CH 304

#106. Rulers of the Abyss

The moment Kim Jin-Woo was sucked into the ritual, a calamity revealed itself as if it had been waiting for him.

The ceilings and ground that separated the Floors collapsed, and countless labyrinths swept away by the collapse were destroyed. The surviving Nobles and labyrinth masters had to live through the nightmare by locking themselves up in their labyrinths, hoping for the disaster to end as soon as possible. In the process, however, countless more labyrinths were destroyed once again.

The sacrifices made were more terrible than any war they had ever fought, and the surviving residents of the Underworld were terrified for their lives. They were too weak and helpless in the face of such great and irresistible malice. Most quickly grew weary from the endless collapses and tectonic shifts.

Was this how the end of the Underworld would look if it finally came?

At some point in time, the word ‘end’ had become ingrained in the survivors’ minds, and nobody could fault them for that. Two-thirds of the 100,000 labyrinth owners had been swept away by the calamity; thus, it was unsurprising for the survivors to entertain such thoughts.

With the labyrinths having lost all their masters and the Underworld having very few beings left alive, it was as if the Underworld had become a large cemetery. The Third Restoration was just that devastating.

But had the time not come yet? The Underworld still hadn’t perished. The calamity had ended just as suddenly as it began, as if to ridicule the frustration and despair felt by the survivors.

Too much had changed,  however, The Floors that had been divided since ancient times merged into one, and the Underworlds of each isolated continent were finally restored to their original form.

In the unified Underworld, a huge ash tree appeared. It was the Underworld Tree Kim Jin-Woo had once seen in the depths of the Underworld.

However, the survivors had no time to even realize what had changed. They were too busy committing to restoring their labyrinths that had been badly damaged during the Restoration, as well as defending themselves against the numerous Reapers that had appeared out of the ruins.

There was no hint of an attempt at negotiation or dialogue between the Reapers and the survivors. All that remained was the law of the Underworld—the survival of the fittest.

The Underworld had turned into an arena where all beings fought equally for their lives, returning to its primitive roots. Dozens of labyrinths were destroyed every day, and with them, an equal number of rulers. No matter where Kim Jin-Woo looked, each place was a battlefield.

But even in the midst of it all, there was only one place where there was no struggle, and that was where Valhǫll and the Grand Labyrinth were located.

***

Kim Jin-Woo hadn’t awakened. He was still wrapped in the branches of the ash tree.

Dominique and the other summons patiently waited for their master, who was wandering somewhere in the past, present, or future. They didn’t want to present their master with a chaotic environment when he awakened, so they busied themselves by repairing the damaged Grand Labyrinth and going on further expeditions to explore their surroundings.

However, even after the Nagas restored the Grand Labyrinth and the Under-Elves returned from their expeditions, their master still didn’t awaken.

Even though the summons were residing in the only area of the Underworld that was safe from the Reapers, their troubles only deepened by the day.

“Recently, there have been more and more cases of Reapers appearing in the vicinity. They haven’t yet dared to approach this place because of Master's dignity, but as soon as Master's absence is made known to them, they’ll undoubtedly rush toward this place without hesitation." Rikshasha brought bad news with a guilty expression, as if it were her own fault.

“It’s still okay. We can hold out for a little longer.”

Dominique comforted Rikshasha. No, she was comforting herself as well. She repeated herself over and over again, informing the other summons that they still had time.

However, contrary to what she was saying, the situation wasn’t favorable. The frequency of the Reapers’ appearance, who had dared not show themselves for some time, had increased significantly; some even wandered boldly in close proximity of Valhǫll.

Entrusted with the King’s full authority, Dominique tried to chase them away with the power of the Naga Queen, but over time, the Reapers would be sure to notice the absence of the true master of Valhǫll. All she could do was to hope for her master to return soon.

And perhaps—was it truly because of her wish? A small change occurred in the Throne of Truth after nearly fifty days of inactivity. Its long, outstretched branches began to dry out before cracking and breaking apart.

“Ah…”

The first to awaken was the Wailing Lord. She opened her eyes; her face was pale as if she had just woken from an eternal nightmare.

Dominique looked alternately between her still-dormant master, who was still wrapped by the ash tree, and the Wailing Lord. She then glanced nervously over at Angela. She seemed worried that Catherine might do something while their master was unconscious.

Fortunately, if it were just the Wailing Lord alone, Angela would somehow be able to stop her. That was because she was a proud Highlord herself.

But something was strange. Angela looked at the Wailing Lord as if she had been shocked by some strange revelation, and her eyes trembled heavily.

Soon, Dominique knew why.

“It seems the Truth he wanted was heavier than I thought,” Catherine said.

“You… Your power…” Angela looked completely stunned, and was barely able to piece together a few words.

The Wailing Lord responded with a blank expression, “You’re right. The Throne of Truth took away my power in exchange during the ritual.”

The high-level presence of a Highlord could no longer be sensed in the Wailing Lord.

“Feels like shit,” she grumbled.

A being who had once been considered the apex of the Underworld, and had been regarded above anyone else, had lost all her power in a single moment. She was now no different from an ordinary human being. It would be strange if she didn’t feel empty and full of despair.

“Still, I thought I would lose an eye or an arm at most if I was lucky,” she remarked.

Dominique didn’t respond. Although the Wailing Lord was her enemy, she couldn’t help but feel sympathy for the deep despair in her enemy’s voice.

“But there’s something worse. Do you know what it is?” The Wailing Lord—no, the ordinary human being, Catherine—asked in a low voice. It sounded like a rhetorical question, and no one responded to it.

She finally continued, “It’s the fact that this was predetermined from the beginning, since ancient times.”

“What are you…” Angela began.

