Chapter 174 - Episode 23. Driver (8)
Chapter 174: Episode 23. Driver (8)
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Jaehwan nodded as he looked at the Driver.
“I understand.”
[Then why? Why are you stopping me?]
Something about the Driver’s tone had changed. Perhaps he had already ascended halfway, because the aura surrounding his entire body had changed as well.
It felt as though his very divine rank had changed.
He had felt extraordinary before, but now he seemed like a being from an entirely different dimension, a Beyond-Divine existence.
A thousand years’ worth of World Force had transformed the foundation of the Driver’s existence.
He was no longer the Lord of Sloth.
“Good grief...”
High-grade gods, including Rene and Manri Shintong, trembled.
Strength and beauty could sometimes be mistaken for each other.
The Allies looked utterly confused. Had they ever seen a being like that before? Had someone so complete and noble ever existed in this 《Abyss》?
Jaehwan looked up at the Driver as well.
Bloody footprints marked the translucent stairs the Driver had climbed. He stood there after stepping on blood whose owner he did not even know.
The Sublimity that came from knowing his destination was the ‘end of the world’ was so dazzling that the other gods seemed unable to see the bloodstains at his feet.
The Driver looked down at Jaehwan.
[Were you not a being like me?]
Jaehwan looked up at him and thought.
Perhaps the Lord of Sloth had not always been like this. If he had been, Samyeong Garam would not have advised Jaehwan to meet him.
“Maybe I was, once.”
[Are you no more than a ‘broken god’ in the end?]
Rather than answer, Jaehwan adjusted his grip on his sword.
The Driver tilted his head. He looked as though he genuinely could not understand why Jaehwan would do such a thing.
There was not a shred of guilt in his eyes for the sins he had committed, for the tragedy this tower had created.
Meeting that gaze, Jaehwan thought:
That appearance was probably one possible result of walking this path of carnage to the end.
Perhaps one day, he too would climb those blood-red stairs and wear the same expression.
But that was a matter for then. At least for now, he was here.
After thinking for a moment, the Driver began walking again.
[I see. Come to think of it, you climbed the tower by an unusual method. God Slayer Jaehwan, you who opened the Door to the Tenth Floor without killing your Companions.]
The Driver continued.
[You have the right to stop me.]
With a fierce gust of wind, violent World Force poured from the Driver’s entire body, like a beast revealing its presence.
Before they knew it, the Allies’ knees had struck the floor. Lower-ranked beings like Runald and Martis could not even raise their heads. Even Leader, the first seat of the Seven Stars, could barely support himself by driving his sword into the ground.
Only Jaehwan endured the waves of that overwhelming rank in full.
Even Jaehwan could only endure.
The Driver looked down at Jaehwan for a moment, then began walking toward the sky once more.
It seemed that beings on the ground no longer entered his sight.
The only thing reflected in the Driver’s eyes was the end of the sky.
A world where distant eternity and an absolute conclusion awaited.
Jaehwan gripped Dokbul with all his strength and gathered World Force.
Leader asked, “How much World Force do you have left?”
“Hardly any.”
Leader placed a hand on Jaehwan’s shoulder.
“This is the only time.”
Leader’s World Force began flowing into Jaehwan through his shoulder. It was so vast and deep that it was hard to believe Leader had stored this much power until now. Still, considering Leader had not spent the last six hundred years doing nothing, it made sense.
Sanctuary Manifestation.
「The World After the Fall」
Dokbul spewed black flames. The power of 「Fall」 covered its blade, and the power of the Sanctuary rose.
The surroundings changed with a tremor. Jaehwan’s tower began rising after piercing through the penthouse floor.
It was the 《Tower of Nightmares》 Jaehwan had lived in, the ‘Fortress of Regret.’
First Floor, Tenth Floor, Fiftieth Floor...
The tower shot toward the sky in an instant. Jaehwan’s stubborn history rose after the Driver’s thousand blood-soaked years.
Startled, the Driver turned around.
That was when Jaehwan, gathering World Force at Dokbul’s blade, opened his eyes wide.
A gigantic eye occupied the sky of his Unique World. That eye, which had always seemed distant, looked a little closer today. Perhaps the ideal he had pursued was right before him.
Jaehwan thought about it. What if he killed the Driver and stole his spaceship? He might be able to reach the place where that ‘eye’ was, using another person’s thousand years as fertilizer.
Even if that choice denied everything he had lived for.
The Driver smiled. It was a smile that seemed to say Jaehwan understood him after all.
“I understand.”
Jaehwan grinned like a madman at the Driver.
“That is why I cannot make the same choice as you.”
Jaehwan suddenly looked back.
Just as the Driver had climbed blood-red stairs, Jaehwan had also walked a tower stained with someone’s blood. Memories wandered his tower like ghosts.
Those who had died because of Jaehwan, or those Jaehwan had failed to save.
Everyone he had carved into his memory without missing a single one was still watching him.
That was why, even if he were given the same choice a hundred times, a thousand times, Jaehwan’s choice would remain the same.
Jaehwan would not reach the end of the world by taking the Driver’s path.
He could not. That was the life Jaehwan had lived.
That was why he stabbed.
[This is the World Force accumulated over a thousand years by hundreds of thousands of gods. Can you bear it alone?]
Kwoooooong!
Jaehwan’s Stab, filled to the brim with the power of 「Fall」, shattered the stairs the Driver had been climbing and struck the Driver.
It was a blow into which he had poured all his World Force, but it was not his strongest attack.
Even so, it was his best attack.
But.
[What a fine history.]
