Chapter 504
Chapter 504
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 504
Chapter Title: The Witch's Jealousy
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Adora left, carrying Baal's Shield.
The Black Witch watched her retreating figure with hollow eyes for a long time.
Only when Adora had finally vanished from sight did the Black Witch feel the strength drain from her entire body, collapsing onto the jade throne as if crumbling.
She had let go of everything. She had given up.
She had lost the war, and lost her bet with Park Chan-woo.
Her last hope, pinned on Sepiro, had come to nothing, and all the power and authority she had amassed over eons scattered like dust.
But the true reason she acknowledged her defeat was something else.
'Adora.'
Her most perfect failure, and paradoxically, her most perfect success.
The Inter-Species War.
She had watched every moment of it clearly.
How Adora had led the crumbling Human Alliance in Park Chan-woo's absence, forging hope from despair.
But the moment that truly pierced her heart was different.
It was when Adora awoke from the 'Lucid Dream' and faced her seven doppelgangers—born from the Black Witch's curse—her suffering sisters.
'You knew it, didn't you. Love.'
She did not destroy or absorb her sisters to use them as fodder for power.
Instead, she embraced all their pain and sorrow.
As parts of herself, she cradled them in love.
A witch, with no one to teach her, knew love.
That was the most fundamental shackle and taboo the Black Witch had imposed on witches.
An emotion no witch must ever have.
'But your love can never come to fruition.'
A witch's love could never be fulfilled.
It was not a blessing, but a curse.
When a witch fell in love, she gave everything of herself.
Her eternity, her power, even her very existence—she offered it all willingly.
But the moment that devoted love ended in failure, those pure emotions twisted into hatred and madness more venomous than anything in the world.
Having given everything, she felt she had lost everything—an absolute sense of loss.
That loss made her forget even herself, ultimately corrupting her into a horrific evil god wandering in resentment of the world.
Just as the Black Witch had become.
'...I did the same.'
She recalled a distant, ancient past.
Fragments of memory faded beyond the river of time, barely even recollections anymore.
She too had loved.
Before the Abyss was consumed by chaos as it was now, when the world still held faint traces of warmth.
She had not been a witch then, called by another name.
He shone like a star, filling her world entirely.
For him, she willingly clipped her own wings and abandoned eternity.
But his heart turned elsewhere.
That betrayal, that despair like the sky collapsing.
She lost everything, and in the agony of that loss, lost herself as well.
Forgot.
His name, once loved, and the self who once believed in love.
Only wounds and hatred remained.
'All witches have been the same.'
The other witches were no different.
Perhaps the witch race itself was born with such a tragic fate.
A witch instinctively dreamed of impossible love.
She yearned for the unattainable and reached for what she could never touch.
It was a tragic yet pure instinct, like a moth flying into flame.
Countless witches had walked the same path as her.
Enchanted by radiant gods, admiring great heroes, even loving kings of enemy races.
They staked everything on love, but the end was always the same.
Betrayal, loss, and bitter despair.
A witch who failed in love walked one of two paths.
Some, like the Black Witch, turned their hearts to hatred and became evil gods cursing the world; others, unable to endure the pain, chose self-destruction.
Either way, the witch headed toward extinction.
Because of love—the most beautiful emotion—they paradoxically led themselves to ruin.
The number of witches who once ruled the Abyss's nights dwindled, and the survivors hid deeper into the darkness.
The race itself faced extinction.
The Black Witch had watched it all.
Her daughters withering in the same pain as her.
She neither stopped it nor wished to.
She believed it was a witch's fate, that breaking this horrific cycle of reincarnation with her was their only salvation.
—Do not dream of love. Love will only destroy you.
The Black Witch had erased love from witches.
Was it a twisted maternal love wishing no one to suffer her despair, or pure malice hoping all would be as miserable as her?
Even she no longer knew.
But Adora rejected that fate.
She did not submit to the curse.
Instead, she embraced it and faced it head-on.
And declared:
She would not run like her. She would not break.
In that moment, a tiny crack formed in the Black Witch's heart, sealed shut for eons.
