Chapter 493
Chapter 493
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 493
Chapter Title: Amalgam of Balance
-----------------------------------------------------------------
In that instant, a wondrous phenomenon began unfolding simultaneously across the entire Earth.
In countries around the world.
The countless 'Towers of God' that had pierced the heavens.
Rumble rumble rumble!
Like massive sandcastles swept away by the waves, those seemingly indestructible towers collapsed one after another with deafening roars.
And then, as if they had never existed in the first place, they vanished without a trace.
"...They're gone!"
"The Towers of God... they're gone!"
Witnessing the sight, humanity around the world doubted their own eyes.
The Towers of God.
Mysterious realms that had suddenly appeared one day, becoming arenas of new trials and opportunities for humankind.
For powerful Awakened, they were stepping stones to growth, but for the vast majority of ordinary people, they were symbols of anxiety and terror—unknown spaces that could spew forth disaster at any moment.
Yet those towers had now vanished simultaneously from every corner of the world, as if by prior agreement.
The faces of people initially plunged into chaos soon bloomed with relief and joy.
After all, one massive threat to humanity had been eliminated.
Pouring into the streets, people embraced one another and cheered as if a war had ended.
But even amid that wave of joy, a few wise souls harbored unresolved doubts.
Abyss Safety Department Command, Emergency Response Conference Room.
Minister Park Sang-min, his face stern, asked Lee Hyuk-soo.
"What in the world is going on? Do you have any guesses?"
Lee Hyuk-soo stared blankly at the empty sky outside the window where the tower had vanished.
"...Someone."
He opened his trembling lips.
"Has 'cleared' the Towers of God."
"Cleared them?!"
It was astonishing. Utterly impossible.
The representatives and generals from various nations in the conference room shot to their feet in unison.
Their faces were filled with incredulous shock.
"Lee Hyuk-soo, what do you mean? Even you couldn't surpass the 30th floor! Who could have overcome the wall that even humanity's strongest couldn't breach?!"
An American general demanded urgently.
His point was spot on.
Lee Hyuk-soo had grown exponentially stronger since the Racial War, but the trial of the 30th floor 'Arena' in the Tower of God remained an insurmountable wall for him.
A trial where mana and most abilities were sealed, forcing a battle against a primordial monster using only pure physical strength.
He had challenged it multiple times, only to retreat each time, acutely aware of his limits.
Yet someone had surpassed even that 30th floor and reached the tower's summit.
"Could it be... Park Chan-woo?"
Someone cautiously mentioned the name.
Currently, among humanity—no, across the entire Abyss—there was only one being capable of such an impossible feat.
All eyes in the conference room turned back to Lee Hyuk-soo.
But he slowly shook his head.
"No. The Prophet has been traveling between the Dragon God Temple and Earth with us since the Racial War. He hasn't had time to climb the tower. I... confirmed it myself."
The conference room plunged into an even deeper mystery.
If not Park Chan-woo, then who?
"Perhaps... some non-human entity...?"
The Russian representative ventured carefully.
"Like the dragonkin or giantkin elite warriors dispatched to aid humanity. Couldn't they have done it?"
But that hypothesis was quickly refuted.
"Impossible."
This time, it came from the Duskkin representative standing like a shadow in one corner of the room.
"The Towers of God only permit entry to the native species of the planet in question. Even if outsiders like us enter, we cannot face the tower's true trials."
That left only one possibility.
An unknown superhuman, far surpassing even Lee Hyuk-soo and Park Chan-woo, had emerged from among humanity unnoticed.
But that was the most unrealistic notion of all.
As the conference room grew noisy with fruitless debate, Lee Hyuk-soo alone gazed out the window, lost in deep thought.
One figure surfaced in his mind.
'Prophet.'
In truth, Lee Hyuk-soo knew.
That the Park Chan-woo traveling between the Dragon God Temple and Earth with them was not the real one.
The one currently wearing Park Chan-woo's appearance was probably...
'Zero.'
While they toiled alongside Zero for humanity's reconstruction, the real Park Chan-woo had slipped away from everyone's eyes to challenge the Tower of God alone.
'There must be a reason for moving in secret...'
Lee Hyuk-soo trusted Park Chan-woo.
It was an absolute faith beyond mere respect or awe.
Even if he pointed to a stone before them and called it the moon, he would believe it without a shred of doubt.
For he was the one who always forged the brightest hope from the deepest despair in ways humanity could never imagine.
