Chapter 108
Chapter 108
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 108
Chapter Title: Illuminate the Dawn on This Land, Final Battle Against the 'Exalted One' (1)
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0.
You must now come to know about the 'Exalted One.'
The 'Exalted One' is none other than a quasi-god.
Quasi-god.
In other words, one who rivals a god.
A mortal being can only acquire divinity by achieving the feat of apocalypse on a single world axis.
And then.
When a mortal exterminates five or more world axes, they attain a status rivaling that of a god.
They become an 'Exalted One.'
The Dull Serpent, Barpah’tika.
That being, too, was reborn as an Exalted One through the exact same process. It had devoured no fewer than nine world axes. Moreover.
The world axis Jobel.
The world axis Cherkion.
The world axis Huranum.
It even boasted victories in those three worlds, which had been battlegrounds for the absolute gods.
「Are you sure…… this is wise?」
「About what?」
「How could the beings of that feeble world axis dare oppose me?」
「If they cannot, they perish. What difference does it make from any other world?」
「But this――」
「――I will not hear it. Just follow. At this moment, we must completely deceive them.」
「……If that is your will.」
Divinity imbues the flesh with transcendent power.
「I merely devote myself fully to fulfilling the task Father has given me.」
But what if that divinity is stripped away?
「So now…… receive my divinity.」
Unable to withstand the transcendent power once housed in the flesh, it twists into a grotesque form.
「Kyolona Lena Wapra Edelweiss Warbar.」
The size of its body.
Its repulsive appearance.
「May your will.」
Such physical changes intensify in proportion to the transcendent power it once possessed.
「Be done on earth as it is in heaven.」
Now that you know this truth.
You can understand just how mighty Barpah’tika once was.
「Go…… I now send you into the world; do the deed I have entrusted to you.」
……Rumble rumble rumble rumble rumble……
The shaking earth, on the verge of collapse, fell silent for a moment.
The next instant.
A serpent capable of devouring a world.
A serpent stripped of its divinity, driven mad by hunger for life.
It raised its long neck from underground.
It scented the thick aroma of life. It sensed the fog that had hindered its hunt had vanished.
At last, that day had come.
In the end, that day had arrived.
Inevitably, that day had dawned.
The 'Exalted One,' Barpah’tika.
The serpent that was neither exalted nor dull set forth on its world axis hunt—the day of apocalypse.
Yes.
Tonight.
The Dull Serpent joins the hunt.
1.
Guider.
Just seeing it.
Made her breath come in ragged gasps.
In her mind, slowly replaying was her father's death.
- Happy birthday, my daughter.
At that time, the Guider.
Kept murmuring something.
「No matter what trial lies ahead…… the stars shall…… bestow upon you…….」
But…….
Nothing could be heard.
In Do Ye-jin's ears, as she fiddled with her wristwatch, only two sounds rang out.
Hah…… heup…… hah…….
Her own ragged breathing and the pounding thump thump thump of her heartbeat.
「Now……」
But for some reason.
Those final words echoed clearly in her ears.
「……I shall bestow upon you the true trial.」
True…… trial?
The moment she thought that.
Three harbingers of apocalypse appeared in sequence.
One.
Beeeeeeeeeeep―――― An alarm that tore at her eardrums.
Two.
Warning windows flooding madly before her eyes.
[Warning: Exalted One, Dull Serpent Barpah’tika has detected the presence of life.]
[Warning: Exalted One, Dull Serpent Barpah’tika has detected the presence of life.]
[Warning: Exalted One, Dull Serpent Barpah’tika has detected the presence of life.]
- Time until full detection: (0) minutes.
- The Exalted One is moving toward the area dense with life.
- Evacuate the area immediately!
Three.
……Rumble rumble rumble rumble rumble rumble rumble rumble rumble rumble rumble rumble rumble rumble rumble rumble rumble rumble rumble rumble……
The earth shaking as if about to crumble.
