Chapter 90 - Episode 13. Catastrophe (4)
Chapter 90: Episode 13. Catastrophe (4)
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Nothing but pitch-black darkness, ahead and behind.
Darkness filled the entire passage. Even after his eyes had adjusted to the dark for quite some time, he could see nothing around him.
Jaehwan moved forward, relying only on ENIAC’s footsteps ahead of him and his own senses.
They may already be here by now.
He looked calm on the outside, but countless thoughts swirled through Jaehwan’s mind.
The passage was longer than he had expected. As a result, his steps gradually began to quicken.
Mistaking that urgency for a kind of courage, ENIAC spoke with admiration.
[I have never seen a human like you.]
“I hear that often.”
ENIAC let out a quiet laugh, as if Jaehwan had told a pleasant joke. It sounded like air leaking from a tire, half unease and half awe.
[You do not truly believe you can persuade the Sole King, do you?]
Jaehwan did not answer at once.
He had no clear certainty either. Yet when he looked back, he had never done anything with absolute certainty.
Even so, he had made it this far.
Because he had never wavered.
“We’ll find out when I try.”
Of course, it was not as though he had nothing to believe in.
Jaehwan had a reason for forcing open the sealed door.
《Record of the Abyss》.
He had planned for this day from the moment he obtained the record Mulack had left behind in Eight Gates of Hell. More precisely, from the moment he encountered part of the conversation between the Sole King and Mulack recorded within the Record of the Abyss.
There had been almost no information about Big Brother in the Record of the Abyss, but it contained more than enough information about the Sole King, Catastrophe.
[I hope it goes well.]
ENIAC’s voice carried genuine sincerity.
“Thanks.”
Hearing Jaehwan’s brief response, ENIAC sank into complicated thoughts. ENIAC’s logic circuits defined the current situation as a clear “error.” This was not something that was supposed to happen.
Perhaps I have finally broken down.
ENIAC could not understand why they had ultimately opened the sealed door.
Jaehwan’s offer to find the Colossus was tempting, but accepting it at face value would have been foolish. Even if he found the Colossus, their god could not be resurrected.
Still, Jaehwan’s forceful attitude gave ENIAC a strange sensation, as though their logic circuits were burning out.
It was a vast feeling that encompassed machines and humans, living things and lifeless things alike. A complex chemical reaction that had never been imprinted in the logic circuits of ENIAC, who had lived as an apostle of Deus for countless years.
ENIAC did not know that it was an emotion humans often called expectation.
Grrr.
From time to time, Jaehwan sensed the presence of creatures that seemed to be Horned Beasts in the darkness. They growled low, but did not attack first.
Some Horned Beasts even seemed to feel a sense of familiarity toward Jaehwan. It was because of the black-glowing tattoo on his arm.
It was a black snake-shaped tattoo he had inherited from the previous Fortress Lord when he became Gorgon’s Fortress Lord. In Gorgon, it was known as the Fortress Lord’s Mark.
[It seems you possess the Mark of Deus, Jaehwan, but you have not been using it. If you activate that pattern from now on, the Horned Beasts will not attack you.]
Only then did Jaehwan learn from ENIAC how to use the tattoo.
[That Mark was one of the gifts our apostles gave humans in the past. Originally, we gave the Mark together with a Seven-Horned-class Guardian Horned Beast, but it seems your Guardian Horned Beast has vanished somehow. Perhaps it disappeared during the transfer process...]
Jaehwan recalled the moment the previous Fortress Lord of Gorgon had passed the Mark to him. The Fortress Lord had certainly not been in their right mind then. Mutation had progressed severely, and both their spiritual power and mental energy had nearly run dry.
Since he had received the Mark under those circumstances, it could only have been incomplete.
ENIAC carefully examined Jaehwan’s Mark, then made a few adjustments to it.
[If you meet any of our apostles hiding in the 《Abyss》, you may be able to gain their favor through this Mark. Just as you did now.]
