Chapter 98 - Episode 13. Catastrophe (12)
Chapter 98: Episode 13. Catastrophe (12)
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The expedition had never been structured in a way that could foster trust.
People had trusted Jaehwan because of the overwhelming results he brought, but those results did not guarantee his character.
Now that every event had reached a turning point, the souls of Chaos doubted the protagonist who had achieved the unimaginable.
“Did the Fortress Lord come to Chaos through the 「Narrow Gate」?”
“The Fortress Lord has nothing to do with the Great Families or the Lords, correct?”
It was a belated doubt over whether Jaehwan could truly be trusted. Once the fuse was lit, suspicion spread like fire, feeding on itself.
Every incident they had overlooked without explanation until now became another reason to find fault with Jaehwan.
Yulhen stepped forward belatedly to explain, but it was not simple. There was too much to unravel here. Too many words that could easily sound like excuses.
Yes. That is the limit of you humans.
Samyeong Hun used the last of his strength to adjust the footage from the shattered barrier.
He intended to drive in the final nail.
“How could he...?”
“Oh my god...”
The expedition members gasped at the newly displayed footage. A few already wore faces full of rage. Some could not contain their anger and rushed toward the person in the footage.
“Cayman! What is that footage? What happened?”
“What the hell did you do?”
Held by the expedition members, Cayman stared at the image streaming from the fragments.
It showed the interior of the 《Palace of Rebirth》. It had been near the end of the Rebirth War.
Crack! Crack-crack!
One Fruit, then two...
Crack-crack-crack!
Cayman had seen it. The 「Fruit」 every soul in 《Chaos》 had yearned for shattering in his hands. The hopes that could have restored at least ten lives disappearing in his hands.
“Why would you do such a thing?”
There was no way to quell the seething crowd’s rage.
Even Yulhen and the Hall Masters looked shocked.
It made sense. No one had told them what happened inside the 《Palace of Rebirth》.
Yet it was too late to explain it now.
Would they accept it if he told them he had destroyed the 「Fruit」 because they would become seeds of anxiety? Could people filled with an obsession for life, with desire directed solely toward themselves, accept that...?
Is this the end?
Cayman closed his eyes.
A belated realization gripped him.
Until now, Cayman had thought the expedition nine hundred years ago had failed because of the Lords.
But perhaps that was not true.
The expedition had failed because they were human.
Samyeong Hun silently laughed as he watched the expedition fall apart.
His grand plan had been broken, but not everything had failed. At the very least, he had succeeded in destroying humanity, in destroying 《Chaos》.
Then...
“I ordered him to destroy them.”
Someone spoke.
“I told Cayman to destroy the 「Fruit」.”
The voice was so calm and firm that everyone’s attention gathered in one place. Flustered, Cayman used Push on Jaehwan.
[Fortress Lord, why would you...]
But it was already too late.
“What do you mean by that?”
“Why? Why did you give such an order?”
Complaints erupted. Then James’s bewildered voice suddenly rang out.
“Fortress Lord, is it because you are ‘alive’?”
Silence fell.
It was brief, but that single sentence had enough time to sink into everyone. And in that instant, it formed the one question everyone here wanted answered.
The Fortress Lord was alive. Therefore, he did not need the 「Fruit」. Then why had he...
“...Fortress Lord, what was your real reason for setting out on this expedition?”
The moment that question landed, Cheongheo closed his eyes and Karlton bit his lip. Cayman clenched his fist so tightly it seemed it would shatter.
They already knew the answer.
Because they knew, they hoped Jaehwan would not answer the question. They knew people would not be able to accept his answer.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, Jaehwan remained silent.
Another question piled atop that silence.
“Why? Why did you order the 「Fruit」 destroyed?”
It was less a question than a desperate cry.
Jaehwan still did not answer.
He could not.
These people had lived yearning for a ‘real life.’
They had joined the expedition to reclaim that life.
Perhaps Jaehwan could have told them this.
That a real life could not be gained through something like the 「Fruit」.
Did they think a new life would truly come just because they returned to life?
They would fight the same wars again in the 《Great Realm》, and eventually return to 《Chaos》.
The 「Fruit」 was nothing more than an illusion.
He could have told them that.
But Jaehwan did not speak.
He could not speak, and he should not have spoken.
Nor was he confident he could fully explain it.
Instead, Jaehwan quietly raised his sword.
Several expedition members recoiled a few steps in terror.
But they were not Jaehwan’s target.
Hummmm.
Darkness spread from Jaehwan.
His Unique World was unfolding.
“Fortress Lord, what are you...!”
Before the question was even finished, people realized they had entered Jaehwan’s Unique World.
A Unique World was the very perspective through which a person viewed the world.
Those who entered it could see the world through the eyes of the one who opened it. Inside Jaehwan’s world, the people granted his gaze looked around repeatedly.
What is he trying to do?
Jaehwan was only staring silently above himself.
Before long, they too began to faintly see what Jaehwan was looking at.
“That cannot be...”
A white Thread appeared above Jaehwan’s head, flickering into view.
