Chapter 187
Chapter 187
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 187
Chapter Title: The Dawn of the Whole World, Our Promise (2)
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2.
“I’m going to liberate Tarhye Rondel with Berkensia right here.”
“What……?”
“The city’s abyss will all be purified. The [Forgotten Kings] too…… Though they won’t be able to take down Jeong Cheol.”
I had to blink.
Park Hyun-su’s plan was utterly incomprehensible…… There were just too many prerequisites.
“How are you going to use it?”
“…….”
“Didn’t you barely manage to use it against Rishar Hu thanks to Karenden’s sacrifice?”
Berkensia’s liberation.
Tarhye Rondel.
That holy power of radiance…… was said to be liberated only through true sacrifice.
“And now……? Who could make a sacrifice like Karenden’s……?”
The problem was that not just anyone’s sacrifice would do.
The sacrificer’s soul had to be noble.
Their life had to have been holy. Those were the vague conditions.
“Does it have to be me…… sacrificing myself?”
As I said it.
A chill like death swept over my entire body in an instant.
I was afraid.
I started to get scared. I wanted to run from it. Was I selfish?
“And if it can’t take down Cheol hyung, what’s the point?”
“Don’t worry, Tae-yeop.”
Park Hyun-su gave a wistful smile and said,
“Berkensia will use me as the offering.”
For a moment, I couldn’t think of a single word or thought.
An offering?
He was going to kill himself?
At that instant.
「GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKKK───!」
A colossal tree giant came charging, shaking the earth.
Park Hyun-su deployed the Berkensia armor in a flash of light, manifesting the helmet.
He instantly drew Berkensia.
With a slash of radiant glory, he incinerated the abyss entity known as the tree giant—the strongest of its kind—in one blow, then turned back to me.
“Tae-yeop, did I ever tell you about Rishar Hu’s end?”
“Rishar……? No?”
“Rishar Hu did all that to save his daughter, who was dying of a rare disease.”
“Ha…….”
“But now…… he can’t even remember that daughter’s face or name.”
He couldn’t remember?
What the hell…… was going on here?
“Could it be…… that losing his humanity led to losing his memories?”
With that horrific realization, I touched my mouth and let out a hollow laugh.
“Ha…… haha…… This is straight-up satisfying. No, it’s goddamn refreshing!”
No, wait a second.
Rishar Hu wasn’t the only one who sold his humanity to the Outer Universe gods.
“Jeong Cheol…… that bastard must be the same! Serves him right!”
“…….”
“He trashed an entire world to save his mom, and now he won’t even recognize her when she’s revived? Kyaa, refreshing as hell!”
“……….”
“What do you call this? Karma? Yeah, karma! Right?! That’s it!”
I spewed all that out, laughing maniacally.
“Tae-yeop. For me……”
But.
Park Hyun-su rubbed his painfully contorted face with his left hand (the Berkensia armor’s helmet had come off again).
“Seeing Rishar Hu’s end…… I felt sorry for him.”
Sorry for him……?
My words caught in my throat for a moment. How many times had that happened now?
“Jeong Cheol…… if we just leave him be, he’ll end up the same way.”
And at those words, I had to cough awkwardly, like something was stuck in my throat.
“Are you sane? Uncle, have you forgotten what that psycho’s done?”
“That’s exactly why I know.”
“……?”
“A desperate wish. He did all that chasing just one thing, only to learn it was all a lie?”
“…………?”
“If there’s not even a shred of fulfillment in the wish he barely seized…… that life…… it’s just…… too pitiful…….”
Pitiful?
He and I…… we were worlds apart. The difference in our capacity for humanity……
Park Hyun-su sighed.
For Rishar Hu and Jeong Cheol. For those who’d become beasts for the sake of a wish.
“Uncle…… what the hell are you trying to say?”
Park Hyun-su was silent for a long while.
Beyond those broad shoulders…… all I could see was Paul obliterating the swarming abyss entities with black flames.
