Chapter 209
Elysion.
The divine magic completed by Transcender Lil.
It would be a mistake to treat it as simple absorption magic that washes away the Abyss’s curse and turns it into Mana.
Elysion reads the story of the world.
Its true function is to uncover the name of the curse born from the Abyss.
‘The curse hides itself.’
That is the curse’s nature.
It is feared because it is unknown.
It feeds on that fear, grows without limit, and gives birth to despair.
But if you discover the type and name of the curse—
‘Its power weakens quickly.’
The moment the hidden curse is named, it loses strength.
And the “curse” Elysion can expose isn’t limited to obvious maledictions.
A curse that harms others.
A curse that makes you age.
A curse that uses spirits to steal vitality.
Those are curses too, but Elysion reaches far beyond that.
For example—
‘…You can uncover the True Name of a Demon Lord.’
Creators.
The Demon Lords who “wrinkle” the Abyss.
They are existences meant to inspire terror by their very presence, yet they hide their True Names.
Why?
To avoid being known by other lords?
Out of shame?
No.
That, too, is a curse.
Most demons with the title of Lord live with their True Names concealed.
A name contains power, and if it is revealed, their power weakens.
But that weakening itself is part of the curse.
The qualifications of a Creator, the title of Demon Lord—those things are deeply entangled with curses.
Master of the Moon Ahetta was an exception, but because of that, his own strength was limited.
Ahetta was said to hold influence close to a Demon King, yet his actual might was far weaker.
If he had possessed true Demon King-level power, he would have exploded and died the moment he manifested.
A magic that can uncover the True Name of a Demon Lord.
Even the Demon King, the Demon God, and the Great Nine Lords—
If you can conquer them and stand above them, you can reach the 10th stage of Mana, [The End], just as Transcender Lil desired.
In short, Elysion is a nemesis to demons.
Krrrrrrrr!
The star of Elysion shining in Park Chanwoo’s palm transformed into Heaven’s Wrath.
In an instant, it lunged at the Illusion Guardian Gractus and began to bite into him.
Gractus was a collection of curses.
And Heaven’s Wrath punished curses exactly as its name implied.
Even if Gractus was an Illusion Lord, he was still only an illusion.
A curse that could do nothing but project its target.
Crackle—
Gractus’s body tore apart as cracks spread across him.
Then Gractus turned his eyes to Park Chanwoo.
The curse struggled to project him—
at a level incomparable to the Ancient Phantom on the 11th floor.
Gathering every curse it had, it tried to reflect him.
Crackling—!
The cracks widened.
It wasn’t failing.
The moment it reflected him, its entire body began to bulge with something vast—something close to infinite.
The Illusion Lord contained an entire world within itself.
Yet it couldn’t contain this one being.
Gractus realized it.
-Tha… that being…
-The Mas… ter… of… the cur… se…
…It is the curse itself.
I can feel it.
Absolute death and fear, the infinite world of Yin, the heart of destruction… and the human himself.
-Im… pos… si… ble… ma… jor… er… ror…!
It was a contradiction.
How could someone who was the curse itself cast a curse?
How could he name a curse that even Gractus didn’t know?
No wonder—an illusion that only reflected others had no name.
Gractus learned his own name for the first time.
He hadn’t even known he had one.
But the bigger problem was—
-My mis… sion… is…
Floor 12 of the Tower of God.
To face challengers with a legion tailored to their level.
The Illusion Lord was never meant to disappear here.
It was supposed to appear all the way until the 19th floor.
Its role was to drown challengers in despair so they could never reach the 20th.
Even if it “fell” here, it was still just an illusion.
It was set to be summoned again and again.
But Park Chanwoo had cut off the illusion’s main body—its True Name.
He erased the setting itself.
So—
‘It disappears.’
If that wasn’t a major error, what was?
That was as far as Gractus’s thoughts went.
Crack!
Heaven’s Wrath tore off the Illusion Lord’s head.
A flood of curses spilled from its neck, and the Illusion Lord’s body was sucked inward like a black hole.
Ting!
[The ‘Ancient Illusion Lord’ has disappeared.]
[He has met the annihilation of existence, eternal death.]
[Since the main body has disappeared, it can no longer appear.]
[The ‘setting’ has been destroyed.]
[This is something that even the ‘Owner of the Tower’ did not expect.]
[‘One who surpassed God’! You will acquire a large amount of honor.]
[You have acquired the title ‘Setting Destroyer’.]
[You have acquired ‘Traces of Gractus’.]
[This is a trace of a non-existent name, a True Name that no one even knew existed.]
[Climb to the 20th floor and complete the ‘Stigmata’.]
[If you wish, you can immediately climb to the 20th floor.]
[Or you can climb to the 13th floor and face other trials.]
[The ‘Tower of God’ is readjusting the trials and settings of the tower.]
[Level has increased.]
Messages continued to pour in.
Park Chanwoo stroked his chin.