White light and a mystical aura flowed from the Mark, and the Horned Beasts around them slowly backed away. It would have made things easier if he had known sooner. Jaehwan felt a little deflated.
Jaehwan and ENIAC continued onward, passing groups of Horned Beasts roaming the darkness to hunt Deadmans.
After a while, ENIAC, who had been walking ahead, stopped with a bizarre metallic sound.
[You must go on alone from here.]
ENIAC’s voice trembled faintly. Jaehwan sensed the vague fear hidden in that tremor.
This was where it truly began.
“I’ll be back soon.”
[Please return within one hour. If you have not returned by then, I will forcibly seal the door, regardless of the outcome.]
Jaehwan gave a slight nod and moved forward. ENIAC’s form was soon swallowed by complete darkness.
Jaehwan kept walking.
And walking.
After an unknown amount of time, he reached an enormous door. It was massive, but had no lock. He could force it open with enough strength.
They kept the Deadmans contained with such a flimsy door?
Yet when Jaehwan reached out and placed a hand on it, he had to change his mind.
A cold texture. A sacred aura spreading through it.
“Was it made from Horned Beast horns?”
Horned Beast horns, the substance most deadly to Deadmans in 《Chaos》.
Looking more closely, he saw that the entire passage, including the door, had been made from Horned Beast horns.
This door was why the Deadmans could not freely come outside.
The Strange Factory had been impressive, but this door was no less extraordinary.
Sacred Horned Beast energy filled the entire area. The whole passage was no different from a massive Great Sealing Formation.
Yet Jaehwan did not admire the formation’s precision. Unease came first.
After all, the seal’s completeness only confirmed how terrifying the being waiting beyond it had to be.
With a deep rumble, the door opened.
The power of the Horned Beast horns gradually faded, and a dangerous sensation began pressing down on his entire body.
The intense pressure, something he had not felt in a long time, jolted Jaehwan fully alert.
What was this enormous pressure?
Was it energy flowing out from the 《Abyss》?
Or...
Of course, Jaehwan already knew the answer.
Gwoooooo...
The cries of Deadmans echoed from all directions.
Beyond the receding darkness stood a colossal palace.
An ancient palace so immense that it surpassed even the 《Palace of Rebirth》 stood there.
Deadmans emerged from all around. There were no small Deadmans or medium Deadmans. Every one of them was a large Deadman, nearly equal to a seventh-stage Adapter.
And among those large Deadmans stood several figures.
Colossal Deadmans.
Jaehwan slowly raised his Spiritual Pressure and gripped Dokbul tightly.
There were two Colossal Deadmans on the level of Magritte Who Walks Backward, whom he had faced before. More than a dozen others were only slightly weaker.
On top of that, there were too many large Deadmans, each at the level of a seventh-stage Adapter, to count.
But they were not the truly frightening beings.
It’s coming.
Jaehwan sharpened his focus.
An opponent on another level. An enemy stronger than any he had encountered in 《Chaos》.
So this was it.
He trembled.
Even Jaehwan, with all his pride, could not help but acknowledge a being on a different level.
Having surpassed the fourth stage of Awakening and achieved Creation, Jaehwan could tell.
The being before him was undoubtedly a god.
An Absolute God, as though 《Chaos》 itself had taken form.
[You finally came.]
Just one sentence.
Yet silver light poured from Jaehwan’s mouth as he coughed. He had suffered unbearable damage from a single sentence.
In that brief instant, Jaehwan unleashed every technique he had learned. The stages of Awakening, from Doubt to Hypothesis, pierced through his soul in an instant. He resisted the being before him with everything he possessed.
But Jaehwan realized it.
The being before him far surpassed the full extent of his power.
Doubt was impossible.
Understanding was incomprehensible.
Selflessness was futile.
Hypothesis was fragile.
Every authority of Awakening knelt before Catastrophe’s existence.
It was strength incomparable to the doppelganger he had faced before.
It had been this powerful?
This was Catastrophe’s true strength.
The Calamity of Chaos. No name suited it better.
Before Catastrophe, everyone was nothing more than a tiny insect.
