Chapter 488: Outer Celestial, Ubbo-Sathla (8)

Chapter 488: Outer Celestial, Ubbo-Sathla (8)

Ubbo-Sathla’s emotionless eyes gleamed. “You’re surely persistent.”

Ubbo-Sathla loathed Chang-Sun just as much as he did her, although her hatred was more toward all Chang-Suns. Whenever she felt as if she had taken care of everything, they would drag her back into Worldlines and involve her in all sorts of incidents. It was only natural for her to despise them.

The Chang-Sun of Worldline #801 was the most troubling of them all. Where his other versions would have given up already, he burned with fury instead, hunting her down all the way here.

The Chang-Sun in front of her was the reason why she made this risky gamble in the first place. On top of already being on edge because of her seemingly eternal <Punishment>, he made her feel as if she would be stuck in this Rollback loop forever, forcing her hand.

―I can’t meaninglessly endure this life anymore. I’m neither alive nor dead, so let’s find who keeps rewinding this Wheel and ask...

The outcome of her gamble couldn’t be any worse. She had lost all her powers and Authorities and was now shackled with Divine Steel chains, leaving her in a situation as frustrating as a Rollback loop. Perhaps this was better than meaninglessly repeating her everyday life, but she still hadn’t made her peace with Chang-Sun, the cause of everything.

“Killing you is the only way to end this tiring Rollback loop,” Chang-Sun answered.

“Rollback?” Ubbo-Sathla smiled coldly. “Ah, you must be talking about the Wheel.”

Knowing that venting her anger wouldn’t make any difference, she just looked back and forth between her feet and Chang-Sun. As long as they were trapped in this huge trap made by <Dull Darkness>, they couldn’t kill each other nor escape this prison; there was nothing they could do.

“It’s the opposite for me. I should kill you and all of your other versions, you sickeningly tiring leeches,” Ubbo-Sathla said, her anger slowly making her raise her voice.

“Don’t you have to destroy all Worldlines to do that?”

Having a hard time holding back her rage, she shouted, “That’s what infuriates me! You people are cockroaches! I kill you over and over, yet you still keep crawling out of nowhere to torment me!”

“Then stop destroying Worldlines.”

“Do you really think it’s that easy?! That is a <Punishment> from <Deus Ex Machina>, duty granted by <Supreme Light>, job given by <Dull Darkness>!”

“What in the world is this <Punishment> of yours? Killing me?” Chang-Sun asked.

“Executioner!”

“... Executioner?”

“Yes. It is my <Punishment> and duty to take care of Worldlines that could be ruined. It’s their nonsense of how I should end the worlds I started!” Ubbo-Sathla shouted.

Her words finally made Chang-Sun realize the pain that Ubbo-Sathla had been going through.

‘Original Sin.’

Multiverses, parallel universes, the superstring theory... all these ideas were derived from the endless creation of Worldlines. Since this process wasted a lot of energy and there was a limit to Entropies, it could eventually threaten the stability of the Great Universe if left unsupervised.

To prevent that, Worldlines that had outlived their lifespan or were irreversibly ruined had to be picked out and erased. That was where Ubbo-Sathla came in. She brought <Extinction> to those Worldlines in a way far cleaner than normal.

However, their inhabitants naturally couldn’t accept such a sentence. <Extinction> killed everyone in a Worldline, erased their accomplishments, and ended their bloodlines. Hence, they resisted and attempted to nullify it. Chang-Sun was the outcome of that resistance.

‘At the end of my <Punishment>... I meet Ubbo-Sathla while she’s searching for the Mother Terra Celestial’s remains. During our encounter, the Worldline’s future is decided. Is that what’s happening here?’

<Deus Ex Machina> set the stage so he could mediate the process. This was likely the reason Perkwunos told him that they had to defeat <Deus Ex Machina>.

‘What would happen after I kill Ubbo-Sathla? Will that end <Extinction>?’ Chang-Sun wondered.

Unfortunately, he had no way of knowing. No one had gotten that far.

“I coincidentally ran into <Deus Ex Machina> some time ago. I asked when in the world this <Punishment> will end.” Ubbo-Sathla seemed willing to tell Chang-Sun everything she knew now that things had turned out this way. They would have had this conversation sooner or later anyway. “He told me that it’ll end when I consider it as an <Adversity>. It’s bullshit!”

The word <Adversity> rang in Chang-Sun’s ears. ‘I have to rise above this <Punishment>? What happens afterward? What in the world is going on right now?’

Chang-Sun slightly frowned. “Why did you come here instead of going after the Mother Terra Celestial’s remains? I thought that was your goal.”

“I’m going to kill you, but an Outer Celestial can’t be killed completely.”

Ubbo-Sathla smirked. “I see. You want me to join you.”

Celestial Cannibalism. Chang-Sun would swallow Ubbo-Sathla just like what he had done with the Incendiary Burial Whale.

Ubbo-Sathla scoffed. “Ha! You sure know how to sugarcoat your desire for pow—!”

“You aren’t wrong, but that’s not the only thing I’m trying to do here. I’ll be looking for <Dull Darkness>. I also have many questions for him. When I find him, I’ll give you a chance to ask him your questions yourself.”

Ubbo-Sathla pursed her lips. Chang-Sun had no reason to make her such an offer. After all, he could simply kill her to absorb her power.

“... You hate me, don’t you? Why are you doing this for me?” she asked.

“I used to be just like you. I envied everyone else around me because they all seemed happy. I was the only one who didn’t.”

Ubbo-Sathla’s lips trembled.

Chang-Sun continued, “You’re going through the same thing, aren’t you? You’re suffering and yet you have to be hated. For every <Extinction> you deliver, you drown in a flood of condemnation and resentment. At the same time, you envy their happiness.”

Ubbo-Sathla called beings of Eros vermin, but her condescension was part of her self-justification to spare her heart even more wounds.

“That is my reason. If you don’t like how I’m phrasing it... well, let’s just say I’m doing this on a whim, just like how you told me your story.”

After a brief silence, Ubbo-Sathla burst into feeble laughter. “Ha... Hahahaha...”

She covered her face with her hands, but it wasn’t enough to stop the tears from falling on the floor. “This is annoying. I can’t believe the person I’ve grown so tired of is also the one who would end up understanding me and actually treating me with consideration.”

Chang-Sun opened the prison cell door using his golden key.

Clink!

“Wh-what? Why did her door suddenly open?”

“You have the key?”

“Hey! Hey, hey, hey! Me too! Get me out of here too! Please!”

The nearby prisoners caused an even bigger commotion than the ones earlier. Paying no attention to them, Chang-Sun walked into the solitary cell. Tied to the wall, Ubbo-Sathla looked up at Chang-Sun, revealing her teary eyes.

“Can you even kill me?” she asked.

Chang-Sun nodded and pulled out the Nereid Stone, which Bel-Marduk had tossed to him when he jumped into the gate of R’lyeh. It would be difficult to annihilate an Outer Celestial without it.

Staaaab!

Chang-Sun thrust the sharpened Nereid Stone into Ubbo-Sathla’s chest, which was where her main core was.

Kieeeeeeh!

[‘Gaia’s Curse’ has been activated, disintegrating the <Myths> of an unknown being!]

Ominous ghost wails filled the cell.

Pzzz―!

Ooong, ooooong!

Ubbo-Sathla disintegrated into particles, leaving behind a brilliant golden jewel—the mass of all the <Star Fragments> that she had swallowed.