Chapter 453
Chapter 453
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 453
Chapter Title: Racial War (92)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Every being left on the battlefield, reduced to mere dummies, flinched.
No one could even dream of continuing the fight.
Even before Park Chan-woo fell asleep, the battle had been neck-and-neck.
But the miracle he showed upon awakening shattered all their common sense—and crushed their last remaining will to resist.
A god who revived the dead and devoured two demon gods like insects.
There was no way to defeat such a being.
As the demon gods vanished, the crimson-black waves of authority emanating from the Great Nine Lords dissipated like a lie.
The strings controlling the puppets had been severed.
The remaining demons could only eye each other warily, none daring to grip their weapons again.
The dragons, who had stood dazed and lost their will to fight, were no different.
The ferocity vowing to kill Park Chan-woo had vanished without a trace.
Only defeat and primal fear of the unknown remained.
Truly, the war was over.
The long journey of the Racial War was finally drawing to a close.
Park Chan-woo silently took in his comrades with his eyes.
His battered comrades, standing firm without a single one fallen.
Their souls, shining far more solidly and brilliantly than in his dream.
He smiled in satisfaction.
His sacrifice had not been in vain.
Soon, Park Chan-woo's gaze turned to one spot.
The one who had commanded and led this entire war while he slept.
Zero.
Park Chan-woo slowly walked toward him.
"Good work."
It was a short phrase.
But it carried a wealth of meaning.
Zero merely shrugged.
His face still held no emotion.
"Just did what needed doing."
Park Chan-woo chuckled at Zero's response.
It was just like him.
But he had no intention of letting it slide.
"One question."
Park Chan-woo's gaze shifted beyond the battlefield.
"Why didn't you take any tickets?"
He hadn't taken a single ticket.
All the tickets were still with Park Chan-woo.
Zero smirked and replied.
"You were the protagonist of this story from the start. Ending it on my own while you slept would've been rude to the audience."
It was an awkward excuse.
Park Chan-woo didn't press further.
He fully understood Zero's clumsy sincerity.
From the beginning, Zero and the others had no plan to end the war via the Altar of Annihilation.
They wanted him to awaken, finish it with his own hands, and claim all the glory.
Park Chan-woo quietly took the lead.
"Let's go end it."
The Racial War.
This damned war.
It had been a false game rigged by the demons from the start.
Flashes of the history's underbelly he'd learned at the 'Twisted Truth Station' crossed Park Chan-woo's mind.
This Racial War was merely a cunning tool to conceal the truth of the Great War and solidify their rule.
What they truly feared wasn't defeat on this stage.
What they feared was this interminable play coming to a complete halt.
Someone perfectly ending this rigged game.
And the only way was probably monopolizing all the station tickets and heading to the Altar of Annihilation.
That alone would shake the foundation of the system the demons had designed—the one true 'answer'.
Park Chan-woo's steps pushed through the ashes toward the Altar of Annihilation.
Behind him, all his surviving comrades—and every loser of this war—followed in silence, as if by promise.
It was a grand procession marking the end of one era and the dawn of another.
How long had they walked?
The ashen mist slowly cleared, revealing a massive altar standing tall in the battlefield's center.
A black obsidian altar densely inscribed with ancient runes.
Atop it was a recessed groove for the tickets to open the gate to the next world.
That was the moment.
Wuuuuuum.
The altar hummed, and the tickets in Park Chan-woo's possession began glowing all at once.
All the stories of every station resonated in his hands.
Park Chan-woo slowly ascended the altar.
And placed every ticket into the groove.
Kurrrrrrrumble!
The entire altar shook violently, shooting a massive pillar of light toward the sky.
At the same time, a system message appeared before every being present.
This much was as they had expected.
But what followed destroyed their common sense once more.
"...The real terminus?"
Lee Hyuk-soo muttered softly.
Zero nodded at his words.
"The final safeguard the demons hid. They sealed the true terminus and herded everyone toward a fake one, preparing for any existence that might threaten their rule."
But Park Chan-woo had pierced through all the deception and flung open the true door.
Whooooosh!
In the wake of the light pillar appeared not a gate of radiant glory.
