream's structure, its laws—they were the perfect clues to dissecting Park Chan-woo.
Zero expanded his consciousness limitlessly, plunging toward the dream's deepest core, the root of its system.
He dissected every law and variable that formed the dream world.
'Definitely anomalous.'
It was bizarre.
This place clearly drew on Abyss mana, yet its mechanics diverged from any Abyss spell.
Causality was warped; time stretched and contracted like elastic.
Like a sentence scripted in the Abyss's tongue but assembled with an alien grammar.
And at last, he arrived.
In Park Chan-woo's deepest unconscious, amid the primordial waves that formed his very being, Zero detected an utterly alien energy—profoundly other.
It differed from any Abyss mana.
'This energy...'
Neither life nor death, light nor shadow—a pure void predating all concepts.
The scent of an intruder from beyond, rejecting every law of this world.
Something even Sepiro had never sensed.
This was impossible.
He had plumbed the depths of all creation.
Yet something unknown to him existed?
'You... don't tell me...'
Zero slotted the final puzzle piece into place.
Park Chan-woo, perhaps...
'Did you come from beyond the Great Rift?'
He might have been born from beyond the Great Rift.
…Zero realigned his logic circuits.
He needed more data to validate the hypothesis.
He recalled his latest memory: Hope Dragon Arcana battling two outer gods.
Arcana, newly ascended to divinity, facing Diaar—now an outer god—and the great seraph outer god that had emerged from beyond the Great Rift.
Diaar was an exception.
He was a half-baked counterfeit, forcibly corrupted by Sepiro.
But the great seraph outer god was genuine.
Pure chaos made manifest directly from beyond the Great Rift.
Moreover, it had evolved far beyond the outer gods of ancient records.
Infinite self-replication, grotesque resistances, and above all, insidious intelligence.
Such a mind would have instantly recognized the threats.
Holy dragon Arcana, capable of purification... and Park Chan-woo, his master, whose divinity felt incomplete and vulnerable.
Deciding whom to strike first required no calculation.
Yet...
'It showed an unnatural lack of interest in Park Chan-woo.'
The great seraph outer god acted as if he weren't there, pouring every assault solely onto Arcana.
Far too contrived for mere strategy.
Zero stroked his chin.
Ignoring... or avoiding...
Either way.
'Linked to beyond the Great Rift. And to the outer gods.'
The conclusion of all his deliberations.
He couldn't be mistaken.
The deeper truths would come with time.
Delving into Park Chan-woo would reveal exactly what lay beyond the Great Rift.
…How intriguing.
This man was like an onion—peel away one layer, and another awaited.
Just when he thought he grasped him, new facets emerged endlessly.
It was...
Thoroughly fascinating.
Thus...
'Time to wake up, then.'
He was dying to know where this man's depths truly ended.
Zero opened his eyes.
With that, the veil of the "Lucid Dream" enveloping humanity's warriors lifted.
The interminable dream had finally concluded.
The eternal train hurtled toward the station just shy of its final destination.
In a typical Racial War, a tribe monopolizing tickets would find others queuing at their door for trades and alliances.
But now, an eerie silence hung before humanity's car.
A perfect monopoly, seized not through deals but by erasing the station itself.
And the overwhelming might displayed in the process.
No tribe dared even approach the humans.
At that moment, Han Shin glanced at the slumbering Park Chan-woo and asked,
"What’s your plan for the next station?"
All eyes turned to the silent Park Chan-woo.
Then Zero stepped forward.
"I'll go in this guy's place."
"......Is that even possible?"
Adora eyed him skeptically.
Zero replied with calm assurance.
"We're one and the same from the start. The system doesn't register us as distinct entities."
He gazed briefly at the sleeping Park Chan-woo.
"Besides, the final station before the terminus might prove too much for him in his current state."
"Do you know what it is?"
Zero nodded.
"'Station of Wailing Hell.' Hell in the literal sense."
His matter-of-fact words chilled the air in the car to ice.
He swept his gaze over the awakened warriors and continued.
"Prepare yourselves. The last battle there is inevitable. We might all perish."
There was no hyperbole or intimidation in his tone.
Merely the most probable outcome, derived from vast data.
Han's silence broke.
"That doesn't add up. Why not share tickets and forge alliances? We don't need to shoulder every threat alone."
The most rational, efficient course.
But Zero shook his head.
"Park Chan-woo wouldn't want that."
Zero's eyes drifted back to the sleeping man.
"You're treading a path none have walked. No tribe in Racial War history has reached the terminus with every ticket monopolized."
Everyone swallowed hard.
"Victory alone isn't enough. You must prove humanity's prestige to the entire Abyss. Teaming up now would undermine every achievement you've built. It's essential for humanity's future."
Zero regarded his comrades once more.
"Now prove it. That even without Park Chan-woo, you can stand tall on your own strength."
He drove the words home with iron resolve.
"That humanity—humans—can claim the pinnacle without aid from any other tribe."