Chapter 175 - Episode 23. Driver (9)
Chapter 175: Episode 23. Driver (9)
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Kwooooooong.
A Stab powerful enough to pierce through the entire Tower and break through the mantle.
At first, it only left shallow cracks across the Tenth Floor. Then, at some point, the floor began to sink little by little.
The World Force of 「Fall」 spewed black flames, scorching everything around it.
The next moment, the floor of the 〈Metaverse〉 collapsed with a thunderous roar.
The Allies screamed and clutched each other.
“Hold on tight! Don’t let go of each other!”
“What happens now?”
“I don’t know either!”
Rene and Runald’s cries dissolved into the storm of World Force like echoes.
Jaehwan’s violently swirling Stab shattered the Tenth Floor completely, then advanced toward the Ninth Floor and the Eighth Floor.
“Aaaaaah!”
Even Manri Shintong forgot his dignity and screamed.
They had somehow gathered on the Tenth Floor, but at that moment, they were a community bound by fate.
“...Article Five, Clause Five! ...and then...!”
“Could you stop muttering that already?”
If even one of them let go, they would obviously be swept into the storm and torn apart. Everyone gripped one another’s wrists tightly.
Runald glanced to the side through the fierce wind and asked, “Will they be okay over there?”
Yu Seolha, Jin Eunsae, and the Leader stood guard around Jaehwan, maintaining their balance.
“This is not the time to worry about others!”
With Karlton’s reply, the ground of the Eighth Floor collapsed as well.
The Seventh Floor, the Sixth Floor...
The Tower was breaking apart, slowly but surely.
Gods screamed from every direction.
[The God of Gambling ‘Baccarat’ cries out, asking what is happening!]
[The God of Mortality ‘Thanatos’ cries, “Mortality!”]
[The God of Aging ‘Shiyu’ is greatly flustered and lets out a furious roar!]
...
[Multiple gods hurriedly search for the ‘disembarkation bell’!]
[Some gods are shocked by the Tower’s collapse!]
It was a natural disaster they had likely never experienced before.
Startled gods began leaving the Tower or fleeing to lower floors that had not yet collapsed.
That was when World Force descended like lightning from the sky of the 《Abyss》.
It seemed the Lord of Sloth had noticed Jaehwan was trying to destroy the Tower. Bombardment came from a distant spacecraft.
Jaehwan did not stop.
The bombardment only accelerated the Tower’s collapse.
[Stop.]
The Lord of Sloth’s voice echoed through the air. Since Jaehwan showed no sign of retreating, the Lord of Sloth seemed to have changed tactics and manifested a new Authority.
Krrrrrrr.
A sound like the sea freezing rang out, and everything nearby began to stop.
It was the Lord of Sloth who had given the Leader the Authority of Chronos, the God of Time. It would not have been strange for that being to stop the Tower’s time in an instant.
Tzzzt.
The Tower froze like a paused screen.
Sparks flew as Jaehwan’s body resisted the Lord of Sloth’s Authority. If this continued any longer, the Lord of Sloth would disappear beyond the Abyss along with the Tower’s World Force.
Then someone beside Jaehwan moved.
A man who quietly moved his hand as though the Lord of Sloth’s Authority had no effect on him at all.
It was the Leader, Eoduksi.
The Leader looked at his own miniatures as they crumbled away.
Fragments of souls, caught in the World Force storm and scattered apart, touched his outstretched fingertips.
Those memories had once been his Companions, but now they were nothing more than hollow shells. One by one, they scattered into ash amid the radiance.
Eoduksi, the God of Ashes.
At last, it was time to end his long funeral procession.
「Time Acceleration」
A Setting that applied Chronos’s unique Setting, 「Time Rewind」, in reverse.
It had only just been improvised, so it was far from complete. Even so, the Leader forced the Setting into effect.
Because in this Tower, he alone could move this ‘time.’
Kududududud.
