Chapter 170

               

The Eternal Outer God.

His rank was supreme, and his authority even more flawless.

He had granted countless desires under the name of “wish.”

He had given an emperor eternal life, making him “immortal,” and he had once fulfilled a request to bring a dead younger brother back to life.

There were no limits to the wishes he could grant.

And the price required to fulfill a wish was nothing special.

One simply had to gather the necessary materials.

For example, to grant one person “eternal life,” ten million lives were needed.

To resurrect the dead, one had to kill all the relatives connected by blood to the deceased, gather their hearts, and offer them.

It was not easy, but if one managed to do it, the Eternal Outer God would naturally grant the wish.

‘Aheta, Master of the Moon, wished to create the strongest life-form.’

That was why the Eternal Temple had been renamed the Temple of Death.

Originally, this temple belonged not to Aheta but to the Eternal Outer God.

But to grant Aheta’s wish, he changed both its name and its purpose.

—Create for me a supreme species that surpasses the Twelve Races.

—To create the supreme species, you must gather specimens of every race connected to the Abyss. And one hundred million souls are required.

Afterward, Aheta waged war across countless worlds to gather souls.

When the collected souls were brought to the Temple of Death, the Outer God mixed them himself and used them to create the “supreme species.”

To grant immortality, revive the dead, and even create species—this authority of the Outer God could well be compared to that of a creator.

An absolute authority no one could ever defy!

‘Of course, granting a wish doesn’t mean one becomes happy.’

The emperor gained immortality, but his empire fell.

He became the enemy of the world and was sealed away forever.

The brother who revived his younger sibling?

After gathering the hearts of all their blood relatives and offering them, he ultimately killed himself to complete the wish—only for the resurrected sibling to resent him for slaughtering their entire kin and end their own life.

Aheta’s wish was no different.

He created the supreme species, but its master was not Aheta—it was the Outer God.

…A wish is granted.

But it never leads to a happy ending.

Instead, it leads to the worst possible outcome.

Because the materials needed to grant a “wish” were the very things that made the wisher most miserable.

It was a kind of “equivalent exchange.”

There was no wish that could not be granted, but the bigger the wish, the greater the price.

If one sought happiness, one instead found misfortune.

‘Three times without such materials. One can complete a wish instantly.’

But a price was not always required.

The Eternal Outer God could grant a wish without conditions exactly three times.

That was his greatest authority.

He could even choose the price himself, so he would erase the [Terminal Condition], retrieve its soul and the seal containing White Whale Charpam.

And using the body of the “supreme species,” he would lead the Abyss to destruction.

‘It may be the third and final use, but it’s still a good bargain.’

Especially if he could control the “Dimensional Interloper, White Whale Charpam,” that alone was worth using all three wishes.

Though its memories seemed incomplete due to being sealed, the existence of “White Whale Charpam” was the very embodiment of terror even within the Great Rift.

A body large enough to devour an entire world.

The mystery of freely crossing dimensions, and especially its “Absolute Domain,” which froze all nearby worlds the moment it unfolded.

But the most terrifying thing about the White Whale was none of that.

‘A god-eater!’

A god that devoured gods.

The White Whale was one of the beings they feared most.

Thus the question.

How had the White Whale been sealed?

Did a seal capable of binding it truly exist?

‘If I erase the condition, I’ll know.’

It was merely a status ailment.

The Terminal Condition. A setting that caused one to die after a certain time.

‘A curse?’

Highly likely.

To come all this way because he couldn’t erase a mere curse.

If even the White Whale couldn’t devour it, it must be an extremely high-level curse.

It didn’t matter.

There was no wish he couldn’t fulfill.

……However.

‘…It didn’t erase?’

The wish did not come true.

Even though he used his final authority, there should not be limits on what he could grant.

If it had simply been “nullified,” he wouldn’t have been this shocked.

The activation of his authority was certain, but the wish vanished without being granted.

This had never happened before.

“‘Reaper of Death’…?”

And the figure of the “reaper” that appeared above the human made no sense.

It had introduced itself as death.

But there was no such thing as a “Reaper of Death.”

