Chapter 216

Chronos stared blankly at Arcana’s luminous soul.

Even though his body had been hideously corrupted into a pathetic Bone Dragon.

‘You are, as expected, magnificent.’

It had been a misunderstanding.

A delusion.

He had judged Arcana by appearances alone, out of shallow prejudice.

Arcana of Despair.

He who sang of a single ray of hope blooming within despair.

A dragon who always challenged the impossible with unyielding will.

Chronos had insulted the owner of a supreme spirit that could never be corrupted, calling him pathetic.

To him, the process had never mattered.

Only the result did.

‘So this Tower is…’

…a place that reveals hidden stories.

It was a tower that awakened the importance of process, not result.

That was why the ‘Epic’ existed.

Collecting traces, completing the story, and reaching a conclusion was the true purpose of the Tower of God.

The world doesn’t only consist of results.

Even if a story fails, even if its ending isn’t satisfactory, the process of striving for success should never be belittled.

Arcana becoming a ‘Bone Dragon’ was merely a simple ending.

Once the process was known, once the sacrifice was understood, who could possibly condemn Arcana?

But they don’t know.

No one knows.

They don’t try to know.

They don’t even pay attention.

Because… Arcana had failed.

‘This Tower is a place to complete the stories of failures.’

The 10th floor had been the same.

The Stigmata of the Black Evil God and Yaldagoth.

It showed the downfall of a great being.

Chronos knew Yaldagoth.

He was a Glutton who caused natural disasters just by appearing.

A baleful god that even the Demon Gods hesitated to approach.

But he had fallen.

The Great Rift had occurred, and his universe had been destroyed.

The Great Rift devoured the universe and the world the moment it appeared.

That was the most terrifying aspect of the Great Rift.

The appearance of an Outer God was nothing compared to the disaster the Great Rift caused.

The Great Rift had occurred three times during the Great War—so how great must the aftermath have been?

‘If the 10th floor showed the downfall of a great being, then the 20th floor… proved that the one I thought was the most insignificant was actually the greatest.’

Arcana’s spirit and soul were great.

They couldn’t be compared to those of any other dragon.

His noble will of sacrifice couldn’t be disparaged.

But…

‘…What is the Creator’s intention?’

He couldn’t understand the Creator’s purpose in gathering only the Epics of failures.

The fact that he designed it so that Balmung of the 99th floor would appear if they failed meant he definitely wanted them to know all the stories.

Balmung.

That monster was an ancient demon whose name meant ‘wound.’

Because of its nature, it could never be defeated head-on.

And this Tower was a place where the wounds of failures gathered.

There was definitely a connection.

And if one could become a ‘God’ at the end of the Tower… what kind of God would that be?

‘A God of Destruction.’

The only god that could be created by gathering wounds was a ‘God of Death’ or a ‘God of Destruction.’

Didn’t that align, in a way, with Transcender Lil’s thoughts?

And with eliminating all the curses of the Abyss.

That was synonymous with eliminating the Abyss itself.

…Chronos inwardly shook his head.

Whatever.

It didn’t matter.

That wasn’t important right now.

「Thank you.」

Chronos sincerely said to Park Chan-woo.

Thank you for stopping him.

And sorry for misunderstanding.

He had taken Park Chan-woo for a shameless human blinded by power, driven only by his own desires.

Of course, there were questions.

Why Arcana had recognized Park Chan-woo as ‘Sephiro.’

How he had been saved by just a few words the moment he saw him.

Chronos was certain.

Park Chan-woo was not Dragon God Sephiro.

He was only pretending to be Sephiro in front of Ataraxia.

Yet Arcana was the greatest of the leaders of the Tribe of Despair.

If he led one of the three supreme tribes that supported Sephiro, what more needed to be said?

It meant he was a dragon who had served Dragon God Sephiro from the closest proximity.

If he couldn’t be mistaken, yet he was, was it truly a mistake?

Chronos didn’t dare look into Park Chan-woo’s Abyss.

Every time he tried, instinctive fear stopped him.

Was that fear because of Sephiro’s existence?

There was definitely something related to Sephiro inside Park Chan-woo’s Abyss.

But…

「A single ray of hope blooming within despair.」

This, too, didn’t matter.

Whatever Park Chan-woo did, whatever he truly was—even if he was a destroyer who would one day destroy the world—Chronos believed his path would eventually lead to the right result.

Besides, Arcana was Chronos’s hope.

A ray of light that confronted the world, overcoming contradictions.

Chronos wanted to stand with him, but he had believed he must never leave the Shadow.

But now… Chronos was with him.

He had stepped out of the Shadow and was facing Arcana head-on, outside the world.

It was all thanks to Park Chan-woo.

If it weren’t for Park Chan-woo, he would never have had this chance.

「Do you recognize me?」

Whoooong—whoooong!

