Chapter 265
While Park Chan-woo had been away at the Mountain of Practitioners, many things had changed in the Land of Valhalla.
The number of Creation Abysses Adora had personally dealt with had increased, and the Golems had grown in number as well.
Most striking of all, the presence of [Original God, Dragon of Hope Arcana] seemed powerful enough to pierce the heavens.
“You’ve returned.”
Adora stepped lightly down from Arcana’s shoulder and looked at Park Chan-woo.
“I’m glad you’re safe too.”
Park Chan-woo answered with a faint smile.
Her tone was as flat and indifferent as ever, but he knew this was the warmest welcome Adora could offer.
His climb up the Mountain of Practitioners had taken far longer than expected.
He had worried something might happen while he was gone, so seeing everyone safe made some small part of him relax.
He turned to Adora again.
“Adora. Was anything wrong while I was away?”
As the Witch of Death and the Creator overseeing the Land of Valhalla, Adora had been handling matters in his place.
She was a dependable equal, someone he could trust without hesitation.
In other words, everything that happened here had passed through her hands.
Adora nodded.
“I disposed of 328 small to medium-sized Creation Abysses near the [Earth 666] Abyss. In the process, I reduced twenty-five Creators to ashes and fed all of the empty land to Cygnus.”
…328?
For a moment, Park Chan-woo was at a loss.
The number was far beyond what he had expected.
Honestly, it exceeded all expectations.
Adora had not merely carried out the request he gave her before heading to the Land of the Golden Nuck and then the Mountain of Practitioners—she had carried it out almost perfectly.
And she had done it alongside Black Dragon Ataraxia, whose tracking ability was exceptional.
The [Earth 666] Abyss was the colosseum-type Creation Abyss placed in Korea.
In other words, a significant portion of the Creation Abysses in Korea had already been cleared away.
‘There were too many Abysses being created in Korea.’
Too much of anything was harmful.
A moderate number of Abysses helped temper humanity, but too many would ruin it instead.
Korea had become a region of particular interest among the Creators.
So some pruning had been necessary.
“You worked hard. It couldn’t have been easy.”
“It was thanks to Ataraxia’s enthusiastic help. He is exceptionally good at finding coordinates.”
A plain compliment.
Even this was the fullest praise Adora could offer.
Park Chan-woo turned his head toward Ataraxia.
“It seems you did even better than I expected.”
“Keh, kehem! It was only natural that I fulfill my duty, O Great One!”
Ataraxia straightened and bowed his head.
But he could hardly lift it again.
‘He acknowledged me!’
He had said Ataraxia’s results exceeded expectations.
If that was not acknowledgment, then what was?
Emotion surged through him like a wave.
All that mad pursuit, all those days when even twenty-four hours had felt too short, had been worth it for a single sentence.
Which dragonkin alive had ever received such words from him?
“Still, calling them ‘small to medium-sized’ means there were large-scale Abysses too?”
Park Chan-woo asked again.
At present, almost all the Abysses in Korea were still relatively small.
At best, they were experimental. Nothing more.
The point when truly serious high-rank Creators would begin making full-scale Abysses would come after the [Species War].
Adora nodded.
“A Demon King’s Abyss appeared. I judged it best not to touch it carelessly, so I left it alone.”
“Did you identify which Demon King created it?”
“Demon King Asura. The one who became the new [Lord of the Night].”
“…The timing is suspicious.”
“It appears to be connected to the next Night of the Abyss. So far, no one seems to have entered it.”
The new [Lord of the Night].
The being who had taken that position after bankrupting Master of the Moon Ahheta was none other than Demon King Asura.
A monster who had paid an astounding one million coins to completely claim Ahheta’s existence and location.
So why had that Demon King chosen Korea, of all places, to create a large Abyss?
And right before the fourth Night of the Abyss.
‘An unopened Creation Abyss. Or one that has opened, but with extremely strict entry conditions.’
His purpose was unclear.