A reaper already meant the god of death.

There was no need to utter “death” again.

And originally, reapers existed to maintain the balance of the Abyss.

They were like rules themselves; aside from a few reapers in the highest realm, none possessed an ego.

Above all—there could not exist a reaper who freely spoke of “death” outside of the rules!

【How foolish. Did you truly think you could erase me with such a childish trick?】

Foolish?

It had a self—beyond that, even emotions.

Had there ever been a reaper of this rank?

“…Why is a reaper like you inside a mere human body?”

The Terminal Condition was this reaper.

The Outer God tensed.

Even he could not understand this.

A reaper of an unfathomably high realm was directly lodged inside a mere human for the sole purpose of killing them.

And even erased his “wish” in the process.

Impossible.

The concept of death could not apply to wishes.

A wish had no form before being granted. It could not be killed.

Yet it died.

It vanished forever.

【It is because this human’s death must be guaranteed.】

What was this nonsense?

Guarantee a human’s death?

Would some great disaster happen if he didn’t die?

What kind of human could seal White Whale Charpam and even have such a reaper attached to him?

【But your soul is not brilliant. It looks tasteless.】

In that moment—

Rumble!

The world collapsed.

‘Where…?’

He looked around.

The Eternal Outer God now stood beyond the threshold.

The “door” before him was coated with countless teeth, smacking its lips.

He winced.

He instantly understood what the door meant.

‘It brought death to me?’

He was an immortal.

A being who lived by rank, not life.

Naturally, he could not die.

Death as a concept should not apply to him.

Yet this reaper had brought death to one who could not die.

Now he understood.

‘I’ve touched something I should never have touched…!’

How foolish his choice had been.

This was not simple death—it was the very concept of death itself.

The true death that brought an end to all things.

But one question remained.

Why was such a powerful reaper waiting solely to kill one human?

It could kill him instantly if it wanted.

Or could it?

Was it waiting because it could not kill him unless the right moment came?

Because this human’s rank surpassed even the “Reaper of Death”?

‘Impossible!’

There could be no such existence.

But nothing about this human made sense.

Shhh—

The “door” beyond the threshold approached.

He could not move.

Experiencing the concept of death for the first time froze his entire being.

The wish he made turned back on him.

He tried to erase death, yet death came for him instead.

“Ah…!”

A single thought flashed through his mind like a passing life review.

He understood.

He comprehended.

What the reaper was.
Why it was killing him.

It killed him because he tried to erase the Terminal Condition and save the human.

That absolute death existed solely for the human’s death.

In other words—

“Who placed a reaper of your level inside a human? Who wished for this human’s absolute death…!”

Someone had wished it.

And the scale of that wish far surpassed anything the Eternal Outer God could grant.

It was a wish that erased all that interfered with the human’s death—even attempts to erase the Terminal Condition—by turning them into “death” itself.

……But who?

Who would place such an “ultimate wish” for the death of a single human?

Who sacrificed an unimaginable price to plant the “Reaper of Death” within him?

Soon, Death spoke.

【‘Truth.’】

That was the end.

Gulp.

【Hmm. Still tasteless.】

—

Ding!

《The “Eternal Outer God” has been extinguished.》

《The Creative Abyss of the “Third Night,” the “Eternal Temple,” and its territory are now owned.》

《You have achieved a “Unique Achievement”!》

《A “Death Box” has been added for all participants.》

《This is a blessing from the “Unique Achievement Holder.” If you bow in gratitude, you will receive an additional “Death Box.”》

《Additionally, depending on the number of participants who bow, the “Unique Achievement Holder” will also receive additional “Death Boxes.”》

《You have obtained the “Essence of the Outer God.”》

《The “Essence of the Outer God” purifies the entire temple.》

《You have gained 3 “Class Level Points.”》

《The “Essence of the Outer God” has completed the class hidden trait “Eternal Sword.”》

《You have obtained the “Death God Box.”》

《You have obtained the title “Outer God Slayer.”》

《The duration of the status ailment [Terminal Condition] has decreased.》

《You will die within 400 days.》