The soul’s light grew even more intense.

‘He knew from the beginning?’

What beginning was he talking about?

Back then, when he made a contract with the evil spirits?

Had he already noticed Chronos hiding behind them?

Chronos’s entire body trembled for a moment.

Even though he knew, Arcana had never once asked for Chronos’s help.

He had considered Chronos’s circumstances.

Ah.

…He couldn’t let Arcana go like this.

After so long, he had finally come out into the world.

He had finally faced him head-on.

「Won’t you… join me and your God?」

Whoooong!

The shining soul settled into Park Chan-woo.

And then quietly fell asleep.

He could feel it.

Arcana’s presence.

Though he was asleep now.

‘I will definitely wake you up.’

Arcana was the noblest being.

When he woke again, he would exist as a dragon of hope, not despair.

No matter what sacrifices it took, Chronos would make it happen.

—

Ataraxia looked at Sephiro.

He watched Arcana’s soul settle into him.

…It was strange.

The Sephiro he knew wasn’t such a generous being.

Dragon God Sephiro was the coldest-blooded being in the world, completely indifferent to everything except what interested him.

The Great War?

The Race War?

Such things didn’t interest Sephiro.

And the leader of the Tribe of Despair, turned into a Bone Dragon?

‘If he hasn’t found him until now, he’ll never find him in the future.’

Words of emotion such as ‘You’ve suffered,’ ‘I haven’t forgotten your noble will,’ or ‘Rest in peace’ could never come out of Sephiro’s mouth.

Rather, words like ‘You’ve done something useless,’ ‘You’re a fool,’ or ‘Who are you?’ should have come out.

…He was different.

Too different from the Sephiro he had seen, known, and heard about.

‘…Was it prejudice?’

Perhaps.

…Had all the dragons misunderstood?

Dragon God Sephiro had seen too much and experienced too much, so he only seemed indifferent, but in truth, he loved the dragons more than anyone else.

That was why Sephiro had ended the Great War by killing the great Ten Monarch, the ‘Master of the Void.’

He hadn’t found Arcana, but he had fulfilled Arcana’s wish itself.

Sephiro couldn’t have been unaware that Arcana had become a ‘Bone Dragon.’

He knew, yet he didn’t reveal it.

But the dragons didn’t know at all.

Even the Tribe of Despair believed their leader, Arcana, had died in the war.

‘Sephiro-nim protected the honor of our tribe.’

…He had protected Arcana’s honor.

If Sephiro had found Arcana, the dragons would have learned he had become a Bone Dragon.

Arcana’s name would have become a disgrace to the dragon race, condemned forever.

The Tribe of Despair would never have risen again.

No—the name ‘Despair’ would have been erased from the dragons long ago.

He thought about it.

He recalled everything.

Sephiro’s actions he had witnessed so far.

‘Sephiro-nim is working for us dragons without anyone knowing.’

The main body was still in the ‘Dragon God Palace.’

The clone was secretly digging into the secrets of the world outside.

He was moving for the dragons.

Wasn’t that so?

‘…He destroyed the Black Witch’s purpose and even saved me.’

If he had remained with the Black Witch, he would have eventually died.

Not only that, but even though Ataraxia had targeted and attacked him in the ‘Second Night,’ Sephiro had accepted him gently.

Wish?

Star of Arrogance?

If the Death Witch Adora had become the ‘Lord of Arrogance’ as the Black Witch intended, the dragon race would have suffered the most.

Black magic and magic were exact opposites.

The Black Witch would have used the Lord of Arrogance to target the dragon race first.

…And Master of the Moon Ahetta?

Destroying him had also been for the sake of the dragons.

He had researched Transcendent Magic that froze all Mana.

Even Ataraxia couldn’t use Mana inside the laboratory.

That was fatal to the dragon race, which relied on Mana.

Sephiro had eliminated that threat itself.

Look.

On the outside, he was cold and blunt.

But his actions always led to the benefit of the dragons.

‘We have been misunderstanding this warm and kind person as cold and indifferent.’

Rrrrumble!

Ataraxia was overcome with emotion.

He wanted to kill himself for having treated Sephiro with prejudice.

Until now, no one had tried to understand Sephiro properly.

Therefore…

‘Even if it’s just me, I must properly look at and serve this person.’

Sephiro was the most benevolent of our Gods.

Do not misunderstand his words and actions.

If such bastards appeared, he would destroy them—even if they were fellow dragons.

Ataraxia swore an even more absolute loyalty to Sephiro.

And in that moment, while everyone’s attention was fixed on him—

‘Crazy… Can an option like this exist?’

Park Chan-woo, after checking the options of the [Divine Stigmata] that had appeared—[Easter Egg (003)]—was horrified.

…An option that couldn’t exist, that shouldn’t exist, had appeared.