A link stretching high into the sky, connected somewhere beyond.
“Pineal Thread...?”
Sirwen’s startled voice rang out.
People began to grow excited.
It was real. The Fortress Lord really was alive.
Look. A Pineal Thread was connected to him!
But Jaehwan’s next action turned that excitement into shock.
Dokbul, gripped in Jaehwan’s hand, moved toward the link hanging above his head. The sword moved indifferently, cutting through the line without the slightest hesitation.
Once.
Sparks flew with a grinding crack.
Twice.
Something tore with a sizzling sound.
Three times.
A horrifying sound, the sound of a soul and body being severed.
After that final sound, Jaehwan’s body, which had been breathing weakly in the live footage, crumpled.
What... had he done?
Several shocked expedition members staggered.
What had the Fortress Lord just done?
How could a human do something like that?
As if mocking all of Chaos, only the severed Pineal Thread fluttered and danced in the empty air.
It was an act that denied every one of their lives.
Dokbul calmly returned to its sheath.
As though neither a ‘real life’ nor a ‘false life’ held any meaning.
Jaehwan opened his mouth.
“This is the life I chose.”
A soul free from the life defined by the System spoke.
“I am going to the Abyss to protect this life.”
Then came a silence like death.
After a moment, someone entirely unexpected broke it.
“You mad bastard...! Hahaha! You really were a mad bastard!”
Samyeong Hun threw back his head and laughed, his eyes stretched wide as if they would split.
People turned to Samyeong Hun in surprise. He was still alive?
Samyeong Hun’s soul was only now turning silver and scattering. That laugh had been the last strength he could force out.
“You... You truly...”
Black Shadow Lord Samyeong Hun faded into silver.
At nearly the same moment, several expedition members whose legs gave out stumbled down where they stood.
Crushing fatigue rushed over them.
The unbearable mental shock pressed down on them, and the resolve that had supported them until now collapsed one after another. Everyone lowered their heads in a daze.
As Samyeong Hun’s 「Disruption」 was released, the expedition members regained their senses. Only then did they begin to realize what they had done.
Jaehwan quietly watched them.
One by one.
He looked at everyone who had followed him.
But no one could meet his gaze.
Perhaps they lacked the courage to do so.
Some expedition members were even trembling.
How could they possibly bear it?
That boldness, deciding one’s own life and death.
That determination to advance into the 《Abyss》, even cutting off the way back.
The Sublimity waiting at the end of that path, something they could not even imagine.
Amid that silence, Jaehwan alone looked up at the sky.
Then he quietly turned away.
No one readily stepped forward to support him as he staggered from the lingering shock of Mutation.
They could not.
Guilt. Or shamelessness.
And overwhelming awe.
As they watched Jaehwan stumble forward, everyone there understood.
A path that only the freest soul in the world could walk.
That was what that path was.
Step. Step.
Jaehwan moved farther away with each step.
Belatedly, several people quietly rose and followed behind him. They were the ones who had never doubted Jaehwan from beginning to end.
Cheongheo was first.
Karlton followed.
Then, a step behind, Sirwen looked around and quietly rose to chase after Jaehwan.
In the distance, the door of the Strange Factory warped. Pitch-black darkness swirled in the empty air.
Catastrophe, the gatekeeper of the Abyss, had permitted them passage.
《Abyss》.
That noble darkness opened its mouth and welcomed Jaehwan.
As the sound of his footsteps faded, several Hall Masters lowered their heads.
Yulhen bit their lip in grief.
An endlessly lonely, solitary back.
Cheongheo and Karlton stood at either side, supporting it.
Yulhen smiled weakly.
At least you will not be lonely anymore.
Cayman was watching the scene as well.
More than anything, he wanted to go with them, but he could not. Jaehwan had given him a separate request.
Just as Jaehwan was about to step into the entrance of the Abyss, someone slowly knelt before him.
“My King...!”
It was Yulhen.
As though paying respect to the one and only king, Yulhen properly knelt before Jaehwan.
“My King...”
That was the beginning.
Led by Cayman, several Hall Masters began to kneel as well.
Yoon Yong, Hall Master of the Thunder God Hall, who had lost both eyes.
Kang Hwang, Hall Master of the Fire King Hall, who had lost an arm.
Shin Mugeuk, Hall Master of the Limitless Hall, who had lost his right leg.
Even Aisa, the Fortress Lord of Dryad, once an enemy but now a member of the expedition, and Gal Hwidong, the Fortress Lord of Garuda...
They did not have the courage to follow that path, but they still understood what it meant.
Every one of them knelt before Jaehwan’s path.
Just as all of Gorgon had knelt before him when he first became Fortress Lord, all of 《Chaos》 now knelt before him as he left 《Chaos》.
Countless kings would be born in 《Chaos》 from now on.
But everyone there knew.
They would have only one king.
Please go in peace, our last king.
He did not rule, so he could not reign.
He did not reign, so he was not worshipped.
Even so, he was the King of Chaos.
The last king recognized by 《Chaos》.
Their king was leaving 《Chaos》.
Footnotes:
Chapter discussion