Chapter 447
Chapter 447
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 447
Chapter Title: Racial War (86)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Kuuaaaaaaaaang!
A massive mushroom cloud filled the sky over the final battlefield, the Abyssal Hellscape.
The broadcast feed transmitting across the entire Abyss flickered for a moment, overwhelmed by the explosion's aftermath, and was swallowed by blinding white noise.
The Twelve Sovereigns seated on their thrones, and all the races who had been watching in bated breath...
For an instant, they were like blind men who had lost their sight, unable to see a thing.
But they felt it.
The pure waves of destruction piercing through the screen and crossing dimensions to reach them.
"......"
How much time passed?
With a final chiik, the crackling broadcast stabilized at last.
What unfolded before their eyes was a hellscape truly worthy of the name "Abyssal Hellscape."
The ground had been gouged out into a colossal crater, and at its center, magma flowed like a river, hot enough to melt anything it touched.
"What... the hell..."
"What did I just see?"
One by one, dazed murmurs escaped their lips.
But it was impossible.
To take another person's magic—dragon chants, curses, and taboo arts, all fundamentally incompatible—and fuse them into one, turning them into something entirely new as if it were one's own...
How absurd was that? It was like mixing water and oil to create a brand-new liquid.
Forces that should never blend, that should repel and cancel each other out... That being had molded them into perfect unity.
And then.
From Dragon God Sepiro's lips, as he watched it all from the Dragon God Temple, came his first genuine exclamation of awe.
"...Impressive."
While others saw it merely as an incomprehensible miracle, Sepiro, at the pinnacle of magic, pierced straight to the essence of what Zero had done.
'He understands mana down to the atomic level.'
It wasn't just mixing spells.
He had perfectly deconstructed each magic down to its most fundamental particles—the "atoms of mana."
Then, like forging a new substance, he had recombined those atoms according to his own blueprint.
This was an entirely new lineage of magic, one that had never existed before.
A new horizon in magic that even Sepiro himself had never reached.
He realized it.
The total amount of mana was incomparable, of course.
But that guy, who looked just like him, surpassed him in the "understanding" of how to wield mana.
'To compensate for a lack of mana with a method like that...'
Sepiro gave a wry smile.
If he went out to that battlefield right now and fought Zero, he was confident he would win.
His overwhelming total mana was an absolute wall no technique or trick could overcome.
But it would be a huge pain.
Zero might disassemble and recombine every spell he fired, sending it right back at him.
It would undoubtedly be an annoying, frustrating fight.
'A dragon inheriting a new lineage of mana after the primordial Dragon God Azathoth.'
That forbidden name surfaced in Sepiro's mind once more.
Perhaps the magic Zero had just shown was the true origin of magic held by the first Dragon God.
The power of creation: deconstructing everything, understanding it, and forging it anew.
But what a hassle.
And ruthlessly inefficient.
Sepiro's way was different.
He didn't bother understanding.
He simply crushed with overwhelming force and bent things to his will.
Instead of dismantling a mountain atom by atom to move it, he could erase the entire thing in one go.
That was the difference between him and Zero.
And the reason his way was superior.
'Such tricks might work up to a certain level.'
But before absolute mana that transcended limits...
No formula, no atomic understanding, would mean a thing in the end.
Sepiro was certain.
In the end, that new lineage of magic would kneel before his overwhelming power.
But.
There was no need for Zero to come all the way to him.
He could just die right there.
And there was no way he'd let him advance any further.
'Awaken.'
Sepiro forcibly transformed all remaining dragonkin warriors into Outer Gods.
Zero looked around.
The aftermath of the "Great Explosion" he had unleashed was bigger than expected.
All the small fry had been obliterated.
But as anticipated, about half had survived.
The Great Demon Belereth and other demon king-class fiends.
And five.
The proudest and strongest leaders of the dragonkin, who had endured the blast with their own power, glared at him from atop the ash-covered battlefield.
The other races had already retreated far away.
A clear declaration that they wanted no part in this insane fight anymore.
'So now, I just have to deal with these guys.'
That was when it happened.
"Keurgh!"
"Kraaaaaagh!"
From the mouths of the five surviving dragons erupted horrific screams not like language, but like those of beasts.
Their bodies swelled, tore, melted, and began fusing together as if drawn by some magnetic pull.
The dragons' sturdy scales were buried under tumorous flesh, and their noble eyes transformed into hundreds of orbs filled with pure hatred and murderous intent.
A single colossal mass of meat.
A nameless behemoth existing solely on the primal urge to kill Zero.
An Outer God.
'So it comes to this, after all.'
Zero watched the grotesque mutation without a hint of agitation.
He had considered this possibility.
But he had held a sliver of hope.
No matter how insane Sepiro was, he hadn't expected him to sabotage his own race's ranking in the Racial War with such an inefficient move.
This was a declaration that the dragonkin no longer cared about their position.
A blatant vow to throw all his pieces into the fire as expendables, solely to stop humanity from reaching the finish line.
