Chapter 214
Chronos.
A Shadow Spirit, and a being that was also a Shadow Reaper.
Something that should not exist.
Something that could not be established.
He was an error—someone who possessed both qualifications.
Chronos called Park Chan-woo a grand error.
But strictly speaking, Chronos himself was also a flaw—one that could cause the Great Rift in the world.
That was why he had never revealed himself to the world since his birth.
He lived thoroughly hidden.
The fact that, for countless years, he only ever put forward evil spirits was part of the same reasoning.
Because if no one recognized him, the error would not occur.
‘I am an imbalance born from balance.’
Both Spirits and Shadow Reapers were beings that maintained the balance of the Abyss.
Spirits allowed the world to maintain balance through the five attributes.
They were the pieces that made up the world—something like the torso.
Shadow Reapers, in comparison, were the rules themselves that kept the Abyss from collapsing.
Hands and feet, so to speak.
Chronos was born between those two balances.
Yet he could not become any part of the world.
He could not even become a finger or a toe.
Instead, he was a cancerous existence that ruined the world.
A virus that created a terrible imbalance.
A contradiction.
Something that did not add up.
‘I’ve watched the world for a long time. I’ve seen countless stories with my own eyes, but I’ve never been recognized even once.’
Hiding behind evil spirits was more fun than he expected.
But only hiding was even more frustrating.
As time passed, and as he came into contact with more beings…
…Chronos grew thirsty.
He wanted to reveal himself.
While hoping not to be recognized, he also secretly wanted to be recognized.
Arcana of Despair was a dragon he met in that process.
The Great War that swept through the Abyss.
An era when all demons and races were entangled in battle.
The sky was entirely gray.
Because the ashes of the dead covered it.
– “…When the hell is this damn war going to end?”
Arcana asked the evil spirit.
To win the war, he had formed a contract with Chronos’s evil spirit.
– “What is the meaning of this war anyway? Dragon God Sephiro, how long are you going to stand by and watch? Our tribe has already suffered damage close to annihilation…!”
Arcana looked up at the gray sky.
His voice was full of skepticism.
Many dragons had died. Few of the Tribe of Despair remained.
Yet Dragon God Sephiro did not move.
He sat on his throne, languid as ever.
Even the deaths of countless dragons were met with bored eyes.
Sephiro had no interest in this war.
Therefore, Arcana…
– “…Sephiro is not our master.”
He spoke words he should never have dared to say.
He distrusted the absolute faith of the dragon race.
Maybe it was because of the contract. Evil spirits amplified the contractor’s emotions.
But this was the first time.
All dragons idolized Sephiro. From birth to death, they served him purely as a god. Even the slightest interest from him left them beside themselves.
And yet, even under an evil spirit’s influence, Arcana showed animosity toward Sephiro.
‘Excellent.’
Chronos thought.
Arcana might be the most excellent dragon of all.
– “I am not Sephiro’s puppet. Not his slave, nor the horse he rides.”
Arcana raised his hand high into the sky.
Then he clenched the sky itself.
…It was brilliant.
The sight of him resisting fate.
The will of an existence trying to carve a new path by overcoming contradictions.
It looked just like Chronos.
But Arcana went one step further.
He rejected absolute fate—the karma imposed upon him.
– “I am Arcana. A dragon who desires change.”
Arcana looked up.
Before he knew it, the gray sky had vanished.
A clear sky he had not seen in a long time.
He smiled.
– “Ah, isn’t it beautiful? Yes. When the war ends, that sky will be even more beautiful. I will end this meaningless war. I will make a ray of hope bloom in despair.”
After leaving those words, Arcana terminated his contract with the evil spirit.
A brilliant soul, an unyielding spirit, and mana that had crossed the wall into something extraordinary.
Chronos accepted the termination as it was.
Normally, severing a contract with an evil spirit came with a curse close to death, but Chronos did not want that.
Because he wanted Arcana—who resembled him, yet surpassed him—to succeed.
‘A ray of hope blooming in despair.’
Those words resonated deeply.
But after that, Chronos could not hear any news of Arcana.
Even after the war ended and the Species Wars were revised.
Even after dragons returned to their territories, Arcana was nowhere to be found.
Only rumors remained—that he was dead.
Chronos believed it, too.
Then, after a long time passed…
Chronos met Park Chan-woo—the one who recognized him.
The one who found him hiding and dragged him out.
A monster with a grand error beyond anything Chronos could compare himself to.
Next to him, Chronos’s own error felt insignificant.
So, for the first time, Chronos formed a contract as himself, not as an evil spirit.
But…
Not long after, he met an old acquaintance.
And he met him here.
‘So you were here. Arcana, dragon of change.’
Arcana of Despair.
The dragon who once felt like a ray of hope blooming in despair.
But… what was that state?
Where had that proud figure gone?
That beautiful, brave gaze, the unyielding spirit, the spirited mana of the heart—everything had withered.
How could that be Arcana?
A monstrosity.
A hideous statue that should be abandoned and erased.
How could that brilliant dragon have fallen so ugly?
Why…
A reunion with the past that he once thought was a connection.
Arcana had failed.
In change. In enduring and overcoming contradictions.