But Park Chan-woo knew Demon King Asura.
‘The least conspicuous of the seventy-two Demon Kings.’
Up until the end of the century, Demon King Asura had shown almost no notable activity, yet he had still become the [Lord of the Night].
And now he was directly targeting Korea.
That meant there was a purpose behind it.
And someone with so little presence was often the most meticulous.
A Demon King could not maintain that position by doing nothing.
It meant he handled matters quietly and cleanly, without drawing attention.
Otherwise, he could never have amassed one million coins.
‘One of the most troublesome Demon Kings.’
Personally, Park Chan-woo had always thought him underestimated.
A monster on a completely different level from Ahheta.
And since he had suddenly made a move, that move had to be assessed carefully.
“You handled it well. If you’d approached recklessly, it could have spiraled out of control.”
Adora’s judgment had been correct.
He was not yet strong enough to confront a Demon King head-on.
Not unless another miracle or anomaly occurred—something like the Heavenly Demon emerging from the [Sealed Demon God’s Grail].
But that was not something he ever wanted to experience again.
This time, he had only been lucky.
Because the Heavenly Demon touched the heart’s mana, Park Chan-woo had been able to dominate it and take control.
The real problem lay with the heart itself.
‘I have Sephiro’s heart.’
Had it crossed over with him during the regression?
Because he regressed while in a state of domination?
And more than that, this was the first time he had become clearly aware of it.
It was also surprising that the Heavenly Demon had tried to wield that power directly.
‘Can the beings inside the [Sealed Demon God’s Grail] use the heart’s mana?’
That was still unknown.
And he could not test it recklessly.
While he had been possessed, he had caught fragments of the Heavenly Demon’s thoughts.
‘If I use the heart’s mana, I die.’
The Heavenly Demon had been utterly certain of it.
No matter the method, he believed death was unavoidable.
Of course, Park Chan-woo could not use it even if he wanted to.
The moment the mana returned to normal, it vanished without a trace.
Enough to make him wonder whether Sephiro’s sealed heart was truly there at all.
Still, if it could be called fortunate, then it was fortunate that Charpham had managed to survive because of the traces of the Heavenly Demon’s unique mana that remained behind.
Once he had sorted out his thoughts, Park Chan-woo looked up at Arcana.
“By the way, Arcana seems to have changed a little.”
It looked slightly larger, and the flow of its mana and shape had shifted.
Most noticeably, its wings.
“…We shall explain that.”
Ziiing!
A [Warp] opened, and another group of dragons appeared.
The dragons of the Tribe of Sloth, led by Drakan.
“We expanded and modified the mana and circuits in the wings, which appeared to belong to the [Lord of Evil]. If left alone, it seemed the progress of ‘Demonization’ would continue…”
“Demonization?”
“Yes. We were concerned they might be affected by the Authority of the [Lord of Evil]. Now, even if there were a one-in-ten-thousand chance, such a thing should no longer occur.”
“Well done.”
Those black wings had indeed resembled the Authority wielded by the [Lord of Evil].
One of the Great Nine Lords, the [Lord of Evil] could grant Authority to his subordinates, bestowing immense power while also controlling both flesh and soul.
Drakan had modified them to prevent even the slightest possibility of a similar influence taking root.
“Um… there is one more thing I would like to propose.”
“What is it?”
“What if we connected the Original God’s magic circuits with the Golems and formed a single colony?”
“You’re talking about organizing them?”
“Something close to that. If the Golems, who already possess egos, are synchronized and linked to the Original God, then the power of that Authority would affect them as well.”
“You mean unifying all their consciousnesses into one.”
“Yes.”
“There would be side effects.”
“Other than the fact that if the Original God is destroyed, they all perish as well…”
“Hm. Unifying all consciousnesses into one doesn’t seem like a good idea.”
Park Chan-woo shook his head.
He had just seen the Immortals.
At a glance, becoming one seemed powerful.
