Chapter 520
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 520
Chapter Title: Lion King
Park Chan-woo's grand declaration of war had brought about far greater repercussions than anyone anticipated.
The weaker races, endlessly plundered by demons all this time, had begun voicing their intent to join the fight.
It started with small delegations from a few brave tribes.
But that momentum soon swelled into a massive tidal wave.
Every day, crowds thronged the gates of Valhalla.
The races varied widely, but the light in their eyes was the same.
The final hope of the oppressed.
A desperate yearning for a new era.
"We offer everything we have! Please, grant us the chance to stand against the demons as well!"
"Though our strength is feeble, if we can become even a single brick in the new era you herald, there could be no greater honor!"
They brought Park Chan-woo more than just military might.
They might not alter the tide of war, but the sheer volume of their prayers and aspirations was forging him into completion.
Pure rays of faith shot toward him from every corner of the Abyss, seeping into his divinity via the World Tree.
The scales were tipping ever further in his favor.
But he couldn't let his guard down.
No telling what tricks the demons might pull.
"The demons are still keeping silent."
Zero said.
"This is unnatural. Given their arrogant nature, they should have reacted immediately to your proclamation of war. This silence is the surest proof they're plotting something else."
Park Chan-woo sensed it too.
The calm before the storm.
He rose from his seat.
Before the demons make their move, I need to finish my preparations too.
The place he headed to was the Temple of Eternity.
In the temple's deepest sanctum, the primordial light emanated a gentle warmth, welcoming him.
Bokshil, who had shadowed Park Chan-woo like a ghost, was drawn to the light as if mesmerized and approached it.
The light embraced Bokshil like a living thing.
The blessed Radiant Anubis absorbed the primordial light.
A storm of blindingly radiant light swept through the entire temple.
When the light faded, the fluffy furball was gone.
In its place stood a being draped in a robe woven purely of light, gazing down upon the world with golden eyes.
Having absorbed the primordial light, Bokshil had regained the true form of Anubis.
...Though its previous adorable appearance was lost.
A solemn, sacred presence, truly like a god of light.
In a world where all gods were dead or in hiding, Bokshil had finally become the standard.
Park Chan-woo silently witnessed the birth of this new god.
He had finally taken the first step of his promise to Aheta.
He headed to the heart of the Temple of Light with Bokshil.
As they stood before the temple, scattered motes of light began gathering from all directions.
The departed undead returned.
The holy knights who had served the previous Urbis, Aheta.
In the forms of their souls, clad in the armor of their living days, they knelt before the new god.
The knight commander at their forefront bowed his head, offering loyalty that spanned eons.
"Oh, our new sun. The final light left by Lord Aheta. We have awaited you."
"Now, we shall be your sword and shield once more, restoring the order of light to this world drowned in darkness."
"Please, issue your command."
Park Chan-woo's gaze swept over the thousands of kneeling knights of light.
All radiated the aura of brilliant, heroic souls, but his eyes lingered on one who stood out above the rest.
Among them was Gula.
The Death Knight he had encountered on the battlefield of the 'Third Night'.
Trapped in a curse of death, he had forgotten his honor, but Bokshil's 'Flower of Life' had restored his true mission as a holy knight.
The one who had evolved into an Arc Knight.
The Death Knight who wielded holy power.
But now, he was neither specter nor knight of death.
He appeared fully human.
Warm flesh replaced his pale skin veined with blue blood, and a beating heart filled his hollow chest.
It was complete 'resurrection'.
Spanning eons, he had returned to his most radiant days.
Yet the unyielding conviction and noble will etched into his shining soul remained untarnished by time's tempests.
If anything, they had been tempered harder, gleaming brighter.
"Gula."
Park Chan-woo called his name softly, and Gula raised his head to meet his eyes.
A genuine smile bloomed on Gula's face.
Without hesitation, Gula stepped forward and knelt on one knee reverently before the new god, Bokshil.
Then he deeply bowed toward Park Chan-woo.
"Our savior, it is an honor to meet you once more."
Gula continued.
"Without you, I would have wandered eternally in death's chains, forgetting my honor. This second life you've restored to me—I dedicate it wholly to you, the new god, and the light of this Abyss."
Having Gula as an ally was incredibly reassuring.
His skills were proven.
And now, fully restored to his living power and blessed with Aheta's pure holy might, his level was incomparably higher.
He could probably take on an average demon lord single-handedly now.
Park Chan-woo surveyed the holy legion arrayed before him.
Centered on Bokshil, with Gula and thousands of knights of light.
The only force of 'light' capable of purging the chaos and darkness wrought by demons and establishing new order.
This legion of light could even challenge a Demon God.
And if Bokshil regained authority over 'life' to become the complete god of light, Urbis, they could aim even higher.
Such reliable comrades stood by his side.
Park Chan-woo placed a hand on Gula's shoulder and helped him rise.
"Looking forward to working with you, Gula. Commander of the Knights of Light."
He decided to entrust command of this new legion to Gula.
Aheta's most loyal knight—no one else could understand and lead them better.
Gula's eyes blazed with resolute light.
