Chapter 226
“Blood and violence! Slaughter and massacre!”
“Stab, slash, cut, and dismember!”
“Warriors of the great Helium!”
“Let’s instill terror and fear in the enemies!”
The demons who crossed the Warp shouted in unison.
It was a kind of marching song—meant to boost the courage and morale of allies, and crush the enemy’s will.
In the center of it all, Helium laughed wildly.
“My brave warriors! Don’t stop—keep going!”
Land of Valhalla.
The moment he crossed the Warp, it felt like he’d already become the master of this fertile land.
His mouth watered.
Greed took root.
The sacredness of the territory hit him immediately.
It was a land so fertile it couldn’t even be compared to the territory where he had just settled.
To be honest, that place was mostly lava terrain—hardly usable.
He had to take this land.
And to do that, he needed to kill the owner.
“Never look back! Only look ahead and run! Don’t be afraid, even when facing powerful enemies! The invincible lord Helium is here!”
Demon Lord Helium.
He was brimming with confidence.
He had grown stronger with the power of his territory, and had even gained another wing.
And if his guess was right, this place was practically empty.
At best, there’d be some ragtag lower demons.
No demon was unaware of Ahheta’s greed, and there was no way he would’ve handed this territory to a strong demon.
‘Kneel. Then I’ll kill you without pain.’
A rosy future spread out before him.
Shouting alongside his soldiers, he continued to advance.
There was no retreat. Once they started running, they couldn’t stop.
A slaughter tank that only knew how to charge forward.
That was Helium’s army.
Just then, something began to appear in the distance.
“It’s time for slaughter!”
“Kahaha! Wipe them all out!”
“Die all……!”
“……!”
“…….”
…Helium’s soldiers, who had been marching as if to devour the world, stopped dead.
Helium did too.
There was no way they could move forward.
What they saw in the distance—
At first, he thought it was some kind of building, but it wasn’t.
It was as if time itself had frozen.
Helium turned his head to look at Kabron, the one who had caused all of this.
“That son of a bitch…….”
He muttered, his voice as small as an ant.
Kabron had definitely said it was an empty land.
He’d said some shabby demon had become the owner.
He’d said it was, at most, a lower demon who had barely become a Creator thanks to the power of the Land of Valhalla.
Kabron avoided his gaze.
His body trembled, his face turning pale.
What they were facing now was far beyond a demon.
“…Demons.”
A heavy voice.
All the demons froze at the terrifying Mana mixed into those words.
Helium did as well.
He was a lord, not some ordinary demon, but the beings in front of him were monsters that even ordinary lords couldn’t handle.
Dragonkin!
And not just one—countless dragons were staring down at them.
Only one thought surfaced in Helium’s mind.
He’d shouted at them not to look back, to only advance, but—
‘I’m screwed.’
That was the conclusion he reached after careful consideration.
Screwed.
Not just screwed, but completely screwed.
Blood and violence?
Slaughter and massacre?
The demons were about to be the ones to suffer.
“You have set foot in a place you should never have invaded.”
Ataraxia, the owner of the voice, had no intention of forgiving this.
He was purely furious.
This place—the Land of Valhalla—was the Dragon God’s territory.
And Sephiro himself was present.
For filthy demons to set foot in the territory of the most honorable being…
Even burning them all alive wouldn’t be enough.
Guooooooo—!
A black sun rose above Ataraxia’s head.
If it struck the ground, it would explode and annihilate the demons.
Drakan, the leader of the Tribe of Sloth, didn’t stop him either.
Under normal circumstances, he would have.
Because demons and dragons had an agreement not to interfere with each other.
However—
“Ataraxia. If you’re going to do it, wipe them all out. Don’t leave a single one.”
“That’s what I intend to do.”
…If they killed them all, there would be no evidence left.
Drakan, too, was deeply displeased that filthy demons had stepped onto this land—right in front of the Great One.
It was then.
“The timing is good.”
Park Chanwoo stepped forward.
At the same time, question marks filled the eyes of the demons, including Helium.