But as the Heavenly Demon said, once they were linked as one, they became weak.
A conclusion reached by many minds was not always the right one.
More than anything—
‘They lose their individuality.’
And a lack of individuality was a sad thing.
The Immortals had certainly been strong, but that was all.
In the end, they had all become uniformly alike.
That made them easier to counter.
Easier to crush beneath a force stronger than themselves.
It was as if they had lost all resistance to a being above them.
That was why they had become obsessed with creating a new Heavenly Demon, with raising Taebaek.
Repeating that same mistake would be foolish.
“Let them grow strong in their own ways.”
“Understood.”
Drakan backed down without protest.
For him, being able to exchange views at all was already enough.
In truth, what mattered most to him was hearing Park Chan-woo’s answer.
So when Park Chan-woo said that while linking core and consciousness might produce a powerful colony, it was not necessarily the right path, Drakan was satisfied.
In a sense, were the dragonkin not also a kind of colony?
They moved as a group beneath the mighty Sephiro, and yet he had still chosen a path where each of them grew strong in their own way.
Surely that was the ultimate direction Sephiro himself had desired.
‘I need to study what those drawbacks really are.’
Understanding that would be an interesting task in its own right.
So Drakan and his tribe were inwardly pleased.
A short while later, Adora finally noticed the people behind Park Chan-woo and asked,
“Who are they?”
“Ah, they’re my companions.”
“…Companions?”
Adora tilted her head.
The people Park Chan-woo had previously accepted as companions had all followed a very different path from these two.
Chiwoo stepped forward.
“I am Chiwoo, and I serve Successor-nim.”
“…I am Adora. But… Successor?”
“Is he not the Successor of the Great One?”
The moment Chiwoo said that, Ataraxia flared up.
“What nonsense are you spouting? This one is the Great One himself.”
“Ah…!”
Of course, Ataraxia had meant Dragon God Sephiro.
But Chiwoo understood it as meaning the Heavenly Demon himself.
‘So it really was true!’
Chiwoo looked around, half stunned, half elated.
Even the dragonkin followed him.
Even the master of this vast and fertile land followed him.
Taking everything he had seen and heard together, only one conclusion remained.
‘He intends to rise to the peak of the Abyss!’
Not merely the Mountain of Practitioners, but the entire Abyss itself.
Was this not the road toward truly standing above the heavens?
And he had been given the chance to assist the Heavenly Demon at his side.
Thump! Thump!
‘It’s a good thing I lived!’
Chiwoo’s heart burned even hotter.
(T/N: The misunderstanding is so great, I dont even know waht would happen if they find out.)
===
After the reunion,
Park Chan-woo took some time alone to examine himself.
First, understanding his own state came before anything else.
‘[Status Window].’
The moment he called up the [Status Window], countless lines of text appeared before his eyes.
But they were nothing like what he had expected.
Ding!
Ding!
Ding!
Ding!
Endless notification sounds rang out.
Before he even had time to frown, his vision was filled with text.
[You have directly or indirectly destroyed a Creation Abyss!]
[You have acquired an additional 5 coins based on contribution.]
[You have directly or indirectly killed a Creator!]
[You have acquired an additional 13 coins based on contribution.]
[You have directly or indirectly destroyed a Creation Abyss!]
[You have acquired an additional 7 coins based on contribution.]
[You have directly or indirectly killed a Creator!]
[You have acquired an additional 16 coins based on contribution.]
……
The messages kept rising one after another.
Adora had said she destroyed 328 Creation Abysses.
And just as she said, the rewards for all 328 were now pouring in.
And that wasn’t all.
[Coin revenue has been generated in the ‘Colosseum.’]
[You have acquired 170 coins according to the contract.]
[You have achieved an unbelievable feat.]
[Calculating accumulated feats.]
[Calculation impossible!]
[Because you achieved a level of feat that cannot be calculated by ordinary means all at once, a [Zero Box(?)] has been granted.]