The intensity of the quake grew…… ever more violent.
Was it the alarm they heard?
Citizens began emerging from their homes onto the streets…… and one by one, froze in place.
“Th…… that……!”
“Th…… th…… this can’t be real.”
Everyone knew.
On the first day of destruction, who had ushered in the apocalypse.
Rumble rumble rumble…………………
Then, suddenly.
The earth-shaking roar that had rattled her skull ceased.
The moment she realized it.
………Kwahhhhwahhhhwahhhhwahhhhwahhhhwahhhhwahhhhwahhhhwahhh!
A deafening roar as if the world itself were tearing apart.
And then…… over the walls…… something impossibly enormous surged upward…….
「KASHILRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA──」
In this world…… in this world.
「──AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!」
A serpent's body filling her entire field of vision.
From it…… writhing like living maggots…… countless centipede legs.
Do Ye-jin's mind went blank.
That exalted form.
That god-like presence.
“Gaaahhhhhhh……!”
“H…… hah…… haaaaahhhhhhh!”
Just witnessing it.
Countless citizens vomited blood and collapsed.
“D…… Daddy……?!”
“No! Soo-min! Soo-min!”
“Don’t look! You mustn’t look at it!”
In that moment of chaos.
The Dull Serpent, Barpah’tika.
That exalted being halted its surge and plummeted back to the ground.
Time seemed to slow in that instant.
So Do Ye-jin, the girl, could clearly see all the despair.
The Paradise walls.
The symbol of safety…… crumbling pathetically….
[Warning: You are currently located in a ‘Nightmare Zone.’]
And she saw more.
The debris from the collapsing walls.
Flying furiously across the starry sky.
And those debris.
Ruthlessly demolishing the city streets.
Mashing people into bloody pulp.
And finally.
────Kwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
A world-shattering boom.
The moment it rang out.
The world became a hellscape.
Wh…… what…… suddenly…… why…… is the ground so far away?
It took a second.
To realize she had been flung high into the sky by the shockwave.
Another second passed.
Before the ground rushed back at her, her body tumbling wildly in agony.
And yet another second.
To finally stand on the madly shaking earth.
“R…… run……!”
“T…… toward the inner city……!”
“Please…… help our child…… our child……!”
Screams, shrieks, screams, shrieks, screams, shrieks, shrieks, shrieks, shrieks, shrieks, shrieks, shrieks, shrieks, shrieks, shrieks, shrieks.
What…… what the hell is this.
What the hell is happening.
The first day of destruction.
Was it that overwhelming despair crashing back as déjà vu?
“No…… no…… no…….”
Ryu Hyeon-ji, gasping for breath.
Suddenly slumped to the ground, plugging her ears, muttering like that.
“Hey, Ryu Hyeon-ji! What are you doing! Get up! We have to run!”
Heo Cheon-gyeom forcibly hauled her up.
“R…… run…… where……? Now…… there’s no Paradise anywhere…….”
“Headquarters! We go to headquarters!”
「……Why?」
“Seo Hwa-yoon, the battalion commander, is there!”
Heo Cheon-gyeom showed remarkable composure. He must have learned much following Shin Tae-yeop around.
“The 2nd Hunting Platoon is still there too. We have to get to headquarters to hear the countermeasures.”
Ryu Hyeon-ji nodded with a pale face.
“Ah…… no. Battalion Commander Eom Jae-beom is here in Cheonun Hyoja-dong. Shouldn’t we find him?”
“That works too.”
Do Ye-jin, dazedly looking around, spoke up.
“What about the people?”
“Huh?”
“These people…… the Heteromorphs will pour in soon…… we’re just gonna leave them?”
For a moment, Heo Cheon-gyeom fell silent.
Truth be told, they were already pouring in.
The people killed in the initial surprise attack.
Their heads twisted grotesquely…… turning into snake heads.
The moment their bodies were covered in snake scales.
The corrupted dead transformed into snake-humans, writhing up from the ground to pounce on the citizens.
