Chapter 446
Chapter 446
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 446
Chapter Title: Racial War (85)
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All the warriors of the alliance had departed for the final battlefield.
In humanity's cabin, only Zero remained.
He stood before the door of the empty cabin, gazing down at the chaotic scene swirling outside with emotionless eyes.
'As expected, it wasn't random.'
Zero had pierced through the cunning schemes of the demons hidden behind the laws of the Abyss.
The warriors who arrived in the Abyssal Hellscape were teleported to random locations.
The host had explained it that way, but it was only half right and half wrong.
To be precise, they were dropped into predetermined spots based on the 'order' in which they disembarked from the train.
It was a trap meticulously laid by the demons embedded in the enemy lines, designed to create the most advantageous battlefields for themselves.
For example, the giant race—powerful but helpless in tight spaces—into a canyon.
The dusk race, masters of assassination, into a pristine snowfield without a single shadow.
The mage Adora into a special barrier that absorbed all mana.
For their victory, they had turned this final battlefield into a massive slaughterhouse.
'Foolish.'
Zero chuckled softly.
He had anticipated from the start that the demons would pull something like this.
To deal with the variable named Park Chan-woo, they would mobilize every means at their disposal.
That was why Zero had moved one step ahead of them.
'You all probably believe you walked out of your own volition.'
The magic he had inscribed on the backs of the alliance warriors' hands.
It wasn't just a simple marker to reveal each other's positions.
It was an exquisitely delicate 'perception manipulation' spell infused with Zero's will.
The magic didn't strip away their free will. It merely planted a tiny 'thought' seed.
'It's my turn to go now.'
'I have a feeling I should head out right now.'
In that way, it made them believe they had decided their own order.
But every single one of those orders was the opening move on a grand chessboard that Zero had perfectly calculated and arranged to turn the demons' traps against them.
So they could face the easiest opponents possible.
He had computed every possible scenario of the demons' preset order and traps, confident there would be no margin for error.
Their thought processes were all too predictable.
Moreover, the strongest one always steps out last.
They were convinced Park Chan-woo would be the final one off, and they had prepared the ultimate—and worst—stage for him.
Of course, Zero's calculations didn't always avoid sending someone into danger.
'Adora and the witches.'
He had sent them exactly where the demons intended.
But there was no issue.
The demons didn't know how terrifyingly powerful Adora had become within the Lucid Dream.
If anything, it would serve as a fine testing ground.
The witches, who had betrayed their former master to serve a new god, facing their sisters who symbolized their past selves—it painted quite the picture.
A faint smile tugged at Zero's lips.
Though it was a script he had written himself, it promised to be a rather intriguing play.
All the pieces had fallen into place.
All except the very last one.
'The problem is me.'
Zero pondered for a moment.
According to plan, he simply needed to be the last one off.
To take on the massive trap prepared for Park Chan-woo in his stead.
There was no particular problem with that.
No matter what trap the demons had set, he was confident he could dismantle it.
But heading straight there felt a bit unsatisfying.
Too straightforward, too dull an ending.
'My goal isn't just victory.'
Zero reaffirmed his purpose once more.
'It's perfect victory.'
He wanted to end this tedious war in the swiftest, most efficient, and most overwhelming manner possible.
To see through every one of the enemy's moves and crush even their will to fight.
Zero's eyes began to gleam.
His vision now revealed everything within the Abyssal Hellscape.
He had no intention of following the path the demons had laid out.
None at all.
'...But maybe this time, I'll play along.'
Zero's footsteps halted at the threshold.
Countless strategies flashed through his mind—the most efficient ways to end this battlefield in record time.
But he discarded them all.
When considering the distant future, he realized that stepping onto their stage himself and tearing everything apart from the front would paint the most 'fitting' picture.
'Sepiro.'
His other half. To properly provoke that arrogant Dragon God, an overwhelming display of power was necessary.
'And the dragonkin.'
To elevate Park Chan-woo to the dragons' new god, he needed to shatter their outdated faith entirely and imprint a new one through ritual.
Furthermore, to secure humanity's safety and alter the very flow of the Abyss, half-baked schemes wouldn't suffice—what was needed was a myth witnessed by all.
Zero decided willingly to become the protagonist of that myth.