In a voice thick with emotion, he swore.
"I shall uphold your will even unto death!"
Park Chan-woo immediately began overhauling his equipment.
To triumph in the all-out war against the demons—and the greater war against the Destroyer—he needed to wield his full power.
Without delay, he activated his new authority, 'Transcendent Star'.
The power to seek out the scattered roots of myths in the Abyss.
The ritual extended through the World Tree across the entire Abyss, piercing spacetime to reach distant records of the past.
He had completed the Baal Set, but other gear remained unfinished.
Ragnarok and the Dawn Star of Origins.
Demi-God grade artifacts were mighty on their own, but only upon reuniting with their counterparts would they unleash their true might.
Among them, he sought the remaining two pieces of Ragnarok: 'Age of the Wolf' and 'Cry of the Giants'.
The authority responded instantly.
A fleeting image, hazy coordinates, and one being's form flashed through Park Chan-woo's mind.
The king of the dead.
An ancient crown rested on its brow, and at its center, a gem pulsed with an aura matching Ragnarok.
"...The Lion King?"
Park Chan-woo furrowed his brow at the unexpected result.
Wasn't the Lion King the one backing Lee Hyuk-soo?
From the Greatsword of the Lion King to the mysterious power that awakened him during the interspecies war.
He had always been Lee Hyuk-soo's strongest ally and hidden mentor.
Park Chan-woo sought out Lee Hyuk-soo.
The coordinates pointed not to Seoul's bustling heart, but to a remote mountain depths devoid of human presence.
Clearly, he was in solitary training to prepare for the impending war, the inevitable clash with the demons.
It suited his upright nature.
As Park Chan-woo appeared on a small clearing midway up the mountain via spatial leap, the shadow fiercely swinging a sword halted.
Trees were slicing apart from his sword winds, boulders cleaving under the onslaught—a ferocious training session.
Sweat-soaked and catching his breath, Lee Hyuk-soo spotted Park Chan-woo and rushed over with a mix of surprise and joy.
"You've come, Prophet."
He sheathed his sword at once and bowed deeply in respect.
Though clad in disheveled training garb, the aura emanating from him was incomparably denser and sharper than during the interspecies war.
He hadn't stopped growing for even a moment.
Park Chan-woo smiled in satisfaction at his progress and asked casually.
"Got time? You're not too busy, right?"
Lee Hyuk-soo shook his head without a hint of hesitation.
"When the Prophet visits in person, how could training matter? I'm free anytime. What brings you here?"
That firm, unwavering trust.
Park Chan-woo grinned at his steadfast gaze.
"Good, straight to the point then."
He cut to the chase.
"We need to go meet the Lion King together."
"The Lion King, sir?"
"Yeah. Never met him face-to-face?"
Park Chan-woo asked back.
Lee Hyuk-soo nodded.
"I've never seen him directly. Only felt his will through his voice or his sword. But... I am curious. What kind of being granted me this power?"
Pure curiosity lit his eyes.
"Perfect. I've got business with him too."
Lee Hyuk-soo asked no more.
The Prophet's plans always held profound meaning.
He just needed to follow.
And so, the two set off to find the Lion King.
Ancient beings.
Shadows lost beyond the river of time, unrecorded in the Abyss's history books.
Long ago, before demons fully seized hegemony over the Abyss.
They were the final kings, the sovereigns of races that shone brilliantly yet ultimately fell in defeat.
In cataclysms like the Great War, they lost everything.
Their tribes, lands—even their names erased from history.
They had hidden in the world's underbelly, existing across eons for one sole purpose.
Revenge.
Harboring an unquenchable flame of hatred toward the demons who destroyed their world.
Legend held they secretly nurtured successors, honing the blade of vengeance.
Finding them was near impossible, of course.
They lurked in realms of oblivion undetectable by any detection magic.
But Park Chan-woo found them.
No place in the Abyss could evade Transcendent Star.
His authority didn't merely track locations—it pursued the very roots of myths etched into spacetime.
The Lion King's domain was the heart of a shattered planet, its coordinates erased, not even warp-accessible.
Once home to a great civilization, now just a vast graveyard adrift with cosmic dust and debris.
Park Chan-woo extended the World Tree's finest root to those ruined coordinates via his authority.
A green beam pierced the darkness, forging a path. He and Lee Hyuk-soo materialized at the planet's core.
"This place...?"
Lee Hyuk-soo was momentarily speechless at the tragic vista.
A faint scent of death hung in the air.
Ungrateful grudges lingered.
Broken stone ruins of civilization crunched underfoot.
Instinct told him.
This was the origin of the great power that had guided him.
Park Chan-woo wordlessly advanced toward the planet's center.
At the heart of the ruined world.
He finally stopped.
There sat a massive jade throne, crudely fashioned from rubble fragments.
And upon it, a being.
A colossal skull.
Truly like a king of the dead.
The Lion King.
He gestured to his crown.
At its center gleamed 'Age of the Wolf', unmistakably a fragment of Ragnarok.
In other words, pass the test.
Yet his gaze was fixed not on Park Chan-woo, but on Lee Hyuk-soo.