Jaehwan recalled the Strange Factory and the sealing formations he had passed through. Those formations existed to seal this being, no, this calamity?
Bullshit.
Who could dare to “seal” a being like this?
Even so, Jaehwan did not kneel.
The pride of humanity he had defended, the will that refused to submit before the world, made it possible.
The power of Hypothesis covered the trembling Dokbul. Jaehwan’s small world shook like a lamp in the wind.
But that was everything Jaehwan had right now.
The only resistance he could offer against the immense world before him.
[You came here to die of your own accord, human Awakened One.]
The voice sounded almost approving.
He could feel an overwhelming gaze, as though Catastrophe were looking at an insect about to die. Amid pain so suffocating that the gaze alone seemed capable of killing him, Jaehwan forced his mouth open.
“I didn’t come here to die.”
Jaehwan desperately raised his head and looked toward where Catastrophe was.
More precisely, he looked toward where Catastrophe should have been. At Jaehwan’s current level, he could not even see Catastrophe’s form.
Catastrophe’s voice continued, sounding interested.
[...Then? Have you come to spout more nonsense about defeating me?]
Silver light burst from Jaehwan’s mouth again.
He squeezed out the words.
“I came to make a deal.”
An unexpected silence followed.
Then, after a moment.
A fierce laugh beyond anything words could describe echoed through the palace.
Every Deadman was laughing.
A human, no more than an insect.
Dared to make a deal with a god?
Silver dust fell from Jaehwan’s lips, which he had bitten hard enough to draw blood.
Yet he did not yield. His eyes were instead endlessly calm and cold.
He drew in a breath and spoke again.
“Catastrophe, the first Awakened One and King of Chaos. A being who was once a god, but has now been reduced to nothing but a king.”
Information he had read in the Record of the Abyss.
The moment he said those words, Jaehwan realized there was truly no turning back now.
This was the turning point.
The plan he had made when he first encountered the Record of the Abyss could only succeed if he crossed this ridge.
Jaehwan drew on every last bit of strength and crawled over it.
“A being who was once the highest god of the 《Abyss》 now serves as nothing more than a gatekeeper. Is that all a vessel as strong as you can amount to?”
The laughter stopped abruptly.
The pressure rose until it felt as if his whole body would crumple. The Deadmans’ breathing grew rough. He could feel the world’s rage.
Every hair on Jaehwan’s body stood on end, then seemed to shrivel. If Catastrophe merely lifted a finger and snapped, Jaehwan’s entire body would burst like an insect.
Just as the atmosphere rushed toward its peak.
“Catastrophe. Don’t you want revenge?”
Jaehwan spoke again.
“Don’t you want revenge against the goddamn bastard who drove you out of the 《Abyss》 and sealed you here?”
The crushing pressure weakened for an instant.
Jaehwan did not miss the chance and continued.
“I know the promise you made with Mulack nine hundred years ago.”
A promise.
At that word, Catastrophe’s aura began to change.
Jaehwan could feel Catastrophe’s emotions in their entirety.
Doubt.
Could even a phenomenon beyond existence possess such an emotion?
As if answering that question, Catastrophe spoke.
[...How do you know of that matter?]
The deal from nine hundred years ago.
A promise that had not been kept, or could not have been kept.
Instead of answering Catastrophe’s question, Jaehwan said this.
“I’ll take up that promise now.”
A dreadful silence followed his unexpected declaration.
Even the Deadmans were shaken.
Their master rarely remained in such an intense emotional state.
[...Do you properly understand what that means?]
Jaehwan realized his gamble was tilting toward hope.
As Catastrophe’s momentum weakened, Jaehwan’s grew stronger in return.
“I do.”
It was a fight that could not be called a fight.
The gap between their worlds was too vast to compare.
Still, the tide of the fight was turning toward Jaehwan.
Like driving a wedge into the widening crack, Jaehwan delivered his final words.
“Sole King Catastrophe. I will take you to the end of the 《Abyss》.”
Footnotes:
Chapter discussion