“Rishar Hu…… at the end…… when he was cut by this blade, he remembered his daughter’s name and cried.”
“……?!”
“It was thanks to Berkensia’s [Purification] power. It’ll surely apply the same to Jeong Cheol.”
Park Hyun-su stared blankly at Berkensia, then suddenly slammed it into the ground.
Berkensia looked like a toothpick.
It had no blade—just a tang and a hilt. Instead, when it desired to fight, a dazzling sword beam extended like a blade.
“Tae-yeop, I…… can’t kill Jeong Cheol.”
As the sword beam vanished, the world darkened. It meant the Sword Lord had no desire to fight.
“Not in terms of ability…… nor in terms of my will.”
What was that supposed to mean?
What the hell did it mean? My head was a mess.
“Even if I beat Jeong Cheol…… it’d just be a temporary fix.”
“Why?”
“You know I’m incompetent.”
“You, incompetent? If you’re incompetent, who the hell is competent?! You’re the strongest among us!”
Park Hyun-su chuckled and ruffled my hair wildly.
“I’ve just been lucky.”
“Lucky?”
“My luck has always taken the form of people. You, Tae-yeop, are a perfect example.”
For a moment, my chest burned hot. So that’s how he saw me.
“But…… Jeong Cheol was my first stroke of luck.”
“What?”
“If it hadn’t been for Jeong Cheol, I would’ve died in the first battle royale.”
Jeong Cheol.
Whenever I heard that name.
A strange mix of hatred, resignation, and sorrow would make my body tremble.
“Honestly…… even after beating Jeong Cheol…… I can’t even imagine facing those Outer Universe absolute gods.”
Park Hyun-su looked up at the distant night sky with hollow eyes.
“But…… but if it’s Jeong Cheol…… it might be different…… no, it will be.”
I swallowed hard.
A fireball ignited in my mind. I realized what he was getting at.
“I’m against it.”
“Tae-yeop.”
“I’m absolutely against it!”
I yelled at Park Hyun-su. He tried to soothe me.
“Hear me out.”
“What’s there to hear?! I don’t know what crazy thing you’re planning!”
“…….”
“But you know? Charlotte had to die because of what Cheol hyung did!”
“Tae-yeop…….”
“Are you an idiot, Uncle? Don’t you think? Think about it! He’s the enemy! Doesn’t revenge burn in you at all?!”
I exploded.
It was frustrating. Maybe I was venting for Park Hyun-su.
But Park Hyun-su.
The man who’d transcended even personality upon inheriting Berkensia, looked up at the night sky with a quiet smile.
“Jeong Cheol…… actually kept me alive all along. He had plenty of chances to kill me.”
“……?”
“Once…… he even risked his own death to let me escape from Sharyuan.”
“What……?”
“He gave up his own wish for me and Michelle and the others.”
I knew.
I knew it well.
What kind of person Jeong Cheol used to be.
“And yet…… he ended up breaking in the end.”
“…….”
“His longing for his mother…… his guilt…… it was too much to bear.”
“……….”
“Varron said it, right? That it wasn’t evil, just weakness.”
But.
The Jeong Cheol now.
“He’s not that Jeong Cheol from back then!”
“I know.”
“You know and still?! Why?!”
“It’s not the current Jeong Cheol I’m betting on. It’s the old one. I’m staking everything on him.”
I was dumbfounded by Park Hyun-su’s words. It took me a while to process them.
“How…… how?!”
“Berkensia holds immense power even in a tiny fragment. Like the regression stone Varin had.”
Huh?
“No way…… you’re going to use Tarhye Rondel to lure Cheol hyung here?”
“Yeah. My body won’t die right away, remember?”
“And in a one-on-one…… during the fight, implant the fragment into his body……?”
Park Hyun-su smiled faintly.
“As expected, Tae-yeop’s sharp. Exactly. That’s when I’ll shatter Berkensia.”
“Why?”
