Chapter 503
Chapter 503
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 503
Chapter Title: Master of the Abyss
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The original owner surely hadn't been the Black Witch.
When facing the Mad War God Beled and the Red Knight Jephar, he had summoned Baal's Shield through a Wish.
From that sensation back then, from the faint memory of tracing the threads of causality to pull forth its existence, Park Chan-woo could roughly guess where Baal's Shield was now.
'It definitely wasn't in the Black Witch's domain at the time.'
That meant the Black Witch had acquired the shield sometime recently.
After her defeat in the Racial War, or perhaps exploiting the chaos in its aftermath.
He had no idea what her intentions were, but Park Chan-woo let out a scoff anyway.
It wouldn't work.
'You can never comprehend the true essence of that power.'
The old him would have racked his brain trying to figure out the Black Witch's scheme and calculate countermeasures.
But things were different now.
He had achieved true transcendence.
Having inherited all five stigmata of the Tower of the Gods and unshackled every pure stat limit.
Whatever ploy the Black Witch cooked up would be pointless.
Besides, a single shield alone couldn't unleash the full authority of the evil god.
"It's time to go back."
The Transcender Lil nodded.
Park Chan-woo began moving out of the domain alongside her.
'Almost there.'
Park Chan-woo unwittingly let out a long breath.
Almost there.
Less than 200 days left in his deadline.
At last, a ray of light pierced through the tunnel of despair where no end had been in sight.
Just 6 more levels ahead.
Once he crossed level 0 and entered positive territory again, all the shackles imposed as the price of regression would shatter, and he would finally be complete.
"You've grown so much stronger while we were apart. More than I could have imagined."
Lil gazed at Park Chan-woo as she spoke.
Back when they parted, he had been little more than a fledgling.
A half-baked mage who couldn't even properly grasp the stages of mana.
Like a newborn soul forcibly crammed into worn-out clothes, his existence had always teetered on the brink of instability.
Even as she passed on the magic of transcendence, Lil had harbored doubts.
Could that small vessel truly bear this immense power and reach the end of the path she herself couldn't see?
Yet now...
Park Chan-woo had clearly surpassed her.
No, he had leaped beyond that, standing at some invisible, distant boundary.
His very being felt like a complete world unto itself.
A primordial universe, serene and unshakable, cradling all possibilities within its quiet depths.
'Still as inscrutable as ever.'
Growing this strong in such a short time defied common sense.
It hadn't been long since she taught him the stages of mana.
In less than a year, he had shaken the history of the Abyss and risen to threaten the Overlords.
Even if he was chosen by the Creator, this speed was inexplicable.
It felt as if he weren't a being of this world at all.
Like an alien substance from beyond the Abyss's causality, laws, and everything else...
...He mocked all established common sense, forging his own path.
But Lil didn't mind.
It didn't matter what he was or where he came from.
Park Chan-woo was Park Chan-woo.
The mad fool who had destroyed the Creator's Domain just to save her.
At his core lay a warm heart determined to rescue his master.
A will that hadn't lost itself to power but instead used that strength to protect and save others.
He was someone who would never stray from the path.
Still...
'Disciple...'
There was a subtle reluctance to calling him her 'disciple'.
Could she call a disciple stronger than herself a disciple?
A master was meant to point the way and guide their disciple.
But that role was over now.
Instead, she was learning new paths from him, realizing truths she had never seen.
Their positions had reversed.
'There's nothing left that I can teach that child now.'
A twinge of bitterness.
And an even greater swell of proud fulfillment crossing her heart.
The small seed she had planted had grown into a mighty tree upholding the heavens, now sheltering her in return.
"I have nothing left to teach you... Does that bother you?"
Her question was a lonely confession acknowledging the end of her role as master, and a tentative probe asking if their bond still held meaning regardless.
Park Chan-woo met her wavering gaze without flinching, offering a gentle smile.
"Master."
Park Chan-woo replied.
"The foundation of all this was laid by you."
He looked down at his own hands.
Even this perfect vessel that had conquered the Tower of the Gods and transcended all pure stats...
"Without your dedication, I wouldn't have grasped the depths of mana or found the courage to climb the Tower. You allowed me to rethink magic entirely—my very perspective on it."
After regression, amid his desperation for power and trauma from past failures, his magic had been mere a tool for greater destruction.
But Lil had taught him otherwise.
That magic was the realm of 'understanding', not destruction, and power was a process of 'harmony', not domination.
She was the first to teach him to stop and reflect on himself.
In countless regressions...
He had never once met a master like Lil.
And so, all the more...
"One who carves away at their own existence to light the path ahead for their disciple. One who sacrifices themselves to impart wisdom—what else could you call such a being if not a master?"
She was his master.
Lil had no response to his words.
Soon, Park Chan-woo turned first.
"Time to go back."
A new landscape soon unfolded.
The familiar stench of sulfur and scorching heat.
It was the heart of the eternally burning volcano in Amalgam's Transcendent Abyss.
But the scene had completely changed from before.