‘Human?’
‘A mere human is in the center of the dragons…….’
‘Is it a dragon transformed into a human?’
It could be.
He didn’t know why it looked human, but it was clearly an extraordinary being.
Under everyone’s gaze, Park Chanwoo opened his mouth.
“Demons. If you win against the Original God we created, I will spare you all.”
“Wh-what is an Original God……?”
Helium asked, forcing down his fear.
At that moment—
Thump!
A massive dragon appeared, stomping onto the ground.
“……!!”
The demons couldn’t help but be even more shocked.
It was larger than any dragon gathered there.
A colossal figure covered in black scales—so enormous that even they had never seen anything like it.
“This is the Original God, the Dragon of Hope Arcana.”
Dragon of Hope?
No matter how you looked at it, it seemed closer to despair.
On the other hand, some of the dragons reacted strangely.
They couldn’t control their eyes, trembling as if overcome by something as they followed the human’s words.
‘…Why are those dragonkin suddenly acting like that?’
The demons and Helium couldn’t understand any of it.
But for the dragons, it was natural.
‘……He said we created it.’
Drakan and some of the other Sloth dragons were already suspecting that the human was highly likely to be Dragon God Sephiro.
And yet, Dragon God Sephiro had acknowledged them as participants in a joint work—saying, “we created it.”
It was impossible.
Dragon God Sephiro.
What kind of being was he?
He was someone who would treat even borrowing a fingernail’s worth of wisdom as his own achievement.
Countless studies by the Tribe of Sloth had been turned into Sephiro’s accomplishments.
And not once had he said, “we created it together.”
Sephiro only knew himself.
He didn’t even know how to use the word “we.”
Of course, he was their master and god, so they had no complaints.
They simply had no complaints.
Even so, they had never once been moved by Sephiro.
But—
‘We……!’
…‘We.’
A word they were hearing for the first time in their long lives.
Even after losing thousands of studies, they had never heard it once.
At some point, it had simply become normal.
All research materials and results were for Sephiro, not the Tribe of Sloth.
What could be more futile than achievement without recognition?
The tribe grew even more slothful, losing motivation altogether.
But now, for the first time, they were being recognized.
Sephiro would never do that—yet he spoke words he had never spoken.
…Could it be that he wasn’t Dragon God Sephiro?
‘Ataraxia’s reaction, the thirteen divisions, and Arcana…….’
But no matter how he looked at it, the only name that could tie all of this together was Sephiro.
Perhaps he was creating a second clone and operating in secret.
The Dragon God’s whims weren’t new, so it wasn’t strange.
And judging by how Ataraxia couldn’t even speak Sephiro’s name, he was trying to keep it as secret as possible.
‘…So this is what it feels like to be recognized.’
Quietly, Drakan kept chewing on the word “we.”
It felt as if he had become part of Sephiro’s grand plan.
‘Ah! Dragon of Hope!!’
…Ataraxia was feeling a similar upheaval.
It was no different from being directly acknowledged by Sephiro.
Tribe of Despair.
You are the hope of the dragonkin—my hope!
He and Arcana were both from the Tribe of Despair.
Sephiro only kept the Tribe of Despair close.
Tribe of Sloth? Drakan?
They were all just helpers Ataraxia had brought along.
The only ones Sephiro truly allowed to follow him were the Tribe of Despair!
‘Our tribe is the hope!’
They had been officially recognized.
He couldn’t help but tremble.
Of course, Park Chanwoo hadn’t said those words with that intention.
“Or all of you will…….”
“Wa-wait a minute! Do we really only have to face that dragon… the Original God? And how can we trust that you’ll spare us if we win?”
Helium hurriedly asked.
There was no chance of victory against the dragons.
Whether it was 100,000, a million, or ten million, the moment they waged war against those dragons, they would be annihilated.
“I don’t say two things with one mouth.”
Park Chanwoo shrugged.
“Ca-can you swear before the Reaper of Oaths…….”
“Please allow me to wipe out those unbelieving insects, Great One.”
