Chapter 697

[The Great Escape is in progress!]

[‘Night (Nox)’ has designated you as the main enemy. Their disturbance and influence shall continue.]

Amid the countless attacks from the otherworld gods, Agares and the Eastern Demon Army gradually opened a path. All the while, demon lords were dying all around them, but no one in the party had the wherewithal to help them. Even Agares did not pay attention. After all, everyone in the convoy was currently in a precarious situation, as any one of the convoy members could be annihilated if they tried to help the dying beings.

“By the way…where are we going?” While carrying Cha Jeong-woo, Ananta looked at the countless flickering lights and bit her lower lip as she asked Agares.

Agares looked at Ananta and the sleeping Jeong-woo with an indifferent look before giving a brief reply.『The Ark.』

“Ark? What…!”

『It’s the legacy left by the Quirinale Family, the ghost of Day. As far as I’ve heard, I believe it was the last successor who prepared it… You should figure out more about it later. Right now, I have to focus on clearing a path.』

“…” Ananta kept quiet at Agares’ curt and cold reply, as she could not bring herself to ask any more questions. Under normal circumstances, she would have shot off a snarky remark with a frivolous attitude. However, right now, Ananta felt that Agares’ outwardly cold expression and way of speech were done to cover up his emotions. At that moment…

『Us too! Let us help too!』

Woof! Woof! Suddenly, a loud voice was heard from the sky. All the convoy member’s eyes shot upwards.

[The demonic society, <Niflheim> is descending!]

With consecutive strikes of black lightning, the demons of Niflheim appeared in a row. They represented a huge demonic society that almost no one knew in the lower world. In particular, the majesty and aura emanating from Fenrir, Jormungandr, and Hel, who served as the society’s leaders, was so great that it almost completely covered the battlefield. …Except for Fenrir, who was wagging his tail while ‘panting’ like a dog, and Hel, who was drooling while staring at the convoy.

『The, the, the person over there… It’s Cha Jeong-woo! The person who our great Cha Yeon-woo was searching for with such passion and sadness…! They look so alike! And there’s also S-Sesha! I’ve only seen them through the screens that showed the lower world! I, Hel, am so happy that I might just up and die!』

『…Stop talking nonsense! Agares, did you say there was an ark? Where is it?』Jormungandr frowned as he looked at his older brother and sister who were not properly assessing the dire situation. Jormungandr then looked back at Agares with a tone of urgency.

『Sinai.』

『So…it really is placed in the holiest place where the Ark of the Covenant was buried… Alright.』Jormungandr nodded and looked back at his society’s demons. In place of the two who had a few screws missing, Jormungandr had always maintained the lead position of ruling over the demons.『This is an order from our father, Loki. Today is the day that we show the world who we are for the first time.』

As soon as Jormungandr finished speaking these words, the demons of Niflheim scattered all over the battlefield at once. If L’Infernal as a society gave off a sense of subjugation, repression, and sharpness, Niflheim as a society gave off a sense of demons with ferocious tempers. They were like untamed beasts.

As the torrent of chaotic war spread… Rumble! Suddenly, the ground they were standing on shook violently. The area outside the Tower crumbled downward, and something huge was seen rising into the sky. The continent that had been hidden under the Tower was rising.

[The space has collapsed!] 

[The coordinates are deleted!]

…

[The ‘Promised Land’ is rising!]

R’lyeh was the land that represented the ‘flesh’ of the Black King before he was banished into the emptiness. The body of the Black King was moving in search of his soul and spirit.

[‘Night (Nox)’ is filling the world!]

***

『Ugh, ah!』

『The darkness… I can’t succumb to the darkness like this…!』

Different societies showed different countermeasures as they tried to escape or fight the Night. But for the most part, everyone met the same fate. They collapsed, died, or were buried and nowhere to be found. They were being hunted down by the endlessly pouring out otherworld gods and were submerged in the darkness lurking below them.

The darkness was the flame that made up the Black King himself. It represented his ‘dream’. To fall into darkness meant to be completely immersed in the ‘dream’, so it essentially rendered whoever fell into the darkness to lose their ego and perish instantly.

The terrifying scene continued to unfold. However, what scared all the gods and demons the most was the appearance of R’lyeh. Although R’lyeh only amounted to a single cell for the Black King, it was an existence that could not be created or formed in the universe. R’lyeh rejected all physical and natural laws of the universe since it had existed before the universe’s creation. Hence, R’lyeh could return anything back to the most primitive matter just through touch.

『We need to somehow stop that…!』

The appearance of the Promised Land also meant that the time for the Black King’s awakening was imminent. R’lyeh would soon provide a body for the Black King through self-reproduction, and afterward, the Black King would awaken from his slumber and descend into his body. Therefore, although ordinary gods and demons did not know it, the higher-ranked gods and demons, who had a chance to read the revelations, had no choice but to tremble in fear.

Rumble! Boom! At first, R’lyeh, which just looked like a gigantic mass of land, suddenly became a huge mass of cells, each cell beating violently as if it was alive. Blood circulated fiercely through the newly formed blood vessels that rose above the flesh, and tiny cells began to multiply their numbers at random. It was a terrifying sight to behold as the cells’ numbers swell by dozens and hundreds of times in an instant and cover the world.

The area outside the Tower, which had already been thrown into utter chaos, was soon covered by R’lyeh before disappearing.

“…” Harmonia calmly observed the developing scene from high up in the sky. The Promised Land that had been sleeping until now, R’lyeh, had finally made its appearance. Harmonia was left with the relatively easy task of guiding R’lyeh to cover the world, absorb the Tower, and to become the spirit and ego of the Black King.