The entire Tower shook violently, like a clockwork spring clogged with impurities being forcibly wound.
Silver streamed from the Leader’s nose and mouth.
Then, with a click, the Tower’s time began moving again.
Jaehwan’s Dokbul released World Force once more.
The Sixth Floor, the Fifth Floor, the Fourth Floor...
Each time the Stab pierced through another floor, one of the Leader’s miniatures crumbled away.
The Leader watched the scene with clouded eyes.
Then Yu Seolha spoke.
“You would not listen when I told you. What changed your mind?”
The Leader glanced at Yu Seolha weakly before answering.
“Didn’t I tell you? It was too long.”
“It was so long that none of it matters anymore?”
“Even if I returned, my Companions would not return.”
His voice sounded as though he had spent an entire lifetime just to say those words.
Yet because he had poured everything out, the Leader could finally fill himself with new words.
“What I can do now is stop another Great Disappearance.”
“The Great Disappearance will not happen again.”
“You don’t know that. Not as long as your Rupture exists.”
The Leader and Yu Seolha’s gazes collided in the air.
“I will destroy the Rupture with my own hands.”
“That’s funny.”
Sparks suddenly flew between the two, and Jin Eunsae, pale-faced, shouted at them.
“Focus, Division Commander! This is where it really begins!”
At some point, Jaehwan’s Stab had stopped.
The Stab had reached the earth’s axis and finally succeeded in splitting the Tower in two.
For an instant, the air felt as though it had condensed to its limit. Then an ear-splitting roar erupted.
Soon, every sound vanished.
Jin Eunsae’s cry, Karlton and Runald’s shouts, all of them scattered into the explosion.
Having exhausted all his World Force, Jaehwan fell toward the ground.
Far away, the sky of the Abyss was closing.
The Lord of Sloth’s World Pressure was fading.
The spacecraft was nowhere to be seen, so it seemed that being had succeeded in crossing the boundary of the Abyss.
Still, it was uncertain whether the Lord of Sloth could reach the First Nightmare with the remaining World Force.
More than half of it had returned to the Tower.
Amid the falling debris, Jaehwan read the Tower’s memories.
「“This Tower was created for the ‘end of the world.’”」
It was the voice of Neil Crash, the dream demon who had created the Tower.
Had the first being to create a Tower foreseen this day?
The Tower restored ancient records. Those restored records flowed directly into Jaehwan’s mind.
Thousands of years ago, a dream demon stood atop the Tower and looked toward the sky. They had dreamed of the end of the world long before Jaehwan, and even before Mulack.
The gods said Neil Crash had probably already reached the ‘end of the world.’
Jaehwan had thought so too. He had assumed Neil Crash would naturally have boarded a ‘spacecraft,’ just like the Lord of Sloth, and headed for the end of the world.
Yet the story that reached Jaehwan’s ears was completely unexpected.
「“Are you truly not leaving?”」
「“Yes.”」
「“But your lifespan is nearly at its end.”」
「“I know. That is why I am leaving the Tower to you. You will be the next ‘Driver.’”」
The dream demon remained in this world with the Tower they had created.
After creating the 〈Metaverse〉 over countless years, Neil Crash quietly fell asleep one day and became part of this world.
「“This is my ‘end of the world.’”」
Jaehwan did not know why.
He did not have the sensitivity to understand the dream demon in their final years. Still, one thing was clear. For some reason, Neil Crash had abandoned the Abyss Expedition and remained in this world.
Perhaps Neil Crash had believed that was the more valuable choice.
The history of the 〈Metaverse〉 flowed into Jaehwan.
The stories of the Drivers who had succeeded one another.
Records of the worlds those Drivers had created. The joy, sorrow, despair, and resentment created by gods and Followers gathered intact within Jaehwan’s Unique World.
Even as pain threatened to burst his head apart, Jaehwan did not forget those stories.
That was the duty of one who carried out Destruction.
At last, Neil Crash’s words reached him.