“So his humanity slowly returns. So he can repent. And……”
Park Hyun-su added with a heartfelt sigh,
“……so he can remember his mother.”
Silence fell for a moment.
I couldn’t think of words or thoughts. Then Paul shouted.
“Park Hyun-su, no more time. They’re closing in from all sides! We’re out of time!”
Only then did I desperately rack my brain and come up with a question.
“Then what about you, Uncle……?”
This wasn’t simple.
Even just aiming for capture instead of kill ramps up the difficulty.
“What happens to you?!”
And implanting a fragment in the process?
Against an elite player transcendent like Jeong Cheol?
“There’s a way to survive, right?”
“…….”
“After using Tarhye Rondel…… before your body dies…… there’s a way to save you. Right? There is?!”
Park Hyun-su suddenly knelt on one knee before me.
“Tae-yeop.”
How massive was his frame.
Even like this, our eyes didn’t meet, so he had to bend his waist further.
“I’m going to die in the fight with Jeong Cheol. No…… I have to die.”
Die?
Park Hyun-su placed a hand on my shoulder. I bit my lip and shook my head defiantly.
“Don’t.”
“This is the only way to save both Jeong Cheol and the whole world…….”
“I said don’t! Please……!”
Park Hyun-su grabbed me as I tried to pull away and messed up my hair.
“Will you trust my stubbornness one more time and wait?”
“I said don’t! I don’t get it! Why you…… why do you have to sacrifice?!”
Hot tears welled up in my eyes.
“Why?! Why?!”
I shook off Park Hyun-su’s hand and tossed my head.
“It’s not a sacrifice…… just keeping a promise.”
“A promise? What promise……?”
“Someday, together…… we’d see this world’s happy ending.”
Park Hyun-su gazed at the rotten sacred tree and the moonlight shining on it.
“I believe. The Jeong Cheol from back then would surely keep that promise.”
I sensed no more words would get through. So I could only sob quietly.
“So Tae-yeop…… wait for me. For us.”
“…….”
“I’ll definitely bring [the Dawn of the Whole World] and come find you. And everyone.”
Park Hyun-su extended his hand to me.
Smiling. With his pinky and thumb extended.
“It’s a promise.”
As I moved to resist again, a sharp pain exploded in my nape.
Wh…… what……?
My mouth wouldn’t open…… and my body collapsed limply to the ground.
“Tarhye Rondel’s light…… will send you and Michelle’s souls back to your world.”
I realized it just before consciousness faded.
Park Hyun-su had chopped the back of my neck with his hand.
“Now…… goodbye.”
Park Hyun-su drew Berkensia.
He smeared his own blood on the blade and raised it overhead…… and a dazzling dawn sword beam soared high into the sky.
“It’s okay. We’ll definitely, definitely meet again…….”
Before the world melted into light.
Park Hyun-su turned to me one last time with a smile.
“On this land of tears……
Bring forth the dawn……”
A smile tinged with tears.
An unbearably heartrending smile.
“Tarhye Rondel……!”
That final smile.
The poignant farewell smile I’d only just remembered…… began to pulse in my heart.
- I’ll find it someday.
From that distant past.
Overlapping with the smile Jeong Cheol had flashed, fist clenched.
- The way to this world’s happy ending.
And finally.
In the other world—my world, returned through Tarhye Rondel.
- Do you know what Arishel’rab means?
Her long hair fluttering in the wind.
The idiot beauty who looked exactly—no, so strikingly like Jeong Cheol in face and all.
- There’s no such thing as Arishel’rab.
Overlapping with the smile she made, eyes gently closed.
- In the language of the gods, it means [the Dawn of the Whole World].
Ah.
Aha…… damn it…….
Damn it, damn it, damn it…….
I don’t know how it happened, but now I get it. So that’s how it was.
Doyejin.
That hopeless idiot fool.
Was the promised sign that Park Hyun-su and Jeong Cheol had finally sent……