Catherine’s voice was filled with self-contempt and self-pity as she cut Angela off, continuing, “I didn’t even know that, and yapped away about being a king and whatnot like a fool. How fucking pathetic is this?”

“You must have seen something too through the Throne of Truth, right?” Angela asked in a deep, subdued tone.

Catherine didn’t deny it, but she didn’t give any proper answers either. Instead, she said, “Ask your master that sort of question.”

It didn’t matter what she had seen anyway. In the first place, the ritual was for Kim Jin-Woo, and Catherine would have only seen a fraction of the Truth that had been revealed.

“But why hasn’t Master woken up yet?” Angela asked.

“It’ll probably take a little more time. His dream is many times deeper and longer than mine,” Catherine replied.

It was exactly as Catherine said. Kim Jin-Woo only woke up a week after Catherine did.

“Master!”

“My King!”

After waiting faithfully for him to awaken, the summons exclaimed in excitement. But Kim Jin-Woo continued to stare blankly into the air.

“Master!” Feeling oddly terrified by the emptiness in her master’s eyes, Dominique shouted desperately.  Upon hearing her desperate cries, some form of life began to return to Kim Jin-Woo’s hazy eyes.

“Ah…” Kim Jin-Woo finally opened his mouth that had fallen silent for a long time. He said, “The Throne of Truth has shown me so much.”

The summons who had been kicking up a fuss shut their mouths all at once as Kim Jin-Woo began explaining what he had seen.

“The One-Eyed Lord saw the end of the Underworld in return for his sacrifice. But the end of the Underworld he saw was different from what the Immoral Lord described.”

The Immoral Lord had said that the end of the Underworld would be brought about by an invasion from the surface. But what the One-Eyed Lord had seen through the Throne of Truth was a completely different kind of ending.

The future that the One-Eyed Lord had given up his eye to peek into was one where the Underworld was destroyed by a monster that had been biding its time, waiting for the right moment. Horrifically, after destroying the Underworld, the monster consumed not only the world beneath the surface, but the surface itself as well.

That monster was Night.

The day the Underworld and the surface united as one, Night would finally reveal itself. That was the moment the world would end.

“That’s why the One-Eyed Lord prepared for this future. He prepared a weapon to kill the monster before it heads to the surface.”

The spear made from the branch of the youngest Frost Treant—the Mortal Spear, which not even the Mysteries of the Underworld could escape from—was the arrangement the One-Eyed Lord had prepared.

But it wasn’t a perfect plan. The monster was cunning and would never reveal its true form until the time was right. To force out such a monster, the right bait was needed.

“The bait is the Wish Stone.”

The Wish Stone should originally have been stored in the deepest depths of the Underworld, but due to the Usurper’s plot, it had ended up being taken to the surface and had only recently been returned to the Underworld.

It was a minor twist in the plan, but it was due to that small difference that Kim Jin-Woo had been able to see that the One-Eyed Lord and the Usurper had different plans.

“What the Usurper desires is the end of the world.”

The Usurper was waiting for the moment when Night showed itself and the Underworld and the surface united into one. For unknown reasons, she wanted to destroy not only the Underworld but the surface as well.

It was something Kim Jin-Woo hadn’t expected, but it didn’t matter to him. After all, ultimately, he didn’t want the world to be destroyed, and he had to stop her. It didn’t matter who the antagonist was, be it Night or the Usurper.

But there was one more important matter at hand.

“Why me? Why did it have to be me?”

“Nothing was decided from the beginning. I simply sowed the seeds. I didn’t know what kind of seeds they would germinate.”

The Immoral Lord had told him that it was by sheer coincidence that he was chosen. But even that had been a complete lie.

“Synchronization complete. The Naga’s Labyrinth—the nest of 18,230 snakes—recognizes Kim Jin-Woo as its master.”

Kim Jin-Woo remembered the first time he had discovered the Naga’s Labyrinth. At that time, he had simply thought he was lucky to obtain a labyrinth without a master.

But in hindsight, that made no sense whatsoever. He hadn’t become a labyrinth master through an unengraved Labyrinth Core.

“The liberator of 18,230 snakes shall inherit the dark Underworld and sit on the throne of the Nagas.”

“You are far too weak and insignificant to bear the weight of the crown. But time is what I have the least of now. This might as well be destiny.”

“I wish you luck.”

He had definitely become the labyrinth master through the thoughts of the previous Naga King.

“Dominique, do you remember the former Dragon King?” Kim Jin-Woo asked.

“No. I don’t remember it at all,” Dominique replied.

“How about you, Quantus?” Kim Jin-Woo asked again.

“I don’t remember either,” Quantus replied.

The Nagas looked visibly confused by the sudden, seemingly random question. Seeing the Nagas react that way, Kim Jin-Woo spoke as if he were talking to himself. “How strange. It was as if only the Nagas had appeared out of nowhere.”

It was strange. Just because it was the Underworld didn’t mean its history wasn’t recorded. Just as humans on the surface recorded their history in books and passed it on to future generations, the beings of the Underworld preserved their history by passing it down through their clans as memories.

Because of that, the many labyrinth masters and summons Kim Jin-Woo had encountered had never forgotten the origin of their existence.

But why was it that only the Nagas had been like a completely blank canvas, or in other words, like a newly born race? The Throne of Truth had finally revealed to him why.

“The Nagas were the darkest and most shadowy beings of the Underworld. They were the inhabitants of the deepest abyss, that not even the Underworld could contain. They were also prisoners of the abyss, and should not have been able to step out of the darkness.”

The uncomfortable truth had been revealed.

“The Nagas are the rulers of the abyss, and were originally called the Underworld Serpents, but they lost their True Names after Twilight. They were the monsters hated the most by the Ancient Lords—the clan of Night.”