He ignored the shortcuts and strode without hesitation toward the trap the demons had dug—the stage prepared for Park Chan-woo.
The moment he stepped forward, space twisted.
Before his eyes stretched the heart of a massive barrier where tens of thousands of demons and hate-filled dragons had arrayed themselves.
Dozens of layers of magical barriers constricted around him, and shackles that warped causality bound his entire body.
"......"
Amid all those restraints, Zero surveyed his surroundings.
'I expected this, but it's so predictable it's boring.'
Demon God Beled and the leaders of the hostile alliance looked down at him with arrogant expressions brimming with confidence in their victory.
"Where is Park Chan-woo? Why has a mere clone like you shown up?"
Beled demanded.
Even in his bound state, Zero replied leisurely.
"This battlefield doesn't even require him to step in."
"What?"
"If Park Chan-woo came out himself, it would end far too quickly. I'm just here briefly to provide your final entertainment. I'll gladly play along. Such opportunities are rare, so feel free to look forward to it."
At that arrogant provocation, the dragons sneered.
"We already know you're a fake! A hollow puppet Park Chan-woo made to show off!"
But Zero merely brushed off all the mockery with a soft chuckle.
"Very well. Then I'll show you."
His eyes ignited with a deep, profound blue light that seemed otherworldly.
"What true 'magic' is."
Zero was a being from the future.
The final form that Sepiro from the future—defeated and obliterated by Park Chan-woo in their past battle—had reached by transcending his limits.
But he hadn't stopped there.
Within Park Chan-woo's 'Lucid Dream,' over eons of time, he had analyzed and comprehended the primordial chaos, the authority of Azathoth, that Park Chan-woo had summoned.
Though the total amount of his mana might be less than the current Sepiro's, his 'understanding' of magic had ascended to a realm no being in the Abyss could rival.
His eyes instantly dissected the dozens of barriers and spells binding him.
Dragon tongue incantations, demonic curses, ancient races' secret arts.
To him, they all appeared as nothing more than incomplete and crude 'formulas.'
"Well then, shall we begin?"
Zero began merging all those spells into one.
"......What the hell is that guy trying to do?"
One of the dragonkin muttered, furrowing his brow.
The Zero in his eyes was far too serene.
It was impossible to believe he was a prisoner bound by dozens of barriers and shackles—he exuded utter composure.
The other demon gods and racial leaders watched him with expressions of utter incomprehension.
That was when it happened.
"......Huh?"
He sensed his own dragon tongue barrier twisting in a faint, bizarre manner.
Independent of his own will.
"Urk! My curse... it's slipping out of control!"
Screams erupted from the demonic lines as well.
That was the beginning.
Woooong—!
The dozens of spells enveloping the entire battlefield resonated all at once, howling in unison.
The dragons' blue dragon tongue barriers, the demons' black-red curse walls, the ancient races' golden secret art shields.
All those powers, composed of disparate laws and formulas, began writhing like living creatures, flowing toward one another.
"W-What is this...!"
"The magic... it's merging!"
They were aghast.
Control over the spells they had cast was being stolen away.
It felt like an orchestra conductor whose instruments had been robbed—a humiliating, powerless sensation.
Their gazes turned to the center of this anomaly: Zero.
He still stood motionless in place.
But his eyes no longer saw them.
In his vision, he perceived the flow of all laws constituting this world, the colossal 'formulas' hidden beneath.
'Crude.'
Zero sneered inwardly.
Dragon tongue, curses, secret arts.
At their root, they were all the same 'language' of magic.
Yet they snarled at one another using mere fragments of that language.
Without even properly grasping the essence of the power they wielded.
Zero was reconstructing all those crude tongues into a single perfect sentence.
The scattered barriers and curses coalesced around him, condensing into the form of a massive sphere.
Magic of a new dimension.
And perfect control.
Over spells that weren't even his own—entirely different kinds of magic.
Everyone watched in stunned silence.
They couldn't even scream.
Zero tilted his head slightly.
"What should I name this?"
Soon, he nodded and continued.
"Yes. 'Big Bang' it is."
Snap.
He flicked his fingers.
In that instant.
Centered on Zero.
Kuuaaaaaaaaang!
A colossal mushroom cloud erupted.