Go straight to the 20th floor, or climb normally.
Either way, it seemed the Stigmata would be completed at the 20th.
Clap clap clap clap!
“Oh, what a wonderful curse!”
Chronos clapped from within the shadow.
As Elysion stripped away the Illusion Lord’s curse, a large portion began converting into Mana through Chronos.
An amount that would crush any ordinary spirit.
But Chronos was far from ordinary.
[The curse is converted into ‘Pure Mana’.]
[Chronos has succeeded in filtering most of the curse.]
[Filtration rate 99.9%!]
[‘Pure Mana’ has increased by 5.]
Pure Mana rose again.
That made it 37.
Compared to his total Mana, the ratio was small, but Pure Mana was Park Chanwoo’s own power—not something granted by equipment or tools.
It would never vanish, and it was easier to control.
And then—
“……”
“……”
The Dusk Clan and Ataraxia stopped fighting and stared at Park Chanwoo.
—
The moment Heaven’s Wrath manifested, all four Dusk Clan members froze.
An unrecognized being had suddenly cast magic.
‘Human?’
‘Dragonkin…?’
They couldn’t tell.
Ataraxia was famous enough that most of the Twelve Species knew him.
In hostile relationships, identifying promising threats was basic.
And an Ancient Dragon of the Apocalypse was the kind of enemy you had to study.
If he revealed his true form, they could recognize him instantly.
But they had no idea who this human was.
Then something even more shocking happened.
‘What kind of magic is that?’
Was it even magic?
It wasn’t like the spells Ataraxia had been using.
Heaven’s Wrath—wasn’t that a basic spell?
Yet when that human spoke Heaven’s Wrath and called out the Illusion Lord’s name, the world turned inside out.
Was it an evolution achieved by pushing basic magic to its limit?
Or—
‘Is it Dragon Tongue?’
Then what Dragon Tongue could possibly do that?
Dragonkin used their clan’s name as power, but they had never seen anything like this.
It tore the Illusion Lord apart and destroyed him.
And the Illusion Lord’s final words were unsettling.
Master of the curse. Major error.
Then, when the Illusion Lord vanished, an enormous mass of curses spilled out.
And every last curse flowed into that being—human or dragonkin, they didn’t know.
“……The curse.”
“He ate it…?”
They had never seen anything like it.
They’d never even heard of someone devouring curses.
Especially not curses strong enough to overwhelm even them.
They exchanged looks.
Who the hell is he?
Was there someone like that among the Dragon Clan?
“Revere him.”
At that moment, Ataraxia dropped to one knee.
He bowed his head toward the human in clear reverence.
‘Ah. The Authority of the Transcender.’
Now they understood.
The magic he had just used was Transcendent magic.
Perhaps it was Authority stolen from Ahetta’s secret laboratory.
And he had already mastered it perfectly.
Even at a glance, Heaven’s Wrath was chaotic in form.
Authority and magic had fused into something entirely different.
A realm Ataraxia couldn’t even attempt to imitate.
A feat impossible unless it was the great Dragon God Sephiro.
Master of all dragons, god of magic, the Absolute Being of the Abyss.
Countless titles could be attached to that existence.
But Ataraxia felt there was one name that fit best.
‘The Great One.’
The Dusk Clan looked between Ataraxia and the human and fell silent.
Who was this human that Ataraxia revered like a god?
He wielded Absolute Magic beyond recognition—and an even more mysterious Authority.
‘Is he the new master of the Tribe of Despair?’
‘I should’ve identified every ordinary Dragonkin…!’
‘Could he be the First Dragonkin?’
‘Se… is it Sephiro?’
They couldn’t grasp it.
Only one thing was certain.
Gulp.
…They couldn’t win.
If Ataraxia worshiped him, he had to be stronger than Ataraxia.
They could barely match Ataraxia alone, and now an even stronger existence stood before them.
Step.
The human walked up to them, glanced over their faces, and spoke.
“Ataraxia, I will go to the 13th floor.”
“Yes!”
He passed by as if they weren’t even worth notice.
Soon, the two vanished.
Thud.
“Heo-eo-eo……”
“What the hell was that……”
“Shouldn’t we tell the elders?”
“What are you going to say? That we got crushed by the Dragon Clan?”
Relief hit all at once, and they slumped down.
No matter how they looked at it, anything capable of “reflecting” that human was a monster they couldn’t handle.
Then a thought struck them.
“Wait. Could he show up in the Species Wars?”
“…We’re participating too.”
“Because newly adult warriors of the Twelve Species fight first…”
“……Yeah. Even if he participates, he won’t fight us.”
They nodded shakily.
A monster Ataraxia followed.
He had to be the First Dragonkin, or the master of the clan—some ancient dragon outside the scope of the Species Wars.
Because beings like that didn’t appear in the Species Wars.
They wouldn’t meet again.
They wouldn’t have to fight him there.
…They shouldn’t.