However, from some point, Harmonia did not take any guiding action, only allowing R’lyeh to expand. Her ceremony had also been interrupted midway, so R’lyeh did not yet fully cover the Tower.

Although she understood that the process would only be complete if the ‘egg’ was fully covered and absorbed, Harmonia remained motionless. Her eyes had sharpened and did not reveal her innermost thoughts.

***

[The Black King wonders what his shadow is thinking.]

[The Black King wonders if his shadow will be able to exceed the limit of being a ‘shadow.’.]

[The Black King…] 

…

The Black King’s messages had become invisible to Yeon-woo from some point onward.

[The source data attempts to upload into the system.]

[Failed.] 

[Failed.] 

…

[Succeeded for unknown reasons.]

[The process for uploading begins. Please be careful as there is a risk of data loss.]

[Conversion begins.] 

…

[All souls have been converted.] 

[All egos have been converted.] 

…

[All divine domains have been converted.] 

[All legends have been converted.]

[The terminal has been lost.]

[All existing data related to the abuser, Cha Yeon-woo, has been deleted.]

…

[Successfully backed-up all the abuser Cha Yeon-woo’s data to the cloud system.]

…

[Loading the backed-up data.] 

[Failed.]

[Insufficient memory allocation to execute the command.]

[The backed-up data is attempting to reload for an unknown reason.]

[Failed.]

[Failed.]

…

[For an unknown reason, the reloading attempts have been completely blocked.]

[Reloading fails.]

After Yeon-woo became fully aware of the origins of the Black King, he compressed all the data that made up himself and threw it into the emptiness. In the process, everything, including his soul as well as his body, became buried in the darkness and were reduced to mere fragments of the ‘dream’.

However, Yeon-woo did not care. He recognized that he was going to be absorbed by the Black King eventually, so, with his back against the wall, Yeon-woo decided to take a shot. Yeon-woo was aiming for complete assimilation with the Black King. No, more precisely, it was a form of constraint and restriction.

Yeon-woo was not going to let the Black King confine and restrict him. He planned to also confine and restrict the Black King as well. Fortunately, Yeon-woo had possession of the entity called ‘Tower’, so if he threw his ego into the darkness, the Tower’s system would also be assimilated into the darkness. This would create a closer connection between the Tower system and the darkness.

Of course, throwing his ego into the darkness was not enough. Yeon-woo’s efforts would only be a simple constraint before the Tower was completely assimilated and absorbed into the darkness. And once the Black King wakes up from the ‘dream’, the Black King would make sure to try and get rid of the Tower somehow, once and for all.

However, no matter how minuscule the likelihood, it was not an impossibility. If Yeon-woo assimilated successfully with the Black King, this meant that the Tower’s system would also become a naturalized component of the darkness. At that point, Yeon-woo could manipulate the darkness at will. Therefore, for Yeon-woo, it was necessary to awaken his ego. He had to separate himself from the Tower’s system so that he was no longer confined to being a part of it. Once he became independent of the system, Yeon-woo could start taking the initiative of controlling the system.

Of course, it was seemingly impossible to wake his ego within the darkness, which was considered a nearly infinite existence. However, Yeon-woo had a couple of things he believed in.

The first was the Yin Sword. Yeon-woo thought that if it was the Yin Sword, which forcibly twisted the physical and natural laws of the world through his reinforced Consciousness, he might be able to maintain his ego. He had already done it several times before, so Yeon-woo was fairly confident that he could do it again.

However, even the Yin Sword had been crushed by the ‘dream’ of the darkness, becoming something that had never existed, and, in the end, his ego did not awaken. Fortunately, the fact that Yeon-woo had achieved a successful upload of himself, without any damage at all, was a great achievement. Furthermore, there was something else that Yeon-woo believed in.

[An abnormal status has been detected.]

[The current status is ‘darkness’] 

…

[You are maintaining your awareness through your ‘Cold Blooded’ trait!]

Yeon-woo’s Cold-blooded trait started with his father Kronos and continued onto Yeon-woo. It succeeded in completely awakening Yeon-woo’s data, which could have wandered aimlessly in the darkness forever.

[Insufficient memory allocation has been forcibly allocated.]

[Backed-up data is reloading.]

[Success.]

…

[The abnormal status has been canceled.]

[You have gained resistance to darkness.]

[The abuser Cha Yeon-woo’s ego has awakened!]

Yeon-woo opened his eyes. ‘Did I succeed?’

[A new sense has been opened.]

[Among the Six Godly Perceptions, Heart of the Heavens has been acquired.]

…

[Due to the combined action of Eye of the Heaven, Ear of the Heavens, and Heart of the Heavens, it is now possible to observe a new world that had not been previously recognized.]

[You can now observe darkness!]

Yeon-woo looked around, slowly feeling the return of his previously distorted sensory system. And then, he saw…

Kikiki.

You’re finally here! Here!

I told you. What did I say! 

I told you it was possible!

What ‘version’ of me was that?

Such a momentous occasion. 

Up to now, there’s never been a time when a ‘dream’ recognized that it was a ‘dream’.

Can I keep my hopes up this time around?

I wonder if ‘we’ can really change into ‘me’. I guess I’ll have to wait and see.

A tremendous number of letters floated around countless times to convey the message. The gazes of numerous Demonisms, so many that it was impossible to know how many there are, were focused on Yeon-woo

And, Yeon-woo saw the arrangement of multiple universes that could be expressed as fragments of the ‘dream’.