Perhaps. Just maybe.
That child might sever this vicious cycle of fate that she could not.
A faint hope flickered.
So she gave her Baal's Shield.
The final piece for Park Chan-woo's complete power, and a trial to decide Adora's fate.
She wanted to see if Adora's love for Park Chan-woo could truly overcome the curse—the final outcome.
It was the only thing the Black Witch could do.
Left alone in the Ashen Kingdom, the Black Witch quietly closed her eyes.
Her long, long story now headed toward its final page.
Whether that ending was salvation or utter annihilation rested entirely in the hands of her daughter, Adora.
Realm of Night.
Adora stood at its center.
This place was now her world.
Today, Adora had shouldered the witches' long-held aspirations and the Black Witch's resignation.
Thus, she ascended as the true ruler, the 'Queen of the Night' and the witches' new 'Matriarch'.
The surviving witches knelt at her feet.
"We will hide no longer."
Adora's voice echoed from the jade throne across the entire Realm of Night.
"We will no longer fear love or despair at its end. We will choose our own fate and take responsibility for that choice. We will never run away."
Her declaration was the roar heralding a new era for witches.
The witches cheered.
Adora became their hope.
And Adora thought:
'One step forward.'
As the witches' Matriarch, as the queen ruling the Realm of Night, she had now drawn one step closer to him.
No longer just a shadow guarding his side, but an equal who could stand shoulder-to-shoulder, leading the world together.
In his vast world, she too had become a pillar upholding her own kingdom.
That thought alone filled her chest with emotion.
With joyful heart, she returned to him.
In her hand, she carried Baal's Shield from the Black Witch.
Handing this over, he would surely be pleased.
The final piece for his complete power.
Through this gift, she wanted to prove her feelings, her new standing.
She headed to the Dragon God Temple.
But when she reached the throne, her steps halted unconsciously.
By Park Chan-woo's side, many women had gathered.
The first to catch her eye was the woman standing closest to him, as if it were her natural place.
The master who had taught him the true path of magic: the resurrected transcendent, Lil.
She whispered something to him with a playful smile, and Park Chan-woo responded with a faint smile of his own.
Between them flowed a deep, ancient bond beyond mere master and disciple—one Adora dared not intrude upon.
Her heart sank coldly.
Beside her was the 'God of Offerings' in the form of a small girl.
Her appearance was childlike, but the primordial presence emanating from her was suffocating even to Adora.
"......"
Adora's gaze wavered.
And that was not all.
On the other side of the throne stood the Ten-Tailed Fox Yujin-seo, elegantly swaying her fox ears and ten tails.
She was the queen Park Chan-woo had rescued from the 'Fox Den'.
And beyond her.
'Transcendents.'
She sensed several transcendents harboring intense feelings toward Park Chan-woo.
Even if not romantic affection, she instinctively knew such attention was little different from love to them.
Strong, beautiful beings at the pinnacle of their worlds.
They formed part of his world so naturally, so effortlessly.
Adora realized.
While she struggled to build her kingdom in the Realm of Night and become its matriarch, Park Chan-woo's world had already grown so vast and vibrant.
She thought she had taken one step closer to him.
But instead, he had surged far ahead, drawing countless stars into his orbit.
Adora might be just one of many satellites orbiting him.
Baal's Shield in her hand suddenly felt unbearably heavy.
This gift was no longer proof of her new standing.
Merely a small trophy to add to his grand myth.
A meager tribute to catch his eye.
The Black Witch's curse echoed in her ears.
—If you cannot fulfill your love, you will become like me.
She hadn't understood before.
The weight of emotions.
She had believed her feelings for him were pure and absolute.
But after hearing the Black Witch's words and truly 'recognizing' them, everything looked different.
Her heart pounded like a hammer, the once-brilliant Dragon God Temple blurred, her vision narrowing.
Only the figures of the other women by his side burned into her like a brand, stark and clear.
Yes, perhaps.
......This was 'jealousy'.
A deeply human emotion she had forgotten—or never even felt.
That unfamiliar sensation spread through her body like poison.