'This is definitely a crisis.'
To purify errors and annihilate Outer Gods, "divinity" was required.
But Zero had no divinity.
His power stemmed from understanding magic, making him the worst matchup against beings outside the laws of nature.
To make matters worse, the surviving demon king-class fiends stood beside the newly born dragon Outer God, glaring at him.
This would be no easy battle.
'I can take half of them down with me.'
Zero calculated everything about himself.
'But I'll die here too.'
Creak!
Sepiro smiled.
Evasion was the smart play.
However.
"A battle staked on death. Quite the thrilling affair."
A smile crept onto Zero's lips for the first time.
A raw emotion he'd never felt in life.
A strange shiver blending fear and exhilaration.
'So this is what it feels like.'
He suddenly thought of Park Chan-woo.
The man who had always fought on the edge of death, clinging to that single thread of hope.
Park Chan-woo must have always felt this rush in battle.
Zero decided to shed all logic here.
Retreat. Survival. Efficiency.
He would set aside all rational judgment for now.
He would do the most inefficient, illogical, foolish thing from this moment on.
Burn his own life to clash head-on with that colossal despair.
Hwaaaaa!
From Zero's body, blue mana ignited like flames.
This wasn't mere mana release.
It was the final blaze burning the very foundation of his existence—the core that had separated him from Sepiro and made him the independent entity "Zero."
He detonated all the mana in his heart.
'I'll show you, Sepiro.'
Zero's eyes turned toward the massive Outer God and demon kings charging at him.
'The most perfect answer I've found, one you'll never understand.'
The Lamenting Demon God Gremory watched the entire scene in silence.
Zero, burning his very existence to fight.
The dragon Outer God throwing everything away to kill him, and the frenzied Belereth, the Red Knight Zepar, and the demon kings.
On the surface, it looked like a close fight.
But she thought otherwise.
'We've already lost.'
The moment such a scene unfolded, the war's outcome was sealed.
When this Racial War ended, the demons' prestige would plummet further than now or before—beyond comparison.
'Outer God.'
A forgotten history of the Abyss flashed through Gremory's mind.
The greatest reason the demons, led by the Great Nine Lords, ruled at the Abyss's peak.
It wasn't just raw strength.
They were the saviors who had slain the "Outer Gods" that plunged the Abyss into chaos and restored the world's order.
That was the demons' "justification," the sole basis legitimizing their rule.
And now, what were they doing?
They were scrambling alongside an Outer God to kill a single being.
Denying their own reason for existence.
This was the path to ruin alongside the dragonkin.
Especially after the "Twisted Truth Station," where the demons' ugliest secret hadn't been fully exposed.
The Great Nine Lords had incited Sepiro to kill their own Sovereign, the "Lord of the Void."
That revelation had already thrown all races into chaos.
And now, they were allying with an Outer God.
"Gremory!"
Belereth spat blood as he shouted at her.
"What are you doing just standing there? Hurry up and join the fight!"
But Gremory didn't budge.
She simply gazed at the madness-consumed Belereth with eyes of deep pity and replied softly.
"We have no justification, Belereth."
"......What?"
"We've already lost this war."
"Don't talk nonsense! The war isn't over yet!"
She thought it was already over.
Of course, Belereth was right too.
If she joined the fray, Zero would die.
She was the Lamenting Demon God.
The only one among the 72 Demon Gods called a "queen," reigning supreme.
Fewer than five Demon Gods could stand against her.
In short, Lamenting Gremory was the deepest abyss.
If she stepped in, this precarious balance would collapse in an instant, and victory would be the demons'.
But what then?
What came after?
Would slaughtering all of humanity's warriors end it?
No.
Gremory's gaze drifted beyond the battlefield to the Eternal Train, impossibly far away.
'Park Chan-woo.'
He hadn't even appeared on this stage yet.
The human who knew honor.
The one who bankrupted Aheta and contributed to slaying successive Flame Kings.
His actions grew more outrageous by the day.
Ultimately, he had created an unimaginable variable even in the Racial War.
He had dragged bottom-tier humanity all the way to the top.
Contending for Sovereign of Humanity and the Dragon God's seat, and...
'Lord of the Void.'
Yes.
The Lord of the Void undoubtedly led to Park Chan-woo.
If Park Chan-woo had truly inherited the Lord of the Void...
'No justification.'
All the more reason there was none.
Thus, it was time to decide.
Better to show than to join forces with the Outer God at the head of Demon Gods and kings.
At the very least.
Even if she stood alone.
She had to show the entire Abyss that not all demons shared that view.
Gremory moved.
From her fingertips rose the Lamenting Veil, quelling all things.
But that veil wasn't aimed at Zero.
"Kraaagh!"
The moment it touched the dragon Outer God charging at Zero, the colossal monster's movements began to slow.
"W-What are you doing?!"
"Gremory, are you betraying us?!"
Belereth and Zepar cried out in shock.
"...Demons who know no honor."
Gremory declared to them.
"If you side with the Outer God, then you are my enemies."