Ataraxia answered instead.
To bring up the Reaper of Oaths—
Wasn’t that a sign he didn’t trust the Dragon God’s words?
They were foolish insects, doubting even after being given a chance.
Demons that couldn’t be reformed had to be burned to death.
“I’ll believe it! I’ll believe it completely!”
Helium hurriedly nodded.
The dragons followed this human.
He had to be a being at the very top of the dragonkin.
If Helium fought them head-on, he’d die before he could even take a breath.
It was better to face only that Original God—whatever it was.
Kooong!
Kuuuuuung!
A gigantic body that looked to be at least twenty meters tall.
Twice the size of an average adult dragon.
As Arcana moved toward the battlefield, the ground rumbled and the sky shook.
Everyone watched the Original God Arcana with bated breath.
How much performance would the Original God show?
Could it overcome the limits of the Colossus?
Honestly, Park Chanwoo was just as curious.
“It’s do or die! We just have to defeat that one!”
Helium rallied his soldiers.
It was only one.
If over 100,000 demons rushed it all at once, they could handle that much.
Sreung!
Helium drew a greatsword larger than his own body.
Sreureung!
Six more hands that had been hidden inside his body burst out.
Though he was a minor lord, his martial power was on a level ordinary lords couldn’t compare to.
Helium, weapons in every hand, gathered Mana and shouted.
“Attack!”
“Waaaaaaa!”
A thunderous roar.
And it began.
A brutal massacre.
—
Jiiing!
Jiiing!
Countless magic circles formed around the Original God Arcana.
They appeared far faster than the speed at which dragons normally deployed magic.
Arcana of Despair.
In life, he was said to be the fastest dragon to use magic.
Combining countless spells of completely different natures and firing them indiscriminately—
That was Arcana’s greatest strength.
It was also a major reason an ordinary dragon could reach the doorstep of the Great Lord, Lord of Evil.
How many beings in the Abyss could pierce through countless territories—and demons comparable to Demon Kings—then stand before the Great Lord?
Arcana had accomplished the unimaginable, alone.
“…How many magic circles are there?”
“There are well over 20,000.”
“……Has there ever been a dragon that could do that?”
The watching dragons couldn’t help but be horrified.
Before they knew it, the magic circles had blanketed the sky.
They weren’t high-ranking spells.
But—
Gooooooo!
The sky wailed.
Then—
Thump! Thump!
Kwarreureung!
Hundreds of thousands of lightning bolts slammed into the ground.
“Keoeok!”
“Keureuk! Keureureuk!”
Ten thousand demons died instantly, without even a chance to resist.
And it didn’t end there.
Each magic circle covering the sky linked together, completing a single, massive magic circle.
“Linked magic?”
“Don’t tell me that was just preparation?”
“It’s not something a Colossus can do.”
“It’s a real Original God!”
The dragons erupted in excitement.
A Colossus could use basic magic, but linked magic was a different matter entirely.
But it was still too early to be surprised.
Because from that magic circle—so enormous it covered the sky—
“Dragon’s Breath?”
“No, that’s……!”
“Crazy! It’s Pure Despair!”
Kureung!
Kuuuuuuung!
A thin black line struck the ground.
That was only the beginning.
The line rapidly expanded, turning into a black pillar.
Everything it swept over vanished.
Pure Despair.
A super-high-ranking magic that even those of the Tribe of Despair couldn’t use.
The tribe’s grand magic, said to have been lost after the Great War!
And that still wasn’t the end.
“Wait, what are those wings?”
“What’s sprouting on the Original God… those aren’t dragon wings!”
A pair of massive black wings sprouted from behind the Original God Arcana after it used Pure Despair.
They weren’t dragon wings.
They were demon wings.
In that moment—
“No way…….”
Drakan’s voice trembled.
As the leader of the Tribe of Sloth, he knew exactly what those wings were.
But why were they growing from the Original God?
Impossible.
Because those wings belonged to—
“Lord of Evil…….”
One of the existing Great Nine Lords.
…They were the Lord of Evil’s.