Chapter 133
Destroyer Cygnus.
One of the oldest Divine Beasts, a being whose dignity was as immense as the long ages it had lived.
Its infamy and prestige were known to every demon lord in the Abyss.
Not only did it destroy creator Abysses, but it devoured every lord connected to them as well.
It was said Cygnus had destroyed over eight hundred Abysses, slain two hundred lords, and massacred hundreds of thousands of their subordinate demons.
So the Creators prayed and prayed that Cygnus would never appear in their Abyss.
For Cygnus was a calamity beyond even the power of lords to withstand.
Monstrous, dreadful, cruel — a vicious god.
Yet for over ten thousand years, Cygnus had not appeared.
—It fled from Dragon God Sephiro.
—And Sephiro failed to capture it?
—Sephiro never lets go of what piques his interest.
—He was once notorious as a collector of Divine Beasts.
—That only proves how mighty the Destroyer Cygnus is.
—But for more than ten thousand years, no trace of it has been found.
—For us, that’s fortunate.
—Maybe it’s dead?
The Divine Beast that had once captured Sephiro’s interest!
But also the only one that ever escaped him.
Rumors abounded, but nothing had been proven.
Because Cygnus had not appeared for nearly ten millennia.
Ordinarily it would pass through rifts often, rampaging through the Abyss.
There was much speculation, but most lords simply assumed Cygnus had died.
How fortunate, if the Destroyer who ruined their gardens was no more.
But… contrary to their hopes, Destroyer Cygnus lived.
In the depths of the rift.
In the sanctuary of Divine Beasts, preparing to bear offspring.
“Cygnus, you’ve appeared.”
Dragon God Palace.
At the throne on its summit, a man sat with a languid expression, legs crossed.
There was only one who could sit there.
Dragon God Sephiro.
He had sensed the Destroyer Cygnus appear.
At last it had surfaced somewhere in the Abyss.
No matter how secretly it hid, Sephiro never missed what drew his interest.
“So you’ve finished all preparations?”
Sephiro smiled faintly.
All the demons were mistaken.
They thought Dragon God Sephiro had failed to capture Destroyer Cygnus.
They believed Cygnus was so powerful that even Sephiro could do nothing.
But that wasn’t the case.
He had simply let it go.
From the start, Dragon God Sephiro’s interest wasn’t in Destroyer Cygnus itself.
‘Destroyer Cygnus was chosen by Sanctuary.’
Sanctuary.
The sacred domain at the heart of the rift.
The place all Divine Beasts revered.
But Sephiro knew its true identity.
That place called Sanctuary was in fact the King of Rifts.
And the King of Rifts had chosen Destroyer Cygnus.
More accurately…
‘The egg Cygnus bore is the offspring of Sanctuary.’
It had accepted Cygnus as its other half.
There were other Divine Beasts like that, but it was enough to capture Sephiro’s attention.
Divine Beasts resembled spirits, but were distinct.
Spirits were purely spiritual beings.
Divine Beasts were not.
They existed, and yet were spiritual.
They were spiritual, and yet they existed.
The words sounded the same, but were vastly different.
Depending on whether one emphasized their spirituality or their existence, the interpretation varied greatly.
Clarifying this was the key to deeper insight.
And perhaps, understanding the rift itself.
For only Divine Beasts could live in rifts.
Nothing else could survive within them.
Wasn’t that worth knowing?
So Sephiro had dissected and experimented on countless Divine Beasts.
To determine whether to call them spiritual or existent beings.
To uncover how they adapted to the rift.
But he had yet to conclude.
‘The Divine Beast closest to the original is Sanctuary. If I wait for its offspring to hatch and dissect it, the answer will be clear.’
He had dissected countless Divine Beasts and still could not be certain.
He had never dissected Sanctuary’s offspring.
That was why he let Cygnus go.
So it could enter the sanctuary, bear Sanctuary’s egg, find a nest, and return to the Abyss.
Then he would strike, observing and probing as the egg hatched.
If he watched that instant, he could learn everything.
Sephiro stroked his chin.
‘But whether it hatches is uncertain.’
It was, after all, Sanctuary’s child.
A half-measure nest might not be enough.
If the nest was unworthy, the egg might never hatch.
Or even if it did, it could be defective.
Ssshhk.
Sephiro raised his hand and swept the air.
Wheeeeen—
Before him, like a hologram, countless Abysses appeared.
A thousand domains rose up at once.