「“But perhaps someone who leaves this Tower will reach the true ‘end of the world.’”」
With the sound of something crumbling, Jaehwan lost consciousness.
* * *
White ash drifted through the air like snow.
The gods who had been scrambling to evacuate began gathering again, one by one.
“My god... Is this real?”
The collapse of the 〈Metaverse〉.
Caspion’s landmark, which had stood for thousands of years, had fallen.
Before that historic event, even the gods seemed to gradually realize something.
A few low-grade gods sneered.
“Serves it right. It was a place that sucked low-grade gods dry.”
“What changes if you call it the 〈Metaverse〉? It was just a gambling den.”
“What happened to the gods inside? Don’t tell me they all died?”
“No way.”
As the gods murmured among themselves, employees dispatched from the 〈World Force Suppression Bureau〉 began controlling the area.
“Step back! It’s dangerous!”
Even Director Adel Richmond had come to the scene personally to take control.
“What the...”
Director Adel Richmond had heard that something unusual was happening in the 〈Metaverse〉. Still, how could the entire 〈Metaverse〉 collapse overnight? What kind of disaster was this?
That was when something wriggled within the dust that had settled over the area.
“Huh? Something’s moving over there.”
People began rising from the wreckage one by one. Jaehwan’s Allies, including Runald and Karlton, rose alongside the survivors of the 〈Metaverse〉.
Having finally been thrown out of the Tower, they looked up at the sky.
Most still seemed unable to understand their situation, their faces blank with shock.
Snow-like ash scattered over the gods’ faces.
“Ah...”
The gods stared hollowly at the ash falling from the sky.
Their expressions changed when pillars of light began rising one after another from where the ash landed.
The first pillar of light disappeared, revealing a half-naked giant.
“Hans?”
With the flutter of wings, Andersen flew over from afar.
“Huh?”
The bearded giant blinked, then looked down at his own body in disbelief.
After staring for a long time, tears rolled down his face.
“How am I...?”
That was the beginning.
Familiar figures appeared one after another from the pillars of light.
Andersen cried out.
“Marianne? Christian!”
They were all Andersen’s Followers, who had met their complete end on the Tower’s Sixth Floor five hundred years ago.
They were not the only ones.
Countless Followers were rising from the pillars of light. They were clearly people who had become Dolls or were believed to have died inside the Tower.
“What in the world...?”
Gods watching the Tower’s fall spoke in confused voices.
The dead were coming back to life. They had never heard of such a miracle.
No, there was one similar miracle.
“The Fruit of Resurrection...”
A miraculous Fruit said to fall only when someone reached the end of this 《Tree of Illusion》. Only that Fruit could turn the dead back into living beings.
Yet before their eyes, a miracle comparable to that Fruit was taking place.
The 〈World Force Suppression Bureau〉 employees, having grasped the abnormal situation, hurriedly began reporting to the Director.
“They are all souls that died in the Metaverse. The souls are returning to life.”
A miracle in which those who died inside the Tower returned to life.
Could it have something to do with the end of the world opening for an instant? The cause was unknown.
“Jaehwan!”
“Fortress Lord, where are you?”
The Allies who had recovered their senses called Jaehwan’s name from all directions.
Among those who came to their senses after hearing those voices was Ethan Cart, the King of Crows.
Ethan Cart’s Vicegerent, Jihan, spoke first.
“Ethan, this is...”
[Yes. I think you are right.]
Ethan had clearly disappeared along with Jihan’s body on the Sixth Floor.
Yet now, Ethan Cart had returned unharmed with Jihan.
It seemed as though crows were cawing somewhere.
Without thinking, Ethan raised his head and looked toward the sky of the Abyss.
[It’s the real sky.]
The 〈Metaverse〉, the prison of gods that had stood tall in 〈Caspion〉.
After thousands of years, the prisoners of that prison had finally been freed.
* * *
Three days later, the ‘Seven Divine Thrones’ finally began to move.
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