A massive door of pitch-black darkness that swallowed all light.
The door pulsed like a living abyss, exuding a void that seemed to suck in the viewer's very soul.
And before that door, a small pedestal appeared—one only a single person could stand upon.
Everyone held their breath.
Only Park Chan-woo could go beyond.
Park Chan-woo turned briefly to look at his comrades behind him.
Lee Hyuk-soo, Adora, Han Shin and Han Min-oh, Zero. And all who had trusted and followed him.
Their eyes held regret mingled with unshakable faith.
Park Chan-woo nodded to them wordlessly.
'I'll be back.'
That was enough.
Without hesitation, Park Chan-woo turned and slowly stepped into the pitch-black darkness, through the final door.
The deepest depths of the Abyss.
In the chamber with nine thrones, waves of earth-shaking fury raged.
[...In the end.]
The will of the Lord of the Giant Evils boiled, as if tearing the surrounding void apart.
[He went in!]
They were enraged.
But laced with the faintest—yet undeniable—sense of bewilderment.
The Abyss's deepest secret, hidden for eons.
That seal had been futilely shattered by a mere human—no, an alien entity masquerading as one.
[Couldn't stop him? What were Belled and Jephar doing!]
Another lord's agitated will echoed.
[They're dead. Eaten by the 'Calamity God'. They were already defeated before that.]
Yet another lord replied with cold sarcasm.
There was impatience at their perfect plan unraveling.
Only now did they realize.
Park Chan-woo, that variable, was a catastrophe far beyond their predictions.
[What now? If he sees the 'truth' and returns, all our authority crumbles.]
In the chaos, a lord who had remained silent until now voiced the most primal fear.
[Do you think a new era opens when the Racial War ends?]
His will carried a sneer.
[No. Greater chaos—an uncontrollable chaos—awaits.]
[The primordial chaos we forcibly sealed will be unleashed once more.]
[Order will vanish, and a second Great War, worse than the first, will erupt.]
It was like a curse.
The false era of peace they had guarded so fiercely would fall, and true annihilation—everything returning to nothingness—would begin.
Indeed, the Twelve Lords stirred beneath the surface.
They knew too.
The Abyss needed a new hegemon.
The era had changed.
One lord muttered bitterly.
[Those arrogant dragons and foolish gods will rampage once more.]
The Racial War had been a device to curb the Twelve Lords' excesses from the start.
It confined their overflowing power and endless ambitions within this grand 'Eternal Train' game, pitting them against each other to prevent the Abyss from being engulfed in war's flames again—a safety measure.
That was the demons' most plausible justification.
But now, that device was broken.
A single being, Park Chan-woo, had destroyed all balance and dragged every suppressed contradiction and conflict to the surface.
Nothing could stop the Twelve Lords now.
Like ancient beasts freed from seals, they would move to prove their power once more.
The Abyss would revert to a primitive era where might made right.
[All because of that one human.]
Venomous resentment laced one lord's will.
But they already knew.
Park Chan-woo wasn't the cause—just the catalyst.
He was merely the being who burst the Abyss's festering contradictions in the most decisive, dramatic way.
It was inevitable, bound to happen someday.
Then, the lord who had kept the deepest silence finally spoke.
[He won't reach the end.]
That single phrase halted the boiling rage.
All lords' attention turned to him.
He continued.
[The moment he grasps the truth, he'll despair and collapse.]
[...Leave the Racial War as is?]
[Yes. And even if he reaches the end, he'll realize it's all meaningless.]
He smiled coldly.
[We'll seize that despair as our chance to reclaim dominance.]
[Offer him a hand?]
[Exactly. He won't refuse.]
The Great Nine Lords were confident.
Upon reaching the true terminus and facing the truth, he'd walk their path instead.
Extend a hand then, unite powers, and naturally reclaim the Abyss's reins.
As now. Forevermore.
Park Chan-woo looked around.
The moment he crossed the door, the world seemed to sink.
Everything was black.
And on that black ground.
'...Those are.'
It was astonishing.
Countless points scattered about.
But looking closely revealed their true nature.
'Reapers?'
This was the world of the Death Gods.