He scanned them all in less than a second.
Ssshhk.
He swept his hand again.
He repeated this hundreds, thousands of times.
Thock.
His gaze stopped on one domain.
For an instant.
“Oh ho. This is…”
Interest flickered in Sephiro’s eyes.
The domain of Moon Lord Ahheta.
That was where he felt Cygnus’s presence.
—
It was half a gamble.
He had never activated the “Sacrifice System” in this way.
But he believed it possible.
‘This is Han Min-oh’s world.’
Park Chan-woo had synchronized with him beyond one hundred percent.
He understood Han Min-oh better than anyone. He had become him.
Naturally, they shared equal ownership of the “nest.”
In short, he was also the landlord.
Inside the house, linked to Cygnus, meant Cygnus was not just a tenant. It was something Park Chan-woo equally owned.
Park Chan-woo was Han Min-oh, and at the same time Cygnus.
‘My head… feels like it’s splitting.’
As Cygnus’s waves mixed with his, the aftershocks were unimaginable.
Too vast.
Beyond what he could control.
He could not fully own it.
But he didn’t need to.
Only the conditions mattered.
If the Sacrifice System, if the God of Offerings responded…
【Shatter. Scatter and vanish.】
Cygnus expanded its mana waves even further.
A tsunami swallowed Park Chan-woo’s mind.
Crunch!
He clenched his teeth.
Was it still not enough?
Were there conditions yet to be met?
【You will be annihilated here.】
Cygnus had no intention of letting him live.
It had been horrified by his memories.
A time traveler.
It didn’t yet understand why he held such impossible talents, but surely it related to “time reversal.”
That meant he was an error of the world.
A being that should not exist.
Such an existence would bring chaos.
And that chaos would spread to the rift and Sanctuary.
For the errors of the world accelerated the rift’s expansion.
If the rift, now barely stable, expanded again, even Sanctuary could not endure.
‘World errors like you summon the Great Fractures.’
Great Fracture.
Since the Abyss’s appearance, when dimensions linked together, errors had arisen.
Those errors had caused Great Fractures.
Each time, countless dimensions collapsed, were devoured, and transcendent beings were born.
Disasters that unmade stable worlds.
If a Great Fracture occurred now, Sanctuary might perish, and true apocalypse begin.
Thus.
…Errors of the world had to be erased.
And the egg had to hatch.
“Cygnus, choose.”
Then, suddenly, Park Chan-woo spoke.
He barely held on to his fading mind.
“Will you save your child, or yourself?”
【…What do you mean?】
“You know, don’t you? That this nest isn’t suited for hatching. That the environment isn’t right.”
Linked with Cygnus, Park Chan-woo realized it.
The egg might not hatch properly.
Cygnus knew it too.
【There is no choice.】
“Then you can be the nest yourself.”
【That’s impossib—】
“You know it’s possible. Just as I learned you, you’ve learned me.”
Cygnus did not answer.
…Because it knew.
It hadn’t seen all his memories, but it sensed vaguely the God of Offerings.
If it offered itself as a sacrifice and became the nest, the egg would hatch perfectly.
But then…
It couldn’t correct the world error.
So it had to choose.
Kill itself to save its child, or kill its child to save itself.
‘God of Offerings. A name I’ve never heard.’
The problem was the name itself.
Cygnus had lived eons.
That it did not know this name…
It must be an existence so immense that even Cygnus could not comprehend.
‘Save the child, or correct the error…’
It wasn’t easy to decide.
It had found only Han Min-oh as a nest, and it was insufficient.
For ordinary eggs maybe, but this was Sanctuary’s bloodline.
An unworthy nest would only poison it.
The best nest was Cygnus itself.
Normally, a Divine Beast could never be a nest, but the God of Offerings made it possible.
…What to do.
If the error wasn’t corrected, the Great Fracture could come, destroying Sanctuary.
He couldn’t have both. Only one.
But the hesitation didn’t last.
【…What do you intend for my child?】
“I’ll raise it well.”
A human claimed he’d raise a Divine Beast.
Absurd, yet also understandable.
He was a mage, one who sought truth.
Contradictory though he was, he did not stand against truth.
And so…
【It is my child, bearing my name.】
“At least I won’t have to wrack my head over naming.”
【…Very well. Offer me as a sacrifice.】
Ding!
As Cygnus consented—
[‘Destroyer Cygnus’ has been offered as a sacrifice to the God of Offerings!]