If the result was that pathetic form…
“I’ll destroy you.”
He would shatter it.
Crush it without leaving a single fragment of bone.
Because that was the only way to leave Arcana as he remembered him.
—
‘That is…’
Black Dragon Ataraxia’s eyes trembled violently.
He stood stunned at what had emerged through Sephiro’s Shadow.
An event beyond common sense.
No matter how far Sephiro had reached the pinnacle of magic…
…there were things magic could not do.
‘A Shadow Reaper?’
It was unmistakably a Shadow Reaper.
A skull-shaped being in a black robe, a massive scythe on its back.
If that was not a Shadow Reaper, what could it be?
Even the presence he felt was distant.
What should he call it?
It was like a projection of Sephiro—like the rules themselves Sephiro had established.
Yet Shadow Reapers existed only to protect the rules of the Abyss.
They were not things that could be summoned or controlled by magic.
Bzzzz!
‘Has Sephiro-nim’s magic conquered even the incomprehensible realm? Has he surpassed it…!’
Ataraxia shook.
Sephiro could now handle even the rules of the Abyss.
If the other dragons learned of it, they would roar in celebration.
That the Absolute Being they believed in and followed—the one and only Dragon God—had surpassed the limits and walls.
Sephiro had opened a new horizon.
And didn’t that mean other dragons could follow that path as well?
But he could not simply rejoice.
Right now, what Sephiro was trying to erase was a dragon who had once led the Tribe of Despair.
Arcana. A familiar yet unfamiliar name.
There was a similar name etched on the tombstone for a tribe that perished in the Great War long ago.
‘Our tribe was one of the three tribes that originally served Sephiro-nim most closely.’
It had been the strongest tribe.
But during the Great War, the Tribe of Despair suffered damage close to annihilation.
And it began to walk a path of inevitable decline.
He had to revive the tribe.
He had to reclaim the glory of the past.
That was why Ataraxia stood beside the Great One and gave everything he had.
But… the leader of the old tribe.
Creak. Creak.
The Bone Dragon moved.
Bones collided and produced a chilling sound.
Whoooom! Whoooom! Whoooom!
Black spheres began forming wildly around the Bone Dragon.
4,444 spheres—each containing the mana of despair.
Rooooar!
As the Bone Dragon screamed, rays of despair poured out from all the spheres at once toward Chronos.
…Terrifying mana.
It far exceeded the limit a Level 135 dragon should possess.
Its body had weakened, but the weakness was filled with overwhelming mana.
If it fired that power as it was, even Ancient Dragons would be crushed if they faced it head-on.
‘…!’
Slash!
The instant Chronos swung his scythe, the 4,444 black spheres vanished.
No… not vanished.
‘Returned?’
Before Chronos, the 4,444 black spheres regenerated immediately.
It was on a level beyond ordinary reflection magic.
A mirror that sent everything back as it was.
Ruuumble!
Ruuuuuuumble!
Rays poured out from every sphere at once.
The Bone Dragon hurriedly spread its wings.
It was trying to raise a defensive shield engraved into its wings.
But—
Craaack!
It could not spread them.
Because the Bone Dragon’s Shadow was gripping the Bone Dragon itself.
And so, unable to move, it was struck by the formidable mana it had fired.
Screeeeech!
The Bone Dragon screamed.
Even a dragon’s sturdy bones could not endure a tsunami of mana.
…Overwhelming.
But there was no decisive finishing blow.
At this rate, he would seize victory, but he would not be able to erase the Bone Dragon itself.
“I’ll destroy you.”
Chronos raised his scythe.
In that moment—
“…!”
Ataraxia froze in horror.
Five evil spirits had appeared above the scythe.
And not ordinary evil spirits.
‘That evil spirit aura I felt in the laboratory… could it be…!’
Corrupted Ancient Evil Spirits.
The apex of evil that had lived for an enormous time and corrupted countless beings.
Just sensing their presence was enough to horrify him, but that Shadow was their master?
Then… had Sephiro-nim also dominated those monstrous five?
Hee hee hee.
Hee hee hee hee hee!
The five evil spirits laughed.
Their eyes were dyed black.
The corners of their grins were pitch-black as well.
Their true visage.
Without realizing it, Ataraxia took a step back.
He could not bear that curse—that aura like evil itself.
The evil spirits clung to the Bone Dragon.
In an instant, the Bone Dragon’s bones blackened and decayed, and its hearts turned purple as if poisoned.
It was rotting.
Dragon bones.
It was the first time in Ataraxia’s life he had seen such a thing.
Dragon bones never rotted or decayed.
Common sense was collapsing.
And—
‘What is this chill…’
Ataraxia clenched his fist.
There were even more dreadful things that had not yet been revealed.
What Chronos and the evil spirits had shown so far was only a fragment.
Their true power—the real curse—had not yet been used.
Because it was too ominous.
Because the moment it was used, it would be uncontrollable.
With only a fraction of their power, they were crushing the Bone Dragon.
…Why did Sephiro-nim dominate such beings?
They were not things that could be dominated.
Then—
As the Bone Dragon’s entire body rotted and began to crumble—
“Stop.”