This time would be no different.
There must be a reason he concealed his absence and conquered the Tower of God.
Lee Hyuk-soo tuned out the chaotic noise of the conference room and quietly closed his eyes.
He no longer pondered why the towers had vanished.
He simply believed.
That their god was still fighting for them all in some unseen place.
And that he would surely return once all preparations were complete.
Until then, there was only one thing for him to do.
'I'll protect Earth. Go with peace of mind, Prophet.'
In Park Chan-woo's absence, he was simply safeguarding the world entrusted to him.
Transcendent Abyss.
A realm existing at the boundary of time and space, untouched by the laws of the Abyss.
A place where countless transcendents built their domains, pursued their truths, and spent eons of time.
Among them, the strangest and most inaccessible domain.
The domain of Amalgam, the transcendent who governed 'Balance'.
His world was a single colossal active volcano.
The sky reflected the crimson glow of molten lava, dyed in eternal twilight, while the air reeked of sulfur and the acrid stench of burning flesh.
At the volcano's summit, in the midst of bubbling, boiling lava, lay a small island of obsidian.
And atop that island sat a being in lotus position, utterly still.
It was Amalgam.
His appearance resembled an ordinary human elder, but his eyes were closed, and a vertical third eye was slit across his forehead.
That third eye was not for viewing the physical world.
It was the eye of god that oversaw the balance of laws and causality across the entire Abyss, monitoring even the subtlest flows.
Beneath the volcano, in the river of lava, countless corpses were submerged.
But they were not dead.
In the eternally blazing flames, their flesh endlessly burned to ash and regenerated in a horrific cycle of life.
"Amalgam...! You cursed bastard...!"
"One day, I'll rip you apart and escape this hell!"
They lived.
Alive, they cursed Amalgam's name eternally.
Once transcendents who had stood shoulder to shoulder with him.
Arrogant fools who had sought to shatter the Abyss's balance and impose their desires.
Amalgam had drawn them into his domain and imprisoned them in this eternal prison of torment.
He never forgave those who disturbed his balance.
Using their curses as lullabies, Amalgam had guarded his seat unchanging through eons.
Then.
Screeeeech—
A harsh friction sound echoed through the silent world, like a rusted iron gate being forced open.
Amalgam's closed eyelids twitched faintly.
In this absolute domain where none could enter without his permission, another uninvited guest had arrived.
Amalgam did not care for such visitors.
The third eye on his forehead slowly opened.
Its gaze tore through space toward the intruder who had appeared.
The visitor's appearance was peculiar.
He clearly bore the 'aura' of a transcendent, yet the energy emanating from him differed from any transcendent Amalgam knew.
It was not the pinnacle of a single attribute like power, stamina, or agility.
Even transcendents who surpassed multiple abilities seemed incomparable.
Rather, it was a bizarre yet perfect balance of all things mingled together.
As if a miniature universe itself had walked in.
Amalgam's will pressed down heavily on the intruder.
Yet the visitor showed no disturbance before the murderous intimidation.
He surveyed the blazing volcano, the tormented transcendent corpses, and Amalgam on his obsidian throne in turn.
As casually as strolling through his own garden.
And then he spoke.
"Tell me how to reach the Creator's domain."
A single phrase.
Amalgam's third eye gleamed dangerously.
In eons, no one had addressed him this way.
Not even other transcendents.
For Amalgam was a transcendent even transcendents feared.
Fwooooosh!
The volcano roared fiercer in response to his rage, spewing flames.
But the intruder, Park Chan-woo, ignored all threats and took another step forward.
"Don't make me say it twice, Amalgam. I know you've been secretly manipulating the 'Racial War'."
Everything froze.
The surging lava waves solidified midair, and the volcano's furious roar vanished like a lie.
For the first time, interest flickered in Amalgam's third eye.
A sensation he hadn't felt in ages.
Amalgam felt he knew who this intruder was.
His voice carried a cold curiosity, like discovering an intriguing toy.
However.
Amalgam's forehead eye fixed on Park Chan-woo.
In an instant, the space around Park Chan-woo screamed and twisted.
At Amalgam's gesture, hundreds of blood-red iron chains erupted from beneath Park Chan-woo's feet, seeking to bind him.
They were the 'Chains of Sin', manifestations of every past misdeed and karma Park Chan-woo had borne.
But.
Clang!
The chains bounced off an invisible barrier before they could touch him.