With a single casual motion of the hand from left to right, the Stab scattered. When the hand moved from right to left again, Jaehwan felt the balance of the entire area collapse.
When the Driver’s hand moved from top to bottom one final time, Jaehwan realized that the ground beneath his feet was tilting.
Only three gestures.
Those three gestures broke Jaehwan’s tower.
The Sanctuary collapsed, and Jaehwan fell toward the ground along with fragments of the broken tower.
[We will meet again someday, God Slayer.]
As Jaehwan plummeted toward the floor, the Driver finally arrived at the spaceship.
The spaceship, filled with entrancing light, released World Force and departed for the end of the Abyss. Its World Force-covered hull pierced the Abyss’s atmosphere and became engulfed in fierce flames.
As the scenery fell away, Jaehwan heard the Allies calling for him. He wanted to extend his sword one more time, but his body would not move. He knew he could not always be lucky, but he could not let go of his regrets this time.
World Force extending from the tower drew a long tail from the end of the spaceship like a meteor shower.
Damn it.
Just as Jaehwan squeezed his eyes shut in preparation for the coming impact, something in his chest broke.
Warm World Force burst from within his clothes and slowed his fall.
“What kind of state are you in?”
Yu Seolha, who had been trapped inside the Cube, had emerged at just the right moment.
Yu Seolha swiftly spread World Force to catch Jaehwan, circled through the air several times, then landed with him on the ground.
Yu Seolha must have grasped some of the situation outside even from within the Cube. Supporting Jaehwan, Yu Seolha looked up at the sky.
“That Driver bastard actually succeeded. After enduring for a thousand years...”
Then the gods’ messages could be heard as well.
[The God of Flames ‘Ignis’ has noticed the disturbance in the sky.]
[The Dragon God ‘Droyan’ looks toward the sky.]
[The God of Aging ‘Shiyu’ stares at the sky with his eyes wide open.]
[The God of Mortality ‘Thanatos’ looks up at the air in shock.]
[Some gods look up at the sky of the 《Abyss》!]
[Multiple gods are startled by the terrible torrent of energy!]
Beyond the distant sky, a pitch-black mouth could be seen opening. Before all the watching gods, the end of the world was about to open.
If they left things as they were, the Driver would disappear beyond it with a thousand years’ worth of World Force.
Jaehwan spoke to Yu Seolha.
“Give me your remaining World Force.”
Yu Seolha shook their head.
“Is that any way to speak to the person who saved you? And it’s already too late. That bastard is-”
“Not yet.”
Jaehwan squeezed out every last bit of strength and gathered World Force in Dokbul once more. Yu Seolha narrowed their eyes at Jaehwan, who refused to give up even with his entire body in ruins.
“You...”
Yu Seolha suddenly looked up. The trail of World Force the spaceship had left behind stretched through the sky. Looking closely, the trail had split into hundreds of strands connected to the tower.
Links.
Even after the spaceship had departed, the tower was still sending World Force through the Links to push it into the sky.
Yu Seolha spoke.
“I can’t sever that with 「Soul Erasure」. I can’t cut that many Links at once.”
“I know.”
Then why was Jaehwan asking for World Force?
Just as Yu Seolha was about to say something, Rene rushed over.
“Are you okay? You’re badly hurt.”
“...”
“It’s enough now. You can stop. This is enough-”
“You wanted to protect this tower.”
Rene’s face went pale at Jaehwan’s words.
Jaehwan then looked at Manri Shintong and Martis.
Understanding the meaning of that gaze, Rene asked, “Wait. Are you really going to do that?”
Jaehwan did not answer.
What he was about to do might deny the entire history they had lived through.
Rene cried out sharply.
“You can’t be serious, right? That won’t solve anything. It will stop the transfer of World Force, but what about the gods on the lower floors?”
“It is time for the gods to go outside again.”
Leader was the one who answered.
Rene turned to Leader in surprise.
“Leader, you have been the master of this tower for six hundred years. How can you-”
New authority radiated from Leader’s entire body.
The Lord of Sloth had ascended to the sky, and now Leader was about to become this tower’s new Driver.
Yet Leader did not look happy at all. Looking down at the miniature tower sprawled across the floor, he muttered:
“It has been too long.”
Only one sentence.
Still, Rene had no choice but to close her mouth. Manri Shintong and Martis lowered their heads as well.
After a silence that was both brief and long, Manri Shintong raised his head and held out a hand to Jaehwan.
“I suppose this is no time to worry about dumpling recipes.”
World Force flowed from Manri Shintong’s hand into Jaehwan. It contained the essence of the 「Black Shop」 he had led.
Martis also gave Jaehwan World Force.
“I will help. Whatever happens, I will stay with you until the end.”
Yu Seolha sighed.
“You won’t listen even if I stop you.”
“...”
“Fine. It can’t be helped.”
Yu Seolha and Jin Eunsae gave Jaehwan their World Force. The ominous, dark World Force of 「Rupture」 flowed along Jaehwan’s arm and into Dokbul.
Runald and Karlton added their strength as well.
As the Allies’ World Force wrapped around Dokbul, its cry grew deeper.
It was not as much World Force as when Jaehwan had pierced the ceiling of the Tenth Floor. This time, though, he did not need that much.
Leader spoke.
“End it in one strike. There is no one on the lower floors who can receive your World Force now.”
Jaehwan nodded lightly, then drove Dokbul toward the floor with all his strength.
「World Stab」
If he could not stop the Lord of Sloth’s spaceship, he had to cut off the power being sent to it.
There was only one choice Jaehwan could make.
To destroy 〈Metaverse〉 itself.
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