Encircling the volcano's peak and the river of boiling lava, countless transcendents who had secluded themselves in their own worlds for eons had gathered.
Nearly a hundred in number.
Amalgam, at their forefront, stepped forward.
[We welcome your return, Lil.]
Lil looked around in bewilderment.
Among the transcendents, she had always been an outcast.
A heretic and troublemaker who dared seek change, stirring ripples in a stagnant world.
Seen as an unnecessary presence cracking their perfect eternity.
Yet now, the gazes of those arrogant kin toward her had changed.
[We were wrong.]
One transcendent admitted their error in a voice that shook the earth.
[You alone truly pierced the Creator's will among us. While we clung to outdated glory and imprisoned ourselves, you alone tried to shatter those prison walls.]
But now, all the transcendents acknowledged that Lil had been right.
Park Chan-woo—the one possibility she had staked her life on.
That possibility had set this stalled world in motion once more.
Lil stood dazed before this unfamiliar wave of recognition pouring toward her.
The weight of solitude she had borne for eons melted away like spring snow.
And in that moment, every transcendent's gaze shifted to Park Chan-woo at her side.
Led by Amalgam, all the great beings there bowed in unison as if by prior agreement.
[We pay homage to the master of the new world.]
Their voices merged into a massive echo, vibrating the entire Transcendent Abyss.
Park Chan-woo eyed their sudden shift in demeanor with puzzlement but soon realized why.
His Creation had profoundly impacted even these transcendents.
[Thanks to you, the shackles upon us have been broken as well.]
All existences' limits had elevated, allowing the transcendents to break theirs too.
Perfect from birth, they could no longer grow.
Eons had granted them wisdom but stolen any chance at higher realms.
Their beings, their causality—everything was perfectly 'fixed'.
But as Park Chan-woo rewove the Abyss's foundations, a massive crack formed in those outdated laws.
Their stalled causality began to flow again.
[We... can grow once more.]
Amalgam's eyes trembled faintly.
Not stagnant eternity, but living time where they could dream of the future again.
And at the center of this miracle stood Park Chan-woo.
Park Chan-woo was the savior of the transcendents.
But...
"It's too early to celebrate."
Park Chan-woo's voice doused the festive atmosphere like cold water.
Their growth meant the Abyss's halted time was finally flowing again.
The flow of time always brought new changes—and threats.
As all that had been still began to move, dangers lurking in the shadows would rear their heads.
As the transcendents' gazes turned to him in unison...
"We must venture into the wider outer universe and find the vanished Creator. The Destroyer's threat isn't over yet."
In fact, this was only the true beginning.
The Destroyer had tried to erode the world through internal corruption in the Abyss, but that plan had failed.
So the next move was obvious.
No more hiding—the Destroyer would lead its legions directly through the great rift to invade the Abyss.
"To do that, we must first gather our scattered strength."
Starting with Baal's Shield, collect every missing fragment of myth.
Perfectly unify the Twelve Overlords into our alliance, and utterly subjugate the vengeful demons sharpening their blades to eliminate internal threats.
They needed time to prepare.
The entire Abyss had to become one vast legion to brace for the coming war.
For that...
"I need your help."
The transcendents smiled as they spoke.
[All transcendents shall follow the master of the new world.]
Adora stood alone before the Black Witch's throne.
The surrounding space rejected her very existence, brimming with curses and grudges that flayed the flesh.
Yet Adora faced the source of all tragedy—the Black Witch—without a flicker of hesitation.
"You've come, my most perfect failure."
The Black Witch's voice lacked its former mockery and contempt.
Instead, it carried the deep resignation and loneliness of one who had finally accepted their fate after endless ages.
She was no longer the throne's master.
Just a hollow shell, a ghost of past glory stripped of all power.
"Are you prepared to inherit my karma? This cursed seat."
Adora nodded.
But at the same time...
"I won't become like you, Black Witch."
She vowed never to end up like the Black Witch.
"No. You will become like me."
A bitter smile tugged at the Black Witch's lips.
"Love is the witch's greatest power—and her most horrific poison. I too once believed in love. But when that love betrayed me, everything crumbled, leaving me as I am now."
Her gaze drifted to a distant past.
"If you fail to attain love, you'll become like me, Adora. That pure heart of yours toward him will rot into the most venomous hatred and obsession the world has ever known. You'll become an irredeemable evil god, forever haunting the Abyss. That is the true curse of the witch."
Before this curse-like prophecy, Adora simply nodded in silence.
She didn't deny her fate.
She knew better than anyone how precarious her tightrope walk of feelings for Park Chan-woo was.
But precisely because of that...
"I won't break. I won't run away like you did."
"......"
The Black Witch's eyes wavered at Adora's words.
Soon, she drew a shield radiating savage energy from her bosom and handed it to Adora.
"A gift."
...It was Baal's Shield.
"Capture his heart. Break the witch's curse. But if you fail... you'll vanish like a bubble."
Yet witches could never attain love.
That was a witch's fate.
Would Adora be any different?
Adora accepted Baal's Shield.
And thus, she became the Black Witch's new 'Overlord'.