“We have to protect them.”
“You idiot, there’s no way the three of us can beat an ‘Exalted One.’”
Heo Cheon-gyeom grabbed Do Ye-jin’s wrist hard.
“Who said anything about winning? We’re buying time to escape!”
Do Ye-jin shook off his hand and dashed down the street, gripping her Cannon Axe.
“Hey! Hey! Come back! You’re key to the counterattack plan! You have to head back right now!”
A hellscape unfolded before her eyes.
A woman crushed to death under rubble.
A man frantically running with three children on his back.
And…….
A snake-human flicking its tongue, about to devour a seven-year-old boy.
“Come here!”
Do Ye-jin yanked the boy behind her. The boy said.
“Hunter, ma’am. My mom…… she’s weird. She’s changed strangely. Why is she like that?”
Mom…… mom?
Do Ye-jin felt a chill sweat drench her limbs in despair.
“SssssssSshhhhhhsss…….”
This…… how do you……?
“Mom, mom, mom, mom.”
What flashed in her mind then.
- Don’t forget.
Was what Kim Baek-jun had said to all the association members right after the Sajik-dong raid.
- That hunting is essentially a funeral rite.
Do Ye-jin stifled a sob as she loaded a shell into the Cannon Axe.
- Show the utmost respect to those who were once human.
She covered the boy’s eyes with her left hand.
- So their dignity isn’t further defiled.
With her right hand…… she pulled the trigger toward the charging snake-human.
- It’s a funeral that grants peace to the maddened blood.
The Cannon Axe roared.
And at the tail end of that roar…… blended the snake-human’s death cry.
- So their souls can awaken from the nightmare and greet the dawn….
This is.
The funeral for a world devoured by nightmare.
Remembering how Kim Baek-jun had explained it in a trembling voice.
“Take this child! To the inner city!”
Do Ye-jin grabbed a fleeing evacuee and handed over the boy.
“What about my mom? What about my mom?”
The boy, slung over the evacuee’s shoulder.
Even as he grew distant, kept shouting that at Do Ye-jin.
“Someday…… you’ll meet again.”
Do Ye-jin recited the words.
Her dad and sister had once said to her long ago.
“If you stay a good child…… someday…… surely…….”
2.
There, the nightmare dwelled.
The nightmare had come to the world in flesh.
Since the world had no dawn, it could not dare oppose that glory.
“What the…… what the hell is it…… fuck…….”
“Save your swearing for walking…….”
On a street rocked by the earthquake.
Two Hunters staggered along it. Both were soaked in blood.
Their platoon leader had already been killed.
They were 5th-wave recruits. Greenhorns with scant combat experience.
…Ding…… ding…… ding…
“Bell…… it’s the bell……!”
For a moment, hope flickered.
In the ruined cityscape turned to rubble. In that darkness, dim blue-green eyes glinted.
“SHISHISHISHISHISHISHI.”
That wasn’t all.
Corpses scattered everywhere…… raised their bodies with grotesque bone-cracking sounds…… and fixed their snake eyes on them.
One. One. One. One.
One. Another one. Another. And another.
“Hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi.”
“Ee hee hee ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.”
The young Hunters dropped their weapons and collapsed in place.
It’s a nightmare.
I’m dreaming a nightmare.
They thought that until their heads were torn off.
At that moment again.
The ‘Exalted One’ ascended once more.
From the deep underground abyss to the lofty starry sky.
Then the stars sent their praises.
The world moaned softly beneath it and soon submitted.
The abyss devours the world.
The abyss’s authority is the vengeful spirits. Those who lost their souls rose again as subordinates of the ‘Exalted One.’
And then.
It began its predatory march toward the living.
[Paradise Population List]
- [Paradise District - 6: ‘Cheonun Hyoja-dong’] : 489 / 700
[Paradise Population List]
- [Paradise District - 6: ‘Cheonun Hyoja-dong’] : 412 / 700